protect_and_survey | (no subject)

Each passage is much the same as all the previous passages; each fork in the broken stone corridors as unmemorable as the ones that came before it. Sunshine is growing thirsty, and longing for the sun, and it may be the presence of another person that has kept her calm.

Still, every so often, there are sounds. Some are easily identified - drips of water, the high-pitched squeaks of bats. But some... some make the hair on the back of Rae's neck stand up.

"Hey," she whispers, reaching out to touch Jemma's wrist lightly. "Stop for a moment. Listen."

Very faint, there is the semi-regular crunch of something hard impacting stone.

"We'd best look for some place defensible then." Simmons decides - she learned way back in Academy that running blindly gets you killed. Finding a place to defend sometimes gets you killed too, but at least there's a chance.

"Where? It's all hallways!" Rae says, trying to figure out which way the sound is coming from.

"It's coming from behind us, the way we came from - let's look further on for some place where we can..."

Hopefully not end up as decoration.

Edited 2014-01-06 04:29 (UTC)

"Come along then." She has quite a lot of practice dealing with Leo's panic, so she can at least present a calm front now, hurrying down the hallway, the torch held aloft so she doesn't trip over anything.

The hovering light follows Rae as she hurries through the shadowy corridors. She only trips once, and not badly - her knee stings something awful and the skin on her palms is roughed, but she keeps going.

The crunching noises follow them, but are not - with their increased speed - yet growing noticeably closer.

Until a large chunk of the crumbly stone floor gives way beneath them suddenly. Rae can't help but shriek as they fall.

The fall isn't terribly far, but Jemma wasn't set up for a drop. She hisses as she tries to stand, her right ankle twisting awkwardly underneath her weight.

You know, she could really do with seeing another SHIELD agent. Preferably one geared towards field work.

Aaaaanny time now.

That'd be brilliant.

She swears softly under her breath, trying to find her doused torch.

Rae catches herself awkwardly against an outcropping of rock, her ribs aching and her already-skinned palms not appreciative of her grip on the rough surface. The crunching sounds are getting closer along the corridor above, the stonework shaking with every impact. Again they hear the angry, bestial bellow they had heard before, only many times louder, a sound of mindless rage. A beast, sighting its prey.

"Jemma!" Rae calls. "Down here!" The outcropping of rock Rae had caught herself on was the jagged ceiling of a corridor a good ten feet lower down than the one they'd been on. Beneath it, there is a small gap no more than a foot and a half wide, leading into pitch darkness. Darkness through which Sunshine could see the passageway beyond.

Edited 2014-01-06 05:00 (UTC)

She struggles to make her way over, scraping her hands on the rock as she leans heavily against it to try (vainly) to keep weight off her foot while negotiating the tumbled rock floor.

"I don't think we'll be able to hide under there for long."

"It's another corridor," Rae explains, remembering Jemma can't see into the darkness beyond the opening of the gap. "It may bypass us if we get in there quickly, and if it does see which way we went, it'll still buy us some time. Defensible, right?"

Rae offers the woman her hands. "C'mon. I'll lower you down."

"Any port in a storm." She sighs, dropping and shimmying back, squeaking faintly when the ground dips down again and... yep, there's a hole there.

Now is not the time to be thinking of scorpions and spiders that like dark enclosed places.

...

Oops.

"You're fine," Rae assures her, holding on as she slowly lowers her into the hole. "I got you."

The hovering light follows Jemma into the hole, dimming to nearly nothing, as the rocks around them shudder under every resounding step of the beast in the darkness.

"There's just a bit of a drop, but you're almost down. Be ready." Jemma is almost all the way down, but Rae can't move forward any more without losing her own balance. She lets go a moment later, and follows quickly, dropping and rolling when she lands, like Axel taught her. Though it's... not so very comfortable on uneven rocks. There will be bruises.

Upon her landing, the hovering light goes out completely, leaving them in pitch blackness.

There's nothing she can do about the creature, and there's definitely nothing she can do about the lack of light at the moment, so she spends her time tearing strips off the bottom of her shirt and strapping her ankle as best she can.

She'd happily cancel the order of a field agent if she could have a proper brace and some acetaminophen.

Rae hisses faintly as she gets her feet under her again, and quickly moves over to Jemma.

"Shhhh, quiet," she says urgently, placing a hand on the back of Jemma's, her gaze locked on the opening through which they'd just come.

The corridor shakes with every footfall of the creature, now right above them. Rae doesn't move, projecting silence and stillness and not-there-ness at it in the hopes that it won't know they've come this way.

An almighty crash comes from out of the darkness, as the beast leaps down the crumbled stonework, landing right where they had been mere moments before. And, through the gap, Rae is able to see what has been following them. She can see its horns, sharp and ruthless, its dark, mindless eyes, the thick matted fur on its head and broad shoulders, and the gigantic stone axe it wields in its hands.

She knows what it is, and where they are.

"...shit."

The worst thing is she can't see anything. She can hear it, heavy and rough. She can smell it, something like an odd cross between an over-used gym and a the sweet-dank smell of cow. But she has no idea what's going on up there.

"I thought we were supposed to be quiet." She hisses back, worried.

A quiet, breathed syllable is not the same as an entire hissed question. Rae claps a hand over Jemma's mouth hurriedly, holding both of them still as the beast beyond the gap snorts and looks about, having lost track of its prey.

That earns a vaguely disgusted cringe, because ew oral contamination, she's going to need every single shot of antiserum available, good grief.

That's assuming they get out alive.

It really does smell of cows in here. Like. Cows from the Jersey Shore. Who haven't bathed. In decades.

Serves her right for making noise. More noise than an involuntary, breathed obscenity, at least.

Rae watches the minotaur hesitate, its every step shaking the rocks beneath its... well, its hooves, Rae would assume.

With another bellow, it lunges off into the darkness, searching for them further along the broken corridor they had left.

Rae only moves again when the crashing hoof-steps have grown distant and her heartrate has begun its descent back towards normal.

"...Sorry about that," she whispers, bringing up another - dimmer - hovering light above them.

"Ugh." Jemma replies, emphatically, because she's doing her best not to think about all the possible contaminants. That's just foul.

"So what now?"

"Well, unless you have a more likely plan than 'keep searching for a way out'..." Rae remarks, dryly, moving to get up. Her body is already promising retribution for all this abuse.

"How's your ankle?"

"I just thought maybe you saw something - your night vision is obviously better than mine." She replies tartly, the pain in her ankle making her cross. "It's been better."

"It's a minotaur, sorry," Rae explains, belatedly, having forgotten again. "Dunno if it's the minotaur - if it is, we know where we are."

And just how screwed they are.

"I can... I can help heal your ankle, if you'd like. It just got twisted, right?"

"I've got it strapped pretty well - let's just get out of here." She's not sure what the deal is with this lady, but there's definitely something going on, and until she knows what it is, it's probably best not to allow uncontrolled experimentation.

"If you say so," Rae says, and offers the other woman a hand up.

Jemma and Rae continue on, though the labyrinth seems endless. They don't know what might be waiting for them around each turn, or through the next door, but they'll find out, and eventually find their way back.