Butterbeans: Hidden under 113

There wasn’t much time before Alex and the team would need to be at the lower level. The tremors had worsened. Each one was becoming worse than the one before. The Sergeant and the unknown agent were clearing debris. The elevator shaft is not hopelessly blocked. They would be able to descend soon.

With this in mind, Alex is searching the screen closely for Butterbeans. She is moving in a lateral direction now. But she is still moving. Alex wonders again just how big the underground caverns have grown. The activity was shaping the caverns below level 113.

Butterbeans: Hidden under 113

Furthermore, they are only barely prepared for the sheer size of the problem. Earlier in the day, before their disastrous return down the shaft, they had examined the underground imaging. Whereas, level 113 used to be the depth of the complex, it was now several levels larger and deeper.

With this in mind, Alex begins helping the rest of the team clear the passage. It takes them thirty minutes to make a path to descend. The Lieutenant and Sergeant, lower Alex through the narrow passage. As he lands on the floor of 113, he immediately begins tracking Butterbeans.

Alex follows the main corridor of level 113 as he had done just hours before. The hall has taken considerable damage. The ceiling had mostly collapsed leaving the bare steel of the structure exposed.

He continues past the fragmented edge of the corridor, and begins to carefully wind his way down the path. According to the screen, she is just a few meters further below his current location. As he descends he can’t help but notice the sheer size of the cavern now. Furthermore this is only the tip of the iceberg, he thinks as he gazes.

Close quarters

As he reaches the lowest part of the accessible path he stops. There is no Butterbeans. According to his screen, she should be right here in this very spot. Alex looks around. Then he gazes back out over the seemingly bottomless chasm. Then he spots Butterbeans. Standing on an outcrop of rock looking back up at him.

Not only is Butterbeans on a ledge deep in the chasm but also more than a hundred feet below. Alex cannot fathom how she could have come to be so far below. Furthermore he can’t understand her quietness. He knows she has seen him. As he watches her trying to see how she came to be so far below he spots movement behind her. It is the creature, and it has Butterbeans.