The Ten Year Prologue

It was calm in the darkness of his mind. Dead calm. Once every so often, he thought he felt something rooting around in it. Like how the mice in his little prison in the wall used to scamper over his legs, nibble on his bones and on his fur.

Finally, after some unknown passage of time, his internal systems started coming back online. For a while it was very touch and go. Then all at once, it wasn't touch and go at all. It was more like a flood. Information, electricity, and energy. A servo whined, a finger twitched. The rest of the fingers followed, bending as much as the tendons wrapped around them would allow it's hand to grip the steel table it was apparently sitting on.

When he finally lifted its eyelid plates, the optics managed to focus after a couple seconds.

The first thing it saw was a flashlight with a crack in it.

The second thing it saw was an encouraging smile.

The One Month Prologue

There was blood on the floor.

And there was something worse coming up behind him.

Panting, shaking and half on hands and knees a figure crawled toward a small tablet lying on the black and white tile. The blood smeared, leaving wet streaks that would start drying as soon as they stopped being disturbed.

Bloodied fingers scrambled to hit the tablet, type along the keyboard.

A finger hit 'Send' just as They came crawling out of the vent. Something knocked into the figure and threw the body against the wall. They slithered closer.

His flashlight went rolling away.

"Don't hold it against us."

The man shivered, and turned to stare into the darkness. With little warning, the darkness parted, and lunged with the screeching of metal.

Below ground, They turned to grab the cracked flashlight, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Above ground, the world turned on. It was unaware, and certain parties intended to keep it that way.

But sometimes, secrets don't keep.