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I peer over Drax's shoulder and study the schematic. The secret door inside the storage room isn't immediately visible, hidden by a rack purposely moved into place to hide it.
With the pirate’s help, we lift the rack, carrying it to the side.
"Makes me wonder if there's another way in," Drax ponders aloud, his claw-tipped finger moving the map of the lab around on the tablet.
"I've only ever found the two entrances. The one at the sunken steps and the other with the broken lift."
"Me too." Drax continues to search the map.
I peer over his shoulder. "Doesn't look there's a way out of the unexplored part of the lab. The last people to leave purposely hid the door."
"What do they have in there that needs hiding?" Rooke hikes a thumb at the hidden door we revealed.
"Can't be much worse than the creatures we've already seen," Bruke scoffs.
"Let's hope not." Slye palms the small dagger he's armed with.
Drax scans the faces of the males crammed inside the storage room. "Everybody ready to find out?"
"As if we have a choice," Bruke says, looking at his dagger then at my sword they’d found in the forest and returned to me. "Is it too late to ask if you've got another one of those, Mordox?"
"Yes. I was fortunate enough to have found this left behind by the guards," I say. "I'll take the lead."
"Not about to argue with that logic." Slye steps back as Drax hovers his grygore device over the keypad lock.
"Trained warrior with a better weapon?" Bruke shrugs. "Have at it."
Drax nods at me then swipes the grygore device over the keypad. The door sweeps open on a silent swoosh. The air inside the entrapment area is stagnant, old, as if closed off for a long time.
I lead the way down the narrow hall to the next locked door. It doesn't open like the rest. Drax uses his claw to pop the panel from the wall. Inside, he pulls out a nest of wires and works his magic to open the way inside the abandoned darkened lab.
I take a step into the void, dim lights flicker on with my movements. My scales ripple with unease as I venture deeper inside the cavernous space.
"Any chance you can turn up the lights?" I ask Drax.
The males follow as the dim lights grow brighter at the techy's manipulation of a small wall panel near the door.
An eerie silence hangs heavy, the only sound our cautious footsteps echoing off the metal floor littered with discarded equipment left behind in the scientist's haste.
"Stay close. Watch each other's backs," I murmur to my fellow Ziarians, my instincts sharpening as we move deeper into the room.
Tables line the walls, most with equipment and experiments left half completed on their sleek surfaces. Glass beakers and test tubes filled with mysterious liquids sit forgotten on shelves, while monitors that once flashed with life now sit black and lifeless.
The tension thickens as we search only to find nothing. I half expected a creature to lunge at us the moment the door opened. All this creeping around is way worse than facing an enemy head-on.
Zoe's worried expression haunts me, fueling my determination to find the creature I can't account for. I don't have long to wait. My search is over the moment Bruke calls out.
"Over here." The purple-maned male gestures to a darkened corner on the far side of the lab. "Look." He points to a massive tube dominating the corner of the room as we all gather around.
Drax clicks on a small light, shining it at the tube. Our group shifts uneasily; faces drain of color as we collectively hiss out whispered curses.
Inside, suspended in a viscous, clear liquid, is a creature unlike anything I've ever seen. Covered in dark blue scales, a swatch of gray-streaked, black mane grows out the top of its misshapen head.
Horns, tail, and claws, traits of a Ziarian male, are still present only not in an overly enlarged version like Gruxt. This thing looks to be a few feet taller than the average male but deformed, with exaggerated scales that are more plated armor than anything we are sporting.
As I study the limply floating form, I wonder what other modifications have been done to this unfortunate soul. My heart hammers in my chest, my scales rippling uneasily along my back. How close had we all been to finding our way to the lab and the genetic alterations of the scientists? And what caused them to all leave Zune and their work behind with such haste?
"Is it dead?" Slye asks, leaning in for a closer look.
