[Project LAYHR: Eighteen]

	Paws struck hard against the cold floor of the hallway as the Layhr 
known only as Eighteen ran, the sounds of pursuit gaining from several halls 
back. A long, ribbed ear flicked up and back, estimating the where and the 
how far- judging now to be the perfect time for a detour she shot left, 
careening down a side hallway and around the corner, out of view. This place 
was a maze and she knew it; a maze with no exit, but any number of shortcuts 
to get you absolutely anyplace inside that nowhere. And that, for right now, 
was more than enough. 

	She could hear distant footsteps, and the yelling to alert others. 
Apparently the technicians didn't like it when you managed to get them 
tripped up over their own two feet, sending them tumbling into the metallic 
rolling janitorial carts that occasionally lined the outer halls. Who knew? 
She continued on her run, past the elevators, and past several numbered 
rooms. Metal doors and solid floors, all underneath the same mounted 
fluorescent lighting; they all blended into each other after a while. Mounted 
floor directories did little good when your eye-level was between someone's 
knee and waist. Finding any specific area wasn't what it was about in the 
first place, though, and that wasn't why she did it. She was content merely 
with the opportunity to stretch her legs out to the fullest, and let the 
breeze from her own running brush through the pastel-whorled patterns in her 
fur, sending golden mane-strands flying. In this sense, her little 
expeditions always met their goal; and so even when she skidded round the 
corner right into a containment officer's pant leg, limbs tumbling and 
flailing in an effort to re-adjust her path, she wasn't too terribly 
disappointed. A surprising turn of events, one might say, but not completely 
unexpected. Eighteen snapped at the offending leg as she felt the sharp bite 
of the dart in her shoulder, earning little more than a mouthful of unwashed 
fabric for her trouble as she slumped, limbs sprawling across the floor in a 
rush to greet unconsciousness.

--

	A gradual, incessant murmuring greeted her return to the waking world. 
It was familiar, even if the words themselves weren't- the background noise 
of the kennel room where the others were kept. It acted as place of respite, 
of socializing, and of rumor mill; there was constantly discussion or stories 
being told, be it from two kennels over or across the room. It wasn't as if 
there was much else to do, here.

	"I said, are you up yet? Hellooooo? Eighteen?"

	The voice to her left repeated itself, had she missed it the first 
time? The best she could respond with at the moment was a slightly-dazed 
'huhr?', meriting an amused rumble from the speaker.

	"About time, I've been trying to get your attention for ages. What was 
that all about? Up to your same old tricks, I see."

	She shook her head to clear it, taking a few moments to gather her 
thoughts. Lips finally curled back into a fangy grin, however drowsily, to respond in kind.

	"I do have a reputation to keep."

	Extending long digits and claws into as best a stretch she could 
manage, and curling long, muscular tufted-tail around her side, Eighteen 
sidled up to the grate comprising the front of her cramped quarters. Though 
it wasn't usually a problem, for someone still half-asleep voice alone wasn't 
always enough to pinpoint who you were next to; considering sight was out of 
the question (one could only see the opposing side of the room from this 
vantage point, never the kennels adjacent to them), catching a scent was the 
best identifier one could rely on. Ahh, hmm, familiar... must be Sixteen 
speaking. His company was enjoyable, though she'd always considered him a bit 
of a weird one. From what she knew, he apparently had some strange, 
kleptomaniacal fascination with the sharp tools, scalpels, and other 
dangerous objects their keepers often wielded. Not surprisingly, the only 
time she'd actually seen him, being led in front of her space and back to his 
own, his tawny paws were covered in wrapped bandages. To each their own, she 
guessed; at least he was friendly to converse with.

	"So tell me, did you find anything interesting? Bring back any 
intriguing stories to share?"

	"Not this time, I'm afraid. Today's run was rather short-lived." Her 
white-glow eyes closed slightly, half-lidded in thought. Generally, if one 
had nothing new to share, one listened to the stories of the others, possibly 
joining in discussion. Maybe next run would be more productive. She perked 
her ears at the gruff response coming from her right.

	"Don't see why you're so intent on stirring up trouble. Never leads to 
anything good."

	"...and why do you say that?"

	"You remember what happened with Two. After what he did. No one's seen 
or smelled him since." It was an old story, often brought up during 
discussions. Any single one of them knew it to some degree; the tale had 
become very nearly legendary. The first Layhr to act out against their 
creators; the only Layhr to take any of them down. The speaker paused, before 
adding rather proudly, "They say the hallways flowed crimson, with all the 
blood of those he killed."

	Eighteen hardly thought a bit of harmless mischief could be comparable 
to such an act; but before she could respond, Sixteen rejoined the 
conversation.

	“He only killed two.”

	“How would you know? You weren’t there.”

	“..No. But neither were you. I heard it from somebody who was.” Soft scuffling noises came from Sixteen’s kennel, no doubtedly him re-adjusting 
his position to get more comfortable. The older speaker from Eighteen’s 
right, as well as Eighteen herself, both took this information in quietly. It 
was one thing to hear a story carried on by word-of-mouth through who knew 
how many renditions; a completely different thing to have a possible first-
hand account. When it became apparent that the bearer of this information wasn’t going to elaborate further unless prompted, the gruff voice started up 
again with great interest.

	“Who?”

	“…one of the technicians. I overheard him talking to another about 
it; guess he saw the whole thing.” Thunkthunkthunk, the sound of somebody 
trying to get at a scratch behind their ear in such closed quarters. “He 
sounded pretty upset over it. Figured he was next, but for some reason Two 
never even touched him.”

	“…puh.” There was audible disdain, interest vanishing from the 
previous speaker’s tone upon finding who this information had been heard 
from. “Some source of information, you mean to tell me you heard it from some 
lousy technician?”

	“Oh, come off it. For all their faults, you know they don't lie. Not in 
front of us, anyway." There wasn't much reason to, Eighteen silently added. 
Not when you thought your creations couldn't even understand you, let alone 
be smart enough to know what you were saying.

	Pointed silence was their only response, showing without words that 
this particular topic was to be considered over. None of them said anything 
for a good several minutes, only half-focusing their attention on snippets of 
dialogue coming from other areas of the room.

	After a time, a new voice joined in tentatively, speaking from the 
kennel below. Unfamiliar, and much younger sounding than the previous ones. 

"...I heard... there were monsters living somewhere here. Issit true?"

	The speaker to Eighteen's right scoffed, impatient that the 
'conversation' topic had now been granted to some youngster. "The only 
monsters here are the ones you see every day, in the white coats."

	"No, that's not what I mean. I- someone said you can hear them, 
sometimes, if you're on a lower floor. Sounds like screaming."

	"If there were monsters here, let alone screaming ones, don't you think 
the humans would have found them already and taken care of-"

	"Who said this?"

	There was a brief pause, during which one could easily imagine the 
glare Eighteen was getting from the older Layhr for interrupting him. It was 
the kind one could feel, even through the solid metalplate walls. Quietly, 
the younger one responded.

	"...Thirteen."

	"What? And you believed him? Don't listen to that one, he's full of 
himself." Sixteen chimed in before either of the other two could respond, 
though the older one grumbled in agreement. At this the youngest fell silent; 
even if he had anything else to bring up, given his story 'sources' it wasn't 
likely he'd be listened to. 

	Eighteen had been so caught up in the group conversation, she hadn't even noticed two of the technicians enter the room, starting to make their 
rounds. It wasn't until she caught the mixed scent of anger and fear coming 
from across the room that she looked up, attentively trying to figure out who 
it was coming from. This happened, sometimes; with all the tests, all the 
chemicals they were subjected to, even the most mild-mannered Layhr could be 
brought to the edge, pushed to their mental limit of tolerance. The scent was 
a warning sign that the humans never seemed to catch, yet one that had every 
other creature in the room paying immediate attention. It was slightly 
frustrating to Eighteen; they must be on the same side of the room that her 
kennel was. She couldn't see what was going on.

	She was distracted from her thoughts as a shadow fell across her own 
space, latch and lock clinking quietly as the technician in front of her 
kennel opened the door. .....oh. She must be on today's roster. Wonderful. 
She shot a baleful glare forward as one gloved hand reached for the scruff of 
her neck, syringe containing some dose of unknown chemical in the other.

	"Oh, somebody is certainly lucky today~" Eighteen's ears flattened, and 
she cast a sidelong glance of annoyance towards the speaker of the comment. 
It wasn't as if she particularly minded this possibility; though the effects 
of some of the chemicals could be far from pleasant, she could have been in 
for much worse. A sudden snarl from her far right caught attention of both 
Layhr and technician alike.

	"Don't touch me! I swear, I'll tear your fucking face off!" The sound 
of a startled yell, and a sudden slam as something hit the ground; the 
technician let go of her fur, task forgotten as he rushed to help his 
coworker. Eighteen moved quickly forward to peer out from around the still-
open kennel door, watching chaos unfold along with about sixty other pairs of 
eyes, all focused intently on the same thing. The anger-fear smell was even 
stronger now, and she could finally see who it was coming from; it seemed as 
though the Layhr had caught his technician by surprise, lunging forward and 
knocking the man to the floor. The other technician, the one Eighteen had been dealing with, had raced over; he was now trying his best to subdue the 
angry creature, and keep him from (as the aforementioned Layhr had so 
eloquently put it) 'tearing the technician's fucking face off'. In all the 
commotion, it took her a moment to shift focus from the fight to the fact 
that her own opportunity was staring right at her; and with only two 
technicians in the room, both currently occupied, she planned to make full 
use of it.

	Her lithe body jumped to the floor agilely, claws tapping on the 
scuffed tile. She cast a wary glance once more towards the struggle before 
bolting to the door, nudging it open with her shoulder and quickly slinking 
out unnoticed. She slunk closely along the wall down the hallway, moving as 
low to the ground as her long legs would allow, and as quietly but quickly as 
possible. The hall was empty now, but she was more than ready to wager that 
with all the noise coming from within the kennel room, it wouldn't remain 
that way for long.

--

	Eighteen skirted the edges of the hall, now cautiously checking the 
next corridor before suddenly turning any corners. Wouldn't be making that 
mistake again. Not far from the kennels, she stumbled across an open room, a 
walk-through; medium-sized, and with open doors at either end, she had never 
quite been able to figure out its purpose. Though, it had been quite some time since she'd last seen it... swishing her long, mane-tipped tail 
thoughtfully, she figured it couldn't hurt to check it out once more. Not to 
mention, being in a room gave her much better chances of avoiding anyone that 
might be wandering the halls. The Layhr cast a curious glance around as she 
entered, not spotting anything too terribly different from the last time at 
first, until... 

	Her hackles rose, and she stared with wide, faintly glowing eyes at the 
new display, a bleached-white Layhr skeleton, articulated with wire and 
standing as its owner once had during life. It stood, proudly mounted on a 
square metal base and supported by slender metal rods, against a background 
of various posters, each illustrating various internal systems and functions. 
Eighteen had stopped dead in her tracks, silently taking in this symbol of 
mortality with an uneasy gaze. Though she had never seen the bones of her own 
kind bleached and strung together so cleanly and neatly as this was, she 
still knew perfectly well what it represented, what it meant. Raising a paw 
in trepidation, she slowly paced over to where the mounted skeleton stood, 
wondering... Was this anyone she had known? Thinking back to the various 
'last times' she had seen any particular other Layhr in the labs, she 
couldn't help but shudder. It was only with great hesitation that she put 
pastel paws gently on the metal base, lowering her head to see if there was a 
familiar smell. Nostrils flared as she inhaled the scent of peroxide-bleached 
bones and metal holdings; no luck. Whatever chemicals they had used on it, 
aside from stripping away flesh and fur, had also stripped away any trace of 
the original owner. 

	Eighteen jumped a good foot in the air at a soft, quietly-spoken voice 
behind her. It was a wonder she didn't flat out bolt from the room.

	"We'll all look like that, someday."

	She whipped her maned head around to see who had snuck up behind her, 
only mildly relieved to find another Layhr staring back at her. Thirteen. Not 
the most settling of countenances to view, right now; some bony mutation had 
formed around his face, granting top jaw, face, and back to his curling ears 
a jeering facade much resembling that of the skull belonging to the skeleton 
on the stand. Black horns twisted out from underneath his shaggy orange mane, 
framing black fur and falling over glowing-greenfire eyes that watched her 
from underneath false sockets. 

	"What are you doing here?" Eighteen tried to compose herself, still 
slightly shaken not only from her discovery, but from being startled as well. 

	"I could ask the same of you."

	That was a fair enough response, though not a particularly informative 
one; how had someone as noticeable as Thirteen managed to not only sneak out 
from wherever he had been, but avoid being seen? She, at least, had had a 
well-timed bit of chaos and luck on her side; she didn't recall him being in 
the same kennel room at the time, though. And in her mind, at least, pastel-
patterned fur stood out far less against the faded walls than his coloration 
did.

	"Why haven't you been spotted yet..?" 

	"No one notices a ghost." Thirteen raised his head, muzzle curled back 
as best it could into a smirk at the question. Ahh... no wonder the others refused to listen to him. 

	"You aren't a ghost." Her shakiness was past, now; Eighteen flicked one 
long, ribbed ear in irritation.

	"How can you be sure?"

	"You don't smell dead." 

	"Maybe I just haven't started rotting yet."

	There was a brief, uncomfortable pause at this point, in which Eighteen 
decided that a particular tuft of fur on her ankle could use a good grooming. 
Deciding she'd had enough of Thirteen's morbid sense of humor she turned, 
glancing towards the door opposite the one she'd entered from.

	"Then, if you'll excuse me, I think I should be going. I don't 
associate with skeletons." She was purposefully vague as to whether she meant 
the mounted thing in the corner or him, pacing quietly from the room without 
looking back. Within moments of exiting she heard human footsteps approaching 
the room from the other side, shouts of sudden surprise sounding as whoever 
it was presumably saw Thirteen, standing right in the middle of the floor. So 
much, Eighteen thought, for being an unspottable ghost.

	Not wanting to be anywhere near the room now that Thirteen had drawn 
attention to himself, Eighteen again started her quick pacing down the 
hallways. It was getting more difficult now; there were some corners she 
couldn't turn, some rooms she was afraid to pass due to the increasing number 
of people milling about. Though the technicians in the room had more likely 
than not been able to manage the rogue Layhr on their own, with the discovery 
of Thirteen wandering the halls, it was only a matter of minutes before 
containment officers started scouring the area as well; and those Eighteen 
definitely wanted to avoid. 

--

	Several hallways and multiple closed-doors later, the young Layhr had 
found herself in a bit of a spot. She had reached one of the small alcoves 
where the elevators lie, and had planned on turning the corner when, from one 
of the rooms down the next hallway, she had heard two voices. Not just 
voices, but the clicking that accompanied a handle being turned, door 
swinging open almost weightlessly on well-greased hinges. This wouldn't have 
been so much of a problem if not for the fact that, coming from somewhere 
down the opposite hallway (and her only means of backtracking), was the sound 
of footsteps gradually drawing nearer. No matter which way she turned, it 
seemed as though she was going to risk an encounter with some technician, 
scientist, or security patrol. 

	"You got that alright?" Voice number one, coming from inside the room 
around the corner.

	"Yeah, Carl, I got it. Thanks."

	"Need me to get the elevator for you or anything?"

	"Nah, just the door was enough. I can handle it." 

	"Alright, if you say so." 

	Only one set of footsteps started moving away from the room; that was 
slightly better than two, but it still meant Eighteen would need to be ready 
to act. Voice number two was heading straight for the alcove, and there was 
nothing in the open space she could use to hide behind. Crouching low to the 
ground, she got ready to spring past whomever it was; it made more sense to 
her that, were she going to run, she make some bit of progress rather than 
backtrack where she'd already been. Muscles tensed and claws splayed, she 
waited... waiiiiited... 

	The person who turned the corner, rather than reacting in surprise, 
shock, or yelling, didn't even notice her. How could he, with a stack of 
boxes piled in his arms, towering very nearly above the level of his eyes? 
Eighteen paused, staring curiously at the spectacle making his ever-so-
awkward way towards the elevator doors, barely managing the carefully 
balanced load. Seemed she had less to worry about in terms of the unknown 
voices than she'd thought. The man in front of her did his best to turn 
sideways, nudging the down-arrow elevator call button with one elbow. He was 
no threat. There was still the matter of the footsteps approaching from the 
hallway behind her, though; not to mention the owner of the first unknown 
voice. He had stepped into the hallway now, too; though from the sound of 
things, he was just milling about. Still, the thought of having to run past 
either set of footsteps wasn't that appealing. Being spotted meant a rapid 
end to her excursion, and if there were any way to avoid it... As the 
elevator door dinged open, she thought of a third option.

--

	Inside the elevator, barely a few feet away from the man carrying 
boxes, and he hadn't even noticed her. Absolutely amazing. Eighteen had slunk 
in after him, carefully avoiding his feet and making sure to stick just 
behind him in case he could somehow see anything past those boxes. The way 
she figured it, going down either hallway meant definitely being spotted; 
this was just a strong chance. Risky, but better odds than the other two 
directions. She watched him, yet again, awkwardly attempt to use his elbow to 
press buttons; it was an amazing feat of shifting his own weight and 
redistributing that of the boxes, but somehow he'd managed it. He spent most 
of the ride leaning against one wall, vision completely obstructed by his 
cargo.

	Eighteen had only been in an elevator a few, short times; but she did 
know one important fact regarding it. Wherever you got off it would be a 
different place than where you got on. She was counting on this fact to find 
her a place that wasn't two blocked corridors. After a few more moments, 
something inside the small room dinged; the man shifted his weight one more 
time, stepping towards the door as it opened. Eighteen cautiously peered past 
his legs and into this new hallway.

	"Hey, you need any help with that?"

	What, no! No, that wasn't fair, there wasn't supposed to be someone 
standing right in front of the elevator! The voice came barely two feet from 
the side past the open doors, at an angle where Eighteen couldn't see who was 
speaking. 

	"No, I'm okay. Thanks though." Man with the boxes stepped out, and she could see the second pair of legs step into view, now. And if she could see 
him, that meant that he would be able to see...

	"...Hey! Is this some joke? Those things aren't allowed on this floor!"

	"Whu..?"

	In the confusion, Eighteen did the only thing she could think to do- 
she mashed buttons. More precisely, she'd jumped up on the side paneling, 
pawpads hitting several of the little colored squares she'd seen the man 
press earlier. She had no idea what any of them did, specifically; but 
anything was worth a try once. Luck was on her side, considering the man with 
the boxes was standing right in the way of the one who'd started to yell upon 
sighting her; the doors slid closed and the elevator started downward again 
before anything could be done. 

	It didn't have many floors to go before stopping, having gone as far as 
the shaft ran. The facility was constructed, at least as far as the lab areas 
went, primarily underground, and the last stop had been one of the lower-most 
floors. Eighteen had reached the lowest level, the very 'basement' of the 
building itself. The elevator door dinged open and she stood, cautiously 
peering out into this new area, hoping there weren't any people waiting right 
outside like the last stop. She didn't see anyone around, but even more than 
that... the smell here was different. The human scent was faint, old; it 
didn't seem as though people came down here very often, or very recently. The 
chemical smell, always prevalent to some degree in the labs, was also much 
stronger, mixed with an ever-pervasive smell of dank, damp surroundings, 
water somewhere. There was also the barest hints of some unidentifiable 
scent, lingering unplaceably on the edges of Eighteen's mind, elusive. A 
metal placard was bolted to the wall opposite the elevator, etched with human 
writing she couldn't understand. Long Term Chemical Storage (left), Water 
Treatment Facility (right). Arrows pointing in opposing directions under 
them; she paid it no mind. Stepping out of the elevator and into the hallway, 
she slunk carefully along, close to the wall. Something seemed different 
here, if for no other reason than a lack of 'people'; though equally strange 
was the fact that this hallway was a single-strip dead-end, each side ending 
only in a door and no extra corridors along it. Eighteen lowered her head, 
snuffling curiously at the lower edge of the door on the far right side. The 
dank smell was even stronger from here, mixed with other scents she couldn't 
quite recognize, but still no people. It seemed as good a place as any to 
explore.

	Unless they were locked or round-handled, doors posed little problem 
for Eighteen. She tried shouldering it open as she had back in the kennels to 
no luck; she looked up to see if there were any handles that needed pressing. 
Ah, it was one of those with the bar across it... leaning up on her haunches, 
she jumped at that with her front paws, falling back to all fours as the door 
swung forward slightly; it was a heavy door, and the kind that didn't like to 
stay where you'd pushed it, and she could hear it shut behind her after she'd 
entered the next area. 

	Ah, ah, this area was very different from what she was used to. The 
lighting was, for one thing, very dim; being so used to the well-lit areas of 
the lab, she almost didn't recognize the faint glow coming from her own eyes, 
reflecting off the ground. She tried to think if she remembered any mention 
of this place through rumor or otherwise with no luck; wherever this was, it 
was a good bet it wasn't someplace the majority, or even any significant minority, of them knew about. As she turned the next corner, she was in for 
an even bigger surprise. Though the low lighting kept her from seeing to the 
very extent of this place, once she'd passed from that narrow hallway, the 
entire area opened up into a massive, almost cavernous affair; stairwells led 
down, and metal walkways extending to various other platforms. There were 
massive holding tanks scattered around various locations, and past one 
section of the very lowest ground level, she could swear she heard running 
water. There was more than one place where the only lighting came from 
several small, red lights mounted on the wall, dully shining from beneath 
metal covers. This place... was incredible. Eighteen had never seen such a 
thing in the whole of her existence.

	Long, muscular tail curled around her haunches in thought. Here it was, 
a place she'd never once set foot into; here it was, a place that seemed she 
wouldn't run into anyone. Even if the humans were able to guess what floor 
she'd landed on, it would be near impossible for them to find her in such a 
massive area; this was greater than any exploration or expedition she'd ever 
held before. That was it, then; she started forward, walking tentatively at 
first, then with more confidence towards one of the downwards leading 
stairways. She sniffed curiously at the dank metal before stepping onto it, 
having never before encountered the scent of rust or mildew. Her claws 
scraped loudly against the metal stairs as she descended, eyes searching as 
far ahead as she could see in the dim lighting to scout out a path. There was 
an occasional soft clank if she stepped especially hard, but nothing too 
loud- these stairs were designed for things much heavier than herself.

	At one point, when she was more than halfway down the second stairway, 
a resounding clang from one of the other stair areas sounded, startling her. 
White-glow eyes widened, looking wildly about for the source of the noise.

	"Helloooooo?" The sounds of Eighteen's voice echoed, something she 
wasn't used to. "Is... is somebody there?"

	No response, and no more clanging. Perhaps it had been her own 
footsteps, the sound echoing back to scare her. Or perhaps it came from some 
bit of odd machinery that she hadn't noticed before. Regardless of the 
source, it left her feeling just a bit uneasy. She reached the bottom of the 
stairway, cautiously stepping onto cold concrete and looking around. Around 
the bottom of the stairway sat a few smaller, less hefty versions of the 
large holding tanks whose outlines she could barely make out in the shadowy 
distance. Metal grate platforms, and a discarded rolling cart; she became 
much more interested in what lay along the ground level, closer to those red 
lights. As she walked, that lingering smell of chemicals and unfamiliarity 
once more lingered at the edge of her subconscious.

	As she got closer to the faint red glow, Eighteen was far better able 
to discern what lay ahead of her. There were, in fact, channeled grooves cut 
into the concrete; it was through these that the sound of running water came. 
Long channels, coming from shadow and disappearing into shadow, stretched 
along a large portion of the floorway at the very edge of this massive 
'room'. Towards the very fall wall were what appeared to be round 'corridors' 
branching off from the channels, leading into more shadow, entry blocked by 
metal grates that allowed water in but nothing else. Concrete platforms 
extended along the edges of some of the channels and some of the far wall, 
creating a narrow sort of walkway from area to area. Now, from this area, she 
couldn't see much of the stairway she'd come down earlier; now that seemed to 
be the section of the room cloaked in shadow. It was slightly disconcerting, but the concept utterly fascinated Eighteen. Even moreso did the water 
channels, some moving, some stagnant; she leaned over for a moment, surprised 
at the reflection of her own glow-eyes in the water's surface.

	She spent several minutes that way, before a sudden shuffling on her 
left made her quickly turn, body at alert. Something, some creature... what 
was that? It was much larger than she was, easily three times her size. Her 
first thought, horrified, was that some poor, misshapen Layhr had found their 
way down here, disfigured horribly from some test gone wrong or chemical 
overdose. She tried to call out to it, find out what had happened. 

	"Who... w... what happened to you? Do you need help?" 

	But as more details came into focus, the less likely it seemed that 
this thing was one of her own; flat-skulled, and with a more 'delicate' 
muzzle, and though blank white eyes stared at her, there was none of the 
tell-tale glow. They barely even seemed focused, and one eye was blue-
clouded, blind. It stared at her, ferally, unresponsive; her attempt at 
communicating went unanswered. A metal tag hung from one tattered ear, and 
near the creature's shoulder was what appeared to be some kind of wound, 
improperly healed; gunshot? It didn't happen very often, considering most of 
the lab's subjects were too expensive to be expendable, but Eighteen had 
heard enough of the rare occurrences to guess at what it was. Blackened, 
furless flesh extended slightly around it, dead; it smelled faintly of rot. 
The creature's limbs were misshapen, slightly uneven; some toes were larger 
than others, some claws had fused together into massive lumps of bone, while 
others remained sharp and intact. The ribs were easily visible beneath short 
fur spattered with mildew, and a row of spines, some broken, extended down 
along its back. It was also maneless, cementing the idea in her mind that 
whatever this monster was, it had no ties to her kind. 

	Eighteen lowered her head, ears flattened against her skull; the 
creature lunged. Disjointed thoughts ran through her head as she darted to 
the right, just avoiding the creature's massive claws that struck down where 
she had been. Monsters, monsters, there are monsters down here... A loud, 
feral shriek, high-pitched and ear-splitting, sounded behind her, frustrated. The noise-pitch made her cringe, the high tone hurting her ears. She raced 
along the channel's edge, red glow illuminating the way as she searched for 
some way to escape whatever it was chasing her. The creature, not to be 
discouraged, made bounding steps towards her; she raced towards another 
stairwell, different from the one she'd come down. Some small, quiet train of 
thought arose from the back of her mind: if she did somehow survive this and 
get back up to the safer floors, oh, would she have stories to tell.

	The thought was cut short at the realization that the entry to this 
stairway was blocked. Some chainmetal gate had been secured over it, aging 
yellow caution tape strewn across the front. Dead-end. She turned, crouching 
instinctively as the monster approached, staring with wide eyes. It slowed 
its gait, unsure; turning to watch her with its good eye, it advanced towards 
her. Cornered, adrenaline rushing, instincts Eighteen didn't even know she 
had began to surface. As the creature closed in, there was a flurry of motion 
and last-ditch effort as Eighteen sprung forward, claws outstretched to rake 
at the monster's face. She hardly registered the fact that her claws caught 
on the metal tag in the creature's ear, causing it to tear free as the 
monster shrieked again. She landed, miraculously, on all fours; she caught 
sight of the tag on the ground beside her, etched not only with age, but with 
lettering. [HYRN - Batch 34-A] More symbols she didn't understand. There was no time to ponder this, however; a hefty paw caught her in the side, slamming 
her furiously back towards the water channels. She landed with a yelp, 
winded; it took her a moment to stumble up, limping back towards the concrete 
walkways near the far wall. The only reason she'd even had that much time was 
thanks to the creature's sudden distraction; it spent a moment pawing at the 
new, shallow slashmarks across its face, a mixture of low growling and high-
pitched keening at the pain from its newly torn ear.

	It was only a few moments before it refocused its attention back on 
her, though. Eighteen cowered near one of the grates, trying to catch her 
breath; at this point she couldn't even wonder how to get back around it and 
up the stairs, instead focusing all her energy on the creature, to try and 
get out of its way if it lunged. Once more it approached, though this time 
more warily; the creature crouched down at the edge of the channel, muscles 
rippling underneath mildewed fur as it leapt towards her. The Layhr forced 
her aching body into action, splashing down into the channel waters on her 
right as she dodged; the creature missed its target by mere inches, slamming 
hard into the metal grate blocking one of the filtered channel corridors, 
knocking it askew. The resulting shriek of rage echoed strangely back at them 
from the depths of the waterway's corridors. 

	The water channel, thankfully, wasn't very deep; it only went up to 
Eighteen's armpit. The sudden shock of cold water helped her focus, 
struggling to stand straight and get away from the mutated beast only a few 
feet away. It was searching for her, good eye glancing furiously around as it 
tried to find where she landed; Eighteen crouched in the water, hoping as 
hard as she could to remain unnoticed for a few moments more. She saw her 
chance, now; spotting the opening in the grate, she made a mad rush towards 
it. It was narrow, barely wide enough for her to squeeze through; the monster 
beside her most certainly wouldn't be able to fit. Blind eye turned to her, 
she only just able to make it through before the creature turned, spotting 
her and lunging again at the grate with heavy paws. It did little good; even 
knocking the metal a few more inches over, the opening was still too small 
for it to get through. As Eighteen hurried to put as much distance between 
herself and the opening of the corridor she could hear it trying to stick its 
claws through, biting at the grate with misshapen teeth and a thorned tongue. 
She let the sparse red lights and the faint glow from her own eyes light her 
path, shuddering briefly as another shriek rang through the corridors, 
bouncing and echoing off the walls. 

	Eighteen had no way of knowing that the corridor led away from the labs and into the city's own water systems, or even what a city was; all she knew 
was that she couldn't go back the way she came. She could only trudge 
forward, longing for the familiar and bright fluorescent lights of places 
where monsters didn't roam.