"We can't keep doing this. We either need to put them all down or try to get back to the ground floor!"
"If we keep backing off, we can circle the column and get back round to the stairs. Let's just hope they don't have the brains to figure out what we're doing."
"With some of them having brains dripping out I doubt that, but we had better hurry up. If these go nuts when they see us take the Eye, the ones on the lower floors are likely to be the same. We'll have to make a mad dash!"
Coming full circle by backing away, we found our way to the metal railing that protected the sides the stairs. Leaping over to the stairs below, we began to run down them as quickly as we could. We'd only have a few seconds before the pigmen on the top floor managed to work out what had happened and began following us, and as we ran down, looking down over the edge, we could see the ones on the next level gaining a keen interest in our activity. But as we neared the bottom, we could see they were going to react in the same way, so before we got to the bottom, we jumped from the last corner to the bottom, and ran straight to through one of the doors to the external balcony.
"Let's hope we can confuse these too, otherwise it'll make matters worse when we get to the last floor. I don't want to see what that Ghast is going to do when we get there. We don't want the pigmen making matters worse!"
We knew that there were only two entrances to the balcony, and the one we needed to get to was on the opposite side to the one we had passed through, which meant we had to hope the pigmen on this floor had followed us. We could hear the squealing and excited grunting noises, but we couldn't see them behind us. By the time we reached the other doorway, we could see the pigmen fighting to get out of the doorway we had just left. I have no idea how we managed it, but we were able to pass them quietly and head down to the lowest level, still worried about how the Ghast would react. We thought the pigmen were attacking us because they could see the Eye of Ender, but UOPETA had long since pocketed it so it wasn't visible. But I had begun to think they could sense it instead. If that was the case then the Ghast would easily know we had it, and if it was brought into this world to protect it, we were in for some trouble.
"Try to keep moving. If we stop we give it a chance to attack us, and we have no idea how they could do that."
But as we rounded a corner on the stairs, we could see the Ghast floating up to our level. It was able to see us from where it was, and like before it was intrigued about our presence. We came to a full stop and tried to remain as motionless as possible, defying exactly what UOPETA had advised against, but it was hard to put into practice something like that when you're actually faced with it. The Ghast floated on the spot momentarily, looking at us each in turn, before it's gaze settled on UOPETA. It drew in a breath, before letting out an ear-splitting screech! We ran! We dare not look back, but we could hear explosions behind us, giving us more enthusiasm to run faster! Nearing the bottom, we could hear the Ghast following us as we ran further and further down. Once we reached the bottom, I took a sneak peek to see how close the Ghast was, and saw the stairs behind us explode into chunks of stone and smoke! That was all the evidence I needed to run faster! We all managed to reach the stairs leading back down to the checkpoint, turning in time to see the Ghast smack full speed into the top of the ceiling. It screeched and screamed with anger as we continued to the bottom, where we were met with an incredibly confused looking guard.
"Are you all right? What happened up there?"
"The Ghast... I don't know why, but... But... It attacked us as we came back down... I think we need to look into their behaviour a little more, it seems they're temperamental at best..."
"Any injuries that need reporting? Any damage done?"
"We're fine, but parts of that staircase are going to need rebuilding."
"Where did those rifles come from by the way? You didn't have them when you went through..."
"Erm... We had them in pieces under our coats. We're performing side experiments about improving the kit you get. I think that might have been what set the Ghast off..."
The guard let us back through the checkpoint, after we had disassembled the rifles and hidden them beneath our lab coats once more. As we walked away back towards the labs, we could here him calling for assistance at the tower for restraining the Ghast. Luckily that didn't appear to be the job of a scientist, and we moved off. As we left the checkpoint, we noticed the stairway heading down to our right. That must lead down to the next tunnel through to the Northern-most tower.
"That was a close one... Let's hope SERVERE has manage to get the others free, and we have a little more luck with this next tower..."
---
As we reached the bottom of the staircase, we noticed a considerable lack of activity on this lower level. The tunnel that stretched back Northwards did not appear to house any labs, but instead was a straight tunnel fully illuminated. As we continued through it however, we found a sign that simply read "CAUTION. Construction in progress". Presumably if the towers were new, the labs that were built along the tunnels would also be relatively new as well. However the One and Two labs seemed to have been established a long time ago, and the tunnels connecting to the towers added on at a later date.
"I wonder what they have in mind for this space...? If it's worse than anything we've already seen, God help us... We still haven't found where they conduct their portal experiments yet. Maybe that's down the other entrance from the courtyard."
"What if they don't conduct the portal experiments here? It's likely they've got hundreds of bases like this spread out all over the place to conduct research secretly and without distractions from the public, as well as no moral or ethical restrictions."
The tunnel then turned towards the North West, heading at an odd angle away from the main HQ to the next tower. It was put out of the way by quite a bit as the tunnel showed, and the distance shown on the PDA, and it was eerie to be in such a dangerous place that currently lacked any form of activity. I wasn't complaining however as we needed it after the attack we suffered from the pigmen and the Ghast! They were incredibly dangerous when they were provoked, so we had to hope that they couldn't sense Uopeta already had one of the Eyes with him.
"Maybe they were brought into this world to protect only one Eye. The one closest to them is the one they protect, but all others they ignore..."
"I sure hope so, otherwise I'm going to be a big target again."
"Maybe for safety's sake, you should remain at the base of the tower whilst us two search the upper floors. We can't guarantee they will act like that, and we should be able to get through to the top without all three of us."
"It's something to consider, and maybe I can distract the Ghast if you have trouble on the way down."
We continued through to the end of the tunnel, finally reaching the base of the stairs that would lead into the lowest floor of the tower. Looking up, we all mentally prepared ourselves for what lay ahead, and hoped that this was the last tower we would have to search.
"Well then... let's get this over with..."
Syeonyx signing off
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