I noticed them in the distance and, of course, decided to hide immediately to be... well, already safe and well hidden.
But to my great surprise... they ignore me. But they're literally ignoring me.
"What? Since when are monsters nice?"
I decide to look at them, and take another breath of air without even realising it. I can see them crawling towards a gallery to the side, where there's a crack in the rock, wide but low.
Much too low for me to pass through with any dignity.
Fortunately for me, they're not looking for me. But still... why are they ignoring me? It intrigues me, so I decide to follow them from a distance.
Stupid idea? Yes, it is. But I'm interested, because it's the first time I've seen a creature give such a damn about me... well, if you don't count the dragon who literally ignored me.
Following them, I end up in a larger room, lit by bluish mushrooms. And the atmosphere is... calm.
And in the centre I see the spiders gathering. Of course, I wonder why? But then, I clearly have no idea.
But eventually I hear a strange noise. I can't work out where it's coming from, though, as the spiders finally start to stir.
I look around for something, anything, and notice a hole high up.
The spiders... are they waiting? Why are they waiting?
Just as I'm asking myself a thousand questions, something falls out of the hole.
Up there, ten metres high, a sort of pile of flesh literally falls out of the hole.
As I wondered what it was and looked more closely, I noticed that it was... a baby?
But now it's crying... Wait, it's alive?
And just before it hits the ground, I see dozens of spiders jump on it and start tearing it to pieces. I see bits of skin being thrown in all directions, and a shower of blood splattering onto the ground.
The spiders are fighting amongst themselves to eat it, and I can hear the cries of the baby, who is still in sight, suffering an immense pain that breaks my heart. I want to react, but my body freezes.
The number of spiders makes me shiver.
"Holy shit!"
I back away very slowly and silently. I don't want to be caught and end up in the same state. I put a hand over my mouth, as if I could hold back the rising nausea. And unfortunately, I can't scream, at least not here, not now, especially in the face of this.
I'm not human... well, not really any more. But right now, there's a part of me that screams, that scratches, that scratches until it wants to tear itself from my own skull.
A baby being treated like rubbish, like vermin, being devoured before it even touches the ground.
Wait a minute... that's strange. How did they know a baby was going to fall? And how can a human baby be here, already, when this Labyrinth is a walking nightmare?
Was it thrown in on purpose? How else would they have guessed?
I look down, and in the centre, where the spiders are fighting for food, I see bones. Lots of bones, with a wave of cracked skulls, covered in bits of tissue and painted with blood.
This means that others have already passed. And surely others will follow...
And here I am. I'm just a useless witness to a world rotten to the core.
"System, what's going on?"
[From my observations, I count several thousand bones, indicating several dozen discarded human babies on a regular basis].
I turn around and end up throwing up. Hell, even on this fucking blue planet, nobody did that. We were bastards, but we were clean bastards!
I hear another scream coming from the same hole. No... they're going to throw another one?
"What's my probability of survival if I want to..."
[Analysis in progress... Danger level: very high. Probability of success in extracting the baby alive: 6.2%].
"...Fuck."
I take a long, awkward breath. My body wants to run away and my heart wants to explode. But my legs are moving.
I'm not going to let this happen again. Not a second time. At least not while I'm still alive.
"System, guide me."
[Activating danger perception. Mapping optimal trajectories.]
The spiders haven't raised their heads yet, and the ground is trapped by their legs, their moving shadows. I notice that if I make a single mistake, I'm finished.
But I keep going, and every step I take screams in my head.
And the child's cry continues. It's faint, almost muffled, but still alive.
And finally I leap forward with my axe in my left hand, a flame in my right, and I wave it in front of me like a desperate madwoman. A spider turns and another follows.
Too late, I'm already there.
The baby falls from the sky, and I hurry to catch it. As I grab him, I can feel his warmth and his breathing, but he's still crying.
I hold him close and scream:
"Move again, and I'll burn you all, you bastards!"
The flame explodes in my free hand and I hurl it at them.
But they don't hesitate, and dozens of them run at me as I catch myself and start to run.
"Bloody hell, System! Do you know how many of them there are?"
[Estimate in progress... 788 hostile entities detected. 358 in rapid movement].
"What?! Is this an army or a goddamn doomsday incubator?!"
I run and jump. I'm out of breath, the baby against me. Every turn is Russian roulette, every step a gamble.
They scream and scrape the walls, while some try to cut me off.
I ignite the air in front of me and use it as an improvised barrier. Sure, it slows them down, but not enough.
One grabs my ankle and tries to bite me, sending me rolling. So I use my axe, which splits the air and I hear a sharp crack. She starts to back away.
The baby cries louder. And me too, maybe, after a while... I don't know.
"System, nearest exit?
[67 metres. Heading north-east. Tunnel unstable. 47% risk of collapse].
"I love suicidal statistics, so let's get on with it."
Fuck me for saying it, but 67 metres is a long way. And with the baby screaming, I'm not going to be able to hide.
And then I hear another baby cry.
"No... don't tell me there's more?
I want to turn back to save them, but I'm going to die. Especially now that they know I exist.
[430 entities remain in position.]
"Wait... aren't they all coming after me?
[Negative. Guard protocol activated. 358 individuals are tasked with neutralising the intruder. The others protect the site].
"Great, now they've got a strategy? All we needed was for the mutant cockroaches on the moon to start using military tactics."
I charge forward and the walls close in as the air becomes heavy, and the rock creaks beneath my footsteps.
The unstable tunnel is straight ahead, and the ground shakes. I hear the first landslide behind me. Not enough to block, but enough to make me realise: it's now or never.
I hold the baby close.
"You don't cry any more, do you? If we get out of this, I swear I'll teach you how to bite monsters."
A spider comes out of the wall, but it's too close, so I narrowly avoid it. My axe splits the air and slices off a leg. It screams, but doesn't stop.
I dive into the tunnel.
The ceiling vibrates and the first stones fall as I roll down and protect the baby as best I can.
[Warning: rockfall imminent].
"Wait, what?"
I grab hold of a rocky outcrop, slip and eventually right myself with one last effort.
"Go on, go on, go on!"
As I turn round, I notice a white mass hurtling towards the tunnel. It's too fast.
I grit my teeth and jump, still with the baby, who lets out a shrill cry, like a moment suspended in the void, between death and a miracle.
And then the crash.
I roll, crash to the ground, muffle a cry, but I'm still holding the baby in my arms, protecting him as best I can. Fortunately, the baby is alive. And so am I.
Behind us, the tunnel collapses under a wall of rock, dust and silence.
Not a sound. All that's left is my breath ripped out, my heart pounding, and that baby still crying. Wait a minute, that's a lot, isn't it?
[Status: you're alive. Escape: successful. Enemy: temporarily blocked].
I lie on my back and finally burst out laughing.
"Fuck."
I turn my eyes to the baby and it stares back at me. No fear. Just... a typically human kind of curiosity.
"You'd better be worth it. Because right now, I've burnt more monsters than a kamikaze cat!"
And for the first time in a long time, I close my eyes. Not to run away, not to sink. Just to breathe. Just to live.
And I decide to make sure the baby's all right. I look at him from every angle.
First of all, he's human. At least... I think so. In any case, I don't notice anything peculiar, like a strange tail or weird ears. After all, I don't know this world. On the other hand...
Wait... what's that thing?
I look at the back of its head and see writing and some sort of barcode.
"System, is this something special from your world?"
[Elvish writing.]
"Translate that for me. Can you?"
[Number 230864.]
And as my mind tries to figure out what's going on, some kind of earthquake sounds.
What the hell?
I turn my head in the direction of the noise,and what do I see?
A fucking spider's leg poking through the rock.
But this one... it's clearly much bigger.