Chapter 253: The Encounter
Cross awoke from unconsciousness, her head still foggy, likely from a concussion caused by the crash. She struggled to sit up, shaking her head to clear it, and looked around.
“Where am I?” she muttered. The sight before her was startling—a room surrounded by walls of rock and soil, interwoven with dark purple, pulsating growths that seemed to ripple faintly. She assumed they might be plants, though they were unnervingly grotesque.
Soft, dim lights flickered, mimicking a rhythmic breathing pattern. The eerie illumination cast shifting shadows that added to the room’s unsettling atmosphere.
Cross tilted her head to examine the ceiling. Were the lights malfunctioning due to a power shortage? The motion tugged painfully at her injuries, eliciting a groan.
Thankfully, her wounds didn’t seem as severe as she’d feared, and the pain was bearable. Upon closer inspection, the ceiling wasn’t lit by conventional lights but appeared to be lined with luminous stones covering its entirety.
Squinting, she peered more closely at the ceiling.
“Ahhhhhh!!!”
A scream tore from her throat.
What she’d assumed to be glowing stones were, in fact, swarms of fingernail-sized bugs clinging to the ceiling. Their abdomens contained glowing organs, which they lit and dimmed in unison, creating the illusion of a single breathing light source.