Underneath the floor, Ben found himself going down some sort of tube slide. The walls around him were made of rock, but somehow perfectly smooth, as if someone sanded them over. There wasn’t a single place where any part of the wall even slightly jutted out.

Doing his best to keep cool and not panic, he tried to avoid his head hitting the walls. He didn’t know how fast he was going, but he was sure it was enough to make hitting them dangerous.

He slid down for so long he almost thought the slide would go on forever, but eventually it did end, and he dropped into a pool of water. Completely submerged, he had no choice but to remove all the heavy equipment weighing him down. He took off his backpack, utility belt, and shock cannon. He did not watch as they sank into the depths below.

He quickly pushed himself up to the surface. Breathing heavily, he saw dry land very close to where he was, only about thirty feet out. Gritting his teeth, he swam through the water to get to it.

There was no gradual slope down into the water from the land, it was a steep and instant drop. It caused him some trouble when trying to get out. He had to use a lot of arm strength to climb up onto the floor.

He rolled over onto his back, breathing heavily and soaking wet. He moved his head around to fully examine the room he’d fallen into. The first thing he noticed was how spacious it was. It was by far the most spacious area he’d ever seen in the Forbidden Cave. The ceiling looked about as high up as it was in the S.I.D. gym, maybe even a little higher.

Getting up on his elbows, he tried to think of any area in the cave close to this room. Nothing came to mind. He instinctively reached for his communicator, only to realize it had been dropped along with his utility belt.

“Shit!”

How was he supposed to be found now? And how long would it take to find him? The water he had just fallen into had to be at most sixty degrees, and this cave was not warm. If he didn’t dry off soon, he might get hypothermia.

He stood up and shivered, crossing his arms and trying to keep in as much body heat as he could. At the moment, it was the only thing he could do.

As he was shivering, something suddenly hit him. The room he was in was visible. It may have been rather faint, but he was still able to see without his flashlight, which had also been dropped in the water. That shouldn’t be the case. He was deep underground in a dark cave. With no exit in sight, there should be no way for light to come in.

Turning his head, he took a second look at the walls and ceiling. He froze when he saw a sphere of white light, right on top of the tube slide he came out of, illuminating the entire area.

Ben’s eyes immediately locked onto it. It hadn’t moved, not yet at least, but he knew it was going to.

His whole body became paralyzed with fear. This had to be the same light Antonio saw seconds before his death. The exact thing Ben told Geisinger they needed to go out of their way to destroy. Except Ben had no way to destroy it. He was absolutely helpless. He had no equipment, no weapons, no way to contact anyone, and no way to trap it.

He stared at the light, waiting for it to make the first move. It seemed to be doing the same. He didn’t know what it was standing there for. Was it analyzing him?

Ben saw the light move an inch forward and immediately gunned it back. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much ground for him to cover, and within just twenty seconds, his hands hit a wall.

He looked at the walls around him, frantically checking for any way out. He saw nothing but more solid rock. There was no exit, not even on the floor.

“Fucking Christ.” He slammed the wall. What was he supposed to do now? Hide? There wasn’t even an obvious structure jutting out from the floor he could duck behind.

No, he had to keep trying. He wasn’t giving up that easily.

Ben turned around and saw the light approaching him. He was about to be cornered by it, so he sprinted to his left.

The light almost touched his abdomen, but he narrowly avoided it. He looked around the area he was in to see if there was anything at all he could do to try and escape, but there was nothing. Nothing to climb, break, or crawl into. Just an empty area with a deep pool of water.

“Wait a minute.” He thought. “Water.”

He had a big pool of water sitting right there with him. He could use it and possibly find an escape route. He grew ecstatic, he had a chance!

But then again, he couldn’t see anything under the water, and it was still at a dangerously low temperature. He was in a pretty bad state already. He needed to get dry fast, but how could he even attempt to dry himself with this light constantly up his ass?

The best thing he could do was hold out. Keep dodging and avoiding the light until someone finds him.

He looked around at all the closed walls and chuckled grimly. “Find”, yeah right.

He saw the light approaching him out of the corner of his eye and made a dash for it. He ran around it on the left and went right back to the wall he was just at earlier. He didn’t know if this light got faster as time went on and he didn’t want to wait to find out. He hoped at its current pace it’d give him enough time to think.

He turned back toward the water and contemplated going in again. That extra bit of contemplation was enough to convince him it was a terrible idea. He’d just get cornered by the light with no way to escape. He knew he wouldn’t be able to swim fast enough to get away. Going back into the water was probably the worst thing he could do right now.

But what could he do? He was trapped, doomed to constantly avoid a light that could kill him, or worse. What other option did he have?

The light was beginning to get close again. Ben ran back in front of the water. Shit, was it getting faster? He swore it didn’t get to him that soon before.

In a rush, he tried to think of anything he hadn’t earlier. What if someone else fell down that same trap? Would that help him? Probably not, they’d just be stuck alongside him. What if he tried breaking the walls? Would that work? It was a silly thing to even think about. It would be nothing more than a final act of desperation.

What the hell did this light even want? To kill him? He was in a trap room with no way out, it could just wait until he starved to death. Did it want to use him for something? With how desperate it was to get to him, that seemed true. But what good was he to it?

A million possibilities came into his mind. Not just of how he could be used, but how he could be used AGAINST others.

He thought back to the water, mainly to how vast and deep it was.

Maybe going in wasn’t such a bad idea.

He turned around and saw the light coming to him at a brisk pace. Before it could touch him, he dove into the water. He made no effort to keep himself up, he simply let himself go under.

And he stayed under.

As he sank, the first thing his mind went to was Jacqueline. He wished he could’ve given her that surprise he wanted for her so badly. He hoped someone out there could show it to her.

He opened his mouth and took the water in. He lamented that it had to end like this, with him violently choking and gasping for air that would never come.

The world began fading away from him, and for a brief moment he felt at peace.

Just before he lost consciousness, his body glowed with the light that reached him. Energy spread all throughout his core, inside and out.

He didn’t notice.