As he reached the entrance to the secret tunnel beneath the Alcove, Austin took one last look behind him, looking at his friends fighting the battle of their lives. He saw Reya and Scarleteye taking down two more Annihilators, looking exhausted and worse for wear, but okay. He saw Zackery and Aaroon, side-by-side, holding off at least a dozen Savagers on their end, looking full of scrapes, cuts and wounds and gashes, but still fighting. He looked to the 45 or so Meadowers battling their own fights, facing off Savagers and Annihilators and looking tired, exhausted and wounded but still kept on fighting. They seem to be slightly outnumbered and outmatched by the enemy but were holding their own, only Austi knew this progression wouldn't last, because they weren't just outnumbered nor just outmatched, but outmanned as well. He knew he needed to get to the console in the hidden room beyond this pathway𑁋 and that's when he started back in that direction, away from his friends and towards the console.
As he stepped towards the hidden chamber's enormous double doors, Austin quickly typed in the sections of the labrinth's sequence in the code dial device beside the door. And, as he stepped into the hidden chamber, his first thought, as he hesitated, fingers barely inches from its computer buttons, was that he hadn't thought up of how to start up the damn computer. There wasn't a power button nor a cable or a plugin nearby, and, despite it being against the wall of the chamber, there wasn't anything plugged into it. His frustration almost got the better of him, but, thankfully, Terrora acted, using her electric abilities to power on the device like a human battery and discharge.
"Thanks," Austin nodded to the little girl.
"Don't thank me yet," Terrora groaned out through her clenching teeth, visibly tiring; being a battery seems to be zapping at her strength even faster and even further than the fight behind them had. "I can't keep this up for long and if I stop releasing power, the computer shuts off and I won't have the energy reserve to power it on, so hurry the hell up."
"Right."
Despite being told𑁋 and cussed at𑁋 by a little girl, Austin did as he was told. He was pretty sure the girl wasn't lying, because she looked even tired than she sounded; Also, the fact that he sensed she wouldn't be able to maintain her thing and fight off anything that decided to attack them meant that only Cleo could defend them from any likely attacker𑁋 and despite the girl showing her ability as a fighter and healer, Austin didn't need someone else's life on his hands. He's already lost enough people as is. He didn't want to add to the list.
"How long?" Austin heard Cleo ask to his side, as he began typing the password on the computer.
"You've got seconds and I'm out of juice," Terrora rushed out, tiredly. "Hurry up!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going as fast as I can," Austin snapped back, typing faster. "This keyboard isn't normal… the letters aren't letters… They're symbols. It makes typing in the password far more difficult to do"
"Well, why don't you visualize where a letter should be on the thing and type the password via that way," Cleo suggested.
Gee, I hadn't thought of that, Austin wanted to say, but suddenly, an Annihilator appeared behind them and Cleo let out an Ah, shit! Before it slung Cleo across the room.
The annihilator leaped at Austin, its claws sharp and slashing and imposing canines like multiple rows of fangs along its predatory jaws. Austin just barely managed to put his long dagger in front of him, defending his face from the beast's relentless assault. But it snapped. And snapped. And snapped at Austin's face with it's canines, it took all he had to keep it from biting his face off.
Sometime between snapping at his face and not making much ground doing it, the annihilator seemed to remember it had toxic-laced claws at its disposal𑁋 and it knew how to used them, too.
"Austin!" he heard Terrora yell. "You've got 30 seconds max! Hurry!"
"I'm tryin'," Austin struggled out, but it was all he could do to keep the dagger in front of him, protecting his face, especially since he had multiple claws digging into his side. "Get the fuck off of me, you stupid abiomination!"
He wasn't too worried about getting infected again, as the antivenom was still in his system — he could feel it. But it still hurt like hell getting stabbed.
When Austin managed to kick the annihilator off of him, Cleo appeared and used a spear she picked up from the ground awhile back at the beginning of the battle, and jabbed it through the beast's chest. Austin rushed to join, adding his strength to that of the girl's, pushing the spear deeper and deeper into the beasts while also using his last dagger to stick the blade into the beast's skull, and, with all the rest of the energy they could muster, they put the monster out of its misery.
But Austin couldn't catch his breath. "You have about 16 seconds! I can't...h-hold it m-much longer, Austin!" he heard Terrora exclaim, stuttering and shivering, sounding as exhausted and drained as she looked.
"The console!" Reya suddenly appeared by the entrance, as Austin rushed over to the computer device. "Austin, hurry! Enter the rest of the code!"
"You've got 10 seconds!" Terrora groaned, tiredly, as Austin reached the computer.
At the console, Austin began typing in the rest of the code into the console. As he rushed, recalling fragments of memories of what letter goes where on the computer keyboard he couldn't tell how he remembered, he typed in the symbols in the sequence they would have been if they were letters, and, just as Terrora began falling forward, he finished.
When nothing happened immediately, his initial thoughts were that maybe he was too late, that maybe he did something wrong, or made a mistake. That he and his friends were going to be stuck there forever, until they die𑁋 and given their luck, they would've died sooner rather than later. He began to despair as the feeling of failure𑁋 of failing his fellow Meadowers, his friends, 𑁋 began to override his ability to breathe and lumps began forming in his throat, causing his breathing to hitch.
But then, from seeming everywhere at once, as if speakers were was made up with the chamber, a robotic voice said "Access Granted" and then, as Cleo picked up Terrora barely conscious form, all around them, as his friends were finishing up their fights, Annihilators went slack, powerless, and the heads of the remaining Savagers exploded, as if they held explosives in their noggins. And, as the whole area went dark and silent, the last thought Austin's brain was able to clearly think was 'What'd you do now?' before the ground below their feet vanished and suddenly, they fell into the abyssal chasm of darkness below.