Some time later...

It was that dream again. Horrible milky eyes that stared and watched and judged, but this time they laughed with shark toothed grins. Slimy hands dragged her through the ground, her body feeling every bump and pebble that lay in her path. Only strange coloured circles floated in the air above her eyes; the rest was just darkness and black.

Until she saw the door.

A giant stone door towered above her, a face carved upon each corner; four in total. She didn't want to look at them, but she couldn't look away, their horrible incomprehensable visages burning into her brain like a hot cattle iron. And the thumping; oh the thumping! Something wet and heavy beat rhythmatically behind that door, like a giant heart, or... or... something. A heart was the closest thing she could relate it to. The doors started to creak open, splitting in two along the centre. She tried to scream. She tried to move. She tried to will herself to die. But she couldn't do any of those things. She could only sit there transfixed as thunderous beats threatened to burst the blood vessels in her ears. It grew louder, and louder, and louder, and LOUDER...

Mercifully she woke up with a gasp. Brock lay kneeling over her performing CPR, pumping rhythmatically at her chest and breathing air into her lungs. Nora coughed harshly, pushing Brock away, taking in heavy breaths as she rolled on her side and got on her hands and knees. She vomited a fair amount of water, as well as her half digested breakfast. She clutched at her chest as she lifted herself up.

The door was there.

She immediately recoiled in fear, nearly falling over as she scuttled backwards. But the faces weren't there, which put her at ease somewhat. "How... But..." she stuttered, taking a look around where she was. She saw Brock and Roxxy, as well as four of the workers. Except for the one that went missing earlier, they were all here, though soggy and grumbling. The chamber they were in was both somehow cramped yet spacious, four pillars surrounding the small pool in the centre. Every surface was cold, polished stone, with the exception of the ground around the pool, which was spongey, almost loamy, earth. Strange mushrooms grew out of that earth, and cast a sickly blue bioluminescent glow at the area. The pool itself looked like it wasn't supposed to be there, as if it was a fissure that suddenly split open one day, shooting cracks outwards like the impact point of a hammer. But her gaze kept going back to the door, which was eerily similar, yet somehow different... How did that door in her dream look like again? It suddenly took her quite an effort to remember that nightmare. She couldn't quite remember the details, or even what exactly happened, but it left her with a great sense of unease, as if something was extremely wrong. That door was definetly in it, she had no doubt about that, even if she couldn't quite recollect its features.

Brock cought her attention again, and she pushed the thoughts of the door away.

"You okay?" he asked, holding out his hand, "I thought you were a goner."

Nora got onto her shaking two feet. "Y-yeah, I think I'm good. Takes more than just a sudden flood to kill me, h-heh. My head does fucking hurt though." She rubbed the bump on her head; it was bleeding, but it was nothing serious. "Is everyone else alright?"

Roxxie, seeing that she was now awake, hurried over to her. "Yeah, everyone here is in an alright state. Can't seem to find the one that went missing though."

"Yeah, I noticed him not being here."

"Miraculously all of our gear survived intact as well. Which is good news." She frowned. "There's bad news too. The bad news is that we're gonna' have a little bit of trouble getting out of here." She pointed up at the ceiling above the pool. There was a large circular, drain like hole from which they must've fallen in from. It was not too high up, but it'd still take considirable effort to climb up to it.

"Ah fuck," Nora cursed.

"Fuck indeed. Hopefully we can last out long enough for the guys outside to call for help, but that'll take quite some time." She crossed her arms and half smirked. "Until then, we've got nothing to do but set up our home away from home here and explore."

"Ugh, you two owe me big time if we ever get out of this alive."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll buy you a drink or somethin'."