Januasai stood in front of the Administrator's office, staring at the door.  Next to her, Amee crouched, her canteen on her hip.  Januasai had stored her bouncing cube in her vines, and sighed as she looked around.  "I think this is the only room we didn't examine yet, Amee.  So let's keep our vines and fingers crossed, yes?"  Amee didn't answer, but that was what Januasai expected.  She twisted the doorknob after flattening two vines into paddle-shapes and covering  Amees ears to muffle the noise and pushed.  The door stuck, but she forced it open with a solid shove.  The amount of noise had her wincing as Amee squirmed and squealed, even with the muffling that her vines provided.  She persevered, and finished pushing the door open as she pulled the vines away from Amees ears.  Amee hissed and fussed, swiping at her retreating vines but calmed as soon as she saw the open door.

The Amee was mad.  The Rope-Things were on its ears and it didn't like that.  It fought, trying to make its sound-parts free, but The Rope Things were too strong.  The Loud Scary had it fighting harder, and then The Scary Loud went away at the same time that The New Place opened.  The Amee hissed at The Rope Things one more time, and then moved into The New Place, forgetting that The Amee had been mad.  The Moving Food had run off because of The Scary Loud, and The Amee looked around, exploring The New Place.  There was more of The Slappey-Stingy, and The Tall Place, and then The Amee saw The Interesting Thing.  The Amee climbed up, seeing The Interesting Thing stuck there, and tapped it.  It was hard, but gave way under its claws, making an odd sound.  The Amee looked as its claws went through The Interesting Thing, going down.  It felt like nothing it had ever felt before, and it was curious.  So it did it again, the sound louder as its claws sank into The Interesting Thing.  But there was no The Wet like what usually happened when it put its claws into something, only a smell that made it wrinkle its nose, blowing out to clear it.  And The Interesting Thing was now in funny shapes.

Janusai looked around, seeing another weapon on the wall.  This one was a shotgun, but it was secured the same way that the other one was, with three boxes of shells underneath.  A ripping noise had her turning around, and she found Amee clinging to the wall, her claws buried in what had probably been, based on the gilt frame, an exquisite painting before time and dust had gotten to it.  And then Amee got to it.  Her claws tore through it with ease, and she was looking with curiosity at the strips of canvas, before attacking it again and then exhaling through her nose.  She considered telling Amee to leave it alone, but then shrugged to herself.  What was the point?  Amee wasn’t hurting anyone, and it wasn’t like the painting had survived.  Looking around, she saw something that was heartening.  The opposite wall was a shiny reflective black.  On further inspection, it was a giant vid-screen.  Like something that would display a schematic of the whole complex, so an administrator could see problem areas.  Or watch movies. She doubted that there was any power, but maybe, just maybe, the sophont who had built this was so paranoid that he had backup power just for his office. 

She blinked, looking around and found another desk, but this one had locked drawers.  Well, they didn’t stay locked for long, vines effortlessly pulling the drawers out and breaking the locks in the process.  A bottle of some kind of whisky, covered in dust.  Some papers, account information based on the numbers, and projections of how much more this venture would cost in Terran credits.  There were also more flash drives, some various office supplies, and another pistol which she confiscated.  When she looked up, she recoiled since Amee was squatting on the desk, looking directly into her eyes without blinking.  This close, Januasai could see that her eyes weren’t pure black, as she’d thought.  There was SOME white to them, but her pupils were so wide that they swallowed the rest.  Amee looked at her, not blinking, making Januasai wonder what thoughts went on behind them.  How did her floret see the world?  She decided to try something, and let her eyes shimmer in the hypnotic pattern that all Affini had and used at one point or another.  

She couldn’t tell if Amee was drawn in or not.  The black-eyed stare never left hers, but Amee never made another motion or sound to show that she was enthralled.  It was actually interesting, this not knowing and Januasai smiled, enjoying the challenge.  This was new, and would be quite fun, for both of them.  She gave Amee some pets, that purring rumble filling the room again, and then something on the desk caught her eye.  A sheaf of papers that were half hidden in a drawer titled “contingency plans”.  Ah-ha!!!  She let her gaze drop as she picked up the papers, leafing through them.  There were plans for what to do in the event that someone in the bunker was diseased, multiple pregnancies, even if the hydroponics labs on all three levels failed.  At the end was a section merely entitled “Evacuation.”  She read it, and her heart began to break again as she looked at Amee who was still crouched on the table, but had decided that it was more fun to lick and shred the paper.  “Oh…oh little one”, she whispered, and swept Amee up into a hug again.  Her floret yelped, not expecting it, but accepted the hug for a moment before she began to squirm and try to break free.  Januasai let go and watched as Amee took a single step and leapt onto a cabinet, avoiding the ferns again, and inspected the shotgun.

The Amee was confused.  The Jane had made The Swirly come, and it was The Pretty Thing, but The Amee wanted to see more of The Pretty Thing but it ran away.   The Jane looked at The Interesting Thing which also tore under its claws, and then The Jane made more noises and held it tight.  Another memory, a Before Times sparked, but The Amee looked up at The Interesting Thing and the memory went away.  The Amee looked at The Interesting Thing, wondering what it was.  It didn’t taste good, cold and bad-taste making it spit, and then it heard noises.  The Jane made noises, and pulled The Interesting Thing from inside The Interesting Thing.  The Amee heard The Moving Food behind The Interesting Thing.  Walking over, it scratched, and was surprised as its claws did nothing.  Even more, there was A New Thing in The Interesting Thing, but The Amee couldn’t get to it.  It could hear The Moving Food running as it snarled, trying to get to The Moving Food, But The Interesting Thing was a Blocking Thing.  and it went back to The Interesting Thing, tapping The Interesting Thing on the wall.  It climbed up, looking at The Interesting Thing, wondering what it was.  It wasn’t a nest for The Moving Food.

Januasai grinned as she found the computer that was in the office, wires running into the floor in the direction of the  video-screen wall.  As she watched, Amee ran over to the vid-screen wall, seeing her reflection in it.  Did she recognize herself?  Did she understand what it was, who she was?  She watched for a moment as Amee snarled, clawing at the wall, then gave up and went back to the wall.  Amee was happily sniffing what looked like an old corded phone on the wall, climbing it as easily as she hunted.  Whispering a fervent plea to the Universe that the computer worked, she pressed the power button.

Januasai had banked correctly, even if she didn’t know it.  The man who had built this bunker HAD been a paranoid survivalist, and he had built his personal office accordingly.  A panel behind his chair was actually a sliding door that went into a panic room that had enough food and weapons to see him able to take on a squad of troopers four times over.  Lithium-sulfur batteries set in banks of four powered his office and panic room, ensuring that he would always have power, and the facility boasted hidden closed-circuit surveillance cameras that went here, to his office.  So his office technically HAD power, and when Januasai pressed the button, it sprang to life.

What the designer and construction crew had NOT counted on was the cave rats.  They were small but patient, digging through the ferrocrete with a tenacity greater than anything the Terrans could imagine, and they had set up shop in every single abandoned room.  The only fears that they had in their little rodent brains were the ferns, which they knew to stay away from.  The bat-things, which they knew to hide from. The Thing that hunted them that they knew to run from.  The Living Shadow.    And so they had nested in the office, in the panic room, and behind the picture screen.  Everywhere in the facility, really.  When the power was turned on, electricity arced over circuits that were long since coated in dust, insulation long since chewed and covered with nesting material and old fur.  Dust that fried, impeding the charge for a nanosecond before making contact with the other detritus, nesting materials and fur.  Those provided far more resistance, and yet they also provided a pathway between wires and components that were never supposed to touch.  As they fried, the current arced from them to other parts of the circuit boards, and then further.  Some of those components overheated in less than a millisecond, popping with loud pop pop sounds.  Overloading the screen, shorting it out, as it activated for the first and last time in fifteen years, the screen blinked its last, filling the room with a single flash of blue-white actinic glare  Januasai had heard the sounds, and had a tiny inkling of what was to come.  She turned her eyes away, turning to cover Amee, but she was too far away.  Amee had no idea what was coming, and was looking directly at it as it flashed brighter than anything it had ever seen down here.

The Amee heard The Loud Scary and was looking at The Interesting Blocking Thing when It Happened.  The Blocking Thing made The Scary Loud and Made the Hard Glowey and The Owie.  The Amee screamed with The Owie and The Amee couldn‘t see and it fell off The Tall Place landing on the ground as it covered itself with its claws, dimly feeling The Stingy Slappy hitting it.  The Hurtey and The Owie made it scream again as it lashed out at The Stingy Slappy, its claws ripping it to shreds as it flailed.  Something tried to grab it, maybe a Rope-Thing but it didn’t know and it tried to attack it, snarling even as The Wet ran on its face.

Januasai couldn’t reach Amee in time and she watched as her floret shrieked with pain, grabbing at her face with those claws as she fell.  “Amee!!!!”,Januasai yelled as she saw Amee hit the ground, landing on her back with a solid thud.  She landed close enough to a patch of ferns that were growing into the carpet.  They whipped towards her, landing on the Terrans skin with solid thwacks and stayed there.  That’s when Amee went berserk, rolling and slashing with her claws.  Tearing the ferns to pieces, ripping them off of her skin while clawing herself in the process.  “Amee!!!”, Januasai said as she reached the little Terran who was still clawing at herself.  She tried helping to take the ferns off but Amee’s eyes were closed tightly and she lashed out at her, talons hitting her vines.  They didn’t pierce her, of course, but her heart broke as her floret writhed in pain.  “Shhh, it’s ok, Amee.  I’m here”, she whispered as vines began to gently prize the ferns away from Amee’s skin, the other plant matter sticking tightly to Amee.  As they came off, they left small circular welts, the welts beginning to rise and get inflamed as she watched.  

Oh.  THAT must be the cause of some of the scratch marks that Januasai saw, as Amee went from clawing at her to scratching herself furiously.  “Oh, that probably itches something fierce”, she whispered with sympathy in her voice.  Amee’s eyes were still tightly screwed shut, tears leaking from them.  “Shhhh, my darling, I’m here”, she sang, as her vines bound Amee’s arms to the opposite shoulder, making her give herself a big hug.  She began to dribble the soothing sap all over the welts, gently smoothing it in, watching as Amee’s struggles slowed.  Some other vines pulled up sections of the ferns that Amee had cut, bundling them together into a ball of vines and then cutting those vines free and storing the ball inside her body.  She wondered what the Gardeners on the Baeira could make of this.  She could already see some of the welts begin to decrease, and she carefully turned Amee, her largest vines holding Amee steady.  She held her there for as long as it took for Amee to stop squirming, singing a tune while she waited for the welts to go down.  It took almost a half hour, but it took as long as it took.  She wasn’t going to let Amee go until she knew that her floret was ok.  She smiled as she saw Amee watching her, not struggling anymore, and she nodded.

‘Well, no time like the present.’

 She tapped Amee on the right shoulder, and raised that arm up.  She carefully inspected the dirty arm for welts, and then put her arm down, but still holding it.  Tapping the left shoulder, she lifted that arm, finding a few welts on the underside of her arm that she missed with the sap.  Carefully smearing more on the welts, Januasai looked over as Amee tried to bring her hand to her face.  ‘Probably so she can lick the sap.’  “No, darling, that’s not for eating”, she said in a singsong voice, and held her arms out as her vines lifted Amee up so she could finish inspecting her for injuries.

The Amee was confused.  First The Jane took The Slappy Stingy off of it, and then put The Wet Gooey Stuff on it.  Held it with The Rope-Things, and didn’t let it taste The Wet Gooey Stuff.  Then The Jane began to make taptaptap and sounds.  They were nice sounds, like before.  The Amee was confused.  Was The Jane trying to hunt for something on The Amee?  Was it sniffing something in The Amee’s scent? 

Taking the sheaf of papers labeled “Evacuation”, Januasai gently put Amee down, making sure that she didn’t try to lick the salve, or worse, attack the ferns again.  She didn’t, merely squatted on a cabinet and watched her, head cocked.  “Oh…here”, Januasai said as she reached out, plucking a bit of fern out of the tangled mess that was Amees hair.  She clicked her tongue and patted her thigh as she left the room, and was very happy to hear a soft thump as Amee hopped down and began to follow her.  “I think you’ve been down here long enough, Amee.  Let me take you home.”