Rad let out a shaky vent and glanced over at a pressure gauge. He’d spent the past few hours trying to fix a minor hitch in the ship’s systems, but if the readings were to be trusted the problem was finally solved, and it was a good thing too. Exhaustion was slowly creeping over him and a nice, long recharge would do him good.
He just needed a minute before he returned to his habitation chamber to…. Why did he need to do? Yawning prodigiously, Rad quickly pushed aside all thoughts but recharge. It’d been a longer day than he’d thought. Unwittingly, his optics began to dim. Why even go to his habitation chamber? Who cared if he fell asleep right here? No one ever wandered this far back into the engines room unless they were working on ship maintenance like him. It was quiet, alone, solitary, the perfect place to….
He leaned back into the wall and let out a shocked cry as it gave way under his weight. He tumbled backward into a room, devoid of any light except what was filtering through the open door. Oh yes, he’d forgotten there’d been a closet just behind him. Someone must have left the door ajar…. He stumbled to his pedes and reached for the handle. Sleeping in the hallway was one thing, but for some reason this closet unsettled him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it but…. He prided himself in not letting stray emotions get the better of him, but this was different. Something wasn’t right.
As he took a step forward, his pede landed in something… wet. He let out another startled cry as he fell forward again, slamming his face straight into the door. The crack of his shattering visor was just enough to distract him from the click of the door as it closed and locked. “Ack,” he muttered, shaking his helm and trying to drive away the dizziness and pain the impact had caused.
Completely dark. Rad blinked and frowned. No reason to stand in the dark. Find the handle, get out of here, see in the morning what could be done about finding a replacement visor. He reached out his servos, trying to find the handle. None. For the first time, panic really began to dig its claws into him.
No, no, no. Don’t panic. It was just a dark closet. If there was no handle on the inside, just comm someone and have them come and open it for him. As he turned on his comm unit to dial in Jackpot’s frequency, his frown deepened when he realized all he heard was static. But wh- Another flare of panic welled up in him when he realized that he must have damaged his comm equipment when he slammed into the door.
What now? Calm, calm, calm. Simple. He might get in trouble for it, but tear off the door. If he used all his strength, it should be possible. It was better than being locked in here for a day before someone noticed he was missing. Stumbling forward, trying to ignore the rising tide of fear, he frantically scrambled at the door, trying to get a good grip around the edges. Nothing. His grasping turned to punching, but all it did was send jolting pain through his frame.
He felt at the door, hoping to find some sign of progress. Nothing, not even a dent. The door was… reinforced? But why? It was just a closet. Just a closet. Just a… He took a step back, stepping in the wet puddle once more. What was that? He leaned down on his hands and knees to investigate. After a few nanoclicks of searching, he realized the floors were torn up, as if something had shredded the-
The sparkeater’s closet. Before the tear that brought him here, he could remember the day whe- A scream threatened to rip from his vocalizer. No, no, no. Calm. Logical. He was standing in Energon and he knew it deep in his spark. A whimper. NO. Calm. Logical. Screaming wouldn’t help. This room had held a spark eater. It was bound to be sound proof. Unescapable.
He sank to the floor and covered his faceplates with his servos. He was stuck, no way out. Finally, he let the panic come.
