Changed - Awakening

12. From the depths

"And Puro likes to call human, human!"

...do all Latex like to refer to you as human?

'Doesn't matter, at least I know they are referring to me.'

"Human look! We are almost at the end of the corridor! The strange doctor said there would be stairs through the door we need to take, right?"

Looking up, you notice that the corridor is indeed close by.

"Yeah, he said to take the stairs down to the containment room."

Puro pushes the door open, as the squeaking sound of the opening door echoes throughout the stairway. Following along with Puro, you notice that the journey down isn't too long. You and Puro start walking down the stairs, each step emitting an echo in the stairway.

Upon seeing the exit, you notice that the scanner next to it is broken, while the door barely stands on its hinges, indicating that it was broken through at some point. Curious, you step through the door as Puro follows closely behind.

Inside, you discover the containment room, filled with an assortment of cages, including tanks suitable for aquatic creatures. So far all of these containers seem to be empty as far as the eye can see.

"What do you think they put in here, human?"

"I'm not sure..."

"HUMAN STOP!"

You nearly stumble as Puro shouts.

"What???"

"Be Careful of Trap!"

"Trap...?"

Puro points something in front of you, and following his direction you see the... brown-coloured bear trap with a few splotches of goo next to it.

"Isn't this the third time we met? Where did you even come from??" You demand the latex disguising as a trap.

...

But you get no response from the strange latex.

"Maybe human should just stay away from trap?"

"Yeah, good idea," you respond, glaring at the sentient trap.

Going around the oddly placed trap, you continue to explore. Upon closer inspection of these cages, you notice that all of them have a small splotch of goo in different colours, from white, orange, red, brown, etc.

"Seems like they might put latexes in there considering those splotches."

"That would be a horrible way to contain a latex beast."

"What makes you say that?"

Passing by a cage, you notice there is a small but roundish orange fox, poking its nose out from the bars of the cage, sniffing the air. Seeing you, the orange fox deforms its puddle into a puddle before sliding through the gaps of the bar, reforming once it passes through.

The orange fox looks up to you with its beady eyes, examining you...as if it is deciding something.

'No...'

Seeing the fox hunching its legs, you take a step back.

'Do not...'

"Hey! Don't touch human!"

The fox jumps in fright, its fur puffing out giving an impression of a round ball before it scatters away. Seeing the fox running away, Puro looks at you with expectations, waiting for you to respond.