He quietly walked up to the door and listened, Carl right behind him. No voices could be heard, but there was something outside moving around. For now it did not seem to be taking any interest in their apartment or any of the other doors in the corridor. The shuffling sound grew softer, and Mark and Carl presumed that whatever it was out there had wandered off.
“What do you think that was?”
“Might have been one of the mad wandering the streets,” Carl answered.
“We should let the next watch team know about this incident,” suggested Mark. “It may come back and try the doors next time. Wouldn’t want them to be caught off guard.”
Mark and Carl listened for sounds outside of the room past the door, but they did not hear another sound. Soon they were relieved and the next pair took watch, after being informed of the sounds coming from the hallway. Carl stayed in the front room, and Mark went to the backroom where the rest of the non warriors slept. It was not long before he heard something in the vent alongside a wall. It made a tapping and shuffling noise, somewhat similar to that of the noise in the hall he had heard earlier. Cautiously, he crawled over to the vent and peered past the grill. On the other side was a sizeable creature with two long antenna and six limbs, and a brown long and flat body. It moved back and forth in the duct moving with twitching motions. It also had what appeared to be dark brown stationary eyes on its head, which did not indicate where it was looking at any given moment. For now, it seemed trapped behind the grate and unable to get into the room. The forearm sized creature kept waving its antennae around, and Mark slowly crawled to Philbert and woke him up.
“There’s something in the duct,” Mark quietly spoke.
“I’ll have a look,” Philbert sleepily replied. He walked over to the vent and peered in, and saw the creature. He jumped back in shock, for he had heard legends of these things, but never had seen one before.
“It is a bug!” he said in an almost panicked tone. “Never before have I seen one, even in legends they are not of this size! They are filthy demons, preying on the flesh of the dead and whatever else they can eat. It is said that they are a very bad omen, indicating that grave danger is near.”
“What should we do?” Mark asked.
“There is nothing we can do, other than avoid it.”
“Can’t we just kill it?”
“NO!” Philbert emphatically declared. “If you kill one, hundreds more take its place. We should keep an eye on that vent and keep it from entering this room. They are rife with disease and pestilence.”