Y/N POV

I fired my handgun, causing a Hauler stagger back, its face plate destroyed. It attempted to rush forward once again with its makeshift axe in its hand, however I simply fired two more shots to hit it into the ground dead.

I holstered my gun before continuing to head through the factory. Wandering the seemingly endless network of corridors and doors. I kept the Mold I'd found with me, holding that under one of my arms. I hoped I'd actually find a use for it.

After a short while, I reached a metal walkway overlooking a long room that contained various machines. They constantly moved, hitting the walkway in a manner that would have made going that way very difficult. Thankfully, where I was, there wasn't such troubles.

Going across the walkway came to yet another door which lead to another corridor, lined with doors. As I walked down it, I began checking each one, seeing if anything was of value. At first I managed to come away with a small stash of ammo.

However it was behind one door in particular that I was in for a surprise. As soon as I opened it, I was jump scared when a creature lunged at me, spinning drills on either hand. I barely had time to step back into the corridor, causing one of the drills to briefly become embedded in the wall and finally allowing me to get a look at it.

The creature was one of those 'Soldat' things. This one looked slightly different to the previous ones I'd fought. Both its arms were replaced with mechanical drills instead of one. It had a piece of metal covering its mouth instead of its eyes and possibly the part that put me on edge the most, at first glance it seemed it didn't have a core to target, which had been the only weak point of the previous Soldat that I'd fought.

Image of a Soldat Zwei:

Even so, I settled for my magnum and raised it in defence. The Soldat approached slowly at first, before abruptly rushing forward to attack! Much like nearly every other creature me and Ethan had fought since arriving at the village.

Once again, I had no choice but to duck out of the way and ran around the back of the Soldat. I noticed now that it did in fact have one of these Cores. Just this one was located on its back rather than its front.

Raising my magnum I fired, hitting the Soldat directly in the core which caused it to fall over onto its front. I stepped towards it however this proved to be a mistake. The Soldat spun around, swinging its left arm, the drill sliced into my side!

I let out a pained sound and almost fell to the ground myself, barely able to maintain my footing as I clutched my now-bleeding wound. The Soldat went in for a follow-up attack, thrusting forward with both drills.

It was much more difficult this time, but I still managed to dodge and slip behind them, firing another two magnum rounds in quick succession, directly into its back. Again, the Soldat was knocked to the ground however I didn't make my mistake a second time.

Instead of approaching, I stayed where I was, again raising my magnum and firing one last shot into the core and with that the creature stopped moving, leaving me standing there, looking over at it.

I gasped tough when pain suddenly shot through my side. I placed my hand on the wound noticing the blood beginning to emerge through my coat. Because it was black, you'd hardly notice it, but lifting my hand back up near my face you could see the blood there.

Stepping over the dead Soldat, I kept my hand clasped to my side as I continued my trek. I needed to find some first-aid medicine soon. I didn't want this injury getting any worse. I was just lucky it wasn't deep. I did come across another form of annoyance though.

At the end of this corridor was a metal door, similar to ones I'd encountered before. However this one was sealed shut. There was no little orange light in the middle, in fact, I did notice an indent. The door had two gears behind it, with a gap in the middle.

My eyes narrowed in thought for a moment, I held up the slab of metal I'd found with the gear engraved on it. Looking back and forth between the engraving and the gap in the door. I noted something.

I wasn't certain, I wasn't all that familiar with how factory technology worked. However since this appeared to be a Mold of sorts, if heated up, I would be able to get the gear from inside. I'd just have to figure out how.

I had to go back on myself, considering there was no visible way to open the door without the gear. Backtracking down the corridor, the slash in my side was beginning to annoy me. I wasn't quite limping, however it was causing great amounts of inconvenience.

I briefly checked in each of the rooms I'd looked in before, however I found nothing. I continued to retrace my steps leaving the corridor all the way back to the room where I'd first found the cog Mold in the first place.

In this room, there was another door that I hadn't gone through before, it was just your typical door, my attention had naturally been drawn to the metal one with the orange light since that seemed like the most important THEN. But knowing where that lead, it was perhaps time to give this other door a go.

I pushed it open to find, as you likely guessed by now, a corridor going across as opposed to straight down. To my right was a dead-end so my option was to turn left. It didn't take me long though to come across another room though.

At the end of the corridor was a door, leading into a mainly metallic room, a barrel placed right near the door, a few wall-mounted lights, some workbenches and shelves with tools on them. The main point of interest was a metal staircase leading to a lower level.

I descended there and arrived in what seemed to be yet another workshop area. Several tables laden with spare parts. On one table I found another Soldat, this one, completely inactive as it lay with its arms on either side of it.

My attention turned to a large contraption at the far-end of the room. I stepped closer, initially confused as to what it was. However that's when I noticed a cube-shaped space in the centre. It appeared to be some sort of heating area. Perhaps... It was worth a try.

I quickly placed the metal block down into the area and flipped a switch. The machine began to go off, the box was flipped sideways and taken to the back of the machine before disappearing into it.

A small spout emerged at the back and a bright, molten substance was poured out, onto the box followed by steam being released, presumably for cooling. Once all that was over and done with the box slab was returned back to its original position.

This time though, the slab had been opened up and in the centre of it was the cog. I reached out and gently tapped it, making sure I didn't burn myself. Thankfully, it wasn't too hot, so I managed to pick it up with little issues.

Image of the the large cog:

With that in hand, I looked around for a moment, seeing what else there was in this room. There was another door leading out but I wouldn't go that way just yet. There was also the brick wall on the far-end, a small indent in it.

I approached  and began to analyse the dent. I assumed that there would be something to fit in there, where that was, I didn't know. Before I could think too much into it though, a sudden churning could be heard behind me.

Spinning around, I noticed that Soldat on the table shoot its torso up vertically and snap it head in my direction! I muttered "Crap, this isn't what I wanted right now." As the it slowly turned and began to climb off the table, I took off running back the way I came.

I would have experimented with the other doors leading out of that room, however I intended to get back to that door from earlier so I could finally test out the gear I'd found. Due to this, I instantly made my way over to the stairs.

The Soldat came after me and due to my injury, I was barely managing to keep ahead of it. I made it back to that upper floor. As I did my best to run towards the final door leading back to that corridor. As I did this, I noticed the barrel behind the door.

Raising my handgun, I shot the barrel twice, causing small bits of light to appear. I just about had time to dive through the door before the barrel exploded! I don't know of the Soldat was killed however the door's security was triggered and it slammed shut.

I sighed to myself before looking at the cog in my hand. I set off, retracing my steps a SECOND time to finally reach the door from before, the one that had previously been inaccessible. Placing the gear in the indent, it, along with the other three all rotated before there was a clunk sound and the door swung open.

My eyes widened as I stepped through to find myself overlooking that same giant room I'd found before my meeting with Heisenberg. Huge conveyors and lifts bringing what I now knew as Soldat pieces and bodies.

Looking down the walkway I was on, I saw a hook that didn't have anything on it attached to the wire which lead to the other side. I approached the hook and gripped it firmly. Using it like the ziplines at the castle or reservoir, I pushed off the wall and zipped down to the other side, being careful not to fall.

As I reached the other end I landed but another burst of pain shot through me. I searched my pockets for any first aid medicine however I found nothing. Standing up, I winced slightly. I'd had my fair share of the factory's contents. Perhaps Heisenberg would finally be satisfied. 

Either that or I'd at least figure out where Ethan went...

Author's Note: And that's this chapter done. Another late upload I'm afraid, a load of these chapters take way longer to write than I'd like. I do hope you enjoyed it though and as always, thank you for reading.