Stray: Entry 9 - The Sewers

We head down some stairs towards the entrance to the sewers. At the bottom, a lone Companion stands beside an open steel door marked with warning symbols.

He explains that once we enter the sewers, he will seal the door behind us to keep the Zurks from reaching the village. There will be no turning back.

With that knowledge weighing on me, I continue down a sloped ramp that leads onto a narrow wooden walkway suspended just above the water. The passage is tight, hemmed in by concrete walls slick with moisture. The water below laps softly against the supports, black and opaque.

The passage opens into a wooden boathouse, its beams warped with age and humidity. A small dock juts out over the water. Tied alongside it is a simple raft. Sitting on its stern is Momo, waving me over with urgent excitement.

When I leap onto the raft, it rocks beneath my paws. Momo grins and says,"I can't believe you found Doc and got the Defluxor! With this, now we can go find Zbaltazar. Let's go!"

He plants his paddle into the water and pushes us forward. The raft glides away from the dock and into a massive cylindrical waterway that stretches out before us.

The sewer is quiet. Too quiet. The tunnel curves gently, its walls lined with stained concrete and rusted reinforcement rings. High above us, circular openings lead to other passages, each sealed with heavy metal grates. Behind some of them, faint orange lights flicker. Glowing Zurk eyes watch us from the shadows, unmoving but aware.

The water beneath the raft is sluggish and dark, disturbed only by the soft splash of Momo’s paddle and the echo of distant drips falling from unseen heights. Occasional pipes jut from the walls, leaking slow streams of murky liquid.

I glance back at Momo, my ears flat, every instinct on edge. He meets my look and quietly confirms what we’re both thinking.

"This place is creepy"

The tunnel stretches onward into darkness, and with each stroke of the paddle, the Slums feel farther away—replaced by something older, deeper, and far more dangerous waiting ahead.

After a while, the waterway ahead was blocked by a metal gate. Momo glanced around, then shook his head.

“I don’t see any way to open this gate. Can you take a look on the other side?”

I slipped through the bars and padded across a narrow platform, hopping over pipes that climbed toward a metal catwalk. The catwalk led to a set of sealed doors, but it also gave me access to a platform on the far side of the waterway. The platform was cluttered with consoles and control panels.

That’s when I saw it: a switch that looked like it controlled the gate.

Unfortunately, it was surrounded by Zurk eggs, at least a dozen of them, pulsing and stretched tight, ready to burst.

I crept forward slowly. As I got closer, the eggs began to wobble. One split open. Then another. In seconds, they burst apart, spilling a swarm of Zurks onto the platform.

Before I could react, B-12 sprang into action. The Defluxor hummed to life, and in a flash of light the Zurks were gone, leaving behind a slick, disgusting mess. I stepped carefully over the remains and hit the switch.

The gate groaned open.

As Momo paddled the raft past, I leapt back on, landing lightly as we drifted forward.

The next area opened into a massive chamber. Open water stretching out beneath towering walls. Scattered platforms floated on the surface, connected by mechanical piping and rusted scaffolding bolted into the exterior wall. Momo kept paddling until he docked beside a platform facing a large, sealed door.

He stepped off the raft and walked up to a control console. Judging by its placement, it had to operate the door. He began working at the controls, fingers moving carefully over the ancient machinery.

“This door is really old,” he muttered. “I hope the mechanism is still functional.”

Right on cue, the console spat out a shower of sparks, followed by a sharp fizz and a puff of smoke.

“All this old machinery is broken now,” Momo sighed. “I think we can only open it manually.”

He moved over to a heavy metal chain and began pulling it down. The door creaked and slowly inched upward. But Momo could only lift it a foot or two. The moment he loosened his grip, the door slammed shut again.

I looked at him and instantly understood the predicament. He met my gaze, then turned to me urgently.

“Quick! Jump under the door—it won’t hold for long! I can’t go on with you, but… hmpf… I won’t stop looking for a way.” He paused, then added quietly, “When you find Zbaltazar and Clementine, tell them I was brave.”

To keep moving forward, our paths had to diverge here.

I sprang onto a cluster of floating barrels and slipped beneath the rising door just as it slammed shut behind me.

What lay ahead sent a shiver down my spine—an oppressive, ominous sight. Thick webs of Zurk matter coated the walls and floor, stretching in every direction. I moved forward cautiously, B-12 lighting the way, my paws squelching against the organic sludge that covered everything.

I leapt onto a catwalk and headed left into a dimly lit corridor. The narrow passage was lined with swollen Zurk eggs, pulsing faintly. I broke into a sprint, racing past them before they had a chance to hatch.

An alcove on my left caught my eye, its walls packed with more eggs. An open sewer gate at the back looked like it might lead toward Momo. As the eggs burst open, B-12 activated the Defluxor, clearing the Zurks in a flash of light, then we slipped through the opening.

The pipe beyond was dark and cramped. It opened onto an overlook of a massive space. The moment I stepped out, B-12 froze.

Something about this place had triggered a memory.

"The sewer system. Yes, I remember now. Clean water was scarce. The city was supplied by huge machinery that dug deep into the earth. Just like everything else, it was rationed out to sustain people during times of drought. The Scientist showed me the blueprint of the water tanks. They are huge and could contain a whole building in them."

I doubled back through the narrow corridor and descended a series of rusted walkways, then leapt from pipe to pipe until I reached another chamber, this one swollen with massive Zurk egg sacs. They clung to the walls and ceiling like tumors, quivering as I passed. I bolted forward, skirting as many as I could without triggering them, aiming for the center of the room where the floor was mercifully clear.

A few sacs burst open behind me. I spun, and B-12 unleashed the Defluxor in a blinding sweep, vaporizing the freshly hatched Zurks. When the room finally fell silent, I paused to catch my breath and scan my surroundings.

That’s when I saw a manual door switch, guarded by a cluster of eggs.

I didn’t hesitate. I sprang for the switch, slapped it down, and immediately turned and ran. The door groaned as it began to rise, eggs bursting open in my wake. The Defluxor hummed again, clearing the swarming Zurks.

The sewer beyond twisted on endlessly with dark corridors, dripping walls, and more eggs at every turn. I weaved through them, sometimes sprinting, sometimes stopping just long enough to burn back a surge of Zurks before pressing on.

Then I saw something that made my fur bristle.

The walls ahead were no longer just coated in Zurk matter. They were embedded with eyes. Dozens of them. Blinking. Watching.

A deep, crawling dread settled into my chest as I passed, each step accompanied by a low, wet sound beneath my paws. The floor began to tremble, a distant rumble echoing through the tunnel, followed by an unearthly chorus of skittering.

They were coming.

A swarm of Zurks poured into the corridor, as if summoned by my presence. I vaulted onto nearby platforms and pipes, using the height to my advantage while B-12 swept the Defluxor in controlled bursts, thinning the mass below me until the last of them dissolved into nothing.

At the far end of the corridor, I found an exit door. I slipped through and dropped down onto a set of pipes, landing lightly before heading left. I hopped down again, my paws sinking into a floor completely covered in Zurk matter. Then I jumped up into another opening.

What I saw sent another shiver down my back.

Ahead, tangled among a dense network of pipes, was a Zurk nest. At its center pulsed a massive eye, glossy and wet, blinking slowly as it fixed directly on us.

B-12 hovered closer, his voice unsteady.

“This substance grows in all places where there are Zurks. What is it made out of? It seems to pulse as though alive.”He paused, scanning the walls, the floor—everything.“Do you think we’re inside a giant organism? It’s… frame-chilling.”

The eye blinked again.And this place felt very, very awake.

With no clear way forward, we were forced to backtrack to the hall of pipes and take the opposite route. The passage spat us out into a cavernous chamber that made my blood run cold.

The walls were alive.

Horrifying infestation eyes were embedded everywhere. They were set into the walls, blinking in slow, uneven rhythms. Narrow waterways cut through the chamber, separating slick metal platforms connected by rusted bridges. Zurk eggs clung to every solid surface, swollen and trembling.

I stepped carefully into the chamber. At the far end stood a massive gate. Two control panels flanked it, one on each side.

As I approached the first panel, the floor shuddered beneath me.

That low, familiar rumble rolled through the chamber, followed by a swarm of glowing eyes. 

They had been summoned to me.

Zurk poured from the shadows. I leapt onto a cluster of floating barrels in the waterway beside the gate, splashing just far enough out of reach. B-12 activated the panel while the Zurks screeched helplessly from the edges of the platform.

The lock disengaged, but the gate didn’t move.

We needed the second panel.

The opposite platform was too far to jump. There was no choice but to go the long way around.

As I raced across the platforms, the organism reacted violently. The walls pulsed. Eyes dilated. The rumbling grew louder as fresh waves of Zurks were vomited into the chamber, summoned by something deeper, something aware. I never stopped moving. I vaulted gaps, skidded across wet metal and used the Defluxor when they came too close.

At last, I reached the second panel. B-12 activated it.

The gate began to rise.

I ducked beneath the lifting metal just as it groaned open enough for me to slip through.

Beyond it, I charged up a short flight of stairs and slid under another gate, barely held aloft by a single barrel. On the other side...

I froze.

The chamber ahead was thick with infestation, the air heavy and oppressive. As I crossed a narrow metal walkway toward a central platform, something massive stirred.

A colossal red eye snapped open.

It filled the space, glossy and unblinking, locking onto us with impossible focus.

B-12 and I stood paralyzed—every instinct screaming to flee.

Then the swarm came.

Zurks flooded the platform from every direction, leaping onto me in a writhing mass. B-12 unleashed the Defluxor in a desperate burst, blasting them away and freeing me. But there were too many. The light flickered. The device screamed.

Then B-12 shorted out and crashed to the floor.

No hesitation.

I grabbed him in my mouth and ran.I tore through a circular corridor slick with infestation as Zurks erupted from walls, ceilings, from everywhere. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. I sprinted across metal walkways tangled in pipes, veering left, then right, then left again, instinct guiding me as the sound of the swarm grew into a roaring tide behind me.

Ahead I saw flashing red lights.

A gate.

It was already closing.

I ran harder, lungs burning, paws slipping on wet metal, and dove beneath it just as it slammed shut behind me.

Silence.

The Zurk horde was sealed away. We were safe.

I gently set B-12 down and tapped him with my paw, harder than I meant to, fear prickling through me as I waited for a response.

A faint hum. Then his eye flickered to life.

“It was dark,” he said quietly. “I was alone. It felt like I was back in the network again.” He paused, as if steadying himself. “But you pulled me out. You saved me. Thank you, my friend.”

He rotated weakly in the air, his light dimmer than before.

“Drawing that much power overloaded my core. The Defluxor is… completely destroyed. We’ll have to be careful from here on.”

The weight of his words settled in as we surveyed the chamber. The infestation receded here, but the room was sealed. There were no doors, no visible exits. Only two spinning ventilation fans.

B-12 accessed a nearby console. The fans powered down and one of the passages behind seemed to lead out of the sewers. 

We followed it, leaving the pulsing walls and watching eyes behind us.

The corridor beyond was quiet. Eventually, it narrowed until a barricade blocked the way, leaving only a low gap at the bottom. Just enough. I flattened my ears and slipped through.

On the other side, the air felt different.

We padded down a dim hallway until a lone Companion came into view, standing watch beside an open exit. As I peered passed him, the space beyond unfolded...and I stopped in my tracks.