Door E3 it was, right down the middle. After he had sprinted most of the way down hallway, he glanced over his shoulder. Fear set in, as he realized the middle door would likely keep him toward the center of the station.
“I just hope I’m not stuck in some maze of labs and offices,” he said. “And now I’m talking to myself.”
There was no sign of anything behind him, but he dared not stop again. His mind was clearer than it had been. He reckoned it was the result of the increased distance from the creature.
At the end of the hallway, he peered through the tiny window at what appeared to be a laboratory. There was no sign of life, so he eased the door open and stepped inside.
“A botany lab,” he said, relieved.
He rationalized that a room for plants wasn’t suitable for studying the ore. If that thing had come from the ore, this wasn’t likely the lab where it all started. But for as much as he thought it unsuitable, he dared not make too many assumptions.
“Even here, I have to expect it to come for me.”
He paced back and forth around the lab, careful not to get any closer to the plants than he needed. His trust was gone.
“Oh! Wait! Where did these plants come from?”
The answer came to him with a smack of obviousness.
“Outside! There must be a door nearby. Nobody is going to haul a garden through this place.”
Behind a hedge of the garden, he spotted another door. An aggressive species of ivy had covered so much of it that he had overlooked it in a first glance. As he approached and cleared the surface of it he could see out into the jungle.
“E3, I misjudged you.”