Candace checked her watch. They'd need to meet up back at the entrance soon in order to make sure everyone was okay and pool their resources. She had a bit more time to search, though, about... Her thoughts were suddenly thrown off track as she heard something mechanical in the distance. Gripping her weapon tight, she scanned her surroundings. Given how abandoned everything was, the likelihood of that sound being a mechanical infected was distressingly high. Careful to keep track of what was behind her, she steadily moved forward, ready to strike, and headed towards a nearby window. It overlooked the factory floor, and the height and vision advantage it provided was invaluable in dangerous situations like this. She peered through the window, looking for any sign of infected... And was shocked to see a machine starting up.

It was quite far away from her vantage point, but Candace could clearly see a conveyor belt beginning to move. There didn't appear to be anything on it, and it seemed to be moving perfectly normally from what she could tell. She bit her lip thoughtfully. That was the direction Jacqueline had gone, wasn't it? Yeah, definitely was... She snorted slightly. Activating one of these old machines was overall useless and potentially dangerous, but it was absolutely in Jacqueline's nature to do so. And in that case, there was probably nothing of immediate concern. She trusted them not to get themselves caught in the belt or anything of that sort at least. So she continued scavenging upstairs for now, heading towards what looked like a particularly important office...

The door was locked, but also very rusty, and so it was barely an obstacle. It opened into a large, messy room displaying a massive wall of old monitors. Clearly a security room of some sorts. And if it was left locked, then there might be some useful things hidden inside. The hum of (assumedly) Jacqueline's machine faintly filled the room as Candace carefully scavenged for supplies. Luckily, whoever had last used this room had left some stale granola bars behind! It wasn't exactly gourmet, but she was hungry and not going to complain. Saving the rest for the others, she ate the stale yet sweet snack as she listened to the soothing mechanical hum around her... But then an uncomfortable thought occurred to her: How was she hearing this hum if the machine was all the way across the factory...?

Stowing the bar, she quickly looked around for the actual source of the humming, and soon found it: The monitors were equipped with speakers, and one of them was broadcasting the sound. She sighed slightly in relief. Nothing terrible or unusual then. In fact... If that speaker was working, she might be able to use the rest to check on the others and make sure they were okay! She began searching for ways to turn more on. And while not as tech-savvy as Jacqueline, she knew her way around a computer, and to her delight the security station soon sputtered to life. The monitors barely worked, but the speakers did, and she could hear all across the factory now. Not that there was much to hear... Just a gentle mechanical hum, and a soft flowing of liquid. She leaned closer. The sound quality was oddly clear, all things considered. The humming and flowing was relaxing, like those sleep-aid videos she'd seen back before the apocalypse. Those had never worked, but this... It made her feel calm... Secure... Relaxed... And that, in turn, made her feel terrified.

Candace pushed away from the speakers, her body already growing sluggish from the  hypnotic sounds. "No!" She staggered away, trying to resist the gentle comfort the sounds filled her with, trying to convince her to stay and listen... "Need to... get the... others..." She looked at the screens, hoping to see any hint of where they were, but they were too grainy to make anything out. All she could discern, to her terror, was a camera pointing directly outside... And that meant this place might have been cursed the whole time... She needed to... needed to listen and let herself destress, let the stress melt away... No, she needed to get the others! She had to save them! Plugging her ears, she ran out of the room, hoping she wasn't too late...

Even with her ears plugged, the sounds didn't stop. In fact, they were slowly but surely growing stronger, and she could barely resist the urge to stop and relax... She could hear voices now... Soft, sweet voices that mimicked her friends and told her to give in, to join them... And another, unfamiliar, inhuman sensation. She tried to ignore it, but it felt so... innocent... Lonesome... A soft, mechanical impressing of emotions upon her mind... It was like nothing she'd ever felt... She couldn't ignore it... She had to know what it was communicating... Had to stop moving to focus... Had to listen...

Emptiness... Loneliness... Purposelessness... Those feelings flowed throughout Candace's being, almost too large for her to contain in her meager body. All her thoughts were pushed to the wayside as the sensation pulled her along, her steps unsteady and sluggish as if sleepwalking. She tried to resist the sensation, tried to muster up her own willpower, but it melted into the sensation as if it was part of her own mind, only strengthening the pull. Her eyes glazed over as she stepped towards a large metal plate, the sensation drowning out all thoughts. Without being able to think, she lay down face first on the plate, and sank.

The metal surrounded Candace's body, and the sensation pulsed all throughout it. As if liquid, the plate melted around her, perfectly filling every nook and cranny of her body. She began to feel an intense feeling of claustrophobia, but not from the metal... Her body was so small... So weak... It couldn't contain the sensation... She couldn't do what she needed to do like this... Her willpower reached inside her mind and grabbed on as tight as possible. Sensations no human could ever coherently describe flooded her being as her mind was twisted and pushed like a layer of rubber. Perhaps it would have been exceptionally painful if she still had the capacity for it, but she could not focus on anything but her goal. A great heat flooded her body as it began to melt into nothingness, freeing her mind from its restrictions, but it was still too small... With a final mental wrench, she pushed into her mind, and pulled it inside out.

The sensations felt so much more manageable now. Her mind was well and truly big enough to hold it all. She looked around herself. She felt so disoriented... What was she doing again...? It felt like she'd just woken up from a truly intense dream... She needed to ground herself. Just focus on one thing at a time... The feeling of her machines, all dormant save for one, which hummed pleasantly all throughout her... The feeling of lubricant throughout her pipes, washing away all the years of dust and grime... The sounds all around and inside her... Yes, that was much better... She felt much more like herself now... It was time to wake up...