Day 2

Location: Millory, Bottleneck City

Time: 10:39 PM

The stair entrances on the first and second floor weren't there any more, covered up by walls as if they had never been there in the first place. When he asked, a person walking by told him that they had looked in the walls and found lock mechanisms that seemed to have sealed up both entrances long ago, for some reason.

When Darius also asked if they could get it open, the person had blanked, saying: "Why would we do that? They were sealed up for a reason."

The maintenance ladder on the outside of the building was also a no go. When the small trio had gone out to look for it, they spent more time looking that they would have thought, because it turned out, while there was a ladder, it was high above them and impossible to reach, because the bottom part that went to the ground had snapped off years ago in a terrible storm.

Now, all that was left was the elevator shaft in the basement. But that was blocked, too. However, this block was... different, than the others.

"But we need to pass," Ai pleaded. Yes, they had reached that point. But the stationed guard remained as immovable as ever.

"Sorry," she grunted, not sounding sorry at all. "It's for your own safety. Grown ups with actual armour have went down there with weapons and dinosaurs, and they never came back it. There's no way I'm going to let actual kids pass."

Darius huffed, crossing his arms. "We're not your 'average' kids, you know."

The guard only gave him an impassive look.

"Why didn't they come back?" Greg asked, obviously confused.

"They died," the guard answered flatly. Greg tilted his head.

"OR... whatever down there is SO GOOD they just decided to stay," he offered. The guard only rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, sure," she said. The guard crossed her arms and pushed out her chest. "Look, you can stand there and try to convince me all day, but I can tell you right now, it won't work. Even if I wasn't ordered to sit here and watch the stairway, I still wouldn't let you through. You weren't hear when we sent those people down. You didn't here their screams for help... you didn't sit here too terrified to move as those screams turned... inhuman... and you weren't hear when it went silent, and something finally came flying out of that hole: a bloodied, torn off arm with human teeth marks on it. You..."

The guard trailed off, working her jaw for a couple minutes as she tried to continue... but couldn't. Finally, she straightened, a determined look coming across her face. "This is not a joke. I'm never going to let you down here."

Darius and Ai exchanged glances.

"Okay," Darius finally told her. "Okay, we get it. We'll stop bothering you. Sorry."

The guard visibly relaxed. "Don't worry about it, I can tell you didn't know. There's a lot you don't know here, so be careful, okay?"

Darius nodded, grabbing Ai and Greg, despite their protests, and pulled them away. He dragged them behind the corner, and then stopped.

"Well, I don't think convincing her is working," Darius announced dryly. Ai nodded.

"She takes her job very seriously," she noted. "Should we try distracting her, then?"

Darius nodded. "Yeah, that might work. But what should we use?"

Ai motioned downwards, at their feet. Darius glanced down at their feet, and his eyes widened.

"I don't want to throw rocks at her," he said quickly.

"Not at her," Ai replied, looking a little offended that Darius would have even guess that was what she was thinking. She knelt down, picking up her own rock to demonstrate. "Here."

Ai gripped the little rock carefully, and through it quickly down the hall they were in. When it bounced off the concrete walls, it made a tiny 'plink' sound that echoed through. Then, she hurried to the side, ducking around a bow labelled 'Wood Chips'. She waved a hand frantically, and Darius quickly followed her.

Then, nothing happened. Darius and Ai gave each other a confused look.

"Um..." Ai started.

"Maybe try another rock?" Darius offered, picking up his own rock and hurling it down, too. It also made a tiny 'plink'. But, once again, nothing happened.

Darius frowned. "It isn't working."

"She isn't following for it," Ai huffed, frustrated.

"Yeah, we'll have to think of something-."

BANG!!!!

Both Ai and Darius jumped at a terrible cacophony of sounds suddenly breach their ears. They looked down the hallway, and saw the wreckage of a whole piano that had fallen to the ground a little bit away from them.

The two of them gaped at it until they suddenly saw the guard, who had come running at the noise. That sight broke them out of their shock, and then snuck out from behind the box they were hiding behind, and raced to the stairwell.

"What..." Darius gasped. "Was that?"

Ai could only shrug as the two suddenly spotted Greg hurrying towards them. Instantly, Darius felt guilty. To be honest, he had completely forgotten about the little kid. And by the horrified look on Ai's face, so had she.

"Did it work?" he called out as he stopped beside them. Ai and Darius stared at him incredulously.

"G-Greg?" Ai gasped. "Where did- You did that?"

Greg nodded, and Darius could fathom how the kid didn't even understand enough to look slightly proud of himself. "I saw it before, beside a hole in the floor and I really wanted to tip it through. And now I did."

Darius blinked, shaking his head. "Yeah... you sure did..."

"So did it work?" Greg asked again.

"Well... she's not there anymore," Ai noted, waving to the empty stairwell. That realization finally managed to break Darius out of his reprive.

"But she will be, soon," he told them starting to hurriedly guide the other two through the darkened doorway. "Let's go, let's go..."

Greg cheered as he went through, but as Ai crossed the doorway, a worried look crossed her face. Darius noted it, but he didn't give the chance to think about it before he hurried in after her.

The darkness enveloped them completely as they stepped over the threshold. And with that, they were in.

It was dark inside. Darius wished he brought a flashlight. For now, they would just have to use the limited light the doorway provided. It wasn't much.

The trio were still climbing down the concrete stairs, holding onto each other for comfort, and so they wouldn't loose themselves in the dark. The stone steps under them were cold, with an uncomfortable feeling settling through their boots and into their skin. Darius found himself shivering several times, and Ai's hand, in his, was shaking. Or maybe both of them were. Darius wasn't exactly feeling confident over here.

"Darius?" Ai spoke up, quickly. Still, Darius jumped.

"Uh, y-yeah?" he replied, not enjoying how his voice wavered.

"Um... do you remember what that guard said? About the last people who went down here?"

Actually, Darius hadn't. he had been too eager to get down here and explore to really be listening, and everything the guard said had sounded like excuses. Back then, the story had barely registered. But now Darius was recalling it with a terrifying clarity.

Still, he gulped, and all he said was: "It'll probably be fine. That probably happened a long time ago."

Ai didn't answer for a moment, but when she eventually did, her voice was shaky. "S-Still..."

"We won't be here long," Darius assured her, though even he didn't believe in them himself. "We'll go to the elevator than get out."

Darius saw the silhouette of Ai consider that, and than nod.

"Hey!" a familiar voice called out, echoing through the stairwell. Darius jumped. "Hey, get out of there! I can see you; you know! I can see you moving! Get back up here!"

"Keep going," Darius told Ai and Greg. Well, technically only Ai. Greg didn't seem to need the encouragement, he was already bounding down the stairs, happy as a bird.

"Don't do this!" the guard screamed down to them. "You'll die! You'll get ripped to pieces!"

Darius tried to force the voice out of his mind, but the sheer intensity of terror in her voice... it was making a horrible feeling of guilt settle into his stomach, mixing in the fear that was already there.

In front of him, Ai sucked in a breath.

"We're at the bottom," she told Darius, a moment before his foot found the floor as well. The coldness of the stairs was nothing compared to this; it felt like Darius had just stepped barefoot into a pile of freezing snow. The cold stabbed into his foot like needles, and Darius couldn't help but let out a pained hiss.

"A-Ai?" Darius asked. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here," Ai promised him. Then, the silhouette of her head snapped up. "Wait, Greg? Where's Greg?"

Darius spun around. Greg had descended down the stairs before either of them, but now the kid was nowhere to be found. Where had he gone now?

"Greg?" Darius called out with Ai, as loud as he dared. Still the sound seemed to reverberate in the silence, making Darius cringe. "Greg?"

...There was no answer. Darius and Ai looked at each other, and while neither of them could quite make out the others face, they both seemed to guess what the other was thinking. Taking a cautious step forward, Darius started into the basement.

From what he could remember of the maps, this basement used to be an old parking lot, when people still used cars and not dinosaurs. That was a funny thought; when did cars become obsolete? And, come to think of it, Darius hadn't seen one old car since he could here, not even an old and broken down one. Kin must have been busy when he was scavenging the city for parts.

In any case, the parking lot was huge, using up a whole floor with nothing but space for the old vehicles, and nothing else. The only thing Darius could see around him were the pillars that held up this place, and, if he looked closely enough, some old faded yellow lines on the ground.

But visibility was fading quickly. Soon, there'd be nothing to see around him but pure darkness. Once again, Darius found himself asking himself why he had not brought a flashlight.

All he had one his was his rock in the satchel, some previous notes from W, food that was quickly becoming inedible, and The Red Box.

...Wait.

"Ai, wait a second," Darius called out as he started fumbling with the technology on his wrist. Ahead of him, he heard Ai footsteps stop.

The usual screen popped up, and while it didn't give off enough like to be useful, it was still enough for Darius to find what he was looking for. In the corner of the screen, next to the phone icon, there was now a flashlight icon that Darius was absolutely certain hadn't been there before. Still, he was immensely grateful for its presence now as he clicked it on, and a steady beam of light poured out from the watches' front side.

"There," Darius said, probably a bit too proud of himself. He moved the flashlights beam to point at Ai in front of him, ready to tell her... something, but before he could decide what those words were, they died in his throat as his stomach fell.

In front of him, the light illuminated a grotesque, vaguely humanoid face. I's mouth was stretched open far too wide in a silent scream. White teeth poked out from inside of it's mouth, but not like human teeth should. Darius could see far further down its gullet then he ever would have wanted to, and scattered about where bits of square teeth, like someone had taken a bunch of them and scattered them about randomly. And above the mouth were two tiny white eyes, staring glossily at something in the distance.

Behind him, Ai screamed.

The sound seemed to knock the monster into motion, and it lurched forward with a groaned. Darius cried out, stumbling back to get away from it, but Ai jumped forward, jutting her pole forward into the monster's maw. The pole slid into the mouth, making a wet sliding noise until it suddenly stopped with a squelch. It wouldn't go anymore forward, even as Ai shoved with all her might.

Suddenly, Darius was distracted from the terrible sight by a noise on his right. He swung the light around, making Ai cry out unhappily, and his eyes widened as they caught on a different shape lurching towards them. As a dark shape illuminated by the light of the Red Box, it looked like a troodontid. Darius could guess better, though, and when the little thing finally stepped into the light, Darius could see that its face was grotesquely twisted into a cone, or a drill. Darius could see little bits of sharp teeth that poked out from around its snout. It's belly under it looked split, and Darius could see old, rotting intestines poking out. It was standing in a strange fog, that, if Darius looked closer, he would find covered the whole of the basement.

Darius gagged. "Ai!" he cried out. "There's more of them!"

"Okay, okay, I-." Ai wretched on her pole, trying to drag it out, but all that did was make a loud squeezing noise. The weapon didn't budge. "The pole won't come out!"

Ai let go of her weapon, and stepped back. The creature in front of her lifted two, torn up, red, wet hands, and lundged at her, and Ai just barely ducked to the side in time, hurrying closer to Darius' light, which was sweeping over the basement. Two monsters became three, then four, then eight, then... too many to count. Darius felt his throat close up in fear.

"We have to get out of here," he forced out. It sounded like a wheeze.

"No!" Ai cried. "What about Greg? We can't leave him behind!"

"I-," Darius tried to argue, but in the end, he shook his head, doing as Ai asked. He swept the light over the basement, trying not to look at the horrific monstrosities, some dinosaurs, some human, lurching towards them as the beam of light passed over them. But while there was a whole crowd of monsters, there was no little boy in sight. "He's not here!"

"What?!" Ai cried back. "Where could he have gone...?"

"Maybe he left through the stairway," Darius guessed. He glanced that way himself, seeing the small rectangle of light that seemed miles away now. The way towards it was blocked by a crowd of monsters. Could they even make it if they tried to go back?

There was the silhouette of a person in the light; the guard, Darius realized. She was probably watching them, but she wouldn't come help. She was frozen in terror, only able to watch as Ai and Darius were ripped apart.

"What do we do?" Ai whimpered. Darius didn't know how to respond to that, and even as he tried, his throat was too dry to even attempt to speak.

Ding!

A familiar sound made both Ai and Darius poke their heads up.

"Was that-?" Ai started. But she didn't get to finish before a big slit of light suddenly appeared in the darkness, making Ai and Darius close their eyes and duck their heads. The monsters all cried out in unison.

"Hey, hey!" someone, a familiar someone, called out over the groans of the monsters. A silhouette of a little boy was jumping up and down in the elevator. "Over here! I found the elevator!"

"Greg!" Ai cried. "You're okay!"

Greg nodded, but soon, that victory was cut short as the monsters on the outskirts of the crowd suddenly turned to him. And Greg, who spirits hadn't seem to be tampered with anything, suddenly dimmed. He looked over at the pasty grey creatures towering over him with a polite, but slightly terrified, smile.

"No!" Darius cried, surging forward. Ai was moving, too, reaching forward and shoving the monster with the pole in its mouth out of the way. It fell to the ground... and started screaming like Ai had murdered it. Darius jumped, startled, but he didn't stop as he raced after Ai, who was punching and shoving the monsters, even as their mouths tried to bite her and their claws and teeth scratched at her.

Darius stayed close behind her, trying to ignore the cacophony of horrific screams of the fallen behind him. He wished he could help Ai, but he wasn't much of a fighter, and Ai seemed to be doing all the work they needed, though not without damage to herself. Darius gasped as a long stripe of red appeared on Ai's forearm, but Ai only hissed, headbutting the pachycephalosaurus who did it in the stomach, before punching it to the side.

They were almost to the elevator when Darius suddenly felt something long and bony wrap against his ankle and pull. Darius let out a cry, and fell to the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.

Darius coughed, then immediately started choking. In the back of his mind, he remembered the fog that covered the floor, but soon, that thought was forgotten in the face of his panic. Now matter how many breaths he tried to take, only fog filled his lungs, and he was torn between trying to cough it out, and trying to desperately suck a breath in. It was like being underwater, Darius thought, but no matter how hard he trying to swim to the surface, it didn't work.

Suddenly, there was a crunch behind him that Darius barely registered, and he suddenly felt something grip his shoulders and pull him up and out of the fog. Darius coughed out the last of the fog in his system, and then gratefully breathed in one big breath of air. It felt amazing.

As Ai, because Darius could now focus enough to see it was Ai, pulled him along, Darius glanced back at what had grabbed him. A humanoid figure held up a mangled hand, screaming bloody murder. It reached up with it's other arm, trying to grasp the newly broken wrist and fingers, but there was nothing to hold it with. The creature's other forearm was missing; all that was there was a bloody stump.

Then, Ai shoved the two of them into the elevator, banging painfully into the opposite wall.

"Close it!" Ai cried. "Close the door!"

Greg did so with relish, slapping the close button way more then necessary as the doors slowly closed. Too slowly. Monsters were already following the, reaching at them through the gap in the doors. The doors paused, stuck between Greg's continued insistence to close the doors, and their built-in safety feature. The doors slowly started opening again.

The monsters, seeing an opportunity, tried to step in, but Ai was ready for that. She wrenched a fire extinguisher off the walls, and hurled it at the monsters, throwing them back. Greg pressed the button once again, and the doors finally closed.

Beneath him, the elevator thankfully started going up, away from that nightmare. The three of them collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

"W-What was that?" Ai asked, when she had finally got her breath back. Darius could only shake his head, shaken to his core. Ai drew herself into a bundle, curling her limbs into herself.

Greg looked between them, obviously confused.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "What happened?"

At first, Darius felt a rush of confusion and, to his later shame, frustration. Why didn't he understand? How could this kid look at all those horrors out there... and just not get it? It didn't make sense...

But then, Darius reasoned, maybe it was better that way. It certainly wasn't bravery that let this kid go on through the horrors, it was... well, Darius wasn't sure what it was. But really, anything that didn't let someone so young give up or give in... it had to be a good thing, didn't it?

"It was..." Darius finally started, and all eyes turned to him. Darius passed, unsure of himself, and then pushed on. "Well, I'm not sure what it was. But I think it's what W was alluding to in his note he left for us. And that means the answers are up there."

Darius nodded up, towards the ceiling of the elevator, but only Ai followed his gaze. Greg only nodded, like everything was starting to fall into place.

"Yes! Yes, that makes sense," Greg agreed. "Wirt always knows a lot, I think. He always says so, and he knows a lot, so he has to be telling the truth."

"I hope he is," Darius said, gulping. The elevator suddenly stopped, and they heard the same ding from before that saved all their lives. Darius exchanged a worried look with Ai. "Because all of this? I don't know what it could possible mean, but it isn't good."

Ai could only give him a taunt nod as the doors slowly opened. Darius cringed, but nothing was waiting for them on the other side but a simple, though nice looking, office, that was covered in dust.

Ai unbundled herself, and Darius shakily got to his feet, his knees and stomach still weak. Greg, though, rushed in, probably impatient to get to his next brother's note.

...Darius would never say it out loud, at least not to Greg, but those notes were making him nervous.

As he and Ai walked in together, Darius got a proper look around the office. It obviously hadn't been raided, as no one had ever been able to get up there, but it wasn't very cluttered, either. A cupboard on one side of the room, a cabinet on the other, a table of drawers beside that, and a couple on the underside of the desk, too. Behind the desk was another shattered window, letting in the grey, filtered light that was unique to the badlands. On the desk, there was a black pen, practically grey with all the dust covering it, a plant, probably plastic, because it still looked very much healthy and alive, and a sheet of paper laying in the middle of the desk. Waiting.

The piece of paper drew the most attention, if not for its odd placement, then Greg's enthusiastic pointing at it, and then, when that didn't work, his picking up and violent flapping of the paper in Darius' direction.

"There, at the top!" he exclaimed. "That's a W, right? It's Wirt! Quick, what's it say? What's it say?"

Despite himself, Darius smiled at Greg. He'd always wanted a younger brother, and even if Greg was hard to understand and a bit of a troublemaker, Darius felt a fondness for him.

"I'll read it, don't worry," Darius laughed, taking the piece of paper from the little kid. "Let's see...

"To whom it may concern:

"Well, you managed to get up here. I'm impressed, though I suppose I should expect it, based on what you must have gotten through before in order to get here. Still, I know it can't have been easy.

"Sorry, I'm not trying to waste time. You're here for answers, not to read three dozen paragraphs. However, as you know, I can't answer your questions directly, but I can point you in the right direction. Here's where to look:

"Cabinet, bottom drawer.

"Table drawer: underneath it.

"Closet, right at the back, covered in everything else.

"Table, in the fake bottom of the drawer.

"I know none of these are really orthodox places, but, well... you'll see why they were hidden.

"Please. Don't hold anything back. Good luck. W."

As Darius read through the note, Ai had already gone to some of the places Wirt had mention, shuffling around and looking for the things he was referring to. Greg, however, listened in rapt attention, his eyes wide. Darius couldn't help but think that along with looking excited, Greg also looked... downcast, though whether the kid actually realized it himself was a mystery.

What kind of brother left a little kid all by himself in this kind of place, Darius wondered. A dozen answers suddenly sprang to mind, and Darius inwardly shuddered. Actually, maybe he didn't want to know.

"Good reading," Ai complimented, smiling at Darius. She stepped forward, and dropped the newly assembled documents on the table where the note had been. They had been easy to find when they were pointed in the right direction. "Now read these."

Darius halfhearted rolled his eyes, and then begrudgingly accepted his new role in the group as his pulled up the sleek, black office chair behind him, settling down to read. The wheels underneath it screamed in protest as they rolled across the floor, and the chair audibly groaned as Darius settled into it. Still, it held, and was (arguably) comfortable, so Darius didn't give up.

Darius handed Wirt's note to Greg, letting the kid hang onto it, while he picked up his new stack of required reading. All the documents, except one, where handwritten, and rather badly. Darius had to squint, and pause frequently, to even begin to try to figure out what the documents were saying. But he didn't give up or complain, he only uttered a silent sigh, then began.

It was time to solve the mystery of Millory.

The first was, mercifully, typed.

"Gilligian," Darius read.

"Long time, no see! Are you working hard, or hardly working? Ha! No need to send a LOL back, I know how funny that was.

"Okay, so. I know it's only been a week, but so far, we've only got through one tree. Now, I know that isn't much, but Gilligian, just WAIT till you see these trees! Just one is nearly a different, big forest, but of normal size trees! Gilligian, it's insane! It'll knock your panties off!

"In fact Khill said that this whole forest could be enough to fill the entire ocean, because he's stupid. Tell me you've never seen the ocean without telling me you've never seen the ocean, am I right? So I told him 'You- er-freaking- ah-dumbbutt, this forest couldn't fill one ocean, it'd fill THREE! THE FOREST IS THAT BIG, GILLIGIAN.

"So, it'll take a long time if we make sure to do this in secret, but we do good work Gilligian, you know we do. But there's a problem. Now, your equipment is perfect, I know it is. But there's been a problem. This gas that's been leaking out of the trees? The masks aren't filtering it out. Somehow, the gas is leaking in and killing my men. But it's fine, of course, and it isn't your fault! They were weak, honestly it was kind of a mercy.

"But, well, it's hard to fight against gas. Soon, more of my stronger men will die, and eventually, I will, too. And Gilligian, what a tragedy! If I was dead, I wouldn't be able to... uh... oh no."

The rest of the note turned... horribly vulgar and generally awful, so Darius skimmed all that until the end, with the only normal sentence, still he read it quickly, his face burning. It felt like he'd seen something he shouldn't have...

"So, please send more equipment quickly, Gilligian, or you won't get my (ew) equipment. Yours to-uh... Tellem. That's his name."

Darius threw the note to the desk, his face burning. Ai rubbed her ears, wincing.

"I don't think I like that man," she admitted.

"Me neither," Darius muttered. To hide his face even further, he looked at his watch, checking his map. "Huh... I don't see a forest they're talking about here. Actually, I don't see a forest at all, unless that's supposed to be a forest, I guess..."

Darius squinted closer to the black mark on the little screen. It looked... ominous, and Darius was certain that he never wanted to go there. He wasn't sure what it was... but he had to admit that a forest wasn't a really good guess. But what could it be?

"Oh!" Greg suddenly cried, startling both Ai and Darius. They turned to find him sprawled on the group, a large paper map on his lap and the closet opened. Apparently, Greg had gotten bored of his brother's note.

Ai stepped closer, peering over his shoulder to see what Greg was pointing at. Darius saw her frown.

"Those aren't trees," she told him. "Those are only stumps."

Darius' eyes widened, realizing what that meant a split second before Ai's eyes, that had been wondering over the map, suddenly widened.

"Wait-," she started, horrified.

"Looks like it wasn't too big of a job for Tellem after all," Darius noted, feeling a little sick. "They cut it all down. Every single tree in the forest."

Footnotes:

You've unlocked a new skill: Detective Musing. After learning from the master, W, you are now more privy to the tips and tricks people may use to hide things from you. In order to level up this skill, you must learn more about this world, as well as practice it frequently.