Day 2

Location: Millory Main Office, Bottleneck City

Time: 11:03 PM

The only sounds in the room were Greg snoring, the shuffling of paper and the occasional yawn from Ai or Darius. After the email, all Ai and Darius had found were various papers with numbers and tree names and coordinates on them that neither Darius nor Ai could make heads or tails of, so they didn't bother trying to even read it out loud. They were probably important, and probably incriminating, but Darius was too tired to try and puzzle them out, so they set though sheets of paper aside. At first, they put them in a neat pile. Then, after about a dozen of them, started scattering them around half-hazardly.

Finally, Ai let out a gasp.

"Oh," she said. She held up a piece of paper to Darius, smiling, though it was sagging a little from her exhaustion. "Here: a letter."

"Oh," Darius replied, taking the paper. Then, his mind finally caught up to the realization and his eyes widened. "Oh! This is great. Thanks, Ai!"

Ai nodded, and then, because of a mutual argument much earlier in the evening, started sorting through the rest of the papers as Darius looked at the letter closely. It took a second for his tired brain to make sense of the scribbles... or, no, wait, they just really were that messy and hard to read.

Great.

Darius blinked the tiredness from his eyes away as he finally began reading.

"Gilligian," he started.

"Look, I know I forgot that you 'very specifically' (I'm quoting you) asked me to write, but it was only because I forgot! Happens all the time! You forget stuff, too, like our anniversary! And don't give me that 'we're not even married' garbage, because if we're in love, WE DON'T HAVE TO BE MARRIED!

"Anyway, you remember the equipment I asked you for? Well, first off, thanks for sending them, at least now I know you actually read these, but, well, they aren't actually working. See, we have six more people dead. My deforesting team has been cut in half, so send more.

"Also, at your request, my love, I have sent you a couple vials of the gas in this forest. Do with them what you want, but make sure you're thinking of me ;). HA!

"Anyway, hope you're well. Hope your-Ew, gross-is well, and don't worry, baby, I'll be back soon to-I'm not reading that."

Darius leaned back against the chair he was in, feeling exhausted. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many of these.

"Here's another one," Ai said, offering a new paper to him. When Darius groaned, she took it back, looking confused. "Is it... What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," Darius muttered, giving his friend a tight smile. "It's okay. I'll read it."

Ai gave him worried look, but she handed over the document anyway.

"Gilligian," Darius read.

"I am SOLVED THE PROBLEM. Yes, thank you very much for all your equipment and money, but it just goes to show, it takes a man to solve problems like these! HA! Anyway, I was just walking through the forest in my gas mask, when it suddenly broke. Just up and fell off my face! Just like that! I really hope these were high quality, Gilligian, and you didn't try to send us bad gas masks! Nah, you wouldn't, you love me too much. But in any case, I was dying, really quickly, when I saw this flower, and tried to eat it! I don't even know why! But no women would ever thing of that, huh? No, that was an all man's idea! MY idea! And it was clearly brilliant, because as soon as the flower was over my mouth, it wrapped around my head and filtered out the gas. Amazing, isn't it? Nature's gasmask, better than any 'storebought' garbage.

"In any case, don't bother sending back any more equipment or men, because we got it covered. This forest is going down, double time! No, triple time! No, ten time! Gilligian, our progress is so quick and effective that you'd... uh... love.... Yourself if you were here and watching it!

"Alright, I got to go. At this point, we'll have this forest down by next week. It's beautiful, Gilligian, beautiful! Almost as sexy as you. But when I get back, I'll explain it to you, nice and detail, while we... okay, that's the end of the letter."

Darius threw the paper to the floor, almost feeling like he was about to throw up. Gross, gross, this guy was so gross... why was he the one to read all of these? The only way Darius felt he would feel none disgusted ever again would be if, and only if, he scrubbed his brain with bleach.

Darius lowered his head to the desk in front of him, taking a bunch of deep breaths. When he felt significantly less guilty again, he raised his head back up. Had Ai gotten the next paper ready yet? Darius grimaced. Maybe he could convince her to take a light break...

But when Darius looked up and over to her, Ai wasn't even looking through the papers anymore. She was staring at one intently, looking troubled. Darius tried to peek over the paper at it.

"What is it?" he asked her, suddenly worried. "What did you read?"

Wait... couldn't Ai not read English?

But when Ai turned the sheet of paper around, it only had numbers and symbols on it.

"Do you think that every single one of these numbers are trees?" she asked him, tilting her head as she looked around. Darius followed her gaze, and the floor that was absolutely covered in white paper filled with little gray scribbles. That was... a lot of trees. And a lot of big trees, if Tellum was to be believed. "Why did they want all these trees?"

Darius shifted and shrugged uncomfortably. "I mean, this is a milling factory. They used to process the trees here, I guess."

But why the super dangerous forest where a lot of people died?

Ai nodded, but she didn't look entirely convinced either. She sighed, putting the paper aside, and picked up another one.

"Here," she said, holding it out to Darius. To his credit, he managed to hide his distaste as he accepted it.

"Gilligian," Darius said, once again.

"I know you want to spice up our relationship, but you don't have to send spies after me to do it! LOL! Trust me, I've seen them, and they look like the type of assassins you send out. What gives?

"Anyway, in the case that they're NOT from you, half of my men are now dead. It was going pretty well for the first week, when we got most of the trees. Those flowers worked pretty well, other the god lessened up as we worked, mostly turning to a grey and settling onto the ground. So that problem was solved!

"But then, on Saturday, we found one of our guys ripped in half on one of our machines. So then we were only nineteen and half men! HA! Get it?! Anyway, after that, we kept finding our men hurt, or mangled, some beyond recongnition. Not that we liked those guys, anyway, we're kind of glad they're dead. Or at least I am!

"So, anyway, if you're mad for some reason, just send me a letter, Gilligian, LOL. But if you aren't, well, don't worry. Your big strong man will solve this problem for you. WOO. Don't worry, I'll be home soon. Wait for me! I look better than ever!"

Darius lowered the paper, frowning. Ai met his eye, and she also looked disturbed.

"...Mangled?" Ai repeated. Darius could only shake his head.

"I don't know," he responded. "I mean, this guy isn't the most reliable; maybe he's lying?"

Ai blinked, then nodded uncertainly. "Maybe." She held up another sheet. "Keep reading?"

Darius took it without hesitation. Sometime, in between the last letter and the one before it, he had gotten interested in Tellum's story, disgusting and crude as the man had been. Darius found himself wanting to figure out what happened here.

"Gilligian," he read.

"You better be proud of me, because the last tree as be packaged up and sent! That's right, I cut down that entire forest and sent it to your door! Impressive, isn't it? Now, I can finally come back and-No, I'm not reading that.

"Now, unfortunately, I was the only one who survived. Very sad, very unfortunate. Too bad those guys weren't as stronge or smart as me, right? Don't worry, Gilligian, I know I'm already the maniliest man you know, no need to tell me! HA!

"I bet you can't wait. But remember, Gilligian, there's no need to be paitient. I know we don't have a lot of time before you inveatibly send me off to some distant corner of the universe again! Where am I going next? The artic to find the ice trees? The city to steal their wood so we can re-sell it back to them? Or don't tell me there's some other long forgotten forest I need to find! That'd just be the icing on the cake!

"On second thought, don't tell me. It'll be better as a surprise, probably when we're having... yeah.

"Yours truly, Tellum," Darius finished. "P.S. finally managed to catch and kill one those things that have been killing my men. It was surprisingly easy! Just goes to show how something that can be hard for little baby men, NOTHING is difficult for Tellum! Anyway, I sent a picture. Don't tell me that doesn't get you going!"

When Darius finished reading, he and Ai exchanged a look.

"...So... we both know he probably didn't make it back, right...?" Darius asked her slowly. Unsurprising, Darius didn't feel too sad about that. "Is that the last letter?"

Ai nodded. "The rest of these are just numbers," she told him. She frowned down at them, looking troubled. "I still don't get it."

Darius blinked. "Get what? It seems pretty straightforward to me."

Ai gave him a confused look. "Really...?" she asked, tilting her head. "But Wirt told us that this would give us all the answers of what's been happening in this city. I guess I'm missing something, because I don't understand..."

"Oh, that." How quickly he forgets. Darius shook his head. "No, you've got a good point. I also don't understand that. There must be something we're missing..."

Darius shuffled through the letters again. He had his guesses, of course, the things mentioned in the letters, like the monsters and the gas, sounded vaguely familiar (familiar to the monsters Ai and Darius saw in the basement, that is), but how did those correlate to the destruction of the whole city?

"He mentioned pictures," Ai noted. Darius glanced towards her.

"What?"

"He said he sent of picture of the thing he killed," Ai pointed out again. "Maybe if we figure out what he sent..."

"We could finally put the missing puzzle piece in to complete the picture," Darius finished.

Ai looked baffled, but apparently Darius' strange wording made its point. She nodded. "Uh, sure."

Darius pushed himself up, ignoring the wave of dizziness as he stood up. The sky was dark outside the little room, but the moon shining in through the window gave them more than enough light, even through the clouds. Still it was no replacement for the sun, and whenever Darius say it, he was reminded how much he'd rather be asleep. He was never quite a night owl.

Together, Ai and Darius ramshackle the small office, searching in every nook and cranny they could find. For a good long while, they could turn up nothing of value other than more, probably legitimate business papers that they still couldn't decipher, not that they really bothered trying.

The search was completely silent, other than the occasional ruffling of papers and creaking of opened drawers and cabinets. This place was old, but surprisingly well maintain for something no one could get up to for a good long time. Other than a fine layer of dust covering every inch of the room, and some spiderwebs up in the corner, this place was the best looking place Darius had seen yet.

Well, mostly. Darius paused by the wall, distracted by a strange sight. Most of the walls here were a completely clean, of boring, grey. There were no cracks, no stains, or disfigurements of any kind of to found.

Other than this. Beside the cabinet, nearly behind it, in fact, there was a small crack in the wall, barely noticeable. But now that Darius could see it, he couldn't unsee it. It was just so... out of place, the crack, and the slight disfiguration beside it.

Suddenly, his thoughts were cut off by Ai, who waved to get his attention. She had been searching the desk, and apparently, she had found something. Or had she? Darius looked at the sleek laptop in her hands, frowning.

"You think anything will be on there?" he asked, doubtfully. "Wasn't the point of the hand written letters was that Gilligian didn't want copies on her computer?"

Ai blinked, then shrugged, though her face betrayed some of her new apprehension. "I... worth a shot?"

Darius blinked. "But there probably is no more battery in it. We can't even turn it on."

Ai opened her mouth, perhaps to argue, and then seemed to think better of it. "Well, alright," she sighed. "I guess you're right."

Instantly, Darius felt a little guilty. He had no idea why, considering he was right, but still. "Well, is there a cord over there?"

Ai looked back in the drawer, and shook her head.

"Ah..." Darius said, and then he didn't continue, because he was unsure how. "Um..."

Ai shrugged, clutching the computer tighter. "No, no... you're probably right."

Darius didn't know what to say to that. Something reassuring? Should he double down? What was the right choice here?

It was strange, spending time with a new person. Darius had never found himself completely at odds with other people, though he was also never the type to make tons of friends, either. Brooklyn, Ben, Kenji, Yaz, Sammy... they were all his first really, really close friends. They were easy to talk to, and Darius felt that he knew them well, despite Kenji's supposed 'betrayal' and... okay, maybe that wasn't exactly true. But Darius knew he could speak his mind or tell them off without them taking it too personally.

His old friends wouldn't have gotten down about that, but apparently, a near stranger was. Maybe spending so much time with people Darius already knew so well had backfired. Maybe he was out of touch with new people.

He'd probably have to be a little more careful from now on.

Ai gave him an odd look, and Darius realized he'd been staring. Case in point.

"Uh..." he started, awkwardly. "We should keep looking... right?"

Ai nodded, and turned away, setting the computer by Greg's sleeping form. Darius did, too, but only after he took a split second to berate himself. Geez! This was worse than middle school.

Darius went back to the wall. Okay, so maybe Ai wasn't the only one too preoccupied with things that probably didn't matter. But Darius couldn't help himself. It was just... so out of place and... well, it was there when it shouldn't be. It was almost poetic. What did it mean?

Darius made himself turn away, but the blemish in the room lingered in the back of his mind.

The rest of their search yielded frustrating little, so little in fact, that Darius actually decided at one point that he was going to sit down and actually figure out those numbers because even that seemed more entertaining than looking around an empty room. But not for long though, because math, especially math that made no sense, hurt his brain.

It was around four in the morning when the two of them finally threw in the towel, officially giving up.

"There's nothing here," Ai said, glumly. Darius nodded in despair, leaning his head back. It made a thunk of the desk he and Ai were leaning against, but the slight pain was nothing against the whirlwind of frustration, fatigue and confusion swirling around his head.

Darius could only hum in agreement, though as he did, he couldn't help but feel that there had to be something here. Gilligian kept those papers for a reason, right? And whether for documentation or sediment, there would be no reason why she could keep those and not the photos...

...Okay, there were a million reasons that Darius could think of, and a million more he probably couldn't, but still! He told Ai as much, who huffed in frusteration.

"Then they're hidden in some place we can't find, then," she mumbled, crossing her arms. "We've searched every inch of this place, I think. There's no where they could be."

Darius had to concur. They really had gone over every inch of this room... TWICE!

Ai hugged her knees, sighing. "The only reason we found those documents was because of Wirt's note... If only we could ask him again."

Darius frowned, but he bit his tongue. Maybe, one day, they could talk about Wirt and how suspicious he and his notes were... but now was not the time. It would be, preferably, sometime when Greg wasn't in the room.

When Darius didn't respond, Ai looked away, sinking into herself. They sat in silence, and, almost immediately, Darius felt himself drifting off.

But only until Ai suddenly straightened, and her head snapped up.

"Darius," she said breathlessly. Darius cracked a groggy eye open.

"Huh?" he asked, intelligently.

"Your friend," Ai explained, sounding almost excited now. "The one you call on your watch! You can ask her for answers."

Darius blinked, and raised his hands to rub at his eyes, if only to hide his pained expression. Great, another one of Ai's ideas he was going to have to shoot down.

"I'm... not sure that'll work," Darius said, slowly. If he could, he was going to let her down more gently than he did last time. "Engine doesn't know anymore more than we do, so she wouldn't be able to tell us much-."

"But she can look it up, right?" Ai asked, not deterred. "You said she was a tech person!"

"Well, yeah, but..." Darius continued, but then his next argument died on his tongue. Hadn't Engine actually been looking into this kind of stuff? Already, she had given Darius valuable information about Bottleneck City and how it worked... Huh. Maybe it would work.

Darius raised his watch, clicking on the call icon. "...It might be worth a shot."

Ai gave him a beaming smile. Darius awkwardly gave him one back, even though he felt he didn't quite deserve it.

"What...? Kid? What do you want?" Darius winced as he heard Engine's tired and slurred sleep. It hadn't occurred to him that at this point any normal person would be asleep right now.

"Sorry, Engine," he apologized quickly. "But it's important. Do you-?"

"Is it about the job or some stupid side quest?" Engine asked him; her speech getting stronger as she gradually woke up. Darius didn't get to answer before Engine was speaking again. "Christ, it's three in the morning. You better have done your job by now."

Darius winced, and tried to make his voice as neutral as possible as he asked: "H-How would he know? When is he going to 'come after me'?"

"For a job like that?" Engine asked, humming to herself. "Well, he'd probably come around to check. So if the jobs not done and you're not there... well, you can guess, I'm sure. As to when? No clue, but soon, I'd guess."

Engine trailed off, and let her silence do the threatening. Darius bit his lip, troubled.

"...Don't worry," he assured her. "It's almost finished. The elder is just... being stubborn. She refuses to leave, and I need your help to get her out."

Engine was silent for a long time. When she did finally speak, it was with great reluctance. "You better hurry," she warned. "Yeah, I'll help. What do you need? Help with the electronics? Eyes in the sky?"

"Just information," Darius told her. Engine made a sound of disbelief, but Darius didn't dwell on it. "I need you to look up Gilligian."

"Gilligian?" Engine repeated, with some confusion. "Do you have a surname?"

"Well, no..." Darius admitted. "She was the head of the milling factory. Does that help?"

"Oh. OH! Oh, her, huh?" Engine realized, and Darius found he didn't like the tone in her voice. It sounded... vaguely confident and smug, like she had just figured out Darius' plan. Which was worrying, because Darius didn't even have a plan!

"She made BIG headlines," Engine explained, smugly. "Her name was on some of the very last newspapers and articles ever made, and in the front page, too. And none of them were very positive, mostly 'Gilligian Isla's Actions Doom City!' or 'Gilligian's Isla's Factory Now Epicentre of Disease!'"

"Disease?" Darius repeated, louder than he meant. He saw Greg start in his sleep.

Engine laughed. "Oh, yeah. I think that's the reason, or, at least, part of the reason, Bottleneck City turned out the way it did. Basically, Gilligian, your women, was allegedly dealing with some off the books things that she made sure to keep very hush hush, enough that no one could prove it. The only reason is because a ton of the workers in her factory were getting very, very sick, right around the time her business was just starting to expand. People started drawing connections, even though no one could prove anything. In fact, the year before, Gilligian's factory had won an award for their 'Excellence in Cleanliness and Safety', so no one was sure how exactly this was happening.

"Either way, it was a big scandal, but eventually, people calmed down about Gilligian, because, apparently, people started getting sick everywhere, not just in Gilligian's factory. Now, it seemed like the disease was coming from every public place, not just the factory, though some suspected that was just how the virus spread, not because the disease came from other places.

"Anyway," Engine concluded. "The last mention of Gilligian was at the end, seemingly just before... whatever killed everyone off: apparently she went missing. Some people guessed she skipped town, even though the city was on lockdown, or that she went into hiding. This reporter of the paper I'm reading promised to look into her disappearance and try to find her, though there never is a follow up."

Darius didn't respond at first. He wasn't quite sure how as he mulled the new, strange information around in his head. 'Missing', huh...?

"Oh," he finally said. And then, because he literally could not think of anything else to say, repeated himself. "Oh."

Engine snickered. "Interesting, isn't it? Now, I'm not sure exactly how you're going to use it, but I'd say that story would make anyone nervous about staying there."

Darius could only nod in agreement, forgetting for a moment that he was on the phone. He frowned as a thought occurred to him. "I... yeah. But if this place is that dangerous, why does Kin want it?"

"A lot of reasons, I'd guess," Engine replied. "Maybe the gas in there."

"The gas..." Darius repeated, and then his eyebrows suddenly shot up to his hairline as he remembered. "Oh, the gas!"

"Uh... yeah," Engine replied, sounding taken about. Darius barely heard her. Suddenly, everything was making a terrifying amount of sense. He'd completely forgotten about that... "The gas..."

Darius shook his head. He couldn't believe it. Could that... really be the answer?

"Hey, Darius," Engine suddenly spoke up, and Darius snapped to attention because, strangely, Engine sounded worried. About what?

"Yeah?" he replied. His tongue felt dry.

"I know you're almost done and you can probably finish by the time he arrives but just in case..." Engine started, but then she hesitated. "Nah, nevermind."

"What?" Darius asked. He glared at the watch in worry. "No, Engine, tell me. What is it?"

Engine only hummed. "It's not important. Don't worry about it."

"It sounds important," Darius insisted. Why were adults so difficult?! "What is it?!"

"I said-," Engine started, and then, apparently realizing the futility of that, only sighed. "Fine. If you really wan to hear it, then fine. Basically, it comes down to this. The only reason I'm helping you is to help Kin, the person who supplies the war and pays me. When it comes down to it, I'm not going to help the kid who has no intention of repaying me and has nothing I want if he did want to, or matter how noble I think his intentions are. You understand?"

Darius listened to all this with his mouth fallen open, and his eyes widened in surprise. At this confession, he suddenly felt cold, and a heavy weight settled at the bottom of his stomach. It wasn't a betrayal, not quite, but it hurt just as bad as when Kenji had betrayed them.

Was Engine... really telling the truth?

"I..." Darius finally spluttered out, but he couldn't continue it. What was he supposed to say?

To her credit, Engine sounded apologetic when she next spoke. "It isn't personal, kid, I promise. But war's never easy, and I need the money. Just... do your job, okay? And I'll do mine. And then I'll have no reason to hunt you down. You got it?"

Darius blinked. "W-Why...?"

"It's tough luck, kid. I'm sorry. Just hurry up."

Engine hung up with a final sounding click. Darius just stared at his watch, horrified.

He really, really didn't like adults.

"Darius?" Ai asked quietly, from behind him. "What are we going to do?"

Darius only shook his head. He... he had no idea. And worse, he didn't even want to think about that, lest he think about how Engine just told him how she wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Suddenly, Darius was forced out of his thoughts by a yawn from behind him. He looked around, and saw Greg blinking blearily, and rubbing at his eyes.

"Huh?" he asked, swaying from side to side. "What's going on?"

"Er-Nothing," Darius told him quickly. He and Ai exchanged a glance, but Darius didn't want to dwell on it. He didn't exactly want Greg to know what they had been talking about.

"So... you heard that, right?" Darius asked her, making sure to keep the question vague. Ai nodded, looking worried.

"Heard what?" Greg asked before Ai could respond. "Who were you talking to? Was it Wirt?"

"No, don't worry," Ai reassured him. We would have told you if it was. It was just... nobody."

Greg frowned, and then, thankfully, shrugged.

"What should we do now?" Ai asked Darius. "It's too late for us to escape..."

"We can't leave, anyway," Darius replied. "We can't let Kin get this gas. I have no idea what he could be planning for it, but it can't be good."

"Are you saying we should fight him?" Ai asked, alarmed. Darius shrugged, nervous.

"I don't know... I just know we need to stop him!"

"Hey," Greg spoke up. Darius tried not to let his annoyance show. "Who is this?"

"Who's what-?" Ai asked as both she and Darius turned around, but they froze as they saw the photograph Greg was holding up. "What? Greg, where did you get that?!"

Greg blinked, and looked down at his side, where the computer was lying, open. "They were in here," he answered.

Darius and Ai looked at it, shocked, and then turned to each other. Ai suddenly looked smug, and Darius' expression shifted into sheepishness.

"Uh... okay," Darius relented. "Next time, I promise I will listen to you."

Ai nodded, self assured, but she didn't respond as she turned back to Greg, holding out her hands. "Can we see the photos, Greg?"

"Who are they?" Greg asked as he obediently handed them over.

"We don't know," Ai replied, taking a hold of the three photographs she now had in her hand. She held it between them, and she and Darius studied them closely. They all showed one thing, but taken from three different angles.

It was... a corpse, one that was rotting and clearly had been rotting for a long time, with mold growing on it's deformed skull and flesh turned black around its chest and legs. It's arms were... twisted, but even though it had clearly been dead a long time, there were fresh wounds on its body, and a knife was stuck in its chest. The weapon that probably killed it, Darius guessed.

"It looks like..." Ai gasped.

"A zombie," Darius finished, equally disturbed.

"And like those things we saw downstairs," Ai reminded him. Darius shuddered. He had almost, mercifully, forgotten about them.

"Who is that?" Greg asked, again. Darius shook his head.

"We don't know, Greg.

Footnotes:

Level up. As you now understand more of this world and its mysteries, you have leveled up to Detective Musing 1. With the little bit of knowledge you have gained, you now have the tools to learn more and figure out more mysteries.