“So, where will we go first?” Ythane asked the other two.
“Down!” “Up.”
She looked at Kain and Luna as they responded. “Hmm… Why should we go down, Luna?” she asked.
“Because all of the important stuff is down there. Besides, there’s less moss there,” she answered. Ythane nodded; there was indeed less of the ravenous moss the further down they went, but large animals took its place, making it no less dangerous than if it was filled with the horrible moss.
“That is reasonable. Kain?”
“I think we need to figure out where we are in the grand scheme of things. We can either do that by hoping we find a map at the bottom of this place or looking around from a high floor. If I remember correctly, we haven’t moved up or down a floor, so we’re still about 50 feet below ground level. That means the building this place is built into is likely a skyscraper. We can easily find out our location from there,” he explained.
Ythane thought about the merits of either option. They could obviously turn back. It was an option that was not lost on her; but the massive complex had piqued her interest, and she wanted to see what was at the bottom as well. Before she could answer, however, Luna replied to Kain, “Hmm. That’s a good idea, but will we be able to see that weird forest from up there?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. We could see plenty of skyscrapers from the church, so who knows?” he said. She slowly nodded. “Then we’re heading towards the top?” She gave a curt nod of agreement.
“Ythane glanced at him from the corner of her reptilian eye. “Are you sure that is the proper course of action?” He nodded. “Then I agree.” Without further stalling, the group headed toward the bridge that connected the platform they were on with 2 other platforms on that floor.
The bridge was large, being about the same width as the door they had found, and had guardrails running along the edges of the structures, ensuring that none of them would fall off. It was made of the same material as the floors, and had a sturdy feeling to it as they continued on, despite the fact that it only really mattered for Kain. Along the way, they had encountered groups of the vulture-like creatures, but were completely ignored by them; the creatures seemed too busy eating scraps of meat or moss to worry about the three.
Once they reached the other side, they were met with more vulture-like creatures and two doors. “You know, I think that we should start naming these things,” Kain thought aloud as they reached the platform.
Luna gave a little scoff, which Ythane found to be a bit cute. “We should put it off until after we figure out whether or not they were already named; we still don’t know what the green monkeys were called.”
“Wait,” Ythane called out. “You don’t know what they’re called? I thought you could read our language; not to mention the fact that you took all the books you could find,” she wondered aloud.
“Well…” Kain began, “we never had the time to read much more than just the emergency survival guide we found.”
“Ah, I suppose that makes sense. Well, we call those mongrels goblins,” she said. “They are ‘pests of the highest order,’ or at least that was what the idiots who oversaw the inner territories said. Near my home, they were nothing more than cannon fodder.”
“Huh, you guys have the word ‘goblin?’” Kain asked.
“We do. What did the word mean in Earth?” she asked as they chose one of the doors to enter; luckily for them, it was a staircase that climbed to the floor above, along with a hallway that led to the next platform.
“Well, goblins are not real on Earth. They are purely fictional. They…” he went on to explain the different variations of goblins in both mythology and fiction. “So, generally, they are either standard monsters with limited intelligence, or trickster spirits,” he concluded. By that point, they had reached one of the other sides of the 3-pronged bridge. For whatever reason, there was not a single beast that called the floor home; coincidentally, there was also a small tree growing in a large pot. The tree was the same type as the gnarled and lush trees they had found around the church-like building.
They stood in front of a large door, bigger than the one that led to the tall chasm from the maze of hallways. Kain unceremoniously opened the door, letting beams of dull light crawl into the relatively dark room. Beyond the door was a street even wider than the ones they had found before, with buildings all around it larger than 5 stories. Looking up, the building they had emerged from was at least 12 stories tall, and was circular. Looking around, Kain easily spotted the hotel they were staying in days before. “Well,” Ythane began, “it is good fortune that you humans don’t have to deal with goblins on Earth. They were quite strong, and from what I picked up, your people is not a very marshal one.”
“That is a bit of an oversimplification, but not wrong,” he replied. “Anyway, I know where we are now, so what do you guys want to do? Do you want to go back down, go up, or take a break now?” he asked.
“I do not know, to be frank,” Ythane stated, “I have been in stasis for who knows how long, and I can now explore, and learn, and be free. Beyond that, I have no need for food or rest; they are not things I require. Either way, I am just thankful to be free from that prison.”
“I still think we should go down!” Luna chimed. “There’s probably cool stuff down there!”
Kain nodded. “Then back down we go.” They re-entered the building, returning to the floor with all of the vulture-like creatures. Along the way, they veered off into a few side rooms, looking for anything interesting, but all they found was an archive with half-eaten papers strewn about and a dormitory with every mattress, blanket, and covering missing. “It seems like we’ve been finding a lot of file rooms with everything of note missing,” Kain stated. “What do they need all of those files for and what is taking or eating them? They have digital media, which is faster, cheaper, and could probably be accessed by the soul boxes, so why?”
“Insurance,” Ythane said, “Insurance. In most, if not all, of the war torn regions of the Duvalad-Duvalid Union, there were, at least, a hundred copies of every document -no matter how mundane or unimportant- placed in every part of those bases; when war can ravage a good half of your fortifications in a single battle, you begin to take steps to avoid the complete loss of important files, more than just hoping that the half of the base that was turned to ash was not the one with all of the important documents,” she explained.
“Well, that makes sense. We don’t leave schematics out in firing ranges unless they’re copies. But that just makes me wonder how this whole thing works. They have these ‘biomachines,’ and yet they still hire external labor; to me, it makes little sense,” Kain ranted.
Luna shrugged from behind them. “Maybe they were just being kind and generous to others. You told me about economics or whatever, and the people who want what is being sold need to get money to buy it. Without jobs, maybe no-one could afford the wares being sold,” she hedged. The other two looked at her and shrugged in agreement. Once they found the next flight of stairs downward, they were met with yet another black platform. The only problem was the not insignificant battle being waged between the creeping moss and a large herd of blue metal-covered cows. The cows stomped and ate the moss while the moss tried to drown its enemy in greenish-blue plant matter. Occasionally, they heard the cry of metal being scraped, coming from the moss whenever it tried to shred the armor of the cows.
They were lucky due to the fact that the battle was mostly centered on the bridge closer to the flight going down. The unfortunate part was that the battle was blocking the flight of stairs going down. “Screw this,” Kain said, “Let’s see if there’s an easier way down.” He walked over to the edge, tore an arm off of one of the chitin-covered monkeys, leaned over the edge, and threw it down into the pit. Not even a second later, scores of 8-legged, vulture-like birds descended on to the arm from every direction. It was held aloft by the incessant clawing, pecking, and chomping that came from the birds. Before long, the arm was completely gone, without even a bone. “… Screw that, we’ll take the stairs. Even if they’re needlessly designed to cause problems for anyone who uses them,” he mumbled.
“Agreed. I don’t want to die to birds. They’re scary,” Luna muttered.
Ythane nodded in agreement. “Well, while those two are…” she turned to the cows and moss, who were battling to the death without rest, “… occupied, let’s go explore that other door.” Her head aimed at the large double doors, like those of the ground level, that were torn open and laid across the ground. The other two shrugged and went along with it.
They entered the hallway, which was much larger than the hallways they were used to, and immediately noticed that there were rows of doors lining the walls. On each door there was an engraving with the words ‘Biomachine Self Defense Force Creation Lab’ written, with an ascending number tacked on at the end that grew as they looked further into the hallway. Almost every door was, in some way, broken. From dents to tears to claw marks, all but 2 doors were affected by the chaos that erupted in that hallway however long ago. Ythane calmly pried open the first pristine door and floated into the lab, followed by Kain and Luna.
In stark contrast to the dark, black hallways and platforms they were used to seeing, the lab immediately shined like a beacon once the group entered, showing the rows upon rows of metallic cylinders that lined the walls and one, large machine sitting in the middle of the room. The machine seemed quite simple: a large, glass sphere was hanging from the ceiling, connected by wires and conduits that led to an archaic-looking screen. Apart from the screen, there were also two tanks that connected to the sphere with metallic tubes, and one hatch that let a creature as big as the blue metal-covered cows in or out.
The trio looked at each other, nodded, and headed for the screen connected to the sphere. There was a keyboard that extended to the screen, which Kain carefully pulled out from its place inside of the terminal. He clicked the button that looked most like a power button, and they watched as the screen came to life.
[Identification required]
[Identification not found: reporting to security forces]
[ERROR: security forces unavailable, contacting management]
[ERROR: management unavailable, contacting board of directors]
[ERROR: board of directors unavailable, contacting…]
[Conditions for the engagement of PROJECT ATZI have been reached]
[Downloading all information available]
[ERROR: 99.997% of files are unreachable, saving available files]
[70 files found, filtering redundant information]
[61 files removed, 9 files remain]
[Confirmed: PROJECT ATZI has been engaged]
[Welcome, scavenger. On behalf of the Dubai Corporation, this terminal welcomes you. This, for reference, is a pre-written message meant for any persons who intend to reclaim the lost glory of the past. At the time of writing, I do not know what caused Dubai to fall, but in the end, all that matters is that you reclaim the knowledge stored here. Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Dubai.]
