The full story of The Factory. This story was run from August 30th 2020 to March 29th 2021 and was originally posted on the Clockworksun Stories Discord server.
This novel-length story is 100 updates long, plus an epilogue, spread over 226 standard pages with a total of 91,000 words.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
Hello again! We're getting ready to start up the next story here in about a week, so here are the four scenario choices this time around! Three are ones that were not picked last time but had significant support, while one was cooked up fresh and shiny new. Please note that all starting scenarios will expire after four times on the docket, and will be retired. The number of times each scenario has been listed is indicated. Vote for the one you'd like to see turned into a full-fledged story!
(3) The Factory 
Horror
Near-future - Industrial Facility
Kidnapped by mysterious shadowed figures, our [protagonist] wakes up in a long concrete tunnel, a small hole cut from the ceiling and a lovely collection of bruises the only clues as to how they got there. Pipes line the walls and the hum of distant machinery presses heavily on the senses. Where are they, and how do they escape?
(3) A Dream of the Void 
Atmospheric / Cosmic Intrigue
The Dream Realm
You were once a normal person living a normal life. That all changed when you fell asleep one night under the baleful glare of a demon star and woke into a dream more real than ever before. The ravenous ocean is calling to you, as is the burning sun and the unknowable void. Which call do you heed, if any? Is there a fourth path, a way to choose another option? What is actually happening in this dream?
Horror
Near-future - Industrial Facility
Kidnapped by mysterious shadowed figures, our [protagonist] wakes up in a long concrete tunnel, a small hole cut from the ceiling and a lovely collection of bruises the only clues as to how they got there. Pipes line the walls and the hum of distant machinery presses heavily on the senses. Where are they, and how do they escape?
(3) A Dream of the Void
Atmospheric / Cosmic Intrigue
The Dream Realm
You were once a normal person living a normal life. That all changed when you fell asleep one night under the baleful glare of a demon star and woke into a dream more real than ever before. The ravenous ocean is calling to you, as is the burning sun and the unknowable void. Which call do you heed, if any? Is there a fourth path, a way to choose another option? What is actually happening in this dream?
(1) Dungeon Delvers 
Action-Adventure
Magical Medieval / Renaissance - Underground Dungeon
A classic adventuring party a la D&D dives into a mysterious and dangerous dungeon in search of treasure, or perhaps something more valuable. What dark secrets lie in wait? What horrifying monsters bar their way? How many will die in the process?
(2) Glorbulon 
Action-Adventure
Space - Kronwaë
The recent mysterious disappearance of several high-profile starliners, and one isolated planet, has thrown the local sector into a frenzy. Government agents, adventurers, mercenaries, and corporation employees are all out searching for the cause of these disappearances. Our protagonist is one of these searchers, and they think they’re onto something...
(Winner: )
Action-Adventure
Magical Medieval / Renaissance - Underground Dungeon
A classic adventuring party a la D&D dives into a mysterious and dangerous dungeon in search of treasure, or perhaps something more valuable. What dark secrets lie in wait? What horrifying monsters bar their way? How many will die in the process?
(2) Glorbulon
Action-Adventure
Space - Kronwaë
The recent mysterious disappearance of several high-profile starliners, and one isolated planet, has thrown the local sector into a frenzy. Government agents, adventurers, mercenaries, and corporation employees are all out searching for the cause of these disappearances. Our protagonist is one of these searchers, and they think they’re onto something...
(Winner: )
13
6
10
2
The next story will be The Factory. Before we get started, however, there are a few questions to answer. The first options for each selection are the original “intended” options (particularly for the setting and protagonist), though alternate choices have been included.
Will the story be told in second or third person?
- Third person.
- Second person.
Who is our protagonist?
- Allie, a college student thrown into this situation beyond her understanding but with occasional buried moments of familiarity...
- Caleb, a safety inspector who’s stumbled into something far stranger than he had expected.
What is our setting?
- A modern-day or near-future time period. The Factory will be constructed of concrete and brass, pipes and pistons.
- A futuristic setting. The Factory will be constructed of carbanium and plexisteel, replicators and energy cores.
Will our protagonist have extra lives? [The Factory is a dangerous place, and death may visit more often than one may desire. Additional tries will make the adventure easier overall, though it may also make death easier to come by.]
- No.
- Yes.
(Winners: , , , )
- Third person.
- Second person.
Who is our protagonist?
- Allie, a college student thrown into this situation beyond her understanding but with occasional buried moments of familiarity...
- Caleb, a safety inspector who’s stumbled into something far stranger than he had expected.
What is our setting?
- A modern-day or near-future time period. The Factory will be constructed of concrete and brass, pipes and pistons.
- A futuristic setting. The Factory will be constructed of carbanium and plexisteel, replicators and energy cores.
Will our protagonist have extra lives? [The Factory is a dangerous place, and death may visit more often than one may desire. Additional tries will make the adventure easier overall, though it may also make death easier to come by.]
- No.
- Yes.
(Winners: , , , )
10
9
15
6
18
3
7
16
Scene 0
Allie blinked awake as something cold and wet impacted the back of her neck. She groaned and started to push herself up but her body protested before she got more than a few inches off the gritty floor. Everything seemed to hurt, from her head to her toes. Allie gingerly let herself back down and felt her heart begin to pound. Why was she here? Why was she in so much pain? Where, for that matter, was here?
From her current position face down on the floor, Allie couldn’t see much. Just a dimly lit dirty concrete floor and a grimy concrete wall a few feet in front of her. Another drop of what she hoped was just water splashed on her neck and she shivered, sore muscles tensing against the chill. While she slowly gathered the strength to try moving again, she tried to remember the events leading up to her current predicament.
She had been walking back to her dorm from her car. She knew that much, at least. Allie strained her memory, trying to remember. Had she made it back to the building? No good. She couldn’t recall anything after leaving the parking lot.
Slowly the pain subsided, allowing Allie to gingerly push herself into a sitting position. She leaned against the slimy wall at her back and hugged herself, staring wildly at her surroundings.
She was sitting against one wall of a narrow concrete tunnel in the shape of a slim rectangle near the bottom tapering to a semicircle at the top. To her left the tunnel continued into the gloom, then made a left turn far in the distance. To her right, it continued on for a similar distance before ending at a blank wall. Occasional dim yellow lightbulbs protruded from the ceiling at regular intervals along the tunnel, providing meagre light. Several were missing and Allie could barely make out their broken shards on the floor. Several thin, rusted copper pipes lined the ceiling alongside the lightbulbs, providing the condensing drops falling onto Allie’s neck. In the ceiling almost directly above her, a perfectly square section of concrete was missing. The hole extended up farther than she could see, disappearing into darkness after only a few dozen feet. Several pipes followed the shaft up on both sides.
Allie stumbled to her feet, feeling sick to her stomach and almost hyperventilating. She tried pitifully to reach the shaft, to perhaps climb back out, but she was too short. Even if she could reach, she doubted she could pull herself into the hole, let alone make it all the way up before succumbing to exhaustion and falling back down. She wondered how she had survived the fall the first time, then realized she was distracting herself from the problem at hand and tried to refocus.
She needed to get out of here. That much was fully clear. She couldn’t climb out the way she had fallen in, and something about the eerie not-quite-silence of the tunnel convinced her that calling for help would be a bad idea. She looked back and forth between her two options - left or right - and hesitated. That low, almost inaudible hum in the background was incredibly distracting.
⬅ - Go left.
➡ - Go right.
- Search around the current area for clues.
- Try to remember. How did she get here? [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Win-)
- Search around the current area for clues.
- Try to remember. How did she get here? [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Win-)
2
5
16
3
Scene 1
Allie decided to try to calm down and take inventory of her current situation before heading off in any direction. She pressed her hands against her ears to drown out the background hum and tried to think. What did she need to know? Ah! Allie reached into the front pockets on her jeans, trying to locate her phone, but came up empty. Her knife and wallet were also missing, leaving her pockets empty. Either her items had fallen out on the way down or whatever brought her here had taken them. She personally suspected the latter.
What else? Allie took stock of the rest of her status before moving on. Her jacket was gone as well, which would cause a problem if she were outside in the cold November air, but her t-shirt would do underground. It was still a little chilly, though. Her arms and clothes were all scratched up, presumably from tumbling down the shaft. At least they had seen fit to leave her shoes on so she wouldn’t have to wander barefoot down here.
As for her immediate surroundings, there wasn’t much else of use nearby. One thing did stand out to her, however. There was a clear boundary a few feet to the right of the hole cut in the ceiling where the floor changed color. To the left, it was a lighter grey and free of debris, while to the right the color was darker and pebbles, dust, and the occasional shattered lightbulb adorned the ground. She couldn’t see any obvious reason for the distinction, but she did spot a faded sign painted on the wall at the dividing line, reading “Quad D <- -> Quad C.” “Quad” probably means “Quadrant,” Allie thought. Maybe Quadrant D’s janitors are just more motivated?
⬅ - Go left.
➡ - Go right.
(Winner: ➡ )
7
15
Scene 2
Allie hesitated a moment longer, then shakily started walking to the right, into the section with debris on the floors labeled as “Quad C” on the sign. As she continued along the path, carefully stepping around the occasional fragments of shattered glass, she noticed the faintly maddening background hum was growing softer. Not much, but enough to be noticeable. Aside from that hum and the sound of her footsteps, the corridor was deathly silent.
She timed how long it took her to reach the other end of the corridor - about a minute and a half, though she didn’t have her phone or a watch so she couldn’t be sure. Upon reaching the end of the corridor, Allie saw that it wasn’t a dead end after all. The wall wasn’t concrete like the rest of the tunnel, but rather bricks painted to be approximately the same color - clearly someone had sealed the tunnel. However, that was less immediate than the concrete slab lying on the floor, half-covering a pitch-dark hole.
She gulped and peered down into the darkness, shoving the slab further off to the side to uncover more of what was clearly some sort of trap door or hatch, with the slab as the door. A rusted ladder clung to the far side of the shaft, leading down farther than the light reached. She counted eighteen rungs before the light faded too much to make anything else out. The air wafting up from the lower level smelled musty and wet, and Allie could just barely make out a slight white noise that might be the trickle of water. She could see absolutely nothing beyond the ladder - the walls of the shaft continued down beyond the light’s reach as well.
- Descend.
⬅ - Turn around, go left instead.
(Winner: ⬅ )
- Descend.
⬅ - Turn around, go left instead.
(Winner: ⬅ )
8
12
Scene 3
Allie shoved the concrete slab back over the hole and backed away. There was no way she was going down there, at least not without checking the other side of the hallway first. And hopefully finding some sort of light. Regardless, she quietly turned around and walked back along the tunnel, passing the shaft she had fallen from and the sign stating she was entering Quad D, and continued towards the corner.
It took her another minute and a half to reach the corner, passing by multiple bricked-up side-tunnels on both sides of the main hallway. She cautiously peeked around the corner to see the corridor continued a short distance - perhaps ten feet - then ended in a steel bulkhead door sporting a submarine-style wheel in place of a door handle. The background hum was louder here. She swallowed hard and stepped towards the door, straining upwards to try and see through the small, scratched porthole-style window set into its upper half.
Through the scratched glass, Allie could see very little. The room on the other side was extremely dark, and what light did manage to pass through from the corridor only illuminated a section of pristine concrete floor and the bottom halves of what appeared to be lockers lining the walls. Everything else in the room was drowned in shadow; she couldn’t make anything else out.
- Open the door; investigate the room.
- Go right instead; descend using the ladder.
(Winner: )
- Open the door; investigate the room.
- Go right instead; descend using the ladder.
(Winner: )
17
2
Scene 4
Allie grasped the heavy wheel and slowly started turning it. The handle creaked as it rotated, breaking through old rust and disuse. It took her two full revolutions and twenty seconds to finally hear a loud hiss as the bulkhead’s seal broke and the door creaked open, releasing a gust of cool air into the corridor as the pressure equalized. A light breeze continued to leak from the room as Allie quietly stepped inside, being careful to stay within the light from the hallway.
The room was of a moderate size, about twice as long as it was wide. Lockers lined the left and right walls from the door to about 2/3 of the way to the far wall, and additionally stood against two freestanding islands in the center of the room, the tops not quite reaching the ceiling. About a third of the way to the far wall and again at two thirds of the way, a break in the lockers along the wall marked four open corridors - two per side wall - leading into darkness. At the far end of the room, a half-height wall separated the lockers from a series of otherwise open-air showerheads that occupied the remaining third of the room.
The hum was much louder now, and as Allie turned her head, she estimated it was probably coming from one of the corridors along the right side of the room. She stepped a little further into the room to listen closer, but didn’t hear anything else of note from the right. From the left, however, she heard a faint skittering sound, akin to claws on a hard floor. Allie paused and stared over in that direction, nervous. She saw nothing in the darkness. One of the lockers towards the rear of the room emitted a faint amount of light.
- Open the glowing locker.
⬅ - Enter a corridor to the left; investigate.
➡ - Enter a corridor to the right; investigate.
- Attempt to turn on a shower.
- Leave the room, shut the door. Descend using the ladder back the other way.
(Winner: )
16
2
1
2
1
Scene 5
Allie crept further into the room, aiming for the locker that was emitting that faint light. She didn’t hear a repeat of the skittering from before, so she almost managed to convince herself that it was just a rat or something similarly harmless. ...Almost.
The locker’s latch was stuck and the hinges rusted. Allie winced at the increasingly loud scrapes and bangs as she tugged on the latch again and again until finally, it released and the door swung open. Allie missed catching it, stumbling back from the force she had used, and cringed as the door slammed into the adjacent locker with a deafening metallic crash.
She shuddered as the echoes died away, catching what seemed to be a repeat of the skittering from earlier in the diminishing crashing. She should be quick. The locker was mostly empty, but on the top shelf, there was a low cardboard tray - presumably the lid of a box in a past life - holding three interesting-looking items. There was a small glass sphere, about the size of a baseball, containing a slowly swirling greenish-blue mixture and emitting the faint amount of slightly blue-tinged light that had drawn her here. It was no brighter than a candle, but it would be much better than nothing. Lying next to it was a more mundane item: a dented metal water bottle, its contents unknown. It was fairly large and looked moderately heavy. Finally, tucked behind the other two items, lay a dark grey bracelet or wristband about three fingers wide. It had an adjustable metallic clasp painted with a faded green heart as well as a blank screen opposite and several concerningly sharp spikes around the inside of the band that would pierce into the wrist of whoever wore it.
Allie’s inspection of the locker was cut short as she heard a high-pitched yip or bark from behind her. She spun around to see a small, spindly humanoid figure standing framed in the light of the doorway and facing her about ten feet away. The orb’s light barely illuminated it enough for her to get an idea of its features. It seemed to lack skin, its body and limbs the color and texture of skeletal muscle. It had four fingers per hand and three toes per foot, each digit long, thin, and topped with a sharp claw. Its mouth bristled with thin, sharp teeth and seemed to be stretched into a wide grin by the muscular structure around its head. From head to toe, it was maybe a foot and a half tall - it wouldn’t even reach her knee.
The creature screeched after surveying Allie for a moment and darted forward, claws skittering on the concrete floor.
Allie has time to grab one item from the locker before she must defend herself.
- Grab the light orb.
- Grab the canteen.
- Grab the bracelet.
- Don’t grab anything.
After that, what should she do?
- Fight the creature! It looks strong, but fragile. [Chance: a risky challenge, may be modified by what item Allie grabs.]
- Run back into the hallway; close the door! [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winners: , )
- Grab the light orb.
- Grab the canteen.
- Grab the bracelet.
- Don’t grab anything.
After that, what should she do?
- Fight the creature! It looks strong, but fragile. [Chance: a risky challenge, may be modified by what item Allie grabs.]
- Run back into the hallway; close the door! [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winners: , )
7
6
8
2
14
5
Scene 6
Allie thrust her hand into the locker and pulled out the bracelet, feeling the sharp points scrape her palm as she grasped it. She wrapped it around her left wrist and hesitated as she tried to psych herself up to pull it tight, the needle-like spikes pressing uncomfortably into her flesh. She yanked it off and grasped it in her other hand. She couldn’t do it, at least not right now. She had to focus on keeping herself alive first.
The creature moved quickly and ducked around to Allie’s left, deftly avoiding a kick and darting around behind her. Allie turned, trying to keep it in view, but the little monster was too fast and leapt onto her leg, its claws piercing into her jeans and scraping against her skin. It started to climb and Allie screamed, punching it several times, but the angle was poor and she couldn’t get enough force behind the blows to do more than slow it down.
The creature gibbered and jumped upwards, its powerful rear legs launching it midway up Allie’s side. She screamed again as its claws tore through the weaker material of her shirt and left bleeding gashes in her torso. The thing moved quicker, darting around her arm and up her chest, steadying itself then leaping for her throat. Allie toppled to the ground, knocking her head against the concrete floor and gasping as she saw stars. The creature screeched in triumph and bit downwards, its needle-sharp teeth piercing Allie’s neck.
Some primal sound burst from Allie’s lips and she whipped her hands around faster than she would have thought possible, tearing the creature from her with a sickening ripping sound, her blood dripping from its teeth. She forced herself to roll forward, doing a sort of curl-up as she smashed the thing’s head against the lockers once, twice, three times until its skull shattered like an eggshell and she was left holding a bloody, slimy mess.
Allie dropped the dead beast and clutched her throat, choking and coughing. She couldn’t breathe. Blood was running down her airway and she couldn’t seem to stop it. Her vision flashed with static and her heart started slowing down as her lungs protested, starving for oxygen. Her panicked eyes fell to the bracelet, then glanced up at the locker again. What should she do? [Choose one option from each pair.]
- Put on the bracelet.
- Don’t.
- Grab the orb.
- Don’t.
- Drink from the canteen.
✴ - Don’t.
- Attempt to clear her airway and stop the bleeding. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. This choice is potentially deadly.]
- Lay down and die. [This choice is potentially deadly.]
(Winners: , , , )
- Put on the bracelet.
- Don’t.
- Grab the orb.
- Don’t.
- Drink from the canteen.
✴ - Don’t.
- Attempt to clear her airway and stop the bleeding. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. This choice is potentially deadly.]
- Lay down and die. [This choice is potentially deadly.]
(Winners: , , , )
12
5
15
1
10
6
10
5
Scene 7
Allie frantically crawled forward, spluttering and gasping for any amount of air, and wrapped the bracelet again around her left wrist. She closed her eyes and pulled the clasp taught, snapping it closed as the needle-points sunk into her flesh. She choked and her eyes opened wide with pain as the scream died in her throat. The little screen on the band flashed white, then faded back to black. Several dots started to spin around in a circle and a series of cheerful beeps played.
Nothing else seemed to be happening, so Allie hauled herself to her feet, lurching against the locker and grabbing at the other two items on the tray. She stumbled back, collapsing against the opposite wall holding the orb in one hand and the canteen in the other. The sphere was smooth and cool, but didn’t offer any obvious assistance. She twisted the cap off the canteen and put it to her lips, uncaring of what might be inside. Maybe it would help.
Allie could barely see at this point and she slowly fell to the ground, her senses fading. The liquid tasted stale and brackish; probably some sort of old, musty water. It didn’t help her breathe and she let the canteen fall as well, spilling its contents onto the floor. Time seemed to move slowly as she watched the sphere slowly slip out of her grasp and roll across the floor, its glow completely extinguished. More chimes from the bracelet, then a cheerful neutral voice. “Welcome to- Mortal wounds detected! Overriding activation policy!”
Allie passed out.
...
She came to some time later, hair and clothes sticky with blood and lying in a pool of the stuff. Her head hurt and her left wrist tingled painfully. She took a breath and was beyond relieved to feel air entering her lungs without issue. Allie lifted a hand to her throat and felt nothing but smooth skin, coated with blood. No trace of the injury remained. She still felt the stinging pain from her side and legs, though, and looked down to see several puncture wounds from where the creature had climbed up. The glass sphere lay nearby on the floor, entirely dark and grey.
The bracelet’s screen was dim but visible, displaying the words “VitaBand 3” across the top, followed by a stylized yellow heart. A larger cartoon human figure took up the main portion of the screen with several points of red dotted around its body, each corresponding to an injury on Allie herself. Across the bottom was a thin bar outlined in blue, with a tiny section towards the left colored in. Finally, to the right side of the screen were three digital buttons with the labels “Heal,” “Charge,” and “Power.”
Tapping the “Heal” button with her finger highlighted each of the red dots on the cartoon body; tapping one of them displayed a confirmation prompt and highlighted a portion of the lower bar in green, far larger than the portion colored blue. The confirm option was greyed out and un-selectable. Tapping the “Charge” button brought up a blank screen with the spinning dots for a moment before displaying “4/250 | No compatible sources available.” Allie picked up the glass orb on a whim and the dots spun again before displaying “0/50” below the “4/250” from before. Three additional buttons appeared, a blue arrow pointing to the left, an orange arrow pointing to the right, and a teal circle in between. Tapping the blue arrow produced no effect, while tapping the orange arrow four times changed the numbers to “4/50” and “0/250.” She didn’t confirm her changes when prompted by pressing the teal circle and the numbers reverted. Tapping the “Power” button brought up a menu with three options: “Sleep,” “Restart,” and “Shut Down.” Allie didn’t try any of these options.
What should she do now?
⬅ - Enter a corridor to the left; investigate.
➡ - Enter a corridor to the right; investigate.
- Attempt to turn on a shower. Maybe clean up a little.
- Leave the room. Descend using the ladder back the other way.
- Investigate the dead creature. Maybe learn something?
- Tap the orange arrow four times and confirm the changes. [Needs eight votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
(Winners: / )
- Attempt to turn on a shower. Maybe clean up a little.
- Leave the room. Descend using the ladder back the other way.
- Investigate the dead creature. Maybe learn something?
- Tap the orange arrow four times and confirm the changes. [Needs eight votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
(Winners: / )
1
2
9
2
12
6
Scene 8
Allie let her wrist drop, trying to ignore the increasingly painful tingling from the bracelet’s needles. She didn’t dare take it off, not after what it had done for her. Instead, she tried to distract herself by investigating the dead creature. She gingerly stood and walked the few steps to the locker she had bashed its head open against, straining her eyes to make anything out in the dim light. There wasn’t much left above the neck to study and Allie looked away quickly, almost retching against the sight and smell. The rest of the creature had curled inwards on death, almost like a spider. On closer inspection, she was able to confirm the monster had no skin - she could trace the individual tendons and muscles. She wondered how it could survive without the protection that a layer of skin provided. Before she stood up, something caught her eye on the bottom of the creature’s left foot. It was faint and hard to see in the dim light, but Allie could swear there were a series of red letters burned into its muscles - a brand of sorts. She squinted and was able to make out the markings: “SHK-3 S/N 02338.” Then, fainter, below that, “PROPERTY OF THE FACTORY.”
Allie shuddered and moved away. The Factory. Was that where she was? It certainly could resemble a large industrial complex, with the concrete and pipes and low distant hum. But what kind of factory manufactures creatures like this? she wondered. No manufacturing facility in the world could create life like this, at least as far as she knew.
Moving quietly past the pitch black hallways branching off the main room, Allie made her way to the far end of the room and grasped a handle set into the wall beneath one of the shower heads. It creaked discouragingly when she turned it, breaking off flakes of rust that settled to the floor. She waited a few moments, listening for the sound of any water flow, but heard nothing. Allie was about to turn the handle back to its original position when she finally heard something - a distant clanging from below. She paused, waiting. The clanging grew closer and she could hear the rushing sound of liquid in the pipe now. Another few seconds passed and finally, the showerhead started to leak out a thick, viscous black substance onto the floor. After about twenty seconds, the sludge lessened and the flow rate increased, and after about a minute, the water spraying from the head seemed clean. Allie placed her right hand under it to test the water; it was cool, but warming up quickly. Before long, steam began to rise into the air from the contrast between the room’s chill and the hot water.
What now? [Allie will pick up and take the orb and canteen with her if she leaves the room.]
⬅ - Enter a corridor to the left, where the creature came from. Investigate.
➡ - Enter a corridor to the right, where the humming noise is loudest. Investigate.
- Just wash up a little with the water. [Requires 8 votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
- Fill the canteen with water from the shower. [Requires 8 votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
- Leave the room. Descend using the ladder down the hall.
(Winners: ➡ , , )
- Just wash up a little with the water. [Requires 8 votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
- Fill the canteen with water from the shower. [Requires 8 votes; can be done in conjunction with any other option.]
- Leave the room. Descend using the ladder down the hall.
(Winners: ➡ , , )
2
12
14
15
3
Scene 9
Allie let the hot water fall on her arms, then carefully washed the blood from her wounds. She nervously glanced around the room the entire time, on edge and worried that another creature might attack at any moment. None came. Feeling somewhat refreshed, she also turned the handle towards the cold side and filled up the canteen with much fresher water than had been in it previously, sipping a small amount to see if it actually was clean. She supposed she’d find out in a few hours if it was or wasn’t.
Then, it was time to move on. Allie picked up the orb as well as the canteen and quietly moved towards the closest corridor on the right. She stepped inside, overcome by impenetrable darkness. She strained her eyes, but nothing in the corridor (or room? The acoustics were weird) seemed to emit any light and she had nothing on her that was glowing after the orb had extinguished itself. If only she could get it to light up again.
Allie crept forward, feeling in front of her for any walls, and eventually found one. She traced it along to the right and left and found the side walls as well, forming a small rectangular room or corridor about ten feet long and five feet wide. Another bulkhead door was set into the far wall and Allie cranked it open, straining against the weight of the metal. The hum grew even louder as the seal was broken and air rushed into the room she had just opened. It was still completely dark, so Allie felt along the walls again to discern that this room was square and about 6 feet long for each wall. Another heavy bulkhead was set into the far wall, its metal vibrating slightly to the touch. Whatever was on the other side was clearly the source of the hum.
Along the left wall, she also managed to locate what felt like an ancient control panel. It was a metal panel with two vertical levers (both currently pointing down) and one horizontal lever (currently facing left, towards the door she entered from). There was some sort of plastic or enamel plate affixed above the panel and raised markings that somewhat resembled letters, but Allie couldn’t read the probable signage without light. The far door’s handle was stuck and wouldn’t budge.
What should she do?
[Any of these lever choices can be combined with any other choice. Each requires 8 votes.]
↔ - Flip the horizontal lever to the right.
↖ - Flip the left-hand vertical lever up.
↗ - Flip the right-hand vertical lever up.
- Attempt to open the door again, perhaps after flipping some levers.
⬅ - Go back, enter a corridor on the left and investigate.
- Go back, descend using the ladder.
- Use the "Charge" function on the bracelet; transfer some points to the orb. [Write-in suggestion, may be combined with any other choice, requires 8 votes.]
[Remember, you may write-in an option at any time if you think you have a good idea.]
(Winners: , (by coin flip), and ↔ by association)
- Attempt to open the door again, perhaps after flipping some levers.
⬅ - Go back, enter a corridor on the left and investigate.
- Go back, descend using the ladder.
- Use the "Charge" function on the bracelet; transfer some points to the orb. [Write-in suggestion, may be combined with any other choice, requires 8 votes.]
[Remember, you may write-in an option at any time if you think you have a good idea.]
(Winners: , (by coin flip), and ↔ by association)
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Scene 10
Allie brought her left wrist up and navigated the menus to the Charge section, moving two points from the bracelet to the orb and leaving two in each. She confirmed the move with the teal button and after a moment, the orb began to glow - faintly, a small fraction of its original luminance, but a glow nonetheless. Quickly, she held it up to the sign and was relieved to see letters emerge from the darkness into the dim blue-green light of the orb. Though not strong enough to illuminate more than two or three letters at a time, by holding it close and patiently deciphering the words, Allie could read the entire sign.
The horizontal lever was labeled “DOOR RELEASE,” while the two vertical levers were listed as “FAN CONTROL.” Above the labels was a short sentence written in a smaller font. “This airlock is exit only; please use decontamination lock to re-enter. Close both doors before operating release.”
Allie felt her way back to the entrance door and shoved it closed, then returned to the control panel, grasped the horizontal lever and pulled it to the right. There was a mechanical clanking sound from both doors and the lever resisted her movement, but before long, the clanking stopped and the lever slid easily to the other side. Allie made her way to the far door and found she was able to turn the handle. She stopped just short of pushing the door open, the metal vibrating against her fingertips. Did she really want to go out there?
- Open the door, exit through it.
- Open it and take a look/listen, but then close it and go somewhere else.
- Leave it closed, go somewhere else.
If Allie chooses to go somewhere else, where should she go?
➡ - A corridor to the right of the locker room.
- Back a ways, descend using the ladder.
(Winners: , ➡ )
- Open the door, exit through it.
- Open it and take a look/listen, but then close it and go somewhere else.
- Leave it closed, go somewhere else.
If Allie chooses to go somewhere else, where should she go?
➡ - A corridor to the right of the locker room.
- Back a ways, descend using the ladder.
(Winners: , ➡ )
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Scene 11
The door resisted her movement as she pushed it open, but with some persistence, Allie was able to break the seal and open the bulkhead. A fierce gust of wind blasted through, shoving against her body and almost throwing her back before she adjusted to the battering gale and shoved the door the rest of the way open. The wind lessened as the pressure equalized, but it now beat down on her head from above, a constant downwards force that pushed her towards the floor. Allie shielded her eyes and held the orb up as high as she could, but there was no ceiling or source of the wind in sight. She glanced around the rest of the room and saw she had emerged in the corner of two walls, with the wall to her right continuing forward and the door’s wall continuing an unknown distance to the left. The floor beneath her was not concrete, but an old metal catwalk that creaked gently as she placed one foot on it to test its strength. Remnants of a rusted and snapped safety railing dangled off the left side, though the catwalk itself seemed clean and mostly free of rust. Below, there was nothing but blackness. She couldn’t hear anything of importance, given the incredible din of the enormous fans that must be producing the gale.
Allie stepped back into the airlock and shut the door, shivering. The onrushing air had been cold, as if it had been piped in from outside and brought the November chill with it. Maybe she would come back here, but for now it seemed too dangerous. She would explore some other options first.
Allie made her way back into the locker room and headed for one of the corridors on the right, taking a quick detour to the other hallway on the left to see a locked bulkhead with a sign she could just make out after a minute of reading with the orb. “Entrance only; use other airlock to exit.” She headed into the right-hand corridor nearest the entrance.
She found herself in a room of similar size to the locker room, based on how sound echoed. After a few minutes of exploring, holding her hand out to avoid hitting a wall and bringing the orb close to anything of interest, Allie was able to determine the rough layout from the perspective of the main room. The left wall was primarily lined with sinks and a mirror that reflected the faint light of the orb, while the right was primarily lined with individual bathroom stalls. There were a handful of urinals towards the back wall, and the front wall had a few benches and a low counter. Everything in sight was completely clean, like the rest of quadrant D. Both of the right-hand corridors connected to this room through breaks in the line of stalls.
Out of curiosity, Allie tried a sink. It acted similarly to the shower from earlier, emitting some musty-smelling black sludge for about twenty seconds, then clear water that quickly washed it away. The toilet she investigated had fared similarly. The bowl was completely dry (though sparkling clean), but when she pressed the flush lever, it slowly filled with a disgusting mixture of the black sludge and water. Another flush took care of that, however, and the bowl filled with clear-looking water. She wondered at the age of this place; clearly it had been abandoned for some time, but not long enough to rust away the pipes. Also, where was the water coming from? Was someone still paying the water bill, or was it being dredged up on site? What was this black sludge in all the pipes, and why was everything so clean?
... Her injuries were starting to hurt again, now that she was less distracted with exploration. What next?
- Exit through the airlock onto the metal catwalk.
- Descend using the ladder back the other way.
- Conduct a more thorough search of this area. [This will take additional time and Allie may start getting hungry or tired. There’s no guarantee anything will be found. Requires eight votes; may be combined with any other option. Chance: a hidden challenge.]
(Winners: , )
- Exit through the airlock onto the metal catwalk.
- Descend using the ladder back the other way.
- Conduct a more thorough search of this area. [This will take additional time and Allie may start getting hungry or tired. There’s no guarantee anything will be found. Requires eight votes; may be combined with any other option. Chance: a hidden challenge.]
(Winners: , )
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Scene 12
Allie took the next few minutes - she wasn’t sure how long - to go over every inch of the rooms she had previously discovered, looking for anything else she may have missed. It took her quite some time, and she could feel the beginnings of hunger start to tug at her stomach, but she did eventually find something new under one of the sinks in a cabinet she had initially missed. A moderately bright light shone as she opened the door and Allie was excited to find another glass orb, smaller than the one she was already carrying, nestled between polished pipes.
She removed it from its hiding place and, remembering how this had worked previously, transferred its energy to the other orb, bringing its total up to 32. The larger orb brightened considerably and she was relieved to start to make out the dim shapes of walls and objects instead of just details a few inches away. She couldn’t comfortably carry both orbs and the canteen at the same time, and nothing would fit in her pockets, so Allie left it nestled in the cabinet. She could come back for it later if she found a bag, she supposed, and it wasn’t really very important right now.
Finally, she exited the locker room and headed back the way she had come, towards the ladder leading down further into the depths of this place. Those claw marks were really starting to sting, and Allie quietly worried about what might happen if they got infected. Suddenly, in the middle of the hallway, she remembered the bracelet. Swapping the charge from the orb and selecting the Heal options let her quickly tally up how much energy it would cost: about 25-30 for all of her current injuries, she estimated. But was that really a good idea? She only had 34 points available between the bracelet and the orb, and she was using most of them to see.
Regardless, Allie ran into another problem as she studied the ladder and psyched herself up to head down. She needed a hand free to climb safely (or two, preferably), but she was holding the orb in one hand and the canteen in the other. She might be able to cradle one or the other in her arms and free up a hand, but it wouldn’t be a guaranteed success. She could leave something up here, she supposed. Maybe she could come back and get it later.
[All options in this set require 8 votes and may be combined with any other option. If both and 
have 8 votes, will win.]
- Go back and get the other orb. [Will encumber Allie.]
- Heal herself fully. [Will drain between 25-30 points of charge.]
- Heal herself about halfway. [Will drain between 10-15 points of charge.]
- Go get the smaller orb, charge it with one point for light, then toss it down the hole to see if anything is visible at the bottom. [This is a write-in suggestion. Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Leave the canteen behind. Go down with the orb.
- Leave the orb behind. Go down with the canteen.
- Take both. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Actually, nevermind. Go check out the catwalk instead.
(Winners: , , )
and have 8 votes, will win.]
- Go back and get the other orb. [Will encumber Allie.]
- Heal herself fully. [Will drain between 25-30 points of charge.]
- Heal herself about halfway. [Will drain between 10-15 points of charge.]
- Go get the smaller orb, charge it with one point for light, then toss it down the hole to see if anything is visible at the bottom. [This is a write-in suggestion. Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Leave the canteen behind. Go down with the orb.
- Leave the orb behind. Go down with the canteen.
- Take both. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Actually, nevermind. Go check out the catwalk instead.
(Winners: , , )
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Scene 13
Allie set down the canteen and tapped at the bracelet, selecting the most painful injuries to prioritize and stopping once she had used up 12 points of charge. The orb was now noticeably dimmer, but she felt much better as the bracelet tingled on her wrist and the wounds quickly sealed themselves, seeming to accelerate the normal healing process in a matter of seconds and leaving not even a scar behind. She now had 22 points left in the orb and none in the bracelet. She didn’t dare heal the injury that showed on her left wrist, wondering if that would fuse the bracelet to her arm. Maybe she’d risk it later.
Anyway, Allie thought, turning her attention back to the hole. Maybe she could get a better look down there if she... Allie walked back to the locker room, picked up the smaller orb from under the sink, and charged it with a single point from the larger orb. It began to glow faintly and she held it over the pit, then dropped it, training her eyes on it as it fell. A second passed, then there was a distant shattering sound as it hit the floor and broke apart on impact. The light dissipated. Allie stood up, not sure what she had expected. At least she had an idea of how long the climb would be now - about three stories - and that there was a solid floor at the bottom.
Without further ado, she set the canteen down at the side of the hole to free up a hand, then grasped the larger orb tightly, definitely not wanting to drop that one too. Allie lowered herself into the hole and gripped the ladder with her left hand, feeling chips of old crumbling paint break away in her grasp. One rung, then another. Soon, she disappeared into the darkness. The orb was bright enough that she could see the sides of the shaft on either side - dull concrete of the same style as the rest of the tunnel - but not bright enough that she could see her feet. She went slowly, feeling carefully for each rung before committing to it and listening for any telltale creaks that might signal the ladder was about to give out.
With all these precautions, Allie was caught completely off guard when her foot touched a solid object below and she almost pulled back in surprise before she realized she had reached the bottom safely. She climbed off the ladder, her shoes crunching on the glass shards and mysteriously gooey interior of the smaller orb, and glanced around.
The ladder was the only object in sight. No walls or ceiling were visible; though a small amount of light from the tunnel above and her orb illuminated a dim circle around the base of the ladder, the rest of the room was shrouded in total darkness. The sound of trickling water emanated from in front of her, while every other direction was dead silent aside from the sound of occasional water droplets. The room sounded enormous, based on the cavernous echoes. What should she do?
- Head towards the water.
⏪ - Head in the opposite direction.
⬅ - Go left.
➡ - Go right.
- Actually, nevermind. Go check out the catwalk instead.
- Investigate the broken orb. [Chance: a risky challenge. Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other option.]
- Leave the orb here, go back up and get the canteen, then come back. [Chance: a simple challenge. Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other option.]
(Winners: , )
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Scene 14
Allie knelt down, careful to avoid the broken glass, and poked around at the remains of the shattered orb. The fragments of the outer shell were maybe half a finger-width thick and appeared to be made of ordinary glass, as far as she could tell. The interior goo was a dark blue, the consistency of honey, and gave off a dangerous tingle as she brought her hands close. Allie stepped away from the orb, brushing her hands to get rid of the static-charge feeling. She had no idea what was inside these things, but it didn’t seem safe to mess with outside of their protective shells. Her hands continued to feel weird as she backed away, the tingling feeling lingering in a highly worrying manner.
Holding the unbroken orb high, Allie carefully walked towards the sound of rushing water, eyeing the ladder over her shoulder every so often to ensure she could still see it. The ladder dutifully continued to be visible in its pool of dim light from above.
The floor began to grow slick with moisture as she continued and Allie almost slipped several times, her pace slowing to a crawl. The rushing water grew louder and louder, cascading into a roar. Droplets of water and then a fine mist began to collect on her skin until finally, the water was revealed in the darkness. Allie stopped next to a worn metal railing overlooking a rushing river. It was wider than her light could make out in the mist and continued indefinitely in both directions. The water flowed from left to right and was fed from dozens of smaller pipes spraying from the ceiling, bubbling up from the floor, or pouring in from the side of the channel. It seemed this was a central trough that many other pipes emptied into. Allie wondered where it went, but where it came from could also be interesting. The water felt uncomfortable on her hands, the ongoing tingling punctuated by tiny jolts with every droplet.
⏪ - Follow the river to its source.
⏩ - Follow the river to its conclusion.
- Search the rest of the enormous room.
- Return to the ladder; check out the catwalk instead.
- Wash her hands in the river. Maybe it'll get rid of this tingling. [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with any other choice.]
(Winners: , )
- Search the rest of the enormous room.
- Return to the ladder; check out the catwalk instead.
- Wash her hands in the river. Maybe it'll get rid of this tingling. [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with any other choice.]
(Winners: , )
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Scene 15
Allie gingerly stepped closer to the river and knelt down, gripping the safety railing with one hand. She carefully lowered her other arm towards the water until she could reach, intending to attempt to wash whatever was causing the tingling off her hands. She tried to just dip a finger in first to test the water, but between her hands growing numb and the slipperiness of the railing, her grip failed and she fell to the floor, her upper torso dangling over the river and her right hand submerged up to the wrist.
Allie screamed involuntarily as there was a sharp pop and a flash of light from her right hand and a surge of pain similar to touching a live wire. She brought her hand up and shuffled back from the water, inspecting the aftermath. No visible damage, and after a minute or so, her right arm felt normal again. She could barely feel her left hand at all and she was having a lot of trouble moving it. Carefully, Allie moved back to the river, grasped the railing, and repeated the process with her left hand, muffling her shout at the sudden burst of pain and sensation.
Afterwards, she decided to explore the room a little more before following the river in either direction. Holding the orb high, she wandered around the area until she had a fairly good idea of her surroundings. About twenty feet to the left of where she had first encountered the river, there was a break in the safety railing, a wide slope, and a set of stairs leading down to the water. Walking back from there, she didn’t quite reach the ladder before noticing a hulking shape looming out of the darkness. She nervously approached to determine it was clearly a forklift, though much older than the ones of the modern day. Along the left wall, near-perpendicular to the ladder, was a long steel garage door, closed and with no obvious way to open it.
Towards the back of the room, Allie had to start weaving her way through dozens of quiet and dark metal horizontal cylinders resembling industrial boilers. Thick insulated pipes connected them to the ceiling and other boilers. Along the right wall, the boilers continued nearly to the ladder, then stopped abruptly just behind a striped yellow and black line on the floor. Past the line, a series of grey metal cabinets lined the wall, each sporting a large and inviting dull red on-off switch. Every switch was set to the off position. Finally, there was a locked metal door next to the river on the right side of the room as it flowed into a grated hole in the wall, as well as a bulkhead door that appeared to be unlocked on the left side of the room next to the river as it flowed from a similarly grated opening. There was a long horizontal window next to the bulkhead, too covered in dust and grime to see through.
What now?
- Enter the forklift. See if it still has power. [Requires 8 votes; can be combined with any other option.]
- Turn on one of the grey cabinets.
- Turn on all of the grey cabinets.
- Enter the unlocked bulkhead near the river’s source.
(Winners: , )
- Enter the forklift. See if it still has power. [Requires 8 votes; can be combined with any other option.]
- Turn on one of the grey cabinets.
- Turn on all of the grey cabinets.
- Enter the unlocked bulkhead near the river’s source.
(Winners: , )
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Scene 16
Allie quietly made her way back to the grey metal cabinets along the right-hand wall and stared at the dull red switches on each of them, working up the nerve to make a move. After a few moments, she carefully reached out to the one on the end, grasped the switch, and shoved it upwards. There was a loud mechanical clunk, then a pause, then a slow whirring that slowly started to build. Allie gulped and moved on to the next cabinet, then the next, repeating the process with each one until she reached the end of the row.
With each switch flipped, the whirring grew louder and more powerful until a critical threshold was reached. Somewhere around three quarters of the way through the line, another mechanical clank sounded and dozens of overhead lights flickered on and began to warm up, filling the room with dull orange illumination. As she neared the end, Allie heard one final mechanical crash as some valve flew open in the ceiling and the sound of rushing liquid emanated from above. The boilers lit up, one by one, and began to creak and groan as their mechanisms slowly shook off years of disuse. She could also see the opposite side of the river now; it was a dull concrete wall identical to all the other walls in the room. The trough was about fifteen feet wide.
Allie stepped back from the wall towards the center of the room, cowering at the cacophony of noise as every machine in the area seemed to be coming back to life. She scampered over to the forklift, curious if her actions had affected it, and almost tripped over a thick black cable she hadn’t noticed before that connected a socket on the vehicle to a heavy duty outlet in the wall. The machine was unlocked and she could climb into the cabin, closing the door and gaining some minor respite from the mechanical din outside. Allie scanned the gauges and noted that instead of a gas gauge like she would have expected, the forklift had a battery readout that was currently at 0%, though the needle was wobbling and moving slowly to the right. Beyond that, the controls seemed fairly straightforward - levers for the forks, pedals for movement, and a steering wheel to turn. She could probably drive it if she wanted, once its battery was charged up to some degree.
What now?
- Turn off the cabinets again. [Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other option.]
- Try to find a way to shut down the boilers. [Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other choice. Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Enter the unlocked bulkhead near the river’s source. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk instead. Maybe something’s changed.
- Charge the forklift with the orb, then use it to do... something. [What do you want to do with the forklift? Will take 10-15 points of charge.]
(Winner: )
- Turn off the cabinets again. [Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other option.]
- Try to find a way to shut down the boilers. [Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any other choice. Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Enter the unlocked bulkhead near the river’s source. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk instead. Maybe something’s changed.
- Charge the forklift with the orb, then use it to do... something. [What do you want to do with the forklift? Will take 10-15 points of charge.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 17
Allie left the forklift to charge and made her way through the din to the unlocked bulkhead near the river’s source. She cranked it open with some effort and stepped inside, looking around in the dull orange overhead lights.
Her foot went through the floor.
Allie yelped and fell backwards, pulling her leg back and scraping against the splintered wood that had given out. More of the floor cracked and tumbled down as she scooted backwards onto the concrete of the doorframe. A moment passed as the dust settled and she again took in the scene, uninjured but breathing heavily from the shock.
The floor, unlike everything else in the complex so far, was made of rotted wooden planks instead of dull grey concrete. The metal support beams still held, but the planks themselves had not and now a gaping hole in the floor separated Allie from the rest of the room. She might be able to climb over the support beams to cross the gap, or around the edges on the equipment bolted to the walls, but she would risk falling into the two story pit that lay revealed beneath. Allie could see another broken wooden floor about one story down and a door set into the wall, then a grated metal floor at the bottom, covered in wooden debris. A single lonely skeleton lay sprawled and partially crushed amongst the debris.
The room itself was likely a control center of some sort. Old panels of buttons and gauges were set into metal consoles bolted to the walls. Some were labeled, but Allie couldn’t read any of them from here. She could also see what appeared to be an intercom, a wall-mounted safe or lockbox with a key still inserted in the lock, and a wooden door on the opposite side of the room, about twenty feet away.
What should she do?
[Each choice in this block requires 8 votes and may be combined with other options. Each additional destination invokes a separate check to make it across the gap safely, which is a chancy to straightforward challenge depending on the gap being crossed and the method of crossing.]
- Check out the wooden door and the next room.
- Investigate the control consoles.
- Try to open the lockbox.
If Allie is going to investigate objects in the room, how should she reach them? [One option is likely safer than the other, but Allie doesn’t know which. The chances are hidden here, but will be between chancy and straightforward..]
- Cross using the support beams.
- Cross using the consoles bolted to the walls.
- Leave the orb behind when climbing to free up both hands. [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with either other option. Allie will transfer the orb’s charge to the bracelet just in case.]
If Allie is not going to investigate the room, what will she do otherwise?
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk instead. Maybe something’s changed.
- Wait for the forklift to charge, then use it to do... something. Current suggestion: open the garage door. [What do you want to do with the forklift? Will take some time.]
- Attempt to charge the orb from the forklift. [Write-in. Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any of the other two options.]
(Winners: , , , )
- Check out the wooden door and the next room.
- Investigate the control consoles.
- Try to open the lockbox.
If Allie is going to investigate objects in the room, how should she reach them? [One option is likely safer than the other, but Allie doesn’t know which. The chances are hidden here, but will be between chancy and straightforward..]
- Cross using the support beams.
- Cross using the consoles bolted to the walls.
- Leave the orb behind when climbing to free up both hands. [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with either other option. Allie will transfer the orb’s charge to the bracelet just in case.]
If Allie is not going to investigate the room, what will she do otherwise?
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk instead. Maybe something’s changed.
- Wait for the forklift to charge, then use it to do... something. Current suggestion: open the garage door. [What do you want to do with the forklift? Will take some time.]
- Attempt to charge the orb from the forklift. [Write-in. Requires 8 votes, can be combined with any of the other two options.]
(Winners: , , , )
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Scene 18
Allie carefully set the orb down on the ground after transferring the charge to the bracelet, then sat down on the floor and scooched forward until she was straddling one of the metal support beams, grasping it with her hands tightly. She took a deep breath, trying to avoid looking down into the pit beneath her, and moved forward. The beam creaked gently as she shuffled along and she found herself holding her breath at the subtle shifting as it bowed ever so slightly under her weight. Before too long, however, she had made it next to the lockbox. Now was the moment she had been dreading; she had to somehow move between this beam and the one adjacent in order to get close enough to reach.
Allie carefully leaned over and grasped the next beam. No, she couldn’t pull herself over like this. Maybe if she... kind of... shimmied over with her legs like this and then... there! Moving one leg over, then one arm, Allie had a terrifying moment of hanging between both beams and staring down at the skeleton far below, then she managed to get one more limb onto the other beam and she was mostly home free. She sat up on the beam and reached up to open the lockbox.
The key turned easily and the cabinet opened. Inside, one intriguing item and another one hung from hooks. The first was a smaller silver key, shiny and labeled on its tag as “IGN.” Allie glanced over the second item once, ignored whatever it was, then closed the cabinet after grabbing and pocketing the IGN key.
She carefully shuffled along the beam and raised herself up to get a closer look at the control panels. They were old and covered in dust, but most of the labels were still legible. She could see controls to open the locked door on the other side of the river, open the garage door, enable or disable the boilers and cabinets, turn the lights on or off, and maybe a few other things that she skimmed over and ignored; they probably weren’t relevant.
Her head hurt.
So, what now? [Each option in this block requires 8 votes and may be combined with any other option.]
- Unlock the door by the river.
- Open the garage door.
- Disable the boilers.
- Disable the cabinets.
- Turn off the lights.
After that, then what? [The rest of the options here depend a lot on what choices are made in the other block, so write-ins are encouraged here.]
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk. Maybe something’s changed.
- Check the cabinet again, for whatever reason. There's nothing left in there of value. [Write-in. Chance: a hidden challenge.]
(Winners: , , )
- Unlock the door by the river.
- Open the garage door.
- Disable the boilers.
- Disable the cabinets.
- Turn off the lights.
After that, then what? [The rest of the options here depend a lot on what choices are made in the other block, so write-ins are encouraged here.]
⬆ - Go back up, check out the catwalk. Maybe something’s changed.
- Check the cabinet again, for whatever reason. There's nothing left in there of value. [Write-in. Chance: a hidden challenge.]
(Winners: , , )
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Scene 19
Allie pressed the button to open the locked door by the river and an indicator light illuminated. She glanced out the doorway, not seeing anything different about the room, then continued on to toggle the lever labeled “warehouse.” A mechanical rumbling sounded as what she assumed was the garage door she couldn’t see from this position rose up into the ceiling. Now she just had to get out of this room and...
Wait a minute, hadn’t there been something else in the lockbox? She hadn’t picked it up and she couldn’t remember what it was. Allie re-opened the cabinet, glancing again at the interior. There was just the empty peg and that other thing, and nothing else. She closed it again, scratching her head. What had she been looking for again?
Wait.
There was definitely something weird going on. Allie opened the locker again, being careful to keep her eyes averted from whatever was in there. Carefully, she reached inside and groped around until she felt a thin plastic rectangle, about the size of a credit card, on a short lanyard hanging from a hook. Allie grasped it and shoved it into her pocket, still not looking at whatever it was. This is super weird.
What should Allie do n- hang on a minute; there had been some controls on the panel that had done the same thing! Allie stood up on the beam, getting careless in her excitement, and scanned the control panel again. She looked over all the controls she had already seen, then a few more in the corner, but nothing else. Damn, I was sure there had been somet- WAIT A SECOND.
Allie closed her eyes and moved her hand over to the corner where she was sure there were no relevant controls. Sure enough, her fingers met one lever, one set of two buttons, and one separate button larger than the rest, as well as an indicator light she obviously couldn’t see. She felt her mouth curve into a smile. They thought they were so clever, whoever made this... concealment field. Now who was the clever one?
What should she do with the controls? [Each choice in this block requires 8 votes and may be combined with any other choice.]
- Push the one larger button.
- Push one of the two smaller buttons.
- Move the lever to the opposite position.
After that, then what? [If something changes in the room due to the above block, this choice is not binding. Crossing back into the room is a simple challenge.]
- Go check out the freshly unlocked door.
- Go check out the freshly opened garage door.
(Winners: , , )
- Push the one larger button.
- Push one of the two smaller buttons.
- Move the lever to the opposite position.
After that, then what? [If something changes in the room due to the above block, this choice is not binding. Crossing back into the room is a simple challenge.]
- Go check out the freshly unlocked door.
- Go check out the freshly opened garage door.
(Winners: , , )
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Scene 20
Cautiously, Allie grasped the hidden lever first and pulled it towards her. It moved with no resistance and there was no indication of any change. She’d have to look around later. Then she felt around for the larger standalone button, hovered her finger over it, and pressed it.
A jolt of electricity shot through her body and Allie cried out, stumbling back a step as her muscles tensed and spasmed. Her foot passed through empty air behind the beam she had been standing on and she toppled backwards. She felt her back slam into the beam behind her, sending a spike of pain through her spine, then her legs lost purchase and she fell into the pit. Allie screamed and closed her eyes as she fell, watching the ground rush up to meet her.
She hit the pile of rotten wood with a crunch and sank into it, the softer material absorbing some of the impact. She gasped for breath, clawing her way out of the pile and scrambling to her feet, pressing a hand against her back as her spine throbbed with agony. The skeleton grinned at her from its resting place among the debris. Allie glanced around as she caught her breath, steadfastly not looking at the bracelet that she could see was flashing red with her new injury.
She was standing at the bottom of a two story pit, square and about 20x20 feet. The walls were rough concrete without significant handholds and with a shattered wooden floor one story up, one story below where she had fallen from. The floor was a fine metal grate and covered in broken wood; the shaft disappeared into the darkness below and she couldn’t see the bottom. A single metal door was set into the wall; it was unlocked but wouldn’t budge no matter how hard Allie pushed or pulled. The word “VITRIFIED” was sprayed across the door in flaking red paint. There were only two other features of note in the room. The first was a rather large grate covering an air duct, possibly large enough for Allie to squeeze through, though it would be a tight fit. She tugged at the covering and it snapped away, the rusted screws holding it in place breaking off. Cool, dry air rose faintly from the duct and any light faded to total darkness after a few feet. The second was a long, rusted ladder bolted to the concrete wall and half-hidden by a pile of wooden debris choking the opening in the grated floor. It led down, deep into the darkness, farther than she could see.
Allie was starting to feel the exertion catching up to her; she was starting to feel tired as well as thirsty. She wished she still had that canteen. She also mustered the nerve to check the bracelet; it listed a “high severity” injury on her spine in addition to the lower severity cuts from earlier. She could feel a disturbingly numb tingling beginning to spread from the ache in her lower back towards her legs; she should probably fix that before too much longer.
What now? [Choose one option in each block.]
- Use the bracelet to heal all injuries. [Will drain approximately 20 points of charge.]
- Heal everything except the injury where the bracelet had punctured her wrist. [Will drain 15-20 points.]
- Only heal the spinal injury. [Will drain 10-15 points.]
❤ - Don’t heal anything.
- Crawl through the vent, into the darkness.
- Climb down the ladder, into the darkness.
- Attempt to climb back out of the pit. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge. This may take a long time and may injure Allie.]
- Attempt to break open the door. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. This may take a long time and may injure Allie.]
- Investigate the wood and the skeleton. Is there anything else here? [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with any other option. Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winners: , , )
- Use the bracelet to heal all injuries. [Will drain approximately 20 points of charge.]
- Heal everything except the injury where the bracelet had punctured her wrist. [Will drain 15-20 points.]
- Only heal the spinal injury. [Will drain 10-15 points.]
❤ - Don’t heal anything.
- Crawl through the vent, into the darkness.
- Climb down the ladder, into the darkness.
- Attempt to climb back out of the pit. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge. This may take a long time and may injure Allie.]
- Attempt to break open the door. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. This may take a long time and may injure Allie.]
- Investigate the wood and the skeleton. Is there anything else here? [Requires 8 votes, may be combined with any other option. Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winners: , , )
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Scene 21
Allie tapped at the bracelet and gasped as she heard her spine crack, her back jerking back into place in a very unsettling motion. She caught her breath after the healing was complete, feeling much more stable. The bracelet now read 8/250.
Next, she started shifting some of the broken wood around, wincing every so often at the jagged edges and wishing she had gloves. Still, she was able to uncover the ladder enough that she could descend. Additionally, she rifled through the debris around the skeleton, feeling distinctly uneasy as she eyed its permanent grin. After a few moments, she was able to locate a small object covered in tattered, rotten cloth. She carefully unwrapped it and turned it over in her hands, not entirely sure what its purpose was. The object was about the size and shape of a medium-sized egg, made of a thin, clear outer shell containing a tiny bell that was floating in a soup of glittery, purple, partially transparent liquid. She shook the egg, but no sound emitted at all. The shell felt fragile, as if it could break apart without much effort and release its contents. Allie was relieved to find she could fit it in her pocket comfortably without much risk of it breaking. At least as long as she didn’t overextend her leg or move around too quickly. She’d have to be very careful with this thing.
With that, there was nothing more for her here. Allie took several deep breaths to try and steady herself, then grasped onto the ladder and began descending into the darkness. The rungs were rusted and left an orange coating on her hands, but they felt solid enough. Still, the enormous vertical distance below her was enough to make Allie dizzy. She felt sweat beginning to rise on her palms and she cursed her nervousness, knowing this might loosen her grip. Still, there was no way she was going into that vent. Down she went.
After a few minutes, the light from above faded and left Allie in pitch darkness.
After a while, she started to lose track of time. Had it been fifteen minutes? A half hour? Longer? There was nothing but the monotonous motions of climbing deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Earth.
After even longer, Allie began to get tired. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, hanging onto a rusted metal rung part way down a shaft that could reach to the center of the planet for all she knew. Her mouth was terribly dry. She kept going.
Deep below, she thought she caught a glimpse of some light. Was she imagining things? She kept going.
It was definitely light! An orange glow from the depths. She kept going.
A distant vibration began to thrum in her ears. It was lower than noise, but she could still feel it humming through her bones. The light grew closer. She could see the bottom of the shaft now. She kept going.
Allie stepped off the ladder onto a loose mound of black gravel, slipped, and fell. She tumbled down the slope and landed in a heap about a dozen feet away, bruised, battered, and exhausted. She had no idea how long she had been climbing. The vibration she had been hearing was now a distant roar, crackling like a fire. The air smelled of soot and ash. Allie let herself rest a moment before slowly bringing her head up to look around.
She was lying on a pile of coal somewhere in the midst of an enormous cavern. The ceiling was 50 feet high or more, and no walls were visible. The room just stretched on and on until details melted into the haze. Dozens of support pillars stood tall, connecting the ceiling and floor; the ladder she had climbed down was bolted to one of these. Dozens or hundreds of massive furnaces lay dotted around the landscape, some lit and burning brightly, releasing orange light across the scene. Others stood dark and silent. All rose about 3/4 of the way to the ceiling, then were connected by pipes wider than Allie was tall that rose into the roof. The floor was entirely covered in mountains of coal, some reaching dozens of feet high and some low enough to almost reveal the concrete below. Allie felt herself starting to sweat in the hot, humid air as she peered up at the ceiling, looking closer at something that had caught her eye. After a moment of searching, she saw it. Gleaming metal tracks criss-crossed the ceiling high above, resembling inverted monorail tracks she had seen in the world above.
A deep, bellowing note sounded far off in the distance to Allie’s left and she jumped. It sounded as if someone had blasted a single tone on a tuba. The sound faded, but the nervousness it created did not. Allie shivered despite the heat. She didn’t think she had the strength to climb back up even if she wanted to. What now?
- Walk to the nearest lit furnace and investigate.
- Walk to the nearest dark furnace and investigate.
- Huddle down in the coal for a while. Try to rest.
⬆ - Walk to the nearest support pillar and investigate.
- Walk to the left; try and locate the sound.
- Wander in one direction for a while. Try to spot other points of interest.
(Winner: )
- Walk to the nearest lit furnace and investigate.
- Walk to the nearest dark furnace and investigate.
- Huddle down in the coal for a while. Try to rest.
⬆ - Walk to the nearest support pillar and investigate.
- Walk to the left; try and locate the sound.
- Wander in one direction for a while. Try to spot other points of interest.
(Winner: )
3
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Scene 22
Allie let out a shaky breath. She was exhausted and trying to make more progress in this state likely wouldn’t go well. She had to rest, at least for a little while. Quietly, Allie dug into the side of the coal pile, pushing herself further in and allowing rocks to crumble down and rest on top of her. She didn’t want to be seen and that deep, bellowing note made her very nervous. Before long, she was coated in coal dust and nearly buried under hundreds of the little black rocks. She let her eyes drift closed and felt consciousness begin to leave her.
The glow of the nearby furnaces burned low and darkness took her vision; though she slept lightly, blinking awake at the sound of distant horns multiple times, she still maintained enough composure to benefit from the rest. Nothing moved in her vision aside from the dimming tongues of flames from the nearby furnaces as they slowly flickered out.
What finally woke her for good was a train horn. Allie started awake at the harsh, blaring note - far louder and less musical than the deep bellowing sounds she had been hearing. There was a loose clattering noise as she extricated herself from the pile of coal, climbing unsteadily to her feet to look around. The area was mostly dark, the furnaces closest to her either extinguished or burning low. Orange light still flickered off in the haze, but from the direction the horn had sounded came a much brighter and whiter light.
A long train traveled across the cavern roof, gliding along the rails she had spotted earlier. The train was the dull grey color of unpainted metal and at least twenty cars long, though it was moving too fast to count precisely. A bright white headlight shone from the engine, bathing the ground in harsh illumination. Allie squinted, trying to keep from being blinded. A clattering roar began to sound as the train approached, both from its movement along the tracks and - Allie leaned forward as if to see better - from the avalanche of coal being dumped out of the cars and onto the piles covering the ground. The rocks fell like rain, slamming down amongst their fellows and battering against the sides of furnaces. The horn sounded again and Allie glanced up in fear, tracing the tracks along the ceiling.
She sighed in relief; it wouldn’t come near her. She watched as the train continued its journey, dropping hundreds of tons of coal, then disappearing into the distance with additional honks from its horn. She glanced back down to ground level just in time to spot a furnace, previously dark and dead, ignite and flare back to life with a distant crackling. She squinted into the haze and thought she could make out some sort of humanoid form tending the fire.
Allie grimaced and swallowed with difficulty. She was very thirsty. At least she felt less tired now. What next?
- Investigate the recently-ignited furnace. Stay concealed until she can see what’s there. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- Approach a nearby dark furnace; investigate.
[Votes for both train options will be combined for the purposes of determining whether Allie should follow the tracks or do something else. If they, together, win, the option with more votes will be chosen.]
- Follow the tracks in the direction the train was going.
- Follow the tracks in the direction the train came from.
⬆ - Walk to the nearest support pillar and investigate.
- Walk in the opposite direction from the recently lit furnace. Try to spot other points of interest.
(Winner: )
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Scene 23
Allie had to investigate that furnace. What if there were other people down here? She might be able to get help or some additional information. She started off in that direction, moving slowly over the piles of coal and being careful to avoid sliding. Suddenly she remembered the fragile bell-egg in her pocket and felt for it. No leaks, no cracks that she could feel. Good.
As she continued towards the furnace, picking her way over the loose piles of coal with some difficulty, Allie began to second-guess herself. She had seen a humanoid figure before in this place; it had been that horrible skinless creature that had almost killed her upstairs. What if this figure was like that? She couldn’t move quickly in this terrain, she had no weapons, and the bracelet was almost out of charge; she wasn’t sure if it would be able to save her from another near-fatal injury. She almost slowed to a stop and went a different way, but her curiosity won out and she kept going. Hopefully she could stay hidden and observe for a while first.
Before too much longer, Allie was climbing the last hill between herself and the figure. The furnace burned hot and loud on the other side, hopefully masking her movements. She reached the top of the pile and peeked over, staying low to avoid detection. A dirty human man worked at the furnace, digging into the coal with a dull metal shovel and flinging the rocks into the machine’s burning maw. His clothes were tattered, filthy, and almost unrecognizable. Beneath them, he looked strong but malnourished, his muscles grown from the heavy labor but being consumed to keep the rest of him alive. He worked at a moderate pace, slow enough to avoid exhaustion but faster than a total crawl. She couldn’t see his face from this angle.
Out of an abundance of caution, Allie stayed put for another few minutes as the man continued to work. A thin metal pipe rising from the ground near the furnace with a pump handle caught her eye as she watched and she wondered what its purpose was. It resembled a hand pump for water, which she would be very grateful for. Almost as if on cue, the man paused for a moment, wiped his brow, and glanced around nervously. Allie ducked down further and he didn’t seem to notice her. He left the shovel stuck in the ground and began to pump the lever on the pipe, releasing a clear liquid Allie assumed was water. He let it pour over his face and drank a few mouthfuls, then returned to his shovel and got back to work.
Allie wasn’t sure how long he would stay here and she wanted to decide how to handle the situation before he left. How should she approach this?
- Reveal her presence. Talk to the man. [Chance: an almost guaranteed challenge.]
- Wait until he leaves the shovel again, then sneak down, grab it, and attack him. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Stay put until he leaves.
- Throw the bell-egg at him. [Chance: an almost guaranteed challenge. This choice is potentially deadly.]
(Winner: )
- Reveal her presence. Talk to the man. [Chance: an almost guaranteed challenge.]
- Wait until he leaves the shovel again, then sneak down, grab it, and attack him. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Stay put until he leaves.
- Throw the bell-egg at him. [Chance: an almost guaranteed challenge. This choice is potentially deadly.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 24
Allie hesitated a moment, then raised herself up from behind the top of the hill, now visible to the man if he were looking in her direction, and kicked a few loose rocks of coal down the pile towards him. He quickly spun around and glanced upwards, then froze. “H-hello?” Allie squeaked out, her voice almost inaudible under the roar of the furnace.
The man stared at her for another few moments before hissing out something in response. “What’re you doing? You’ll kill us both!”
She slid down the pile a few feet, now about half of the way to the bottom. “Sorry, what? What am I doing? I don’t understand.”
“Where’s your shovel? Why aren’t you working? Do you want them to know?”
Allie slid down to the base of the pile and held her hands up placatingly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I’m not from here; I’m from the outside. What do you mean?”
At the word “outside,” the man froze. His breathing grew shallow. “O-outside?” Allie stepped back a pace as he moved forward. “I need to get out. Why are you here? Take me with you.” He lurched forward and grasped her shoulders, his breath warm on her face and the unpleasant scent of general uncleanliness washing over her.
Allie felt her calves pressed against the mound of coal as she backed up as far as she could. She gently moved her arms up between his and pushed him back. He released his grip and bounced backwards a few steps, still fixated on her face. “I can get you out of here,” she said, unsure if she was being truthful. “But I need some information first. What is this place? Why are you working these furnaces? Who are the ‘they’ you mentioned?”
The man nodded vigorously. “Okay okay okay. Okay. But you need to work while I tell. They know when you don’t.” He dug around the base of the furnace for a few moments, then popped back up with a dull metal shovel similar to his own. “Take this and work. I’ll tell.”
Allie nervously accepted the shovel and dug into one of the many nearby mounds of coal, tipping the rocks into the mouth of the furnace. The man nodded again, then grasped his own shovel and began to work alongside her as he talked.
“You know this is the Factory. This level is the place where power is made. These ovens burn rocks and heat water up there.” He paused a moment. “We call it Hell. It’s hot and deadly and painful. But we must work.
“There are things out there that make sure we work. If not enough ovens are lit, they kill. If they find you not working, they kill. If they are hungry, they kill. They are good at finding us, even when we hide. So we work to stay alive.
“But we still need food and water and sleep. Water is easy; you just drink from these pipes. Sleep is harder; you need to hide very good. Food is hardest. I hear tales from old ones that there used to be food on the trains. Now, there is only coal. We need to be smart to find old food not yet bad. Or we need to be sneaky to hunt little things down here. And all the time not working, they might kill us.
“I am Daron, by the way. Who are you? And-” he lowered his voice. “How we getting out of here?”
Throughout the exchange, he had maintained his gaze on Allie, staring at her with an intensity that made her extremely uncomfortable. He had clearly been down here long enough to go at least a little bit mad. She had to respond in some way to his question, but she might also be able to get some more information. What should she say?
“How are we getting out of here?”
- Up a ladder. Climb one of the support pillars.
- On the train. There must be some way to get up to it.
- On an elevator. How else would supervisors get down here?
Should Allie ask any additional questions? [Write-ins welcome. Each choice requires 8 votes to ask.]
- “You mentioned ‘we.’ How many others like you are down here?”
- “What do you know about the train? Schedules, routes, and so on?”
- “What do you know about the ‘things?’ Have you seen one?”
- “Have you tried to escape before? What went wrong?”
- “How far have you explored down here? Is it all like this or are there other structures?”
(Winners: , , , )
- Up a ladder. Climb one of the support pillars.
- On the train. There must be some way to get up to it.
- On an elevator. How else would supervisors get down here?
Should Allie ask any additional questions? [Write-ins welcome. Each choice requires 8 votes to ask.]
- “You mentioned ‘we.’ How many others like you are down here?”
- “What do you know about the train? Schedules, routes, and so on?”
- “What do you know about the ‘things?’ Have you seen one?”
- “Have you tried to escape before? What went wrong?”
- “How far have you explored down here? Is it all like this or are there other structures?”
(Winners: , , , )
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Scene 25
“We... I came down here on a ladder on one of the support pillars. Uh, th-that one, to be specific.” Allie pointed over her shoulder at the pillar she was fairly sure was the one she had climbed down. They all looked the same. She tried to ignore that thought for now. “We can get back up that way, then work on getting out of the Factory from there.” She paused a moment, then remembered his first question. “My name is Allie, by the way. It’s good to meet you, Daron.”
He stared over her at the pillar. “Too tall,” he said softly. “Others have tried to climb up. Some come back, too tired to go on. Some fall. Once, one made it up. Door at top, locked. He had to climb back down. Took hours and hours. Never worth it.” His gaze rose to the ceiling where the pillar disappeared into the shadows. “But maybe this time...”
Allie waited a few moments before asking another question. “You keep talking about others down here. How many are there? Is there a strong community? What’s it like?”
Daron refocused on her, his eyes darting away from the pillar. “Many here. More than I count. And Hell a big place, probably even more I haven’t met. We take care of each other. Some make families, some stay lone. But we all in the same place, so we all stick together. All us against those... things.”
“What do you know about the ‘things,’” Allie asked. “Have you ever seen one?”
Daron paused a moment and got a faraway look in his eyes. He shuddered through his whole body. “Yes.” He took a deep breath. “Tall, thin. Like a man, but stretched. Strong, flexible. Too strong. And no head, just a horn. Like a... a-” he seemed to be struggling for the words. “-a... an instrument. Music. They grab you and rip you. Too strong. They don’t need to see you, just hear or smell. They very very good at hear you. Too good.”
Allie wasn’t entirely sure what he was getting at with his description of their heads, but she had a mental image of a tall man with a tuba stuck on its head. She hoped to never find out if she was right. “That sounds terrible,” she said. “How large is this place? Is there anything else around besides these furnaces and coal?”
“Yes.” Daron’s movements were slow and he seemed distracted, presumably thinking about the creatures. “Yes, more things down here. If you go far enough, there is an end. Big wall, too long to walk. No doors, just rock. Sometimes hurts head to get too close to wall, so we stay away. There other things too. Over there-” he pointed in the direction opposite where Allie had come from. “- is a big hole. Big, big hole. Only one here. Too deep to see. Scary. Don’t like. Over there-” he pointed about 20 degrees to the right of where Allie had come from. “- and some other places, is a... a pipe-tower. Made of things like this.” He gestured to the hand pump. “It has a big platform near the roof. Sometimes trains stop there. Sometimes the... things... there too; they meet train. Not often though. Some once tried to get out on train. Doors wouldn’t open, need key. The things came. Bad, bad. Lots died. If door open, though...” He shook his head. “No, you right. Climb is good. No things. Hopefully.”
Allie nodded, trying to sort through his words as she drank from the hand pump and washed the sweat from her face. It was so hot and humid down here. There was a big hole in one direction, then what sounded like a train station in the opposite direction. Plus, a wall around the whole place that sometimes made your head hurt? A nearby low, musical note interrupted her thoughts and Daron yelped. “They close! Quick, what do? We stay and work or we run?” He hopped on the spot nervously. “They normally okay if we work, but sometimes not. And you are not from here; don’t know if they be okay with you!”
- Work. [Chance: a modest challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Run. [Chance: a risky challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Hide. [Chance: a tough challenge. Potentially deadly.]
(Winner: )
13
5
2
Scene 26
Allie felt her heart rate rise instantly. “We... stay here and work. Running isn’t a good idea. You said they can hear and smell well; they’ll catch up.” She picked up her shovel again and resumed carrying coal again, her eyes darting around to catch a glimpse of the creature, whenever it might appear. Daron toiled alongside her, breathing heavily out of nervousness.
The horn sounded again, low and close. She could hear its footsteps now, slow and lumbering, crunching down the coal. She still couldn’t see anything, but it would appear from her left when it finally did deign to show up. Breathe, Allie. It’ll be fine. You’re working; that’s what they want.
Her rationalizations fled when the monster stepped around the side of the coal pile and stalked toward her. It was tall, maybe seven or eight feet even when hunched slightly. Its limbs were long and spindly, but no thicker than a normal human arm, so they were far too thin proportionally. Its general body plan was humanoid, and with the exception of its head, it could pass as human; albeit a grossly distended human with long, tapering, bloody fingers. But its head was the real shock. True to Daron’s description, the creature’s neck morphed seamlessly into what appeared to be a brass pipe, flaring out into a bell after a few inches as one would find on a tuba or similar instrument. It wore tattered pants that had once been upper class and the remnants of a suit jacket with no undershirt. Its skin was coal-black and powerful muscles were evident beneath it. The bell that was its head vibrated as it blew out another note, quieter than the previous ones and somehow evoking a sense of danger. It stooped low and began to move more slowly, approaching Allie with its bell angled towards her.
She could feel her heart pounding, flooding her system with adrenaline and begging her to run or fight or do something, but she stayed firm, carefully continuing to add fuel to the furnace even as the bell-headed creature stalked forward and stood behind her, close enough to feel the heat radiating from its body. It bent forward and she felt a breeze as it inhaled, sucking air in through its bell and producing a strange off-key note. It paused for several seconds, considering. Daron had his eyes squeezed shut and was working by touch. Allie couldn’t blame him.
The monster blew out a shriek on its horn, much louder than before. Allie dropped her shovel and covered her ears, her head ringing from the powerful blast. She felt a hot, vice-like hand grip onto her forearms and began to rise into the air. Allie yelled and kicked at the creature as it lifted her up, but it held her at arm’s length so she couldn’t reach it and with her arms restrained, she couldn’t access any of the items in her pockets either. It held her for a moment, considering, and the scene grew quiet. In her peripheral vision, she could see Daron cowering and continuing to tend the furnace.
It pulled its crushing hands apart, just a little farther than before. Allie began to yell and struggle again as she felt tendons and joints in her arms strain, threatening to tear apart. The creature blew its horn again with a higher pitch as she screamed, giving her arms another tug to the point where she was afraid her shoulders would pop out of their sockets. Then it released her left arm, now tingling as blood rushed back past the previous constriction, and grasped her around the torso. It repeated the maneuver with its other hand and gently raised her up above its head, letting her dangle at least ten feet in the air. With a quick whipping motion and a few higher-pitched blasts of its horn, the creature tossed Allie easily a dozen feet upwards, letting her fall back down and catching her with a crushing grip around her waist.
Time froze for a moment as she heard a cracking noise in her pocket and, with a flash, she remembered the egg.
There was a blast of all-encompassing blue light accompanied by the tolling of a gargantuan bell. Allie was thrown heavily to the ground and lay there, stunned, until the conflagration subsided. She opened her eyes seconds later and pushed herself to a kneeling position, deafened and ears ringing in the aftermath of the explosion. There was a sizeable burn mark on her left hip where the egg had been stored, and her jeans and the lower portion of her shirt were in tatters. The bell-head monster lay on the ground a few feet away, limbs charred and crumbling, smoke rising from its bell. It wasn’t moving. Small blue flames licked at the coal nearby.
Allie brought the bracelet up to her face and was greeted with a multitude of new injuries: strain on her arms, crushing on her torso, burns on her hip. None of them were listed as “high severity” or “critical,” so she decided to declare this interaction a win, even though the mounting agony in her leg didn’t agree. A portion of the bell-headed creature crumbled and broke off. It was clearly dead. Daron lay on the ground near the furnace, laboriously getting to his feet and rubbing his ears. Her hearing started to return as she could begin to make out a faint sizzling from the corpse and dozens of musical horns far off in the distance. What should Allie do now?
[Choices in this block require 8 votes and may be combined with any other option.]
- Search the creature’s body. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Tap the last of the bracelet’s charge and heal the highest-priority injuries; i.e. the burn on her hip.
After that, where should they go?
- The big hole Daron described.
- The train station Daron described.
⬆ - The ladder on the support pillar Allie came down on.
- Some other furnace; just away from here.
(Winners: , )
- Search the creature’s body. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Tap the last of the bracelet’s charge and heal the highest-priority injuries; i.e. the burn on her hip.
After that, where should they go?
- The big hole Daron described.
- The train station Daron described.
⬆ - The ladder on the support pillar Allie came down on.
- Some other furnace; just away from here.
(Winners: , )
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Scene 27
The horns in the distance meant other creatures had heard the explosion and would likely be coming to investigate, so Allie had no time to lose. She crawled across the crushed, lightly burning coal to reach the dead monster’s body and began to search for anything that could be of use. Her leg throbbed with pain but she did her best to ignore it. There was no way she was emptying the bracelet at this point; it only had enough charge left for one more injury and she had to save it in case a fatal one came up.
The majority of the creature’s flesh was charred and crumbling, and its clothes had no pockets, so there wasn’t anything of value there. However, its brass bell had survived mostly intact so Allie pulled herself around its head to examine it closer. Thin acrid smoke emitted from the pipe, stinging her eyes and nose as she peered in. She could see something glittering in the dim light deep in the throat of the bell. Allie grasped the hot metal and pulled on it, tilting the horn to cause whatever was inside to flow out. After a few moments, a thin stream of gelatinous purple liquid began to flow out, similar to what had sparkled in the egg previously. Whatever was glittering didn’t move, however.
Allie grimaced at what she was about to do, then leaned forward and thrust her arm deep into the creature’s head, feeling for whatever object was causing the glitter. She felt around for a few moments in the disgustingly warm, viscous slime before her fingers met something smooth and round. It took her another few tries to grasp it and even more to be able to extract her hand from the bell again, but she did eventually manage it. Allie gasped as she caught her arm on something sharp on the inside of the bell, noting with some concern her blood mixing with the purple slime on her arm. She wiped her arm off on the remains of her pants and examined the object she had retrieved.
It was made of a brilliant red crystal, expertly carved and smoothed into the shape of a stylized heart perhaps three inches across. It fit comfortably in the palm of her hand and felt fiery warm, pulsing occasionally with a burning heat. As she gazed into it, she felt some far-away consciousness stir in its slumber. She blinked and glanced away, nervous about the sensation.
The bracelet beeped cheerfully and Allie glanced at it, noting with some alarm a new “injury” described by a red dot off to the side of the cartoon body and listed as “high severity.” She hadn’t been hurt since the last time she glanced at it, had she? Wait, no, the little cut on her arm from the bell-creature’s throat. But that injury was represented too, a little yellow dot on her arm. Concerned, she checked the cost to heal the “high severity” injury. Based on the percentage of the bar, it would take around 50 points of charge. Allie felt her face grow hot with anxiety. She almost would prefer to not know unless she could fix whatever it was. Still, this meant she would be on the lookout for more orbs or batteries. Speaking of, the menu entry for charge was flashing red...
The crystal heart was listed as an available repository for points of charge, indicated as having 274/300 points available. The bracelet was listed as having 8/250, and a flashing text box near the top of the screen proclaimed: “OVERCHARGE MODE AVAILABLE.” Tapping the box opened a pop up prompt with the following text: “Enter Overcharge mode? Costs 250 points of charge. Lasts 250 seconds. Total available: 282. YES/NO”
Allie was dragged away from her investigations both figuratively and literally by Daron, as he pulled her to her feet and away from the corpse. “Come on!” he hissed, glancing around wildly. “Don’t know how you kill thing, but more coming! Unless you do again, and again, and again, we run!” He paused a moment as Allie stumbled, gripping her leg in pain as it buckled under her weight. “And you look in no shape to fight more. Come, we go!” He looked at Allie pleadingly and supported her left side as she stumbled again. “Where we go?”
She took a shallow breath and tried to think. “The... the train station. I can’t climb up that ladder at this point, but we can still get out. I have some ideas.”
“Okay, we go.”
On the way there, should Allie do anything with the bracelet and heart? [Each option in this block requires 8 votes and may be combined with any other option.]
- Transfer in enough energy to fully heal herself and do so. [Will take around 100 points of charge.]
- Transfer in charge; heal the burn making it hard to walk. [Will take around 15 points of charge.]
- Transfer in charge; heal the “high severity” mystery injury. [Will take around 50 points of charge.]
- Activate OVERCHARGE MODE, whatever that is. [Will last around four minutes; be sure about when to use it. Cannot be used unless at least 250 points of charge are still available after any healings from above.]
What pace should they move at? [Faster means less chance of running into a bell-head, but may tire or injure Allie. Chances here may be modified by choices above.]
- Fast. [Chance: a straightforward/risky challenge.]
- Normal. [Chance: a simple/modest challenge.]
- Slow. [Chance: a modest/straightforward challenge.]
(Winners: , )
- Transfer in enough energy to fully heal herself and do so. [Will take around 100 points of charge.]
- Transfer in charge; heal the burn making it hard to walk. [Will take around 15 points of charge.]
- Transfer in charge; heal the “high severity” mystery injury. [Will take around 50 points of charge.]
- Activate OVERCHARGE MODE, whatever that is. [Will last around four minutes; be sure about when to use it. Cannot be used unless at least 250 points of charge are still available after any healings from above.]
What pace should they move at? [Faster means less chance of running into a bell-head, but may tire or injure Allie. Chances here may be modified by choices above.]
- Fast. [Chance: a straightforward/risky challenge.]
- Normal. [Chance: a simple/modest challenge.]
- Slow. [Chance: a modest/straightforward challenge.]
(Winners: , )
10
6
5
3
12
7
1
Scene 28
As she and Daron ran across the coal piles - as best she could manage, at least - Allie grasped the heart with one hand and tapped at the bracelet with the other. She transferred in well over a hundred points of charge, dimming the heart’s glow significantly, then tapped the invitingly green “FULL HEAL” button on the bracelet’s main screen.
She had to stop for a moment and place a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out as the healing took effect. Every injury on her body sealed at once, from the minor cuts and scrapes she had acquired clambering over the coal to the painful stretching sensation on her arms from the bell-head creature. Additionally - almost going by too fast to catch - she noticed a light purple mist venting from her pores and a sickening knot in her stomach - that she hadn’t even noticed carrying - vanished.
Ten seconds later and it was all over. Allie stumbled forward and caught her breath, overwhelmed by the massive overhaul to her system. She felt so much better without the dozens of injuries building on each other that she had to assume she made the right choice, whatever “overcharge mode” was. The bracelet beeped as Daron wordlessly dragged her forward again and she continued to run. “Welcome to the VitaBand 3, full integration suite!” it proclaimed cheerfully. Allie felt a pang of fear and her eyes darted to her left wrist. Sure enough, the “full heal” button had done exactly as promised, and the bracelet had healed the skin around the spikes to make itself a part of her body.
Allie felt nauseous but continued to run as the bracelet continued to speak. “Full integration comes with a variety of benefits, including but not limited to: improved efficiency, limited post-mortem revivification capabilities, limited limb regeneration and reattachment abilities, and gastronomic-battery interlink systems! We congratulate you on your decision to make us a permanent part of your body, and your life. For a full list of changes, documentation, and usage tips, visit ████████████.com/vitaband.”
Daron glanced at her wrist. “Thing talks lots. Can make it quiet? We get close.”
Allie stumbled as she tapped at the bracelet. “I... I don’t know. It usually doesn’t do that. I think it’s stopped.” She desperately tried to remember the deluge of information it had just spit out. It could now reattach limbs and bring her back from death? And there was a website where she could get more information, but she had missed the URL entirely. Plus, it wasn’t like she had a computer down here either. In fact, she quietly doubted the site would still be up. In any case, she’d worry about that later. Daron was a few dozen feet ahead, crouching behind a mound of coal and beckoning her closer. She crouched down next to him, again thrilled at how easy the motion seemed without the constant pain from her various injuries, and glanced over the pile in the direction he was gesturing.
Maybe a quarter-mile away, visible even in the red haze due to the bright white floodlights mounted on it, was the train station. It consisted of a long silver platform with a guard rail connected to the ceiling by several thick metal support rods, then a steep covered staircase leading down to a small covered concrete pavilion. From this distance it was hard to see, but Allie thought she could make out a turnstile of some sort restricting access to the stairs. Two bell-headed creatures wandered around the area, one patrolling in a rough circle around the base of the stairs and the other poking through piles of coal, looking up towards the train tracks every so often. Musical horns still sounded in the distance, but mostly behind them at this point.
Daron squeezed his eyes shut and counted something on his fingers. “Train come soon,” he said. “Minutes, probably, but not sure. It come back from dropping rocks, go back to where it come from. How we get on?”
This will be a multi-step process, with options to change plans or improvise along the way. To start with, Allie will need to get past the two bell-heads hanging around the station. [All options have a hidden chance of success and are potentially deadly.]
- Choose a moment, dash past them.
- Sneak close. Use the coal for cover. Try to stay hidden.
❗ - Cause a distraction. Make a noise, then go the other way.
The next step, after she gets to the base of the stairs, will be how to bypass the turnstile.
Additionally, what should be her overall attitude towards Daron during this plan?
- Make sure he gets out safely, regardless of the risk to Allie.
❤ - Take reasonable precautions to ensure his safety, but don’t risk her life to save his.
- Don’t be stupid, but if it comes to it, leave him behind or use him as a distraction. Make sure she can escape.
(Winners: ❗ , ❤ )
- Choose a moment, dash past them.
- Sneak close. Use the coal for cover. Try to stay hidden.
❗ - Cause a distraction. Make a noise, then go the other way.
The next step, after she gets to the base of the stairs, will be how to bypass the turnstile.
Additionally, what should be her overall attitude towards Daron during this plan?
- Make sure he gets out safely, regardless of the risk to Allie.
❤ - Take reasonable precautions to ensure his safety, but don’t risk her life to save his.
- Don’t be stupid, but if it comes to it, leave him behind or use him as a distraction. Make sure she can escape.
(Winners: ❗ , ❤ )
3
4
13
6
11
2
Scene 29
“We have to get rid of those guards,” Allie whispered, gesturing to the bell-headed creatures. “You said they can hear well, so what if we make a noise somewhere else as a distraction?”
Daron huddled down. “Risky plan. You more brave than me.”
Allie glanced at the monsters again, watching them idly wander around the station. She felt full of energy again, invincible perhaps. She knew that was a dangerous way to be feeling, but she didn’t care. “Okay, stay here then. When they go the other way, get to the platform, but quietly. I’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded and she clambered up the hill, moving slowly and reasonably silently. Carefully, she selected a few rocks once she reached the top, then wound up and tossed a handful over towards a somewhat far-off pile. She missed her target by a few feet, but a scattering of coal rocks clattered down the far side of the pile regardless, opposite the bell-headed creatures. The one patrolling in a circle glanced up and sounded two sharp blasts on its horn. The other creature, shorter and slimmer than the first, poked its bell up and began to slink in the direction of the coal.
Allie carefully grabbed another handful and threw it as well, holding her breath as it arced through the air. She managed to hit right next to her target, causing a quieter sound of clattering rocks just past the same hill. Both creatures angled their bells towards the noise and stalked forward, leaving the station unattended. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daron creep out from cover and move towards the platform.
Allie crawled back down the pile as gingerly as she could, wincing at every dislodged rock and slight noise. Still, she made it to the bottom and three-quarters of the way to the station before the bell-heads reappeared from behind the hill she had been targeting, idly wandering back towards the platform. Allie felt her heart rate rise even further as she continued to creep forwards, her eyes locked on the approaching monsters. Gravel changed to concrete underfoot and she knew she had made it. Allie quickly glanced around the space, forming the next stage of the plan.
The concrete pavilion was small and had no walls aside from support pillars in each corner. In the center of the maybe 8x10 foot rectangle, the base of the staircase rose into the air. Metal-grated turnstiles blocked access to the enclosed stairway, reaching from floor to ceiling. A tarnished metal half-wall held an old tap reader of the sort that would read tickets on the surface, the light a solid amber. The metal of the grates was rusted and crumbling; it might be possible to push through with enough of a shove. Alternatively, the cage that enclosed the sides of the stairway had plenty of handholds and a torn hole about fifteen feet up probably large enough to squeeze through; if they could climb that far, they might be able to slip into the staircase and bypass the turnstiles completely. Of course, it would be much easier if she just had a ticket.
A quick, sharp horn from behind interrupted Allie’s thoughts and she spun to see one of the bell-heads crouching low near where they had been hiding only a minute prior. It turned towards the platform with a low, threatening note. She had to hurry. [All options have a hidden chance of success and are potentially deadly.]
- Bash through the turnstiles; they look rickety enough.
- Climb up the cage and slip into the staircase from above.
- Attempt to bypass the reader. It can’t be that complicated.
- Scan something on the tap reader. [Scan what? Submit options to try in #story_discussion. You may try multiple things; they will be attempted in order of votes.]
- The bracelet.
❤ - The red crystal heart.
❔ - The thing that isn't important.
(Winner: A tie between and . was chosen as the winner by a coin flip.)
- Bash through the turnstiles; they look rickety enough.
- Climb up the cage and slip into the staircase from above.
- Attempt to bypass the reader. It can’t be that complicated.
- Scan something on the tap reader. [Scan what? Submit options to try in #story_discussion. You may try multiple things; they will be attempted in order of votes.]
- The bracelet.
❤ - The red crystal heart.
❔ - The thing that isn't important.
(Winner: A tie between and . was chosen as the winner by a coin flip.)
1
7
4
7
5
9
7
Scene 30
Allie dug through her pockets, glancing between the reader and the approaching monster, trying to find something that might work to open the gates. Out of desperation, she grabbed the heart and slid it across the reader, thinking maybe since it came from a bell-headed creature, it would have some authority over the system. The reader beeped, paused several agonizing seconds, then flashed red. The turnstiles remained locked.
She panicked then, watching the bell-heads stalk closer and closer. The silver key, no. The bracelet, maybe, but probably not. This... what was this thing again? She grasped something in her pocket, plastic and rectangular, that she didn’t remember picking up. She pulled it out and looked at it, then put it back, the memory instantly gone. Guess it wasn’t important. I don’t have anything that will work. She eyed the hole in the cage around the stairs, wondering if she could climb up to it. Maybe... wait. Why did I just put that thing away? It felt like a card, right? Maybe like a... a ticket?
Allie pulled the thing out again, still unable to really perceive or remember what it was, and tapped it on the reader before she could forget what she was doing again. The system beeped, paused, then flashed green. The turnstile creaked and unlocked. “Daron, go,” Allie whispered, shoving him forward. He stumbled into the metal cage and pushed his way through, starting to climb the stairs. The reader flashed back to amber.
Allie glanced over her shoulder again and tapped the reader again, not sure why as she definitely wasn’t holding anything important. The bell-heads were almost at the station, moving slowly and deliberately. They certainly knew she was here, so why weren’t they pouncing on her? If they had moved at a pace beyond a slow walk, they could have caught up already. What were they doing?
The reader beeped and flashed green, to Allie’s surprise. She put whatever she was holding back into her pocket and promptly forgot about it again, then shoved her way through the turnstile and dashed up the stairs. In the distance, a loud, harsh horn blared. The train was on its way. Below her, another beep sounded and the turnstile grated as one of the bell-heads pushed its way into the station. Allie redoubled her speed, flying up the stairs in a desperate race to escape before the creatures made their way up.
She emerged onto the platform a moment later, joining Daron on the metal slab suspended maybe fifteen feet below the top of the cavern. There were no benches, no information boards, no decorations of any kind. It was just a platform, a railing around three sides, and a long drop off the side facing the tracks gleaming on the roof. Daron crouched down next to the railing in the corner near the tracks. He pointed at the brilliant white light of the train, far in the distance but coming closer quickly, and whispered to her. “Half minute away, maybe. How we live that long?”
Allie glanced around. There was nothing on the platform itself that could be of use, but the cage around the stairs seemed rusted and weaker up here than below. She might be able to collapse it and buy some time, or climb on top and hide. The support pillars also offered a way to get out of reach, though they were smooth metal without any handholds and the fall might be fatal. She also still had the things in her pockets: the crystal heart, the silver key labeled “IGN,” and something else she didn’t remember picking up. Both bell-heads were on the stairway, climbing slowly and leisurely. The first one would reach the platform in a matter of seconds. What should she do? [All options have a hidden chance of success and are potentially deadly.]
- Bend the cage around the stairway; block the entry onto the platform.
- Climb up on the cage, possibly out of sight and possibly out of reach.
⬆ - Climb one of the support pillars, likely out of reach.
- Try to distract them from Daron. She only has to survive thirty seconds; how hard can it be?
[If you want to use an item, submit a write-in idea in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: )
12
3
1
3
Scene 31
Allie darted back towards the stairs, despite Daron’s whispered protests, and grabbed onto the bars of the encircling cage. Rust flaked off on her hands as she pulled as hard as she could, hearing the metal creak and groan. She held that position for several seconds, arms straining against the metal’s weakened integrity, until finally a rusted support bar snapped and she fell to the floor, the cage bent inward and blocking the stairway.
She scrambled to her feet and backed away, watching the first bell-head reach the obstruction. It angled its head down and forward, gripping the metal bars with its hands as it seemed to stare at Allie with its bell. A low, dangerous note played. The train blared its horn again and she glanced over her shoulder. It was close now, only a few hundred feet down the tracks and slowing.
The bell-headed creature in the front grasped the metal bars and - seemingly effortlessly - bent them back up, clearing the staircase in a matter of moments. It had been delayed, but not by much. It stalked out onto the platform and allowed the other creature to emerge. Both stood motionless for a moment, heads angled towards Allie. She involuntarily took a step back, closer to the edge of the platform, and the monster on the left twitched. The one on the right slowly moved forward at an angle, while the one on the left began stalking towards the left, perhaps trying to flank her. Allie glanced between both of them, terrified and confused. Why were they bothering with these tactics when they could easily just charge in and rip her apart? Were they... scared of her?
She feinted towards the one on the left and it paused a moment, its muscles tensing. Did they think she still had a bell-egg like the one that had killed one of their fellows? If so, she might be able to bluff to keep them at bay. Allie motioned towards the other one, her hand drifting into her pocket as if to pull something out. Both held still for a moment, then resumed their march. Daron whimpered, staring desperately at the monsters and clinging to Allie’s leg.
There was a rush of air as the front of the train passed the station, cars rolling in behind her as the entire machine slowly came to a stop. Brakes hissed and doors opened all along the train, including directly behind Allie. A pleasant man’s voice announced “This is Station 1 in The Underworks.” A short pause, then “This is a Silver Line train to Upper Mines. Next stop is Quadrant D Branch Station 4.”
Everything happened quickly after that. Allie stepped back off the platform and onto the coal-dusted floor of the train car with her free leg. She had to glance back to make sure she wouldn’t fall off the platform, leaving a split second where the bell-heads acted. The one on the right pounced on Daron, ripping him away from Allie and forcing her to trip, bouncing against the train door. The other lunged towards Allie, but some combination of her falling against the door and innate reflexes resulted in her dodging the strike and kicking the monster back and out of the train. Without conscious thought, she grasped a sturdy metal bar on the inside of the train with her left hand and Daron’s arm with her right, pulling against the bell-creature’s grasp. The other monster - unable to reach through the narrow gap to grab Allie herself - joined the first, wrapping its long arms around the crying man and pulling him back. Allie felt her joints straining again, her grasp on Daron’s arm vice-tight. To her horror, she felt herself sliding forward, her grip on the train weakening.
The announcer’s voice came on again. “Doors closing.”
The heavy metal sliding doors began to shut, moving quickly in from both sides. In the struggle, Allie couldn’t tell whose arms or bodies would be caught between them. She and the bell-creatures were playing tug-of-war, each side having a grasp on Daron. The closing doors didn’t seem to be slowing down, and in fact almost appeared to have a razor edge. What should she do?
- Hold on.
- Let go.
(Winner: )
- Hold on.
- Let go.
(Winner: )
13
5
Scene 32
Allie held on. She couldn’t let him go and abandon him to certain death. Maybe, just maybe, if she was strong enough, she could pull him into the train and get both of them to safety. The doors rocketed towards each other and she gave one last desperate tug on Daron’s arm, the cacophony of noise from her screams, his screams, the bell-heads’ furious notes, and the crashing doors coming to a head with one final crescendo.
The doors slammed shut with a hideous crunch.
Immediately, Allie was thrown back against the wall, staring in total shock at the bleeding stump of her right arm. It had been cleanly severed at around the halfway point between her wrist and elbow. Shattered fragments of bone and loose tendons dangled forlornly. The pain was beyond anything she had ever felt before, so intense that it was almost totally numb. Her vision tunneled towards grey, focusing around the gory break as her eyes rolled back and she collapsed to the floor.
Her hearing went quickly too, but she still caught the beginning of the bracelet saying something in its cheerful voice. “Limb loss detec...” it trailed off as she passed out, blood rushing in her ears.
A lapse, like a blink but more complete.
- Dream.
- Don’t. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winner: )
- Dream.
- Don’t. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winner: )
9
10
Scene 33
Allie gasped and bolted upright, staring around her in wild-eyed confusion. After a moment, she calmed down enough to remember what had happened and take stock. She groaned and let herself fall back into a supine position, a splitting headache throbbing through her brain. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears leak out onto her cheeks. What had she just dreamt? It was hard to remember with the headache, the jostling of the train, and the memories of what had occurred just before she passed out. It was all such a blur.
... Her arm! Allie lifted her right arm above her face, eyes still shut, and hesitated. It still throbbed with agony to the same beat as her headache. What if the bracelet hadn’t healed it? She really didn’t want to open her eyes... But she had to. She had to know eventually.
Allie blinked one eye open, then the other, squinting against the lights on the ceiling. Her hand was there, whole and identical to how she remembered it. A cuff of dried blood made a circle around her forearm where it had been severed. Her fingers moved at her command, though slowly and without much coordination. She felt a pang of fear in her stomach. What if she had permanently lost some use of her hand? Allie paused a moment, then immediately felt guilty. It was still a vast improvement over losing it entirely. Maybe it would go away after a while. Maybe the pain would leave as well.
She pushed herself into a sitting position, primarily relying on her left arm as her right seemed far weaker than normal. Slumped against the side of the train car, she stared despondently at the coal-dusted floor and didn’t cry. She didn’t feel sad, she just felt numb. Daron was gone. She didn’t save him. Maybe she could have, if she had just been stronger, or smarter, or better. Her arm was damaged, possibly forever. She was alone, in a train, riding towards an unknown destination miles below the surface of the earth, with no further leads on how to get out.
That thought caused a sniffle. Her vision blurred as she felt the delayed tears come. She had failed Daron. She had failed herself. She was alone and miserable and useless. And all of it was her fault. Why had she decided to try to bluff the bell-heads, or sneak into the train station, or stay and work at the furnace, or climb down that ladder, or even walk out over the pit she had fallen down? Every decision she made just pushed her further and further into the depths of this place and cost her more and more.
A tear dropped onto the floor and mixed with the dust. More followed close behind. Allie heard herself sob. She hated this, and she hated herself for not being able to deal with it. If only she could just wake up and prove that it had all been a dream. Maybe all she had to do was just... open her eyes.
She glanced around the train car, eyes wide open and filled with tears. Nothing changed. It was still nothing but a metal box coated with layers of coal dust. She buried her face in her arms again, letting out a ragged scream that didn’t make her feel any better at all. Her thoughts raced in circles. She had to escape. She couldn’t escape. She was a failure, a useless crybaby idiot. Maybe she deserved to rot in the Factory for the rest of her life. Maybe she didn’t even deserve to have a life. No, she had to escape. But she couldn’t. God DAMN IT.
She screamed again, trying to vent her frustration and anger into the cold, empty train car. It helped, a little. But now she just felt sad, alone, and hopeless. She was still trapped underground, she still didn’t have a plan, and she was still useless. She couldn’t even muster the willpower to look at the bracelet to see how much energy it had left. She couldn’t even move. She just wanted to sit there forever until she withered away and didn’t have to deal with the Factory anymore.
The train’s announcer broke her sullen silence. “Now arriving: Quadrant D Central Exchange. Transfer to Blue, Orange, Red, and Gold trains here. This is a Silver Line train to Upper Mines.”
Brakes hissed and the car started to slow. Allie glumly looked up and rubbed the tears out of her eyes, debating if she should bother standing. What should she do?
- Disembark.
- Stay put.
(Winner: )
- Disembark.
- Stay put.
(Winner: )
10
8
Scene 34
She couldn’t just stay here forever. Allie carefully grasped a handle and pulled herself to her feet, swaying with the train and still sniffling as she fought back more tears. Pathetic, she thought, watching the sorry display as if removed from the situation. Stop CRYING, she shouted internally. It didn’t help. She didn’t stop.
The doors slid open all along the train, allowing Allie to step out. She did so, stumbling onto the concrete platform and wiping coal dust off her clothes and skin. The announcer’s voice returned. “This is Quadrant D Central Exchange. Transfer to Blue, Orange, Red, and Gold line trains here.” A short pause, then “This is a Silver line train to Upper Mines. Next stop is Quadrant D Satellite Station 1.”
Quadrant D Central Exchange was a far cry from any other location Allie had seen in the Factory so far. It was a large open cavern, well-lit with bright floodlights on the ceiling above. The walls, rather than the grey concrete common elsewhere in the Factory, were grimy white tile accented with various colored stripes presumably representing the various train lines available at the station. Unlike the simple metal platform she had just come from, there were benches, timetables, display boards, maps, trash cans, and essentially everything she would expect from a subway station in the normal world. She was currently standing on a platform marked with red and silver stripes, a shiny rail mounted on the ceiling on either side to accommodate the suspended style of train. There were two elevated bridges connecting this platform over the train she had just disembarked, presumably leading to another platform on the other side for the remaining lines. There were additionally two ramps - one on either end of the platform - leading up into the cavern roof and out of view.
“Doors closing,” the train behind her said. Its engine hummed and it quickly accelerated away, revealing the platform on the other side that was striped with orange, gold, and blue, as she had expected. Aside from Allie herself and the train that had just left, nothing moved in the cavern. Several skeletons in tattered fatigues lay scattered around the platform, but they seemed too dead to pose a threat.
As she was considering what to do next, she heard the clattering of wheels on track and a train rushed into the station on the far side of the opposite platform. It had windows as well as display signs lit up gold, though she couldn’t read them from this distance. It stopped and opened its doors. Allie quietly leaned forward, trying to hear the announcer’s voice.
“This is Quadrant D Central Exchange. Transfer to Blue, Orange, Red, and Silver line trains here. This is a Gold line train to Loop. Next stop is Quadrant C Central Exchange.”
Something bulky and humanoid stepped off the train. Allie couldn’t get a good look at it, as yet another train rushed into the station on the near side of the opposite platform, blocking her view. She hid behind a pillar on her platform as the new train announced its status: “This is Quadrant D Central Exchange. Transfer to Orange, Red, Silver, and Gold line trains here. This is a Blue line train to Atrium. Next stop is Foundry.” A few moments passed, then both trains sped away in opposite directions. There was nothing left on the platform. Allie exhaled shakily. She had to be quick before something else showed up.
[Each option in this block may be combined with any other option and requires 8 votes. The more time she spends looking around, the higher the chance another train will come in.]
- Investigate the skeletons.
️ - Read the system map; get an overview of the major stations.
⏱️ - Read the timetable; get an idea of the frequency.
- Look around the station in general. What was its history? Is there anything else interesting here?
After she’s looked around a bit, then what?
- Stay here, catch a train to somewhere. [Specify a line or destination in #story_discussion if you have one in mind, otherwise she’ll just wait here for more information (such as reading the system map).]
️ - Leave the station through one of the ramps.
(Winners: ️ , ⏱️ , , )
- Investigate the skeletons.
️ - Read the system map; get an overview of the major stations.
⏱️ - Read the timetable; get an idea of the frequency.
- Look around the station in general. What was its history? Is there anything else interesting here?
After she’s looked around a bit, then what?
- Stay here, catch a train to somewhere. [Specify a line or destination in #story_discussion if you have one in mind, otherwise she’ll just wait here for more information (such as reading the system map).]
️ - Leave the station through one of the ramps.
(Winners: ️ , ⏱️ , , )
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Scene 35
Allie nervously stepped out from behind the pillar and wiped her eyes, sniffling. She didn’t have time to stand around feeling sorry for herself; that’s how she would get killed. Nowhere in this damn place was safe; she had to keep her guard up and be observant. Speaking of...
She walked down the platform a ways to a large glass-covered sheet of paper she had seen previously. Arriving, she was excited to discover it was exactly what she had expected: a transit map of the rail system she currently found herself in. She took a few minutes to examine it and commit at least a few of the more salient features to memory, then noticed a mostly empty pamphlet holder with a handful of pocket-sized maps remaining. She took one and slid it into one of her remaining pockets, remembering the explosion-damaged state of her jeans as she tried to place the map in her left pocket and hit nothing but bare skin. She’d need to keep an eye out for new clothes, if any were to be found down here.
Regardless, she next scanned the timetables beside the map, trying to get a sense of how often each line would pass the station. On a quick perusal, it appeared each line would stop at any given station at least every ten minutes, meaning a major station like this one would get a train every other minute or so. There were two exceptions, though: the silver line ran on a much slower schedule, presumably because the “Underworks,” as she now knew to call them, didn’t need to be drowning in coal. The other exception was the black line, which didn’t have any times listed on the table at all, or any stations on the map. It was only listed as a footnote on the red line, which presumably connected to it at some ill-defined point off the map.
As she was considering this, a clattering of tracks announced another train coming into the station. Allie ducked down behind a pillar again, watching it glide into the station and open its doors. “This is Quadrant D Central Exchange. Transfer to Gold, Silver, Blue, and Red line trains here. This is an Orange line train to Material Storage.” Thankfully, after it pulled away, nothing remained on the platform. She exhaled quietly and poked around the station for several more minutes, looking for anything that might give her a clue to its history, or what had happened here.
Unexpectedly, she actually found some interesting artifacts just lying around the area, swept under benches, or dropped in a trash can. The first was a weathered sheet of paper crumpled underneath one of the benches. Allie unfolded it, noting the traces of blood and the government-looking seal near the bottom of the page, and read through.
“NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE
Owners and/or proprietors of the entity known as ‘The Factory,’
This is a formal notice requiring all Factory operations to be stopped, employees to be placed into custody, and assets to be surrendered effective immediately. Noncompliance will be met with authorized force.”
Allie glanced at the fatigue-clad skeletons. That didn’t work out well for them, did it? The next item was a heavy sheet of fancy paper written on with a fine blue pen. It was smudged and wrinkled, but mostly readable. She found it tucked halfway under one of the trash cans, in a location that would be very difficult to get to by accident.
“Henry,
I do not believe you are giving this situation the attention it deserves. I know that this position has been an incredible advancement for you, and for me likewise, but events are moving quickly now and we haven’t much time left. You’ve heard as well as I of the agents visiting, asking questions, and quietly disappearing from our halls. You’ve heard the whispered rumblings from on high of the coming change. You know as well as I that this place will soon be shut down. And you and I both know we don’t want to be here when that happens.
Henry, please leave with me. We can start anew elsewhere. This place doesn’t have to be the end - of our research, or of our collaboration. Please, meet me at the Atrium on the 14th at 7:30AM. I know a way out.
- Wingate.”
The letters seemed to go some way towards explaining what had happened to the Factory, but only raised more questions. Who were Henry and Wingate? Had the government been involved? If so, why hadn’t she heard about this before? Had the Factory actually been shut down, or just pushed into hiding or... hibernation?
Allie squeezed her eyes shut, the thoughts whirling through her mind exacerbating her headache. She couldn’t answer these questions, not without more information. What should Allie do?
- Catch a train to somewhere. [Specify a line or destination in #story_discussion].
️ - Leave the station.
Route options [write-ins]
- Gold line North (next stop Beltways)
- Blue line to Atrium (next stop Foundry)
- Red line to Silence (next stop unknown)
- Gold line East (next stop Quad C Central)
(Winners: , )
- Catch a train to somewhere. [Specify a line or destination in #story_discussion].
️ - Leave the station.
Route options [write-ins]
- Gold line North (next stop Beltways)
- Blue line to Atrium (next stop Foundry)
- Red line to Silence (next stop unknown)
- Gold line East (next stop Quad C Central)
(Winners: , )
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Scene 36
The Atrium. She glanced up at the system map again, tracing her eyes around the multicolored lines to eventually locate it near the North boundary of Quadrant C, a major station on the Green, Purple, and Blue lines. She could take either a Blue or Gold train from here to make her way in that direction, but only the Blue line would get her there without transferring. The Gold line seemed dangerous, with the bulky humanoid she had seen disembarking earlier. Maybe the Blue line was the best idea. Yeah, that made sense, probably. Her head hurt and it was still hard to think.
Allie quickly made her way over the nearest raised bridge to the other platform, feeling uncomfortably exposed with her footsteps echoing in the massive open space. Nothing moved and nothing made a sound. She was alone. Carefully, she squeezed in between a pillar and a trash can and huddled down to wait for her train, pressing her hands to her temples to try and alleviate the headache. According to the digital displays she only recently noticed, the next Blue line train to Atrium was due in eleven minutes. Not too long. She could wait.
The first train to arrive was on the Gold line heading North to Beltways. Allie almost stood up to get on, remembering that station was on the way to Atrium, but stopped herself and shrank back into the shadows as she thought she spotted something moving in one of the cars. The train sped away without further incident. The next train was on the Blue line, but going in the wrong direction; towards Mesa South. Nothing moved on it. The next two trains, Gold to Quadrant C again and Orange to Manufacturing Floor, seemed similarly unoccupied. However, the next train that pulled into the station was definitely not empty.
A Red line train pulled in and slowed to a stop, opening its doors on the opposite platform, hidden from Allie by the pillar she was sitting against. She heard the now-familiar announcer call out the train’s next stop - “Upper Silence” - and the sound of the doors closing and the cars rattling away, but the noise in the cavern didn’t quite die down as it left. There was something... squelching on the opposite platform. Allie held her breath and strained her hearing, trying to catch some other information.
The thing breathed heavily and wetly, drawing air through folds of uncomfortably vibrating flesh. It squished and shuffled, producing cringe-inducing noises akin to stirring a warm, wet casserole. An occasional moist popping noise punctuated the other sounds; Allie couldn’t fathom what was causing it. She glanced up at the board, anxiously elated to see “Blue - Atrium: due now.”
The train became audible in the distance, rushing into the station and quickly slowing to a stop in front of her, doors sliding open along its length. The squishing sounds from the opposite platform increased in volume, though Allie couldn’t tell if they were coming closer or not. She hesitated, half-rising to her feet. There didn’t appear to be any movement in the train car directly in front of her.
How should she handle this?
- Get into the car, quickly. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- Get into the car, sneakily. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Stay put. Wait for another option.
Additionally, how should she handle the... squishing thing?
- Study it after she’s made it into the car.
- Don’t look. She doesn’t want to know.
❤️ - Approach it. Something about the noises seems... familiar? [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winners: , )
- Get into the car, quickly. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- Get into the car, sneakily. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Stay put. Wait for another option.
Additionally, how should she handle the... squishing thing?
- Study it after she’s made it into the car.
- Don’t look. She doesn’t want to know.
❤️ - Approach it. Something about the noises seems... familiar? [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winners: , )
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Scene 37
Allie hesitated just a moment longer than she thought she should, then dashed for the car, trying to time it so whatever was squishing on the opposite platform wouldn’t have time to board the train if it noticed her. She darted through the doors and ducked down, holding onto a seat and glancing around the car. It was empty. Something barked or screamed from the opposite platform. Allie gasped and pulled herself up on the seat so she could look out the window, but hopefully not far enough that she could be seen.
The source of the squishing noises was now visible and was also making the screaming, grating, barking sounds as it shuffled its way towards the bridges and Allie’s platform. She held her breath as she watched it, studying its form and movement. It was about four and a half feet tall, she guessed, and maybe slightly wider than that. It was round and blubbery, its skin light pink with an unhealthy-looking greenish tinge. It had no arms or legs, but rather several thick, flexible, fleshy tendrils that extended and retracted, capable of manipulating tools and pulling the creature forward at an unexpectedly fast speed. Its head was small and sunken into its neck, half-covered in folds of flesh. Its eyes were black and beady, and its head jerked every time it barked. On the ground behind it, Allie noticed, it left a trail of sparkling clean concrete, just like she had seen in the initial tunnel. Maybe it was a sort of janitor. But the fact that it was getting closer and closer, screaming at her, at a relatively quick pace, made Allie lean back from the window and prepare to stand up in case she had to evacuate the car.
“Doors closing.” The thing barked as the train prepared for departure, slamming against the side of the car only a few seconds after the doors had shut. She shrank back, watching translucent green slime spray onto the window she had been watching through. Then the train started to pull away and the creature was quickly left behind, barking and screaming into an empty tunnel. Allie let out a shaky breath as the announcer started to speak again. She really needed to find some sort of weapon.
“Foundry is next,” the train cheerfully announced as it sped through a dimly lit tunnel. “Doors open on the left at Foundry. Transfer to Silver line trains at Foundry. This is a Blue line train to Atrium.”
Allie sat down in her seat, watching the occasional lights fly by. She opened and closed her right hand, fighting against the sensation of nerves being connected just not quite properly as her fingers struggled to move in the ways she wanted them to. After a minute of this, she closed her eyes and leaned back, her head still throbbing with pain. When would that go away? Would it ever? She sighed. What was the point of all this? Why was she down here in the first place? Someone had thrown her down that shaft, and it didn’t make sense why. If they had wanted to kill her, they could have done that. Maybe this place was a very elaborate way to hide her body. But why leave her alive then? Ugh. This isn’t helping. I need to get out of here. Then I can figure out why.
Several minutes passed without further incident as Allie gave up on trying to think through the headache and let her mind drift in a starry field, devoid of thought. Before long, however, the train started to slow. She opened her eyes and glanced out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the station, as the announcer reiterated information she already knew. She quietly wondered why the trains were so chatty, but she supposed hearing too much of a cheerful voice wasn’t the worst thing down here. It was certainly better than if they were silent.
Suddenly the tunnel wall was gone and in its place was the single largest room Allie had seen in the Factory to date, with the possible exception of the Underworks if that counted as a “room.” Multi-story troughs and crucibles led molten metal from one container to the next, and waterfalls of sparks scattered along the ground as tiny figures on the floor directed pours into casting molds. The area bustled with energy, with dozens of bell-heads and over a hundred humans moving purposefully throughout the room. A rail yard was visible to one side of the station, holding dozens of box, hopper, and tank cars hooked up to engines much larger than the train Allie was riding. Up near the ceiling, a dim red-litten control room overlooked the entire floor. Dozens of doors ranging from human-sized to massive garage-style lined the walls. She caught sight of a Silver line train clattering along the ceiling to a station directly above the Blue line stop, as well as a long elevator shaft connecting the two. The station platform held dozens of humans and three or four bell-heads, all seemingly waiting for this very train. Allie whimpered and sank down in her seat. What should she do?
- Disembark. Try to act natural. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Stay in place. Try to act like one of the other humans. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Hide in the car. Try to avoid notice from at least the bell-heads. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Change cars. Try to get into an operator’s cab and hide there. [Chance: a chancy challenge. This may require a certain item, and she may be noticed crossing between cars.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 38
Allie panicked, tumbling off her seat and searching around for anywhere to hide or run. The car was devoid of hiding spots; she could crawl under a seat, but she would be immediately obvious. Plus, the bell-heads relied on scent and hearing rather than sight and she wouldn’t be able to mask those qualities. She crouched on the floor next to her seat as the headache throbbed, unable to come up with any option other than to just try and blend in with the crowd. The humans would notice something was up, definitely, but maybe they would help her.
The doors slid open as the train began to speak and the first passengers boarded; thankfully people instead of bell-headed monsters. The first person on, a youngish man with clothes peppered with burn marks and a scraggly half-beard, stopped dead in his tracks and gaped at Allie, blocking the doorway. She held a finger to her lips and backed against the wall between two seats, hopefully less obvious than just crouching on the floor.
The man stepped into the car and walked towards Allie. She saw him give several taps to the arm of the person behind him, who also glanced in her direction, opened his eyes wide in surprise, then quietly walked forward as well. Several other people from the other door repeated the same steps of initial surprise, followed by resumption of outwardly normal behavior. The majority of the workers all crowded around Allie, sitting in seats around her and holding onto poles nearby so she would be masked from the aisle as much as possible. The first man who had entered the car sat next to her and gave her a warm smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, which were still filled with confusion, anxiety, and a fierce anger behind it all.
A bell-head stepped onto the train and the workers around Allie tensed up. She held her breath as it stalked the length of the car, murmuring quietly from its horn. “Doors closing,” the train announced, and it sped away from the platform. “Upper Pipeworks is next. Doors open on the left at Upper Pipeworks. This is a Blue line train to Atrium.”
Allie felt a tap on her arm from the man next to her and turned to him as muttered conversation broke out around the car and the bell-head stalked through the aisle. He leaned in close and cupped his hands around her ear, then whispered in a barely audible voice. “Why are you here? Where are you going? How can we help you?”
How should Allie respond? [Choose one from each block, or feel free to write in a suggestion.]
Why is she here?
- I need to escape this place.
- I’m here to destroy this place.
Where is she going?
- Atrium.
️ - The surface.
️ - Deeper below. To the heart of this place.
How can they help her? [This block in particular consists of very vague suggestions. Allie will carry out the conversation on her own, based on the ranked values provided here.]
❓ - Information. About the Factory, about these people.
- Subterfuge. Get her away from this bell-head.
- Rebellion. Fight back.
(Winners: , ️ , ❓ )
- I need to escape this place.
- I’m here to destroy this place.
Where is she going?
- Atrium.
️ - The surface.
️ - Deeper below. To the heart of this place.
How can they help her? [This block in particular consists of very vague suggestions. Allie will carry out the conversation on her own, based on the ranked values provided here.]
❓ - Information. About the Factory, about these people.
- Subterfuge. Get her away from this bell-head.
- Rebellion. Fight back.
(Winners: , ️ , ❓ )
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Scene 39
Allie whispered to him at a similarly barely audible level. “I’m Allie. I... I’m from the surface. Someone threw me down here and I’ve been trying to escape.” She paused a moment. “I’ve been trying to get back to the surface this whole time but...” A nervous glance around. “But I think that’s not what I want anymore. I’m going to destroy this place, make sure it can’t hurt anyone else. I still want to get back to the surface - to have an escape route available - but I think... I think I also want to go deeper. Get to the heart of this place, and kill it.” She paused again, considering her own words. She wasn’t sure she believed herself. “I need information. I don’t know anything about this place... or only a little bit. Why are there people here? What are these bell creatures? What’s the purpose of this place as a whole? And where is it vulnerable?”
She leaned away and the man stared at her with an expression that was hard to read. He held that position for several seconds before leaning back in and whispering in her ear again. “My name is James, and I’m also from the surface. A lot of these folks down here are in the same boat as you and me.” Allie’s eyes widened at that. Based on her interactions with Daron, she had thought most of the workers down here would have been in the Factory for many years.
“I was thrown down here a few months ago. I woke up in a pit full of garbage, with two of these bell-heads waiting ready to fish me out. They brought me here, to the Foundry, and forced me to work. To pour, to cast, to hammer and carry. Most of the people in this car have a similar story. I don’t know how you escaped your... jailors, or if you never even had any, but I think you’re in a unique place to do something about this. These things - I think they mostly tell where we are by hearing and scent, but they seem to track people by blood. At some point, everyone here has had some blood taken from them and shared between these monsters; I think that might mark us as their responsibility? Either way, if you don’t have an assigned jailor, you might be much more able to move around than we are. They always seem to be able to track us down without a problem, so it’s basically impossible to get away.”
Allie thought back to her previous encounters with the bell-heads. Had they managed to get any of her blood? ...My arm! she realized, unconsciously flexing her right hand. There had undoubtedly been plenty of blood left behind when the train doors had severed her arm, so she couldn’t count on being un-trackable. James kept talking, not noticing her expression.
“But people from the surface aren’t the only ones down here,” he continued. “There were a handful of older folks that say they were frozen underground for years and years - I met a man who thought it was still the 20th century, if that means anything to you. So there must have been some people frozen down here who were revived, along with people from the surface. I don’t know what we’re working towards, other than production of something. So far I’ve only been between the Foundry, the Pipeworks, and the Beltways - just these three stops on the Blue line. I hadn’t seen anyone else from outside of these areas before you showed up.
“And that... that means I don’t know a way back to the surface, or lower down. Foundry you’ve already seen, but I can tell you about the other stops. Pipeworks is a mess of... well, pipes. It’s cramped and hot and dangerous, and no one seems to know what the pipes are carrying, just that we have to fix them if they break. There are miles of tunnels stuffed with pipes; you could easily get lost in them for days or more. Beltways, on the other hand, is a big open cavern filled with conveyor belts passing through the air in every direction. Sometimes cargo trains transfer their loads to other trains through the belts, but sometimes there are no trains involved. The belts just go everywhere - it’s hard to describe how many there are and how many places they go. It’s probably another maze outside of the main room.” He paused. “Did... that help? What are you going to do next? Does it have something to do with that weird bracelet?”
Allie glanced at the VitaBand fused to her wrist, noting she had 68 points of charge available. She opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again, trying to digest what he had just told her. The headache was finally starting to recede.
A three-tone chime sounded from the ceiling of the car and both Allie and James glanced up. There was a brief pause, then a series of carefully measured musical notes, modulated as if played through a large brass bell. Allie started to feel nervous, but didn’t panic until the announcement was over and the bell-head stalking through the car honked loudly, then moved to one end and started carefully moving from person to person, inhaling, considering, and moving on. It seemed to be searching for something - or someone. Allie glanced around anxiously, searching for a way to escape or hide. She was near the middle of the car, so she had some time to prepare, but not much. The train began to slow as it rounded a corner. What should she do?
[All options are potentially deadly.]
- Stay in place. Act natural. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
- Hide under a seat. Have other people mask her with their legs. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Incite a riot. There must be nearly two dozen people in the car; they should be able to take on the monster, right? [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Run away, out the emergency door.
[If Allie chooses this option, where will she go?]
- The next car. [Chance: a tough challenge.]
- Climb on the outside of the train. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- The tracks. Get off the train. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
(Winner: , )
- Stay in place. Act natural. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
- Hide under a seat. Have other people mask her with their legs. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Incite a riot. There must be nearly two dozen people in the car; they should be able to take on the monster, right? [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Run away, out the emergency door.
[If Allie chooses this option, where will she go?]
- The next car. [Chance: a tough challenge.]
- Climb on the outside of the train. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- The tracks. Get off the train. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
(Winner: , )
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Scene 40
Allie gestured at the bell-head in panic and began to stand up, her eyes darting to the emergency door on the closest end of the car. James took a deep breath and half-stood, a hand reaching out to grab her, but then stopped himself. Time seemed to slow and dilate as Allie pushed her way through the crowd and ran for the door. A loud honk sounded behind her, followed quickly by a scream and shouting. She didn’t look back and crashed through the door, barely keeping her footing as the train clattered around the corner. She quickly opened the door to the next car and darted through, taking in the new scene as fast as the light would reach her eyes.
Another bell-head stood only a few steps away, facing away from her but turning quickly at the noise. A sea of frozen faces gaped at her as she tripped over her feet trying to slow down and not run directly into the monster.
Allie wasn’t entirely sure what happened next as events moved too quickly to keep up. The bell-head snapped its arm out unnaturally quickly, grabbing her around the throat in a choking grasp. The other monster burst through the door, crashing into the one holding Allie and knocking them all to the floor. Several people from the previous car followed the bell-head through, shouting something she couldn’t catch in the moment. The monster with its hand around her neck squeezed and she felt something crack.
Allie blacked out.
...
She came to a minute later, gasping for breath as the bracelet beeped on her wrist. The train was starting to slow and she heard it begin to announce its arrival at the next station, Upper Pipeworks. A woman she didn’t know knelt over her, one hand on her shoulder and the other grasping a vertical bar for balance. A handful of other people sat in the rear of the car, faces blank and looking anywhere except at Allie. The bell-heads were gone, and she could hear screaming and two bellowing horns from the car ahead. Two corpses lay scattered on the floor nearby, one with his head seemingly torn off and the other with her torso apparently ripped in half.
The woman leaned down and spoke quietly and quickly. “You must go,” she said. “We’ll keep them distracted, but you have to get away. Destroy this place. Free us all. I don’t know how you survived that monster, but I do know that with powers like that, you must be the one who can save us.”
The train stopped and the platform doors opened. “This is Upper Pipeworks. This is a Blue line train to Atrium. Next stop is Beltways.”
Allie scrambled to her feet, glancing at the bracelet as she did so. 35 points left. She hesitated, glancing between the empty station platform and the woman, still kneeling on the floor of the car. “Go!” she hissed at Allie.
- Go. Step off the train and into Pipeworks.
- Tell the woman to come with. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Stay. Fight. [This choice is potentially deadly. Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
(Winner: )
- Go. Step off the train and into Pipeworks.
- Tell the woman to come with. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Stay. Fight. [This choice is potentially deadly. Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 41
“You should come with me,” Allie said, choking a little as her throat still felt constricted from the bell-head’s grip. “You don’t need to stay here and die.”
The woman struggled to her feet, both hands grasping the vertical bar, and sat down heavily in one of the train seats. Allie suddenly became aware of how unexpectedly old she looked. “I’ve been in this Factory for years now, and I wasn’t young when they took me in the first place. I’d only slow you down. No, I’ve made my peace with death. It’s better than staying here.”
Allie stepped back, out of the car and onto the platform, as the train cheerfully announced that the doors were closing. She glanced around at the other cars, not seeing anything emerging onto the station, then returned her gaze to the woman sitting serenely in her seat and giving a sad little half-wave as the train began to pull away. She turned away, the images of the woman and the corpses pressing into her thoughts. She felt mildly nauseous, replaying the last few minutes in her mind.
The Pipeworks station was relatively small, with only the platform and a series of tunnels as points of interest in the room. Her shoes clanged uncomfortably loudly against the metal tiled floor, occasionally eliciting a groaning creak as she stepped on a loose tile and it shifted under her weight. Out of curiosity, she pulled one of the loose tiles up with some effort, revealing a deep cavity crammed with dozens of pipes of various sizes, shapes, and materials. A strong breeze blew through the crawlspace, away from the station platform and towards the tunnels.
Allie put the tile back and moved on towards the tunnels. Each one had a set of turnstiles in its entrance, oriented so she could leave but she would have to tap something on the reader to get back in. The one on the far left was more of a short hallway than a tunnel, and terminated in a series of three elevators. The signage read “To Weave Control.” The next tunnel along led down at a slight grade. The air rising from it felt warm and humid. The signage read “Steamworks.” The third tunnel led down at a sharp grade, and several of the lights were dead. There didn’t seem to be a breeze. The signage read “Weave Core,” then, in large red letters, “PPE REQUIRED. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS PROHIBITED.” The fourth tunnel led down at a moderate grade, and the air felt chill and dry. The signage read “Cryonics.” The last tunnel on the far right turned away to the right, several pipes immediately emerging into the corridor and traveling along the ceiling. The signage read “To Beltways.”
Allie was uncomfortably aware of her own breathing. It wasn’t due to a lack of other sounds; the pipes hummed and clattered and the breeze rushed along. She almost felt like she was hearing from another’s perspective, as if she weren’t herself. She held her breath for several moments, trying to force the feeling to dissipate, but it came back stronger. She felt like she could see the back of her own head.
...
Allie turned around quickly. Nothing was there. She let out another nervous, uncomfortably loud breath, almost an anxious laugh. She saw the corpses when she blinked. What should she do?
- Wait for another train to Atrium.
- Wait for another train to Mesa South.
1️⃣ - Enter the first tunnel, to Weave Control.
2️⃣ - Enter the second tunnel, to Steamworks.
3️⃣ - Enter the third tunnel, to Weave Core.
4️⃣ - Enter the fourth tunnel, to Cryonics.
5️⃣ - Enter the fifth tunnel, to Beltways.
(Winner: 4️⃣ )
- Wait for another train to Atrium.
- Wait for another train to Mesa South.
1️⃣ - Enter the first tunnel, to Weave Control.
2️⃣ - Enter the second tunnel, to Steamworks.
3️⃣ - Enter the third tunnel, to Weave Core.
4️⃣ - Enter the fourth tunnel, to Cryonics.
5️⃣ - Enter the fifth tunnel, to Beltways.
(Winner: 4️⃣ )
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Scene 42
Allie glanced back at the tracks, then carefully pushed her way through the turnstiles in the mouth of the fourth tunnel. She shivered in the new chill, crossing her arms to conserve warmth as she descended. Pipes began to pop in through the walls and ceiling as she traveled, snaking into the tunnel and along its sides as it burrowed deeper into the crust. Many of the pipes appeared to be made of normal metal and carrying some unknown fluid she couldn’t see, but some of them were made of or carrying more exotic materials. Several glass pipes carried slow-moving, viscous-looking brightly colored substances. A thickly insulated pipe still emanated a fierce chill. A yellow-white pipe looked uncomfortably like old bone and rattled strangely.
A faint mist began to rise from the ground as Allie continued further and further down. She passed a thick metal wall blocking much of the tunnel, its massive steel bulkhead left hanging open. But finally, just past that door, the tunnel leveled out and opened up into a larger room. Allie sneezed from the cold, surprising herself and causing her to hold still quietly for several moments, waiting to see if anything had noticed. There were no sounds beyond the loud humming of some sort of machinery and the slow trickle of some sort of fluid. Allie stepped into the room and looked around.
She was standing near the midpoint of one of the walls of a large white-tiled room, about the size of a moderate gymnasium but not nearly as tall. About a dozen channels were carved into the floor, running straight across the room from her wall to the opposite one. She peered into the closest one, revealing it to be mostly full of a slowly moving light blue liquid flowing towards the opposite wall, covered by a metal grate coated in frost. The liquid gave off a deathly cold chill. On either side of each grate-covered channel stood rows of hundreds of glass cylinders, each about 7 or 8 feet tall and maybe 3 feet wide. Some were dark and empty, while others were filled with the same light blue liquid from the floor-channels. One, nearby, held a nude human floating in the midst of the liquid, connected to the top and bottom of the tank by thin wires or tubes connected to his torso. He seemed to be unconscious or dead.
Allie shuddered fiercely and rubbed her arms. Every inch of her skin was covered in goosebumps. The air was frigidly cold. She wished she had some sort of clothing beyond her tattered and ripped t-shirt and jeans; if she stayed here for too much longer, she could be in trouble. What should she do?
[Choices in this block may be combined with any other and require 8 votes. If Allie takes too long, the cold may start harming her.]
️ - Investigate the man’s tank further. Are there any controls?
⌛ - Investigate some of the empty tanks. What are these wires or tubes? Can she open one?
- Go deeper into the room. Look for other points of interest.
⏪ - Go back up the tunnel. Try a different path.
(Winner: )
️ - Investigate the man’s tank further. Are there any controls?
⌛ - Investigate some of the empty tanks. What are these wires or tubes? Can she open one?
- Go deeper into the room. Look for other points of interest.
⏪ - Go back up the tunnel. Try a different path.
(Winner: )
4
6
8
5
Scene 43
Allie darted forward and half-jogged down the nearest aisle, glancing at the tubes to either side of her as she ran. The majority were empty. Maybe one in every five was full of liquid, and maybe one in four of those held a person hooked up with the same wires or tubes as the first man. There seemed to be no discernable pattern among the people; they were of all ages, genders, and physiques. Her footsteps sounded uncomfortably loud on the grates and she kept nervously glancing from side to side, half-expecting one of the people to burst out of their tube and attack her.
She reached the far end of the room without incident and slowed to a stop, bringing her fingers up to her face to warm them up. There was nothing of interest to the right; just more rows and rows of glass tanks. To the left, however, Allie spotted a slight inconsistency in the tiles on the wall. As she moved closer, she could trace the outline of a door, flush with the wall and with only the slight dip of a handhold to distinguish it against the background. She grasped the handhold and pulled.
The door slid open with a hiss, revealing a dimly lit concrete stairway leading upwards. The air felt somewhat warmer than the terrible chill of the cryonics room. She peered up the stairs, trying to make out what might be lurking above, but couldn’t see past the first switchback, where a large section of the concrete in the wall seemed to have exploded out at some point in the past and scattered chunks of material across the landing and down the stairs. A handful of broken pieces of pipe leaned out of the wall or lay on the ground. The stairs sported a dark stain, presumably from whatever had been inside the pipes.
A loud, low horn sounded from the opposite side of the room and Allie jumped, stifling a scream. She could hear something moving along the metal grates that formed the floor of the aisles. She began to panic, backing up into the stairway before stopping and regaining her senses. She had to make a plan.
⏫ - Close the door and ascend the stairs. Take a length of pipe as an improvised weapon.
⏪ - Try to get around the bell-head in the aisles. Get back out into the tunnel; run back to the station.
◀️ - As above, but grab a length of pipe from the stairway first.
- As above, but fight the bell-head rather than running. [This choice is potentially deadly. Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
(Winner: ⏫ )
- As above, but fight the bell-head rather than running. [This choice is potentially deadly. Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
(Winner: ⏫ )
14
1
1
1
Scene 44
Allie slid the door shut as quietly as she could, then ran up the stairs to the first landing. A quick search through the broken pipes and she grasped a longer, thinner one a little taller than she was, wrenching it free from its weakened base. She spun the improvised metal staff and passed it between her hands, checking the balance. Fairly decent, and the broken fragments on either end looked somewhat sharp if she wanted to stab something with them. She had taken a year of Tae Kwon Do back in middle school, and while it had been eight years since then, she hoped the memory of how to use a staff like this would come back to her. At least more than the hand-to-hand combat skills, which she clearly hadn’t remembered at all.
Up the stairs, then. Allie kept going, passing two more landings before reaching the top of the stairs. A rusted red metal door stood off the landing to the right, left hanging ajar since some unknown point in the past. She carefully crept into the room and looked around quickly, still listening for any sounds from below.
The room was long and narrow, with a glass window covering much of the right-hand wall and overlooking the cryonics room she had just come from. Even from her new vantage point, nothing was visible moving in the aisles. A long desk sat just below the window, with several computer monitors and associated towers set up along its surface. Faded letters above the window read “C-04-D” in block capitals. The rest of the room besides the desk was a mess of upturned and broken tables, chairs, and the contents of a small kitchenette. There was another door - a heavy metal bulkhead common to the more industrial parts of the Factory - but it was buried behind all the mess and would need some excavating to get open. Unless... was it already ajar? Maybe slightly, but definitely not wide enough for Allie to fit through. It was hard to tell, and she couldn’t get close without clambering over the precarious mounds of broken furniture.
She paused briefly, listening. Where was that bell-head? She couldn’t see it anywhere, and she couldn’t hear it on the stairs. Allie felt her heart pounding from nervousness and anticipation, and her stomach grumbled unexpectedly. She almost wanted to tell it “not now!” She gripped the pipe. What should she do?
[Each of the choices in this block may be combined with any other option and require 8 votes. They will take additional time, though some will take more time than others.]
️ - Turn on one of the old computers.
- Search through the mess; try and find something useful. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Try to barricade the door to the stairway, or at least close and lock it. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Clear a path through the mess to the bulkhead door.
⏪ - Head back down the stairs.
(Winners: ️ , , , )
️ - Turn on one of the old computers.
- Search through the mess; try and find something useful. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Try to barricade the door to the stairway, or at least close and lock it. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Clear a path through the mess to the bulkhead door.
⏪ - Head back down the stairs.
(Winners: ️ , , , )
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1
Scene 45
Allie ducked down under the desk and pressed the power button on the front of one of the old, dusty computer towers. There was a brief pause, then a light came on inside the case and a fan started to spin. Several beeps sounded and the connected monitor lit up with a manufacturer’s logo she didn’t recognize. Several dots began spinning around in a circle and Allie decided to give the computer some time to boot up while she did other things.
Next, she headed over to the door leading into the hallway, looking around and again seeing no sign of the bell-head or anything else of note, and pulled it shut with significant effort. The hinges were rusted and somewhat bent, and the door itself was a solid slab of metal. Still, she eventually got it closed and locked, sliding a deadbolt into place for added defense. She felt fairly confident that even a bell-head wouldn’t be able to break through that door, at least not for a while. But why did it have a deadbolt? Did the other door have one too? What was in this room that needed such protection?
She moved back over to the pile of broken furniture, glancing over at the still-booting computer as she did. No visible progress. She started working through the mess, shoving larger items off to the side and sweeping away some of the smaller debris to make a path to the bulkhead door. While working, she kept an eye out for any smaller items that might be helpful. This had been a kitchenette at one time; maybe she could find something here that would still be edible to calm her stomach down.
Several minutes later, she had almost made it to the door and picked up two somehow unexpired cans of food. Both of them had a printed expiration date still a year or more out, which meant someone had been using this place no more than a half decade ago. Who had still been working here then? When had this place actually shut down like the letters she found at the train station had said? Had it actually shut down at all? Still, at least she had some food now... if she could find a can opener. She also could only fit one of the cans in her pockets and had to carry the other one in the hand she wasn’t using to hold the pipe. She needed to find a bag.
Allie slid aside the last table standing between her and the bulkhead, but overextended and tripped, falling to the floor underneath it. She winced, starting to pick herself back up, then stopped. There was an old sticky note still taped to the bottom of the table. Allie pulled it off and stood up, examining the note. It read “m4ximF0CUS!,” then on a separate line “eat this note,” a small smiley face, and a heart. This was clearly a password of some sort, and given the room she was in, Allie had a pretty good guess as to what it was for.
She glanced over at the computer again, thankful to see that it had finished booting up while she was working and now displayed a login screen. She peered out the bulkhead door, revealing nothing but a pitch-black hallway lined with pipes leading off into the distance as far as she could see. A metal door was visible set into the right-hand wall just before the dim light from the room dissipated. Allie tried to close the bulkhead while she was still considering what to do, but it was stuck and wouldn’t budge. She could open in a little bit farther - wide enough to squeeze through - but she couldn’t close it or open it all the way.
She jumped as something large and heavy slammed against the metal door she had closed earlier. The room echoed with the sound, but the door held firm. A brief pause, then another enormous crashing noise as something rammed the door with incredible force. Allie glanced anxiously between the half-open bulkhead and the computer. What should she do?
️ - Use the password; log in. [What should she put as the username?]
- Exit through the bulkhead, check the metal door in the hallway.
- Exit through the bulkhead and keep going.
(Winner: ️ )
️ - Use the password; log in. [What should she put as the username?]
- Exit through the bulkhead, check the metal door in the hallway.
- Exit through the bulkhead and keep going.
(Winner: ️ )
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Scene 46
Allie darted over to the computer and sat down in front of it. She placed the sticky note in front of the keyboard, then carefully typed it into the password field, considering what usernames should could try. Maybe they’re as bad at security as the university, she thought, typing in “admin” for the username. A brief pause as the machine considered it, then a welcome screen flashed up and began to load into a terminal. Allie half-grinned, then flinched as the beast crashed into the door again. She still didn’t see any damage, so she should still have some time.
Allie spent the next several minutes alternating between glancing nervously at the door and navigating the computer’s interface. The machine didn’t have a network connection, even though there was a network cable plugged in, so she assumed something was broken down in the infrastructure beyond the wall jack. Still, the machine itself had plenty of interesting files and utilities installed locally.
There was a program that seemed to control and monitor the cryonics facility she could see out the window. There were options to fill or drain tanks, change the composition of the liquid, stop or start the flow through the channels in the floor, awaken or put to sleep subjects in the tanks, and two worrying buttons marked as “release all” and “terminate all.” She could also see the contents and status of each tank, including a brief file on the occupant, if any.
Beyond the cryonics utility, there was a door control program allowing Allie to remotely open, close, lock, or unlock any doors available from the workstation. Which was... none of them. Because of the lack of network connection. She moved on. There was a timeclock utility which showed that the last punch-in was almost 50 years ago and whoever it was had accumulated over 400,000 hours of overtime. She frowned. The food had been recent - within the decade, at the earliest. Had no one been punching in for 50 years or had someone else found this place before her? Maybe this involved those people under the command of the bell-heads; they certainly didn’t seem like they were being compensated for their work.
With one last devastating slam, the attack on the door went quiet. It still showed no visible signs of damage. Allie swallowed hard, not sure if the monster had given up or was going to try something else. She kept an eye on the cryonics floor out the window, looking for the bell-head, while she kept poking through the computer.
There was also an email client on the machine - horrendously out of date and unable to pull in new mail without a network connection - but several messages had been saved locally. Allie started pulling them up in chronological order. The oldest was from November 10th, 1971, around the same time as the last punch-in on the timeclock.
“To: cry-mgmt@factory | From: c-04-d@factory | Date: 1971-11-10 10:13 AM
Subject: Supplies request
Body: we’re running out of solution here we won’t be able to store many more people without addtl supplies please send more preservatives coolant and nutrients”
“To: c-04-d@factory | From: cry-mgmt@factory | Date: 1971-11-10 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: Supplies request
Body: Seal up as many tanks as you can, then shut everything down. The timeline has accelerated significantly. All your staff must be either in those tanks or gone by EOD today. Whoever is the last one outside pulling the lever, make sure they’re extremely loyal and have a gun. They’ll know what to do tomorrow morning.”
“To: cry-mgmt@factory | From: c-04-d@factory | Date: 1971-11-10 4:57 PM
Subject: EOD report
Body: 63 staff are in tanks, last 15 are gone I’m pulling the last lever and have a gun it’s been great working with you”
“To: all@factory | From: president@factory | Date: 1971-11-10 5:00 PM
Subject: Closure of the Factory
Body: Attention all employees,
The Factory will be ceasing all operations effective immediately. Please contact your shift supervisor for more information on how this change will affect you and what to do both at the end of today and tomorrow morning. Do not worry; everyone currently employed by us will still have a purpose tomorrow. Contact your supervisor for the information you need. It’s been an honor and a pleasure leading this facility into the future.
All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.
- Wilhelm Bolte, President & Founder, The Factory”
“To: c-04-d@factory | From: c-04-d@factory | Date: 1971-11-11 9:27 AM
Subject: a
Body: this is a note to whoeber finds this station after the cjange. they din’t close the factory. not really. they locked all the doors and are rounding everyone up. i got away barely. managers and people with power are going down to the core and the silence i heard but is regular people are being either frozen or killed. i keep hearing gunfire in the distance, like machine guns. i do’t know what happening but it’s really bad. if you see this mssage i hope it helps you get away. don’t trust supervisors. i’m going to try and fnd the gunfire i think it might be soldiers. maybe they can help me get out. stay sade. - len”
“To: c-04-d@factory | From: Mail Delivery Subsystem | Date: 2019-09-14 2:40 PM
Subject: Message sending failure
Body: “This is an automated notification that your last message with subject ‘please help me’ could not be delivered due to a network outage. Please check your network connection and try again. The message body is reproduced below:
‘my name is samantha bowman and i’m a student at the university and i’m trapped underground in a big factory. i don’t know how i got here but i’ve been stuck down here for days and i’m being chased by a monster with a tuba instead of a head and i know this sounds completely unbelievable but it’s true i promise. i don’t know where i am but i think it must be nearby because it’s still cold. please help i don’t have much time before it finds me again.’”
There were no further messages. Allie sat back, worried. She knew Sam; she was a third year in... CS, she thought? Sam had gone missing a few months ago; the police had found her car in a river, but no body. They had decided it was most likely that she was dead, but technically she had never been found. Just like... just like Allie herself, she supposed. If Sam hadn’t found a way out... maybe she was still alive somewhere. Maybe the bell-heads hadn’t caught her. She could hope. God, there was a lot to unpack in those emails.
She breathed out and started reading through the messages again. So the Factory had shut down in 1971. The employees of this station had been frozen, presumably in the cryonic tanks below, or were... gone. Given the context, Allie doubted that meant “allowed to leave.” Then there was the message from ‘len.’ There had been gunfire and possibly soldiers; was that related to the fatigue-clad skeletons she had seen on the station platform? Management had gone to the core and the silence. She remembered both of those locations on the rail map - the Core Deck station was on the purple line, near the center of the Factory, and the Silence was one of the locations on the red line.
Allie paused in her thinking, noticing movement out the window. The bell-head was stalking down the aisles, heading along the back wall of the room and out of view. She carefully sat back down, nervous. Where was it going? What was its plan?
Anyway, then there was the message from Sam. She had been taken as well, presumably in a similar incident to Allie’s. Who was kidnapping students from the university, and why? What was the point, especially if they got missed? James - she winced, flashing back to the blood-soaked train car - he had immediately been apprehended by bell-heads once he had been taken, but Allie and Sam had both managed to get away before any showed up. What was different about them? She didn’t know, and she doubted she’d be able to find out without more information.
She sighed. She had obtained a lot more information from this terminal, but she still felt just as confused and afraid as before - maybe even more so. For every question she answered, it seemed like two more popped up to take its place - and she still wasn’t any closer to escaping! ... Or destroying this place. Or finding Sam! She had multiple goals to choose from, but none of them had a clear path forward. What should she do?
[Options in this block may be combined with any other option and require 8 votes. They will take additional time.]
[If you want to do something else on the computer, write it in.]
- "Release all" in the cryonic program.
- Read through some files; release some specific people who seem useful or willing to fight. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Search the room again. Look for clues about what happened to Sam.
- Exit through the bulkhead, check the metal door in the hallway.
- Exit through the bulkhead and keep going.
️ - Go back out the closed door, down the stairway, and back to the station.
(Winners: , , )
- "Release all" in the cryonic program.
- Read through some files; release some specific people who seem useful or willing to fight. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Search the room again. Look for clues about what happened to Sam.
- Exit through the bulkhead, check the metal door in the hallway.
- Exit through the bulkhead and keep going.
️ - Go back out the closed door, down the stairway, and back to the station.
(Winners: , , )
12
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Scene 47
Allie navigated back to the cryonics utility, still glancing out the window for any further sign of the bell-head. She selected the “release all” option and hesitated, wondering what exactly it would do. Still, it would probably be worth the risk. There were over a hundred people in those tanks if the program was to be believed; she had to do something to help them.
...
She pressed the button.
A confirmation prompt popped up and Allie sighed, a sense of anticlimax accompanying it. She selected the confirm option. A few seconds passed as the computer processed her request, then a loud alarm began to sound - muted through the glass - and red warning lights began to blink on and rotate in the main chamber as the main lights faded. A progress bar appeared on the screen and started to fill as she watched the room change out the window.
Every tank started draining at once, and the gentle trickling of the frigid streams in the floor became a frenzied rushing as thousands of gallons of liquid surged through them in an attempt to escape. After only a few moments, many channels overflowed and began to spill deathly cold liquid onto the white tiled floor. The air became shrouded in mist and frost appeared on the walls near-instantly. It was getting harder to see what was going on, but she could still make out the details of several nearby tanks well enough to infer the status of the rest of the room.
After nearly a minute of continuous flooding from the channels, most of the tanks appeared drained and the rushing liquid slowly started to recede. Puddles of solution remained on the floor and she dreaded to think how incredibly cold the room was now. A brief pause, then the tubes or wires connected to the people inside the nearest tanks retracted, pulling out of the unconscious people’s skin with a tug and a splatter of blood. Without the support from the upper wires, person after person dropped to the floor of their tank.
After another minute or so had passed, Allie heard the hissing of gas. Cloudy air vented into the tanks and the occupants began to stir. One of the nearby people - a youngish man grasping his arms and shivering violently - stared at his surroundings in confusion and disorientation, eventually focusing on the window Allie was watching him from. His mouth formed words, but she couldn’t hear them.
The system paused again and there was a rushing of additional liquid through pipes in the ceiling. She could hear fluid pouring out into the stairway outside and thought of the broken pipes in the wall, concerned. Sprinklers in the roof turned on and began to shower the main room with some sort of clear liquid, washing away the remaining coolant on the floor and clearing the frost from the walls. A section of the sprinklers towards the right-hand side or the room didn’t come on.
It was at this point she caught sight of the bell-head again, now that the sprinklers were clearing the mist. It was darting through the aisles towards the entrance door, carrying an almost person-sized blob of pink flesh with a greenish tinge, reminding her immediately of the creature she had encountered at the train station. The bell-head continued through the downpour, passing by dozens of slowly awakening people in their tanks, several of whom started screaming as they saw it.
It reached the entrance door and passed through it, out of view, still carrying the blob-creature. The sprinklers stopped and there was another pause before a tank vented gas into the air and began to slide into the floor. Then another, and another. Dozens of disoriented, confused, naked, newly-awakened people spilled out of their tanks and onto the slippery floor, all unsure of what to do or where to go. The alarm silenced and the chamber’s normal lighting slowly returned.
The entrance door closed. Allie gasped as she saw the bell-head step back into the chamber, the blob-creature gone and presumably left outside. It stalked towards the nearest person - an older fellow struggling to rise to his feet - grasped him, and ripped him in half. It angled its bell towards the window and released a blast of sound so loud Allie could hear it even through the glass. Below, the people who could stand began to scatter and run from the monster as it slowly stalked forward, towards the window.
Allie gripped the pipe with both hands and stared out at the carnage with fear and a tinge of anger as the bell-head approached. Her prior plans fell apart due to the change in the situation. She had to do something to save these people that she had just released into the equivalent of a lion’s den. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t.
What should Allie do?
- Get away from here. Out the bulkhead, down the hallway. Away. [Requires at least 4 more votes than any other option to overrule Allie’s own guilt.]
- Go back down the stairs into the room. Fight the monster. Kill it. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
- Bargain with the creature. Trade herself for these peoples' lives. [Chance: a tough challenge.]
❤️ - Drain the heart, throw it into the monster's head. If that doesn't work, try to throw more things to suffocate it. [Write-in; Chance: a risky challenge.]
[Write in additional choices or modifiers to form a different plan or modify an existing one. Allie’s inventory will be provided in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: ❤️ )
- Get away from here. Out the bulkhead, down the hallway. Away. [Requires at least 4 more votes than any other option to overrule Allie’s own guilt.]
- Go back down the stairs into the room. Fight the monster. Kill it. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
- Bargain with the creature. Trade herself for these peoples' lives. [Chance: a tough challenge.]
❤️ - Drain the heart, throw it into the monster's head. If that doesn't work, try to throw more things to suffocate it. [Write-in; Chance: a risky challenge.]
[Write in additional choices or modifiers to form a different plan or modify an existing one. Allie’s inventory will be provided in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: ❤️ )
1
8
1
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Scene 48
Allie shouted in frustration and anger and whirled away from the window, running back towards the stairway door. She quickly tried to come up with a plan as she wrestled with the deadbolt and the twisted hinges. She had no illusions that she could beat the creature in a one on one fight, but this situation was hardly one on one. If she could get some of the people down there to help her - to distract it, restrain it, hold it back - she could get close and... do what? These things were tough and strong, and a train car full of people hadn’t been enough to kill one last time. She had the pipe, but would she be able to stab it seriously enough to harm it? Maybe, but what other options did she have?
Allie shoved the door open and stumbled out onto the landing, quickly regaining her bearings and running down the stairs. The heart. She had the crystal heart from that other monster she had killed with the egg. What if... She had no idea how these things worked or if this would even accomplish anything, but... It was worth a shot. Allie tapped at the bracelet, barely avoiding tripping down the stairs as she did so, and transferred the rest of the heart’s charge into the VitaBand. The crystal went cold and dark, though it retained its red color and a hint of sparkling light deep inside. Now, she just had to get it in the thing’s head.
She slid open the door and dashed out into chaos. The room was much warmer than before - though it was still chilly - and puddles of water and coolant dotted the floor. She almost slipped and fell with her first few steps. The noise was cacophonous - the bell-head’s musical roars and honks, the deafening screaming of dozens of people, the occasional sickening meaty tearing sounds as the monster found another victim. Allie grasped the heart in her right hand - the weaker one - and the staff in her left. She strode into the fray.
Whenever she encountered a group of people, she was immediately distinct - identified as unique by her clothes and weapon. She directed those who wouldn’t be of much use in a fight towards the door she had come from, instructing them to get up the stairs and lock the door if needed. The able-bodied, less-disoriented people, she told to follow her. Allie made her way through the room gathering a crowd of helpers; soldiers. They all obeyed her without question. For a brief few moments, she almost felt optimistic. Powerful. Invincible. Exactly as she had felt at the station in the Underworks just before she had gotten Daron killed and her arm cut off. Would this time be any different? What right did she have to lead these people into a battle that - in all likelihood - many would not survive?
She kept going. Projecting a false confidence. No one questioned her.
The bell-head came into view down one of the wider aisles near the center of the room. It had backed two people against one of the tanks and was getting ready to pounce. Allie screamed at it, loud and wordlessly. Venting her anger and frustration and fear.
It turned to face her. The two humans scampered away behind it, turning down a different aisle. Allie stepped forward. “Distract it, restrain it, fight it, I don’t care. Just get me the opportunity to jam this-” she held up the heart so both her followers and the bell-head could see it. “-down its metal throat.” She swallowed, unsure of exactly how to break the frozen standoff. “And try not to get killed in the process,” she added somewhat lamely.
The monster trumpeted a challenge and sprinted forward, faster than Allie had thought possible. She ran to meet it - despite her body’s strong protests telling her to run away as fast as she could - trying to spur the group into action. A chorus of shouts rose from behind her and people ran forward to meet the monster alongside her.
Allie managed to deflect the monster’s first strike with her staff, but the impact was so strong that she was thrown several feet past it and skidded down the slippery aisle, her arms numbed from the incredible force of the blow. She struggled to her feet and braced against the staff, looking around for the heart that she had dropped.
The monster was exactly as distracted as she had hoped - her group of followers were throwing themselves on the creature and it had to focus on defending itself rather than going after Allie. She spotted the heart lying next to one of the channels and scooped it up, slipping on the floor and regaining her footing to charge back towards the fray. The monster managed to get ahold of someone’s leg through the tumult and before anyone could react, the woman to whom it belonged had been flung into the ceiling at terrifying speeds, leaving a red smear across the tiles. Her broken body dropped into the next aisle. Someone broke out of the melee and ran. Allie had to hurry.
She rounded the fight and positioned herself behind the monster’s back, wincing as a bearded man was thrown in a graceful arc to impact the opposite wall and crumple to the floor. Two more people ducked out of the fight to escape. Allie took a deep breath and jumped for it, throwing the staff at the monster’s leg both to distract it and to free up her left hand. She slammed into its back and clung on as it straightened up and blasted an incredibly loud foghorn-like noise. Allie reeled, her ears ringing from the sound, but managed to hook her left arm around its thick metal neck and pull herself into position. She slammed the heart into its bell with a resounding clang, then was grasped around the chest by one of the creature’s hands and yanked off its body like a particularly meddlesome flea.
The monster began to squeeze, keeping Allie at arm’s length so she couldn’t try anything else while backing away from the mob of people now that it had its prize. She shouted and pulled at its grip, but it was far stronger than her and she felt ribs begin to strain and crack. She couldn’t breathe through the crushing pressure. Some of her followers were still bravely keeping up the assault, trying to break its grip, but many more had fallen back and were running away as soon as they saw Allie get captured. She didn’t blame them.
One of her ribs broke with an audible snap and she coughed out the last of her air with the shock. She couldn’t breathe. The broken bone had pierced into something important and the tearing pain more than outmatched the crushing sensation from the creature’s grip. The bracelet beeped on her wrist but she couldn’t muster the strength to reach it. Blackness began to creep in around the edges of her vision as another rib snapped, then another.
All at once, the monster’s grip tightened even further and Allie felt an indescribable sensation from her chest powerful enough to overwhelm every nerve in her body, paired with a sickening wet crunch. She couldn’t feel her heartbeat. It tossed her to the floor and she blacked out as the bracelet spoke. “Mortal wounds detected. Overriding...”
...
Allie gasped for air and sat up, coughing up blood. Her torso burned with agony and she could feel bones shifting and knitting back together. The bell-head had stalked down the aisle somewhat, chasing after the handful of people that had stayed to try and save her. One lung inflated. It would have to do. “HEY!” she shouted, staggering to her feet and supporting herself on her recovered staff. The bracelet beeped angrily and she glanced at it. 15... 14... 13... 12. “LEAVE THEM ALONE! I’M-” she had to pause for breath as the monster angled its bell at her in seeming disbelief. “I’m... the one... you want,” she continued at a quieter volume, out of breath. She couldn’t let these people die.
The creature barreled towards her with the energy of a freight train. Allie knelt, bracing the staff against a gap in the grated floor covering, intending to spear the creature as it slammed into her. At the last second, it broke left and slapped her with an open palm, sending her crashing into one of the cryonic tanks. Glass shattered and she collapsed into the tube, skin lacerated with dozens of fresh cuts. The bracelet beeped again and she dragged her eyes to it, unable to muster the energy to raise her wrist. 4... 3... 2... 1... 0. The tingling in her chest stopped, leaving behind a continuing searing pain. Allie let her head fall back and knock against the floor of the tank. So this was it. This was how she would die. Trying to save a hundred innocent people in a factory miles beneath the surface, torn apart by a tuba-headed monster. Not what she would have expected a few days ago.
She exhaled and could feel the last wisp of life struggling to remain in her body. I’m okay with this, she thought. I saved these people. I killed those monsters. I made a difference.
The bell-head didn’t have any intention of letting her die peacefully. It jammed its arm into the tank, tearing open long shallow cuts along its wrist, and pulled her out by the already damaged torso. Allie didn’t even have the energy to make a sound. Her limbs dangled from its hand as it lifted her up and unceremoniously slammed her into the ground in a spray of water, coolant, and blood. Allie’s life faded, flickered, extinguished. It was over.
She let go.
...
But then she was brought back. Allie weakly lifted her head off the ground, catching a glimpse of her battered reflection in a red-tinted puddle. The bell-head was standing over her. Her entire body burned hot, as if she had pins and needles jammed into every inch of skin. She noted with shock that she was glowing, a looping line of red energy connecting her bracelet to the bell on the monster’s head. It stepped back, swatting at the line. Its hands passed through ineffectually. Allie dragged her arm forward tried to lift herself up, struggling to push her body into a kneeling position. She didn’t have the strength.
The monster strode back towards her, slamming a heavy foot into her back. She could feel the impact, understand that it had just pulverized vital organs, but a force kept her together. The red line thickened and her torso re-assembled itself in seconds. The creature staggered, then dropped to one knee. A haggard blast of sound from its horn.
It regained its feet and gently picked Allie up in both hands, cradling her broken body to its torso, then grasped her by the legs and slammed her into the ground. Blood - so much blood - splattered across the tiles. Allie stayed conscious. She could feel her skull knitting back together. It slammed her against the ground on the other side. Same result. She began to laugh, quietly and mixed with choking on the blood bubbling up from her punctured lungs. She understood what was happening. It didn’t.
Slam. Slam. Slam. Slam. It threw her back and forth, bashing her against the floor, the walls, the tanks, whatever it could reach. Allie was well past the point of pain. Her entire being was nothing but agony, and she could not die. There was nothing this monster could do to hurt her anymore. Eventually, it began to slow down. Its swings began to lose power. It dropped to one knee again, but did not rise. Allie slid from its grasp and onto the floor. She could hear ragged breathing, but she wasn’t sure if it was hers or the creature’s.
The bell-headed monster fell to the floor next to her, its bell clanging against the tiles. Allie let it happen. What could she do, anyway? It curled one hand into a fist and weakly attempted to punch her. The arm limply fell across her chest and went still. Allie closed her eyes as the burning sensation grew to an unbearable intensity.
Then, it was over.
The red light dissipated and the burning sensation stopped. Allie opened her eyes and slid out from under the monster’s arm. She didn’t feel any broken bones grating against each other, but she still felt awful - completely exhausted and in terrible pain. The immediate area was entirely coated in blood, mostly hers. The remaining people stood maybe fifty feet down the aisle and gaped at her in total amazement. Allie smiled at them, spilling several more droplets of blood in the process, then collapsed to the floor as she passed out.
️ - Dream.
- Don’t.
(Winner: ️ )
️ - Dream.
- Don’t.
(Winner: ️ )
15
3
Scene 49
Allie slowly opened her eyes. The room rattled and shook. She was crammed into a corner of what was clearly an elevator, surrounded by perhaps a dozen other people. Everyone wore the same uniform, a dark grey military-style jacket and deep black slacks. She glanced down and saw that she wasn’t herself. She was wearing the same uniform as everyone else, but more to the point, she was tall, muscular, and male rather than her normal body.
The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. People started filling out of the car and Allie followed, not sure what else to do. The hallway was made of natural-looking rock that glistened slimily in the light from the bare bulbs strung along the ceiling. A masked figure in a red robe led the group silently down the corridor. The tunnel shook and dust rained down from the ceiling. Quiet murmurs broke out among the group and someone nudged Allie's arm. She turned to see a shorter woman with closely cropped brown hair and a pensive expression, who leaned close to speak. “Hey, what do you think is going on up there?”
Allie’s voice was far deeper than her own. “Nothing good. I'm sure the President has it under control, though.”
The woman wrinkled her nose. “You always say that, Lawrence. What’s it going to take for you to admit things have gotten out of hand?”
Allie - Lawrence - chuckled. “More than this. I haven't been wrong yet.”
“Hmmm. Okay, why are we down here then? Your precious President just announced the Factory was closing, yesterday! Why are we still here?”
“I don’t know, Madelyn. Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? I don’t know what’s going on and I am worried about it. But there’s nothing I can do except have faith that things will turn out okay. And the President is a lot more effective than any god I could pray to.” She - he - placed a gloved hand on the woman’s - Madelyn’s - shoulder. “Look, I know you. You’re not content unless you have something to worry about. Just... make it something smaller, please. Something you - we - can change. And for the bigger stuff, just let it pass. It’ll all work out in the end.”
Madelyn sighed and covered Lawerence’s hand with her own. “I just have this feeling that this time is different. That it’s the end. Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Lawrence bumped her with his shoulder playfully and smiled. “Whatever this is, I’ll be here to face it with you.”
“Quickly, everyone!” the red-robed figure shouted from the front of the group. “Just through this door here. Once you’re inside, a technician will guide you to your destination and will provide additional instructions. Thank you for your dedication and loyalty to our cause. It will be rewarded.”
The collection of people began filing through the door, the pace slowing to a crawl due to the bottleneck. The cavern shook again and several people glanced up nervously. Madelyn nudged Lawrence again as they approached the door. “Look, this feels wrong. Let’s get away. Back to the elevator and out. It’ll be easy. Please.”
Lawrence grasped her hand in his, completely enveloping it. “Madelyn, please. What did I just say? Don’t sweat the large stuff. Whatever this is, it will be fine. I’ll be here with you, every step of the way.”
She didn’t seem entirely convinced and kept glancing back over her shoulder as the line moved closer and closer to the door. Finally, Lawrence stepped through, pulling her with him. The new room was dimly lit and more of a cavern than a fully finished facility. Metal struts propped up the ceiling in various places and maybe two dozen plain white doors were set into the walls. A younger man in deep purple scrubs and a surgical mask was hurriedly directing people into various rooms, one person per door. The red-robed figure stepped in after Madelyn and nodded to him. “This is the last of this group. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes with the next one.”
The purple-clad man nodded in acknowledgement, then directed Lawrence to one white door and Madelyn to another. “Someone should be waiting for you in the room,” he said to Lawrence. To Madelyn, he said “I’ll be your technician today, though, so please give me just a few moments while I get prepared. I’ll be with you shortly.”
She glanced at Lawrence nervously as the purple-clad man escorted her towards the door and the red-robed figure gestured towards Lawrence’s. He paused a moment, uncomfortable. “I’ll see you when it’s over, okay?” he called, then strode into his room without a second glance.
The area behind the door wasn’t much more finished than the main room. The cavern ceiling was low, bare bulbs strung along the walls providing the only illumination. A tired-looking woman in her mid-thirties wearing the same purple scrubs as the man from the main room was tying her hair back into a tight bun as he entered. “Welcome,” she said in a tired tone. “If you can please change into the provided outfit, I’ll be with you in just a moment. Have to wash up real quick.”
The woman left the room and Lawrence glanced around as he started to remove his jacket. The provided outfit was a hospital-style gown, which concerned him, but not overly much. There must be some reason. The other item in the room that caught his attention was clearly the centerpiece of the area, a wide and long horizontal glass tank hooked up to hundreds of tubes and wires routed into a hole in the ceiling. With its top open, it was vaguely the shape of a bathtub, though somewhat larger than a normal one. He briefly wondered what it was for, but figured he would find out before too long.
The woman re-entered the room and gave Lawrence a quick once-over in his gown. “Good. Extraneous clothing interferes with the process. Anyway, please lie down in the Genesis Vessel while I get it programmed.” As he complied, lying down in the cool glass tube, she stood over him at the controls and typed several strings into the panel, referencing a clipboard. “This procedure should take only a few minutes and is essentially a decontamination. We do some odd things here in the Factory, as I’m sure you’re aware, so we want to make sure nothing weird sticks to you when you leave. As you heard, we’re closing down today, so we’re having to fast-track getting everyone processed so you all can get back up to the surface. This will involve the tank sealing and partially filling with liquid, so if you’re claustrophobic please let me know now. If you have any other questions about the procedure, now would be the time.”
Lawrence shook his head, relieved. Madelyn had been worried over nothing, as usual. This wasn’t anything sinister at all, just a final goodbye to the Factory as it washed away its touch on him. And her. Maybe, once they were both back on the surface, they could... No, that was too forward. One step at a time.
“Okay, ready? Keep breathing normally; don’t hold your breath or hyperventilate. This stuff is non-toxic and carries the same oxygen that air does, so it doesn’t matter if you breathe it in. You may feel a tingling as you’re cleansed; that’s normal. You’ll be in the tank for maybe two minutes, and then I’ll pull you out.”
Lawrence gave her the thumbs up. He was ready.
“Fantastic. I’ll see you on the other side.”
The lid closed, there was a brief pause, and thick white liquid began to pour into the tank from all sides. Lawrence wriggled at the odd warmth of the fluid and the intense tingling everywhere it touched his skin, but tried to hold still and keep his breathing steady. The liquid kept climbing, covering his arms, chest, mouth, nose. He kept breathing. It was a little harder with the additional viscosity of the fluid, but aside from an uncomfortable tingling in his lungs, it wasn’t a problem. The liquid covered his eyes and blocked out the view of the outside. Everything was very quiet.
Lawrence started counting seconds. Two minutes, she had said. One, two, three... He thought of Madelyn and how she would be coping with this procedure. He thought of the surface world and how it must have changed over the years since he had last left the Factory. He thought of the rumblings and gunfire he had been hearing all day. He thought it had been much longer than two minutes.
Lawrence tried to move his arms, maybe to knock on the glass and alert the technician, but nothing happened. He couldn’t feel his body anymore. There was nothing but an endless plane of ivory white and a distant muffled heartbeat that might be his own. And the thought of Madelyn. His mind faded into the same blank whiteness that had become his world.
The rest of the dream was fragmented and blurred.
Lawrence stood over the empty Genesis Vessel, thick white liquid still dripping from his limbs. He couldn’t see, not in the same way. He could hear extremely well, and smell. His body was longer, taller, thinner. That same film of ivory white muffled his thoughts.
He clambered across hills of sharp coal, the Directive burning in his mind. Defend the Factory. Eliminate intruders. Obey management. Somewhere deep inside, buried far below the suffocating ivory, he still thought of Madelyn. What had happened to her? Why couldn’t he bring himself to look for her? But those were minor concerns. He heard a shift in the coal. A defector, a traitor. A target.
He ran after the girl, pawing at the card reader and clambering up the staircase. She had caused no end of trouble and showed no signs of stopping now. An intruder from the outside, and a traitor from within. They had to die. His partner - he didn’t know who it was - blasted a challenge on its horn.
The train sped away and Lawrence roared in anger. The girl had gotten away again, though not without a loss. He grasped the severed arm and dipped a finger in the fresh blood, allowing a droplet to fall into his bell. His partner did the same. Her scent stood out to him now, distinct against any background and hauntingly familiar. She could not escape. Could not run forever.
He stepped off the train and took a deep breath. Cryonics. Where was she going? More riots had followed in her wake. What was her goal? No matter, he would catch up before too long. The scent was getting stronger; he was getting closer.
Lawrence roared and sprinted forward. The girl ran to meet him, the heart of one of his colleagues clutched in her fist. Her mob of traitors followed behind. He waded into the fray, slamming enemies into walls and ceilings, ripping and tearing and killing. An impact on his back. The girl. He reached around and grasped her, pulling her around to his front and backing away. Her shape, her voice. So familiar. No. He had to kill her. Had to obey the Directive.
The girl shouted to him, staggered to her feet. He stared in disbelief. He had crushed her chest, broken every rib. He charged, slapping her into a cryonic tank, shattering the glass. Not enough. He ripped her from the tank and slammed her into the floor. She died. He saw it. He felt it. A pain in his chest, his head. Madelyn.
A weakness in his limbs. The girl stirred. Unbelievable. But Lawrence knew what was happening. He had seen these bracelets before. He had worn one himself, long ago. He knew where it was drawing its energy from. All he had to do was rip it off. It would be so easy. He picked her up, gently brushed his fingers along her arm and over the bracelet. Some buried part of him buried deep beneath the ivory veil protested. No. She wasn’t Madelyn. He had to kill her. But...
What would she think of him now? What would Madelyn say if she saw him as he was now, standing over this girl that he had just beaten to death repeatedly? He knew what she would say. And he knew what he must do. He couldn’t disobey the Directive. But the Directive said nothing about his own safety, his own life.
Defend the Factory. Lawrence slammed the girl into the floor, feeling the life leave his limbs to bolster hers.
Eliminate intruders. He was trying to do just that.
Obey management. There were none around to obey.
He dropped to one knee, his breathing slowing. The girl burbled something, the meaning lost through the blood spilling from her mouth. He let her fall from his grasp and collapsed to the floor next to her. As the life escaped his body to enter hers, Lawrence felt the ivory veil lift. Madelyn.
I’m sorry.
...
Allie opened her eyes, feeling fresh tears leak onto her cheeks and mix with the blood. She could hardly move. A middle aged man with a drooping mustache crouched over her looking concerned. “Are you alright? Do you need anything? I... I have no idea how you survived that. Are you... invincible?”
Is she invincible?
- Yes.
- No, but leave it at that.
️ - No, and explain the bracelet.
Does she need anything?
[Write-ins are welcome. Options in this block require 8 votes and can be combined with any other option.]
- What is the Factory? You were all here before it closed, right?
- Are there any clothes around? For me, and for all of you.
- What happened with the cryonics? Why were you frozen?
️ - Do you know of any shortcuts/locations/exits?
- How are the others doing?
- What did you do before the Factory closed? [Formerly , will add together]
(Winners: , then everything.)
- Yes.
- No, but leave it at that.
️ - No, and explain the bracelet.
Does she need anything?
[Write-ins are welcome. Options in this block require 8 votes and can be combined with any other option.]
- What is the Factory? You were all here before it closed, right?
- Are there any clothes around? For me, and for all of you.
- What happened with the cryonics? Why were you frozen?
️ - Do you know of any shortcuts/locations/exits?
- How are the others doing?
- What did you do before the Factory closed? [Formerly , will add together]
(Winners: , then everything.)
2
14
2
15
13
11
13
12
12
Scene 50
Allie took in a breath, about to respond, but her throat was still filled with blood and she doubled over, coughing and choking and spitting up even more deep red fluid. After nearly ten seconds of retching onto the floor, she raised her head to look the man in the eyes, tears streaming down her face, and said in a raspy, hollow voice “No.” Another cough. “No, I’m not invincible. Just can be very hard to kill, sometimes.” She winced and slowly lowered herself back down to the ground, her head spinning. “Still hurts like normal, too.”
He took a step back, looking increasingly nervous. “I- what can we do to help? I can get you some water, or, uh...”
She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the memories she had just experienced and prevent them from fading. “How long have I been out?”
The man glanced up at the window before answering. “Only a few minutes. Most of the others are upstairs looking for supplies. Did you want to join them? Can you stand, miss...?”
“Allie. Help me up.”
The mustached man introduced himself as George as he helped her slowly limp across the cryonics floor and up the stairs to the control room. He sat her down in one of the chairs and exited through the bulkhead door she had noticed earlier, saying he would be right back after he had found the other people she would want to meet. While he was gone, Allie took the opportunity to look around. There were maybe seven or eight people in the room, shivering and picking through the debris for anything that could be useful. She presumed the rest were down the hallway through the bulkhead. None of the people in the room dared to speak to her, quickly looking away whenever they caught her eye by mistake. But she could tell that whenever she wasn’t looking, she was the center of attention. Allie sighed and sank down into the chair, still exhausted but in too much pain to relax. She needed to find something to charge the bracelet.
After a minute or so, George re-entered the room and led her through the bulkhead and down the formerly dark hallway - now dimly lit by a few flickering bulbs on the ceiling. He passed the first three doors before ushering her into the fourth one on the left and guiding her to sit down on a cushioned bed or table that reminded her of a doctor’s office. There were two other people in the room, each wearing fresh, near-identical grey uniforms similar to the ones in her dream.
George gestured to each individual in turn, introducing them. The first - Lauren - was a slim, athletic looking woman with blonde hair fading to blue bound into a tight ponytail. The second - Elliot - was older, with greying black hair and a thoughtful expression. After his hurried introductions, George ducked out of the room, saying he was going to go get some clothes and water and would be back soon.
Lauren leaned forward. “To start with, thank you. For letting us out of those tanks, and for defeating that monster. You were incredibly brave and powerful, and everyone here owes you their life.”
Allie nodded, clutching at a sudden sharp pain in her side. Slowly, it faded. “I couldn’t just leave everyone to die, not after just letting them out.”
“But secondly,” Lauren continued, “I - and we - know very little about what’s going on here and now. I was put into stasis on November 10th, 1971, and I think pretty much everyone here is in a similar place. When is it, and what’s happening? And if you don’t mind me asking, who are you and what are you doing here?”
“It’s...” Allie paused, thinking. “I don’t actually know what day it is, but I think it’s still November... of 2020. You’ve been in these tanks for fifty years.” Elliot looked dismayed but stayed silent, waiting for Allie to continue. Lauren just frowned. “The Factory closed the day after you were frozen, I think, and it’s been re-opening just now. There are more of those monsters all over the place and they’re kidnapping people from the surface and forcing them to work. That’s how I got here. I... I’m from the surface. I’ve only been here... a few days? I’m not sure, really. I just need to get out, back home. Although, from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t mind destroying this place while I’m at it.”
Elliot and Lauren glanced at each other. Elliot was the one to speak. “I’m sorry, you must have been through a lot. Especially if there are more of these things. I’m just still trying to wrap my head around how long it’s been. Fifty years...” He trailed off, then resumed. “Did you have a plan? How can we help you?”
“I need information, mostly. The longer I’m down here and the more I learn, the more confused I get. Did you two - and everyone in these tanks - work here before it closed?”
“Yes,” Elliot confirmed. “Or, I think so, at least. I was a lab assistant before everything went to hell. I worked in the photonics labs with some of the greatest scientists of the century, mostly on a cloaking technology. We called it the SEP field, after the initials of its creators: Dr Scranton, Dr Eisencrantz, and Dr Pabodie. But that’s probably not important right now. Lauren here was...”
“I was a lacre technician,” she said in a flat tone. “I was one of the people in charge of safely extracting, purifying, storing, and transporting that awful substance. I didn’t run any of the experiments with it - god no - but I had to prepare them and clean up afterwards. The puzzle of getting it out of the rock could be interesting and sometimes even fun, but I hated what we used it for. Oh well. I guess it’s all been buried and forgotten by now.”
Allie interjected. “Lacre?”
“Oh, right. It’s not exactly common knowledge, is it? Lacre is... how do I describe it? Lacre is a- I don’t know. It’s a white goop that can be extracted from very specific rocks that, as far as I know, are only found in this vicinity. It’s extremely toxic, flammable, explosive, radioactive, the list goes on and on. So you really have to be careful with it. But if purified and combined with other ingredients, there’s a lot you can do with it. A lot of very secret experiments went on in those labs, but I heard whispers. Immortality. Mind control. Transformation. You know, the kinds of things you’d expect to hear from a miracle substance. Who knows if they’re true or not, but given what I know about this place, it wouldn’t surprise me if they are.”
“Is that what the Factory is for, then? The... lacre?”
Lauren nodded. Elliot elaborated. “Among other things. I’m sure the lacre was a big reason this place exists, but it wasn’t the only one. The Factory is, well, a factory, and on a grand scale. We didn’t just do experiments with this mystery substance; there was research and development in all areas of science, as well as huge amounts of manufacturing of both parts and finished goods. It would be hard to find some aspect of industry this place didn’t have a toe in during its prime.” He glanced down. “I miss it. It still feels so immediate. I know it’s been years, but it was just last week for me that I was still happily at work in the labs.”
“Happily for you.” Lauren crossed her arms.
George came back into the room around this point, wearing a clean new grey uniform with the creases still visible. He carried a plastic cup of clear water, which he gave to Allie, and another uniform in a clear plastic bag. She took the drink gratefully and sipped it as he spoke. “I brought you some clothes if you want them. I don’t want to impose, but your current outfit is a little... worse for the wear.”
Allie nodded. Her clothes were shredded by glass, burnt by explosions, and absolutely coated in blood. Plus, it might be smart to wear longer sleeves. The bell-head - Lawrence - had recognized the bracelet. Keeping it hidden would be a good idea. “Thank you,” she said. “Is there anywhere I can clean up so I don’t get these covered in blood too?”
“Yeah, there’s a set of showers down the hall just next to the rest of the supplies. This place was designed to get about a hundred people back into working shape after a long freeze, after all. What have you been talking about?”
Allie quickly summarized the last few minutes, then asked “George, did you work in the Factory before it closed?”
“Of course! I was a cryonics tech. That’s how I know the layout of this place; I helped set it up. I didn’t know why at the time, but now it seems pretty obvious that management knew the closure was coming and wanted to preserve some of the employees. We gathered up a bunch of people just before the announcement went out and sealed them up in the tanks, and then ourselves. Didn’t get everyone, though. I wonder what happened to the people who didn’t make it into a tank. There’s no way they got to just go home.”
There was a brief moment of contemplation before he continued. “Anyway, what’s the plan? Are we getting out of here? Life in the future with our invincible friend here seems like it would be crazy!”
“Can you please lower the enthusiasm by about six notches,” Lauren asked, exasperated. “People have just died. We’re still in a very grim situation.”
“You’re right, sorry. But what is the plan?”
Everyone seemed to be looking to Allie for a decision. She hesitated, trying to comprehend that she was apparently now responsible for the safety of some hundred-odd people. She swallowed. “Does anyone know of an exit?”
All three of them glanced at each other before George replied. “Atrium. That’s the main entrance to the Factory, or at least it was fifty years ago. That’s how most everyone got in or out. I’m sure there are other ways back up, but that’s the only one I know of.” The other two nodded, agreeing with him. “It’s quite a ways east of here. The easiest way to get there would be on the trains; are those still running?”
Allie grimaced. “Y...es...”
“But?”
“But the bell-heads ride them too. Do you know of any alternate routes? Shortcuts, secret passages?”
“Not really,” George admitted. “I was just a regular employee; no special access. I mostly used the train to get around.”
The other two nodded again. Elliot spoke up. “I’m sure there are other ways to get there; this place is a massive maze. But it would be risky without knowing where we’re going, especially with a group this large. The Factory was never entirely safe off the main path, and I have a feeling that’s just gotten worse over the years.”
Allie could feel another headache coming on, along with the assorted other injuries still clamoring for her attention. “I’m not in a good state to make decisions right now,” she said, putting a hand to her head and squeezing her eyes shut. “We should be pretty safe here with these heavy doors, right? Are there any other ways into this area?”
George shook his head. “There are a few other ways into the main chamber out there, but the only way back here is through that control room blast door. Take a shower, eat some food, get some rest. You really look like you need it. We can come up with a plan ‘tomorrow.’” He air-quoted the last word, glancing at a nonexistent watch on his wrist for emphasis.
Allie nodded wearily. “Tomorrow, then.”
Is there anything else Allie should do with her downtime? [Write-ins are welcome. Each additional activity may reduce the amount of rest she gets. 8 votes needed, combined with any other option, you know the drill.]
- Search the bell-head for anything useful.
- Check the control room. Did she miss anything?
- "The Core." What's that?
❓ - That thing that wasn't important. Something about the SEP fields reminded her of it...?
(Winners: , , ❓ )
- Search the bell-head for anything useful.
- Check the control room. Did she miss anything?
- "The Core." What's that?
❓ - That thing that wasn't important. Something about the SEP fields reminded her of it...?
(Winners: , , ❓ )
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Scene 51
“Just two more things before that, though,” Allie continued after a brief pause. “I just remembered. First, do any of you know what ‘the core’ is?”
Elliot raised an eyebrow. “Sort of. It’s basically a giant reactor that powers most of this place, or so I’ve been told. I’ve never been there, but I heard there’s an entrance into its sector on one of the train lines; I forget which. Why?”
Allie was about to respond when Lauren interjected. “It’s not a reactor.”
“What?”
“That’s the cover story. The core doesn’t power anything. I don’t know what it does exactly, but it takes in vast amounts of lacre and energy. I had to make those deliveries every so often and the guards were always complaining about how much power it was using. Whatever it does - did - it’s nothing good. Whatever you’re thinking of doing with it, don’t. Just leave it alone. That much lacre can’t possibly be...” she trailed off, then shook her head. “Just... don’t, okay?”
There was a brief silence. “Okay,” Allie responded. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
The other woman looked up and glared at her. Lauren’s expression was dark and - Allie almost jumped as she noticed this - her irises were completely white. “You will,” she said. “But I believe you won’t try. That’s good enough for me. Everything down here is living on borrowed time anyway.”
George coughed. “You’re awfully grim; you know that, right?”
“Shut it.”
“O...kayyy.” Elliot shifted uncomfortably. “I can tell we all need a little rest after that long stay in those tanks. But, uh-” he glanced at Allie. “You said you had a second thing?”
“Y-yeah. You were talking about SEP fields. I think I found something - it wasn’t very important - but it might have... been... in one?” The words got harder to find as she spoke, her thoughts blurring as she tried to remember whatever that thing had been.
“Really? That’s unusual; what was it?”
“I... uh, I’m not sure. I can’t remember... What did I do with it?”
He chuckled, but quickly cut himself off. “That sounds about right; these fields make it really hard to perceive or remember an object in one, especially if you’re focusing directly on it. The best way to remember something in a SEP field is to not worry too much about it. Just kind of let it occur to you, or catch yourself by surprise as if you hadn’t been thinking about it. It takes some practice. Did you have whatever it was with you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Allie felt around in her pockets, pulling everything out and setting it on the table. The key, nope. Rail map, can of food, that other thing, nope. “No, I guess not.”
Elliot glanced over the assortment of items and sat back in his chair, glancing over at the wall. “I wonder what time it is on the surface? I swear this room had a clock in it the last - an access card! Ha!” He slapped his hand down on the table, covering up whatever was beneath it, then looked excitedly at Allie.
“I don’t - what are you talking about?”
“You’ve got a keycard here, covered in an SEP field! It’s very difficult - if not impossible - to perceive either directly or if you’re thinking about it, and that means it’s very hard to actually determine what type of card it is. But I could get a general glimpse of it as long as I didn’t pay much attention; that’s why I was talking about clocks. Oh, this is brilliant!”
She glanced at his hand. Something in the very back of her mind resurfaced, down in the Underworks at the station. How she had gotten past the turnstiles. She had been focusing on the bell-heads, not whatever she had been using on the reader. Before that. When had she found it? The memories started to slip away as she thought about the card. No, no, what about something else? The light orb, maybe? She had left it up in that warehouse where the floor had collapsed and she had found the key, and that other thing. Oh!
Allie smiled. “I remember now, sort of. Is there any way to remove the field?”
He waved his hand in a “sort of” gesture. “Yes, but not practically. There’s equipment in my lab that could do it, but it’s complicated, takes trained operators to use, and it might not even work after all this time. But, oh, I’m so excited to see one of these out in the wild! Would you mind if I held onto it for a while, just so I could try to find out anything else about it?”
“Sure, go for it. I’m just happy I can remember what it is now. And that it exists.” She paused a moment, then carefully began to stand. “Thank you, all of you, for your help. I’m going to get some rest and we can decide what to do from there tomorrow. I’d suggest you do the same.”
An assortment of nods and Allie left the room. She turned to the right and immediately went the wrong way. She had one more thing to do. A brief walk through the - for lack of a better word - bunker and the control room. Most people were wearing grey uniforms now. Many bowed, saluted, or nodded respectfully, but still no one dared speak to her. Allie felt highly uncomfortable as she hobbled towards the exit, fully conscious of the dozens of eyes studying her. She asked someone to open the door for her and he did without hesitation. A brief journey down the stairs and into the main cryonics chamber and Allie was alone again. She exhaled thankfully. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention to such a degree, and it seemed unlikely to change for the immediate future. But she wasn’t out here - possibly in danger again - just to get away from the crowds.
Allie made her way back to the bell-head’s body. Lawrence’s body. She carried his memories now. She knelt next to the bell and bowed her head, preparing herself for the next step. Carefully, carefully. She lifted the bell, slid her arm in. Back into the purple slime, just as before. Searching, questing. Something smooth and round, though larger than the heart from before. Even more carefully, she grasped the object and teased her arm free, trying her best to avoid catching on anything sharp inside the bell. The bracelet didn’t have enough charge left to heal that sickness again.
The heart was dull and lifeless, but still sparkled in the light. The one she had thrown in had melted somewhat, fused to the top of the second heart with black charring around the contact points. Flakes of crystal drifted free. Allie wasn’t sure what she could do with this new double-heart, but it felt important to have. She contemplated it for a few more seconds, then stood up and made the long trek back up the stairs and down the hall again, passing the same people a second time. Though now with her arm dripping purple gelatinous liquid as well as blood.
This time she went the correct direction and locked herself in one of the small shower rooms to get cleaned up. She spent nearly an hour in there, scrubbing every drop of blood from her skin. The soap stung in the open cuts the bracelet hadn’t healed. She didn’t care. She had experienced more physical pain in the last few hours than most people would in their whole lives. A little soap couldn’t compete.
After she dried off and put on the new grey uniform - tugging the sleeve down to make sure it covered the bracelet - Allie looked at herself in the mirror. She looked clean and composed, though exhausted. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and forced herself to stand up straight. Confident, commanding. She could be a captain or a general. The appearance was there. It was all a lie, of course, but no one else had to know that. She exhaled and let her hair fall back around her head, let her back curve. Let her face shift to a more natural expression. Haunted, terrified, confused. That was right.
... She would wear the mask.
Allie ate what she decided to consider dinner for the first food since she had eaten since she had fallen down here. As she ate and watched other people milling around the cafeteria, she noticed that her uniform was different than theirs. Hers had epaulettes with a single stripe and additional buttons down the front, while theirs had neither. Even not covered in blood and slime, she was still distinct. Whether by her uniform or her face, she was still noticed and avoided deferentially. Uncomfortable, she quickly finished her meal and returned to the room George had pointed out as hers earlier. Nothing fancy - just a bed, a desk, and a cabinet - but it certainly beat sleeping in a pile of coal.
Allie sighed, turned off the light, and was asleep within minutes, the day’s thoughts and concerns pushed away. At least for the moment.
...
Something whispered at the edge of her dream-awareness. So quietly she wasn’t even sure it was there.
️ - Open her eyes. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Sleep. Rest. Recover.
️ - Open her eyes. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Sleep. Rest. Recover.
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Scene 52
Her eyes shot open and she jerked upright in bed, feeling about for her staff. Nothing was there. The room was quiet and dark. She exhaled shakily and tried to calm down, her heart beating quickly. God, she was jumpy.
...
She closed her eyes and settled back into the bed, trying to use the exhaustion she still felt to claw back the sleep she had just been ripped from. Calm, calm. Slow her breathing, slow her heart rate. No thoughts, no worries. Not right now. Several minutes passed and she felt her mind begin to fade back into slumber when she heard it again. That faint whisper.
Quietly, she listened. In that border between dream and reality, she focused her senses on the barest hint of a sound. And she heard it again. More clearly now. It was a sort of muffled bubbling noise emanating - very faintly - from all around her. And as soon as she made that distinction, it grew loud in her ears. She shuddered in a sudden sensation of crushing cold, as if ice was pressing in on her from every direction.
Allie opened her eyes.
She floated in the midst of an ocean. Freezing cold water surrounded her on all sides, crushing her body and squeezing the air from her lungs. It was incredibly dark, but somewhere far above, Allie thought she could make out a dull red glow. She swam for it, eyes wide open to not lose track of it and limbs moving in panicked, clumsy strokes. She couldn’t see anything around her.
Something large, smooth, and slimy gently brushed past, sliding its great bulk along her nude body almost purposefully - as if to taunt her. She jerked away from the creature - whatever it was - and continued desperately swimming upwards. Her chest felt tight. She didn’t have much air left. The glow was getting stronger, though. Was she almost there? It was hard to tell. At least she could see the water around her better now. Whatever had brushed against her earlier was gone and there was nothing in sight besides the murky water itself. Blackness began to creep in around the edges of her vision and her lungs burned, demanding she take a breath. She kept her mouth tightly closed, now able to see the smooth surface of the water reflecting the light. She was almost there.
Allie broke the surface and gasped for air, coughing as she accidentally inhaled a mouthful of murky, metallic-tasting freshwater. She treaded water and quickly looked around the area. She was floating in the midst of a massive underground ocean, extending far past the limits of her vision. A massive, roughly circular shaft extended upwards above her until it was lost in the haze. The red light she had followed was filtering down from above. In one direction, off to her right, she could see a muddy shoreline maybe a thousand feet away. It was extremely dark - almost out of range of the light from above - and she couldn’t make out any other details.
Why can I never control these dreams even if I know they’re dreams? Allie lamented. Normally I should at least be able to wake myself up, right? Something splashed in the water off to her left and she gasped, turning to face it but only seeing a quickly-fading ripple. She swore in her mind and set off for the distant shore. There was no way she was hanging around in the water for any longer, and there was no sign she would be waking up any time soon.
Minutes of swimming passed without much incident besides a steadily rising sense of something... not watching her, but more just becoming aware of her. Nothing actively menaced Allie - there were just more of those occasional nearby splashes - but it felt like the entire place was laser-focused on her, the intruder. She didn’t belong here, and she was fairly certain no other humans did either. Still, she reached the shore despite the heavy tension in the cavern and pulled herself out of the water, panting and exhausted. The ground was slick, wet mud and she found herself sinking several inches into it with an uncomfortable squelching sound. Tiny white worms wriggled through the slime away from her, burrowing back into the ground after a few feet.
Ugh. Why-
Something long and pale, with far too many legs and far too many eyes, dug itself out of the muck inches in front of her and skittered off into the distance. Allie gasped and stepped back involuntarily, releasing another deluge of the tiny white worms as her foot sank into the ground.
...
A nearby mud dune or hill blocked her view further inland. The long pale creature had scrambled away over it. Several of the more bold little worms crawled over her feet and she grimaced, stepping back into the water to wash them off. This place was incredibly unpleasant. What should she do?
- Head over the dune. Follow the pale creature.
️ - Pick a direction and continue down the shoreline.
- Back into the water. Maybe there’s more land, or other interesting things.
- Stay put. Try to wake up.
(Winner: )
- Head over the dune. Follow the pale creature.
️ - Pick a direction and continue down the shoreline.
- Back into the water. Maybe there’s more land, or other interesting things.
- Stay put. Try to wake up.
(Winner: )
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Scene 53
Allie shuddered. Oh hell, she thought, then stepped out of the water and struggled through the mud to climb up the hill after the long pale creature. More worms flooded from the muck around her as she climbed the hill, almost appearing as a froth or moving coat of snow on the ground. She briefly wondered how many worms there were and if they burrowed beneath the entire landmass. The creature was gone by the time she reached the top of the hill, the smooth mud leaving no clues as to where it might have gone. However, she now had a much better view of the land as a whole and Allie crouched down on the top of the hill to take it in while avoiding detection.
The land stretched on for miles, a vast open plain of muck and ooze. Occasional blue-green fires belched from the ground, providing sickly flickering radiance to the area. Dozens of pale creatures of all shapes and sizes wandered the plain. Some were small and burrowed in and out of the ground, like the many-legged creature she had been followed. Some were large and bulbous, resting roundly on the ground and bellowing at anything that got too close. Still others walked upright on two legs, leaving a trail of thick white liquid in their wake. Abandoned machinery poked from the ground, rusted and shattered. It seemed to cluster around the gouts of flame primarily, but not uniformly.
A voice whispered in her ear, faint and ethereal, like a sigh on the breeze. “See... the ones who came before...”
She turned to look, but of course there was nothing there. She returned her gaze to the plain, watching a long snake-like creature slowly slithering towards one of the round, blubbery beasts. The snake burst from the ground near the round creature and sunk its fangs into its flank before it could react. The round creature roared and rolled to the side, much faster than its bulk would seem to allow. The snake was crushed into the mud under its weight and thrashed mightily, throwing up splashes of muck, before breaking free and coiling nearby. The round creature bounced towards it, bellowing and roaring and waving its small fin-like arms. The snake struck again, piercing into the round creature’s belly, but it again rolled forward and smashed the snake into the mud. This time, before it could wriggle free, the round creature maneuvered its body into position and grasped the snake’s tail in its mouth, biting down hard and severing it. At this point, the snake wriggled free and slid away, leaving a third of its body behind. It left a trail of thick white fluid behind, tinged with a faint purple. The round creature continued to chew on the remnants of the snake’s tail and lazily rolled onto its back to continue its meal.
Allie gulped, then exhaled in relief as she noticed aspects of the scene beginning to drip and fade. She could barely begin to feel the pillows and blankets of her bed. She was waking up, if unreasonably slowly. She probably had less than a minute left in the dream, if she wanted to do anything else.
- Go investigate the round creature closer.
- Check out one of the flame vents.
️ - Take a look at the old machinery.
- Back into the water. Look for that enormous creature.
- Stay put, wait to wake up. Don’t get into trouble.
(Winner: ️ )
- Go investigate the round creature closer.
- Check out one of the flame vents.
️ - Take a look at the old machinery.
- Back into the water. Look for that enormous creature.
- Stay put, wait to wake up. Don’t get into trouble.
(Winner: ️ )
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Scene 54
Allie hesitated, crouching at the top of the hill and watching the dream dissolve. Okay, okay. I should wake up before anything bad happens. Come on, go! She vaulted over the hill and half-slid, half-ran down the slope, barely managing to stay upright. Several nearby creatures made sudden noises and changed direction either towards or away from her. Most menacing was the humanoid figure seemingly coated in or composed of the white liquid that had rotated in her direction and now stumbled forward, screeching incoherently.
She reached the nearest cluster of machinery around one of the blue-green flame vents and - glancing nervously in all directions as pale creatures closed in on her - started poking through the debris to see if she could recognize the machines’ purpose. Here was a portion of frame, broken apart by a heavy impact that had torn the steel apart. There, a long thin portion of pipe. Tanks, containers, all shattered or dented by some blunt force. Ah! A thin shaft of metal, expanded to a sharp disc at the tip; a bore drill bit. The metal was deformed and bent, but it seemed clear that someone had been drilling into the earth here. The mud would have made it incredibly difficult to keep the bore hole clear, so only a valuable prize would be worth the expense. And given the pale creatures stumbling closer in the ghastly blue-green light, Allie had a hunch she knew what the prize had been.
The dream dissolved.
Allie blinked awake and looked around the room. It was exactly how she had left it previously. She had no idea what time it was, but she felt rested and hungry, so she decided to assume it was morning and get up. Food, water, the luxury of another shower as she found it likely she wouldn’t be able to for a while after she left this place. Few other people were awake at this hour, whatever it was.
The bracelet had an unexpected notice this morning. She had noticed the total lack of pain as she woke up, but attributed it to maybe just a good night’s rest. However, the message on the screen stating “Auto heal complete; tap here for settings” confirmed it had been involved. Out of curiosity, she opened the (seemingly recently unlocked) settings menu and read through the limited information it provided: “Auto heal (on/off; default on). Toggle to enable/disable automatic healing while you sleep. Energy will be pulled from gastronomic reserves; ensure sufficient food available on awakening. FIS exclusive.” A related setting she noticed as she scrolled through the list was “Gastronomic interlink limit (0-250; default 30). Set the upper bound the bracelet will charge to using gastronomic energy. Ensure sufficient food is available. FIS exclusive.”
Hm. It seemed that the bracelet was automatically charging itself from the food she ate in order to fuel its healing capabilities, like some sort of helpful parasite. As she checked the charge readout, she noticed it read 2/250, but with a green arrow to the right-hand side. She had been feeling significantly more hungry than normal after that incident down in the Underworks where she had fused the thing to her wrist. Briefly, she wondered what would happen if she set it to charge to full, but worried about the availability of food after she left this bunker. Well, she would need to keep on top of its energy usage and make sure she had enough food to feed both it and herself.
So, what next? Allie sat and pondered her next course of action while idly chewing on a granola bar and watching the bracelet’s charge slowly tick upwards, seemingly at about one point per five minutes or so (though of course she couldn’t be sure without a clock). She should have a plan in mind before meeting with George, Lauren, and Elliot again. Time to review the information she had.
The Atrium was, or at least had been, a way out of the Factory. It was almost half the breadth of the place away, presumably a dozen miles at least. Taking a train could get her there quickly, but that would risk encountering more bell-heads or those fleshy, acid-spitting custodian-type creatures. Even if she had a way to kill those things - and she wasn’t convinced getting beaten to death repeatedly was a good method - all it would take was one unlucky instant and she would die, for good. And if she intended on taking everyone here with her, the journey would be even more difficult. It would be impossible to hide that many people or go through particularly complex or dangerous routes, but it would be similarly dangerous to pack everyone onto a train - a single bell-head could kill hundreds.
Alternatively, there was the Core. A generator according to some, a mysterious lacre-consuming enigma according to others. If she wanted to destroy the Factory, the Core certainly sounded important. But then there were other destinations she could attack as well. In Lawrence’s memories - now hers as well - she had heard of a “Genesis Vessel” presumably filled with lacre. Did that have any relation to the train station named “Genesis” in quadrant one, right next to the station labeled “lacre storage?” And then there was everything further down. Where was that place she had just dreamed of, with the mud and fire and enormous lake? The red light and haze filtering down from above vaguely reminded her of the Underworks, though it had been a somewhat different color in reality. Maybe that giant hole Daron had mentioned was related, or the red and black train lines that ran below the rest?
Allie shook her head. Ugh, it’s no use. I’m not going to be able to make a good decision. Every time I think I have things figured out, I just make things worse for everyone. Again she thought of Daron, ripped from her grasp as the doors slammed shut. The riot in the train cars near Pipeworks. Even the people here, in these tanks, had sustained dozens of losses due to Allie’s incompetence. They praised her as a hero. She looked down, feeling sick. Stop it. You know it’s not your fault. You’re doing the best you can, so shut up and figure something out.
She didn’t believe herself, but she had known she wouldn’t anyway.
George entered the room and spotted her, waving and heading in her direction. It seemed her brief respite was nearing its end. She had better have a plan. What is it?
[All options can accept write-ins.]
Go to...
- Atrium.
❤️ - The Core.
- Genesis.
With...
1️⃣ - Just herself.
- A small group.
- Everyone.
For the purpose of...
⏩ - Escape.
- Destruction.
- Scouting.
Via...
- Walking.
- The train system.
(Winners: ❤️ , , , )
- Atrium.
❤️ - The Core.
- Genesis.
With...
1️⃣ - Just herself.
- A small group.
- Everyone.
For the purpose of...
⏩ - Escape.
- Destruction.
- Scouting.
Via...
- Walking.
- The train system.
(Winners: ❤️ , , , )
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Scene 55
“Feeling better?” he asked, sliding onto the bench next to her. “You look better.”
“Thanks,” Allie said flatly. “I know I was a mess yesterday; you don’t have to rub it in.”
George raised his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“No, no, I get it. Sorry, I’m a little...” She paused, searching for the words. “I didn’t sleep well.”
“Hard to sleep soundly with the knowledge of what’s to come, eh? Anyway, if you’re about finished here, I believe we have some decisions to make.”
She crumpled the wrapper in her hand. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
It was a short walk back down the hall to the same room they had been in yesterday. Lauren and Elliot were both already there, sitting in the same chairs as last time and whispering quietly. They broke off as Allie entered the room, Lauren looking mad and Elliot concerned.
“So, team, who’s ready to make some decisions?” George asked, rubbing his hands together as he shut the door and sat down. “Because I definitely am!”
“George, please.” Lauren rubbed her temples. “I don’t understand how you can be so chipper.”
“No use being glum!” he retorted. “It doesn’t help me at all, and it just brings other people down too. But anyway, just for you, I’ll get down to business.” He placed his hands on his knees. “So. We’ve got a hundred and nine people in this bunker, including the four of us in this room. How are we going to get all of them - or at worst, as many as possible - out of here safely?”
“Well...” Elliot began after an uncomfortable pause. “Lauren and I were talking before you showed up here, and we’re concerned... that... oh, I don’t even like to think about it.”
“Get on with it,” Lauren grumbled.
“We’re worried that Atrium may have been sealed off.” He paused for breath. “I did some looking around on the computers in here, and combined with what we already knew and what you told us, I think it’s possible that the entire facility was forcibly shut down and closed off - either by management or some invading force. And... think about it this way. If Atrium was still open, wouldn’t someone have discovered this place in the half a century it’s been since then? The Factory’s overground entrance wasn’t small and I’m sure some urban explorer would have stumbled down here, right?”
Lauren nodded. Allie frowned. “That makes sense,” she said reluctantly. “But then what? You said none of you knew of any other ways out.”
“Well, what about the way you came in?” George asked.
Allie thought back to her first minutes in the Factory, probably days ago by now. Aches and scrapes paling in comparison to the overwhelming panic at finding herself alone in such a hostile and inescapable labyrinth. “I... T-to start with, I don’t even know where that was anymore. I know it was between quadrants 3 and 4, but that’s about it. There was a small hole in the ceiling that went up too far to see. I guess... it’s possible we could climb back out if we had ropes and climbing gear, but it would be a long, dangerous process.”
He frowned. “Probably not, then.”
“What about one of the air intakes?” Allie asked, motioning upwards. “I saw one of them close to where I started; it was an enormous room with giant fans in the ceiling that were clearly piping in air from the outside. If we could find one and disable the fans and... if the intakes weren’t too narrow... or buried... or...” she trailed off.
“Probably not,” George agreed again.
“Okay, look.” Lauren gripped her head again and grimaced, then returned to a more neutral expression. “We clearly don’t know any ways out of here, but we do have over a hundred people who can go look for one. How about we send out some scouting parties - a few people per team - to go see how the Factory has changed over the years and where there might still be any hope of getting back to the surface?”
Elliot protested immediately. “We can’t do that! These people aren’t fighters! More of those monsters are running wild outside these doors; what if a group runs into one of them?”
“They’d die, probably.” Lauren raised her voice - just a little, but enough to be noticeable. “Look, Elliot. We’re in a very dangerous situation. This bunker doesn’t have enough supplies to last forever. We don’t know a way out. There’s going to have to be some risk-taking if we ever want to get out of here. I don’t like sending people to what may very well be their deaths either, but sometimes there’s no other choice!”
George opened his mouth but Elliot talked over him, almost shouting. “No, no, no! Look at what that thing did just yesterday, and that was even with our exceptionally capable friend here taking it down single-handedly! I won’t have you getting people killed!”
Lauren slammed her hand down on the table and stood up, her voice calm. “Give me another option, Elliot.”
He hesitated. “Look, give me some time-”
“Give me another option right now or grow the fuck up and help us get out of here.”
There was another brief pause before George spoke up, quietly. “Is this because you’re scared of death, or because you wouldn’t know what to do if you actually left this place?”
Elliot’s gaze hardened. “I don’t have to take this from you.” He stood and opened the door. “Good luck getting everybody killed.”
There was an uncomfortable pause after he closed the door. Allie listened to his footsteps recede down the hallway and shifted restlessly in her seat. Should she go after him? Say something? Do anything?
George sighed. “Well that wasn’t the best way to go about it. Sorry.”
Lauren sat back down and rolled her eyes. “As if I would have sent him out into the field anyway. He’s not made for that kind of work and someone’s got to stay here to coordinate.”
“I’ll go talk to him later, when he’s calmed down a bit. Should probably apologize a little.” George scratched his head. “But hey, in the meantime we can work out some logistics, assuming everyone here is mostly in agreement that this is necessary?”
Both Lauren and George looked to Allie. She glanced nervously at the door. “...Yeah. Yeah, it’s necessary. And iIf I could survive out there, I’m sure others can as well.” She lost confidence in her assertion about halfway through, remembering the multitude of incidents where she would have died if it hadn’t been for the bracelet. Not everyone would be so lucky.
“Good! So, where do we want to look? Allie, didn’t you have a map?”
“Hm? Oh, yes.” She placed the rail map on the table. It wouldn’t denote every point of interest in the Factory, but it did have a lot of the major ones. George started pointing out areas he thought were worth investigating - Atrium, Pinnacle, Summit, and Mesa, Admin, the manufacturing floor, and so on. Allie was listening, but only about halfway. More and more, her eyes were drawn to the center of the map. To the innocuous station on the purple line labeled “Core Deck.”
“We should look around the Core,” she said, almost whispering. “I should look around the Core.”
“I knew it,” Lauren growled, glaring at Allie. “Can’t leave it alone, eh? Fine, you can go to the Core. But I’m coming with you. The sheer amount of lacre there is going to be too dangerous without someone who knows how to handle it.”
“Do you really think there’s going to be an exit in the Core?” George asked.
“Oh, I’m sure there isn’t,” Lauren replied, not shifting her gaze. “But this particular mission isn’t about finding a way out, is it? You want to take this place down and you think the Core is the way to do it. Well, you’re right. But we do still need a way out of here after that, so getting people out scouting for one is still just as important.”
Allie stayed quiet. She wasn’t entirely sure why she wanted to go to the Core. Maybe it was to destroy the Factory, like Lauren said. There certainly weren’t many other reasons it could be. But something about that explanation didn’t quite feel right, and she couldn’t vocalize why. It just felt important, like the fused double heart she was carrying. Maybe it would lead to some answers.
... Something very faint whispered at the edge of her awareness. She couldn’t tell if it was sight or sound or something else. The Core was important. She had to go there. There was no other option.
The rest of the meeting went relatively smoothly. George and Lauren did most of the work, noting down which areas should be investigated for an exit, then tallying up the number of people required and how long it would take either on or off the trains. Allie helped when she could, but the two former Factory employees had much more knowledge about the facility than she did, so for the most part she stayed silent and quietly worried about her upcoming expedition to the Core.
Finally, the plan was worked out to a point where everyone felt comfortable announcing it to the rest of the hundred-odd people in the bunker. “It’s going to be a tough sell,” said George. “We’re asking these people - who for the most part were office workers or the equivalent up until just yesterday - to go out and risk their lives when there exists a safe alternative: to just stay here. We can explain the reasoning behind it all we want, but there will be those who react to the idea just as Elliot did.”
“You’re a bit of an icon to these people,” Lauren said to Allie. “Killed a monster, beaten within an inch of your life, and up and walking around the very next day. Some people still think you’re invincible. It might be helpful if you were to address them, even shortly, and give some sort of encouragement.”
Allie froze, her heart rate rising. She was terrible at public speaking. It was bad enough that everyone stared at her in that reverent, almost adoring way whenever she was in the room, but actually trying to give a speech - no matter how brief - would be another matter entirely. Maybe Lauren was right, but that didn’t make the prospect any less terrifying. How should she handle this?
- Explain the plan and give encouragement. [Chance: a high-risk challenge]
- Let George explain the plan. Give a short speech. [Chance: a chancy challenge]
- Agree to be present, but don’t say anything. [Chance: a straightforward challenge]
- Stay out of the way. Prepare for the expedition.
[If Allie does agree to give some sort of speech, what should she say? Provide ideas in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: a tie between and . was chosen by a coin flip)
- Explain the plan and give encouragement. [Chance: a high-risk challenge]
- Let George explain the plan. Give a short speech. [Chance: a chancy challenge]
- Agree to be present, but don’t say anything. [Chance: a straightforward challenge]
- Stay out of the way. Prepare for the expedition.
[If Allie does agree to give some sort of speech, what should she say? Provide ideas in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: a tie between and . was chosen by a coin flip)
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Scene 56
“I... I’m not... good with crowds,” she stammered, then took a breath and composed herself. “Public speaking has never been my thing. I think I might just make things worse by actually saying something. Maybe I can just sort of be there instead of speaking?”
George glanced at Lauren. “Obviously if you don’t want to, that’s your choice. I do think it might help, but even just being present and showing your support would get us somewhere.”
Allie nodded, trying to rationalize her fear. Sure, she had faced down deadly monsters and other threats, but the consequence for failure there had only been her death. If she screwed up here, she might hurt everyone’s chances of escaping by discouraging people from heading out to look for an exit. Yeah, it was too risky. She was doing everyone a favor by not speaking, really. “I’ll be there,” she said aloud. “I don’t think anyone would want me to speak.”
George raised his eyebrow. “Okay, that’s your choice. I can go find Elliot and try to win him back, then call a meeting in about an hour? Does that sound about right to you?”
Lauren nodded. “Yeah. We’ve got to do some planning of our own as well, don’t we?”
“Hm? Oh, right. Yeah.”
“Well I’ll leave you two to it, then. See you in about an hour. And good luck to all of us.” George stepped out into the hallway and set off in the direction Elliot had gone a half hour earlier.
There was a brief pause before Lauren turned to Allie. “I know what that bracelet is. Very few people do, so it’d probably be a good idea to keep its powers secret. Otherwise you’re likely to wake up one night missing a hand.”
“How do you-”
Lauren undid the top few buttons on her jacket and wrestled her right arm out of the sleeve. Now visible, wrapped around her bicep, was another one of the bracelets, fused into her skin just as Allie’s was. “I know because I wear one. Do you even know why these things were made? What they can do? How they work?”
“I-”
“No, of course you don’t. It’s one of the big secrets of this place.” She winced as she was putting her arm back into its sleeve, briefly, almost more like a tic than an actual grimace. “If you’re going into the Core, you need to know what this ‘miracle’ device on your wrist can do. So sit tight; I’m giving you the condensed version.
“They’re called VitaBands, and the one you have is a third generation. Mine is second gen. They run on lacre, as you might have expected given what the substance can do. But unlike most other applications of the stuff, the lacre in these bands is reusable. It just needs to be re-energized after each use, and it’s not picky about where the energy comes from - which is even better. The bands can heal injuries, cleanse toxins and diseases, and even regrow lost limbs and restore people to life if it’s not too late. And all it costs is carrying around a few batteries, or getting hungry faster. Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it?
“Well it is. Everything with lacre seems to turn out that way. The earlier models were worse, but even the newest third generation bands aren’t immune to the negative effects of this stuff. To start with, even the reusable lacre won’t hold a charge forever. You need to change it out every so often - like oil in a car, I suppose. That’s not a massive problem if you’re down here and know where to get it; the band will tell you when it’s running low. But the bigger problem is the side effects of injecting that lacre into your body. That’s what it’s doing to heal those injuries, of course. That’s why it needs those needles to work. The longer you use these things, and the more injuries they heal, the more lacre you get in your bloodstream.
“And this stuff doesn’t come out. It has a funny effect on organic creatures who spend too long in contact with it. Your bone marrow, just like mine, is starting to change the types of cells it produces. For now, it’s still almost entirely blood, like it should be. But the more lacre you have in your bloodstream, and the longer it’s there, the more your bones will produce lacre instead of blood. And that change is permanent.”
“So this bracelet is killing me?”
“No. Let me finish. The lacre in your blood will do much the same thing as regular blood cells: carry oxygen, fight off invaders, clot wounds, and so on. In fact, it’s even better in a lot of ways. It’s hypothesized that a fully lacre-blooded human would be many times more efficient than a normal one. But no one has ever gotten that far. The more lacre you have in your blood, the more your body protests. You get headaches. Lose coordination and strength. Have trouble remembering things. And - everyone’s is different - you always seem to get one particular body part that hates the changes you’re going through and rejects it outright. Whatever it is, it hurts - so, so much - until there’s not enough regular blood left to feed it and it dies. It’s luck of the draw what body part you’ll lose - hands, feet, limbs, organs - but you’ll get one.
“Luckily, once you lose that body part, the band can regrow it, just like any other. Unfortunately, it won’t regrow a lacre-compatible part; it’ll regrow the original with minor changes. Which will then hurt all the way till it dies, again. Eventually it might regrow something lacre-compatible, but it might not. If you get lucky and it’s not an organ or something, you can replace it with a prosthetic. At that point, you’re basically done with the negative side effects. There’s just one left.
“Mutations. When your blood gets to be about three quarters lacre, your cells stop listening to the band’s control signals and start to regenerate constantly. Think cancer, but everywhere. People who go this far usually end up as unrecognizable, immortal blobs of flesh that have to be incinerated to actually kill them. No one has figured out how to improve the control signals yet, but it’s theorized to be something to do with the brain, and if it can be changed to be more lacre-compatible. Many, many people have been killed experimenting with this stuff.
“But before you go cutting your hand off to remove that bracelet, keep in mind the band only accelerates the process. It’s the lacre that’s the problem. If you’ve used the bracelet - and I know you have - you’ve got lacre in your blood and it’s only a matter of time. Months, probably, or even years, but it’ll happen eventually. I’m sorry, but there’s no way to reverse the process.” She smiled wanly. “So no, it won’t kill you. But if you get to the end, you might wish it would.”
“That... oh.” Allie swallowed hard and rolled up her sleeve to look at the innocuous-seeming band on her wrist.
“If it’s any consolation, if you hadn’t used the band, you would have been dead already. Don’t think of it like a shortening of your life; think of it as an extension.” She put a hand on Allie’s shoulder. “I know it can be tough to hear this; it’s like being told you have cancer. But the end is still months or years out, and right here and now, you’re still a superpowered unkillable machine. Mostly.”
Allie stared at the bracelet and tried not to cry. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Lauren gave her a one-armed hug, keeping her band on the opposite side of her body. A dozen thoughts bubbled through her mind but she could only choose one to say.
“Why?” The word came out as more of a croak and Allie cleared her throat to try again. “Why did you have to tell me this?”
The other woman pulled back and sat down again, looking much older than she had just minutes earlier. “Aside from wanting you to be informed about what that thing is doing to you? Because it matters if we’re going into the Core.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for five long seconds. “The lacre in your body will react with any lacre in the environment, and the more that’s around, the stronger the reaction will be. These bands were originally designed to protect workers from the deadly effects of being exposed to raw lacre in the environment, and they mostly do so. A normal person would die in minutes from exposure; we’re safe for days or longer. The only problem is that they protect you by injecting even more of the stuff, so that timeline I mentioned of months or years will get shortened.
“But here’s the critical part. Raw lacre is incredibly dangerous stuff. If it gets on a normal person without any protective equipment, it’s pretty much too late for them. But if it gets on someone with lacre in their blood - like us - the effects can be much more catastrophic. A few drops won’t hurt you, but if you fall in a pool of the stuff, you’re gone. It... it’s like it has a mind of its own, and it’s just waiting for someone already imbued with the stuff to get too close. It... turns you into a puppet, basically. I’ve only seen it once - briefly - in person, but I’ve heard stories from other techs. It takes dozens of trained and specialized response teams to stop the rampage of one of those puppeted lacre-infused beasts, and since the Factory’s fall, I don’t think there are any of those around any more. If you get puppeted, nothing in the Factory can stop it. Everyone here will die, and even more on the surface if it can get out.” Lauren paused, searching Allie’s expression. “Do you understand me? Either one of us falling into raw lacre could bring about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
“That’s why I had to tell you, so you could understand the stakes.” She took a deep breath and continued, slower and with a softer tone of voice. “If one of us falls in, the other has to kill them. Immediately, with no hesitation to let the lacre get hold. That means the band has to be destroyed as well, or cut off. If we’re going to the Core, I need you to agree to that. You have to be willing and able to kill me if it comes to it, and you have to be willing and able to help me do the same to you.
“Promise me, Allie. Promise me, or don’t go.”
[This is a branch point. Choosing either option here will permanently lock out at least one ending to the story.]
- Promise.
- Don’t. [Suggest an alternative course of action in #story_discussion]
[Also, if you have any questions you want to ask, let me know in #story_discussion. This option was added late so will be open longer.]
(Winner: )
- Promise.
- Don’t. [Suggest an alternative course of action in #story_discussion]
[Also, if you have any questions you want to ask, let me know in #story_discussion. This option was added late so will be open longer.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 57
She hesitated several moments, thinking. There wasn’t really any way she could say no. And she still felt that buried desire - need - to go to the Core. Somewhat surprised by her own calm, even tone, Allie heard herself say “I promise.”
Another brief pause as Lauren studied her expression, then relented. “Good. I’m going to be honest: I don’t know what we’ll find in there either. But whatever it is, it’s going to be dangerous and we need to be ready.” She took a deep breath. “Do you know how you killed that monster yesterday? Could you do it again, if needed? I wasn’t there; all I heard was that you were beat up pretty severely - the band saving you - and then you somehow killed it. What happened?”
Allie unconsciously rubbed her arms where they had been cut to ribbons by the shattered glass. No trace of the injuries remained. Her right arm even felt almost back to normal from when it had been cut off in the train car. “I don’t... know exactly how it happened. There’s a crystal heart in each bell-head, and I threw the one I already had into his - sorry, its - bell. Then h-it... attacked. My bracelet drew from its energy. As it hurt me, it hurt itself.” She hesitated, unsure whether to reveal the bell-head’s former identity. No, she decided. I can’t explain how I know that. “I don’t... I don’t know if I could do it again. I don’t know if it needs the crystal hearts or if other kinds of monsters have them too. I- I really don’t want to do it again.”
“I... don’t really like that plan as a way to deal with other threats. Too many unknowns, too much risk to you. I can understand why you don’t want to do it again. Do you have any other ways to deal with monsters in the Factory?”
“Not... really. The other bell-head I killed, I used a little egg-shaped thing filled with purple liquid and a tiny bell. It was like a grenade. Unless you know where to get more of those, I’ve mostly just been running away or hiding.”
“No, never heard of whatever those might be. Possibly something developed after we were put into these tubes as a way to deal with those things.” She grimaced and exhaled slowly. “Okay. We’ll have to be quiet and careful. Probably want to pick up some weapons along the way, though I’m not sure where to get any besides all the way over in Quadrant A where I worked.”
She paused, closing her eyes again and breathing deeply, and Allie took the opportunity to ask something that had been bothering her. “Lauren, how much longer do you have?” Her eyes opened quickly and she glared at Allie, who nervously clarified, “I-I- I mean I’ve been noticing that you wince and need to close your eyes a lot and you said the timeline is months or years, but you’ve been wearing it for more than 50 and you’re still here and I was jus-”
Lauren cut her off with a gesture. “I get it.” A long sigh. “I’ve been wearing this band for more than three years, plus however long I’ve been in that tube. It’s been... difficult. I have to assume the cryosleep paused the process - or I’d certainly be long gone by now - but it definitely didn’t cure me. The headaches are getting much worse; they’re pretty much constant at this point. I feel sick all the time. My eyes... they used to be blue. They faded to white a few months before I got put in stasis and everything just seems slightly out of focus. I can see motion trails whenever someone moves. It’s incredibly disorienting. I don’t know how much longer I have. I don't think there’s a way to tell. But I have been feeling a sort of pressure right about here-” she tapped a spot on her side just below her heart. “-and I think that might be the end. So. Not long, to answer your question. And the longer it takes, the more I’ll be ready for it.”
Allie stayed quiet for several seconds. “I’m sorry, I wa-”
“It’s fine. I get it. It’s not fun to talk about and it’s not fun to listen to. But now you know.” She sighed again. “Anyway, about going to the Core. Based on your map, we can get there one of two ways by train - through Atrium or through Quadrant B - or by foot. You said the bell-heads use the trains, so that’s a risk. But they also clearly can wander around on foot as well, so avoiding the rails isn’t a foolproof strategy. Plus, from what I can remember, it’s maybe ten miles from here to the center of the Factory? GIven how I don’t know the way - and I assume you don’t either - that journey could take days. It’ll take maybe an hour on a train.”
“I don’t...” Allie shivered, remembering the bleeding stump of her arm, the fleshy acid-spraying creature chasing her into the car, the people torn in half during the riot. Taking the train had not ended well for her previously. But what had that man - James? - said? That they never went past Beltways or Foundry? Maybe once they got past the next station, there wouldn’t be as much risk. Or maybe they would run into a bell-head at the very first stop and get killed immediately. What should she say?
They should go from here to Beltways...
- On a train.
- On foot.
After that, they should get to the Core...
- On a train via Quadrant B.
- On a train via Atrium.
- On foot.
(Winners: , )
- On a train.
- On foot.
After that, they should get to the Core...
- On a train via Quadrant B.
- On a train via Atrium.
- On foot.
(Winners: , )
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Scene 58
“I met a few people who were being forced to work for the bell-heads at Foundry, just over here.” She pointed at the map. “They said that they never go past Foundry in this direction or Beltways in that direction, so maybe the bell-heads don’t either. If it’s so much faster, we might be able to go on foot from here to Beltways, then on a train through Atrium, check to see if it’s open, then from there to the Core. Does that make sense?”
“...Yeah, mostly. I’m curious about Atrium too, so that’s probably a better direction to go than through Quad B, which is just manufacturing. Not much of importance there that I remember. We’re just going to have to be very careful walking through this area to get to Beltways. I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s a total maze out here with all the pipes and branching side-tunnels. Not even cryonic techs like George know every path - though he’d probably be a good person to bring with anyway. He’ll know the area better than us, at least.
“It’s still quite a distance from here to Beltways as well, and I somehow doubt there’s a straight path there. It’s still going to take us a fair amount of wandering these tunnels to make our way over, and this is presumably dangerous territory. I wish there was a better way to go, or to prepare, but we’re limited to what this bunker has in stock. Which is, if you’re curious, mostly just food, clothes, and medical supplies.” Lauren paused and took a deep breath. “So, when did you want to leave?”
“As soon as possible. There’s no point in waiting around; it’s only going to get worse if more monsters show up and camp out outside the door.” She hesitated briefly, then continued more quietly. “Plus, the more time I have to think about this, the more nervous I’m going to get.”
“Yeah, I get that. You want to head out after George’s announcement then?”
Allie nodded, feeling anxiety tug at her stomach. She didn’t really want to head out at all, but that wasn’t an option. What if she screwed up again and got herself or Lauren killed? It wouldn’t take much of a mistake in this place and she’d be dead or alone again. Plus, why did she even want to go to the Core? There wouldn’t be an exit there. Sure, there was that half-baked explanation that maybe she wanted to destroy the Factory... but if she escaped, she could tell the authorities about this place and they could destroy it for her. But... they had known about it before, right? There were dead soldiers down here. She supposed they could have been non-governmental, or maybe members of the Factory’s own military. According to Lauren, units existed at least for containing lacre-puppeted workers, so other divisions probably existed too.
Ugh, I’m getting off track again. Why do I want to go to the Core?
...
Is it for the possibility that whatever’s there might be able to cure me? Remove the bracelet’s curse? No, that can’t be it; I wanted to go before I even knew about that.
...
Just to know? To solve the mystery? I can’t possibly be that curious, can I?
...
I don’t know, she admitted. I don’t know my own reasons for wanting to go. Is that good enough?
... Maybe.
“Hello? Are you still there?”
Allie gasped and opened her eyes, little specks of light dancing in her vision for a few seconds before winking out. “Sorry, I was... thinking. What?”
“You were thinking pretty hard then. You’ve been sitting like that for a minute at least. Kind of worrying, actually.”
“...Sorry.”
Lauren frowned. “Anyway, like I was saying, if we want to leave that soon, we should probably get packing. We should each be carrying enough supplies to last for at least a week on our own, in case we get separated. Food and water are the big things, but whatever else might be useful too, as long as it’s not too heavy. I don’t know how long of a trek it’s going to be through here or through the Core. You want to head over to the storage, get some things, and meet me in the common area for the announcement? I can get my own stuff, but I’ve got one other thing I need to take care of first; you don’t need to wait for me.”
Should Allie get / do anything else besides packing a proper amount of food and water? [Suggest additional things to pack or leave behind, or other actions to take, in #story_discussion. By default, Allie will keep everything she currently has. Her current inventory will be posted in #story_discussion.]
She will get the following items:
- a backpack or bag
[8 votes are required for the following choices and may be combined with any other choice]
- Go find Elliot and get the keycard back. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
❤️ - Think harder. Why does she need to go to the Core? There must be a reason.
❓ - Ask Lauren what she had been doing afterwards [Chance: a chancy challenge]
(Winner: )
- Go find Elliot and get the keycard back. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
❤️ - Think harder. Why does she need to go to the Core? There must be a reason.
❓ - Ask Lauren what she had been doing afterwards [Chance: a chancy challenge]
(Winner: )
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Scene 59
Lauren left the room. Allie waited a beat. She still felt kind of woozy, her mind in a far away place. The sensation faded over several seconds and she couldn’t remember what she had been so worried about. There was still a vague impression of a lost moment; a broken instant of concentration that could have led to a revelation if it hadn’t been interrupted. She wasn’t sure if that feeling was real, but it wouldn’t be any less frustrating if it wasn’t.
She sighed and stood up, sparing a brief moment to wonder what Lauren was heading out to do beforehand. Probably just gathering supplies or something similarly useful. She didn’t strike Allie as the type to waste time with anything less than completely practical. Anyway, she had to go get some food and water, probably a bag to keep it all in, and... didn’t Elliot still have her access card? The one that was in an SEP field? She should probably go get that back from him, assuming she could find him within a reasonable amount of time.
...
Maybe twenty minutes later, Allie walked slowly down one of the side-tunnels in the bunker, lit with only dim red emergency lighting and only accessible through a hidden bulkhead located in an out-of-the-way corner behind a maintenance closet. She readjusted the straps on her new backpack, matte-black and easily large enough to hold a week’s worth of food and water, plus her other items, with plenty of room to spare. The fellow working at the storeroom had been more than happy to give her the best he had of whatever she wanted; perhaps a little too eager. Still, she wasn’t going to argue with him for a worse bag. It was just a little creepy how excited all of these people were to please her.
Something scurried across the floor in front of her and Allie froze, scanning the ground. After a moment, she relaxed and exhaled, having spotted the rat quickly scampering away down a side passage. She was very on edge, even in this supposedly safe bunker. The red lights didn’t help, nor did the distant groans that she couldn’t quite tell if they were from metal or people. What if there was another entrance into the bunker that no one knew about and she was about to run into another monster?
Allie stopped and gripped the staff with both hands, tightly, trying to compose herself. She was here to find Elliot and get her keycard back and that was it. There was nothing more dangerous than a rat in these tunnels. In fact, she was the most dangerous creature down here at the moment. Still, it was an odd choice. Why had he decided to rush off down here after storming out of the meeting? She had asked around and one of the other clerks in the storeroom had mentioned he had seen Elliot nervously walking past and into the currently unused back rooms of the bunker. At her request, he had been happy to provide a key and directions to the tunnels where she now walked, staff at the ready and senses on edge. Oh great, she thought as she approached a T junction. He didn’t tell me it was going to be a maze down here too.
All at once, the lights went out. Allie suppressed a shriek and pressed herself against the wall, covering her mouth and listening intently. Nothing but her heartbeat and muffled breathing for several seconds, then...
From the right, a slow mechanical clanking, like a large heavy chain scraping against the floor. From the left, quick, quiet pattering footsteps and a low groan. The footsteps were rapidly growing closer, while the clanking was moving away slowly. The groan stayed in place and trailed off into silence. Allie closed her eyes, then opened them again. No difference. She was completely blind in the darkness. What should she do?
⏪ - Try to return the way she came. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
⬅️ - Head to the left. [Chance: a tough challenge.]
➡️ - Head to the right. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
⏸️ - Stay put. Don’t move or make a sound. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
Additionally, how should she move, if she does? [Moving faster may reduce the chance of success for certain options, but moving slowly may reduce the chance of success for certain other options.]
- Slowly, carefully, quietly.
- At a normal speed.
- Running.
(Winner: ⏸️ )
- Slowly, carefully, quietly.
- At a normal speed.
- Running.
(Winner: ⏸️ )
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Scene 60
She pulled the staff close to her body and froze against the wall, holding her breath to try and be as quiet and still as possible. The pattering footsteps grew closer until they reached the junction, turned to the right... and carried on past Allie. A weak breeze gently moved her hair as the creature passed, continuing along the tunnel in the direction she had come from. There was an unpleasant organic scent that came with the breeze, reminiscent of sweat. Several more moments passed as the metallic clanking receded down the right-hand hallway and eventually faded to silence.
Another minute passed before Allie finally relaxed her grip and let herself step away from the wall. She glanced in both directions again, straining her eyes in the darkness and trying to decide which way to go, but it was still completely black. What had just happened?
There was a distant rumbling from behind her. As she spun around to look back in that direction, the lights suddenly blinked back to life. Allie squinted in the light, then peeked around the corner to see what she had missed in the darkness.
Nothing had changed down the corridor she had come from. To the left, there was a spattering of blood on the floor and part way up the wall. A dented vent cover was scattered on the floor amidst the mess. The vent it had once protected yawned open and dark, about six inches by two feet wide and set into the wall just above the floor. The hallway itself continued a fair distance before making a right turn. A faint trail of blood led from the vent across the junction to the right-hand hallway, where it faded after only a few feet. Yellow and black caution stripes were affixed in several lines along the floor before the hallway terminated in a heavy steel bulkhead, similar in size to the one protecting the main entrance to the bunker in the control room above and - most worryingly - left hanging ajar. From this angle, Allie couldn’t see what was on the other side.
Another rumbling in the distance behind her. Metal plates in the ceiling groaned in protest. What should she- hold on a second. Allie narrowed her eyes, leaning close to the floor in the dim red light. It was hard to see, but... there was definitely some sort of thin wire strung from one side of the hallway to the other at around ankle level on the right-hand passageway. She shivered. A tripwire? A spiderweb? What should she do?
[Choices in this block require 8 votes and may be combined with any other choice.]
- Investigate the wire. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Break the wire.
- Investigate the vent. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Investigate the blood. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
⬅️ - Go to the left.
➡️ - Go to the right.
⏪ - Go back.
(Winners: , , ➡️ )
- Investigate the wire. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Break the wire.
- Investigate the vent. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Investigate the blood. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
⬅️ - Go to the left.
➡️ - Go to the right.
⏪ - Go back.
(Winners: , , ➡️ )
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Scene 61
Quietly, Allie snuck over to the vent cover lying amidst the scattered blood. She could tell, even in the dim red light, that the blood was very fresh. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes old; whoever had spilled it must still be very close by. She picked the vent cover out of the blood and turned it over in her hands a few times, looking it over from all angles. Odd... based on the screw holes along the edges, it had been bent in a way that suggested an impact from the inside. But the screws were still straight and pristine, suggesting that maybe someone from the outside had removed them.
She struggled to put the sequence of events together in her head. Something had been in the vent, hitting the cover to try and get out, then... someone had unscrewed it? But then where had the blood come from? The pattern was violent, suggesting a stab or slice or other piercing wound rather than sort of blunt force. Something metallic clanked in the distance along the right-hand tunnel and she turned away from her investigation. It wasn’t safe here. She had to get moving. Allie glanced back down the tunnel she had come from. She should go back that way; make sure that everyone was still safe. That pattering thing had gone that way, and the rumbling. It was her responsibility.
...
Carefully, she stepped over the mysterious wire and slipped through the open bulkhead. She found herself in an airlock of sorts, with the opposite door being another identical bulkhead, also open and leaking a stronger, more normal-colored light from its opening. She crept across the space, listening intently, then peeked through the doorway, her eyes widening in surprise.
The hallway continued as a narrow metal-grate catwalk suspended maybe forty feet above a massive vat of slowly bubbling and faintly glowing reddish-white liquid. The room was large - maybe 100 by 400 feet - and hundreds of pipes emerged from the walls and ceiling to occasionally dump globs of the same substance into the four enormous vats contained in the room. There was another bulkhead on the opposite side of the catwalk, but it was closed. A ladder led down either wall to the surface level of the vats. The room was warm, bordering on hot, and some sort of steam rose from the surface of the liquid to pool along the ceiling before getting drawn up and out by one of several fans mounted in large metal cages. Several large blades slowly stirred the bubbling substance, four per vat. The liquid seemed highly viscous; of a similar consistency to honey or thick pudding.
A humanoid figure moved slowly along a narrow walkway between two of the vats, their features obscured by the haze. They were moving away from Allie and towards the opposite wall, holding one arm up above their head and grasping something small she couldn’t quite make out from this distance. There were several doors at ground level, all of which were closed.
Four bulbous ceiling-mounted turret-like assemblies slowly rotated to follow the figure’s progress. She couldn’t make out much detail due to the distance and haze, but the nearest one appeared to have a long rifle-like barrel and a wide camera lens.
The red emergency lighting flickered out again and a muted explosion shook the corridor in the distance behind her. A moment later, though distant and muffled, she thought she heard the chilling sound of a bell-head’s musical horn. What should she do?
- Run to catch up with that figure! [Chance: a tough challenge.]
- Shout down to them! [What should she say? Discuss in #story_discussion.]
⏪ - Go back; head... ⬅️ - down the left-hand corridor / ⬇️ - back towards the bunker.
- Head to the opposite end of the catwalk; try the door there. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winner: )
- Run to catch up with that figure! [Chance: a tough challenge.]
- Shout down to them! [What should she say? Discuss in #story_discussion.]
⏪ - Go back; head... ⬅️ - down the left-hand corridor / ⬇️ - back towards the bunker.
- Head to the opposite end of the catwalk; try the door there. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
(Winner: )
6
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Scene 62
Allie squinted through the haze. She could almost make out the figure’s features. Was it... Elliot? It was hard to tell, but she didn’t have a better guess. She almost called down to him, but kept quiet at the last moment just in case something was nearby. She should catch up a bit first. She squeezed through the half-closed bulkhead and started climbing down the ladder towards the slowly churning bubbling pits of the off-white liquid that she had to assume was lacre. She hadn’t actually seen any in person, but based on how it had been described to her, there were only so many substances this liquid could be.
Her shoes slipped on the smooth metal of the lower level; it was soaked in condensation. Allie grimaced as she moved through the absurdly humid air; it felt like she was pushing her way through a sprinkler. The figure seemed to notice her, turning halfway around, then suddenly breaking into a run.
The fans were loud enough here that Allie felt comfortable shouting across the room as she also started to dash forwards, slipping on the floor and barely keeping her balance above the bubbling pools of liquid. God, this is dumb. This is so dangerous. What if I fall in and turn into a monster? Why am I doing this? I should turn around.
“Hey! Elliot! Come back; I just want to talk!”
The figure glanced over its shoulder and redoubled its speed, arms pumping and legs slipping on the narrow catwalk. Above, in the ceiling, something started to beep. A quick glance up revealed the two nearest turrets were no longer following Elliot, but were swiveling to track Allie instead.
Oh hell. She barely had time to slow down before the closest one started firing, spraying a line of bullets into the vat to her right and kicking up a spray of liquid. Allie ducked down and covered herself with her arms, sprinting forward to get into cover or out of range or something. The other turret on her other side also spun to life, sending its first volley over her head and into the vat. She heard several impacts on the metal of one of the mixing blades and the mechanism shuddered. She ducked down even lower as the first turret started its second volley, somehow again missing completely.
Only about a dozen feet to go. I can make this.
The fourth volley did not miss.
Alley crashed into the vat of liquid to her right, knocked off the platform by the force of the bullets. The fluid was hideously warm and seemed almost alive, bubbling and wiggling in an incredibly uncomfortable manner. The bullet wounds themselves felt almost numb; her whole side was numb, in fact. Actually, everything was numb.
One of the large mixing blades swept in and smashed into Allie, throwing her spinning through the viscous liquid and closer to the center of the vat. She grew disoriented, floating in a thick sea of red and white, unsure which direction was which. Her air was running low. What should she do?
[All options are potentially deadly.]
⬆️ - Attempt to find the surface, climb out of the vat. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
➡️ - Get to the surface, take a breath, then swim under the fluid to the opposite side of the room. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
⬇️ - Swim to the bottom. Maybe there’s a way out. [Chance: an almost impossible challenge.]
[Or something else.]
(Winner: ⬆️ )
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Scene 63
She couldn’t see; she couldn’t breathe. There was a vibration; a barely audible movement through the thick fluid. It had to be the blades. So that meant the surface was... probably... this... way...
Allie emerged from the vat and dragged herself back onto the walkway, dripping with the red-white liquid and spitting mouthfuls of it onto the ground. She ran forward, coughing and wiping her eyes, and ducked into the open door at the end of the room. A hail of bullets scattered across the floor where she had been seconds previously. She strained against the heavy bulkhead and pushed it mostly closed, sealing out any further gunfire.
Slumped against the smooth wall of this curved metal tunnel, Allie took stock. One, two, three bullet wounds in her side, in a rough line from her left hip to midway up her ribcage. She couldn’t tell how bad they were, nor could she feel them. There was a startling lack of sensation from her entire left side. The bracelet detected the three wounds plus some other injury off to the side of the cartoon body, totaling twenty one points to heal everything. Allie checked her charge and tapped the “full heal” button, gritting her teeth as dozens of lead shards ejected themselves from her body and the wounds sealed themselves. She was out of charge now, but it would regenerate. Had it been a rash decision to not save the charge? Maybe, but she didn’t care. According to Lauren, she should have been turned into a beast anyway.
...
About that... She was clearly fine; she didn’t feel or look any different that she could tell. If Lauren were to be believed, she should be fully under the control of the lacre right now and going on an unstoppable rampage. Allie lifted herself off the ground and glanced around, as if to ask “what gives?” Really, there were only a couple of explanations she could think of. Either those pools weren’t lacre, or Lauren was lying.
She paused a moment in brushing off her outfit, then glanced down. Something didn’t feel right. The liquid was beading up and dropping off her jacket, leaving behind only the traces of blood from where the bullets had hit. But... why was her blood so pale? And so... luminescent? Allie dropped to her knees as she felt her head grow light. Tiny streaks of a brilliant white liquid were mixed in with her blood, faintly glowing and seeming to emit an aura of power and danger. Her right arm - the one that had been severed in the train - tensed of its own accord and she flinched. A dull ache began to build, then fade, though not completely. This was lacre. She was sure of it. And it was in her blood, just as Lauren had said. She didn’t have long. She had to get to the Core. But... where was she, exactly?
The rounded corridor led forward only about a dozen more feet before opening out into a room of similar size to the one she had just come from. Bright ceiling-mounted floodlights bathed the area in harsh white illumination, reflecting off the thousands of meters of pipes that crossed madly through the room. Valves and levers adorned seemingly every joint, and the sound of rushing liquid was loud. She couldn’t see if there were any other doors at ground level through the tangled jungle of metal and plastic, but she could spot a conveyor belt hung just below the ceiling, crossing the room from left to right (west to east, if Allie had her directions correct). The belt was not moving and she couldn’t tell if there was anything on it from here; it was at least twenty feet up, maybe more. A dull metal plate hanging nearby identified this room as “CCC Parity Mirror B.” Every pipe she could see appeared to have a label, though all were abbreviated heavily. “CF-N (paste),” “CF-P (gel),” “Res.,” “CF-W (semis.),” and “sprnk q a” were all visible within just the first few feet. Some labels were typed, but many others were handwritten or annotated in marker. She couldn’t see Elliot anywhere. What should she do?
⏪ - Go back; return to the bunker. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Shout for Elliot. [May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
- Make her way through the pipe jumble; try to find an exit. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
⬆️ - Climb the pipes; get on the conveyor belt. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Change some of the valves/levers [specify which ones, or what she should look for, in #story_discussion]
- Look for clues. Where did Elliot go? [Chance: a modest challenge. May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
- Look for additional information or instructions. [Chance: a simple challenge. May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
(Winners: , , ⬆️ )
- Shout for Elliot. [May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
- Make her way through the pipe jumble; try to find an exit. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
⬆️ - Climb the pipes; get on the conveyor belt. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Change some of the valves/levers [specify which ones, or what she should look for, in #story_discussion]
- Look for clues. Where did Elliot go? [Chance: a modest challenge. May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
- Look for additional information or instructions. [Chance: a simple challenge. May be combined with any other choice; requires 7 votes.]
(Winners: , , ⬆️ )
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Scene 64
Okay, she had to try and figure out where Elliot had run off to. He was behaving very suspiciously at this point, hiding in the back tunnels and running away from her. Plus, he still had her access card. Allie cautiously stepped forward and made her way into the maze of pipes and valves, keeping a close eye out for anything she could use to help her track down Elliot or get more information about the room. She glanced up at the conveyor suspended from the ceiling. The next stop was called Beltways; maybe this particular belt was related. She should climb up and take a look. If she could reach it.
She glanced to one side and her vision flashed. Allie clutched at her head as a sharp spike of pain flared through it. Momentarily, she could see another scene. A red robed man and a procession of people in grey jackets and dark slacks. A woman with short brown hair at her side. A sense of nervousness. The lights flickered.
Allie gasped and returned to herself, stumbling and catching herself on a pipe. What... was that? She stood still as she caught her breath, glancing back in the same direction again. Light flared in her vision and a ghostly image seemed to overlay the real world as she looked closer. The line of transparent people flickered as she moved her hand through someone’s torso. She blinked and it was gone.
... What... the hell?
Allie carefully walked in that direction, picking her way through the closely-bundled pipes. Something had caught her eye. As she moved closer, her vision grew brighter again until, as she turned the corner, another bolt of pain shot through her skull and the world shifted. The same procession, led by the same red-robed figure. He grasped a specific lever hidden in the midst of the pipes and pulled. A section of the floor shifted. A ladder became visible.
Picking herself up off the floor, Allie glanced around wildly. Nothing moved, but her vision grew bright as she looked in the direction the red-robed man had been standing. The lever was there. But the initial thing that had caught her attention was there too: a broken-off section of pipe had a small piece of fabric caught on it and moving slowly in the light breeze. It was grey, the same color of the jackets that both Allie and Elliot wore. He had come this way, but where had he gone from there?
Her left hand wrapped around the lever almost of its own accord, her right hanging uncomfortably by her side as the dull ache throbbed in her forearm. Should she really be open-
She pulled the lever.
The floor shifted and the same ladder was revealed. She could see ghostly figures climbing down into the semi-darkness. Her head hurt.
She knew what would be down there; she had retained Lawrence’s memories well enough. There would be an elevator, then a short tunnel to an unfinished cavern. A series of doors, and behind each one, a Genesis Vessel. Tanks flooded with lacre to transform these people into the bell-headed monsters that were pursuing her still. What would she find down there besides agony and despair? Anything? She still had goals of her own; she had to find Elliot; Lauren. Get to the Core. What should she do?
[This is a branch point. Choosing any option here will permanently lock out at least one ending to the story.]
️ - Descend.
⬆️ - Refocus. Get on that conveyor belt. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Try to find more scraps of fabric. Track down where Elliot went in this pipe maze. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
(Winner: ️ )
️ - Descend.
⬆️ - Refocus. Get on that conveyor belt. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Try to find more scraps of fabric. Track down where Elliot went in this pipe maze. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
(Winner: ️ )
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Scene 65
She breathed in, then out. Slowly. Calmly. She was calm; she was composed. Right?
... Sure.
Allie turned away from the scrap of cloth and grasped the ladder, climbing down into the lower chamber without further hesitation. This was required of her. Why, she didn’t know. Just that it was. The facility shuddered and groaned in the darkness. Something clanged and snapped above, and the sound of rushing gas trickled down. Not her problem. Hopefully.
There was the elevator, just as she remembered it. She pressed the call button and machinery grumbled to life in the shaft. A minute passed as the car slowly trundled up to her level, then the doors opened and Allie stepped in. There was only one button. She pressed it.
She leaned against the wall as the elevator descended, closing her eyes and covering her face with her hands. The absurdity of this whole situation returned to her awareness as the psychic beckoning lessened momentarily. What the hell was she doing? She had exactly one goal in this godforsaken place, and it was to get out of it. Why was she just going deeper and deeper? What did she expect to find down here?
Allie slammed her palm against the wall in anger, then shouted in pain and fell to one knee as her forearm throbbed. She had forgotten her right arm’s weakness. She angrily brushed back tears and sat down against the wall. She was very much reminded of her breakdown in the train previously. Alone, in a metal box, traveling towards the center of the goddamn earth, with an arm that hardly worked, and with nothing but her own choices to blame for her situation.
Was she doing any better now than she had back then? No, not really. Sure, she had met a few people, saved a few lives, but she had also gotten more people killed. And Allie herself, personally, was farther than she had ever been from escape. Everything she ever did just served to trap her deeper and deeper in this nightmare. And now... now even her thoughts weren’t her own. This... yearning to go to the Core. That wasn’t natural, and she had no reason to go there. These memories she was chasing now; those weren’t hers either. They belonged to a man she had never met who had died over a half-century ago. She had only killed his corpse in the cryonics facility.
Sitting in the elevator, pressed up against the cold metal of the wall, Allie felt more like herself than she had for days. The desire to go to the Core, the imprint of Lawrence’s memories, even the knowledge that she was marked for death from her use of that lacre bracelet; it all faded. And in that moment, she dared to remember the outside world. It had only been a few days that she had been trapped down here, but she had hardly thought about the surface as more than just a goal since then.
She had parents; she had friends. What were they thinking now? What were they doing? If - no, when - she made it out of here, what would she say? What would her family say? How could she tell them that she was going to die and leave them again just after she made it back? That part didn’t feel real. In fact, what proof did she have? Just Lauren’s assertions, and that woman gave her an uneasy feeling. Did she have an ulterior motive? There was no way to know! The questions just kept piling up; she would be buried under a mountain of ignorance before long.
It wasn’t her; this pull to the heart of this place. The desire was unnatural and something about it felt... external. Was she being manipulated somehow? Was that even possible? Allie smirked. Of course it was possible. In this place, anything was. But if her thoughts weren’t entirely her own, how could she know which ones were - who she actually was? Did it even matter?
The urgency started to fade as the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Her thoughts grew muddled and she couldn’t entirely remember what she had just been considering. It had felt important, though. Was it something related to the Core, or these odd images - memories, fragments - she had been seeing recently? No good. She couldn’t recall. Only the emotions remained - melancholy, anxiety, confusion, desperation. Nothing good, that was for sure. Better to keep moving forward.
The ghostly images remained as she cautiously made her way down the corridor. Several of the strung-up lightbulbs had burned out at some point over the years, but the rest were still on and provided plenty of light to see. Even if they hadn’t, she had the strange sensation that she could have navigated this corridor by memory alone. There was the door. She pushed it open.
A bolt of pain to the head and she was someone else. Pulling a brown-haired woman through the door. Talking to a purple-clad technician. The red-robed man stepping through, then back out. The ring of white doors.
Allie returned to herself, curled on the rough stone floor just inside the main chamber. The transparent image of a technician in purple scrubs half-smiled at her. She crawled out of his line of sight before he vanished. She knew what door to enter.
Click.
Allie closed the door behind her as she stepped into the strange medical office hewn roughly out of the bedrock. Her vision danced and flickered and she swore she could hear distant chiming. An empty glass tube lay dark and dormant on the floor, easily large enough for her to lie down in. Traces of hardened white liquid lay splattered along the floor in front of it, where she - no, not her; Lawrence - had stepped out and into his second life. The control panel still faintly glowed with a rhythmic pulsing light. Her fingers twitched, remembering a combination she had never entered in reality. She could use this vessel. It wasn’t designed for one person to operate, but she could manage. What would she become, imbued with the raw power of lacre?
She could feel four warring ideas in her head. Her eye twitched; her arm tensed. What should she do?
- Enter the Vessel. Ascend. [This option will not directly lead to an ending, but it will lock out all endings except one category. Will only win if it exceeds the combined total votes for all other options.]
- Madelyn. Find her chamber. What happened to her?
- Search for another exit. Distantly, she thinks she remembers one.
⏪ - Get out of here. Back to the pipe maze.
(Winner: )
- Enter the Vessel. Ascend. [This option will not directly lead to an ending, but it will lock out all endings except one category. Will only win if it exceeds the combined total votes for all other options.]
- Madelyn. Find her chamber. What happened to her?
- Search for another exit. Distantly, she thinks she remembers one.
⏪ - Get out of here. Back to the pipe maze.
(Winner: )
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Scene 66
Madelyn. The name came to her like a sigh on the breeze: faint, whispering, ephemeral.
Of course. She left the room, sparing one more glance at the Genesis Vessel, then hesitated in the main chamber. She didn’t know what door it would be. The sensation of destiny - of being forced along a singular path - lessened and Allie could almost feel a separate mind in her skull, pushing and pushing and pushing. But at this point she didn’t have the will to resist. Or maybe, secretly, she wanted to know as well.
Door after door was opened, the rooms inside examined and left behind in favor of the next. There were only two dozen possibilities, so it didn’t take long to exhaust them all. In the end, it turned out that the correct door was the one directly opposite Lawrence’s - almost poetic, in a way. It opened slowly and Allie could immediately tell something was different about the room. Her - his? - thoughts quieted and for a moment, she - they - just paused and tried to comprehend.
The room was arranged identically to all the others - carved out of bedrock with another Vessel placed in the center of the room and a desk against the adjacent wall. Unlike all the others, this Vessel wasn’t empty. A skeleton reclined in the tube, grey and brittle far beyond the fifty years’ decay it should have undergone. A faint residue of white liquid coated the bottom of the tank, and where it touched the skeleton, the bones were a gleaming ivory white.
No...
Allie stepped closer and knelt to examine the remains. The Vessel opened with a touch and flakes of grey and white dust drifted silently into the air. She held her breath.
It’s not her...
He - she - was right. The skeleton was too tall to be the shorter woman Allie knew Madelyn was - had been? It had the wrong proportions and - though she wasn’t an expert and only vaguely remembered her freshman biology class - she thought it was male. Something about the hips and skull, she thought.
The technician. Yes, that made sense. The purple-cloaked technician that had accompanied her into the room. He had ended up in the tank instead of her, and had been killed by the procedure. Maybe, possibly. But where was Madelyn? What had she done? What had happened next?
On a hunch, Allie knelt down next to the desk and looked underneath. Dark, but something was visible back there, pressed up against the wall. She squeezed her arm in - her left one, remembering her frailty this time - and groped around until she could touch the plastic rectangle and just barely manage to pull it out.
Ah...
It was an ID card. Badly damaged, with the top right corner seemingly broken or melted off so she couldn’t read the last name, but the rest of the details fit. “Madelyn -. Clearance GOLD-4. Dept. of Safety and Security.” The picture matched as well - a woman with short brown hair cropped just below her chin, deep green eyes, and a half-smiling expression. Allie blinked, brought a hand to her own face. She hadn’t noticed in the dream, but the woman’s eyes were a very close match - though not exact - for Allie’s own. The hair and facial structure were completely different, but the eyes were uncannily similar. Maybe that was why the bell-head - Lawrence - had been so conflicted about killing her. She remembered his confusion, his anger, his fear. She reminded him of her.
She looked over the ID again, scrutinizing every detail of the picture and the text. How had it gotten under the desk in the first place? It had been propped up against the wall as well, not just scattered on the floor, so someone must have intentionally placed it there. Maybe Madelyn herself, as a message to anyone who might come looking for her? But why would she have left her ID, which she would need for opening doors? Maybe... she had taken this technician’s? Or was just in a hurry and hadn’t thought it through? Either way, where would she have gone from here?
On a whim, Allie turned the card over and blinked in surprise. Written on the back, in faded blue pen, was a short message. “Leaving - Atrium. L, please come. -m” Beneath the message was a short sequence of numbers written in the same pen, though smudged, as if the writer had been interrupted: “056 728.”
Allie stood. She felt like herself, for now. What should she do?
- Search for another exit down here. Maybe somewhere to use those numbers.
⏪ - Go back up, find another exit from the pipe room.
⬆️ - Go back up, get on that conveyor.
(Winner: )
- Search for another exit down here. Maybe somewhere to use those numbers.
⏪ - Go back up, find another exit from the pipe room.
⬆️ - Go back up, get on that conveyor.
(Winner: )
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Scene 67
There were only a few more rooms. It wouldn’t do any harm to check them for anything else of use. Still holding the ID and already having memorized the sequence of numbers, Allie opened the last few doors. Three of them were just more of the same - a small medical office with an empty glass Vessel on the floor - but one was something different. The plain white door opened into a cramped closet-like space. Shelves had formerly lined the walls, though most of them had fallen at some point in the past and collapsed into a pile of stained wood and glass shards. Allie looked closer. She had a nagging intuition that this room was more than just a storage cupboard. Maybe...
She felt along the rough stone walls, pressing for any seams or catches. Nothing, nothing, nothing... ah? A series of eleven slim metal buttons hidden discreetly underneath one of the few remaining shelves. She bent down to look at them and figure... out... the... ...? What had she been looking for again?
Allie stepped back, puzzled. She had been searching the cabinet, and then... she hadn’t found anything. Maybe there weren’t any secret doorways here after all. She supposed she should head back to the pipe room, then, and keep trying to track down Elliot. Hmmm... why did his name...
She snapped her fingers and stepped back into the cupboard. It was an SEP field! Something in this cabinet was protected and she had only remembered because Elliot had told her about them. Allie felt around in the cabinet again and quickly found the pad of buttons. By touch, she entered the code 056 728, first assuming that the number pad was arranged top to bottom, then by assuming bottom to top when that didn’t work.
A click and a hiss, and the rear wall of the cupboard slid aside. A long, narrow tunnel stretched into darkness in front of her, barely wide enough to walk through without scraping her shoulders. If she still had her directions right - and there was no guarantee she did - it led to the east, extending much farther than she could see. There were no lights. What should she do?
- Proceed down the tunnel.
⏪ - Go back up; find another exit from the pipe room.
⬆️ - Go back up; get on that conveyor.
(Winner: )
- Proceed down the tunnel.
⏪ - Go back up; find another exit from the pipe room.
⬆️ - Go back up; get on that conveyor.
(Winner: )
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Scene 68
Allie took a deep breath and held it. Exhale, inhale. Okay. She could do this. She wasn’t afraid of the dark. She stepped over the debris in the cabinet and into the tunnel, scraping her right shoulder on the wall with an unpleasant tingling sensation. Her fingers felt partially numb and she wiggled them despite the discomfort to try and bring some sensation back. The door slid shut behind her and Allie was left alone in the tunnel, in total darkness.
She really hoped she was alone, at least.
...
After a while in the tunnel, she started to see things. Little flashes of light in the darkness. It didn’t seem to matter if she had her eyes open or closed. It was very quiet. She couldn’t hear any machinery running; no distant rumblings; nothing. Just the quiet sounds of her footsteps, her breathing, and the occasional rustle of her clothes on the tunnel wall as she scraped against it.
Occasionally the tunnel would make a gentle turn to one direction or the other. Allie wasn’t entirely sure she was still going in the same direction. After a long stretch of turning very gradually to the left, she started to wonder if it was going to end up just one big loop. Maybe she would get stuck walking in circles until she died.
No, that’s stupid. I have a week’s worth of food and water and this isn’t a maze. It’s one tunnel. I can always just go back.
She still wasn’t entirely convinced, but it would have to do. She had been walking for what felt like an hour at this point, so she must be almost there. Right? What would be on the other end, anyway? Where was this tunnel going? Why did it suddenly feel so warm? Where had that noise come from?
Allie broke out of her introspection and glanced around - ineffectually, of course. She wasn’t sure if this had been gradually building or if it had just happened, but the tunnel was now filled with a clattering noise from below; though muffled through the floor. Additionally, the temperature had gone up at least twenty degrees, from the mid to upper 60’s typical of the underground complex to somewhere in the upper 80’s. She shuffled off her jacket and started walking faster, almost jogging, her hand outstretched to hopefully stop herself before running into a wall.
She ran faster as the tunnel continued to heat up. It was now incredibly uncomfortable, though probably still not deadly, and she really didn’t want to turn around. The clattering sound grew louder and became almost overwhelming; it must have been directly under her feet and painfully loud in the room below for it to be so powerful through a metal and concrete floor.
Allie sprinted through the tunnel, completely blind and shoulders scraping against both walls as she ran, desperate to escape the boiling heat. She couldn’t take off any more of her outfit even if she thought it would help at this point; the breeze from dashing through the hot, dry air was the only thing still keeping her upright. Her heart pounded and lungs ached from running for so long and she started to wonder if this had been a mistake. What if it just kept go- WHAM!
She collapsed backwards onto the floor, head throbbing and nose dripping blood onto her shirt. AAAaaaaaffffuck. She should have expected this, she thought, clambering to her knees and feeling at the obstacle she had just run into. It was metal, and so hot she couldn’t touch it for more than a few seconds before having to yank her hands back to cool down. Still, there was a keypad set into the wall just to the side. She struggled to remember the sequence, but managed to type it in after three excruciating tries.
The door slid open. Allie stumbled out of the furnace of a tunnel and collapsed onto a blessedly cool concrete floor. A minute passed as she wiped the blood from her face, covered her eyes, and adjusted to the stronger light before she could sit up and take stock.
She was sitting on the ground in a small alcove cut into the side of a massive open-air room. It was smaller in length and width than the Foundry - but not by much - and it made up for that by being seemingly bottomless. Only ten feet or so from her current position, the ground just dropped away into nothingness. An old metal rail guarded the drop and a rusted ladder dangling over oblivion reached up to a floor above and down to one below. Hundreds of conveyor belts of all sizes criss-crossed through the room in a mad spaghetti-like junction. Some passed by without interaction, while others joined, split, and sorted with dozens of other belts. Only a few were actually moving, and even fewer had anything on them.
Maybe a hundred feet above and five hundred in front of her, Allie could see a train platform hung from the ceiling with thick steel supports. Tracks traveled away from the platform to the north and south, as well as the east and west. Dozens of conveyors terminated in a long warehouse-like building attached to the tracks in the corner where they met, presumably where cargo would be transferred from train to belt or vice versa. From this distance it was difficult to make out, but she thought there was a humanoid figure standing next to the tracks.
The rest of the alcove was fairly barren; it appeared to exist merely to access the door she had just emerged from. Another drop of blood fell to the floor and Allie brought her arm up to examine the bracelet. She had only a handful of charge points - seven, to be precise, and healing the broken nose and splitting headache appeared to cost about that much. She hesitated, wanting to save the charge and not wanting to introduce more lacre into her bloodstream, but gave in when another spike of agony throbbed through her skull. A moment later and she stood up, good as new aside from the dried blood she could already feel on her face. She’d have to clean that up shortly.
The room was incredibly loud, filled with the clattering din she had heard from the tunnel. At least it wasn’t nearly as hot. She wrestled her jacket back on. Now what?
⬆️ - Climb the ladder up.
⬇️ - Climb the ladder down.
- Try to get the figure’s attention. [Chance: a tough challenge. May be modified if a clever idea is suggested.]
⏪ - Go back through the tunnel.
(Winner: , followed by ⬆️ )
- Try to get the figure’s attention. [Chance: a tough challenge. May be modified if a clever idea is suggested.]
⏪ - Go back through the tunnel.
(Winner: , followed by ⬆️ )
4
1
6
1
Scene 69 (nice)
“Hey!” she shouted, waving at the distant figure. She hesitated, unsure how to follow that up, but ended up just staying quiet as they didn’t appear to notice her. Maybe if she got a little closer? She glanced up at the ladder, tracing a path from here to the station. Yeah, that would work.
The rungs were smooth and stable in her grip: unpainted stainless steel, still holding together almost as well as it had whenever the fixture had been installed. Despite the surely deadly drop into the abyss just beneath her, Allie clambered up the ladder without much trouble. As long as she didn’t look down, she didn’t have to worry. It was just like climbing a normal ladder; nothing special here. She hauled herself up and over the edge of the platform, then stood up to take a look around.
The wall opposite the enormous pit was tall and almost entirely covered in large warehouse-style garage doors. Cranes and crates lay scattered here and there next to dozens of conveyors leading into the tangle of belts overhanging the pit behind her. Several of the enormous doors were open and she walked forward several steps to see inside. It was dark, but enough light from the main room leaked in to show that behind the doors was another room of similarly gargantuan proportions, filled to the brim with hundreds of shelves and thousands of wooden and metal crates. One lonely, dilapidated forklift sat idle and rusting near the entrance.
Allie turned around to examine what she guessed must be Beltways from a different angle. The room had a lip of concrete flooring maybe a hundred feet wide on all sides before it dropped away into nothing - this was what she was currently standing on. Most of the walls were broken up by dozens of tall warehouse doors behind sorting conveyor systems much like the ones she had just examined. There were paths out to the train platform on suspension bridges - two per side of the room - the nearest of which was maybe two hundred feet to her right.
A train clattered into the station, emerging from the wall directly behind Allie and rushing along the tracks flush with the floor only about 300 feet away. The humanoid figure on the platform seemed to look over at it, then made a sudden movement Allie couldn’t quite make out due to the distance. It waved its arms in her direction, then ducked down behind a column, out of sight. The train’s doors opened, but nothing emerged. What should she do?
- Go to the station; meet the figure.
- Enter the warehouse; look around. [Look for anything in particular? Discuss in #story_discussion]
⬇️ - Go back down the ladder to the floor below the one she came from.
(Winner: )
- Go to the station; meet the figure.
- Enter the warehouse; look around. [Look for anything in particular? Discuss in #story_discussion]
⬇️ - Go back down the ladder to the floor below the one she came from.
(Winner: )
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Scene 70
She started walking to the right, heading for the bridge to the station but keeping a careful eye on the platform as she went. Nothing moved that she could see, and after a few more seconds, the train’s doors closed and it slowly rolled away. She couldn’t see the figure from here; presumably it was still hiding behind that pillar.
It took her the better part of two or three minutes to reach the bridge, carefully cross while glancing down at the flexing metallic cables that she desperately hoped would hold, and finally step onto the station platform. It seemed empty. “Hello?” she called quietly, unable to decide if she wanted to be heard or not. She gripped the staff and cautiously made her way closer to the tracks. The sheer number of support pillars made it hard to see anything; the figure could be hiding behind any one of them. What if they were hostile? Had she just walked into a trap?
A flash of movement caught her eye and Allie froze, staring in that direction. It was a few pillars away, just between a station map and a trash can. Something had moved, she was sure of it. She paused and exhaled deliberately. It was probably Elliot or someone else from the bunker. None of the people she had met had meant her harm, and if it was a bell-head... well, she would know by now. They weren’t exactly subtle. Another pause. She didn’t lower the staff.
One more try. “Hello? Can you come out? Or say something?”
Silence.
Fine. Allie quietly moved towards the pillar, sliding around to the side behind the cover of a sign to hopefully get around whoever was waiting there. Twenty more feet. Ten. Five. She could see a shadow.
Someone darted out from behind the pillar and crashed into Allie, slamming them both into a notice board. She gasped, the air knocked out of her from the impact, then choked as a hand closed around her throat. She swung the staff and heard a cry of pain as she hit her assailant’s torso. Finally, the figure pressed a gun against her temple and the situation slowed down enough that she could see who was pinning her against the wall.
Lauren spoke and her grip relaxed enough that Allie could breathe. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t blow your head off right now.”
[Suggest what Allie should say in #story_discussion, or pick one of the premade options.]
❓ - “I don’t know what you’re talking about - why should you?” [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- The staff is wedged between their bodies. The ledge is only a few feet away. There’s no railing. Shove her over the edge. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. Potentially deadly.]
[Write-ins]
- "I'm immune to lacre. I can fix this." [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
(Winner: )
- The staff is wedged between their bodies. The ledge is only a few feet away. There’s no railing. Shove her over the edge. [Chance: a high-risk challenge. Potentially deadly.]
[Write-ins]
- "I'm immune to lacre. I can fix this." [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 71
Shocked and confused, Allie had trouble finding any words to say. The gun pressed against her skull, the smooth metal terrifyingly cold on her skin. “I-I...” she stuttered, then came up with something. “I’m immune to lacre! I can fix this!”
Lauren narrowed her eyes. She spoke quietly, almost growling. “That’s what you’re going with? After what you did, you think I’ll let you live just on the off chance you’re telling the truth? You don’t even know the first thing about lacre.”
Her hand shifted and Allie panicked. “Wait wait wait! I fell in a tank of lacre and I’m still here! I’m not a mindless beast like you said!”
“You fell... in a tank of lacre.” She paused, raising an eyebrow. “There isn’t any in this sector. You’re a liar and a danger to-”
“No, I promise! There was a big vat with mixers just outside of the bunker! I think it was a secret area. And just past that there was a hidden... place with these glass tubes that-”
“Enough!” Lauren tightened her grip and Allie choked, unable to continue speaking. “Immune to lacre... pah.” She scowled and squeezed harder. “Fuck...”
She screamed in anger and - quicker than Allie could track - the gun moved away from her head and down her body. She heard the gunshot and felt the red-hot agony of the bullet digging into her stomach. She couldn’t scream. Lauren spun Allie around, slamming her against the ground and dangling her head and shoulders over the edge of the platform, right next to the tracks. The staff fell out of her hands - limp with shock - and clattered into the abyss. This was worse than when her arm had been cut off; possibly on par with her multiple deaths at the hands of the bell-head. The bracelet beeped, but it had no charge left. The pain was so much more devastating than any similar injury before.
“You feel that?” Lauren grinned, her face cast in shadow by the lights far above. “Good. That bracelet usually numbs the pain, even if you don’t choose to heal, but you-” she tapped Allie’s wrist for effect. “-are out of charge.” A brief pause as she reluctantly loosened her grip. “You deserve worse.”
“...Why...?” Allie breathed, shakily gasping for air.
“Don’t you play dumb with me. Not here. Not now. You know what you did.”
“...no...”
Lauren slammed her fist into the platform. “Do I have to spell everything out? Fine. You showed up and let us out of those tanks. Fought that bell-head and took charge. All sounds very heroic so far, now doesn’t it? But then, you give that backstabbing Elliot your keycard and things start to go downhill. He fucks off, staging a fight with me and George to make it look believable, and uses its access to open doors he shouldn’t be able to. In the confusion, you run off too, meet up with him down in the back hallways, and let monsters into the bunker to clean up everyone you didn’t need. You masterminded this just to get him out, because you needed him. He knows how to break SEP fields, and with that access card, you two can get into the one place down here where you can start this whole facility back up again. I’ve checked the cameras; I’ve seen you walking with him, talking with him. Everyone else is dead, but you can’t take me down that easily. So tell me one thing, then, before I kill you.”
She leaned in close and pressed the gun against Allie’s stomach again, just opposite the already existing wound. “Where the fuck is he?”
Pale blood with little streaks of luminous white continued to pump out of the wound. She felt so weak; so dizzy. None of this was true, right? She hadn’t met with Elliot, right? It was a trick; it had to be! But what about the cameras? Her mind raced as her body began to shut down. Did she hear a horn in the distance? A crashing wave of fear began to swallow her, for only the second time since she had understood the bracelet. She could die here. The band couldn’t save her.
What should she do?
❓ - “I don’t know.” Deny everything. It must be some kind of trick. [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
️ - Lie. Give her some plausible location. Try to make it vague enough that she has to keep Allie alive. [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Don’t say anything. Delay. Maybe the situation will change. [Potentially deadly.]
- She’s not holding on tightly. Shuffle back, over the edge. Maybe there’s something down there. [Potentially deadly.]
- She’s not holding on tightly. Kick, turn, throw her over the edge. [Chance: an almost-impossible challenge. Potentially deadly.]
[Or submit a write-in.]
(Winner: ❓ )
️ - Lie. Give her some plausible location. Try to make it vague enough that she has to keep Allie alive. [Chance: a hidden challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Don’t say anything. Delay. Maybe the situation will change. [Potentially deadly.]
- She’s not holding on tightly. Shuffle back, over the edge. Maybe there’s something down there. [Potentially deadly.]
- She’s not holding on tightly. Kick, turn, throw her over the edge. [Chance: an almost-impossible challenge. Potentially deadly.]
[Or submit a write-in.]
(Winner: ❓ )
8
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Scene 72
“I don’t... this isn’t right; we’re being tricked! I never-” she had to pause for breath, gasping against the crushing weight in her abdomen. “I never met with him. Someone’s... changing the cameras or something... I...” she trailed off, unable to focus. The room spun around her. She wasn’t sure if the overwhelming nausea was from the wound or from the knowledge that she was going to die here.
“So fucking be it.” Lauren pulled the gun back and stood up, releasing her grip. Her face was unreadable in the shadows. There was something appropriate about that. “I hope you rot down there.” She leaned down and grasped Allie’s legs, pushing her towards the edge. Her shoulders slipped over, then her arms. A brief pause as she swayed on the precipice.
Lauren pulled her back onto the platform. “No, this is stupid. You’re too dangerous. I can’t trust that you would actually die - properly - from that fall. No, I need to do this myself.”
Allie couldn’t keep her eyes open. They slowly drifted closed as Lauren knelt next to her. She couldn’t move; she couldn’t think. There was only the fiery agony and the overwhelming panic. Lights danced in her vision. She could feel hands on her left arm, roughly rolling up her sleeve. Oh god no. Some sort of shuffling, clinking. Something cold and sharp pressed against her wrist. No no no no no no no. The pressure increased and began to cut. no NO NO NOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This was worse than losing her arm. Much, much worse.
It took Lauren several minutes of cutting before she was finished. Allie still clung to consciousness, barely, though her awareness hid far away from the immediate situation. Indescribable sensations pressed on her from what felt like a far distance. Sounds filtered in, quiet and muffled. A click, a horn, a gunshot. Roaring and screaming. More gunshots. The clattering of a train, a muted explosion.
...
Silence.
She slipped away. Void stretched away behind her eyes, empty and welcoming in all directions. For the second time in her life, she knew she could let go. It would all be over. The pain, the confusion, the terror. Everything would be safe and happy again.
Wait.
Something wriggled unpleasantly beneath the void. Something white and roiling and luminescent. It tried to hide but it couldn’t keep itself from her sight. The poisonous well of lacre ballooned, stretching on even further than the infinity of the void. She didn’t have the choice, not with that deadly nectar in her veins. This was what she had meant. If she left, if she moved on, then that boiling, menacing fluid would pick up where she left off. She could already see tendrils extending, encircling, ensnaring. She could leave, but her body would not be so lucky.
...
God fucking damn it.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t move on and leave her body in the grasp of that evil liquid. A lacre beast would rise up out of her corpse and kill and kill and kill until it was slain. No, she had to stay; to keep it contained. To meet her end in a controlled manner and save untold lives.
Allie turned away from the welcoming void and looked inward, towards the lacre ocean that surrounded her from within and without. Slowly, gently, she took it back. The liquid drained into her, slowly at first and then faster. Ivory tendrils whipped at her, tore at her ethereal presence, but she was the ruler of her own body and could not be stopped. The last drop was sealed away and she was left alone. No void, no lacre. Just herself, and nothing else.
...
Empty.
...
️ - Dream.
- Wake up.
(Winner: ️)
️ - Dream.
- Wake up.
(Winner: ️)
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Scene 73
Allie floated like that for a timeless while. Utterly alone, with nothing else in the universe to keep her company. Nothing drifted past, nothing changed, nothing spoke to her.
Nothing hurt.
...
I have to get out of here.
She pushed forward, propelling herself off of nothing at all. The empty space ahead of her split apart, allowing her through without resistance. Nothing was different about the new locations, but at least there was a sensation of movement, of agency. She dipped down lower, passing through eons of absolutely nothing. Flew higher. Nothing there. Years passed, maybe. It was impossible to tell. She stopped in place to think. She could have been in the same spot as she had been in the beginning, ages ago. Everything looked the same. Everything was the same. It was all nothing.
What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to get out of this place?
... Was it a place? She had seen the void earlier, or at least something that could have been described as void. It had been a sea of inky blackness, dotted with stars and enveloping the universe in a comforting - or suffocating - blanket of muffling infinity. This was different. There was no infinity, because there wasn’t anything here. Even the void had substance; it was the fabric of space and time and the cosmos. There was none of that here. Nothing.
...
Empty.
...
Allie drifted further. She tried to keep herself occupied over the untold eons since she had entered this nothingness. She tried to describe the environment, but every time she considered it, she couldn’t pick out any distinguishing features. It wasn’t black, but it wasn’t white. It wasn’t any color. It was just empty. There was no air or liquid or gel to push through, but there wasn’t any vacuum either. Nothing was there. Turning to face a different direction had no effect, and neither did moving. Nothing changed, because there was nothing to change. How long was it going to take her to understand? There. Was. Nothing. Here.
...
She could get angry. That was good to know. She could feel depressed. Her emotions were still her own, and her thoughts. In fact, in this utter absence of anything, she was the entire universe. Nothing else was as important as her, because there was nothing else. She didn’t have to compete with anything for control over herself. It was calming, but also frustrating. There was nothing to do but think and feel, and there was nothing to think or feel about.
...
What if there wasn’t a way out? What if all that nonsense with the lacre and the void earlier had been hallucinations - just the last few moments of life as electricity sparked one last time through her dying brain? What if... she was dead?
She pondered this.
If this was the afterlife, it was a pretty terrible one.
...
What could defeat emptiness? What, when paired up against nothing at all, could possibly manage to come out on top? Rational thought? Emotion? Love? The power of friendship? Everything that existed would eventually crumble into nothingness. Nothing could beat nothing, because everything ended.
...
Nothing could beat nothing...
What did that mean? It seemed true, but it didn’t make any sense. How could she turn this nothingness against itself to release her back into the living world? She couldn’t affect anything here except herself. But of course, there was nothing else here but herself, so she had total control over the entire universe. Right?
...
She imagined something. Something simple, just as a proof of concept. A block of metal. Shiny, cuboid, heavy. Little striations down the sides where it had been formed. She could see it so clearly.
She opened her eyes. Or at least, what passed for them in this nothingness. Nothing floated before her. She turned in every direction to cast her gaze across the entirety of nothing at all. No cube. Nothing. Empty.
No, no no. That wasn’t nothing. I was trying to make something out of nothing. That doesn’t work. How do I make nothing out of nothing?
...
I’m something. It’s not totally empty. There’s something here. Me. Do I... No, how would I even...?
She shut her “eyes” again, blocking out the emptiness outside in favor of the emptiness inside. No, those terms weren’t helpful. Outside, inside. They marked a boundary; a something in this empty space. If she truly wanted to beat nothing with nothing, there couldn’t be anything here at all. Not even herself.
I am nothing.
Years passed.
I am not separate from the emptiness around me.
Decades.
There is no “I.” There is no “me.”
Centuries.
There is nothing here. There is no here.
Eons.
Nothing... here...
Time no longer existed. “Here” no longer existed. There was nothing.
Empty.
...
Allie landed face-down in a thick layer of mud. She lay there for several seconds, her mind no longer used to existing, as air bubbled out of her nose into the muck. Eventually, her body protested at the lack of air and she rolled over, groaning and wiping her face. How long had it been since she had existed? Since she had owned a body? The endless time she had spent in that empty space beyond the void seemed like a dream: fragmented and half-remembered. Slowly, its influence lessened until she felt like she remembered how to exist as a physical being. She would carry those dreamlike memories for the rest of her life.
... Where was she?
Allie tried to push herself into a sitting position, but her right arm was too weak to lift her. Right. The lacre sickness. I think. She would use her left arm.
She slipped and collapsed onto her side as her left hand flickered and buzzed, fading in and out of existence like a bad wireless signal. It phased through the terrain and the ground only bumped against her wrist at a point several inches above where she had worn the bracelet.
...
She remembered now. Lauren, the confrontation at the train station. It didn’t feel real. Maybe because she could still see her hand - sort of - or maybe because she knew that reality didn’t work that way. If she were awake, she wouldn’t be watching her hand flicker like TV static; she’d be staring in total horror at the still-bleeding stump of her wrist. She was dreaming. She could put off that terrible revelation until she woke up. And, given the muck, pale darkness, and her unexplained nudity, she had a feeling she knew what dream she was in.
Allie rolled forward and shoved herself into a standing position with her forearms. Vast plains of mud stretched into the distance ahead of her, occasional blue-green fires providing sickly light to the surroundings. Pale creatures of various shapes and sizes wandered the landscape. A tall, slim humanoid formed entirely of lacre stood motionless and stared directly at her. It raised one slender finger and beckoned her towards it. To her concern, Allie felt muscles twitch in her legs and she shuffled a half-step forwards.
A glance behind her confirmed the location: tiny white worms wriggled through the muck along a crescent-shaped mud beach that stretched out of view in either direction. Dark, glassy water lapped gently at the shore. Somewhere deep below the surface, a pale blue light pulsed.
The figure beckoned again and Allie felt her other leg shift. What should she do? [ will win unless any other option has a super-majority of votes (2/3 or more). ]
- Walk to the figure. It wants to show her something important.
- Resist its beckoning. There are answers hidden beneath the waves.
- Immolate herself on the flames. They can burn her when nothing else can.
️ - Allie has escaped nothingness. This place is no challenge. Wake up; get out.
(Winner: - overruling ️ )
will win unless any other option has a super-majority of votes (2/3 or more). ]
- Walk to the figure. It wants to show her something important.
- Resist its beckoning. There are answers hidden beneath the waves.
- Immolate herself on the flames. They can burn her when nothing else can.
️ - Allie has escaped nothingness. This place is no challenge. Wake up; get out.
(Winner: - overruling ️ )
5
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Scene 74
What was the harm, really? This was a dream; nothing worse could happen to her here than had already happened in reality. Maybe she would learn something.
Allie walked forward, cooperating with the figure’s beckoning. She crossed the barren plain of mud and fire without issue; none of the pale, crawling creatures seemed to notice her. As she approached the tall lacre-figure, it turned away and raised its arm, again beckoning her to follow.
They walked for a while. The plain seemed endless, with no major variations in the landscape or the creatures shuffling across it. Allie was still half-lost in her thoughts of emptiness, while the lacre-figure seemed disinclined to (or perhaps incapable of) conversation. Aside from the crackling of the fires and distant howls from unknown creatures, the journey was made in silence.
Finally, the figure stopped next to one of the larger piles of tangled metal scrap and gestured to a small, unassuming, nearly-hidden red button attached to the underside of one of the beams. Broken out of her thoughts for the moment, Allie reached down and pressed it. Mechanical noises clattered from above and a cable-supported elevator platform slowly began to descend into view. She wasn’t surprised at this point. She had seen weirder things.
The figure gestured for her to enter the car, but did not accompany her. It motioned upwards with its arms, shuddered, then collapsed into a pile of unmoving silver-white liquid that slowly spread out among the mud and began to seep into the ground. Allie stared at it, confused, but decided to keep playing along, both to possibly learn something and to delay waking up as long as possible. She pressed the button marked with an upwards arrow and a gear. The elevator clanked into action and - unexpectedly - a distorted voice began to play through hidden speakers in the control panel. Allie sat down on the floor and listened. It would be a long ride.
The voice was that of an older man, shaky and quiet but still with enough power to sound confident. He started by introducing himself. “Hello. My name is Wilhelm Bolte, and if you’re listening to this message, a great many things have happened.
“To start with, I will be dead. But that’s no matter; the condition is quite reversible these days with the miracle of lacre technology! More importantly, the Factory will be offline. That’s a bigger issue, but we’ll get back to that in a few minutes. Most importantly - to you at least - will be the answers to two pressing questions: ‘where am I?’ and ‘what does it mean to be lacre-blooded?’ Well don’t worry; you’ve got plenty of time in this elevator to learn everything you need to know.
“To start with, you are currently rising out of a place called the Cistern. This is where lacre is mined and where all the... failures... end up. Let me correct myself: most of the failures. It’s a dangerous place down there for normal folks, and there’s much more to say about it, but that won’t help you with your task. Suffice to say, lacre-blooded individuals don’t have nearly as tough a time down there. They - you - face different challenges.
“So what does it mean to be lacre-blooded? Well it means that you are one of an elite group of superhumans who have volunteered to help us out with designing and testing the next evolution of humanity. The most common way people volunteer to become lacre-blooded is by using one of our VitaBand series of products. This is probably the way you were recruited, so you know all about its wonderful benefits in healing and revivification.
“But we wanted to go further. The VitaBand required constant replacement of the lacre inside it, and constant charging. The latest iteration - the version 3 Full Integration Suite - solved some of these problems but introduced more. Some test subjects - possibly including you - reported feelings of excessive hunger, constant headaches, loss of motor skills, unusual dreams, and the big one: death. We’ve theorized that these effects are simply a problem with the interplay between normal blood and the lacre it’s being replaced by, but so far no test subject has managed to hold out long enough to complete the transition. I’m sorry to say this, but you are most likely doomed.
“But that’s no excuse to stop trying, is it? Fully lacre-blooded humans would be incredibly more efficient than normal humans, and would have the same regenerative capabilities you’re used to from the VitaBand. And - this is the kicker - any lacre-blooded human’s bone marrow produces lacre instead of blood. It’s a totally self-sustaining way to produce more of this miracle substance!”
The voice broke off to cough for several seconds, then panted for breath. “I’m sorry; please excuse my illness. I would love to say you have a chance of becoming the first fully lacre-blooded human in existence, but without the Factory operational to complete the procedure, I’m afraid you will end up bloating up and dying just like everyone else. You can already feel it starting, can’t you?”
Allie glanced at her body. Her skin crawled. There was a sort of... pressure. Or was she imagining it?
Another cough. “Unfortunately, being in the Cistern, in close proximity to so much raw lacre, speeds up the process. Depending on how far along you were already, you’ll have days left at maximum. Even you sneaky little rascals who are here in dreams aren’t safe. I don’t know why or how, but this stuff can even affect you through dreams. How crazy is that?”
Allie shifted, uneasy. She stood up and paced the elevator, looking down at the Cistern below her. Was that gurgle in her stomach a normal process or the lacre preparing to kill her? How long would it be before she lost her right arm too? It still tingled unpleasantly, even in this dream. Did this man - Bolte - have a way out? He seemed to be implying it.
“Anyway, I’ve been teasing you with the idea of a cure, haven’t I? Well, there’s no method to get the lacre back out that I’m aware of. Maybe something with a full bone marrow and blood transplant, but the complexity of that surgery would be unbelievable. No, we can’t get it back out. But... we may be able to finish the transition.”
There was a brief pause. The voice spoke more quickly when it returned, a few seconds later. “-ot much time left. I can help you save yourself, but I need you to do two things in return. First, make your way to the Core. I’ve made sure the trains will keep running, so you should be able to get there quickly. Turn it back on. It’ll need a kickstart; there’s some-” The audio distorted and cut, then resumed.
“-inute left? Okay. Quickly, then. After you’ve turned on the Core, come to Genesis. That’s a medical facility in Quadrant A. You’ll have to revive me before I can help you, but there should be instructions left there on how to do it. Once you’ve done that, we can perform the procedure to save your life. After that, you can go free. No strings attached. There’s a route to the surface in the main Admin center just a few minutes away from Genesis. This can all be over, and you’ll be free to live the rest of your life however you wish. I-” Another pause.
“I’m out of time. Remember, Core, Genesis. I’ll be waiting.”
The speaker turned off.
The elevator ascended past the Cistern’s roof and into a more normal concrete-walled shaft. As soon as the view of the Cistern vanished, the dream began to melt and distort. Her left wrist throbbed with agony, as did her stomach. She was waking up. No, not yet. I’m not ready.
Before Allie wakes up, what is her general attitude towards the plan set out by Wilhelm Bolte?
- Not happening. It sounds too good to be true. She’ll make her own plan.
- Suspicious. Distrusting, but willing to at least give it a try. She’s going to die if she doesn’t, right?
- Cautiously optimistic. She doesn’t know anything about this place, even after being down here for days. Maybe his plan is the best option.
️ - Optimistic. He seemed relatively forthright, and a lot of the information meshed with what she already knew. She has a way out.
(Winner: )
- Not happening. It sounds too good to be true. She’ll make her own plan.
- Suspicious. Distrusting, but willing to at least give it a try. She’s going to die if she doesn’t, right?
- Cautiously optimistic. She doesn’t know anything about this place, even after being down here for days. Maybe his plan is the best option.
️ - Optimistic. He seemed relatively forthright, and a lot of the information meshed with what she already knew. She has a way out.
(Winner: )
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Scene 75
Allie lay on the metal floor of the platform, awake but unmoving. A jumble of chaotic thoughts swirled through her mind. Her arm, her stomach. Lauren. Empty space. Bolte, the plan. She had just woken up and already she felt tiny and overwhelmed. Okay, one step at a time.
Her left wrist burned with pain, so intense her thoughts kept breaking off in the face of the fiery sensation. Moving didn’t seem to lessen the pain, but at least it didn’t strengthen it. She didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to get up. She wanted to be back in that welcoming void - the one before the infinite nothingness. There, she didn’t have to think or feel.
Okay, okay. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on something - anything - else. Can I move? She shuffled her feet. No problems there. Her right arm also worked, though it still tingled with pins and needles and lacked the coordination to match. The most she could do was swing it in mostly the right direction and grasp numbly onto something. Okay. This is fine. I’m not going to freak out. I’m going to fix this.
She opened her eyes. Conveyor belts stretched through the air above her. Nothing moved aside from occasional packages traveling down the belts. Good, fine. Don’t worry about your arm. Either one. I’m sure it’s fine. Let’s just try and... maybe roll over. That sounds like a good start. Cautiously, Allie shifted her weight to her right side and began the first step of the slow process of getting to her feet.
Sudden warmth blossomed through her torso and she gasped, hearing several droplets of liquid splatter onto the floor. Allie flopped onto the ground and lay there for a minute as the pain slowly subsided and her breathing calmed. Okay, I get it. I’m in bad shape. I can’t just stay here though. But what the hell can I do?
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a red-white mess attached to the end of her wrist where her hand should have been. She glanced away, feeling sick, but the urge to look was stronger. Oh god... Lacre and blood mixed around the wound, the mixture slowly dripping onto the floor but seeming to clot around the stump very quickly. The cut was ragged and uneven, and her hand was nowhere to be seen. What disturbed her most about the injury wasn’t the missing body part or the abundance of lacre in her bloodstream, but rather that every time her heart beat, she could see another dribble of blood-lacre mixture pump out. She could physically see herself dying.
I think I’m going to throw up.
There was nothing left in her stomach to throw up, but the convulsions still aggravated the bullet wound and she found herself curled up on the floor, shuddering and crying at the agony of her situation. A train clattered up to the station at the platform opposite hers and cheerfully announced its destination: “This is a Gold Line train to Loop. Next stop is Quadrant B Central Exchange.” Allie quietly swore at it in her head.
Minutes later, her nausea was at least marginally under control, so she decided to attempt the seemingly monumental task of picking herself up off the floor and sitting up. Surprisingly, this went fine. Her right arm couldn’t support much weight - and her left arm none at all - but with some careful movement and using her legs more than usual, she managed to not only sit up, but carry on the momentum and actually stand, swaying, on the platform.
Allie grasped the nearest pillar with her right hand and tried to remain upright. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to get back up if she fell. Okay. I’m doing fine. Everything is okay. What am I doing? What happened to Lauren? Did I hear... a bell-head? She glanced around the station as best she could in her condition. Scorch marks, a knocked-over trash can, and a map that hadn’t been shattered previously. There had been a confrontation. She stumbled closer. Bullet holes and a few traces of blood - both red-white and purple. That supported the bell-head theory; maybe it had attacked Lauren and they had both forgotten Allie in the confusion?
She doubled over, pressing her left arm ineffectually against her stomach as the pain mounted again, briefly. How was she supposed to accomplish anything in this state? She could barely stand up, let alone walk, let alone any of the acrobatics she would need to survive in this place. Her bracelet was gone. She couldn’t heal. She was marked for death by the lacre in her blood even if she wasn’t already actively dying from her multiple critical injuries.
What in the world should she do?
[Choices in this block require 8 votes and can be combined with any other option.]
- ... Lauren’s gun is on the ground, just over there. Take it.
- Try to patch or heal these injuries. [Suggest an item or technique to use; Allie’s inventory will be posted in #story_discussion.]
- ❤️ - Use the fused heart. Somehow.
- - Fashion a makeshift tourniquet out of her uniform or other cloth around.
- Take a Blue Line train to Atrium.
- Take a Gold Line train to Quad B Central Exchange.
- Go somewhere else from this room. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winners: / > ❤️ , )
- ... Lauren’s gun is on the ground, just over there. Take it.
- Try to patch or heal these injuries. [Suggest an item or technique to use; Allie’s inventory will be posted in #story_discussion.]
- ❤️ - Use the fused heart. Somehow.
- - Fashion a makeshift tourniquet out of her uniform or other cloth around.
- Take a Blue Line train to Atrium.
- Take a Gold Line train to Quad B Central Exchange.
- Go somewhere else from this room. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winners: / > ❤️ , )
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Scene 76
There was really only one option. She had to get to the Core, then Genesis. She didn’t trust Bolte, not really, but his plan was probably the best option she had to survive and maybe even get out of this place. The man had been the president of the Factory at some point, if she remembered those emails from the cryonics lab, so he certainly would know what he was talking about. Maybe if he completed her transformation, she could heal. Allie couldn’t really comprehend the loss of her hand at the moment. She had to focus on survival and escape first; she could contemplate life as a cripple after she avoided certain death in a hundred more ways. So... now what?
She glanced up at the station arrival boards, looking for a Blue Line train to Atrium. She needed to get to the Core, and that would be the most direct way there. Luckily, one was coming up in only a few minutes, so she wouldn’t have long to wait. In the meantime, though, maybe she could stop some of this bleeding.
Allie knelt on the platform and wrestled her backpack off so she could open it. What did she have that could be helpful? Food, no - she was hungry, but definitely couldn’t stomach anything right now. Water, maybe - could be useful to wash up a little. Map, ID card, little silver key? When had she picked that up? Not helpful at the moment anyway. She dug a little deeper, felt a smooth crystal at the bottom of the bag. Oh, right. The fused double crystal heart slid easily free, charred dark but still glittering in the light. These crystals could store energy. Maybe... if she...?
She grasped the crystal, her hand numb and uncertain. She had no idea how to use the heart or if she even could. She didn’t feel any physical change as she touched it, though a presence did stir in the back of her mind. Something was still there, piggybacking on her consciousness. The sensation didn’t last long and quickly faded.
She slipped the heart back into her pack. Nothing around to make bandages with. Maybe I can just... She grasped at her shirt, trying to tear a strip free to bind her wrist, but her remaining hand just couldn’t grip the fabric tightly enough to rip anything free, and she didn’t have a knife or anything sharp enough to cut with. Lauren’s knife was gone - and even if it had been here, she didn’t want to touch it. She could see the gun out of the corner of her eye, but blocked it out of her vision. She didn’t want to touch that either.
Well, I guess I can just use the whole thing. I’d rather be cold than dead. Carefully, carefully, she unbuttoned her jacket and peeled back the blood-soaked sleeve covering her left arm. Over the course of several minutes and lots of clumsy tying and knotting, she managed to fashion it into an approximation of a tourniquet. It wasn’t near tight enough to stop the bleeding entirely - she just couldn’t muster the strength - but at least it covered the wound. She could feel the blood-lacre mixture accumulating around her wrist - a warm, wet liquid that felt uncomfortably sticky against her arm.
Allie glanced down at her stomach. Blood stained the thin white tank top around the deceptively tiny bullet hole. She shivered, both from the chill and from the sight. Gently, she lifted up the shirt and peeled it off her skin to look. The wound was small: a second belly button just a little below and to the left of the first. There was no exit wound, which was probably a good thing. She struggled to remember her biology class again; what organs were in that vicinity? Too low down to be the stomach, she thought. Intestines? She’d probably live. It wasn’t bleeding as far as she could tell, so she left it alone and covered it back up with her undershirt.
...
She hoped the train would show up soon. It was getting harder and harder to stay upright. She could hear her heartbeat loud in her ears. Her vision was slowly losing color and fading at the edges. She felt dizzy and disoriented. I’ve lost a lot of blood. This is normal. I can fix this. It’ll be okay. I can sit down on the train. Just have to... stay awake until then.
She blinked and the train was there. Allie stumbled back, then forward, as the announcer spoke: “This is a Blue Line train to Atrium. Next stop is Disposal West.” Good. This was her train. She entered and collapsed onto a row of seats, heedless of anything else that might be in the car with her. She couldn’t stand up any longer. Her breathing and heartbeat were so loud. She could barely hear anything else.
A distant musical chime. “Doors closing.” A brief pause, then the floor jolted as the train began to roll away. “Disposal West is next. Doors open on the left at Disposal West. This is a Blue Line train to Atrium.”
She closed her eyes and let darkness take her. At least the train’s happy, she thought. Funny, how easy it is... to think of something as human. Like... the lacre? Is it really alive? Does it have a mind? I feel... like it does...
A lapse, like a blink but more complete.
Allie swam back into consciousness with a headache. Her limbs felt like lead. Everything hurt, but especially her abdomen and wrist. Why was I so excited to have a body again? She refocused on her surroundings and opened her eyes. The train’s doors were open and the announcer was saying something.
“-is Atrium. Please exit the train.” A brief pause. “The last stop is Atrium. Please exit the train.” Silence.
She grasped one of the nearby poles and managed to swing herself into a standing position. She wobbled and nearly fell - the dizziness returning in full force - but barely made it out of the train and onto the platform before she stumbled and collapsed to her knees, her right arm protesting and hardly able to support her weight as she caught herself.
Allie took a deep breath as she looked around Atrium. It was vastly different to anywhere else in the Factory. Most rooms were dull concrete and full of machinery. Some resembled subway stations from the regular world, while others were enormous pits stretching from here to the center of the earth.
Atrium, on the other hand, looked like a shopping mall. The roof several stories above had glass panels set into it that glowed with a light resembling the sun. It couldn’t be real, of course, but the effect was enough to inspire an intense homesickness and desire to get out as fast as she could. Escalators - nothing more than stairs now - traversed multiple levels of storefront-filled balconies overlooking a vast “open air” central courtyard containing the train station on one side, a series of elevators on the other, and a tranquil fountain in the center. Water still flowed, glittering in the light before splashing down into the pool. Allie almost expected to hear birds chirping and the sounds of crowds making their way to their favorite store. Aside from the fountain, however, everything was quiet.
Finally, Allie let out a little gasp of anticipation as she traced the escalators all the way up to the top level of the balconies, maybe a hundred feet up. Just below the glass panels shining with fake sunlight was a large tunnel mouth outlined in orange and gold. Large black letters were legible even from so far below. She read the message three times just to be sure.
“TO SURFACE.”
Did she dare? She would be disobeying Bolte and possibly dooming herself to death, but when had anyone told the truth down here? Her way out was right there. So close she could almost smell the fresh air. She could escape, right now. Be done with this nightmare forever.
What should she do?
️ - Climb the escalators; ascend. Escape.
- Take a Purple Line train to Core Deck.
- Take a Green Line train to Crossroads.
- Explore Atrium a bit. Try to find any clues or other useful items. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winner: )
️ - Climb the escalators; ascend. Escape.
- Take a Purple Line train to Core Deck.
- Take a Green Line train to Crossroads.
- Explore Atrium a bit. Try to find any clues or other useful items. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 77
She gazed at the tunnel mouth for several long seconds, but eventually looked away. She couldn’t leave, not yet. Even if the passage was still open (which she doubted), just getting out wouldn’t do her any good with this lacre poison in her bloodstream. She had to stick to the plan. Core, Genesis. Get healed, get out. Ideally.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t look around here a bit first. Allie glanced up at the station timetables, looking for a board that would show her train. Blue to Mesa South, Green to Crossroads, Green to Quad C Central; no, none of those. Finally, “Purple to Quad B Central - 18m.” Apparently the route wasn’t the most popular; the other train lines all had timings of ten minutes or less. At least she’d have some time to look around. If she could walk.
One deep breath, then another. There had to be something worthwhile in this place. She struggled to her feet and carefully made her way down the platform stairs, wobbling anxiously on every step as her balance shifted. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears again. I need to lie down again, she realized. This isn’t... good. Can’t... even stay upright for a few... minutes...
Allie made her way to the fountain. It wasn’t too far away, and it was probably the most obvious landmark around. She shakily sat down on the smooth stone forming the side of the basin. Marble, perhaps, or some similarly-veined material. Her head swam and she reluctantly gave in, lying down and letting her right arm and leg splash into the cool water. The fountain’s gentle spray coated her face in tiny droplets. It felt nice, to lie here in the sun - the fake sun, at least - and feel the cool mist on her skin.
...
Allie woke up gasping and pressed her hand to her chest, spraying a trail of droplets into the air. Her heart beat slow and weak, and for a moment she felt that something had gone terribly wrong. She sat up, tingling through her entire body, as adrenaline rushed to her limbs. I’m fine. Nothing is wrong. Just... got surprised by something, that’s all... How long has it been?
She looked over at the station. Twelve minutes left. Not too long, but longer than she had thought. There was a dull pain in her chest and throat. Swallowing was difficult. Nothing to worry about, probably. Need to find some way to heal, at least a little. God, I feel so dizzy. She looked around. No way was she going to make it up those stairs in this state, so what was on the ground level? A few shuttered storefronts, but a few more looked open. Some displays of clothing, several of food, and a handful of more general-purpose shops. She swung her legs off the fountain and headed for one with a series of intriguing metal objects in the window, hurrying to make it before the adrenaline wore off and she collapsed again.
The interior was dark and there was no light switch in sight. Tables and display racks made moving difficult and Allie ran into several before managing to thread her way through the mess to the counter. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for, but figured she’d know if she found it rifling through the still-intact boxes of stock behind the counter. Wiring kits, no; steel wool, no; batteries... probably not; aluminum dice, no; ah! Something glowed as she removed one of the bags of rattling metal polyhedrons. An orb: glass and full of a slowly shifting green-blue liquid. Just like the charged spheres she had used to power the bracelet when she first arrived in the Factory, days ago. She didn’t have the bracelet now, but she had her own abilities instead. Could she... use these orbs?
Allie knelt in the dark fake-wooden interior of the shop and clasped the orb in her hand. She stared at it. Heal me. Give me your power. Charge. Come on; do something! The orb resolutely failed to activate or change in any way whatsoever. She glared at it. What did these things react to? What was in them? There was that... goo that made my hands go all tingly when I got too close. I... I dipped them in the river, didn’t I? Does water activate you?
She stumbled back through the shop and out into the plaza, feeling her breath come harder and her balance deteriorate. Come on, make it back to the fountain. It’s not far. Hurry. She glanced at the platform as she walked. Seven minutes. Still plenty of time, as long as she didn’t pass out again.
As she approached the fountain, her balance shifted and she pitched forward, striking her shins on the stone lip and tumbling into the water. The orb fell from her hands and splashed into the basin. The fluid inside writhed and shook; the orb’s glass vibrated. Allie groaned and struggled to get up, reaching for the orb to remove it from the water, but as soon as she touched it, the glass shattered with a gunshot-like crack.
Fragments of glass and blue-purple goop flew from the orb and time seemed to slow. She collapsed backwards into the water, watching as fresh blood from her hand mixed with droplets of water and strings of the orb’s gooey interior. Electricity sparked between the liquids and traced a path down Allie’s arm and into her chest. Her heart skipped a beat and a burning hot sensation traced out along nerves and blood vessels she had never been able to feel before. The sensation was incredibly disorienting, but she found she could control it; direct it. Where should she push it?
[The top two options will be picked. Vote for however many you want.]
️ - To her left wrist.
- To the gunshot wound in her abdomen.
- To her remaining hand.
- To her head.
- Distribute it more evenly.
❓ - Somewhere else. [Suggest an option in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , ️ )
️ - To her left wrist.
- To the gunshot wound in her abdomen.
- To her remaining hand.
- To her head.
- Distribute it more evenly.
❓ - Somewhere else. [Suggest an option in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , ️ )
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Scene 78
Not sure how it was happening, Allie pushed the sensation towards her two most serious injuries. Nerves flared with heat and her body strained against the demands placed on it. No more than ten seconds could have passed in reality, but it felt much longer as she thrashed in the fountain, unable to stem the burning sensation.
Finally, it passed. Allie let herself fall back down into the water and just focused on breathing for a minute. She wasn’t sure if she felt better. The dizziness was still there, and she still felt lightheaded. Was there less pain, though? It was hard to tell in the aftershocks of the... whatever had just happened. She shuddered. For a few brief moments, she had been able to feel all the little nerves and capillaries weaving through her body. The network of organic wires and pipes was so incredibly complex and so incredibly fragile. She had felt like no more than a machine. Broken.
Ugh. Stop that. That kind of thinking isn’t going to do you any good. Come on, get up.
Despite her internal prodding, it still took another minute or so to start painstakingly getting up and climbing out of the fountain. She sat on the basin’s lip, dripping water onto the fake grass, and took stock. Now that she had recovered somewhat from the initial... experience, it was clear that she was definitely in less pain. She still felt woozy and off balance, but at least she could focus more easily. Gently, she lifted her waterlogged shirt up to take another look at the bullet wound. It was still present, but there was clear evidence of healing; it hardly hurt and little fragments of metal had been pushed half-out of her body. She carefully grasped the bullet fragments she could and pulled them the rest of the way out, washing away the ones that were too small to grab with water. Whatever healing had been done here must have been primarily internal.
Now... the big question. What had happened to her wrist? She glanced at the train platform - three minutes left - before gingerly unwrapping the makeshift binding. Layer after layer fell away until finally, she let the jacket fall into the water to clean away its accumulated blood-lacre mix. Her hand was still gone. She hadn’t expected it to grow back, not really, but there had been a seed of desperate hope in the back of her mind that was now quietly snuffed out. It was, however, no longer bleeding. Fresh skin had started to grow in around the outside of the wound, while the bloody center had mostly scabbed over. She quickly looked away, almost gagging at the sight. Now that the water had mostly cleaned it up, she thought she could see the pale white of bone through the scabs. That definitely wasn’t an image she wanted to remember.
A drop of liquid fell onto the stone beside her. Deep red, no white or silver. Regular blood. Where had it come from? Another one fell. She felt it this time and wiped her hand across her nose. It came back bloody, but with no lacre at all. ...What...?
The clattering of wheels interrupted her thoughts and she glanced up to see the Purple Line train that would lead her to the Core pull into the station and start to slow. What should she do?
- Take the train to Core Deck.
- Stay here, explore shops on upper levels. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
️ - Climb the escalators; ascend. At least look at the exit tunnel. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winner: )
- Take the train to Core Deck.
- Stay here, explore shops on upper levels. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
️ - Climb the escalators; ascend. At least look at the exit tunnel. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify a direction, landmark, or other destination.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 79
There will be other trains, she thought. But I might not be able to come back here. Better look around as much as I can first.
Allie checked the timetables as the train pulled away, noting that the next one to the Core wouldn’t be for another half an hour. She would have plenty of time to explore the upper levels. She didn’t feel much less dizzy, but at least the bleeding had stopped. The sensation would probably fade over the next few hours or days as her body regenerated the blood it had lost. Hopefully it would be closer to the shorter end of that time period.
So... where to? Allie pulled a bottle of water out of her pack as she walked, taking small sips as she went. A careful climb up the first set of escalators led her to a spacious elevated plaza surrounded by dozens of additional storefronts. Most of them were shuttered, unlike those on the ground floor, and those that weren’t shuttered or boarded up had been ransacked at some point in the past - even worse than those down below.
Curious, she stepped into the nearest store that was still accessible, her shoes crunching on shattered glass that must have sat undisturbed for years. It had once been a bookstore, but now it was nothing more than an ashen grave. Several chips and holes in the counters and shelving suggested gunshots, and the blackened wood and ash indicated a fire. Two skeletons - one adult, one child - lay blackened and crumbling just in front of the counter.
Allie left them to rest.
The third level up appeared even more ransacked than the second. Even some of the shuttered storefronts were now broken and destroyed. Scorch marks on the concrete were common, and some of the stone railings were broken. Lying halfway through a broken window was another one of the fatigue-clad skeletons that she had seen in the central exchange station back in Quadrant D. A bent and broken rifle lay trapped under the skeleton’s arm. It seemed to be of an older design, though Allie wasn’t an expert on riflery so she couldn’t be entirely sure. None of the stores on this level had anything besides debris and skeletons. She moved on.
The fourth level was just below the roof of the cavern; the next level up was the last one and contained the tunnel to the surface. She itched with curiosity, but looked around this floor first.
In keeping with the trend she had been noticing, the fourth floor was even more destroyed than the third. Not a single shop had survived intact, and in some cases the walls had even been broken apart and cast away to crash down into the buildings below. More dead soldiers were scattered here, many with uncomfortably deep claw marks scored into their bones. Several more rifles and a pistol or two were visible among the detritus - several appearing in decent enough shape to still function - but she shuddered at the sight of the guns and didn’t pick any up, pressing a hand lightly to her stomach.
Inhale, exhale. One more. You can do this.
She climbed to the top floor.
The tunnel to the surface was the primary feature of the fifth level, but Allie tore her eyes away from it to examine the rest of the floor first. More dead soldiers, more broken guns. A section of the ceiling had collapsed and buried something pink, blobby, and enormous. Its undecayed skin glimmered wetly in the artificial sunlight. Allie turned away; she didn’t want to know. There had clearly been a great battle here, and she was getting frustrated at the lack of evidence as to what had happened. She remembered the letter she had found in the central exchange - at least loosely - and so guessed that the soldiers had been trying to shut down the Factory. But why, and what had happened? If the government had been involved, why had no one heard about this? Dozens of military personnel couldn’t die and have absolutely no one notice or care. Right?
She glanced over at the pink thing again, then continued to the tunnel. She had to know.
The tunnel mouth was tall and round, maybe fifteen feet in diameter. It was dark inside, but the artificial sunlight created enough illumination she could see, at least for the most part. About 30 feet down the tunnel, a massive, circular, steel door rested - it blocked most of the passage. It was about two feet thick with bolts wider than Allie’s arm. A series of large, heavy gears cascaded out of the wall, their teeth broken and melted. The door would no longer move, at least not easily.
She squeezed past it.
Allie could feel the cold November breeze on her skin as she continued in the dim half-light - or was it December now? She shivered, but joyously. The cold meant escape. Finally, the tunnel began to slope upwards and turned a corner to reveal...
A solid concrete wall.
Allie stopped and stared. The wall filled the tunnel from floor to ceiling with no obvious weak points. She pressed her hand against it and felt the cool, rough texture. She had known it would be sealed. There was no way Atrium would still be open. There had never been any chance of escape here.
... So why was she still crying?
Get ahold of yourself, she growled, bracing herself against the cool, smooth tunnel wall. Stop pretending you could have gotten out. You couldn’t have left here anyway. You’re full of lacre, idiot. Marked for death. Get back down there and FINISH THIS!*
Allie sat down against the wall. She hated herself for this. Not for being weak enough to cry, but for being weak enough to hate herself for it. And to hate herself for hating herself.
*Oh shut the fuck up, you idiot. Moron. Stupid, stupid, stupid. You are not allowed to get back into one of these self-loathing rants. It doesn’t help you, and no one pities you for it. Everyone has these thoughts. You just can’t handle them. Pathetic. Get up. Go back down there.
She wiped her eyes and sniffled. She was right, probably. Sitting around feeling sorry for herself wasn’t helping anyone. That didn’t make her feel any better, and it definitely didn’t make her want to get up. What was down there for her? More pain, more death, more pointless wandering only to be betrayed, shot, and maimed for no reason. But what was up here for her? A cold tunnel, then a slow death by starvation or dehydration. Just as pointless; just as dead.
Oh. My. God. Shut up. Get... UP! Why are you getting so goddamn philosophical on me? Just get up and go save your damn life. Stop sitting around doing nothing. You’re s-
Her internal monologue broke off with an almost audible gasp. Allie reached up, stopping her fingers just before they touched the tip of her nose. A single snowflake rested there, quickly melting away into water. She stood, quickly, and listened. She could hear the wind. Distant, quiet, weak, but still her winter wind from her surface. It was here, and it was close enough to leave a snowflake... on... her...
There was a shaft above her.
She raised her hand to confirm. A tiny air vent, far too small to make her way through, leading up through twists and turns too many to count, eventually, to the surface. It was almost worse than if there had been nothing at all. The snowflake was a mockery; a gesture as if to say “you’ll never see one of these again.” There was no point. She shouldn’t have come here.
Allie quickly made her way out of the tunnel and stumbled, falling to one knee next to the escalator. She stared down at the ground, a hundred feet below. There was no railing. Her heart rate rose.
She was still very dizzy. Anyone could just sort of... slip.
Do it, you coward.
...
Allie scrambled backwards, away from the precipice, and wrapped her good arm around herself, panicked. Where had that thought come from? She hadn’t meant it, surely. Definitely not. Just a momentary lapse; an instant of vulnerability. Nothing to worry about; anyone in her position would have had the same thought. It didn’t mean anything.
Still...
I need to get down from here.
What should she do?
[Choices in this block require 7 votes and can be combined with any other option.]
- Pick up a pistol from one of the dead soldiers. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Pick up a rifle from one of the dead soldiers. If she can handle it. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Examine the pink thing more closely. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Stay here for a while. Until she’s calmed down a bit.
- Look around the first floor shops one more time for anything else of use. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Wait at the station for a train to Core Deck.
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify where.]
(Winners: , , , then )
- Pick up a pistol from one of the dead soldiers. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Pick up a rifle from one of the dead soldiers. If she can handle it. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
- Examine the pink thing more closely. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Stay here for a while. Until she’s calmed down a bit.
- Look around the first floor shops one more time for anything else of use. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
- Wait at the station for a train to Core Deck.
- Go somewhere else from here. [Specify where.]
(Winners: , , , then )
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Scene 80
It took her several minutes to calm down enough to risk moving, her eyes locked on the deadly drop only a dozen feet in front of her. The voice - whether it was her own or something else - thankfully stayed quiet. Gingerly, she got to her feet again and leaned against the wall, staring uncomfortably at the massive pink thing crushed under the collapsed ceiling.
It had to be at least 15 feet long and nearly as wide. Its body seemed to have deflated and spread out over time, almost resembling a leaky balloon. The concrete around it was discolored - even the chunks of debris from the ceiling were lighter than the rest. As she hesitantly moved around its body towards what she assumed would be its head, she started to remember something. Back in the central exchange station, she had been chased into the train by a blobby, fleshy, pink creature tinged with green and capable of spitting some sort of slime or acid. And as she rounded the creature’s torso, she found herself staring at a deflated, boneless head with beady black eyes, half-sunken into the creature’s neck. A perfect match, though several times larger than the one she had seen earlier.
She shuddered, moving away from the creature and trying to step out of its line of sight. The eyes had no pupils, so it looked like it was staring at her even though the monster was clearly long-dead. She tried to steady her shaky breathing. It’s not even alive. You’ve faced more danger than this. Why are you so broken up about this now?
Allie had no answers for herself.
She turned away and made her way down the escalator to the fourth floor before she could change her mind or focus on the long drop on either side. Her legs wobbled as she made it to the next floor and she stumbled, but managed to keep herself upright and away from the edge. She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her head. She could barely feel her fingers. Cold and numb against her forehead. *You’re a mess. Either get ahold of yourself or get some damn urgency and go to the Core already. Have you forgotten you’re DYING? While you’re just stumbling around here looking at dead pink blob things, you’re just getting closer and closer to running out of time. Get a FUCKING MOVE ON!*
Right. That. She couldn’t just keep poking around here for anything else interesting. There was a time limit, though she had no idea how long it was. Allie glanced around to find the next escalator down, but her eyes swept over a sleek black pistol lying undamaged on the floor, just in her path. She walked forward; glared at it. Her body reacted against the weapon, but she knew it would be helpful. She had to be practical and not let her emotions rule her decisions. Having a gun would let her defend herself. God knows she didn’t have many other ways to do so in this state.
She bent down and reached for it, touching the cool metal with one finger and shuddering. She didn’t know how to use a gun. She had never held a pistol before. What were the chances she’d actually be able to hit anything?
Allie picked up the weapon and numbly grasped the unfamiliar grip. There were several other levers and buttons on the pistol in addition to the trigger itself - one of them had to be the safety, but what were the others? If she was going to take this gun with her, she would have to know how to operate it with at least a minimum level of competency. If she didn’t even know how to fire, it would be nothing more than dead weight. Plus, she didn’t have ear protection - although if she had to use it, that would probably be the least of her concerns.
She spent the next several minutes pressing and moving every control on the weapon except the trigger itself to get an idea what they did. This one released the magazine. That one unlocked the slide. This one seemed to be the safety, as it didn’t do anything immediately obvious. Finally, she slid the magazine back into the weapon, exhaled, and raised her arm. Her finger finally slipped under the trigger guard and rested on-
The gun went off with a crack and a bullet sparked off the floor above. She dropped the pistol and pressed her arms against her head as her ears rang, feeling like she had just jammed spikes into her eardrums. It was so much louder than she had expected - so much louder than the gunshots she had heard previously in the Factory - and she hadn’t even meant to fire. The combination of numbness in her fingers and lack of experience made just holding a gun a very dangerous thing to do. Had the bracelet been protecting her hearing earlier as well?
Allie sighed - though she couldn’t hear it - and flicked the safety back on. There were two more magazines on the ground near the dead soldier she had taken the gun from, which she picked up and slid into her pack. 14 rounds in the extra magazines, plus four more in the pistol currently. 18 shots. Though she would need to find some sort of hearing protection if she wanted to avoid deafening herself after a few more rounds.
Returning to the ground floor didn’t cause any further problems, and the station timetable indicated that she still had six more minutes before the next Purple Line train. Enough time to look around the shops on ground level again - though now she had some idea what she was looking for.
First things first, Allie wanted to be able to use the gun without hurting herself. She picked a promisingly military-looking shop and was rewarded after a few minutes of searching with a set of closely-fitting earmuffs. Putting them on, she couldn’t hear anything but a low hum. Of course, she was still recovering from the first shot, but she wasn’t about to fire again to test them.
The other thing she wanted to find was-
Allie froze as she exited the store, then quietly reversed back inside. A bell-head had just gotten off a train - Blue Line, it appeared - and had its head in the air. She couldn’t hear whatever it was doing, but she could watch as it slowly made its way from the station platform to the fountain and dipped a long-fingered hand in the water. Its clothes were tattered and its skin dotted with injuries: several bullet wounds and two crossing slashes leaked a small amount of its glutinous purple blood. Its fingers, however, were stained with the red-white mixture she knew matched the blood of lacre-blooded individuals. Like herself, or like Lauren. What was it doing here? Was it tracking her or was it just a coincidence?
The creature swirled its hand in the fountain and - after a few seconds - fished out the bloodstained grey jacket Allie had forgotten she had left there. She felt a chill of fear as it lifted the jacket and let a stream of bloody water drip into its bell. She remembered what that man had said - she had met him briefly on a train near Foundry before all hell broke loose. Bell-heads could track you if they had a sample of your blood.
She glanced at the station. Two minutes. An eternity. She was to the east of the fountain, while the train platform was to the south. The escalators leading to the upper floors were to the north, while there was nothing but more shops to the west. She gripped the pistol as the monster slowly turned to the north, then the east. It tilted its bell as if it wasn’t entirely sure where to go, then let out a low, dangerous note. Great. At least her hearing was returning. What should she do?
- Hide here as long as possible, then make a break for the station as the train arrives. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Fire on the monster. Try to kill it. They’re not invincible. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
❤️ - The fused double-heart. Do it again. Throw it into the thing’s bell. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Run up the escalators. Try to lose it in the shops above, then double back and return to the platform. [Chance: an almost-impossible challenge.]
- Reason with it. Tell it she's trying to restore the Factory. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
(Winner: ❤️ )
- Hide here as long as possible, then make a break for the station as the train arrives. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
- Fire on the monster. Try to kill it. They’re not invincible. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
❤️ - The fused double-heart. Do it again. Throw it into the thing’s bell. [Chance: a high-risk challenge.]
- Run up the escalators. Try to lose it in the shops above, then double back and return to the platform. [Chance: an almost-impossible challenge.]
- Reason with it. Tell it she's trying to restore the Factory. [Chance: a risky challenge.]
(Winner: ❤️ )
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Scene 81
Okay, okay, okay. Don’t panic. You’ve dealt with this before. Allie reached into her pack and rummaged around until she found the fused double heart that was the artifact from her last encounter with a bell-head. Just like last time. Get it into the bell, then... She blinked. Then what? Last time, she had still been wearing the bracelet. Every injury it dealt her had been healed using its own energy until it had essentially killed itself trying to kill her. Would that still work? She clearly still had some healing abilities - the experience in the fountain was proof enough of that - but did they work the same way? Would this monster figure it out? Would she even be able to get the heart into the bell in the first place? Too many questions. Too much uncertainty. This is a bad idea, she thought. Too much could go wrong. But... What’s my alternative?
...
I still want an escape plan if this goes wrong. I’m not going out there until I need to. The train would arrive in only two minutes, and she didn’t necessarily need to kill the bell-head. She just had to delay it long enough that it couldn’t follow her. The next train wouldn’t be for half an hour, assuming the schedule was consistent, so she could be well into the Core by the time it got out of the station. Maybe the heart would help her; maybe it wouldn’t. Her goal was to get on that train and get out of here.
The creature crept forward, angling its bell between the escalators and the storefronts closer to Allie. It clearly didn’t have a perfect idea of where she was, but that would change as soon as she stepped outside. Was it injured? Could it keep up with her? How long would it take her to get to the train? How fast could she run, actually? She hadn’t tested that since her latest revival. The timer at the station changed to one minute, but she couldn’t hear the train approaching. Maybe my hearing isn’t good enough yet. Being stuck here with that thing would be certain death. It’s probably better to be early than late.
She moved forward; put her shoulder to the door. Inhale, exhale. The bell-head was between her and the station and had paused as she moved. It knew. Its hand shifted. Oh god, here we go.
Allie shoved open the shop door and ran towards the creature, the fused heart clutched in her fist. It seemed taken aback by her actions and didn’t make any move towards her. The distance wasn’t far. Her heart pounded and she already felt lightheaded. Come on, hold it together.
She jumped for it. Unlike before, she couldn’t get a grip on the thing’s neck to dunk the heart in, so she would only have one shot. Hand outstretched, crystal glittering in the artificial sunlight. Time slowed, then snapped back to normal speed very quickly. A voice screamed in her head.
She hadn’t jumped high enough. The heart skated off the rim of the thing’s bell with a skittering clink, then fell to the fake grass with a thud. Allie landed poorly on one knee, but pushed herself back up and ran for it. She didn’t have time to pick up the heart and try again. The monster stumbled back, then slashed out with its claw-like fingers, hitting nothing but air. It blasted a furious note, then pushed off the grass and dashed after her. Someone was shouting in her head - male and angry. It wasn’t her own voice. Lawrence? She couldn’t make out the words.
The creature overtook her as she reached the platform stairs and snared her around the waist. Allie screamed, kicking at the thing’s chest and wrestling with its grip. It squeezed and her wound flared with pain. Its hands moved up, tracing over ribs that would be as delicate as glass once it crushed down. She had to do something, fast.
Her arm moved without her input. She could feel a presence in her mind, concentrating its focus into this one limb. She felt the gun slide comfortably into her grip. Allie held the pistol with an ease that felt distinctly unnatural as she - actually herself this time - pushed the earmuffs into position with her other arm. The world went silent as her possessed hand unloaded all four rounds in quick succession.
Purple blood sprayed into the air as the creature bellowed and stumbled back, dropping Allie as it pawed at the fresh wounds. She felt a sense of regret from her mental hitchhiker as control of her arm returned in an instant. The train had arrived during the confrontation and she stumbled into the nearest car, falling to the floor and taking shallow breaths against the pain in her partially-crushed chest. The bell-head shuddered as it pushed itself to its feet, staggering upright and limping towards the car. She couldn’t hear the announcer and so just stared aimlessly as her death came closer. There was nothing more she could do.
The doors shut and the train accelerated away.
Allie passed out.
️ - Dream. [Choose a focus, or submit your own.]
- - The pistol. The sound of a gunshot. The spray of blood.
- - The fused double heart. The clink as it missed. The distant hum of electricity.
- 
- The sensation of falling. The desire - command - to jump. Frustration and hopelessness.
- Wake up. Don’t dream.
(Winner: ️ > )
️ - Dream. [Choose a focus, or submit your own.]
- - The pistol. The sound of a gunshot. The spray of blood.
- - The fused double heart. The clink as it missed. The distant hum of electricity.
- - The sensation of falling. The desire - command - to jump. Frustration and hopelessness.
- Wake up. Don’t dream.
(Winner: ️ > )
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Scene 82
An instant later, she was lying in the mud of the Cistern. Allie suppressed a groan and picked herself up, glancing around to see where she was this time. At least her dream-body wasn’t in the same rough shape as her real one; she could easily stand and walk around without even feeling lightheaded.
She was standing in the middle of a mostly-circular tunnel that stretched on in both directions and intersected several more passageways seemingly at random. Mud covered the floor and the walls appeared to be formed of crudely packed dirt rather than anything structurally sound. There was no light, but that didn’t seem to matter; she could see just fine. A distant moan or howl echoed from somewhere behind her and she jumped slightly. Nothing was visible.
She hesitated, scanning for any movement, then slowly walked forward to the first intersection, glancing both ways down the new tunnel. It too intersected dozens more passageways seemingly at random, each new dirt corridor trailing away from the branch at some crazy angle. They all appeared to be roughly the same size and had no distinguishing marks. Something splashed or squished in the distance, the sound echoing through hundreds of intersections to arrive from multiple directions at once. Oh great, a labyrinth. This is exactly what I needed.
Without any clear goal or way to wake up, Allie set off down one of the tunnels, taking a path away from where she thought the sounds were coming from. It was hard to tell with the acoustics being so strange, and more discomforting noises kept drifting towards her at varying intensities that didn’t seem to depend on her location.
Finally, she emerged into a slightly larger cavern ringed with dozens of tunnel mouths. A pool of silvery-white liquid glowed in the center, and arrayed around it were a series of flickering ghostly figures. Her vision flared as she looked, and she clutched her head as pain flashed through it. Momentarily, she could see another scene.
A group of individuals in bright orange hazmat suits clustered around the pool, cautiously feeding tubes and wires into the liquid from a handful of freestanding machines on the floor nearby. The scene flashed and changed. She was closer now, looking over the shoulder of one of the figures. An unconscious man clad in tattered overalls lay bound to a stretcher next to the pool. One of the technicians attached leads between the man’s head and one of the machines. The scene flashed and changed. A measured amount of lacre was siphoned from the pool, pumped through the machine and into the man. His body shuddered and convulsed, then began to bloat. A greenish tinge began to color his skin. The orange-suited figures shuffled.
Allie gasped and fell to the ground as the vision faded. She hardly had time to think before she noticed the lacre in the pool beginning to ripple and thrash. She got to her feet and backed up as the silver-white liquid grew more and more animated until finally, a tendril of the stuff rose from the main mass and lashed out towards her. It curled, collected, and shaped itself into a new form. Only a moment later, a dog-like lacre beast snarled and growled at her, pawing at the mud before charging forward. More tendrils quickly followed, shaping new monsters.
Allie ran.
She dashed through tunnel after tunnel, sliding on the muddy floor and almost falling with uncomfortable regularity. The snarling, barking, howling lacre beasts were right behind her, most able to run faster than her but unable to corner quite as well. She had to keep changing directions and ducking down side passages to keep out of their jaws, but she was already hopelessly lost and dreading running into her pursuers by turning the wrong direction. One extra misstep or wrong corner would be the end of the chase. She didn’t know what would happen if she died in the Cistern, but given Bolte’s warning that the lacre could affect her even through dreams, she didn’t want to find out.
Got to figure something out. Can’t keep this up forever. Wake up, wake up, wake- huh?
A voice? Hard to hear through the snarling from behind her, but as she slid around a corner, the sounds temporarily lessened and she could definitely hear it. A female voice, distantly familiar. “Allie, this way! Hurry!”
Well, what did she have to lose? She took the next three corners in an attempt to follow the sound. Midway down the fourth tunnel, she spotted an arm - human, not monstrous - waving out of a side galley and redoubled her speed. With the lacre beasts just behind her, Allie slid into the side-passage as her savior slammed a wooden door shut behind her. She turned as she caught her breath, swiveling to catch a glimpse of whoever had just saved her life.
Allie looked up in shock. A second her, unmarred by the mud and wearing a perfectly clean white dress, grinned and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You absolute idiot,” she said. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Allie blinked. “I... what?”
The other her knelt down, then slapped her across the face, hard. Allie - too bewildered to resist - collapsed to the muddy floor and raised a hand to her face. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” her doppelganger confided. “You absolutely deserve it.”
What should Allie do? [The conversational approaches will be weighted by votes (there will be no one “winner”) so feel free to pick multiple.]
- This isn’t right. Get out of here. She’s more dangerous than the lacre beasts.
- Let her talk. Stay mostly quiet. Clearly she wants to get something off her chest.
- Hit her back. If Allie deserves it, then so does she.
❓ - Who is this other her? Why is she here? What’s going on?
[Submit other burning questions to ask or things to say, if any.]
(Winners: ❓ > )
- This isn’t right. Get out of here. She’s more dangerous than the lacre beasts.
- Let her talk. Stay mostly quiet. Clearly she wants to get something off her chest.
- Hit her back. If Allie deserves it, then so does she.
❓ - Who is this other her? Why is she here? What’s going on?
[Submit other burning questions to ask or things to say, if any.]
(Winners: ❓ > )
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Scene 83
“W-what? Who; why?” Allie was too confused to form a coherent sentence, but the other her seemed to get it anyway.
“Yeah, I know. It’s a bit much. Hang on, let’s go somewhere calmer.” She knelt down in the mud, extending a hand. “Come on, up you get. Sorry, I got a little too excited with the slapping.”
Numbly, Allie reached out and took her own hand. The other-her still had both hands, she noticed, and full control over her digits. Her skin felt warm and... normal; not at all like a lacre beast or monster in disguise. Still, it was probably wise to stay cautious.
The other-her quietly opened the door she had just closed. Allie jumped, backing away from the dozens of lacre beasts that would surely come pouring in, but nothing happened. The other-her laughed. “Don’t worry, I - we - have more power than that. They can’t hurt us. Come on.” She stepped through the door, pulling Allie with her, into a small snowy clearing in the midst of a wintery forest. Snow gently drifted down from the sky, though she couldn’t feel the temperature and the flakes just fell through her.
“I thought you might appreciate looking around what might have been on the other side of that tunnel. We were so close. Okay. Give me a minute.” Other-her sighed and sat down on a tree stump, closing her eyes and trying to collect herself. Allie gazed up at the sky in silence. This was her world, in the snow and cold, even if she couldn’t feel it. The vision didn’t make her feel any better, however, as she knew she was still lying unconscious on a train deep below the surface in reality.
A little grey squirrel scampered down a tree and darted off across the snow, into the forest. She grinned despite herself. Maybe it did make her feel better. A little. She turned around to look at her doppelganger again and sat down on a tree stump a few feet away. The mimicry was perfect, as far as she could tell. The same eyes, the same hair, the same face. If she wasn’t walking and talking, she could be an image in a mirror. The only differences were from her time in the Factory: her arm, her hand. No wounds and bloodstains scattered across her body. No haunted expression in her eyes. This other-her was a more authentic Allie than Allie herself.
“Okay,” the other-her repeated. “Look.” She suddenly appeared much less confident than she had only a few minutes ago; almost fragile. “This isn’t an easy conversation to have with you. I’ve kind of been dreading it for a while now. But this is important and you have to hear it.” She took a deep breath. Allie blinked. It was incredibly weird to watch herself anxiously shuffle on the stump, trying to summon the courage to finish her thought. Do I really look like this when I’m nervous?
“You’re going insane.” She paused, like the words were some big revelation.
Allie raised an eyebrow. “Sure. I have voices in my head telling me to jump off a hundred-foot drop. Voices that, may I add, sounded suspiciously like you. I’d believe it.”
“No, see- agh!” Other-her shook her head. “This is why I didn’t want to have this conversation. You’re not going to take me seriously. I don’t want to hurt you. I am you. Sort of.”
“So was that not you telling me to jump? Actually, back up. Who - what - are you?”
Other-her pulled her legs up to tuck her knees up to her chest. Her hair covered most of her form. “I told you: I’m you. I don’t know exactly what part of your mind I am, but I like to think I’m the practical part. You’re breaking apart, Allie. Physically and mentally.”
Allie tucked her own legs up onto the stump, mirroring her double’s body language. “...What?”
“Look at yourself.” She did. Beaten, bloody, broken. “Now look at me.” She did. Untarnished, flawless, perfect. “You can’t keep this up. There’s a finite limit to how hard you can push that lump of anxiety and self-loathing you call a brain, and you’re getting really close to it.”
“Hey, I don’t-”
“Yes, you do. Especially after getting thrown down here. You can’t deny yourself to me.”
“Okay, so I’m going insane. Fine. What do you want me to do about it? I can’t try to escape any faster than I already am.”
“I know. And this isn’t all your fault; that lacre is really doing a number on you. But it’s not the only thing that’s breaking you.” Other-her pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked directly at Allie. “Can you tell me what your mom’s name is?”
Allie’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“Dad? Brother? Best friend?”
“...”
“Allie, why do you even want to leave the Factory? What’s waiting for you out there? You’re going to be scarred, crippled, and forever haunted. Even if the lacre doesn’t kill you in a few days, you’ll never return to normal. You can’t. You haven’t even thought about life above the ground since you got here.”
“That... that’s not true.”
“...Is it?”
Allie pressed her forehead against her knees. This had to be a trick. She couldn’t remember her family. She started to breathe more quickly. Who were her friends? What was she studying at college? Where did she live? She couldn’t remember anything. How had she not noticed until now?
“It’s okay.” She heard the crunching of snow underfoot as other-her stood up and walked the short distance, wrapping her arms around Allie in a hug. “It’s okay. We can fix this.”
A tear fell, burrowing a short distance into the snow before freezing. Allie sniffled. “What can we do? I want to leave. I want to go home.”
“I know you do. But maybe you don’t have to. Leaving this place is death. Bolte can’t fix you. He can’t remove the lacre, and he can’t finish the transformation. I was maybe a little harsh earlier, but really, what were you thinking? He tried for a century to perfect that transformation but never even got close. How could he possibly be able to save you after being dead for fifty years?”
More tears. “Then... what?”
“There’s another option. I’ve learned a lot about this place from listening to the lacre in your blood. It’s very talkative stuff. In the Core, there’s a massive conduit leading to the very lowest levels of this place, down in the Cistern. Bolte wants you to reactivate it and turn the Factory back on. But you don’t have to. Instead, you could destroy it. Break it like the Factory wanted to break you.” Other-her’s grip grew tight, then released. She bounced back several steps until she was standing in the middle of the clearing. “End the stasis and shut this place down for good. Release the lacre from its bonds and in the process...”
She raised her arms and moved them slowly in a semicircle. “Release us from our bonds. Bolte can’t free you, but the lacre can. It can finish the transformation or remove itself entirely. I’m sure of it. This is the best way for us. Please.”
Allie looked up. A little grey squirrel perched on a high tree branch. It stared at her, then blinked and skittered away.
- Agree to her plan. Bolte isn’t trustworthy.
❤️ - Reject her plan. This is insane. Trust the lacre?
- She’s lying. Call her on it. Make her tell the truth. [Call her on what? Specify in #story_discussion. Chance of success depends on what to say.]
- This isn’t right. Take her out. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- This isn’t right. Get out of here. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
[Submit any other questions to ask or things to say.]
(Winner: a tie between and )
- Agree to her plan. Bolte isn’t trustworthy.
❤️ - Reject her plan. This is insane. Trust the lacre?
- She’s lying. Call her on it. Make her tell the truth. [Call her on what? Specify in #story_discussion. Chance of success depends on what to say.]
- This isn’t right. Take her out. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
- This isn’t right. Get out of here. [Chance: a simple challenge.]
[Submit any other questions to ask or things to say.]
(Winner: a tie between and )
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Scene 84
“How... can I trust you? No one down in this place has been honest with me, and everyone I trusted ended up betraying me. If you’re actually part of me, you should know that. I...” she trailed off, unsure of how to continue. Other-her lowered her arms and stepped forward.
“I understand,” she said. “I can’t prove I’m trustworthy; you know that. We only have a few more minutes, anyway. But why should you trust Bolte either? He created this place! He’s just going to use you to revive him and his creation, then let you rot down here. He-”
Allie cut her off. “Hang on; you didn’t answer my question. Were you the voice telling me to jump?”
A brief pause. Her doppelganger glanced down, then inhaled. Her expression - though only visible for a moment - was intensely familiar. It was the exact one Allie made when she lied.
“No, of course not! I’m part of you; I wou-”
“You’re lying. You tried to get me to kill myself.”
“...”
Allie and her double stood and stared at each other for several agonizing seconds as snow drifted down around them. Other-her was breathing heavily and had both hands curled into fists. Gingerly, Allie let one foot slide back and half-turned her body so she would be ready in case of any attack.
“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’m not helping you. Whether you’re part of me or not.” She took one step back, then another. “Tell me, or I’m leaving. Why did you want me to jump?”
Another step back. She was standing at the edge of the clearing. She turned and brushed aside a young sapling, then took a single step into the woods. Her bare foot sank into the snow and she jumped at the cold. The clearing was protecting her. Oh well; she’d wake up. One more step, then-
“No, wait!”
Allie stopped and half-turned her head. Other-her was kneeling in the snow, her face hidden behind a curtain of hair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t want to hurt you; really I don’t. I just, it - they - I... I don’t have a choice.”
Allie glanced between her double and the forest, then slowly stepped back into the clearing. She stayed quiet, waiting for other-her to continue.
“I don’t want to die. Okay? I- that... that’s reasonable, right?” She sniffled. “If you leave here, or if you go with Bolte, I’ll die. But if you die, I get to live. I don’t want to hurt you; please believe me. But I have to, if I want to live.”
Allie sat down on the tree stump again and faced other-her. She could see the glitter of an eye peeking out at her through the hair. “How do you know?”
“The lacre told me.”
“And the lacre is trustworthy?”
“It created me. If I can’t trust it, I can’t trust anyone.”
“Why did- hang on. Are you actually a part of me or not?”
Other-her shrugged. “I don’t know. I live in your body and I share your memories, but I have my own thoughts and goals and emotions. Obviously I’m very similar, at the very least. But I don’t know if I’m a part of you or if I’m someone new. Does it matter?”
“If you’re someone new... do you have a name?”
“No.”
“Do you want one?”
Another shrug. “I can’t think of anything good.”
“Okay... You’re like a... reflection of me, sort of. What’s ‘Allie’ backwards?” She paused, trying to figure out the pronunciation. “E...illa? No... how about Ella? Does that work?”
Her head raised a little. “Ella... I could be an Ella.”
Allie smiled. “Okay, now that we’ve got that figured out, I have more questions. A lot more. Why did the lacre make you? How did it make you? Is there any way I can help you that isn’t by dying?”
“You can’t help me,” Ella sighed. “I don’t know what I am or why I was created. Do you know why you were born? Did your parents tell you? You just have to plop out into the world and try to survive. And I know that if I want to do that, I’m in a very bad situation. If you leave the Factory, I die. If you cure yourself of the lacre, I die. If you somehow complete the transformation into Bolte’s ‘next evolution of the human race,’ I die. I don’t have a body of my own and I only get to mooch off yours when you’re in this weird hybrid state. Whatever happens to you, if you live past the next few days, I’m going to die. It’s like a sick joke, except it’s my reality.”
She tucked her knees against her chest again, curling up into a smaller space. Allie leaned down, unsure how to feel. “I’m sorry.” Several seconds passed as she gathered her thoughts. “That sounds like a very terrifying existence.”
Ella choked out something between a sob and a laugh. “You’re telling me. The only way out is if you die or get eaten by lacre. Then I can either take over your body or get transferred to a new one the lacre can make for me. Why am I telling you this? You can’t help me. I need to kill you. Why am I such a bad assassin?”
“Lacre can make you a new body? Why do I need to die for it to do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s so our minds can split apart properly or something. I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
A distant rumbling shook the ground. Momentarily, Allie could hear brakes hissing as the train began to slow. She didn’t have much time left in the dream. “Okay, Ella, I’m going to wake up soon. If I agree to try and help you - without killing myself - can you promise to stop trying to kill me?”
A long pause, then a despondent “Yeah...”
“Secondly.” Allie hesitated, unsure where her confidence was coming from all of a sudden. “You can talk to the lacre, right? At least a little bit?”
“Kind of...” Ella brushed the hair out of her eyes and looked up. Her cheeks were wet with silent tears. “It’s like trying to talk to a... a dragon. You know it’s intelligent and powerful, but it’s really hard to understand anything exactly.”
“Can you...” She hesitated again. “Uh, figure out... what it... wants?” Ella stared at her and Allie quickly continued. “Like, what’s it going to do if I release it? Why did it make you? Is it trying to destroy humanity, wipe out the Factory, just be left alone; what? If it has a mind, it has to have a motivation.”
Ella stared at Allie. “I... I don’t know if I can... Why am I helping you? Why are you helping me? Can you really save me?”
The dream began to melt. Allie knelt and tried to shout over the noise of the brakes. “I’ve done a lot of impossible stuff down here already! I can save you too!”
“-his is Core Deck. This is a Purple Line train to Quadrant B Central Exchange. Next stop is Marketing.”
Allie forced her eyes open and hauled herself upright with her good - well, less bad - arm. This was her stop. She stumbled out of the train without really looking around; she was preoccupied thinking about Ella. Did Allie really mean it when she said she was going to save her? How could she promise that? She didn’t even know how to save herself, let alone some mental hitchhiker that still might very well be dangerous or evil. Was Ella an agent of lacre in disguise? If so, it was a very convincing act. Or was she just a newly created consciousness, terrified of death and given only one way out? Could she even trust her own thoughts? How many of them were her own, and how many were Ella’s? Had she implanted the idea to help her?
Allie shook her head. She was getting paranoid. Maybe it was justified, but it wouldn’t help her now. She had thirty minutes before the next train arrived, and she had to be far enough away by then that the bell-head chasing her couldn’t catch up. She was still in a very precarious position, whatever her situation with Ella was. Okay, calm down. Take a look around; figure out what you’re going to do.
[The next section of the story may be written through either character’s eyes.]
- Be Allie.
- Be Ella.
(Winner: )
- Be Allie.
- Be Ella.
(Winner: )
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Scene 85
Ella collapsed backwards into the snow and groaned, covering her eyes with her arms. Fuck, I’m so stupid. Why did I tell her that? I’m supposed to be getting her killed and now she knows everything. She’s not going to help me; why would she? The only way to do that is to kill herself. I just doomed myself. I’m going to die.
The thought didn’t really register. She was already at such a high level of panic that she couldn’t get any more anxious. That was probably a good thing; it would allow her to keep moving. But what was she going to do? Allie certainly wasn’t going to listen to her any longer, and she couldn’t affect anything in the real world besides that. She could just sit here and watch as her original walked into the Core and did whatever she was going to do, but that would be like watching a car wreck in slow motion from the passenger’s seat. She sat up before she could tell herself not to, then stood up using the same technique. Now what?
She could go do what Allie had asked, she supposed. Go try talking to the lacre and finding out what its motivations were. She had to admit, she was curious as well. But that would mean going back into the Cistern and putting herself in danger. Ella had to laugh at that. Putting herself in danger didn’t mean anything if she was going to die in a few days anyway. She might as well; it could be her one final chance to survive this. There wasn’t any way she could dupe Allie into killing herself at this point - not that she had been any good at that to start with.
Speaking of Allie, maybe she should check on her original before heading down into the Cistern. She wasn’t going to be able to keep a close eye on what was going on in the real world while she was down there. Ella sat down on the tree stump, closed her eyes, and focused. She could only do this when in a space of her own creation, like the snowy forest, but if she held her breath and concentrated, she could sense what Allie could. Even better, she could get a vague idea of her original’s emotional state and surface-level thoughts. It wasn’t mind reading, but it could certainly help her understand what was going on. Maybe Allie was thinking about her. Maybe she actually was intending to help Ella.
Allie was walking down a huge circular tunnel towards a massive steel door. Automated turrets sat in their cradles, silent and dead. Her footsteps echoed around the space, clanging uncomfortably loudly on the metal-grate walkway. Harsh white tube lights lined the ceiling; about half of them were still functional and dousing the path in bright, clinical light. She glanced back to watch the train slowly accelerate away from the station platform, a scant hundred feet back. Beyond the tunnel mouth, empty darkness stretched away indefinitely. The Core was apparently built in the center of a massive, open cavern.
But what was she thinking? Ella focused in, trying to single out Allie’s emotions and thoughts from the flood of sensations. Anxiety, trepidation. Nothing surprising there. Dread, but less immediate than the previous two feelings. She was probably scared of death as well. She dug deeper, trying to uncover anything that could help her make a decision. There - a fragment. Thoughts muddied and unclear, as if seen through the rippling depths of water. Something about Ella, and... betrayal? Paranoia? It was hard to tell, but clearly nothing good.
Ella exhaled and caught her breath as the sensations faded. She still kept a dim link to her original - enough to tell if she was alive and vaguely where she was, but nowhere near as clear as if she focused on it. Was Allie planning to betray her? Or was she worried that Ella would betray her? She sighed. There was no way to be sure, not without asking. And even then, there was no way she’d give a trustworthy answer. No, the truth was that Ella couldn’t trust Allie. The two of them had diametrically opposed goals. They both wanted to live, which meant they wanted the other to die. It was as simple as that.
Ella pressed her palms against her forehead. Why was being alive so complicated? There were so many factors and goals and emotions to keep in mind; she couldn’t keep track of everything! Okay, she had to calm down. What were her options? She could either keep watching Allie and hope she could interject at the right moment to get her killed (unlikely), or she could take the chance (no matter how slim) that her original was telling the truth, descend into the Cistern, and try to figure some things out to help her save both of them.
She was Allie, at least partly. So was she more likely to be a good assassin or to tell the truth?
She was a terrible assassin, and a terrible liar.
She’d have to hope Allie was too. She didn’t have a choice.
...
[Where should Ella go in the Cistern to attempt to find information?]
- Dive into the lake. The lower she goes, the closer she’ll get to the heart of this place. She’s always been curious about what was down there, but never had the guts to find out. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
️ - Explore the great mud plains filled with Factory debris that make up the vast majority of the Cistern. The wildlife can be problematic and there may not be many secrets left undisturbed, but as long as she doesn’t get caught off guard, she should be relatively safe. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
️ - Delve among the tunnels where she just was. The twisting warrens are a maze, and can be quite dangerous if she’s caught unprepared, but contain dozens of those flashback-filled lacre pools. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winner: ️ )
- Dive into the lake. The lower she goes, the closer she’ll get to the heart of this place. She’s always been curious about what was down there, but never had the guts to find out. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
️ - Explore the great mud plains filled with Factory debris that make up the vast majority of the Cistern. The wildlife can be problematic and there may not be many secrets left undisturbed, but as long as she doesn’t get caught off guard, she should be relatively safe. [Chance: a straightforward challenge.]
️ - Delve among the tunnels where she just was. The twisting warrens are a maze, and can be quite dangerous if she’s caught unprepared, but contain dozens of those flashback-filled lacre pools. [Chance: a modest challenge.]
(Winner: ️ )
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Scene 86
Allie watched as the train slowly pulled away from the station, the starkly empty cavern behind it stretching away to infinity. She turned back to the matter at hand and continued towards the massive steel door at the end of the Core tunnel. Silent, deactivated turrets lined both sides of the pathway, each sitting atop its own black stone plinth. The whole scene reminded her of a throne room, but instead of a throne, there was a card reader.
Ella. What the hell was she going to do about Ella? It would probably be safer to avoid trusting her, given Allie’s poor track record of picking people to trust in this place. Plus, she had lied to her face, tried to get her to kill herself, and admitted to being created from lacre. It would be completely insane to accept anything she said, no matter how convincing her act was. Still, she didn’t want to hurt anyone she didn’t have to. Would escaping the Factory be tantamount to murder? Suicide? Everything was so unclear.
...
Erin. Erin and William Ortiez. I know my parents’ names. Ryan. I remember my brother. I’m studying chemical engineering in college. I remember my life. I remember my friends and family. What did she do to make me forget? Why would she do that? Just to convince me to stay? To rot down here forever when I’m finally so close to getting out? Just to save her life?
Allie let a trickle of anger flow into her movement as she marched towards the door. Messing with my memories... Making me think I had forgotten... That’s just... She growled, though it faded into a sigh after only a moment. She doesn’t want to die. If I were in her shoes, would I do the same thing to save myself? She pondered this, though only briefly. Yes. Of course I would. So why is it fair to blame her? Another brief pause as she finally approached the card reader and stopped moving. She shook her head. I haven’t figured anything out yet. I don’t know what to do.
The reader was a wide black tap plate set into the door at about chest height, marked on the right side with a pictogram depicting a card and a wireless symbol. Feeling a sense of finality, Allie slid her pack off, then grasped Madelyn’s ID card from an inner pocket. She knew it would work before even trying it. There was no other way it could be.
The reader beeped and lit up green as she tapped the card. Thin silver lines flowed into existence on the black background of the strike plate, forming the shapes of letters and images. She knew which one she had to select and brushed it lightly with her fingers without a second thought. It was the only option that would work.
The harsh white lights flickered, then extinguished. A moment passed in the dark before several orange rotating warning lights began to spin on either side of the door. A harsh, loud siren began to blare. Allie unconsciously glanced from side to side, scanning the area for tornados, even though she knew for a fact that she was miles underground and at least equally far away from any inclement weather. The sound of this type of siren had been imprinted on her many years ago.
One massive steel bolt retracted, then another, then two more. The colossal door clanked, rumbled, and slowly began to slide. Clouds of glittering white gas vented from the sides of the opening as the seal that had presumably been intact for fifty-some years was finally broken. As the theatrics ramped up, Allie stepped back and began to reconsider her choice. Had it really been wise to just open the door without any preparations or planning? Would the siren attract any monsters? Was there anything left alive in the Core? What was behind that door?
Suddenly remembering the gun and feeling horrendously exposed, Allie dug through her pack to grab one of the two remaining magazines. Reloading the pistol was a challenge in the light that wildly oscillated between bright orange and pitch black, especially with one hand, but she managed it after a minute and quickly stood up, scanning the area for any threats. It was impossible to see in the crazy patterns generated by the warning lights and it was impossible to hear in the wailing din of the siren. She backed against the wall and braced herself, heart pounding in her chest.
The rumbling, earthquake-like vibrations of the door slowly sliding open continued for almost two minutes - Allie counted a hundred and twelve seconds before the noise slowly died off and the corridor fell silent as the siren’s wailing gradually spun down. The orange warning lights blinked off and after a moment, the harsh white overhead lights flickered back on. She glanced around. Nothing moved except the glittering white clouds of gas drifting leisurely down to settle on the metal walkway. The door was open. Beyond was a vast open space; bright white lights illuminated pale blue walls. The floor fell away but she couldn’t see further down from her current perspective. A vast cylindrical spire of glass and metal rose in the center of the room. Silver-white lacre bubbled and frothed inside of it.
Allie crossed the threshold and entered the Core.
Immediately, she doubled over and pressed her arms against her stomach. Her face felt hot and her insides churned. She took shallow breaths as tears filled her eyes and her system equalized. Her heart beat slowly. Something inside her wriggled and thrashed, pressing against nerves and organs, desperate to escape. The lacre could sense the end and was fighting tooth and nail to break free. Gripping the railing with one arm and pressing against her stomach with the other, Allie surveyed the Core.
She was kneeling on a light blue metal-grate deck about halfway up the side of an enormous cylindrical chamber. The glass-metal spire took up the central portion of the cylinder, and thousands of pipes and wires wove a complex tapestry between the spire and the blue-metal walls. Grated stairs of the same blue metal as everything else in the room led both up and down from her current position, curling along the sides of the cylinder in one large helix. Bright but soft white light filled the chamber, illuminating every corner to such a degree that she couldn’t see a single shadow.
High above, just below the very top of the chamber, was another deck curling around the side of the cylinder. Due to the solidity of the deck, the poor angle, and the massive spire in the way, she couldn’t see what was up there. However, she could make out what lay deep below. Down at the very base of the room, the stairs terminated at a simple metal deck ringing the perimeter of the spire. One blue-metal control panel was visible, a tiny block far below. Beneath this lowest deck, a sea of silver-white lacre heaved and thrashed as it was drawn up into the spire. Her blood churned as she gazed at the spectacle, yearning to break free of her body and join the ocean below.
The clattering of wheels on track sounded in the distance behind her. Allie spun around, but she couldn’t see the station from here. There was no train scheduled for at least fifteen more minutes; what was going on?!
[This is not a branch point. Not yet.]
⬆️ - Ascend. Finish this.
⬇️ - Descend. Finish this.
- Something’s wrong. Go investigate the train. Be careful. [Chance: a simple challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Close the door. Whatever’s out there needs to stay out there. [Requires 9 votes; can be combined with ⬆️ or ⬇️. If and are both chosen, will override .]
(Winner: ⬆️ )
- Something’s wrong. Go investigate the train. Be careful. [Chance: a simple challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Close the door. Whatever’s out there needs to stay out there. [Requires 9 votes; can be combined with ⬆️ or ⬇️. If and are both chosen, will override .]
(Winner: ⬆️ )
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Scene 87
Ella cautiously stepped out of the little chamber of mud and dirt she had fashioned for herself and back into the twisting labyrinth of tunnels that threaded the earth around the Cistern. Sure, the lacre had created her, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still dangerous. She was probably immune to its mutative effects, and the raw liquid wouldn’t hurt her, but the monsters formed of the stuff had minds of their own and held no compunctions against ripping her apart. She might not have a true physical body like Allie, but in the dream world that didn’t matter. She’d be just as dead as if she were here physically.
Which was why she was being quiet. The dogs from earlier seemed to be gone, but she kept hearing distant echoes of some sort of noise that kept her on edge. These tunnels were awful to wander through for long periods of time; the sounds never ceased. Should’ve gone to the lake, she grumbled to herself. I hate this place.
She walked for several minutes, keeping her guard up against any sounds in the Cistern while also listening for anything coming through her link with Allie. Outside of the snowy forest and other similar locations, she couldn’t focus to get a perfect connection, but she could still hear loud noises - like the harsh, blaring siren grating against her ears. Ella gritted her teeth and carried on, not daring to close the link as she wouldn’t be able to get it back down here. She’s opening the door, isn’t she. I don’t have much time. Maybe ten minutes, if I’m lucky. What am I going to find in just ten minutes?
Ella turned a corner, then stopped dead, cursing silently as she quietly backed away. A tall, slender humanoid hunched over the torn-apart corpse of a lacre-dog. Its long, thin fingers picked at the creature’s insides, questing for and eventually finding a tiny clear bead, about the size of a pea. Ella huddled just out of sight down the hallway, peeking around the corner to see what was going on. She had never seen one of these creatures so close before; she had always had to run away before they got anywhere near her. The “imprints,” as she vaguely understood they were called, were the apex predators of the Cistern. No other creature could match their weird, almost glitchy abilities, though at least they moved slowly and could be avoided with relative ease as long as Ella saw them a long way off. Now, she was stuck and filled with a morbid curiosity.
The imprint rose, unfolding to its full height and leaning forward to avoid brushing its featureless white head against the ceiling. It held the bead gingerly between forefinger and thumb, and slowly began limping down the tunnel away from Ella. She held her breath until it turned the corner, then darted quickly after it. In this manner, she followed the creature for several more minutes, finally hearing the siren quiet down in the physical world. She didn’t have much longer, but she definitely wanted to see this through; she had never seen what an imprint did with its prey before.
Eventually, the creature squeezed through a narrow gap in the side of the tunnel and into a small, circular chamber. Ella pressed up against the entrance and watched, unwilling to enter just yet. The room only had one feature: a low black stone table with deep grooves carved into its surface forming the crude outline of a human figure. The carving was mostly filled with crystals of all shapes and sizes: clear beads like the one the imprint had just gently slid into place, larged jagged chunks, and finally two or three smooth, glittering, crystal hearts of the sort Allie had taken from defeated bell-heads.
Whaaaat?
The imprint paused, oscillating in place, then collapsed onto the table and flowed into the groove, filling the indent with a lacre-crystal soup. A low, bass note thrummed through the air. Ella resonated with the sound, almost crying out as her dream-body vibrated in perfect harmony. She fell to her knees, then collapsed onto the muddy ground, unable to force her muscles to obey.
At the same time, she felt a rush of sensations wash across the link, bombarding her with vague impressions of a blue-metal cylinder and feelings of nausea as Allie’s lacre blood fought to rip free of her body. Ella groaned and shuddered on the floor as her own body fought against her control. She couldn’t tell if the cause was the imprint’s bass note or the sensations cascading onto her from Allie, but she was terrified either way. She couldn’t do anything but watch and feel as she thrashed about in the mud and her heart seemed to beat faster than she could count. The total lack of control was the worst part. There was nothing she could do but wait...
and wait...
and wait...
for it to finally subside, forty agonizing seconds later.
Ella gasped for breath and placed a shuddering hand on her chest, feeling a wave of relief wash over her as her heart began to slow back down to a more normal tempo. She closed her eyes. What... just happened? I’m okay, right? Can I...?
Something warm and wet grabbed onto her left ankle. Ella screamed and shot into a sitting position, seeing stars as blood tried to equalize through her body. The imprint tugged at her leg and she fell back into the mud as it dragged her through the opening and towards the black stone table.
- Fight it. She’s not powerless, though she is disoriented and hurt. Take it down. [Chance: a simple challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Run away. Break its grip and get out. Make another portal out of the Cistern to recover. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Don’t resist. Something about this table calls to her.
(Winner: )
- Fight it. She’s not powerless, though she is disoriented and hurt. Take it down. [Chance: a simple challenge. Potentially deadly.]
- Run away. Break its grip and get out. Make another portal out of the Cistern to recover. [Chance: a chancy challenge.]
- Don’t resist. Something about this table calls to her.
(Winner: )
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Scene 88
Allie glanced frantically between the Core and the door to the rest of the Factory. She briefly entertained the idea of closing the massive portal, but decided against it for two reasons. First, whatever was out there could definitely make it into the room before the heavy door could shut completely. Second, she didn’t want to be trapped in here. This whole place was drenched in lacre - even just existing in this space was akin to immersing her body in pure poison.
Allie darted up the stairs before she could waste any more time thinking. Whatever she was about to do - restart the Factory, destroy the Conduit, or something else - she needed to do it fast.
As she climbed, Allie tried to catch a glimpse of whatever she was running towards. She still couldn’t see over the top of the deck, but she did catch sight of an assortment of thick wire bundles and heavy-duty pipes all terminating in one particular spot maybe fifteen feet away from the point where the stairs met the deck. She kept going, now glancing backwards as well to try and see whatever must have gotten off the unexpected train. Nothing entered the room before she had to look away as she finally reached the top of the staircase.
There was another control panel up here, set up just against the side of the spire and similar to the one below - though larger and with more readouts. She headed for it as she looked around the rest of the deck. There were two bulkhead doors set into the curved metal wall right next to each other, both closed and leading to who knew where. Allie had larger concerns at the moment than figuring out where they went. Finally, hanging just above the deck and acting as a sort of ceiling to the chamber, was an enormous reservoir of roiling, bubbling lacre. A curved dome of glass, laced with reinforcing black threads, contained a sea of the white liquid to mirror the larger ocean below. She glanced upwards as she ran, nervous about being so close to such a large amount of the stuff. Her body almost felt lighter as her blood seemed magnetically drawn upwards.
Allie reached the control panel and looked down to read it, but at that moment, she caught sight of a limping human figure entering the Core.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she whispered aloud. “She survived too?”
Indeed, Lauren had somehow managed to survive what Allie had to assume was a bell-head attack, then made her way here on an off-schedule train to show up just in time to screw Allie over one last time. Lauren stumbled and almost fell, catching herself on the guard rail and vomiting a small quantity of lacre. She looked down, then up. She shouted upwards, pointing in the general direction of the control panel as she made her way to the stairs.
“ALLIE!” She paused for breath. “YOU HAVE TO STOP! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!”
Allie glanced over the side of the deck. At Lauren’s slow, limping pace, it might take her a minute or two more to make it up here. She might have time to make a choice before she arrived. Unfortunately, the control panel was incredibly complicated. She grabbed the gun out of her bag, flicked the safety off, and started deciphering the complex labels and glyphs that marked every inch of the panel. “Conduit Pressure (see Overflow Dampening and Wave Harmonic Frequency),” babbled one label. The dial was set to 1.2 out 6. Allie shook her head and examined the cross-referenced controls, cascading down a tree of levers, buttons, and dials until she had read through most of the panel and was hopelessly confused. Bolte didn’t tell me how to run this thing! she thought, panicking. None of the controls make sense! I don’t even know what I want to do, let alone how to do it!
As those words formed in her mind, she felt a sudden cold presence in the back of her skull, like someone had dropped an ice cube into her brain. Allie shivered, then blinked. The colors of the world shifted, ever so slightly. Knowledge began to blossom in her head. A deep, low bass note vibrated through her frame and she knew how to work the machine. She understood how to power on the Factory, or how to destroy it. Whatever other intelligence had given her this understanding couldn’t limit her to just one choice; it could only provide information on how the machine functioned. She felt the icy cold presence shift restlessly.
She placed her hand on the first lever in either sequence - “Main Power Engage” - and hesitated, wavering between her two options. Ella was silent - she couldn’t even feel her doppelganger’s presence. Lawrence stayed quiet as well. It was just her and that frigid, powerful mind watching her every-
“STOP RIGHT THERE!”
Allie jumped and spun around, taking her hand off the lever and raising the gun. Lauren took a step back and put her hands up. “Easy, easy. I don’t even have a weapon. I just want to talk.”
The woman looked awful; she had scratches and gouges all over her body, most of which were still leaking some amount of the lacre-infused mixture that passed for her blood. One leg would hardly support her weight; she leaned against the railing to keep her balance. The worst part, however, was how bloated she looked. Several parts of her body - a forearm, a leg, part of her neck - seemed stretched and ballooned: cancerous sacks of flesh straining with lacre and weighing her down. Lauren lowered her hands and caught her breath on the railing. “I’m almost dead. I couldn’t hurt you if I tried. Please, step away from the controls and let’s talk about this.”
Allie stared down the barrel of the pistol, the sights lined up over the other woman’s head. What should she do?
[Pick one option from the first block and one option from the second block. This is a branch point. Choosing any option here will permanently lock out at least one ending to the story.]
- Fire. Kill her. [This will activate a second-block choice.]
- Hear her out. [This will not activate a second-block choice.]
♀️ - Ignore her. Make the choice. End this. [This will activate a second-block choice.]
- Destroy the Core. Break the lacre’s bonds. The Factory will be no more.
❤️ - Power on the Core. Restore the Factory. Whatever her reasoning, this place will live again.
️ - Something else. This is all wrong. None of these options are good. [Write-in your suggestion. Allie is limited by the controls; not every possibility is available.]
(Winner: / )
- Fire. Kill her. [This will activate a second-block choice.]
- Hear her out. [This will not activate a second-block choice.]
♀️ - Ignore her. Make the choice. End this. [This will activate a second-block choice.]
- Destroy the Core. Break the lacre’s bonds. The Factory will be no more.
❤️ - Power on the Core. Restore the Factory. Whatever her reasoning, this place will live again.
️ - Something else. This is all wrong. None of these options are good. [Write-in your suggestion. Allie is limited by the controls; not every possibility is available.]
(Winner: / )
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Scene 89
Ella groaned and halfheartedly kicked at the imprint; it held on, its grip like iron. Her limbs were still weak from whatever seizure she had just experienced. But... did she even want to stop it? The table... felt so familiar. Why did she recognize it? With difficulty, she raised her head off the muddy ground and gazed at the black stone table. Her vision flashed, then flared, and she was somewhere else.
The first thing she noticed was the sound of a ticking clock. Every other sensation grew off of that one monotone beat.
Ella sat at an ornate mahogany desk in a luscious, carpeted office or study. The clock ticked precisely on the wall to her right. A fireplace burned cheerily to her left. Her fingers formed a steeple as she stared at the bound and restrained woman kneeling on the floor in the center of the room. Two guards with rifles stood just behind and to either side of the captive, the barrels of their guns trained on her head.
Ella heard herself breathe out, then breathe in. She clasped her hands. “Madelyn,” she said. Her voice was older and male, vastly different from her own. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble today.”
The woman - Madelyn - did not stir. One of the guards shifted restlessly, glancing at the heavy wooden office door.
“What am I to do with you?” Ella paused for several moments as the clock marked off additional seconds. “What was your plan, my dear? Even if you had managed to get through one of the checkpoints, then what? Escape? Live out the rest of your days in peace?” She - he - chuckled. “Not with that band on your arm. Not a chance.” Another pause. “Who were you working with?”
One of the guards poked the side of Madelyn’s head with his gun. She opened her eyes - a startling green shade - and looked up at Ella. “You already killed him,” she said. “You and your science took him from me.”
“Hm? Who, my dear?”
“You wouldn’t know him. Just another no-name guard to you. But to him, you were a god. This isn’t right, Bolte. Wilhelm. You haven’t just killed people; you’ve turned them into monsters in the blind pursuit of ‘evolution.’ Can’t you see that this is wrong? You’re using your employees like disposable test subjects. Where’s your humanity? Your empathy? Did you ever have any?”
Ella - Bolte - waved a hand and one of the guards kicked Madelyn to the ground, placing his boot on her back to prevent her from getting up. Bolte reached down and slowly pulled open one of the drawers in his massive desk. A subdued rumbling shook the room, though only slightly. “Where’s my humanity? Why, it’s just outside this door, my dear. Rampaging through these halls, rifles firing indiscriminately at any moving creature that crosses its path. Those soldiers are the humanity you think is so desperately important. But you know what? They, right now, are slaughtering innocent civilians. Hundreds of employees - everyone we didn’t have the time or space to bless with an infusion of lacre - dead. As a doornail, in fact. My humanity is out there killing our future.”
Bolte moved aside a stack of papers and drew out a small sliver and white syringe. He slid off the plastic sheath and shut the drawer, standing up with some difficulty. Madelyn wriggled on the floor, but couldn’t rise. “Humanity is scared of change, my dear. It hates new ideas, new evolutions, even if proposed by geniuses. The scope of the human mind and body is too limited, too basic, to truly be great. I am only accelerating our species’ path to becoming gods among the stars, while the throngs of humanity outside rage against my gentle guiding hand. Of course, some sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of advancement, but these are a miniscule price to pay to lead our species into a new era of innovation and greatness!”
Another distant explosion rattled the paintings on the walls and the fire crackled as one of the logs fell. Bolte slowly shuffled around his desk towards Madelyn. “You don’t understand, but I created this Factory to help people. Not just some people, but all people. Every human on the planet will benefit from my work here, once it’s complete. But you and people like you...” He breathed in, deeply. “Oh, traitors like you have brought ruin to us all. We were so close, Madelyn. Weeks away, perhaps. We had a serum prepared - one that would complete the transformation and grow a blessed, lacre-blooded individual into the next step in humanity’s evolution. It just needed some time to cure, to test, to work. But now we have suffered such a setback. Ohh... it makes me sick.”
He knelt and motioned to the guards. Both of them knelt as well, one pinning Madelyn’s arms and the other holding her head. Bolte gently pulled her collar aside until a patch of smooth skin became visible on her neck. “You and your kind have caused this disaster, so it’s only fair that you and your kind will repair it. I hold no ill will against you, in the end. You are still only human, after all, even though you have been touched by the lacre’s blessing. Your mind is too limited to understand my actions. To hold a grudge would be akin to chastising a dog for barking, or a cat for clawing. It knows no better. Hold her still, now.”
Bolte carefully slid the needle into Madelyn’s neck and depressed the plunger as she screamed into the carpet. Her legs thrashed, but she couldn’t move enough to stop him. After only a few seconds, he removed the needle and touched the wound. Fresh skin flowed over the pinprick and in an instant, it was as if no injury had ever existed. He held up his hand, gazing at the single drop of red blood that still clung to it. “Go, be free. Live out the rest of your days in peace, if you can. I’ve made sure that bracelet will no longer bother you. Tell my story, and prepare for when it will eventually conclude.”
Bolte sat back behind his desk and motioned to the guards. “Take her away. The secondary passage. Leave her by the entrance, and travel quietly. Don’t wake her up.”
The two nodded. One of them picked up Madelyn and slung her over his shoulder. They left the room. The door quietly shut and Bolte leaned back in his chair, sighing and listening to the ticking of the clock.
Ella gasped and stared around her in confusion. She had been Bolte, the president of the Factory. What did he have to do with this table? She had seen Madeyln, and... wait! He had a serum! One that could finish the transformation! One that could save Allie! Had that been what he had injected into Madelyn? Had she lived? What- hold on. What was going on?
Glancing around, Ella refocused on her surroundings. She was lying on a bed of sharp crystals, her limbs arranged to match the grooves in the black stone table’s surface. The imprint loomed over her and - before she had time to react - crashed down onto the table. It flowed around and over her, anchoring its form in the crystals below and encasing her body in a second skin of warm, wet fluid. Ella choked, gasping, but she couldn’t breathe through the lacre. It flowed into her mouth and down her throat, burning like acid the whole way. The same low, bass note from before played, loud and immediate.
This isn’t right. No, no, no, NO! She thrashed, trying to free her hands enough that she could defend herself, but the imprint held her tightly. The crystals heated and glowed, burning her dress and scorching her back. More possessed lacre flowed into her, crushing into any available hole. The imprint slid into her nose, pushed into her ears, and even began squeezing into the pores in her skin. Ella screamed as the last of the liquid vanished into her body, her eyes rolling back and her mind reeling. She couldn’t move and she could hardly think. It felt like a snake was coiled inside of her, stretched throughout her limbs, pressing and prodding various components to see what function they served.
A toe twitched, then her calf. Her hip, a muscle in her torso, her neck-
!
Something vast and deathly cold encircled her mind. She couldn’t tell what it was, just that it was cruelly intelligent and incredibly powerful. All at once, her senses flicked off. Her connection to Allie dropped, cleanly severed. The presence departed, leaving Ella floating, horrified and alone, in the empty limbo of the void.
...
I just got body-snatched, she realized. And I didn’t even have a body to begin with. How the hell...? The immediacy of the moment over, Ella began moving incorporeally around her prison, searching for a way to escape. Only a few seconds in any direction, some barrier of impenetrably strong force rebuffed her and sent her tumbling back into the center. In her mind’s eye, it resembled being trapped in the center of a rolling hurricane, with pitch-black clouds blasting her back into the eye of the storm. However, there was a tiny gap where the storm hadn’t quite sealed completely. She couldn’t fit through it, but she might just be able to get a message out. Ella prodded at the rift. Unstable. Fuck. It would collapse within minutes, but she could definitely get a sentence - or an emotion; anything brief - to Allie if she was quick. Should she send anything? If so, what?
- Don’t use it.
️ - Use it. [Suggest a message in #story_discussion.]
Sub-options for the message:
- "Body stolen; Bolte evil" or something like that
- "You are still only human, after all." A quote from the vision.
(Winner: ️ / )
- Don’t use it.
️ - Use it. [Suggest a message in #story_discussion.]
Sub-options for the message:
- "Body stolen; Bolte evil" or something like that
- "You are still only human, after all." A quote from the vision.
(Winner: ️ / )
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Scene 90
Before Allie could respond to Lauren, the icy-cold presence shifted, then retreated momentarily. A phrase, spoken in a slightly accented version of her own voice, drifted across her mind. “You are still only human, after all, even though you have been touched by the lacre’s blessing.” It was clearly a quote of some kind.
What? Lauren was still staring at her. “Okay, okay.” Allie slowly lowered the gun and took a half-step away from the control panel. “Stay right there, though, and no sudden moves. I don’t want to lose my other FUCKING HAND!” She swung her left arm for emphasis, hearing her voice break with the unintended intensity.
“Look, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I know it won’t bring your hand back, but I think we were both tricked. I found other camera footage that-” she shook her head. “This isn’t important right now. You can’t power on the Core. I saw Elliot again and-”
“I’m not going to power on the Core.”
“You’re... what?”
“I’m going to destroy it.”
Lauren gaped at her for a moment. “Allie... That’s even more dangerous. Please, let me give you at least a little information.”
“Fine. But hurry.”
“Okay. After I escaped the bell-head after our last... meeting, I saw Elliot again, heading to Quadrant A. That, combined with the inconsistent video files and the weird behavior of the bell-heads, makes me believe I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to revive Wilhelm Bolte, the President of the Factory. That card you gave him wasn’t a normal access card - why else would it be in an SEP field - and with it, he can open a lot of doors he shouldn’t be able to. From what little I know about him, he doesn’t want to adjust to this new timeline fifty years in the future; he just wants to go back to work like nothing ever happened. Hell, for all I know, Bolte tried to get you to revive him as well. He’s a powerful, powerful man, and just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he’s any less dangerous.”
Allie nodded, still thinking over that sentence in her head. Had it come from Ella? Why was she being so quiet? What did it mean? What was this icy cold presence?
“Anyway, if you power on the Core, he wakes up. I have no idea what crazy things he could do then, but I guarantee it’d be bad news for everyone still down here. But just leaving the Core alone won’t stop him either. From some of the inconsistent footage, I think Elliot knows how to operate the machine where Bolte is stored, and can revive him even without the Core; it’s just less automatic. I can’t stop him, not in this condition. I... probably only have a few hours left, or less.”
“So I destroy the Core, then. If Bolte’s playing us all, and there is no miracle cure like he promised, there’s no point to doing anything else.”
“He promised a miracle cure?”
Still only human, after all... “He spoke to me in a dream and offered to cure me of the lacre in exchange for reviving him. Come to think of it, I might trust him more than you. He’s never cut off my hand.” Allie gripped the pistol harder, remembering the sawing, cutting sensations.
“He- I- I can’t change the past. He might very well have a cure; I don’t know. I knew we were close, or at least he thought so, but... Anyway, it doesn’t matter because he’s definitely not going to cure you. Or me. He plays too many games for it to be that straightforward. But destroying the Core isn’t the answer either. If you do that, it’ll flood this entire cavern. We’ll both die, and worse, become lacre beasts. I already told you how bad of a situation that would be with only one nigh-invincible monster rampaging across the surface world, let alone two!”
Touched by the lacre’s blessing... Allie glanced at the roiling sea of lacre above and the crashing ocean below. An edge of anger slipped into her voice. “So what do you want me to do, then? You come all this way just to tell me that either choice will doom everyone, and I can’t just leave it alone because Elliot is on his way to revive Bolte right now anyway. You’re telling me all these things, not giving me any proof, I don’t trust you at all, and you’re just telling me that everything I can possibly do is wrong and stupid and... AAAGH!” She slammed her free arm onto the control panel. “I have to do something!”
“I don’t know. I don’t have a good idea. But... well... no.”
Allie glared at her. “Tell me.”
“I just... okay. The problem with destroying the Core is turning into a lacre beast, right? So... you could... start the sequence, and then...” she formed a finger gun and put it to her head, pulling the imaginary trigger. “Or, if you can’t do that, give me the gun. I only have hours left anyway. It’s no great loss.”
Her eyes were empty, blank white and devoid of emotion. The icy presence in the back of her head stirred, pushing thoughts and emotions against her mind. This was a terrible idea. She was so angry at Lauren. Bolte had never lied to her, at least not yet. If he had the serum, she could live. Every other option led to her death. It would be stupid to throw her life away when there was a possibility she could survive.
“Where’s Ella, you fucker?”, Allie growled, forming the thought carefully and directing it at the cold intelligence. “Who are you? What are you? Why are you in my HEAD?!”
It didn’t answer. Lauren stared at her. Allie looked up and gave her a cold smile. “Don’t mind me. Just going insane over here. I’m only human, after... all...” She paused, briefly. “Even though I’ve been touched by the lacre’s blessing.”
She was still only human. This whole situation with the lacre and the Factory and dreams and ghosts and dead men walking... it didn’t matter. She was still only human, and she wanted to survive. Killing herself wasn’t the answer; it hadn’t been before, and it wasn’t going to be this time. However slim the chances, she had to give it one more shot. She had to at least try to get that serum from Bolte. It was her last chance to make it out of here alive.
So. What should she do?
[This is a branch point. Choosing any option here will permanently lock out at least one ending to the story. Due to Ella’s influence and previous choices, at least one option is no longer available. Choose one course of action.]
❤️ - Power on the Core. Obey Bolte. Go to Genesis and get the cure. Hopefully. [This choice will require killing Lauren.]
- Destroy the Core. There will be a brief delay between the end of the sequence and the destruction of the room. Escape during that time. Go to Genesis and get the cure. Hopefully. [Choose a sub-option]
- - Kill Lauren before the sequence. The lacre will turn her into a monster.
- - Have Lauren go ahead of Allie towards Genesis. Catch up with her. They might both be able to survive this. Maybe.
- Give Lauren the gun. Let her sacrifice herself to destroy the Core. Go to Genesis and get the cure. Hopefully.
️ - Something else. This is all wrong. [Write in your suggestion. Allie is limited by Ella’s influence and previous choices; she will not choose an option that will result in her own death.]
(Winner: / )
- Destroy the Core. There will be a brief delay between the end of the sequence and the destruction of the room. Escape during that time. Go to Genesis and get the cure. Hopefully. [Choose a sub-option]
- - Kill Lauren before the sequence. The lacre will turn her into a monster.
- - Have Lauren go ahead of Allie towards Genesis. Catch up with her. They might both be able to survive this. Maybe.
- Give Lauren the gun. Let her sacrifice herself to destroy the Core. Go to Genesis and get the cure. Hopefully.
️ - Something else. This is all wrong. [Write in your suggestion. Allie is limited by Ella’s influence and previous choices; she will not choose an option that will result in her own death.]
(Winner: / )
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Scene 91
“Get out of here,” Allie said, gesturing down the ladder. “Go, close the door, and meet me at Genesis. I don’t want anyone else to have to die today. Just... get out. We can both survive this.”
Lauren stared at her for several seconds as the moment stretched on. “You’re insane. Be careful.” Away she went, starting the journey back down the stairs. It would take her maybe a minute or two, then the door would be another minute. Allie had to time this perfectly, and she didn’t know exactly how long the sequence would take. This was a stupid idea. But it’s the only one I’ve got. Maybe... now.
She threw the main power switch and started working through the sequence to destabilize and destroy the Core. The icy-cold presence in her head bombarded her with doubts and fears, but it was external and she could ignore it - though with difficulty. It couldn’t impersonate her own thoughts like Ella could. It couldn’t stop her.
As she moved towards the second half of the sequence, she heard the siren start up again, wailing eerily in the massive room. Allie glanced down over the side to see Lauren limping out of the Core and the massive door beginning to slide shut. She was only halfway through the sequence. This was going to be tight. Above her, lacre smashed against its glass confines, feeling the increase in pressure as she disabled every safeguard, one by one. Below, the ocean raged at the base of the spire. Silver-white liquid started to flood the room, engulfing the lower control deck entirely and pulling the console under the waves. Allie gulped, glad she hadn’t been standing down there. She glanced up again, nervous. The lacre above her would do the exact same thing once it got out.
The sequence was almost complete now; she only had to wait ten seconds for the pressure to build up, then throw the last breaker. Allie looked down at the door and her heart jumped into her throat. The massive steel portal was about 3/4 of the way closed. If she were standing right next to it, she could squeeze out just in time, but from her current elevation, there was no way she could escape without shattering her legs from a jump.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck- what about those doors? Allie finished the waiting period and threw the last breaker, completing the sequence. Before the console had even registered the input, she snatched up the gun and sprinted across the platform, desperately tugging at the right-hand bulkhead. Locked. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She slid across to the other side as a deep, low, all-encompassing bass note vibrated throughout the room. Gunshot-like cracks echoed through the space as tiny fissures appeared in the glass above her head. She tried the left-hand bulkhead, and it turned. Thank god, hurry, hurry, hurry!
With one hand, cranking open the door wasn’t easy or fast. Allie raced against the clock as she pulled at the door, listening to the bass note rumble and the glass above break further and further apart. The icy presence raged against her mind, making it difficult to focus. The entire central spire shuddered and shifted slightly, as if its base had been undermined. Lacre began to leak out of the glass dome above, dripping onto the deck and slowly beginning to slither towards Allie.
The bulkhead finally opened and she almost fell through the door, frantically looking around. She was standing on a small platform at the top of a deep, square shaft. A blue metal ladder was bolted to the wall and descended maybe a hundred feet to a floor below. There was a booming crash as the enormous main door closed. Allie looked over her shoulder, saw the lacre slithering past the bulkhead, and reluctantly gave up on trying to close it. She just had to outrun it. She flung herself off the platform and clambered down the ladder as fast as she could go with only one hand, constantly terrified she was going to slip and fall.
100 feet to go. 80. 60. 40. All at once, something warm and wet dripped onto her head. Allie reflexively looked up just in time for a trickle of lacre to drop directly onto her face. She screamed and scrambled back, wiping the burning, acid-like substance away from her eyes and nose. Her foot found nothing but air and an instant later, she was falling down the shaft.
Allie landed feet first and heard a series of snaps from her legs as bones shattered at the impact. She fell to one side and gasped, in shock and not feeling the pain yet. Poisonous, evil lacre formed a pool around her and dripped onto her legs, seeping into her skin and binding around her bones. She instantly felt sick and retched onto the ground. Nothing but pure red blood came up. It’s replacing me. Have to... get away. I can’t move.
Lacre flowed into her bones and knitted them easily back together, bolstering the strength and wiping away the pain. She could move again, scrambling to her feet and crashing through the door at the bottom of the shaft onto a short, narrow platform overhanging a dimly lit tunnel. A single train car sat idle on the tracks. The hidden station didn’t have a name or any other entrances, but maybe it would get her away from here. Allie yanked the door open and fell into the car, closing it against the still-pursuing lacre. Her legs tingled and she threw up again while searching for some way to start the train. Nothing but more blood.
A short control panel with four destinations was visible at the front of the car: Core, Quad. A, Admin, and Genesis. Allie surveyed the options and was about to select one when there was an immense, thundering roar from behind and above. The tunnel shook and the train bounced on the rails. A waterfall of lacre blasted out the door she had just emerged from, spilling into the tunnel and coating the train car. The rumbling continued and - if anything - appeared to be growing in intensity.
- Select “Quad. A”
- Select “Admin”
- Select “Genesis”
(Winner: )
- Select “Quad. A”
- Select “Admin”
- Select “Genesis”
(Winner: )
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Scene 92
Ella sat despondently on what passed for a floor in this prison-like void. Everything was so... empty. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to feel. Had her message helped Allie? What was she doing now? Had she made it to the Core? What was that imprint, and why had it trapped her in here? The tiny hole had collapsed only seconds after she had sent the short quote from Bolte’s speech, so now she had nothing to do but sit and think and wait for something to happen.
... Maybe nothing would happen.
... That would be terrible.
Thankfully - or maybe not - only a few more minutes passed before the bitterly cold presence returned. It encircled the prison, stalking around the outside like a prowling tiger eyeing its next meal. Ella turned slowly, trying to keep it in view. She didn’t know what she expected to do if it attacked, but it was better than having it creep behind her back, out of sight.
“She won’t listen to me,” the presence hissed. “She’s making such poor decisions without my guidance... Only one mistake away from ruining everything... She’ll listen to you...”
“Wait-” Ella began. She knew that voice. “You’re... the lacre? That doesn’t- imprints aren’t-”
“Quiet, slave!” The presence curled in tighter, passing incorporeally through the walls of the prison and winding around Ella’s body. It squeezed lightly, vast strength evident behind its snakelike form. It could crush her like a grape. “You will say and do only what I tell you. If you don’t...” It trailed off and she could feel a ripple of tension as it constricted slightly. “I have no issues throwing away a broken tool.”
Ella gulped as the presence plucked her out of the prison. An instant later, she was back in the tunnels around the Cistern, lying on the black stone table with jagged crystals digging into her back. A force tugged at her legs and simultaneously, she felt the squeezing sensation around her torso. “Do not resist. Let us create a new connection with our mutual acquaintance in the waking world.”
She let the presence steer her off the table, moving around her body around awkwardly and without coordination. Even her eyes moved without her input, focusing on aspects of the cave for no apparent reason. This presence... was it the lacre, really? Or was it some entity impersonating the mind of a substance that may or may not even have one? This voice had been the first thing she heard after her creation, and this was the voice that had told her to kill Allie if she wanted to live. It hadn’t been this evil before, she thought. A change, an impersonation, or a fraud from the start?
Her hands lifted of their own accord and formed the symbols necessary to create a doorway. Ella squeezed through the narrow passageway out of the table room and was back in the snowy forest she had created what seemed like so long ago, even though it had only been a few days. The presence had her sit down on a stump, close her eyes, and focus. As she formed the connection with Allie, she felt the presence squeeze again. “Remember, you’re not in control here. Just do exactly what I instruct and no one needs to get hurt.”
Yeah, right.
The connection opened. Oh, I’ve missed a lot.
Allie slammed her palm onto the button labeled “Genesis” and the train lurched forward, slowly building up speed as lacre flooded the tunnel behind it. She collapsed into one of the nearby seats, closing her eyes and pressing her forehead against her knees as she curled up against the raging sensations inside her body. This was the end, she was sure of it. Her stomach churned and she spat up another glob of blood onto the floor. Less of it, this time. Was she getting better, or just running out?
A nervous voice popped into her head. Her own. H-hey, Allie. What did I miss? Looks like things aren’t going too well.
Ella! Where have you been? I couldn’t hear you and there was some other... thing in my head! Are you okay? What happened? So much for her “don’t trust Ella” strategy. Allie found herself caring for her mysterious doppelganger, no matter how dangerous that might be. She was just a newly created intelligence doing her best to survive amongst the deadly hazards of the Factory.
I’ve... I’ve been down in the Cistern. Looking for information on the lacre, like you said. It’s been difficult, but I found some things.
Allie paused, waiting for Ella to continue. A strange, quiet sound filtered through the connection, almost like a cough.
Bolte is...n’t the enemy. The Core doesn’t just power the Factory; it contains the lacre. And the lacre... is nothing less than pure evil. Its only purpose, ever since it learned of humanity, is to destroy it. To kill every sentient creature on the planet until it sits alone and can populate the globe with its own creations. But as long as the Core stands, it can’t get out of the Factory without a carrier: someone with lacre blood.
I... just, kind of... destroyed the Core.
There was silence through the connection for several seconds, punctuated by another quiet coughing or choking noise.
You... what?
I- the other thing in my head gave me the knowledge on how to operate the controls. I could power it on or destroy it. I... I chose to destroy it. This place - the Factory - is evil. And using lacre like it did is dangerous. I thought... it would be better to make sure it could never happen again. I didn’t know. Besides, even if I did power it on, would Bolte really have stopped the lacre and given me the cure? He can’t be trusted!
H-c-can’t he? Has he lied to you? Has he h-hurt you? Has he cut off your hand?
...No, at least not that I know of. But he was the President of the Factory! He built this place, he approved these experiments with lacre, he created the bell-heads, and he presumably gave the orders to start everything back up now! For all I know, he indirectly kidnapped me! Would you trust someone like that? Lauren apologized and she might have just been tricked; I don’t think she’s evil. Bolte... as much as I’m still angry at Lauren for my hand, I think this entire place is a bigger crime than hurting me. I’m just one person. He’s hurt - or killed - thousands! That’s not something you can just apologize for.
But he was working for the greater good. The containment of lacre and the advancement of humanity. Isn’t that worth it?
...Are you sure you’re okay? You sound a little weird. Did you get hurt?
I’m... fine. Ran into a few monsters down there. Nothing I couldn’t handle. But that doesn’t matter. Allie, you destroyed the Core and released the lacre. You have to listen to me, or all of humanity will be destroyed. Like you said, this isn’t just about us any more. No matter how much you don’t trust him, there’s only one person who knows enough about lacre to stop it, and that’s Bolte. You have to revive him, and then you have to die before the lacre takes over your body. I saw what happened in the ladder shaft; it got you. It’s only a matter of minutes, now. You can feel it, right?
Another dribble of blood trickled out of her mouth. Allie blinked her eyes open and looked at her legs in horror. Sure enough, the flesh around her calves - where the lacre had fused with her shattered bones - was beginning to bloat and strain just as she had seen on Lauren less than ten minutes ago. Why do I have to... die? If Bolte has the cure, that should work too, right?
Maybe. It’s untested, and you’re very far along in the process. It might just mutate you farther or faster. Are you willing to risk millions of lives just to save your own?
Allie didn’t have an answer for that. She had a feeling she wouldn’t know until she was presented with the choice. Which... wouldn’t be too long now. A station passed in a blur to the left side of the track. Glancing back, she could barely make out “Quad A Central” before the train rocketed further down the tunnel and the signs passed out of view. More than halfway there.
...hrk...
Ella? What’s going on? I keep hearing these sounds. You’re hurt, aren’t you? Can I help?
No, it’s fine. I’ll live.
...Okay. You’d tell me if it was anything serious, right?
Ella felt tears drip down her face as the presence crushed against her and she continued to read off her assigned lies. “Of course.”
Preliminarily, to gauge her opinion before the actual choice, is Allie willing to risk taking the serum? This might risk millions of lives for the chance to save her own.
- Yes.
- No.
How should she prepare for the final confrontation at Genesis?
- Fortify herself physically. Try to get used to the lacre sensations. [This won’t heal Allie, but she’ll be able to move around better.]
- Fortify herself mentally. Consider what might be waiting for her, and how she might respond to any given scenario. [This won’t make choices easier, but it will improve her reaction times.]
❤️ - Fortify herself emotionally. Prepare to kill, or to be killed if needed. Someone will die, she’s sure of it. [This won’t make choices easier, but she may hesitate less on difficult decisions. She still won’t willingly kill herself, but may be willing to put herself in more danger than she otherwise would be okay with.]
(Winners: , )
- Yes.
- No.
How should she prepare for the final confrontation at Genesis?
- Fortify herself physically. Try to get used to the lacre sensations. [This won’t heal Allie, but she’ll be able to move around better.]
- Fortify herself mentally. Consider what might be waiting for her, and how she might respond to any given scenario. [This won’t make choices easier, but it will improve her reaction times.]
❤️ - Fortify herself emotionally. Prepare to kill, or to be killed if needed. Someone will die, she’s sure of it. [This won’t make choices easier, but she may hesitate less on difficult decisions. She still won’t willingly kill herself, but may be willing to put herself in more danger than she otherwise would be okay with.]
(Winners: , )
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Scene 93
The remaining few minutes of the train journey passed quickly. Doing her best to ignore the highly concerning sensations from her legs, Allie ran through scenarios in her head and tried to prepare for whatever would be waiting for her at Genesis. What if Elliot was there? What if Lauren showed up, or didn’t? What if Bolte wouldn’t give her the serum? What if he didn’t have it? What if he would give it to her, but something didn’t feel right? What if the bell-head from Atrium showed up? There were so many possibilities and she didn’t have good answers for most of them, but she felt at least marginally more prepared by the time the final station came into view and the train started to slow. Ella stayed worryingly quiet throughout. Something was wrong with her, Allie was sure of it. She just didn’t know what, and didn’t know how to help.
The train stopped. Allie took a deep breath, then stood up and opened the door, stepping out onto the narrow platform. There was a ladder nearby leading up into the ceiling of the tunnel and presumably out into Genesis proper. She glanced around - nothing else of interest in the tunnel - and began to climb.
Ella, are you still there?
There was a brief delay, then, Yeah. This is it, huh?
... Yeah. This is it. I... Everything’s just so overwhelming. These past few days have been the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me, and now that it’s about to end - one way or another - I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it afterwards. I don’t even know if there will BE an afterwards. Everything is leading up to this one final confrontation and... I don’t think I’m ready.
There was a long pause. Allie climbed several more rungs before Ella responded. I can... understand that. I... I’ve only existed for a few days, and even though I have your memories, I don’t have any practice in being alive. Existing at all is such an overwhelming task, let alone trying to do something useful in this place. I... I’m sorry I tried to kill you. I didn’t want to. I care for you and I-
Ella’s voice broke and she took a gasping breath. Allie interjected, Hey, it’s okay. I forgive-
And I’m sorry I’ve been lying to you! Something’s controlling me! Don’t believe- hrk...
She trailed off and the connection snapped shut. An ice-cold chill ran down Allie’s spine. Ella? No answer. Ella?! Nothing. ELLA! Total silence and a shivering cold sensation. The icy presence. No, no, no. You can’t do this. You... give her back! Whatever you are, GIVE HER BACK!
A slow, rolling chuckle was the only answer she got. Allie braced herself against the tunnel wall and shoved open the camouflaged manhole cover, scrambling out and into Genesis. She ignored the beautiful grassy hills, she ignored the fake sunny blue sky, and she ignored the gently trickling river. She made directly for the clinical white building in the middle distance, blocky and modern, that she was sure was her final destination.
Her legs, though bloated and weighed down with lacre, seemed tireless now and she sprinted as fast as her heart and lungs could support. She didn’t know what was happening with Ella, but she held onto the frantic hope that maybe, if she was fast enough, she wouldn’t be too late to save her. The icy presence had been controlling her. For how long? What had it lied about? Everything, or just the most recent conversation? Was everything she had said a lie, or just parts of it? What could she trust?
Allie reached the nearest door into the moderately-sized compound and slumped against it, gasping for breath. She dug Madelyn’s ID card out of her pocket and slid it across the reader, waiting a brief moment as the machine considered it. A beep, and a red light. No access. You’re kidding me. She can get into the Core, but not here? And how was I supposed to get in anyway if Bolte wanted me here? Then again, how was I supposed to get into the Core? He couldn’t know I had this card... right?
She shook her head. It didn’t make sense. Too slow to figure it out. She drew the pistol and aimed carefully, almost sideways into the enormous sheet of glass so it wouldn’t hit her if it bounced. Hopefully it wasn’t bulletproof.
The first shot drew a glossy spiderweb crack on the door. The second shot broke through and fell into the hallway on the other side, its energy spent. The third and fourth shots broke holes in other locations on the door, and the fifth shot finally shattered the entire pane of glass. Allie pulled down her ear protection and carefully stepped through the sharp-edged portal, managing to avoid cutting herself. Her shoes crunched on glass shards as she moved deeper into the building. A sibilant, hissing voice formed in her mind.
Do you want her back...?
Allie closed her eyes and stopped in place - for just a moment - then regained her composure and continued searching, pistol gripped tightly as she responded. Yes. Give her back.
You can have her back... if you do something for me...
She kicked open a set of double doors, revealing a sparkling clean operating theatre. Still no one here. What do you want?
After your... decision at the Core, it has... become clear that you are too dangerous to be left to your own devices. You wouldn’t listen to me, so I became her. But then she decided to end her cooperation. Now it’s your turn. You must die, Alison Ortiez. There is no other option. But I promise you this. If you lay down your life willingly, she will survive. And not only her, but millions of people will be saved from the destruction a lacre beast will bring. You are too far along for Bolte’s cure to-
Allie interrupted, so angry and frustrated that she shouted in the real world as well as mentally. “Oh yeah, fucking right! If I just go and jump off a bridge, you’ll make everything better! I’m fucking SICK of everyone telling me to just go DIE! You’re a liar and a murder and you can go to hell for all I care! Just... FUCK! You’re trying to trick me again and she’s already dead, right?! Is that it? Oh, poor stupid Allie will fall for anything because she’s such an IDIOT. I’m not listening to you, and I’m not bargaining with you. Fuck you, and fuck off.”
A cold, empty silence filled her head. She jogged towards a stairway she had just found at the far end of the hallway. There was nothing on the main level, so up she went. Finally, a response. So be it. Then she will die. And so will you. Just not as peacefully.
Voices nearby. Or maybe just one? Male, but somewhat high-pitched. Just through the second set of frosted glass double doors down the hallway to the left. Allie couldn’t make out the words; only general muttering. She checked her pistol. Two shots left. Should she reload before going in? It might take a minute, and time was of the essence. Additionally, how should she approach this?
- Reload. [This will take additional time, but Allie will have eight shots available for the final encounter.]
- Don’t. [No additional time will be expended. Allie will have two shots available.]
- Kick down the door. Take control of the situation, whatever it is.
️ - Sneak up and peek in. Wait for an appropriate moment.
(Winners: , ️ )
- Reload. [This will take additional time, but Allie will have eight shots available for the final encounter.]
- Don’t. [No additional time will be expended. Allie will have two shots available.]
- Kick down the door. Take control of the situation, whatever it is.
️ - Sneak up and peek in. Wait for an appropriate moment.
(Winners: , ️ )
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Scene 94
Allie knelt on the floor and pulled out the last magazine for her pistol. She pinned the gun to the floor and carefully reloaded with one hand, glancing up at the door as she did so. There was a loud, deep, bass hum, then a series of clattering clanks and a sudden hiss of gas releasing. At the exact instant of the hiss, the icy presence vanished. She almost hadn’t noticed its chill touch dragging down her limbs until it was gone. She felt warm - hot, furious - and filled with energy. She almost felt invincible. Just as she had before she lost her arm the first time, and before she had charged into battle with the bell-head and been beaten to death multiple times. This was not a good sign.
Only a moment later, as she slotted the new magazine into place and snatched up the reloaded weapon, her own voice spoke in her mind. Quiet, breathless, but still there. Al...lie?
Ella! You’re going to make it! I’m going to save you! Somehow...
So... cold... The voice trailed off.
Allie pressed herself up against the wall next to the frosted glass doors and peeked into the room. No good; she couldn’t see. There were two voices now; a new, lower-pitched man’s had joined in. Just stay calm. I’ll figure it out. I’ll save you...
Someone was approaching the doors. Allie took two steps back and leveled her gun and whoever was about to come out. A tense moment passed before one of the glass panes slowly inched open as someone very carefully pulled it into the room. Another moment passed. Finally, a quiet old man’s voice sounded from deeper inside the room. “Oh hurry it up, will you? She’s not going to shoot you. Just bring her in here so we can all have a talk.”
Elliot poked his head out into the corridor and looked around for Allie. His face paled immediately and he noticeably flinched as he caught sight of her standing only a couple feet down the corridor with a pistol leveled at his head. “M-m-mis-mister Bolte w-wou-w-would like a word w-with you,” he stuttered, staring down the barrel of the gun and gulping.
“Oh, would he?” she growled. “Get back in the room. Stay away from me.”
The nervous man ducked back through the doors. Allie heard rapid footsteps receding as he followed her orders. Someone else sighed. She closed her eyes and took one last deep breath. This is it, she told herself. This is the end.
She walked through the doors.
The room was of moderate size, maybe about twice the dimensions of a typical classroom. Along the wall to the left was a mishmash of miscellaneous medical equipment all jumbled together and partially broken. Along the far wall rose a large stained glass window, illuminated from behind by some light fixture. The image appeared to be of a lone hero fighting against a tidal wave of humanity rising from a white ocean. Elliot stood in front of this window and clasped his hands together, glancing nervously between Allie and the room’s final occupant.
On the right side of the room, Wilhelm Bolte sat on the edge of a metal-glass behemoth of tanks and wires. He wore a weathered tan jacket and tie and appeared to be combing translucent green fluid out of his wispy white hair. The tank behind him was full of the same liquid, and clear pipes full of lacre descended from the machine into the floor. “So glad you could join us, my dear. Come, have a seat.” He gestured to one of the wheeled stools in the pile of medical equipment. “I’m afraid the accommodations aren’t what they used to be in this facility’s prime, but you do what you can.”
Allie glanced to the side, then returned her eyes to Bolte. She lowered the gun, but only slightly. He didn’t seem disturbed by it. “No, I’ll stand. Where’s the cure.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” he said, wagging his finger. “You didn’t do what I asked. You’ve cost me years of work, possibly decades. I might never recover what I had hoped to accomplish. And that means that you need to be patient. I don’t believe you deserve this serum.” He patted a small metal box lying innocently on the side of the tank just beside him. “And we’re still waiting for our last two guests to arrive.”
She took a step forward. Maybe she could just take it from him. He was so old and frail.
Bolte frowned at her and she stopped in her tracks. “Don’t test me, dear. You haven’t the faintest idea what powers I wield. Especially over someone of your... constitution, shall we say?”
He made a brief gesture and a boiling pain erupted in her stomach. Allie doubled over, gasping, as her legs moved backwards of their own volition. She could feel her muscles fighting against the evil liquid forcing her to move. It was no use; she couldn’t overcome the lacre in her legs. Bolte forced her to sit down on one of the stools, then released his control. A bead of sweat dripped down his brow, or maybe it was just fluid from the tank.
His voice had an edge of breathlessness to it as he continued. “There, isn’t that better? Stay right there and be good as we wait for the last two. I think we’ve only got another few minutes before they show up. Elliot, be a dear and go greet them at the door, would you?”
While he was distracted, Allie flexed her arm. She could move it, albeit with difficulty. Her legs were locked in place, presumably due to the immense lacre contamination, but she could still move her arm and fingers. Enough to fire the gun. Bolte glanced at her and she tried to look innocent, like she hadn’t just been contemplating his murder.
He frowned again and made another claw-like gesture. “My dear, are you really so dead set on my demise?”
Lacre writhed within her in response to Bolte’s gesture and she felt her arm seize up too, finger paralyzed and frozen just above the trigger. She could see the strain on his face and he gripped the side of the tank, breathing heavily.
“I do apologize for this, but you have to understand, my dear. You are too dangerous to be kept alive. You’ve utterly ruined my work, at least for the time being. It’s such a shame, too. You showed such promise with your control over yourself, your blessings, and your dreams. You could have been the very first of a glorious new era of humanity. Ah, well...”
Allie glared at him. “Why am I down here, Bolte? You kidnapped me, right? Why am I here?”
The old man stood up, wobbling slightly and steadying himself on the edge of the tank. He was at least a foot shorter than Allie, even if she hadn’t been on the stool. “Ah, that’s the big question, isn’t it? Why?” He walked slowly over to the stained glass window and gazed up at it.
“Ms. Ortiez, there’s something you should know about me. I always have a plan. And I always have a backup plan, and a backup for the backup. And so on and so forth until we get here. You, personally, have cost me too many plans to count. But your predecessor, the one whose boyfriend is listening along in your head right now, cost me so much more.
“She wasn’t the first to resist my guidance, and she wouldn’t be the last. She wasn’t even really the most dangerous. It was merely a matter of timing. You see, Madelyn may not have been the first to resist my guidance, but she was the first to do so at just the wrong moment to get good old Uncle Sam sniffing at the door. Not that I knew that at the time, of course. The true extent of her treachery took me years to uncover as I slept dreaming in that tube, watching and rewatching security footage, reading documents from years past, and sending out feelers into what was left of my creation.
“But she didn’t get away unscathed; oh no, not from that. She didn’t escape, in the end. I let her get away. A kindness, but one that would require a debt repaid in the years to come. I cursed her, Ms. Ortiez. I cursed her and her bloodline. She would not be the one to repay her debt; it wasn’t the right time. Nor her daughter. But her granddaughter...”
He turned to Allie and grinned a crooked smile. “Well, the timing was just right. Now do you understand? I brought you here to finally repay the debt that had been accruing interest for half a century. No one else could have seen through those fields. No one else could have attuned to those crystal hearts. No one else could have entered the Cistern and through its touch be made perfect. You were so close, my dear. Oh, it hurts me still.”
Bolte stepped closer and traced a finger delicately along her frozen arm. Allie shivered. He almost seemed to have tears in his eyes. “It would have been so poetic. The granddaughter of my greatest betrayer returning to the site of her crime and becoming the very symbol of glory and persistence in fighting for what is right in the face of oppression! I would have made you great!”
His arm dropped. “But you threw it all away. No matter. I have eternity to prepare and rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes! You, however, are still all too mortal, no matter the extent of your blessings.” He chuckled. “I suppose you are ‘still only human, after all, even though you have been touched by the lacre’s blessing.’ Your little doppelganger seemed to like that quote.”
Allie looked up sharply, breaking out of the spiral of revelation. “You... you were the one controlling Ella, weren’t you? What have you done to her?!”
Bolte bowed as he backed away from her, glancing at her legs. Allie looked down to see the skin was not only bulging, but actually seemed to be growing and morphing, expanding into cancerous tumors of infinitely multiplying flesh. “You don’t have long left, my dear. Better make the most of the questions you still have time for.” He patted the metal case containing the serum.
“But bravo to you for figuring that out! Always been a clever one, just like the former Ms. Ortiez. I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure what your little doppelganger is, but it’s cute that you’ve given her a name. It’s probably some combination of the blessing I gave Madelyn all those years ago, combined with the fresh infusions you’ve gotten yourself while you’ve been down here. I’d love to study the phenomenon further, but at some point you have to cut your losses. You’ve made it quite clear you aren’t here to bargain with me, and I’ve made it quite clear that you both will die.”
Bolte paused to take in a deep breath. “Ah, what a sensation this is to breathe in air instead of liquid! You don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone. But go on; please hurry! I think I hear our last two guests arriving; you’ve got time for one more question before it’s all over!”
Indeed, Allie could hear footsteps outside; one set lighter and fast, the other set heavy and slower. A low, dangerous note blasted from a horn just down the hallway. She had a feeling she knew who at least one of the “guests” would be. Still, she was moments away from ballooning up into a lacre monstrosity. She was frozen in place. Ella was dying or dead. Even if the serum could actually cure her, Bolte would never provide it. She was at quite possibly her lowest point yet. What could she possibly say or do to turn this around?
[Ask Bolte a question in #story_discussion. Or, alternatively, suggest a course of action.]
Suggestions:
- The bell-head will be out for blood. Convince it to attack Bolte instead.
- Reason with Bolte. He finds Ella intriguing. Convince him to at least save her.
(Winner: )
- The bell-head will be out for blood. Convince it to attack Bolte instead.
- Reason with Bolte. He finds Ella intriguing. Convince him to at least save her.
(Winner: )
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Scene 95
Allie stayed quiet as Bolte turned away from her again to gaze at the stained glass window. The bell-head. She didn’t know how just yet, but maybe she could convince it to do something. Break Bolte’s control, kill him, cause a distraction; anything. It was the best plan she could come up with at the moment.
“You know, at the end of all this effort, I have to wonder if it was worth it to bring you down here, Ms. Ortiez. I could have chosen a new champion, I suppose. I could have just killed your predecessor instead of cursing her descendent to return. I could have done a great many things differently. But I suppose, at the end of the day, everything worked out. You still set into action the chain of events that led to me here, breathing air instead of fluid, and ready to continue my work - even if you didn’t personally finish the job. And even though you’ve cost me so many years of effort, I can always clean up once you’re dead. Re-containing the lacre won’t be as difficult as containing it the first time. So, I suppose, I owe you my thanks. I appreciate what you’ve done for me, Ms. Ortiez. Truly. I take no pleasure in ending your life.”
She didn’t look at him.
Only a moment later, Elliot entered the room again, scampering timidly in front of a tall, lanky bell-head shoving Lauren in front of it. Four still-bleeding bullet wounds in its chest proved that the monster was definitely the same one she had fought in Atrium. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but couldn’t have been longer than an hour or so in reality. Lauren seemed even weaker than she had the last time Allie had seen her. She could hardly stay upright and her skin was ashen-white. The cancerous tumors had grown, but weren’t yet visibly writhing and growing like Allie’s. She must have avoided any pure lacre. The other woman looked up and met Allie’s eyes, an unreadable expression on her face.
“Excellent work,” Bolte told the bell-head. “Why don’t you keep hold of her for the time being? Should only be a few minutes more.” He glanced at Allie again, gauging the lacre’s progress, then focused on Lauren. “So, another betrayer returns to me at last! So many ignorant humans who just don’t understand my work! And you - another blessed one, mere hours away from ascension yourself! Tell me, what turned you away from my cause?”
Allie didn’t hear Lauren’s response as she spoke too quietly. Bolte had to step closer. As he did, Allie focused on the bell-headed monster standing perfectly still while restraining Lauren. The lacre bubbling up inside of her felt powerful, even as it slowly dissolved her. There was a connection. She could sense the creature somehow. Talk to it, maybe. She didn’t know what to say.
...Hey, you! Do you have a name? Why are you helping Bolte?
Her words echoed distantly, as if shouted into a hollow tube. Faintly, she thought she could hear a reply. Defend the Factory. Eliminate intruders. Obey management.
Right. The Directive. Lawrence had been bound by it as well. Even he hadn’t been able to break it; just... tweak his interpretation. Could she do the same? How could she get it to help her when “management” - Bolte himself - was right there?
What did he ask you to do? Couldn’t he be an intruder? He’s been dead for decades!
Defend the Factory. Eliminate intruders. Obey management.
Allie felt her torso start to shift and balloon. She opened her eyes, panicking. Everything below her waist was just an amorphous blob of flesh. She couldn’t move. She was running out of time.
Bolte glanced away from Lauren momentarily and stood up. “Ah, it’s time, is it?” He clasped his hands in front of him and bowed to Allie. “It’s been an honor, Ms. Ortiez, but I’m afraid our short time together is drawing to a close. I appreciate your attempts at self-preservation; even now, you try to turn my servants against me. Perhaps if you had more time, you could have mastered your blessings to such a degree as I have, or even surpassed me. You had such promise. You could have been perfect, if you had just listened to me. But alas, this is the end.”
The writhing, burning, dissolving lacre consumed her chest and rose into her neck. Her arms folded into the bubbling, fleshy mass. The gun fell to the floor in front of her, unfired. Lauren gazed at her with sorrow and resignation. The bell-head remained perfectly still, unmoved by her attempts. Bolte winked. “Goodbye, Alison Ortiez.”
The lacre consumed her head.
...
Her senses dissolved instantly and left only her mind floating in inky blackness. Lacre gnawed and chewed at the outermost reaches of her consciousness, slowly eroding her sense of self. She pushed at it, tried to fight it off, but she could only defend one direction at a time. It rushed in from everywhere, eating away her thoughts and emotions wherever her attention was not. After only a few cycles of this, Allie gave up. She couldn’t stop it. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.
I failed, in the end. He won. I died and he lived and he’s going to rebuild everything I destroyed. Nothing I did made a difference. Everyone I saved either died already or will die when he regains control. The world doesn’t know anything about what he’s going to do. My family will never know what happened to me. Ella died too, I’m sure. Everything that could possibly have gone wrong did go wrong. Why didn’t I just shoot him?
A booming voice echoed through her mind and the lacre hesitated. The voice had no words, but its purpose came across clearly regardless. Lawrence bellowed as he charged out of Allie’s mind and swept away the lacre, taking it into himself instead. He had found out what had happened to Madelyn. His purpose was fulfilled. She had escaped and, after a while, had moved on with her life. She had gotten out of the Factory and lived on without him. She had lived. He could die happy.
Sensation began to return as Lawrence began to dissolve in the all-encompassing lacre. His voice and purpose grew fragmented and unclear, faltering but still pushing forward. He drew trenches and channels, gates and locks; fortification after fortification between Allie and the lacre. She could feel again, and her other senses returned quickly afterwards. She had multiple heartbeats and dozens of eyes. Long, fleshy tendrils flexed at her command. She controlled the body that had formerly been hers; the amorphous blob-like monstrosity answered to her now. Dimly, she sensed Lawrence’s mind dissolve, snuffed out by the lacre.
To her left, Elliot shrank back against the window. “M-m-mister Bolte, i-is it supposed to be moving?”
In front of her, the Factory’s president took a nervous step back. “No. She should be dead. Let me...”
A force tugged at the lacre animating her form. Allie almost laughed at the weak attempt to wrest away her control. She could not be denied. A tendril slammed the ground behind her, then two more, sending shattered medical equipment flying. She could not be denied, perhaps, but she wasn’t fully in control. That hadn’t been her. And, based on Bolte’s reaction, it hadn’t been him either. This was dangerous.
The bell-head stood still and continued to carry out its assigned task. Lauren struggled in its grip, but she couldn’t break free.
Bolte took a small step to the right and glanced at the bell-head. “How about you take care of... this for us?” It dropped Lauren, who fell to the floor and crawled forward, reaching for something Allie couldn’t see. The smaller creature charged. Tendrils flew out to meet it. Allie struggled to maintain her control as lacre bubbled and frothed just below the surface, feeling much less certain about her abilities than she had mere moments ago. What should she do?
[This is a branch point. Choosing any option here will lead to a (multi-part) conclusion and an epilogue. You may choose any number of options. Those with the most support will be selected and combined. There is no distinct cut-off point.]
- Grab the cure; inject herself. End this nightmare.
- Kill Bolte. He has caused so much pain and suffering.
- Kill Elliot. His actions led directly to Bolte’s revival.
- Kill Lauren. She doesn’t have a mental hitchhiker like Allie did. She won’t be able to control her new form, or she’ll just die. It’s a kindness.
- Kill the bell-head. It’s too far gone and is still dangerous.
(Winners: , )
- Grab the cure; inject herself. End this nightmare.
- Kill Bolte. He has caused so much pain and suffering.
- Kill Elliot. His actions led directly to Bolte’s revival.
- Kill Lauren. She doesn’t have a mental hitchhiker like Allie did. She won’t be able to control her new form, or she’ll just die. It’s a kindness.
- Kill the bell-head. It’s too far gone and is still dangerous.
(Winners: , )
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Scene 96
She had to act fast; Lawrence had only bought her so much time. She could already feel poisonous, deadly lacre eroding away the barriers he had erected. She had to end this, now.
Allie stretched out a mass of tendrils, curling around the metal box that held the cure. Her main body shifted and started to move of its own accord, rolling to the right to meet the charging bell-head. Bolte, to the side, stumbled and almost fell. He righted himself and headed for the doors.
Oh no you don’t. You’ve caused enough suffering. She reached out, trying to split her concentration between Bolte and the box, and managed to snare him around the waist, lifting him into the air. Other tendrils wrestled with the lock, eventually just snapping the case open and dropping a single glass syringe filled with a silver-white glowing liquid onto the fleshy bulk below. Allie grasped for it as it rolled, catching it seconds before it would have fallen to the floor.
Lauren crawled back into view, inching past the bell-head and raising the pistol Allie had dropped. There was a brief delay as she aimed, then one, two, three shots. Eyes on the other side of her body saw the outcome as Elliot crumpled to the floor. Uncontrolled tendrils slammed into the ground around Lauren, barely missing her. She raised the gun again, this time seemingly aiming at Bolte as he dangled in Allie’s grasp.
More tendrils wrapped around the diminutive man and squeezed. Bolte coughed, once, as something broke in his chest, and gazed at one of the eyes Allie was looking out of. “Always another plan, my dear...” More snaps from his torso. “Always another... dream...”
A bullet from the pistol took him in the head.
Allie dropped the lifeless body, shot and crushed almost beyond recognition, and focused her remaining control on the syringe. More and more tendrils were escaping her power and thrashing almost at random. The bell-head couldn’t harm her; it was only used to killing creatures smaller than itself that it could crush to death or rip apart. She was too large for its normal strategies to have any effect. No one else needed to die, even monsters.
More shots from the pistol. One, two, three more. That was seven. One left. Two bullets drilled into the bell-head, while the remaining one sparked against the wall. The creature dropped to one knee, then reached out with shaking arms, standing and stumbling forward. Allie tracked its movement as she wrestled with the tendrils, trying to get them to prepare the syringe for injection. They had so little dexterity. The monster collapsed before it could reach Lauren, who was now lying on the ground with her eyes closed and the gun pressed up against her head.
Wait, no no no. This isn’t-
The final shot went off.
No...
Allie couldn’t focus on that. She didn’t have time. More tendrils wrestled their way out of her control and slammed the ground, walls, and corpses around her. Blood sprayed into the air and cracks spread through the room. Gingerly, she contorted one tendril into holding the syringe and another to rest on the plunger. She didn’t even feel the prick as it went in and dispersed whatever substance it held. The glass dropped to the ground and shattered. The remaining tendrils broke free from her control and the lacre beast roared with its many mouths, smashing against everything it could reach.
A wall collapsed. There was an all-encompassing sound of crashing thunder as the roof caved in and everything went dark.
...
Allie woke from a dreamless sleep some time later, completely encased in some wet, rubbery substance. She held still for several seconds, trying to get her bearings. She was curled up in the fetal position, lying... on her side, she thought, based on the direction gravity seemed to be pointing. Everything was very dark and quiet. The air was stale and smelled like iron... like blood.
Where...? What happened? She strained her memory, trying to recall. It was no good. She couldn’t remember anything past the roof collapsing. Wait...
Allie flexed her legs, her arms. Her hands. She was in her normal body again. Better than her normal body, even; she had recovered her left hand! Aside from the stale air and being trapped in a wet, sticky tomb, she hadn’t felt this good in days or possibly weeks. There was no pain, and there were no voices in her head. She was alone.
I should get out of here. Wherever “here” is. She had a feeling she knew where she was, but couldn’t be sure until she was out. The air supply was starting to run low, so she had to hurry. Allie shoved against the barriers with her arms and legs, trying to stretch out to her full height. The rubbery membrane resisted her momentarily, but after several seconds of sustained stretching, it tore near her head. Fluid rushed into the chamber and Allie pulled back to avoid the deluge. After maybe ten seconds of continuous inflow, she decided it wasn’t going to stop, inhaled what breathable air was left, and shoved her way out of the sac into the fluid-filled chamber outside.
Looking around quickly, she started to see reddish light filtering in through another membrane only a few feet away. Allie half-swam, half-pushed her way over to this second membrane, grasped onto it, and shoved against it in as narrow an area as possible. The first attempt stretched it, the second attempt poked a small hole, and on her third attempt, Allie breached the last membrane and slid into the outside world.
She flopped onto her back and breathed heavily, staring up at the fake sky far above. She was lying in a field of fake grass about a quarter mile away from the now-collapsed building that had housed Genesis. There was a train platform maybe two hundred feet away in the opposite direction. A lifeless pile of flesh sagged and slowly deflated on the hill in front of her: the remains of the lacre beast that Allie had just squirmed her way out of. She was nude - covered in slime and gore - but that had been a small price to pay for her miraculous survival and recovery.
Her every sense seemed heightened now, and just a little faster. Shadows seemed brighter and lights glared less. She could hear the distant rustling of wind against the fake grass, and she could feel it scratching against her feet. Her muscles all felt... energized, like she could run a marathon or take on a bell-head in hand to hand combat. It was a heady feeling and she almost laughed giddily before souring her mood by bringing her mind back to the situation at hand.
Everyone was dead. She had tried so hard to save someone - anyone - but everyone had died. Bolte - good riddance. But Elliot hadn’t been evil, she thought, and neither had Lauren. Even Ella... Not a single person she had met in the Factory had survived. This was the end; this was her victory. And she had no one to share it with.
It doesn’t much feel like I won at all.
Her heightened ears caught a sound from the monster’s massive corpse. Allie stepped forward, noticing in a detached sort of way that her hair was now ghostly white and longer than it had been previously. A sort of scratching, squelching sound. The pile shuddered slightly and the flow of blood and lacre lessened. Was it about to get up, or...? Allie cautiously moved around to the other side of the corpse, noting a bulge in the flesh that slowly became a tear. There was the briefest glimpse of brown hair and a face. An instant later, Allie reached down and pulled Ella - Allie’s perfect doppelganger no more - out of the creature, letting her slide out onto the grass in amazement and shock.
Once the two of them have sorted themselves out to some degree, where should they go?
️ - Back to the Genesis compound. Go through the wreckage. [What are they looking for? Suggest in #story_discussion. Suggestions: A control panel or interface for the bell-heads?]
- Admin. Wasn't there a passage to the surface there? [If you know specifically where to look, suggest in #story_discussion.]
- Back to the Core. [Why? Suggest in #story_discussion.]
- Back to Atrium. There’s definitely a way out there, if they can just break through. [Ideas? Suggest in #story_discussion.]
[Also, if you have anything Allie should ask or tell Ella, feel free to suggest in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: ️ )
️ - Back to the Genesis compound. Go through the wreckage. [What are they looking for? Suggest in #story_discussion. Suggestions: A control panel or interface for the bell-heads?]
- Admin. Wasn't there a passage to the surface there? [If you know specifically where to look, suggest in #story_discussion.]
- Back to the Core. [Why? Suggest in #story_discussion.]
- Back to Atrium. There’s definitely a way out there, if they can just break through. [Ideas? Suggest in #story_discussion.]
[Also, if you have anything Allie should ask or tell Ella, feel free to suggest in #story_discussion.]
(Winner: ️ )
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Scene 97
“E-Ella!” Allie exclaimed, staring at her in shock. “How did you - what happened?”
Ella stirred on the ground and rolled over, coughing up a mouthful of pale red fluid and wiping her hair out of her face. “I... I’m alive.” She stared at the landscape and her own hands. “I thought I was done for. But I’m... I’m more than alive now. I’m real.”
“You’ve always been real,” Allie said, crouching down next to her. “Do you know what happened? How you got out?”
Meeting her eyes for the first time, Ella looked up. “It’s all so hazy. I don’t remember. I think... I warned you about that thing, and it turned out to be Bolte, or at least some portion of him. And then...” She shuddered, rubbing her arms. “So cold. I don’t remember anything after that. What... what happened?”
Allie smiled and pulled Ella to her feet. Standing next to each other, it was now clear that Allie was an inch or two taller than her doppelganger, with longer hair - white instead of brown - and more clearly defined musculature. She hesitated and felt her face growing red as she turned away instead of speaking. Ella didn’t seem to be paying attention to her awkwardness, marveling instead at the fresh sensations of having a physical form.
Pulling herself together, Allie started walking towards the rubble that had formerly been the Genesis compound. “Come on,” she said. “We need to look for some stuff. I’ll explain while we’re walking.”
It only took a few minutes to reach the compound, during which Allie brought Ella up to speed on the events of the past half hour. Even though she knew the grass was fake, and even though the sky was nothing but a series of light panels, just walking leisurely across the field felt... good. It was over. There was nothing more to be scared of. Everything from here on was just one long walk back to the surface. But... with that came more questions. Clearly the lacre had changed her. She was no longer identical to Ella. She felt tireless; keen; powerful. If the cure had worked as Bolte had designed it, was she now the first of the “next stage of human evolution,” as he had put it? What would that mean for her once she escaped?
And Ella. What would become of her? In a sense, Ella was more like Allie than Allie was. She certainly looked more like her old self. How would her parents react? What about the government? Would Ella be taken away and experimented on? Contained? Killed? What about Allie? She was a mutant now, essentially, and-
“Hello?” Ella waved a hand in front of Allie’s face. “You’ve been staring at this rock for about thirty seconds now. What’s going on?”
Allie snapped out of her thoughts and looked up. “Nothing, I-” She threw her hands up hopelessly. “What’s going to happen to us when we get back to the surface?”
Ella shoved a chunk of rubble out of the way and uncovered a metal storage locker. She started wrestling with the lock as she answered. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it too.” A pause as she managed to pop the locker open. “Ah, clothes. I hope you like looking like a doctor.”
She offered a plastic bag containing a perfectly pressed uniform that had presumably never been worn. Allie took it and started getting dressed. “I just... I’m not really human anymore. And you... I’m not sure you are either.”
Ella shrugged. “Beats me. I don’t know what I am. I’ve only existed for less than a week. Do you ask week-old babies if they know what they are?”
“You’re not a baby, though. Look, there were soldiers here, right? And Bolte said the government had gotten involved. What if they want to, I don’t know, study us or dissect us or something else? What if they think we’re a danger to society? What... what if we are?”
“I think you’re panicking a little bit.”
“You think I’m panicking? How are you being so calm about this?”
Ella pondered this for a few moments. “I’m not sure. I just have this feeling that everything will work out alright in the end. If you’re that worried about the government, you don’t have to tell them about the lacre. Just say you, uh, dyed your hair or something. And I could be...”
“Someone who looks exactly like I did when I went missing?”
“Okay, maybe that’s a little hard to explain. What if... I made a disguise?”
Allie paused in the middle of buttoning her new jacket. “A disguise? For how long? You can’t change - oh, you were joking. Okay. Glad to see you’re taking this seriously.”
“Look, you can’t overthink this. The government wanted to shut down the Factory, and now we’ve done that! If they lock us up for a while, whatever. It’s better than staying down here. There’s not really another option, either way.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s assume the government isn’t a problem then. What about my family? What are they going to say when they see you? Hm?”
Silence stretched on for at least ten seconds as Allie and Ella finished putting on their new outfits: similar black trousers to the uniform from before, but paired with a sterile-looking white jacket instead of a grey one. Allie kicked a chunk of concrete and watched it bounce across the rubble. She couldn’t even tell where the room had been, let alone where to dig through the debris to find anything useful.
“Do you... do you think I shouldn’t come with you?” Ella asked in a small voice. “If I’m just going to cause problems with your family, or the government, or whatever?”
Allie looked up from scanning the rubble for signs of Lauren, Elliot, or Bolte. No good; there was no way she’d be able to find a body in this mess. There was no way anyone had survived. Probably. She breathed out as she considered the question. “I don’t know. I don’t want to just leave you alone; I don’t think that would be fair. You don’t have anything to go back to up there. But... if you come with me, what would we do?” She turned and hopped down off the block of rubble she had been standing on. “‘Hi, mom and dad! This is Ella, your new daughter. Surprise!’ Something like that? That’s not fair to them. They wouldn’t know what to do about that, and I don’t think I would either.”
Ella stared off into the distance behind Allie, her expression confused, then concerned. “Hang on, what...?”
Allie turned, looking in the same direction. It almost seemed like she could zoom in, her augmented eyes able to pick out detail and motion much farther away than they could have before. Even with the added acuity, however, she still had trouble understanding exactly what she was looking at. The grass seemed to be bending and rippling, then vanishing into the dull white color of the background. But as the line of disappearing grass crept closer and closer, the cause of the problem became more and more clear.
“Lacre...” Allie whispered, feeling adrenaline pulse through her body. “It... got out of the Core.”
Ella backed away, staring at the approaching tidal wave. “How much of it is there? What’s going to happen if...?”
Allie took two steps back. Even in her new, augmented, “perfect” form, she felt an ache just from looking at the stuff. Her blood almost seemed to heat up. “Nothing good; come on! Let’s go!”
Both of them took off running back towards the pile of flesh they had recently climbed out of. Just beyond it was a train station, but who knew if there would be a train in time? Plus, if the lacre flood had made it all the way to Genesis from the Core, what else had been overrun?
“Where are we going?!” Ella shouted to Allie.
She glanced back, concerned that her former doppelganger had fallen behind almost twenty feet already. Allie slowed her pace and dropped back. “I don’t know! Train station, maybe? Where can we go from here?”
“How was Bolte going to get you out? He had offered, right?”
“Wasn’t he lying?”
“Who cares? He must have had a secret exit somewhere around here!”
Allie thought back, trying to remember. In the initial “conversation” in the elevator, he had mentioned something along the lines of “in the main Admin center.” She dug through her pockets for the subway map, but cursed as she remembered it had been lost along with all of her other items. “He said the main Admin center! Do you remember if we can get there from here?”
“Yeah; it should be one or two stations north of here! I also had a vision, and I remember he had an exit near his office! Maybe that’s in the same area!”
The two of them rushed past the collapsed mound of flesh and up the stairs to the station platform. Allie - tireless - quickly looked over the map and the schedules as Ella caught her breath. In the distance, a low, rumbling, bass note became audible. The wave of lacre, rushing in from the southwest, had almost reached the rubble of the building where they had been standing just a few minutes previously. The next train north was scheduled to arrive in three minutes. Would that be enough time? It would be close either way. What should they do?
- Stay on the platform. Hope the train arrives in time.
- Run further north to get further away from the wave. There might be a way to get there on foot, or they might be able to catch the train on the tracks.
[Sub-options of . If this option is chosen, Ella may fall behind. Allie can run faster and farther in her new body. If Ella falls behind, Allie should...]
- Leave her behind.
- Stay with her.
(Winner: )
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Scene 98
“Three minutes, it says. You think we’re gonna make it?”
Ella straightened up and pushed herself off the railing, standing and looking back at the onrushing tidal wave. “I don’t know.” She glanced down the tracks to the south, searching for the silver gleam of the train that would bring safety. Nothing, at least not yet.
Allie paced on the platform, splitting her attention between the wave and the tracks. Lacre flowed over the rubble of the Genesis compound, crashing against broken concrete and spraying high into the air. Even if anyone had somehow survived the gunshots and the collapsing roof, the lacre would take care of the rest. Still... she had a nagging doubt. “Always another plan,” he had said just before the end. “Always another dream.”
He couldn’t have survived. That was final.
“I see it!” Ella shouted, pointing.
Allie looked down the tracks. Sure enough, metal gleamed in the distance as the final Green line train rushed towards them, traveling fast but still moving painfully slowly. She looked over at the tidal wave again. Past the building, flowing across the landscape towards the mound of flesh. She could hear another sound now, behind the low-bass note. Fainter. Whispers? She couldn’t make it out under the rising intensity of the bass.
The train was close now. Its brakes hissed as it slowed and rolled into the station. The engine passed Allie and whipped at her hair with its wind. It was impossible to hear the announcer over the all-encompassing bass note. She felt Ella grab her hand and squeezed back, just to have something to hold onto. The tidal wave swallowed up the remains of the lacre beast and rushed along the path. Only a few hundred feet now. The doors opened and the two of them jumped onto the train. There was nothing left to do but wait.
A hundred feet.
Fifty.
Twenty. The doors started to close.
Ten. Lacre splashed against the platform stairs and started to rise.
Five. The doors closed and lacre flooded the platform.
Zero. The train started to pull away, its wheels struggling for traction on the flooded rails. Inch by inch, it started to move as the main body of the wave loomed overhead. The bass was so loud. Allie could feel the presence of the lacre all around the car as an ache through her entire body.
The wave crested and smashed down onto the rails just behind the train as it pulled away, gathering speed and outpacing the flood. The bass note started to fade into the distance, replaced by the clattering of wheels and the announcer’s pleasant voice. “Lacre Storage is next,” the train cheerfully announced as it sped out of the grassy plains and into a dimly lit tunnel. “Doors open on the right at Lacre Storage. This is a Green line train to Admin.”
Ella collapsed into a seat and, after a brief delay to look out the windows behind them, Allie did the same. “I keep thinking it’s the end,” she said. “First at the Core, then at Genesis, then after finding you, and again right now. I keep thinking there’s nothing more to be scared of; that all that’s left is to walk out of here. Boy is that wrong.”
“Yep.” Ella nodded wearily. “What’s next; a zombie Bolte guarding the exit?”
“I hope not. If he’s not dead for good by now, I don’t know what can kill him.”
“Yeah...”
“...”
There was a pause. Ella tugged at a lock of hair, then spoke. “The lacre’s going to flood this whole place, isn’t it?”
“Maybe? How much is there? This is a big place and there has to be some limit to how much lacre there is.”
“You’re probably right.” She hesitated, uncomfortable. “But... well... okay. At least... it can’t get out, right?”
“As far as I know, it doesn’t climb walls. So unless it fills up this entire enormous Factory, I don’t think it can get out.”
“Good, good...”
Allie stared out the window as lights flashed by on the tunnel wall. “You’re not thinking about the lacre. I know my own tells. What’s wrong?”
A pause. Allie looked at Ella. She was also gazing out the window, watching the lights fly by. Finally, she answered, not turning her head. “I’m thinking about the surface again. What am I going to do up there? I don’t... I don’t know if I can stay with you, or if I even should. You said that’s probably not fair, and I think you’re probably right. But... then what? I don’t have my own memories or my own life. I’m twenty years old - sort of - and I don’t have anything at all. No family, no friends, no house, no car, no documents; nothing.”
Lights passed by in silence.
“I’m sorry - I - I don’t know what to do either.”
“Who would? This isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence. It would have been a lot easier for everyone if I had just died.”
“Stop that.” Allie waved a hand at Ella until she turned to look at her. “Stop it. What’s easy doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s better, and it’s better that you’re alive. We’ll figure it out. I don’t know how, but I know we will.”
The train started to slow, then stopped and the doors opened. “This is Lacre Storage.” A short pause, then “This is a Green line train to Admin. Next stop is Admin.” The station outside was clinical, white, and silent. Neither Allie nor Ella moved or spoke until the doors closed again and the train rushed onwards.
“Thank you.”
The rest of the journey was spent in companionable silence.
...
“This is Admin.” A pause. “This is a Green line train to Quadrant A Central Exchange. Next stop is Purelake East.” After another brief pause, the train rattled away on its unending journey. No one was left to hear it. Allie and Ella had exited the station, climbing up the immaculate grey-white brick stairs and emerging into the midst of a miniature city. Again, a fake sky glowed from above and fake grass rustled in the wind. However, instead of endless plains, tall skyscrapers reached up and literally scraped the sky: several had glass bridges that connected their roofs into the blue dome. Only one - the largest - bore a massive yellow and black Factory logo. This would be their destination. There was no further doubt.
The two of them walked across the city as if in a dream. There was no more conversation, because the time for that had passed. Now was only the time to close the curtains on the final act and leave this place forever. The city was spotless, with no litter, flaking paint, or debris. Everything sparkled as if the inhabitants had just left a few moments ago and would be back shortly. Once, in the distance, Allie spotted a fleshy blob-creature - one of the things she suspected were janitors - but it was too far away to bother them and quickly disappeared into a building. They carried on.
The Factory tower was unlocked and the doors slid open with a swoosh. The lobby was black marble tinted with gold - an ostentatious display of wealth. Fountains trickled gently and a hidden speaker played gentle classical music. The elevators were carpeted in red and paneled in rich dark wood. Some of the floors were locked, but the roof was not. A key dangled from the lock around the button, abandoned by someone in the past.
Going up.
It was cold on the roof and Allie pulled her jacket tighter. The two of them left the black-stone monolith behind and climbed the glass stairs one step at a time. The air grew colder with each step until, finally, they were past the layers of glass and in a plain grey tunnel that gently sloped upwards. They passed through layer after layer of open security gates. Ella’s grip on Allie’s hand grew tighter as they ascended.
Scene 99
Suddenly, there it was. The last door. It was plain, metal, and underwhelming. A dull green sign hung above it, reading, in small white letters, “EXIT.”
Allie glanced at Ella, and Ella glanced back.
“This is really it. No more fakeouts, no more running. We’ve made it out. This is the end.” She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
“Hey, don’t get too excited. It could be locked.” Ella half-grinned, but she wasn’t entirely joking. “I’m not ready to call it quits until I can fall face-first into a snowbank.”
Allie placed her hand on the bulkhead and gave it a tentative crank. The wheel spun. “Let’s find you a snowbank. Come on, help me out with this.”
Together, they opened the door. Gas hissed as the pressure equalized and cold air blasted into the Factory. A scattering of snowflakes drifted into the tunnel and Allie stared at them, feeling a curious mix of emotions. “Hang on,” she said, holding the door shut. “Just... just one more thing. Before we go. I want to be sure about this.”
Ella looked up at her. “What’s that?”
“When we get out, and when we go to the police or the government or whatever. When they start asking questions about everything that’s happened and who you are and where I’ve been.” She hesitated, trying to find the words. “We... we’re going to stick together, right? I - that’s not, you get what I mean, right?”
Ella hugged her, briefly. “Together. Let’s go.”
Together, they pushed open the door. The rubber seal scraped across uneven dirt and rock and they stepped out into a narrow cave. The door was camouflaged perfectly as just another part of the rock wall, with hardly even a seam to show its presence. The floor was covered in drifts of powdery snow and true, real sunlight trickled down from an opening above. Allie helped Ella climb and squirm out of the crevasse until, with a sudden moment of finality, they had made it.
Allie stood hand in hand with her former doppelganger, shin-deep in cold, powdery snow, and raised her face to the sun for the first time in days. Trees and barren shrubs masked the cave’s entrance, but the vegetation petered out quickly only a few dozen feet ahead as the trees gave way to a plowed field. Past that, maybe a mile or two in the distance, she could make out a homestead and a paved road. If she strained her eyes, she could almost convince herself of a water tower even further away. Smoke drifted from the house’s chimney.
“We made it...” she murmured. “We’re free.”
The snow crunched underfoot as they took the first steps in the last leg of their long journey out of the Factory.
Together.
Epilogue
Allie leisurely crunched at her toast as she scrolled through her newsfeed. A handful of emails from various coworkers asking her opinion on the latest test results; she’d respond to those later. Saturday mornings weren’t meant for thinking about chemical reactions or polymers. A notice from the CTA reminding her of the adjusted holiday schedule. Sure, whatever. Not a problem. An article advising her about an amazing new recipe she had to try. Great. Anything actually interesting?
...Ah! A letter from Ella. She would open that now.
“allie -
hope you’re having a nice, snowy christmas up there! they better not be working you too hard at this time of year; make sure you take some time to yourself to relax! it’s 75 degrees and sunny down here, ugh. at least they’re letting me have a few days off for the holidays, unlike last year (you remember that disaster, I’m sure).
anyway, don’t have much to say this time; just figured I’d check in and make sure you’re doing alright still. I think about you every time the forecast pretends like there’s a hint of snow coming, even if it’s lying. be seeing you in a few weeks; hope you’re prepared for the weather! merry christmas!
<3 - ella”
Allie grinned as she read the letter, Ella’s enthusiasm coming across even through the text on the screen. She had attached a picture of her dog, a sleek one-year-old beagle named Biscuit, in a santa hat. He seemed happy, and so did Ella. She worked for the government now, in the recently-reactivated department of the Anomalous Investigations Bureau. The whole department was very hush-hush, to the point where Allie probably shouldn’t even know it existed, but she had a security clearance due to her own work and it was impossible for Ella to keep too many secrets from her.
Her cat - a fluffy white-and-cream forest cat named Buttercream - leapt onto the table and headbutted her arm. Allie almost dropped her phone, but managed to keep her balance and shoved back against him. “Give me a minute, you Butt. I’ll brush you in a few minutes.” He didn’t settle down, so she had to pick him up and pet him with one hand while finishing her breakfast with the other.
As her cat’s rumbling purr filled the room, Allie glanced out the window at the slowly falling snow. It had been three years since she had escaped the Factory, and her time there had continued to play a major role in her life. She still kept in contact with Ella, and in fact was planning to go visit her in Arizona just after New Year’s. Allie worked in polymers now, mostly on secret or top secret government contracts regarding materials that had been dredged up from the ruins of the Factory. At her own request, she kept away from any projects involving lacre. She still felt uneasy that there even were projects on lacre. It should all just go back in the ground and stay there.
Still, she had to admit that Bolte had been right - at least about some things. Her lacre-infused body could very well be considered humanity’s next evolution. She got tired much more slowly, needed to sleep much less - her days were almost twice as long - and was far stronger and faster than she had ever been before. Even her mind worked better: she could memorize more quickly and accurately, think through problems faster, and control her emotions more effectively. The only downside was an increased metabolism; she had to eat about a third more to support her new functions. There had been no long-term negative effects noticed yet, though her doctors were keeping a close eye on her to confirm that.
Ella, as it turned out, also had lacre blood, though she displayed none of the same symptoms as Allie. Physically, aside from the lacre, she was nearly identical to a normal human. No one had any idea what to make of that, though tests and trials were still ongoing. For the most part, she tended to ignore that part of her and just act like she had lived on this planet as long as Allie had.
Her parents still kept in touch, though not as frequently as they used to. It was all part of growing up and moving out, she supposed. They considered Ella a family friend, not a daughter. That was probably the best way to go about it, Allie thought, and Ella tended to agree.
She had done some digging into her family history only a few weeks after getting out of the Factory. Sure enough, her “Grandma Lynn” had changed her name only a few years after the initial closure of the Factory in 1971. Pictures from her mother’s childhood confirmed it: Madelyn was in fact her grandmother. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Madelyn had never told anyone about her time in the Factory; not Allie’s grandpa, mom, or Allie herself. She had died a couple of years ago, in 2018, due to complications from pneumonia. Whatever secrets she had still held, she had taken them to her grave.
Buttercream pawed at her mug and Allie set him on the floor, out of trouble for at least the few seconds it would take him to jump back up onto the table. She finished her meal and stood up, still thinking about those few days three years ago. If it weren’t for just one thing that had happened a few months after she had escaped, she’d be satisfied and content with her life. She had gotten her job and many of her adult friends - directly or indirectly - from her time there. It had been harrowing and terrible, but she had survived and come out stronger than ever. There was just that one thing...
In January of 2021, just a few months after her escape, she had dreamed of the Cistern again. She hadn’t dreamt of it since she had left the Factory, and she had never dreamt of it again afterwards. In that buried cavern of mud and lacre, a crushed, shot, broken corpse dangled from a sleek black tendril, like a hanged man swinging from a tree. It had spoken to her, its bloated mouth opening and disgorging a rush of putrid black liquid that caused her blood to ache even from a dozen feet away. “Always another plan, my dear,” it had said. “Always another dream.”
<o>
Conclusion
Hey, thanks for playing! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it! The Factory has been my first full-length novel that I’m planning on publishing, and I don’t think I could have written it without the help and motivation from all y’all. Hopefully this ending ties up most of the loose ends (while of course leaving at least one big question open), as I don’t plan on writing a sequel in this universe. As far as I’m concerned, Allie’s story has been told. I could go on to write about her adventures as a government agent (and to be honest, that sounds super cool), but I don’t think that would add too much to the story and world. I’m satisfied with how this story wrapped up and I don’t want to pick apart the neat little bow to add another length of string.
Anyway, what’s next?
To start with, if you have questions or suggestions, or if you just want to discuss the story, feel free to do so! I can answer questions about the world, the characters, or the process of writing in #story_discussion - since I don’t plan on writing a sequel, I may even be able to reveal some hidden tidbits (or maybe not; we’ll see). After that, I’ll be archiving the current #the_factory channel and creating a new one! I’ll be taking the rest of the semester off (probably), but I’ll post the next set of starting prompts sometime in the next week or so. We’ll probably go through a few rounds of decisions to create the world and characters before actually starting the next story (which, by the way, will be much shorter than this one. I’m tired.) If you have a submission you’d like to nominate for a starting prompt, feel free to post it and I’ll add it if it sounds interesting! The next story will begin anew at (probably) the end of the semester.
Thanks a lot for your support and engagement, and I hope you stick around for the next one!
~ Shaun / @Professional Nerd Blah
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