The Last Dainv-Chapter 182

The Last Dainv-Chapter 182

The elevator jolted to a stop after 45 minutes of going up. With a hiss, the gates shook as they started to open. Warm, damp air hit their faces. The elevator's metal scent was replaced by dirt, vegetation, and fauna.
Moonlight hit the elevator floor through the opening. They stepped to the threshold of the elevator and were greeted by a jungle of trees reaching high enough that it hurt their necks to look all the way up. A footpath formed on the ground where the plants grew up to Gale's chest. The sound of running water could be heard from everywhere.
"What the fuck?" Kyle stepped forward, gun raised. "We're inside a goddamn rainforest?"
"Spread out. Stay within visual range. Check for hostiles," Ollie said.
The group filed out of the elevator, each one holding their weapons tightly. As they moved, the soft ground slightly gave under their boots; it was actual dirt, not metal. Thick roots crossed the path, leaves piled up ahead as the wind swept through the thick jungle.
Clyde knelt to check a small creek crossing their path. Clear water ran over smooth stones. "Water's moving, but no current source visible."
"Irrigation system," Gale said. "It said this was the agriculture level, right?"
"Right," Ollie said.
Lily walked a step beside Gale.
Noticing her breathing pattern, Gale saw it becoming more ragged as they hiked. At her fitness level, this flat forest shouldn't have bothered her.
"It's way too quiet here," Lily said.
She was right. Despite all the vegetation and foliage, there would've been at least some rustle or some bugs moving in between the crevices of the dirt. Maybe even some animals scuttering away. However, there were no bugs, no birds, no animals. Just flowing water and the faint rustle of branches and leaves against the artificial wind.
"No signs of life," Ollie confirmed, looking around. "Vegetation but no fauna."
There were some fauna that Gale smelled. The oddity was that he couldn't hear them.
Kyle walked a few steps ahead, head back. "Guys, check this out."
They looked up and a night sky sprawled out before them. Lights from the next floor twinkled, making it look like stars. And below those stars, a full moon that cast bluish tint below.
"That's not..." Kyle squinted. "That's not a real sky."
Clyde squinted as well. "No. We're still inside the tower."
"Artificial environment," Ollie said. "The whole agriculture level is one big controlled ecosystem."
Lily's breathing suddenly grew more rapid. Her chest moved up and down as she stared at the fake moon. Both of her hands went to her elbows, making herself look smaller.
"No, no, no, this is all wrong. What the fuck," she gasped.
Rachel closed in on her immediately. "Lily? What's wrong?"
But Lily kept staring at the blue circle above. Her legs gave out, falling to her knees. She put her hands above her head, shivering. "It's-it's-"
"Lily? What's happening?" Rachel said, crouching beside her.
"Blue... moon..." Lily dug her fingers into the dirt. she choked out. Her whole body shook. "We're still there. Never left. It's got us again. They fucking drugged us."
Kyle took a step back. "Uh, is scout lady okay?"
"Does she look okay to you?" Clyde knocked his brother's shoulder.
"She's having a panic attack. We need to calm her down," Rachel said.
Lily's eyes dilated as she peeked through her hands. "The Eclipsed. We're back. It never let us go. Just dreams, all dreams. The Path, the training, everything. It was just Elliot fucking my head. Yeah, that's what it fucking is. It was all fucking fake."
Her hands shot out, grabbing Rachel's arms tight. "Did I ever leave? Did any of us? Or are we still there, about to be sacrificed?"
Gale knelt in front of her, blocking her view of the artificial moon. "Lily! Look at me."
Her eyes wouldn't focus on him, still looking past at the blue light. "Elliot's going to come back. He'll take us to the altar. The moon will burn us all away. The boy said he would take us with him. Where's the boy? The boy!"
"Lily," Gale said, firmer this time. He took her shoulder and shook her softly. "Remember the bone spear?"
Weber in Gale's hand extended to a spear. Rachel took Lily's hand, letting her grab the arm with hers. That got her attention. Her eyes snapped to his face.
"After we escaped Elliot, you took that bone spear under the tree outside of the encampment," Rachel said. "You chose to take it. Nobody made you. You took your life into your own hands that day. Remember all the nights we spent on missions and we'd talk about it?"
Her breathing slowed a bit. "The spear..."
"You trained with the other Blue Witches for five years. You ran missions. You advanced to Resonant." Rachel squeezed her hands. "That wasn't a dream. You did all of that yourself."
Lily blinked fast. "I... I did."
"You're in control now," Gale said. "Not Elliot. Not the blue moon. You."
Rachel gently rubbed Lily's back. "We're not in the Eclipsed, Lily. This is the agriculture level of the tower. That's not the real moon up there. It's just a light. Probably designed to help the plants grow for the day and night cycle."
Lily took a deep breath.
"I knew that. I know that." She closed her eyes, taking another deep breath. "Just for a second, it all came back."
"I know," Rachel said. "But it's not the same place."
She got her breathing under control. After a minute, she stood up again along with Gale and Rachel. She said, "I'm okay now. Let's keep moving."
"You sure?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah. Just... don't let me look up at that thing again." Lily squared her shoulders, keeping her eyes straight ahead.
Ollie had waited quietly the whole time. Now he pointed to a path between two big trees. "This way looks more travelled. Might lead to something useful."
The footpath went deeper into the forest. Their boots pattered against the puddles of the moist dirt.
Another creek appeared ahead, wider than the first. Clear water ran over smooth stones, covering the sound of their footsteps. Kyle hopped across on rocks while Clyde just walked through the shallow water.
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"Water's getting deeper," Rachel followed Clyde. "Must feed into something larger."
Past the creek, the landscape opened into rows of plants. Uniform crops lined up perfectly straight, each stalk exactly 2 metres high. The plants looked like corn but wrong somehow. The kernels hung in spirals instead of rows, and the leaves were wider than any corn Gale knew.
"Alien agriculture," Kyle touched one stalk. "Wonder if it's edible."
"Stop touching shit!" Ollie yelled. "Last thing we need is someone getting poisoned."
"Boss man needs to chill a bit," Kyle said.
They walked through what looked like an even more genetically modified corn field with thicker leaves, multiple cobs and thicker everything. Their boots crunched on the ground where the leaves fell and dried. It would've naturally attracted predators, but there were none that came at them.
Gale felt it before he saw it.
A tug on Breath of the Void. Movement in the dark beyond the crop rows. Small, quick, barely showing up on his senses.
He stopped walking. The others went a few steps before noticing.
"What is it?" Rachel asked.
Gale focused outward, letting the ability spread through the air around them. The sensation came again. Something moving, but no bigger than a house cat.
"Small creature," he said. "Moving through the crops."
Kyle's hand went to his dagger on his belt. "Hostile?"
"Can't tell."
The movement stopped. Whatever it was had noticed them watching. Gale tracked its position as it stayed perfectly still, maybe 30 metres to their left.
Then it ran.
Gale moved. These watcher fuckers didn't deserve hesitation. He willed Alter to change its length. The blade changed, lengthened to the shape of a spear again.
He drew back and threw in one motion.
The weapon whipped through air, cutting through crop stalks. A soft thud came from the darkness beyond the rows.
"Nice throw," Clyde said.
Gale jogged toward the sound, the others following. His spear had pinned something small and furry to the ground. Blood pooled under a creature that looked like something had crossed a sheep with a cotton ball.
"What the hell is that?" Kyle crouched beside the body.
The thing was about the size of a small dog but perfectly round. White wool covered its whole body in a tight ball, with four stubby legs sticking out. A tiny sheep's head stuck out from one side, with curved horns no bigger than Gale's thumb.
Ollie knelt for a closer look. "It's a sheep ball."
"A what?" Lily moved closer despite herself.
"Sheep ball," Ollie said, grinning. "Look at it. Head of a sheep, body like a wool ball. Sheep ball."
Rachel laughed. "That's terrible."
"But accurate," Kyle said. "Little guy looks like someone rolled a sheep into a ball and called it a day."
Lily's face softened. "It's actually kind of cute."
"Was cute," Rachel said. "Now it's just bloody and dead."
The spear had gone clean through the creature's middle, blood staining the white wool. Gale pulled his weapon free.
"Think it was one of those watchers you mentioned?" Clyde asked.
Gale shook his head. "It felt different. Probably harmless."
"Great," Kyle said. "We murdered Fluffy for no reason."
"Not for no reason," Ollie stood up, brushing dirt from his knees. "It can make for a tasty meal."
"You want us to eat it?" Lily asked.
"Meat's meat," Ollie said. "Can't waste protein in a place like this."
"It's tiny," Rachel mumbled. "Barely enough for two persons, let alone six."
Kyle nudged the body with his boot. "Plus it's cute. I draw the line at eating cute things."
"Your line moves depending on how hungry you get," Clyde observed.
"Fair point."
Ollie turned to Gale. "Clean it and store it. We'll supplement with rations for now, but having fresh meat might matter later."
Gale looked down at the dead creature. Its black eyes stared at nothing, tiny tongue hanging out, and somehow, made his mouth drool.
"There's the creek," he said. "I'll take care of it."
He picked up the sheep ball. Surprisingly, it had more meat to it than he thought. All the wool just covered it up and made it look cute.
The others continued walking while Gale went back to the water.
The creek ran clear and cold over smooth stones. Gale put the creature on a flat rock and took out a small knife from his gear.
The wool came off easily and underneath it, the creature had pale pink skin. Its meat looked a lot like lamb. He worked fast, removing the organs, cleaning them, and storing them. The meat came next, chopping it up into multiple pieces. Blood washed away in the flowing water.
The whole process took less than 10 minutes. Gale didn't bother wrapping up the cleaned meat and put it into a single slot in the space storage that was automatically named 'Sheep ball meat'.
Great, even the system didn't know what the actual name of the sheep ball was.
When he rejoined the group, they'd found something new.
A building stood ahead in the forest, its white walls clean despite the damp air. The structure looked like a research facility, all clean lines and large windows. The moonlight from above reflected off the polished surfaces.
"Lab," Kyle said as Gale walked up.
"Definitely scientific," Rachel said. "Look at the equipment through those windows."
Glass panels lined the building's front wall. Inside, computer panels, buttons, and switches lined the inside of the building, making it look like an aircraft's cockpit amplified to eleven. Everything looked like it still worked despite being abandoned.
"Think it's connected to the agriculture level?" Lily asked.
"Has to be," Ollie said. "Crop development, genetic modification, soil analysis. Makes sense they'd have research facilities on this level."
The group walked up to the research facility's front door. The door slid open immediately as Gale got closer. Cold air hit his face right away, humidity lower than the outside forest.
"Now this is more like it," Kyle said, dropping into one of the chairs. He pushed and spun onto a nearby workstation to his left. "Time to see what these things were working on."
Ollie moved to the central console, running his hands over the various controls. "Has to be a main power switch somewhere."
"Try this one," Clyde said, pointing to a large red button near the top of his station.
Kyle pressed it. Nothing happened. He tried several more buttons in sequence. Still nothing.
Ollie copied Kyle, working through all the buttons he found on the central console, pressing and switching everything he found. However, none turned on, no lights, no nothing.
"Idiots…" Lily sighed.
Rachel moved to a different workstation, checking power cables to see whether it was connected to anything. "Everything looks intact. It should be working."
"Maybe there's a master power supply," Clyde joined Ollie at the central console. "Something we need to activate first."
Kyle and Clyde moved faster. Kyle took to the left, pressing every button and switch on the wall while Clyde took to the right.
"Come on, you piece of junk," Kyle muttered, slapping the side screen. "Work!"
"Hitting it won't help," Rachel said.
"It might," Kyle replied, giving the screen another tap.
After 10 minutes of useless button-pushing, Ollie stepped back from the console. "Nothing. It's all dead."
Lily crossed her arms, watching the three men continue their ineffective attack on the technology. "This is ridiculous. We're wasting time."
"You got any better ideas?" Kyle asked.
"What happened to not touching things that might be booby trapped?"
"Brain sees big red button. Hand presses big red button. Lighten up scout lady." Kyle waved her off.
Rachel moved away from the main hub, exploring the edges of the circular room. "There might be other areas. Storage rooms, archives, something that doesn't need power."
Gale had been doing the same thing, circling the perimeter while the others focused on the computers. He ran his fingers along the walls, looking for anything that might depress, just in case there was a hidden switch. Then, near the back, he found a door.
The door led to the living quarters. The handle wouldn't turn when he tried it.
Locked.
Gale glanced back at the others. They were still clustered around the workstations, arguing about power sources and backup systems. None of them were watching him.
Activating Phase Touch, he stepped through the door easily. The living quarters beyond were exactly what he'd expected. Ten beds lined up on the wall. Four on each side and two at the end of the aisle, looking like a submarine's quarters that he saw in an encyclopedia once. Each of the bed had an upper bunk.
The beds were made. Blankets and sheets folded and tucked in perfectly, pillows placed just right. Personal lockers stood at the foot of each bunk, clean and unmarked.
Gale walked between the rows of beds, looking at the details. No personal items anywhere. No clothes over chairs, no books on nightstands, no photos in mirror frames, no dust. The lockers had no names or marks.
It looked like a showroom. Like the living quarters had been set up for inspection rather than actually lived in.
Gale opened one of the lockers. Empty. He tried another. Also empty. Every single locker contained nothing except clean shelving.
The whole room felt prepared in a way that went beyond just being clean. This wasn't a place where people had lived and worked. This was a place where people were supposed to live and work, but never did.
A knock on the door interrupted his search.

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Chapter 182