Frail digits clawed at the top of a dark grey box that stood about a meter tall. Around the central cube, angled dark red cracks streaked through the concrete, spreading outwards and covering the entire floor of the small clearing in the abandoned concrete jungle. The crevasses glowed brighter and brighter the closer they were to the block, the ones touching the metal physically brimming with power. Detecting a presence, the entire arena lit up, flashing a wave of scarlet, then left the area coated in a dimmer blood red hue.
The entire expanse came to life as the object woke from its lengthy slumber. The lights that blanketed the area formed into strings, streaking across the air and reconvened above the brick, a mere quarter of a meter away from the thin fingers interacting with the box. The strands of light danced in the air, merging and coagulating into thicker threads, and then ultimately a rectangle. Black words in the common language appeared across the top of the purely luminescent panel.
[ALFA->Bangkok.Terminal06/]
[Name: Kanashima Belladonna]
[ID: 44408427-06]
[Current data:]
[Height: 162.46 cm]
[Weight: 41.44 kg]
[Earth Age: 17 years, 4 days]
[Vitals: Stable]
[ALFA status: Fatal]
[Simulacrum needed. Opening simulation.]
[Enter?]
"Yeah, wasn't too hard to find."
The final line of the holographic display stared back into gunmetal grey eyes. This arena was a little more expansive than she imagined, but it was more or less what Cipher told her to expect. Having it throw so much data back at her was a little unnerving, especially such details about herself she didn't even know. When was the last time she measured how tall she was, or her weight even? That number was probably below average too, that couldn't be healthy.
This was one of the last things Morgan saw… Could he even die in something like this?
A breeze blew through the fragmented and crumbling walls, whistling through the shards of rebar poking out. This would be the last time she'd see the real world for a while, probably ever. The cold concrete under her and the varying dark grey tones that made up the environment felt strangely warm to her.
[Connecting current user to ALFA system.]
[Preparing the simulacrum. Please stand by.]
A few moments later, a small ding rang out from the console.
[Transmission commencing. Please don't move.]
A stale, cool air permeated through the area, brushing up against a new body in the small enclosure. There was not a single mote of light around, leaving her, and the rest of whatever was down here, in darkness. A single footstep echoed through the entire chasm, reverberating through the walls and back into her ribcage.
Focusing on the audio was about as unhelpful. In between the eerie dripping of water every three seconds or so was absolutely nothing perceivable by the normal human ear unless it was her own footsteps. Smelling was no use either, it was all just rocks, rocks, and more rocks. A little hint of dew from the water snuck its way into her nose, but she couldn't figure out where from. An immediate water source would be nice
Her beat up black sneakers began to echo through the cavern as she shuffled across the floor, fearing a random drop to her death. Eventually, she was able to reach out and grasp a wall. Despite the normal nature of rocks, the side of this cave was smooth, as if it was specifically treated to make it nicer. Using her hand to guide herself along the wall, she eventually made it to the other side of the flat, but even being on the other side didn't change the current situation. It was still unbelievably dark, so running her hand along the wall even more was all she had to perceive the surroundings. She must've done a couple loops before managing to find anything of interest at all.
Her fingers found a hold onto a ledge about ten centimeters above her head. Extending her hand over the corner a bit more, she didn't find anything else, exactly what she was hoping for. Now all she had to do was put both of her frail hands on top and pull herself up using whatever muscles she could muster and on top of the landing. She had watched many people scale buildings before, and she herself climbed the tree when she was younger.
"Ah… fuck, ow that hurts."
On the floor a few steps away from the wall, Kanashima laid flat on the ground, nursing the elbow she fell on. Of course her muscles wouldn't be enough, her malnourished self could barely lift twenty kilograms, much less her entire body. The first attempt didn't deter her away from the false hope, and neither did the next to. She slammed back into the floor for the fourth time. Something in her back definitely cracked this time.
Morgan was great at climbing. Why couldn't I have been as good?
Accepting her loss and failure, she managed to continue moving after a few more minutes of rest, small pains in her chest making it harder to catch her breath. Exploring the rest of the small den didn't give anymore meaningful clues, there wasn't even a drop down from her current elevation. She was at the bottom of this good for nothing pit of absolute darkness.
Both Serafin and Cipher corroborated the level of difficulty, but they made it very clear that it wasn't supposed to be impossible. They implored her to not lose hope, to keep on trying, but right now that was starting to feel quite impossible. The terminal, or rather, the virus read her vitals and overall body composition, so how in the hell did it expect her to be able to do this?
So much for a fair chance.
Finding the ledge again, her fingers curled the opposite way and crimped the ledge. No matter how much strength, knowledge, and experience of climbing the small teen had to leverage, there was simply no possible way for her to escape. A few more attempts didn't net any different results, and as such, she found herself flat on the ground again, her strength exhausted and back in even more agony.
Dry, cold, and alone, the tiny girl curled up into a ball, knees pressing into her chest. Pressing her back up against the rock below the ledge, her head followed soon after, up against the wall too, eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed. Soon, she let her face relax, dropping her arms to the side, allowing her body to shut down. What was the point? She was trapped.
Was Morgan here too? He would've been able to get past this.
Now, just like the rest of her body, her heart began to hurt too from more than the abnormal amounts of physical exertion. Exhausted, fatigued, and morale at an all time low, her body fell into a restless sleep, no longer able to sustain a fully conscious presence.
Waking up in somehow more pain than before, there was absolutely no way for her to tell how long she was fully out for. Sometime in her slumber, she managed to fall sideways on her back, her spine aching just as much as the rest of her body. Pushing off the ground, the frail joints of her body groaned, creaking as she sat up, resting her back against the wall.
Staring out into the darkness of the cave proved to be just as useful as before. Joining the droplets of water she was hearing, a low rumble permeated through the rock around her. The vibrations invaded her sense of touch, along with a temperature change. Was it getting warmer? That would be great news, any longer and hypothermia would surely settle in.
Taking a deep breath, notes of fire and ash carried into her nostrils. She desperately turned her head every which way, hoping for any sort of visual indicator to guide her in a new way. One minute passed, then two, but no sign of any changes yet. Just as she was about to give up again, the wall across from her reflected a small amount of orange light back at her. It was barely a light level of importance, but the difference nearly blinded her.
The fatigue plaguing her legs blew away by the adrenaline surging through her system, allowing her to pop right up in attention. Turning up to look at the opening above her, the only thing she could see was more rock.
Light! Actual light!
Stepping away from the ledge, she peered a little bit further down, but whether it was the darkness, or simply her short stature, she couldn't see a thing. Fortunately, new sounds also gave her some clues. Audio resembling sharp nails scratching against rock screeched throughout the entire den, echoing over and over again into her smaller than average ears. Kanashima managed to get out of the way just in time as several black creatures exploded out from the mouth. Arachnids the size of bicycles spread out across the entire pit in a fit of rage and panic. One was on a collision course with the only other species occupying the cave.
Spinning out of the line of fire, Kanashima was just barely able to avoid a direct hit, catching one of the sharp legs across her back. The old, worn threads of the oversized jacket shredded with ease under the blade for a leg, the black shirt underneath doing the same. Luckily, the hairy appendage only made shallow lacerations into her actual skin, but it still stung like hell.
Finding it harder and harder to keep her balance, especially after the glancing blow, she scurried away from the arachnid. Taking stock of the situation, her eyes grew in surprise, counting eight spiders, at least, that was her best guess at what they were.
I'm pretty sure spiders aren't supposed to be the size of refrigerators.
Another roar shot through the tunnel above, echoing through and rocking the inhabitants a little bit more. It didn't seem like the arachnids were hostile, at least they weren't towards her at the moment. If anything, they were terrified of whatever was producing that ear piercing, ribcage rocking sound. The same yellowish-orange light being the only thing she could see down the corridor offered her no clues.
Turning her attention back to the wound she received from the initial fright, she had no way of seeing her back and the actual damage, but hot blood ran down her back.
The cold air bit into her skin, feathering through the shreds of her irreparable clothes. Finishing the tear on her coat, she wrapped it around her torso, tying it tight on both ends so they can serve as some makeshift bandages. She took the other half of the shirt and coat and wrapped it vertically along the tear line of her back. She had to have picked up at least a little bit from her brother; he was always taking care of her.
Morgan, thank you. You were always so much better than me at these things.
The loud beast outside crashed through the tunnel, tearing up the ceiling of earth and collapsing the entire den. There was no time for any of them to take cover, all Kanashima could hope to do was brace for impact on the opposite side of the nest. Soon enough, the light of the moon began to peek through the smaller cracks in the surface.
One of the smaller rocks barreled towards the only human victim of the cave at a terrifying speed. She barely had enough time to turn on her side, the cut on her back flaring up in pain again. While she managed to avoid the full impact, the back of her calf still ate a hit, the sharp edge biting through her pant leg and the flesh. Her leg made a desperate attempt to get away, but the rock seemed to have trapped more cloth of her pants under it. There wasn't much more time to react as a much larger rock came at her, this time threatening to tear through her narrow neck.
She flinched behind her arms, as if that would magically stop the rock in its place. This was it, she was going to die in this simulation, just as she expected. Just like so many infected before her. Just like Morgan. If that was true, then she'd be just like him, so shouldn't she be happy?
I tried, I really did, Morgan. I'll be with you soon.
It couldn't have been longer than a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Finally willing enough energy to open her sullen eyes, she was met with darkness all over again just like the previous however many hours she already spent in the simulacrum. At least turning her head allowed some moonlight to hit her grey irides, feathering through the sunken earth trapping her in. She really had taken sight for granted her entire life.
The roar above told her that she wasn't alone just yet. She wasn't sure how many of the spiders survived the collapse, if any at all, but there was no interest in finding out. It wasn't like she would be able to get very far away if she decided to take off and run, especially with her clothing still stuck under the rock.
Eager to not make this small opening in the rocks her final burial, Kanashima tore the trapped clothing off, leaving the frayed fabric pinched under. She tore off more cloth and brought her injured leg up towards the rest of her body. She used the pieces to wrap another makeshift bandage around the cut on her calf, luckily this time it was a smaller cut than what the arachnid's leg did to her.
The wrap didn't take much time at all, the monster above still kicking around the surface and wrecking havoc onto the family of arachnids. Luckily, she was at the bottom of the pit, she could just bide her time, wait out whatever was threatening her time whilst hiding away from both the fighting creatures, and hopefully be able to climb out and not die. She couldn't help but laugh at herself, at the absurdity of the situation.
Easy, right? Miraculously, I didn't die, but I might as well be.
Cold in the night and no longer having the oversized coat protecting her, she curled in the small crevasse left for her, trying to preserve the slowly dwindling body heat. Knees pressed to chest again, head resting on top of those same knees, she writhed in pain. Pressing her cut calf into her thigh didn't feel great, but it was definitely a lot better than hypothermia. Her frail body was already terrible at holding heat, and out of all the ways she could've died in the past couple of days, that was one of the worst ways to go as of yet.
Dawn began to invade through the cracks and onto her just as the sounds from the fight dissipated. It sounded like the beast was gone, and all of the spiders were dead or taken away, Kanashima still waited through another thirty or so minutes of silence before she made her climb out of the almost-tomb.
Pulling herself out and on top of these rocks was much easier than the overhead climb she attempted before the collapse. She turned towards the morning light and got on top of the nearest rock.
Wow, this is the rock that almost took my head off. How, lucky? Silver lining, that's what this is.
Her hand clawed at the large rock that threatened her life, then pulling herself and launching herself over it. She continued up and up until she felt the grass under her hands, the dirt under her lacerated back, and the soft morning sun on her sunken face. She looked to the empty light blue sky, and let out an awkward, pained chuckle. Her thin lips curled into a smile.
She made it to another day.