The silence stretched between them, thick and heavy. Finally, Izari broke it, his voice raspy.
"Hey, look, I'm sorry for what happened down there, okay?" He tried to sound casual, but his guilt was genuine. Lorian's eyes narrowed, suspicion flickering within them. "Yeah." He replied, still eyeing the stairway.
Izari, kind of relived. "Just didn't know what you were capable of…" He hesitated "You know ." He turned to face forward "And I'm relieved you're are…"
"You would have let them kill me." Lorian cut him off. Izari stopped and looked at him, he was shocked by the reply "No, I…"
"Oh come on, you were clearly going to accept that creepy dude's request." Lorian continued disgust on his face. "What, you thought by telling them to let me go that you were going to be a saint,"
Izari raised his arms as he slowly approached Lorian "They were going to kill us both." He looked straight at lorians eyes "I was going to make a decision that would benefit the both of us.". Lorian's eyes widened as his mouth formed a snarl "They killed Solomon!"
"And they were about to kill you too!" Izari snapped back.
"Ow, now you're pretending to care about me, you told that woman to go ahead and kill me!"
"And you were the one who insisted on staying back there with me! You had this coming." Izari replied his heavy breathing. "Well it's good I did that cause look at you now still not a freaking defector." Lorian face twitched "Honestly is money the only thing you think of?"
"Even after seeing what those sick fucks did to that girl you let the thought of siding with them cross your mind, you're pathetic."
Izari looked straight into Lorian's eyes and asked him "Then why did you save me?"
Lorian's gaze lingered on Izari, calculating. "Because Rona seems to believe in you for some reason, unlike you I don't want to betray his trust." Izari shrugged. "Well, thanks, I guess." He then turned to look ahead the platform, in front of them were several ladders beside the bridge some leading up to the forgotten sector while others led down below the pipelines below.
"Now that thats over can we go find the old man." He After what felt like an eternity, Lorian didn't reply. They both walked to each ladder looking for any open hatches at their ends. After looking through three ladders Izari let out a tired sigh. He turned to face Lorian "Why don't we just go up one of these ladders, I mean we'll still end up in the undercity?" Lorian didn't reply, he just went on looking up and down at the hatches through the dim lights. "I gave him the rendezvous point and it is up there, what are you still doing there." Izari's face twitched. Lorian kept on searching completely ignoring him. Irritated, Izari walked up to him only for him to suddenly stop.
"Wait."
Lorian hesitated for a moment, he looked up to see Izari pointing at something on the ladder he was standing beside. It was a large handprint on the grime covered guardrail. Disgust flashed Lorian before he let his curiosity get the better of him, he leaned in close inspecting the handprint. He wasn't sure it was Rona's but it seemed recent so he didn't need to think much. Izari was still surprised but suspicious, why was the ladder Rona chose leading down. He felt uneasy as fear began to build up inside him he didn't want to go further below this hellhole. He then saw Lorian beckoning him. He reluctantly stepped forward and both of them descended the ladder to the latch below.
With a grunt, Izari heaved it open, revealing a derelict corridor, the flickering lights casting long, distorted shadows. The ceiling had partially collapsed, leaving a mess of debris.
Rona and Cassia were waiting. Cassia was still weak, slumped against the wall, her face pale. Rona's face lit with relief when he saw Izzy, but his expression hardened as he took in Lorian's bruises and cuts.
"Took you long enough," Rona muttered, masking his concern with gruffness.
Rona's eyes then lingered on Izari, as if analyzing him. There was a tension between them, something subtle but present. Perhaps concern.
Lorian stepped forward. "We've reached an old Undercity maintenance sector bordering the city's lower levels. Just give me a moment to get the lights on." He fiddled with a rusted control panel. The air here was thick with dust and a rancid, almost sweet smell.
Cassia, still recovering, murmured, "I heard voices in the tunnels while we waited."
"You're imagining things," Rona tried to assure her, but Izari and Lorian exchanged uneasy glances.
Rona flicked a switch, and the sector groaned to life. Dim, flickering lights cast their pale glow across the corridor, revealing a disturbing scene. Scorch marks marred the walls, and drag marks scarred the floor. Piles of discarded clothes lay strewn about, mixed with broken cybernetic parts. Cassia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in horror.
"That being said I've not been down here for a long time and it seems that a lot has changed," Lorian added with a note of unease.
They moved forward cautiously, the air growing heavier with each step. "What the hell happened here?" Izari asked as he looked around the corridor. Rona crouches down inspecting the tattered clothes and cybernetic parts. "They belong to manufactory workers from sector 9." He said looking forward as if assessing any presence of danger ahead of them. " Then what did this to them?" Cassia asked Rona, he appeared uncomfortable by the sight in front of him. " No time for questions kid we need to get out of here as soon as possible." Rona said leading the way further into the corridor and they followed.
They eventually reached an industrial section, the massive ventilation fans humming with a barely functional rhythm. The walls were covered in smears of dark fluid - blood, but too thick and blackened to be fresh. It looked like tar mixed with rust.
The deeper they went, the more the space felt wrong. Izari voiced his unease. "This feels wrong. Let's just turn back and go back to the surface."
Rona shook his head. "Look, Izari, we can't. For all we know, more of those guys might be up there, still hot on our trail. And we can't risk the vents, not with Cassia's condition." He pointed to Cassia, emphasizing the urgency of their situation.
Then they heard it – a distant clicking sound, like metallic claws tapping on steel. It sent a shiver down Izari's spine.
Shadows moved within the industrial maze. Eyes glinted in the darkness.
Lorian was the first to react. "We've got company." He could almost taste the stench of them, a mix of decay and metal.
From the ceiling and the vents, twisted, emaciated humanoid creatures emerged. Their skin was stretched too tightly over their bones, patches missing to reveal sinew and dark, metallic grafts. Their fingers ended in elongated, serrated claws.
Cassia let out a weak gasp as one dropped in front of them, its head cocking at an unnatural angle. Its eyes glowed dimly, and its jaw unhinged like a broken machine, emitting a low, guttural growl.
The creatures attacked in sudden, jerking movements, too fast and erratic to predict. Panic surged through the group.
Rona took point, shielding Cassia while firing precise shots into their bodies, only for them to keep moving, limbs twitching unnaturally. Whatever kept them animated, it wasn't life.
Lorian, his knowledge of the tunnels proving invaluable, shouted, "Get behind me, now!" He activated a malfunctioning pipe that spewed boiling steam, temporarily blocking off one side of the corridor.
One of the creatures reared its half-burnt head from the cloud of steam and began dragging its badly scalded body across the floor toward them. Rona took aim and fired, putting a bullet through its skull. It started convulsing erratically as it gurgled out black liquid from its mouth before slowly crawling towards them again.
"What are those things?" Cassia asked, her voice trembling with fear.
In that instant, more of them emerged from the steam, lunging forward. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" Izari shouted, and he turned and ran deeper into the corridor, Rona, Lorian, and Cassia scrambling after him.
After barely escaping the horde, they barricaded themselves inside a rusted storage facility, panting, bruised, and bloodied. The air was thick with the stench of sweat, fear, and something else… something indefinably wrong.
Izari, looking at the remains of one of the creatures that was in the storage facility with them, muttered, "There is no way this thing used to be human." He ran a his hand over the creature's cybernetic enhancements, his face grim and he felt a wave of nausea. It appeared to have died recently with parts of its neck ripped off. The grafted cybernetics, the vacant eyes… something was turning people into this. He could recognize the style of the cybernetics, the crude, brutal implementations that were all horrific to look at, he had seen similar features on the lamprey like creature.
Lorian crouched beside the body and lifted a rusted identification tag from its neck. The name was long eroded, but the insignia was clear, the same as Rona's coat.
"Well," Lorian murmured, his face etched with a disturbed look. "Looks like one of yours." He threw the rusted identification tag at Rona, who caught it, his face draining of color as he recognized the emblem and then squinted to read the name on the tag.
"Donald. He… he was with me when we rescued Cassia. I saw him die. He's supposed to be dead." Rona fell to his knees, covering his face with his hands. "It can't be…" The weight of guilt and horror settled upon him.
Amara, and Tamisra, the woman, were now moving through the abandoned tunnels.
The seer seemed unfazed by the horrors around them, his eyes focused on some unseen goal. Amara moved silently, anger radiating from her like a palpable force.
They reached the battle site where Izari and the others had fought. The seer knelt, inspecting the blackened blood on the ground.
"They were here," he muttered. "And they saw them."
Amara's face was unreadable, but her lips curled slightly. "Saw what?" Her voice was laced with curiosity.
The seer stood, his expression blank. "Nothing that concerns you."
Amara's eyes darkened. She knew what she had to do, this job which her comrades had died trying to accomplish. This strange man from the south district who was somehow able to heal every fatal injury she had incurred. Why did he want that girl so much? What was it that the girl possessed that a man this powerful wanted? She too wanted to find out, maybe that secret could be her way out of the small leagues to somewhere more respectable. The seer watched the tunnel closely before interrupting her thoughts "I'm raising the agreed amount."
Amara raised her eyebrows at the seer. "Really?" she asked the seer, she cast a look of relief at Tamisra who was inspecting the claw marks and black blood around them, something akin to doubt flashed across her face as she turned to look at her.
The seer did not react. He simply continued walking, telling her, "All you have to do is be quick with it."
Back at the storage facility Rona, still shaken, gripping his side as tears of loss fell, the weight of everything settling on him.
He looked at the others, his voice hoarse. "We need to get out of here. Now." The fear was raw i
n his eyes, a chilling premonition of what was to come.