Memory Bonds

Cooper went back into the stairwell. It was crowded in there. He jumped over the railing, using his rocket boots to bring him gently to the first floor, rather than fight his way through the crowds. The boots made a bit more noise than usual. Well, he hadn't flown them for very long, but flying around an attraction as it was demolished could have put a strain on them.

He slipped out onto the first floor.

Wesles was letting Rasha down. He could see his magic arm stretching down out of the corner of his eye.

The ground wobbled under Cooper. He must've stepped on some rubble, or maybe the floor was just giving way to the dirt that had to be down there somewhere. Either way, he stumbled to the side, and the ground clanged beneath him.

The cultist turned towards him. She stared wide-eyed at him. But she also, without blinking or turning away, turned the knob again. There was a crunch, and this time she pushed the door open.

Cooper's swearing was entirely internal, with no one but Moon as witness, but it was very much there. He stumbled forward, no longer worried about subtlety, and grabbed the door before it closed.

Rasha gagged behind him. The air on the other side of the door was green smoke, some of it billowing inside now.

"We can't follow her through that," Rasha said.

There was some more clanging behind them as Evin and Wesles tried to catch up.

"I can," Cooper told her. He smiled. "Built in filtration system."

Without waiting for an answer, he moved past the door.

The area back here was filled with vents and pipes, a few of them hissing. He was pretty sure he could hear gears moving somewhere as well, though he couldn't see them. Most of the walls and equipment seemed like they were supposed to be black, but there were several brown patches on them. He hoped that wasn't rust anyone should be concerned about.

There wasn't much space to move, between the machinery and the walls that popped up everywhere. He wasn't even sure if he was outside, or just in some kind of maintenance area. He couldn't see the sky, but with the green clouds, that might not mean much.

'I don't think maintenance areas are usually this hostile,' Moon said.

'I've been in one like this.'

'I don't think you have the normal experience.'

She was right, but Cooper was going to ignore that for now. He could see the cultist up ahead. Well, in these conditions he couldn't see much more than her vague shape, but he knew it was her. He couldn't let her get farther away.

He started after her. It truly sucked out here. He accidentally went to close to a pipe, and it burned his shoulder. He tripped on some sort of thick wire that had stretched across the ground, hard to see in these conditions. His filtration system stopped him from breathing poison, but it didn't just create new oxygen. And it did still smell pretty bad. But the cultist had to be having the same problem.

He did see someone else out here. They were small, presumably a dwarf or gnome. They were entirely covered in some kind of thick jacket, gloves, and a gasmask. They had taken a panel off the wall and were fixing it. Or possibly sabotaging it. Cooper didn't know enough about this space to guess.

Either way, they swiveled to stare at the two as they came by. The cultist put a hand out, didn't even have to reach very far, and the person blew up as her fingers brushed against them.

Cooper gritted his teeth. That was unnecessary. All of this was unnecessary, but that was going so far out of her way to be cruel to an innocent person who didn't know what was going on, wasn't causing her problems, it really angered Cooper.

The cultist climbed under a wide pipe in their way.

Cooper jumped over it. If he got his timing just right, he'd land on her.

He didn't get it right. There was some sort of grate on the other side of the pipe, on the floor. And it was more like there were two poorly fitting pieces covering an opening. They fell as soon as he landed on them, and he fell down the hole they'd been covering, to whatever was below.

~~~

Anvon's test to see if she was being tracked was basically just to go to a colbber, and have him mentally scan her. She didn't have any technology on her, hadn't even brought her Link with her. So they left. Anvon put a hand on her shoulder and guided her to a room she could sleep in.

"I'd love to stay, but I have a lot of matters to attend to," he told her. "I'll come check on you in an hour. I'm sure you can manage until then."

He turned and started walking, only to slide back into sight at the doorway. He actually smiled faintly at her, the first time that day.

"And Wren? It's good to have you back."

Wren stayed standing, even after he was gone, his footsteps getting quieter. She looked around. The room was pretty basic. There were six beds, some stacked on top of each other like bunk beds. The only other furniture inside was a dresser that couldn't possibly be large enough for everyone who slept here, and a plain dark rug.

She remembered what the cultists had talked about earlier, about trying to convince someone to move in permanently. This room seemed, to her, to be temporary. Somewhere you slept when you were visiting, before you went back to the real world.

And Wren was certainly tired. Like food, she'd gotten some sleep on the spaceship, but it was very restless. But she wouldn't rest now. Even if she tried, it would probably be restless again.

More importantly, this was the first time she wasn't being escorted around, or watched. She had an hour to herself. She'd be a fool not to use it.

'Careful.'

Wren looked out in the hall. Empty. She slipped out.

There was a room with a glass door nearby that was probably a classroom, but right now all the desks were pushed to the side and two kids were playing in it. One noticed her and waved. Wren gave a smile that shouldn't have been convincing, and waved back.

There was a kitchen, and Wren grabbed a bottle of water out of that. There was a room with basically wall to wall computers and a faint humming noise that she was pushed back out of. And there was a locked metal door.

She headed back in the direction of the entrance. She'd done her best to keep track of the layout as she was led around, but it was confusing. On the plus side, it seemed the large main hall looped around. (It didn't go in a nice neat circle, but it got back to where it started eventually.) As long as she could find it again after slipping into narrower or darker halls, she'd be alright. She'd be back at the hallway with the bedrooms eventually, and could go right back down it.

And maybe it would be move comfortable then. The hallways felt a little claustrophobic. They felt narrow or precarious, like they might cave in, even when they were obviously wide and well built. And she kept moving because the feeling was worse when she was just standing there.

Wren passed a few other people in the halls. Most of them ignored her. One offered a welcome back. Murv asked if she was supposed to be in the bedroom.

"I had to use the bathroom," she lied.

At this point, she'd passed at least one of them. Hopefully, it was close enough to the bedroom for that to be a realistic lie.

She heard a few people behind closed doors, the muffled sound of their voices. But there honestly wasn't too much of that. Maybe everyone was still in the ballroom. Or getting some rest.

She wasn't sure what she was looking for. Maybe nothing in particular. The exploration was mostly to give her options in here. Something she could cause a distraction with, or a less protected exit. Or a weapon, though she was reluctant on that front.

Then she found a short, silent hall with very few lights in it. She stepped inside. It wasn't exactly easy to see in the hallway, but she could tell where the first door was. She opened it up, and blinked a few times. It was . . . bright. There was a screen on the opposite end of the room that streamed in the yellow light of the sun, showing blue sky and clouds, like you could actually see the sky. It was very convincing, but of course, it couldn't be real. They were underground.

And even if you were outside, you couldn't see the sky out there. Fleck would know.

Wren stepped inside, closing the door behind her.