The Music Speaks

Sophia had already left the vehicle by the time Ray and Camille approached the window to look through it. With a movement of her hand, she beckons us to follow after her. I’d have honestly liked to stay inside, but my curiosity gets the better of me. The moment I step out of the vehicle, however, the blazing sun hits me harder than it ever had. My body’s temperature rises immediately and I can already feel beads of sweat attempting to leak from every pore of it. I’m tempted to return within the cooler confines of the Bassline, but the scene before me is simply too captivating to do so.

Frankly, it’s a lot to take in. Fifty, maybe even a hundred of the bone-plated hyenas we encountered on our first day lay dead, their bodies mutilated and their faces contorted. Some are missing legs, some have their torso, or stomach torn open, and quite a few of them have been decapitated. The more I approach, the stronger the smell of blood becomes and the more harrowing I realize the scene really is.

‘Who, or what could have done this…?’

Ugo and Sophia, walking in front of us, approach the scene with apprehensiveness, until they stop right before reaching them. I catch up to them, and do the same. Eventually, after a few seconds of contemplating, Sophia makes the first move. She manifests her ability and creates a small stick of ice, though it seems to drain her more than it would have before, surely because of the heat in this zone. Promptly, she pokes one of the hyenas with the stick..

“Yep… definitely dead.” She says, before dismissing the ice stick.

“That was obvious from the start…” Ugo retorts.

Sophia shrugs. “It could have been some sort of trap, or an illusion, or even a mirage. I just wanted to make sure.” She addresses all of us. “Does anyone have a hypothesis on how this came to be?”

To answer her question, Ray carefully approaches one of the hyenas who had its insides ripped out of it and inspects it closely. He flips it around, probes its body and performs all sorts of miscellaneous tests.

Finally, when he has probed it enough, he shares his thoughts. “I’m almost certain this… wasn't done by humans…”

“What makes you say that?” Ugo asks.

Ray points to a wound on the dead beast’s body. “The most apparent clues are the obvious bite, and claw marks.” He then rubs his index finger on a wound. “ Then, if you look closely, you’ll notice every slice is rugged and uneven, and couldn’t have been done by a conventional instrument… Putting all that together, it looks like infighting to me.” He says

“Did the pack have a fallout maybe…?” Camille asks.

Before Ray can answer, I give my two cents. “That’s probably not it… especially not on such a large scale. Hyenas are originally pack animals, it doesn’t make sense for them to annihilate themselves...” I answer.

Sophia raises an eyebrow at my answer. “You know, I’ve been wondering, but are you an animal expert of sorts? How do you know all this?”

I shrug. “This is pretty much common knowledge.”

“Yeah, for you maybe.” She snorts

Camille, who is still intently looking at the fallen [echoed], raises a very important concern. “S-something isn’t adding up. Let’s put aside how they died… just why are they here…?! Why did these [echoed], end up in the desert, when originally, we encountered them in the grasslands…?”

I frown, failing to come up with an answer. It could of course be a mere coincidence but I have a feeling that’s not it. After all, the desert isn’t a climate that such beasts would thrive in, even if they are [echoed]. Not only do they seemingly have no incentive to traverse borders and step foot into this zone, but creatures with intelligence like that of a hyena would not put themselves in such a disadvantageous position.

‘Right… Why are they even here?’

“They must have been running away...” Ugo mumbles.

My head whips around toward him. “What makes you say that?”

“Certain blood trails.” He points to a few of them. “Notice how all the blood trails point toward the grasslands? This must mean they were going away from there when they were attacked...”

Sophia rubbing her chin and inspecting the blood trails herself, adds onto his speculation. “That would make sense, indeed. The orientation of their bodies also seems to support that idea…”

Ray lets out a dry laugh. “It gets weirder you guys. Come look at this.” When we’ve gathered around him, he gruesomely widens the hole in the chest of one of the [echoed] with his hands. “...These [echoed]… this one is missing its heart and I’ve checked some of the others. A lot of them are also missing vital organs, including hearts, livers, brains… you name it.”

Camille leans forward to look into the empty cavity exposed by Ray. “...Perhaps they fell out during the carnage…?” she wonders.

Ugo’s expression turns stern. “A brain doesn’t just fall out, Camille. Something strange happened here.”

She turns to look at Ugo, and after a short pause, Camille takes a step back. “If… this didn’t happen by chance… then that means that someone, or rather something, pushed nearly a hundred echoborn, some possibly echotoned beasts to flee from their natural habitat into a scorching desert and then what… had a feast with their vital organs? What could possibly have done that..?” She says, tension in her voice.

Silence fills the air. Whatever did this, is not something we can fight against, at least not without thoroughly preparing first, and we all understand that. As I play a million scenarios in my head, a gust of wind sprinkles sand onto my foot and onto a few of the dead [echoed].

Finally, I make up my mind. “Well whatever did this, it’s definitely not something we want to run into… I think we should leave this place alone...” I say.

“Agreed…” Sophia replies with a somber tone, before heading back to the Bassline. We all follow behind her and without missing another moment we are once again on our way to Vault 101. The rest of the journey is done in silence. It seems that the scene we just witnessed gave everyone a lot to think about.

‘Now that I think about it… I should ask Ugo about that...’

“Hey Ugo, wh-”

“We’re here!” Ray interrupts, before promptly exiting the vehicle.

‘...I can always ask him later.’

Once we reach the point marked by Ugo’s map, we come face to face with our goal. Contrasting with the environment around it, a lone metal box, at least twice my height and twice as wide as the Bassline, stands within the desert. The seams of sliding doors can be seen on the front, most likely activated by the digital panel embedded onto its surface. Sophia, who had taken charge of the access permit, approaches the doors and as it seems to be the only right thing to do, she places the access permit on the digital panel. As soon as she does so though, a loud, alarming noise resounds, making us jump back a bit. A robotic voice comes out from the panel.

[Please identify yourselves before presenting an access permit!]

Sophia frowns. “Identify myself? Isn’t this permit enough identification as is?”

“I-I think it means your insignia Sophia, the one on your palm.” Camille says.

“Oh! That makes sense”

Succinctly, Sophia places the palm of her hand, covered by the body suit, on the vault’s digital panel.

[Team Zeta - Leader: Sophia Thunderbalde— Please present your team’s access permit.]

She does as she’s told, once more placing the access permit on the panel.

[Vault 101 access permit successfully recognized. Warning, the doors will now open. You have exactly ten seconds before they close, in which case, the access permit will no longer be valid.]

With a slow, mechanical screech, the doors open. Immediately, a ten second countdown appears on the panel, inciting all of us to make our way inside as quickly as we can.

Once we step inside, the doors close behind us and a set of lights placed on the ceiling open. In the room encased by the metal box, a safe is contained. There is nothing special about it, but it also contains the digital panel which had been on the door before. A voice emanates from it without us having to do anything this time.

[Please, all active team members identify yourselves.]

One after the other, we place our palms on the panel.

[Please pick a number between 1 to 10.]

“Huh, that’s a weird request.” Sophia says, perplexed.

“You think it has something to do with the points we receive?” Ray asks.

“That’s… not crazy at all, we should pick ten then shouldn’t we?” I say.

Camille stops Sophia before she can press on the panel. “W-what if that’s what they expect us to do and we get penalized for it?”

Ray rubs his chin “Then we go with the safe option and pick 5? It’s right in the middle!”

Ugo with a confident step, pushes everyone aside and moves toward the panel. “Hmph, cowards.” He says, before pressing ten on the panel himself and disregarding everyone’s opinion.

[Thank you! the awarded points will now be tallied.

Full team bonus applied: 10x

Low point total bonus applied: 2x

Non-forceful entry bonus applied: 5x

Greed bonus applied: 3x

Greed penalty applied: the number chosen will be halved.

Total awarded points: 1500 points.

To receive your points, your leader may place their palm on the digital panel. If your leader has been eliminated, any other member may play their palm on the panel, but only half of the points will be given.]

Sophia leans back, her eyes wide. She then turns to us in disbelief. “Haha… I must have surely heard something…right? Did this thing say it would give us one thousand five hundred points? As in, one, five, zero, zero..?”

A smile creeps up my lips. “It sure did…!!”

Ray jumps with joy. “HAHA! Amazing! We have Alden to thank for this!!”

“Hmph, you did good I suppose...” Ugo begrudgingly says.

Filled with pride, I urge Sophia to not waste another moment in collecting our points.

‘I wonder what the announcer is saying right now, is he seeing this?’

****

[Breaking news folks! I’m hearing that team Zeta has just earned themselves a whopping 1500 points!! That’s right! Fitneed hundred, the highest point tally for any team that has participated in the Hide and Seek event! What a turnaround! What a game changer!! After their trials last night, their situation was quite uncertain, and I must admit that even I believed that they were done for! However, it appears I was worried for no reason! Any comments on the situation, Maestro Sigmund?]

The display switches to an older looking man with a full beard and long hair attached in a but atop his head.

[Yes indeed, thanks for having me today Maestro Palazio. Truth be told, I was watching the event from home last night and found myself observing Requiem’s trial with great interest. Though that youngster, Alden I think it was, has amazing mental strength, that’s definitely not enough to win him this competition. Fortunately for him, though it seems that’s not all he has! He paid a dire price in hiring the powerful Requiem, but his gamble certainly proved itself well worth it! Team Zeta is officially back on track and they’re a team everyone should worry about!]

***

Team

Zeta

Purchases

The Bassline - 70 points

4L filtered water container - 5 points

2x booster vials with injection apparatus- 10 points

Special events conquered

Hide and seek

Current zone

Grasslands

Active members

Sophia Thunderbalde

Alden Thorne

Ugo Brightscar

Camille Starforge

Ray Burst

Eliminated members

Points

1501