Chapter 15 [https://i.imgur.com/wfgyurB.jpg]

Zac tried to get ahead of the crowd, but people were running too slowly. The corridor was also too narrow for him to push past the crowd. It was just like trying to enter the dome all over again. Zac didn't stand for this.

"Activate battle armour."

⟡Activating battle armour.⟡

The familiar colour and AI enhanced visor entered his vision.

Ugh. It was like a new sense overloaded his brain. It was hard to adjust to the additional stimuli. Push through Zac. Go go go.

Zac kicked up into the air and punched the wall. The metal panel dented from the additional force created by the exosuit and he used the indent as a hold to pivot and propel himself forward above the crowd running below.

His eyes madly darted around as he sped forward, looking at the metal panelling and the people below him. As his height started to dip, Zac smashed his fist against another panel, grabbed and propelled himself forward again.

Zac started to smile, and soon that smile soon turned to a laugh as he jumped from wall to wall. For a moment he was distracted, lost in the exhilaration of learning a new extreme skill, pushing the boundaries of his comfort zone, and having a new world of new sensations open up to him.

He reached a corner and completed a quick 1-2-3 zigzagging jump, this time without punching the wall and instead quickly pivoting from side to side and pushing off with his legs. The wall exploded from the force that his legs generated and he looked back, seeing the debris fall on unsuspecting recruits.

"Sorry!"

He dropped down next to one of the men who fell and hauled him back to his feet. The man's eyes were wide and unfocused. He was looking around at the metallic walls, confused, and then looked towards Zac, staring his way in bewilderment but never focusing on Zac.

"Sorry, can't stay to help."

Zac jumped back up and continued his thrill ride of flying from wall to wall.

He didn't realise that he had left the crowd behind, and even jumped past the door leading to the stairwell.

Seeing it fly by, Zac quickly punched the wall and grabbed the dent, trying to reverse mid flight. The panelling wasn't strong enough and the welding snapped as the panel broke free from the wall and Zac crashed to the ground, tumbling end over end. Zac found himself wishing that his exosuit had thrusters.

Zac picked himself up, uninjured, and tried to put the panel back in its place, but it fell down again.

"Sorry." He apologised to the metal wall, and ran back to the stairwell door.

Wait, why did I apologise to the wall? He questioned himself. I mean, it's not like the wall can talk back to me, right?

Well, when I talk to the others it's like I'm talking to a wall anyway so what's the difference. Zac started to have a conversation with himself in his mind. So now I'm going to become a recluse who talks to inanimate objects? And talks to himself for company?

Stop it Zac, focus.

Zac reached the stairs first and burst through the staircase door. An acrid odour assaulted his nose as the door swung open and upset the still air. A layer of dust was disturbed and flew up int a small cloud. Fresh air had not entered this area since the last batch of recruits, and even then it was likely only for the brief moments that the door was opened. He could practically still see the footprints left in the dust from who knows how long ago.

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Inside was a rectangular stairwell with a central hole that seemingly disappeared into the abyss.

Zac coughed as the dust swirled along the ground from his strides.

He ran down the steps, and then decided it was taking too long and instead jumped down a whole flight of steps at a time. Just like before when he was jumping in the hallway, the exosuit absorbed the impact and he sustained no shock or injury. Jump and running down, he quickly scaled six flights of steps before realising there was no door to level underground one.

Zac was worried. He ran down another 2 flights of steps and stared over the edge of the rails to look at the landing below. He still couldn't see the door to exit.

Zac stared down the hole in the centre of the stairwell and had an idea. He climbed onto the other side of the guard rails and hung off the rails with his legs dangling down in the middle of the stairwell.

He then let go and fell down to the flight below, grabbing onto the guard rails to stop his fall. Still no door. He let go of the rails again and dropped down another flight of steps before grabbing the rails. Zac assessed the walls for a door. Nothing. Drop. Nothing. Drop. Nothing. Drop. Nothing. Wait, there was a door behind him! He swung himself back up, perched on the guard rails like a cat, pounced diagonally across the stairwell, and vaulted himself around the rails to land in front of the door.

A sign on the door read, "Level U1".

LEVEL U1?! Zac poked his head again into the middle of the stairwell and looked up. How many flights have I jumped down to just get to Level U1?! The others had reached the top of the stairwell and their footsteps and voices travelled down as they were slowly running. The front runners had realised the same dilemma and that they couldn't find Level U1. It would be a while before they joined him.

Zac looked down the stairs into the abyss. Where is level U4 then?

Level U1 was far lower than he expected. Just in case, he opened the door and true enough, level U1 had a very high ceiling, tens of metres high. Level U1 looked like a giant hangar, with large mining trucks stationed far away.

This is the smaller mining facility? And there's level U7? Again, Zac marvelled at the scale of the Citadel's infrastructure.

Zac smacked his face. Now wasn't the time to be distracted. No one else had batteries yet, so no one could jump down like he could. It was just him and Ella, and she was busy with the injured. He looked down and gritted his teeth. Eric. Jaden. Killian. Mervyn. The other injured. They were all hourglasses with their sand running out. Only he could rush down to level U4. For my circle. He hopped and stood on the guard rail, and faced the central stairwell hole. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, turned around and stepped backwards, plunging down into the abyss.

Flights of stairs flew past at increasing speeds as Zac pindropped down.

Level U2. Zac's visor and eyes were working on overtime as he quickly surveyed each landing for doors as they flew by. After some stage he could only make out broad shapes.

Level U3. Level... U... 4!

Zac grabbed the rail as his eyes spotted the level U4 door. The guard rail immediately broke from the force of the lightning speed he was travelling at, and Zac continued to plummet down.

Rift! Zac shot both his hands in front of him and grabbed onto the steel and concrete floor.

BANG. BANG. BANG. His visor dimmed from the impacts and Zac lost vision and hearing, leaving only the sense of proprioception to guide him.

Zac's outstretched arms smashed through floor after floor until he slowly lost momentum and crash landed to a stop as he hit a steel rebar reinforcement in the concrete floor.

⟡Error. Host has sustained tremendous damage to the battle armour. Battery significant depleted, currently 10%, please attach a backup power source.⟡

His visor remained broken and he couldn't see or hear anything.

Zac pulled himself up and sprawled on the landing. He couldn't pull off his armoured helmet.

"Activate default mode."

⟡Activating default mode.⟡

His helmet disappeared and Zac could see and hear again. Zac's bones and muscles were intact, but his arms and hands shook uncontrollably. The armour was far studier than he realised, protecting him from what were multiple back breaking impacts. But it seemed that the armour wasn't perfect in mitigating the impacts.

The battery is depleted? The armour uses the battery to maintain some sort of barrier? Zac shivered at the thought. Maybe it wasn't as indestructible as he thought. I could have died. Best I don't cheat the system anymore.

He took the old battery off and fumbled with shaking hands to take a new battery out of the canister. He placed the new battery on his chest.

⟡Power source identified.⟡

Zac looked at the stairs above him. He could see the damaged landings where his arm and body had smashed through. He was probably 10-20 flights of stairs lower than he needed to be. He decided to walk up like a normal human being until he reached the level U4 door, grasping the guard rails for extra support. He had already saved enough time. Okay fine, maybe I can run, but that's the limit. No way am I doing that again. Zac bargained with himself.

He ran up the stairs, wearing his exosuit, carefully jumping 5 steps at a time until he reached the door.