Chapter 16

Waking up

A beam of light revealed the rest of the room of this huge facility.

Though most of the facility was underground there were openings with stairs that went up to the surface which, judging by the amount of light that reached this iron bridge, was not that far up.

The lush green forested area underneath the bridge was a whole ecosystem on its own.

All sorts of trees littered around, bushes and even small animals.

Now that Nick could clearly see onwards his consciousness drifted towards the beautiful scenery that was surrounding him. Even though right now he shouldn’t care about it one bit, he still couldn’t resist the urge to look around with his eyes.

The paralysis, that isn’t letting him see the whole view, was softening.

He could now make small movements with his fingers. That wasn’t much contribution but it was enough to know that the effect of the vaccine was fading.

Aside from his fingers, his previously stiff jaw was softening and with that, he could now move his mouth enough to talk a little bit before he gets tired of fighting the paralyzing effect and has to rest.

‘‘W-what even is this place? Where are we h-headed to?’’

The time that he hasn’t talked for wasn’t very long, but to him, it felt like ages.

With the occasional stutters, he managed to ask this two questions that were bugging him most.

‘‘So you can talk now? Hm, guess the paralyzing agent wasn’t as strong as I had previously thought. I might have to look into that. Anyway. Funny you ask actually, I was just about to tell you about this beautiful scene here.

This is a kind of sanctuary, or you could at least call it that. It is the place where I test the prototypes, test their different properties on a number of artificial animals, plants, and elements.’’

‘‘Wait, so everything here isn’t real?’’

‘‘Now you might be wondering why I’m telling you this but since I plan to test your jewel there anyway, might as well tell you what that place is.’’

They continued on until reaching a wooden door with a rusty handle.

‘‘Oh, looks like we are almost there!’’

Opening the door they were greeted with a lovely…dark…scary corridor.

Bob clapped his hands, revealing the entirety of the corridor with the spark of tens of torches.

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Spider webs were present all throughout, the floor and walls were cracked.

The ceiling was unstable, would be no surprise if it fell down on their heads, which it thankfully didn’t.

Many doors were placed randomly to their left and right, one might never know what was in them.

And so they continued ahead.

Mind you, when I say they continued I mean Bob continued carrying Nick on his back to show him around.

‘‘Man isn’t this place rusty. Haven’t actually paid attention to it but looking at it now, I really need to fix it up someday.’’

‘‘N-no shit Sher-rlock.’’

To say that Nick still didn’t know what was going on would be an understatement.

Even though Bob told him about everything he asked, he still couldn’t wrap his head around what was really going on. Who even was this guy and how did they get from the gangs to him?

‘‘Most plausible scenario is that he placed a bounty on me to get me to him alive. If it wasn’t that then maybe he bought me, Thora and Emily from them.’’

After saying this words he came to a realization. All this time he was thinking about himself and what he would do to him, just now realizing he was missing the bigger picture.

‘‘Wha-at will happen to m-my friends?’’

‘‘For now, they are just prisoners, but later…’’

He added that last part with the same voice he talked with when testing Nick’s jewel.

A voice that causes abrupt uncertainty in the people surrounding him, in this instance-Nick.

‘‘They will be the final test for this project. Let’s say, we will test it on them.’’

‘‘D-dammit you bastard, y-you will never get away with this.’’

‘‘Now now, I’ve heard that so many times before. It’s kind of cliché, isn’t it? But you see, every time I’ve heard that I got away with what I’ve been doing. Let’s just say, you don’t want to mess with my plans. And also, just in case you try to attack me, know that if you kill me both of your sweet friends will die. Oh, and we are here!’’

He looked to the right and opened the cleanest door there is in these experimental grounds.

A surge of light broke the unsettling, chilly vibe of these corridors.

Beyond that barrier of light was a whole new world.

A long stone path, leading into the beautiful forest. Up ahead-a little bridge going over a narrow stream.

The sounds of birds coming from a distance tickled the ears of the listener. Flowers gratified the viewer’s eyesight, filling it with abstract colors.

Little animals would shake the near bushes, searching for berries.

A true dream land, a traveler’s miracle.

Only if it were real…

They took the path and continued onwards.

‘‘How could such a place be fake?’’

‘‘You know, her research really did wonders. I mean look at this place, such a real thing generated only by a few magic crystals rearranged at certain angles that no one could’ve thought of!’’

Few minutes of walking later they reached an open grass field, full of flowers.

A little down the field were a few targets.

‘‘We will now test your jewel’s properties…’’

Away from this gorgeous forest, into the prison cell where Thora and Emily were.

Emily lightly opened her eyes to the darkness of the room.

Looking around she saw that Nick was missing.

Before going after him she needed to find a way to unchain herself.

Since they were underground, she couldn’t really know if it was day or night, thus she didn’t know if she was at full strength.

There was no time to figure that out, for now, she must find a way to wake up Thora and unchain herself.

‘‘Thora, pss, Thora! Wake up!’’

‘‘Ughh, where are we?’’

‘‘I don’t know but let’s find a way to get these chains off us!’’

‘‘Oh I know! I’ll use my cat bite to break my hands free.’’

‘‘Sure go ahead.’’

Thora opened her mouth wide, revealing sharp teeth, then continued to take a swing at the chains. She bit down hard on them and continued applying pressure until [BAM] they broke.

She did this with the rest of them and freed herself.

Afterwards, she used her claws to free Emily.

‘‘Where even are we?’’

Asked Thora.

‘‘I asked the same question. Well, only one way to find out.’’

And so the opened the screechy door and entered the darkness of the next room…