"So it's still a mess, huh?" Catherine looked at the northern entrance of their base from the outside. She thought that yesterday might have been a dream, but nope, this was reality. They had ignored cleaning it up because it was getting late and they still needed to help their new guests settle down. She side stepped the puddles on the ground as she moved a little further away from the base.

As Catherine continued to observe the giant hole in the wall, Miley walked out of it carrying Engie's backpack and approached her.

"I checked our base alert system and apparently it was muted. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you Cath?" Miley questioned her.

"Hey, I ain't messing around with our monitoring system. I'm still banned, remember?"

"Oh yeah... cause you used it to peek on others..."

"Shhhhh don't say it out loud." Catherine immediately got up to Miley's face and tried to shush her, she looked around to see if anyone was nearby. "It makes me sound like a creep."

"That's because you are." Miley shoved the girl away from her, regaining her personal space.

"Well that was a long time ago, I've reformed." Catherine held one hand up as her other hand laid on her chest.

Miley rolled her eyes and turned to the hole in the wall. Though it felt dirty, they had asked their guests to help out with repairing the base in return for staying in it. Of course, with nowhere else to go, they agreed. It was still early, so everyone else was getting ready for the day.

"So I already told the professor..." Miley said without looking at Catherine.

"So we're going? Cause I rather look for the Loch Ness Monster than clean up this mess."

"Yeah... but we do have a slight problem."

"What? Did the others find out?"

"No, but one of the cult members overheard my conversation... and insisted on tagging along."

"So? It's not like it will be a problem if we have an extra set of eyes."

"Yeah... but-" Before Miley could finish, a voice rang out from the hole as another figure appeared from it.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting!" It was Haven, and it seems like he was prepared for a nuclear winter with the gear he was carrying. He was no longer wearing his robes but instead switched to hiking wear. The binoculars around his neck, the gas mask attached to his side and the large backpack that could fit a camping tent in it made it look like he was ready to live in the outdoors for a few days.

"Quiet down. We don't want anyone to notice us." Miley grabbed Haven to the side.

"Hey, where did you get all this stuff?" Catherine checked Haven's gear.

"Places... anyways why don't we want the others to know?" Haven asked Miley.

"Because they'll complain but as long as the professor keeps things on track we won't have to worry about anything while we're out." Miley and the others headed down south, after they got some distance away from the base she turned to two. "Silver said something about something further east."

"Someone told her to go further east." Catherine raised a finger up, she tried to recall what else Silver reported back.

"Oh..." Haven spoke up. "I think that was advice from my friend, Sam. She can be a bit... unique."

"Well, it doesn't matter, we've just been wandering aimlessly." Miley shrugged and headed eastwards.

Catherine was caught off guard when Miley suggested that they take this trip, of course she agreed to it since she was more interested in looking the Loch Ness Monster. But it wasn't like Miley to screw around when she had something important to do like fixing up the base, or maybe it was, she would always carry out orders from her superior but now she's the one giving out orders. Catherine wondered if this change in position showed off her true lazy side but quickly brushed it off, Miley would never half-ass something, she's the type to go all-in even on things she doesn't know.

"Cheating is another form of trying really hard, right?" She said under her breath.

"Did you say something?" Miley turned back to look at Catherine

"Oh. uh, nothing just talking to myself... like I tend to do haha."

"Whatever, let's pick up the pace."

The three headed even further east, hours had past now but the scenery still remained the same, an endless plain of green. The ground was still muddy from yesterday's storm, Catherine hated getting her boots covered in mud so the trek ended up becoming something of a nightmare for her.

"Urgh, this is the worse." Catherine lifted one of her foot up to check under her boots, and just like she thought, dried mud had swallowed the sole. "Ewwww, I'm going to have to spend all night cleaning this."

"Shut the fuck up Cath, this is the seventeenth time you complained about the mud. Why'd I even bring you with me..."

"Cause ya love me." Catherine ran up ahead of the group and turned back to wink at Miley, who's look of agitation only made Catherine want to tease her more. She'd noticed Haven wasn't doing so well as he struggled to breathe. "Haven, buddy, are you doing alright?"

"Sorry, couldn't sleep last night." He paused to catch his breath. "And I'm not a very good hiker, so I'm very tired."

"Why'd you even come if you knew you'd get tired?" Miley complained.

"Want me to carry you?" Catherine squatted down and motioned for Haven to get on her back.

"N-no, it's all r-right... just need to rest for a bit." Haven placed his heavy backpack on the ground and he sat beside it. Both Miley and Catherine had kinda forgotten that he was human so he didn't have the same amount of stamina as they do. Androids do get tired but they have to push their bodies really hard, overheating is one of the most common cause of android deaths.

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"You ever heard of the racist fish?" Catherine asked Haven, who only looked up in confusion.

"Don't bring up the fish, Cath..." Miley groaned, she checked to see if the scanner in her backpack was still working and observed the surroundings for anything that stood out. Looking at the digital map, they have already went further east than Silver. "The hell were the others doing, they didn't even go that far away from base..."

"Didn't she mention something about hills?"

"I think Sam said something about hills over yonder or something." Haven answered Catherine. "Again, don't really think too hard about what she says."

"Yeah but I don't see any around, it's just flat ground all-" Miley froze up, something was east from where they were. There was a slight slope at the corner of the map, as she walked towards it and filled out more of the map, more of the slope was revealed.

"What is it Miley?" Catherine jogged behind her.

"I think I found a depression in the ground, look at the map." Catherine did as Miley suggested and her eyes went wide. The map now showed a large crater.

Once they got to the edge of the crater, the two stood in awe over the giant empty hole, it was more like a canyon. There wasn't a steep drop-off, the slope did slant drastically at some parts, but someone could reasonably walk down it if they were careful. The area was littered with rocks and even some moss covered boulders which added to the ancient look of the place. Even the dirt looked different.

Haven, having saw how far they've gone, caught up with the two and almost ran out of breath again.

"Wowzers... didn't expect to see something like this." He stared at the crater in wonder, there were some small hills at the bottom which all three of them noticed.

"Maybe your friend was on to something." Miley took a few steps into the crater and picked up a wet and oddly shaped rock.

"Nah, it's just coincidence. Believe me, she means well but even she has no idea about what she's talking about."

Catherine quickly made her way down, Miley also followed suit, not content with being left behind. Haven struggled to not fall down the crater, his heavy backpack and his natural lack of balance made it hard for him to get a proper footing. He looked ahead to see the two girls race each other down the slope, Catherine was the victor and jumped up and down to gloat about it.

"Did you see any bones on the way down." Miley looked at Catherine, who was still charged with excitement from her victory.

"Huh? OH bones... nope, no giant dinosaur bones around here." Catherine clambered her way up one of the hills to get a better look around the crater. "Just rocks, more rocks, some rocks, and dirt."

A horrible thought crossed Miley's mind. "What if this isn't the right hole?"

"How many gigantic holes are there in Former North Dakota? Because I don't remember seeing any in all my time here. I think the worst case scenario is if the bones don't even exist." Catherine's attempt at soothing Miley's fears only made them worse.

"Shit! Maybe that professor really is off his rockers. Is he even a professor?"

"Hey calm down, I'm pretty sure he is. I mean he's got a pretty weird last name."

"Having a stupid last name doesn't make you a professor!" While Miley argued with Catherine over the dumb last names of really smart people, Haven finally managed to reach the ground floor of the crater. Once again out of breath, he placed his backpack down used it as a cushion.

"Shit shit shit shit!" Miley begin to stomp around, grinding her teeth, trying to think of what to do next.

"We've barely been at it, searching this place, give it a couple of minutes before you give up." Catherine, not deterred by Miley's negative thoughts, started to search the area. She even dug down using her bare hands to check for the fossil.

"Hey guys, uh, girls, um, androids?" Haven fumbled with his words. "There's a lack of water here even though it rained so heavily yesterday."

"I didn't see any pools of water from above." Catherine mentioned.

"Yeah... and the dirt and rocks are wet too." Miley paused for a brief second before she walk back to Catherine. "Could there be a hole that drained all the water away, because there is no possible way for all that water to just evaporate that quickly." She looked up at the sky, the clouds have been blocking the sun for a while now.

With renewed vigor the trio madly searched the crater for any signs of where the water could've went, this was their only clue on the whereabouts of the Loch Ness Monster or at least what's left of it.

"Wait a goddamn minute, why don't I just use the digital map to see if anything is fucky under the ground." Miley immediately open the map and used the scanner to check if there were any openings in the ground. As she does that, the other two continued their physical search.

"Did anything come up?" Catherine asked Miley.

"No, something is blocking it." Miley didn't understand what the problem was, the area around them appeared on the map just fine but when she checked a few feet underground the map was incomplete, like something was stopping them from scanning it. "Wait..." Miley grabbed the scanner and moved southwards, scanning underground wasn't a problem, it was just that specific area underground. She was proven right when more area underground revealed itself on the map, it was just that certain region that the scanner couldn't scan.

"Hey get over here, I think there's something underground! It might be a base but I'm not too sure." Miley shouted at the other two.

"I think you'll need this." Haven grabbed a shovel from his backpack and passed it to Catherine.

"You were holding out on us this whole time?" Catherine admired the shovel as she no longer had to dig with her hands.

"Here would be good." Miley suggested for them to start digging, and by them she meant Catherine as she had the only shovel.

"Are you sure it's a base? It would be pretty stupid of them to just jam a specific location and not the entire area, I mean, you might as well not jam it at al-" A loud thunking noise made Catherine pause, it was just a few centimetres but she hit something solid. "Did I hit a rock? This doesn't look like a rock."

On closer examination it was metal, something was here. Catherine started digging around and uncovered more of it. At first, they thought it was a buried submarine but the more they saw of it the more unsure they were. The way it was shaped was too off from any normal submarine.

"Can't you check to see if there are any cave systems around it?" Catherine asked, a cave system would probably lead them to an entrance to the metal structure.

"No good, the scanner can't get us a complex view of things underground." Miley explained. "I'm going to use the edge of the jammed area to see if we can pinpoint the location of the entrance."

Miley picked a spot for Catherine to start digging again. She went a few centimetres again but there was no metal wall to stop her this time, seeing this as a sign to start digging further downwards she did some stretches before continuing, as she dug a few meters she breached into a new area and fell into the hole.

"What the hell?" Miley rushed towards the new hole and looked down. "Cath are you okay!"

A voice echoed below. "Y-yeah, at least I think so. I can't see anything!"

With a sigh of relief, Miley leaned back. Haven placed his backpack down and pulled out a few flashlights. He shined the flashlight around the hole, spotting Catherine rubbing her butt because of the fall.

"Do you have any rope in that bag? We can use it to climb down and back up." Miley asked Haven, who nodded. He grabbed a giant nail and, with Miley's help, hammered it into the ground. He then tied a rope around it and threw the other end into the hole. Both Miley and Haven went down the rope leaving their backpacks behind.

Catherine grabbed a flashlight from Haven and looked around. "Woah, if I had wandered around here I might have fell into this ravine thing." She pointed out the massive gap in the ground just a few meters from where the group was. She turned back to the metal structure and stood mouth agape, they had discovered the entrance. It was a wide passage that led down into the pitch black unknown. Miley took the first step into the structure and soon the others followed.

It didn't take long for them to reach the end of the passage which led to a metal door and a panel with buttons on it.

"Hey... is that the Scottish flag?" Catherine pointed out as she shined a light on a wall. It was, in fact, the flag of Scotland painted on the side, though years of deterioration did not do it any favours.

"Holy shit, we might be on to something." Miley looked back to the panel by the door. "Do we have to enter a passcode to enter?"

"Why don't we just push the door in or something?" Catherine walked up to the door and placed her hands on it.

"Would that work?" Haven questioned.

"Of course not, this is a top secret base. We have to somehow hack into this panel so it will let us through." Miley examined the rusted panel. "It looks archaic, is it even operational?" As soon as Miley finished saying that, Catherine pushed the door down, tearing it from its corroded frame.

"Yeah alright, fuck that, let's go in." Miley walked ahead of the others into the unknown base.