--Point of View: Crim--

Crim is what she called me now. I’m not sure if it held any significance but it was preferred over beast, monster, or anything else she called me before our mutual agreement. An agreement that had brought us here, deep underground to a building that even I did not like the feeling of. The hallway and the rooms we had just left were in amazing condition compared to the rest of the ruined city. It was a thought that made me hesitate for all but a moment before I pressed on. I had lived for more years than I cared to remember and decided the unknown was not scary at this point. Living without having done anything at all was a far worse fate.

The path we were venturing down now was tall, wide, and well lit. It was a big contrast to the small corridors that were commonplace everywhere else. I welcomed the extra room considering my stature. My comrade for this adventure had gone quiet, having pulled out a notebook and started taking notes. I never asked what she wrote down. As this thought trailed off in my head, it was replaced by another.

“You know. You’ve started to call me Crim and while I have no issue with this, it does leave me in a small predicament. What should I call you? I know you as Katie but if you had another name you prefered” I stated, turning my head to casually look over at her, awaiting an answer.

“Well technically my name is Catherine. Family name, but…” She replied, a flash of annoyance on her face.

“Let me rephrase the question. What would you like me to call you?” I asked again.

“I did not think the first person to ask me that question would be a giant red beast but given how most of my coworkers act around women, they are beasts themselves. Katie, just keep calling me Katie. Catherine is so damn formal, and I never liked how old it made me sound.” She answered, a small grin escaping the corner of her lips.

“Katie it is then. Well, Katie, what do you make of all this so far. While I will not pretend to know much about what may lay down here, it is certainly better off than the wasteland above.” I asked, curious to hear what she had to say.

“I’m not sure to be frank. The fact everything down here is in such good condition is a testament to just how advanced this old civilization was. They existed over a thousand years ago and here we are, exploring their facilities after all this time. We are lucky to make something that lasts a few decades let alone a millennium. It’s hard to describe how amazing this all is. The pinnacle of the human race, or at least what we know, was right here.” She explained, going into great detail about how these ancient humans were the basis for all the technology they had now.

I listened to her talk as we continued to make our way deeper into this underground building. It would not take long before the relatively boring hallway became littered with doors and oversized windows. Before I could ask if we should proceed through the first set of doors we encountered, Katie already had her nose glued to the observation window, peering inside for whatever treasure may await. I took that as my queue to remove the door. Over the years I had learned that the quickest way to get through a locked door was to slash away at the hinges until it fell off. Not the most graceful of methods, but an effective one. The doorway was clear a minute later.

Upon entering this new room, I was greeted with a wide assortment of glassware, stacks of books cluttered on every desk, and more of these terminals that Katie seemed so interested in. I wandered in behind her, feigning interest while she awed over every little thing. It was like watching an excited child picking out a piece of candy from the store but did not know which to choose. Their eyes would dart back and forth between the various workstations before she settled down at one and started plucking away at all the little buttons. Watching her work did very little to help me understand what was going on. She was looking for something, or anything from the sounds of it, that may interest her.

“Anything of use here?” I asked, taking a seat upon the dirt ridden floor to observe. “I know you are looking for another one of these reactors, but is there anything else you seek to find?”

“Of course, there’s more! So much more!” she exclaimed, pulling her attention away from her work just long enough to give me a bewildered look. “Any hints, blueprints, or even information about how stuff worked back then would be valuable. With enough information we may be able to even replicate their technology. That is the end goal after all.”

I nodded along with what she had to say, doing my best to take it all in as I peered around the rest of the room. “It’s hard to imagine that mankind had come this far compared to the simpler life I had lived. Sure, we had enchanting to make daily tasks easier but that is nothing compared to the advancements I have witnessed since being reborn. Its downright scary at times.”

“You keep mentioning your time as if you’d already lived it. What do you mean precisely?” she asked curiously, dropping the book she had picked up to inspect.

“I mean I have already lived one life. I died and was reborn, here, in this body. I cannot really explain more than that because I do not know myself.” I grimaced. The memories still haunted me even to this day.

“See, that is the part that does not make any sense. You cannot just die and come back. It does not work that way.” She said with confidence. She was very sure of herself, and I did not blame her for not believing me.

“I once thought the same thing, but I can assure you, I was once a man and I did in fact lose my life. How I came to be in this body is a mystery, one that I hope to uncover eventually.”

Katie did not respond at first but would eventually say “Well, I don’t have a reason to not believe you. I mean, until a few weeks ago I would have called the talk of magic and enchanting a complete waste of my time. Everything you have told me so far has been true so I will go along with your tale for now. Regardless, the fact remains I am sitting here having this discussion with a giant crimson dog. That is bizarre enough to make most things sound reasonable.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Standing stunned for a moment, I repeated what she had just said over again in my head. I could not help but smile a big, toothy grin. I know I have not talked to literally another living thing in years so perhaps I am biased, but Katie was truly a decent person.

“Thank you. That means more than you know. Let us keep looking around. Surely there is something of use down here for you.”

We continued our search of the room. I tried to make myself useful by ripping open cabinets or locked closets that were nearby while Katie leap frogged from desk to desk in search of anything she thought may be worthwhile. The room took us about an hour to tear through, my snout covered in a layer of residue from rummaging through everything. While I did not find anything of use, Katie was more fortunate. This was not a surprise. Everything in this room was amazing by my standards so after asking her for the fourth time if what I found was of interest, she very kindly told me that perhaps I should just make a pile and she would look it all over at the end. It was a little disheartening, but I completely understood. What she found though was a map of the area. It showed the entire layout of the building along with a handy index to mark what every room was used for.

“Finally, something that we can actually use. I just need to copy this down and we should be good to go. It has everything and some of these rooms have very interesting names. One you may be particularly interested in.” she said, turning to look at me with a grin as she beckoned me closer. “Look at this.”

“Oh? What did you find?” I asked, making my way over to desk and leaning down to take a look at the flickering monitor. Her finger was firmly planted on a large room that looked to be located further down the hall. It was larger than the other rooms and most importantly of all, was labeled Animal Testing. My head started to slowly tilt to one side as I stared at those words, wondering if I would really find something about myself there.

“And look at this one here! Cybernetics, Main Power, Health Ward, and Weapon Testing. There is so much stuff here Crim. This is a gold mine. If this room is anything to go by then everything here is salvageable and in usable condition. If the first reactor was a gold mine then this facility is the damn mountain.” She told me, her face just beaming with delight. You could tell she was struggling to keep her composure or at least what was left of it.

“Well, I cannot say I know what most of that means but I will take your word for it. The animal one though, that definitely sounds like something I would be interested in. I know it’s a long shot but even if the chances are slim, I want to check it out. They may have something about my condition.” I said calmly, my eyes locked on the map still.

“Of course, of course. We will be checking out everything after all. I do not want to miss one inch of this place.” Came her response quickly.

“Agreed. Let’s finish up this room and move on to the next. It looks like we have a lot of work to do. Should we just go down the line? Seems pretty straight forward that way we do not overlook anything.” I asked.

Katie nodded and continued her work, only a few more desks to go in this room. I decided my time would be best used by heading out to open up the next door, assuming they were all sealed like the first. My hunch was correct but luckily for me, the solid steel doors were easily removed like before, a few swipes in the right spot did the trick. What awaited for me in the next room was bizarre, and that was saying a lot coming from me. I should have asked what this room was labeled as on the map. Cabinets lined the walls and lockers were positioned in the center, back-to-back in a row. There were a couple of smaller rooms jutting off this one. I curiously forced open the first locker I approached to see what was inside. What I found was disappointing, but not all that surprising. Clothes or some sort of uniform was hung up inside along with various other little accessories I did not recognize.

“This is where the employees prepped before they went further into the labs.” Katie said as she entered the room, making her way over to check out the locker. “I am still impressed by how well preserved this stuff is. It almost seems like magic. Could that be possible?”

“Perhaps, though I do not know any runes that would last this long without some sort of mana source nearby. It’s feasible though, especially if you consider how advanced you say these people were.”

Katie reached inside the locker and pulled out a white coat that appeared pristine despite its assumed age. She riffled through the pockets for any goods that may have been left there by its old owner before returning it swiftly to its shiny silver hook.

They both searched the remainder of the room together, swinging open every single locker to ensure there was nothing of use inside of them. A few of them needed some persuasion thanks to little locks dangling from their handles but those were removed with ease. Over a hundred lockers were opened and unfortunately, nothing of particular use was found besides a few old name tags neither one of us could read. Interestingly though, the photos on these cards depicted humans that looked no different than Katie or my old comrades. Everyday people just living their lives.

Once the main area had been torn apart, we made our way into one of the smaller rooms near the back, separated by a rubbery sort of curtain. It was a bare, tiled floor room with steel pipes sprouting from the walls every six feet or so. I arched a brow as I looked around, puzzled by what I saw. Katie, having noticed my confusion, quickly spoke up.

“These are showers. I bet the workers here needed to clean up before they went into the rest of the building because of contamination or something along that sort. These facets here spray out water when you turn these handles here.” Katie explained, reaching out to a set of handles positioned below what I now knew as a water pipe. With a quick turn, water began to spray out and pool onto the floor, startling Katie as she jumped back in surprise. “I did not expect there to still be running water here. Where on earth could it be sourced from?

While Katie started to rummage around in her backpack, most likely in search of a tool to examine the water with, I happily leapt forward and welcomed the water. It had been a few weeks since the last rain and water was hard to come by any other time. I gladly took the chance to wash off my fur and cool down a little considering it was quite warm down here.

“What are you doing!” Katie exclaimed, jumping back in horror as she watched me roll around under the constant downpour of water. “That water may be contaminated and could potentially,” she paused mid-sentence, a look of annoyance washing over her face, “Oh right, you are not affected by all of this stuff. Lucky you. Having fun?”

I stopped my frolicking just long enough to look over at her, a smile spread across the length of my face. “Why yes, yes I am. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed myself like this. Thank you!”

Katie just stood there, bewildered momentarily before bringing her palm to her face.