Monday - October 29th, 2121:

We managed to rest for several hours without interruptions. Flora kept close to me the entire time despite not wanting to talk much. Once in a while, she would reply with a few words only to return to silence immediately after. I didn't know why she was so attached to me, especially with her unwillingness to speak. The only thing that came to mind was that maybe she was just scared of being away from the Caretaker. That was probably it.

But once our rest was sufficient and Flora's head wound healed thanks to the power of the floral lifeforms funneling a peculiar liquid onto her skull, she called forth another quadrupedal plant creature to take us further into the valley. The craggy rocks seemed to breathe as we went into the depths of it, but with Flora's presence, all remained peaceful for the longest of time.

It wasn't until the fifth time I noticed the same series of curving stones that I felt something was wrong with the valley itself, and I rechecked the map. We were going the right way, but why then? "Stop, Flora."

I got off the plant creature's back and stepped slowly through the valley from one ridged wall to the next. I pressed on my scanner, which remained unresponsive despite my efforts. I turned to the SmartScreen on my wrist, shuffling through the useful applications, but everything resulted in a negative.

"Flora, can you find anything strange in the area?"

"Strange?" She stepped off the creature and placed her soft hands on the soil's surface with her eyes closed. She hummed a strange tune, and I could feel a subtle quiver underneath the surface. For a moment, it seemed as if the valley flickered as the surface distorted into something else.

"You're on to something, Flora! Keep it up!" As I spoke those words to Flora, she made the ground quiver stronger. I had no idea what she was doing beneath the surface, but whatever it was, it was working.

A few minutes later, it was like a layer of distortion peeled off the entire valley, revealing a long-winding path toward a tall-fenced area. "You did it, Flora!" I exclaimed and picked the girl up excitedly into my arms, which elicited a small gasp of surprise from her. "Oh! Sorry, Flora!"

"It's okay...thank you," Flora replied shyly and hid her face against my chest.

"Let's see what's hiding up there! The Caretaker said this is where it all started. There must be something to help us."

Flora mumbled something, but I could not hear her over the excited thump of my heart. "What did you say, Flora?" I questioned, but she avoided answering it. It must not have been anything important.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Walking up the path, we encountered warning signs repeatedly, all echoing the same message 'Warning: You are now entering Area: Z3-R0.'

It wasn't a base I was familiar with. Maybe it was beyond what I could access, or they built it more recently. Either way, I felt the tension in the air. We were so close to where it all began. Further along, the wrought iron gates were left slightly askew, giving us an easy way into the base.

"Stop," Flora suddenly spoke. "I'll stay here, you go."

"Why?" I asked curiously as I put the girl down. "Are you sure, Flora?"

"Yes," She replied softly, staring down the path with a distant gaze. "I'll keep watch, you go."

"Okay, be safe, and let me know if there's any trouble."

I left Flora and went into the base. All across the ground, I could see debris and craterous pits seemingly smashed into the ground. Further into the base stood a large building with its front entrance shattered into pieces. I went in fully expecting to find nothing, but to my shock, there were corpses strewn across the building.

Blood pooled underneath them from visible gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. As I passed by them, I could see that the gunshots were the same on every last corpse. There were men and women, some in uniform and some without. After a few minutes of exploring and several dozen corpses seen, I reached a room that had thick metal bars blocking it horizontally. Each was the size of a thick forearm with only a few centimeters gap between them.

I poked and prodded the wall and the metal bars with nothing to show for it. All I wanted was to find a hidden switch or anything I could use to disable the security lock, but it seemed hopeless.

[Lifeform Detected - Identify Yourself]

Suddenly, a robotic voice sounded from the gated-off area. I was about to speak up when it went off again.

[Lifeform - Anomaly Detected - Terminate Protocol Zeta]

[Lifeform Detected - Access Terminal 1-z]

[Terminate - Access Granted - Anomaly]

As the robotic sound whirred in a glitched-out ramble, the barred gates clicked, and the horizontal bars retracted into the wall, opening up the path to the secure zone beyond it. I walked past and was greeted by an empty corridor incomparable to the bloodied mess in the previous room.

Finally, I reached the end with a lone door that opened into a massive room with only a central console and a blurred glass panel that stretched across the back wall. I walked up to the console that stared back with a blackened screen devoid of information. After looking for a power unit, I got the screen to start up.

'...System Access Pending....// Lifeform check engaged... Human -'

'...Anomaly - System Malfunction...// Reboot Access Protocol: Access - Access -'

#Access Granted

'Welcome to Area Z3-R0.'