2 AL: IRENE

They spent the night in a long stretch of hall. Irene took the middle of the night watch. This worked pretty well for her because her leg started throbbing if she kept it still too long. She slept a couple hours to ward off the exhaustion of the day before getting up to walk the kinks out. The light panels in the ceiling started to be naturally on in more and more numbers as they left the ruined greenspace behind.

Early in their travels Jake dashed down the hallway trying to catch a rat he caught a glimpse of. Irene worried she was left behind when Sophia rushed by trying to catch up with him. Irene kept a steady pace, faster than she would have done alone but not as quick as Sophia. She found Sophia waiting at an intersection with a working light.

“He went down there,” Sophia commented with a gesture, “but that is the wrong direction. I told him to head back here when he was done.” Irene took the time to pull out her map and check the floor tile patterns against the sketches to figure out what direction they were headed. Sophia was correct. Jake headed off to the north. It wasn’t long until he returned vowing to get the next one.

It was Jake’s almost constant attempts to catch rats that allowed Irene to keep up. She was glad of her rediscovery of how to turn the lights on when she found herself left behind in a dark section. Jake and Sophia would rush through the dark sections without thought but Irene noticed that Sophia always waited in the light.

When they camped at night Jake produced a small camp lantern. It ran on compressed gas. He mumbled something about being almost out of gas but that it should last the night. They were camped in a hallway that contained two working lights. They chose the dark space between to settle in. They checked for vents and didn’t find any near their spot. As evening approached the lights dimmed in a simulation of evening.

For all his running around, Jake didn’t catch a single rat. They ate Irene’s tubers and food they brought from the Speedwell for dinner. Irene noticed that Sophia and Jake both seemed low on supplies. Irene still carried plenty of survival bars. They weren’t very good, so she took every opportunity to eat locally gathered foods along the way.

Jake woke her for her watch and dropped off to sleep almost instantly. Irene got to her feet. She paced the hall as quietly as she could as she tried to not wake her companions. She hoped the walking would keep her awake and loosen the muscles in the thigh. She stayed close to the pool of light made by the lantern.

As she crossed in front of a darker cross passage she heard a rustling noise. She shifted her walking stick to her off hand and flexed her fingers in preparation. She threw a light ball into the ceiling at the extreme of her range. The panel came on, illuminating the floor below. Three rats were fighting over what looked like a chunk of meat in the center of the hallway.

Irene fired off ice-bolts as fast as she could. She got two off, dropping two of the rats before the third rat could close the distance. Frightened by how close it was getting she switched to lightning. The rat immediately dropped into convulsions. She smacked it once with the end of her staff.

She cautiously touched the body. Coins appeared on the floor beside it. She claimed the coins before limping over to where the other two rats fell. As she claimed the third set of coins, she realized that she never touched the boar. When she climbed up the stairs the coins, meat and tusks were already sitting there. Did they appear to her because Jake touched it and she was part of the team that killed it?

She tossed the rat carcasses into the intersection of the main hall. She wasn’t going to tie up her hands with them. She looked at the chunk of meat they were fighting over. She couldn’t tell what it was. It looked like it was part of a much larger beast. It was disturbingly fresh. She hoped that didn’t mean something was wandering around nearby killing large beasts. She kicked the questionable meat farther down the hallway and returned back to the light of the lantern.

She tossed the rats a few more times to get them near their encampment. She decided to leave them for Sophia to process. Irene hoped could learn how to do it from her. Irene settled back into her patrol pattern. The extra light from the panel around the corner allowed her to see much farther. Since it was around the corner it didn’t illuminate their little encampment much. Which meant it didn’t wake the sleepers.

She decided to turn on more of the light panels that were in the side corridors. That done she could see anything approaching much easier. Her leg was starting to ache. She braced herself against a wall for the rest of her shift.

It was difficult to wake Sophia up for her turn. Irene didn’t trust her to stay awake until she picked up one of the rats. Sophia made quick work of the animals. They were gutted and skinned so fast Irene felt like she missed the whole thing even though she stood there and watched it. Sophia agreed to show Irene how it was done on the next one they caught.

Irene settled down to sleep the last few hours of the night. She awoke to the pleasant smell of cooking meat. Her brain told her that meat was a strange choice for breakfast but her stomach disagreed. It rumbled in anticipation of the bounty.

“Good morning,” Sophia said in greeting.

“That smells delicious,” Irene responded. She pulled herself up to her feet and tested her leg. It still hurt to put weight on it but it was manageable. Irene didn’t think yesterday’s quick march to keep up caused any additional harm. She was using her blanket for padding between herself and the tiled floor. She rolled it up and tied it back onto her pack before joining Sophia at her camp stove. Jake was snoring alongside the wall. Irene could understand his fatigue after all his running around yesterday chasing rats.

“This is the last of the gas,” Sophia explained as Irene sat down beside her. Irene noticed that the lamp was out. The light in the hall was being supplied by the two working light panels they camped between the night before. They weren’t up to full brightness yet, which meant it was still early morning.

Sophia sliced the meat into thin strips in order to cook it faster. There were two piles of meat set on what looked like big leaves. One was still raw, while the second pile was cooked. She must have carried the leaves in her pack.

“Take some,” Sophia said to Irene, with a gesture to the cooked pile. “I am trying to get as much of it cooked as I can before the gas runs out. Leave some for Jake.” Sophia turned over the strips she was cooking.

Irene picked up one of the strips and nibbled on it. The recent lack of meat in her diet added all the seasoning it needed. The strip was gone before she realized it.

“Did Jake tell you how he got them?” Sophia asked as Irene picked up her second strip.

“I heard them around the corner of the next intersection and hit them with a couple ice-bolts,” Irene responded. Sophia did a double take.

“You mean you caught them not Jake?” she asked.

“Yes,” Irene confirmed. Sophia laughed at that. Jake mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over.

“Well don’t worry about leaving any for him then,” Sophia said.

“Oh, I have to leave him some, so he knows I got them,” Irene countered. Sophia laughed again. Irene only ate three strips before she felt full. Sophia managed to cook almost all the strips before the stove sputtered out.

“We should reach the next green today,” Irene offered. “We can try cooking the rest over a wood fire.”

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“I am not certain how long it will last without turning,” Sophia commented. “I don’t want the smell of rotting meat to attract something bigger than we can handle.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Irene commented. “Those rats last night were fighting over a chunk of meat.”

“Really?” Sophia responded. “I wonder where it came from.”

“Me too,” Irene said.

Jake’s current snore was interrupted by a loud snort. After a few unhappy mumbles he quieted back down. Just when Irene thought he fell back to sleep he spoke. “What is that smell?” he asked.

“Breakfast,” Sophia answered. “Get up and you can have some.” She leaned forward and whispered to Irene, “He is grumpy in the mornings.”

“I am not,” Jake said loudly. Irene was impressed that he heard Sophia’s comment. After an elaborate set of stretches and more than one loud yawn, Jake got to his feet and came over to join them. Irene slid back against the wall behind her and glanced right and left to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them.

“Meat!” Jake said excitedly, gobbling down two strips. “Where did you get it?”

“Irene caught three rats in the night,” Sophia explained. “But we are out of gas for the stove, so I can’t cook the rest.” Irene explained how she discovered them fighting over a chunk of meat in one of the side halls. Jake studied the remaining uncooked meat strips and commented that maybe they could use them as bait.

Sophia gave him her warning that they might attract something bigger than they would handle but Irene could see that Jake was still considering it. After Jake finished eating they packed up and headed out. Sophia took the cooked meat but left the raw meat behind. Irene noticed that she also packed the stove and lantern even though they were out of gas. Sophia must be hoping to get more gas later. Irene thought about mentioning how the other group left all their used camping gear behind but the thought brought back painful memories so she pushed it aside.

They came out at the next greenspace four stories high. The corridor they were following ended at a glass wall. Beyond the glass they looked out at the trees about mid height. The ceiling above was intact. From this vantage point closer to the ceiling surface, Irene could see that the ceiling was not clear glass. Instead it was something similar to the glass panels in the halls. Instead of having a solid white color their surface mimicked the color and movement of the sky.

It made Irene realize they really were deeper in the structure. She thought that the climb down the stairwells was just the structure following the shape of the land. The Speedwell landed high in the mountains. The automatic landing systems didn’t allow the ship to come down any closer to the ocean. It reported that the ground around the water and up the slopes of the foothills was unstable. Irene thought the automatic systems detected the presence of the structure even as human eyes did not. Still there was an ocean to the west, which made Irene think that somewhere in that direction the structure ended.

“I hear water,” Sophia commented. They hadn’t found a source of water yet today. They were all getting a bit low.

“Is it coming from the green?” Irene asked.

“No, I think it’s coming from there,” Sophia said pointing at the last door on the right. Jake approached the door and put his ear to the panel. The only door Irene opened so far was the glass door to the greenspace. She felt an unexplainable fear of the closed doors along the halls.

“I can hear running water,” Jake confirmed. “Let’s check it out.”

“Do we have anything to keep the door from closing behind us?” Irene asked.

“I got it covered,” Sophia said. Irene glanced over to see something metallic in Sophia’s hand. They arranged themselves. Jake would lead the way in. Sophia was a step behind, on the door side, with Irene on the other side of Jake. That put Irene on the left. She thought about switching her staff hand, so she could use her primary hand for casting but decided against it. Her mobility would be heavily affected and she was afraid any thrown spells might accidently hit Jake. Although now that she thought about it, her spells always seemed to hit where she was looking at and not where she threw them. The spell in flight was just an animation in the air. She wasn’t sure it would matter if it went through anything on its way. This was probably not the time for experimentation.

Jake opened the door with one hand, keeping his ax at the ready in the other. The room beyond was brightly lit. When there was no sudden movement, he stepped forward into it. Sophia stooped down and jammed the metallic object in her hand under the door, holding it in place. Irene slipped past her to give support to Jake. Sophia joined them as soon as the door was secure.

The room was full of little alcoves and cubby holes. The floor was dotted with pools of water. The pools were a variety of shapes, depths and colors. There were plants everywhere. They sprang from the floor, the walls and even hung from the ceilings. They limited the view of the alcoves and corners even as the bright light illuminated it all. Directly across from them was a standing wall of course stone. It completely blocked the view of the room behind it.

They kept together in a group as they circled the room. They checked everywhere for any sign of danger. They relaxed a little when they returned to the door. They didn’t find anything that looked actively dangerous.

One section of the stone wall was sleeping water out of it. Sophia was studying it. Water seeped out of the stone above their heads. It ran down the wall, gathering in grooves to form rivulets that joined into a single stream. The stream flowed down a channel that sloped away from the bulk of the wall. The stream dropped free of the wall into an irregular shaped hollow that was about six inches higher than a typical countertop. The hollow was half full. There was no sign of a drain. As Sophia watched the stream of water fall into the basin the level never rose. This was the flow of water they heard in the hallway.

It reminded Irene of some of the water sources they visited before the first green but this one was much more complete.

“I think it is a restroom,” Jake said suddenly. Irene looked around at the room again. She returned to be close to the door. She remembered Agatha telling her something about the plumbing being organic. “No one ever talks about all the squatting behind bushes,” Jake commented, “or cleaning up with leaves.”

“This could be a sink,” Sophia observed. She could see three other hollows that could also be sinks, although no water was running into them. The bottom of the empty hollows seemed to be covered in a fine white mesh. She recognized them as roots.

“Are the pools toilets?” Irene asked. She was thinking how in their restrooms the only visible water was in the toilet bowls but you wouldn’t want to drink it. “Or are they baths of some kind?” she wondered. She was cleaning the wound on her leg everyday. Maybe she would use these pools to clean it even if they were toilets. As long as they weren’t used as a toilet recently it should be safe enough.

“They seem too public for that. Maybe this is more of a utility room and the pools are for washing clothes?” Jake suggested. “It seems like those alcoves at the back would be the toilets or possibly showers.”

“That only follows if whoever built this place cared about privacy the same way we do,” Sophia countered.

“Maybe these pools all being different is an indication of their use? The different colored tiles could indicate temperature or additives,” Irene proposed.

“Maybe we shouldn’t drink them,” Jake observed. Sophia leaned forward to sniff the stream of falling water. She tested it with the tip of one finger and transferred a drop of it to her mouth.

“It seems like just water to me,” she said. Irene finally gave up her position at the door to join Sophia at the water stream. Sophia cupped her hands under the stream. After a quick sip, she dropped her hands and shook them free of the last drops.

The flow of water stopped. The build up of water in the basin began to drain away.

“I broke it,” Sophia announced.

“I think you just turned it off,” Irene said. “It could be motion sensitive, like the faucets in the common restrooms.” Looking up Irene could see formations above each of the four sinks that looked like the water spout the stream of water run off of. She leaned her staff against the stone and cupped her hands. She held them over one of the dry basins.

Amazingly quickly, considering the ‘water oozing out of the stone’ delivery method, a stream of water formed and dropped down into her waiting hands. She moved her hands and let it fill the basin. She reached into her pack to get her water bottles.

“Why didn’t it turn off?” Sophia questioned.

“You shook your hands,” Irene responded. She shifted both of her bottles into one hand and gave her free hand a quick twisting shake. The flow of water stopped.

“How did you pick that up so quickly?” Jake asked Irene.

“It seemed obvious,” Irene said with a shrug. She held just one slightly cupped hand out over the basin. She hoped that would turn the water on so she didn’t have to set the bottles back down. A moment or two later the water came back on. This time it fell directly into the basin without getting her hand wet. She made a note to herself on the better method.

Irene and Sophia filled their water bottles as Jake went back to give the alcoves a closer look. Irene finished first, having only two bottles left. She shook her hand and the water cut off. She turned to study the pools. Her own observation that they may contain different solutions made her fetch her alternate bandage out of her pack. She trailed the end of the fabric into several of the pools. The third pool she tried caused the end of the fabric to discolor. She decided right there that she would wait until the greenspace to wash her leg.