We never got the chance to hear about Lily's world. We had all settled down to talk again when an alarm started blaring. The doctor immediately checked his tablet... MUD and told us to follow him. We went down the hallway in a new direction, and ended up at an elevator. Or a magical version of an elevator. There were doors that openned, and a platform that moved up and down. There weren't any walls, so you could see the elevator shaft, but there was a little railing. Not that it would do much except let you hold on. You could easily go over, or under, the railing and drag your hand along the wall. We were moving fast enough that it looked like that would hurt, so I stayed in the middle of the platform. Unlike Marcus, who tried to look below the platform through the tiny crack on the edge.
The elevator took us up to the top of whatever building we were in, and when we stepped out, it looked like an observation tower. There were big windows, and barely any walls or ceiling. It was all glass. It was actually kind of a nice view. We could see a large part of the city, and we could see over the walls. Marcus and Lily both talked excitedly to each other about the city, like they didn't have a care in the world. They were mostly excited about how it reminded them of different cities they knew, but it was completely made of the same material. Everything was the same color. Some parts were a little dirtier than others, but it was pretty much all the same. There weren't any billboards, or neon lights, just light grey stone. I did glance at the city, but I was more interestd in where the doctor, and blanket man were looking. They were looking outside the city. Beyond the wall.
"That is the biggest wave I have ever seen." The doctor looked worried.
"If the alarm is going off, the augurs must be worried." Blanket man couldn't seem to keep his hands still.
"This is probably one of the safest locations in the city, after the inner district of course. If there was going to be a breach anywhere, I'd assume the farming area, or the slums."
"If we lose some of the herds that's going to make some rich people very unhappy. No more real meat." Blanket man glanced at me, "Do you think there's a reason Bwyd like the magiculture steak better?"
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"What? Where did that question come from?" The doctor was now looking slightly amused.
"Oh, sorry sir. It's just when she was eating the magically created steak she said the flavor was better than the real stuff."
"That so? Hmm. I would guess that it is..." Before he could finish the entire tower shook. "What!?"
Marcus pointed towards the city, "Is there supposed to be a drop pod there?"
A large metal thing, that could be called a drop pod, had landed a couple blocks from where we were. It looked kind of like a closed pine cone, but made out of dark grey metal. As we all went to that side of the tower to look at it, the bottom of it openned up, kind of like a pine cone, and things started coming out. They weren't really anything specific. It was almost as if someone had taken some body parts and put them together, then gave those things life. Or unlife. It wasn't too bad to look at them until the doctor held his hands out in front of him and then pulled them apart, like he was stretching something, and the creatures were magnified. He zoomed in so close we could see the saliva dripping out of it's mouth. Needless to say, we were all shocked. Though I suppose if it was needless to say, I didn't need to...
"Ew, that's gross." Lily was the first to break the silence after our shock.
The doctor pulled out his MUD, and started tapping furiously, while the blanket man started pacing back and forth muttering to himself.
"Hey guys look, it's like the start of every space RPG." Marcus pointed to a few more pine cone drop pods, as they fell out of the sky, and landed in the city. "Uh, I just remembered this isn't a game." He started to look worried.
"Yeah, dummy. You can die here." Lily punched him in the arm.
Everything was quiet after that except for the doctor's tapping. It almost felt like we were being crushed by some invisible force. Maybe it was the silence, or the realization that the city wasn't as safe, or maybe someone made the air really heavy using magic. Whatever it was started to bother me so I figured it was time for a motivational speech.
"Who cares if we can die, you can always die. Even if you're in the game, someone could drop a plane on your house and kill you, so it isn't much safer than real life. Kinda. Just forget about the zombies and stiched misshappen things, ok, maybe the game is a bit safer..." I trailed off at the end, realizing I wasn't as motivational as I planned.
The doctor looked at me with wide eyes. "Bwyd you are a genius."