“I do, but I’m not sure what it could be. Behind these walls are just some of the many mechanisms the engineers use to expand the library. With how often the tunnels shift, I doubt anything could live down there.” Libby answered Bill.
“Yes, while that said, the knocking certainly is real. Should I try to remove the panel and see what I can see?” Bill rummaged through his pack and produced a screwdriver.
“I don’t see how it could hurt,” Libby said.
“Really? I see a ton of ways it could hurt.” Twonger had his head against the wall now. He looked to be trying to listen to what was going on behind the wall.
The knocking suddenly came again, much louder, directly behind the panel Bill was standing in front of. Bill fell backward, startled by the sudden, much closer knock.
‘Uh, now I’m not sure so sure. Twonger has a point. There does seem to be a lot of things that can go wrong.” Bill said.
“Ya, there are!” Twonger agreed with his earlier statement, moving away from the wall. “But in this case, I say we open it. I think whatever it is just wants to talk. It keeps knocking in patterns, so I think it’s trying to signal someone, which clearly ain’t us, but what the hell, I’ve almost died every few minutes since meeting ya all. Why stop now?”
“Alright, let’s calm down here, Bill.” Andy reached his hand out to his friend helping him stand back up. “Let’s get this panel off.”
The two of them worked together to unscrew and pop off the metal sheet that made up that section of the wall revealing a series of cables, tubes, and gears behind it.
“I don’t see anything that would have been knocking.” Bill slowly moved his head closer to look deeper inside.
“Careful.” Andy cautioned him.
“There is something there. I can feel a presence, but I don’t think we are what it was hoping to find.” Ralth added.
As soon as Ralth finished speaking, a dark green appendage shot from the opening and attached itself to the back of the panel in Andy’s hands. It yanked it free from the man and back into place with a loud clattering sound. There was some further scurrying behind the wall and then silence.
“Hah, weird tentacle monsters in a creepy library. I can’t decide if I love or hate ya guys.” Twonger dropped down onto a chair and began loudly laughing.
“I have no idea what that was fun. How unusual.” Libby said.
“Let’s just screw the panel back up and rest for a bit. We need to get more walking behind us tomorrow anyway. I think we can ignore this mystery for now, at least.” Andy said.
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“Yeah, what the kid said. I’m tired.” Twonger moved to one of the beds and laid down without offering any further help.
*
Andy woke up to bright sunlight in his eyes. He blinked rapidly, unsure of what was going on, then bolted upright in the bed and looked around him. His bed was all that remained of the room from last night. He was alone in a small clearing in what looked to be a forest. The sun was high overhead, and the sounds of animals in the nearby woods were constant.
“Hello? Bill? Ralth? Anyone?!” He screamed the names of his now absent friends in growing desperation.
He had no idea what the hell had happened or how he found himself here. It didn’t feel like a dream, but to be sure, he slapped himself. He didn’t wake up.
“Dammit.” He muttered as he climbed out of the bed. He scanned the trees around and made eye contact with a large deer. It didn’t look away.
Then, even stranger, it opened its mouth and spoke. “You do not belong here.” It then turned and ran deep into the woods, disappearing from sight.
Andy called after it anyway. “Yeah, thanks. How do I get out of here?!”
There was no answer.
Andy sat back on the side edge of the bed. He wondered if anyone else had vanished for some new place or if they were now panicking that he had gone missing in the night. He spent some time ruminating on these thoughts before deciding there was nothing he could do to help that by sitting here.
He gathered up the blanks on the bed and made a makeshift backpack of the fabrics. It was time to wander into the woods and hopefully find a way out. He started this by lowering the gravity around himself in order to quickly get to the top of the tallest tree he could spot and take a look around.
He guessed that about two miles away, there was a sort of small village. It was hard to make out details from here, but it didn’t look like a modern human city, at least. He lowered himself back to the ground, oriented himself towards what he had seen, and took his first tentative steps into the wall of trees.
The sounds of animals were all around him as he walked. Every so often, he’d get a sight of another deer or rabbit, but nothing stopped to stare or speak to him. He considered that that is the usual way things should work, and his frame of reference for what animals generally do had managed to change so much that the initial talking deer hadn’t even startled him.
Andy noted just how beautiful the forest itself was as he traveled. Even the rainforest they had met Bill and Ralth in hadn’t felt this clean. Every breath he took felt invigorating. He hoped this might turn into one of his better mysterious experiences.
It took a couple of hours of dodging trees, but he finally found himself on the outskirts of the village.
“Hello, I have no idea where I am. Can anyone help me?” He called as he got closer, not yet having seen any people.
“There is no one here that can help you. As I said, you do not belong here, and you need to leave before you spoil this sanctuary.” Andy spun to see the deer he had first seen standing at the edge of the woods, watching him yet again.
“I would if I could, but I don’t know where here is, or how I got here to begin with.” He answered.
“This is the primal forest within the great abyss, and people do not come here by accident.” The deer said.