Driven by basic fight-or-flight instinct, Jackie used her arms to thrust herself upwards, using her knees to kick up and away from the ground for good measure, fuck the pain.

She couldn’t believe it, let alone understand it. The rock—crystal? For all intentions and purposes, it was a hard, rigid surface that moved like ocean waves.

Once she landed on her feet, it wasn’t long until she was slammed down onto the ground again. She had to pry her hands away from the ground, which molded itself around them the moment they made contact.

But the more she looked at it…

Jackie gasped out in horror, which repeated within an echo.

“You messed it up!” the other voice yelled at them. “You messed up my only chance, you idiots! Get out of there, run!”

These words kept replaying, to the point of becoming a cacophony of anger. All Jackie could hear were the endless screams, trying to cut the other off first, increasing in volume.

But she could not tear her eyes away from what she cannot unsee anymore.

The ground was layered. Clear enough to take what a sight in. But the layers—they were too close together. And yet too wide to truly take it. It was mirrors reflecting off each other, but instead of the illusion of being endless, Jackie honestly thought in that dreadful moment that she was witnessing infinity before her feeble, human eyes.

Layers upon layers upon layers, which in turn had layers within these layers, which grew more layers. And Jackie hadn’t gotten to the “bottom” yet, it got to the point that she could not process beyond the collection that she was seeing.

There was something deep within her mind, something primal. She wanted to run away, she thought about nothing but running away. Yet the heat from her body was completely drained away, her “bones” turned to jelly. Her mind blanks on what to do.

So she reacted, panting heavily as she used her siVis to enhance what she did before—kicking off and away from the ground, landing on her feet again as she rocked, swayed in place. Immediately using siVis on her core.

Fuck the CAST, she had to use everything she has or else she’ll die.

Then she finally noticed the smell, coming from her right.

Her head creaked to the side, to find that her CAST was absolutely scorched, to the point of warping. The crimson metal battered into a black and brown now clung to the arm and was close to outright melting.

She couldn’t even fully absorb the implications of this, before she dodged a stray strike of white-hot energy, inches away from her face.

Surges of energy were coursing through the moving ground, completely changing the motion and trajectory of the motion, causing Jackie to nearly fall directly on the battered CAST’s side. She narrowly avoids being burned by extending that arm out quickly with the aid of siVis, landing on her palm before shooting up again.

This was utter chaos, and she didn’t even move yet.

“JACKIE! JACKIIIE!”

She turned towards Aiko, trying to signal her over and stay afloat at the same time.

“TRACY CAN’T MOVE, HELP!”

Jackie bolted over, or at the very least, was trying.

It was like walking in mud, no traction, pouring all available energy into just getting by, and only moving a few feet to show for it.

She then realized, that her left hand was empty.

In a panic, she looked around, before seeing the Multi-Tool wedged within the ground, flat, within the process of being subsumed.

Now in the middle, and already knowing the struggle to even move, let alone choose a way forward.

She stood in place, frustrated. At this situation, at the fact that this entire mission started so damn well. At herself.

siVis was being diverted to her legs, as they grew in definition and segmented by respective pieces.

Jackie jumped upwards, not impressively high, but enough to bound from the ground in motion, landing next to the Multi-Tool, snatching it up with force.

Now against her elbow, she throttled the handle repeatedly, hoping to the God that doesn’t listen to her anymore that it wasn’t broken.

A yellow glow that colored her wary face answered her.

The Multi-Tool was turned on, creating a laser blade at the end of it, humming with power.

She drove it into the shuddering ground and moved forward.

With the high-tech spear, it shredded the unstable ground before her, giving her the precious seconds she needed to scale it, as she created a path that craved a narrow walkway. And even then, her movement was still sluggish to a fault, even with the help of her siVis-enhanced legwork.

In her racing mind, she thought about the damaged CAST. Are the limiters gone? It was too good to be true. She practically thought she was going to pass out or stop any minute now.

But she made it to Aiko, who was trying everything to stay still.

Which was odd. Even in their band of rejects, she was still the best siVis user there. Why couldn’t she do what Jackie did? Though, even doing what she did, Jackie was still struggling. But it didn’t matter right now, they had to act fast.

Attempts of getting up, then getting wiped. Trying to get up again, only to get wiped once more. Lancing forward on their bellies, only to crash against the moving rock hard. That was the fresh Hell the others found themselves in.

Maddie and River had Tracy, the latter trying to keep her up while the former grabbed her by the hand to pull her out. It was like they just got out of bed. They were barely moving at all, Tracy more or less incapacitated. It was easy to see from where Jackie rocked, Tracy’s siVis structure being so swollen, it was jutting against her clothes. Writhing as she was like a ragdoll.

It didn’t make sense to Jackie.

Until she saw it.

Tracy’s, Maddie’s, River’s… Then looked to the side to see Aiko’s. All of their CASTs were just as damaged as hers.

Could it be that Jackie’s CAST broke, and the limiter was too—while the rest was stuck in theirs?

She rushed in, digging the Multi-Tool deeper into the ground, parting it as she pushed forward. Her legs were already hurting, her muscles aching, collected her weight in sweat. But she didn’t have time to stop, she didn’t have time.

Letting go of the handle, to quickly latch on the body of the weapon, and used it to crave upwards—cutting the wave that was constricting the trio.

“C’mon!” Jackie yelled at her friends. “Go, getaway, before it reforms or--?”

She caught the whiff of smoke, and she solemnly looked up.

The Multi-Tool’s spear was completely mangled.

“FUCKING—SHIIIT!” the tall girl bellowed.

On the verge of just throwing the useless thing on the ground, Jackie got a clear view of it slowly “healing” itself.

All of the work Jackie just did, was being swallowed up by the ground itself.

“HEY! GAGGLE OF DUMBASSES!” the voice returned again, much further. “YOU CAN’T STAND AROUND! YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING!”

The advent of rumbling, shook Jackie to the core.

She fervently looked around, the fear swallowing her whole and fueling her erratic movements.

Her eye-line caught something—someone. Hidden behind a moving hill.

“It’s gonna get worse! Go back to whatever you all came from! I’m just risking myself by just standing here--!”

The rumbling managed to overpower the echoes.

Jackie’s head turned, looking toward yet another impossible, terrible thing.

The walls, the carven which was infinitely layered until it built to an endless maze, were closing in. The layering becoming undone, reaching out as moving stone.

“OH, GOD!” Jackie screamed so loudly, that it wore against her throat. As if the volume reached has never been achieved.

She pushed the girls forward, even if it was too hard, even if she was making them stumble. They had to get away. They had to go somewhere.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

They’ll turn around, carry Tracy out by her hair if she has to, get back into that barrier and—

Jackie violently shook her head, even swatting at it. What was she thinking? These aren’t—

The horror of the situation cut her off, she looked up in fear.

The layers, have old mining equipment. Drills, pickaxes… All being extensions of this eldritch location. Caked, broken but still functional somehow, within the walls that twitched and flexed forward. Coming for them.

She was frozen. The fear was just too much, too ever-present within her veins. The coldness shot out and constricted her from the inside out.

All she could see was a blur rushing out from the corner of her eye.

“The fuck Jackson?!” Maddie was digging into what was Tracy’s bag. “What’s up with you?!”

Maddie was fighting against her own balance, as she aimed the Dizzy Bomb. As she tightened her grip, she screamed before chucking it full force, with the continued aid of siVis.

It was a dead hit.

One of the layers, that was hit and the closest by mere feet, shuddered with a force. Surging with energy as direct feedback.

Only for the other layers to get that energy, and began surging forth.

“SHIT!” Maddie did it again, aiming another bomb.

Chucking again, hitting the twin layers that were going together, hitting them. And throwing another, stunning as much as possible. All with enhanced throws and angling.

And they just kept coming. Swelling.

“Yeah, there’s nothing else to do—” Maddie turned and began to sprint. “RUN!”

Jackie was going to ask “where”.

She was going to run, try to regain the lead.

But she fell forward. Unable to move under her own energy.

She felt the limiter switch on, right at that moment.

Her body was shut down, but her mind was embroiled in confused rage.

“For fuck’s sake, Jackson!” Maddie yelled from afar. She threw up her hands and continued to run. “You fuckers get her—I’m going ahead!”

Jackie wanted to scream, wanted to shout at her, and could feel everything under her skin start to reach boiling point. She didn’t get why she was so mad at her, but she was.

Aiko quickly went over, scooping her up, but clearly struggling. The two girls were lagging behind, as River and Tracy were following Maddie.

Which made Jackie double take.

Tracy was perfectly fine again. As with River. The fact that Maddie was leading away, didn’t measure up either. Jackie, moments ago, just saved them because they were suddenly weakened by something.

Jackie looked at her CAST.

Then, at her hand that was slowly turning back from string, the hole closed.

And a horrified expression etched across her face in the greatest detail.

But there was no time to inform the others.

The layers used the embedded drills, the machinery, the things left behind by the foolish humans that wanted to understand the unknowable—these halls used these as their own weapons.

Slamming just moments after Jackie and Aiko moved away, cutting off Maddie’s path and causing her to choose another, that funneled Tracy and River to separate at points.

Jackie looked back, craning her head weakly. She wanted to provide a lookout. She wanted to provide something.

All she got was another nightmarish image for her troubles.

The mining operation’s abandoned outpost. A massive drill that doubled as a research building. But also a final stopgap, for if they had to.

She couldn’t even gauge the colors. The accurate shape of it all.

It was just buried. Buried within the layers they were meant to explore.

They must’ve gone mad. Jackie was sure of it. Digging to explore, to go beyond the boundary.

Only to see more walls in their wake.

Becoming them, ultimately adding to them, in the end.

It was creating a tunnel around them. Every extension forward only made the enclosure more explicit. There was nowhere to run. There was nowhere to hide.

“Meep meep-!”

Jackie was hit by a bumper, scooped up, and landed on her back. All in that order.

Aiko landed on her, causing Jackie to get the air knocked out of her briefly.

“Ooooh—” the familiar sympathized. “This isn’t your best day, huh?”

As she was recatching her breath, she looked up at her savior.

Her hair was dirty blonde and short, yet still had enough so that it waved in the wind. She was covered in grime that set in for what looked like months. Her tattered casual clothes were losing their designs and color, but her green eyes were still bright. Almost uncomfortably.

“Don’t say that I wasn’t a fellow neighbor today, yeah?” the wild-haired girl quipped, looking forward, determined despite being so jovial.

Jackie was raised up by Aiko, giving her a chance to take in their ride. It was a warped, lowered, runaway minecart. The front was turned into a buffer, more like an extended go-kart more than an actual working vehicle. The wild girl was by an elongated level, gripping it to the point of her fingers being drained of blood.

So that meant she was just a human. But how did she survive so long, and how long, Jackie thought to herself.

Tracy, River, and then Maddie were scooped up by the buffer the same as Jackie and Aiko, slamming into the cart.

“What the hell are you doing--?!” Maddie shot up, screaming.

“I mean, I asked you guys that, so you answer first,” the wild girl quipped.

“Shut the hell up, Maddie!” Tracy said with venom. “You were the one that ran away!”

“Oh, like you’re the icon of bravery, huh?” Maddie spat.

The fact that Tracy of all people was suddenly shouting was enough for Jackie to conclude what she figured.

“W… We’re trying to help…” Jackie struggled, talking to the wild girl directly. “People… Abducted…”

The wild girl’s eyes flared.

“You mean to tell me that fucker did it again…?!” her voice, which was fairly… Nostalgic for Jackie. Californian, almost cartoonishly so… And yet it was rumbling more than the walls around them.

“Yeah, that’s what she’s literally just said,” Maddie crossed her arms. “Wanna go and make sense for us, or--?”

“S… Shut up, Maddie…” Jackie struggled and yet was clearly annoyed. Angry. Combative. “You’re making this much worse than you know—”

“Yeah yeah, my attitude spreads and brings down the mood I guess, at least—”

“NO!”

Everyone jumped, even the wild girl. Jackie even heard a “what the hell…?” coming under her breath.

“You’re… Literally… Making us mad…!” Jackie rose up her CAST arm. “We’re… Connected…”

Maddie’s face well. Tracy, who was just angry moments ago, looked at everyone in a frenzy. Aiko looked visibly confused while River’s face steeled.

“Aw shit—” River realized. “When we crossed over, we were holding hands and… These things must’ve been warped so badly that yeah—we share things now. Energy, emotions…”

“Depends on the one who dominates…” Jackie nodded. “I was using siVis a lot and was draining Tracy… And Tracy was the one that was so scared, her fear… Drove us…”

“And then Maddie was both the one draining us and the one that gave us her anger,” River reasoned. “And who knows what else is gonna happen now—”

“Look, you guys lost me as soon as you started talking—” the wild girl threw up her hands. “I mean, you didn’t even have me in the first place, but I know a couple of things. You guys should’ve been died like, three times over, you’re able to move fast, and you’re talking as if this shit happening to you is just another day… You’re siVis users, yeah?”

“We’re… We got siVis, yeah…” as Jackie slowly got her energy back, she still felt weak.

“Good—baller,” the wild girl replied. Eerily calm. “Teach me.”

The girls just looked at each other.

“C’mon, give me a crash course, something, anything—” the wild girl badgered. “If he’s taking people again, then I need it—I can help you even—”

“Slow the fuck down!” Maddie shot back. “We don’t even know your name!”

The wild girl rolled her eyes in response. Which was odd for everyone else.

“You know who I am.”

“…N-no we don’t--?” Tracy meeped out.

The girl then laughed. The kind that caused the shoulders to raise up as one does it.

“Ah yeah. I look like shit. Being trapped here for years does that to a person, I found out…”

She sighed and closed her eyes.

“Billie Bolton.”

The name hit the girls like a brick to their respective chests. Maddie looked over to Jackie with wide eyes. Tracy slowly covered her mouth. River’s expressions were always static, but her eyebrows furrowed in guilt. Aiko was completely speechless.

“Yeah yeah yeah—” Billie waved her hand. “Massive fucking elephant in the room that we need to kill, I get it. If you really do have some ‘sympy’, then you can just teach me the ropes and give me siVis training—and again, fast please—”

As much as Jackie wanted to respond, to tell her that they can’t, they were all interrupted by an unholy screech. Amplified by the layers’ terrifying ambience, the echoes bouncing off these surfaces and hitting the girls directly.

As everyone covered their ears, Billie cursing despite being drowned out—cranking the cart so fast that it jerked the girls backward in the process, River scrambled to pull out her tablet while wincing in pain.

The layers start to crackle with more and more energy, as the sounds increase in volume and bass. Rocking through each of them in this terrible moment.

It peered out, but the layers continue to engorge and continued to give chase.

“What’s it say--?!” Jackie tried to roar over the crumbling.

River pressed the against the screen rapidly, before pushing play:

“Welcome… Little children. So interesting that you’ve made it this far. But like everything else in this realm, I allowed that to happen. You don’t have to worry much, what you’re going to experience will be shared with the outside world.”

And within moments, they heard screaming up ahead.

Within the layers, they could see many people, writhing on the ground that trapped them. The energy hitting them repeatedly.

They were being tortured.

“Billie, full steam ahead,” Jackie’s eyes brimming with anger, ordering the wild girl as if she was a part of the team.

“You don’t gotta tell me twice,” Billie’s own voice went cold, cranking the lever forward.

But the machine came apart once she did. And saw the parts of the cart spread into different directions within seconds.

They all flew up into the air, crashing hard once again. Worrying what happened, why did this happen.

What was brewing before them answered it better than anything else could.

White wispy waves began to surge forth, flooding at a speed that was barely trackable to the human eye. As it swept across the writhing landscape, the color—textures—everything about the very ground was turned into what could only be described as blueprint wiring. Turning the matter that it hit revert back to its very foundations. And once left behind, turned a grayscale white, eerily smooth warped material.

It was a Transitionary Shift. The very Noumena that caused these events to happen in the first place. Why these normal girls are now trapped within the layers of reality.

But, it was cutting in and out. The momentum slowed but picked up once it became “physical” again. As if it was conjured up wrong.

But they were near the eye of the storm, and Jackie was the first to get back up.

“We gotta save them! We have to!”

“Jackson, we’re battered, we’re on limited power, and we have a normie here!” Maddie yelled. “Get your head out of your ass and use it!”

“So what—not use the thing that we’ve nearly got killed a million times over for?! The thing that we wanted to survive the Shifts?!”

“Yes, hence survive!” Tracy screamed, desperation in her voice. “Meaning we don’t do something stupid like this!”

“And for that, these people have to die?! We’re giving up for what we came here—is that what I’m hearing?”

River elected to not say anything. She just looked to the side.

Jackie growled. “Fine, Aiko, with me then!”

Aiko remained on the ground, sweating.

“I-I don’t—We never really went up against an actual one and—I don’t know why I’m like this right now, but I don’t think we can—”

Jackie yelled, clutching her head.

“WE DID THIS ENTIRE THING—JUST BECAUSE WE WANTED TO WIN SOMETHING FOR ONCE, SO WE COULD PROVE THAT WE’RE NOT FAILURES! Are we calling this a fucking failure, then?!”

“Well, you know what Jackson—we’ve done it enough times that it shouldn’t even matter anymore.”

Something snapped within Jackie, after absorbing that.

“No.”

She started to shift. Wildly. Of her own accord.

Billie watched as the rest of the girls flopped back onto the ground. Being distant, out of it, just watching.

Jackie walked forward. Finally wanting to scale her fears, her madness, her weakness—all unveiled because of these fucking things. These things told her that her life was not only meaningless, but the meaning was worth nothing but misery.

They must’ve felt it. All of what she felt.

But as she took another buckling step, she felt what they did. And could see the varying images flashing, accompanied with the respective emotion.

Every step, she lost her nerve.

By the end, she just collapsed, giving the others their energy back. Jackie being in tears once again.

“Hey!” Billie called out. “Just follow me and I’ll show ya’ where I stay—where I camp, I’ll tell ya’ everything and maybe we’ll come up with something! But we can’t stay here!”

Jackie was beginning to be forced back anyways.

She got up and ran past the others. She couldn’t face them, but she did them following and gaining.

They ran deeper within these endless, empty mines. Their steps echoed into a melody of retreat.