Following the slow parting of the creaking gate, a fascinating sight came to view. Instead of the never-ending sprawl of corridors seen up until now, an opened and uncluttered space loomed ahead.

While most of everything similarly looked constructed of metal, from the streets to the black, cylindrical pillar structures littered around, it was nonetheless a far cry from the labyrinth of corridors Adrian and seen up until now.

After sparing a glance at the especially thick steel gate, his eyes shot up, following a giant pillar sprouting from the ground a long distance away. And it wasn’t even the only one. These titanic pillars were scattered without rhyme, all differing from each other in thickness and distinct details. Each of them also seemed to rise vertically for an eternity, at some point their shiny black exterior fully blending into the dim sky.

‘There’s an especially big one, too.’

Rising from where Adrian thought the center was located, a dwarfing pillar - easily five to ten times thicker than the second thickest - pierced the darkness, illuminating a huge area around it with bright, blue hues.

Cranking his head up to an uncomfortable degree, Adrian could vaguely make out a ceiling. No shorter in height and grandeur, the black pillars all stretched and connected with different sections of the roof, which if to guess, raised to at least a few hundred meters from the floor.

All this obviously caused Adrian some questions.

‘Could this whole place be underground? A place this massive couldn’t possibly be constructed on the surface, surely!’

Taking him out of his thoughts, his captors began moving once again. If not awkward, it felt a little eerie with all these silent soldiers acting in perfect unison.

Stepping through the gate without any issue, the small group escorting Adrian turned right and began walking along the outskirts of this new, ‘open’ area. There really wasn’t anything too interesting to see while following the circular outer wall, mostly just gigantic warehouses with the odd street in between every hundred meters or so.

In fact, it was almost too uninteresting. No people, animals, plants. Just a bunch of lifeless, rusting buildings, all supporting a monotonous hue of blue from the giant pillar in the center.

Only a constant, low electrical hum emanated from the dead surroundings; One that refused to disappear despite their sizable travels. Combined with the sound of the group’s steps, Adrian assumed this was going to be his existence for quite some time.

Suddenly, one of his eyes twitched.

‘This damned hum...’

Shaking it off, he continued his observation of the surroundings.

Even after walking for a while, Adrian still couldn’t shake a sense of megalophobia. From the distant, towering black pillars to the huge warehouses and even the overly wide streets that separate them. Everything seemed overly large.

If anything, it looked fit to be a land of giants, built by their overly grand architects.

Disappointing, however, was the lack of memories or revelations. Wherever he looked, nothing rang any bells. No vague feeling of nostalgia. No recollection whatsoever.

This made suddenly remembering the cryogenic storage’s layout even odder. Most of everything else was clear for Adrian, from language to advanced concepts. Yet still, nothing of his memories or the world he was in.

It felt as if someone had taken any and all sense of self from his memory but left everything else for the viewing.

While he hadn’t forgotten the fact that he remained in a precarious situation and needed to play his cards right, the prospect of knowledge and identity never left his mind, still serving as an end goal.

Holding in the urge to sigh, he distracted himself further with the titanic scenery. Maybe, just maybe, something he saw would jolt his mind into remembering. Remembering who he truly was and had been.

Continuing for a little while longer, Eloise finally stopped in front of another gate, similar to the one they had entered Sector B-5 with. This gate, however, served as the entrance to a structure. It also seemed better guarded, two turrets standing menacingly on each side of the gate, scanning the group.

Taking a closer look at the structure, Adrian couldn’t help but notice its huge size, even compared to the other buildings around. And its design… well, it looked much like if one of the giant black pillars were to collapse and lay horizontally. Identical, even.

Turning to his side to see how long this new structure was, Adrian simply stared wide-eyed.

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He couldn’t even see where it ended!

‘It’s at the very least tens of kilometers long. This is insanity!’

It truly was insanity. For a building already this tall, its length only made it look even more out of this world.

Just thinking about the fact that most of the pillars were probably similar in size made his head spin for a few moments.

Looking up at the distant ceiling, Adrian remembered his last estimate of its height.

‘It isn’t just hundreds of meters, is it?’

It was the fact that everything was simultaneously far away and gigantic that made it seem so at first glance. Who would have thought that the black pillars were that towering?

Ignoring the pillars for a moment, he wondered how such a space even came to be.

Human engineering was something to marvel at, but something this grand existing simply didn’t make much sense. Perhaps his muse about giants building it had some merit after all.

Taking Adrian out of his thought, Eloise seemed to notice him looking around and decided to spare a few words:

“I heard you weren’t knowledgeable of this area. We are going to travel to the city’s core through here, where we will begin your interrogation and further discuss things.” She explained while pointing at the giant structure.

Adrian didn’t show any visible reaction to the words, but inside, all his gears were spinning.

‘This, a city? Haven’t seen a soul living here.’

Walking up to the gate and swiping some sort of keycard, both the turrets returned to their neutral position, and the thick gate doors started parting.

Revealed behind the parting steel were the ‘city’s’ first visible inhabitants.

Looking around the colossal enclosure, Adrian’s attention was first drawn by the new faces.

Some sported the same menacing-looking rifles and black uniforms as the soldiers he had been held at gunpoint by, but he had learned to expect them being nearly everywhere.

What truly surprised Adrian was that the armed soldiers were only a fraction. A great majority of the people inside looked… normal, as in civilian. A few were even with their families, be it only with a single loved one or multiple elders and children.

He had honestly thought this entire place would be a purely military encampment for some time, so it was a pleasant surprise having his theory disproved.

Although, there was also something unique to these people. They all had a certain aura; A feeling of…

‘Wealth.’

Everything screamed prosperity, and that can only come with wealth.

Everyone had clean, fair skin. Everyone looked well fed. Everyone had nice clothes and healthy hair.

To summarize, the mirror-opposite of disheveled Adrian.

Distracting himself from the people to better study the enclosure, he finally understood what his captor meant when she said it would take them to the city’s core.

‘This is a station.’ He thought to himself while observing some sorts of large, floating vehicles.

The entire left side of the station was filled with these bullet-shaped vehicles, setting off with many of the wealthy-looking people at incredible speeds. The waiting lines for most of them were equally incredible, ranging from a few people to hundreds.

Looking up, Adrian inconspicuously stared at the giant screen looming over the entire station and its vehicles.

Written boldly, the name of the unreasonably large building stood above everything else, visible to everyone from nearly all angles by being centered inside the screen.

[MAGLEV TERMINAL B-5]

Below was a long list of gates, numbering from one to twenty-five. Each corresponded to one of the vehicles.

Out of the twenty-five gates, the first three were listed separately,

[Gate 1 – Unavailable Restricted]

[Gate 2 – Docked Restricted]

[Gate 3 – Arriving ~0:47 Restricted]

The rest were missing the ‘Restricted’ tag at the end and had sizable lines, unlike the empty or almost empty ones in front of the first three gates.

Following one of the dark gray walls, Eloise positioned her squad to a higher traffic area, to catch the attention of the personnel stationed here.

Just as planned, a short while after entering, the group was greeted by a handful of guards.

“Sergeant First Class!” They all saluted in unison before Eloise.

“I’m escorting a VIP to sector C. Please present us to an unoccupied transport.” She asked of the guards with a subtle, warm smile.

“Of course, mam! Follow us.” One of the frontmost guards immediately responded.

Leading the way with hasty steps, they appeared right behind one of the unused vehicles. Right above it flashed another screen.

[Gate 2 – Docked Restricted]

“This bullet-ship is specifically reserved for any surprise VIPs, and docks at the upper layer of sector C. It is free to move once you embark.” The guard that had previously talked to Eloise said.

Curiously studying the ship up close, Adrian almost cracked a smile once overhearing what the soldier had called it.

‘I can see where the name comes from… it truly does look like a bullet.’ He mused to himself.

Showing no external features except a wide ramp at the back and with a shiny, metallic exterior, it looked wrong, for something resembling a polished lump of metal, to simply levitate in the air. And yet, Adrian knew why and how, at least the concept behind it.

‘Through magnetic levitation.’ The concept flashed through his head. It honestly felt weird knowing things without ‘knowing’ them. They simply appeared in his mind, undiscernible if he had always known or just now learned of it.

Climbing into the shiny contraption proved nothing too difficult. The ramp was long and gradual, while the floating ‘bullet’ was quite close to the ground to begin with.

Inside, Adrian was greeted by luxurious armchairs and sofas, all dressed in what seemed to be deep beige leather.

Under the warm lighting lightly emanating from the walls, there was also a polished, wooden table with a plethora of fancy bottled drinks on it, all unopened and pristine in condition.

Not wasting any time, Eloise went to one of the high-tech panels to input a few things, while her soldiers, together with Adrian, quietly sat down on the overly comfy seats.

Immediately, Adrian started feeling slightly uncomfortable. The air felt tingly, lightly zapping his skin thousands of times a second.

It wasn’t painful or anything, just a new, weird sensation.

Other than that, though, everything felt the same as the second he had entered the vehicle.

Making sure to not do or say anything out of the ordinary, he sat motionless and without any expression.

Sitting down directly opposite Adrian, Eloise warmly stared into his neutral and seemingly uncaring eyes.

“Now, I believe we’re both due some proper introductions.”