Kaiya sat up.

The gray bed she sat on seemingly merged into the surrounding bare walls, simple nightstand and nearly empty room. Across from her in the room sat an old computer, the gray, bulky tower and table helped distinguish the perfectly black, modern monitor.

Wh- Shit, am I… No, I can’t be… I…

There’s no way I’m seriously dead, I’ve been fighting for so long… They couldn’t have gotten me… They…

I’m…

They got me.

She stood off the bed, but the floor didn’t catch her.

Something else did. It very much wasn’t the floor, but she walked on the sheer air.

The chair didn’t scrape against the floor as she moved it, because there wasn’t a floor. Out of curiosity, before she sat in the chair, she walked past the desk, in hopes of finding a wall. She expected to bump into something immediately, but nothing came. She probably walked for a full minute, before deciding to turn back.

This computer…

It booted quickly, but she didn’t recognize the operating system. Probably, because there wasn’t really a desktop. All it showed was a black terminal, blinking cursor. Kaiya typed in the classic ‘help’ command, which showed unusual commands.

First was ‘give’, with no description. Next, ‘look’, again with no description. She typed ‘help give’, which only displayed syntax.

Although her context was limited, she tried using ‘give’ on a small item - an apple.

‘give apple’

An apple fell onto the bed behind her, which she picked up. It felt real, and she took a proper bite.

Kaiya understood the command, so she decided to try the other one.

Look.

She typed it in.

‘look Himiko Singe —view Free’

A window opened in seemingly mid-air, and she peeked through it.

She saw the girl sitting on a hill alongside Katie and Raleigh, entirely across the island. There was a menu that allowed her to quickly change person, just by typing their name. She did that for each other person there, before deciding to try someone else.

Hey, if I try… her… would it show the same place as here?

Kaiya tried it, typing Amity Rune into the window. She managed to get a view of her, but it wasn’t quite what she expected.

The view was a sandy area, Amity walking perpendicular to the wind. She kept walking, but there wasn’t anything particularly notable near her. She hovered around her for a minute, in awe.

How… did she survive? This shouldn’t… There’s gotta be a way out of here, if she’s not dead. Now’s not the time to try it, though.

She tried the original command again on the computer, and it opened another window, around Himiko.

Hmm… shocked it let me open two.

She decided to give herself a drink, but when she stepped back to move the windows, she tripped. Her water spilled onto a window, where it splashed back and hit the ground, leaving it slightly wet. She just cleaned it off, and went back to watching, though this was a bit of a wake-up call. This place is physical.

Honestly, I kinda like this place, but I kinda wish it wasn’t gray like this…

She gave herself a few posters which she couldn’t put up on account of the lack of walls, a record player and some of her favorite music, and new bed sheets, recreating her home bedroom as well as possible.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Music playing in the background, she stepped back to a window, and kept watching.

Amity kept walking, but in the horizon, Kaiya could see a building now. It was tall, but clearly a decent bit away.

Himiko sat higher up the hill, against a sobbing Katie and Raleigh.

She wondered if Himiko knew what happened.

…

As Kaiya sat, staring at the windows which she had moved nearer to the bed, she pondered.

“I… Can there… Am I really here… forever?”

She propped a window in her hand.

“This afterlife… sucks.”

There was a distinct smashing as she felt the glass of the window give way under the quick impact she made upon it.

***Himiko sat down on the hill, rest of the group following her. They found a flat spot on this surprisingly tall dune to rest on, just as they escaped the Broken Divine base.

“God, my arms hurt. Those cuff things were so tight!” Himiko shook her hands, the red spots on her arm from where they had been showing obviously.

“That’s what you’re complaining about?”

“Yes, it is, because I was lucky enough that that’s the worst thing that’s happened to me there.”

They sat for a good few minutes, catching their breath, before they realized something.

“Hey, Kaiya’s still not out,” Katie said.

“We told her where to go… Is she still in there?” Raleigh looked with concern at Katie.

“I hope not, she should be out by now… At least in the tubes by now.”

They waited a few more minutes, before Himiko decided to check something.

At the top of the hill, a short platform stood. It held the entrance to the tubes, as well as a map, which helpfully showed recent travel, as well as what tubes were currently in use.

—— 9 / 24 —

Recent Travel

9:35 PM: 1 ride from Southwest Facility to Southeast Hill Entrance

9:35 PM: 1 ride from Southwest Facility to Southeast Hill Entrance

9:36 PM: 1 ride from Southwest Facility to Southeast Hill Entrance

There were only 3 rides.

Kaiya was supposed to be the 4th.

“Hey, guys! Kaiya, ah… Kaiya hasn’t even touched the tubes yet.”

“What the- What happened to her?”

“I don’t know! The… hey…”

“Hmm?” Katie stood up, walking up the hill.

“I’m… sorry, I think something… happened to Kaiya…”

“What- What do you mean??”

Himiko showed them a menu, advertising the tubes for a certain facility being on lockdown for ‘unforeseen cleaning and maintenance of the facility’. They all knew what that meant.

“Shit… Kaiya- Kaiya…” Katie looked at the screen, realizing. All color drained from her moon-pale skin as she leaned against the side of the tube entrance, sobbing.

“K- Kaiya… She couldn’t have… She had magic…” Raleigh followed, sitting on the ground.

“I’m… I don’t think she’s gonna come back… She had magic, but they have more. Their magic is stronger too, way stronger.” Himiko stayed standing, but her legs tried to take her down.

“We never… never should’ve left her behind…” Katie continued crying into her legs.

“We couldn’t have saved her… We would’ve just gone too…” Raleigh consoled her, saying it was less bad than what could’ve happened.

The two on the ground cried together as Himiko walked around, the calmest one here also on the verge of it.

“I… shit, I don’t know…” Himiko decided to sit down on the opposite side from the two of them. “I’m not sure… where we go from here…”

Himiko decided to recount their adventure, in desperation a solution would reveal itself.

“We… We needed them. We needed some magic, at least, but they had… everything, really. Amity knew where to go, did all the fighting, but… She’s gone, and we barely escaped one encounter. Not even all of us…”

Himiko pushed herself up, leaning against the entrance.

“I’m not sure where we’re meant to go. I’m not sure if we can beat Winter, and we can’t use what we’d get anyway.”

She walked around the back.

“Hey, guys.”

Katie had stopped sobbing by now, but she still didn’t look great.

“Himiko…”

“Look, I’m not sure where to go… Let’s take a bit, down in those ruins. I don’t think we should stay up here… I imagine they can track the tubes too.”

Himiko extended a hand helping them up, and with her red eyes, Katie stood alongside Raleigh, who still cried a bit.

“Alright…”

Himiko picked her hat off her head, holding it near her chest while somberly looking into the ground, and didn’t put it back on as she began walking.

“Himiko… Are you okay?”

Raleigh stepped to walk beside her. “You’re… you weren’t…”

“I’m fine.” Himiko used her hat to hide her face for a second. “I’m… handling it. We need someone strong here…”

Raleigh felt she didn’t want to be pressed.

***

The sand continued its coarse grinding against Amity’s feet as she stepped towards a big sand dune. It had a tall, degraded tower built beside it, beams extended from the dune towards it, but the tower was noticeably less than maintained.

“Alright… Shelter. Just enough for now.”

She didn’t bother knocking on the door, just hopping a particularly short piece of the broken wall. The insides of the tower were shockingly barren, a crumbled pile of wood in the corner being all that laid inside.

A set of stairs embedded in the wall nearly spoke to her, but she pushed on one and it shifted. If it moved that much under her hand, they wouldn’t hold her weight. Instead, she just slipped an ice pillar beneath her feet and lifted herself to the second floor.

“That power’s proving… useful.”She picked herself up and looked at what was here. A crushed dresser with nothing but empty, damaged coat-hangers both inside and scattered outside, and the desk next to it also adorned with a few, next to old clothes that look like they’d been untouched for years.

The mirror above the desk had been shattered, and a melted candle next to some shards of glass had tipped.

“Not… friendly.”

She looked up, and there were still a few more floors.

The floor right above her was entirely collapsed, not viable in any way, but she kept on going.

Past the third, fourth, and fifth floors, lied a disheveled, cracked roof, and a wasteland of a floor.

The glass windows around the room were all shattered, and the pillar keeping the room up cracked, but it still stood.

She decided this was good enough, swept some of the glass off the floor, and laid down on the thin bed that sat atop the rickety tower.