In one smooth motion Nick pulled his pants back up and smiled at the group. First impressions were important, you know. Nick then inspected the group, finding them to be quite the peculiar bunch.
There were four of them, a rather standard group size, that’s where the standard ended though. Three members of the group were wearing black, full face masks, the only person not wearing one was the woman that was giggling at him. She was deathly pale, dressed in a frilly dress with a decorative belt packed full of knives. Her face was almost sheet white, with piercing faintly yellow eyes. Nick was taken aback, he’d only seen yellow eyes on the infected people and ghouls so far.
“What’s with that face? Looks like you’ve seen a ghost!” The woman broke into laughter.
Nick wasn’t sure why but he found himself a bit more at ease.
“Sorry, I was just mesmerised by those eyes of yours.” Nick replied in pace.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh? What a little charmer you are!”
Nick politely laughed and took in the details of the other three members. They hadn’t made a sound yet, other than their eyes following him there weren't any real signs of life from them. He began to wonder if this was really a person he was talking to. The trio were dressed in similar black clothing that didn’t reveal any skin, adding to the suspicion growing in Nick. Unknowingly he began to step back towards the door he’d come through.
“What’s wrong? Leaving so soon?” The woman said with a grin.
Now Nick was definitely getting the hell out of there. He turned around to grab his stuff and make a dash for it, when a door he hadn’t seen and a woman came walking out.
“Goddamn the toilets here are-” She saw Nick and paused. “-Pretty good. Good toilets yep. Hi there.”
“Uh hey. How’s it going?” Nick asked, thrown a bit off kilter by the very sudden change in atmosphere.
This new member of the group was very different from the others. She wore a pretty standard set of gear with a large sword strapped across her back. Her hair was braided back and she wouldn’t look out of place in a fantasy rpg. She stood just a bit shorter than Nick, and Nick certainly wasn’t short by any metrics.
“Ah yeah, pretty good, pretty good. How about you?” The woman replied casually, as if there wasn’t a very creepy woman and three masked goons sitting in the room.
“That’s good, good yeah. I uh, I’ll be going.” Nick pointed at the door and made his way in that direction.
The woman frowned. “Paige, were you being a creepy bitch again?”
“Of course not my dear Rina! I was just having fun.”
Nick winced and turned around, the pale girl had a devilish grin across her face.
The other woman, Rina, sighed loudly. “You can’t be acting like this constantly, you’re going to give bad habits to the recruits. We have enough of an image problem as it is!”
She then turned to Nick. “I’m sorry about her, she’s a right handful. I’m Rina.” She held her hand out.
Nick took it, much more comfortable with this woman. “Nick. It’s alright, she certainly caught me off guard there.”
“Says the boy who walked in and pulled his pants down in front of us.” Paige said.
Nick went a little red in the cheeks and Rina raised an eyebrow.
“I uh, probably should have checked the room first. I haven’t seen a person all day, got a little complacent.”
Rina looked mildly interested. Then she noticed all of Nick’s piled up gear. “You walked off into the Hotel and got all of that yourself?”
Nick really didn’t have a cover story and just awkwardly shrugged. Then Paige giggled.
“I think I might know who this gentleman is.” She grinned. “Say Rina, what class could confidently gather so much loot alone? And who have we been hearing rumours about for the last few days?”
Nick didn’t like this one bit. Though Rina seemed to be really crunching the numbers.
“Ahh a strong fighter? They’d have to be pretty confident in their skills to carry so much loot around alone… …Though I haven’t heard any rumours about any strong new prospects?”
She then eyed Nick up a bit. Nick felt a bit embarrassed. He certainly didn’t look like a very impressive fighter.
“Rina my dear, who caused an upset on the 75th recently?” The patronising tone was overwhelming.
Rina’s eyebrows creased. “An Explorer?” Then she had a visible lightbulb moment. “Ohhhhhhhhhh Nick! You’re the Explorer?”
Nick could see what Paige had done here, she’d used Rina’s openness as a way to get an answer from Nick. He had to acknowledge her efforts, though he probably would have told her if she just asked. The cat was pretty much out of the bag anyway.
“Yep, that's me. New to the Complex, certified Latecomer and bona fide Explorer.” Nick added a little bow on the end just for dramatic flare, which earned a clap from Paige. He definitely got drama kid vibes from her.
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“Well we’re heading back to the hub for the night, want to come with?” Rina offered.
“We don’t bite!” Paige added on.
Nick didn’t want to be anywhere near Paige but Rina seemed like a decent person. Nick was a bit hesitant though, the group seemed very, very strange. The three masked folk still hadn’t spoken. Rina noticed Nick looking at them.
“They’re the new recruits, they can’t talk for a few weeks. You know how it is.”
Nick in fact didn’t and it certainly raised some alarms in his head.
“Rina dear, I don’t think he would know. Latecomer, remember?” Paige seemed to be the brains of the party.
Rina looked at Nick and he gave her an awkward smile.
“Whoops! Wait, do you even know who we are?”
Nick shook his head and Paige put her head in her hands. Rina then started nodding excitedly.
“Okay! We’re from the Executioners! We’re the Complex’s premier force for clearing floors! While you might have heard some nasty rumours about us, I assure you we’re working for everyone’s best interests! No other faction within the Complex is as dedicated to making it to the bottom of the hotel as us!” Rina flashed a smile as she finished.
Nick politely clapped, he felt it was the only appropriate response to such a hammy sales pitch. Rina really did seem to be putting her heart into it. Suddenly he felt something brush by his side. He turned and to his shock Paige was right next to him.
“Yes her pitch is a bit childish, but I do guarantee you won’t find anyone else here as dedicated to exploring the depths as us. You’ll find that a lot of Explorers end up joining up with our faction at some point or another.”
Nick couldn’t quite put his finger on it but he found her words reassuring, that what she was saying was something he could trust. Nick found himself nodding at what she said.
“Now I’m sure you haven’t settled in yet, the Executioners would be more than happy to give you a place to find your feet. We can guarantee you and whoever is with you safe passage to the Parklands.” Paige continued.
Nick was thinking very favourably of her offer, he did need to make sure his family was safe. He was convincing himself that it would be a good idea to accept Paige’s offer when he noticed that Rina was frowning. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He sucked in a deep breath and focused on his internal energy. He felt the air around him but there was nothing wrong, no aura shenanigans at play. He then looked at Paige, her pale face smiling at him.
Why the hell had he let the creepy ass goth girl get so close? He took a step back and shook his head. What the hell was going on? He saw Paige frown for a moment before quickly returning to a smile.
“Well, think the offer over, we’re always willing to take on new members!” She then took a deep breath in. “My oh my, you do smell simply delightful.”
Nick shuddered, the small woman looked like a predator ready to gobble him up. He was certainly not vibing with whatever the heck was going on here.
“Well, we’re heading back now. You might as well tag along!” Rina said, bringing Nick back to reality.
The three ‘recruits’ stood up and Rina led the way through the door Nick had come through. Rina pulled out a map then started walking off in a direction. Nick grabbed his loot then checked his own map, confirmed it was the right direction, and followed along, Paige keeping pace with him.
“So Nick, how have you found the Complex so far?” She asked.
Nick had to think about his answer for a moment, it had certainly been a very wild couple of days.
“Well it’s certainly quite the place. There’s a lot going on, too much to wrap my head around in such a short amount of time.”
“You’ve only been here for a few days, correct?” She asked.
“Yeah about four now I think.” He replied.
“I’m jealous, I can barely remember home anymore. I was so young when I got here.” This was the first genuine sounding thing he’d heard from Paige.
Nick didn’t know what to say. He wanted to ask, to know more about how people got here, to see if Lily’s 20 year timeline was correct. He knew it would be insensitive though, he could hear genuine pain in her voice.
“You’re not missing much, it’s all gone to shit honestly.” Nick said with a sigh.
Paige laughed. “I’m sure it’s better out there than here.”
Nick had to seriously think about it, he just didn’t know enough about the happenings here to really say.
“Since the start of the 2000s we’ve had major terror attacks, wars, an economic collapse. It’s been a bit of a mess honestly.”
The duo went quiet for a while. Nick watched as Rina did her best to navigate the hallways using the map, she wasn’t very good. Thankfully they eventually got close enough that groups of people were milling about, giving Rina the opportunity to walk up and ask for directions.
Other groups seemed to be doing their best to keep some distance from the Executions, a hint of fear in their eyes. It seemed that those nasty rumours Rina mentioned were quite well known. Nick would make sure to ask around when he could.
“I guess it’s not that bad here.” Paige finally said. “We make the most with what we have. I’d still like to go home one day.”
Nick felt bad. He suddenly felt like he’d just stomped on this person’s dreams. They’d been trapped here for 20 years and Nick had just told her it wasn’t worth going back.
“When we get back, I’m sure there’s a heap you’d love to see out there. Technology has come a long way in just a decade. We’ve done some crazy stuff out there, billionaires are going to space for fun nowadays.”
Nick finally got to see Paige’s mask slip for a moment, shock evident on her face.
“Space? For fun?!”
Nick laughed. “Yeah big Bezos is just having a blast with his bottomless wallet. Really is a wild time to be alive out there.”
Paige quickly got her face back under control. “Hmm it certainly seems that things aren’t that bad out there.”
Nick grinned back at her. “Certainly not.”
Nick decided to try and get some information out of Paige.
“So, you seem to be a bit of a veteran around here, what would you say it’s like here?”
“There’s a lot going on, it can be a bit hard to wrap your head around in a short period of time.” She replied with a grin.
Nick raised his hands in defeat and the group continued their march towards the main room of the floor. Nick started noticing that he was getting odd looks from the groups they passed through. That, and there was a lot less traffic around, even as they got quite close to the dining room.
“What’s the time? I haven’t managed to get a clock of my own yet.” Nick asked.
Rina heard him and pulled out a clock that looked similar to Maddy’s. “It’s about four in the morning.”
“Oh.” Nick replied.
It seems he’d been out quite late tonight.