Away from the camp’s fire, the night’s chill found its way to her. She stood resting against the side of the mechanic's tent. Inside, her father was hard at work finishing repairs. She steadied herself and opened the flap stepping into the musty cramped space. The massive armoured truck took up much of the tent and her father was somewhere beneath it.

“Carly is that you?”

“Yeah, need something.”

“I need you to turn the key in the ignition, let me know what happens.”

She approached the vehicle and opened the driver's side door. She twisted the key, and the ailing beast only managed to splutter.

“Damn fuel pump, knew we should have got it replaced at that last stop. Thanks.”

“Anytime,” she said. “The others were wondering when you were going to join us.”

“Soon, I promise. You know how it is, the sooner this is fixed, the sooner I don’t have to worry about it.”

“Fine, but don’t be here all night. Even you need some sleep, Dad.”

“Now you’re sounding like your mother!”

Carly rolled her eyes and left the tent and trudged someways across the dry dirt until she reached the large campfire. Someone with large shoulders saw and moved to give her space on the end. Before a word escaped her lips a bowl was put in front of her. She cocked her head at this. Normally it’s got a bunch of meats and stuff this is just black.

She looked at the man who had given her it. He ate greedily, and the strange sludge found a way to latch onto his thick beard. As the tip of the bowl reached her lips, something else caught her eye: two faces among her family that didn’t belong. Her eyes widened in recognition.

Francis, and Melina. How are those two here? I didn’t meet them until much later.

“Eat up, girl. We’ll be up early tomorrow. No one likes to work on an empty stomach.”

Francis slowly shook his head at her. What does that even me, Captain? Say something.

“What are you staring at?”

The question sounded normal enough, but its deep reverberation put her on edge. “I’m not hungry,” she said.

She put the bowl down and looked up to see her nomad family staring at her with black in their eyes. We’re your family now. We were always your family. We always will be.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She jumped her feet and backed away. She ran back to the sanctuary of her father’s tent and found him facing away from her, a dripping black coat over his calloused and rough hands.

“You don’t turn down a gift, Carly. That’s not what I taught you.”

The man’s neck cracked as he turned to face her, the strange substance dribbling down the edges of his lips. “You will join us, everything is destined to join us. You will never feel alone again.”

Something grabbed her shoulder and she almost panicked but a hand across her mouth silenced her. She was pulled out in the night and was met by both Francis and Melina.

“Francis, is that really you?”

“Yeah, Echo, turns out Melina can tell when she’s in a mind trap.”

“A what?”

“It’s complicated, it overwhelmed us as soon as we entered the facility. Some kind of mental trap designed to keep people down here,” he said.

“That black sludge?”

“The Mortis fruit probably. Hard to tell where we are in relation to this dream. Melina can’t break out of it yet. We’re probably sleepwalking if that makes sense.”

“Didn’t this happen once we got to the Moon?” asked Carly.

“Yeah, but that was just hallucinations and hearing voices. This on the other hand is powerful psionics.”

“I would say it's an Obelisk causing it. Probably a massive one too if it can trap people in a mental prison,” said Melina.

“How did you even find me?”

Melina looked to Francis for help.

Francis revealed he still held the tracker. It showed them on its screen he then gestured to their surroundings. “What do you see right now, Echo?”

“My camp from before I joined up with the Black Knights. Why what do you see?”

“Well put simply. I’m at base training recruits and Melina is back home in Russia.”

“But you’re both here.”

“Yes, and you are with us,” said Francis.

Echo began rubbing her forehead. “How do we escape or find the others?”

“We stick together and keep walking, imagine you’re lucid dreaming if that helps.”

“Right,” said Echo.

Out of everything so far that had happened to her this was definitely the weirdest. It made her wonder what the others were seeing as they walked alongside each other and how each dream synced up like this. It was all so alien.

From her side of things, they walked until they reached a small abandoned town. The road much like the various buildings had all begun to fall into disrepair.

“I’m in a town,” she said.

“Same,” said Melina.

The two looked to Francis. “Desert. Just desert. It’s hot though. I keep seeing oases with black lakes. The fruit is calling to me.”

“Keep fighting it,” said Melina. “There has to be some way of breaking free of its hold on us.”

Echo looked from one ominous ruin to the next. She saw a ruined bar on the left, and far up the road she saw something a little more odd. A large black box. “There’s nothing here, but I do see a large box.”

“Same.”

“Nothing’s changed,” Francis said. “Just endless sand as far as the eye can see… wait I see it too. A box.”

“I want to believe that is a good sign but it most likely means it knows we’re aware of the trap,” said Melina.

“So we enter the box then?” asked Echo.

Melina looked to Francis for his wisdom. He just shrugged at her. “I don’t see any other option. If it gets us closer to escaping this place, we have to try it.”

The black edifice stood in contrast to the town around her, its walls towered high above everything else and yet the door to enter was at the height she would expect. “We should at least do this together.”

Neither disagreed and on the count of three opened the door revealing the same sight. Pitch-black darkness.

“Still want to go in, Captain.”

“Do you have a better idea? Mel.”

“I wish.”

The three of them were soon swallowed by the darkness.