“Who is Amadeus?

Well, to be honest the Samurai naming scheme always confuses me. Like one is named Sky-Blue Wire, another Triumph, another Jericho. Some it is a description of what they are, while others are goals or standards of who they are.

I understood all of that but Amadeus stumped me until I looked it up.

Basically it is someone who god loves, it's sweet until you realize the god that this samurai is referring to is the god of war. Being loved by the god of unnecessary war crimes and genocide might not be as cute and friendly as say, a genius composer and songwriter.

But hey, maybe you’re into that.”

* An anonymous comment on Amadeus’ page of the Samurai Fanbase Website, January 2052

***

My boots hit the water first and threw the gross liquid up my chest. Once settled the water only went up to my shins, but the residue that lay atop clung to my boots and I waded through the brownish orange speckled water.

The metallic and slightly earthy smell combined with the heavy tones of old mold and pipe grease.

Lighting the cavern with the penlight, I found the in-between space was indeed a sacrificial floor, or more rather, a floor incomplete and left to rot, taking all the issues and trash from the nearby floors to keep the imperfections out of sight.

Ideally, this would act like the network of wires that I worked in but this space was controlled by a different corporation, Tulum Efficiency Inc. which I did some digging into prior to my delve into what is considered their private property.

In all this madness, the last thing on my mind was the charges of trespassing but I knew Tulum had their priorities skewed.

For one, they paid their Safety Inspectors a set rate but fined them if they couldn’t find flaws in their coworker’s work. Any flaws or failure to adhere to Tulum Efficiency Inc. policies would result in a fine.

Basically if the Safety Inspectors didn’t rat on their coworkers they would end up owing more to the company than their salaries.

They didn’t even reward bonuses to the Safety Inspector who found more than necessary mistakes so instead of the Safety Inspectors trying to keep their workplaces safe, they would focus on keeping tabs on issues to report to meet their deadline and not report any more in case they would need them later.

Thus this floor which would’ve only had a few issues, grew to the point where it was dangerous to enter.

That’s why I was here, the danger.

My goal was to place this between me and the Antithesis, the rusty water wasn’t even the start of the dangers but it did give many things pause or at least, many people.

A network of tunnels spreads out in all directions. Checking my tablet I found north and headed in that direction.

I had to keep a watchful eye out for *surprises*

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Sludging through the muck I saw evidence of something else traversing this area before me.

Maybe this floor isn’t immune to Antithesis as I originally thought.

Reaching an intersection I readied my pistol, taking a deep breath and checked both ways.

To the left the tunnel was full of broken pipes pouring the foul water in a sputtering torrent.

The right had a mishmash of wires ripped from the walls and sparking awfully close to the water that I was currently standing in. What stopped the current from reaching me was the bulk of an Antithesis corpse, it was bulky but I recognized it as a Model Four.

The curled tentacles’ skin were blackened from electrocution making them look like fried octopus.

Seeing them in the murk I decided not to have any seafood anytime in the near future.

I had to hold my stomach for a second. Maybe I shouldn’t have jumped in here just after eating.

I pushed the thought away and moved forward, my boots were insulated but I didn’t want to see how far that would go in this situation.

Pressing forward I steeled my resolve and tried cleaning part of the wall to see if there were any markings detailing what was above me.

The rust fill pipe grease parted under my gloves but clung to the material.

Rubbing a spot clear I looked for something I could wipe my hand on.

Everything was coated in the same stuff except…

I wiped my hand on the Model Four, the touched skin took the greasy gunk. Guess there was a use for the angry plant aliens.

Looking back at the cleanish spot I found that I was under a fast food joint and above a Nestlė water bottling plant.

Always knew their water tastes greasy.

Neither had an exit indicated on the wall so I pressed on.

Coming to a T in the tunnel I headed to the left after clearing both ways.

The tunnel became tighter, the ceiling constricting downward forcing me to hunch to continue forward.

At least the water was not as prevalent here. In one spot it was completely dry.

That should’ve been a clue but I didn’t realize what it could mean. As I moved past it I heard a strange coughing noise coming from the walls. I turned and saw a jet of flame erupt toward me.

Throwing myself to the ground, the air behind me igniting with fire my brain went into fight or flight.

I put two bullets into the wall and ran.

The sound of my gunfire echoed briefly as I sprinted down the tunnels in a crouched position.

The adrenaline in the veins and panicked senses saved me as a blade swung out of the wall at waist height, my nerves frayed. I reacted by falling on my back.

I stared at the space where the blade passed over in shock.

Was this place trapped?

I didn’t consider active discouragement when I entered the in-between but thinking of all the stories I heard and the injuries attributed to this place, it started to make sense.

I willingly entered a death trap because I wanted to keep anything following me from doing so easily. I weighed my options as the blade flashed overhead again.

I could use this to my advantage by learning all the traps or I could retreat the way I came, hoping that there was nothing between me and an exit.

I decided on finding an exit as soon as possible, but learning the traps in case. The blade above me flashed by every 23 seconds, plenty of time to avoid it. Strange timing but I wasn’t an expert in physical traps like this.

Who knows, maybe it wasn’t a trap at all but a broken piece of equipment meant to chop something and it ended up down here.

Regardless of the intent of the swinging blade, I would still be very injured by it. Potentially Fatally.

I began crawling forward awkwardly, I did have the timing to avoid the blade but standing up was an unnecessary risk. I only have one life and pain hurts. I would rather not get in any worse condition that I was already in.

Past the blade I stood up, sliding around to what I perceived as a safe location to stand.

Blades, Flames, Electrical wires, what’s next? A pitfall?

I decided to be careful where I placed my feet going forward in this rust bucket of a floor.

I wound my way through the deadly corridors, dodging a spiked wall of all things sliding toward the other.

Half of these traps could be easily traversed if someone was familiar with their placement and timing. I had neither and by the time I found an exit down my body was coated with rust, soot, grease, and what I could only describe as industrial waste water.

The man hole cover was nearly sealed to the surrounding floor with all the filth on it but I could be very persuasive with an old discarded crowbar I found nearby.

I climbed the much cleaner ladder down to the following floor.

Floor Fourteen, here I go!