Oscar Reynolds
With anxiety building in his chest, Oscar was the last to dip his head into the hole and crawl into the cool and musty interior of the cavern beyond the makeshift bunker wall. Coughing after inhaling a cloud of kicked-up dust, he spat to the side and groaned as he got to his knees and peered back at the gaping hole. On the other side, he could faintly see Anne still asleep against the wall as a nearby soldier named Amy Greene stood by to watch over her. The thought of leaving Anne with strangers did not sit well with him, yet the being known as Ben assured him that the little girl would be safe and that he was needed for this little operation.
Though he still couldn’t shake the uneasiness inside, if anything happened to her, his brother and sister-in-law would hate him until the end of days. That’s why he made a deal. With himself, of course. If anything seems to go sideways, he’s out. He’ll turn around and rush back to Anne as quickly as he can. Would he seem cowardly in front of everyone else? Hell yes, though unlike the soldiers he was following, he doubted they’d care; honestly, they’d probably prefer it if he stayed out of their way.
With that little plan in place, he got to his feet, though he had to bend his knees as his head nearly came into contact with the low-hanging ceiling. At least the entrance—the cavern he and the soldiers crawled into—wasn't that big. It was large enough to fit the six of them, though it was cramped, and everyone except for the dwarf Jax had to be hunched over. The interior stretched outwards by at least six or seven strides before coming up to a dead end; they all got a good glimpse of it when Sheffield shone her magrite torch upon it.
“There really isn’t anything here,” the lieutenant said as she side-eyed Oscar from over her shoulder.
Oscar gulped. “Ben said there was what they called an illusive field,” he said as he recalled the term their mysterious benefactor used. “If you recall, I described it as an illusion.”
The lieutenant nodded slowly. “I remember, Mr. Reynolds, however,” she said, holding a bare hand out towards the rough stone wall before them. “You can’t tap on illusions.” She wrapped the back of her knuckles against the wall. “This little cave is just an airpocket and nothing more.”
The soldiers shared a glance, and Jax cleared his throat. “But what about the draft? I still feel it, and from what I can see…” The dwarf trailed off as he walked towards the wall that shouldn’t be there, according to Ben, and looked around. “I see no gaps or crevices yet…” He popped two fingers into his mouth and pulled them back out, now slick with saliva, and held them up. “Aye, it’s steady.”
“Perhaps…” The elf Coleman began in a slow draw. “Are there holes we cannot see with our naked eyes?” He suggested.
“Unlikely,” The dwarf said this with a shake of his head and pressed his hand against the wall. “I’ve spent my fair share of time within the undermines, and I–” As Jax went to lean against the wall, the moment his body weight rested against it, he phased through with a startled cry and vanished within the formerly solid wall.
Immediately Johnson and Coleman yelped with surprise as Sergeant Archer and Lieutenant Sheffield stared with a seemingly calm expression though their eyes said otherwise. Though Oscar had a feeling nothing was as it seemed, he too was unable to express his shock when the dwarf vanished from reality, or so it appeared.
“Corporal,” Sheffield called out. “Corporal, can you hear us? Are you okay?” She stepped towards the wall as they all stared in stunned silence, listening, hoping they could hear Jax on the other side. If there was another side, such a thought disturbed Oscar greatly.
Then they heard it. Or him, for that matter. Jax’s voice was muffled, distant, and dreamlike. Hearing the dwarf on the other side, the lieutenant pressed her ear against the wall Jax had gone through before gasping and jolting back as if having been shocked. Her left hand clutched her cheek briefly before pulling her hand away to look at it.
Oscar and the other soldiers crowded around her. “Are you alright?” Oscar asked as he felt Ben vibrating in his pocket, though he ignored him briefly.
“Yeah, I’m good… It shocked me,” she said, rubbing her cheek and ear again. “Like…” She started again and reached out towards the wall.
“What the hell are you doing?” Coleman sputtered as he reached out to stop her, but stopped when Sheffield glared at him. “You said it shocked you!”
“I did,” the lieutenant said, her hand now hovering over the wall. “Though that wasn’t the right word… Its… You know that feeling when you’re swinging a stick around and you slam it so hard into something it makes your hands hurt?” She asked everyone. The men around her all shared a glance—a look that they all could relate to. Every young kid, especially boys playing soldier, knew that feeling well. Sheffield continued, "Well, it felt more like that. The wall’s vibrating really, really fast.” She pressed her hand onto it and kept it there now. “I didn’t notice it early when I knocked on it, but… holding my hand now.” She knocked again on the wall. “I feel it now.”
Jax’s muffled voice called out again, though Oscar couldn’t understand the poor dwarf. Sheffield turned towards the wall, leaned into it, and shouted, “Hold tight, Jax! We’ll be coming through shortly!” Though admittedly, she and the others weren’t too sure about that.
“How in the hell do we get through this?” Coleman asked, “Sprint towards it and hope we’re worthy?”
Archer snorted as he took a few steps away from the wall and rolled his shoulders. “And maybe get free passes to a wizadry school?”
Once again, the caster in Oscar’s pocket vibrated, but this time with an increased intensity. No longer being able to ignore it, he pulled out the device and opened it. Already Ben was writing with clear frustration, “Push through the damned thing, you moronic imbeciles! I swear, you guys see one little magic trick, and it’s like the discovery of fire all over again. Just move!”
“Sheesh, calm down; I get it.” Oscar muttered with a roll of his eyes.
“What is it, Mr. Reynolds?” The lieutenant asked.
Taking a breath, Oscar straightened up. “Ben said we just need to simply push through it..”
Ben hastily wrote, “Indeed. The wall, while it feels real, is not. It’s a powerful ocular and material-based illusion that is projected at a resonance…” Oscar turned his attention away from the caster. As curious as he was to learn how the damn thing worked, Ben was right in that they didn’t have the time.
Sheffield nodded slowly. “Alright then. Archer,” she said, looking at the sergeant. “Stay behind me. Coleman and Johnson, keep an eye on Reynolds, and follow behind.” The two men nodded as Sheffield turned to the wall. “Mr. Reynolds, if I bounce off this wall like a dumbass, we’re going to have a stern talk.” Before Oscar could respond, the soldier crouched down for half a second before rushing forth. In an instant, she jarringly phased through the wall in such a way that Oscar’s mind couldn’t understand what he’d just seen.
Shaking his head, he glanced at the two other soldiers in front of him, who simply shrugged. “Well,” Coleman gulped as his pointed ears twitched with a bit of nervousness. “I’ll go next.” Just like the lieutenant before him, the elf ran forward and shifted through the wall.
Now alone with Corporal Johnson, the human man glanced at Oscar and smirked. “I’ve broken through plenty of walls in my career; I never thought I’d be going through one like a ghost,” the man said as he rolled his shoulders. “C’mon.” He motioned for Oscar to come over to him.
Muttering under his breath, Oscar said, "Well, it isn’t a real wall…” He stopped himself when he noticed the soldier rolling his eyes. The man pointed at the ground beside him.
“We’re going through together; there's no point in keeping the other waiting.” Oscar felt a twinge of nervousness once again in his chest, and he hesitantly glanced back at the hole the soldiers had made earlier. Part of him debated going back to Anne, though he unfortunately wouldn’t have the luxury of waiting for long as the soldier grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards him.
With his mind made up for him, Oscar positioned himself beside Johnson and stared at the wall. Every instinct in his body was telling him that running at a solid wall was incredibly stupid. “You’ll make yourself look like a dumbass,” his conscious cried.
“Maybe I’ll wake up from a stupid dream,” he thought to himself.
That did little to calm his nerves. With a firm slap to his back, Oscar gasped as Johnson bolted forward, and without a second thought, Oscar followed behind him as the two men rushed towards the fake cavern wall.
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The wind was knocked from his lungs as his body made contact with the cavern wall. Every fiber stung for only a microsecond as his body whacked what his brain thought was solid rock, before suddenly said rock began to shimmer and morph. The world around Oscar parted like water he was submerging into; what he thought was stone clung to his form, as if trying to keep him on the other side, but was released once he was sufficiently away from the faux material.
The world on the other side was dark, damp, and chilly. By the gods, it was chilly. Oscar took in heavy gulps of cold, stale air and sighed as he shook away the goosebumps. As his vision adjusted to the near pitch blackness in front of him, he noticed behind him a very faint, dim light. He glanced over his shoulder, and his eyebrows raised in astonishment. Behind him was nothing. Not like nothing, as in, there was no body or no objects there. It was a black abyss, yet at the base of this abyss was a thin streak of white light that shone brightly. It’s light, like a faint candle that hardly illuminates anything.
“Finally,” the dwarf Jax said with a raise of his arms. “Took you dumis long enough.” He rolled his eyes.
Johnson snorted. “What can I say? I wanted to enjoy the sights.”
“What sights?” Archer rolled his eyes. “Dust and stone?”
“That and the magical fake wall of infinite darkness.” The corporal waved his hand at the black void.
“Cut the idle talk,” Lieutenant Sheffield said. “Mr. Reynolds, why aren’t our torches coming on?” She waved her magrite torch around, and before Oscar could respond, the light suddenly came on, blinding Sergeant Archer, who cursed loudly and recoiled away from the light.
“Shit sorry!” Sheffield gasped as Ben vibrated in Oscar’s hand.
Oscar glanced at the caster as the magical, and now illuminated, text appeared: “The illusive field temporarily subdued the ether in all of your magical devices. No fear, as you see, they’ll gradually come back on.”
Oscar read what Ben said out loud to everyone, and Sheffield bit her lip. “There aren’t any more fields like that, or potential AM fields here, are there?”
Ben didn’t respond right away, and Oscar felt his gut sink. Finally, Ben responded, and Oscar wished he hadn’t. “Probably,” the mysterious benefactor said.
“Probably?” Sheffield scoffed with disbelief. “I thought you knew everything down here?”
Ben hastily wrote back, “I never said that! This Far Reacher ruin has been down here longer than any of your species. Even I am unaware of how well maintained certain security apparatuses are until we go deeper.”
“That’s not really reassuring,” Archer muttered as he finished rubbing away the splotches of color from his eyes.
"Well, forgive me, Darell, but if I wanted to be a ray of sunshine, I’d do nothing but make up happy lies, and doing so would make me wish to vomit.” Oscar blinked as he read this out loud and looked up.
“Who the hell is Darell?” He asked, and Archer blinked repeatedly with a shocked look on his face.
He shook himself back to the present and looked at Oscar. “That’s my… first name. How the–”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Questions later,” Sheffield said. “Ben, please try not to withhold any information like that in the future.” She then shone the light of her torch towards an eerie crevice ahead of them, just wide enough to squeeze through. “Archer, you take the lead; I’ll be behind. Oscar, you and Ben will be in the middle with that fancy map and tell us where to go. Johnson and Jax, you two watch the rear.”
“What about me, ma'am?" Coleman asked.
Sheffield pursed her lips. “You stick by Mr. Reynolds; make sure he doesn’t step on some sort of booby trap.”
At another time, Oscar might’ve been offended by such a phrase. He hated it whenever people assumed he wasn’t up to a task or perhaps even a danger to himself. Nowadays, he was more than happy to let someone take the lead, and he sure as hell didn’t trust himself inside an ancient ruin, let alone a Far Reacher ruin.
“Yes, Ma’am.” The soldier saluted, walked towards Oscar, and patted him on the back. “Stick close to me, sir, and keep that little jerk in your hands safe.”
“Oi!” Ben vibrated intensely in Oscar’s hand. “I am not a jerk!”
“That’s debatable,” Oscar muttered. “Ben, can you show us the map of this place again? If you’re able to.”
“If I’m able to?” The caster repeated. “Of course I am. Who do you take me for?” Oscar didn’t bother answering as the caster shifted from text to a simplified overhead map. The once dark background shifted to a textured appearance that resembled old parchment, like an ancient map he’d seen on scrolls. He had no idea why Ben went so far as to stylize the display, yet part of Oscar found it amusing if unnecessary.
In fancifully written letters out of view of the main display, Ben wrote, “Proceed ahead for another thirty garos. The path may appear to end in another dead end, but to the bottom right, you’ll find an old maintenance hatch near the floor, partially obscured by a stalagmite. Hurry, for you’re already running out of time. If we move now and with haste, we should be able to arrive in time.”
Oscar relayed this to everyone, and Sheffield nodded. “No time like the present; let's go.”
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Partially obscured was an understatement. That hatch was fully obscured. Also, Oscar wondered, How the hell did Ben know about the stalagmites that covered the old hatch? He had assumed Ben was some sort of powerful wizard or even artificer that was scrying through the caster, or even one of them, or both. Oscar wasn’t a master at the arcane arts, but as an artificer, he at least knew the limits of such capabilities. Seeing as he had to work with magic daily to get the damn mystical stuff to talk with technology, Whoever Ben was, they were powerful. Like, very powerful. Or maybe they’re a one-trick pony.
Oscar didn’t know. What he did know, however, is that Ben wasn’t entirely right about everything. The stalagmites are the first red flag. Ben had reassured the group that the maintenance hatch would only have a single stalagmite in front of it large enough so that they’d need to awkwardly squeeze past. That wasn’t true. There were at least multiple sharp and scary-looking rocks surrounding that thing.
It wasn’t a major obstacle. Thankfully, Jax and Coleman had their standard issue entrenching tools, which were made for digging dirt and were strong and sharp enough to chip away at the nasty things but took up valuable time. Not only that, it was loud. Oscar had expected the entrance to a Far Reacher ruin to be vast and beautiful. A massive sprawling door big enough for fully grown dragons and pillars lining a hallway, but no.
Instead. What they found was a large wall made of some sort of metal. It wasn’t a metal Oscar had ever seen, and Ben briefly explained it to be some sort of lightweight alloy composed of adamantium, mithral, and something else he couldn’t recall. The metal appeared to be a sort of blueish purple and was shockingly dust-free. It looked no older than when it was put here, or so he thought. He had asked Ben while the men worked on clanging away at the stone, and the mysterious benefactor vaguely mentioned something about a pulse wave that keeps most surfaces clean.
Oscar was aware of such a spell. Visage was what he knew it to be. It was an enchantment. It allowed wearers of material to consciously change their clothes' appearance; however, it was an illusion. So if he was eating a sloppy meal and dribbled some steak sauce on his shirt, he could mentally hide it from everyone, but at the end of the day, his shirt still had steak sauce on it, and he had to go get it washed.
Ben sarcastically congratulated Oscar on his astute assumption before immediately telling him that he was wrong and shouldn’t try to hurt his brain's understanding. All he needed to know was that the Far Reacher ruins had a special way of staying clean.
Aside from that little fact, Oscar wasn’t impressed. Ben reminded him that they weren’t going through the front entrance; as a matter of fact, the front entrance was gone. “What do you mean it’s gone?” Oscar asked the caster as a chunk of stalagmite was tossed away from the guys and landed in front of him before rolling away.
“I mean exactly that, Mr. Reynolds.” Ben said it without sarcasm.
“What I mean is, was it eroded away?” He asked.
“Eroded away?” Ben repeated it slowly. “Ha!” they wrote. “Nuh-uh. What you know as the Far Reachers would never develop anything that could be whisked away by nature of all things. Like they could do anything to what the Far Reachers built, haha!”
Oscar raised an eyebrow. ‘You seem to speak highly of these Far Reachers,” he stated. “Do you… study them or something?”
“Study… them?” They repeated his words once more. “You could say something like that; sure, let's go with that.”
Oscar frowned at that, as he had an idea where this was going. Oscar liked to think he had a good poker face, though inside he could feel his heart racing a bit as an idea came to mind. “Don’t tell me you’re–”
A loud clang followed by crumbling rubble and a heavy thud drew his attention toward the far right corner of the room, where the maintenance hatch was. With a loud groan and stretch, the dwarf, Jax, straightened up and declared, “That’s the last one. The path is clear, Lieutenant.”
Sheffield, who had been sitting off to the side this entire time, straightened up. “Excellent. Are we able to open the hatch?” The dwarf turned towards the metal panel on the wall, where an embedded handle could be seen. “Looks like it…” He leaned down and grasped the handle.
Immediately, Oscar felt his gut surge with fear as he reached out to stop the dwarf but halted when the hatch squeaked once and then swung open silently outwards. Oscar sighed as part of him mentally kicked himself from panicking at the thought of it possibly being trapped.
“Pathway cleared,” the dwarf said as he stuck his head into the hole. “A bit tight, even for me,” he said. “If there’s any danger inside, they most likely would’ve heard us clanging away.”
Sheffield nodded. “Best we keep being careful then. Archer, you take the lead again.” The man nodded and unslung his rifle as he stowed his entrenching tool.
“Will do, but I don’t think this rifle is going to be much help in there.” He glanced at the cramped hole. ” Sheffield unholstered her pistol and flipped it around so that she held the grip out towards him as she held the barrel.
“Take this then.” She said as she also handed him her magrite torch. Once everything was squared away, Sheffield turned to everyone and said, "Well, has anyone else ever been in one of these places?” She jutted a thumb back at the metal wall, and everyone shook their heads. She smirked. “It seems like it’s our first time; well then, stay focused, everyone. No time for sight seeing.”
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Just like the exterior. The tunnel was surprisingly spotless. Oscar had expected his sinuses to go nuts within an ancient ruin. He thought his sensitive nose would crinkle at even the slightest bit of dust going in when he breathed, yet, that didn’t happen. Instead, it was spotless—almost too sterile. The air had a faint smell of chemicals, yet he couldn’t quite nail what kind. Perhaps engine oil? Magrite? Probably magrite, the place had a strong ozone smell.
It also wasn’t quiet. When they were still in the cavern, Oscar heard nothing from within the hatch. Now that he was inside, he could hear a faint, deep rumbling. As he crawled over the metal panels in the tunnel on all fours, he could even sense vibrations, and he knew for sure that wasn’t coming from the soldiers around him.
The ruins were not dead. The active, illusive field should’ve given that away, but now that he was inside, He knew for sure that this ancient facility was still doing whatever its original purpose was.
It was a labyrinth. The tunnel constantly twisted and turned, with many exits leading somewhere else, yet Ben made it very clear they were not to make any detours. Oscar had lost track of how many times they had gone left, then right, then left again, left, and left, and finally another right. It was confusing. If it hadn’t been for the handy, simple, yet stylized map Ben had provided them, Oscar would’ve never been able to figure out where the hell they were going.
It wasn’t until about the twenty-minute mark that the boredom turned to fear. “Gods, my knees are killing me.” Coleman complained. “Are we almost there yet, Mr. Reynolds?”
Oscar groaned at the question. “Ben says we’re only a quarter of the way.”
“A quarter? I feel like it’s been multiple gilos since we’ve crawled. How big is this place?”
“Coleman,” Archer growled from over his shoulder. “Either you cut the complaining. Or I’m turning this trip around.”
“Bullshit you are, Sergeant,” Lieutenant Sheffield said with a sigh. “We have a mission. Cpl. Coleman, if I hear you bitch one more time, I’ll put you on guard duty in the cave.”
The corporal bit his lower lip. No way in hell did he want to be alone in a dank cave. “Aye ma’am–” A loud, heavy thud came from somewhere beyond the wall of the tunnel, and everyone fell silent.
Oscar’s heart nearly lept into his throat when a second heavy thud, followed by another, and another came from somewhere outside but nearby. It was metal on metal, and whatever it was, it was heavy. Ben vibrated in Oscar’s palm, and he glanced down at the caster.
“Stay quiet.” Ben wrote, and without any form of sarcasm, he added, “Ten gotts from your position in the main hall, there is a patrolling autonomous shell. The guard is armed and aware of your presence.” Oscar’s blood ran cold as all the color drained from his face. “Do not fear,” Ben said. “I am doing my best to blind it to your presence. Move, but do so quietly.”
Oscar tapped on Sheffield’s right thigh, who was in front of him. Getting her attention, she glanced partially over her shoulder as he held the caster up towards her. Letting her take it so she could read what Ben wrote, her face also paled briefly. She passed the device back to Oscar and then held up one finger and began to make hand signs toward the other soldiers.
Oscar wasn’t familiar with the gestures, but he got the idea. One bad guy on the other side of the wall moved quietly. The others nodded briefly, and as quietly as they could, they began to crawl forward. As they began to move, the thing on the other side of the wall let off what sounded like a bellow and began to speak in a language Oscar had no idea, with a metallic voice.
Ben vibrated once more, and Oscar glanced at the caster as they continued to crawl ahead of the metal monster. “Disregard the last order; move quickly.” Ben vibrated. “Like now! Move NOW NOW NOW!”
“It knows we’re here!” Oscar shouted.
A lot of things happened just then. The moment Oscar alerted everyone, a blinding light engulfed the entire tunnel, and his upper back was seared with agony as he felt his flesh being cooked. Behind him, Coleman shrieked for only a second as the sound of screeching metal overcame whatever noise the corporal made.
Archer and Sheffield wasted no time looking over their shoulders at whatever the hell was going on and began hastily crawling forward as quickly as they could. Oscar moaned with pain as his upper back felt raw and throbbed, though as adrenaline began to kick in, he ignored it and pushed forward.
The monster beyond his sight bellowed something once more as Oscar heard Jax shout something in his native tongue. A loud crack of a rifle sent Oscar’s already racing heart into overdrive.
“Jax!” Sheffield screamed from up ahead. “Move it!” She ordered though the dwarf didn’t respond as the rifle barked again. The metal monster shouted as Oscar briefly glanced over his shoulder and immediately regretted doing so. Back where Cpl. Coleman had been was now but a charred corpse of what was once an elf, the wall gone and melted. Molten slag could be seen dripping from the thick line of whatever the monster shot and tore through. Behind Coleman’s corpse was Jax, his face red with rage and his hands burning as he clutched Johnson’s rifle that he had traded.
“Move!” Johnson shouted as he pushed Jax forward. “We need to move!” The man pleaded.
Jax shouted slurs and curses in his native language as he shoved the rifle through the newly opened window and fired at the monster. “Mr. Jax!” Oscar tried to shout, but it came off as a painful wail. “We need to run!”
The dwarf wasn’t having it, though. The man’s eyes were red with rage as he cranked another round into the rifle and went to fire again. But couldn’t. The metal sheet in front of the dwarf tore open as a massive gauntleted hand clamped around his face and violently yanked back. The dwarf’s body became a ragdoll as the soldier was aggressively torn out of the tunnel, rifle and all.
Johnson screamed as he watched his comrade being torn away from him, yet he quickly regained his composure. Once Jax was out of the way, he scrambled over Coleman’s corpse and scurried forward. When he passed the molten window, the metallic hand of the creature shot toward him at an alarming speed.
“Duck!” Archer shouted, and both Sheffield and Oscar plunged forward as the human fired the pistol at the massive metal hand reaching for Johnson’s leg.
The magrite bolt slammed into the monstrosity's arm with impressive force and caused the creature to jerk. Yet, despite that, it might as well have been a wet towel, as the machine recovered immediately, but that’s all Johnson needed. Scurrying away at the last second, the machine’s metal palm slammed into the base of the tunnel floor.
“Go! Go!” Johnson screamed at Oscar, who wasted no time in letting the man shove him.
Pushing through the agony, Oscar barreled forward behind Sheffield and Archer. Behind them, he could hear the autonomous unit shouting along with a new noise. A high-pitched hum that grew louder and higher in pitch as if building up to–
“Duck!” Oscar shouted this time, and without question, everyone dove into their bellies as the entire tunnel was engulfed in a blinding light. Searing heat sang over them as super-heated metal began to rain down on them, causing everyone to shout and scream in pain. They had to move fast; everything was becoming too hot, and they were about to be cooked alive in there.
“We need to leave!” Sheffield shouted.
“On it!” Archer replied through gritted teeth. Up ahead, only a handful of gotts was another hatch. The problem was that it opened up in the hall, directly where the monster was.
Fuck it. The man thought. He’d rather die seeing the thing than be cooked alive where they are now. Crawling forward, he lunged out, grasped ahold of the handle on the hatch, and shoved it open. Without wasting anyone else’s time, he shouted, “Here!” and dove out into the hall.
One by one, each of the remaining four flopped onto the cold, metal floor. A little way down the hall just where they had been their assailant could be seen. Getting onto his knees, Oscar panted as he looked at the creature and gulped. It was humanoid. Yet it had the build of an orkani. Large, broad shoulders, arms thick as torsos, and the height of two men. It was massive.
Clutched in one arm appeared to be a weapon, possibly the device that melted Coleman and the tunnel. Strapped to its leg, it to have some sort of melee weapon. A baton or a scary knife, Oscar couldn’t tell from this distance. Whatever it was, the thing was large, scary, made of metal, and was now looking at them.
“Lieutenant, what do we do?” Archer panted.
Sheffield gulped and made sure her rifle was primed. “We run.”