Brandon felt a slight pressure change as the large wooden door sealed behind them. Bert descended to staircase but Brandon looked back to see large bright letterings on the door reading “No Exit”.
“Don’t worry about that. This one is a one-way door. The exits are on the other side of the building. I would not try to go out that way if I were you, entrance only,” said Bert without even looking back.
“How did you know what I was doing. Some sort of magical perception thing?”
“Everyone freaks out a little their first time here after looking back. I think it is the red lettering, but Kurt refuses to change it.”
Brandon stopped before asking yet another question. He was sure Bert would become annoyed with him if he was not careful. Better to not piss off the one person that had not tried to kill him today.
The lighting made the descent look longer than it was. After one flight of stairs the two men entered a space with one large room, warm light emanated from behind the bar. Old wooden tables were spaced just far enough apart that if the place was packed someone could squeeze their way slowly through the chaos. Random sized groups were scattered throughout, with most containing one or two, no one looked over as Brandon entered.
“You brought me to a bar?”
“More of a pub,” said Bert as he lowered his hood for the first time. A head of red hair and a thick mustache accented the man’s otherwise plain face. His nose had appeared to be broken at least once. “Kurt the owner was originally from some town in northern England. Said he always wanted to open a pub, funny how he had to die and resurrect in a world of magic for it to happen. Grab us a table; I will go and grab us something to eat.”
“Is this even food?” Brandon stared down at the pale goop covering his plate. “What you have looks good.” Brandon heard his stomach growl as the smell of roast lamb and mint sauce wafted over from Bert’s plate.
“That has everything you need,” said Bert gesturing with his fork. “From the sounds your stomach just made, I’m guessing you have never had a real meal.”
“I had breakfast yesterday.”
“The image you were created from had breakfast… Yesterday… Technically you are only a day old so,” Bert let his words hang.
Brandon was reminded of the predicament and the situation he was in. New body, modified consciousness, and a few lives he did not even remember. The thoughts started to concern him but he decided to push them to the back of his mind until he had more figured out.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“You said you would give me some answers,” said Brandon. He reluctantly took a bite of the slop and gaged. “I figure if we are safe enough to just sit here and eat, we are safe enough to talk.”
“Don’t make bad assumptions. For all you know half these people want you dead as well but are just waiting for me to let my attention slip.”
Brandon eyed the others in the room. None of them were even paying him the slightest attention. A burly man in furs and a beard that covered most of his face was laughing with a woman that could have been his twin. Another table had a group of people that Brandon swore were dressed in some sort of military fatigues scarfing down food as fast as they could.
“In this instance though you are correct. Kurt’s place is a safe spot for all our wayward and disliked people. Pretty much everyone in here is vilified by the town because of something their previous iterations did. None nearly as much as you but you get the point.”
“Why don’t others just come in here and trash the place and get everyone then?”
“You need a magic seal to get in. That paper I put on the door when we came in, that was the only reason we could get here. No one is still quite sure how Kurt got something like this set up, he must have had to do something crazy for P.A.T to give him an advanced form of some spell to build this. The level of magic needed for something like this is way above the zone we are in.”
Brandon was reluctant to accept what Bert was saying. He thought back to the static shock thing he did with his hand and the smallest crackle of electricity jumped between his fingers.
At the same time a red flashing popup window appeared in Brandon’s vision and Kurt yelled at him from behind the bar.
“Oy! None of that in here. Keep to the rules or I’ll throw you out myself.”
Startled Brandon swiped the red message from his vision before even being able to read it.
“Apologies Kurt,” said Bert over his shoulder. “Seems like they didn’t even give this one the tutorials.”
Brandon heard the man grumble from across the pub as he stereotypically wiped down glasses.
“It takes most people a while to adjust. The Facility has a whole thing to ease people into their new lives. Usually over a few days they will walk you through what is going on and how to not kill yourself with your new gifts.”
“Yeah, from what I gathered they did the least they could get away with and kicked me to the curb, literally,” said Brandon as he tried to gag down another bite of his gray mush.
“Did they at least show you how your iteration accesses magic?”
“I’m guessing you mean the popup windows.”
“Yes, everyone accesses it differently. There are good and bad each way. Some like you have what effectively beaks down to windows that they can look through, its clunky, slow, but it is nice that once you do learn something it is saved, and you can always look it up again. Another common way is having more of a feeling of what you can do with your abilities. People learn a lot faster this way and their reaction speeds are much better. You should spend a little time familiarizing yourself with your menus and then we can get into it. Granted, some stuff I will just have to bring you out into the fields and show you.”