Chapter 78:

Deadman Wonderland

I stared at the silver elevator like it was a ghost.

It definitely gave off that uncanny feeling with its reflective walls and annoyingly bright ceiling light. It stood in stark contrast to the murky wooden surroundings.

The inside of the cabin was a mess, there was no other way to describe it. Something that could once have been an information desk was now torn down as if someone brought down a chainsaw upon it. All of the furniture in the room had been displaced aggressively and was now lying on the ground as if a tornado had rampaged through the building. There were a few doors that probably led to a few back rooms but they could not be that big considering how small this place seemed to be from outside.

I felt my throat sink as I thought about the carnage that waited for me outside. Mutilated bodies and pools of red liquid, left like trash. Somehow I felt safer inside this freaky cabin, maybe because of the corpses outside, yeah probably that. Just a few corpses, nothing too out of the ordinary.

“What are we going to do now?” Fay half-whispered, “Call the police right?”

Luna stared at the elevator, {I wonder where it leads.}

Out of all of us, Luna seemed to be the most relaxed. She managed to maintain a calm posture, maybe she was the bravest of us all, or maybe she was just a sociopath.

{There are only three buttons.} Luna contemplated.

A square panel was put into the wall with two additional buttons that were added for closing and opening the doors.

The lift doors were like a gaping mouth, inviting their prey to step inside and get swallowed into the monstrous pit. The pale moonlight outside glared down like it was a divine eye, judging me for something unknowable. The silent atmosphere did not make me feel any better.

"So what are we going to do?" Fay asked again, demanding I made a decision.

"I'm calling Hylla," I suddenly said. "She'll be able to provide some insight."

"Are you sure?" Fay scowled skeptically, "Wasn't she the reason we got in this mess?"

I ignored her excellent point and got my Pokédex and swiped a few times across the screen until the caller ID appeared on the screen, indicating I was about to engage in a video call.

"Dust?" Hylla's voice came through the speakers. The screen of the Pokédex was black with white letters saying: audio-only.

"Hylla, you're a fucking asshole!" I shouted into the mic out of nowhere. It felt good.

"What?"

"Sorry, had to get that out of my system," I apologized, though I did not recall my insult.

"Again, what?" Hylla was starting to sound a bit distressed, "Is everything okay, are you passing me some kind of secret code?"

"No, I mean yes but actually no." I tried to find the right words for: 'I found a couple of corpses outside'. "I am relatively safe right now."

"Explain."

I gave Hylla a quick rundown of the events that had transpired in the last hour. I told her everything, about the guy with the Beedrill, the torn down Orphanage, the dead bodies outside and the strange elevator I had found inside the cabin.

Hylla stayed silent after I was done with my explanation, I thought she was contemplating this new information but then I heard the sound of Hylla packing her stuff. After 20 seconds she returned to the call.

"You said they were cut and pierced right?" Hylla asked, sounding slightly winded.

"Y-yeah." I shuddered as a shiver ran up my spine. "100% sure."

"Well, at least that's something, how are you feeling?"

A dry laugh escaped my throat. "Amazing, never been better!"

"Okay, your sarcasm is still working, that's better than going into shock at least," The second part was mumbled but I could still hear it.

"Dust, I am heading your way on my Charizard right now. Although it might take a couple of hours."

I grimaced, "So can I go home or do you want me to take a nap here?"

{Haha.} Luna chuckled.

Hylla ignored my snap. "This might be a tough thing to ask but do you think you can keep going?"

"You want me to go down the elevator?" I asked. "The elevator that's surrounded with a fucking graveyard?"

Hylla groaned, "This is a golden opportunity. The guy you just met most likely murdered everyone inside as well."

"Oh great, the good news keeps coming!"

I was being irrational but I just needed to lash out at someone. Also, Hylla was partly responsible for this nightmare-inducing evening so I felt I was in the right.

"Focus Dust," Hylla said. Her voice sounded strained and I could hear the wind through the speaker. "Think about it, right now there's no one to stop you from sniffing around and finding some clues."

"Then just wait for the police." Fay crossed her arms.

I told Hylla what Fay just said.

"That sounds risky, there's a chance that the police might have been compromised, just like in Jubilife City with the Shine, remember how far their investigation reached?"

My eyes focused on the open elevator doors. They looked so alluring but not necessarily in a good way. More like an angler fish, I felt myself getting drawn to it, a part of me wanted to know the horrors that were most likely waiting for me down there.

{I'll follow you wherever you want.} Luna reassured me. The small Kirlia stood in front of the doors without the slightest sign of hesitation.

“Come on Dust, don’t you want to know more as well?” Hylla coerced. “Think about it, the guy you saw cleaned out that place. But he arrived only after I discovered it exists, someone must have leaked the location of the Orphanage, who's to say this place won't be gone before the end of tomorrow?.”

"Fine, I'll go down there," I spoke loudly, announcing it to everyone who could hear me. "I need to know what's going on."

"Thank you," Hylla said, relieved. "Try to find a computer or any archives. They are a valuable source of information. And remember, STAY cautious."

Without wasting any more words, she ended the call abruptly. Seeing how she had been calling from Charizard's back I could understand her position.

I closed the Pokédex and faced my 2 Pokémon. "Are you two ready as well?"

{Of course.} Luna nodded.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Fay swallowed but didn't back down. She looked a bit shaken but she still held a fiery look in her eyes, telling me that she was determined to see this through.

With surprising ease, I navigated through the rubbish lying on the floor and stepped into the elevator. My two Pokémon followed and a brief silence dawned on us when I pressed the -3 button.

A red glow surrounded the button and the elevator started to move down.

"Follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole..." I spoke.

As the elevator kept going down, a faint screeching came from below the elevator, like something metal was scraping against some machinery.

The elevator kept going down for quite some time but eventually it stopped moving.

The doors stayed closed but the button for opening the doors was glowing, indicating it had to be pressed. I was grateful for this design choice, it allowed me a few extra seconds to think.

I heaved a dry cough, "Okay, we will assume everyone is dead but stay cautious anyway. Luna, you're on support duty, Fay, you check the corpses with Aura to make sure they don't start walking. Get it?"

Two nods followed, no further words were spoken. I pressed the button and the doors slowly slid open.

A narrow hallway with gray concrete walls was revealed. Fluorescent ceiling tiles flickered on and off without a clear pattern. Lying a meter away from the elevator door was a guy lying on the ground. His arms were stretched out and bloody, his hands reaching for the elevator but not quite making it there. Broken glass surrounded his body and cuts were visible all over his body. The ceiling light above him was raining electricity sparks on his body but that could not have been the cause of death as a pool of blood flew out of his body like a small lake.

{Fay?} Luna broke the silence.

"Uh, he is dead." Fay gulped.

I swallowed and knelt down, trying to see anything that might be helpful in my quest for answers. I didn't find anything, he wore a lab coat but since all his possessions were stained red I did not dare to touch him.

Not wanting to stay with mister dead-person any longer I moved past his body and into the hallway, the doors stayed open behind us meaning that if we had to make a quick retreat we would not have to wait for the doors.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The hallway was not wide by any means, nor was it well decorated. Bare concrete walls stretched out on either side like the interior of a nuclear bunker. A black sign with white letters was put against the wall above the corpse.

I gave it a quick look, trying to ignore everything surrounding it.

Floor -3: Advanced Research:

Block A: Dinner Hall, Living cells.

Block B: Lab 1, Lab 2.

Block C: Lab 3, Lab 4, Lab 5,

Block D: Communication

Block E: Doctor Redburn's Office.

All the arrows pointed in the same direction, telling me to follow the path directly in front of us.

"Okay, let's try to find Redburn's office, the guy sounds important so he might have something useful for us." I knelt down and put the flashlight and gun away. I retrieved the knife and got up to my feet.

I did a few experimental swings. The familiar weight of the knife felt good in my hands, like a distant old friend. I would normally use a gun but being in a small enclosed space like this I didn't want to risk bullets to ricochet. Besides, guns are for humans and I had the twisted gut feeling that we wouldn't encounter anything human down here... Unless the dead start walking, then I'd surely switch back to shooting.

{Dust, this place,} Luna frowned, {It's messing with my psychic powers.}

I scratched the back, "Are you saying-"

{Yes, Teleporting here would spell my doom.} Luna said without so much as catching her breath.

"Oi," I muttered, "The good news just keeps coming."

"Can we please move?" Fay interrupted and pointed at the dead guy in front of the elevator. "Or have this conversation anywhere else?"

I nodded and gestured to Fay to take the lead. With cautious steps, Fay moved in front of our little group and we proceeded to march down the hallway. Luckily, we did not have to wait very long before finding something useful.

The hallway ended in a big room with automatic sliding doors half-opened. They slid open when we came close enough with a soft hiss. In front of us was something that looked close to a diner area.

Smooth white walls formed a big octagon with big automatic doors on 4 sides of the room, excluding the one we came through.

The stench hit me first.

A disgusting smell I had never sensed before this day and never had wished to smell again was lingering in the room like a thick invisible blanket.

Fay’s face contorted in disgust, her features narrowed but she managed to maintain a relatively level-headed composure, “The good news is that they are definitely dead.”

{Hurray,} Luna sarcastically chirped.

Square benches were placed in 4 rows parallel to each other like a highschool cafeteria. They were all white and in a pristine condition except for the fresh new splashes of red that decorated the place.

I slowly made my way through the rows of seats and tables, careful not to step on anything resembling a human body. Meanwhile, Luna strode over the tables like they were a catwalk, jumping with grace over the occasional red smear or body.

I quickly noticed that a lot of them were dressed in either traditional lab coats, casual-ish clothes or straight up wearing something awfully similar to military-looking gear.

There was a distinctive lack of Pokéballs. Instead, the people wearing the defensive combat gear seemed to be using sci-fi looking firearms and other offensive equipment like collapsible batons and tasers. Not normal firearms or knives, something that really stood out to me.

Luna briefly paused when one of the, what I assumed to be, guards laid sprawled on the table with big slashes running across her body.

I immediately looked away and focused on the fluorescent ceiling tiles as if they were on fire. With great effort, I managed to get my breathing back in control.

Luna wiggled one of the sci-fi weapons free from the woman’s hand and held it in her hands. It looked kind of silly to be honest. More like a water gun or a cheap off-brand Star Wars blaster with neon yellow capsules fitting into the back compartment.

Luna aimed the gun at the nearest target and closed one eye as if to steady her aim.

“No Luna don-”

She pulled the trigger with her other hand.

A bolt of yellow shot out of the device and impacted the corpse, only to disappear into the body. It didn’t phase through it, instead, it looked like it broke into smaller arcs of yellow flashes before being completely absorbed, making a fizzling sound in the process. The smell of ozone followed soon after.

{Electricity,} Luna said, sounding quite proud of herself, {This thing does not shoot normal bullets.}

“I think I recognize it,” Fay paled, more than before, “Those kinds of weapons were used by some of Hunter J’s men. They are used to stun Pokémon instead of killing them.”

She inhaled deeply. “Now can you please drop the gun, it’s still covered in blood and it's frankly disgusting.”

Luna dropped the weapon with comical ease. {Just had to see what it does, right? Dust?}

I shivered, “Yeah, let’s continue please? Right now.”

At the back of this spacious room, there was a big counter with all kinds of plates on them and some grill pits in the back. This was most likely where the food would be served.

Whatever had happened here, it had not been during dinner time, seeing how I couldn't find any food outside of the vending machine despite this place clearly being a dinner hall.

We walked past all the red paint and reached a pair of automatic doors. Another black sign with white letters instructed us to follow the hallway to reach lab 3, lab 4 and Doctor Redburn's office. A white sheet of paper had been pinned next to the sign with some rules regarding the dinner area. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary written on it, almost as if this was just a normal workplace and not some secret hideout.

I stepped forward and the doors slid open, revealing a long white hallway with bright fluorescent ceiling lights. Leaving the horrible dinner area behind me, I strode into the hallway, hoping that we could find some more clues regarding this entire place.

A dreadful silence hung in the air as we walked.

We came across one more body on our way. Again it looked like a guard with his weird equipment. He lay against the wall, a small pool of blood was growing underneath him.

We didn’t say a word as we walked around him.

In front of us, the hallway extended into a crossroad.

"You guys hear that?" Fay suddenly stopped walking.

"Hear what?" I stopped.

"That!"

I wanted to argue that I didn't hear a single thing but then I started to hear a soft moaning noise. It started as a low rumble of sounds, stretched out like a grown man was slowly crying. Once I heard it the sound became louder and undeniably closer.

{Something is nearby!} Luna scanned at the walls but she seemed to be clueless. Frustrated, she shook her head, "Something here is messing with my senses."

"It's there!" Fay said, her eyes shining blue. She pointed at the end of the hallway where it split off into three directions. She pointed at the hallway that broke off into the left area. "It is coming from that side."

The wailing was getting closer and I felt my heart tighten. I wish it sounded like some kind of zombie or anything recognizable but all I heard was the scrambled noise of something that seemed to be crying, like a reverse Banshee.

I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded from that noise, breathing felt like an exercise on its own at that moment.

It echoed through the halls and through my body.

I glanced back but there was nowhere to hide. Fay and Luna took position in front of me. Claws out and horns glowing with power.

As sudden as the sound came it disappeared. A dead silence followed before that too got interrupted by the sound of...of what, exactly? It sounded like footsteps but wet, if that makes any sense at all.

"There it is." Fay hissed.

A small blob waddled into the crossroad.

It was small and light purple, not much larger than a stray cat. The thing looked like some weird blob of semi-translucent substance with two stubs that served as arms. Two black dots and a thin line were all the facial features the thing had.

"A Ditto?" I softly whispered.

The purple blob had no feet or clear appendages, yet it moved over the ground like it was actually taking small steps.

"What's that?" Fay asked, perplexed.

{It's purple.} Luna explained.

The Ditto perked up and gazed around, alerted by Fay's question. It turned its eyes to us finally and looked straight at us.

"Di?" It questioned, cutely swinging its purple stubs.

If it wasn't for the fact that my heart was hammering inside my chest I would say that it looked obscenely cute. Its black innocent eyes stared at me with some kind of child-like curiosity.

That's when it started to glow. A light came from inside its body and all the purple cells lit up like a tree at Christmas times. The white form started to move and morphed into something else.

When the glow faded away I was looking at a human figure.

He had blue hair and eyes and pale skin that was almost vampire-like. He wore a black jacket over a white shirt and blue jeans. An amused smile ran across his lips and his cold dead eyes stared at us.

{What the fuck?} Luna took a step back. Fear sounding through her telepathic voice.

"H-h-he just looks like..." Fay stuttered.

"Me," I muttered, freaking out.

Fake me opened his mouth and a low sound came from it. It didn't sound like anything human, instead, it was a weird twisted wailing noise that should not come from a human mouth.

It was all garbled and wrong. A spear of acid punctuated me from inside and burrowed its way up my throat.

"S-Step back!" Fay warned the creature. A long blue spear formed between her paws. "I-I will use this!"

Fake me closed his mouth and stared at the ghostly spear Fay held. It made a shrugging motion and turned away from us and faced the right hallway.

"Oh fucking god." Another wave of acid tried to work itself up from my stomach.

The backside of fake me, the Ditto, or whatever it was, was left open, like a person that had been cut in two pieces, I could see the insides of fake me. A purple liquid dripped off the fleshy walls that made up my insides like it was blood. It was all unreal, like watching a picture from my biology book come to life. There were no bones or organs.

He was fucking hollow inside.

With slow steps he started to walk away from us, like a zombie, continuously making that weird garbled sound.

I waited for a long time until the moaning sound was completely gone.

He walked extremely slowly and the sound echoed throughout the halls like a devil's symphony.

When I finally deemed it safe I started walking again, my pace faster and more hurried than before.

"Hold up!" Fay cried out, trying to keep up with me. "What the fuck was that?"

"It didn't attack us," I did not look Fay in the eyes but I did slow my pace. "We can assume it's neutral to some extent, meaning we don't have to think about it any longer."

{What is this place?} Luna asked, her voice more distressed than ever before.

"What do you think," I growled, "It's a testing facility. They perform experiments on Pokémon."

"They do what?!" Fay's eyes widened.

I turned around and looked her dead in the eyes. "Don't you realize what a testing facility is?"

"I do," Fay muttered half-heartedly, "They test stuff like technology and medicine."

I shook my head. "Fay, this is not a 'normal facility', whatever they do down here is as illegal as can be."

{It's disgusting.} Luna fiddled with her arms, no longer her own composed self.

"Y-you mean, this entire place-"

How could she be this oblivious?

“You see all those dead guards here?” I asked, “All of them show either piercing wounds or big wide cuts on their bodies, combine that with the fact that the elevator doors at the exit of this building were left open and the guy in the forest was walking away from this place, what can you deduce?”

Maybe I was a bit too harsh on her but I just had to unwind some of the tension building up inside me.

“That he killed all of them,” Fay replied coldly.

“Yes, but why didn’t the guards stop him?” I raised an eyebrow, “Sure he might be good but numbers also matter.”

{So he and his Beedril just stabbed people down here,} Luna said dismissively, {It's not that hard.}

She was right. Theoretically, it was kind of easy to kill a lot of people.

Pokémon have terrific abilities on their own but even without Pokémon, it was not impossible to put a whole lot of people down. Infecting the air with some kind of drug, or poisoning the water supply. However, those are all very strategic ways to kill a lot of people. The people here had all shown similar signs of being impaled or cut open.

“Maybe the guards were just bad at their job.”

It wasn’t that, the more likely scenario however made me wish they just sucked.

I bit my lip as I explained what was waiting for us down here.

“The people at the Red Orphanage above us were meant to keep people out, the guards down here," I pointed at the weird equipment the dead guard wore. "They are here to keep something from getting out."