ch:2

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

I pressed my ears down, even still I could hear it. The ground trembled underneath me, and the vibrations from the blast worked their way through my body. I used to close my eyes but I had grown accustomed to the procedure. I turned to watch debris tumble through the air, then I heard someone scream, the adventurer who set the charges hadn't gotten far enough before detonating them. I watched him begin to slide down into the ditch with the pull line still in his paw.

I already knew what was about to happen, most of the other members had become aware of him too, so all eyes were on him. Most of us watched in horror as a chunk of metal twice the size of his body launched toward him. He turned to see, but that was his mistake. The shard slammed into his shoulder, I couldn't look away, then the shoulder blade shattered. It took him with it smashing him into the embankment behind us. His body slumped down, and you could see the tendons starting to snap. He screamed as he started to slide down, the weight of his entire body straining against his arm. A large number of the party stared at him in shock. I started to move toward him, and so did the medic, but not in time. It sounded like a pop then something ripped, he screamed again and we watched as his skin and fur pulled apart, he slid the rest of the way into the ditch. Where he sat crying as the blood started to pool under him.

As the dust settled from the explosion I could see that the younger Poeso were still in shock, and unable to move. Even in the dirt, you could see it wasn't soaking into the ground. The medic pushed his way over to him, and so did I. As we dragged him to the camp near the complex I could see the medic had an annoyed look on his face. I asked him why, and I got a response somewhat to the effect that he "hadn't been following safety protocols while using explosives, and it was his own damn fault for thinking he could outrun the shrapnel." I turned to the medic about to ask if he would be alright. I stared at him for a little.

"Ferris?"

"Cat?"

I hadn't noticed that he was the medic, and I didn't think he realized I was on the expedition either. He was well-respected, and easily one of the best doctors within our guild. Although we weren't exactly friends we spoke often and knew each other well. He had gone on to be a field medic like most doctors. He was actually fairly normal, but it was his experience that made him so great. The Poeso wouldn't get his arm back but I knew that he would survive, although I wanted to stay by him I also knew that the expedition couldn't lose many people before being called off. I noticed that my gaze lingered on him for a little longer before I hurried back to the rest of the party.

We had already been informed of the nature of the expedition. The door was proof of that, very few entrances required blast charges to enter, so most of us knew this was an important complex for the precursors. I pulled out my map one last time before we entered. I copied it from the world of light. The complex was once a sprawling military base, It's name was Fort Carson. There had once been an entire settlement surrounding it, and now there was nothing, only the doors to it remained. It had been a long time since the last major expedition, the last particularly notable one was when my father was little. It was in the northern plaguelands of the Mohawk empire. Rumor had spread of precursor cities with constructs that touched the heavens, entire forests that grew in towers, and under all that was the Manhattan complex, it was said to be an entire city under the ruins. Despite all that, it had been abandoned by the precursors and left us with more questions than answers.

I stood there outside the gaping entrance checking my gear and I wondered what we would find. Maybe it would be a citadel or answers, but I just wanted something. I stood up walking over to the entrance several groups had gone in already and I could see the faint glow of torchlight from farther down. Usually, I would have a partner but with the accident, I was by myself. I lit my torch and began to enter, as I did the foreman stopped me at the entrance.

"Are you gonna be fine by yourself?" he asked

I looked at him and responded, "should be, it's not my first time…"

He hesitated a little before giving a response, "be careful… alright"

I nodded and stepped inside. The stairs were large and I had to climb down each one carefully, I thought about going down on all fours but my gear would have made it more dangerous. As I started to approach the bottom I looked back up. The entrance was nothing more than a pinhole of light. I climbed down the last few steps and entered a small room I saw that the door had been opened already and I passed through. It was an airtight door that seemed odd but I thought nothing of it at the time. A massive room greeted me, it was easily nine to ten times the height of the city walls, all around me was darkness. I stepped out onto an asphalt pad, I looked around and saw the light of other groups further inside it made me wonder how large the complex was. It seemed absurdly large, but what made it weirder was what was inside. I started to move to the other side of the space.

I walked past machines like the ones that lined the sides of the roads, but these ones had two prongs sticking out, some had boxes on them others seemed like they were about to pick boxes up. All along the wall were elevators, not like the rope and pull ones we used, but elevators all the same, however, they all seemed to be facing toward the wall. And behind them were things we had never seen before they looked like birds, but if birds were made of iron and had clipped wings. I looked around a little more and soon realized that this was a massive underground ring, a literal ring, it could have been two times the size of the town and all along the outside were large iron birds. The tunnel ran for about 2 km until you arrived where you entered. It was a complex unlike anything we had ever seen and I was starting to become excited.

I was alone which is what made it better, I could explore and not be held down. I returned to the inside of the ring walking along the wall until I found a door, it too was airtight and I had to use all my weight to open the lock. there were large doors too which could've fit the iron birds. When I entered I found myself on a walkway there was a gap, and then another walkway. I wandered over to the railing and looked down into the black, it seemed endless. I knew it would consume my torch faster if I held it upside down but I was curious, I set my pouch down and leaned the torch against the railing. I pulled a length of rope out of my bag and tied it to the bottom of the torch. I crawled closer to the edge and lowered the torch down. Although dim, my eyes could help discern that there was at least another identical floor underneath us as the one we were on. When I pulled the torch back up I had almost burned through the entire thing. I walked over to the road that seemed to lead to the iron birds, but this time I started to walk to the center where all of them converged. In the black, I didn't know how long I walked for but I continued there had to be a center.

I started to approach a massive door it had the number 43 painted on it there was a panel with buttons on it next to the door. As a general rule, you don't touch these however I was fairly certain it would only open the doors, which I really wanted to see. I wasn't even sure if it would work but I gave it a try. There seemed to be several switches and a basic set of instructions underneath. I flipped the switch covers up following the instructions then flipped a switch separate from them I covered my eyes as lights suspended from the floor above me turned on they were bright white and blinding but I could see the road. I looked back taking a breath, then I flipped the switches. I watched as the doors nearest the birds started to open then the ones next to me. I heard a voice, it was a voice speaking in the same language that we were used to but it almost seemed more natural. All around I could hear the voice "rail number forty-three is active, shuttle retrieval is active", I couldn't see it but I could hear a sound coming from where the iron birds were. I watched as it was pulled along rails in the road toward me, I heard a shout it was from a group further down the ring, in the massive empty space I could hear them easily

"What's going on!?"

I wasn't really sure what to say, I would obviously be reprimanded when I got back but right now it didn't matter to me. I didn't answer. I turned around to watch as the massive iron bird approached me it seemed to glide smoothly along the rails fitting right into the space behind the doors. The doors closed and there was silence I stood there with only the bright white light shining on me and everything else was black. I leaned against the colossal doors and wondered what really happened, even just this suggested so much more than just a war, were we wrong, was there more to our past than we thought.

After a while, I yelled back "everything's fine."