This Is The South

The door of the jet slid open automatically with a humming sound. The academics all peeped through, gazing at the endless void of nothing. What the hell?! 

Nate made the first step, trying to display his boldness but Loras held him back. "Before you go, there's a device in your souvenir bags. Fix it on your wrist, it will serve as a tracker for your performance and your position wherever you are, so I can find you." Loras had said. 

The team reached into their bags, pulling out the red metallic bracelets and fixing it on their wrists. Levi was about to put on his, when Lexi interfered.

[Do not wear that]

Levi turned his head away from the crew and into his shoulder. "Why not?"

[Just do as I say]

"I'm not your puppet, I can't just do as you say always," he responded and paused. "Alright, fine but explain later." Levi tucked the bracelet into his pocket.

Loras gathered the attention of everyone. "Remember! You are only here to train and push yourselves. This is not a competition, do not take it as one. I'll be up in the sky hovering with the jet, I'll come down every 14 hours and you guys can refresh. This will be our routine until we conclude our stay here. Do I make myself clear?"

He continued, "And please watch each other's backs. I wouldn't want what I heard happened last time to happen again," he said, passing gazes from Nate to Jamie and to Abby.

What happened last time? Levi thought. Someone must've died. That's how it always go with teenagers.

He stretched out his hand, giving way for the academics to the door. The steps had unfolded and laid itself diagonally to the ground. 

Nate lunged forward again and onto the steps. He raised his arms up, embracing the gentle breeze in the biosphere as he slowly landed on the main ground. He turned around, facing the other academics, "This is the south, c'mon, we have no time."

They all glanced at themselves before Jamie stepped down, followed by Box and Abby. Paige was too scared and it really amused Abby because she had given a short mocking giggle. 

"It's alright Paige," Jamie said like a mother. Paige let out a huge swear word before closing her eyes and stepping down. 

Brody made to follow but Levi placed his hand on Brody's chest. "Hey, if you don't wanna do this, you don't have to. I'm sorry I brought you here," Levi said.

Brody only smiled and patted Levi, "It's alright, I'm with you okay?" Brody made his way down the three steps and stood with the team below.

Levi hesitated and took several deep breaths.

[Don't be a coward Levi]

"You're not coming punk? You could've said it a long time and spare us the problems you've cau-" Nate had wanted to ridicule but was cut off immediately as Levi had literally ran down the stairs, pumped with boldness. 

The ground was cold! He was wearing boots and he could still feel it. There were few particles of dust that rose up as soon as his feet landed. 

Levi looked around, scrutinizing the topography. He felt like he was on the moon, there were small sized craters everywhere. One can tell the place used to be habitable because of the presence of demolished buildings and infrastructure. Levi wondered why it was nicknamed 'The Cavern', it was just a vast space of nothing.

Loras stood at the door and smiled, he went down, hugging each of them. "You all take care of yourselves eh? Luckily, there are no presence of regenerated Ròkks here in the outskirts, they can be found deeper. I'll see you in the next 14 hours," he said to all of them before hopping back into the jet. 

The team took their time looking around their habitat for the next few weeks. They backed away from the jet as the engine was turned on, sending dust and wind apart from its bottom. It started to rise, leaving the ground.

At that moment, Levi felt his mood change. It wasn't a child's play all this while, this was serious. They were actually going to be in this abyss for who knows how long.

Suddenly, as the VTL jet elevated a couple of feet above the ground, eight long unknown tentacles surfaced from the ground below, wrapping the aircraft in its grip.

The academics below gasped, the dust flying into their eyes but yet they could still see what was happening. The jet had started to struggle, twisting and turning, it was clear the pilot had no idea what was going on. The grey tentacles squeezed harder on the metal, crushing it together.

Shell shocked, the academics stood still with eyes wide and jaw dropped mouths watching. The lights under the jet danced around randomly and the jet had begun to compress. The loud hurting cry of Loras could be heard.

That was enough to snap them out of their trance. "Do something!" Jamie yelled. Loras cried out in pain so loudly as the jet had been crushed to half its original size. 

Nate flew with his golden surge of power towards the jet, Brody tried to control it with his telekinesis but the tentacles were too strong. Nate approached the jet up in the sky, only to be thrown aback by the huge explosion that followed.

Boom.

The loud sound deafening them and the bright explosive light, blinding them. The debris of the destroyed jet littered around with flames burning off. 

The teenagers dragged themselves to their feet after being thrown away by the force of the outburst, their faces soiled. 

The jet had ceased to exist, Loras had ceased to exist. What, what just happened?