It sat there, silent, unmoving.
People moved around it, people of all shapes and sizes, of all colors and backgrounds, doctors, staff, security alike.
And it sat there, watching.
It was waiting for something. A girl. A girl that it had vowed to meet one day.
It sensed that it was coming here. To where she wasn't needed. To where she wasn't wanted. To where she wanted to be.
And in that moment, it will start something that will kill them all.
So it waited. And waited. And waited. Dust and grime caked its fur. Mud and dirt brought brown to black.
And still it waited. And waited. And waited.
Then a human with black hair picked it up one day, a woman with green eyes and a beautiful smile.
It thought she resembled the girl which it wanted to meet.
She washed it, bathed it, cleaned it.
Not necessary. It just needed to wait.
Soon, it would be able to do its bloody work.

“Okay,” Robo said, trudging up the endless flights of stairs from floor -13 up to floor -12. “What's my name when we get up to Greattown?”
Siggy sighed, adjusting the dirty, dark, purple backpack on her shoulders and the hood over her head with her good hand. She hated it when Robo did that.
“You're Rob Wayne, former janitor, scare enthusiast.” She said dejectedly.
“And what's your relation to me?”
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “You're my dad.”
“And what's my daughter's name?”
She recounted each word with the same bored energy as the million other times when she said them.
“My name is Sarah Wayne, eleven years old, daughter of Rob Wayne, a girl who likes to see wizards and witches, watched Hairy Potts as an eight year old-“
Robo put up a finger. “I think that's Harry Fatter, Siggy.”
Siggy snorted. “No it's not! The people at the Library said it was Hairy Potts. I'm sure, Robo.”
Robo sighed as he continued up the flights of stairs. “We've been at this since we started practice down at the bottom of the stairs. It's Harry Fatter.”
Siggy narrowed her eyes. “Wait, why would a wizard be called ‘Harry Fatter'? It doesn't make sense!”
Robo shrugged. “You never know, maybe his parents thought it would be great to call him fat.” He coughed. “What doesn't make sense is you calling him Hairy Potts.”
Siggy's eyes widened in disbelief. “Come on, Robo! I mean, you had the same argument.” She shrugged in the same way as Robo. “Maybe his parents thought he was hairy or something and decided to name him after that.”
“And the ‘Potts' part?”
Siggy stopped.
The gears in her head were churning.
“I don't know, he was born in a pot?”
Robo laughed. Hard.
Siggy blushed, biting her lip in irritation.
“Hey, at least I didn't call him ‘Fatter'!”
Robo kept laughing. “At least I didn't think he came from a pot!”
“He could've!” Siggy insisted.
Robo scoffed, jokingly. “Hey kid. You're eleven, not eight. It's like the same as saying Santa Claus exists.”
Siggy knotted her eyebrows. “Wait, what?”
Robo turned his head. “What?”
“Santa Claus doesn't exist?”
Robo continued up the stairs. “That's one of yer kid's stories, right? The Library folks said so.”
Siggy raised her voice in surprise. “They told you that? That's bull-“
Robo looked over his shoulder. “Hey, don't cuss. You told me that a long time ago.”
Siggy gritted her teeth. “It's poppycock, Robo! Santa Claus exists, I've seen him! Lana told me about him once, and then the next day he was there at my door!”
“Psshhh,” Robo said, disregarding what she said. “The Library folks are really smart. They wouldn't be wrong.”
Siggy shrunk away in horror. “You'd believe the Library folks over your own best friend?”
“Well, they haven't been wrong so far. They told us where to find the stairwell up to the next floor, didn't they? Told us how to get up to Greattown too.”
Siggy attempted to cross her arms. “What's at Greattown anyway?”
Robo looked back at her, smiling from behind his helmet. “Well, provisions, information, food that isn't cheese balls-“
Siggy raised her eyebrows. “Cheese balls are divine!”
Robo chuckled. “Only you seem to love eating them day in and day out for the past three or so years.” He patted his furry belly. “I want variety in my diet, Sigg. Just imagine it- hot stews, rice, escargot-“
“What's that last one?”
“Escargot?” Robo shrugged again. “No idea, but Doctor Ulman said it was her favorite.”
Siggy pursed her lips. “Hmm.”
They were getting closer to the end of the stairwell now. “Anyways, back to topic, Greattown's got everything we need. Lana might be there, too. It's the biggest town in the Site, remember? They probably have kids there.”
“Biggest surviving town.” Siggy corrected him. “There are a lot of stuff on Floor -12 that didn't survive the skips running around.”
She shot him a dirty look. “And I have met other damn kids before. Remember Cole?”
“Hey. Don't say that.”
“Don't say what?”
“Damn.”
Siggy cocked her head. “I mean it's just-“
“And Cole was two years older than you. Stop going on and on about the fact that he's dreamy.”
“Hey you-“
“Hey!” A voice said from above. “Quiet down there!”
Siggy's eyes widened.
Beside her, Robo had already transformed into Rob Wayne, a portly man with a dirty suit and a comically large mustache. “Oi there!” He shouted up in a horrible English accent (he copied it from Doctor Ulman). “Whatever are you doing up there?”
The voice shouted down. “Whatever are you doin' down there? You two are noisier than the Fourth of July!”
Siggy whispered to Robo. “What's that?”
“I have no idea.” Robo whispered back. He shouted up to the voice above them. “Pardon? What does that mean?”
“It means you two're noisy as fuck!”
Robo stayed silent for a few seconds, exchanging glances with Siggy beside him.
What do we do? Robo mouthed.
Siggy shrugged and put her left hand up beside her shoulders. No idea.
“Oh!” He shouted back up. “I do apologize, me and my daughter were just discussing something.”
“Well then discuss fuckin' quieter you sons of bitches! You're gonna bring the chickens down on us.”
Robo looked at Siggy again. They mouthed the same thing. The chickens?
“Ah!” Robo said. “Real sorry about that! We were just headed to Greattown!”
“Me too, what a coincidence!” The voice responded. “I'll wait for ya two!”
Robo stared up for a few seconds. “Okay!”
He looked at Siggy. “Better get up there quickly, Hairy Potts.” He whispered, smiling.
Siggy ran up past him. As she did, she whispered in his ear. “Race you there first, Harry Fatter.”
Robo smiled. “Is that a challenge, Santa Claus?”
Siggy chuckled, then whispered back. “I don't know Doctor Ulman, is it?”
“Ohoho, yes it is, Cole!” Robo shouted as he ran right past her.
Siggy's eyes enlarged to the size of a small ball as she started to run after him. “You take that back!”
“No I won't!” Robo said, gaining a substantial lead. “I have the lead, Sig- I mean, Sarah!”
Siggy ran as fast as she could, but she still couldn't keep up. “Hey, no fair Ro- I mean dad!”
They were getting up to the last set of stairs. Robo was still in the lead, but Siggy was rapidly catching up.
“Come here, dad!” Siggy shouted. “I haven't gotten to you yet!”
Robo started to let himself lag a bit, slowing down. “No, you aren't!” Siggy noted that he still had that stupid accent on. “I'm way faster than you, you suckyface!”
Siggy was neck-and-neck with Robo now. If only she could gain with those last few steps…
Then, suddenly, she started edging past Robo.
“Whoooooo!” She shouted, both arms in the air as she passed him. “Victoire for Sarah!”
Soon, they came to the last step. Siggy jumped on it in full-force, the sound of her feet hitting the first bit of Floor -12 a sweet sound to behold.
She put her good hand on her knees as she panted, and as Robo came up to her, he seemed to be panting heavily as well.
“No damn fair, Sarah!” Robo said between breaths. “No damn fair!”
Siggy offered him a high-five. “Congrats for coming in last place, dad.”
Robo high-fived her with all the force he could muster. “Shut it, daughter.” He said, chuckling.
Then, they heard steps rattling on the ground in front of them.
They both looked up, and came face-to-face with a large, muscled, blonde-haired woman. The owner of the voice that they had talked to earlier.
“I thought you promised that you'd be quiet?” She said, disappointed, her voice characterized by an even greater twang than Robo's.
Robo stood up, still panting. “We were.” He smiled at Siggy. “Just not on that last flight.”
The woman shook her head, smiling as she did. She extended her hand towards Robo. “Nice to meet ya, ya noisy asses. My name's Alina.”
Robo took it and shook it with restrained, aristocratic vigor. Like Doctor fucking Ulman, Siggy thought. The voice that came out of Robo's mouth was no less pompous.
“Robert Wayne, you can call me Rob. I'm a scare extraordinaire and a former member of the janitorial staff.” He put extra stress on “janitorial”. It took everything in Siggy not to sigh.
He gestured to Siggy. “This is Sarah, my daughter. She loves wizards and witches and Harry Fatter.”
Alina squinted at them. “Riiiight.” She cleared her throat. “Well, I'm a former member of site security, so there's that.” She turned her gaze to Robo. “Where did ya say you were headin'?”
“Greattown, good ma'am.” Robo said. “My daughter and I wish to visit it to find a certain someone.”
Alina crossed her arms. “A certain someone, ah? Well, welcome to the club. First time heading to Greattown?”
Robo nodded. “You can be rest assured of that.”
Alina gestured to the door beside her. “Well, even if you two did head to Greattown before, you would barely recognize it now. Stuff's… changed.”
Robo cocked his head. “Changed how?”
“Changed in a way that would rival all the other floors.” She placed her hand on the door. “Take a look.”
She pushed it open, and the sight robbed the breath from the both of them.
Instead of the dull, grey corridors that they'd come to expect from a new floor, they were greeted with an endless sea of green, lit by great bioluminescent balls from the extremely high ceiling that shone a light on the entire scene. Trees populated the floor in sparse copses, a sight that both Siggy and Robo had never seen before. Great stone pillars supported the ceiling from the ground, looking like it could barely hold up the weight with their sparseness, but seeming to never crack under the pressure. Wind blew through the great meadows and the farmlands, and in the far, far distance, they saw it- the tell-tale grey of concrete, dictating the ends of this paradise. In the center, they saw a town that almost resembled a cylindrical tower with multiple grey rooms in the center, surrounded by a great collection of tents, concrete buildings, and a few structures made out of wood. A basic palisade rounded out the entire thing, made out of long and sharpened wooden stakes with guard towers scattered throughout.
“Woah.” Siggy and Robo said at the same time.
“Beautiful, ain't it?” Alina said. “Well, look at it and behold. What you see here was apparently some kind of restructuring thing. Stretched the floor so far up but didn't affect the chickens above and below. All that grass, those sky lanterns? Wasn't there last time. Perks of living in an anomaly, I guess.” She came through the door, her shoes touching the uncountable blades of grass.
She looked back at the two at the doorway, who were standing there with their mouths hanging open. She beckoned them to come out.
“Hey, what's the hold-up? You guys haven't seen grass before?”
Siggy still stood there, slack-jawed and astonished. “I- I-“
Robo spoke up to cut her off. “Of course we have! It's just that it's so beautiful and original that we are simply astonished by the sight.”
Alina chuckled to herself. “Well, yeah. It does have its perks.” Her eyes explored the vast interior of the floor, as if she were admiring it for the first time again. “Killed a lot of people when it happened though.”
Siggy and Robo weren't listening. Instead, they were both staring at each other's faces, daring the other to go first.
“You're a witch aren't you?” Robo said. “Be my guest.”
Siggy shot him an irritated look. “You're the big tough monkey man. You go first.”
“No, you.” Robo said, gesturing to the grass.
“No, please.” Siggy said, her lips curling up in a fake smile.
Robo crossed his arms. “Do it.”
Siggy crossed her arms. “No, you do it.”
Half a dozen feet away, Alina rolled her eyes.
“Come on, Si- Sarah.”
“Well, you come on, dad.”
Then, suddenly, they felt themselves being pulled out into the floor, their shoes (in the case of Siggy) and bare feet (in the case of Robo) touching the grass for the first time in their lives.
Alina could only grin to herself. “Was that so bad?”
“Woah.” Robo said, his feet feeling the grass beneath him.
“This is…” Siggy walked around. “New.”
“Why is it so crunchy?” Robo said.
“Because it's grass, you dumbasses.” Alina said, shaking her head. “Come on, we don't have much time. Supper's in an hour.”
She turned away to head to the town, and Siggy and Robo followed, marvelling at the feeling of treading on grass as they did.
The walls seemed to loom when they got close- large and imposing wooden palisades that seemed to preclude everything from the sight of anyone outside. In the middle was a gate, guarded by two people wearing site security armor and with assault rifles at the ready.
“'Sup, Alina.” One said. “You got outlanders?”
“Noisy ones.” Alina responded. “Father and daughter.”
The one on the left laughed. He turned his head towards Siggy. “You two from the lower floors, kid?”
Siggy's eyes were wide. She nodded. “Y-yeah. Definitely. From -24.”
“Whoo, damn. That far down? You guys have come far.” The one on the right looked at Robo. “What, your dad never taught you the virtue of staying quiet after all that time?”
Robo put his arm protectively over Siggy's shoulder. “It was only on the upper flights, after we met Alina. We kept quiet before that.”
The one on the left nodded. “Stay safe you two, alright? This ain't the lower floors where it's big enough that nothing can hear you. Up here, shit can get dangerous.”
Siggy raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
“Chickens, kid.” The one on the right said. “Lots of chickens.”
Alina spurred them forward. “I'll explain later.”
Past the gate, the crowds within were bustling, far more than any of the crowds they'd seen from the one settlement that they'd visited. Relative to even that, Greattown was large, with a population numbering in the low hundreds. Around them, so many people were talking, walking, and going about their daily lives that it simply felt overwhelming to the two. To the side, there were hawkers, selling their goods to passersby. Just ahead of them, there seemed to be a large red tent, and beside it a market that was full of people.
“That's a lotta people.” Siggy said.
“We had more.” Alina said, cryptically. “At least we got farms now.”
She went past them, gesturing them to follow her. “Come on. I'll take you to my house. You two seem appropriately lost.”
Robo and Siggy exchanged glances. Robo spoke up. “Alright.”
Past Alina, they wove through the crowds of people. Now that they were in the middle of the town, she smelled all the tell-tale signs of civilization that neither of them had smelled before- fried food, roasted meat, stewing vegetables, and along with them the smell of sweat accompanied by the hollering and baying calls of vendors.
They left it as soon as Alina beckoned them into the great concrete cylindrical tower at the center, where a variety of people were ascending and descending the thing with ladders and ramps towards where the different floors should be.
They came to one of the ramps that ascended steeply upward. Alina stepped on it with no problem, and Siggy and Robo meekly followed.
People passed them as they walked on the ramps and the precarious concrete outcroppings of the structure. Some passed without giving them any mind. Others nodded at Alina as they walked, while more seemed to gawk at the two with curiosity.
Siggy seemed to instinctively shrink away at their inquisitive looks.
“Don't mind them.” Robo said, holding Siggy close. “Don't.”
Soon, they came to a small room on the side of the structure on the second floor. In front of it was a large metal door, with a translucent window and a lock on the knob.
Alina fished out her keys, unlocking the door as she did. It gave way with a long creeeaaaak, allowing them to head inside. As they did, in a practiced manner that suggested that she'd done this hundreds of times, Alina turned on the electric lantern to her right, and it was then that the interior of the room became clear.
At the center of the room was a mattress, with a few books beside it. Off to the side were desks, with a variety of things atop them- a baton, a suit of site security armor, an assault rifle, as well as a bunch of picture frames that contained a variety of strangers and taken from various locales. There wasn't much space for anything else, sadly, and this was made apparent when Alina sat on a rickety desk chair to the right of the mattress and gestured to the entire room.
“Home sweet home, you two.” She said. “It's cramped, I know, but it's… home.”
She leaned forward on her chair. “Makes yourselves at home. I don't have any other chairs, so you two can sit on the mattress.”
Siggy nodded. “Thanks.”
Robo nodded as well. “Yeah. Thanks.”
They sat awkwardly on the mattress on the floor, Siggy barely fitting on the mattress as Robo took up the majority of the space.
It was an uncomfortable arrangement all around.
Alina reclined on her chair. “So… what are your numbers?”
Robo and Siggy immediately perked up, startled. “What?” They said at the same time.
“Your designations! You're skips, aren'tcha?”
Robo stuttered. “I- I-“
Alina put out her hands in front of her in a gesture to convey that she meant no harm. “Hey, hey. Don't worry about me. I won't murder or imprison or contain the both o' you. You seem alright. If you weren't, I'd've reported you to the guards at the gate. They know how to sort a skip real quick.”
She leaned forward again. “And Imma good judge of character, so trust me.” She looked at the both of them. “What are your designations? And your names? Your true names?”
“Well…” Robo said.
She chuckled to herself. "And drop the British accent, Rob. You aren't fooling anyone."
Robo just stared back at her, surprised.
Siggy spoke up. “I'm uh… 239. Siggy. This is 2006, RoboMonkey.”
A silence followed.
Alina squinted at them intensely, as if she were trying to figure out what they were.
Siggy, at that moment, felt terrified.
Then she smiled, and laid back on the chair. “Means nothing to me. I don't read the files.”
“You… trust us?” Robo said. “Why do you trust us?”
Alina smiled. “Trust is in short order out here. So long as you two don't accidentally blow up the town or suddenly trigger another restructuring, you'll have nothing from me. Just be careful outside, yeah?”
She gestured to the both of them. “What do you two do, anyways?”
“Well…” Robo said. “I can shapeshift into anything that scares people. That's about it.”
“And from your name, what scares people is a RoboMonkey?”
Robo knotted his eyebrows, then nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”
Alina chuckled. “What about the form you're assuming now?”
“Well, Sig-“
Siggy immediately shot him a dirty look.
Robo shrunk instantly. “Nevermind.”
Alina chuckled again. She turned to Siggy. “How ‘bout you?”
“I…” Siggy squirmed on the mattress uncomfortably. “I can cast spells. That's about it.”
“Spells, huh? Which ones?”
“Fire. And light. And summoning stuff.” She looked up at her. “That's about it.”
Alina seemed surprised. “That's it?” She crossed her arms. “You can't heal people, for example?”
Robo and Siggy exchanged glances.
Then, carefully, Siggy placed her hand on her right hoodie sleeve, rolling it down to reveal her arm.
At that, Siggy rolled down her right sleeve with her left hand.
The stump of her arm ended abruptly beneath her elbow.
“Damn.” Alina said, a pitying look on her face. “I'm sorry.”
Siggy smiled weakly, then rolled her sleeve back down again. “It's alright. I've lived with it since I was eight.”
Alina looked intently at her, worry and sympathy coloring her face. “Fuckin' ‘ell.”
“Well, enough about us.” Robo said, wanting to get the topic immediately away from Siggy's arm. “What about you?”
Alina chuckled. “Me? Nothing much to say, really. I was in this office when the CB went down, we banded together, people died, the restructuring happened, I was lucky to be in here again, about seventy percent of us died, and I've worked as a scout for chicken infestations ever since. That's about the extent of my experience here.”
Siggy cocked her head. “As a scout? For chicken infestations?”
Alina nodded. “Yeah. They're all around the upper and lower floors, so people like me periodically ascend and descend to check. Luckily, each floor is super big, so it's taking them a while to fill even one with eggs." She looked at them. "You guys haven't seen them before?"
Robo shook his head. "We were lucky to know the way out of -13 and -14."
Alina smiled. "Well, lucky for you." She gestured outside, to the direction of the walls. "We stopped bothering to barricade the doors to their coops a long time ago, since they almost always jumped over or broke through them immediately, so our job is to clear the stairwells for travelers and put any eggs in water, patrol and catalog where the coops are, and-“
Robo interrupted her. “But I mean, why chickens?”
Alina smiled, chuckling at the question. “I ask myself that everyday. They're skips, like you two. What explanation is there?” She cleared her throat. “We lose a lot of people to them every year, but we manage. They mostly stay near their coops, but they're still enough of a threat that we dedicate people to making sure they're relatively contained and don't make any more infestations that we can't handle.”
She gestured to them. "Your turn. What brings you two fine folks to Greattown?"
Robo answered. "We're finding someone. An old…" He looked towards Siggy.
"My aunt." Siggy completed the sentence for him. "We've been trying to find her for the last… three years?"
"Damn." Alina said. "Well, I don't know where else you guys have docked, there's only really us and the Library within the last five floors. But hey, if your aunt ain't dead or up at 0 already, you can be rest assured she's here. You can probably find her at supper."
Then, at that moment, Siggy's belly rumbled.
“Hey,” Alina said. “You hungry, little girl?”
Siggy nodded.
Alina got up from her chair and turned to the door. She smiled. “Thankfully, you guys had the fortune of meeting me. I can treat you to your first meal, no problem.”
Siggy smiled. “Thank you very much.”
Alina opened the door, and ruffled her hair as Robo and Siggy went past. “No problem, kid.”
Then she turned off the lantern, closed the door, and at once everything was darkness.

The big red tent with which everyone gathered to eat their communal meal was extremely crowded, jampacked with about two-thirds of the entire town.
To their right, sellers stood serving people in exchange for coin, and as Siggy neared it, the smell was absolutely heavenly. It was just as Robo promised. Stews, vegetables, even some meat- each dish smelled tastier than the last, and as she slowly neared the booths, Alina put her hand on her shoulder and shoved a handful of metal bottle caps into her hand.
“Pick whatever you want. Just make sure to only eat what you need to, though. People are waiting.”
At that, Siggy zipped away, excitedly chattering as she headed to the booth of the nearest stew vendor.
“Is she always like this?” Alina asked Robo as they found a table.
“No,” he responded. “Usually, she just eats cheese balls.”
Alina shot him a look. “Cheese balls?”
Robo chuckled. “Yeah.”
“Damn! How the hell have you been raising her?”
Robo put his hands on his waist. “She's the one who makes the food, not me. I'm just the shapeshifter.”
Alina laughed. “Just make sure to rein her in when the time to say Peace comes.”
Robo looked at her askance. “Peace?”
“Sorta prayer before you eat. Everyone does it however they want, and we decide to just have a moment of silence so people can actually do it. Someone leads, usually. We take turns doing that. The most important people usually do it the most times, though.”
Ahead of them, Siggy had a handful of stew in her good hand, and to her it smelled absolutely divine.
She sat across from Robo and Alina, and look questioningly at them.
“What is it, Sigg?” Robo said.
Siggy smiled, before she pushed the bowl of stew towards them.
“You guys want some?”
Before they could respond, a sudden burst of feedback filled the entire tent.
“Agh!” Robo said, covering his ears. “What the hell is that?
Alina smiled. “Something to get everyone's attention.”
In front of everyone, a figure with a microphone stood up on a podium, black hair cascading past her shoulders.
“It's time to say your Peace.” The figure said, her voice young and kind.
“Why are you all looking that way?” Siggy said innocently.
“Shh, Siggy. We're beginning.”
Knotting her eyebrows, she looked over her shoulder.
Then, in front of everyone, she found her.
Jet-black hair, the perpetual kind smile on her face, the warm green eyes that said that everything was alright.
In her arms was a freshly cleaned teddy bear, like the one she gave Siggy a long time ago.
As everyone stood in silence, Siggy's mouth lolled open.
At that moment, only one word played across her lips.
“Lana.”

The Adventures of Siggy and RoboMonkey
Arc 2: Finding Lana
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Chapter II.VI

A knock came at the door to my office, which took me out of a kind of trance I enter whenever I'm doing sheets upon sheets of paperwork. In the daze between that and the now, enough time passed for a second knock to come knocking. "Fae? Sis? It's me, Anders."
I cleared my throat. "Come in."
"I can't, it's locked."
I stood up, a little annoyed at having been interrupted, to march towards the door, unlock it, and pull it open.
Anders met my gaze with a slight bit of a wince I couldn't find the source of. "Hey Fae."
"Hey. Come in?"
Anders shrugged. "If you sat back down at your desk I'd feel like I was talking to the executive director. I wanted to talk to you as a sibling and a friend."
I nodded, slowly. "Alright."
He flashed a small smile, but his eyes stayed that same type of half-closed he had entered with. "Thanks," he started. "I think you've been acting different, lately."
I blinked, more slowly than I might have normally. I looked him up and down, taking in his stance. He was favoring one foot, his weight unevenly distributed between his legs, making his torso be at a slight angle. He looked like he'd be more comfortable leaning against the doorframe, but he abstained. He looked like he'd be more comfortable with his hands in his pockets, but he abstained. It was just the smallest hint of discomfort he was willing to give. Otherwise he was putting on a face for me.
I breathed deeply in and out, and returned eye contact.
"What do you mean?"
"Mmm," he hummed, "I mean that, I think, in the last couple months, you've been… very distant? It's been difficult. To be close to you."
I nodded. "I don't think our relationship has changed."
"No, it hasn't," he said. There was that wince again. "I suppose I'm speaking on someone's behalf."
It was time for me to flash that small, sad smile. "Robin," I clarified.
"Not only."
My heart shrunk a mite at that. "Hmm," was all I let on.
"I have a gentler, slower version prepared. That's always been more my style, but, I think one place we differ is that you're always very appreciative of getting straight to the point?"
I nodded. He sighed.
"Robin feels very hurt. He's not willing to put it that way, because he's still blaming you for… something, I'm not even sure he knows what. But, it seems you've made it clear that you're not going to take the initiative for building that bridge, even though I think you're the only person who could do it. So, I'm planting a seed in your head. I'm asking you to reach out to him, at some point. I think you two should talk."
There weren't many things in my office that made noise. Without my usual typing, or the shuffling of papers, or the opening and closing of drawers, or the rolling wheels of my chair, or the ceramic clink of a mug meeting a coaster on my desk, the only real noises were a slight electric hum and my heart beating in my ears. I gave Anders a long stare.
He was one of the few people who met my gaze. Him and Alex were were among the only ones that took my silences for what they were: thinking. I disliked the pressure of needing to come up with an immediate response to everything, so I was very grateful I had people in my life who understood the immensely underrated utility of long conversational pauses.
"Alright," I said. "I don't think I have an immediate response. Could you let me think about it?"
He breathed in through his teeth. "Yes."
I smiled at him.
"But," he quickly followed up, "last time I asked you to talk to Robin, I don't think you ever did."
There was a last time? "I'm wary of trying to start a conversation with someone who has been as passive and directly aggressive to me as Robin. I don't know how to talk to someone who can't approach me with a cool head."
Anders nodded. "Do you think you have a cool head?"
The seconds passing by were tangible. The space between Anders and I, the air between our faces, felt emptier than it had before, and so I couldn't make myself keep eye contact. I broke it first, looking off at some wall beyond his right ear, my hands finding each other and mingling their fingers.
"Would you like to be alone?"
"I would," I responded. "It might be a late night for me. Dinner doesn't have to wait on me."
"Oh, that's another thing. You might not want to come home tonight. Mom is…" He searched for the words. "Unsympathetic."
I nodded. "Thank you for the heads up."
"Thank you for listening." Anders liked to answer thankyous with thankyous.
He gave me a smile, and opened his arms for a hug. We embraced, not tightly but comfortably, and he was smiling when we detached. "Love you," he said.
"Love you too." Do you think he's right? I almost asked it. It wanted to come out of my mouth. I wanted to know whose side he was on, but that would have been unfair to him. Anders was like that. I honestly doubted very much that there was anything I could reasonably do to alienate him. His advice and support was one of those constants in life I took for granted, like food, water, and sleep (even if the latter had been fickle since I could remember).
And it occurred to me that it was support I really wanted right now. A type of support a brother couldn't give quite so well.
As he walked down the hallway, I closed the door, turned around, and pulled my phone from my pocket.

Alex was waiting for me at the front doors, and as I was walking up, he opened his arms. We kissed, and then hugged.
"Thanks for meeting me," I said.
"Sounded important."
I nodded, the act doubling as a kind of nuzzle into his neck.
We stood there for a moment longer, slightly swaying in the open air. His warmth was familiar and comforting. It felt especially nice as a contrast to the slightly chilly night.
"Do you want to go inside?" He suggested.
"Sure," I said.
We walked through the doors. In a town as small as Boring, it was a wonder that the cafe could afford to stay open so late. Whenever Alex and I came at that hour — which wasn't often — it seemed like we were the only people there. It made me wonder if the cafe owner stayed up just for us. In a town as small as Boring, it wasn't such a crazy idea.
We sat at our usual spot, on the stools at the counter. I didn't want the caffeine this late, so I simply ordered some of their discount day-old cookies instead. Alex seemed a little braver, and ordered a chai as usual. I just knew of myself that if I drank any caffeine past three, sleep would be utterly impossible. Some volatile reaction with my insomnia.
"So what's going on?" He asked once we had our "meal."
I gave him a look. "Don't you usually let me explain at my own pace?"
He shrunk back a little. "Sorry, I —"
"No need to apologize, I just noticed." He nodded. I sighed, and continued. "Robin quit."
He remained silent, but his eyebrows rose a fraction.
I offered no more information. I took a bite of my cookie, and looked off into space for a moment, just chewing and feeling it, nearly missing the staleness it had acquired. I let the moment hang. I let the statement speak for itself. I made eye contact with Alex, and then I gave him a single nod.
"Why?" He asked as soon as I'd given permission.
"I'm not sure."
Another pause.
"How are you taking it?"
"It's stressful. I never expected to have any… drama, between myself and anyone I was living with. Knowing that going home means chance encounters with Robin is unfortunate."
"Hmm," is all Alex said. He took a sip of his chai, and joined me in staring out at the rest of the empty cafe, the jet black windows enclosing each side except the kitchen. "Hmm," he repeated. "Would you mind if I asked some leading questions?"
"Yes."
He turned to look at me. "Alright," he said, before looking down into his drink. He graciously gave me space to think, which I took full advantage of. And think I did. I thought about what must have awaited me at my next Alice encounter. Would she chew me out? What kind of tension could I expect if she didn't? What were her own opinions? Why was she taking Robin's side?
I took a moment simply to hate that there were "sides" between myself and Robin. How'd it come to this? We were never as close as I was with Anders, no, but Robin and I had never had any major chafing.
That's not true.
"Do you have anything else to offer?"
My mind wrapped back around the present. "Pardon?" I took a second to parse what he'd said, but responded: "No, I don't want to talk about it."
"Hmm," he said back.
"I was honestly hoping to hear about your life. Mine's been boring paperwork and this, so. How have you been? What is Alex up to?"
He took a moment, staring off into the pitch black windows, sipping at his chai and thinking. "Well," he started, "I don't know if I'm up for talking about me."
That caught my attention. I turned to him, and he didn't meet my eye. Something happen? I nearly asked, before remembering to allow him the same space he allows me. Instead, I returned my eyes to the windows.
"It seems like your life is always paperwork," Alex said.
I felt a sting as a needle began to poke at the soft exterior of my heart. I blinked several times, and looked down at my hands in my lap. "Well, I'm sorry, but, it is. Life has been mostly work since I graduated high school. It's just who I am."
"Mmm," he responded, but this time it felt more rote. Hollow. Methodical and usual instead of sincere. "I don't think I am emotionally available right now to comfort you. I think I might make it worse."
The needle's pressure piqued with every beat of my heart, but it was light. It had yet to pierce. Just a poignant, steady stinging. "Okay," I said. "That's fair. Sorry to have burdened you."
"No apology necessary," he said back, but yet again I failed to sense any warmth.
He stood, and looked to me. I stood, and looked back. He opened his arms. We hugged.
"Well, thank you for meeting me. It means a lot."
"It means a lot that you trust me with your feelings, sorry I can't handle it right now."
"It's okay. Take care of what you can first."
He nodded, and pulled away first. "See you," he said.
He started to walk away, and as he opened the door: "Love you," I said.
"Yeah." He seemed to immediately realize the strangeness of that reply, and so shook his head slightly, looked back, and said: "Love you too."
And then he was gone. Beyond the pitch black windows, into the long interminable night. The only noises left in the cafe were the buzz of the lights and some faint clanks and swishes of dishwashing happening in the back room of the store. I put a hand over my heart, trying to find that splinter and pull it out, but it wasn't happening. No matter how much I pinched folds in my dress, I could never grab hold of it. So I stopped trying, and just breathed.
A deep breath in, a nice and even push out. I repeated this process several times. In, out. In, and then out.
I checked my watch. That didn't kill nearly as much time as I had hoped, and I recovered nearly nothing. In fact, I had added more. I struggled to comprehend the situation. Alex was meant to be my safe space. Not that I was in danger otherwise, but that I could let my guard down around him. I thought he'd felt the same, but maybe I was wrong. I was being faced with contradictory information.
One time, I thought to myself. Not yet a pattern.
I mentally noted it in a little file. A file I promptly slid back into the drawer from whence it came — a drawer from a filing cabinet labelled Alex Molina. Once closed, it made a nice metallic echo that resonated through the rest of me, easing my mind and muscles. Easing my heart, lifting the needle. Easing my breathing. Easing my alert.
It was put away. Manageable. Bookmarked, pinned. Something for another time.
But when I nodded to myself, there was some faint impression. There was a little noise that broke the silence. Some tink I had yet to place. It echoed. It resonated. Muscles couldn't loosen as much as I wished they would. My heartrate hadn't dropped as much as it might have. My fingers still toyed with the fabric on my chest, and my breathing couldn't become that natural, automatic rhythm. The sirens had stopped but a red light was still blinking. The needle was gone but the spot was still sore.
Tink, tink, tink.
I hated it. A paperclip, somewhere in the maze of files.
What's wrong with me?
I walked through the front doors, and out into the long interminable night. I have somewhere to be, I thought to myself. It was comforting. It was easy. I have somewhere to be. I had somewhere to be. I fondled keys in my pocket, and located my car in the darkness by memory alone. I got into the driver's seat, and lit the ignition.
If I leave now, I'll arrive early, I reassured myself. Reassured? No, that was the right word. It was reassuring. I put the truck in drive and adjusted my purpose.
"It seems like your life is all paperwork." I tried to shake the words out of my head.
"It is," I said out loud to myself. "It is."

It was roughly a fifteen minute drive to Gavin's Pond, nearer to Sandy than to Boring. It was right off of Southeast Marsh Road, and it was a tiny little thing. Maybe a bit bigger than a puddle. But, I discovered as I was waiting, it was perfect for skipping rocks across.
Plink, plink, plink, ploosh.
Rocks, sent across the pond, got anywhere between one and four skips, but at that point they were risking touching the other side. I was trying to have one make it all the way across to pass the time, when I heard footsteps coming up behind me.
I turned, and saw, for the third time in my life, that towering woman.
The woman with whom I had shared a letter correspondence, and who had been keeping me always on the tail end of her mystery.
Holly.
She wasn't dressed so different from when I'd first seen her. A long, old, simple purple dress, with yellow silk gloves. The only thing she was missing this time was the mourning veil, which was now replaced with a wide sunhat — completely unnecessary at this time of night.
I could only see her because I had put a small electric lantern on the rocky shore next to me. As she approached, before even saying hello, she leaned down — and oh how far did she have to lean — to pick up the thing, and turn it off.
I stood from my crouched, rock-skipping position, and looked into her black outline against the off-color black trees, only able to make out a tall shape, the wide hat, and the starlight catching in her eyes. Her perfectly circular eyes.
"Hello, Faeowynn," she said in a rumbling, matriarchal tone. I remembered at once the feeling of comfortable helplessness that had so overtaken me in our first meeting, and tried this time to resist the sensation. It wasn't of no use, but I was fighting a losing battle.
"Hi," I fumbled.
"Are we up to hugs yet?"
Why wouldn't we be? "No," I betrayed my conscience, "we've barely met, remember?"
She nodded, I think. "Of course. I have much to tell you, if you'd care to join me, but we can't here. There are always people watching, you know."
I nodded in return. "Right," I said, effortlessly being pulled along in her wagon. I had thought I would enter this conversation with more resolve, but I was once again that kid learning how the world worked. My sense of boundaries was all but shattered by the sheets of fur and down falling slowly from her words, and making my shoulders feel heavy and my head feel cloudy.
"Then, would you follow me? We're going somewhere different."
Sure. "Wait," I managed to fight through the feeling, "explain."
"It's a magical space that doesn't quite exist anywhere. It is completely private. Your Supervisors haven't yet found a way in."
That sounds perfect. "You promise to bring me back?" It was a stumble towards a well-worded concern, but missed the mark. Was she ever going to say no? How could I be sure she wasn't lying?
"Of course, you can return whenever you like."
Alright, take me there. "Alright, take me," I said, giving in to the sensation of naivety. Don't talk to strangers echoed in my head like the chittering laughter of Coyote.
She smiled, I think. "Good. Fair warning that it will make more questions than answers, at first. I swear to you we'll get there in time."
She reaches out and takes my hand. I don't even flinch at the sudden gesture. She leads me towards a nearby tree, black under the new moon, and knocks.
One, two, one, one.
I hear creaking, and a dim light comes from a source I can not place.
She lightly pulls at my hand, and my feet follow before I tell them to.
By some process I can't quite describe, even after all this time since then, we were somewhere… different.
"Welcome to the Wanderer's Library," Holly said.
We were standing on a balcony, and we overlooked an unimaginably vast labyrinth of bookshelves. Except, "overlook" wasn't quite right, as there were clearly spiraling staircases that rose above the sea of wood and led to yet higher floors. The majority of the view was darkness, but there were lights of all kinds — electric, archaic, and unseen — that illuminated various microbiomes of knowledge. There were open-ceilinged reading rooms, large touchscreen displays, collections of scrolls, stone obelisks, and of course, hundreds of hallways, arranged not in a grid, but in some more illegible assortment of curves, spirals, ascents, descents, bridges, underpasses — some stacked on each other into cylindrical towers of books, and on the opposite end, I saw pits deeper than I could see the bottom of. The architecture here was like no building I had ever seen, and to accompany it, any hint of the outdoors was nonexistent — I couldn't see solid walls on which a window would even sit.
The first thing I did when I could take my eyes off of the sight before me was to turn around, and see a single tree in a patch of grass, surrounded by books which, on their spines, described all different facets of arboreal knowledge. By the overwhelming mentioning of one type, I surmised that this tree must be a white oak, though its leaves looked to be pages instead, and its trunk looked more sculpted than grown.
Holly took my side at the balcony, and looked to me. In this light, her eyes were fully visible. Those fishlike things that never seemed to blink, yet always were so watery she looked like she might cry at any moment.
"You've never been to such a place, have you?" she asked.
But instead of processing the question, I noticed a difference. Instead of kneading into her lap, it felt… normal. At least in comparison. My shoulders felt lighter. My high cognition came back. I just realized that I had been taken to a mysterious place I didn't know how to leave by a woman I had only barely met.
I stepped back.
She seemed to understand some of it immediately: "I'm sorry about my voice."
"Sorry?" There was an edge to my voice I didn't intend but decided not to correct either.
"It's not something I am practiced at controlling. At least, not in more mundane places. I don't want to overwhelm you with terms, but where magic is thin, it's difficult to redirect my aura. My home, and here, provide easier outlets for me to disperse it. Boring is magical, yes, but the magic is nothing in comparison to the Wanderer's Library. It's another reason I wanted to meet here."
"Alright," I didn't move my position. I ignored my questions about where we were for the moment, to get to something more important: "You've been dodgy. Who are you. How do you know Tim?"
She chuckled, a deep hmm, hmm, hmm. "Straight to the point. That's not so much like your dad. He was always one for meandering conversation." She sighed. "I'm Holly Light. Specifically, Dr. Holly Light Wondertainment, CEO of the Dr. Wondertainment company. Do you know us?"
The name sounded familiar, and I placed it after a couple seconds' thought. "You're mentioned in the Boring Agreement. No, more than that. You created Walter, the musical ape. I read up on that once I became executive director."
She nodded, but closed her eyes solemnly. "Yes. The creation of Walter was a terrible mistake, we didn't mean to make such a tortured animal. The Wondertainment company doesn't deal with anything… soul-related, anymore. Sentience is strictly off-limits for our toys now."
"Well, that's somewhat relieving, though I'm not satisfied yet."
"Of course not," she cut off my line of inquiry. "You may remember that the result of those meetings was to forbid Wilson's Wildlife Solutions —"
"The Shelter," I lightly corrected her.
"Right, the Shelter, from maintaining relations with other, quote, 'Groups of Interest.'"
"Well, more that if an animal has significant ties to another group, that we would hand them over."
Holly smiled and sighed. "Walk with me?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Is this where we'll leave from?"
"You can leave from anywhere, as long as you have a Library Card. Part of my mission here is to get you one. Then we can meet much more easily and more regularly."
I weighed my options. Briefly. And then nodded.
She reached to take my hand, and this time I refused. She took it in stride, and walked past me, towards a descending set of stairs which I followed her down.
"It had a clause," she continued, "that the Shelter could not maintain relations. People don't remember that, because it didn't seem to interfere with anything. The worst it did was make a tense situation between the Shelter and a local artist. I'm not sure if you remember that."
"I do. That artist, I think his name was…"
"Francesco, Francesco Saul."
I remained surprised at her depth of knowledge. "Right. He's the only magical human I've met. Otherwise it's all been animals."
She turned around and gave me a look.
"Right," I corrected, "he was the only magical human." I was slightly relieved that her look had obtusely confirmed her humanity. I had my doubts.
She returned forward, in time to take a right off of the stairs and into a crack between the shelves I would have missed without her. "Other than that, the clause was quiet. Only, behind the scenes, Tim was having to work around it. To keep in contact with me."
I wasn't sure I believed her, but I let her keep talking.
"After Walter, I had contacted him, revealing that we had intentionally given Walter to the Shelter because we thought they could take good care of him. We were at first wary of revealing the intentionality of the action because your Supervisors have… rarely taken kindly to the Wondertainment brand. We are forced to do most of our business in the shadows, which is a terrible irony, because we're trying to be a light, much like I imagine you are."
I noted and filed her imagination, but neglected to respond at that moment.
"It was unfortunately only after the clause had been written that I thought to reach out, originally to attempt to create a funnel for… I don't like to admit it, but… we'll say, more Walters."
She stopped at a cross intersection, put a hand to her mouth in contemplation, and then turned left.
"More Walters?"
"Yes," she said with a tinge of mourning. "I haven't always been Dr. Wondertainment, and my predecessor was… a troubled man." She paused. "I reached out to Tim only to find our correspondence was forbidden, and our friendship followed much the same path as my epistolary conversations with you."
She turned around and flashed a warm smile. I returned no such gesture.
She continued walking. "It had to be kept private, mostly. Only as a form of security, you see. I'm honestly unsure if he told anyone, but I would be surprised if Alice didn't know. When he passed, I thought I would spread my connections. However, the more people I contact, the more risk there is. I made brief interactions with Anders and Robin, and then, of course, wanted to maintain a connection to the executive director."
"So it's a power play?"
Holly turned around. "Please believe me that I mean no offense when I say this, but is the Shelter important enough to play like that?"
With no offense taken, I silently conceded the point.
"I only mean that if I was to maintain contact with just one of you, I thought that…" She trailed off, looked back, and smiled. "Well, we're about here. Just another turn or two, and we'll be in an atrium."
"Atrium?"
"It's a meeting place for the people who frequent around here. It's where we can get you a Library Card."
"How many people frequent here?"
"Some people live here."
I raised eyebrows. "Why?"
"Well… it's a refuge." Before I could ask further, she picked up the pace, her long legs hidden by her dress carrying her across the ground like mist floating across a coast. I upgraded my walk to a trot to keep up with her.
Voices — though low — rose up around, muffled as they were by the thick walls of tomes. Holly disappeared behind a corner, and as I came around, the claustrophobic halls of bookshelves opened up into a room that was really just a large circular balcony around a wide hole in the floor, where a ladder extended further up than I could see through the darkness and further down than I cared to look. There were tables and chairs littered with candles and lamps, where an assortment of people sat and read. Some looked up at our entrance, while others were too engrossed.
They were clean. Well-dressed, of all different shapes and sizes, some with skin tones I didn't think appropriate for normal human beings, but generally… normal enough. Unlike the alien architecture we had been walking through, these felt like people I could meet in the wild.
Which was somehow stranger than the alternative.
I had so many questions, but I followed up my earlier query: "Refuge from what?"
Holly turned to look at me, her face more visible than it had been so far in the light of the lamps. It seemed like her eyes, like an owl's, couldn't move in their sockets, so to look down and avoid my gaze, she had to incline her chin.
"I'm afraid you may not like hearing this, but… the Foundation." She tilted her head up. "The Supervisors make refugees."

« The Fundraiser | Stories I Tell Myself | The Conspiracy to Learn »


”Very powerful guests, indeed.” Uhlda said, his eyes practically boring into the sleeping Siggy.
Seth looked at him, then to Robo, then to Siggy, then back to Uhlda. He bit his lip, unsure of what to do.
“You've delivered them to me with no error, 138. Very good job. I'll make sure to take word of your performance to the Foundation when we make the translation.” His face was sullen, betraying none of his intentions.
“The t-translation?” Robo said. “What do you mean, the translation?”
Uhlda looked at him, smiling warmly. Whatever he'd gained by the gesture froze over immediately when he looked at him with those cold, blue eyes. His voice remained calm, collected, determined. “Our exit from this God-forsaken place.” He closed his eyes for half a second at the word ‘God'. “Don't you want to get out?”
“What about Siggy?”
“Two-three-nine will be essential to us getting out. Foundation wants a tab on all of the… interesting anomalies in Site 118, and 239 is one of the most interesting.”
He regarded him with a grin, slightly amused in its expression. “Strange. Do you not scare people anymore?”
Robo took a step back. “Scare people?”
He chuckled. “Nevermind. It seems that you don't.” He turned to Seth. “You think they are ready? We must be quick, the group won't hold out forever against the infestation.”
“Wait-“ Robo interrupted, holding out his hand. “What do ya mean the Foundation wants all the interesting anomalies? Are they here?”
Uhlda turned his gaze back to him. It seemed annoyed almost, though not a trace of it seeped into his face. “Haven't you heard? The Foundation is at Floor 0, at the top. Reclamation efforts are going slowly, but all the other anomalies that they've secured are being taken to Sites 19, 17, and 51.”
Seth stood as still as a stone, unmoving as Uhlda spoke.
Robo started. “But-“
The doctor held a hand out. “Wait, for a moment, 2006.” He turned his head towards Seth. “Wake the girl up first, 138. Your suggestion to put her to sleep is useful, but they aren't needed. I want her to hear this.”
Seth obeyed immediately, moving slowly and respectfully towards the wall where Siggy leaned on, sleeping. He stretched a hand out to rouse her. “Siggy,” he said, before pausing and nearly imperceptibly turning his head towards Uhlda. “239, someone wants to talk to you.”
Siggy groaned, cracking her eyes open as her eyes found Uhlda. “Lana? Is that you?”
Uhlda kneeled. “The coat can be deceiving, but I'm not Doctor Trondeheim, sweet girl.” His voice had turned caring and loving, like a parent who was careful not to rouse their child too quickly. “I'm her friend, Doctor Uhlda. You probably don't remember me- I was usually behind the glass- but I'm here to talk to you.”
“Of… of course,” Siggy said, wiping the sleepy from her eyes. “Why do you wanna talk to me, Doctor Aldho?”
Uhlda smiled. It was warm now, comfortably warm. It was as if his demeanor had instantly switched between cold and loving in the space of moments. “Doctor Uhlda, sweetheart.” He continued. “It's just that I would like to take you on an adventure outside of the Site. The Foundation, the doctors that love you very much, want you outside so that they can take you to a new home. A home outside of this abandoned, creepy place, where they can take care of you.”
Siggy's eyes lit up. “And will Lana be there, Doctor Uhlda? I miss her very much.”
“Yes, of course she will. She's a very important part of the Foundation. She was actually the reason why I came this far down to get you. She wanted me to tell you that she loves you very very much, and wants to continue being your Doctor-Aunt.”
“My Doctor-Aunt? Forever and ever?”
He paused, then smiled. He held her hands and met her eyes with his. “Yes, of course. Forever and ever, little Siggy. Forever and ever.”
Siggy jumped with joy, wrapping her arms around Doctor Uhlda. “Yaaaay! I love you Doctor Uhlda! Thank you so so so so so much!”
Robo felt his chest flare as he watched, though no pain accompanied it. He bit his lip, though he didn't know why.
Uhlda looked taken aback by her response, then moved to hug her back. “Of course, of course. I'm just doing my job, little girl. I'm always happy to help good little girls like you. Did Mister Seth already teach you spells?”
“Yeah, yeah! They're ancient majipshun spells, and they're all really cool and-“ She paused. “Doctor Uhlda? Why are you looking at Mister Seth like that?”
Uhlda turned his head to look at Seth. His eyes froze only on him, his glare boring into the corpse-man's face.
Then he turned back, the glare gone, his face back to the expression of a loving parent. “It's nothing, of course. I just wanted to get a look at Mister Seth before we left.”
He stood up, making sure to keep holding on to Siggy's hand. “You wanna go now, Siggy? Lana's waiting to meet you up on Floor 0.”
Siggy jumped again. “Let's goooo!”
Robo looked on, his mind blank. Then, a single thought came to the forefront of his mind.
Wait.
Is she leaving me?
“Siggy.” Robo said, his voice no more than a whimper. “Are you t-taking me with you?”
Siggy stopped, and looked at Robo. Her expression was a mask, but just behind it, Robo felt he could discern hints of emotion. Sadness. Broken trust. Fear?
Then her face retreated from him, and she looked up to Uhlda, as if asking him for his permission.
Uhlda shook his head.
Siggy looked back at Robo. “We aren't, Robo. I'm really really sorry.”
Just half a foot away, Uhlda's face remained stony, listening closely.
Robo stared at her for a moment. And another. And another.
Then he remembered that he could speak.
“What?”
“I-“ She looked down at her broken arm, then back at Seth, then to Robo. “You can't protect me, can you?”
“Siggy-“ Robo started, but he couldn't find any of the words that he wanted to say. “I-“
“I said not to scare the beast, but you did, and I got hurt, and you didn't recognize me.“ Her voice turned low. “You said you'd protect me, Robo.”
“Of course I'd protect you, it's just that-“
Uhlda took Siggy by the hand, and started walking. “Let's go, Siggy.”
Siggy followed.
Robo looked on.
“S-Siggy? Siggy? Siggy!” He made a move to rush forward, but Seth stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Let her go. She is better-off with him.”
Robo shook him off his shoulder violently, causing him to fall to the ground. “SIGGY! SIGGY! STOP IT!”
Seth made to hold him back, whispering something into his ear.
As he did, Robo fell, crumpling to the floor in defeat.
She didn't look back.

They had been walking for ten minutes.
Siggy continued down the dark, dark corridors, her lighty-finger shining the way in front of her. Her hand was clasped with Uhlda's. Every so often, when they heard a crack in the dark, she'd squeeze it, and Uhlda would squeeze back, just to show that he was there.
“You'd protect me, right?” Siggy asked for the third time, her steps hollow against the tiled floor. “Not like…”
“Not like Robo? Of course not. I'll be with you here, always.”
“Where are we going, Doctor Uhlda? How are we going to Floor 0?”
“There will be a portal, and it'll take us up and up and up to my other doctor friends, and then they'll help you and me get out.”
“A portal? Is it dangerous?
“Of course not. You will be fine, forever and ever. I promise.”
Another silence continued.
“Will there be kids where we're going? Big kids and small kids and kids that are witches like me?”
“Of course there will be.” His voice seemed to lighten more, as if he were reminiscing about something. “I have a daughter where you're going. She's seventeen, and she's a very very kind girl. Like you.”
“Does she have the same powers like me?”
“No, but- nothing.” Uhlda bit his lip, but his smile continued. Siggy thought that he seemed sad. “She takes after her mother, I think.”
“Where is she now?”
“Oh, you know, her home.”
“Does she live with your wife?”
Uhlda laughed, though it seemed sad, like his smile. “Her mother is not my wife.”
“Is she your… girlfriend?”
“Girlfriend? Where did you learn that?”
“From Lana. She said that I'd meet a boyfriend or a girlfriend one day and we might have little kids together and have a big family if I wanted.”
He laughed. “Doctor Trondeheim certainly knew how to spin a story, for sure.” He looked at Siggy, then shook his head. “She was my girlfriend, once. Not anymore, though.”
“How does that happen? I thought you had to be married before you could have a family.”
Uhlda didn't speak after that.
“How is Lana? Is she alright? Did she say that she was fine?”
Uhlda's voice trembled. “Y-yes. Of course. She's waiting for us on the surface, with the Foundation. Everyone else on the higher levels are very… safe, because the Foundation came and took them back to the other sites.”
“The other sites? How many sites are there?”
“Well, think of it like this. What number does this site have?”
Siggy paused for a moment to think. Then it struck her, and she shouted the answer out loud. “Site 118!”
At the sudden increase in volume, Uhlda immediately looked around, scanning the dark halls for any sign of movement.
“HeeeEellp…” A distant voice seemed to moan, but it made no indication that it had heard them.
A few moments passed, then he looked at Siggy with a disapproving look and put a finger to his mouth.
“Don't shout, Siggy. We need to be quiet. You don't know what monsters are there in the darkness.”
Siggy nodded, then whispered. “I'm sorry.”
Uhlda removed his hand from hers, patting her the top of her head where her hat sat. “I see your appeal now. She had a point.” He said idly, without thinking.
“What?” Siggy said, innocently.
Uhlda withdrew his hand from her head and returned to holding her hand. “Nothing.” He cleared his throat. “To answer your question, the number of the site provides a clue to how many sites there actually are. If this is Site 118, then how many sites could there be, at least?”
Siggy counted on her fingers. When that failed, she tried again. When that failed, she sighed. “A bajillion.”
Uhlda chuckled. “118, at least.”
“Woahh. Those are a lot of numbers.”
“Lots indeed. I forgot exactly how many there are, and some below 118 are certainly gone, but-“
“HeeeeEEeElp…” A different voice said in the distance.
Uhlda's head perked up, and he started to quicken his walking.
“Why?” Siggy asked. “Are they getting closer?”
“Most probably. We have many of those right up against the two of us, and we'd have a problem. Quicken your pace, Siggy.”
Siggy followed, going as fast as her short legs can allow her.
“HeeeeEEEElp!” Another shouted. Louder this time.
Ahead of them, 200 feet away, there stood a doorway. It was dark, and seemingly led to nowhere, but just within it was a small hint of light, spinning and spinning.
Uhlda pointed to it. “There's our exit. Go, quickly. We don't have that much time.”
Then, all around them, she could hear the chorus of voices increasing in volume and number.
“HeeeeeEEEElp meeee…” One pleaded. It sounded like a woman, choking on her own blood.
“ThaaaaAAAve uttth!” Another begged. It was a man, this time, speaking without much of his tongue. “I'm dyiIIIiiiing!”
As they kept walking by, Siggy looked at all the rooms they were passing, and was offered fleeting glimpses of what lay inside.
Others had hints of red. Some the outlines of spines. Others even had the outlines of long, mismatched teeth, sticking out this way and that.
Drrrrooom, She heard to her left, and saw that Uhlda now had a sword with a crimson blade held tightly in his other hand. Sweat beaded his forehead, and his teeth were gritted tightly with concentration.
They were just a hundred feet from the room now. They'd make it soon. They'd make it soon.
Then, Siggy heard it.
A familiar voice.
“Siggy!” Robo shouted, though she knew not from where. “Siggy, I'm here! Stop!”
Siggy turned, stopping in her tracks. “Robo?” She muttered.
All around them, the creatures hidden within the rooms took up the call. “SsIIIiiigggyyyy…” They moaned. “StttoooooOOOoop…”
Uhlda looked around quickly, his face hardened and concentrated. “We don't have time for this, Siggy. We have to get there, now.”
“SSSiiiiiIgGYyyyy,” The monsters continued. “SSSSiiiIIIGGgyyyy!”
“Siggy!” Shouted the real Robo. “Don't trust him! Don't!”
“Don't listen to him, damnit.” Uhlda said through gritted teeth. “Make your decision, Siggy. Make it now.”
“SSSSSSIiiiigGGGGYyyyy!” The monsters were shouting, now. “DoooOOOOOn't TRUSSSssttt HIIIiiim!”
She froze, unable to decide.
Then she saw two figures coming out from the nearest hall and out into the corridor. She could barely discern their outlines. One was large, the other lanky, both seeming to be out of breath.
It was Robo and Seth.
Uhlda looked back. “Fine.” He said, his voice serious. “Let's do it this way, 2006.”
Suddenly, Siggy felt herself being swept off her feet, as Ulhda grabbed her by the waist and began to run.
She screamed.
In an instant, she heard the sounds of victory echoing down the corridor, as the monsters within the rooms began to emerge, their crimson skin glowing in the dark.
“Let go of me!” Siggy shouted, banging her fists on to Uhlda's back. “Let go of me!”
A monster emerged from the nearest doorway, its jaw unhinging as it began to growl. It was low, guttural, and as it moved forward, it began to speak.
”STTTTOOOOoooOOOOOOooooooPPPpP!”
Then suddenly, a small red blur went right through its neck, severing its head from its body in an instant.
Uhlda brought his sword down with a flourish, blood dripping from the blade.
Another one brought its head forward from the room it was inhabiting, but as it began to scream, Uhlda brought it down with a well-timed slash to the throat, causing it to fall down with a squelch.
“Stop struggling, goddamnit!” Uhlda shouted. “I'm trying to save you!”
Ahead of him, the light was tantalizingly closer than ever. It was only a few feet away, if only he could-
Then he heard heavy footfalls, plodding along the tiled floor and making the ground quake with each step.
He looked behind him, and there, amidst the rapidly emerging monsters, was Robo, with Seth held in between his right arm and his shoulder. He was gaining, fast, his legs reinforcing with more muscle to spur him ever forward.
“Fuck!” Uhlda exclaimed.
The portal was right there, if only he could-
From either side of the door came two separate monsters, both on their hind legs, each larger than any of the others.
They now blocked the way in between him and the door, and he couldn't risk running through them- not with 239 in his arms.
He gritted his teeth in irritation. So fucking close.
The one on the right lurched forward, screaming as it made a slash at Uhlda. With unnatural speed, he dodged, then making a strike right at its abdomen, causing it to scream in pain.
”IiitTTTt HURRRrrrTTsss!” The monster said, releasing another puff of its amnestic breath with the scream.
Uhlda shook off the effects of the gas, turning to the other as it lunged forward to bite him.
He saw it a split-second too late.
Too fucking slow.
He jerked 239 away from it, and as it moved, Uhlda presented his sword-arm instead.
The monster's jaws closed on his forearm, eliciting a loud scream of pain from him as he tried to kick it away.
His strength lapsed, and Siggy found her opening.
She freed herself away from her abductor's arm with a concentrated push, hitting the ground just as Uhlda jerked himself away from the monster's jaws.
She landed on her broken right arm with a sickening crack, breaking through the bone completely as she fell on the floor.
The world turned to black for half a second. Her entire body felt like it had shattered, and it was nowhere near the pain that she felt when she first broke it.
In that moment, Siggy opened her mouth to scream.
"AAAAAAAAAHH!"
The earth around them quaked. Dust fell from the ceiling, and as Siggy lay there on the ground in agony, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye- the other monster had recovered from the wound to its belly, pushing itself forward to attack her as it screamed ”HEEEEEEEEeeeEEEEEEELlllPPP!”
In that split-second, summoning the strength to cast a spell, Siggy let loose a fireball with a loud “A'MAX!”, throwing the ball into the creature's throat.
With a loud scream of pain, it jerked away, unable to attack any further as Siggy let loose another fireball, causing its belly to rupture from the explosive heat.
The creature dead, she fell back, exhausted from the additional strain.
A few feet away, Uhlda made a weak slash against the monster in front of him, bringing the sword up against the bottom of its mouth as he let out a frenzied battlecry. The blade came into contact with its mouth, shearing away flesh and cutting its snout clean off.
The voice of a woman came clean from its mouth, nearly deafening him as it made its last scream. “AAAAaaaAAAAAAaaah!”
The way clear, Uhlda made to grab the child beside him, but was interrupted as a large gorilla barreled into him.
He was thrown three feet away from where he was, his back hitting the ground with a resounding thump! Then, he looked up, and his eyes came to meet those of the corpse-man who he'd subjugated for so long.
It held a long, long blade to his throat- curved and deadly, the implement of an ancient warrior.
“Stay down, Kaleph Uhlda.” Seth said. “Or should I say…”
“Doctor Alto Clef?”

More and more monsters flooded the hall, drowning out everything else in the cacophony.
“STaaaaaAAAAyyy, PLLEeaaaAAAsseEEE!”
”IiiiiI'm InJUuuuRRREeeed!”
”STTooOOOoooOOOOOpPPP!”
”SAAAAAAAAAAAaaAAAAVEEeeE MMEEEEEEeEeEEEEE!”
Robo felt dizzy already, but as he came to his feet, his eyes met the green of Siggy's, wide-eyed and afraid.
“You… you came back,” Siggy said weakly. “I… I'm so…”
Robo smiled from behind his helmet, and leaned forward. “Save it. Please.”
He heard something behind him.
A dozen of them at least- maybe more.
“I came to protect you,” Robo responded. As he spoke, he began to grow and grow. “I promised, didn't I?”
“Listen, please, Robo-“
He stood up, the sounds of several monsters already making their way towards them.
“Don't.” He said simply, looking down at her. “We can talk later.”
He turned around.
A wall of writhing flesh, screaming in pain and begging for help, moved like an unstoppable wave of red towards him. He saw teeth. Claws. Endless maws all looking to tear him apart.
Robo was the most terrified he'd ever been in his life. Chills ran down his spine, his fur stood on end, and in that instant, his legs froze solid.
But he had to do it- for her.
He'd never leave Siggy behind ever again.
With a resounding and echoing roar, he tripled his size until he nearly filled the corridor. Throwing his arms above his head, he pounded the ground, making it crack beneath him as he faced them all down.
Then he thrust his chest forward and beat it with the same force, roaring again as the sound of fist pounding on bone reverberated all around.
The creatures hissed back, roaring their response through the pleas of their victims.
"STTTttaAaaYYy BAAAaaaCCkK!"
"SsssSTTTtttttTTTeEp AWaayyYYYyyyYY!"
"RuUUuuUUUunnNNNn!"
Robo smiled.
“Boo.” He said.
He ran down the corridor, arms in front, charging through the monsters as a wall of flesh, muscle, and bone.
They tore at him with outstretched claws, breaking through the skin and flesh of his arms, his torso, his legs.
He was dizzy- the world spun around him. The creatures' breaths were taking effect far faster than last time, fraying his mind and his memory.
But still, he pressed on, fighting through the pain as he powered through with a will stronger than anything he ever had in his life, carrying the rest of the beasts with him as they tore at his body with relentless endurance.
Siggy could only watch as he disappeared down the hall, away from the light and into the darkness.

A few feet away, Seth stood over Clef, pinning the doctor to the ground with a sword to his throat. Seth was fresh, at least for a corpse-man, though he had not fought hand-to-hand since the days when the Middle Kingdom stood strong. Clef was skilled, experienced, strong- but his sword-arm was a mangled ruin, chewed to bits by the 939, and he wasn't sure if he could bring the sword in his hand to bear.
So he resorted to the one thing he knew he was always good at- talking.
“So I'm shit outta luck, huh?” Clef said, gritting his teeth. “Fucking traitor. How long were you planning this, hmm?”
Seth glared at him. “A long, long time. I only got my chance when you so graciously left 2006 in my care.”
“And here I'd come to trust you.” Clef said. “I really thought you were loyal. My fault, I imagine- I should have gotten the clue when you taught the girl spells when I should've. She didn't use it on me, though.”
“We are all the worse for it.” Seth brought the sword closer to Clef's throat. “Do you think you would get by on lies?”
“I did, actually. Until you so interrupted me.”
Seth scoffed. “The monkey was easy to turn over to my side. One word about what you did to Siggy and he was sufficiently persuaded.”
Clef held the blade in his hand tightly.
Seth brought his closer to the doctor's throat- just enough to draw blood. “I would not do that if I were you.”
“I'm faster, you son of a bitch. Try me.”
“Not with that ruined sword-hand, you are not.”
“Try me, corpse-man. What use is being a former god of destruction when you can't even bring yourself to kill me?”
Seth gritted his teeth harder. “You godsdamned murderer.”
He gripped the sword harder than he ever could before, fighting through the agony in his hand.
“It's what I do best, Seth. You can't die, but watch-“
He brought the crimson Scrantonum blade into Seth's belly, hurting the corpse-man in a way that no other wound could.
“And you will.”
Seth's eyes went wide.
Then he fell to the ground, the khopesh in his hand clattering to the floor.
A few feet away, Siggy could only helplessly look on as Clef climbed on top of Seth.
Clef inspected the blade, looking at the fresh blood now dripping from it.
Then, he raised it.
"I didn't think it would actually work. Who knew the death you so craved would be brought upon you by such a simple material, hmm?”
He brought it down on the corpse-man, caving in his chest with one blow and shattering his sternum with a sickening crraaaak!
He withdrew it, raised it, and made it fall again, this time through Seth's throat and out the other end, causing the man to choke as what was left of the blood flowing through his veins constricted his damaged airways.
Then, finally, Clef withdrew it one final time.
Seth looked up at him with wide eyes, seeing the death that he had craved for millennia coming towards him at such an inopportune time.
He tried to speak. The translator, though soaked with blood, roared to life.
“Clef. No-“
“Shut up, you son of a bitch.”
And with a final motion, he brought it down on Seth's forehead, instantly killing what was left of his mind.
Then, slowly, he took it out- the sound it made a sickening crackle, like the sound of tires on gravel.
Blood all over him, Clef stood up slowly, his right arm a mangled ruin and bleeding profusely. From his right hand, the crimson Scrantonum blade disappeared, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.
He looked at Siggy, and could only bring himself to smile as his cold blue eyes met hers.
“I confess…” Clef said. “I liked you, Siggy. You reminded me of my daughter more than I liked to think.”
He staggered towards her on unsteady legs, let himself fall in front of her as he came to a stop.
Siggy was pale, but she brought herself to speak still.
“C-clef… Were you the one who told me to sleep?”
“Yes, I did. You were too much of a risk, 239. I…” He breathed in. His arm was starting to hurt now. “I had to. Trondeheim objected of course, but… well, in one aspect she was right.”
Siggy's lips quivered. “In what a… aspect?”
“You're a sweet girl.”
He put both his arms out, mangled and not, and took her within his arms.
Clef continued. “But I got a job to do, and if we have any chance of getting through the blockade upstairs…”
He lifted her up. Agonizing pain ran up Siggy's shattered arm, but she could only grunt in response.
He staggered forward. “Then I…” He took a step. “I will need to get you up there first.” He took another step.
The light at the end was so close now. Just two more steps.
Just one more step.
With his mangled hand, he opened the door, revealing the platform that was the prototype teleporter. It glowed with a blue light, and was constantly spinning, and spinning, forming a disk with which one person could translate through.
Clef took a weak step.
Then, from behind, his ears picked something up.
The khopesh that Siggy summoned earlier flew through the air, striking Clef in the back and going through the other side.
He fell to the ground, Siggy still in his arms.
He breathed through gritted teeth.
“Son…” He tried to breathe again. “…of a bitch.” He tried to turn his head around, but the pain in his back and where the blade emerged on his chest prevented him from doing so.
“Endlessly dedicated as always, huh, 2006?”
Siggy stirred, and from behind she could hear the footfalls of the monkey that she loved.
Wounds, countless gaping wounds adorned Robo's body. He bled from every single one of them- cuts, bruises, slashes, bites, scratches- but still he pushed on, moving impetuously forward down the corridor.
“I don't remember… much…” Robo panted. “But I… made… a promise.”
He walked past the countless dead bodies of the 939s, the lifeless corpse of Seth, and finally up to the kneeling and panting form of Clef, holding Siggy in his arms.
He placed his hands on the girl. “Let her… go.” He said to Clef.
Clef laughed weakly. “Or what?”
“Or I won't let you live.” Robo's voice had turned hard. The kindness that always accompanied it had gone.
Clef tried to breathe, wheeze taking the place of a deep breath. “Under normal circumstances, I'd say no, but…”
He looked down at the half-unconscious from of Siggy, passing in and out between the realm of the living and the dead.
“But this girl has changed my mind.”
At that, his grip on her slackened.
Robo took her gently into his arms, cradling her to his chest as he stepped away from Clef.
Clef could only smile as Siggy slipped from his grasp.
Then, he let himself fall to the ground, blood flowing from the wound in his back.
He crawled over to the teleporter in front of him, a blood trail being left in his wake. He was weak- weaker than he'd ever felt.
But still, like Robo, he pushed himself forward, managing to place himself squarely on the teleporter as it began to whir and circle faster and faster.
“2006…” he said, as he began to disappear. “Keep her safe.”
His eyes lingered on him, still as focused and single-minded as the moment they met.
“I'll be looking for her again.”
Then he was gone, what was him turning into nothing but atoms to be transported somewhere else, far far above them, on some far-away floor.

Siggy woke up with a start.
“Robo?” She said first, jumping awake. “Lana?”
No one responded.
She looked around, confused.
A fire still smoldered in the lantern at the center of the room. Two cots still rested undisturbed beside it. To her right, she could see the remains of the corpse of a monster, now most definitely rotting, with only its head and tail intact. To her left, she found a giant half-burnt teddy bear with its lower half still within the room.
She turned to move, and found that pain still shot up from her right arm.
But it was a different pain. A burning pain, rather than the agony she felt… yesterday?
How long had it been?
She brought up her right arm.
Everything below the elbow was gone- the stump clumsily bandaged with strips taken from clean clothes.
“I'm sorry about the arm.” Robo said, coming in to the room from the door. “It was turning purple, and… I couldn't just leave it there. You were running a fever too. Really damn hot. It had to have been shattered or somethin'. That invulnerability you have to your skin breaking seemed to get weaker when you did, so I…”
Siggy bit her lip. “It's… it's fine.” Her voice quivered.
Robo sat on the cot opposite her. It was obvious that his form had gotten thinner- he probably wasn't eating as much anymore.
Robo stretched out his hand to touch her. "Hey, if you need time-"
"Why'd you do that?!"
Robo was taken aback. "Do what?"
There were tears in her eyes. She raised the stump of her arm, showing her where her elbow now ended on nothing but exposed bone.
"Why did you cut my arm off?" Tears were racing down her face, leaving long trails in her wake. "I can't be a witch now! I can never be a witch! Witches have two arms and they cackle and-"
Robo held her close, letting her nuzzle into his shoulder.
"Shh. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Siggy sniffled. She stayed there for a long time.
Then she spoke. “What happened-“
“To Clef? He teleported away. The teleporter broke a few seconds after that. I reckon they broke it from the other side.”
Siggy hunched forward. “I mean to Seth. How is he?”
He sighed. “Dead.”
“But he can't die, right? All those wounds and-“
“That's what I thought too,” Robo said. “But there must have been something in that red sword of Clef's. He died instantly.”
Siggy crumpled. “Oh.” She said despondently.
He drew his hand around her shoulder, holding her close.
“You okay, Sigg?”
Siggy sniffled. “It's- It's just that-“
In an instant, tears flowed down Siggy's face as she buried her face into Robo's chest.
“It's that you got hurt and Seth died and I lost my arm and-“ She screamed. “It's just all for nothing!”
Robo patted her back. “It's alright, Sigg. It'll be alright. Trust me.”
She kept crying. “If I hadn't trusted Clef or if I hadn't gone with him or if I trusted you or if I-“
Robo stroked her hair. “Shhh. Shhh. It's all in the past now. It's all in the past now. Don't you worry, Sigg. Don't you worry.”
They stayed there for an hour, on the cot, both saying nothing to each other as Siggy kept on sobbing.
Eventually, she stopped, and for a long time the room was silent.
"Hey," Robo said. "I have a surprise for you."
He bent down, taking something from below the cot.
He dropped it on her lap.
It was a bag of cheese balls- the ones she made when Seth taught her.
"I saved them for you." Robo said, his voice kind.
Siggy hugged it to her chest with her good hand, and pointed at the rotting corpse of the 939 with her chin. "Is that why you've been eating the monsters the entire time?"
Robo lowered his head, a blush on his face beneath the helmet. "N-no!" He exclaimed. “W-we're still findin' Lana, right?”
“Lana?” Siggy sniffled.
“Yeah, like I promised.”
Siggy used her arm to wipe her tears. “Yes, of course.”
Robo smiled. “Attagirl.” He held her tighter. “Wanna go on an adventure again?”
Siggy nodded. “Of course. Just promise not to get hurt again, okay?”
Robo chuckled. “You know me…”
“I always keep my promises.”

END OF ARC 1: A RUDE AWAKENING
TO BE CONTINUED IN ARC 2: FINDING LANA

The Adventures of Siggy and RoboMonkey
Arc 1: A Rude Awakening
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Hershey sighed as he tripped over another charred skeleton. This one wasn't any different than the others he and Camille passed as they explored this reality, but the novelty wore off once he saw a version of himself eviscerated by six-legged dog creatures. The beasts weren't interested in him though, at least that's what he kept telling himself, and so he kept his concerns to himself for the most part.
Once Camille spotted an old building surrounded by a chain-link fence however, Hershey couldn't stop himself from saying something.
"Camille, don't," Hershey pleaded, "Come on."
Camille, the short, dark-haired woman with a fire in her eyes that could melt steel, shrugged. She fed Hershey a soft "Make me" smile, and scrambled her way up and over the fence.
Hershey, trying his best to not let her step on his last nerve, sighed. He was a hefty man, built like a freight train with a lumberjack's beard and well-kept hair. Jumping the fence after her was more an inconvenience than an actual chore.
"I don't like this," Hershey stated.
The long dilapidated buildings of the town named Asheville stared at them. There was mold and mildew settling on the exterior of those buildings, giving them a distinctly green hue. If you looked long enough at that mold from the right angle, one could see the faces the souls forever confined to shitty, run-down, and abandoned infrastructure.
Or maybe Hershey's imagination was getting the better of him.
"You don't like anything," Camille teased. She was faster than him and well more than a few meters in front of him. She had turned on her heels at some point and was now walking backward.
Hershey straightened himself, "I like things."
"Yeah, boring things."
"I like safety," He said, "And comfort. And warmth. And-"
Camille formed a mouth with her hands, "Blah blah blah. If we did everything you wanted to do, we'd never do anything."
"Is that really a bad thing?" He said, gesturing at the vines on the ground that were grabbing at his ankles.
"I dunno," She shrugged, "Probably."
"What are we doing here anyway, Camille?"
Camille frowned, "Do I ever complain this much when it's your turn for an adventure?"
Hershey thought for a moment. Paused. Then folded his arms and spoke again, "Yes."
"That's because your adventures are boring. Mine is actually important," She spun on her heels again and walked into one of the old buildings.
The building Camille entered looked foreboding. They all did, in truth, but Hershey found a small sense of wonder at the rest of the ruins. Like walking through history and trying not to disturb the ghosts that dwell in their graves.
The building, labeled "Laundry Town" in rusted letters on the door, was cracked to high hell and back. A sizeable portion of the back wall was missing. Skeletons holding melted plastic baskets with moldy, rotten and singed clothes were all that greeted Hershey when he stepped inside.
The tiles shattered beneath his weight, echoing loudly in the silence of the laundromat.
"Shhh!" Camille barked as she brought a finger to her lips. She whispered, "There might be critters afoot."
Hershey shook his head and whispered back, "You're such an asshole."
"I'm serious, Hersh, look." She pointed at a smouldered skeleton.
Hershey frowned, "That's not funny."
Camille shook her head, nearly hitting the bottom of Hershey's chin. It was at that moment that he realized he was standing far too close and took a step back.
"Not the bones you big lug," Camille pointed at the skeleton's chest.
A faintly glowing red mark sat tattooed on the burnt bones of its owner. It was a rugged diamond shape, with loose tentacles stemming from the bottom point like roots. There was a black dot in the center of the diamond with five points around it.
"We haven't been here before," Hershey half-said, half-asked.
Camille jumped and turned around. She put her hands on her hips and a smug smile formed on her face.
"I know, isn't that exciting!"
"I…"
Before he could finish there was a tremor. Then that tremor turned into a rumble, which then became a small quake.
Hershey glanced up at the ceiling as a small piece of debris hit his face. His heart fell into his stomach as he realized what was happening. Camille had noticed the ceiling coming apart too and asked Hershey something he couldn't hear. The giant man grabbed her by the wrist and pulled Camille into his arms before biting into his lip and spitting blood onto the Sigil tattooed on his hand.
In an instant the world was white. A fiery sensation that would have overwhelmed less experienced Travellers washed over Hershey and Camille. He looked at her. She looked at him. Their bodies crumbled apart, individuals molecules splitting apart from one another and drifting toward the entrance.
Then their minds melted into conceptual components. Memories, both remembered and forgotten, zipped through the fiery white void. Various points in history crashed into one another like bumper cars. The memory of Hershey's first kiss collided with the first time Camille failed a math exam. Camille's earliest memory from when she was four years old and saw her grandfather die knocked into the memory of Hershey breaking a few rules in an alternate reality.
Throughout all of it, the outside of the laundromat remained a clear anchor for Hershey to displace to. Their collected thoughts were pulled in that direction.
This continued for ages, although to the outside observer, the displacement ended just as quickly as it began. Hershey let Camille down on the ground and quickly scanned through his memories, making sure that all the important ones were still intact.
"You okay?" Camille asked him. From the wide-eyed expression she wore, Hershey could tell that she was thinking the same thing that he was.
He frowned, "I told you I didn't like this."
"What the hell was that?"
The laundromat was a pile of rubble now. Dust and debris floated lazily in the air and settled on their clothes.
As the pair were dusting themselves off, something underneath the pile of bricks that was once the entrance started to move. The hairs on the back of Hershey's neck stood up. Camille stood in front of him and withdrew a nine-millimeter pistol from her waist. Hershey took an instinctive step back.
"You brought a fucking gun?"
Camille shrugged, "In case of emergencies."
"A fucking gun?"
"Hersh, I swear-"
The thing beneath the bricks emerged. It was a vulture, or at least it loosely resembled one. The vulture-thing stood taller than Camille, which wasn't that surprising. But as it stepped toward them its true height became more apparent, and even Hershey had to look up to make eye contact with it. The thing had a pointed beak that had red splatter coating it and a fleshy pink organ hanging out of it. As the creature made eye contact with Hershey, it slurped up that organ like spaghetti and coughed.
"Greetings." The vulture said, its voice sending a chill through the air.
Camille aimed her pistol at the creature's face and closed one eye.
"Are you an Agent of Terror?"
The creature cocked its head to the side and squawked, "Agent of Terror?"
Hershey and Camille let out a collective sigh.
"The Five Terrors? Multiversal cosmic abominations that can fuck up your day in a heartbeat?
I uh, broke a few rules not that long ago. The Third Terror is still… angry," Hershey explained, not closing the distance between the creature and the gun that kept it at bay.
The creature flapped its wings a few times, kicking up dust again and scattering debris on Hershey. He sighed.
"I serve none other than the Wandsmen," The vulture said, a hint of annoyance peppering its voice.
Camille lowered her gun, "There's still Wandsmen in this reality?"
The Wandsman cawed, "Only the ones without a Map or a Way back. But there's quite a few in fact. And I was under the impression that all of your kind died in the… event."
"We aren't natives," Camille said, touching the Sigil on her forearm.
The Wandsman leaned in close. Its breath reeked of rotten meat and orange soda. A pair of beady eyes stared at the Sigil, then at Camille.
"I see… tell me, what do you know of the Convergence?"
Camille looked over her shoulder and Hershey, who shrugged.
"We were just looking for ourselves before we lost something important," Camille explained.
Hershey punched her shoulder.
"Ow, shit. What?"
"We can't trust it," Hershey warned, "Stop giving it personal details."
"She hasn't given me anything I can work with."
"See, I haven't given it anything it can work with."
"I am the Twelfth Wandsman of Reedsing. Do not refer to me as "it" if you value your lives."
The Wandsman flapped its wings. Its eyes transitioned from black to a dark red, then to a bright shade of green. Camille raised the gun slightly and backed away with Hershey.
"Alright," She said, "Twelfth Wandsman of Reedsing, what the hell is this Convergence?"
The Wandsman turned away from them and stared into the sky, "After the one known as Caesar Winters escaped custody he continued to erect the kahlechsk, eventually drawing Her attention."
Camille and Hershey looked at each other.
"That's a lot of emphasis in a lot of places, Reedsing." Camille said.
"Camille," Hershy chimed in, "It's Her."
"Yeah but it's not Her, Her," She turned to the Wandsman, who was now clutching a skull in his feather-covered hands, "Right? The Fourth Terror?"
At the mention of the Fourth Terror, Reedsing turned his head. The skull was in its beak now. Half of it was, anyway. The Wandsman's tongue was circling the remaining eyehole as it nodded.
"Ah, is that what you call them? Those horrid, multi-dimensional abominations?"
"Hey!" Hershey exclaimed, "They'll hear you!"
"I do not fear the Sevatch as you do," Reedsing claimed, planting his feather-hands squarely on where Hershey assumed his hips were.
There was an uncomfortable silence after that. Hershey glanced upward toward the stars that had now blanketed the sky.
Reedsing broke the silence, "Why have you come here?"
Camille and Hershey exchanged a look before Hershey answered, "We're looking for treasure. Collectibles and shit, you know."
Reedsing crunched half a skull in his beak. He let out a long, satisfied "mmmm" and walked up to Hershey. They stood face to feathered-chest, close enough that Hershey could hear the Wandsman's heart thumping rhythmically in his chest.
"You'd best not start lying to me now." Reedsing said, his eyes carefully scanning Hershey up and down.
Hershey did his best to hide the fact that he swallowed his spit.
"There was a thing lost in our reality that we couldn't get back. A treasure, like he said," Camille interjected. "I didn't want to kill myself," She said, "So I came to a place where I already died and, well, started looking."
The Wandsman's attention turned toward Camille; Its massive head and lethal beak centered on her eyes. Reedsing was searching for something, the truth, Camille thought.
She mentally shouted at Hershey for coming up with the most transparent lie in the omniverse.
"Why don't I believe you?" Reedsing cawed, leaning in so close that his beak was right in front of Camille's eye.
"We haven't found it yet," Hershey said.
Reedsing snapped his head in Hershey's direction.
"What exactly are you looking for?"
"The Crown of Apollyon," Hershey explained. A half-truth.
"And you thought it would be in a laundromat?" Reedsing laughed.
The giant vulture threw its head back and howled with thunderous laughter. Hershey and Camille took another step back. Hershey bit his lip, drawing blood. He wiped his mouth.
Just as soon as it began, the laughter stopped.
"By the gods above," Reedsing said once his laughter subsided, "I've almost forgotten how funny your kind can be."
The tattoo on the back of Hershey's hand began to heat up as the blood collected in his palm. Camille shot him a look out the corner of her eye, trying to see what he was planning without letting her guard down. Hershey gripped her free hand with his and sighed.
"Do not even think about leaving me here," Reedsing commanded.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Big Bird," Camille said. The molecules on her hand were already beginning to come apart. Soon she would be nothing but her memories drifing through realities once again.
It was hard on the stomach, but at least the vulture wouldn't be there.
Reedsing took a tentative step toward the pair, carefully examining Camille's arm. Her hand had been reduced to dust particles that floated in a direction that she couldn't visibly percieve. Hershey was nearly completely transparent, his memories already starting to find their way back to their naitive reality.
Then, before they could react, the Wandsman leaped and grabbed onto Camille's shoulder.
As the three displaced to another reality Hershey felt his mind experience things that he couldn't have possibly known about. He saw dimensions where space-time functioned differently, planets filled with Wandsmen, floating eyeballs in space. If his consciousness could form coherent thoughts without his body, Hershey would have asked what was going on.
An eternity later Hershey, Camille, and Reedsing reformed. The world was green, void of hostile plant life and dilapidated infrastructure. They were still in Asheville, at least according to a posted sign reading "Keep Asheville Weird", but it wasn't the one Hershey envisioned when he tried to displace.
Reedsing rose to his talons, brushing dust off his feathered body. He looked around, taking in the surroundings. Either no one had noticed the seven foot tall vulture standing in the middle of the road or no one cared.
"That's weird," Hershey observed.
Soldiers clad in high grade military equipment patrolled the streets. One of them looked in their direction and tapped on another's shoulder. The second soldier looked at Hershey, then Camille, then finally at Reedsing. The soldier's shoulders dropped like he let out a long sigh after a really long day, shook his head, and kept walking.
"Well," Reedsing said, standing taller, "It seems that the Foundation is a tad pre-occupied."
Hershey let out a soft chuckle, "Yeah."
Reedsing turned to face Hershey, "I've got to contact the local Cartographer. Stay out of trouble until I return. We will discuss your quest for that dreaded Crown later."
With that the vulture spread his wings and took off. Camille and Hershey shared a look. She laughed. He sighed.
"You're not allowed to pick adventures anymore."
Camille punched Hershey's shoulder, "At least we're home now."
"I guess," Hershey said, his gaze on the sky. Reedsing was now just a small blip in the air, barely distinguishable from a speck of debris.
There was silence for a moment before a loud BANG erupted from outside of the town. Reedsing fell out of the sky, crashing in front of Hershey and Camille in a bloody spectacle of viscera and gore. The vulture groaned.
"H-help…" He croaked as he reached a feathered talon to Hershey.
Hershey stood with his mouth open. Camille acted first, taking a step toward the grievously injured creature. Thunderous footsteps rounded a corner and the owner held a rifle to Camille's face. She froze.
"Don't," The soldier said. Then he spoke into the radio on his chest, "There's been a breach."
The soldier fired three shots into Reedsing's head, ending the vulture's suffering. Hershey's heart dropped into his stomach as blood and meat chunks landed on him.
"Sorry about the mess," The soldier said, turning to walk in the other direction, "Welcome to Asheville."