I walked through the ruins, my body pumping with newfound enthusiasm as I had refilled my dwindling reserves from Lisa's stash…. though they were less than savoury, but they did the job

  “Soooooo pillars, where were those supposed to be again?” I said, my eyes scanning the horizon

  After skimming some information from a few passersby, I had obtained the directions to the nearest transit, “it’s supposed to look like a network of golden viens twisting and-oh”

  The words at the top of my tounge immediately evaporated at the scene that appeared in the horizon

  Golden lines, thrumming like the beating of a heart snaked up from the ground, twisting and turning into one another, and spread out once again upon reaching the top, like branches on a tree, the golden light washing of the structure painted the surroundings in a golden glow, giving it an almost ethereal quality

  I took a few steps back, taking a moment to appreciate the feast that had decided to grace my eyes “one really tends to forget what humanity can actually do when they put their minds to it, this shit is breathtaking” I whispered, gobsmacked by this display of artistry

  I took effort to snap myself out of the daze “move little one, staring at beautiful things wouldn't help you get back, ahhhh clementine must be worried sick by now, I just hope I get back before she goes all Rambo” I said before continuing my trek towards the light pillar once again

  —-------- - —- - —---------- - - -

  I hit the floor-or whatever you call this thing with as much force I could muster, which, mind you, wasn't a lot of strength , I dare say it was very little strength…… for a fact.

  My positively noodle arms hit the floor with a pitiful amount of velocity, which still ended up sending enough shockwaves up my hand to disable it

  “Fuck you, son of a -” I shall cut of the remaining part of my sentence as it showcases a flawed view of my usually impeccable manners, but as they say a hungry, uhhhhhh something something something

  A hysterical laugh left my mouth “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha-ack- ha-ack-” “look–wheeze at” a pregnant pause and a few coughs after “ I'm ha! Going crazy ha ha ha ha! I'm referring to myself as some sort of gentleman!” I said

  Strength left my body as I crashed from my kneeling position headfirst into what I now recognized as a infinite road

  It had been what?....6 days..10? I had lost count, at first I was pissed, then I had forced myself to be calm…that kinda helped, it gave me a little bit of hope but that also didn't last and pessimism started creeping in and now? You could say I was in despair

  “Curse…. ….Ev-ery—-thing!!” I said with great difficulty, oh yeah and there was this big ball of light on the ceiling, it was fucking bright and overall just very annoying, the ceiling was also wayyyy to high up, I never knew I could fear falling upwards but hey! You learn new things everyday!

  But why did that big ball suddenly move away from where it was?

  “hummm??” I thought as I suddenly felt weightless, I was unable to form a train of coherent thought before gravity decided that I shouldn't be staying in the air

  And as I was being (unjustifiably) dragged down by gravity, I was caught by someone, I strained my head to see who it was as I saw the face, a gasp left my lips

  Holding me in her arms was a lady whose eyes looked suspiciously like a particular colour I couldn't describe and bone white hair which was floating probably because of my sudden appearance, if one squinted closely enough, you'd begin to see similarities between her and that upper dweller guy although she was a little bit older “hey ywuooo loowouk fwamwilir” I said, drunkenly placing my hand on her cheek, before the sweet black? White? Of unconsciousness greeted me

  –__-_-_-_-_-_____+---------__=):(

  I stared at the unconscious female in my arms for a good minute before I suddenly dropped her, my hair on my skin rose as goosebumps spread over my skin, I had felt it, the same feeling from all those years ago, the memory still fresh in my head

  Suddenly, the world blurred colours became a little to bright, the ground beneath my feet churned and bubbled and the only sounds I found hear were my raspy breaths

  My knees buckled and crashed into the floor and intense sense of vertigo hitting me

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  In the blurriness of the world, a voice was calling to me, almost like someone was shouting my name

  Suddenly everything cleared as a hand held onto my shoulder ejecting me out of my stupor, a worried face hovered directly over mine “constantine!, are you aight?” She said her face creased with lines of worry

  “I'm….fine, just…need a minute” I answered her weakly, she studied my face for a while, frowned and turned away, deciding not to ask any questions , “who is that?” She intoned, shifting her head towards the female lying on the floor

  “That's……..I actually have no idea” I answered her absentmindedly “hmm? A random person suddenly appearing on a war cruiser?, that's…..” she continued, suspicion in her tone

  “I have an idea how it might have happened but-” I cut her off, picking myself up from the floor “ she's definitely going to need medical attention” I said, already contacting my team member “ uhh captain?” a voice bounced around in my skull “ there's a problem at B-34, in going to need a lift” I answered, there was silence for a while before continuing ”annndd that's doonne, so what's going on there?”

  “Anomalous activities, can't really explain more, just know it involves a girl appearing out of nowhere” I answered “ that's…..odd?, At this point I can't even muster the strength to be surprised by the amount of shit you get yourself into” the voice echoed in my head “Viktor I swear-” I was suddenly cut off by a message showing up on my HUD and alarms blaring through our the base “welp looks like it's time” I said as I cut the connection turning my gaze towards Sophie who had been watching me closely

  “I'll explain later ”I said walking down the hallway “right now we don't have time once we're done with…this” I said gesturing to the alarms “I'll explain” I said, hopefully masking my nervousness

  I was answered with a blank stare “tsk I tried” I said continuing my trek down the hallway, behind me I heard a tired sigh and a light mutter something about being flustered, then the grudging scuffling of footsteps echoed in the hall way, a smile split my lips as I thought to myself

  “everything will be alright……probably…. hopefully” I added after a moment of consideration

  _________________________

  Hey! You guys are back!, really wonder where you always go to, I peeked my head out of my hiding spot, drinking the scene displayed before my eyes, before quickly ducking as I felt a minute thrum in the air

  Ha! Yes!, how did I get into this predicament you ask? Good! I have the perfect answer for you!, you see there was once this little boi who thought his advanced camouflage systems(and his recently acquired basic stealth systems) will protect him from this basically technologically advanced but paradoxically primitive place

  But alas! He was wrong!! He was caught by the semi sentient tower thingy and was then chased down by an army of automated drones! Ahh the vicissitudes of life, hits you at the worst of times “fuuuucck” I breathed out “ can't hack the terminal without alerting whoever, can't steal a permit cause this thing uses a neural recognition system, ahh I might be fucked” I said, resting my head on the uncomfortable wall, “the model is similar to a er-c65 but-” I thought looking at the tree like structure “it has definitely mutated or something, transportation terminals are NOT supposed to look like that”

  I lounged at my spot turning an the dirt, trying to cook up a solution to my predicament, only to come up with nothing “ you're god-damned stupid you know that?” I thought to myself “ ah don't worry I'll deal with it, you said- sigh fine stop beating yourself up, just need to retreat for a while and come up with some kind of solution” I said out loud “I might have to head to uhhh Lisa's place, hopefully she's not cranky or something” I continued, looking around and feeling for any odd thrumming in the air, after finding the absence of any oddities, I activated the camouflage and the stealth addon I had extracted from my tablet and dashed across the landscape, trying my best to avoid the gaze of a literal pillar

  My lungs burned from exhaustion as I had been avoiding the pillar for the whole day, my muscles already sore from exhaustion

  After getting out of the effective range of the pillar I slumped into a nearby rock jutting out of the sand, a whole 2 km area around the pillar was nothing but a desert with some rocks around it a couple of minutes of rest was enough for my as I started walking towards the nearest actual city around these parts, apparently trade from upper dwellers going and coming led to this weird city that sold the refined versions of the trash collected from the heaps to higher floor dwellers that wished to get them at a cheaper rate than it was sold on the higher floors

  After a few minutes of walking, the patched walls of the settlement came into view tall sentinels and towers patrolling it, nothing around here could detect me, so I just waltzed into the city from the front walls

  compared to the capital, this place was terminally sick and rotten to the core, the smell of blood, sweat and industrial waste mingled in the street

  Houses were packed into tight spaces and stacked up on each other, the city was a 3 dimension maze of madness, flickering neon lights advertised stores that sold less than shady products, a literal stream of people went to and fro, in my short trek, i had witnessed 5 robberies, 3 stabbings and 1 kidnapping?....that seemed important

  “I understand why Lisa was so surprised to see me” I thought, absentmindedly weaving through the crowd “ from what I've seen it was very rare to see anyone from above the 7th floor and I definitely looked like some rich kid” I thought glumly “oh well past mistakes have passed?”

  I continue through the city, ducking and weaving for around half an hour I came to a stop”if I continue at this pace It'll take me a whole day to get out of her” I thought, the recent silence in my journeys had led me to have introspective thoughts, directly clashing with my, ‘deal with the situation think about it later mentality’ ,and the thoughts produced by these clashes were less than…. optimal, I sighed, leaning down into a running stance “hmm 15%” I thought to my link,

  There was no answer, but a warm feeling spread from my chest into my limbs, leaving a tingling sensation in its place

  I immediately burst into a sprint, the contaminated air whizzed pass my ears, as I vaulted over heads and jumped from building to building, I grinned as a lamp post came into view, from my spot on the roof of a house, jutting from the sides of a complex, I jumped, grabbing the post with both of my hands, using it has a handle to vault myself into the air, competing a backflip just for fun as I landed on some dispensing machine, I slipped as I tried to stabilize my landing, falling face flat on the flat side of the machine

  I turned over grimacing at the pain, but got up either way and continued my parkouring through the city, blood still pumping in my ears