NOVEL FROG Corridor
FATAL WOUNDS
FATAL WOUNDS
FATAL WOUNDS
OVERALL HEALTH XP DANGEROUSLY LOW
"Let's move, Cole. Something is up."
Cole feels the wounds from the chains oozing and itching and burning. He is agony.
The warnings keep flashing. His menu has a distinct red vibe over the display and his eyes.
No GOOD MORNING.
The display never turned off during their nap.
Cole nods, forcing himself up, and pretends he is at one hundred percent.
"How you feeling?"
"Ready to save the world," Cole lies.
"That's the spirit."
Cole turns to see Orion, in his soldier discipline, already ready. His gun and bags. His checklist. Cole smiles in his pain, and readies himself.
The two look at the door before them, then back at the door behind, exposed to the air.
Orion slowly pushes the back door open, and they see the beautiful morning. Orion slowly points.
Cole looks.
A few fallen soldiers are inspecting the dead Demon Lord's and their trainer.
They don't seem to surprised by it. They may not even be registering it in their new demented state.
"Let's move."
Orion and Cole lift their guns, with their lights mounted on it, and move towards the door.
The door into the massive corridor opens easy, and they start to descend.
Or ascend.
They cannot tell.
Ceiling is roof and roof is ceiling. The dark interiors of the ship has a constant drip and slimy like residue from years of being underneath the water.
Some sections of the ship somehow were not exposed, but the cold water still penetrated through the walls, bubbling at the ships interiors.
Orion and Cole's boots nearly slip on the dead sea and wildlife, as they go past vents and ladders, then next find themselves going through old mess halls.
In the darkness, they see pictures of life before the end of the world. Technologies and flags and mementos and toys of a world that has been destroyed.
Cole can feel the fever growing inside of him.
"Remind me why we are doing this?" He jokes.
"Stop the fallen and find your pod people," Orion replies, all business.
"Pod people? Really?"
"I liked it when you didn't talk back as much. Or talk at all."
"Those days are gone," Cole responds.
"Let's take five. That smell," Orion states, almost gagging.
Every once in a while, they see small emergency lights that are somehow still on. They illuminate a horrible green light that one would feel is the go ahead to hell.
"Wish we had radar in these things," Orion points to his head.
Cole does not tell him of what he saw the night before or the upgrade he briefly had.
"Any sign of the fallen?" Cole asks.
"No," Orion replies. "It's kind of strange. They might all be in one place."
Orion then stares at Cole for a while.
"Remember any of this, Cole? This corridor? These hallways? This ship? Anything?"
Cole shakes his head. "Maybe we were in the pods. Maybe we never got out. Was I released? Was I bouncing around the ocean and got out? I duno. My brain knows. Somehow."
"It's hidden in there," Orion says after a minute. "Maybe its hidden by a code. Or an accomplishment. Connected to this menu. Some progression."
"You mean it needs to be unlocked?"
Orion nods. "Whatever this is." The former soldier points at his head again, almost like it is a nervous tick. He grabs his weapon and clicks his tactical light on.
It shines down the hallway, bouncing off the ceiling and something metal.
"Stop. There!" Cole says.
"What?"
Cole stands up and goes to where the light pointed.
He sees a strange symbol on a wall.
It is small, like a restroom or exit icon.
Cole runs up to it and puts his hand on the symbol, that is definitely pointing to something being that way.
It is very clearly a symbol and outline of a canister or pod.
"That's it, Orion."
Orion comes up and sees the icon.
His eyes analyze it, and lines and memory grids start appearing before him.
"I've seen that before. When I first came here. The room had that icon."
"So there are more," Cole says excitedly. "We gotta get moving!"
"Calm down. We have to keep this pace."
"No! Orion, we gotta move."
"Cole, listen to me. Now we cannot rush it. Now that we are this close. In the old world, the mountain climbers would die on the way down."
"What the hell does that mean?!"
"Just trust me."
FATAL WOUNDS
FATAL WOUNDS
FATAL WOUNDS
OVERALL HEALTH XP DANGEROUSLY LOW
"Okay. Well, let's get moving," Cole relents, clearing his menu.
Suddenly, both men stop at a jingle and an option appearing before their eyes.
MEMORY ZONE ACCESS
PLAY MEMORY?
"You see that?" Orion asks.
Cole nods. "Should we do it?"
MEMORY ZONE ACCESS
PLAY MEMORY?
"Up to you," Orion offers.
Cole thinks about it.
He selects play.
A timer appears above them.
:20
:19
And like a hole punched in their reality, they see the exact spot they are in, but in the living past.
The sailors are walking around in a golden light, alive. It is static and pixelated sometimes, like it is in the middle of download.
But it plays in real time.
They are doing their responsibilities. Some are on their break.
Others are studying their tablets and talking to those in command.
Others are running to the chow hall.
Orion has tears going down his eyes.
Cole stares at it in a strange awareness, not understanding a lot of what he sees, but responding to it in his gut.
Finally, someone approaches them.
One beautiful female sailor looks like she is staring right at them, but she is really just staring at someone who was standing in their place long ago.
She whispers something, but Orion and Cole can't hear it.
She giggles.
:9
:8
:7
"Please. Don't stop," Orion pleads, looking back at a piece of humanity, and hoping the timer is not accurate.
Suddenly, the world around them erupts as the woman is thrown.
Sailors hit the ceiling or are impaled into sharp objects on the wall.
Massive bodily injuries occur.
Water instantly fills the corridors. A blinding light, like God coming down, breaks through every crack.
It was right when the world ended.
:3
:2
The woman screams, looking up at Cole and Orion.
:1
The memory stops, and they stare at where she probably died, looking up at them.
Orion does not hide his tears. He does not try to wipe them.
But he readies himself to continue.
"Let's go, Cole."