Capítulo 37: Chapter 36: Abandoned Paths
We cannot get out, that was the thought on everyone's mind as the expedition entered the halls of the old war. Lorelei could sense the hostility brooding off the Wolfkin who walked hunched alongside her, and the eerie malaise of desperation surrounding half her team.
It was warm, musky, and damp inside the underground facility. Each breath of air was moist, and soupy in her lungs. It was tough, keeping ones head focused in such a place. Clearly the interior corridors hadn't been accessed in some time.
Lorelei's skin felt clammy, and she could feel the bodysuit sticking to her. The way it pinched at her crotch made her want to take it all off! She could practically feel it sucking on her skin, clinging to her every knock and cranny.
Never before had she so strongly wished for her older school uniform, she would even wear the skimpy server outfit from the party bus over this if it were offered. Both might have been a bit risqué, but would've at least been more comfortable. Also, Lorelei had never felt so self-conscious about how badly she must've smelled underneath all the latex-like fabric.
Using magic did feel different while wearing the suit, which was perhaps its only virtue. The nano-woven fibers were somehow magically in tune with her abilities, helping to amplify her power, while modulating the strength of her casting, and keeping it under control. Whenever her magic was dormant, there was a constant light tingling sensation between her fingers and toes. She did her best to ignore it, but every once in a while she could feel a light tickle along her abdomen.
Most of the vials of Allucia she had brought with her were secretly stashed in a tiny compartment in her belt, while one of them was tucked firmly between her breasts just in case she needed it quickly. Lorelei had been half tempted to whip it out, and drink its contents, when that Cyber Hound appeared, but was glad she didn't have too. The last thing she wanted was to explain to Theo how she got it, or that she even had it in the first place.
Lorelei looked over to Victor, who lay unconscious. His skin had turned a milky white, and a tourniquet was wrapped tightly around the stump of his leg. Mike and Theo carried him until finding a collapsed door, and laid him on its flat surface so they could better drag him.
They were lucky that Monica understood how to stop the bleeding. It wasn't enough to simply strap on a tourniquet, or cauterize the wound, she had to actually reach inside to clamp the femoral artery before it was too late. She proved remarkably capable, giving that she had to work in the dark.
It took a while to find the appropriate power conduits, and restore light to the underground network. They had to rely on flashlights, and torches for the first hour, and even that proved haunting. The shadows cast against the metallic walls gave the impression they were constantly being watched. It was quite possible they were. The Redever military sometimes used Geist programs to monitor military installations for intruders, and Lorelei wasn't sure if they had all been deactivated. She supposed there was no one to report to, even if they weren't.
Everyone was relieved when the lights came on. Scurrying in the dark wasn't a pleasant experience, especially for Marci. Out of all of them, it was perhaps she who was the most unsettled by all of this. Once the lights were restored, Lorelei was quick to lead them to the nearest first aid station, and breathed a sigh of relief to find the medical equipment was still functional.
The room was spacious enough for an entire team of surgeons, with adjoining rooms for in-going and out-going patients. Bleached white walls, and sterile frigid air, welcomed them as they dragged their wounded comrade inside. A gurney was installed at the center, mostly surrounded by machines, and sinister looking coils along the floor. Such a boon should've been more than enough to return to the city with, and earn quite a reward. It wasn't pre-storm tech, but it was still largely intact, and serviceable. Had their leader not had his mind set on a larger prize he might've ordered them to begin dismantling the equipment, as soon as they used it to repair Victors leg, of course.
The computer interface lit up to Lorelei's fingers, somehow recognizing her as a Redever. She suspected the screen came with a gene-code analyzer, registering her sweat, or skin cells, before unlocking.
While she didn't know how to use any of the equipment, Konrad somehow did. How he knew, precisely, how to use the console was confounding for her. What most disturbed her was that it meant Konrad understood Reverie.
He noticed her sudden realization, and shot her a wicked grin.
Lorelei looked away, then immediately distanced herself from him. She wasn't sure just how potent his magic was, and didn't want to test it. There were rumors that some Mind Alteration magics were capable of erasing memories, or even replacing them. She never knew if it were true, but definitely didn't want to find out.
There were a lot of things Lorelei didn't understand about Konrad's magical affinity, and she hated how her stomach seemed to clench whenever he looked at her. She never felt hostility, or even avarice, from his presence, he was more like a lumbering tornado in the distance, far away, yet undeniably threatening.
Konrad continued typing away on the computer, while Mike and Theo laid their wounded comrades on the gurney. Almost immediately, a series of chimes and mechanical buzzing noises could be heard. From above, a laser scanner charted every inch of Victors fragile form, centering in on the ruined stump of his leg, and began to run calculations.
Mechanical appendages reached out from underneath the gurney, and began administering a series of antibiotics, and other medicines, before a more sinister arm unveiled a narrow surgical bones-saw. Most left the room before the cutting started. Lorelei stayed just long enough to see a series of cybernetics descend from the ceiling, presenting the first bits and pieces of what would come to replace muscle and bone.
Lorelei wasn't sure if the mechanical cybernetics, made for Redever physiology, would work for humans, but then again, Konrad seemed to know what he was doing at the controls. She wasn't particularly worried about it, regardless, for humans weren't all too different. If anything the cybernetic replacement will be a bit denser than what he would've received back in Voxsturm.
Once outside, Lorelei took a seat on a bench in what would've been a waiting room next door. There was an entire city down here, an elaborate series of trenches and military facilities sprawling the underground network that connected multiple Redever cities. In its hay day, tens of thousands of soldiers, and menial servants, were housed here. Not too far down the hall, there was a breaking pen for newly acquired prisoners, and in the other direction was just one multi-layered barracks.
Lorelei had a general idea where to find most the facilities they would need, and some they should steer clear of. In truth, she was conflicted. She could lead them onward, and eventually to an eastward exit what would, theoretically, put them close to Konrad's mythical city. However, she also knew how to lead them to another exit that would put them close to where they first entered.
"I know what your thinking," Monica's voice broke her train of thought. The muscular mercenary slammed down on the seat alongside her. Blood coated her fingers and hands, and a crimson smudge streaked her forehead from wiping away the sweat. "Best not let your head get any sneaky ideas. Konrad would not be happy to learn our pathfinder was leading us in the wrong direction."
"How did you!" Lorelei gawked, stopped before saying anything more incriminating. Her tail flicked toward the ceiling, then curled through the gap in the chair as she laid back. "I mean…wait…are you psychic?"
Monica laughed at that. "No! Your just so easy to read." The burly woman scooted closer. "Like for instance, the way you look at the younger man over there. You really are yearning for him, aren't you?"
Lorelei practically squeaked, nearly jumping out of her seat. "Just leave me alone."
"Relax Succubus girl." Monica grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down. "Don't get your panties in a wad. So just settle down, and tell me if there are any nasty surprises that might be haunting this place."
Lorelei sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Any security systems that existed were deactivated, and even sentry droids were brought back to the cities."
"Damn, they really didn't plan on ever using these tunnels again, did they?" Monica leaned back, grunting. "Nice of them to leave us the medical supplies though. I wonder what else they left behind?"
Lorelei shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I could only imagine."
"How much you wanna bet they brought all their nasty toys with them?" Monica sneered. "Seriously, I never understood your species fascination with sex slaves."
Lorelei sighed, leaning forward. "Me neither."
"Hmm?" Monica looked over to her with a raised brow.
"Your asking the wrong Redever," Lorelei said candidly. "I never understood it myself, none of us menials ever did. Not like they wanted us as their play things though."
Monica seemed to weigh on that for a moment, letting the quiet sink in. When next she spoke, there was mischief in her tone, something Lorelei hadn't heard before, and a hint of sarcasm. "Tell me something. If I were to be captured, would I make a good sex slave?"
Lorelei frowned, looking away, and feeling incredibly awkward.
"C'mon, give it to me straight." Monica jibbed, nudging her slightly.
Lorelei swallowed, looking the older woman up and down, trying to give her an honest assessment. "Possibly," she eventually concluded. "But you'd more likely be put to work among people like me. You'd be forced to work until your body gave out, and then cast aside."
It happened before. During the war, those prisoners of war the overseers weren't interested in were forced to dig, move bodies, or drag munitions along the line. Human bodies weren't as hardy as a Redevers, making them more likely to wear out. Quite often having to work under constant bombardment out in the open would break them, and if that wasn't enough, their overseers would sometimes even force them to act as living shields for the first wave of assault forces.
Lorelei wasn't good at judging who would catch the slavers eye more so than others, but given the woman's muscles, she doubted the masters would want to use her as anything other than a pack mule.
It was hard to discern whether Monica was disappointed, or relieved, by her words. Her face remained stoic, but the edges of her lip seemed to twitch, and her eyes looked off into the distance. "You know, I never thought there was anything worse than being turned into a sex slave."
"If only you knew," Lorelei found herself speaking out loud by mistake. She cleared her throat, then decided she might as well continue. "There are. What do you think they fed those cyber hounds when they were hungry?"
Monica froze at that. "Shit…"
"Shit indeed…"
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"It'll take time for the implant to take, and probably longer for him to wake up." Konrad addressed the team. They all had been shaken, some more than others, but he was satisfied that they hadn't panicked.
"I guess that means our expedition is off?" Marci inquired with a deadpan expression.
He pitied her, she was perhaps too innocent to accompany them. Then again, her knowledge on wardcraft was still useful. He tasked her to set up some new sigils while they waited for the machines to do their work on Victor, and it seemed to ease her mind.
"Absolutely not, we move forward," Konrad didn't mean to sound so antagonistic, but they had already wasted too much time.
"But—" Marci tried to interject.
"Relax," Konrad raised a hand, trying to signal patience. "Monica will stay back to watch over him. When he's up and about, they'll catch up."
"Way to volunteer me boss," Monica grumbled.
"But they'll be all alone! How will they find your way around?" Lorelei asked, and Konrad noticed Cassie and the others also look back at him with some concern.
"Its not like we have a choice." Lucy stepped up.
Konrad wasn't impressed with the newcomer. The way she reached out to him to get a seat in this expedition had peaked his interest, but so far, he wasn't too impressed. Her magical abilities had done nothing to warn them against the threats outside, and she seemed far more interested in her own agenda.
Lucy continued, with her eyes focused on Lorelei, "You need to lead everyone to a new exit, and if possible, find the fastest route to Ruddsturm. We'll leave some tracks behind, so that Monica and Victor could follow."
"What if he's too wounded to proceed? Wouldn't it be better to get him back to the Narcis?" Theo stood near the Redever, his back to the wall. His eyes were still a bit bloodshot, but they seemed to have mostly cleared up.
"Victor wouldn't want to give up, not now after coming this far," Konrad answered.
"And just how would you know that?" This time it was the vampire who question him. Of all the members of their group, it was perhaps she that Konrad was the most wary of. Vampires were always somewhat immune to his charms, not that he planned on using it on her, but still, whenever he encountered someone like her, it forced his guard up. Vampires were always the most reckless of all the species, and sometimes even the most dangerous.
"You clearly don't know Victor. He'd want us to proceed. In fact, he would probably want to kill me if we abandoned our mission just because of this single set back."
"So it's a mission now? I thought we were in this for the clits?" Mike, the other student, was sitting on a bench, looking up at him with suspicion. He was perhaps another that shouldn't have come along. Students were always so reckless. It made them fitting pawns.
Konrad ignored him, signaling for Monica to come to his side. "You good to stay behind and catch up?"
"So now you ask me?" She cocked her head to the side.
"Monica…"
"Fine…" She scowled. "Just don't go crying back to me if you lose a leg because I wasn't there to stop it."
"Love you too," Konrad teased, turning back to the group. "Get ready, we've already lost enough time as it is. We continue in one hour."
His eyes met Lorelei's, who immediately averted her gaze.
"You ready?" He asked her.
Lorelei stiffened, then took a moment to collect her thoughts. "If your sure about this…"
Konrad wondered for a split second if he would have to use his power to nudge her a bit, and was relieved to find that it wasn't necessary.
"I can get us to the nearest exit to the borderline. I don't know where we're going after that, however."
"Just leave that to me." Konrad shrugged. He would've preferred for Monica to guide them out in the wastes, but she had already told him everything she knew beforehand. They already plotted a general direction on where to go, once reaching the border of the ruins of that ancient city of Ruddsturm. They just needed to get through these trenches first.
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As everyone started gathering their equipment, a single intellect watched over them in silence. It had noticed them the moment they entered the medical facility, and continued to flow through the network, like a serpent in a stream. It glided and spun around all the layers of network, spreading its metaphorical wings toward the Redever in the group.
It was fascinated.
The years of isolation hadn't been kind to the artificial intelligence, much of its internal memory had been corroded, but it recognized the Redever for what she was, or should've been.
<b>< Master Recognized ></b>
After being alone for so long, the server Geist was overjoyed with the renewed contact, and more than anything, it wanted to interact. After seeing the human reach out, and hold the master, however, all the thing wanted to do was scream.
<b>< HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER! ></b>
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