WHAT LIES BEYOND
Chapter 5- Below
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Have I descended to depths beyond your reach?
Am I the lowest of the low, or do you see yourself in me?
"Beyond Reach" by DIRE
Am I the lowest of the low, or do you see yourself in me?
"Beyond Reach" by DIRE
Adam.
There he was again, running off like he had someplace to be. He hadn't, of course--- according to the theory, the way back home was in the control room. But that wasn't going to stop him from striding forward as if he did have some place to be. It was just one of those things that made Adam who he was--- and Mira had come to like that about him. She could appreciate his mask of confidence, regardless of how sure of himself he truly felt.
"You're in a hurry."
Adam slowed down and allowed her to catch up with him. "Is there some reason I shouldn't be?"
Mira jogged to her friend's side and began to walk with him. "No, not necessarily. But there's no reason to be in a hurry, either."
Adam shrugged, still not looking at Mira. "I just want to get us home sooner. That's all."
He was distracted by something, that was for sure. Ever since they'd emerged from those pods, Adam had been antsy. He walked fast. He had lost his cool a couple of times. He acted as if he was trapped in a cage with a creature that was going to find and kill him. To be fair, they were trapped in a cage of sorts. But as far as Mira could tell, this place was abandoned. There was nothing to hide from, no ticking clock. No wall of corruption devouring everything in its path. There was no danger to be found here, despite how weird this place was.
Maybe Adam was telling the truth. Maybe all he wanted to do was get them home as soon as possible. Mira wanted this as well--- nobody wanted to see home again more than Mira did. She'd set aside a day to hang out with her two best friends. She'd never planned to suddenly appear in space a million miles from Earth. Like Adam, she wanted to get home as soon as possible. But if she knew Adam (and she liked to think she did), she concluded that there was something else on his mind. Something else besides mere determination.
"I know where you're coming from. I think all of us want to get home sooner rather than later."
"Except Kai," said Adam. He pointed one thumb over his shoulder. "He seemed pretty happy back there."
"Well, he's... Kai." Mira smiled. "The rest of us would like to get home soon."
Adam puffed a quiet laugh. He smiled at Mira. "Guess that leaves just you and me."
"Yep! Just us normal people." Mira's heart fluttered a little. She scolded herself and reminded herself--- again--- of the platonic nature of their relationship. She'd been doing so well. She'd thought this pointless crush was done. But ever since Adam had knelt beside her yesterday, while senseless tears poured from her eyes--- ever since he'd set his kind hand on her shoulder and told her he understood her fears--- her hormones had betrayed her again.
So much for getting over it.
Mira cleared her throat and reasserted her logical mind. She was trapped in outer space in some complex she knew very little about. Now was definitely not the time to go head-over-heels for a guy who was clearly not interested. Let it go, Mira. Not gonna happen.
"Speaking of Kai... he's been weirding me out lately," Adam confessed. "You don't just... guess the things he guesses and get it right that many times."
"Could be coincidence," Mira suggested. "But this place... does seem familiar. Maybe we have been here before. Maybe Kai's subconsciously remembering things that neither of us can recall." Well, outside of that one time she'd found the kitchen--- but for all she knew, that could have been a fluke. She'd had a sensible thought process for her decision and could explain it if asked. Kai didn't seem to have that.
Adam shook his head. "Pretty sure I've never been to space," he muttered. "And I sure don't recognize this place. Sure. He could be remembering something we've somehow all forgotten. Or it could be something else... something we know nothing about. It unnerves me."
Mira put one hand in her pocket. "We'll get to the bottom of this. Just try not to think about it too much and you'll feel better," she said. Her eyes flitted across his face. "Besides... Kai's not the one I'm worried about."
Adam tensed. He set his gaze firmly at front. "I'm fine," he said. "I'm just trying to stay focused."
"You're not acting focused, you're acting distracted," Mira pointed out. "You're restless, you're irritable, you're jumpy... I don't think you've eaten much the whole time we've been here... Adam. Are you sure you're OK?"
"Yes," Adam emphasized, brow furrowed. "I'm just stressed out from all of this. We've been stuck here for three days and we still don't have an explanation for what this place is or how we got here. Much less how we're gonna get out!"
Typical Adam.
Mira stepped in front of her friend, her brow pinched. He stopped in his tracks. "Look, Adam. I know. You're worried and you're stressed out." She held out a hand. "But are you OK?"
Adam stood in silence for a moment. Then he sighed in frustration. "Yes. I'm fine. And if there's anything besides the worry and the stress, I've... my stomach's felt weird ever since we got here. And the food here only makes me feel weirder. Hard to have much of an appetite on that combination alone. Not to mention how the stress makes me feel."
"I can imagine," murmured Mira. "So... that's it?"
"Yeah." One side of his mouth smiled. "Don't worry."
Mira didn't buy it--- not entirely, anyway. But it was a better explanation than none. Mira sighed, at last willing to drop the issue. "OK."
Adam seemed to relax. His shoulders loosened and he no longer seemed quite so annoyed. He patted Mira's shoulder as he rounded past her and moved ahead. "C'mon. We're almost to the elevator."
Mira touched her shoulder, caught a bit off guard. She followed close behind, fighting back those silly thoughts with a healthy dose of logic.
They soon found the long-sought second elevator, much to the relief of both teens. Mira jogged to the door and pressed the down button, hoping this one would work. But nothing happened--- no light, no sound, and definitely no open door. She huffed and pressed the button again out of sheer annoyance. "Looks like quick, easy transportation is out of the picture," she grumbled.
Adam was silent. Mira turned to see that he'd become tense again, brow knit and arms folded firmly against his chest. He muttered... something. Then he met Mira's eyes. "Guess it's back to the stairs." He opened the staircase door and motioned for Mira to enter first.
Mira sighed. "Lovely."
Once they began their descent, Mira popped a question. "So, Adam. What were you muttering a minute ago?"
Adam shrugged. "I was just thinking out loud. Neither of the elevators work, even though everything else does. I just find it suspicious."
"Not on its own," said Mira, thoughtful. "But with the computer situation... yeah. Now that I think about it, it is kind of suspicious."
Adam pointed an approving finger. "Exactly," he confirmed. "If Kai's right about all that data being wiped, maybe whoever did that broke the elevators too."
Now that was a scary theory. It wasn't even that far-fetched, especially considering it was coming from Guys-I-Think-We're-In-Another-Game Adam. "But... Why?"
Adam scuffed the concrete step with his shoe. "That's just one more question we can't answer," he muttered.
The logical, unspoken place to begin the downstairs investigation was the level just below their home floor--- floor 56. To neither teen's surprise, it wasn't unlike floor 57. When the kiosk indicated nothing different, they moved down to the next floor. Floor 55 was the same, as was 54 below it. But when they tried to access floor 53's initial info kiosk, something was notably off.
Mira tapped the screen for the third time. She pulled away with a sigh, hands up in surrender. "It's no use, Adam."
Adam tapped it a couple of times himself to be certain. It remained dark. "That's OK. We can use the next one over," he said, undeterred.
But while Adam may have been willing to overlook a broken kiosk, Mira could not do the same. It tripped off that alarm system in her head that told her when something was wrong. It was the same feeling she'd gotten when they'd discovered that first broken elevator. Then again when they'd found the wiped computer files and the second elevator. And now this.
"Weird that that's the only broken kiosk we've found," said Mira.
Adam shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal," he said. "There's a lot of those things here. There was bound to be a broken one somewhere." He opened a passing door and took a quick peek inside.
"You're... probably right." But after all of this deliberately broken stuff they'd come across, Mira couldn't be too sure about that. What is wrong with me? Mira lamented, half-joking. Maybe she was just a bit paranoid herself. She silenced the mental alarm with a laugh.
But it did not stay silent for long. A single light above the next kiosk station flickered. For some reason, it gave Mira the creeps. Maybe it was just like the kiosk. Just one of many; an unfortunate malfunction that would appear eventually. It was mere coincidence that both errors had occurred on the same floor, just a short walk from one another. Mira told herself to chill out--- it was fine. She was just paranoid. Maybe this place was messing with her head...
Adam shook his head once. "It's exactly the same as all the others," he announced, tapping back to the main menu. "Let's keep going."
"What about that flickering light?"
Adam raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"
"Maybe there are others on this floor," Mira said. Crap, she sounded nervous.
Adam sighed. "Mira..."
"I know." She couldn't stand that worried look he was giving her. "Not a big deal. I'm just... paranoid, I guess."
"Hey. It's OK if it bothers you. Y'know, you can tell me if you're not---"
Mira cut him off. "No! Really. It's not a big deal. Let's keep going." She went on ahead of him.
Adam joined her. His thumbs were in his pockets and he still had that look on his face. Mira expected him to say something else, but he remained (thankfully) silent. She was grateful for his concern, but she hated to make cause for it in the first place. He had enough to worry about--- she didn't want to accidentally add herself to his growing list of concerns. Although now it was too late--- she was already on the list. No thanks to that breakdown yesterday. Adam's senses would be on high alert for any sign of another.
Nice going, Mira. Nice going.
The next couple of floors were similar to 53--- one or two flickering lights within eyeshot. Lights which only intensified Mira's unease. Adam noted her discomfort. The gears in that head of his were turning, and she had to assume he was thinking about her. Pondering her behavior. Waiting for her to do or say something else out of the ordinary.
He still had that look--- that pinch in his brow; that little frown he'd get when he'd see her shooting a wary glance at the flickering lights. At one point she'd smiled to reassure him that she was fine, but that only seemed to convince him that the opposite was true. But who could blame the guy for being worried? She was freaking out about lights, for goodness' sake. Since when did she see every little thing as untrustworthy? It was one thing if she was merely unsure about this. It was quite another when one or two flickering lights and a broken kiosk sent her mind into overdrive.
Mira had been criticizing Adam for his perpetual paranoia. But maybe it took one paranoid teen to recognize another. Her behavior was irrational and she knew it. This type of thinking was unwarranted.
Or so she'd thought. But once they reached floor 50, Mira felt that her paranoia had been justified after all.
Adam's eyebrows shot upward. Mira let out a shuddery sigh, at once relieved and unnerved. Relieved that her worries had been vindicated. Unnerved at that very fact. "OK. Something is definitely wrong here."
Adam exhaled through pursed lips. "Took the words right out of my mouth."
Every light--- every single one in sight--- was either flickering or out entirely. And the further down the hall she looked, the worse the flickering seemed to get. Mira swallowed the sudden pang of anxiety which rose up in her throat. "We should see how far it goes," she said.
Adam narrowed his eyes. "Agreed." He began to walk down the hallway. When Mira hesitated--- Gah! Why wouldn't her feet move?!--- Adam paused and gave her that look again. "Mira? Is something wrong?"
Mira shook her head. "No. I'm OK." She managed to force herself to move forward, as wary as she was about the flickering corridor. She scolded herself. Stop it, Mira. There's no reason to be scared. The kind smile Adam gave her helped a little, and... his general close proximity made her feel a bit better. But why did she feel this way to begin with?
Kai was right. Maybe there was something about this place.
The pair made their way through the ever-darkening hallway. As Mira looked around, she noticed that the lights weren't the only thing off about this level. Some of the corridor beams seemed out of place--- and she knew this wasn't her imagination. She'd seen enough of those beams over the past few days to notice. Mira could see loose bolts and cracked, detached coverings, revealing the metal structure beneath.
Adam opened another door and took a look inside. He gasped. "Mira! Come see this." He beckoned for her. Is there somebody in there? Mira wondered. She joined him, curiosity piqued. Her heart sank (or maybe it jumped into her throat... she couldn't tell) when she saw what Adam saw.
An entire section of wall had come down and crushed one of the pods. Mira slapped one hand over her mouth. "Was that... please tell me it wasn't..."
Adam stepped inside. "I don't know," he said. Mira followed him, craning her neck to see if anyone was still inside the damaged pod. "The other two are empty and I don't... smell anything..." He strode over to the pod and peered down at it. He gave Mira a questioning look--- Should I do it? he seemed to ask. Mira nodded once. She had to know.
Adam faced the pod. Mira heard him draw a deep, hesitant breath. Then he reached down--- slowly--- and shifted some debris aside from atop the head area. Mira edged closer as he worked, curious despite how much she didn't want to see a corpse. After he'd cleared enough, Adam reached down into the mess he couldn't move and felt around, eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Anything?" Mira asked in a hushed voice.
Adam shook his head and removed his hand from the rubble. "I'm pretty sure it's empty."
Mira sighed in relief. The last thing they needed was to find a dead body in this already-creepy situation.
"What happened down here?" Adam asked the exposed piping in the wall.
"Maybe it's like Kai said before," Mira suggested. "Maybe there was a disaster. And everyone might have been evacuated."
"But not us," Adam rumbled. He strode past Mira, heading for the door.
Mira followed. "But... why? Why would they just leave us here? Why just us three?"
Adam didn't answer. Mira couldn't blame him. How could he answer such a question? The implications of that suggestion were... potentially unsettling. Mira was unsettled enough for the both of them--- they didn't need any more.
Adam shut the door behind and they continued down the corridor, which continued to grow darker and darker the further they ventured. The boy opened a few other doors along the way and checked inside, only to be disappointed when they inevitably turned out to be empty.
"I don't think we'll find anyone in those rooms," Mira told him as he edged toward yet another door.
Adam shrugged slightly and reached down for the knob. "Just checking," he muttered. He turned the knob, but it balked. He jostled it a couple of times again. It refused to budge. He let go and stared back down at it, a perplexed quirk in his brow. "It's locked."
Mira folded her arms, intrigued. "That's another first," she commented. Adam pressed his ear against the door. "Should we try to open it?"
Adam backed away with a sharp sigh. "Maybe later," he said. "Not that it'll help get us anywhere closer to home." He paced away from Mira, fists balled at his sides. "I'm starting to think we'll never get back."
The mask had shattered. "Sure we will!" Mira insisted. "Just yesterday you were the one telling me we'd get home. You sounded pretty sure of yourself then."
"I don't know what I'm sure of," Adam muttered. He halted and spun to face Mira. "You wanted the truth? OK. Here's the truth." He began to approach his friend. "When we got here, I was sure that this was a hologame and home was the real world. But the longer I've been here, the more real everything here seems. Home is starting to feel like... like what you said, a dream. But there's still so much off about this place that I..." He stopped in front of Mira and sighed. "The truth is... I don't know what's real anymore."
He was scared too. Suddenly, Mira no longer felt so out-of-place.
"This place is really starting to look like the real deal. But... where were we before we came here? If we were all living in some computer until now, why aren't our families and schoolmates here? Were all those people we knew just... computer programs? Cause they sure were real to me. And to you, and to Kai." He let out a shaky breath. "We need answers. But we've been over half this complex, whatever it is--- and we still can't find any. It's like they're hiding behind doors that just..." he kicked the locked door, "...don't want to be opened!" He leaned his forehead against the wall.
He was even more stressed than she had thought. Poor guy. "Calm down." Mira set her hand on his shoulder. "We'll find something. Kai knows computers inside and out. If there are answers, he'll find them."
Adam's shoulders slumped. "Even if he does, there's no guarantee we'll like what we get. Or even know what to do with them."
Mira bit her lip. "Look. None of us know what's going to happen. But who does? In any situation?" Adam shifted against the wall to lean on his shoulder. His sad brown eyes met Mira's again. His features, though softened, still held some residual stoniness. "You don't know what to do, and neither do I," Mira continued. "But I do know worrying about it isn't going to help. All we can do is wait it out. Until then, we'll have to make the best of this." She squeezed his shoulder. "And it does none of us any good when you're stressing yourself sick about things you can't control."
Adam thought about her words. At long last, he sighed. "You're right. Thanks." He smiled softly. "I needed that."
Mira returned his smile. "Glad I could help." She gave him a final pat of encouragement and let go.
Adam shrugged. "I'll try. No guarantees," he said. There was some laughter in his words--- a good sign.
There was a brief silence as Adam and Mira simply stood there, facing one another. OK... Awkward... what do I say? "So... should we..."
The intercom crackled to life and almost scared Mira out of her skin.
"Helloooo, Adam and Mira! Wherever you guys are. I figured out the intercom!"
In that moment, Mira wanted nothing more than to reach through the intercom speaker and slap Kai for almost giving her a heart attack. Unfortunately, that would require breaking the laws of physics--- something which neither Mira nor Adam had the ability to do. At least he'd broken the awkward silence.
"So, I found some stuff," Kai continued. "Not much, but it's something. I don't know how far down you guys are, but... let's just meet back at floor 57 and I'll tell you everything. See ya in a few minutes!" The system cut back to its former silence.
Adam folded his arms, an amused smile gracing his lips. "At least we know the intercom works on this floor," he remarked. "Kai's gonna have a hard time when he figures out the other elevator doesn't work."
Mira laughed in response. "Oh, without a doubt." Even in the dark, that smile he gave her was infectious.
"I hope he'll find something we can use to fix the elevators. I'd hate to keep using those stairs." He gestured for Mira to follow and headed back down the way they'd come. "C'mon. We can wait for him in the kitchen. I think I'm finally kinda hungry."
Once inside the kitchen, Adam and Mira got set preparing a selection of food for everyone. Mira wasn't sure whether to call it "dinner" or not, since it was barely past 4:30 if the AI could be believed. But it had been a high-activity day, and both Mira and Adam were ready for a solid meal after their rushed breakfast that morning. Kai would be hungry too, so they set enough fruit and vegetables on the table for three.
Mira found a couple of bowls and set them on the center island. Both she and Adam took time to find foods they hadn't tried yet--- pears, peaches, grapes, and strawberries, to name a few--- as well as the staple apples and bananas. The grapes and larger fruits ended up in one bowl, while the strawberries had their own separate bowl. A smaller bowl of peanuts and pistachios ended up in the mix as well--- and the nuts were quite good. Mira continued to be amazed by how accurate these replications were, in both appearance and taste. She'd had no idea technology like this existed. Of course, there was a lot about this place that she had no idea about.
After roughly ten minutes of light conversation between the two friends, Kai stumbled in through the kitchen doorway, breathing heavily. Pure betrayal marked his face as he approached his friends. "No... way. I had to walk all the way back down those stairs. Then I had to walk all the way down here to find you guys... and you're both eating without me." He scoffed, offended, and dragged the big bowl of strawberries to himself.
Adam shrugged. "Hey. It's not our fault none of the elevators work."
"No..." Kai angrily bit into a strawberry. "But you still decided to eat without me." He paused and examined the bitten berry. "Hey... if these are made entirely of the same material, shouldn't we be able to eat the cores and stems too?" He didn't wait for an answer. He gulped down the other half of the strawberry, leaf included.
Mira quirked an eyebrow, mildly disgusted. "Sure, but... why would you want to?"
Kai's brow furrowed. "Because I can." He popped an entire strawberry into his mouth. "An' it dun't tase bad ah' all."
"Yeah... I think I'll pass," Adam declined, peeling a banana.
"So, Kai. What did you find up there?" asked Mira. She'd been curious ever since he'd made his announcement. Now she would finally hear what he had to say. Had he found a way home? Had he found any answer at all to their situation?
Sadly, Kai shrugged in defeat. "Nothin' much," he confessed. "I tried getting into the database and I actually almost recovered some data. Except..." He sighed in exasperation and twirled a strawberry between his fingers. "Every time I'd try to access something, I'd get a response of just... a big, long string of the letter 'V'. I tried a couple methods of working around it after I dug up a manual from one of those offices. But I just kept getting a bunch of 'V's!" He proceeded to vent his renewed frustration by downing the strawberries at twice his initial speed.
"V?" Mira twisted her fingers through her hair. How curious. "For 'virus', maybe?"
"Ahh... maybe," Kai admitted. "It would explain a lot. If the entire AARC is run by one system, it would make sense to infect the main computer if you wanted to sabotage this place." He shrugged.
"Sabotage?" Adam nearly choked on his banana. "What makes you say it's sabotage?"
"I never said it was sabotage," Kai said around a mouthful of berry. He swallowed. "I'm just saying it might be. I mean, everything is messed up. Except for us, I guess. And things are selectively missing. It looks like it could be sabotage. It doesn't look like an accident." He fixed bright blue eyes on Adam and Mira, his grim frown now replaced with a hopeful smile. "So, what did you guys find?"
"Nothing good," answered Adam. "Things were broken, things were falling apart. Tech wasn't working. The electricity was flaky... And things got worse the further down we went. I'm sure if we'd gone down further we would have found floors that were completely blacked out."
Kai's brow pinched. "Huh. Could be why there were so many errors on those pods," he speculated. "Or why the elevators don't work." He ate another strawberry.
"Not to mention it's kind of creepy down there," said Mira. "We even thought we'd found a dead body at one point... thank goodness there wasn't one."
"Yeegh." Kai repressed a shudder. "Yeah, I think I'll stick to the control room. You guys can have the spooky lower levels."
"Come on, Kai. Don't you have a sense of adventure?" Adam teased.
Kai polished off the last strawberry. "I don't like dark, creepy places," he insisted. "There could be ghosts... or spiders... or aliens with an appetite for human flesh!" He wiggled his fingers spider-style. Then, with bravado, he snatched a pear from the center bowl. He dug into it almost as quickly as he'd devoured the strawberries, with little concern for the juice which subsequently dribbled down his chin.
Mira smirked at her messy friend. "Speaking of appetites," she teased.
Kai shrugged and chewed somewhat slower. "What did you expect? I've climbed up an' down a hundred flights of stairs today, and used a ton of brain power, on just a banana and an apple." He swallowed. "Man, I'm sick of eating fruit all the time. I would give anything for a decent cheeseburger right now. Or my mom's meatloaf. Or anything made with meat."
"I know how you feel," said Mira. She picked up a peach. "But this is all we've got, so this is what we'll have to eat."
Kai took a disdainful bite of his pear. "It's not just the flavor. I was never meant for a vegan diet. I need protein, Mira, and bad!"
"Badly," Adam corrected him.
Kai smirked. "See? Adam agrees with me."
Adam snorted. "Shut up and eat your pear," he affectionately chided his friend. He pointed at the bowl of nuts. "You do know that peanuts have protein in them, right?"
The redhead snorted. "Not the same."
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Then, as Kai finished his pear, he piped up again. "Heeey. Think I can get one of these food generators to start pumping out cheeseburgers?"
Mira laughed. "You're welcome to try."
After another pause, Adam let out a long sigh. "So, I... guess we're gonna be here a while." His tone was quiet and serious.
Mira's stomach twisted. "Looks that way." It sounded like he was giving up. Or maybe he had resigned himself to the situation. Just for the moment, Mira hoped. She couldn't imagine he'd stay settled for long.
"I'll find what I can to get us out faster, I promise," said Kai. "But... yeah. Unless I can dig up something useful soon, we're stuck." He frowned and stared down at his restless hands, dejected. "Sorry I couldn't be a better help."
"You did your best," Adam reassured him. "Don't beat yourself up over it."
Kai smiled, though he looked somewhat sad. "I'll try not to."
There he was again, running off like he had someplace to be. He hadn't, of course--- according to the theory, the way back home was in the control room. But that wasn't going to stop him from striding forward as if he did have some place to be. It was just one of those things that made Adam who he was--- and Mira had come to like that about him. She could appreciate his mask of confidence, regardless of how sure of himself he truly felt.
"You're in a hurry."
Adam slowed down and allowed her to catch up with him. "Is there some reason I shouldn't be?"
Mira jogged to her friend's side and began to walk with him. "No, not necessarily. But there's no reason to be in a hurry, either."
Adam shrugged, still not looking at Mira. "I just want to get us home sooner. That's all."
He was distracted by something, that was for sure. Ever since they'd emerged from those pods, Adam had been antsy. He walked fast. He had lost his cool a couple of times. He acted as if he was trapped in a cage with a creature that was going to find and kill him. To be fair, they were trapped in a cage of sorts. But as far as Mira could tell, this place was abandoned. There was nothing to hide from, no ticking clock. No wall of corruption devouring everything in its path. There was no danger to be found here, despite how weird this place was.
Maybe Adam was telling the truth. Maybe all he wanted to do was get them home as soon as possible. Mira wanted this as well--- nobody wanted to see home again more than Mira did. She'd set aside a day to hang out with her two best friends. She'd never planned to suddenly appear in space a million miles from Earth. Like Adam, she wanted to get home as soon as possible. But if she knew Adam (and she liked to think she did), she concluded that there was something else on his mind. Something else besides mere determination.
"I know where you're coming from. I think all of us want to get home sooner rather than later."
"Except Kai," said Adam. He pointed one thumb over his shoulder. "He seemed pretty happy back there."
"Well, he's... Kai." Mira smiled. "The rest of us would like to get home soon."
Adam puffed a quiet laugh. He smiled at Mira. "Guess that leaves just you and me."
"Yep! Just us normal people." Mira's heart fluttered a little. She scolded herself and reminded herself--- again--- of the platonic nature of their relationship. She'd been doing so well. She'd thought this pointless crush was done. But ever since Adam had knelt beside her yesterday, while senseless tears poured from her eyes--- ever since he'd set his kind hand on her shoulder and told her he understood her fears--- her hormones had betrayed her again.
So much for getting over it.
Mira cleared her throat and reasserted her logical mind. She was trapped in outer space in some complex she knew very little about. Now was definitely not the time to go head-over-heels for a guy who was clearly not interested. Let it go, Mira. Not gonna happen.
"Speaking of Kai... he's been weirding me out lately," Adam confessed. "You don't just... guess the things he guesses and get it right that many times."
"Could be coincidence," Mira suggested. "But this place... does seem familiar. Maybe we have been here before. Maybe Kai's subconsciously remembering things that neither of us can recall." Well, outside of that one time she'd found the kitchen--- but for all she knew, that could have been a fluke. She'd had a sensible thought process for her decision and could explain it if asked. Kai didn't seem to have that.
Adam shook his head. "Pretty sure I've never been to space," he muttered. "And I sure don't recognize this place. Sure. He could be remembering something we've somehow all forgotten. Or it could be something else... something we know nothing about. It unnerves me."
Mira put one hand in her pocket. "We'll get to the bottom of this. Just try not to think about it too much and you'll feel better," she said. Her eyes flitted across his face. "Besides... Kai's not the one I'm worried about."
Adam tensed. He set his gaze firmly at front. "I'm fine," he said. "I'm just trying to stay focused."
"You're not acting focused, you're acting distracted," Mira pointed out. "You're restless, you're irritable, you're jumpy... I don't think you've eaten much the whole time we've been here... Adam. Are you sure you're OK?"
"Yes," Adam emphasized, brow furrowed. "I'm just stressed out from all of this. We've been stuck here for three days and we still don't have an explanation for what this place is or how we got here. Much less how we're gonna get out!"
Typical Adam.
Mira stepped in front of her friend, her brow pinched. He stopped in his tracks. "Look, Adam. I know. You're worried and you're stressed out." She held out a hand. "But are you OK?"
Adam stood in silence for a moment. Then he sighed in frustration. "Yes. I'm fine. And if there's anything besides the worry and the stress, I've... my stomach's felt weird ever since we got here. And the food here only makes me feel weirder. Hard to have much of an appetite on that combination alone. Not to mention how the stress makes me feel."
"I can imagine," murmured Mira. "So... that's it?"
"Yeah." One side of his mouth smiled. "Don't worry."
Mira didn't buy it--- not entirely, anyway. But it was a better explanation than none. Mira sighed, at last willing to drop the issue. "OK."
Adam seemed to relax. His shoulders loosened and he no longer seemed quite so annoyed. He patted Mira's shoulder as he rounded past her and moved ahead. "C'mon. We're almost to the elevator."
Mira touched her shoulder, caught a bit off guard. She followed close behind, fighting back those silly thoughts with a healthy dose of logic.
They soon found the long-sought second elevator, much to the relief of both teens. Mira jogged to the door and pressed the down button, hoping this one would work. But nothing happened--- no light, no sound, and definitely no open door. She huffed and pressed the button again out of sheer annoyance. "Looks like quick, easy transportation is out of the picture," she grumbled.
Adam was silent. Mira turned to see that he'd become tense again, brow knit and arms folded firmly against his chest. He muttered... something. Then he met Mira's eyes. "Guess it's back to the stairs." He opened the staircase door and motioned for Mira to enter first.
Mira sighed. "Lovely."
Once they began their descent, Mira popped a question. "So, Adam. What were you muttering a minute ago?"
Adam shrugged. "I was just thinking out loud. Neither of the elevators work, even though everything else does. I just find it suspicious."
"Not on its own," said Mira, thoughtful. "But with the computer situation... yeah. Now that I think about it, it is kind of suspicious."
Adam pointed an approving finger. "Exactly," he confirmed. "If Kai's right about all that data being wiped, maybe whoever did that broke the elevators too."
Now that was a scary theory. It wasn't even that far-fetched, especially considering it was coming from Guys-I-Think-We're-In-Another-Game Adam. "But... Why?"
Adam scuffed the concrete step with his shoe. "That's just one more question we can't answer," he muttered.
The logical, unspoken place to begin the downstairs investigation was the level just below their home floor--- floor 56. To neither teen's surprise, it wasn't unlike floor 57. When the kiosk indicated nothing different, they moved down to the next floor. Floor 55 was the same, as was 54 below it. But when they tried to access floor 53's initial info kiosk, something was notably off.
Mira tapped the screen for the third time. She pulled away with a sigh, hands up in surrender. "It's no use, Adam."
Adam tapped it a couple of times himself to be certain. It remained dark. "That's OK. We can use the next one over," he said, undeterred.
But while Adam may have been willing to overlook a broken kiosk, Mira could not do the same. It tripped off that alarm system in her head that told her when something was wrong. It was the same feeling she'd gotten when they'd discovered that first broken elevator. Then again when they'd found the wiped computer files and the second elevator. And now this.
"Weird that that's the only broken kiosk we've found," said Mira.
Adam shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal," he said. "There's a lot of those things here. There was bound to be a broken one somewhere." He opened a passing door and took a quick peek inside.
"You're... probably right." But after all of this deliberately broken stuff they'd come across, Mira couldn't be too sure about that. What is wrong with me? Mira lamented, half-joking. Maybe she was just a bit paranoid herself. She silenced the mental alarm with a laugh.
But it did not stay silent for long. A single light above the next kiosk station flickered. For some reason, it gave Mira the creeps. Maybe it was just like the kiosk. Just one of many; an unfortunate malfunction that would appear eventually. It was mere coincidence that both errors had occurred on the same floor, just a short walk from one another. Mira told herself to chill out--- it was fine. She was just paranoid. Maybe this place was messing with her head...
Adam shook his head once. "It's exactly the same as all the others," he announced, tapping back to the main menu. "Let's keep going."
"What about that flickering light?"
Adam raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"
"Maybe there are others on this floor," Mira said. Crap, she sounded nervous.
Adam sighed. "Mira..."
"I know." She couldn't stand that worried look he was giving her. "Not a big deal. I'm just... paranoid, I guess."
"Hey. It's OK if it bothers you. Y'know, you can tell me if you're not---"
Mira cut him off. "No! Really. It's not a big deal. Let's keep going." She went on ahead of him.
Adam joined her. His thumbs were in his pockets and he still had that look on his face. Mira expected him to say something else, but he remained (thankfully) silent. She was grateful for his concern, but she hated to make cause for it in the first place. He had enough to worry about--- she didn't want to accidentally add herself to his growing list of concerns. Although now it was too late--- she was already on the list. No thanks to that breakdown yesterday. Adam's senses would be on high alert for any sign of another.
Nice going, Mira. Nice going.
The next couple of floors were similar to 53--- one or two flickering lights within eyeshot. Lights which only intensified Mira's unease. Adam noted her discomfort. The gears in that head of his were turning, and she had to assume he was thinking about her. Pondering her behavior. Waiting for her to do or say something else out of the ordinary.
He still had that look--- that pinch in his brow; that little frown he'd get when he'd see her shooting a wary glance at the flickering lights. At one point she'd smiled to reassure him that she was fine, but that only seemed to convince him that the opposite was true. But who could blame the guy for being worried? She was freaking out about lights, for goodness' sake. Since when did she see every little thing as untrustworthy? It was one thing if she was merely unsure about this. It was quite another when one or two flickering lights and a broken kiosk sent her mind into overdrive.
Mira had been criticizing Adam for his perpetual paranoia. But maybe it took one paranoid teen to recognize another. Her behavior was irrational and she knew it. This type of thinking was unwarranted.
Or so she'd thought. But once they reached floor 50, Mira felt that her paranoia had been justified after all.
Adam's eyebrows shot upward. Mira let out a shuddery sigh, at once relieved and unnerved. Relieved that her worries had been vindicated. Unnerved at that very fact. "OK. Something is definitely wrong here."
Adam exhaled through pursed lips. "Took the words right out of my mouth."
Every light--- every single one in sight--- was either flickering or out entirely. And the further down the hall she looked, the worse the flickering seemed to get. Mira swallowed the sudden pang of anxiety which rose up in her throat. "We should see how far it goes," she said.
Adam narrowed his eyes. "Agreed." He began to walk down the hallway. When Mira hesitated--- Gah! Why wouldn't her feet move?!--- Adam paused and gave her that look again. "Mira? Is something wrong?"
Mira shook her head. "No. I'm OK." She managed to force herself to move forward, as wary as she was about the flickering corridor. She scolded herself. Stop it, Mira. There's no reason to be scared. The kind smile Adam gave her helped a little, and... his general close proximity made her feel a bit better. But why did she feel this way to begin with?
Kai was right. Maybe there was something about this place.
The pair made their way through the ever-darkening hallway. As Mira looked around, she noticed that the lights weren't the only thing off about this level. Some of the corridor beams seemed out of place--- and she knew this wasn't her imagination. She'd seen enough of those beams over the past few days to notice. Mira could see loose bolts and cracked, detached coverings, revealing the metal structure beneath.
Adam opened another door and took a look inside. He gasped. "Mira! Come see this." He beckoned for her. Is there somebody in there? Mira wondered. She joined him, curiosity piqued. Her heart sank (or maybe it jumped into her throat... she couldn't tell) when she saw what Adam saw.
An entire section of wall had come down and crushed one of the pods. Mira slapped one hand over her mouth. "Was that... please tell me it wasn't..."
Adam stepped inside. "I don't know," he said. Mira followed him, craning her neck to see if anyone was still inside the damaged pod. "The other two are empty and I don't... smell anything..." He strode over to the pod and peered down at it. He gave Mira a questioning look--- Should I do it? he seemed to ask. Mira nodded once. She had to know.
Adam faced the pod. Mira heard him draw a deep, hesitant breath. Then he reached down--- slowly--- and shifted some debris aside from atop the head area. Mira edged closer as he worked, curious despite how much she didn't want to see a corpse. After he'd cleared enough, Adam reached down into the mess he couldn't move and felt around, eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Anything?" Mira asked in a hushed voice.
Adam shook his head and removed his hand from the rubble. "I'm pretty sure it's empty."
Mira sighed in relief. The last thing they needed was to find a dead body in this already-creepy situation.
"What happened down here?" Adam asked the exposed piping in the wall.
"Maybe it's like Kai said before," Mira suggested. "Maybe there was a disaster. And everyone might have been evacuated."
"But not us," Adam rumbled. He strode past Mira, heading for the door.
Mira followed. "But... why? Why would they just leave us here? Why just us three?"
Adam didn't answer. Mira couldn't blame him. How could he answer such a question? The implications of that suggestion were... potentially unsettling. Mira was unsettled enough for the both of them--- they didn't need any more.
Adam shut the door behind and they continued down the corridor, which continued to grow darker and darker the further they ventured. The boy opened a few other doors along the way and checked inside, only to be disappointed when they inevitably turned out to be empty.
"I don't think we'll find anyone in those rooms," Mira told him as he edged toward yet another door.
Adam shrugged slightly and reached down for the knob. "Just checking," he muttered. He turned the knob, but it balked. He jostled it a couple of times again. It refused to budge. He let go and stared back down at it, a perplexed quirk in his brow. "It's locked."
Mira folded her arms, intrigued. "That's another first," she commented. Adam pressed his ear against the door. "Should we try to open it?"
Adam backed away with a sharp sigh. "Maybe later," he said. "Not that it'll help get us anywhere closer to home." He paced away from Mira, fists balled at his sides. "I'm starting to think we'll never get back."
The mask had shattered. "Sure we will!" Mira insisted. "Just yesterday you were the one telling me we'd get home. You sounded pretty sure of yourself then."
"I don't know what I'm sure of," Adam muttered. He halted and spun to face Mira. "You wanted the truth? OK. Here's the truth." He began to approach his friend. "When we got here, I was sure that this was a hologame and home was the real world. But the longer I've been here, the more real everything here seems. Home is starting to feel like... like what you said, a dream. But there's still so much off about this place that I..." He stopped in front of Mira and sighed. "The truth is... I don't know what's real anymore."
He was scared too. Suddenly, Mira no longer felt so out-of-place.
"This place is really starting to look like the real deal. But... where were we before we came here? If we were all living in some computer until now, why aren't our families and schoolmates here? Were all those people we knew just... computer programs? Cause they sure were real to me. And to you, and to Kai." He let out a shaky breath. "We need answers. But we've been over half this complex, whatever it is--- and we still can't find any. It's like they're hiding behind doors that just..." he kicked the locked door, "...don't want to be opened!" He leaned his forehead against the wall.
He was even more stressed than she had thought. Poor guy. "Calm down." Mira set her hand on his shoulder. "We'll find something. Kai knows computers inside and out. If there are answers, he'll find them."
Adam's shoulders slumped. "Even if he does, there's no guarantee we'll like what we get. Or even know what to do with them."
Mira bit her lip. "Look. None of us know what's going to happen. But who does? In any situation?" Adam shifted against the wall to lean on his shoulder. His sad brown eyes met Mira's again. His features, though softened, still held some residual stoniness. "You don't know what to do, and neither do I," Mira continued. "But I do know worrying about it isn't going to help. All we can do is wait it out. Until then, we'll have to make the best of this." She squeezed his shoulder. "And it does none of us any good when you're stressing yourself sick about things you can't control."
Adam thought about her words. At long last, he sighed. "You're right. Thanks." He smiled softly. "I needed that."
Mira returned his smile. "Glad I could help." She gave him a final pat of encouragement and let go.
Adam shrugged. "I'll try. No guarantees," he said. There was some laughter in his words--- a good sign.
There was a brief silence as Adam and Mira simply stood there, facing one another. OK... Awkward... what do I say? "So... should we..."
The intercom crackled to life and almost scared Mira out of her skin.
"Helloooo, Adam and Mira! Wherever you guys are. I figured out the intercom!"
In that moment, Mira wanted nothing more than to reach through the intercom speaker and slap Kai for almost giving her a heart attack. Unfortunately, that would require breaking the laws of physics--- something which neither Mira nor Adam had the ability to do. At least he'd broken the awkward silence.
"So, I found some stuff," Kai continued. "Not much, but it's something. I don't know how far down you guys are, but... let's just meet back at floor 57 and I'll tell you everything. See ya in a few minutes!" The system cut back to its former silence.
Adam folded his arms, an amused smile gracing his lips. "At least we know the intercom works on this floor," he remarked. "Kai's gonna have a hard time when he figures out the other elevator doesn't work."
Mira laughed in response. "Oh, without a doubt." Even in the dark, that smile he gave her was infectious.
"I hope he'll find something we can use to fix the elevators. I'd hate to keep using those stairs." He gestured for Mira to follow and headed back down the way they'd come. "C'mon. We can wait for him in the kitchen. I think I'm finally kinda hungry."
Once inside the kitchen, Adam and Mira got set preparing a selection of food for everyone. Mira wasn't sure whether to call it "dinner" or not, since it was barely past 4:30 if the AI could be believed. But it had been a high-activity day, and both Mira and Adam were ready for a solid meal after their rushed breakfast that morning. Kai would be hungry too, so they set enough fruit and vegetables on the table for three.
Mira found a couple of bowls and set them on the center island. Both she and Adam took time to find foods they hadn't tried yet--- pears, peaches, grapes, and strawberries, to name a few--- as well as the staple apples and bananas. The grapes and larger fruits ended up in one bowl, while the strawberries had their own separate bowl. A smaller bowl of peanuts and pistachios ended up in the mix as well--- and the nuts were quite good. Mira continued to be amazed by how accurate these replications were, in both appearance and taste. She'd had no idea technology like this existed. Of course, there was a lot about this place that she had no idea about.
After roughly ten minutes of light conversation between the two friends, Kai stumbled in through the kitchen doorway, breathing heavily. Pure betrayal marked his face as he approached his friends. "No... way. I had to walk all the way back down those stairs. Then I had to walk all the way down here to find you guys... and you're both eating without me." He scoffed, offended, and dragged the big bowl of strawberries to himself.
Adam shrugged. "Hey. It's not our fault none of the elevators work."
"No..." Kai angrily bit into a strawberry. "But you still decided to eat without me." He paused and examined the bitten berry. "Hey... if these are made entirely of the same material, shouldn't we be able to eat the cores and stems too?" He didn't wait for an answer. He gulped down the other half of the strawberry, leaf included.
Mira quirked an eyebrow, mildly disgusted. "Sure, but... why would you want to?"
Kai's brow furrowed. "Because I can." He popped an entire strawberry into his mouth. "An' it dun't tase bad ah' all."
"Yeah... I think I'll pass," Adam declined, peeling a banana.
"So, Kai. What did you find up there?" asked Mira. She'd been curious ever since he'd made his announcement. Now she would finally hear what he had to say. Had he found a way home? Had he found any answer at all to their situation?
Sadly, Kai shrugged in defeat. "Nothin' much," he confessed. "I tried getting into the database and I actually almost recovered some data. Except..." He sighed in exasperation and twirled a strawberry between his fingers. "Every time I'd try to access something, I'd get a response of just... a big, long string of the letter 'V'. I tried a couple methods of working around it after I dug up a manual from one of those offices. But I just kept getting a bunch of 'V's!" He proceeded to vent his renewed frustration by downing the strawberries at twice his initial speed.
"V?" Mira twisted her fingers through her hair. How curious. "For 'virus', maybe?"
"Ahh... maybe," Kai admitted. "It would explain a lot. If the entire AARC is run by one system, it would make sense to infect the main computer if you wanted to sabotage this place." He shrugged.
"Sabotage?" Adam nearly choked on his banana. "What makes you say it's sabotage?"
"I never said it was sabotage," Kai said around a mouthful of berry. He swallowed. "I'm just saying it might be. I mean, everything is messed up. Except for us, I guess. And things are selectively missing. It looks like it could be sabotage. It doesn't look like an accident." He fixed bright blue eyes on Adam and Mira, his grim frown now replaced with a hopeful smile. "So, what did you guys find?"
"Nothing good," answered Adam. "Things were broken, things were falling apart. Tech wasn't working. The electricity was flaky... And things got worse the further down we went. I'm sure if we'd gone down further we would have found floors that were completely blacked out."
Kai's brow pinched. "Huh. Could be why there were so many errors on those pods," he speculated. "Or why the elevators don't work." He ate another strawberry.
"Not to mention it's kind of creepy down there," said Mira. "We even thought we'd found a dead body at one point... thank goodness there wasn't one."
"Yeegh." Kai repressed a shudder. "Yeah, I think I'll stick to the control room. You guys can have the spooky lower levels."
"Come on, Kai. Don't you have a sense of adventure?" Adam teased.
Kai polished off the last strawberry. "I don't like dark, creepy places," he insisted. "There could be ghosts... or spiders... or aliens with an appetite for human flesh!" He wiggled his fingers spider-style. Then, with bravado, he snatched a pear from the center bowl. He dug into it almost as quickly as he'd devoured the strawberries, with little concern for the juice which subsequently dribbled down his chin.
Mira smirked at her messy friend. "Speaking of appetites," she teased.
Kai shrugged and chewed somewhat slower. "What did you expect? I've climbed up an' down a hundred flights of stairs today, and used a ton of brain power, on just a banana and an apple." He swallowed. "Man, I'm sick of eating fruit all the time. I would give anything for a decent cheeseburger right now. Or my mom's meatloaf. Or anything made with meat."
"I know how you feel," said Mira. She picked up a peach. "But this is all we've got, so this is what we'll have to eat."
Kai took a disdainful bite of his pear. "It's not just the flavor. I was never meant for a vegan diet. I need protein, Mira, and bad!"
"Badly," Adam corrected him.
Kai smirked. "See? Adam agrees with me."
Adam snorted. "Shut up and eat your pear," he affectionately chided his friend. He pointed at the bowl of nuts. "You do know that peanuts have protein in them, right?"
The redhead snorted. "Not the same."
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Then, as Kai finished his pear, he piped up again. "Heeey. Think I can get one of these food generators to start pumping out cheeseburgers?"
Mira laughed. "You're welcome to try."
After another pause, Adam let out a long sigh. "So, I... guess we're gonna be here a while." His tone was quiet and serious.
Mira's stomach twisted. "Looks that way." It sounded like he was giving up. Or maybe he had resigned himself to the situation. Just for the moment, Mira hoped. She couldn't imagine he'd stay settled for long.
"I'll find what I can to get us out faster, I promise," said Kai. "But... yeah. Unless I can dig up something useful soon, we're stuck." He frowned and stared down at his restless hands, dejected. "Sorry I couldn't be a better help."
"You did your best," Adam reassured him. "Don't beat yourself up over it."
Kai smiled, though he looked somewhat sad. "I'll try not to."