Chapter 217 – The Underground Hatch

Savri - Day 3 - 118 Days Remain

Given how much work it would seemingly take to uncover the entrance to the second cavern, I really hoped it would be worth it.

Even if it won't, it did prove the value of having a dedicated backliner in our group.

Our initial plan to get rid of the brambles was for Lilyth to bring a vine up with [Lesser Manipulate], one of us would then cut it off and then the furball would, carefully, move it aside.

Phosi decided that it would take too much time, turned into acid and jumped into the hole, which only made our task worse, as it turned the vegetation into half-molten wood pulp.

‘Oops,’ she rasped, as I covered my eyes with my hand and shook my head.

‘Burn it to ash?’ Aki asked.

‘Burn it to ash,’ we agreed.

Lilyth and Persephone erected a quick kiln around the ravine with Earth Arcana and then Akster went to town on pesky plant matter with a [Jet of Hellfire], and, shockingly enough, we didn't manage to set the entire island on fire. Go us!

After we cleared the entrance it was the furball’s time to shine again. She sent one of her [Remote Eyes] into the fairly cramped cave entrance, and after a while began to dig for something in her bag.

That something turned out to be a silver mirror. She waved her hand in front of it, and after a flash of white light, an image appeared on it.

‘[Scrying Mirror],’ Lilyth explained and handed it over to me.

It was hard to tell due to the greyish-blue colouration, but the best I could tell was that I was looking at a rusty wheel-locked metal door.

Huh.

I passed the mirror over to Aki and began to game various options.

‘We did suspect there was something here,’ the furball commented. ‘I guess we found it and by the looks of it I would say it is probably some Imperial site, and, honestly, I don’t think opening that door is a good idea.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Back home… Some islands were used to isolate people with infectious diseases like leprosy.’

Lilyth's suggestion immediately clicked.

‘You think Julbar was also such a place?’

‘There is a hospital nearby. The hatch looks to match the era. There is a non-zero chance that some people with the Smiling Death ended up here in the early stages of the outbreak.’

‘Fuuuuuck…’ My stomach sank.

‘The smart move would be to collapse the entrance,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘But that would only pass the buck to some poor sap years from now. I am not a huge fan of the idea of there being a potential ticking time bomb so close to home.’

I imagined Zaiven going on an adventure to emulate his elder sister, stumbling upon that door and…

I instinctively reached for my gun.

‘So we’re going in,’ I nodded.

‘But not today,’ Aki came up to us and suggested. ‘We need to rest and prepare, as there might be something far worse down there too.’

As much as I hated to admit it, my damaged leg was starting to kill me and I would need to lie down and rest soon.

‘Let’s head home then,’ I happily concurred.

Judging by how winded Lilyth was by the time we got back she was also happy we were retiring for the day. While I had no doubt her lung issues had something to do with that, I was more willing to chalk that up to “what a semi-retirement does to a motherfucker.” Not that I blamed her. I probably wouldn't stay in shape either. Hell, I could see the others weren't in tip-top physical condition, but it was nowhere near as bad as the furball.

We ate dinner in the non-lovebird room, which allowed me to lie down and us to burn the local food and eat something normal, and strategised. The op didn't look easy, but hopefully it wouldn't go sideways too quickly.

Aki - Day 4 - 117 Days Remain

When, needing to pee real bad, I awoke at the crack of dawn, and I saw that Lilyth was working on something at the small table we had in the room.

‘Did I wake you up?’ she asked in a whisper after I climbed out of bed and started putting on some underwear.

‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘Be back in a moment.’

Lilyth nodded and resumed her work.

‘Couldn’t sleep?’ I asked when I returned to the room.

‘No,’ she confirmed. ‘I’ve been a very light sleeper ever since Phoebe appeared in my life and I just kept waking up due to anxiety attacks. You know, “Why is she not crying?” Eventually, I couldn't fall back asleep so I just figured I might get some work done.’

At least it wasn't the nightmares again.

We were all suffering from them, though, as far as I knew, Lilyth was the only one to get them almost on a nightly basis and based on her sleep-talking she usually relived her experiences with Kojiro. For me, the two most common ones were my goblin captivity and losing my arm. Caei confided to me once that she was often haunted in her dreams by having to amputate it, making me feel a weird sense of camaraderie with her.

‘What are you working on?’ I whispered to Lilyth, seeing three small boxes on the table.

In response, she picked up a small rectangular one that had a crystal on one side and a clasp on the other.

‘Let’s go outside,’ she whispered back.

The device turned out to be something called a “flashlight” and it was very bright.

‘I made one for you and one for Sav,’ my foxy cutie explained. ‘There is enough juice in it for an hour before the charge crystal needs to be changed.’

She then summoned a bright orb of light above us.

‘[Primaeval Light],’ she added and smothered the spell. ‘Used it as a basis.’

We then returned to the room and Lilyth showed me how to use the clasp to attach the flashlight to clothes.

‘What about this one?’ I pointed to the last box on the table.

‘It’s a flashlight Sav will be able to attach under the barrel of her gun.’

That made me miss the gun I stole from Löwe.

‘Any chance of you making me a pistol?’ I asked.

‘Me? No. I’m more of a gadgeteer, I would say. Ask Deirdee though. She was heavily interested in magitek gunmaking.’

I told her I would and then, deciding my fox did enough work that early in the morning, dragged her to the floor, so we could get some more sleep together.

Lilyth - Day 4 - 117 Days Remain

As nice as our morning nap with Aki was, my back hurt from lying on the hard floor. Still, the sheer what-the-fuck on the faces of Ren and Caei when they woke up and saw us made it worth it.

‘Do not recommend,’ I muttered as I stretched.

I received a massive thank you from both Sav and Nyx for the two flashlights I made for the medic, as being able to see underground would be a nice quality of life improvement for her, and after the god-awful breakfast we had at the inn, I decided to immediately cash-in that goodwill token with the goddess to get us a feast of Terran food once we were out of this hell.

Fuck. The actual hell was better than eating this food.

‘I can actually send you there if you want,’ Ere laughed.

I’ll pass. Better tell me how you and Phoebe are.

Before my bunny could do that, however, a woman entered the inn and requested an audience with me.

Her name was Mahdar and she wanted us to keep an eye out for her brother Rohel. From what I understood, fucko was Mr Some Guy a.k.a. the chucklefuck who took part in luring Rennie to this godsforsaken island.

Rohel disappeared from their house after we returned to the village for the night. This wasn't something particularly unusual and Mahdar suspected he had gone to the cave.

I promised we would keep an eye out for the man and help with the search should the theory prove incorrect.

To potentially save us some time, we asked Phosi to check the waters around the island to see if there were any fresh bodies there. The “hope” was that the dude just drowned. Alas, our aquatic friend found fuck all, which meant we had to consider the far worse alternatives. We would either have to waste time looking for him, something we could ill afford, find his body in the dungeon or have to kill him ourselves if we found evidence of him working against us.

Side quest acquired.

I could hear Nyx hum a bombastic chime.

Between the still slightly sore back and the muscle pain, the return trip to the underground hatch wasn't exactly pleasant.

That's what I get for not exercising.

Still, an hour later we found ourselves standing in front of the now-open hatch.

‘Well… that answers that question,’ Sav let out a heavy sigh. ‘Lilyth? Can you do a [Remote Eye] sweep?’

Our original plan was for me to create a small opening and then have Phosi scout the area. Of course, given how we were the I.M.P. equivalent to an adventuring party we would just have to wing it as usual.

Savri - Day 4 - 117 Days Remain

The good news was that the place didn't seem to be an infectious disease containment site. The bad news was that it looked to be a military bunker of some sort.

Well… at least it was one several hundred years ago. Now it’s just a tomb.

‘It was a woman, I think,’ I said, examining the pile of bones “sitting” behind the front desk.

Judging by the large hole at the top of her skull, she likely blew her brains out. But why?

Similar sights were all around the floor. Skeletons of people who clearly committed suicide; what seemed to be remains of a couple fucking just before they shot themselves, and in one heartbreaking case - a bedroom housing a family - parents and two children. The man of the house first shot his children, then his wife and then himself.

What could drive you to do something like this?

‘This feels like an aftermath of an annual cult meeting,’ Lilyth commented.

Then her voice got really soft and dark.

‘I remember watching a documentary on Jonestown. It was this commune back home on Terra. There is a recording of Jim Jones, the cult leader, telling his followers to force-feed their children poison and then drink it themselves. He urged them on with this “quickly, quickly” that still haunts me.’

‘Yeah, ‘I shuddered. ‘Shit like this stays with you for the rest of your life.’

‘Thanks, furball,’ white-faced Ren spat. ‘That story will make exploration of this place so much more fun.’

‘I live to serve, birdie. I can tell you about other cult mass suicides if you want.’

‘OTHER?’ Aki shouted, disturbing the sombre quiet of the bunker.

I fully expected the skeletons to get up and attack us, but they remained where they lay. Silent. Unmoving.

‘How many times did someone manage to convince large groups of people to kill themselves?’ Aki, asked now quietly.

‘Too many,’ Lilyth answered quietly. ‘Waaay too many.’