ALL NOVEL 75 - Off the books
David traced the thick power cable down the shadowy corridor, the electric hum growing fainter as if the current was faltering every few minutes in a steady pattern. Dust and debris crunched underfoot, scattering in small clouds with each step no matter what he did to avoid it, much to David's irritation. He passed through a crumpled door, hinges long rusted nearly to uselessness, squeezing his furry form through the jagged opening with a wince as leathery membrane scraped against unyielding metal.
The stairwell he found on the other side descended far away into the dark, a few dim emergency lights covered in solidified dust pulsing and fading with the ebb and flow of power that seemed to shift in time with the sound he was following. David's talons clicked rhythmically on the concrete steps as he descended, senses straining for any subtle movement or sound amid the gloom. He paused often to fill the staircase ahead of him with Echolocation, becoming almost irritated as they continued to return nothing but emptiness and the snarl of cabling that his lead had been bundled into near the doorway.
How many observatories have a basement? Actually, how hard is it to dig a basement like this straight into a mountain, wouldn't that be hard? Like, almost impossibly hard? Fucking government, could have fixed the roads or built a hospital or something but nooo, secret underground shit. Ugh.
Stale, conditioned air caressed his snout and made him fight the urge to sneeze as he reached the bottom of the stairs and a chill radiated from the underground corridor, broken only by faint warmth from air currents traveling down the stairs behind him. David's ears twitched, tracking the thready electric pulse as he turned to follow, snarling at the confined space as Spooky grew serious and quiet.
This must have been one hell of an operation once upon a time. How far down does this shit go?
More doors lined the hallway at regular intervals, some yawning open to reveal small spaces choked with dust-shrouded computer banks and shelving. Scattered equipment and dozens of abandoned laptops betrayed the frantic work that had taken place here, leading deeper beneath the surface in the cable's wake. David's gaze traced the snaking cable as it delved further inward, sometimes vanishing almost entirely under little drifts of debris, following dutifully as they seemed to stretch onward forever. They had been desperate by the end, and everything had a cobbled-together air that grew more pronounced the farther he went.
The air cooled further as he neared a larger open space, the cable's tone rising in pitch until it hummed loudly enough to make David's teeth itch. He emerged into a cavernous chamber filled with a barely audible low rumble and the acrid tang of ozone, and though it was clearly intended for data storage, anything that had been kept here was certainly gone forever. His head swiveled slowly, taking in rows of darkened server racks with a hint of awe, feeling a bit small in the darkness at the size of everything.
The overhead lights pulsed faintly in rapid cycles, plunging the space into intermittent darkness like a dim strobe effect as David sidled along the perimeter. He flinched with each return of illumination, mane prickling as a growling generator somewhere in the distance spun up briefly only to rapidly wind down once more in the gloom. If his ears had been any less sensitive, he never would have been able to hear it, and even as he paused to focus he still couldn't tell where it was coming from other than deeper.
It's some kind of backup site or something... definitely off the books. Probably. Whatever was going on here, it definitely wasn't just your average lab. Damn. I used to live, like, four hours from Redfield and I never knew. I guess the ‘middle of nowhere’ by a retirement destination is a good place for spooks to set up?
David's wingtips tingled with anticipation as he leaped up onto the top of the server racks, launching himself upwards to hover near the ceiling and get a better view of the room. A few lights fluttered on and off weakly, and David quickly spotted a large door with a steel frame solidly sunk into the wall at the far end of the room.
Flexing his wings, David flapped twice and allowed the momentum to carry him silently through the darkness as he drifted closer. He landed with only a whisper of talons on stone, eyeballing the door suspiciously as he took in the darkened card reader and tiny keypad set below it before snorting. Despite the security measures, the door was slightly ajar, and David slithered through the gap with only a moment's hesitation. The hallway on the other side was cramped and utilitarian, branching off with a simple left-right junction at the end, and David froze as sounds began to trickle toward him from the left branch of the path. He loosened Spooky's leash a bit and slithered rapidly through the darkness toward the noise, pulse quickening with a mixture of anxiety and excitement, and David had to physically restrain himself from humming the theme song from a popular spy movie as he moved.
David tensed as the faint sounds resolved into voices and grew louder, straining to make out the words amid the low thrum of electrical systems. A glance upward filled Spooky with relief, and David leaped into the snarl of pipes and grating, clinging tightly as he oozed into the shadows, glad to finally be off the floor as he automatically adjusted to the shift in perspective. He inched forward on the ceiling, careful not to produce any noise as he moved with agonizing slowness behind the rapid-fire bursts of Echolocation he pushed ahead before pausing outside an open doorway that glowed with unmistakably artificial light. David felt nearly blind from even the dim illumination after so long in the dark, and he simply closed his eyes as he bounced his special into the room by aiming it at the opposite wall of the corridor from the entryway.
–Echolocation has leveled up!–
–Gained 3xp–
"How much longer we gotta keep hiding down here like rats, Adam?" A gruff baritone seemed to belong to the wolf-like creature pacing agitatedly. Its legs were long and nimble, and its body matched, reminding David vaguely of the Slitherwolves he'd fought only days after hatching.
"Until we know it's safe to surface, Wally. We're not taking any damn chances." This gravelly voice was deeper, resonating with a clear air of authority. David risked a more direct Echolocation over the lip of the doorframe to get a clearer image.
Wally, presumably the wolf-thing towered over a smaller, hunched form, some kind of extremely poofy rodent that reminded David of a chinchilla, furiously working on a laptop. Across the chamber, an enormous armored creature resembling an armadillo-boar combination watched them impassively, wicked tusks glinting.
"But we're almost out of supplies again!" Wally protested, stomping a heavy paw against the floor. "We can't just sit here waiting to starve!"
"Which is why Gideon here has been working on establishing an uplink." Adam nodded toward the laptop, his eyes glinting. "We get some intel on the situation, make contact, then we make a move. No risks this time."
The small technician, Gideon, didn't look up from the computer, dexterous hand-like paws a blur. "Well pardon my lack of progress, but maintaining a stable connection with sporadic power has been...challenging. Not to mention that I keep telling you there’s nothing to connect with, no matter how big the antennae is."
"We don't have unlimited time for excuses," Adam growled, stalking closer with each word until his snout was nearly brushing Gideon's ear. "You get me online by 0600 tomorrow, or so help me..."
He trailed off, clearly leaving the threat unvoiced but no less potent. Gideon swallowed hard and resumed his work with renewed urgency as David watched the display with a mixture of fascination and wariness. As David observed the trio interact, he began to notice subtle details that set them apart from everyone else he’d met so far, their movements stiff, unnatural, as if they were awkwardly tolerating forms never meant for them. Wally paced in tight, nervous circles, his lupine body language completely at odds with the jerky, hunched gait, as if the sheer grace and power contained in his wolfen form was more hindrance than an advantage. Gideon hunched over the laptop, legs splayed wide as his delicate paws flew across the keys with a visible lack of coordination in his darting movements. Even Adam, emanating that aura of gruff authority, had a strange lumbering quality to his motions, and David almost choked when he finally figured out what was wrong with them.
They haven't leveled up at all. I don't even think Gideon has actually evolved, even if he can. They’ve literally never left, didn't do any Quests, never even had to run around…how the fuck? These guys are fighting it at every turn because they never had to actually do anything. Good for me, I guess, I could probably thump them all if I had to. Makes me feel a little better, anyway.
Spooky was absolutely revolted by the concept, but it caused a wave of mixed pity and relief to pass through him, while he wouldn't wish this type of disadvantage on anyone in the new world, at least he retained the advantage. A soft clatter drew his attention as Gideon knocked over a piece of equipment off the small table he sat on, the creature freezing instantly as if realizing his error. The other two whirled, eyes and nostrils flaring as they bristled with irritation. David instinctively shrank back, talons rasping faintly against the metal pipe he clung to as he stilled his movements. His heart thundered in his ears as the tense standoff stretched on, waiting to see if he'd been detected before the trio seemed to slowly relax after several moments with no further disturbances. Adam snapped something unintelligible and Wally skulked off into a corner, grumbling under his breath. Gideon simply returned his focus to the laptop, clearly chastened, though his body language was frustrated and angry.
Indecision warred within David as he watched them; did he reveal himself in hopes of gaining answers, and investigate further before risking potential confrontation? If Adam’s stern demeanor was any indication, an unannounced arrival may prove unwise. Flexing his wingtips, David melted into the clutter of the ceiling, determined to observe as much of this strange situation as possible before making his move. He held himself utterly still, ceasing even the smallest motions as his heartbeat thundered in his ears and he tracked Wally's movements with bated breath as the man continued to wander around the perimeter of the small room.
"I...maybe?" The wolf sounded uncertain, padding back and forth while scenting the air. His nose twitched repeatedly as he searched for the source of the odor. David remembered too late that Claire had repeatedly told him he had a distinctive scent of ‘badness’ that stemmed from the toxins his body produced. The cloying smell was likely what Wally had picked up on, and he had to smother a hiss of surprise as his snout wrinkled in chagrin.
Idiot!
His jaw clenched as he fought the urge to attack from hiding, mentally thumping Spooky for even suggesting it as they urged him to act before Wally revealed their position. Too late to mask the smell completely now, David hoped the erratic airflow from the corridor behind him would scatter and dissipate it enough. Wally continued quartering the room for several tense minutes, Adam and Gideon watching him intently. David remained utterly motionless, wings held rigid against the ceiling as his thoughts raced. If the wolf did somehow pinpoint his location, David could potentially drop a concentrated burst of Gloom down on them, using the distraction to escape. But it would almost certainly reveal his presence, ruining any chance of peacefully finding any answers they’d come such a long way for...
Eventually, Wally seemed to lose the scent trail, shaking his head in visible frustration. He barked something unintelligible, shoulders slumping. Adam snapped a curt reply before turning his focus back on Gideon, the smaller creature flinching under the larger porcine creature’s baleful glare. David exhaled a silent breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, a feather's weight of tension seeping from his muscles as the standoff ended. From his vantage, he could just barely make out the laptop's fuzzy screen displaying strings of code intermittently flickering past.
Gideon grumbled under his breath as the laptop screen flickered again. "This hack job on the artifact is barely enough to keep basic systems online. Power levels keep browning out every time I try boosting the juice to the transmitter. We're just leeching off scraps here."
"At this rate, I'll never get a stable band established, even if there’s still something to connect to. The artifact's output was never meant to be used like this, I’ve told you that a hundred times. We barely understood how it worked beyond ‘rainbow-goo bad’ before everything went to shit.” His shoulders slumped in frustration as he seemed to sink into his own fluff dejectedly.
"Well, you'd better figure it out. That's an order. We're running on fumes here."
Gideon's paws stilled on the laptop as he shot Adam a withering look. "You think I don't know that? This is extremely delicate work. Push it too far and we could potentially destabilize the-"
The lights flickered violently, causing all three to tense, and Gideon waited for the power spike to subside before letting out a slow breath. "See? We're walking a razor's edge here just trying to piggyback off its energy."
Rainbow-goo that produces a ton of energy and doesn’t like being fucked with? Well, that sounds familiar…what do they have that makes rainbow-goo? I thought that only happens when you fuse mutagens or Evolve? Where is it, it can't be that far away, right?
David slowly began to inch away backward, intent on finding out.