Hello again. Not much to say, other than a thanks to MachineHeart. Like I said, not much of a writer, though I actually purposefully left the dialog like that, since I felt that if I made it conventionally spaced, it would look like one line paragraphs in some parts, which just look… weird to me. I'll try to improve on that though. Also, 54 views in four hours (as of writing this) actually surprised me. 54 doesn't sound like much to some people, but I like to imagine a room with "X" amount of people in it. Almost gives you stage fright, ah well.
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Rumble… shake… Rumble. Ryan stared at the ceiling, unable to go to sleep like most others, except Violet that is. She apparently could sleep through a minor earthquake that has been going on for a better part of two hours now. The storm ceased, though, so that was a plus in his book. If it wasn't for the fact that his bed felt like a rock, it would almost feel like a massage chair. "Probably nothing. I just had to jinx it, didn't I" he turned to his side, taking his pillow from his head and crushing it on the other side of his head in an effort to sleep. No effect… "Guess I'm pulling a forty eight hour shift. Good thing we have coffee." He sighed, dragging himself out of bed, almost tripping on himself a bit since his muscles were in a relaxed state for about three hours now. He had just made his way into the small area converted to a kitchen when the ground went from a slight vibration to a violent shake. He stumbled, slammed into the wall and fell, with Violet finally waking as well. He groaned as he pulled himself up "Guess it's time to get under a table..." His ears perked as he heard rustling coming from the bedroom, a voice emerging a couple seconds later.
"Mmm, wha… *yawn* what time is it… one A.M.? Nope, sleep." A loud plop of a pillow was heard, snoring a few seconds later. Ryan rolled his eyes, three hours ago she was engrossed in her little project, now nothing mattered more than sleep. His thoughts were interrupted, as the ground shook even more violently than last time. Struggling to keep his balance, the shaking came to a slow halt. He swore he could see the cabin floor actually moving up and down during that last one, though. "Okay, no more messing around, this is getting serious. Violet! Wake up, looks like we're going to need to get under something!" he yelled. The only sound from the bedroom just sounded like mumbled gibberish. "I said, wake up! Earthquake, ground shaking, stuff falling!" he thought for a few seconds "The metal thingamajig got shattered into a million pieces!" that got her attention. A series of insanely fast thumps could he heard as she seemed to teleport right in from of him.
"What?! Where?! Oh this is just-" she looked at the table, "perfectly fine…" she looked back at him, a look of near anger at his audacity to disturb her precious sleep. "It's one in the morning. One. Sleep is a precious commodity around here, in case you didn't know!" she scolded. Ryan shushed her, something he didn't normally do, "too nice to be that rude" as he would say. "Okay, what's the real problem?" she asked.
"Wait, really? You didn't feel the earthquake going on for an entire two hours now?" Dumbfounded was the only word that came to his mind.
"…No?" she crossed her arms. The earthquake seemed to be happy to present itself to her, though. Both failed to keep their footing, and stumbled backwards, grasping at the nearest object to keep themselves on their feet. "Okay, yes. I've felt the earthquake. Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" the only reply was a shrug from Ryan. "Two hours is a long time, Ryan"
"It was just a slight shake at the time, it came and went, almost in a rhythm. It wasn't anything like it is now" the ground shook again, this time the lights spazzed, going dim to normal again and again. "Alright, this is getting bad Violet. An earthquake like this shouldn't be possible where we are. We're nowhere near the edge of a plate, and the ground is stable, so no internal plate fracturing." He still held onto the cabinet in case another shake came, and looked outside the window. A few things were toppled over, though nothing looked damaged. No ancient buildings collapsed, either. "Hide under a table time, please?" which garnered a nod from Violet. The two dashed to their rooms and grabbed their pillows, then made another dash for their researched table. They propped their pillows on top of them, just in case the table somehow gave in, they'd have some protection. The table itself wasn't heavy either, mostly made of hardened plastic. The quakes kept getting more and more severe, the lights fully went out after the fifth event. The sixth one, however, was the worst not by shaking alone, but what finally gave out outside of their facility. Sounds of stone collapsing could be heard from the outside. Both hoped it wasn't what they thought it was, but it was too risky to move from where they were. Six hours passed, and the earthquake finally abated. Neither of them fell asleep during the ordeal, in fear that if they did the shack would collapse on them in a twist of karma. After another hour, voices could be heard outside.
"Do you think it's safe now?" Violet broke the silence. Ryan thought for a bit, if there's voices outside, it probably was.
"Yeah, you stay here, I'll take a look" he crawled from under the table, moving aside basically everything that used to be on the table. His fears came to pass, as when he got to the window, the entire ancient town was now reduced to a heap of rocks, not one building left standing. "Hey, you know how I was poking fun at your little metal toy?" he asked her.
"Yeah. Wait… don't tell me" she crawled out as well, gasping when she saw the carnage the earthquake wrought. "Oh no. no, no, no, no, no. How could this happen?!" she panicked. "The oldest evidence of civilization… just… gone" she kept tapping her head on the glass "This. Is. Not. Happening." She kept repeating.
"Look on the bright side, at least we still have that impossible gun" Ryan scratched the back of his head, trying to think of something. "Besides, we might be able to salvage a few artifacts if we can manage to clear the rubble."
"Optimism isn't going to move thousands of tons of concrete, Ryan. We don't have any large scale equipment, or anything that we can use to move much of any of this as a matter of fact." Violet sighed, rubbing her temples, "If only we found this place a month or two earlier… we could've found out so much more about this place."
"If there's one, there might be more, possibly older, or close to, at least." Ryan said. He saw a few members of their team walking around or towards the ruins, "Come on, might as well join the rest of them" he didn't wait for her to respond, instead grabbing her arm and leading her out of the building. The two looked around when they got there a minute later. Nothing left, the buildings didn't look like they toppled over. Instead it seemed like the very foundation gave out, so they fell almost straight down, anything inside of them was surely destroyed. Violet broke out in anger at the full sight.
"I can't believe this! We've barely managed to set up shop here a few weeks ago, now everything's gone!" she kicked a small rock in frustration. "All that work… gone. All we have is my little metal mystery and a few samples of the buildings. Guess we have a lot more samples now, though." Violet rambled. She sat down in the damp grass, putting her head on the tip of her knees and tugging her ears. "All of the history…"
"Right… Well, while you sulk, I'm going to go see if anything survived the impossible." Ryan looked to his left side, towards the ruins, "Might find a friend for your little toy, who knows"
"Yeah, sure, you go do that. I'm just gonna…" she sighed, "Sit here and sulk"
Ryan shrugged, he knew nothing he said or did would get her out of that mood. He made his way to his colleagues.
"Hey, Ryan. What a shit-show, am I right?" one said to him. "Entire fuckin' place is just a pile a' rock now. Can't move anything, there's no way and earth movers or equipment is gonna be sent. Place is a bust" he reached in his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Want one?" Ryan waved it off, "Eh, suit yer'self, these are nice ones"
"You know I don't smoke, Fang" Ryan chuckled.
"Be a good time to start, I'd say. Hell, ya probably are gonna be after the boss calls the meeting to leave. Ya know how pissed he's gonna be."
"He's always mad" Ryan deadpanned.
"So you think steam'll shoot outa his ears?" Fang laughed while asking.
"Who knows? All I know is I'm going to start looking around the place, might find one intact thing in this mess" Ryan started walking towards the rubble. Fang gave a single laugh.
"Exactly, mess. Yer' probably only gonna find more rocks. Besides, it ain't like we found much stuff other than your partner's do-hickey" He turned and walked towards the group amassing near the ruins.
"Only one way to find out…" Ryan said aloud to himself. A few others were scrounging the rubble with the same goal in mind. No one took the far left side though, being that that side was barely even touched before the earthquake. He worked his way up and around the small boulders and rocks, finally getting to the edge of the former town. He took a wide gaze, nothing but sun bleached ancient concrete in view. He moved what rocks he could for a bit, going place to place, with no success. "Oh look, another rock. Knew I'd find one eventually" he said sarcastically. He tossed the small piece of concrete far away in frustration.
Ting. His ears perked and moved towards the metallic sound. "Well, that's convenient. Thanks Rock God!" he smirked. He made his way to about where the sound came from. Nothing really sticking out. "I'm not going crazy, right? That definitely sounded like something metallic" he knew he was getting pressed for time. The others were going to call for him to come back any second now, and probably wouldn't bother coming to look for a "maybe found something" incident. He stomped his foot on the ground in frustration, but it didn't' feel like dirt under his foot. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked down. "Definitely dirt… but…" he started wiping, two swipes revealed a trap door. "Well, hello there…" he looked around, "Probably was in a house before it collapsed… but they fell straight down, this looks like it's just out in the open…" he continued to stare at it. Should he open it? It's not like some monster is going to pop out, the most dangerous thing is probably tetanus from a rusty piece of metal. "Ah, screw it" he pried open the rusty door, creaking loudly and slamming into the ground. "Heavy…" he panted. He tried to look inside, somewhat dark, but slightly illuminated by the sunlight that was starting to shine through the low canopy of jungle trees. He took his phone out of his pocket, turning the flashlight on. "Alright, got a ladder, rusty as can be, should be careful going down it…" he made his way down, testing each step to make sure it wouldn't give out. "For some twenty whatever-year old ladder, thing still holds weight. Whoever built this place made it to last… except against giant earthquakes. Thing was probably… what, an 8.0 plus?" he moved through the small room, completely empty.
"Great, a giant waste of my time" he sighed. He looked a bit more, just to be sure he hadn't missed anything "come on… why have a cellar without having anything in it?" He groaned. He heard footsteps nearby, and turned towards the door.
"Ryan? Ryan, you out there?" someone called for him.
"Yeah, down here!" Ryan called back.
"Very precise, come back up, we're having a meeting in a few minutes!" the voice shouted back, the footsteps getting softer and more distant.
"Yeah, be right up!" He yelled. He started to make his way to the ladder, but heard a small crushing sound, almost like a-swoosh. Ryan's vision started to fade, and collapsed onto the ground within a few seconds. Unfamiliar and distorted voices started talking quietly, he couldn't make out what they were saying though. Soon everything faded to black and he was completely out cold.
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Ringing, loud, painful ringing and a blinding white light was the first thing his senses picked up when he came to. He tried to rub his eyes, but he couldn't move his arms, in fact, he couldn't move at all! "Wha?! Where… who…?" his vision started to clear, the ringing slowly going away. He started to think to himself, "Okay, this is a dream. A bad, bad dream. I'm going to close my eyes, count to three…" he opened he eyes, "Nope, still here." He looked at what was bounding him when he could fully see, a metal chair with metal braided rope "No cutting my way out of this…" He looked around to get his bearings. A small room, no more than a couple meters in width and length, painted white, that'd explain his temporary whiteout. The floor was tiled, but plain white as well. He saw what looked like a mirror to his right. "A one way mirror maybe? Come on, I'm not that exiting." He tried to move again, but the metal rope wasn't going to budge anytime soon. All he could do was wait for… whoever or whatever put him here.
Click. His eyes widened slightly as he tried to turn behind him to confront the noise, but he could only get a slight look over his shoulder, and couldn't see anything. Nothing on his other shoulder, either. "…You know… I'm really hoping this isn't aliens." He said aloud. A whoosh of air blew lightly past him as he heard something open. He heard footsteps walking towards him, but stopped only a few feet away. Too terrified to look back or speak, he was seemingly petrified. His eyes were fully open and dilated, fur strands on end, tail tucked as close to him as possible. Another step to his left. He could feel whatever it was looming over him, almost as if it was studying him. He held his breath "Maybe if I turn into a statue, they'll leave me alone. Yeah, yeah let's try that!" he thought. Perfectly still, he heard three steps to his right. The sound of pencil on paper was heard, and whatever it was left a few moments later after finishing. After what felt like forever after the door closed, he let out the most relieved breath he ever had.
"Still alive, still alive. Heh… heh…" he leaned a bit back into the chair, but the door soon opened again. All his muscles clenched again, "No no no no no. Where's the train to anywhere-but-here'sville?!" he screamed in his mind. He heard three separate sets of steps coming towards him. "Totally going to die. This sucks so much. Why did it have to-Fuuuuuahahaha" he clenched his teeth as he felt a gloved paw run lightly over his ear, plucking a single strand of fur off. He didn't dare wince at the slight pain and soreness of the violated fur follicle. The sound of a plastic bag zipping up, and the mystery monsters walked away again.
"Okay, not dead. At this point I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not." He flicked his ear quickly back and forth to try and get rid of the now itchy feeling on his ear. Again, the door opened. "Oh, not again!" he accidentally groaned. The footsteps stopped, farther than normal. "Wait, did I just say that out loud?" his pupils shrank. He gulped, "Stupid, stupid, stupid-!" he whispered to himself. The steps came to his side, if he could muster the courage to turn his head he could actually see whatever it was, but such courage was nowhere to be found. He couldn't hold his breath any longer, and gasped for air. He was starting to panic, even as he knew and tried to fight it, panic was overtaking him. He had to say something, do something.
"L-Look, I don't know what I did, but uh… I'm-I'm sure we can work something…" he finally turned his head. If this was a mammal, it wasn't shaped like one he had seen before. It was covered head to toe in a white fabric suit, with a small slit, for eyesight presumably. He stopped talking, and he felt his ears pressing even harder against his skull, tail tucking closer. He started rapidly breathing, desperately trying to think, but in his state of panic he just blurted out the first time to come to mind, "Look, come on, I swear I didn't do anything" he barely could even hear himself talk with the last few words. The mystery mammal leaned in slightly, causing Ryan to move as far away as possible in his chair. It moved back, waved its paw, some sort of signal, and the other two left the room with him.
"I swear, I'm going to have a heart attack" he was sweating profusely at this point, almost coming to tears at one point. The door didn't open again though, and he started to calm down, letting him think. A thought crossed his mind, "What about the others? What happened to them? Are they in the same state as me? What if the door didn't open because they're doing something to them now instead?" He looked around, trying to think of an escape. Wait, metal chair and metal rope. Yeah, no escape, forgot about that part. More time passed, but with Ryan's new theories, it didn't bring him any comfort. His left leg started to itch, and he looked down. A small patch of fur had been shaved off, and a bandage over a spot on his skin. "Okay… piece of my fur… blood sample… probably took down what I look like…" his mind raced, but couldn't think of anything, so he fell back on his original thought. "Gotta be aliens. Oh man, what're they going to do to me? Rip my face open and turn me into some monster? Brain control to subliminally convert others? Turn me into a potato just for laughs?!" He started talking aloud. The door opened, only one pair of footsteps was heard. Ryan came up with the only thing his mind could muster. If he was going to be turned into some lab experiment, he wasn't going to take it laying down.
Slam. Ryan's chair was thrown to the ground, him along with it. Okay, he was going to take this laying down. He managed to keep his head from slamming into the hard floor, and turned to look up. Another full suited "alien" was knelt beside him, a syringe in one… paw? Weirdest paw he had ever seen, even with the gloves. That wasn't what worried him, what was in that syringe? "Oh no, you are not putting ANYTHING in me, no no no-mmph-!" it grabbed his muzzle and held it shut. Ryan started rapidly breathing again, thrashing, and trying to get out as hard as he could. He felt a prick, and sucked in air through his nose when the syringes contents were injected into his neck. He expected immense pain, or something horrible at the very least. He felt nothing though, but they put something in him, maybe it just took time? Finally, after a few minutes the alien spoke into what looked like some recording device.
"Number 15. 4F." was all it said. Immediately after it left the room, the lights shutting off a few moments later. Ryan was left tied to an already uncomfortable chair, now made even more-so by being on the ground in complete darkness. His stomach grumbled, that's right… It'd been at a minimum nine hours since he last ate, probably more. He felt his stomach drop on the thought later. What happens if I can't get out of here? I'm I going to starve to death, what about water?" his fears were too much, and he started to silently weep himself to sleep.
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"Hey, Violet, where's Ryan? I told you to go get him, we have a meeting to start!" her boss yelled.
"I did just a few minutes ago, he should be up here any time now. He was just in some cellar near a collapsed building" she waved him off.
"Oh? What if he can't get out? Did you SEE him get out?" he questioned her.
"Well, no but… fine, I'll go back and make sure he's not still sitting there" she turned back to where she heard Ryan. She saw the door to the cellar open, so that's where he was, or so she thought. She climbed down the ladder, the room was completely empty. "Huh… maybe he went the wrong way?" she looked around again, "No… he's not that stupid," something didn't feel right, something off. Her fur strands started to stand on end. His scent was still fresh, as in, literally one minute ago fresh. She felt butterflies in her stomach, her senses screaming danger at her. "Wellhesnotherebettergobackup!" she dashed up the ladder as if some demon was chasing after her. She immediately turned towards the cellar door, expecting something to jump out at her, but nothing came. She turned and made a run for it to tell the others he wasn't in the cellar, and just to be with others-the whole strength in numbers thing. She could have sworn she heard a metallic slam a few seconds after she started running, but that just made her sprint faster. A few minutes later she came upon the group, settings her paws on both her knees as she leaned down a bit to catch her breath.
"Violet? Where's Ryan? Why do you look like you just ran a marathon?" A random colleague said.
"Cellar… No Ryan… Scary…" she panted in between words. A horse pushed through the small crowd that started to form. Violet could swear she saw something other than anger on his face for once, but that thought was erased when he stared talking.
"Violet, I gave you a simple task. Go. Get. Ryan. Where is he?"
"I- I don't know. He was in the cellar, when I last heard from him. I went back and climbed down, it still smelt like he was there not even a minute before I got there. But… Something felt off, like I was being… watched. I just ran, I think I heard the cellar door close behind me." She looked towards the direction of the cellar. "Look, I don't want to jump to anything, but I think someone is out here. Whoever it was got Ryan" she recollected the moments before. The horse looked at her, she was definitely spooked out of her fur, no lie there. "Let's say Ryan was indeed taken. You said it smelt like he was there not a minute ago, yet if that were true, you should have seen him on your way there. The jungle here is sparse, so there aren't many places to hide. Are you sure there wasn't some other door you missed?"
"I don't know, I ran as soon as I felt something off, I told you that!" She started to freak out a bit, but calmed quickly, sighing. "Look, maybe it was just my mind playing a trick on me, so why not let me take a few guys back with me? If there's a door to wherever, I'm sure more than one mammal will be useful"
"Fine" he pointed to three random mammals, "You three, go with her." He turned back to Violet, "You've got half an hour, after that, the evacuation team is coming. You miss it, you're on your own"
"Thank you" she let out a breath of relief. The four headed towards the cellar, the rest of the group made their way back to the camp and waited for their ride back to civilization. Once they got to the cellar door, it indeed was shut.
"You're sure that it shut by itself? No gust of wind or you shut it in your panic?" one chimed.
"No, I never touched it. And it wasn't standing up, it was opened fully, as in laying on the ground fully." She crossed her arms, almost hugging herself. She narrowed her eyes at the door, fearing that if she opened it, whatever closed it was going to come out and attack.
"Well, half a' hour is a half a' hour. Time's a' wastin'." The second said, already impatient. He grabbed the door and flung it open. No monsters to be found jumping out. He took a flashlight out and shined it in through the door. "Goin' down" he made his way down the ladder, the rest followed suit. "You've got the best nose out'a us Violet, still smell em?"
"Yeah, bit fainter" she started to cautiously walk around, but stopped at a wall. "It's like he just… phased through the wall here" she tapped it, but the sound wasn't a hard tap, but a hollow thud. She turned towards the other three, signaling them to come over.
"Well I'll be" the third finally spoke up. "Hidden door, whoever lives here REALLY doesn't want to be found. Find the latch?" he looked at her.
"No, feel around the thing, it's probably hidden like the door is." The four started rubbing their paws on the wall, waiting to find that magical spot. A few moments later, a small part of the wall seemed to give in, but stopped.
"Think I found it" he pulled on the latch, the door slowly opening. Light emanated from the new passageway.
"What the…?" Violet stared in shock. A series of lights on the ceiling stretched to the end of the hall, where it turned to the right to continue. "Okay, I vote we tell the others before we all end up dying in the hallway of hell, any objections?" The other three shook their heads in agreement. They headed back up to tell the rest of the group the news. Unbeknownst to them, a hidden camera in the ceiling traced them until they climbed above ground.
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Ryan awoke again, but to complete darkness this time. "Ah, that's right. They threw me over and turned the lights out." He thought. Wait, that syringe! It… didn't have any effect? He moved his legs, arms, tail, and all other body parts to make sure they hadn't mutated in some way. Still in one piece. He felt a small amount of relief, but was still worried sick at all the possibilities. He had to get out somehow, but how? They'd have to somehow untie him from the chair, then he'd have to fight his way out. Knowing that they have darts that made you unconscious before you hit the ground, there wouldn't be any room for errors. He lay there, plotting his escape, however little of a chance there was. It felt like hours later, but he couldn't tell, but the door opened again, lights turning on with two sets of footsteps accompanying them. One of them grabbed his chair and put it back upright, then put a chair in front of him. A different one walked in front of him. Wait, this one didn't have a suit on? It sat in the chair, staring at him, and him back. Judging by its figure, it was definitely female. Weirdest thing was that it had basically no fur, but had quite an amount on her head, tied up into what looked like a ponytail.
"Uh…" he was beyond confused. First it seemed like they were near torturing him, now they're having a staring contest. What kind of game are they playing?
"Name?" She spoke. Ryan hadn't expected such a normal question, thinking of something more along the lines of "we are going to torture you for all you know and then kill you" sort of thing. His mouth opened slightly in shock, not being able to speak for a few seconds, but coming to his senses afterward.
"R-Ryan…" he hesitantly spoke. He heard the other one leave, the door shutting.
"Mhm… Well "Ryan", it seems you've been caught in quite a situation, haven't you?" she crossed her left leg, putting her elbows on it and using her arms to use as a stand to rest her head. "You were in that town, yes?"
"Uh…" he stuttered a bit, "Yeah… we were just… excavating the town. Well, before it got leveled by the earthquake" he finished. He heard her chuckle a bit. "What's so funny?" he accused.
"That wasn't an earthquake, we leveled that town on purpose" she said.
"What? Why?! That place is-" he was cut off
"Evidence of our existence, which we would like to either destroy or keep hidden. Have you savages forgotten after so long?" her slight smile turned into a frown.
"Evidence, savages? What are you talking about?! We are not savages! What evidence are you talking about anyway? What, you guys lived up there until recently?" He was getting a bit agitated at her savage insult, but still confused at their deliberate destruction of such a piece of history.
"Like I said, evidence that we exist. Now that you've been here, you are too." She sighed and switched legs for support of her arms.
"What, so you're going to kill me then?" He accused.
"Depends on what I feel like doing. That satisfy your question?" she said. Tension was starting to fill the air, anger on both sides was felt. Ryan couldn't figure out why she was getting angry as well, though.
"Why are you hiding, no, what are you hiding from?"
"From you beasts" she deadpanned. Ryan was taken aback. From us? Why? No one even knows these things exist, why would they be hiding? "But, like I said, you've completely forgotten about us apparently. That makes things much easier, then"
"Easier? Wha-what are you talking about. Hold up, that syringe, are you trying to make some poison to kill us or something?!" he was terrified at this point. Were they seriously plotting to take over the world or something?
"Poison? Oh, no, nothing that drastic. Think of it as reverting you back to what you should be."
"Should be? I should be back on the surface, leaving to go back home!" he yelled.
"No, you should be running in a forest, or in some zoo. Not living in some city in mockery of our achievements that you took from us!" she yelled back. "I should be glad that you animals were too stupid to actually invent your own technology instead of stealing it from us, though" she stood up. "We've waited so long for this, now that we know your kind aren't still actively hunting us down, we can work more aggressively." She started to walk to the door. Ryan had too many questions, questions that needed answering.
"Wait!" he yelled. Her stopped talking, and sounded like she turned around. "What in the hell are you talking about? What technology did we steal? And what do you mean hunting you? The only hunting that's existed for thousands of years is just fish hunting!"
"You want answers? Fine, I'll give you answers. Not like you'll be leaving here anytime soon." She motioned to the one way mirror, the door opened with another white suited one coming in. It walked towards Ryan with another syringe in its paw, and injected the contents into his neck. Ryan felt woozy, another tranquilizer…
"You sunofa…" was all he could get out before succumbing to sleep, rolling over to one side.
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Well, I think that went fairly well. Hit a stump or two on whether I should reveal when humans would reveal themselves. The hidden door seemed a little cliché, but I feel it was justified in this scenario. Being that hiding underground, humans would have to go above ground from time to time to collect things that are just impossible to create in a lab or grown underground. A hidden door in an abandoned ancient town would be a perfect spot to conceal and take any eyes away that might get suspicious.
Anywho, I'll continue this when I've time. Till' then, later.