Chapter 6
Where…. Where am I….?
It was all so dark….
Her eyes were closed and she was floating in mid air. Like swimming in the sea, one would float but not reaching the bottom or the surface. That was the only thing that she could describe of her situation. Her very thought was clear to her and each time she thought, it would echoed around the space.
She remembered what happened the last time. She was in a cave with someone and had eaten something from him. Then everything went dark and caused her to be in such dark place.
Am I dead….?
Her memories started flashing in front of her in clear image. Faces of people that she long forgot their names appeared but they were familiar. The faces also had voices, each had a very specific line that somewhat described them to Maya of who they were. The faces comes and goes, Maya was confused of what was happening. Was this death that she was experiencing?
Significant events started to emerge. Times that she was in the abbey with the many monks and priest that had taught her about her powers. Then the time when Handsome Jack had almost killed her and her friends at the train, she was grateful that it had happened and it introduced her to the new family. Finally, it was the time when Alesiahad attacked The Resistance several times. She remembered it vividly, Axtonwas gone and Lilith was in a coma, Maya and the rest of what's left worked day and night just to survive.
"Maya, can you hear me?" A voice echoed faintly.
Who is that…?
"I know you can hear me little one." The voice slowly became clearer, it was female.
I can hear you. But can you hear me?
"I can and I feel your presence." The voice said.
Where am I? Who are you? What is going on?
"Let us save the question for later. Follow my simple instructions. Open your eyes little one."
I…can't.
"You can, you just need to focus and give extra effort."
I'll try….
Maya tried to open her eyes and it would not follow her instructions. Her eyelids were simply stubborn.
I can't
"Yes you can, just slowly focus on it."
Maya put all her effort on opening her eyes. Though it may look simple, the act of thinking was difficult comparative to the world before. She focused even more, more than she ever could before. Then slowly her eyelids opened, revealing the dark realm that she was in.
"Now, speak your name." The voice commanded.
"Maya." The Blue Siren answered.
...
"Did she pass?" Red asked through the radio.
"No signs of it." Kharkov answered.
Kharkov held Maya gently by the held, waiting for any signs of life in the dark cave. He had checked her pulse and there was none. Her Siren arm was no longer glowing, what's left was only a tattoo with a nice design. She had been limp dead for a few hours with no signs of life. Kharkov was having doubts of Maya making through the cut.
Till suddenly her marks was glowing, not faintly but strongly.
"Good news, she passed!" Kharkov said with joy.
"Hell yeah!" Red was also excited.
"Alright, now we can go to Tretho Red."
"You go first." Red told. "I'll come down later."
"Are you sure comrade?"
"I'm waiting for someone."
...
Maya slowly float down till she reached to the floor. Her surrounding was pitch dark, where was where she cannot say. The only thing that was certain was that she was lost.
"Now that you are awake, I would like to introduce myself." The voice announced.
A flash of light suddenly appeared at her back, she turned back and her eyes were instantly blinded. She covered the light with her forearm, no longer blinded yet she could not make of the light that was shining. The light then slowly dims its intensity and Maya could see a shape of human body. The light was no longer intense and her eyes were no longer in pain. She lowered her hand and the light had formed into a shape of a woman.
"My name is Akari." The light put her hand on her chest. "Or you can call me The Host."
Akari was light formed into a woman. Her face was empty, with no mouth, eyes and nose. It was like a doll that was not made completely. Maya extend her hand and wanted to touch The Host, she was warm and certainly real. She pulled her hand away and looked at The Host straight.
"Where are we?" Maya questioned. "Are we at Tretho?"
"This is not Tretho little one, this The Null." The Host answered. "The road where the soul would go If they die and depart to the after world"
"I could've died?" Maya's brows raised in shocked.
"Yes but there is nothing to worry. You have passed the test with flying colours." The voice said happily.
"So I'm not dead." Maya released thankful breath. "That's great, so now what?"
"Now, we have to continue our journey to Tretho. Remember little one, follow the light."
The woman made of light started to walk and Maya had no other choice to follow her from behind.
...
"I'm going in Red, see you there." Kharkov signed off.
Red acknowledged his friend and waited at the tree trunk. The forest was dead yet Red knew how to blend in. He changed his uniform that had a mesh of white, black and silver to blend in the ashy landscape. With an SMG on his hands, his tactics should comprised on surprise attack and taking out of the enemy one on one if they were to come
Red had discovered a tracker on Maya's bag; a big possibility that it was her friends doing. Red understood her friends doing such things but the cave was a sacred place. Some people would like to take advantage of the place or even try to destroy it. Red did not want to rely on chance; he was better off doing rather than hoping.
So he waited and waited. After thirty minutes, AE9 had heard something for far away. An engine was rumbling loudly and the sound of tires spinning through the dried soil. At the rate of the sensors detecting, it was coming to the cave at a quick rate. He pin point the car of where it would come and he discovered it was right in front of him. He quickly got up and jumped to another tree, finding the thickest tree and hiding behind it.
The vehicle was a Resistance Jeep that was normally seen at Overlook having a green and red pain splashes on the body. The jeep arrived to the place and the sound of engine started to become quiet. The driver switched to lower gear and the vehicle decelerated at a constant rate. The jeep finally stopped when arriving to the cave.
Red peeked at the arriving people and raised his weapon to his shoulder. Red readied the firing pin and looked through the sights of his weapon. His finger on the trigger and he was ready to pull it whenever the situation calls it.
A door of the jeep opened, the person inside jumped out of the vehicle and landed nicely. The person walked a few steps and looked around the place. AE9 narrowed his eye to see who it was; he identified who it was and lowered his weapon.
"Hmm…" Red released his breath. "it's her."
It was Gaige. She looked around the place and checked her ECHO. She made a few commands on the device then put it to the side. A friend of her came to her side, a tall man wearing a black mask with a katana at the side of his hip. They looked at each other and Gaige shrugged.
"This is the last known location." Gaige informed. "After that, nothing."
"It seems that the soldiers are not to be trifled with." Zero said. "Interesting."
"You got any idea?"
"I will check around the place." Zero went into invisibility.
"Ahhh don't leave me alone!" Gaige cried. "Always going solo…"
Gaige started to stroll around the place, trying to find something while at the same time not put any effort in it. She touched her robotic arm and summoned her robot pet, Deathtrap. From thin air, the monster formed.
"Rise my child!" Gaige said with passion. "Now….find something that has connection with the tracker!"
Deathtrap bowed then do what must be done. With the robot taking her chore, Gaige do her business to try tracking down any clues of the missing tracker. She opened her ECHO device and open a map, she increase the size of the map and made a predictions of where would the jeep go.
Red shook his head seeing how childish was Gaige being. Seeing that they were confused, Red concluded there was nothing to worry about. Her friend went invisible, possibly doing some recon around the area. That was also a good sign that he should hide from her friend so that he wouldn't get caught.
Zero was doing it old school by scouting around the area. He went stealth mode and hid himself from plain view if there was any enemy waiting by being invisible. He would run around the place with little noise as possible. He would stop frequently and listen to the ambient noise, waiting for anything that sound out of place to be heard. But there was nothing.
He then jumped to the trees, jumping tree to tree trunk and taking advantage of the high ground. He searched around the place; again and again without a loss of effort. And there was nothing to be found. Despite his senses saying there was no one there, his gut said otherwise. There was someone around the forest but Zero could not prove it to himself.
At a certain vantage, Red peeked at Zero from far away. Red knew that Zero was invisible but his eyepiece had heat vision, no one could hide their body heat, not even snakes. He turned his eyepiece off and backed away, he should not risk himself just to study The Vault Hunters.
Zero felt his senses heighten and glared at a certain place. There was no one there; nothing but leaves and dirt. Under his secretive mask, her brow furrowed of frustration, all his effort resulted to nothing. He concluded it was time to return and regroup back to Gaige.
He turned his invisibility cloak off and spat in Haiku. "I can't see you but you can see me/ Searched every soil, dirt and tree/ A worthy opponent I see."
Gaige shut her ECHO off with a few predictions but no clue to say that the predictions were viable. The only hope she had was Deathtrap, who currently scanning the mysterious cave that Gaige doesn't want to go. Zero jump to her then stood beside her, it was normal for him to such thing and she gotten used to such habit.
"Got anything?" Gaige asked.
"Nothing." Zero shook his head.
"Guess it's up to Deathtrap to give some clues."
The two Vault Hunters looked at the cave and waited for the result to come in. Moments later, a blue light could be seen from the cave; it emerged into light and Deathtrap had returned. The data was transferred to Gaige's hand and the result was disappointing.
"So?" Zero asked.
"Nothing." Gaige sighed, she commanded Deathtrap to disappear and instantly it faded. "So what now?"
"Tell Axton."
"If you say so." Gaige took her ECHO and contact the Dahl Commando. "Hey Ax, you there?"
"Yep, Axton here." The ECHO answered and Axton hologram formed in front of her.
"About the tracker thing, we got some bad news." Gaige told. "We have no trace and no clue where they could possibly headed."
"Hmmm…." Axton pondered. "Any tracks? Traces? Anything?"
"Well, the tracks ended here." Gaige reasoned. "No clue I can gather and Zero hasn't found anything too."
"You sure Zero? You're the best on these things."
"There's nothing here." Zero shook his head. "I have a feeling but a feeling is just mere emotion."
"There this cave here but Deathtrap had checked and nothing came out of it." Gaige scratched her head. "So the only explanation is going up. But there are no signs of rocket propulsion around here too."
"Really?" Axton messaged his chin. "Alright, I guess it's time to go back home for debrief."
"But how about Maya?" Zero asked. "Are we simply to forget her?"
"Well that we have discuss at the Overlook Zero, we have to plan our search effort. For now, we just have to put the effort on hold." Axton explained. "There no need to worry, Kharkov and Red are good people. I know them."
"If you say so." Gaige shrugged. "Anything else?"
"Just come back in one piece." Axton reminds them. "Axton out."
"So?" Gaige looked at Zero. "Wanna kill some psycho while we're at it?"
"Sure."
The rode their car and left the scene quick, there was nothing there and nothing would change. Red eyes followed the car as it faded to the distance. He returned back to the cave and set the sensors to alarm him whenever there was someone came close to the cave. Red expected someone would come here again and may not be so friendly.
"Guess Axton came back to his friends…" Red mumbled as he soon faded into the dark cave.