Chapter Two: A Strange Visit Day one; 12:00 p.m., noon
Inside the great walls of Tolkeen, a small, old, but sturdy church stands. Inside the confessional booth, a man pleads for help through tears. The father in the other side listens intently, and attempts to comfort the man, but the man is overwhelmed with fear. Fear that the city is going to be over run and destroyed. He does not want his family, especially his two daughters and son to face the horror of being savagely attacked by racist soldiers, even though they're human. The man finishes, and feels slightly comforted, as he exits the church. The priest sits a moment before coming out. Upon exiting the booth, he finds that there is a woman, laying beside the pedestal, on the floor. Assuming there has been an injury, the priest runs to the woman, and discovers it to be an elderly woman, wearing dark robes, her gray hair laid out around her head, covering her face, which is pressed on the floor. The priest kneels and touches the woman's shoulder. Receiving no reaction, the priest pulls away for a moment, then turns the woman over. Right away, the elderly lady grabs the priest hands and stares at him with wide, phlegm-yellow eyes. Peering into his soul and thoughts. Her mouth open creating a look of surprise and fear. The stare pierces the priest, and he feels paralysed, staring at the strange old woman.
"Father... Aryus... you must... leave..." A raspy voice squeaks out from under the woman's breath, her mouth barely moving with her words. Father Aryus, the priest, shakes his head.
"I can't leave. I must stay here and ensure that the people have no fear of what may happen." He pauses a moment, "Are you alright? I didn't hear, nor see you come in. What were you doing?" The woman's stare changes slightly, almost like it is piercing Aryus' very own head just for saying something in defiance towards her. The look then turns to a worried face and the low, raspy voice squeaks once again.
"If ... you stay here ... you will die. You must go. You know ... the path. Taking anyone will only ... cause problems." Aryus pulls back a bit from this remark. The woman's eyes glaze a moment then call out, "GOOOOO!!!!" Her head then falls back, and her face stares off at nothing. Aryus looks at her a minute, both confused and scared. He slowly moves his hand to her wrist, and affirms her non-existent pulse. Standing up, Aryus decides to take the woman's words into consideration. He steps away from the body, and turns towards the church doors. He walks over and looks out. People shuffling through the streets in fear stumble past the church. Aryus reaches out and takes hold of the large door handles and pulls them in, closing them. Sliding a deadbolt through the lock, Aryus takes a deep breath. Slowly he turns, then hurriedly heads to a door at the other side of the church. Through the door, Aryus comes to a small office. He goes over to the desk and places his hands on the side of the wooden structure. Pushing the desk aside, he reveals a rug, which covers a door. Retrieving a key from his pocket, Aryus, unlocks the trap door and pulls it open. Dust explodes out of the ancient opening and fills the air, causing Aryus to cough a few times, before he puts his sleeve to his mouth and waving the dust away from his face.
Inside the gloomy tunnel, only the sound of footsteps echo throughout the dark and dismal hole. Aryus walks at a bit of a quicker pace through the tunnel, unable to naturally see what lies ahead of him, but making his way through the single tunnel which he knows has no direct corners or branching tunnels. Suddenly a strange, screech reverberates through the black chasms and cry out in Aryus' head, causing an extremely high pitched ringing to slice his ears open. Clutching the sides of his skull, Aryus falls to his knees, screaming. he then comes to realize that the noise has stopped, and he had been screaming longer than it was ringing. Now all that he hears is an eerie siren in the far distance, not far from an air-raid warning, but a distant siren. Aryus stops to contemplate this a moment, and realizes that it simply isn't possible for a siren to be ringing like that in a tunnel. A bit frightened, but curious, Aryus breaks into a run through the blinded tunnels.