Bloom
-Chapter 7-
Click.
A thick steel rod loosened, prompting the frame to eject a rusty cylinder from the side of its body. Its contents were still fairly visible despite the office's moribund room lamp. Five brass spots filling six holes. A shallow engraving on each, a short message punctuating the circular base of each bullet.
Death Seed, they said. Unfortunately, the poor cat couldn't quite make that out.
"Six rounds," Blaze murmured, "one's missing."
Tails, busy rummaging through a litter of crew files by the captain's table, paused a bit to give ear to Blaze's discovery.
"Does that concern you?" he asked softly. In the clutches of his gloved hands was a bulky collection of reports. They were assigned to workers whose last name began with an R. He'd placed himself on a tall reddish-brown toolbox they'd found gathering dust under one of the beds. The lack of a seat-rest let his bruised appendages flow about freely.
"I don't know," she responded, keeping her voice low.
"Ever held a gun before?" Tails asked, before pulling his attention back to the documents in his possession.
"I've seen them in the action movies, I rented a few when I was bored once"
Blaze steadily spun the revolver in her hands, inspecting its worn body. She clicked the cylinder back into place and grabbed the edge of the weapon with her right hand. Her fingers coiled around the grip panel, her thumb delicately rubbed the hammer's edge and her index finger floated over the trigger.
"That black hedgehog is quite fond of these isn't he?" she asked.
"He's an expert, you should see him in the shooting range," Tails muttered.
"They are kind of outdated, no?"
"Not everyone has fiery powers or time-bending emeralds Blaze," he flipped over one of the pages, "Regular folk like me have to settle for the ordinary stuff."
"You can fly, Tails"
"Like that's a fat-load of good," Tails said with a little snicker. "Anyways I need to pay attention to what I'm reading Blaze, some stuff here might be very useful later on."
Blaze made an inappreciable nod and gave the gun one final quick look-see.
The ordinary stuff...
She gripped the revolver by its barrel and slid it down a front pouch on her jacket. Given the oddity of their situation, even the most mundane of things could prove useful at a belated time.
Various photos of framed newspaper clippings had been stapled along the hazy walls of the office-room. All ascribing to some event in Station Square or the other cities nearby. Whoever was running this operation, this captain that they hadn't fully identified, seemed to be an avid fan of the world around him. Mini dancing figures in blue gowns lay still at the corner of his desk, wearing petrified smiles and torn painted skin. A small wooden board in front of them had the words: "Fun from yearly springs!". Strung together balloons tied to a wooden basket from an Easter event made their home on one edge of the room, a dying paper lamp, gift from Alaska, took another. Some thick leather chair with cobwebs sat between them. Opposite of that chair, way on the other side of the wall were more multiple framed newspaper photos. There were a few other things in this thicket of a souvenir trap, but the duo didn't bother to identify them. Whoever this captain was, he had much stronger care for the world outside than his own.
Blaze clasped her hands and proceeded into the next room of the crew quarters.
A diverse dispersal of granite, rock filament and chunky limestone gyrated the atmosphere. Energy, unyielding, yet controlled, scattered through every corner of the cavern. Not a single component of this natural structure was untouched by this spurning power. In the center of the calamity, a single white hedgehog stood still, keeping his ability in touch with the present motion. He pacified himself, letting the pieces he'd disassembled collapse unto the rough ground below.
Fifteen feet above this catastrophe, a canine mobian, sporting a slick black motor-jacket and a bottle of pills, grinned with excitement.
"Not bad," he said. With great care, he made his way off the ledge he'd taken comfort on, landing with a balanced thud on the ground below. The idea was to keep himself at a safe distance, lest he got blown away by the calamity.
Victor carefully navigated his way through the rubble, towards Silver's position.
"ADF-12, ADF-12," Silver repeated to himself like a medical patient, induced in some pill addiction mantra. He gripped his fists with this newfound burst of energy.
"I feel better than I've been in ages!" he cheered.
Anguish from the troubling fall, physical wear on his fragile body, and the mental trouble from carrying his crew. While the guilt of his mistake still remained, the rest of his troubles had been rendered obsolete. ADF-12 had made him something completely new.
"Well lad, that's the power of G.U.N science," Victor started, he followed with a quieter tone, "and multiple months of amoral underground medical runs".
"What's the downside?" Silver struck a sharp turn towards Victor's position, baring an energetic smile on his once-beaten face. "If we keep taking this thing we'll be able to climb out of this hellhole with our bare hands!"
"First off," Victor said, adopting a more solemn tone, "ADF-12 doesn't just produce energy out of nowhere, it just takes whatever fat you have and burns it an extreme rate".
"Well, I could use the extra work-out," Silver continued, striking a small grin, "I actually had some raspberry over here that I'll like to burn off".
"Funny, but get serious for a bit" Victor said. "We had a recruit chuck down five of those things in a POW recovery mission, he was prepping himself up for a single break-in, thinking he could do the job alone without us back-up."
"What, did they find him with a runny stomach?" Silver asked with a mocking leer.
Victor made a minute groan as he tried to recalled the grim memory. "They found him crying to God in pain, seizing on the bathroom floor." He pointed to both sides of his chest, "The gastric acid in his digestive system ate through his tract and burned his ribcage"
Silver's smile died down to an expression of concern.
"It wasn't a pretty scene," Victor muttered, "He survived, but, I don't think he wanted to."
"Oh dear," Silver murmured.
Victor nodded with grim approval. "I wouldn't worry too much about it though, as long as you stay within the recommended dosage, you should be fine."
"I understand." Silver pulled his gaze downwards. He imagined himself, coughing out his organs on the floor while his stomach acid tore through his flesh. The imagery was horrifying.
He had to change the subject, the destruction he'd just created would serve as a good distraction. He began a short stroll forward, admiring his work.
"So, why do you have me breaking walls?" he asked. "Couldn't we have taken a more 'inserted' path?"
"I'm trying to create a shortcut to our destination," Victor responded.
"This is a rather rough way of doing it"
"A good seventy percent of this facility is like some uncompleted maze, we're gonna cut our way through like a bulldozer", Victor dusted some limestone dust off his shoulder, "the best way to both move through quick and avoid security"
"Security? That's still active here?" Silver asked, he wasn't expecting the facility to be functional, let alone defensive.
"Oh trust me, you do not want to know," Victor said.
Rickety hinges clacked and winced as the wooden door to the changing room swung open. Grainy splinters from the floorboards popped out of place, thick dust emanated from the slanted holes within the ground and iron nails bopped in response. Blaze kept herself steady as she moved through, hoping the ground beneath her wouldn't break and swallow her alive. Tails had already assured her of the foundation's solid composition, he noted that the cavern's walls had been applied as some kind of natural rebar to the place. This would keep the facility functional, despite any physical misfortune it suffered. Blaze wasn't too trusting of his analysis, she felt his current mental disposition left room for error.
Nevertheless, this didn't stop her from seeking something of value in the rest of the crew quarters. Tails had devoted himself to studying the contents of the captain's library of documents. He'd halted the search for his blue idol without uttering a word, switching his attention to uncovering the hidden details of this decrepit domain. He hadn't even mentioned the blue strand of hair he came across, nor speak his mind on the dried blood spot near the captain's table.
Did he know something she didn't? Had he abandoned hope in the search? Or was he trying to gain solid ground before pushing forward?
She fought the temptation to ask, she wouldn't be ready if the young boy started another crying fit like he did outside the crew's quarters. Her plan was to let things soothe for a bit before trying to get him responsive again.
Multiple rows of red lockers lay stacked across the rooms like glued dominoes. Given Blaze's relatively short stature, she struggled to give a proper headcount on their number. If she were ever more curious, she could climb atop one of them and give the room a good sight-see, but there was no use to that. Besides, she believed that her current target of interest wouldn't be too far from her current position. She advanced through the closest series of lockers. Her glowing index finger carried a burning small flame that radiated her presence. As she walked through, titled grey plaques which had been nailed near the top of each locker came to her visibility. Her mind went through each imprinted name like a contact book.
...
Huey Deniro
Benjamin Acker
Rupert Paddington
Michael Ainsley
...
Tails must have already learned about some of these people. She redirected her focus forward, hoping her goal was closer in proximity.
Bingo!
At the end of this locker-walled hallway was a large frosted glass which seemed to span across the entire changing room. She quietly picked up her pace, increasing the frequency of the creaking floorboard beneath her.
...
Victor Davies
...
She skidded to a quick stop, nearly tripping over a protruding floor-board edge. This plaque was different from the others, the name had been inscribed on a flat piece of wood that was nailed at a much closer distance to the ground, just below Blaze's eye level. The locker itself wasn't even properly secured, a mere cinder block kept the door propped shot.
An extra change wouldn't hurt, Blaze thought, before kicking the cinder block away with her right winter boot.
Another splinter shot out from beneath as the cinder block made contact with the ground.
From the ensemble of crevices above Silver and Victor came a tiny sparkling water droplet. It slipped through the rough cracks, absorbing the lingering dirt that had made its home on the surface of the rocks and fell through. It landed with a firm smack on Silver's forehead, stopping him in his tracks.
"Think I damaged the ceiling with that last break?" he asked, whacking the drop off his forehead. "There's rain coming through."
"Probably just broke one of the dam pipes," Victor responded. "Facility is full of them."
"Huh", Silver continued the walk, focusing his inquisitive mind on the ceiling above them.
Craggy suspended sound-waves. That was the best way to describe it. Massive drooping rocks with sharp edges and unstable bodies, scattered in clumps throughout the ceiling above. Due to the ceiling's natural uneven surface, these assemblage of cone-shaped disasters hung at different heights. Some were tall and rigid but started at a much-elevated position. Others were short and jaggy but were close enough that some unfortunate explorer could have their skull burrowed if they lept too high. This petrified scenery went on for miles down this part of the cavern, which itself was back-lit by a soft orange glow pouring from some unseen light source in the far distance. Silver couldn't identify it, but it'd bestowed their pathway with great radiance, making traversal a comforting treat, save for the few obstacles that had to be shattered along the way.
"You have anything on your mind you want to ask?" Victor said, "Go nuts, it's going to be a while till our next destination"
"Really?" Silver snatched his attention back from the cavern's structure, refocusing on his conversation with Victor.
"I've got time"
"Well tell me about this evac target," Silver started. "What's his deal?"
Victor turned his head a bit, allowing Silver to spot some funny expression on the canine's face. He wore a fatigued smile, like he'd been anticipating the query but didn't desire to answer it.
A few painful moments of awkward silence passed before he made a short reply.
"He's an enigma," he uttered.
"That's it?" Silver asked.
"Maybe"
Victor halted his feet and ceased his walking. Silver stopped just right behind him, making a small surprised grunt.
"He was a happy man, had three kids, owned a horse farm" Victor continued, keeping his face pointed towards the rugged horizon before them.
Grains of hazel dust swarmed the interiors of the captain's office. Atop a tall tool-box, surrounded by an army of organized research documents, sat a conquered orange two-tailed fox. Within his right grip was a shallow glass of Jax-kiby apple juice, it stung the air with a fermented scent. With the delicate tip of his left index finger, Tails stroke the edge of the cup, producing a buzzing hum that sang to the thick atmosphere around him. Silver lines of flashing reflections from the glass's refractive surface lit his face. Although they pierced his bright blue eyes, he didn't budge. He sat, calm and unbothered by the present occurrences. For a brief moment, all felt right in this world of his.
"Tails"
He snapped out his trance and pierced the doorway with a shocked glare. A feline figure, dressed in laborer's attire, blocked the entrance. Her pink body sported a clean sleeveless shirt, from her waist down was a thick pair of denims, kept bound by a strong leather belt. Her yellow eyes remained resolute, she'd changed clothes, but the spirit to get the job done remained.
"Blaze?" he uttered. He lowered his glass and matched sights with hers. "I thought you went to the dining section"
"I had to go get a new shower and a change of clothes," Blaze said. She approached Tails, hands sunk into the side-pockets of her new slightly oversized denims. "To my surprise, not only does the water still run in this facility, it's still quite clean too"
"Didn't know cleanliness was such a priority," Tails said, letting another sip escape through his lips.
"If I can help it Tails, a princess has to keep her elegance"
"What did you do with your old clothes?"
"I deposited them in the crew's laundry basket, we can come to pick them up later"
"You sure you didn't go into the dining room? I could've sw-," he shook his head. "It doesn't matter"
Blaze slid into a narrow corner of space on the captain's table, she leaned towards the wall behind her, letting her arms support her lanky frame.
"What's the situation?" she asked, hoping Tails would be in a better state to answer.
"There is no situation," he responded, making unchanging eye-contact with the darkness in front of him.
"You've been so absorbed in this little body of research recently, I was thinking you were up to something"
Tails managed a quiet shrug. "You're thinking wrong."
"You haven't given up have you?" Blaze asked with a worrisome voice.
Tails managed this small minor of a chuckle, it sounded like a drowsy laugh, betraying some weariness for the world.
"Sonic's still alive," he said.
Blaze took great care not to say "How do you know?", she'd rather not test the boy's confidence in a positive outcome.
"Well, let's go look for him!" she said, hunching forward with a fake glee.
"That's not necessary, I believe the order of things has called us for something much greater"
"What do you mean?"
From the small space between his thick winter trousers and the tall tool-box, Tails pulled out a small red folder. Tightly woven thin strips of rope held its contents firmly within. Little edges of paper stuck out from the side, there was quite a bulky lot in this small folder. A small white label was stapled on its body.
Number XIII, it said
"It's funny how fate works, we find this thing in the middle of nowhere, my best friend gets swallowed by it, and then here comes this new forecast of unmitigated disaster"
"What is it?" Blaze asked.
"Twelve hours ago, you said something about a possible oil drilling facility being under all this mess," Tails let his folder holding arm fall to the ground, suspending it by his right shoulder alone. "They weren't drilling for oil, Blaze"
"What were they drilling for?"
Tails turned his face towards the pink feline, he wore some horrid cocktail expression of amusement and panic. Bedraggled white fur fought against his splotched dark orange fur. Curved dark spots underlined the bottom of his eyes. The tip of his usually perky ears hung downwards, like the edge of a wrinkled shirt you can never just iron right. He opened his wet lips, sputtering words he'd hoped to never utter in any grave situation.
"Slaughter"
"Satisfied?" Victor asked
"I think you already know the answer to that," Silver stated with an angry tone.
"Oh well, I guess you can't please everyone".
The two were standing in front of another obstacle, a somewhat thin layer of granite that stood between them and Victor's goal.
"Horse farm, three kids?"
"Do you expect me to have an encyclopedia on this guy?" Victor asked. "I told you, he's an enigma, I'm just his bloody evac agent"
"Yeah, evac agent on 'personal unofficial basis'", Silver said, "I think you're hiding something"
"Why do you care?" Victor asked
"You asked me to tag along, I just don't use my abilities to anyone who needs a mission done, not if I don't have the proper information"
"Didn't stop you from destroying those other barriers, did it?"
"I thought you'll eventually let up if I kept helping you but now I see you're just being stubborn"
Another groan of impatience escaped Victor's bated breath, he struck his back against the wall, closed his eyes, and crossed both arms and feet.
"Remember what I said about the consequence of not following orders down here?" he asked, hoping Silver would recount their first meeting. "If you fail to keep up with what's expected of you, you will die"
"You can't just bait my curiosity with an opening line like that"
"And you can't just leave a half-finished job!" Victor cried with open eyes and a harsh finger pointing to Silver's position. "You think this is your st-"
Sounds of a wounded animal cried out from all concealed corners of the cavern, permeating the atmosphere with painful dread. A chorus of various snaps and cracks followed, creating a rushing rhythm that temporarily deafened the duo. Silver lowered his ears in distress, his heart clutched with tension.
"What was that?", he asked, darting his gaze across the environment.
It wasn't an unfamiliar sound to Victor's ears, but the dog still trembled slightly at the coming fall that awaited them. He tried to hold himself still, lest his new acquaintance be left in utter confusion and terror.
"That's the brook." he murmured.
"Brook?" Silver asked redirecting his attention towards the canine, "You said something earlier about that, didn't you"
"I told you we need to move before the brook picks up," Victor continued, he kept his pupils focused on the area around him, looking from one corner to the next.
"This place, what were they doing down here?" Silver asked.
Victor ignored him. "Once that brook picks up, the northern side of this facility is going to experience a large upstream that will catapult it into an aquatic nightmare". Victor slowly slid down the wall and let himself fall into a comfortable sitting position.
"You can't exactly build a facility this deep underground without facing major technical consequences, sporadic pressure changes, falling temperatures, erosive rebar," he continued.
"What are you talking about!" Silver cried.
Another yelp of metal groans and cracks sang out from the distance.
"This facility was built under sea-level genius, when you guys went down that hole, you were essentially taking an underwater tunnel," Victor said. "Ever taken a science class Silver?"
Silver didn't respond, he just stared on in bewildered confusion.
"Well the lower you go underwater, the greater the pressure picks up, put anything between you and that pressure and that thing is certain to implode."
"This facility is going to collapse?"
"It already has, in one sense," Victor continued, he eased into a more pleasant position. "Listen, we'll be fine as long as we don't stick to the North"
"North?" Silver's mind thought back to his friends. "Wait, hold on, you were up there weren't you? Where did my friends go?"
Victor let a few moments of awkward silence passed as he stared into Silver's perturbed gaze. He brought his head down in a hint of shame and dragged his eyes shut.
"VICTOR, WHERE DID THEY GO!" Silver yelled.
"As long as your fox friend was smart enough to notice the emergency lights, he should be fine, just better hope he's not in Captain's Ainsley's office or any crew room"
"Why, what's going to happen to him?" Silver queried with a panicked tone. "Answer me Vic-!"
"Same thing that happened to everyone else who worked in this accursed site!", Victor cried.
"Davies?"
"Victor Davies, that was his full name"
Tails tipped his head back, trying to recount his crew research study.
"MAFD...", he whispered to himself.
"What?" Blaze asked.
"Mobian Alliance For Diversity," Tails continued, "Small company up-side that puts Mobians in human working environments, as a way to raise diversity in less 'mob-ish' areas"
"Interesting," Blaze said. She took a look at the edge of her new sleeves. A small eagle-looking logo with the words MAFD Approved was written just above the seams. "Nothing wrong with wearing the clothes of a diversity hire", she noted.
"Discharged diversity hire," Tails corrected her with a murmur, "was forced to leave the site after getting in a scuffle with his supervisor"
He leaned his head leftwards, giving Blaze a calming stare.
"He stabbed through both her eyes with a screwdriver."
"Dear," Blaze sputtered with shock. The urge to rip off her newfound clothes blossomed within her. Nobody wanted to wear the clothes of a deranged lunatic.
"Don't fret it," Tails seemed to read her mind. "The crew gets a new change of clothes every week, I don't think this Vic guy even got a new chance to try on anything before getting fired."
Blaze hopped off the chair. "Did he get arrested?" she asked.
"From the look of things, I don't think he even left the facility, record data stops just right after he was let go," Tails continued. "I think that's when everything went to hell by the looks of it".
Blaze buried her hands into the pockets of her jeans. She could feel a small tremble begin to make its way up her nerves. Some new terror from the horizon had unmasked itself in the deep trenches of this facility.
"Tails, what happened to everyone here?"
Many meters from their position, an empty cabin, belonging to an absent Zach Johnson, imploded. Reinforced walls of steel bent outwards, screws and bolts dashed out of their holes and sped down the hallway. Various contents of the room, beds, picture frames, gifts from home, splattered out, and struck the walls with such tremendous force. The smallest piece of splinter became as dangerous as a speeding bullet from an oiled barrel. Broken shards became spiraling projectiles bouncing around the scene. One could've sworn that there was some angry apparition, ripping the room limb from limb until there was nothing left.
The duo was nowhere near unaffected by the proceeded shockwave. Tails lept off his tool-box, causing it to tumble to the ground and release its contents in a clanging burst of sparks. A metal wrench fell by his right boot.
He gripped his fists and opened his eyes in dismaying shock. A new sense of awe possessed the young orange fox. He backed off a bit from the noise's source, clenching his teeth in bitter anticipation.
"I think we're about to find out," he muttered.
A closer room shattered to nothingness