The next morning...
"Huuuuuhhhhhhh..." Connie groaned as she sat up, rubbing the back of her neck. Her hand came away coated with dust, and she stared at it, confused for a moment. A quick glance towards Pearl seemed to clear it up for her, and she sighed as she remembered the past few days of steady walking.
With a groan, Steven rolled over. Suddenly, he sat up coughing and hacking.
"Steven?!" Amethyst jumped up and rubbed his back. "You okay, dude?"
Finally, Steven nodded, gasping slightly. "Yeah... breathed in dust..." he wheezed.
As he caught his breath, Connie glanced around the room, taking notice of things she didn't register in her exhausted state the previous day. "I guess Pearl must have spent some time here, before the war..."
Steven and Amethyst both looked at her, Amethyst's eyes darting to check on Pearl. "Why d'ya reckon that?"
Connie shrugged and pointed at the faded pink diamond symbol on the opposite wall. "Just a guess."
"I gotta pee..." Steven blushed.
Amethyst rubbed her neck. "I don't even know if there's a bathroom here... It is a gem building..." Kneeling down, she tapped Pearl's shoulder. "Hey, Pearl." she said softly. "I don't suppose you could show us where the bathroom is?"
As Pearl's eyes stared blankly ahead, Amethyst wiggled her fingers in front of them. "Hello? Anyone alive in there?"
"I think she's catatonic..." Connie murmured softly.
Amethyst sighed in frustration. "Okay... I guess she's fine here. She doesn't seem to want to go anywhere anymore. Let's find you guys a garbage bin, or something..." she grunted, standing.
Amethyst walked towards the opposite end of the hallway. "Just checking what's up here... You two check these rooms."
As Amethyst went around the corner, Steven and Connie each picked a door, tapping the small pads next to them with a nod at each other.
"Hmm... This looks like an office. A bit small though, there's barely enough room for that desk..." Connie added.
Steven nodded. "A buncha crates, I think. And cobwebs."
Connie shook her head. "I'm not peeing anywhere near spiders."
Steven checked the only other room. "And that's a very large spider. Nope." he said simply, closing the door.
Amethyst returned. "Nah, just the roof. I guess, in a pinch, you could go up there... But let's keep looking, just in case."
After a brief pause, Amethyst made the warp go down one level. "I... I just thought, down one." she explained with a blush.
"These look like office cubicles." Connie glanced around at the barely visible interior, the light through the windows diffused by the thick grime coating them.
Amethyst stepped forward and had a quick look around. "Man, not even a little bin. What kinda neat freaks were these gems?"
"Pearls, maybe?" Steven shrugged.
Amethyst paused. "Hehehe. You're probably right." she chuckled. "Well, if Pearl worked here at some point, she'd probably hate if you messed it up. Well, not that anyone would notice right now..." she added, shaking the dust from her long hair and tying it back with a knot. "Let's try the next floor."
Floor after floor, they encountered workstations and cubicles. There was even what briefly looked like a water cooler, sadly empty, in a corner near the warp.
"Man, I bet that thing saw a lot of gossip back in the day..." Amethyst mused as she sent them down again.
Connie looked around. "And this is where we came in."
Steven twisted a little. "I really hope we find somewhere soon..." he muttered, clearly uncomfortable.
Connie grimaced. "Yeah, I'm not sure I can hold much longer..."
Amethyst sighed. "Well, I guess you could make a run for the forest with a couple of shields... Let me just check if there's any more floors."
They appeared in a large room filled with shelves. Blocky items filled each one, and they could faintly see flashes of different colours under the dust.
"Hey, looks like a library!" Connie exclaimed.
Steven grinned. "I wanna read them all... but first, pee..." he jiggled slightly.
Amethyst shook her head. "Nope. Not here. This looks important. Pearl would have a fit. I'll try one more time, then it's the mad dash for ya both."
They found themselves in a long hallway. The dust wasn't as thick down here, but the only lighting came from faint glowing orbs embedded in the walls on either side, and the faint glow of the warp pad beneath their feet. Amethyst stayed on the warp pad for a moment. "Nope, this is as far as it goes. Okay, this is the only place left before we try our luck with the lasery death beams, so... Let's quickly check these rooms."
Splitting up, they each took a room.
"Okay, some sort of weird computer-looking dealy here." Amethyst called. "And something covered up... Probably not a toilet though."
Connie opened her door. "The walls and floor look padded. Some sort of isolation room, maybe?" she mused as Amethyst came up behind her.
"Hmm... Maybe... Steven, any luck?"
Steven looked over. "Uh... I dunno. This one has sinks, and a table. A kitchen, maybe?"
Amethyst and Connie walked over. "That don't make sense. Gems don't need to eat. I only do it cause it's fun. And cause it annoys Pearl, which is a bonus."
Looking into the room, they saw what looked like a dull metal table with deep channels carved into it at certain points, suspended above the floor by a single leg in the middle, with a hinge where the two pieces connected. The floor under the table was covered by a large grate, stained almost black. Around the sides of the room, there were cupboards, and a counter with a large sink embedded in it. On the other side of the room, a door was set into the wall, the alien writing on it filled with dust.
Amethyst shrugged. "Well you'd have to take turns, but you could probably use that sink."
Reaching up, she turned the narrow bar above the sink to the left, and clear water ran out of the tube below it. Tasting it, she smiled. "Yeah, tastes good. It's safe."
"Guys..." Connie nervously spoke up. "I... don't think this is a kitchen..."
The two gems looked back at her. "Huh? Well, what else could it be?" Amethyst asked, looking around as she turned the tap off.
Connie gulped. "It looks kinda like an autopsy room."
The two stared at her.
"Like, dead bodies?" Steven whispered.
Connie nodded. "Maybe... Those channels in the table are for blood to drain away. The sink's for cleaning up afterwards. The grates... that's probably dried blood..."
Steven gulped and stepped away from the table. "Uhh... Amethyst? Why would Pearl even know about a place like this?"
Amethyst shook her head. "I-I don't know..."
Connie pointed at the door with the embedded writing. "What does that say?"
Amethyst looked at it and shrugged. "I dunno. I was never really good at reading Gem... Pearl tried to teach me, but I didn't see the point of learning. I'm... really regretting that now..."
Steven shifted. "Uh... I really, really need to go now... But this room is creepy..."
Amethyst glanced at him. "Okay, um... Let's try a couple more rooms real quick. The sink can be the last option." She led the two out into the hallway.
Connie tapped the next door. "Some sort of control room..." she shook her head and closed the door.
Amethyst opened the next one. "Err... Looks like some prison cells..." she said quietly, unnerved. Turning to leave, she paused. "Wait..."
Steven and Connie watched as Amethyst walked into the room, the lights activating with a flicker as she entered.
Amethyst stepped into a cell and looked down. "Hey, guys?"
"Yeah?" Steven called, walking into the room nervously, now jiggling and holding himself uncomfortably.
"In my experience, a small hole covered by a grate in the floor of a prison cell usually means toilet." she glanced around quickly, then nodded. "I guess this is a good as it gets. Take a cell each. I'll be outside the door when you're done. You can wash your hands back in the creepy room." she moved passed them towards the door.
A few minutes later, Amethyst stopped leaning against the wall as Steven came out of the cell room with a happy smile. "All good, dude?"
Steven nodded. "Yeah. Just need to wash my hands."
Amethyst nodded. "'Kay. Let's wait for Connie first, though. This place gives me the creeps, and I don't want to go too far from either one of you..."
Just then, Connie came back, tucking her shirt back in with a blush.
"Okay, hands." Amethyst nodded.
As the two washed their hands, Connie saw a strange device attached to the wall behind it. "I wonder what this is?" she asked, tapping it.
Suddenly, a strange orange fluid came out of it, coating her hands.
Connie gave a little shriek of surprise.
"Connie! You okay?" Amethyst asked, darting behind her with concern.
Connie moved the fluid around her fingers, and gave it a small sniff. "Yeah... This smells a little like disinfectant..." Shrugging, she rubbed it around her hands and then washed it off. After a moment, Steven tapped the device and collected some of it himself.
Amethyst shook her head with amusement. "Usually, I'm the one trying out strange things for the heck of it." She reached out and took a small amount of it herself, licking it off her hand. "Ugh... tastes like disinfectant..."
"My hands feel cleaner than they have in days..." Connie sighed happily.
Amethyst watched as they turned the water off. "Hmm... Wait here guys, I'll be right back."
Steven and Connie watched her run out of the room, and glanced at each other nervously. "I dunno..."
"We could probably give our teeth a quick brush while we wait..." Connie turned the tap back on, wetting her finger and rubbing it along her teeth. Steven nodded and did the same.
A couple of minutes later, Amethyst returned, holding their two empty water bottles. "That water's pretty fresh and tastes clean. I don't wanna have to mess with Pearl like that again, so..." She waited until they moved before holding a bottle under the water. "Okay, I think humans can go, like... a month or whatever, without food, before anything permanent happens, so as long as we have water, you should be fine for now. Not happy, sure, but you'll live."
Steven groaned. "I hope Pearl wakes up soon..."
"Me too, Ste-man..." Amethyst said quietly, handing him the first bottle. "If all else fails, I can turn into a bird and fly above the lasers..."
Steven shook his head. "But, what if you get hit? I don't wanna risk losing you..."
Amethyst gave him a quick hug. "That can be plan... R, okay?"
Quietly, the two kids waited as she filled the bottles up. They each drained the first refill quickly, and Amethyst sighed as she refilled them again.
As Connie waited, she started to explore the room slightly. Curiously, she approached the door, running her fingers over the writing seemingly carved into it. "I wonder what's in here..." she mused.
Glancing back at Steven holding his mouth under the tap, she shrugged. Tapping the pad, she watched the door slide open and a thick cold mist poured out of it. As it cleared, she gave a bloodcurdling scream.