A/N: Play this for atmosphere: watch?v=wAmpEsS4sh4 (Search this in Google)
"Hmm...I wonder who owned these..." Riven thought as he examined the pair, turning it around.
"I guess they're gone now, judging from the state of things in wherever this place is. They look kinda familiar though..."
While walking out of the room, he turned the glasses so their cracked lenses were facing him. It was then a memory he previously did not have suddenly manifested. He remembered seeing a girl he did not know wearing these. It was hazy, but what was evident was that he was in a crowded hallway that looked similar to the one he previously traversed. It was wider and clean. The faces of the people- no, the people themselves were blurry as well. Looking like silhouettes despite the lighted state of the hallway.
"What the-?" Riven asked himself. Why was he seeing this? Who was that girl? Was she somehow connected to this?
She looked like a schoolgirl judging by her outfit. She looked normal until he glanced at her short hair. It was...some shade of white? Albinism perhaps? He had so many questions...
Her mouth moved. Riven could not hear clearly what she was saying, but what he could comprehend was these:
"...Good luck, Senpai..."
Her soft and sweet voice echoed in his head as the hallway slowly disappeared around him, the mysterious girl being the last thing to fade away. Riven was back again in the ruined hallway. He felt a tear go down his check.
"Why...am I crying? Did...did I know her? I don't understand..."
He wiped off the tear with his hand and looked at the glasses once again, pondering what "senpai" meant. Based on his grasp of "English", he was very sure that word was not a part of the language.
"No use standing around here...but...whoever you are, miss...thank you."
Riven put the glasses in the medical bag and continued down the hallway. Why did he do that? He did not know. Perhaps to keep it as a charm or keepsake as he explored the strange place he was in.
A majority of the doors he found were damaged and jammed. Riven's hopes to find supplies or whatever could be of use were slowly fading as he saw hallway after hallway of doors with red monitors. He wondered about what happened to the occupants of this...chamber? Complex? Bunker? Surely by the state of the area, they were all probably dead. Or maybe they evacuated the place in a hurry, leaving him behind for some reason. Maybe they forgot about him by accident? If so, then what were they running from?
Eventually he came across a rather large hallway. Judging from the derelict benches on the sides, it appeared that this was a main hallway of sorts. It was once again illuminated by old, still-functioning emergency lights. Bright enough so he could see.
The center of the hallway was blocked by a large amount of rubble caused possibly by the collapsed ceiling. Three large rocks which were supposed to have fallen through the hole were blocked from doing so by the pile. Riven assumed that he was going to have to go around it somehow as he sighed in exasperation.
"Looks like more walking for me. At least I haven't run into anything dangerous...yet."
Once again, Riven found that a majority of the doors were damaged, except for the two big ones at his end of the hallway. The monitors were green, signalling their functionality.
Riven walked over to the monitor on the right. The floor, he noticed, seemed to be covered in a layer of ash. Upon pressing the [OPEN] button, the doors creaked open.
The room the door opened to seemed to have some sort of concierge area. The glass separating the visitors and the employees was cracked completely open. The office desks were all charred and some had broken apart. There were knocked down office chairs strewn about the concierge section. The "visitors'" section was just as ashy as the previous hallway, the waiting benches looking somewhat melted.
There were two doors leading to the left and right. Near the left was a faded sign that read: "Offices/Administrative Sector". The other, which was more faded but still legible, read: "Central Control Room/Conference Room/Other Facilities". Riven tried the left door, only to be met by a collapsed hallway.
"Ah. Well I guess it's the other one it is then."
Riven turned around and made his way to the right door. The monitor was green, so he proceeded in. The hallway itself was lined once again with some damaged doors as he walked past each of the glowing red monitors. The ash was getting slightly thicker as he walked to the only working door at the end of the hallway.
Riven opened the door, which creaked as it revealed what appeared to be a large amphitheater-styled room. The seats all had computers in front of them, most of which were totaled or damaged to be of any obvious use. There was also a large, shattered glass window in front of the seats that was close to the ceiling.
"Ok. So I'm going to assume that this is the Conference Room...does that mean that window is the Central Control Center? Maybe I can find a map or something so I can get out of whatever this place is."
He walked towards the seats. The computers and the chairs were all covered in ash. He made his way to the center of half-oval Conference Room. There were two doors again. Riven was relieved to find out they were functional, and discovered that both doors led to another room which was where the stairs to the second floor was located. It was largely empty, so he proceeded to climb up the stairs.
The door was left open. Riven entered the ashy room to find some shards of glass near the window, a large metal slab-like table connected to the left wall, and some desks and unopened lockers. A normally-hinged door was there as well. It seemed that some of the furniture there (The lockers and desks especially) were turned over and quite close to the door. It appeared that someone was trying to push them to block it, but then gave up.
Riven got to work trying to open the lockers. There was a steel bar lying in the thin ash that he used to smash the hinges of the lockers. Inside them was an old trenchcoat, and a black uniform that consisted of a black, long-sleeved polo shirt, black pants, and black boots. There was also a big, faded white messenger bag.
"Ugh. At least I can get out of this outfit already," Riven thought as he took the clothes and put it in the bag. He wore the bag opposite his medical pouch (The bag on the left, the pouch on the right).
He looked at the hinged door and decided to search it. The lock was already broken off so Riven pulled back the door. To his surprise and horror, a skeleton fell out.
"GAH!"
He exclaimed as he stepped back and bumped into the metal table. The skeletal remains looked like it had the remnants of some sort of black and gold clothing on it. Riven noticed a light coming from behind him and promptly turned around. The table was actually a hologram projector!
The image it was showing seemed to be a map of the facility, with a red dot signifying the location of the projector. The hologram flickered now and then, but Riven could see that the only other way out would take a different route. Luckily the route would start from the Conference Room.