Chapter Two : Dreams of Light
… *CRASH!*
The vicious sound of metal hitting metal forced Jake awake, eyes darting around with newfound alertness as he tried to discern the origin of the audible hazard.
He was still in the same room, leaning against the same rusted stairs as before. His mind, although foggy began to put things together, coming to a conclusion as he leaned forward, looking into the pit he had climbed out of…
The colosseum of catwalks had collapsed, a large and unfamiliar chunk of large metal lying near a hole at the bottom, a hole he now realised… he could have fallen into at any time before….
"…. Oh fuck…." He muttered, reality setting in for him as he began to crawl away from the viewpoint, retreating to the safety of the stairs. He could've damn well been killed… what a great thing to wake up to.
He spent a good five minutes contemplating his mortality, before finally gathering the confidence to stand up, moving up the stairs.
The stairs were not too big, comprised of metal, and went upwards in a spiral, not as covered in rust as the rest of the stuff in the room. He tried to look up as he walked up the steps, trying to see if he could spot anything up at the top, it wasn't working.
Feeling neck pain from holding his head up high for so long, he looked down at the dusty, footstep ridden steps as he….. wait a second…
He looked back down at the steps, finding that there were outlines in the dust of shoes, very prominent and recent outlines! He looked up at the upper stairs, finally feeling a spark of hope as he began to race his way up the damaged staircase, hearing the metal groan as he passed by each layer.
After what felt like minutes, he finally reached the top, entering another chamber that was even less rusted than the one before. His eyes immediately went to the floor, spotting more boot outlines in the dust as he began to trail them, not taking any chance of break in case the potential owner of the outlines disappeared in a less dusty area.
"Finally, finally!" He cheered, breaking open a door hanging by only one of its hinges as he kept himself buried in the trail, each new environment becoming more and more maintained.
His footsteps echoed throughout the next hallway he ran through, eventually beginning to slow down as he came face to face… with elevator doors. Never in his life had he been excited to go through an elevator, at least from what he remembered. But here and now? He couldn't be any happier.
He approached the doors, pressing a button on a panel next to the door as it dinged, coming to life with lights. He looked above the doors, watching a small display light up with numbers, numbers that were slowly falling.
He waited for what felt like was an hour, bouncing with excitement at the thought of leaving this place. Sure, he hadn't been there long, but this place was rusty, broken, dilapidated, and practically falling in on itself, anywhere else was better.
The elevator dinged again as he let out a sigh of relief, watching the doors slowly open….
The interior was empty, missing a few tiles, and looking at the panel as he stepped in, only able to travel between his floor and two others due to broken buttons. He'd take it nonetheless, pressing the less dusty button of the two as the doors closed and the elevator began to whirr.
He tapped his feet against the floor, fidgeting with his hands as he eagerly awaited for the doors to open, excitement plastered on his face. This was it, freedom from this strange and otherwise terrifying place he woke up in.
… *Ding!*
The doors slowly opened to… a walkway, completely clean and well maintained with a new and sleek black paintjob. He'd done it, he'd found his way out of rusted hell. He walked out of the elevator with pride, too focused on his victory to realise that the same unknown language on the metal pod was all over the walls, stepping out into a large dome with….. floating… structures?...
He didn't dare look over the edge of the walkway, following it religiously out of fear of falling off and into whatever was below. The hope was less prominent on his face, weariness replacing a good half of it as he made his way around, looking for any sign of life in this confusing mess of a facility.
After some more trudging around and careful jumping from platform to platform, he finally spotted something he feared he'd never see again… movement.
Spotting something on a platform above, his renewed sense of hope allowed him to scale what he could only assume was scaffolding, his lack of any good nutrition in the last few hours and unknown time before that kicking in the moment he pulled himself onto the higher platform, taking a second to catch his breath as he almost crawled along the ground to get to a small box, using it to get back onto his feet after a good few inhales.
Feeling that he was able to walk again, he pushed himself off the box, moving past a nearby wall and… there it was….. a real human being…
Blinded by the hope of meeting another person in this confusing environment, he excitedly began to speed towards the shorter person.
"H-Hey! O-Oh my god! A-Another person! You have no idea how lonely this place has been!" He excitedly rambled, catching the attention of the other person as they began to turn around.
Jake opened his arms in glee, finally feeling like he was going to be okay… when a single detail on the other individual caught his attention. The other person, who he quickly identified to be a moderately tall girl wearing… oddly revealing clothing and some nice shades, had this… odd bulbous mass on her head…
He immediately began to slow down, stopping good ten feet from the girl, who just like he had her, inspected his appearance. He couldn't help but blush, knowing very well that he was entirely dressed in short shorts, and that everything else was bare.
The silence was deafening, and Jake had begun moving backwards out of concern for his wellbeing. Stranger danger after all…
After what felt like five minutes, the girl reacted, pulling out what he could only assume was a gun as not a second later, he was hit in the eye with a searing pain.
"A-Aghhh! M-My eyeeee! O-Oh god! F-Fuck!" He yelled, flailing around wildly as his hands covered his vision, trying to cradle his blood covered eye.
The girl watched him stumble around, randomly spouting lines of pain before he collapsed onto his knees, desperately trying to keep the red fluid inside his head. His entire body shook with pain and fear, his eye not working as all he could see was red.
"W-WHY!? I DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!" He screamed, managing to uncover his unharmed eye as he stared up at the girl, his eye landing on the gun and its… oddly plasticky barrel… and… tube on top… full of something red…
Like a switch in his head, reality hit him like a ton of bricks as he lowered his hands, comparing the red substance on them, and then the gun…..
The pain, which he could now tell was false, faded immediately as he realised that what he thought was a bullet piercing his skull… turned out to be paint…
He sat there, at a loss for words as the girl lost composure, letting out an odd and liquid filled giggle, as if she was underwater. What the hell was going on? Jake wondered, trying to figure out a way to explain the odd girl's strange look and behaviours… to getting over the embarrassment of thinking he'd been mortally wounded.
One thing was for sure… this was only the beginning….
BAM! Talk about an eventful chapter eh? Again, open to any criticism, and glad the first chapter weas well received, chiao.