atomherrerin

They walked out into a tiny yellow room.

“What the hell is this?” Kurogane yelled in frustration.

“It’s supposed to be,” Syaoran consulted the map, “the ‘Fundamental Experimentation Area’.” He looked around in confusion, “But it’s too small.”

They were in a tiny room with a low ceiling, made of big concrete blocks that had been painted a bright yellow. There was a little pile of strange-looking bricks in the corner and long metal beams lying scattered on the floor. Most alarmingly, there didn’t seem to be a door.

“Wait.” Syaoran said, inspecting the map again. “This looks like one of those little doors inside these squares here, numbers 15, 16 and 17.”

“Well that doesn’t help the fact that we are in a ROOM WITH NO DOOR.” Kurogane’s patience was close to being completely shot, but he immediately regretted his outburst when he saw Syaoran flinch. “Sorry,” he mumbled and sighed, “There has to be a way out of here.” He walked up to the wall and started to push. With a good push, Kurogane could break through a plaster or wooden wall easily, but this thick concrete wasn’t even budging. After trying a few blocks, he pushed on one that budged just slightly. Kurogane concentrated his force on one side and the block swung slowly open revealing a much larger room outside. It had a roof made of corrugated aluminum that stood 40 feet off the floor, making it impossible to reach. There were two other yellow concrete rooms sitting next to the one they had come out of. On the other side of the rooms was a long enclosure that they couldn’t see inside of.

“So in here,” Syaoran walked over to the next room and pulled the concrete door open by the handle, “should be door 16.” He walked in and leaned against the wall next to the teleport door.

“You ok kids?” Kurogane walked into the little room.

“I…I would be lying if I said yes.” Syaoran sank down to the floor next to the teleport. “I feel sick.” He put his head between his knees. “I can’t even think straight.”

“Well how do I turn this thing on? And we’ll get out of here.” Kurogane approached the metal box next to the door.

“Just push the button under that plastic thing.” Syaoran waved his hand vaguely.

Kurogane pushed the button and the door came to life with a hiss. He knelt down and to look at Syaoran. He was pale and looked like he might vomit at any second. “Let’s just … rest for a few minutes.” Kurogane sat down next to him. Too many more teleports and Syaoran would be in serious trouble. Kurogane somehow had to get Syaoran back to Fai and Sakura, but needed to get lucky with these stupid doors.

Just then there was a loud, wailing siren inside the room. Syaoran was so startled, he looked like he was about to cry and threw his hands over his ears in panic. Kurogane looked frantically around for the source of the alarm. Overhead there was a flashing screen that read ‘GAS WARNING’. Kurogane didn’t know what exactly that meant but it couldn’t be good. He grabbed Syaoran by the shoulders, hoisting him up and out of the room as fast as possible.

Once they were out of the room they immediately saw the cause of the alarm. A pipe between them and the only visible door out was burst and was hissing an invisible gas of some sort. Kurogane couldn’t smell or see any gas, but he could feel the air around him thinning, making it much more difficult to breathe. Next to him Syaoran was gasping for air. “Hold your breath kid, that’s the only way out.” He put Syaoran’s arm around his shoulder and ducked under the hissing pipe to the other side. He shoved the door open and pulled them through, pushing it closed behind them. Before them was a long corridor, which concrete on 3 sides and a grate on the floor with a long metal pipe running right down the middle. Kurogane hurried along the corridor, carrying an only half-conscious Syaoran along with him.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kurogane made it to the door at the other end and shoved it open. What was on the other side was like nothing he had ever seen before.

What immediately met the eye was a small square room with a giant cylindrical metal monster in the middle. It bulged out on the sides and had a glass tube running through the center. It towered above Kurogane and filled up the whole top half of the room. As intimidating as this structure was, it paled in comparison to what Kurogane saw when he looked down. Through the metal grate he stood on, he saw what looked like a bottomless pit falling down beneath them. There were a few more grates on the floors below, but after that it just went down into darkness, the giant cylinder going down with it. To Kurogane’s eyes it looked like a massive metal serpent that rose out of the dark depths to feed on the death and destruction encased in this concrete tomb.

The only other thing in the room was a set of ladder-like stairs and a teleport door.

Syaoran pulled away from Kurogane and fell to the floor. He quickly grabbed a metal container and threw up in it. His small frame shook as he heaved and coughed. After a few moments the coughing subsided and he lay his head on the concrete wall, just trying to breathe. Kurogane looked down the stairs. There was another door down there, but he had to get Syaoran back to Fai and Sakura as soon as possible. He decided to go back and turn on the door. While it warmed, he knelt down and tried talk to Syaoran.

“Kurogane … my head hurts so much.” Syaoran was nearly in tears. Kurogane had never seen him so distressed.

“Ok we’re gonna go back now.” Kurogane scoped him up and carried him through the door.

~~~

It must have been the blessing of the gods, but Kurogane was incredibly relieved to see Fai and Sakura on the other side of that door. He lay Syaoran down on the floor. He was only half-conscious and was shaking.

“Oh god.” Fai knelt down next to Syaoran and put the back of his hand to Syaoran’s cheeks. He was freezing cold and pale. Kurogane sunk down to the floor across from them, trying to stop his head from throbbing. Fai looked back over at Kurogane in alarm.

“He’ll be ok in a while, right?” Sakura looked up at Fai in fear.

“Yes, I think he’ll be fine. He just needs to stay here, and out of the magnetic field.” Fai reassured her. Sakura folded her coat up and put it under Syaoran’s head. “Well,” Fai said, looking over a Kurogane, “at least we got another door open, hopefully,” he tried to smile, “in a more hospitable location.”

Fai turned to Kurogane and just looked at him for a minute. He wanted to say ‘Let’s stop, Let’s find some other way to do this.’ Anything to keep Kurogane from going back in there. He couldn’t think of anything and grimaced when he saw Kurogane stand walk towards the doors.

“Sakura, look after Syaoran, we’ll be back as soon as we can.” Fai stood up and walked over to stand next to Kurogane.

“Which door?” Kurogane asked.

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