Fade (Walker #74033 fanfiction) Book 1

Chapter 5

The rest of that day wasn't particularly eventful. Jevden had fallen asleep for a few hours, only to awake to a darkened room. He hadn't bothered to turn on the light and found that the sun had disappeared behind a dark cloud, spilling shadows through the window. He sat up groggily and peeked out of the hall, noticing how quiet everything was. Shaking his head to clear the fog, Jevden picked up the mask sitting on his dresser and pulled it over his face. It was surprisingly comfortable. While it had straps that went around his ears, he found that barely felt them at all. It was also breathable and conformed to whatever expression he made with his face.

He stuffed his hands into the sweatshirt's pockets and discovered that one of them wasn't empty. Jevden pulled out the object and realized it was one of the digital messaging devices he'd seen some of the Walkers using. He tapped on the screen curiously and it blazed to life bringing him straight to the online network. Scrolling through some pages, he saw this was where you could post anything you wanted to talk about. This seemed convenient if the person you were conversing with was on the complete other side of the Compound. He'd be sure to check it out further, but now he wasn't interested. He was more focused on exploring the community base. Dropping the device into his pocket, he walked out of the room and started down the hall with no particular direction in mind.

Jevden went back down to the third floor and found himself getting lost in the series of hallways rather quickly. He glanced back and forth, trying to find someone in the near vicinity, but no one was around. He was just starting to panic, when he remembered the device and took it back out of his pocket. There was probably someone on the network who could get him back to the lobby. But before he could make a post, he saw that the platform wasn't the only thing on the device. Jevden switched it to the other app and to his immense relief discovered it was a map system. It was already zoomed in on the hallway he was in with a blue dot marking his position, and his ID floating just above it. He grinned, now gaining his bearings, and zoomed the map out until he could see about half of the floor he was on, and continued walking.

There was a lot to see when he got down to the lobby. Besides the rooms where Walkers were working on the computers, there were multiple break areas, with tables, chairs, and couches in various tints of blue and white. He passed by two doors that led into what looked like a stadium, and multiple areas where Walkers were playing games. The one that attracted the most attention was the Aviation Game, but Jevden couldn't see what was going on because of the crowd. He moved around the best he could, trying to get a good angle, but at best he was only able to see the large screens. It depicted one of the AVI-8 drones being maneuvered past obstacles that were colored bright red. The landscape itself looked like a blue synthwave that he'd seen in a video before. Two players seemed to be in a heated competition and Jevden could see how good they were at mastering the game, moving their drones with quick precision past the various barriers and blocks.

There was a small group around them, egging them on with wild enthusiasm. Then, without warning, one of the drones swerved to the right to avoid an obstacle before being hit by another. The group cheered the winner, laughing at how close the game was. Jevden had never seen anything like that before and made a mental note to try it himself in the future. The last place he went to was the cafeteria, where they were serving the food. He'd been so invested with the Compound that he'd nearly forgotten that he skipped lunch, and he became aware that he was starving.

The room was a little smaller than the main lobby, but still big enough to house the multiple Walkers sitting down, eating and chatting. Jevden still couldn't get over how many Walkers really were part of the community. He placed an order for a sandwich, fries, and drink, not feeling like getting anything major, and glanced around in an attempt to see how many Walkers were in the cafeteria. He lost count as the food came, so he pushed the thought out of his mind and walked back out, looking for a break room that was empty. Jevden wasn't particularly in the mood to talk to anyone, so he found one by the game area that was vacant and sat down to eat.