After arriving in a new town with his mother and sister, 18-year-old Daniel finds a mysterious corridor under his new house, and beyond it, a mysterious old man who traps him on the other side. There, Daniel finds another dimension filled with nothi...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Daniel's eyes opened to the pure darkness that surrounded him. A place he didn't even know how he found himself in, as his memory felt shattered. A dark yet curvy tunnel leading to swimmingly nowhere. He was lying on the ground in a little pit of moist mud. It wasn't watery but the absence of water in the wasteland made the soil here an extremely refreshing experience.
-Wasteland? - he thought about taking the hammer he used to smash the crystal. The memories came back. Everything was crystal clear again. His surroundings were dark, yet he saw the railroad leading down the tunnel. They were here this time, not only in his mind but in front of his eyes. A cart stood just beside him, empty. The only thing that stood out to him was Roth, who was nowhere to be seen. Daniel stood up, dazzled and dirty, as he saw a body. Bashed into the lower part of the tunnel wall, making it almost hidden in the cavity it created. A single yellow flashlight rested near its loose hand. Daniel walked up closer in fear. Took the flashlight, and lit it up. He couldn't see the body's face, but in the unsteady beam of light, he eventually saw that it wasn't Roth. It was the man who came to fight them alongside the prophet. "Randal", the patch on his uniform said. Daniel felt relief, as his friend could be out there somewhere, but the initial fear he had just kept growing. The man's eyes were clogged in dark blue gunge. The look on his face with his mouth wide open like the man screamed his own soul out loud tearing and ripping his throat along its way.
Daniel looked at the body thinking about the danger he was facing right now. Roth, The Prophet, that thing that killed this man. Any of them could be somewhere around the corner in this never-ending mine tunnel leading somewhere he didn't think he was ready to go.
Roth was heavily injured just before this happened, and that made one thing clear. Daniel needed to find him. Find him before the monster will.
He moved across the tunnel, following its linear path until the first fork. Three new paths he could take. He remembered this sensation pretty well. The railroad appeared sometimes for him to follow. Are these the same things, now looming before his eyes? Looking at the junction he realized there was only one way he could go in, which is down. He stuck to his own tracks going along their set path. He rebelled against them before, in his head, yet at this moment he needed their support and guidance. He needed to go somewhere, and so he did.
Time didn't feel right here. Daniel felt like he was going in circles following the railroad. Was it five minutes, or was it an hour? The ground felt slightly steep, which meant for him that he must be descending somewhere, yet he didn't know where exactly. The surrounding walls didn't change for all the time he had spent here. Yet he felt drawn to keep going forward. The railroad led him so far.
At the same time, he thought that maybe he messed up, by hitting that crystal. Maybe he destroyed the world. He didn't have any clue what it was for. What was his purpose? What was the corridor's purpose?
His mind suddenly stopped.
On the right stoney wall he followed he noticed a bloody handprint. Looks like someone stood up in this place and went down the tunnel just like Daniel. The handprint was smudged in the direction he was heading. On the ground, the blood turned into a trail of small stains which he followed.
He walked and walked, almost mindlessly, with his brain desperate to find someone or something that wasn't part of that same tunnel he walked in. In this rapid walk, he bumped into a person. He fell to the ground confused, and so did the other one. They shared a look at each other. It was Raven. The bandage on her head fell off and her head was bleeding again.
-What are you doing here? - she asked, but her voice wasn't stable. Daniel didn't answer. In that moment he realized that this is not the people in the basement that were transported here from the wasteland. This is the wasteland now. The whole world on the other side of the corridor has changed into this. That didn't make sense to Daniel, but it was the truth, he saw in front of him right now. What about his world? Did it change too? There was no time to think about it right now. He tried to calm his nerves.
-Where are we? - Daniel asked.
-I can only guess. - she replied. They stood up, brushing off their clothes from the filth they'd been covered with.
-Is your head...
-I'm fine. - she replied abruptly when on the left side of the tunnel a bright white light appeared. A door to a place that looked different. Daniel looked in wonder, yet Raven looked in shock. She recognized it. As Daniel closed in to see what it was, Raven stopped him grabbing his shoulder.
-You don't wanna go in there. - Daniel threw off her hand and entered anyway. Raven knew that place very well. With that, she also understood where they were.
The Point Zero. A place the Prophet found when he entered the corridor for the first time.
END OF CHAPTER
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
