Earth Warriors (Undergoing Revision)

Chapter 125 - Darkness, Dreams and Lucidity

Roughly around the same time. Unknown place. 

What? What is this place...? 

Julian's eyes open wide, wide enough to show the whites of it while he takes some deep breaths and clutches to his chest as his eyes glance at every corner of the place, one that seems a bit distant to the one he tends to see from before. Dim, flickering lights on the ceiling cast long and distorted shadows that seemingly line up well across the wide hallways that are in front of Julian. Not helped are the walls with hues of faint apple green, ones that work in choking the user out. 

Not helping matters is the low, guttural hum echoing across the corridor of the seemingly endless passages of the hallway, ones that are accompanied by distant echoes of uncertain sounds in every direction, even within Julian as he starts walking what's in front of him. The more he walks, the more the walls remain the same faint color, the same lifeless tone and look that spread around each corner of the room. No matter how loud or wider each step he takes every time he increases his speed, everything remains the same, a static purgatory of something empty. 

Where's everyone? Rita? Rian? Anyone here?! 

Julian's breathing gets rapid with every passing second, as the walls now reveal chained-up doors marked like Xs, ones with the same colors as the rest of the clear beige, with one doorknob on the left side of it, and even as Julian sprints as much as he can, it all looks the same to him, nothing but cold chains that leave him trapped in this cold room on his own, no other way around it, not even any vents or trap doors to go through, only an endless room with nothing else but chains and Julian. 

More and more, his leg muscles tighten the faster he goes, his shoulders remain tight, the tendons pulsating a lot in the neck, trembling chins, rapid blinking at every passing second and everything in-between that only fuels what Julian seeks right now, something that most would want in something like this. 

I have to... I must go out, I don't want them to die! 

The need to find it only grows higher by every second, even if the chained doors multiply by a lot, Julian still keeps going, all for that one hope to find the one that would allow him to get away from this soulless place. 

Then, within the blink of an eye, a dim light shows one particular door right on the very edge of the room in front of Julian, one that lacks any chains that prevent it from getting open. 

It's there. The exit Julian is looking for is there. 

With that in mind, Julian sprints with all the speed he can muster toward the unchained door, panting as long he can as his mind rushes toward everything he wants to try once he gets out, and just perhaps, forget all of it as well, enough to slightly smile about it. 

But as he presses the doorknob and pushes the door away, the other side is something that is enough to make him drop his smile, and stand frozen over what's in sight, a sight that is enough to make him tremble a bit and make his left eye twitch a bit. 

A room that's even more dimly lit, revealing one particular figure lying in front of Julian, all while he gags over a particular odor that dominates the room, and likely stems from what's in the figure itself. 

The figure is one with an identical outlook to someone he had met before, one that had tormented him for a very long while, and now there he was, motionless and breathless. Their flesh is almost skeletal in appearance and wearing only torn-down pants,  as well as dried, matted hair that clings to the withered skull, with a particular hole on the right side of the scalp. One that is identical to that when one is shot. The eyes are fixed in a hollow stare at the distant ceiling, one that can even pierce through the souls of those who witness it if they are not hardened enough.