The woman lifted the now very heavy backpack and placed it down on the table, "I put some extra stuff in there, free of charge. You got all of that?"
Thomas nodded before picking up the backpack with ease and setting it next to him on the ground.
"Do you have a map?" Thomas asked, leaning on the table.
"What level? We have level 1 through 161." the woman said, shuffling through a couple of papers with scribbled on them."
"All of 'em." Thomas said.
The woman only nodded and shuffled through the papers, before pulling out a stack of them and handing them to Thomas. He took them with a nod.
"Huddle around." He said, placing the paper that said, "Level 2" on the top of the stack.
The group huddled around Thomas and the paper, each of them having a clear view of it.
"Okay look, the closest exit is a small walk, we take this path, speed past any monsters, and get to the elevator that goes to level 4." Thomas said, point out the route.
"Level 4? But we're on level 2, wouldn't we go to level 3?" Arny asked.
"The Backrooms are a maze, anything can take you anywhere, it doesn't have to be in chronological order." Thomas explained.
"Like a door in level 4 could lead to level 39." Apollo added on.
"Or a door in level 65 could lead back to level 0." Dr. Tanaka stated.
"Same with safety, level 35 might be the safest level but level 34 might literally be hell." Imani said.
"Anyway, let's get back on track. If this path is blocked, we'll take a turn here." Thomas pointed to a corner that was just outside a circle labeled, "L.I.D".
"Then we'll go through this hall and quickly get to the elevator. Under no costs will we go to these stairs." Thomas pointed to stairs that were on the way to the elevator.
"Why not?" Arny asked.
"That leads to level 3, and if we go to level 3, we aren't coming back out." Thomas informed, taking the pen from earlier and crossing the stairs out.
"Level 3 is one of the most dangerous levels out there. It has many supplies but twice as many entities, we're better off trading for supplies." Thomas placed down the pen and switched the papers so the paper titled, "Level 4" was on top.
"Level 4, we want to make sure not to skip this level. It has great amounts of almond water and almond water keeps you hydrated and for some unexplained reason, sane."
"It also has a lot of colonies which has the potential of being good or bad. There aren't a lot of entities besides hounds and a couple of smilers."
"We'll take this route, it's easy to navigate. If we need to, we'll rest here." Thomas pointed to a spot on the map.
"I got all of it." Blaise said from behind them, rushing towards the table and placing the bag down.
"Is that everything?" Thomas asked, unzipping the bag and taking a peek inside.
"It's everything."
Thomas nodded in acknowledgment.
"The colony is getting ready for curfew, if you want to rest here, follow me." Blaise instructed, walking down the hall.
Everyone followed except for Arny, who stayed behind at the table.
"Are you not coming?" Blaise asked, glancing to Arny.
"No... I think I'll have a walk around the camp for a few, I'll come back when I'm ready." Arny says, pushing up from the table.
"You sure? You haven't slept in a while, and it's starting to show." Thomas pointed out bags that were starting to form under Arny's eyes.
"Why? Do you care about me or something?" Arny teased.
"No. If someone attacks you and you're to sleep deprived to fight back, we're not coming back for you." Thomas stated.
"Don't worry about it." Arny rolled his eyes, "I'll be back."
Arny walked past the group, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Wait. I'll come with you." Imani called from behind him, jogging to keep up. Arny stopped, allowing Imani to reach him.
"Here." Dr. Tanaka called from behind. They both turned towards her.
"Take these with you." She threw the two almond waters she was holding towards Arny and Imani. Arny caught both with two hands and handed one to Imani.
"Be back in two hours." Thomas called.
Arny did a two finger salute before walking on with Imani by his side.
The walk was quiet, except for the buzzing lights and humming pipes.
They were walking for a few minutes now in silence, keeping clear of any gun men or people that might have been walking up past curfew.
Arny couldn't help but look at the rusted pipes on the walls. He was tired of the sight already.
"I can't wait to get out of here." He said, mostly to himself, but Imani heard what said.
"Same. I can't wait to finally see the world." Imani responded, looking at the pipes too.
"What do you miss most about it?" Arny asked to ease the awkward silence.
"I don't know. Haven't been." Imani said, getting quieter.
"Wait. What do you mean by that?" Arny asked, his eyes focusing on Imani.
"I haven't seen the world. I was born here." She said simply,
"You were born here? In the Backrooms." Arny questioned on.
"Yeah." She said, her voice cracking just a little, but Arny caught it.
"That just means there will be more to show when we get back." He smiled, Imani smiled with him.
The pair fell into a more comfortable silence as they walked down the pipe filled hall. A few more seconds flew by, before Arny saw something that caught his eye.
In the distance, he could see a flutter of a wing. He stopped Imani from going any further. Arny silently pointed to where the fluttering came from.
Imani's eyes went wide when she saw the flutter too.
"Let's get closer." Imani whispered, before walking towards the fluttering before Arny could stop her. He groaned and reluctantly followed.
When he got to Imani, she was crouched down near a low hanging pipe.
"It's a male Deathmoth, Thomas told me about these things." Imani said, keeping her eyes on the entity.
Arny could see the entity more clearly now. It was a moth. But a thousand times bigger. It was a little bit bigger than an eagle.
"What is that?" Arny asked.
"Don't worry, male Deathmoths are friendly, you can even tame them!" Imani said, picking up her almond water she had placed on the ground.
"Deathmoths, friendly? That is extremely misleading." Arny joked, but soon grew serious as Imani jumped over the pipe and started slowly approaching the moth.
Arny soon jumped up to run and quickly get Imani to hide behind the pipes again, but the moth was already looking at the pair. Arny froze.
Imani, however, twisted the bottle cap to her water and poured some in the cap before advancing slowly, holding out the water.
The moth flew back, unsure of what she was holding out. But after a while it started to approach the cap Imani held.
Slowly, it came up to the cap and started to drink it. It wasn't long after the moth had drank all the water in the cap and was fluttering his wings happily, asking for more.
"See, he's friendly!" Imani called, grabbing Arny's wrist and pulling him forward.
Imani carefully poured more water into the cap and handed it off to Arny.
"Are you sure this is a good ide-" but he was interpreted by the moth flying towards him and gulping down the water.
Arny stretched his arm as far from his body as possible as he could.
"I'm going to to name him Razz!" Imani exclaimed, a big smile forming on her face.
"Now wait a minute, I don't think we can just do that." Arny said, quickly giving back the cap to Imani once the moth backed away.
"What if the thing attacks us?" He back away from the moth, looking the entity up and down.
"Oh c'mon, we gave him some water, he trusts us now! We can't just leave him out here to fend for himself."
"Oh yes we can!" Arny said, grabbing Imani's wrist and pulling her away from the Deathmoth, but the moth only followed. Arny groaned in annoyance.
"No! You can't come with us. Shoe! Shoe!" Arny gestured for the moth to leave. But the moth stared at Arny with its big curios eyes. Arny had just realized how cute the Deathmoth actually was.
"I-" Arny was about to speak up, but couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to push the Deathmoth away.
"You'll have to take care of it you know." Arny glanced at Imani.
Imani only nodded her head, "I'll feed it, walk it, everything, you won't have to lift a finger!"
He looked back to the moth who seemed to since Imani growing happier, resulting in the moth growing happier. The moth reminded him of a dog. Clueless, but cute.
It was unsure whether the moth might like it if the group kept it as a pet, but one thing was for sure. "Thomas is not going to like this." Arny sighed, giving in to Imani's pleads.
***
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