The Room Chapter 1
The Unknown
I woke up in a strange place, the ground was hard and cold. I couldn't see much as the place was dark. I got up on my feet with a bit of difficulty, I didn't know why but I felt weak. I started walking around with my hands in front of me to protect myself from running into some object and hurting myself. Suddenly I heard a weird buzzing noise, I looked in the direction it came from and saw a small red light. I carefully made my way to it. When I arrived I could kinda see the shape of the object that was producing this small red light. It was an electrical panel. I opened it and flipped on a switch, a light bulb lit up far away from me. I continued to flip the switch and more light bulbs lit up. I still couldn't see where I was or in what I was but at least I could see my environment. The *Room* I was in seemed infinite, there was no roof nor wall, there was only a floor. Some sort of string were maintaining the light bulb in the air. Those string seems to be going up infinitely. Then the reality of the situation hit me, I had woken up in an infinite room with no roof or wall. I looked far away and I saw an landscape that has a forest, a field and hills. Upon flipping more and more switches I began to discover more of my surroundings. I was terrified, terrified of the unknown. I began asking myself multiple questions. Will I ever get out of this place? Am I alone? What is this place? The question seemed to never stop flowing. I began calming myself down, I reassembled my thoughts and I was thinking straight again. Then I heard something inhuman. A loud screech gave me shivers down my spine. I frantically flipped the switch to see what or who made that sound. As the light opened I saw a strange silhouette move in the distance. It was standing on all fours, it seemed tall and skinny, the thing had horns, claws and a short tail. I flipped another switch and the light bulb directly above it lit up. I manage to see more of it. At the end of each member the thing had sharp and pointy extremity's . But something weird happened, the creature instantly looked in my direction, I noticed his bright white eyes looking at me. Then he charged at me, each of his steps were loud and heavy. I froze in place, I was terrified. But then I heard a voice.
???: Close the lights! Close them!
I didn't know who just said that, I wasn't able to move due to fear. I heard the person start running towards me. I got pushed aside and the lights were closed, plunging the room in darkness. It seemed to stop the creature in his tracks as I didn't hear his loud steps anymore.
???: Don't open the light.
The person said, whispering.
???:Don't make any sound or else the beast will come back, you've attracted it with the light.
Oliver: Who are you? And how do you know about all of this?
???: My name is Ella and I'll explain all of this later but for now just follow me.
Oliver: Why should I trust you?
Ella: You have a point, I guess I'll leave you here and go back. Bye.
She said turning around and walking back to where she had arrived from earlier. I realized she might have a lot of knowledge about this place that could potentially help me survive here.
Oliver: Wait,I'll come with you.
Ella: That's what I thought. Come with me then.
I followed her through the dark, still having my doubts about her intention. We finally arrived at some kind of abandoned house. She opened the door and let me in.
Ella: This is my house. I suppose you want answers, am I right?
Oliver: Yes. So what is this place?
Ella: That I can't answer, no one knows what this place is...But we call it the Room. It is an infinite space with no roof or wall.
Oliver: What about the thing I saw?
Ella: It's a creature that lurks in the Room, we call them the beast failed experiment. We usually call theses things a beast for short.
Oliver: Why such a name?
Ella: Because there is a place in the Room where something or someone tried to create a more advanced form of human but it turned horribly wrong. This experiment turned the volunteers into the beast that you saw. We don't know much about these, But each time one of these things killed a human they transformed into one. Do you have any other questions?
Oliver: Can they get us inside this house?
Ella: They don't attack us when we are inside of one. The reason is still unknown. So if you ever get chased by one remember to get into a house as fast as you can. You are basically safe inside one.
Oliver: Do you know how you got here? And what did you mean by this is my house?
Ella: I have no memory of how I got here. And for the house it's because I arrived in this place a little while ago, so I made this one my house.
Oliver: Do you know how to get out of this place?
Ella: I might have an idea, we need to find the place where it all started.
Oliver: Where everything started?
Ella: Yes. But before we go, there's something you must know...After a while in this place I realized that this place resembles the earth a bit.
Oliver: What do you mean?
Ella: This could be way back in the past, in the future, another universe where the earth exists or something entirely different.
Oliver: So the Room have a lot of similarities with the earth?
Ella: yes indeed, mainly because the human that have appeared here try to rebuild what they had on earth, this is why you can sometimes find a house like this one. Finding one is pretty rare here. Also this place hold many secrets to discover. You can either risk your own life to discover them and have a chance to go back to the real world or stay hidden in this hell hole. The choice is yours. Come with me to explore, discover and maybe get back to earth or stay hidden waiting to die.
After a long and thoughtful moment in my thoughts, I made a choice. I was going to discover the secrets and mysteries of this place and find a way back.
Oliver: I'll help you.
I had chosen to explore this place alongside her. This was the beginning of my extremely dangerous adventure with a girl I just encounter name Ella in an unknown place to mankind full of dark secrets.
Oliver: My name is Olivier by the way. Sorry if I've been rude on our first encounter.
Ella: Don't sweat it too much and welcome to this place called the Room.
Oliver: I have a few more questions. Is there other people here?
Ella: There is rumor about some survivors camps scattered around but I've never seen one myself. I mainly see people working alone, even though it's quite rare.
Oliver: Is there different kind of beast?
Ella: I encountered a guy who told me about other kind of beast. But these other beast, monster or creatures are more dangerous the normal failed experiment beast. Call them whatever you want.
Oliver: Have you ever killed a beast?
Ella: No, even large group of survivors attempted, they all failed. But there is a legend about the only human that was successful in the experiment that caused all of this. The legend say he wonder around in an armor and a sword. He kill every beast he encounter. So if you see a dead beast it's probably him.
Oliver: What should we do now?
Ella: We go out to explore as always. Follow me.
She said as she got up from the chair.
Ella: Am gonna quickly explain to you the basics. First, if you see an electrical panel don't flip any switch unless I tell you, because you'll attract beast. Try not to make too much noise you'll attract some beast too. Also stay close to me so we don't lose each other. Understood?
Oliver: Yes.
She brought a backpack and placed food and water in it. We then went out exploring this mysterious place. We began to walk away from the house where we had been moments ago. We kept going further and further away from it until we couldn't see it. There wasn't much around us, it was a plain with some bushes offering us hiding spots in case we saw a creature. We continued walking until we reached a forest. The trunks were gray and the leaf black. Fog was emanating from the forest.
Ella: I've never went in the forest. It's very dangerous. There's more beast, it's easier to get lost and it's harder to see. Just be extremely careful.
After she gave me more information she started going inside of the forest. I followed her quickly making sure not to make too much sound. The fog was dense making it hard to see what was in front of us. At one point Ella who was walking in front of me found a small creek. We had no choice but to cross it. We tried to make the least sound possible but upon entering the water I slipped and made a small splash noise. We both became dead silent holding our breath to try and hear if something had heard us or if something was coming our way. Way waited a bit more to make sure we were alone. When then continued to make our way through the water, that's when we heard howling. It sounded like a wolf or something close to it. I didn't want to stick around to find out what or who had made the sound. We quickly ran through the shallow water as fast as we could. We got to the other side of the creek and got out of the water. We quickly ran toward the nearest hiding spot which was a bush. We got inside of it and stayed silent. After about two minutes we heard footsteps getting closer. We were both on edge waiting for the creature that had made that sound. I looked carefully through the bush leaves, at first I didn't see anything but I felt absolute terror as I manage to see it. At first I though my brain was playing tricks on me, I was seeing the fog move a bit, like a shadow was running in it. After a more careful analysis I saw the form of the shadow. It wasn't a shadow it was a wolf, I thought it was a shadow because it's fur matched the color of his surroundings. It was way bigger than any wolf I had ever see. It was between 4 to 4'5 feet tall and about 8-8'5 feet in length. It was insanely big for a wolf. I was petrified, but then I saw 13 pair of glowing white eyes in the background looking carefully to try and find us. We both looked into each other eyes to see a profound fear. We both knew if they found us we would die a quick painful dead. It circled around the area in which we were. He was coming closer to us when we heard a loud powerful scream coming from far away. The wolves seemed to be scared away by the other creature and ran away. We had been saved from our impending doom by another creature. We waiting a little more until we were sure they were gone. We got out of the lush full bush and continued on our expedition. After a long care full walk we saw the end of it. We had successfully traverse the forest without dying. I was exhausted but Ella seemed to be accommodate to this sort of this as she didn't look tired.
Oliver: Have you ever seen those monster?
I asked her curious.
Ella: I never seen those before. The only creature I had seen to this day were the failed experiment beast.
Oliver: Now that we are past the forest do you have any idea on what to do?
Ella: We'll just continue exploring as always.
She said as she sat in front of me and placed her bag in front of her. She opened it and took a water bottle and food she had brought along. She drank half of the water bottle and gave the rest to me, I finished it and she put the empty water bottle in her bag. This kind of confused me since why would you need to recycle those in a place like this.
Oliver: Why do you keep it?
Ella: Well there's multiple reason the first being it can be useful to craft something. It can also be reusable. They is multiple other reason but those two should be enough to satisfy your curiosity.
I was satisfied for the moment. I still had a lot of question. I was observing the environment when I saw one of these electrical panel in the middle of the field. I pointed it and Ella looked at it.
Ella: We can go check it out sometime other survivors leave a little bit if supplies or notes.
We got up and walked toward it. Once we arrived we saw a little paper on the ground.
Note: Survivors camp 20 miles/32,2 kilometers in this direction.
There was an arrow pointing the direction of the camp.
Oliver: Should we go there?
Ella: Not now, if we want to go we should pack everything in the first place. Anyway we should make our way back home.
She said as we heard another one of these powerful screech. It was our cue to leave. I looked one last time upon the field before getting back in the forest. I saw it, I saw the creature that was screeching. It was a beast failed experiment, looking over the field for his next prey. I quickly followed Ella back into the forest leaving it in the middle of the field.
Oliver: Did you see it?
I whispered to her talking about the failed experiment.
Ella: No what was there?
Oliver: There was a failed experiment in the middle of the field.
Ella: Well we should hurry up a bit because they sometimes track they're victims.
She said as she went faster through the dense forest. Although we went faster we were still extremely careful as to not attract any monster. After a couple hours we were on the other side of the forest. As we walked toward the house we spotted a failed experiment right in front of us. We hide ourself and quickly try to think of a plan since he was between us and the house.
Olivier: Do you have a plan?
Ella: Well not really. Normally I'd wait it out but with our new discoveries and the other failed experiment that may have followed us. We can't gave ourself the luxury of waiting. So will have to do something.
Oliver: Do we have weapons?
Ella: Do you really want to fight that thing?
Oliver: Well we don't have any other choice right? So do you have weapons?
Ella: Well not really, I never though of fighting one.
Oliver: Do you think it can swim?
Ella: I don't think so based on his sharp pointy limbs.
Oliver: Well if they are sharp and pointy he might not be able to go in swamp and water.
Ella: I guess... but that also depends on they're weight.
Oliver: Well he seems to be pretty heavy. He look like he's made out of bone's or something similar.
Ella: We don't know for sure since it's another dimension and that thing has never been studied so we can't be sure. One thing that tell me these thing are pretty heavy, is the hole they're limbs left on the ground when they walk.
Oliver: Well in that case, do you know if there is a swamp close by?
Ella: There's one south of the house.
Oliver: And where's that?
She pointed between the house and our right.
Ella: South-East.
Oliver: Ok then I'll be going.
Ella: No you can't just go. It'll catch up to you.
Oliver: Don't worry I'll come back.
I said as I got out of our hiding spot.
Oliver: Hey you! Big thing!
I easily got his attention and it's started sprinting toward me. Big chunk of the ground were flying in the air with each stride it took. As Ella said, It was fast. I didn't waste time and started sprinting myself toward the swamp. I ran as fast as I could, it was catching up to me but I was close to the forest. I went inside the forest running for my life. I could hear his loud step behind me. I was trying to build up some distance between us as ran through the tree. I did some sharp turn that seemed to make some distance between us. I had guess that it didn't turn well due to it's physic. He was still following close behind me. He was catching up to me in straight line but with the twist and turn I was doing in the forest he couldn't catch up to me. I was beginning to see the swamp. I was also beginning to doubt my theory, what if he could run on mud? What if he kill me before I get to the swamp? I ignored my thoughts and focused on running. My lungs were burning, I was close to my limits but I kept pushing as for motivation my survival. I gave all I had left and entered the swamp. It was harder to run as the ground was slippery and soft. The beast seemed to be hesitant at following me but he continued. Then the ground became mud and I sank with each step. The beast still followed me but once it got to the mud it sank deep in it. It couldn't get out of the mud it was stuck in there. I made my way out of the mud. Once I was out I looked back at the trapped beast. It was sank half way in the mud. It was trying to get out without success. I could now go back to the house without worrying about getting shred to pieces by that thing. I got out of the swamp and started to walk back toward the house. I arrived at the house and opened the door to see Ella.
Ella: I can't believe you really did this and the fact that you also survive is insane. Is it trapped now?
Oliver: Yes, it's still in the mud. We could try and kill it tomorrow since it's trapped.
Ella: I guess we could...
She said as she went away and came back with some weapons. She came back with a sword, knives.
Oliver: You don't have something else? Like guns.
Ella: Unfortunately no guns were found in this dimension. We only have basic weapon's like bows, swords, knives or other similar things.
Oliver: It's gonna be a little bit harder to take these thing down than anticipated.
Ella: Yeah, that's why no one manage to kill one yet.
Oliver: Than we might be the first!
Ella: We still don't even know how to kill it.
Oliver: I do. Did you look at his abdomen?
Ella: Not really...
Oliver: Well it's not protected by it's bone like protection. So it should be it's weak point.
Ella: It's worth a shot.
After reflecting on a strategy for a good amount of time Ella showed me the room I'll be sleeping in. It was a comfortable bed with a nightstand beside it. I had nothing to my name yet in this world so the only thing I put on it was my shirt as I went to sleep quickly exhausted by the day.
Dream
I was walking down a trail with a spear when I saw further in the distance a tall man wearing a shining armor. He also had an enormous sword that he was carrying on his shoulder. He turned around and saw me. I stopped in my track as I didn't know if he was friendly or not. He started walking toward me. I waited for him to arrive closer. Once he was in front of me, a beast suddenly jumped on him and they both rolled out the trail in the woods wrestling each other.
End of dream
I woke up in the morning confused after what I had seen in my dream. There was no way for me to tell the time since the outside was always pitch black. Luckily my eyes manage to accommodate to the darkness compared to my first few hours here when I couldn't see much. I decided to get up and go check the living room. I opened my door and saw Ella already awake and eating her breakfast.
Ella: Good morning.
Oliver: Good morning.
I saw that the weapons she had showed me were still on the table.
Oliver: What are we going to do today?
Ella: We're going to that survivor camp today. There's food on the table for you.
I thanked her for the food and sat in front of her. I didn't recognize the food so I asked her what it was.
Oliver: What is it?
I said pointing at the food.
Ella: Well the people here think it's a fruit. The majority of the people call it the blue devil.
I could see why people named it that way. It had two outgrowth resembling horns. The shape of the fruit resemble the one of an apple. I reluctantly ate a small part of the fruit. I didn't expect much from a fruit name the blue devil but I was surprised when I tasted it. It was actually pretty good. I quickly ate the rest of it.
Oliver: It actually taste good.
Ella: I don't necessarily like it but there's a lit of nutriments in it so it's a great food source. I've already packed up the useful stuff. We have one bag each with all of our stuff in them so be careful.
Oliver: What weapon are you going to take?
Ella: I'll take the knives. Since they're the main weapon I used since I arrived here. Not that I tried to fight any of these creatures.
Since she took the knives I took the sword. I put it in my own bag and closed out. We had filled them to the brim with food and water.
Ella: Are you ready to go?
I was more prepared than I could ever be.
Oliver: Yeah, I'm ready.
With that we got out of the house. It was probably the last time we would see it. We said our goodbyes to the house that protected us from those beasts. Now we were at they're mercy. We began walking in the same direction as yesterday. After a couple hours we reached the dangerous forest again. This time around we took a break before going in. We drank a bit of water and we went inside again. We were even more careful than before making sure not to make any sounds. Walking in the forest was nerve wracking since a beast or those wolves could jump out at any moment. I took the sword out of the bag in case we would encounter something hostile. Ella was walking in front of me very carefully. We paid attention to every little sound we heard. We then heard a failed experiment beast scream in the distance. We were both stressed and terrified even more than we already were. The ambiance didn't help either. The trees had grey trunks and black leaves, there was also a thick fog. Everything seemed dead. The beast screamed again but this time it was closer. We went faster making sure not to make too much noise. We then heard a couple of wolves howling in the distance. The howling grew closer and closer by the second. There wasn't any hiding spot close to us so we had to climb in a tree. Ella went first I quickly climbed up myself as I didn't want to stay down there and be they're breakfast.
We made sure to be hidden as we heard the wolves and the beast coming closer and closer to our position. Then we began hearing the steps of the beast and the wolves. I then saw seven wolfs run past us. I than look to the other side to see the beast arrived. It was way bigger than the one that ran after me. The beast seemed to be focused on the wolfs that were now surrounding him. One if the wolf suddenly lunged toward the beast. It manage to bite one of his leg. The other wolves followed and together they all ran at the beast. The bigger creature swung one of his limbs and sent a wolf a couple meters back leaving serious damage on him. The other wolf doubled they're effort to take this thing down. Some of them had tear chunk out of the beast weakening it in the process. We watched silently has the wolves tear one of his limb apart. While they had manage to do that, on the other hand the beast had already killed tree wolves with his powerful hit. Some were cut in half and some died on impact. The wolves manage to kill the beast even after losing tree of they're members. After shredding the beast to piece's. They went back from where they arrived, leaving us alone. Once we were sure they were gone we got down from our hiding spot and continued to walk. Neither of us wanted to stay in this forest for another minute. We arrived at the same small creek as last time. We traversed it without any issue this time. We got out of the forest after a little while. We took a quick break. We both ate half of a blue devil fruit and also drank half a water bottle each. We where on the same field as before. We saw the electrical panel and walked to it. The paper was still there. We prepared ourself to walk for about tree hours in an unknown territory.
Ella: It's all gonna be new from here on out. I have absolutely no idea what lies further ahead of us.
Oliver: We'll be two at least.
Ella: Yeah I guess so...
We began walking in the direction of the arrow which was pointing East. We walked up the small hill, on the other side of it was a small plain. Further away was a river. We crossed the small plaine before arriving at the river. It was pretty large and it seemed to have a lot current. Neither of us wanted to risk swimming to the other side. We had to find a way to get across the river. We decided to try and find something that might help us. We ultimately decided to split up and go explore the river. Splitting up isn't a bad idea in this scenario since we both don't know anything about this place and the quicker we found something helpful the quicker we're on the other side. She decided to go north and I went south. I began walking paying attention to every details and sound just to be sure nothing was following me. The scenery around me was pretty even though the grass was greyish the same goes for the tree trunks. The leaves of the trees were black. I continued walking for a while before founding a small abandoned hut. I looked around it to see if it was safe, after being sure it was I slowly opened the door. It was a completely normal looking house. I looked around to see if there was any supplies left. After searching for supplies I opened all the door. I found two bedroom and one bathroom. I thought it could be a good place to sleep. I decided to make my way back to where we were before splitting up. This place is so boring I thought to myself while getting back. There's nothing to do. You can't even talk normally outside a house. It's like this place is repelling happiness. Since I've arrived here I'd been theorizing about this place. What was it exactly? Why am I here? How do we get out? How did we get in? I've had thinking about all of these questions since I ended up here. My mind had been working non stop. I had been so lost in my though that I didn't realized I had already walked back to where we originally split up. I looked around to see if Ella had came back too but I didn't see her, so I decided to wait for her. I've lost myself in my though again while waiting. What exactly happened that faithful day? Why is everything so gloomy? I had to stop my flow if thoughts because I saw Ella arriving.
Ella: Did you find something?
Oliver: Surprisingly I did.
Ella: What did you find?
Oliver: A small hut like the one you use to live in. What about you?
Ella: Sadly I didn't find anything. We could go to that hut in the mean time.
We decided to go into that hut for the time being. This would let us time to prepare some sort of plan for tomorrow. I walk back to the same small hut with Ella this time. I had noticed that there was never any wind in this place. It was always silent due to the numerous monster roaming around in the dark.
Oliver: Do you think there's like some sort of creature in the waters?
Ella: A couple of days ago I would've said no but since you arrived in this place I saw a new creature, a corrupted wolf, a creature I had never seen before meeting you.
We finally saw the all hut in front of us. We entered it and dropped our bag on the small table. We then choose our bedroom. Once we sat at the table we began to discussed our plan for tomorrow.
Oliver: I say we continue to go south from here, what do you think?
Ella: I think it's a good idea since you haven't search further. If we're lucky we might find something that can help us get across this river.
Oliver: Yeah, I think it's the best idea. Also I've been meaning to tell you something.
Ella: What did you wanted to tell me?
Oliver: Well, I had a weird dream...but I think it's something more than a dream...
Ella: What do you mean?
Oliver: It felt like a vision, it was so real...
Ella: Are you telling me you think you saw the future or something?
Oliver: Yes...
Ella: What was it about?
Oliver: I was walking down a trail with a spear in my hand. Further in the distance I saw a tall man wearing a shining armor, he was also carrying a huge sword on his shoulder. He then turned around and saw me. I stopped in my track as I didn't know if he was friendly or not. I was kind of scared since everything in this place seems to want to kill us. He slowly started to walked towards me. I was on my guard ready to act if anything happened. I waited for him to arrived closer. Once he was in front of me a beast suddenly jumped on him out of no where. They both rolled into the forest wrestling each other. Then the dream ended.
Ella: well the fact that you can remember it as much as you do right now could be an indicator that this wasn't a dream.
Oliver: Well we'll see in the future I guess...
There was long silence after our short conversation so I engaged on another subject.
Oliver: How long have you been here?
Ella: Well I don't know for sure since you can't really distinguish the day and the night here but I'd say about a year and a half.
Oliver: You didn't explore much in a year and half.
Ella: Well when I arrived here nobody was there to save me like I did with you. I was scared so I stayed hidden. I took me a little while to understand this place a little.
Oliver: How old are you if I may ask?
Ella: twenty-two year old. At least somewhere close to that.
Oliver: I'm twenty.
Oliver: Do you have any memories of when you were on earth?
Ella: Yes, what about you?
Oliver: Barely. I can only remember the name of a few friends and some brief moment.
Ella: Well on my part I remember almost everything.
Oliver: Maybe you're lucky or I'm unlucky. Anyway, what do you usually do to kill time here?
Ella: Normally I'd explore all day, sleep, eat and repeat but you kinda changed this routine.
Oliver: Yeah I guess there's not much to do here...
There was another silence, I looked at Ella and she seemed lost in her toughs.
Oliver: What are you thinking about?
I asked her curious.
Ella: You remember when I said we had to find place where it all began?
Oliver: Yes, did you figure something out?
Ella: Well no, I just thought that maybe if we find where it started it could give us some clues on how to get out of this place.
Oliver: We don't know for sure if it could actually help us but it's better than nothing for the moment.
Ella: Yeah, we'll try to figure it out later. For now we should go to sleep I think. We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.
We both went to sleep in our separate bedroom. I quickly felled asleep after this long day of walk.
Dream
I was playing with my friend in the school yards, I stopped to just listen to the noise around me. I could hear the bird singing, the other kids laughing as they ran, the cries of a kid who had fallen on the ground. I was young, so young, I looked around again this time I saw a boy sitting alone leaning his back on the fence. I couldn't see his face clearly since he was far and the sun was blinding me. I walked closer to him just to see what he was up to. Once I was close to him he looked up at me with confusion.
Oliver: Hello.
???: Hi, can you go away?
Oliver: Why? I just arrived.
???: Because I don't want to talk to you.
Oliver: Anyway my name Is Oliver. What's yours?
???: I just said I didn't want to talk to you.
Oliver: You're boring.
???: So what?
Oliver: Just tell me your name.
???: Fine...
He said said sigh loudly.
???: My name is...
End of dream
I woke up without feeling rested. I went to sit at the table and eat a blue devil fruit. Ella wasn't awake yet so I made sure to remain silent so I wouldn't wake her up. In the mean time I reflected about my dream, I didn't think of it as a dream but more as an old memory, maybe my memory was coming back to me in form of dream. But what about the other dream I had with that tall man wearing an armor. I continued to wonder further on the subject. What if I never even had a life before here? What if I just appeared here out of nothing? What if I was actually living here in the first place but forgot everything somehow? The more I though about it, the more it began to scare me. What if this place was making my dream, vision or the things I was seeing? Was I just imagining things? What if I am in a coma, a fever dream or something like that? I tried to stopped my own thoughts but couldn't. The question kept flowing in. What if I'm just living in the real world but I am mentally ill? What if I was insane? After a while my thoughts stopped. I was at peace. Ella was still sleeping so the only thing to do to pass the time was to think. I thought about the scariest thing this place had. My answer was the human mind. First of because as Ella said all this started because of us human. Secondly you can scare yourself just by imagining things that have not happened or will never happened. The possibility are limitless. The mind is a powerful place, it can drive everyone insane. Then Ella's bedroom door opened. She had wake up.
Oliver: Good morning.
Ella: Good morning.
Oliver: did you sleep well?
Ella: Yeah what about you?
Oliver: I had another dream or just an old memory.
Ella: Well, maybe you're gonna gain your memory back with dreams who know's?
Oliver: Yeah maybe.
Ella: Anyway, I'm gonna eat and we'll be on our way.
While she ate I prepared my stuff for the walk. Once she finished eating we began our journey to find a way across the river. We continued our way 4south, pace was slow, we wanted to keep our energy in case anything happened. Ella was still a bit sleepy but it didn't really matter. As usual everything was silent, I guessed I had to get used to it in this place. We walked through the grey grass looking for any beast coming our way. Although this place was boring I found myself enjoying this change, I liked the silence, the peaceful and simple look this place offered even though this was far from the truth. This place was a hell hole, far from peaceful. It was also complicated to understand this place. Nothing here was normal or resembling the earth appart from the trees. There was absolutely no color nor life. It was empty grey and black. Lost in my thought I hadn't realize it but there where something in the distance in front of us. I looked more closely to try and see what was in front of us, upon a closer look it was a bridge. Relief washed over me as we finally manage to find a way to get across the river without having to get ourselves into some more trouble.
Ella: I took a while but we finally found a way to get across this stupid river.
She said while talking in a low voice.
Oliver: Do you think it's safe to cross?
I asked her.
Ella: Well let's do sole test first so we don't fall into the water and maybe encounter a new creature.
Oliver: Yeah that could be a good idea.
I said as I was wondering with what she was going to test the strength of this old looking bridge. I saw her carefully step on the bridge multiple squeak where heard as she did so. The river wasn't especially large at the point but we still wanted to stay on dry land then to fall into the unknown. She took a deep breath before taking an other step on the unstable bridge. Once she thought it was safe to traverse she quickly ran across it. The bridge shacked a lot at each step she took but she still manage to get to the other side of the river.
Ella: Now your turn.
She said as she turned back facing me. I knew I was heavier than her, I wasn't confident it would support my weight. I still tried to get across it. As I began walking carefully it squeaked. I decided to make a run for it. I ran with full speed a crossed it, I was sure I was going to make it when a wood plank broke underneath my weight. I acted quickly and saved myself from an injury or falling in the water. I arrived on the other side safe and sound. I looked at Ella and she was on edge as she saw the plank broke. I reassured her I was fine.
Ella: Now that we found a way to get across we need to get back to approximately where we were before.
Oliver: Can't we just take a short break please?
I said fatigued from our journey.
Ella: Well I guess we can.
She said as she sat down on the ground close to a rock. I sat beside her, placing my bag in front of me. I look up at the dark grey sky in hope that everything will be ok.
Oliver: What did u used to do before getting here?
Ella: Well my life wasn't really entertaining, when i was twenty years old I worked a 9-5 job like almost every one else. One day I went to sleep as usual but when I woke up I was here in this dark place. I though ai was dreaming but I could feel the cold, hard ground on my face. That's beside the point though. I was working as a doctor, my job was boring. Although I had a good salary I didn't though it was worth the effort.
I though she was lying to me, because twenty years old seemed a bit young to be a doctor.
Ella: Before you tell me that's impossible and everything, I've skipped some years because I was too intelligent. I don't mean to flex that I skipped some years because it hold absolutely no value in this place. I would get annoyed by my own accomplishments as people would constantly tell me about how cool or how nice it would be to be like me. But no it's not cool or nice or any of theses things. I was born with this quality yes, but I was also born with some sort of a disability. I lacked social interaction skills, it was hard to express myself with words. The only good thing that this place had given was the fact that there was way less people, so less interaction. You maybe think this would of re-enforced my *disability* but for some reason now I'm better with my words and can now express myself like a normal person.
I was listening to her closely trying to keep the most information as I could. I was really glad to be with someone with medical experience as this was very useful in a place like this.
Oliver:can I ask you another question?
Ella: What is it?
Oliver: How did you find me so fast when I arrived here?
Ella: Well first of all, almost every veteran's of this place know the lights attract the monsters so seeing one open so many light at once was already an indicator that someone was new here. secondly, because this was the exact spot I ended up when I first arrived here as well, I go there one day out of two. Just to see if someone new appeared there like it happened with me.
I was kind of glad she kept some sort of attachment with this place because she would've never found me and I would've likely ended up as a beast.
Ella: As for you, you really don't keep any memories of what happened before this placed?
Oliver: I don't, I have no idea who I was or what I was doing prior to this place.
I was wondering what kind of person was I.
Oliver: But in all honesty I don't want to know. What if I was a bad person? What if I did horrible things?
Ella: Think on the bright side. What if you were a good person what about your amazing memories you've build?
Oliver: I guess I'll never know.
Even though I acted as this wasn't affecting me it kinda did. It bothered me not knowing who I was. It also scared me as maybe I was created in this place maybe I wasn't even a human.
Oliver: We should get going.
Ella: Yeah we took longer than expected.
We both got up and began walking north. We essentially walked back the same way we came but on the other side of the river. We didn't really have something to talk about so we just stayed in silence as we slowly made our way to our destination. My disappointment only grew more as I looked around, I found myself hoping to find something that was more lively than this dead landscape. Something more vibrant, something that would emanate happiness but I couldn't, there was nothing. I felt a tap on my shoulder that made me get out of my head and came back to reality.
Ella: There finally...
She said pointing the electrical panel we had see before splitting up and crossing the river.
Oliver: I've been waiting to see this stupid panel for so long now.
Ella: Yeah...I just hope the camp the note was talking about is there.
Oliver: Well I guess we'll have to go look and find out what do you think?
Ella: I guess so...
We sat down and took another break after this extremely long walk.
Oliver: Feels good to finally sit down my legs are so tired...
Ella: Yeah, here eat some fruits.
She gave me half a fruit and took the other half for herself. Even though we were taking a break none of us talked. We were both nervous just thinking about what might lies beyond this point. New creatures, allies or enemies, new landscape? It didn't matter we were prepared for this or so we thought. After what I guessed was ten minutes we got up and started walking toward that survivor camp. Clueless of the danger lying further ahead of us.
(a/n): I want to apologize for how much time this took me. I had a massive lack of motivation, everything been rough lately. I hope it's good enough for you guys. If you see any misspellings feel free to point it out please. Have a good day/night. Also tell me if you enjoyed it and if you want chapter 2.