Tower Story -- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

While Bax hadn’t been at the Keeper Recruit Cooperative for long, he couldn’t remember a time when it had been quiet.  Even when he was in a class, there had always been the rustling sounds of people shifting around in their seats in between the Guides lecturing, and while walking to another classroom the low murmur of thousands of people moving through the hallway had always been present.  Even when he was in his room, there had been a persistent hum that he heard from the crystalline food box, so it hadn’t technically been completely silent there, either.

But when he walked out into the massive hallway that had always been quite active with people bustling around, the sheer silence was so complete that his breathing sounded loud to his ears.  Quickly checking his APPS again for the time, thinking that perhaps he had exited his room in the middle of the night when most people were probably sleeping, he found that – unless it was incorrect for some reason – it was exactly when he should be leaving his room to get breakfast before classes began for the day.  In fact, it was even about a minute later than he’d left his room on his first day of classes, as it took some time to hype himself up to leave – so the hallway should’ve been packed.

Is this an off-day or something?  Is everyone sleeping in?

He didn’t remember hearing about there being any off-days, nor was there anything mentioning it in his APPS; he though he would’ve seen it, as he had spent at least a couple of hours while he was sick trying to dig into every single thing to see if there was any more depth to it.  Of course, even if he didn’t think it was an off-day, that didn’t mean it wasn’t true; it could be that it was something that they normally took off and hadn’t believed that it was important to mention to him.  It was forgetting to mention to someone that it was mean to punch another person in the face; it was sort of taken for granted that, if they grew up in as society that frowned upon such an action, they would know not to punch someone in the face unless they were intending to be mean.

Bax was more curious than worried by this point, as while the initial absence of sound had startled him, he thought that there had to be a simple and obvious explanation for its lack.  Therefore, he casually walked toward the Meal Hall, expecting at any moment to see another person; even after the lengthy trek, he hadn’t seen another person or heard a single other sound other than his own breathing and footsteps, which seemed inordinately loud in the empty hallway.  Once he got to the Meal Hall, he looked inside to see that it was completely empty, which was a first; even when he had left classes early a number of days ago, there had still been at least a few others inside the massive room, though they hadn’t been anywhere near him.  Now, though, there wasn’t any sign that someone had been there at least within the last few minutes.

His stomach grumbled at the sight of the large crystalline box, and while he thought that he should probably continue looking for people, he gave into his hunger and got something to eat.  He a large plate of scrambled eggs and bacon as quickly as possible, not even sitting down as he shoveled it into his mouth, and then he deposited the stone plate and fork it came with inside the receptacle next to the box, where it magically disappeared.  Done quicker than he had expected when he walked out of his room a short time ago, he left the Meal Hall and started wandering around, trying to find someone, anyone. 

Tempted to start knocking on doors to get some answers, he held off for about a minute before he gave in.  He figured he could spend some time searching the entire Co-op if it didn’t work, but this way, he might obtain the information he needed without having to look too hard for it.

The doors that closed off the Keeper recruit rooms, just like his own, were made of stone; knocking on them wouldn’t really do all that much.  However, he had been shown how someone could indicate they were there by pressing on the center of the doorway, which would indicate to whoever was inside that they wanted permission to enter.  Guides could bypass this permission, if necessary, which was what happened on the day he arrived, when Guide Azilla had entered despite there not seeming to be any way to open the door. 

Using this knowledge, Bax pressed on the center of the nearest door to the Meal Hall, and the stone seemed to flash with an internal glow, indicating that it was working.  He waited there for a few minutes, but no one came to the door.  Moving to the next door, and then the next dozen, he pressed on all of them like he was a kid in an elevator pressing all the buttons, but despite waiting a few minutes while the doors flashed, not a single one of them opened to reveal a person inside.

His attempt to contact someone in their room defeated, he moved on toward where the classrooms and auditorium could be found, touching another 40 or 50 doors on the way just in case.  He kept listening for any of them to open after he passed by, but the only noise that he heard was his own, so he expected that all of the rooms were currently empty. 

I wonder… did they all go to the Tower already?  I didn’t think we would be doing that until our training was done, but maybe something changed?

He wasn’t even sure how to get into the Keeper’s Tower, as while it was on his map, it was also labeled as off-limits for now.  There were a number of places on his map like that, which included all of the Guides’ rooms, but if that was where they were, then perhaps he could enter it now.

But first, he had to check everywhere else.

Quickly passing through hallways of classrooms, some of which he’d been in for his own classes a number of days ago, he looked into each of them briefly, only to be disappointed when he saw no one.  The physical training rooms he passed were also empty, which he was halfway expecting by this point, so he kept moving, listening and looking intently around for anything that might indicate where all the people went.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t his eyes or his ears that detected the first indication of where everyone was; it was his nose.  A faint odor of rot and what he thought was a sewer invaded his olfactory senses and made him recoil slightly when it reached him.  After pausing for a moment, his eyes starting to water from the nasty smell, he continued down the hallway and turned a corner, before being blasted by a powerful stench that made him double over and retch.  Within seconds, he’d lost his just-eaten breakfast all over the floor as he leaned up against the nearest wall; retreating around the corner, he recovered as well as he could before pulling of his shirt and using it to cover his mouth and nose as he walked back to where he lost his meal.

The shirt covering his face didn’t do much, but it allowed him to walk forward without retching at least – though he somewhat wished that he had simply turned around and left the moment he saw the first body.  It was a young-looking Gnome lying flat on her back, her robe dirty and looking like it hadn’t been washed in days, with sweat stains clear under the arms and around the neck.  To be fair, his own clothes didn’t look all that great, either, given that he was still wearing the same set he’d had when he arrived, but this was also covered by what appeared to be copious amounts of dried mucus around the front and down the sleeves. 

There was no sign of violence and no blood, but there was a pool of some unidentifiable substance underneath her, which Bax could only guess was her bowels having been released when she died.  This wasn’t the first body he’d ever seen in death, but it was certainly the first one he’d seen that had been left where it had fallen, or in this case crawled, as he could see the bent fingernails on her hands as she likely dragged herself out from the entrance of the auditorium. 

Tears welled up involuntarily in his eyes, and this time it wasn’t due to the smell.  While he didn’t know who she was, he couldn’t help but be affected by her death, if not because she was as fellow person, but also because she was a Keeper recruit that was about to dedicate her entire life to protecting a world for nothing but a sense of duty to all the people living there.

Of course, it wasn’t just the poor Gnome outside the hallway that he discovered.  As he moved closer to the entrance of the auditorium, he discovered dozens of bodies of all races sprawled out on the stone floor, each of them seemingly having died in the same way without violence, and as he picked his way through them with tears running down his cheeks, he finally reached the massive room and stopped just inside the entrance, unable to move any further.

There were so many dead inside the room that he wasn’t even sure where to look without seeing tragedy pasting itself all over his vision.  It appeared as though they had used the auditorium as a makeshift hospital or morgue of sorts, as there were bodies lying down inside aisles and along benches, many of them arranged neatly in death. 

Or at least they were neatly arranged near the bottom, right around the stage.  The large space where he’d seen all of the Guides introduce them to the Co-op was piled with bodies stacked on top of each other, either preparing for burial or some other reason, and he though he recognized more than a few of the Guides he’d seen in classes or around the hallways. 

Near the top of the auditorium, and was the main reason why he didn’t move any further into the room, the organization of bodies was much more haphazard.  It was almost as if there was a panic near the end and people attempted to escape the room, but no one got very far, with those able to actually move making it outside the door before they collapsed and died.  The rest seemed to be lying on top of each other or arranged in strange positions, as if their strength gave out at the last moment, and they were unable to move after that.

Bax couldn’t look at it any longer than it took to decide that it was unlikely that anyone was still alive, as he couldn’t see any movement anywhere.  Taking a step back toward the door, his foot kicked something under his feet and, looking down, he saw a hand outstretched toward the door, one that he sadly recognized the owner of.  Even partially on her side, he remembered Serra’s face when it wasn’t wasted away in death, and he stumbled as he ran from the auditorium of death, the tears nearly blinding him as he tried to get as far away from it as possible. 

An indeterminate length of time later, he found himself collapsing against a wall, sliding down it as he put his head in his hands, overwhelmed by what he had just seen.  Am I still sick?  Is this all a crazy fever dream?  He had trouble coming to terms with all that had just happened, especially when he got a chance to think about what might have caused all of them to die.  It didn’t take a genius to put together the fact that the healing spells the Guides had cast on him hadn’t gotten rid of his flu, but had only temporarily eliminated the symptoms.  He wasn’t sure how it was possible, but apparently for all that they were extremely powerful with their magical expertise, the existing people in the Retrogressive System weren’t able to get rid of viruses – or that was what he assumed.  Going further, with the ability to heal everything with a magic spell, it was entirely possible that they didn’t have very strong immune systems – or that the flu he’d brought with him had been some sort of supervirus that managed to overcome everything they could throw at it.

In short, Bax had inadvertently killed everyone in the Keeper Recruit Cooperative.  It wasn’t intentional, of course, but that didn’t completely absolve him of the responsibility.  He thought that he could’ve done more to prevent the spread of his illness, especially knowing that he was likely already sick; then again, it might not have mattered at all, as simply breathing the same air as these people for a few minutes might have been enough to infect one person, which would’ve spread it to everyone else. 

Plus, it wasn’t like it was his idea to come here, nor was he aware of how poor their spells would work against the flu and the sorry state of their immune systems.  It also wasn’t his choice to pick someone who was sick with a deadly virus before unleashing them inside the Co-op.  As much as he had been the catalyst for this absolute disaster, it wasn’t him who brought him there.

It was the Retrogressive System.  If anyone or anything was to blame, it was the System that had set this whole process in motion. 

Was it intentional?  Was it an accident?  Or was it just an unfortunate coincidence?

He had no way of knowing.

As Bax sat there with his head in his hands and his back up against a stone wall, he suddenly heard a wet cough coming from his right.  His head immediately whipped up and turned toward the origin of the noise, scrambling to his feet in the process.  It was only at that point that he suddenly recognized where he’d ended up, which was the short hallway leading to where he’d met the Guide leadership team the day of his arrival at the Co-op.  He quickly hurried down it and emerged into the same room he remembered, but unlike nearly a week ago, it had changed quite a bit.  Dozens of Guides were laid out around the room, draped over or simply curled up on the floor, and all of them were clearly not among the land of the living anymore.  He held his shirt up to his face again to block the smell that was thankfully not quite as bad as the auditorium, even if it was in a smaller enclosed space, and he tried to be a silent as possible as he looked around the room for any sign of what he’d just heard.

There.

It was Anjelou Lead Guide Harvin, who was propped up against the far wall, his head slumped over and his wings drooping and yellowed, as if they had suffered just as much as the rest of the angel’s body.  He delicately made his way through the bodies lining the floor, stepping over them when there wasn’t a clear path, and after about a minute he managed to kneel next to the once-powerful Lead Guide.  This close, it was easy to see that Harvin was still breathing, though each breath was shallow and he could hear it rattling in his throat.  He reached out to touch the shoulder of the angel to let him know that he was there, and even before he touched his bare skin, he could feel the heat of the fever emanating from him a few inches away.

“Harvin?  What happened?” he asked, though he immediately regretted the question since it was pretty obvious what had happened.  He quickly added, “Never mind that; what can I do to help?”

Harvin weakly lifted his head and looked at Bax, his eyes barely becoming focused enough to see the Human kneeling in front of him.  “You… you’re alive?” the angel whispered with very little of his previous strength in his voice. “We all thought you might have succumbed to this curse like the rest of us.”  There was a pause as he seemed to lose his concentration, before he focused back on Bax and said with more urgency in his whispered tone. “There’s nothing you can do except to flee from here!  We’re already doomed, but you might be able to survive if you avoid whatever cursed us.”

Bax held his tongue when he nearly said that he’d be fine now, as he’d already recovered from what had obviously taken out every single Guide and Keeper recruit in the Co-op – other than Harvin, of course.  Instead, he gestured to the angel.  “But what about you?  If you’ve survived this long, then there’s a chance that you—”

“No,” Harvin insisted, which was followed by a series of painful-looking coughs that Bax leaned back from.  Even if he might be immune to being infected by this flu virus again, or at least wouldn’t be affected nearly as bad as before, he didn’t really want to have sick angel cough all over him.

Seeing that the Lead Guide was fading fast, Bax quickly asked, “What do I do once you’re gone?  I couldn’t find anyone else alive in this whole place.  Will the System send more people to become Keepers?”

Once Harvin stopped coughing, he shook his head weakly, which was then followed by an even fainter voice.  “No, there isn’t enough energy to replace everyone.  The best we could ever do was bring a few replacements to fill any potential gaps in the Keeper recruits that inevitably arise during Tower completion, but it requires the full permission of all the Lead Guides to implement the teleportation sequences.”  The angel stopped talking for a few seconds, and even seemed to stop breathing, but he eventually continued – much to Bax’s relief.  “If you insist in staying around here, then there might be something you can do.  I’m currently granting access to the Archives for you, which will allow you to reach the command tablet located in the Restricted Section.  Bring it back here and I will unlock it for you, giving you the authority to make changes to the Co-op protocols in an emergency situation.  Go now and hurry; I’m just barely holding on as it is, and I need to be able to manipulate the tablet in order for this to work.”

Bax nodded and immediately stood back up, racing his way back toward the entrance of the room, mentally apologizing to the bodies he stumbled over in his haste, and he managed to get there in a fraction of the time he took to initially reach Harvin.  Running down the short hallway in a panic, he pulled up his map and looked for the Archives that the Lead Guide had mentioned, finding it almost immediately because he had studied it quite a bit while he was sick. 

Running faster than he thought he’d ever run in his life, he emerged into the main hallway and it passed in a blur, his lungs already burning from the exertion, but he ignored it as he pumped his legs and arms as if he was some sort of sprinter running the 100 meter dash.  Bax didn’t even look around as he passed empty rooms and raced toward his destination, which was imprinted in his thoughts with a clarity that everything else was unimportant. 

It took him a few minutes to finally reach the Archives, which were located behind a set of large double doors, and he immediately pushed to open them, but they didn’t budge.

Archives access granted!

Bax stumbled forward as there was a click from inside the doors, and they swung freely ahead of him.  A quick glance inside showed rows and rows of what appeared to be books arranged on dozens of shelving units, but all he had eyes for was a red door near the back that caught his attention immediately. Breathing heavily from his run, he still managed to jog toward the door and pushed on it, only for it to not move again.

Archives Restricted Section access granted!

The red door then glided forward on silent hinges, and Bax entered the room that was revealed.  There were more shelves full of old-looking books, as well as some unknown machines that glowed and hummed with energy, but his focus was immediately drawn to a rectangular piece of black material propped up on a pedestal in the center of the room.  That must be it.

He walked up and moved to snatch it, before he hesitated for a moment.  What if this has some sort of security alarm or something?  He dismissed that completely after a second’s thought; even if there was an alarm or trap, he still needed to pick it up. 

With a deep breath that nearly sent him into a coughing fit after his run, he quickly grabbed the surprisingly lightweight tablet and braced himself for some sort of reaction – but nothing happened.  With a mental shrug, he backtracked out of the Archives and ran full-tilt back down the massive hallway, aiming for the room that held his destination.  It took him a little longer to traverse the distance this time, as he was now beyond tired and still recovering from his sickness, but he pushed himself to run the majority of the way.

In relief, he finally made it to the small hallway and he eked out the last bit of his strength to run into the room, leaping over the first few bodies in his way, landing in an open space where he was able to quickly scramble around the other obstacles blocking his path.  None too soon, he found himself kneeling down next to Anjelou Lead Guide Harvin once again, his breathing erratic as he tried to recover his breath in the oppressive stench that pervaded the room, and he held the tablet out toward the angel. 

Harvin lifted his head and focused on the tablet for a moment, before his hand began to raise toward it.  Before he could touch it, however, Bax saw the light go out of his eyes from one second to another, and Harvin’s arm collapsed to his side, followed by his head as it dropped down as the last of his life faded away.

“NO!  Not yet!” Bax tried to shout, but it came out hoarse from his exertions, and he scrambled forward and lifted the lifeless hand of the angel up and put it on the tablet, hoping that it would still work…

…but nothing seemed to happen to the tablet.  It appeared just as dead as everyone else in the room.

I was too late.

Suddenly, the smell inside the room became too much for him, and he fled with the non-functional tablet in his possession, scrambling over the corpses to the hallway outside.  He sightlessly made his way through the small hallway and to the grander one outside, just stumbling along as he attempted to process just what all this meant.

Everyone was dead, or if they weren’t, they would be soon.

He couldn’t leave the Co-op, as he didn’t have access to anything that might allow it like the command tablet in his hands.

And he was all alone.

What do I do now?

As if in answer to his unspoken question, a flood of notifications hit him with such intensity that he collapsed in the middle of the massive hallway, unconscious before his head hit the floor.