Morning arrived quietly.
The city that had looked alive, like a nightmare sprung into life, now looked as dead ever. There was no sound, no hum of a generator or the engine of a train. The neon lights and the billboards, the music and the noise, all of it had disappeared at some point in the night. Even the living dead were seen no more. Abandoned.
It looked like just like the reports the team had received before.
The team stood at the boundary, staring at Aiyra in the soft morning light.
It almost looked… harmless.
Almost.
Taren stretched his neck, cracking stiffness away. "Was yesterday a dream? Or an illusion?"
"No," Eira said. "It was way too real to be an illusion."
"Perhaps we are in an illusion right now?"
"Hey Mira, can you scan the ruins with your artifact to check for signs of living? Perhaps a team of bandits is inhabiting the place now."
They all conversed with each other, throwing ideas and speculations to explain the scene from yesterday. It was obvious that they were trying to avoid the obvious answer. The might of an Oldkin had already shaken them once.
They turned towards Kshaya. It felt like whenever they were stuck, they would turn towards him for answers.
The man in the chains had been watching the city since dawn. Arms folded. Mask nowhere. Breathing steady. But his eyes didn't leave the quiet streets ahead, not even once.
When he finally spoke, no one interrupted.
"I'll go in alone."
The reaction was immediate.
The sixth member stepped forward first and refused without hesitation. "No."
Her voice was quiet but absolute. The others followed with their own protests.
"Kshaya, that's reckless," Eira said, frowning.
"There could be traps," Mira added.
"What if the dead come back?" Korr muttered, already sweating.
"We're supposed to move as a team," Taren insisted.
Only Lume stayed silent, staring at the city like something was beckoning him from the depths. He had a strange twinkle in his eyes as he continued to stare, detached from the conversation that was happening.
Kshaya waited till they were willing to listen once more.
"The city reacted to me yesterday," he said. "The greeting, the activation,,, it was aimed at me first. If anything or anyone inside is alive, it will look for me, not you."
He didn't raise his voice or change his tone. He didn't need to. He was telling them, not asking for their permission.
"And if something happens to you instead?" Eira asked.
Kshaya looked at her for a second, really looked. Then turned away.
"We don't die."
The words were simple, factual. Immortals rarely spoke of death with confidence. But he did. He gathered his gear, checked on his radio and the compass and started walking.
No one tried stopping him again.
"This is messed up, we are like children dependent on him now. Before when we came searching for him, crossing the mountains the swamp, we never had such trouble. Now all of a sudden all of the slumbering gods want a piece of us?"
Taren was pissed, ranting around as soon as Kshaya had left from there eyesight.
"Although I don't want to put down Kshaya too much since he has saved our lives twice now, but it is suspicious how our journey before he joined us was much smoother. Its almost as if he attracts these oldkins." Agreeing with him strangely was Mira. She was twiddling with her slate, the artifact that she had bonded with. But her words were reasonable.
Lume, finally out of his reverie suddenly turned towards Eira, "There is something that you aren't telling us, right team leader?" His eyes were smiling as he questioned her.
The attention suddenly came upon the white coated researcher. She looked back at them, as if contemplating what to share and what not to.
"There is stuff that she has been hiding since the beginning, all because of the damn Council and their restrictions. One would wonder that after the world went to shit, such things would be last of concern for all of us." Dr. Korr also seemed to be fed up with the lies that were being fed to them, voicing out his doubts.
Except the sixth member, who was the last to join them, everyone was eyeing Eira with doubt now.
"You're right. I have hidden a lot of the details. But that is also because knowing all of it won't benefit anyone." Her answer was simply trying to brush off the subject, as if it wasn't her responsibility.
"But you're wrong about something. It isn't Kshaya who is attracting the trouble. No, it's us. The purpose of our journey is known to the world. The immortal world is now aware that we embark on a journey to reset this world. To correct the wrong.
Have you ever wondered, if everything is alive now, forests are alive and rivers have a mind, what about the entire world. Does it also have its own conscious? And if so, would it allow anyone to restore the way things were before? Will the oldkin be agreeable to go back into a muted slumber, never to be heard again?"
Each word that she spoke plunged the group into colder reality. A scale of which they had never imagined. Suddenly it felt like the world itself was observing them, their each move. And it was against it. They were fighting the world itself. Why were they fighting the world again?
To correct the wrongs? What wrongs?
None of them could think for a moment, as they simply let the silence wash over them, waiting for Kshaya to return now.
Aiyra felt different once he crossed the threshold. It wasn't the sort of difference he would feel when entering the territory of an oldkin. But as if he had returned to a past era.
The air inside the city was colder, stiller, almost preserved. Building around him looked in great shape, the vines covering them shaped to create patterns. There was no litter or ruble, everything was too clean and organized. In a familiar way.
Then it stuck him. This strangeness reminded him of the prison. His prison. Perhaps this city was also a prison? In that case, who was the prisoner?
Kshaya slowly walked along the streets, noticing how every structure was well preserved. The more he observed, the more a strange feeling built up inside him. Originally, he had wanted to get away from the team, to ease the voices in his head. They wouldn't stop bothering, constantly complaining all throughout the journey. But now, they were all silent. Which was definitely sign for trouble.
As he walked, he felt a strange pull. An attraction that he couldn't explain from the direction he was walking to. He looked up ahead, but there was nothing noticeable in his sight.
He removed his compass from his waist, observing it for any signs of danger..
Left… we've walked this path before…
Kshaya strangely accepted and turned left, deciding to ignore the pull from city center.
He walked deeper. Following the directions from his compass, careful with each step, he passed buildings and houses. After almost twenty minutes of walk, he found himself in front of the most unique structure in the city yet.
It was an abandoned building.
This wasn't like the rest of the city which was well maintained. Instead, this building looked to be much older. It looked like something that was abandoned even before the cataclysm. Something that was destroyed way before Aiyra became what it was today.
His voices had guided him here.
He didn't rush. The building felt like it was watching him.
Slowly, he pushed open the rusted metal door. It groaned loudly, as if waking something up. The cold air inside hit him straight. No light seeped through. Dust hung unmoving, frozen mid-air, refusing to fall.
He stepped in. And suddenly the atmosphere changed. The building seemed to come alive. As his foot landed on the smooth tile, the environment around him changed. White walls, white floors, white coats. Everything was bright and white, with doctors and researchers walking around, patients and nurses moving about. A scene from the past appeared before him.
"…you were here…"
The voice wasn't his radio's usual static whisper. This one was softer. Younger. Almost familiar.
"No," he muttered. "I wasn't."
"…you forgot…"
His fingers twitched toward his chains, almost instinctively. A migraine pulsed behind his eyes again, like someone was pushing memories into his skull with a dull blade.
White light flashed at the edge of his vision. A corridor that looked familiar flashed by. His body moved on its own, following the corridor, rushing in through the door at the end.
Kshaya's breathing picked up. He forced himself to focus.
This place was trying to show him something. A memory? Or an illusion? He didn't know for sure, but it felt like something important and related to him.
As he rushed along in the corridor, he noticed the walls, filled with lines of code that felt familiar. He paused slightly to understand them, but it was all at the edge of his understanding. No matter how much he scratched his head, it didn't appear for him.
Frustrated, he continued and arrived at the end of the corridor. There was a single door in front of him. A plaque above the door identified it.
AIYRA - RESEARCH WING 4
Human Cognition & Perception Simulation Lab
His body stilled, something within him flickered, as if struggling to break surface. The pain in his head was threatening to split him in half. He fell to his knees, clutching his head tightly. What did those words mean to him? What was this place?
The scene started to glitch, as the white floor and the corridor faded out of existence. In its place, Kshaya found himself crawling on broken floor, the walls around him broken and beyond recognition. The plaque that had driven him crazy nowhere to be seen. He glanced at the door that was crushed in half, knowing that it was the same door from the vision he just had. But now, nothing of the room or its contents remained. Only broken concrete and ruble.
'... don't explore further... you sealed it... let it remain as such...'
The heavy voice inside him consoled him, as the pain slowly lessened.
He agreed with it, getting up from the floor and slowly finding his way back to the reception area and the door through which he had entered. Just before leaving, he curiously stared at the reception desk and saw a sheet of paper that looked like a prescription note.
Curious, he carefully lifted the note, reading its content.
...
Date: May-25-2029
Patient: Captain Kshaya
Diagnosis: Stage three: Bone cancer
...
The note fell from his grasp, as something within him cracked. He didn't remember. No, not exactly. Since he hadn't really forgotten this. But he never remember having a checkup in Aiyra. He never remembered visiting Aiyra before the cataclysm.
But the note in front of him was irrefutable evidence.
His memories had been tampered with.
And the most likely person to do that was himself.
Near the city's center, he found what he needed: an old parking garage, half-collapsed, its metal ribs exposed. Inside, vehicles slept in slumber, most of them almost dead and some barely surviving.
It was a large selection, so it wasn't tough finding a van big enough for the team. He approached the white vehicle, feeling it faintly observe him from its slumber. A living machine. Barely conscious.
He placed his hand on the hood.
"I need to pass through the city," he said. "Just function. Nothing more."
The van answered with a tiny spark beneath his palm, its consent.
An absolute contract was formed. A single glowing circle rose from the car, dividing into two before merging with the two parties involved.
The engine coughed to life, louder than expected. The sound echoed off the empty city, too loud, too alive. But during the day, nothing answered back. He didn't remain longer. With the van, he drove back the way he came, careful to avoid the deeper streets where the shadows seemed to linger.
He reached the team well before sunset. Time seemed to have passed strangely when he was in that memory scape, but he wasn't going to mention that to them. After he came back, he briefly explained the situation as he had observed during the day to them.
"We'll leave tomorrow morning," he said, stepping out of the van. "During the day. It's safer."
Eira eyed him. Taren checked their gear. Mira seemed relieved. Korr scribbled his thoughts in agitation. The sixth member watched him longer than anyone else.
Lume was the only one smiling faintly. "Did the city talk to you? Were you listening?"
Kshaya ignored him. Right now, there was a lot more on his mind than before. And his voices were also strangely silent, which was unnerving for him.
Night came slow. And the city of Aiyra came to life just like the day before. But the team did not stick around to observe them. Like the day before, they would keep watch in turns. While it wasn't necessary for them to sleep at all, being well rested was important even for immortals.
Today it was Taren and Lume's turn to watch. Lume had asked the soldier to sleep first, while he would keep the first watch. The others did not object, so they went to sleep one-by-one. Finally the night was his alone.
Lume looked at the vibrant city, whispering to no one, "You're calling… aren't you?"
A single streetlight blinked twice at him.
He smiled back in jubilance. As if in a trance, he stood from his position, slowly making his way into the city. None of the team members noticed anything, as his figure drifted into the breathing city.