I opened the hard metal door as Recks stood behind me, his gaze steady, a bit of a troubled, thoughtful expression on his face.
Every thought of his was on clear display.
"It should be fine. If a great rank four does not see the need to call for backup, there is probably no need for it." I spoke in an attempt to soothe his worries. If it would work...it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing, right?
As he heard this, Reck's gaze traveled up with a bit of a disbelieving expression, finding its way onto his face. He took a step forward through the door, following me, as he replied in a surprised tone of voice, his face showing clear bewilderment. An emotion I should probably take as an offense!
"Since when are you able to see reason? Have I taught you that well, Alexia?"
My voice, in return, became an octave deeper, icy even.
"You're on thin ice, especially considering the comment earlier.
You know, your wife and I have a good relationship!"
Hearing her warning words, Recks fell silent, as a silent drop of sweat rolled down his skin, his hand wandering to his collar, loosening it by a bit.
"Hm hm hm, there you fall quiet it se—"
It is quite reassuring to have such a partner who showed his thoughts and emotions clearly, even….
Bam. My vision turned a bit blurry as a headache assaulted, a tearing feeling assailing my innards, paired with a loud sound of rushing waves, swaying up and down, despite there not being a drop of water in sight.
Stumbling a step or two, just about to fall, I suddenly stop, stabilized by something or someone.
Feeling the sudden spasm of dizziness and the sound of rushing waves grow faint, I reopened my eyes to see Recks holding me up by an arm. A concerned expression on his face.
"You okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" He asked, holding his hand in front.
"Hua, yes, yes. It's okay. You're holding up four." I answered, the sudden seizure having receded once more.
"Good, then let's get this over with," Recks replied with a relieved voice, as they started walking again, turning his back to me.
***
In the underground market.
Looking at the empty and long-abandoned house, a plethora of greenery, overgrown and infested by blue pulsating veins. Flora that was typical of the space realm.
"What were the subtleties of the case again?" I asked in a relaxed tone, more so to fill the silence and distract from the previous incident.
Recks did not waste time, as he went over the information one last time, his words objective and focused on the job.
"Citizens have been hearing strange voices from this area for quite some time. After the sounds that rang at the same time each day grew so loud they could no longer be ignored, the Civil Guard launched an investigation.
They tracked it down to these abandoned living quarters."
"The four officers, three male, one female, went missing after entering, the voices having fallen silent ever since," I interjected, my voice hiding a somber note of worry.
"They are presumed to be dead. This is no rescue mission. Have I made myself clear?" Recks, the older of the two, spoke out, his eyes lingering on me for a few moments, waiting for my hesitant nod of approval and understanding.
Signaling with a wave of my head, I returned my attention to the run-down building, with little desire to enter the house, which looked like the ones in horror stories.
Seemingly not having the same thought, kicking open the door with one quick movement, Recks pulled out a gun from his arm holster and immediately noticed a disgusting, moldy smell.
I felt a bit of admiration well up seeing the scene of him kicking down the door without hesitation. Sadly, welling in it was impossible, the stench becoming the forefront of my thoughts.
How is he able to keep his face so unperturbed—is it experience?
Scanning his surroundings tensely with his gun, the revolver pointed forward, ready to pull the trigger at a moment's notice.
I, meanwhile, stood a step behind, my finger on my nose, shutting it tightly. Clearly barely able to hold it together, the disgusting stench was able to provoke even a relatively experienced individual like Recks, not to speak of someone like me, who was barely half a year in service.
"Set your barrier to high alert." Recks calmly instructed as he did the same, his arm wandering to a thick bracelet with three buttons. Pressing the most left one three times in quick succession, a red light flashed across his entire body. The same happened with Alexia a moment later.
Seeing that nothing seemed off, Recks took out a small white piece of some sort, vaguely resembling a piece of chalk. He broke it in two and sniffed at it, his expression relaxing a bit.
Right after he held it up to my nose, before we went in one after the other.
The chalk gave off a nice pepperminty odor lingering in the nose long after it was put away once more.
At first glance, the room did not seem special. A few pieces of junk had piled up, and a layer of dust had covered every crevice.
The building was not very big overall—judging by the outside, it should have had three to four rooms.
I planned to take a step forward to start expecting the room, but Recks gestured for me to stop, his arm stretched out in front of my chest.
Confused, I gave him a long look, waiting for an explanation.
He, on the other hand, did not seem to find this necessary, observing the dark room calmly before finally pointing at the floor without a word. There, among the thick layer of dust, were a few places covered with less dust than others.
The steps of the previous party.
They went through the room as if having searched every crevice of it, and to the left and right were each a door. The steps could be tracked to both, but peculiarly, the right door showed only signs of being entered, not exited.
"Go check the left, I'll keep an eye on the right," Recks said in a hushed voice.
I simply gave a nod of affirmation before quietly heading to the left.
Opening the door… nothing. There was nothing of note. Similar to the living room, it had been a simple bedroom, now covered in web and dust.
The king-sized bed was a bit too luxurious for these parts, but otherwise, there was nothing of note.
Quickly going through the things in search of anything of note, but finding little. The scouts had probably already collected everything of worth.
Quickly headed back, a bit creeped out by the decrepit atmosphere, I returned.
"Should we go through the stuff here, as well?" Alexia asked.
"No, if there was anything, the scouts would have found and taken it with them." Recks rejected logically.
It was time to go to the right.
Giving each other a silent last glance, both weapons in hand, he kicked open the door.
A small pebble dislodged from above, previously part of the ceiling, fell straight toward Recks, building up speed.
He did not react in the slightest as he analyzed the surroundings until it eventually simply bounced off a red layer that flashed up shortly before contact.
Not even noticing the pebble bouncing off his barrier-something was here.
There, leaning against a wall, was a motionless man.
His body was clad in a blue-checkered uniform, typical of the civil guard.
He seemed intact, as far as Alexia was concerned.
Giving Recks a somber glance, he returned it with a small nod.
"Identify yourself," Recks said in a commanding tone.
No answer. The man lay still and unmoving. No reaction perceivable to the eye.
The stench surrounding them, not weakening a bit, felt even stronger than before.
Grimacing a bit, I carefully closed in on the man sent forward by Recks. Meanwhile, he oversaw every action, ready to act at a moment's notice.
I carefully touched the man's shoulder and yet again got no reaction. His body felt cold.
Shaking it a bit, he suddenly fell towards me, the other half fully exposed.
Reflexively taking a few steps back, my face distorting in horror and disgust for a moment.
It was a truly gruesome sight.
The man's face was riddled with holes, as larvy wiggled and bored through his flesh. His right eye a birthing place for a plithera of larvae. His right leg had been chewed on by something small. Rats perhaps? He had obviously died a while ago, his flesh starting to decay.
"One of the civil guards people," Recks said in a cold tone, far from the one he used before.
This made me feel a cold shudder. This wasn't uncommon for her colleagues, and still, it felt strange.
Was this a defense mechanism?
Which of the two personas was the true one?
Would I be like that one day as well?
I was still relatively new, but the thoughts were nerve-racking nonetheless.
"T-there doesn't seem to be anything else… Was the artifact brought away?" I asked quietly, in an attempt to distract myself.
Recks looked at the corps for a few moments, with a perplexed expression.
"What is it?" I asked, unerved by the analytic, emotionless stare.
"There aren't any signs of struggle. He seems to have simply sat down and let himself be eaten alive."
Hearing these words, a cold shudder ran over her back. What a horrendous death.
Recks in retune took a step closer, his eyes turning pure white the next moment, his pupils traveling up his head, the red arteries the only taint on his eyes.
Slowly going over the entire room, his gaze stopped on the corpse, or a bit behind it.
As he walked over and crouched beside it, he shoved the corpse to the side, a trail of blood scraping over the floor and wall.
His eyebrows twitched slightly, the only change in expression I could observe throughout the entire process. Then his fist suddenly raced downward.
Bang!
He hit the ground, a loud thunk that raced through the room, quickly replaced by the sound of tearing, deforming metal.
As he threw away a misshapen, thin piece of metal, there, next to the motionless corpse, was a passage.
It was barely large enough to fit one person through, and the walls seemed to be built of uneven stone, as if someone had dug straight down.
"An unsanctioned tunnel?" Recks muttered out loud.
I was a bit unsure what to do, since only one could fit through at a time.
Before I could even make a suggestion, Recks spoke out first.
"I'll go in, you stay out and guard the passage… And call for the corps collectors."
The unspoken message was clear. If he did not return, she should go and get back up.
A bit hesitant, I tried to dissuade.
"S-shouldn't we wait for backup now?"
He just shook his head in return, a bit of resignation plain on his face.
"We do not have the manpower, and leaving a wild artifact lying around is too risky. It's a wonder that there have only been four deceased.
You're new and shouldn't take risks."
Silence returned to the room for a while…
"Oke," I said in a quiet, but shameful voice, touched by his words.
I felt shame for not having the courage to go instead of him, but I could not really argue against it. After all, he was the more experienced of the two and therefore had seniority.