Andrew stared at the ZIP module hanging on the wall in front of him.
「¿uoy era ohW」
…
He wasn't sure what to say.
He'd scanned the area with the app labeled 'ZIP' on the watch he'd picked up from the corpse, then after landing on a dull blue sphere in the corner of the room, he lifted his gaze from the watch view and looked for the eyes of the 'spider-like' friend in the description…
He'd definitely found it.
After a tense five seconds, ZIP… zipped away, and as clicking noises rang out from above…
The noise suddenly stopped.
He waited for a while, staring at the spot he'd last seen ZIP, but nada.
Turning to face the door, he stilled seeing the large body of an arachnid hovering on the wall. His stiff face reflected in its eight beady eyes as its fangs clicked together to create a noise barely resembling human speech.
"…I don't understand."
Scree, screee, ck, ck…
After a series of screeching noises like the screams of a camel spider, ZIP asked again.
「I..dent..it..yyyy.」
It tried.
Slowly nodding, Andrew pulled out the service pamphlet and pointed to the identifying information under the red section of the opening instructions.
- Introduce yourself. (Name(s), Age, Date of Birth, Affiliation, Designation, Purpose.)
"I'll go in order."
ZIP chittered… it might've been an affirmative.
"Andrew… Xù Lín Solano Alverez, 31. 25th of December XXII'44…"
He paused.
"Current affiliation… Bodyguard under le Prisme Doré Security Company, contracted to Theia Michaels."
He licked his canines, his eyes remaining fixed to the page as the shadow cast by the giant spider hovering over him grew larger.
"Designation, 'O', purpose…"
He raised his head, it was dark.
With not a single speck of light.
"Forest entry."
…
He massaged his temples, the perspiration settling there causing his short hair to cling to his head.
…
Scree, screee, ck, ck…
Ck.
「I…D」
The sound resonated around him, reverberating through his ears and sending vibrations through his body.
"…"
He took a slow breath.
"…You can bite me."
…
Crunch
…
He was already inside its mouth.
;
:
.
,
..
:
Flash
Dzzrrr
…
「uoy knahT」
Scitter
…
Andrew released the breath he was holding as the low red light reentered his vision.
His heart was pounding.
ZIP was again hovering over his head, its fangs and pedipalps rubbing together to create a faint hissss before the noise abruptly stopped. Reaching out its long appendages, the stiff and spiky surfaces brushing against Andrew's heated skin, it waited… for something.
…
"You may offer anything, but you must offer something that belongs to you."
…
Unlatching the watch on his arm, he held it up for the spid—ZIP to see.
"Is this mine?"
ZIP stared at him.
…
He put the watch away.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the can instead.
"This?"
ZIP clicked its fangs together impatiently.
Andrew stared at the can.
Is there an uncontested ownership period?
He didn't have a lot on him because of a certain someone, so there was only so much he could offer.
The clothes on his back… or himself.
Looking at ZIP's many eyes one by one, at its impatiently chattering fangs, and at the legs that occasionally nipped at his hair or pulled on his clothes—Andrew quickly made a decision.
Removing one of his shoes, he peeled off his sock and handed it over before sliding the shoe back on.
"This?"
…
ZIP accepted the offering.
Nodding his head towards the living module, Andrew wasn't surprised when it disappeared, leaving him alone under the ominous red light.
…
3 minutes.
It was a wait neither long nor short as he moved 3 meters away from the door.
Just in case.
Standing in the darkness, his back pressed against the wall, Andrew resolved to have a proper talk with his 'date' about leaving people to fend for themselves.
…
Leaving him to fend for himself again.
There was no grudge, merely a faint sense of…
Screak!
Clang!
The rusty metal door, stained with red light that oddly spelt safety creaked open—The metal bolts straining to remain in place.
…
With only 30 seconds to use the exit, Andrew bolted through the door and found himself in another corridor, doors lined from end to end on both sides—
With varying indicators of red, blue, yellow… and green hanging over their nameplates.
Not willing to linger, he kept moving, his eyes fixed squarely to the tubeshaft ahead.
ZIP followed him from above.
…
He wasn't sure if it was wishing him well or ensuring he kept away from those doors.
Finally making it to the other end, he pulled open the shaft door and closed it behind him.
…
He didn't feel safe.
As he fumbled in the dark, the musty scent of the underground and whatever else was out there hung in his nose.
He just wanted to reach the forest.
But why did he forget that he was underground?
…
Calming his unsteady breathing, Andrew scanned the tight tube he was in, searching for the button that would move this vehicle out of the serviceway.
It wasn't in front of him.
Reaching back, his touch as delicate as possible to avoid hitting something wrong, Andrew's fingers grazed over a set of buttons.
Shff
Before he could turn around to look however… a spider-like appendage pushed him low, out of sight of the glass that showed the door-filled corridor.
Its fangs clattered together, sparse, erratic, as a low hisss exited its inhuman mouth.
「gnimoc s'eH」
…
Step Step—
Step
The footsteps stopped as abruptly as they began.
He listened very carefully, the sound of low breathing reaching his ears from where no one should've been able to emerge without ZIP, who clung to him from above.
K3
The helpful hound, who once smelt of petrichor, now had a scent closer to a bloody rain.
It was still human.
Fuu, fuu
Yet, Andrew felt safer in the maw of a spider's clumsy defense.
He slowly shifted his head, just enough to see the buttons panel on the wall.
The spider was practically begging him not to move, its hold becoming firmer as its chitters grew more stilted.
But Andrew knew.
Cl—
He was turning on the lights.
:
.
..
.
Ding!
…
He wasn't sure who moved first, but the lights flashed, striking out his vision just as his fingertips grazed the ↑ on the buttons panel.
Hesawhesawhesawhesawhesawhesawhesawhesawhesawhesawsomethingnotmeantfortheeyesanaffronttothebrainsomethingdespicableandunexplainablesomethinghumaneatingfrontingtearingsomethingthatsnotscentmixingadeepertenorofbloodyfleshasthe—
Ding!
…
…
Thud!
He fell out of the elevator.
…
The sun was too bright.
—
Andrew wasn't sure how long he laid there, but the shuttle, rusted and dirty—a stark contrast to the peaceful scenery of the migratory pathway—had left.
The sun, however, did not.
…
Pushing through the stark coldness corrupting the heat crawling through his body in waves, Andrew wiped the sweat off his brow and kept moving.
ZIP had disappeared, what he'd seen in the blink of light… had not.
"…"
He didn't want to know.
Massaging his eyes as he trudged through the artificial foliage of the migratory pathway—the leaves on the ground cluttered together in various reds, oranges, and yellows as if it were fall—Andrew lifted his head and looked over the scenery hanging beneath his feet.
The city was awake, the tower remained ever present in the distance, and the forest…
His feet slowed, stopping just above the boundary separating the field below and the forest beyond.
Staring out at the Northeastern forest, the sun's light bouncing off of the treetops only long enough for him to get a hint of its vastness before it hid behind the dense clouds covering that section of sky, Andrew touched the glass.
Tap
It was snowing on the other side of the fence.
…
A sad smile vanished from his face as soon as it appeared.
…
…
Rustle
He could hear something.
Turning away from the scenery outside, Andrew continued walking, his footsteps quiet in the grass lining the migratory corridor—save for the occasional crunch as his feet crushed the fallen leaves underfoot.
About seven or eight years had passed since he'd last seen snow—the first time he'd ever seen snow.
Crunch… crunch…
And unlike the autumn leaves crunching beneath his feet, the eversprings of the central districts, or even the turbulent storms plaguing the outer reaches of Onyx… the snow outside, and the snow he'd seen in Toronto, as he completed his final duties as a soldier—held a subtler kind of beauty.
One that did nothing to hide the follower lurking behind him in the corridor.
Stopping for only a moment, his eyes passing over the glass in an attempt to hide his lingering on the periphery, Andrew turned his full attention to the creature as it let out a soft and pitiful—
Beeeehh…
…
It was just a deer.
Unwilling to let go of his unease that easily, Andrew kept moving only as far as he needed to find an emergency latch into the forest. The deer followed, but he ignored it.
He was dropping out of this pathway expeditiously.
…
Staring at the distant ground, the treetops the closest footholds he couldn't reach, Andrew stood there without moving for a long while.
…
No parachute.
He knelt on the ground, trying to peek at the other side of the latch.
…
There might be a ladder.
He glanced at the trees.
If not… 5… 6.5 meters…
He could find a way down.
Confirming his plans while throwing a cautious look at the deer standing over his shoulder, Andrew stood up and grasped the latch, bracing for the inevitable shock from the sudden change in environment.
Krr-iiiiietsch
Luckily, the pathway was more lenient than the serviceway as the latch disengaged without a fight.
Kssshhh
As the pressure equalized around the opening—not enough to pull him through, but enough to feel the difference, Andrew looked outside, at the bare forest no longer blocked by glass.
…
Drifting his gaze towards the edge of the latch, Andrew let out a soft huff.
There's a ladder.
Glancing at the deer, still silent, still unmoved, still watching, Andrew reached down, his hold on the latch tight as he grasped the edge of the ladder mechanism. Focusing on just the task in front of him, Andrew fumbled with the edges—stiffened by years of unuse, and finally managed to free the deployment switch.
Flip
Clatter!
The metal ladder unfurled in one clunky motion, the end of it swinging around so much it hit a tree and broke off…
Clunk!
…
Pulling himself back into the pathway, firmly away from the opening, Andrew's faintly flickering amber eyes met those of the deer watching all of this unfold.
"...You can go first."
Of course, there was no way for a deer to…to…
…
The deer walked towards the opening and looked down, completely ignoring the Shifted feverishly clinging to the pathway's inner wall.
…
Andrew had nothing left to say as… it… stood up, climbed out, and slid down the ladder before disappearing into the forest.
…
He neither wanted to continue forward, nor to remain in place.