Ava opened her mouth to scream when she felt a hand grab her wrist, yanking it at the force of her sudden stop in the air. When Ava looked up, Kris was hanging from the ladder by his legs, woven through the rungs so he could hang by the knees. He was out of breath, his chest heaving as he tried to catch it. "...You okay Ava?" He asked.
"Yeah… H-here, if you move me back to the ladder I can grab on." Ava instructed. Kris bent backwards, allowing Ava to grab the bars and pull herself back.
"I'll put in a complaint with the bunker safety manager. See if we can at least get a pulley system." Kris curled his body till he could grab the bars with his hands, pulling his legs out from beneath the bars back on the outside. "I can see the ledge up there. Come on, just a little longer." He continued to climb, quicker now. Ava followed him, although shaky from the scare. 5 feet above, he began to move onto different rungs of a ladder, pulling himself onto a ledge. He turned around. "Just do what I did. We can rest here." Ava moved onto the ladder rungs, struggling to pull herself up. Kris grabbed her by the arms, pulling her onto the ledge.
Ava collapsed onto the floor of the ledge, exhausted. "Don't worry. We're halfway there, and there's 2 more break areas ahead." Kris reassured her. "In fact… There's probably… Here!" Kris turned around, pulling out a dusty chest, seemingly some kind of mini-fridge. He flicked open the latches, pulling out a cold water bottle. He handed it to Ava. Ava lit up, quickly unscrewing it and chugging the water inside. It had been so long since she had drank fresh water. She hadn't had filtered water since she was in the underground, and that was 1 ½ days ago when she was camping out in one of her friend's abandoned home.
"Damn, you alright?" Kris asked, pulling out a water bottle to drink.
"Yes, very much so." Ava answered, her shoulders relaxing in satisfaction. "I haven't had a good drink in… 2 days?"
Kris spat out his water in surprise. "What?! You realize the human body stays hydrated for a day before damage starts, right?" He clarified, staring at Ava with wide eyes.
"Yes. I've just been running for a long time." Ava leaned against the wall, drawing in her legs to criss-cross. She didn't remember the last time she hadn't been running. From the prison, the snail, from Sans, from the Kraang. The last time she remembered she wasn't running was in the lair with Leo. They were sparring. Yet even then she was afraid to hit him. Running.
"When's the last time you ate?" Kris asked, concern lacing his tone.
"...I… don't remember… Last week?" Ava guessed.
Kris paused, taking it in. "...Well, it's a good thing they have food in here too." He pulled out some bread, jelly and peanut butter. He put them together into a sandwich, handing it to Ava. Ava devoured it, her stomach grumbling in appreciation. Nothing had ever tasted as good as that sandwich did at that moment. "Jeez, slow down. I can make more." Kris laughed, preparing another sandwich.
"Thank you so much Kris." Ava took the next one he handed her, this time eating slower.
"How long have you been running from the m- Yokai?" Kris asked, correcting himself before calling them Mutants.
"Well actually, only today I was running from them. I was running from someone else initially. As for time… From what I gathered, 6 years."
Kris's eyes widened, his eyebrows shooting to the top of his head. "6 years… Who wanted you dead so badly they chased you for 6 years?"
"It's… a long story. Um… All you need to know is I didn't come from New York. But after the Kraang invasion, I was sent back there, when I had initially left because of that person. 6 years later, I was in the hidden city. I was chased, saw… an old friend, and now I'm here." Ava explained, being careful not to mention timelines or universes.
"...But how do you know that person won't come here?" Kris asked.
Ava laughed. "The only way that person could get here was if god hated me. Trust me, they're stuck where they are."
Kris stretched out his arms. "Alright, are you ready to go?" He asked, packing away the supplies in the cooler, pushing it back in. Ava nodded. She followed Kris off the edge, using the ladder rungs below the edge to move back onto the initial ones. They continued their climb, the hatch above getting closer and closer. They took one more break, although it was more because they wanted to talk.
"So what's your story, Kris?" Ava asked, breaking into the snacks hidden in the cooler on the edge they were in. "Who is Kris Hermen?"
"Well… I was around 16 when those horrible aliens attacked." Kris began, leaning back. His legs dangled over the edge, kicking down small pebbles. "I was on my way to graduation, I had the grades every junior dreamed of! I wanted to start a welding business or join NUSA, help send rockets to the moon. Y'know, big things. Then the news started. Then my dad, who was in the military, led his troops to fight them. I begged him not to go. He said the one thing I will never forget. 'We're good people, son. We can't stand by'. When he came back… W-well… He didn't. He was put in the hospital after one of those stupid aliens infected him. They stabbed him in the heart… He didn't survive. And when those mutants- th-those Yokai were found responsible, well I sort of went off the rails. I joined the army, worked my way up. Now I'm here."
"...Kris, I'm so sorry." Ava put her hand on Kris's arm, trying to offer comfort. "But you have to understand, the Yokai didn't do that. They were the ones trying to fight it."
"Oh yeah? Then why were only 4 spotted? How do we know the rest weren't the ones to release them, helping them? Newsflash, we don't. We found firm evidence that those 4 were traitors to their kind, and the rest were ensuring the aliens stayed on earth." Kris snapped at her, before biting his lip. "...Come on. Let's keep climbing."
"Kris, you have to believe me-" Ava tried to insist before Kris interrupted her.
"We are not here to talk about how you believe the mutants that killed my father are innocent!" Kris stood up, climbing back onto the main ladder. "We are here because you want to see the general."
Ava hesitantly followed Kris. She knew she had crossed a line. Had things between Yokai and Humans really gotten this bad? To the point neither were even willing to explore the option that the other could be nice? That the other side could be right? The two of them continued to climb in awkward silence. Ava paused just before Kris opened the hatch. "Kris, wait." Kris halted above her. "...I'm sorry. Your dad was clearly a good person, and you were clearly close with him. And I know you blame the Yokai heavily for his death… But… would you even consider the possibility that the Yokai weren't the ones to kill him? That the aliens did?"
Kris sighed. "I have. But they proved their own case the moment they killed my mother too." And with that, Kris pushed open the hatch. He climbed out, leaving Ava to struggle as she used the bar on the ground to climb. Yet the moment Ava stood up, she felt as if she would fall once more. New York, it was… gone. Ruins of buildings littered the block, the Kraang vines wrapped around some, and the evidence of vines once being there on others. She stumbled after Kris, struggling to take it in. They came to an abandoned building. "Watch your step." Kris held out his hand after he stepped over some rubble, helping Ava over. He pulled on a dangling rope, pulling up some fake rubble. Beneath it was a hatch. Kris opened it, revealing a tunnel. "Hold onto this." Kris handed her the rope.
"Are we going to have to do more cl-" Ava began to ask when Kris grabbed her and jumped down the tunnel, one hand holding onto the rope. Ava screamed as they fell down. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"
Yet as they fell, they began to slow down. Kris began to laugh. Ava began to feel as if she had just been played. "It's a pulley system!" Kris revealed as they landed safely on the ground. He let go of the rope, which quickly rose back to the top of the tunnel. "Can't have anyone fall in the general's bunker!"
Ava shoved Kris. "I thought we were going to die!" She huffed, although the corners of her mouth twitched into a smile.
"You wanted to see the general, I got us to the general." Kris said innocently as they walked to a door. Kris opened it, revealing a large office. There were tables mapping out New York with plans of invasion, pictures on the wall of a man in his middle ages, and sitting at a desk full of papers, was a familiar face.
Ava gasped. "BAXTER STOCKBOY?!"