Eerie feelings fill the air as the noises from deep below go silent. Water drips echo in the distance. The rhythmic hypnotic of the sound almost enough to sooth me into a sleep that I don't to have. Climbing the stairwell is proving difficult as I feel the depths calling me to follow it into the darkness below. I hold the left side of my face with my left hand and wonder why I am feeling such a strong pull in that direction.


"Etha, got a change in heart?" Mia asks me.


"Uh, I'm not sure." I say, hesitation is on my heart.


"Why is that?" She seems to genuinely be intrigued by the moment.


"I feel like somethings tryin' to call me down there." I say.


I can hear the hissing begun again. It appears to me she does not hear the noises. I feel confliction slowly bubble within my chest.


"Well, if ya got a gut feeling, let's follow it." She says.


"I don't know what it is. The way out would be by going up, according to logic." I admit.


"We've no way to know how deep underground we are either." She says.


"I know, we're screwed." I admit.


"I shouldn't have tangled you into this." Mia sighs. "We go down, see why you have this feeling."


She presses beside me and descends the stairwell. I feel helpless as I still am not sure how I feel about going down there. I can hear the structure groan. Mia examines the area.


"We are gonna have to find another stairwell." She says.


"This way." I say as I bolt through a door labeled 'FL89'.


"Wait!" Mia attempts to call my attention.


I run into what seems to be a narrow set of walls. They are cracked and leaning to the right. It seems to me like the structure broke at one time and ended up becoming a part of the sands of the Badlands.


Mia sighs disgruntled. She didn't expect this situation, who ever could though. I sit down and sigh. She sits beside me. I wrap my arm over her and pull her close to me. The heat from eachother makes the area comfortable for me.


We look around trying to figure out the way out from this natural disaster of a situation. Mia sighs with the depth of her lungs. I can't help but sigh just after.


"Any ideas?" She asks.


"Keep finding the next way through this maze." I reply.


"And when do we have the surface again?" She replies.


I don't know what we can do to get back to the surface in all honesty, but trying to find a way is better than sitting still. I stand and help her to her feet. We venture into another corner of the structure to try to find a stairwell we can try to ascend to the surface with. the old world must have been a sight considering the scale of these living areas and work spaces. people must have lived on a massive scale unlike I've ever dreamed to experience. Old Boston being the largest settlement for hundreds of miles.


We find an old red lettered sign reading 'exit' and proceed through the doorway. We see a stairwell that seems to proceed upwards. We move with near silence up the stairway of stone. Mia seems to just be in a mindset of desperation like myself. We don't have the supplies to be down here.


We get halfway to the stairway marker of 'FL101' when we see the stairs have moved or broken. It's discouraging but we make our way back to 'FL100'. We enter the door to the area and it has small glowing mushrooms throughout this building. I look around to see anything to tell us what we are in. This is not like the surface. There are pink crystals growing from the pillars and walls in the area. I take a breath as I see a light blue glowing flower vine that surrounds a sign hat reads 'ArkTech Research Center Alpha Boston Division'.


"Uh, Mia..." I say.


"What's up Etha?" She asks.


I point to the sign I see in the blue dim lighting. She sighs deeply. It seems she knows where we are. She kneels for a moment.


"ArkTech certainly has a lot going on we never thought was even here." Mia says with softness.


"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.


"We are coming back here when we are done with our first mission. I'm going to let old Boston know we are only a few dozen miles off. They are going to go berserk. We knew Old Boston was near New Boston, but this is the discovery of ages." Mia sighs.


"So we coincidentally fall into the place you all dreamt of and we get trapped." I laugh a bit.


"This is a blessing in disguise, Etha. This is a research facility it's possible they could have Tech in here that would have us get out and reveal this to New Boston." She says.


"So ArkTech was only about technology research?" I ask.


"They have a bioengineering and cybernetics division." She replies.


"What kind of messed up place was the old world?" I ask to myself. She shakes her head.


"I guess they thought they could do what only a creator could and control life itself, it seems." She explains her thoughts to me.


"I see. which led to them all being practically annihilated. leaving us to fight to survive with this insane aftermath." I huff.


"Generations after ours will suffer from our deeds as well Etha. We can can break the cycle of damage caused from generations before us." She says.


"As stated by the Tsunami Effect." I reply.


"You mean the Butterfly effect. but yeah." She corrects me.


I wander through this open room. Scattered across the checkered floor lays empty vials and unmarked syringes. papers of many sorts cover the floor. The lights flicker rythmatically as I glance about. The far corner lays brightly lit in comparison to the remainder of the floor. A wall mounted computer seems to be online and operational. Mia makes a high pitched squeak as she bolts for the glowing monitor. Her fingers dart round the letters on the keyboard as if she grew up utilizing this technology.


"Seems like you know your way around tech, Mia." I say.


"When you have the job to salvage things, you get good on these, most of the best stuff is locked up behind magnetic locking systems that require some sort of power supply." She sighs.


"So, that's a good thing we found this place?" I ask.


"Well, it will make history if we can manage to get out and back to New Boston alive." She replies.


She continues to race across the keyboard repeatedly as she finds her way through the operating system. She stops momentarily as she sees a folders list in the back ends of the computer. She wiggles and points.


"Jackpot." Mia says.


I lean in to read the list:


'CLASSIFIED Projects Lists


Project Starseed


Project Aguafia


Project Fortress


Project Agenda 2640'


"What am I looking at?" I ask.


"A list of projects this location was involved in I assume." She replies to me.


"So now our mission is to get back to tell people where this is?" I say.


"Yeah. but, I still haven't figured out how we are going to get to the surface." She admits.


"I don't think the solution is so obvious though Mia." I reply.


We both sigh. I laugh and she shakes her head. My timing for laughter certainly has been better before. She gives me this, very convincing, unapproving nod. I feel chills roll up my spine. It's as if she has a way to stare into my soul.


I lead her to the nearest exit sigh as we try to find the top to this structure. I go through the door before she can say anything and I immediately regret going in without looking. My shoe squelches with an absolute tremor through me.


"Gross." I say.


"Yep." She laughs at my absent mindedness.


"What did I even step in?" I ask.


"I don't know for sure. Nor do I want to." She replies.


"Eh, you may be right. Watch your step."


"Take your own advice." She laughs.


She is right. I shouldn't drop my vigilance in any means. I need to be aware and careful of my surroundings. She always seems to be so aware of everything. I can't afford a slip up, nor can she. We slowly go upstairs again. We go up a bunch of flights before we hit a boxed in room with a door. I try to push it open and it seems jammed to me.


"Ideas?" I ask Mia.


"Not at the moment." She replies.


I sigh and try pressing against the wall to pry the door open. The sound of sand running down the steps is almost like a bag of small marbles rolling their way down the steps. Before I can even think I slip back from the weight of the sand. Everything seems hopeless in this effort. Is this the highest point of the building really? I can't help but wonder.


Mia kicks the door and momentarily allows a bunch of sand to pour down the steps. This gives me an idea, no matter how insane this may turn out to be.


"What if we drain the sand from the surface and bring it to us, rather than us to it?" I ask Mia.


"Okay, I'm listening." She says with a grin.