Categories > Original > Fantasy > Tradewinds 04 - "Tranz-D"
XII
Max looked around the next corner, then took a quick look behind. Bandit followed, looking even more apprehensive than his human friend.
While Justin was hiding in a closet, his friend had been arguing with a computer. It took a lot of ÄRER’s and AXES DENÏD FÖR DRÄÇUN UV ËMRJENSË’s, and he was finally ready to just give it up and go looking for Justin when he happened to hit on the right menu to find a map, more by accident than any deliberate effort on his part. Turned out there was a dedicated button for the maps, which made him all the more certain that all of his clumsy attempts at giving commands would probably have gone nowhere if his fingers hadn’t stumbled upon it. What the screen showed him was a map of what was still only part of this place. It was vast beyond reckoning, boggling his mind. If he was reading it right, just the portion of it he was looking at was bigger than the Isle of Paradise— possibly bigger than Layosha itself. Crisscrossing hallways forming layered symmetrical patterns; blocks of rooms, closets, stair/ladder wells; water, power, communication and other lines laced through it, running from level to level. And in the center of it all was Room 3694.
YÜ AR HËR.
Fortunately, making it print a copy of the map wasn’t as complicated as finding it in the first place. Much like the map display, there was actually a dedicated button for that next to the computer screen. And though he couldn’t find any information about Justin, he had found a point on the map that interested him. 6-D LÏBRÄRË / INFERMÄÇUN SENTR.
A library, if he was reading that right. A place of books and information. His parents had visited a few real ones in their wanderings, and Max quickly decided that this might be his only chance of finding his friend. To find out what was going on here, and how to find his way around.
Something that he found both intriguing and rather less than encouraging to think about, was that it bore no real resemblance to anything from any of the stories he had ever heard. There were elements, like these robots and computers, but nothing that specifically rang any bells. As if he had wandered into a place none of them had been before. Once upon a time, this might have evoked a sense of accomplishment, but right now all he could think about was finding his friend and finding their way out of here; of making this eerie place a memory to one day tell tales of his own about.
He checked the numbers on the wall at the junction to make sure he was still on the right track, then checked his map to see which way to go next.
The door to Room 3694 was locked, and he had ended up chopping it down with his energy blade. The noise was thunderous against the silence of this place. A silence he no longer trusted. Before any guards even had a chance to show up and recapture him, Max had bolted in the direction his new map indicated.
And he hadn’t dropped his guard since. For there were elements of this place’s very structure itself, especially its unnatural repetition, that gave him the creeps. There was something strange— sinister, he feared— going on in here, and he feared for Justin.
According to the map, he was getting close now, so he moved swiftly to the next junction, his silence complimented by his companion’s feline stealth.
Max looked around the next corner, then took a quick look behind. Bandit followed, looking even more apprehensive than his human friend.
While Justin was hiding in a closet, his friend had been arguing with a computer. It took a lot of ÄRER’s and AXES DENÏD FÖR DRÄÇUN UV ËMRJENSË’s, and he was finally ready to just give it up and go looking for Justin when he happened to hit on the right menu to find a map, more by accident than any deliberate effort on his part. Turned out there was a dedicated button for the maps, which made him all the more certain that all of his clumsy attempts at giving commands would probably have gone nowhere if his fingers hadn’t stumbled upon it. What the screen showed him was a map of what was still only part of this place. It was vast beyond reckoning, boggling his mind. If he was reading it right, just the portion of it he was looking at was bigger than the Isle of Paradise— possibly bigger than Layosha itself. Crisscrossing hallways forming layered symmetrical patterns; blocks of rooms, closets, stair/ladder wells; water, power, communication and other lines laced through it, running from level to level. And in the center of it all was Room 3694.
YÜ AR HËR.
Fortunately, making it print a copy of the map wasn’t as complicated as finding it in the first place. Much like the map display, there was actually a dedicated button for that next to the computer screen. And though he couldn’t find any information about Justin, he had found a point on the map that interested him. 6-D LÏBRÄRË / INFERMÄÇUN SENTR.
A library, if he was reading that right. A place of books and information. His parents had visited a few real ones in their wanderings, and Max quickly decided that this might be his only chance of finding his friend. To find out what was going on here, and how to find his way around.
Something that he found both intriguing and rather less than encouraging to think about, was that it bore no real resemblance to anything from any of the stories he had ever heard. There were elements, like these robots and computers, but nothing that specifically rang any bells. As if he had wandered into a place none of them had been before. Once upon a time, this might have evoked a sense of accomplishment, but right now all he could think about was finding his friend and finding their way out of here; of making this eerie place a memory to one day tell tales of his own about.
He checked the numbers on the wall at the junction to make sure he was still on the right track, then checked his map to see which way to go next.
The door to Room 3694 was locked, and he had ended up chopping it down with his energy blade. The noise was thunderous against the silence of this place. A silence he no longer trusted. Before any guards even had a chance to show up and recapture him, Max had bolted in the direction his new map indicated.
And he hadn’t dropped his guard since. For there were elements of this place’s very structure itself, especially its unnatural repetition, that gave him the creeps. There was something strange— sinister, he feared— going on in here, and he feared for Justin.
According to the map, he was getting close now, so he moved swiftly to the next junction, his silence complimented by his companion’s feline stealth.
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