FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Location: Old Arpeggio Ruins.

Time: 22:45pm.

Year: 2180, March 10th.

We had been in this place for only half an hour, and things were already going to hell; we didn't even bump into Rosie yet! Though we did find something alive down here; mutants, and a lot of them; they seemed slow enough for us to get past, but when they broke into a run, it was as if they couldn't stop. We were only just able to take shelter inside an office building that was still intact. Elise had eaten through half her ammunition, and only had three more clips left for her large rifle, for when we had to go up against Rosie.

I had found something in the office building, though. It was a dog-tag with the name 'Kobalt Kaiken' imprinted on it. It was odd, though; my name was Kobalt; it was my own unique mane, named after the color of the tip of my tail. It was surprising and shocking to see that someone already possessed the name. I tucked the tag away in my pocket and continued on with Elise through the dark building.

"So what was that?" Elise asked me, breaking into a small jog through the torn up and pitch black corridors. "Is it anything useful?"

"I don't know." I admitted, catching up and jogging with her. "It's some kind of dog-tag with the name 'Kobalt Kaiken' on it."

"Is he a friend of yours?" Elise asked, turning the corner and forcing open a door leading to a small flight of steps. Her plan was to get to higher ground, obviously. Surprisingly, the steps weren't damaged at all; but then, they were made of what looked like solid metal, so I just kept that thought to myself and continued on.

"I don't really know who he is." I admitted, not embarrassed at all. It was kind of a stupid question to ask anyway. "Let's just get to the roof so we can get a better view."

We both stayed silent after that, carrying on at a furious pace up the steps. By the time we were half way to the top, my legs began to burn in pain; I simply ignored it, though, and carried on up the steps, breathing heavier and heavier as we went. Eventually, I couldn't take much more and stopped for a breather, dropping to the floor. Elise instantly stopped one flight up and ran back down to me, not fatigued in the slightest.

"Are you ok?" Elise asked, holding up her pistol to cover both flights of steps as I slowly got up and leant against the wall.

"I'm fine." I panted, pulling out the small cube containing Epitaph. "I just need to check something quickly."

I cracked open the cube again and watched the red marble project the grey screen again, revealing the black and white Dragon as usual.

"Epitaph." I said, taking in a deep breath; "Open up the map to this complex again; use the same details as before."

Epitaph didn't reply in words, but I saw the map start to replace the Dragon, showing us a 2-D map of the area that we were in. I noticed that the blue dots, that symbolized organics, were all gone except for me and Elise. I also noticed that one of the red dots, symbolizing mechanical devices, was right next to me and Elise.

"Zoom in on our location." I ordered, pulling out the dog-tag from my pocket. I watched as the map quickly zoomed in on us, revealing the source of the red dot.

"It looks like we've found one of the mechanical devices." I said sarcastically, holding up the tag by the small chain and closing the cube. "There must be others like this around the area."

"This isn't an Easter Egg hunt." Elise snapped, turning to me. "What possible use could these clues serve?"

"Trust me." I whispered to her; "I know what I'm doing. These clues may hold some answer as to how Rosie was made, what it is, and how we can kill it."

Elise stayed silent for a while, leaving the both of us in silence. There weren't even any mutants to break the silence. After a few seconds of thinking, Elise finally nodded and simply continued on, with me following close behind her. We were reduced to a quick walk up the stairs. I could tell that Elise was a little angry at me; her quick and impatient walk showed that much.

We both came out on top of the roof, which was overlooking the whole area; not that there was much to see. The area was still pitch black from the lack of light; both artificial, and natural. I opened up Epitaph again and had a quick look at the map; from what I could see, there was another building right next to this one that was still intact. That other building connected to yet another building by means of what looked like a small bridge. I also noticed that they all had the same red dots on them; possibly indicating more clues, or possibly Rosie...

"No, no, no." Elise repeated, as if she was reading my mind. "We're not jumping across to that other building! Have you seen how high up we are?"

"We need to find out what these red dots are all about." I retorted, closing the map. "Think of it as 'eliminating distractions'. Once all the red dots are with us, that'll only leave one left; that one being Rosie. Besides, the jump is only a couple of meters."

"I'm carrying too much weight." Elise argued back, indicating her rifle. I sighed and walked up to her, keeping my cool.

"Why don't you just toss it over to the other side?" I suggested. "I'll jump over first, and you can toss the gun over for me to take care of until you jump across too. Then that'll be that bridge crossed...so to speak..."

I could tell that Elise was about to argue some more, but she stopped just before and nodded her head slowly, looking a little embarrassed. I nodded back and turned around, facing the edge of the roof that led across to the other building. I didn't even need to have a run up to clear the two meters, after which, Elise tossed her large rifle across. I grabbed it by the strap and held onto it, whilst Elise took a large run up. I was almost entertained by how large of a run she made, but in the situation that we were in, we decided to take the serious and dedicated approach to things.

After her run up, Elise jumped front first onto the other side, landing on her hands and tucking into a roll to cushion the impact. Once she was up, I handed her back her rifle, and we pressed on through the building. We needed to head down; hopefully we wouldn't run into any unexpected company. Either way, we still had our guns at the ready, constantly stopping to listen out for noises.

"So these clues." Elise began, taking small but quick steps down the staircase; "How may are there in this area?"

"From what Epitaph is saying, there's three." I answered back, following close behind her; "One is in this building, another is in the building linked to this one, and the last one lies between the two."

"Probably on that bridge link, right?" Elise suggested, stopping on one of the landings and turning to me. I nodded quickly. "So what levels are these clues on?"

"Thirteenth level, room seventeen; the same level with the link bridge." I replied, taking a deep breath; "The one on the next building is on the ground floor, room five."

"We're already on level fourteen." Elise announced; "Only one level to go, then it's straight to the bridge, right?"

I nodded shortly, and we continued down the steps, wasting no time at all. It took us less than a minute to reach the small door that led to the thirteenth level. Elise bashed the door open with the front of her gun and carried on through, with me trailing behind her. We constantly shone our flashlights, checking the many office doors and what was behind them while we were at it; but all we saw were a few busted up desks, broken windows, no bodies at all. I figured that we both knew where the bodies were now.

I counted the doors as I went; most doors were missing their number-plates, but those that still had them on made it easier for me to count. The doors went up in multiples of three; most doors read out umbers like; Doors 1-3 / 4-6 / 7-9 and so on. We finally reached the door marked 16-18, meaning that room seventeen was somewhere inside. Unfortunately, the door was locked; Elise tried to bash it open, but it seemed to be blocked from the inside.

"So what happens now?" She asked, leaning up against the opposite wall. "We didn't bring any explosives to get through thi-."

Elise immediately stopped as I pulled something from the large tool case strapped onto my back. It was another crowbar. I held it at my side and swung repeatedly at the wooden door, prying it off bit by bit. I was beginning to see what was blocking the door; it looked like a desk of some sorts. I ignored it and continued hacking against the door until most of it was littered on the floor, revealing a small opening into the room.

"We can't fit through there!" Elise argued. "You have that tool case on your back, and I have my gun. We're better off finding another way around."

"I'll just leave the case here then." I suggested, taking the case off of my back and stretching. "You can cover me. I'll only be a few seconds, I promise."

Before Elise could argue some more, I was already half way through the opening. Elise sighed and backed up against the door, keeping an eye on both sides of the corridor whilst I was in the room. I would have expected the room to be as pitch back as any other area that I had been through, but it wasn't; instead, the darkness was replaced by a blue light that covered the whole room, as if someone had been here recently. Either that, or there was some kind of generator in the area that kept the light running.

I could see a few empty magazines of ammunition littered across the room, as well as a few blood stains on the walls, though there were no bodies in the room at all. I stayed silent and listened closely, just barely picking up some kind of static buzzing noise coming from the far corner of the room. I proceeded forwards and followed the noise to a small radio beacon, just a little smaller than my hand. I picked it up and noticed that it wasn't actually a radio; it was a recording.

"Found anything?" Elise called back, losing patience; "Hurry up and get out of here before I end up going through the rest of my ammo."

I didn't reply, but instead climbed out of the opening to face Elise, who was starting to grip her rifle tightly. I held up the recording so that she could see it; Elise looked at it with a slightly puzzled look. We both gave each other that look that said 'let's stay right here and find out what this is about'. I rewound the recording up to the point that it stopped, and pressed what looked like a play button, listening closely to the recording.

"Kobalt Kaiken, 2093, February 16th." The recording began. "I've been spending at least a day walking through that damn tunnel until I finally found a building on its side. It must've broken right through the tunnel when the city collapsed. I don't expect any rescue teams to come along anytime soon, but I still need to keep a strong head."

"I'm not even sure if anyone's still alive in this place; well, not including the mutants of course. Luckily, they're not smart enough to get up here; either that or they have more important things to do. Somehow, I think that they're starting to evolve or revert back to a more natural state. I'll have a look around this building, see if I can find some food or..."

"What the hell?! Shit! Get back! Shit..."

The recording started to die out in all the static; I turned it off and looked at Elise, expecting her to say something. Instead, we just stayed silent and carried on through the building. I was still thinking about the recording; it didn't explain much. Why was the person here in the first place? He was obviously dead; no one could live from 2093 up until now unless they were a Dragon; and that person didn't sound like much of a Dragon...

We advance on down the corridor, keeping quiet right down to our footsteps until we reached he last corridor that led across to the bridge. Unfortunately, that last stretch would cause a bit of trouble. Once we turned the corner, we started to hear a few noises from behind us. It was that same mixture of screeching, growling and shrieking that we heard last time. Elise pulled out her pistol and loaded a single magazine into it, making a quick run to the end of the corridor, where a double door was waiting for us. I ran with her and kept looking back at the dim shadows that started to creep up on us, forcing me to run even harder.

Elise kept running to the door, and forced it open with her right side, almost breaking the double doors down. We were both through and closed the doors behind us, bashing a glass frame out to give us a good view of our targets. We were on the small bridge that linked this building to the other; though there was rarely anything to be found. I couldn't hear any static or anything past all the noises made by the mutants, so I ended up looking around blindly.

"Hurry up." Elise hissed at me, firing a few shots through the broken window. "I can't hold these things forever."

I ignored her comment, but tried to search faster. I darted my eyes across the bridge, finding nothing at all. I walked over to the edge and scanned across it until I found a silhouette of some kind. I heard Elise fire a few more shots down the corridor, fending off the mutants as best she could. I bent down and felt around until I found two things; the first was some kind of sniper rifle, the next was another recording similar to the first one we found.

"I've got it!" I called over to Elise, drawing my gun to go over and help her; "You get the other doors open. I'll watch your back."

We both swapped duties; now it was my turn to hold the mutants of whilst Elise did the work. I held my pistol in one hand, aiming it through the window and firing at the few husks that were left standing. I kept firing in a small rhythm; one bullet every second, during which I quickly aimed at different targets to keep them all suppressed. Luckily, it didn't take long for Elise to break open the door and proceed into the next building. I immediately turned around and ran on to catch up with Elise, who was already turning a corner.

"Wait up!" I called over to her, looking back at the few remaining mutants that had already broken down the door. I shot back a few times, leaving only two more left standing.

Luckily for me, Elise had been waiting at the corner with her pistol ready, twisting from behind cover and firing at the two remaining mutants, which were thrown to the ground. We both continued on immediately to the staircase, by which time I was left out of breath again. I was surprised that Elise could keep on running like this; maybe it was fear or determination that drove her to run for so long.

Elise turned back and noticed my exhaustion; she didn't say anything, but instead lifted my right side up over her and carried me all the way. I was surprised she could lift this much weight; she had her gun weighing down her right side, me and the large tool kit weighing down her left side. I suspected that it must have had something to do with her being half-Dragon. It was stupid to 'suspect' it; it was just pure genetics...

After advancing down the thirteen staircases, we both ended up out of breath and completely exhausted. We barely managed to arrive at the right room after struggling to walk. Fortunately, the room was unlocked, and not blocked in any way at all; we both fell into the room, gasping for air and closing the door behind us. We had arrived in a room no larger than an office. Inside were a few overturned tables; we both staggered behind it to keep hidden, but we didn't expect to find something behind the tables...

There were bones! A complete skeleton that looked as if it belonged to a male Fox; the skull had been cracked in one side by what looked like a bullet. The poor sod must have shot himself. It didn't surprise me, considering what he would've become if he stayed alive; he would've been torn apart by the mutants, or become so irradiated that he would become one of them. It was a sad way to go.

Next to the body, I saw one last recording, stained with small drops of blood. I picked it up slowly and rewound it, but not before playing the recording that I had found on the bridge. If I had played them in the right order, this should tell me and Elise what had happened to the poor Fox.

"Log Two, Kobalt Kaiken, February 17th." The recording began; "I've just arrived on a bridge connecting two buildings to each other; from here, I can see the full extent of the damage to the city."

"It looks like most of the city stayed intact. Sarra must've destroyed the city from the bases. Some buildings are held upright, but others have been turned on their sides, or toppled into each other. On the way up here, though, I had a small run-in with another pack of mutants. They cut me up pretty bad."

"Still no sign of Joseph...I'm not expecting him to have survived for this long. I'll keep searching, though. If he is alive, I need to keep him safe."

The log had cut off from more static. So far, this didn't help much concerning Rosie or the keys that it had. I groaned and picked up the last recording; rewinding it and playing it back just like the previous one. The recording was filled with static, and we could barely make out what was being said.

"Last recording, Kobalt Kaiken, February 20th." The recording began loudly. "It's been another three days since my last recording. My wounds have started...mutating...I don't think I'll survive the day."

"I saw Joseph the other day, though....it just looked like a diving suit of some kind, but I knew it was him. He sounded as though he was in pain. I wanted to put him out of it, but when I got close to him, he held up some kind of drill, making it clear that he wanted me to stay back."

"He's started repairing the city! I saw him messing around with a few lights, and they started to light up the place. He's rebuilding Arpeggio; unfortunately, I won't be here to see it. I'm better off dead than a mutant...life was hard for me...but then, maybe it was just as hard for Joseph..."

I heard a single shot over the recording, and just more static. I stopped the recording and stayed in silence, not even breathing. I tried putting all the pieces together; Rosie had actually been around since twenty-ninety, and was apparently an actual living person who went by the name of 'Joseph'...it seemed odd that Rosie was actually considered a living person called; but then, maybe that 'Kobalt Kaiken' person was just going crazy; he did say that he had been cut up pretty bad by the mutants; maybe it was just trauma...

Before I could think about this anymore, I started to hear something. It was a familiar sound that I had heard enough times to pick up by instinct.

It was the loud clunking of boots, mixed with low groaning and moaning sounds.

...It was Rosie...