Chapter 27: Waters Infested with Danger

At the bottom of the stairwell, my nose was assaulted by the stench of wet sewage. From my view in the stairwell, I could see a massive expanse of wooden piers that was almost maze-like, spaced just far enough apart that crossing the gap without falling into the water would be hard.

The water itself was a murky brown color. I could see trash and rotting flesh floating in the water, as well as some type of creature moving quickly just beneath the surface. I walked out of the stairwell to get a closer look, ready to move away in case it jumped at me from the water.

The creature in the water had definitely noticed me, as it was sitting still just beneath the water, waiting for me. I started to get nervous when more and more of them swam over to sit beneath me on the dock. They were waiting for me to fall in but didn’t seem interested in jumping up. At least for now.

I decided that moving along the piers was going to be my best option. There didn’t appear to be any randomization on this floor, and even the entrance stairwell was still visible. The stairwell looked out of place, as it was just a large opening in the side of a flat gray building. Looked more like a shed than a building.

No matter what direction I looked, all I could see was slightly brown water, and wooden piers. There was no visible exit despite it being a flat expanse. Alas, there was nothing to do other than follow the path ahead of me, jumping to the other piers just wasn’t an option because of the distance.

The creatures under the water looked to almost be fish, but I could see outlines of their large sharp teeth through the murky water. The teeth stuck out farther than I had ever seen on a fish before, almost to the point I thought it was impractical.

I was curious if it would attack anything that fell into the water, so I finished a bottle of ‘Clear Water’ and tossed it in. There was almost a sawing noise as the ‘fish’ closed in on the bottle, and it was torn to shreds in less than a second once they reached it.

I saw nothing but splashing water for around ten seconds, before it finally cleared, and all that was left was tiny pieces of plastic from what was once the bottle. I think I understood why everything in the water was torn and shredded. These ‘fish’ somehow used their teeth almost like a shredder, tearing things into tiny pieces.

Okay, so do everything in my power to not go in the water, and if the fish ever come out of the water, get away from them. Losing a limb would be the least of my concerns if they could use their teeth like what I had just seen. I couldn’t see their figure all that well through the water, but I wonder if these fish are somehow related to the fish from floor five?

I was stocked fairly well for this floor. Roughly two weeks of supplies with heavy exercise in mind. I had super high calorie foods, and even had some energy tablets I could dissolve in water for extra energy. What I was eating or drinking didn’t matter as long as I had enough energy to keep constantly moving forwards.

I had a small sleeping bag that was good at almost any temperature above zero Celsius. Most floors so far had been well above that range, with the only exception being the desert floor. I was surprised when I thought about it, if this place truly wanted me to die, it would keep me cold.

I also had my standard change of clothes and medical supplies including a whole bottle of acetaminophen. I was hoping I could use as little of it as possible, as finding on floor three was a challenge because of how rare it was, but a few days off the main path didn’t really matter anymore.

My weapon was still in peak condition. There was only a single scratch on it. I’m not sure when it happened, but it must have happened at some point on the previous floor. Speaking of the previous floor, I wonder what was up with that table mimic. It had intelligence way beyond what the rest of the mimics had.

I mean, it literally trained me on how to efficiently predict enemy attacks and how to get around a smarter enemy. That’s not something that any creature had been able to do. In fact, it might even be stronger than that strange fox masked creature as it resisted the probable compulsion that this place had to try and kill me.

There was no sense thinking about it too much. I didn’t understand it, and I probably won’t. There were too many things down here that required my attention more than asking why a table decided to give me some much-needed training.

I was still amazed at how the weapon held up through constant usage though. No matter what I tried to attack, it would just bounce off or cut through, neither resulting in permanent damage. I wonder what material this ax was made from. It clearly wasn’t a normal steel or iron weapon, with how durable it was.

Actually, it might be a material native to the world floor sixteen was before its death. I wonder what kind of crazy world would have materials like that. It sure sounded more exciting than whatever place it had turned into. Actually, that probably applies to every floor here. They had all been changed into something that would kill someone normally.

Now, I wasn’t an expert, but I don’t think evolution is supposed to make things less habitable. Usually, it was the opposite if I had to wager a guess. I wondered about many things in a short amount of time, but I again came up stumbling on the same result: Demons.

They could do this to worlds. When I thought through it, I only had two questions remaining. Why and how? Why did they destroy worlds? Was it some sick sense of fun they were trying to have, or was there some other motivation behind it?

How did they do it? This was the big one for me. I knew that even if I somehow knew, it wouldn’t make a difference. Kacey had likened them to gods to people like us, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be understood. While the knowledge was useless, I was curious if it could be stopped. Was there a way to stop worlds from dying to demons?

I laughed to myself as I thought about trying to stop a demon. I’m a normal guy, I’ve felt the power they have, that feeling of wrongness so vile it makes it hard to breathe. Floor eighteen, the demon that was in that wooden building.

She was probably a weaker one as well, considering she is trapped by a probably much stronger demon. I wonder if I will even be able to look at the ‘ruler’ of this place. Will the feeling of wrongness be too strong to overcome, or will I be able to stand my own in the face of certain death?

That is even if I ever meet them. I didn’t know how deep this place was, if there even was a bottom. The farther I went, the less hopeful I was that there was going to be an exit. I wasn’t losing motivation; I was just setting my expectations to be here forever.

I knew I would be here for a long time. Even this floor was longer than others. There still wasn’t an exit in sight, and I could see for a very long distance. I was making a lot of distance from the entrance though, and that’s all that mattered to me.

Every floor was getting longer, and I was spending more time on them. I checked my watch, and the date on it told me that sometime next week, I would have been down here exactly a year. A year that I had been missing from the real world, my world.

Floor twenty-five had shown me what it might have been like if I made it back to society after slightly less than a year. But going back after this point, people would have moved on with their lives and started to forget about me. I was definitely a cold case, something police and wannabe detectives will try to solve for years to come.

Worrying about that was only going to get me to be depressed. I lived down here now, and I would until I escaped. That’s just how it had to be. I will escape, and I will return to my world. What happens after that is something I can worry about later, for now, I needed to focus on the floor I was going through.

The entrance to the floor had faded into the distance not too long ago. With no other landmarks, I could only try my best to keep going the same direction. There wasn’t a straight line that would last that long on these piers. It seemed that whoever designed this floor wanted anyone trying to navigate to suffer.

Thankfully, I had a good sense of direction, and was able to be mindful of which cardinal direction I was facing. Well, relatively at least, as the turns were all ninety degrees, so I counted them as the cardinal directions.

I just had to keep heading west from where I started, and I should, in theory, reach my destination. I Wasn’t sure if the was the right choice, but I didn’t have any other information to work off of other than that’s the direction I was facing when I came onto this floor.

The piers seemed to be fairly well built, and despite the massive amount of rotting material in the water, it hadn’t really affected the wood of the pier. The water was getting more packed with rotting flesh and garbage, so it was hard to see what was beneath the surface, but I knew those ‘fish’ were still there.

I eventually saw a small building in the distance. However, the pier sections leading up to it seemed to be rotting and looked unstable. I was going to have to be insane if I wanted to go to that building. Especially since I had now done a full loop around it to assess the pier, and there wasn’t an exit on it, only a normal door.

Curiosity wins once more as I set my bag down on the solid part of the pier. The location I chose had the closest access to this small building. I just had to know what was inside here. Since the floor wasn’t randomized, I had confidence in leaving my bag behind. If the exit was inside, I’d just go to the next floor and find an elevator.

I took my ax, and basic first aid supplies in my pockets. Just in case. I had rested up and filled up on food and water. I was ready to make an attempt on the small building. I was a bit worried, as if I fell in the water, I was certainly dead, with no exemption.

With anxiety in my heart, I knew this was going to be risky, but I felt there was going to be some kind of reward for this. I had no way to tell for sure, but on a non-randomized floor, with a building like this. There was bound to be something good inside of it.

I could hear the rotted planks of the pier beneath my feet groaned and cracked as I walked across them. I then decided to spread out on all fours in an attempt to spread my weight. This way, maybe the fragile planks of wood might be able to support my weight as I tried to get to the small building.

This dream of mine was short lived. When I moved my right hand and put weight on it, it was like there was no resistance at all as my hand went through the decayed plank of wood. I nearly slipped, and my weight shifted quickly. Nothing else broke, but there was a lot of cracking noise I didn’t like.

I moved away from that spot quickly. More and more often, I was having planks break as I crawled across them. I started moving slower as I made sure I always had at least three points of contact on the boards. This way, my weight would be spread and in the case another plank broke, I would be more supported.

More and more planks were breaking, and I was lucky to make it one plank forwards before another would give way beneath my weight. Whatever was in this building, the floor didn’t want me to get it easily. I was game, but it was dangerous.

It took a lot of time, roughly around an hour, to get to the small building. I was in front of the door, finally on solid and not rotting ground. Opening the door, I could smell something sweet. Almost sickeningly so.

Inside the room, there wasn’t anything I could find that would really be emitting that kind of smell. The only thing inside of the room I found was a leather-bound book with 'There is freedom in death.' I hadn’t seen this book in ages, was it a floor guide, or was it something else?

I carefully handled the book, almost scared of it. I was hesitant to read it, I had no idea if this was going to be a guide of some kind or something else entirely. I hadn’t read a guide since before The Hub. It had been a while since then, so I slowly opened the cover and read it.

'To whomever reads this, I'm sorry, I can't help you escape.

But I can help you survive.

I've left books on every floor I can get access to. This book is for Floor Twenty-seven.

At this point, you may have realized that there were a large number of floors I have missed. That is unfortunately due to my own cowardice, and perhaps the intervention of the floors themselves. From floor fifteen to here, I have left them on two other floors than this.

Floor eighteen and floor twenty-one received books.

For this floor, there is nothing to worry about as long as you stay out of the water at all costs. Around buildings, not including the entrance to the floor, the boards will be rotting preventing you from nearing easier. Drop low and crawl slow.

I’m… sorry I haven’t been able to do as much. I made it to the final floor… but had to return.

I’ve been unmotivated to say the least. I learned a lot of things, and I just want to stress how sorry I am that I can’t help you more. If you manage to find me, let’s have a nice chat.

There are no more books. The other floors were too hard to get to and from safely. I am a coward, this I know. If we meet and you want to tell me that, I’ll understand. You’ve made it so far, and I’m so proud. You can’t possibly know the circumstances though, so please forgive me just this once.

I’m sorry. Good luck.’

Against my better judgment, I kept the book. I was going to take this one with me and give it to Kacey at The Hub when I had to go and resupply. Kacey had a right to know about this one. The Author had made it to the final floor, and they must have known about the demons.

I was lacking information on them too, but I had enough to tell that I knew too little. I would probe Kacey for anything more they knew, but I was doubtful they’d tell me. They were known for withholding information from me that could save my life.

I needed to get more people down to these lower floors. I needed their information; I needed more perspectives. There was only so much that I could figure out on my own, I knew this. I was just a normal guy here; I can only think about demons for so long before I get confused.

The Author knew things about the final floor. Kacey knew things about demons. I needed to find The Author before I could properly question Kacey about anything more. This book was a good start, but since it says it’s the final one… I’m out of luck going down the figuring it out on my own route.

Whatever, it was time to leave. I needed to get out of this building and back to my resources before something bad happened. I exited the door, with the book inside my shirt, I dropped to all fours and started my slow crawl along the path I had already traveled, as I knew it would support my weight.

My left hand slipped suddenly as my right hand went through a plank. My torso slammed to the boards beneath me, and they cracked and bowed. They were going to break. With very little left to do, I grab my ax with my already moving right hand and raise it above my head to reach for more surface area. I just had to spread myself out further to prevent myself from falling through.

My legs were pressed fully against the boards as the planks beneath my torso fell through. Beneath me, I could see the sea of rotting flesh and garbage. I was sweating nervously, but my mind was calm. I took a few breaths as I realized I was safe.

Carefully using my ax as an extended support, I slowly crawled over the large hole in the wood. I made it to solid ground about twenty minutes later. I made it back to my bag and was safe. I laid on my back as I reflected. The small building wasn’t really worth it.

I had learned something, and that I was truly on my own now. There wasn’t anyone that had any information past here. All that even I knew was that there was a boss on floor thirty-four. Between here and there, nothing.

I was at a loss for a moment, before reality hit me. I had been on my own for a while now. I had been fine, and in fact, I was doing extremely well for myself. I was healthy, I wasn’t starving, and I wasn’t going to die anytime soon.

A small smile crept onto my face as I let it sink in. I was going to get out of here, and thankfully, I received one massive piece of information that I’m amazed the floor let survive the information lock. There was an end. And exit. There was a confirmed final floor. What was on it, I had no idea, but I knew it existed.

With renewed motivation, it was time to continue my journey. I had to get to the end of this floor eventually. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, but I would get through it. After I rested of course, I was mentally and physically tired after going to that small building.

…

With renewed energy, I checked all my supplies and started walking again. I was getting quite good at walking, my legs were strong, and I could do it all day. Good thing too, as this floor had a lot of walking, and it wasn’t always easy.

Sometimes the piers would be made of stone, and wet. Wet stone was extremely hard to walk on without slipping. I only slipped once, and thankfully; it wasn’t anywhere near the water. One thing about the water that bothered me was that it was getting dirtier.

There was an absurd amount of rotting flesh just floating on the top of the water. I couldn’t even see the water anymore. The bags and other assorted garbage were mixed in with the rotting flesh, and I was starting to wonder if this had any relation to floor twenty-five. That whole city was made of flesh.

Relation or not, the smell was hard to bear. I had made a mask of sorts out of a shirt and was using some of the stronger smelling foods as a way to mask the scent, but that seemed to have a limit as I was constantly gagging when a whiff of the smell outside my mask entered my nose.

There were piles on piles of flesh, and with how the small waves in the water were moving it, it made it seem like it was almost alive. The fish were nowhere to be seen. I was surprised they weren’t eating the rotting flesh, with how much of it there was floating on top of the water, maybe they were underneath.

A while later, the piles became so large, that the flesh was washing up onto the pier. While it wasn’t a major issue at first, it was becoming increasingly hard to see where there was pier, and where there wasn’t. In the distance, I saw a small building on a raised platform.

The green glow beckoned to me, but I had to get to it before I could call myself safe.

I waded through the now waist high piles of rotting flesh. I was holding my bag above my head so that the rot and strange liquids didn’t touch the bag. The smell was nauseating, so much that it was hard to stand, but I had to keep going. I used my feet to feel for solid ground before stepping.

It was laborious, and time intensive. I spent so much time wandering around looking for where the piers connected to the exit platform… but I couldn’t find a connection. I had made a full circle around the platform, but there was no connection that I could easily find.

My arms were shaking from how tired they were from holding my bag. There was a set of stairs on the platform that rose out of the writhing waves of flesh. The stairs should connect to where I was currently standing, that is if they continued past the waves of rotting flesh.

So… I jumped for it. Perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever done, but as my feet land on solid ground, I forget about the pain in my arms, and the nausea threatening to tip me over. I walked up the set of stairs and to the exit door on the building.

The door was reminiscent of what you’d find in a public bathroom. Opening it revealed the same stairwell as always. I tossed my bag in and removed all my clothes that had been destroyed by the rotting flesh. I stepped into the stairwell, ready to start my prep for the next floor.