“Hurry up!” Emit said, trailing past me down a curve in the metal way, leaving me in the dark.

I walked a decent way behind him. “It would be easier if you slowed down!”

I huffed as I caught up with him. Emit was standing- Er, floating there with visible impatience next to the elevator.“ You seem to be fine just taking it slow before!” I said.

“That was before you gave us a time limit! Now call the elevator!” Emit said.

Call for it? Uh... “Come forth, Elevator!”

…

“Are you stupid?” Emit asked. “Press the button and lets go!”

Okay okay. I pressed the button. The metal doors creaked open. I went inside. There were two buttons. I pressed the one I did the last time, should take me back to the surface.

“So where are we going exactly?” I asked.

“A nearby building, more specifically an offshoot research lab. Who ever had the I.D card last used it in that facility.” Emit said.

Hmm. Okay. Hopefully it shouldn't be too hard. A ding rang out and the doors opened up. A short rusty hallway greeted me. I walked forward and made it back to the outdoors. Good to see the sun again.

“Let’s see… The building should be down that street.” Emit said, floating towards an intersection of buildings. I began to follow him before I heard a deafening roar.

Turning to the source showed me a familiar three headed rat. Can’t I catch a break?

“Forget the animal! We don’t have time for that!” Emit said.

I wholeheartedly agreed. Just as I was about to run away from this situation though something else came up. Or I should really say someone.

“Feathers! Guys I found him, in trouble too!” Lyra shouted, taking her sword out. “Hey big ugly! Come here!”

The rat turned towards Lyra and snarled. Did it take offense to being called ugly? In any case, I took out my bow.

“Kid? What are you doing? We got stuff to do!” Emit said.

“I can’t just leave Lyra with this thing! I have to help her out.” I said.

“Oh leave her be. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Emit said.

Lyra held up her sword as the creature snapped at her with its heads. She nimbly cut at one head, slicing its face. Another head took this opportunity to bite at her sword though, snapping it into two.

“What?” Lyra said. In her confusion, the rat swiped at her with its front leg, knocking her back.

“Does that look fine to you?” I said. I had completely forgotten about her sword! Had to go and use that mold didn’t you? I loaded an arrow and shot at it. It struck right into its side.

I’m not sure if it did much damage though, if anything it just seemed to annoy it more as it growled and turned towards me. It came running, I quickly fired off another arrow, this one landing right into one of the heads!

Surely that would slow it down. It didn’t though. The beast still came charging right towards me. I attempted to move out the way but it was too late, the entire weight of it came crashing right into me. I tumbled back, my arrows spilling on the ground. My chest hurt badly. I hope I didn’t break something…

I got up, barely and took out my sword. The massive pain in my ass looked almost joyful, as if it knew it was gonna eat well today.

This isn’t good. At this rate it’s gonna end up killing me or worse. I looked to Lyra. She didn’t seem to be much better. She had gotten up, but with her sword destroyed and an apparent injury on arm if the way she was holding it was any indication, there wasn’t much she could do.

Where the hell were Lyra’s friends? They took their sweet time showing up the first time too. Ugh. What can I even do?

The rat came charging towards me once more. Wait, I need just a second. I needed more time to think!

As if granting my wishes, the rat began to slow down. What? No, that’s not right. I looked around, it wasn’t the rat that was slowing down. Everything had started to come to a crawl. My heart beating in my ears drew slower, Lyra shouting out my nickname became a drawn out crawl. It felt like I was suffocating, as my lungs slowly drew in a breath.

I raised my sword, my motions also slowed down. The pain of my injuries seemed to never end as I forced myself to move. It was easy to react like this, I moved just enough so it wouldn’t crash into me again, making my way beside it. Before it could correct itself, I aimed for the center of its chest. I stabbed it. My blade entering right in where it’s most precious organ, the heart, should lie.

Time seemed to come back to me, I could breathe again and the drawn out scream of pain from the creature continued in a normal fashion. It swiped at me and I took the blow, knocking me back once again.

It couldn’t follow up with it though, as blood poured from the would in which my blade was still connected to. It grew limp and with the last cry, fell to the ground.

That was horrible. Beyond horrible. I slumped to the ground myself.

Lyra came towards me, and at the same time her wonderful friends finally decided to show up rounding the corner.

“Oi! You two look like crap!” Gruce said.

“We heard a commotion, but it looks like you already took care of it.” Ariel said.

“Barely.” I said. “Would have been nice if you showed up sooner.”

“Agreed. Where the heck were you two?” Lyra asked.

“Looking for him!” Gruce said, pointing at me.

“Making it underground is not an easy task, finding an entrance is quite difficult.” Ariel said.

“Not to mention we ran into our own trouble.” Gruce added, shaking the guts of something, probably a rat, off his sword.

I honestly couldn’t care less at the moment. I was wiped out. What in the world even happened to me there? Emit do you know?

…

No response. Emit? Helloooooo?

I looked around. I didn’t see him. Did he really ditch me? Jerk.

“Nice work there Feathers, I’ve never seen you move so fast in my life!” Lyra said.

“Tha- Urk!” I coughed. A little bit of blood came out. I continued to cough. Lyra said something else but I didn’t catch over my coughing fit. The pain in my chest grew even worse and my vision started to fade to black… then blue.

A loud crash echoed through my room, snapping me awake in an instant.

I found myself back into my room. Uninjured and feeling fine. My door creaked open.

"Hey Feathers! It's too early, keep it down!" Lyra said.

“Sorry, my airship fell.” I said.

“That thing? I thought you left that at your parents.” Lyra said.

“Don’t you have things better to do? Like making a brittle sword?” I replied

Lyra stuck her tongue out at me and left my room. Even though I know the events that just happened have been reset, it was still relieving to see her uninjured.

I got up, changed my clothes and gathered my things. Aw man, my bow is gone now. That sucks. I guess that’s what I get for running out of time. It’s not really surprising though. Between falling in the hole and fighting that giant rat again, I was running on borrowed time at that point.

“We could have done something if you didn’t waste our time with that.” Emit said, reappearing in front of me.

“There you are. Where the heck did you go?” I asked.

“Oh I’ve been around you still, can’t go too far away after all.” Emit said

“So you did ignore me!” I said.

“Eh, I was just waiting for it to end. You wasted so much time there wasn’t any point in continuing. Better off just waiting for you to die either from the Cerberus Rat or from my body exploding miles away!” Emit said.

“Well did you just expect me to leave Lyra to fend for herself?”

“Yes!” Emit said, buzzing in front of me. “We don’t have enough time to be wasting it on your little catbird girlfriend. We have important matters to attend to. Like you not dying. Or better yet, me not dying!”

I swatted at him, not that it really did much. “That’s cruel. I’m not gonna let my friend potentially die just to save my own skin. Not to mention there’s no way we could have made much progress with the time we had anyway.”

“Some progress is better than none.” Emit said. This is getting us nowhere.

“Anyway, let me get prepared then we can continue.” I said.

“Prepared with what?” Emit asked.

“Well, for one my bow is gone. Might as well remake it.” I replied.

“That took you the entire morning last time!” Emit cried.

“Well unless you want me to go there with only my sword, I think it’s best I get somewhat ready. Besides, I already made it once, won’t take that long.” I said. Emit whined some more but I simply ignored it.

I went downstairs, greeted the Master and then went to work.

Just as I told Emit, it was much easier this time around. There’s a saying the Master tells us. ‘See it once, do it once, teach it once.’ Except I never saw it done, and I have no one to teach. But that’s besides the point.

Since I already knew which materials I wanted to use, and the methods the Master had pointed me on, my creation time was quite quick if I do say myself. Half the time it took me the first time around for a single bow and some arrows.

It didn’t look as cool as my first bow, since I decided to not dye my strings. My inner artist cried, but I think the time saved and the less whining I got from my roommate-in-my-head was worth it.

“Are you done?” Emit said.

“Yep.” I said

“Good! Now lets go!” Emit said.

“By ourselves?” I said. “Shouldn’t we ask for help?”

“Oh they’ll just slow us down. Plus do you really want to deal with those bozos again?” Emit said.

I thought about it for a moment. The main reason I wanted Lyra and her friends around before was for general directions and an extra hand with the creatures that dwelled in the ruins. But now I knew enough of the way that I don’t think I’d get lost. Plus, since we do have a goal in sight now, I could just avoid anything that gets in my way.

“Not really. I guess it would be easier with just the two of us.” I replied.

“See? It’s about time you listened to me. By the way. You really need to stop talking outloud to me.” Emit said.

Huh? I looked around. Lyra and the Master were staring at me.

“Did the lad talk to himself like this at home?” I heard the Master whisper to Lyra. She shook her head.

Embarrassed, I quickly left, mumbling about how I’ll be back soon. Let's just get this done with.

I eventually made it back to the ruined city. I didn't get here nowhere near as fast as the last time, I still had a quickened pace though.

I was a bit nervous, being here by myself. Before, I was mostly trying to block out Lyra's rambling about humans and took in the sights in my journal. Now though, being by myself the empty streets were quite unsettling.

Emit floated by next to me, only speaking out to point directions. I wish he was this quiet before. My annoying spirit guide is now a silent spirit guide!

…

No remark? I guess he is anxious.

Honestly I am too. I really don't know what we'll do it we don't make it in time. I'm hoping it'll work out, but the idea of being stuck living these three days forever honestly scares me.

"It wouldn't be forever." Emit said.

"It wouldn't?" I said.

"Nah kid, even as a God I have an expiration date, especially in a state like this. It would take a long time, but eventually this would all end." Emit said.

Hmmm. That was both good to know and worrying too. I still don't want to die, I especially don't want to sit around waiting to die. But at least in the absolute worst case scenario this wouldn't become an unending personal hell. I can imagine eventually I'd go mad or something.

We continued on through the ruins. Thankfully I didn't have too many encounters with the rats. Most of them I outright avoided.

There were a few I couldn't though, but they had been alone. Easy pickings with a few shots from my bow.

Eventually, we made it in front of a building, it wasn't as tall as the other ones we had by. In fact it was quite wide. Several white pillars stood under extended eaves of the roof. They clearly weren't for support, but as a decorative piece. That didn't fool me of the strength of the building though as, once again, I found myself amazing by human architecture.

There was a large chunk on the side of the building that looked like something eroded away or outright crashed into it. Either way the aftermath seemingly caused the wall to collapse on itself. The entire thing still stood strong though.

"Here we go. The old government building. The I.D card should be in here."

"Wasn't in a lab? This doesn't look very labby to me." I said.

"What does that even mean, Kid? Do you expect a giant sign? 'Hey! Look at us! A government laboratory is located here! Please don't ask us what were researching thanks!'" Emit said. If his tone was dripping with anymore sarcasm I might drown in it.

Alright I get it. So it's probably deeper inside right? Let's check it out.

There were a small set of steps leading into the entrance of the building. They led me to two big doors, which stood between me and whatever was in here.

I had to put some force into opening it. The ancient wooden frame creaking from who knows how long of disuse. I stepped inside.

What greeted me was, as you guessed it, a ruined building. The interior did not survive the test of time as much as the exterior did. In fact, the indoors made me reconsider my praise of human architecture, as now I could see the roof was littered with holes. The sun shined bright enough through them that I could see perfectly inside.

Debris littered the ground, probably coming from the ceiling. Up front and center was a circular desk area. There were several objects on it, one of which I recognized as a computer, the other sitting next to it was a flat rectangular object that had a long indent in it. A loose cord also hung from its side.

I assumed by the shape of it that the object right beside that, which was the same shape as the indent and covered in buttons should fit in there. I had no idea what it was though.

"A phone." Emit said.

Phone? What's it do?

"Lets you talk to people from here to China!" Emit said.

I decided to not ask what China was. I already know that'll lead to more questions.

Next to the desks were two hallways, one to the left and another to the right. I had no way of telling which one to go down, as they both looked nondescript.

"Eeny, meeny, miny... moe! Let's go this way!" Emit said. Floating towards the left hallway.

I followed along. The floor surface, which in the entrance way was simple wood, turned into a carpet pattern. I tried to not cough as my steps kicked up years of dust and dirt into the air.

Walking down, I kept my hand on my sword. I didn't know what might pop up at me. I came across a door on the side. I cracked it open and peaked in.

It looked to be an office. There was a bookshelf, a desk, another computer on the desk and a… phone? Yeah a phone. So many things to learn….

There didn't seem to be anything special here. Other than bugs crawling on what looked to be ruined clothes. So I closed the door and moved on. I quickly came across another door.

Another office. I closed the door.

Next door. Office.

The next. An office.

Guess what was behind door number four? Office.

Why did everyone need an office in human society? What do you even do all day?

"The soulless experience of a nine to five job. You have it lucky, Kid." Emit said.

Emit began humming a song about working after that. It was good to see he was in a better mood. Although I couldn't help but to hum a little too. Is every song he knows have to be such an ear worm?

I continued to explore. Cracking open several doors. I began to relax myself. Looming deadline? What's that? I took out my journal and scribbled some of the ruined artwork that hung on the walls.

Hopefully I get out of this trouble today, then I won't lose any more of my sketches…

I eventually reached the end of the hallway. A bigger set of doors were in front of me.

I swear if this is just a bigger office, I'm gonna scream.

I groaned. It was a bigger office. A large desk that sat in front of a broken window. Nothing else. I guess we went down the wrong hallway. Time to head out and back track.

"Hold on." Emit said. He flew around the room. Hovering to the desk, over at a bookshelf before eventually phasing into the floor all together.

A moment passed and he came flying out of the ground. Even with a lack of any features, I could tell by his flying that he was annoyed. What, are you looking for a secret passageway or something?

"Of course! Don't you know that there's always a secret passageway? Supposedly the White House alone had ten hidden exits leading into the outside world. That means in this director's room there must be one!" Emit said matter of factly. That logic sounded very poor. But I rolled with it, the only other idea was to explore the other hallway.

He flew over to the bookshelf, inside of it, and then back out. Emit hovered closely to the books, scanning each of them. I heard him mumble something, probably the titles of the spines.

"Start pulling books. One of them has to open something." Emit said.

Come on. This is kinda silly, I seriously doubt that me pulling on some books will accomplish anything.

I pulled the first book to catch my eye.

See? Nothing happ-

A rumble shook the entire room. A terrible screeching noise made me cover my ears. The books fell from the bookshelf as the entire thing split into two. The halves slid apart revealing an entranceway.

"Told you." Emit said.

Okay. You win. I peered inside. It was another metal hallway like I encountered after I fell. I walked inside.

Several lights illuminated the hallway. They were long tubes that flickered. How did it generate light? It didn't seem to be crystal, as they didn't give off the dull blue tint, nor could a crystal ever glow so brightly.

Runes maybe? Or some form of magic. Emit?

"It's just a light fixture. It's powered by electricity." Emit said.

Oh so it's runes then. Kinda like the lightning sword I tried to make.

"No no no! There's no magic involved. Humans had no magic, they couldn't use it even if they tried." Emit said

It's all mechanical? How in the world is it getting electricity then? Hmmm…

My musing came to an end when I noticed the metal walls of the hallways now had glass. Peering through, I could see workstations. Beakers, test tubes, metal cages and most disturbingly, a skeleton.

Yikes… Is that a human body? It was sitting upright in a chair, wearing a white coat, that didn’t look like it was destroyed in any way. The arms were crossed as well. Did it just die upright? How did that even happen?

I opted not to stare any longer. Continuing on my way. There were also now doors. At least I assumed them to be doors. Metal frames with steel that was a different color than the rest. A crack could be seen between the slabs. They probably opened up like those elevator doors did. There were no buttons or anything though as far as I could tell.

“That’s annoying. I think they should be automatic. Power grid might’ve failed on them.” Emit said. “Try smashing the window!”

That seems excessive. Then again, I don’t see how else we’d ever get in. I took out my hammer, and gave it a good swing. With a thunk, my blow did nothing. The glass absorbed the blow with a vibration. Well, that didn’t work.

“Bulletproof glass? Seriously?” Emit remarked.

Moving on, further in the hall, I saw more windows with more skeletons. Most seemed to be in the middle of tasks, one was sitting right in front of one of those computers, it’s skull long since fallen to the ground.

The morbidity of it was beautiful in a way. Kinda like those paintings showcasing a skull in the center. I almost wanted to sketch it. Still, I had to move on. I couldn’t help but to wonder what killed them to end up like that. Nobody even knows what happened to the humans. What even wiped them out?

“You ever see that movie with the dinosaurs? ‘They were too busy figuring out whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.’ It was just like that. The last big discovery ended up wiping them out.” Emit said.

“What did they find?” I asked.

“Manafolithic gas! Mana! Stuff is horrifically poisonous to humans.” Emit said.

“Really? Isn’t Mana everywhere though? How’d they even survive in the first place then?” I asked.

“It wasn’t always around. Back in the day the idea of half the stuff you see would be impossible.” Emit said. I felt like he was gonna go on when he flew off ahead.

“Look at this Kid!” Emit called.

I followed him. Another door. But this one was agap. Nice! A lead! It only took a bit of prying open with my hammer, but I was able to slip in easy enough.

Within this room, more skeletons could be found around. Left dead sitting at desks and metal tables. They were even creepier now that I could walk up and touch them directly if I wanted… Other than that, the only other thing of note was another door on the other side of the room. This one being wide open.

I went to go check the bodies. They might have the card I’m looking for. I took a few steps forward when a whirring sound rang out.

An object appeared from the ceiling. It was round and thick. A long barrel with an opening stuck out from the top.

“Intruder detected.” Was the only warning I got as several loud bangs rang out. Flashes of light appeared from the tube and burning pain hit my body along with the feeling of being pelted with something.

In that moment, just like when fighting that giant rat, time seemed to slow down to a near stop. Thanks to the phenomenon, I could see exactly what was happening. Small pieces of metal were being launched at me. Even though my perception was in the strange state of hyperspeed, the projectiles were still moving at an absurd speed.

Even though it was nice to see what was hurting me, it sure wasn’t nice to be helpless as I watched the final projectile make its way towards my face...

The world became dark… then blue.