Even though they were the first to arrive, those on Lani’s bus were the last to exit. She summed that up to their less-than-desirable status. Lani’s bus wasn’t quite full, but it was close; not that they were incredibly large, to begin with. The other buses didn’t seem to be packed as tightly. Lani estimated that each bus could hold about twenty passengers, but the number of people walking by didn’t seem to be eighty, it was closer to half that amount. A spike of jealousy struck Lani as she realized that most of those on the other buses didn’t have a seatmate or have to worry about one that wouldn’t leave them alone or be quiet.

Well, some people probably enjoy the interaction.

The throng of people walking by still took too long to pass. They all walked slowly, taking their time and many were chatting and laughing along as if they were going to a picnic. One or two of them glanced over to Lani’s bus, but most just ignored them completely. As soon as the last person passed the bus, the Ascendant guard turned and opened up the door.

“Up and out,” She yelled into the bus.

Lani and all the others on the bus stood with a loud, synchronized clanging of shackles. The chains and cuffs they were attached to weren’t just on their wrists, their legs were also cuffed with chains and there was a third chain connecting the two.

Exiting the bus takes time as their shackles are unlocked one at a time right as they exit the bus. After they are out, they are lined up another in three ranks of five. Glancing around, Lani notices that there is actually a straggler in the back, so the number is sixteen people who are there on a “join or else suffer the consequences type of deal”. The person who unlocked their cuffs was the Ascendant who had been on top of her bus. Once everyone was off the one who could fly floated down in front of the motley crew. He landed in front of them lightly, but his hood covered his face so she was unable to see what he looked like.

“Listen up,” he said forcefully. “As you all should know. Along this road is the monolith.” He gestured along the crumbling road through the forest. “I expect this group to be on your best behavior. You have all been given a second chance should you make it out. I’m just here to let you know that a trial by Monolith is your only way to survive at this point. Running forward will take you to the monolith, backward will just take you to an Ascendant escort.”

“That’s me,” the Ascendant woman who had been on our bus waved. Besides the seriousness of the situation, she had a smile on her face and seemed unconcerned.

The male Ascendant continued. “You won’t make it past us. You can try to run into the woods of the wild zone. We won’t follow you if you do. We won’t save you either, and if you run into those woods, you will absolutely need saving. Just remember, you all chose to enlist in the Ascendant corps to forgo your sentencing. This is the first step along that path. Finally, we are also here to ensure your protection, so in the event of a monster attack, stay close to one of us and you should be fine.” He turned around and signaled to the third Ascendant with a twirling motion of his finger and in response the other, who was at the front of the larger group, turned and started walking.

At that, the larger group started walking forward, and the Ascendant who had been speaking indicated that Lani’s group should too. As she started to walk, she looked around at her surroundings. The place where the buses stopped was a short distance from the border to the Monolith’s power. At the border, a dense line of trees stretched out to either side of the road further than Lani could see. Where the tree line ended the buildings of the old world started. It was as if the forest didn’t even care that anything was there before.

After the Monoliths arrived, nature immediately began taking over the area in a circular area around it. On top of that, any and all technology ceased to work within the border. The government decided that the best solution was annihilation. Therefore, missiles were launched and their flight systems not only cut out at the border, but the mechanisms that cause explosions ceased to work as well. Then, non-electric methods of delivery and explosion were devised and enacted, yet they also all failed to explode. Even if they did explode, it probably wouldn’t have scratched the Monoliths anyway. It did seem as if the Monoliths clearly didn’t want the wildlife to be destroyed either since explosions that happened outside of the Monolith's area of power did little damage to the quickly growing forest.

The walk to the Monolith was slow and a palpable silence fell over the group as they all passed the border. The path, so broken and uneven it could no longer be called a road, was surrounded by dense trees that pushed up against the road. Their boughs hung high overhead but were thick and entangled causing the sunlight to be strangled. The group was so quiet at the start that various sounds emanated from the darker parts of the woods. Most of the sounds were able to be attributed to various fauna by the multitude of bodies walking. When the sounds of shifting trees or breaking branches flowed from the depths of the forest, a few would attempt to explain the sounds away in a logical manner, but they all walked a little closer together. Eventually, the human body will tire of being on guard and it will slowly relax. The sounds that once made a person jump are drowned out by the subconscious mind, movement that caused muscles to tense are ignored. Even monsters are weary of a large group and if a monster does decide to attack, the supers with them were capable of stopping any creature. That’s what they were told before they left.

As the group passed under a large tree with exceptionally large overhanging branches, there was an unobserved rustling above them. A large blob of green goop fell down from the branches and plopped into the middle of the group. The goop was so large it instantly covered three people. The force of it striking brought them all to their knees. Those who had been huddled close to them fell away and began shrieking in pain. Those standing further either frozen in panic or also began to yell.

Even above the yelling, the sound of sizzling bacon mixed in. The people that had been struck by the edges of the slime seemed to smoke as their skin was caustically burned away.

“Use their clothes to wipe off the slime,” yelled the cowl-clad Ascendant. He had been trailing closer to the back, near Lani’s position, when the attack happened. He ran over to the nearest victim of the slime's attack, ripped off the back portion of their ruff-spun shirt and flipped it around to wipe off the swiftly dissolving forearm. After wiping the ooze off, he flung the rag to the ground and went to help the next person. The man, who was now missing the back of his shirt fell to the ground on his knees clutching his arm tightly and staring with unblinking eyes. In short order, all those who were struck by the slime had the goop wiped away and their wounds covered with leftover cloth, all those except the three who were covered in the slime.

“How do we help them?” A blonde girl with tan skin asked.

The Ascendant gave a long sigh. “By continuing to the Monolith,” he said. “There is nothing we can do to help those who are gone, but those who were injured can be healed if they pass the first floor of the Monolith.”

“That’s all you can do? You’re not very safe then,” Lani said before she could think better of it. The Ascendant turned and looked at her, a dark, stubbly chin the only visible feature. She turned to stare at the three dissolving people in the slime instead of trying to meet his gaze. She knew that there was no way to save the three people, and she didn’t want to go and make a scene about it, but she felt as if there was something else that could be done. “Can’t we kill the slimes at least?”

“Unfortunately, slimes are extremely hard to kill.” His voice was lower than it had been, but it still carried to the others. It was as if he was giving a lecture or a memorized speech. “They don’t die if they are frozen, they take too long to burn, and you can’t stab them to death. You can completely crush them, but we don’t have anything large enough for that. They are slow movers though, so the best thing we can do is to stay away.” He turned and yelled. “Everyone, keep moving and keep your distance from the slimes.” With his command, everyone started to shuffle forward once again. The mood, which had been slowly elevating as the walk continued, turned somber once more.

Lani moved forward with the others but didn’t look away from the gruesome scene. The three who were struck by the slime lay on the ground nearly on top of each other. From the side she walked along, she could see what remained of the person as it rapidly deteriorated under the acidic properties of the slime. On the face and arm, there was no skin, only muscle and a few spots of bone were already starting to show. The jaw was wide open as if broken from a violent scream but the lips were already a bubbling mess and she couldn’t tell where the gums started or the lips ended. The eyes were already bloody sockets and Lani was forced to turn away or retch in disgust. She walked away faster and it was all she could do to keep from throwing up.

The rest of the walk was without incident, yet it was much quieter and more dismal than before. Even though they were all going to the Monolith and it was highly likely that they died, none fully committed their minds to that fate until after the slime attack. The forest broke fifty yards away from the monolith and the only thing in between the two was long, thin grass with a pungent aroma of earth.

While still within the forest and underneath its canopy, the Monolith appeared to be a large wall similar to the one that protected her city from the roving monsters. Upon leaving the shade of the trees, Lani still thought that it resembled a severely out-of-place wall, but her knowledge told her that it was a huge marble cube. Looking to the sides, she could see its corners even though they were around six stories up. Straight ahead from where the group exited the forest, was the entrance. Two crisscrossing diagonal slabs of marble jutted from the Monolith like dual executioner blades. They made a triangle at least two stories high. Inside the triangle was impenetrable darkness that gave off the feeling of an endless expanse of cold space.

“Gather up on me,” yelled the cloaked Ascendant. He didn’t wait for them to all gather closer though, he just started speaking again. “You should all know this, but a quick recap is always beneficial. Your first trip to the Monolith is always solo. Upon entering you will be transported to a random scenario. Don’t bother asking me how it works or what place, slash scenario you’ll be in; I don’t know. Your goal is to get to the end and solve the puzzle or defeat the floor boss. If you complete the floor, your core will be unlocked and you will receive a power. After that, you will be transported back here. Usual completion takes about six hours, if it takes you longer don’t really worry about it, we won’t leave until everyone comes back. To know when everyone who is coming back is back, we have some wrist trackers that we will hand to you before going in.” He loudly clapped his hands. “Now, everybody line up, and let’s get this started.”

Lani turned to walk toward the back. She expected a gaggle would be forming with everyone jockeying for position. To her surprise, everyone was quickly forming an orderly line. To her immense shock, it was forming behind her.

She turned back around to face the Monolith. She froze with a blank mind as she gazed at the black portal in front of her. It seemed to absorb all the light that hit it.

“Good luck,” the female ascendant said with a smile. She then clasped something around Lani’s wrist.

Before Lani could even take a deep breath, from behind, a hand pushed her forward. She stumbled from the force of the push all the way to the door. Just before hitting the portal, she crammed her eyes shut and raised her arms to protect her face from impact. She continued to stumble past the point she thought she would hit the portal, and before she processed the information, her foot caught on a protrusion on the ground and she tripped.