Karabell swallowed hard. They'd just set foot in the Upper District. And more and more questions piled up in his mind with each step they took. There wasn't a proper borderline between the two Districts, but the buildings in that part of the city were surprisingly well-kept compared to what they'd seen so far. Even some of the windows were still intact. Back at the Agency, he hadn't gotten his hands on any maps or documents regarding the Upper District. They hadn't even managed to map the Lower one completely. Thinking about it, that should've been impossible. His team alone had scouted a large portion of it. And the Agency'd had over twelve squads of soldiers.
"Shows just how narrow-minded I am..." the Captain whispered to himself. After he'd found himself stranded in that strange world, he'd prioritized gaining information, memorizing as much as he possibly could. Yet, too absorbed in his research, he'd overlooked some of the most important things. Two thousand years. If those creatures had appeared around the time he'd fallen asleep, then all those structures should've been destroyed way before his awakening. The city seemed to have gotten a lot smaller, proof that not everything had survived that long. That, however, only made things weirder. He sincerely doubted that humanity had managed to stand their ground against the Aberrations for long, but everything he knew about the emergence and uprising of those creatures were shards of information he'd gotten out of Marno during their talks. None of the hundreds of files he'd inspected at the AAD mentioned anything about it. Seeing the Upper District in such good shape was even more alarming. Besides, why did they even bother scouting the city everyday if most of the people had either died or fled? He'd at least gotten an answer to that question the day before... As long as sleeping children like himself or that little girl kept showing up out of nowhere, they had to find them and bring them to the Agency.
His conversation with Shono ran through his mind. The AAD's building wasn't that far away from the Lower District, and it wasn't up in the mountains. Apparently, it was an underground base. According to him, its entrance was disguised as a regular, abandoned house. Marno had once said that those kinds of hideouts weren't safe. Allegedly though, that headquarters was one of the oldest and secure ones. Shono had also warned him that he might not like what they'd see there. No matter how much he'd pressed him afterwards, he'd refused to say another word. The man had been there before. And he'd probably witnessed something rather unpleasant. Their discussion had completely killed off Karabell's enthusiasm.
"How long until we get there?" Een complained, tripping over his own two feet. The girl wasn't especially heavy, but they'd been walking for quite some time.
"We've arrived," Shono mentioned nonchalantly, stopping in his tracks.
He hadn't lied about the outer appearance of the Agency's headquarters. It looked horrible. Out of place, even. The house was smaller than the shack they'd lived in for the past month, despite being in the middle of the city. Karabell noticed a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye. He jumped back just before a sharp object sunk into the ground in the exact spot he'd been standing in. A drop of sweat ran down the side of his face. He'd dodged the attack by a hair's breadth. His teammates stared at each other, bewildered. Shono was the only one who seemed unfazed. Karabell looked at the strange item and realized that it was, in fact, an arrow. He hadn't seen any ranged weapons since he'd woken up. Bows and crossbows hadn't seemed to exist anymore. Besides, that was a regular arrow. It was only useful for hurting animals. Or, in that case, humans.
"Captain, everyone... calm down. That's how they greet strangers," Shono said, but his calm tone didn't match the concern in his eyes.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I did not recognize you, Shono. But I'm glad to see that you've gotten yourself some new teammates. These ones seem to have a lot more potential, if I do say so myself." The unfamiliar man gave them a devilish grin. He'd appeared out of nowhere, and, although his uniform was different, he was clearly a soldier.
"Not the kind of warm welcome I would've expected, honestly. I'm the captain of this squad, Karabell Ress. We've come from the Lower District."
"Of course. I could tell just by looking at you. Besides, me and Shono are friends. Isn't that right? Frederick Sel, at your service," the man said, slightly bowing his head. He hadn't even tried to follow the challenge in his voice. "Follow me. We shouldn't talk out here."
Karabell already hated Frederick's guts, but he couldn't argue with the fact that the Upper District's AAD was something else. After descending the small small set of stairs, they found themselves in an immaculate hallway. An elegant, red carpet covered the floor, and various ornaments made out of Aberration scales or feathers had been placed all over the walls. The base was surprisingly well-lit, thanks to the multitude of skylights. Frederick led them to a small chamber, containing only a table and a bunch of chairs. He claimed that he only ever used that room when he had guests. Which was quite the rare occurrence.
"I've called my assistant. She'll bring us some tea in a bit. Come, come, take a seat. No need to be shy." As Frederick gestured towards the chairs, Karabell couldn't help but notice that the device on his wrist was identical to theirs. "I'm sure you have a bunch of questions, and I'll be more than happy to provide answers to them," Frederick continued in the same sly manner, running his fingers through his wavy brown hair. He really knew how to get on Karabell's nerves. Shono was nervously looking around, uncharacteristically anxious. Alice and Een also seemed to want to get out of there as fast as possible. They hadn't said anything for a while. Just what was up with that place? That oddball had introduced himself as Frederick Sel. Family names were quite rare. The Captain took a deep breath. Why was he so concerned?
"Pardon the intrusion." A girl entered the room, holding a small tray. She placed five cups on the table before proceeding to pour the steaming hot tea. "Where are my manners? I'm sorry for almost shooting you earlier," she said in a playful voice. "Good thing you managed to dodge. We would've had to spend a lot of time cleaning up if you hadn't," the strange girl added as she closed the door behind her.