"Whose ancestors are you talking about?!" Andro caught up with the girl who was running furiously as if she had forgotten something crucial.
"Didn't you see it?" He might have, but a silhouette appeared for a few seconds while the guy was staring at the ground.
"What could I have seen?" He didn't understand her, but he didn't stop; he knew his best friend, Kant, and how quickly he would recover from this.
"Oh, don't tell me I'm starting to see things?"
"I didn't mean that, but don't be so irritable!" Andro reached the fence, about three meters high. A solitary steel door was one of the few passages into the quarry.
He swiftly unlocked one lock with one key, another with a different one, repeating this about five times, and the door opened. But at that moment, a signal was sent to the headquarters, and now everyone knew which door had opened, and soon there would be many people here. And this "couple" understood their situation; they hurried as fast as they could towards the towers.
"Anna, luck is on your side! Not a single guard, I'm amazed!"
"I can't believe my eyes myself, but we're almost there!" The girl's eyes fixed on the hundreds of meters downhill, where two round structures protruded from the ground.
"Anna, please explain to me; I don't understand your goals!" The guy's head started to cool, the young fervor waning, and his brain began to assemble the whole picture of what was happening rather than in small fragments.
"Please, not now. Grandpa's people will be here any moment now, if they're not already!" The girl and the guy ran down the wide road; they struggled not to fall while running from top to bottom.
"Anna, don't you notice what's happening around? The explosion, and now the ground tremor," the girl didn't understand what he meant, but Andro was much more sensitive to everything than other people.
"No matter what's happening around us, what's below is much more critical than what's behind us," she retrieved a small piece of wall from the depths of the tower, taken not so long ago from another pile of bones.
"My bracelet absorbed some strange energy, and it's as if, like when I first found it as a child, something started to envelop and protect me, but this time, it felt more like my body directing me back to the towers."
"A bracelet?" The guy glanced at the girl's hand, but it was too dark to see the small bracelet between her palm and sleeve.
"Yes, the one that scratched your face a couple of times," Andro didn't respond to Anna's words, but he clearly understood what she meant.
"And just because of that feeling, we're running there?"
"I am, but you aren't," they were about to reach the towers, when the barking of dogs sounded from behind them.
"Hounds?!" He tried not to shout, but his voice echoed through the quarry.
"Andro, faster!" It wasn't Andro who was falling behind. After the barking, he quickly caught up with and surpassed Anna.
"Never thought of this!" They both collided with the huge walls of the towers.
"Where-where-where? Where's the entrance? Andro, look for it!"
"Ah-ah-ah! Trying," they spread out, feeling the walls.
Only screams were heard; she fell through the wall that collapsed under the pressure of a human's hands. Andro immediately rushed over. Darkness, nothing more, but as if something was guiding him, there was a "chasm" to his left. If there were light, he would have seen the steps, but right now, he was trying to feel Anna's body to guide her.
"You'll let me do whatever I want!"
"Andro, stop worrying and move faster; I've found the steps!" Anna said without getting up fully. Her legs were already on the steps, but with her hands and bottom, she was still holding onto the previous one. That way, she could descend without fearing a sudden drop.
"Coming, coming!" He also squatted when Anna's hand pulled his leg down.
This descent was fast; although they stopped for a few seconds to assess the integrity of the steps.
"Did you bring anything with you? I can't see anything," the light no longer reached them; it was just a simple black room.
"Well, excuse me; I was in a hurry!"
"How about thinking?" "There was no time to think," to such an answer, Andro had to shut his jaw and try to listen.
The sound of dogs had long disappeared; they descended, hearing only themselves.
"Why haven't they installed lights here? How do the workers function here?"
"Did anyone tell you that anyone works here?"
"Anna, do you think I'm blind? I miss hundreds of people in the quarry!"
"Yes, if only you were more observant. All the work is carried out in the mines; those structures protruding from the ground are left untouched!"
"Absurd! They're simply exploiting human labor. There's a staircase here, and they're digging holes in the ground?" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Correct, the reason is the fragility of these buildings," Andro froze.
"Fragility?" he quietly asked Anna.
"Yes, didn't you see how easily the wall fell, which was over a meter thick? I touched it, and it collapsed," Anna tried to find him in the darkness, but Andro couldn't be seen.
"Why can't I hear the dogs? Have they fallen?"
"Probably, if not, we would already be fighting them."
"So, you mean somewhere there, the staircase is broken? And we could fall into a chasm at any moment?"
"Yes," she answered quickly and as gently as possible.
"Anna, this is not a joke; we're trapped! And I can't quite tell where is the back and where is the front!" he shouted, slowly realizing the situation.
"I understand your concern…"
"No, you don't!" he interrupted her.
"You see everything through rose-colored glasses, but in reality? We're in a damned grave where hundreds of people are buried!"
"Well, you can try going back, but there's nothing waiting for you there. At most, trial and tribunal."
"A-a-a! I'm a damned idiot; how could I fall for your idea! I thought you had a plan, but apparently, there isn't one!" he yelled.
"There is," the response was confident and calm.
"And what is your plan?"
"Somewhere down there, there is something that can awaken the person trapped in the crystal again."
"You're just hoping for that?"
"We all hope for something."
"Idiocy!"
"Perhaps, but there's something there called a 'key.' And I'm sure we'll get something incredible!" she crawled further.
Andro clicked his tongue and followed her.
"I'll never follow you again, especially for such a reason!" he grumbled angrily to himself.
**
"Marquis?!" The old man bowed to the man sitting at the center of the tent.
"Baron Hamp, I'm glad to see you again," the man with brown eyes spoke; his appearance was confident.
"Why did you arrive here so unexpectedly?"
"I myself didn't expect it, but a very important guest will be arriving soon, and we need to meet him," the baron didn't have time to finish his sentence before the man continued. "I see your granddaughter wasn't close by?"
"Forgive me for the mess at the facility entrusted to me by the crown!" the old man fell to his knees.
"Don't worry; I'm not concerned about that," he placed a strange small vial with orange liquid on the table. "Drink this," he handed the vial to the old man.
"What is this?" After these words from the old man, the brown eyes of his interlocutor changed; they became cold and cruel.
"It's none of your concern, Baron, so drink it!"
"So, this is how I die," thought the old man.
His old hands took the vial. Opening it, he didn't smell any scent of poison or anything else. He closed his eyes, grabbed the right side of his chest, and drank it all at once. He took a few steps back, feeling no changes until he saw the Marquis's face. His lips rose so high that his face seemed to split.
The Marquis grabbed his left hand; a swift motion and he tore it off. Throwing it at the old man's chest, the hand penetrated straight into his body, swift and irreversible. The Marquis stood up and said:
"Let it fulfill its purpose, become part of the 'Great Life'!" The old man's body began to change, and the Marquis's hand began to regenerate.
The Marquis took something resembling an insect from his body, which took off and landed on the old man's body, quickly penetrating his flesh.
"This should be enough. Head to the 'Eden Center' and let's properly welcome our guest," the Marquis began speaking a language unknown to this planet. His body itself began to change and take the form of a young, red-haired man.