Prelude:
October 23rd
2:22 AMThe Rainforest District. Quiet, listless, and mostly untouched by the ravages of war. Tall trees sway in an unseen wind as raised platforms and their connecting bridges chatter below the canopies. The occasional clanging echoes through the area as loose street signs quiver in the night's air. Leaves that once covered many of the trees lay dead upon the ground. Those that still kept their foliage cast eerie, moving shadows upon the ground as the moon drifted in the cloudless sky.
In the dark of night there are many tricks that the shadows can play upon the mammals that still call this their home. Windswept leaves mimicking the movements of larger things. Silhouettes cast by both sun and moon in an area that is never truly devoid of darkness. Even during the day, many mammals fall victim to the dangers that call out within the forest.
A trio of mammals appear from the depths of the trees, each of them encased in suits of metal that hide their true nature in this already hidden world. Their steps give them away, the metal clanking reverberating off of the cracked concrete on the floor below. The forest floor illuminated by their headlamps, searching for something in the dead of night.
Moving slowly, they scan everywhere, only splitting up when the trees gravitate too close for them to move comfortably. Even then, they regroup without a word, each seeming to know where the other two are going. A loud beep filled the mostly quiet night.
"This is Phannery. We're tracking the signal, but even our lights are having trouble piercing this darkness. How will we know what we are looking for when we find it?" The voice was distorted by the large helmet.
"You'll know, but make haste before the Council finds out you're there. We don't have any patrols close enough to help, and if Chief Valiant finds out you went against his orders, there'll be hell to pay." The voice on the other end of the radio voiced his concern.
"Don't worry, if this beacon is what we think it is, it's value will outweigh any punishments the Chief'll dole out to us. Hell, we might even get a medal for it." A cracking noise echoed around them. "Going radio silent. We'll update you when we reach our destination."
"Roger, and be careful."
Without another word, the three Steel Guardians raised their weapons and slowly moved forward, each watching the backs of the other two. It was slow moving, but they all knew the dangers that lay ahead. Or so they thought.
There were still hours away from dawn, and the deeper they got, the darker it seemed to get. Less and less moonlight shone down through the canopy as the artificial lights seemed to become much more inefficient at guiding their way. The only other light keeping their path was a flashing orange light on the arm of one of the Guardians. The mammal inside the armor occasionally looked at the light and altered their paths as it brought them farther and farther from anyone who could come to their aid.
A loud but unidentifiable noise stopped them in their tracks. They stood there, listening, but there was no other noise. Parts of the walkways and roads above often broke off and fell down to the forest floor. After a few moments, the mammals shrugged it off as such and resumed their travels.
Another noise, similar to the first occurred in a different direction, but that too passed. Then the noises started to get louder as they got closer, and closer. The Guardians stopped, placing their backs to each other as they scanned the surroundings, weapons at the ready.
"There!" One of them shouted as he pointed off into the darkness. "I saw movement!"
"Did you see who or what it was?" The mammal with the flashing orange light spoke.
"No Sir, but I know I saw something."
"Keep your guard up. I don't want any surprises." She said before returning to her spot at the backs of her comrades in arms.
"There! I saw it again! And there! I got two possible contacts!"
All three of them were now turned in the direction the Guardian was pointing, but there was nothing. The breaking of a branch behind them caused the lead Guardian to spin around. Nothing but trees and shadows. Soon all three of them were calling out movement, but none of them could be identified.
Then the woman screamed.
"Avery!"
The Guardian swung around to see Avery on her knees, her hooves scraping at her helmet.
"Avery! What's wrong?"
"Get it off! Get it off! They're everywhere!"
"Hornson! Stand guard while I check on her!"
The mammal in the rhino shaped headgear nodded and started to sweep his weapon around him, looking for something to shoot. Phannery, one of the two elephants, ran over to Avery as she continued to scrape at her form fitting helmet, attempting to remove it while in a panicked state.
Phannery hit the locking latches on either side of the headgear and helped her get it off. She threw it down and started to rub her armored hoof hard against her skin as if trying to violently wipe something off of her face.
"Get them off! Get them off!" She shouted frantically.
"Get what off? There's nothing there."
"The bugs, I hate bugs, I hate them, I hate them! They're trying to burrow into my face!"
"There's nothing on your face! Snap out of it!" He started to shake her as Hornson started to murmur something.
"No… no… You… you're' not…"
Phannery looked over to his other team member just as he dropped his weapons and to his knees just as Avery did, but instead of being in a panic, he was reaching out in front of him, muttering something inaudible.
"Hornson! What's the matter!"
"You… you're not supposed to be here, you… you're… why did you leave me?"
"We're right here Hornson! No one is going anywhere! Command, come in we have an emergency! Command, come in!"
Phannery tried to contact his fellow Guardians but the radio was filled with static. Hornson didn't appear to be in any immediate danger, so he kept his attention on Avery, but no matter how hard he tried to get through to her, she kept on insisting that her face was crawling with insects. Then he saw a shadow race around him.
Grabbing Avery's weapon, he followed its path, but only darkness and his two fallen comrades presented themselves to him. Then another movement. And another. Each time he turned towards it he caught only the tail end before whatever it was disappeared. He slowly turned, trying to catch it before it vanished again. Then he froze as his headlamp hit a figure.
It was a child, dressed in only rags. A young elephant that Phannery recognized instantly. It was a visage from his past, one that he had not forgotten, but never thought he'd see again. He kept his weapon steady. It can't be real, he thought.
"Daddy?"
The voice of the child caught him off guard as his weapon dropped slightly. "H-Huston? No, it can't be you…"
"Daddy? I can't see anything. Why can't I see you?"
"No… No, this, this must be some trick. You're not Huston, you're not real."
"Daddy?"
"You're not real…"
"I miss you daddy."
"You're not…" Phannery dropped his weapon and ran forward, tears started to well in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around the young child. It felt real to him. It felt very real to him.
"I can't see you daddy."
"It's okay, it's okay, daddy's here. I won't let anything happen to you again."
Suddenly, the entire area was awash in a bright light. Phannery was blinded for a moment, but when his eyes adjusted, the child was gone.
"Huston? Where did…"
He looked around and saw that the other two were starting to move, each of them as confused as he was. They looked around, the source of the light unknown.
"My… my wife… she left me, left me, but she… it was like she was right here…" Hornson's voice was filled with sorrow and confusion.
Phannery felt the same way. "I saw my son. He… dead but I saw him, I held him… How…"
Before anyone could respond, the light narrowed enough to show a point of origin. The three of them slowly got up as they recognized what it was. A giant tree, one whose trunk was wider than any other they saw held a large circular door in it. The gear shaped metal slab had the numbers Fifty-Three painted on it in a fading yellow paint.
"It's… a Burrow." Avery said, he voice showing she was starting to recover from the phantom insects.
"What is a Burrow doing all the way out here? And what the fuck happened just now? Did we all hallucinate?"
"I don't know Phannery, but we got a job to do." Hornson sounded as if nothing had happened. "We were looking for an arms cache, and we found a Burrow. Chief Valiant will want to know about this immediately. Get him on the horn."
Phannery tried a few times, but each time he got static. "I can't reach base."
"Try an outpost."
"I can't get anything on the radio, just static."
"Maybe we should open it and see if there's anyone inside. You know Chief Valiant wants to clear out every Burrow and reintroduce any survivors back into the world."
"You know just as well as I do Avery that not everyone wants that. Remember the last Burrow we found? Had to seal them away because the dumb bastards refused to leave."
"Didn't help that you brought that damn ghoul with us." Avery had a tinge of hate in her voice.
"You know well enough that that ghoul was one of the good ones. He also didn't deserve to be shot in the head by Burrow Security. But it was our fault for telling him to remove his mask. Damn Burrow Dwellers and their closed ways."
Phannery had moved over to the door control panel that was positioned about waist level to him while Hornson and Avery bickered, sounding like they had forgotten, or simply chose to forget, what just happened. Phannery kept seeing images of his son when he closed his eyes, but shook them off. He had a job to do.
He pulled a wire from his wrist computer and plugged it into a slot on the access panel. It beeped a few times and then seemed to growl at him in error. He tried a few more times and was met with the same results.
"Something's wrong. I can't access the disengage protocols."
"Maybe the things busted?" Avery scoffed. "Or maybe whoever is home doesn't want us to meddle in their affairs. Hell, for all we know it's empty."
"Then who turned on the light? No other Burrow had an automatic light on the door, but then again, most doors were a bit more hidden than this one. I'm surprised it's still sealed."
Phannery walked over to the door and looked it over. Scuff and burn marks showed that someone had tried to open it by force, but it was still standing. Those doors weighed more than three Tac-Lifters, no mammal alive could force that thing open. There was also no intercom like the other Burrows. This whole thing just screamed wrong to him.
Then the door started to rumble.
"Did you get it?" Hornson asked, trying to step out of the argument with Avery.
"I didn't do anything, it just started on its own."
After a few moments, the door started to roll to the side, but no light appeared from inside. The door suddenly stopped halfway. Phannery went back over to the control panel, but wasn't able to get the door to budge.
The door itself was only slightly higher than Phannery who was the tallest of the three, but the gap was barely large enough to squeeze through with his armor on. Hornson, who was the smallest of them, walked up to the door.
"I think I can get through in my suit. Here, hold my weapon."
"Be careful in there. Once in, make sure it's clear and try to see if you can get the door open from the inside. I really don't wanna have to get out of my armor in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah, yeah. I know how to handle my own. Plus look at the size of this door, whoever lives here can't be much larger than a wolf."
"Wasn't it a wolf that nearly whipped your ass during basic training?" Avery snickered.
"He cheated, you all saw him!"
"Cut the bickering and do your job Hornson. I want to get out of here as soon as possible, this place is making my hide crawl."
Avery might have been the team's leader, but it often came down to Phannery to hold them all together. Sometimes he considers asking the Chief if he could swap with Avery, but she's too proud of her position to take a threat easily. And she's too valuable to the team to lose.
"I think… okay I'm in. There's a set of stairs going down. Descending them now." Hornson called from beyond the opening.
"Take it slow and easy. Once you get to the bottom check for any hostiles, get the lights on, and the door open. Switching to comlink. You read?" Avery said as she snapped back into Guardian mode. She and Hornson often bicker but when it comes down to it, she wouldn't want anyone else watching her back.
"Loud and clear. I don't see any signs of hostility, or of life for that matter." There was a few minutes of silence that made them uneasy. Then Hornson's voice came back. "I'm at the bottom, no signs of life yet. I do see what looks like a control room, I'm gonna check it. I'd stand back in case I get the door open."
"Just don't go sightseeing." Avery added as she turned to her fellow elephant.
"How you doing?"
"Still shook up. I mean, they felt so real. I could feel each leg skittering across my face, even the sharp pain as some started to chew their way into my skin. It felt so… horrible."
"I saw my son. It was as if he was standing right there. I even wrapped my arms around him and it felt so… real." Phannery looked at his arms and hooves as if they had betrayed him.
"What do you think caused it?"
"Some chemical weapon that those Council bastards made?" Phannery's voice gave way to his own uncertainty in those words.
"But we haven't seen any of them this entire time."
"Only other possibility is a radiation leak, but my detector still shows minimal doses. There's more radiation in a Rad! Cola than right here."
"Possibly a slow leak? From what I can tell, most of the Burrows were outfitted with fusion plants, some of which put even Guardian tech to shame. Who knows what kind of issues they could cause if even a single failsafe fried."
"We should have Hornson scan for radiation."
Avery nodded as we moved closer to the door. With her helmet still off, she stuck her face into the opening. "Hornson come in, we need you to check for radiation levels while you're in there. Both the suit and any master control you find."
The radio was quiet.
"Come in Defender Hornson, do you read?"
The only noise was of static over the radio. Phannery met with the same results when he tried to make contact. Avery tried yelling through the partially open door but was met with the echo of her own voice. She tried to squeeze in, but her suit was too big for the opening.
"He's in trouble. We gotta ditch the armor."
Phannery nodded, much to his dismay. She was right and the life of a fellow Guardian is worth more than some protection. He was just afraid what they might need protection from. Too many Burrow discoveries had ended in tragedy for this to go smooth.
Phannery went to disengage Avery's suit when there was a loud grinding noise. Instinctively, the two of them grabbed for their weapons as the door started to open. It was still dark inside, but as the large cog door rested into its new position, lights started to flicker on.
The room itself at the bottom was rather clean and free from clutter. A walkway connected the base of the stairs to the rest of it. There were a few crates with the Burrow-Tec logo on them, but no other sign that anyone even resided here. There were also no signs of their rhino companion either.
"Hornson! Defender Hornson where are you?" Avery shouted. Her only answer was the sound of her own voice reverberating in the large open room.
There was no sign of his armor or him anywhere. The two remaining Guardians slowly moved, guns at the ready towards the control room where he was last heading. Inside it looked as if no one had been there for a very long time. That was the first time they noticed the dust, and now it seems like everything was covered in it.
Phannery knelt down and grabbed some of the dust onto his armored hoof. "What is this? I've never seen a sealed Burrow have this much dust before. They might have a bad filtration system. If that's the case, best not to eat or drink anything we find."
"Right now all I want to find is Hornson and get the hell out of here. This place is giving me the creeps. Let some other group deal with this. There's nothing but bad vibes coming from this place."
"Agreed. If there is some kind of radiation leak, our suits can only hold back so much. You may wanna put your helmet back on Avery."
"Crap. I left it outside. Wait here and don't move an inch."
Avery slowly walked back to the door, but before she could reach the walkway leading to it, there was a series of flashing lights followed by a buzzing noise. Avery turned back to see if Phannery had done anything, but he was still where she left him, looking just as concerned as she felt.
Before Avery could say anything, there was a loud and familiar grinding noise as the door began to close. Avery's face turned from concern to fear, worry, and anger.
"What did you do?! Get that door stopped now!"
"I didn't do anything, it just started on its own!" Phannery expressed as he ran over to the controls for the door. He did everything he could but the door proved more adamant in its pursuit.
Avery was torn between saving her own hide and continuing the hunt for Hornson when her loyalty to the Guardians overrode any other feelings she had as she ran over to help Phannery, but it was too late. The door was now sealed, leaving them one mammal behind and on the wrong side of the door.
"How did this close on its own? Aren't these things supposed to be opened and closed by two authorized mammals?"
"That's what I thought, unless… "
"Free…" A voice began to echo through the room, startling Phannery.
"Hornson, is that you?" Avery called out.
"Free…"
Looking around for the source of the voice, they could see only two doorways. They both agreed that neither of them would let the other out of their site as they chose one door to start with. They surrounded each side of the door, weapons ready as it opened. It was just a utility closet. Just like the control room, everything was covered in a thick layer of that cream-colored dust.
"Free…"
"This is Defender Avery of the Steel Guardians! Who if anyone is listening, we come in peace. We only want to determine the safety of this Burrow."
Silence. They waited for any response, when there was none they moved towards the other door. Hornson had to be here someplace, and they were determined to find him, and if this turned out to be another one of his jokes, neither of them would be happy, and neither would their Chief.
Once again, they surrounded the door as the panel was hit, but unlike the closet, the door didn't budge. Phannery moved to inspect it when the lights suddenly turned off, leaving them in pitch black. Even the emergency and backup lights were dark.
"Avery, don't move. It might be a trap." Phannery was reaching for his toolkit as he spoke those words, but when there was no response he paused. "Avery? Are you still here?"
The lights blinked back on, and she was gone. Nothing, not even her weapon was there. He knew she wouldn't have just bailed on him, but there were no readings of any life in this room, and with this door the only way out, she couldn't have gotten far.
"Daddy…"
The voice drove a chill down his spine. No, he thought, not again. He was alone, and his brain was playing tricks on him again. Phannery closed his eyes and wished for those bad memories to be gone.
"Daddy, who turned out the lights? I can't see daddy."
Phannery opened his eyes. It was pitch black again. He was hallucinating. He couldn't think straight and now his helmet was starting to fog up, despite the suit having temperature regulators to prevent it. His suit must be malfunctioning he thought. Breathing in too much CO2 can cause hallucinations. He called out for Avery one last time before taking off his helmet. It felt nice to be able to breathe but that thought was cut short as the lights flickered back on. Phannery turned to where Avery should be and was caught off guard when his face wound up in front of another familiar face, one that shouldn't be there.
"Daddy, I can't see."
"No… you're not real. You are not real…"
"Daddy? Where are you daddy?"
"You're not real! I said you're not…" He unintentionally grabbed the arms of the child before him and started to shake him. Once the physical feeling of a child in his hooves hit him, he started to cry. "You… you're real… b-but… how?"
"Daddy? Why you crying?"
"I-I… I thought I lost you…" He was having trouble holding back his tears.
"Daddy, I'm here. You didn't lose me. We're all here."
"What?" Phannery wiped his years and looked up at his son's face. "What did you say?"
"We…" the lights went out, and when they came back, Hornson and Avery appeared behind the child, "... are all here."
The child, who had his eyes closed the entire time finally opened them. Where the eyes should have been were empty sockets, as if they were torn out. Black looking blood started to pool and flow down his face.
"Free yourself daddy. Be free."
"Huston, what… what…"
"Free yourself." Avery and Hornson repeated in unison, their eyes now opened, hollow and bloody like the child's. "Free yourself and join us."
Phannery looked back to the child, unsure of anything and tears falling from his face. He wanted to scream, to run. He wanted to grab his gun and start shooting at everything that moved, but he was frozen. Frozen in fear, frozen in bewilderment. Frozen at the sight of his son, alive and standing right here.
The child reached out and wiped the tears from his father's face.
"Join us daddy, and we can be together forever."
"I… I…"
"Free yourself and see with eyes a new."
The voice changed, it was deeper and didn't belong to Hornson or Avery, or even his son. He tried to open his eyes but failed. Then, there was pain. Phannery felt warmth fall down his face as his eyes felt as if they were on fire. He tried to collapse but was held up, he tried to fight it but there was nothing to fight.
There was only one thing Phannery could do as the lights around him faded. He screamed.
All was dark in Burrow Fifty-Three again.
All but one light.
A flashing orange light.