Chapter 4 Preview

Chapter 4

Exploring the Ruins

The landscape changed very little along the worn and washed-out road they travelled on. Lucca was initially impressed by the few remaining flat patches of asphalt that she saw, wondering what kind of machinery they had used to make the land so flat, but the novelty wore off the longer she walked. After an hour of travelling they started seeing the ruined towers in the distance and were both awed and disheartened by them as they drew nearer. What they originally though were the remains of a gigantic castle resolved themselves as individual metal and stone spires that shot further into the sky than any of them had thought possible. The lack of light in any of the crumbling buildings gave them a depressing aura and when the lightning flashes lit up the sky the slight relative darkening of the structures made them appear almost sinister.

It took another hour before they were walking between the buildings. Around the base of each tower lay the broken remains of what use to be their exterior. The trio was a bit surprised to find that what they assumed was stone or brick had rusting metal rods thrusting out of the blocks. They were a bit confused by the material that at one end was as hard as a rock but at the broken side was crumbling to dust and could be broken off easily. A few theories came to Lucca about what the people who had made the structures had used but she kept her thoughts to herself. They wended their way through the ruins as best they could, keeping to the road as much as possible. Eventually, however, the main road ended and smaller paths wound off in varying directions. At Marle’s suggestion they decided to take the route that was the most open as it was most likely to have been used in the past. The group continued down the side street for a short time until it too ended, this time at a large opening to a massive, squat building.

There was a huge, damaged sign above the entrance reading in part: Lab 16. The rest of the sign was scratched out and illegible. The building itself was mostly intact at least compared to the surrounding structures but the entire edifice couldn’t be seen as several towers blocked the groups view of it. There was little else they could choose to do as they didn’t have a map of the area and weren’t aware of any other routes that would be better options. In addition they were in dire need of food, not having anything to eat since their arrival. With the warning that had been given about mutants in the area (whatever those were) the three of them drew their weapons and headed slowly into the lab.

The first thing that Crono noticed, after the many piles of junk that dotted the enclosed area, were the rats. Huge, creepy rodents that ran from place to place, picking up pieces of crap from one pile and either biting into it or carrying off to another pile of junk to deposit. The sheer number of them gave the redhead hope that there was something for them to eat but even if there wasn’t, the rats themselves could be used as an unappetizing food source. Marle found a broken glass case with several clear bottles inside. After knocking the rest of the glass out of the way with the butt of her crossbow she pulled out a container and handed it to Lucca to identify. The genius pulled down the eyepiece on her helmet so she could look through and study the bottle. After a moment she turned the bottle over a few times to look at the container itself but gave up after a short time and tried to pull the cap off. When it wouldn’t budge the purple-haired girl frowned at the vessel, trying to understand how to get it open. She saw the curved arrows that were emblazoned on the cap pointing clockwise and after a second a thought came to her. She twisted the cap in the direction of the arrows and heard a clicking sound as the cap started to move. She smiled inwardly at her ability to understand the directions but was more concerned with the contents, taking a swig of the liquid contained inside.

Lucca grimaced at the taste but swallowed it down anyway. After running her tongue around the inside of her mouth to get rid of the taste she handed the bottle to Crono. “It’s stale, but at least it’s water.” While Crono slaked her thirst Lucca pulled as many sealed bottles as she could from the ruined vending machine. Most of them went into her satchel for later but she kept one for herself and another was given to Marle so the three of them could survive. They moved on cautiously through the dilapidated warehouse, keeping an eye out for any more storage containers they could find. Eventually the dark, stony surroundings were broken by a splash of green. Marle pointed it out to the group that there was something different off in a corner and the three went to investigate. Lucca recognized it first as a plant, but nothing she had seen before. It looked kind of like a pitcher plant but was far larger than any she had heard about. It was growing out of the rubble beneath a hole in the roof but the clouds should have blocked the light enough to prevent the plant from getting as big as it was. The top of the pitcher would reach to about Lucca’s waist if she stood next to it and the vines that spread out from the base must have been as thick as her wrist at their widest. In addition it had two stalks sticking up around the rim of the pitcher that ended in what looked like flower bulbs.

Lucca took a few steps forward, making sure she avoided the tendrils on the ground and tried to get a better look at the plant but in one swift motion one of the stalks bent in her direction and the bulb burst open with a cloud of spores. The genius girl tried to pull back but tripped on a root and fell onto her butt. Marle went to help her and quickly found her ankle snared by one of the vines. Crono raised her sword to hack at the vine but felt something crash into her side and send her sprawling to the ground. The redhead looked up and saw a strange creature with slimy skin standing over her supine body. The creature was glaring down at the young woman with malevolent yellow eyes under a heavy brow. It’s bald, gray head possessed no nose but had a large circular opening where a mouth could be expected. Below the head there was no body but it was held up by eight tentacles that were spread open so it could straddle Crono’s body. The redhead swung at the creature but it reacted quickly by wrapping an appendage around her arms and holding it firm. The thing’s grip was stronger than Crono would have expected and she became worried when several more tentacles took hold of her and spun the redhead until she was on her stomach.

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