N.E.C.R.O.

Part 1 - Chapter 7: The Void Piece

It was an old memory... I ran into my grandfather's room, as he had called for me. The place was always very quiet and peaceful. But that day, it was noisy. My grandfather was breathing very heavily. He seemed to be very tired. He said, "Nile, could you fetch that box lying on the ground for me?" He pointed at a metal box on the ground. It looked very old and I had always wondered why he had such an object with him.

Without raising any questions, I brought the box to him. He took it from my hand and said, "In this box, lies a secret. It is said that when the time comes, you will come to know the password for this box. That being said, the password is unknown, even to me. But since it has been passed on from generations after generations, I pass it on to you. I have been told that the password was never changed, and yet, I have been unable to open it. There was, however, one clue my grandfather gave me when he gave me this box – Nadine. It even displays that. I believe that it is the watermark of the creator of this box."

Suddenly, his heavy breathing became even heavier. I found that weird, so I called Neuro. After she did a short body scan, she verified that my grandfather is about to meet his end. Neuro called mom and dad and they, with grief, saved his memories into the cloud storage and he slept for eternity. "I guess it is finally time," I remember father say.

The next day, I tried to open the box, and accidently dropped it onto the ground and it made a clattering sound. The fall activated a deafening siren. Startled, I quickly ran into the backyard and buried the box. It has been there ever since.

Looking back, grandfather and possibly mom and dad too, were probably already told that he wouldn't stay alive for a lot longer. Maybe they refused to tell that to me. 

That clattering sound and this projector's sound... They sounded very similar. Suddenly, I remembered the term 'Nadine'. I wondered what it could have been.

Lent and Nessa stared at me while I muttered. "What could what be?" Nessa asked.

"It's my grandfather's memoir... Never mind that, without further ado, let's go to Origin-Terrain!"

"So, this teleportation will zap us to Origin-Terrain Teleportation Station. Hang on tight, the journey starts in 3... 2... 1..."

And we teleported back to Origin-Terrain. The place was thoroughly demolished. None of the buildings looked the way I left it three years ago. I wondered if my parents were safe, but then again, there was no way that they were still okay. No, no, Nile. Don't think about what you've lost. There is only misery ahead of that path.

We walked for an hour before we finally found my house, which was only a short ten-minute walk from the OTTS. Without the Precise Geographic Positioning and Direction System (PGPDS), it seems impossible to walk long distances like this.

"There it is! No, rephrase: 'There it was!' My house!" I remarked, looking at my house which was in a terrible condition.

"Find that box, and we're leaving this place. I can see a lot of shadowy patches. I feel unsafe here, so we're leaving, pronto. I give you 5 minutes' time."

"Okay," I responded in a strange tone. I ran over to the backyard and dug the place I remembered myself to have dug back then. After a few failed attempts, I finally found the box with the engraving 'Nadine'.

"Out! Now! This place has inhabitants! We're leaving now. NOW!" Lent suddenly cried.

We dashed out and ran till we reached the Nations – Union building. "Here," Lent said, handing over a coat, a helmet, a tranquilizer and an energy capsule, just in case I run out of energy. Then he gave the same items to Nessa, too. Then, we went in, fully equipped.