Fool's Beginning, Fool's End (At The End, Everything is Okay: The 0th Story)

Section 2

The air inside of the bunker was still. Being deep underground, surrounded on all sides by a thick layer of concrete and lead meant that any scents produced in the depths stayed down there.

An old, acrid stench filled the girl's nose.

"Ugh," She gagged, "What happened down here?"

"Something wrong?" Asked a grumbly, incorporeal voice.

"Yeah, something smells real bad. Smells like a thousand corpses in here."

"You're probably right."

The girl stopped at the bottom of a set of stairs, and shrugged off her backpack. With the last streams of daylight trickling in to illuminate her immediate surroundings, she looked inside the bag, searching for her flashlight.

"You know, you could always come down and help me out."

"Perhaps," The voice sarcastically replied, "Or, I could stay up here where it doesn't reek."

The girl retrieved her flashlight. After a couple shakes, she shined the light deeper into the bunker. The light didn't reach very far – almost every surface was covered in a layer of pitch black ash.

"Oh well," She giggled, "More spelunking for me!"

"Don't have too much fun." The voice said flatly.

As the dame delved deeper into the distant darkness, the flashlight proved less and less helpful, its beams getting swallowed up by the depths.

The girl eventually arrived at a small, concrete platform. Rail tracks embedded themselves underneath the platform, leading into what looked like an endlessly long tunnel.

She scanned the flashlight around the platform. Just to her left was a kiosk, with an attendant sitting behind the desk. At least, what was left of one.

Slumped in its chair was a complete human skeleton. A macabre reminder of a life once lived, hidden from the world; Forgotten under concrete, lead, and rock. Its jaw hung loose. This skeleton must have met with a terrible fate, presumably expiring during working hours.

"Oh, hello there!" She greeted the skeleton with a smile, "What's cookin' good lookin'."

The skeleton said nothing, since it was dead.

"Don't get distracted." The voice piped up, "We're already running late. If we mess around for too long, we'll-"

Before the voice could finish, the girl had already climbed over the kiosk, and grabbed the skeleton's jaw.

"Ey, girlie!" The girl mocked, puppeting the jawbone. "I've got a fuckin' bone to pick with you!"

"Nil!" The voice snapped.

"Sorry. I couldn't help myself." She released the skeleton's jaw, and crawled over the kiosk desk.

"Contact said the guy's only a mile and a half down." The voice sighed, "And could you please not smash the tube open this time?"

"Well," Nil huffed, readjusting her backpack, "I'll try. But I'm not making any promises."

"And don't mess with any more skeletons!" The voice warned, before falling silent.

Nil walked to the edge of the platform, and hopped down onto the tracks.

She shined the light down the tunnel. On each side of the tracks, the tunnel was lined with gigantic tubes that stretched from floor to ceiling. In front of each one was a panel with dozens of buttons of varying size.

All of the tubes were empty.

"Just a little bit further." Nil told herself, stepping into the tunnel.