Fade (Walker #74033 fanfiction) Book 1

Chapter 3

"All right, here we are," Margrethe grinned as we stopped in front of an abandoned two-story building with no doors or windows. Sparse graffiti covered the walls in worn out splashes of color. It wasn't what Jevden expected for a secret base.

"Does the community live here?" He asked skeptically. It seemed way too out in the open.

"No," she responded, frowning. "This is just the entrance. We had to keep it as conspicuous as possible." She looked at me. "How's your leg?"

"A little better, but it still hurts," Jevden said, wincing slightly.

Margrethe looked down and saw the dark splotch showing through my pants. "You should've told me you were bleeding."

"It's not as bad as it looks."

She looked unconvinced as we started walking again, entering the building. The first floor was completely empty, save for some piles of rubble and cement. After a short moment of glancing around, Margrethe found what she was looking for and led them both over to an elevator that looked like it hadn't worked in years.

"What are we doing with that?" Jevden wondered out loud.

"It's how we go down, of course." She replied as if it were totally obvious.

Jevden watched, baffled, as she held up her inactive drone and placed it in a section of the elevator that perfectly fit it. Instantly, the symbol began glowing a soft blue hue, and the elevator doors shut. With a slight jolt, it started its descent into the earth. Jevden leaned against the wall, supporting himself and taking his weight off his bad leg. Gritting his teeth, he forced his panicked mind to calm down. It was just a little longer that he had to wait to receive help. It was only a few minutes before the elevator doors opened again, and when they did, Jevden had to do a double take to ensure he was seeing it correctly.

The Compound was far more massive than he originally thought, stretching out for what seemed like a mile. Even from the inside, he could tell that it had the same overlapping A W shape like Margrethe's drone. While it was primarily constructed of brick and cobble, everything was painted in varying shades and hues of blue, black, and white. Multiple hallways branched out on either side of the main lobby, and more smaller rooms were located on every floor. His eyes followed the shape of the Compound up to the rounded ceiling, where he could see thousands of blue lights shining, though they were too far away for him to make out what they were for.

But what awed him the most was the amount of people swarming the lobby like ants around a mount. Hundreds were walking around, talking to each other, laughing, and manipulating their drones with unique precision. Jevden guessed that almost everyone had one. They were all dressed nearly identical as well, wearing black sweatshirts, dark pants, and masks covering the bottom half of their faces. The backs of the sweatshirts had the same symbol on them.

"I can't believe this," He whispered, quiet enough that no one heard him.

Margrethe came up by his side again, drone in hand. "Come on, we got to get you to the medical wing. Stay out here any longer and the bleeding could get worse."

"I'm just so...awestruck," He replied, not in a position to move.

"I'm sure you are," she said, rolling her eyes, as Jevden felt something pierce his arm. Everything went black.

Jevden woke up in a white bed, with multiple machines beeping and whirring around him. Medical supplies lined the toned blue walls, and sunlight streamed in through a window next to him. Margrethe was sitting in a chair by his bed, typing something on a laptop. She saw him sit up and closed it.