Fade (Walker #74033 fanfiction) Book 1

Chapter 8

Over the next couple of weeks, Margrethe was noticeably absent from the Compound. He sometimes thought he saw glimpses of her here and there, but it always turned out to be a different Walker. He'd laugh inwardly to himself; the principle of unity was so strong here that it was difficult to tell anyone apart at times. But he figured that whatever mission she went on was important enough that she didn't come back when she said she would. He found it frustrating that he hadn't intended to ask her about his place here sooner; he'd ended up forgetting after the exhilaration of his first Explorer assignment.

#20 took him multiple times over the course of the two weeks to scan monuments, but Jevden found it wasn't as often as he imagined. The Researchers would only come to them every few days with a new structure, but he found the process rather tedious because the disks took a long time to decode. He wasn't disappointed with the results, however. He found it rather exciting whenever it was time to go out to scan another monument, and he vaguely wondered why no one on earth had discovered them before. Some were just as large as the first one he scanned, rising hundreds of feet into the air. Others were complex and took a rather long time to complete. Many times, Jevden had to take a break from holding his arms up, and his drone would look at him, seemingly impatient until he was ready again. After each assignment, #20 would take him down to the Researcher's quarters, where they'd bring in their drones for inspection and allow them to retrieve the holograms waiting in the drone's code.

"I think you may have missed a part of this one," one of the Researchers had said to Jevden. He readjusted his mask and turned the hologram on its side. "The entire top part is missing."

Jevden looked astonished, but #20 spoke up. "I got the rest. That formation was a little difficult to handle. It was on a hill and the sun was partially shining in our eyes."

The researcher chuckled. "See, this is why we keep telling them to go in pairs. Some of the Explorers insist on doing it alone, but it's not always a good idea. It's easier when someone else is there so they can grab whatever wasn't picked up."

"Don't remind me," #20 said, rolling his eyes. "That's just one of the reasons why I get so fed up with them."

Whenever he wasn't going with #20 to scan monuments, Jevden hung out with Au Ra and her friends. She told him interesting facts about the Compound that he'd never realized before, including that all the dots of light in the ceiling represented each Walker in the community.

"They're impossible to see from down here," Jevden exclaimed, squinting. "How would we tell which was which?"

"They're for decoration really," Au Ra grinned. "Some numbers can be made out on the higher floors, but they just show how many Walkers we have."

However, Jevden spent most of his time walking around the Walker Archives that UG mentioned, looking through several files and books that caught his attention. The area was the size of a moderately large library with various stories about the ancient Walkers, as well as certain Walkers who'd made notable achievements. He wasn't surprised to find Margrethe in multiple online sites detailing her strength and resourcefulness. There were also sections on the different roles in the Compound, and extensive details on what each one was responsible for (he was surprised that there was a division of the Security team that had to hack Red Nexus databases). Though, Jevden found that he was more interested in the stories detailing the ancient Walkers as well as #23800's journey to prove her theories. He was excited to read about all the places she went to find answers that no one else could, including traversing the largest cave in Vietnam.

But the longer Jevden stayed in the Compound, the more a feeling of uncertainty began to rise within him. If the Compound was so secure, then why did they have to do all this work for the World of Walker? It didn't make sense to him, and it only increased the longer he scanned the monuments. He never questioned #20 about it, since he didn't seem as apt to giving away information like Margrethe was, so he remained quiet about it, trying to find the answers himself. He only hoped that what he discovered wasn't what he feared.