Skara Braens

Part 14

 Part 13 Vote Tally

Option A: 0
Option B: 3
Option C: 0

ONWARD!

"Are you  mad?" you hiss at Drest. "There is no way I am being left in this place!  I'm coming with you."

Drest hesitates for only a moment before nodding.  In silence he turns and leads the way out of the prison. There is no need to swipe his card to get through. The doors, with some manual labour, open easily.  As the last set of doors open with a grinding squeak, you hear noises from behind you.  You grab Drest's sleeve and pull slightly.  He turns to you with a frown, and you press a finger against your lips.

Understanding immediately, Drest falls silent.

A hacking cough echoes up from the bottom floor of the prison.

"Master said."  The voice is weak and thin, but unmistakable.  "Master said it would be here.  But Master has been wrong before, hasn't he?  No! No! Master is never wrong.  Sometimes mistaken, but never wrong.  No.  Not Master.  Not him.  Not kind, gentle Master.  But then, where is it? Hm?  Where is it?"

Another hacking cough echoes up to you.

You turn to Drest, feeling the colour drain from your face.  You had forgotten about that voice.  It had greeted you when you first awoke in Maeshowe.  Then, as now, it was searching for something, and did not know you were nearby.

You nod at the psionic, indicating that leaving now would be a very good idea.  Drest nods in return and, now more careful of his movement, sneaks away from the prison.  You have a mind to turn and shut the prison door, but you're loath to make any noise and alert the owner of the voice.

The voice still mutters to itself as you and Drest make your slow, quiet way from the prison.

Drest pauses as he steps out into the compound, you at his shoulder.  There is no one to be seen.  The sky is overcast, though it seems to you that it should not cause it to be as dark as it is.  You squint against the grey gloom, hoping to spot something, anything.  Behind you, the muffled sounds of coughing put your teeth on edge.

"We should get to command.  Come on."  Drest moves off, crouching for no particular reason, save that it seems appropriate for the atmosphere.  You follow suit, moving quickly and keeping as low to the ground as you can.

Drest leads the way to the command shed, crouching below a window in what you assume is "command."  He lifts himself up briefly to peer into the window, ducking back down almost immediately.  You brace yourself against a possible attack.  When nothing happens, Drest pulls himself up for a longer look.  You see him frown, and join him in peering in the window.

The commanding officer who sent you to live in the prison seems to be sitting on his high-backed chair, his booted feet up on his desk and crossed at the ankle.  You cannot see his face, as his back is towards the window, but you note that in his hand, which is resting on the arm rest of his chair, he holds a pipe.  A thin curl of smoke rises from the pipe, but the hand never raises it to the man's lips.

You duck back down to look around in case something awful is sneaking up on you.  It is getting cold now, as well as gloomy, and a slight, chill breeze prickles your skin.  There is something unnatural about your current circumstance, and you don't like it one bit.

"He's not moving," Drest murmurs.  "Why is he not moving?"

A grey lump to your right, near the end of the compound and pressed against a shed wall, twitches.  You scowl, unsure if you actually saw what you saw.  Narrowing your eyes, as if that might help you decipher the forms in the gloom, you stare at the lump.  It seems to you that there is some writing on the wall of the shed near the lump, but you cannot make it out at this distance in this light.

"Where is everyone?" you whisper to Drest. "There should be people in a compound."

"Why isn't he moving?" Drest murmurs back, as if he didn't hear you.

You hear coughing.

"There are no lights.  Should there not be people running around trying to fix the lights, at the very least?  What about defensive positions, in case this is an attack by the enemy?  Shouldn't there be people preparing a defence?  Why are there no people?!"

"I don't like this," Drest answers.

"No," you reply.  You test the air with your nose, catching a strange, electric scent in the air.  "Do you smell that?" you ask the psionic.

Drest lowers himself and turns towards you with a frown.  He tries to test the air with his nose and frowns.  "Smell what?"

"It smells like a storm is coming, only without the rain; like lightning and darkness.

"Lightning and darkness," Drest repeats slowly.

"I don't know how else to describe it."

Just as you speak, a clap of thunder sounds overhead.  So loud was this thunder that it shakes the buildings.  The window above you rattles.

"Well timed," Drest notes dryly, offering you a small, sardonic smile.

Unable to bring yourself to smile in return, you shake your head and look around again, hoping to see some kind of life in the compound.  There is nothing.  Thunder sounds again, so loud it makes your ears ring.

"This doesn't feel natural," you tell Drest.

"Master says it's here.  But where is it?  I cannot find it.  I must!  I must find it.  I cannot disappoint Master.  Not kind, gentle, generous Master."  The voice drifts across the ground from the darkness that is now the entrance to the prison.

"We need to hide," you tell Drest, fear making your voice squeak.  "Now."

Drest does not argue with you.  You can see the fear in his face as the sky lights up with the electric blue flash of lightning.  Close on the heels of the light, the thunder rolls in.  You clap your hands over your ears as the deafening clap sounds almost directly overhead.

"In the command building," Drest says.

"With the commander who hasn't moved at all?  Are you mad?"

"There is nowhere else we can get to quickly!"

You lift yourself up and peek into the room again.  Despite the storm outside, the man in the chair has moved not an inch.  You turn back to Drest and shake your head.

"There must be another option," you hiss.

Where else would you suggest?

a) To the grey lump. Perhaps the writing on the wall will give you a clue.
b) Drest is right. The command building is the best option.
c) To the side of the prison. Perhaps you can sneak behind the approaching voice.

Voting ends 22nd September, 2016.  Good luck, Adventurers!