Memento Mori

The river

Vivien observes people. Men and women of different age, different race and looks. They look nervous, confused, upset, angered, but no wonder, they're all trapped in this place. She looks around and around, an endless desert, made out of the cold stone.

She keeps walking with the group, close to the Eman since she doesn't know others. She starts to walk quickly, not feeling comfortable to be on her own, having a constant fear that something might happen to her. Eman is already talking to Gabriel, it aches her since he didn't mind to leave her behind. She approaches the group of people quietly and just observes how others talk to each other. Eman glances back, he looks at her then looks in front again, times to times checking if she's alright.

"we're here" Eman makes a nod in direction of the crack, which leads to the hole in the tree.

"interesting" Gabriel observes the crack then stops "Alex, stay with others, we'll go ahead to make sure it's safe"

"ok, don't take too long" Alex glances at Eman, not trusting him. Gabriel nods then with Eman walks to the crack. They disappear inside and only after a while Gabriel walks out and waves, giving a sign.

"let's go" Alex walks in front as others follow, they don't seem very happy but keep going.

"get the weapon and things you need" says Gabriel when the group approaches. People start to search for things that might help and suit them.

"what happened here?" asks Mia as another woman whines, getting scared by skeletons, which are scattered around the place, lying immovably. A man of a slim figure and dirty blonde hair approaches one of the skeletons.

"Adrien-" says Mia upset but Adrien doesn't stop and observes skeleton before taking the sword from it.

"it seems they resorted here" he notes, looking at ashes on skeleton "ashes..." at once the ground shakes.

"wha-!" some whine, some scream as they get on the ground at the sudden gentle shaking of the ground followed by a stronger one.

"what was that!?" yells Mia after it stops.

"ashes, black stones..." Adrien looks at Gabriel "that mountain- it's probably volcano, an active one" he says quickly.

"quickly, take everything you need" Gabriel shouts and everyone start to gather everything they need then get out as fast as they can. Adrien looks in direction of the mountain, nothing unusual about it. Gabriel walks outside and starts to count people then looks at things that they took and seems satisfied.

"Adrien how badly it is?" he looks at the mountain.

"it seems normal, it seems this was only a warning"

"Alright, since we got everything we need, we'll immediately head to the wall"

"Vivien" says Eman, which walked out of the cave "Vivien?" he looks around but doesn't seem to spot her.

"where's Vivien?" he asks but no one seems to know.

"Eman we must go, now" says Gabriel.

"I saw her inside" adds Alex.

"go ahead, I'll go and get Vivien, we'll catch up to you" Eman doesn't wait for an answer and quickly walks back into the cave. He looks around but all he sees are shapes of people who aren't among living anymore.

"Vivien!" he shouts but he gets no response. He walks to the end of the cave, to the point where weak light hits the inside of it.

"Vivien?!" he shouts but gets no response. Annoyed he pulls his hair back and looks around. He notices weak glowing in the dark at the end of the cave. He doesn't like the idea but he decides to walk in its direction. He walks in the dark, at times something cracks under his feet, he grips the hilt of the sword, ready to pull it out if needed. Closer he gets to the wall of the cave, brighter the glow gets. He reaches the end and feels the wall but soon realizes there's a hole, big enough for a person to walk in. He pulls the sword out and walks inside where the green glow gets stronger. At once a big space opens in front of him, big as a hall. In the middle of it is a wide column, standing on its own, supporting the ceiling. In the centre of the column is something that glows in green light. It's overgrown with vines and moss, especially at the bottom. There close to it he notices Vivien.