The Crawford's Multiverse of Madness

Chapter 8 - Be A Hero, Save A Life

"Hey. You okay?" Spencer asked Alice seeing her shiver a bit from the cold.

Zeel noted that Spencer was like a hawk, carefully watching Alice until she showed a kink in her stoic armor.

Spencer proceeded to offer his jacket to keep warm her up, but Zeel immediately intervened in the conversation.

Alice, at this point, had grown increasingly annoyed by Zeel's possessive actions but she also noticed that he held himself back a fair deal – almost as if Zeel had little experience with controlling his impulses.

"Here," Zeel said taking a cuff located on his bicep.

Alice looked confused, staring at Zeel with a deadpan gaze "I'm fine!"

'What could a cuff do anyway?' She thought internally.

"Come on," Zeel said understanding her lack of interest due to her primitive mind.

Zeel pulled Alice toward himself, with his strength she could not refuse.

"It has an internal temperature modulating system to keep the body temperature within tolerable limits," Zeel explained briefly.

While he didn't feel cold, the nanites inside his body required a perfect temperature sensitivity to awaken at optimal capacity.

While Zeel and Alice were getting along for the first time, Spencer jumped into the conversation, though he did it from the opposite side of Alice, careful to avoid Zeel's piercing eyes.

"Do you remember anything?" Spencer asked while staring intently at Alice.

"No. Nothing before the train." She replied.

"And you?" Alice asked.

"No. Nothing," Spencer replied.

As a savior should, Kaplan interrupted everyone's conversation "I found an alternate route, but it's gonna cost us time. We double back, cut through Dining Hall B... then we're right on track,"

"We're behind schedule. So let's move it. Come on," James said leading everyone away.

Had they stayed a bit longer, they'd be able to see the drowned lady open her eyes, which would give them all a scare.

Zeel was able to catch the scene from the corner of his eyes but thought nothing of it.

Zeel thought it was the current Universe's Primary Biological Weaponry. Besides, such weak Zombies was no threat to his life, and why would he care about the life of anyone there?

A few twists and turns later, the group now stood in front of what seemed to be a floor reminiscent of every horror movie ever watched since childhood.

The eerie atmosphere of the floor was like saying 'Please come in to die!'

"Where I am from, they said never go to such places. My mother is Eutopian-African so I'm part black. My father said we die first in such places," Zeel said recounting the lessons from his childhood, not aware that everything he said made it that much more difficult for James to give an order to explore the supposed 'Dining Hall'.

Zeel didn't know that his statement would somewhat sensitive in the current era. Where he came from, everyone no longer segregated based on skin color, religious belief, or any other primitive concept.

"Dining Hall B," Kaplan said looking a bit confused by what he was currently seeing "That's what it says on the map,"

"Maybe you're reading it wrong," James commented also a bit peeved.

"Maybe the corporation's keeping a few secrets down here. Something you're not supposed to see," Matt spoke for the first time since entering The Hive.