The Crystalized Heart

Chapter 3: Split

Maritess and Paul were fleeing through the forest from a swarm of bats when they came upon an abandoned structure, which they entered to evade the bats. When they walked in, they sat down quickly to regain their breath from running. 'Is everyone okay?' When Maritess inquired, Paul looked around tiredly and stated, 'I believe we lost Dylan on our way here.' Maritess became concerned and urged Paul, 'We need to go back, we need to locate Dylan,' Paul replied. 'I don't believe we can,' they said, looking out the shuttered windows from the entrance they came in by, where they could still hear the rumbling of the bats shrieking and pouring through the wall. 'I guess we'll have to stay a long,' Paul remarked as they glanced about the structure, 'I hope Dylan is all OK; we can't go without him,' Maritess replied. 'I guess I'll look around and remain here,' she said. 'I'm coming with you because I don't want to be alone down here,' Paul said to Maritess.

Meanwhile, Dylan was abandoned in the midst of the forest, which was dark and gloomy. He left the location where he saw the girl and went in search of his buddies. He couldn't call them out since he was afraid of attracting a dangerous wild animal if he yelled for them, so he stayed quiet while figuring out where his buddies had gone. He was lost, and all he could see were woods. He was strolling through the forest when he came across a field of dead trees. He believed a plant could never grow in a situation like this since the ground was bald, just had soil and was rough, and appeared to be all rock hard dry. Dylan was going through the field when he abruptly fell into this enormous ditch, tumbling down the cliff and slamming himself on the ground. He was in a lot of agony and had a lot of bruises from striking the hard ground. 'Argh! 'My leg hurts,' he told himself, and as he stood up, he noticed his right arm was suffering from the discomfort. As he walks through the bottom of this ditch, he grips his arm. He was gazing about when he saw a large hole in the rock wall, and as he looked through it, he realized that it had the shape of a human all the way down. Dylan pondered and glanced behind him, terrified when he saw the opposing rock wall, which also had a hole in the shape of a human, but it wasn't just one, it had hundreds or so. He was terrified and shivering, and he reasoned that it may all be a coincidence, supposing that it was a rock formation that caused it to take this shape. Suddenly, the earth began to shake, he slipped, and a big boulder landed on his head, knocking him unconscious. He was lying on the ground when all of a sudden everything went black.

Maritess and Paul were back on the abandoned building, gazing about through a dark passage with their flashlights guiding them. The hall had different twists from left to right, different doors and damaged windows on the walls, corners coated with cob webs, and the power wasn't functioning. 'This area is a little strange,' Marissa said to Paul, as Paul was shooting everything they found intriguing with his camera. 'I know, but what about Dylan?' he inquired. 'I'm concerned as well; I hope he's well; we'll seek for him when we find another way out of this building,' she responded, 'Plus, if we go back through the entrance, the bats will follow us again,' she said. As they walked through each dark passage, the two were increasingly concerned about Dylan's location, but as planned, they needed to locate another escape first before looking for Dylan. Suddenly, Paul was halted by a door that had been slightly opened, He became intrigued by the function of this structure in the middle of the jungle. 'Mari, look,' he said quietly, 'We should check this out,' he added, 'Paul, we don't have time for that,' Maritess said, 'But wait, aren't you wondering?,' he questioned, 'Wondering about what?' she replied, 'This place!' We might find out what this spooky old abandoned structure is doing in the middle of the forest here,' he stated, 'OK, but we have to hurry,' she said. As planned, the two searched in this room; Paul unlocked the door, which creaked as it turned; it was pitch black inside, so he held his flashlight up to the room and saw a table in the center; they entered the room with care, going slowly and looked about. 'As you can see, it's rather eerie in this old abandoned structure, and we have no idea where we are in the forest...' While Paul was busy recording everything, Maritess was examining the room. She walked by the table and noticed so many papers thrown on it, it was extremely dusty, so she grabbed one page and blew so the dust wouldn't hinder her reading. It said;

"The LumberJack Corporation, September 21, 2000, Project Resource Collection and Extraction, The forest of Cheshma Town shall be the venue of the next source of resources to supply in the industry, the forest is declared to be the most rich in all aspects of nature and has the majority population of the ecosystem given its large hectares of land, When the area has been taken by loggers, it has been determined to start producing rocks and minerals. The project must be completed as soon as possible in order to minimize exploitation of the Corporation and the partner Company Friend..." 

Marissa was perplexed and told Paul, 'Hey Paul, have a look at this,' handing him the paper, which he read. 'Wait, I haven't heard of this,' Paul remarked, 'why does it reference a Company friend?' she said, 'That's precisely what I've been thinking about.' The two continued their investigation of the room for clues and answers, but were halted by an abrupt shutting of the door. 'Wait, what was that?' Maritess anxiously muttered to Paul, then Paul moved towards the door and peered through the slit, then rushed to Maritess without making a sound and whispered to Maritess, 'Hide, there's someone with us in the building.' They both knelt, hid beneath the table, and switched off their flashlights. Footsteps can be heard reverberating from every corner, and they can also hear a garbled voice. 'Do you think it's Dylan?' 'He may have followed us and got up here as well,' Maritess said to Paul, shaking his head and whispering, 'It's not Dylan, it's a different guy.' Maritess clutches Paul's arm and closes her mouth. The footsteps grew closer and closer till they saw the person pass by their room door, and they heard 'The station is clear other than those flying pests straying beyond this infrastructure...' until the voice faded away. 'It appears the person wandered off the hallways,' Paul remarked quietly. Maritess took her hand away and said, 'You think so?' What's the big deal? Do you think we should go after him? 'Huh?' she replied sarcastically, 'Exactly,' Paul agreed and slowly exited the room, 'Hey wait, that's not...darn it,' Maritess muttered. The two followed the person and discovered that it was a "woman." They followed her through the corridors, and while they were creeping behind her, they tried not to make a sound until she brought them to this closed door with a scanner on it. 'Woah, I need to catch this on film,' Paul said to Maritess, pulling out his camera and starting to shoot as the individual entered but swiftly shut the door. 'Darn it, we lost her,' Maritess murmured. 'But I got everything on video,' Paul joyfully murmured. They saw the pattern when they reviewed the video, so they walked to the door and replicated it. The door opened and they entered; the halls now had a new pattern and were bringing them below; it appeared to be a subterranean building as well. The two thought that this was a hidden area of the structure, but they were curious about who this stranger was. As they pursued the individual, they discovered several undiscovered technologies that differed from the technology above the building's subterranean level. Finally, the individual came to a halt in this room with a large gigantic flat screen display, stepped on a platform, which activated the entire area and turned on its lights, The two retreated and listened; they peered and noticed a mystery person on the television; they determined that she was a lady with an unfamiliar fashion sense. 'How is the organic base doing?' said the lady on television. 'It appears that the base has been undermined by its lack of progress and has been infested with vermin,' the individual responded, As they were conversing Paul attempted to capture the moment, but while he was positioning his camera, he dropped it abruptly. The individual was shocked and noticed them; the two dashed for the exit, but the guy pursued them. 'Maritess run!,' Paul yelled, 'I am you dimwit!' Maritess sobbed. They dashed down the corridors back to the main floor, stopping at the entrance they had used to enter the building. The two were stunned by what they saw outdoors when they were stopped by this two large yellow people hugging each other.