//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Brash Instinct, Part 5 // Story: Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening // by Blue Blaze {COMET} //------------------------------// {*First Person View, Main Character*} My jaws sank deep into the depths of a juicy red apple. I deeply enjoyed the fresh taste while its liquid dribbled down my chin. I wiped it away with my sleeve before it could drop onto my shirt. Content, I suck up the remaining juice, and tilt my head up, basking in the glory that was the Ponyville apple. A few more bites and I was finished, so I threw it to the side where a growing pile of apple cores was forming. Hunger not yet satisfied, I grabbed a cheese sandwich that was on a nearby crate and dug in. Not too soon after I made amends with Rainbow bitch, my stomach reminded me just how hungry I was. It growled in the ER and it occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten since Rarity’s house, and that was several hours ago. My temporary ally was kind enough to suggest getting something to eat at the kitchen. I had to disagree, seeing as the most ponies around the place now hated me, and would probably throw food at my face rather than serve it. It took her a moment, but she had another idea. The Pegasus stated I could get a bite to eat in the cellar, where they kept all their food. I was sceptical at the idea of basement dining, but seeing as I was starving out of my wit, I agreed. She led the way down to the cellar. I stayed close behind her as we traversed the many corridors, hallways and passages throughout the building. I urged caution, just in case one of the other ponies saw me and went into a fit of rage. She understood and we checked around every corner before continuing forward. After several close calls, doors and flights of stairs we reached the bottom of the complex. The basement was just as how I imagined it to be: dank, dark, unkempt and wet. Moisture adorned the old brick walls with moss growing through the cracks of the aging surface. The ground was solid stone, much unlike the other parts of the bunker. Drips of water could he heard splashing the ground all around the room. I bet the storm’s water found its way down here and was doing a number on the moisture content in the air. Several empty shelves lay propped against the wall, each plank rotting and crooked, making the shelves unusable. Cobwebs were scattered along the sides of the room, especially on the corners and the support bars above us. I kept low to the ground, worrying about the chance that a spider might find its way into my hair if my head scrapped the low ceiling. Like everything else in the pony world, all the rooms were made pony-sized, meaning that a tall ceiling to them was a low room for me. Yes, I was scared. It wasn’t completely dark, seeing as there were dim lights lighting up some parts of the downstairs, but all the cobwebs around the room made me paranoid for spiders. I hate spiders. They are the bane of my existence, and every time I see one I run off like a little wuss, squealing and panicking. I don’t know why exactly I’m so scared of spiders, or where I got such paranoia. All I remember is that I've always been scared of spiders, ever since I was small. Maybe the reason is because it’s the size and the appearance. Spiders seem so hairy, which is very creepy for an insect. They move so fast even though their so small and could cover the distance of a room in mere seconds. They just scuttle so quickly and reach no speed to maximum velocity! It’s horrifying when you see one on the wall, sitting there and then suddenly it’s off, most of the time towards you! At least with ants they have legs close to the ground, but with spiders their legs jet out of their bodies, making watching them run a cringe-worth experience! I hate spiders! They make my skin crawl! …But I digress. Rainbow led me further from the stairs and deeper into the darkness, brave as brave could be. Me? I was shivering like a madman, with my breathing quickened and my heart pounding against my chest. I tried to be silent as possible so I didn’t give the stupid girl in front of me a single hint about my fear. We only moved a few steps forward when we reached a large metal door. Apparently, this was where the food was stored, according to a certain colourful mare. We tried opening the door, but it was locked. Rainbow put her thinking face on and said to wait here for a minute. She zoomed through the basement and up the stairs before I could object. There I stood, in the dark humid room with no company except for any creepy crawly that was wandering around. My legs told me to sit down and take a break, but at the same time my brain told me not to just in case there were spiders on the ground. Sitting down would only get me closer to them. Instead, I planted my feet closely together in one spot and kept still, not making a sound or a peep. The ambience around me was soothing, except my subconscious kept playing fake sounds in my head just to scare me. My blood pressure rose extremely, and I could feel my temples pound. It was so bad that I could hear to my own heartbeat! It was a gruelling ten minutes. Soon after that time mark Rainbow returned with a pair of keys in her mouth. I relaxed as soon as she saw me and tried to look like I wasn’t standing stiff for the past few minutes. It then occurred to me: how were keys supposed to unlock a metal door? I didn’t see any kind of keyhole on the surface, so where was she expected to put the keys? Apparently I was freaking blind, because I didn’t see the keyhole that was clearly build into the door. She put them in and turned. A blast of cool air launched from the edges of the door, blowing us in the face. It swung open to a room full of boxes and crates, which I assumed contained the food that I was looking for. Rainbow tossed me the keys, said “Knock yourself out.” and swiftly left without saying anything else. My adrenaline pumping from my fright, I stepped over the doorway and made my way inside. As soon as one foot touched the metal floor, a chill ran over me. There was a huge difference in temperature compared to the rest of the basement. It wasn’t anything terrible, but is still made me rub my arms in reflex. I took a look around the room. It was fashioned like the rest of the bunker, with completely metal walls, a metal ceiling and a metal floor. At first it was too dark to see any colour, but I spotted a peculiar switch on the wall, which I flipped. The lights turned on, and I found the walls to be painted, what else, white. What was interesting to note was that the crates and boxes has signs of frost on the edges, giving more evidence to conclude that this was more of a freezer than a cellar. But that led to even more questions. How could they make a freezer, much less sustain one if their technology is sub-par? I haven’t seen any signs of televisions, computers or electronics around Ponyville! In fact, this building seemed to be the most technically advanced in the town, which is not saying much, so how did they do it? I took a few more steps into the freezer. I had to find what I needed and get out quick, because the cold was getting to me. I started examining the box labels and moved down the wall, looking for any kind of bread, fruit or meat. Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to cook anything, but if I found some Honey Ham and two slices of bread, I would automatically get some lunch. There were all kinds of plants, vegetables, fruits and spices, but no sign of meat. I guess that would make sense, seeing as they were horses, and to more of an extent herbivores. It still disappointed me because that meant that I wouldn’t be seeing chicken for a long, long time. Skimming around the edges of the room, I noticed a floating, glowing crystal that was inches away from the wall. It shined with a soft, light-blue light, grabbing my attention and pulling me in. It was so strange, seeing such an object which would fit better in a video game. In here, it seemed so out of place, but then again, I didn’t consider the fact that Equiss was a world of magic and where black holes could appear out of nowhere. As I got near to it, the temperature lowered. I couldn’t get closer than five feet without freezing the tips of my fingers off. That crystal seemed to be the one producing all the cold for the room. Then I realized that there were many crystals on the sides of the walls, all the same shade as the other one and all causing the chilly air. But how? How could a gem emit freezing air? Was it magic? Was magic the culprit again? It seemed to make sense, even though I shouldn’t be making any conclusions based on magic, seeing as that the rules that revolve around it are random and impossible to predict with current knowledge. After searching through more food, I eventually I found a loaf of bread, some apples, cheese and milk. I took the items to the entrance, placed them on a nearby crate and stepped outside to regain any lost heat. The strange thing was that as soon as I went over the doorway, the cold disappeared and the temperature in the room went back to normal. Frost wasn’t straying from the door. It seemed like the cool air was somehow contained inside the room, regardless of the gaping hole that the door entrance left. It was very peculiar. I guessed that it was another trick of magic, since magic seemed to be able to do absolutely anything. Now here I sat, my butt planted on the metal doorway in-between the freezer and the rest of the basement. I was eating lots of apples, a few cheese sandwiches and chugging down bottles of milk. Like everything else in this world, the food was proportional, meaning that the slices of bread were smaller than usual, the pieces of cheese tiny and the apples the side of a tennis ball. I found myself making seconds, thirds and fourths after eating my first meals. It didn’t help that I was hungry like the wolf. The sandwiches could have been better with some actual meat, but I don’t mind, because the apples were absolutely delicious. It was like a piece of heaven with every bite. They seemed to have an entirely different taste than Earth’s apples. I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of apples, but I think that these 'Sweet Apple Acres' apples have the potential to change my opinion entirely. They were amazing to chow down on, and I think that I could eat a few more even on a full stomach. Sweet Apple Acres… Hmm, I swear I’ve heard that name before. Well, I only saw it on the side of the box that I got the apples from, but other than that, I just can’t exactly recall why that sounds so familiar. Suddenly, I could hear clopping down the room a ways. I craned my head back down to see a figure approaching me in the dark light of the basement. A few seconds later and it was revealed to be the brown stallion that helped heal Twilight before. The “not-doctor”. The strangely smart pony that kept me on my toes for what he knew about me that I tried to hide from him. Of course, I was surprised to see him, and also a bit ticked off that he left me all of the sudden alone with Rainbow Dash. I closed my eyes and let him come up to me. “Hello! Fancy meeting you here!” he started off, too much cheer in his tone. I opened my eyes slightly to see a big wide grin slapped across his brown muzzle. His positive attitude just oozed suspicious behaviour. "Yeah." I simply responded, biting into an apple as if he never said hello in the first place. Something was fishy about this, I could tell. What reason would there be for him to go down to this dank, old and musty basement in the first place? None. In fact, as the temporary doctor, shouldn’t he avoid dirty places like this because he would have to stay clean for his patience? I see no reason for him to be down here at all! I decided that I wanted him away from me as fast as possible. I could achieve this by acting anti-social like, with a negative tone and dismissive sentences while acting as if he was invisible. If he wanted something from me, then by gosh, he's going to have to work for it! Besides, if he was as smart as I thought he was, he's gonna have to play his cards a bit better for me to cooperate! "May I ask why, pray tell, are you down here in this dark, stuffy place?" he inquired, gesturing with his forehoof to our surroundings, which I will add was very human-like. By that I mean that it was a gesture that I would never guess a pony would do. I mean, then again, these ponies are nothing like Earth's ponies, and they have a high enough intelligence to add body language to conversation, but I can't help shake off the feeling that he wants to talk as if we were equals. As if we were both the same species, when we're not. And although that would be nice, he wouldn't do it for a specific reason, and I highly doubt that he's doing it just to be straight-up friendly. He has to want something. "I should ask you the same question." I state calmly right before tossing another apple core to the side. "A ha, but I asked first!" he pointed out. "I will answer after you answer yours." "Fine." I grumble, sporting a pout. "I got hungry and Rainbow bitch led me down here to chow down on the food of the freezer." The stallion raised an eyebrow. "I take it that you and Rainbow have made amends yet?" "We have." I answer, as a matter of fact. He looked confused. "Well then why did you just call her, that, uh, certainly inappropriate name?" "Because it's a temporary truce." I begin, grabbing a bottle of milk from behind me and popping the cap off. "As soon as Twilight's healed and we're out of this stupid mess, I'm sticking that rainbow tail of hers right up her ass!" My right fist clenched up in a ball while my eyebrows narrowed as my point was made. I clenched my teeth and barred them to prove even further how aggravated I was with her, when in truth, I gotten over it already. I was trying to discourage him from talking to me by showing my anger. Doing so might scare him and turn him away from the conversation. "Oh dear. Well, at least she showed you some food, right?" he offered as a positive. I grumbled in response before downing the cool beverage I had in my hand. "But why are you down here? I thought she would take you to the kitchen where you could at least eat in a suitable environment?" I gave him a 'are you serious?' look. "I've already pointed out to her that I'm not exactly in good standing with anyone in the bunker, and it was more likely for them to run me out of the building than serve me anything." I explained, my scowl piercing his concerned face. "Oh, well that makes sense…" he pondered, using his hoof to tap his chin. "Now answer my question." I quire, a small smirk growing on my lips. "Pa-pardon me?" he stammers, clearly not expecting the question. "I said now answer my question. What are you doing down here for?" He looked around nervously with the worst poker face I have ever seen in my life. His eyes darted around, focusing on everything in the room except me. Visible beads of sweat ran down his cheeks as he wiped his forehead with his foreleg. "We-well, I was just uh, down here to, grab some extra onions from the cellar! Yeah! That's it! Onions from the cellar!" I was almost positive that you don't store onions in a cellar. He was about to trot past me when I stuck my leg out and rested it on the doorframe, stopping his advance. "But this a freezer, not a cellar." I corrected. Once again he avoided my gaze as he searched for another lie to feed me. "Freezer, cellar, same thing! Point is, this is where they keep the onions and thus why they sent me down here. Because they ran out and they wanted me to fetch some." he finished, hopping over my little obstacle and swiftly entering the cold room. I rolled my eyes, not believing that he was still going on with this fibbing spree. "But why would they send you instead of someone else? As the temporary doctor, I would think that you would have doctoring duties to attend to?" He ignored me and pretended to look for the 'onions' that he was requested to look for. I was having none of this. He wouldn't ignore me. I needed some answers from him! I stood up, and with a frown I stepped over the doorframe and entered the freezer once again. He was browsing the large metal shelves of the ingredient he was looking for, acting all innocent and as if he was oblivious to my presence. "Hang on, answer the question! You can't just jump up and ignore me like that! I answered your question, so you-" "You know, Rainbow Dash isn't all that bad." he stated, interrupting me without turning to face me. "Wha-are you serious?" I yell, approaching him. "Ne-never mind, just answer my god-damn-" "I mean sure, she wasn’t being the BEST pony she could be, but otherwise she’s a very respectable mare with many many talents and has very many positive aspects to her." the doctor continued, pulling out a box and shuffling through its contents. "God fucking damn it, stop interrupting me and-" "And as the Element of Loyalty, she does have her pros." "FUCKING SHIT-wait what?" I begin to scream, before actually listening for a second for what he has to say. This time, he turned around. "She's the Element of Loyalty, meaning she can be pretty loyal to the other Elements sometime, especially Twilight. Probably why she was so hostile to you before." the brown horse simply explained. "Ok, now you're not making any sense! What's this 'Element of Loyalty' crap? What the heck are you talking about?" I rant, throwing my hands up in the air. "The Element of Loyalty is one of the six Elements of Harmony. Didn't Twilight tell you about this already?" he queried. "Well…” I began, thinking back to when we were in Rarity’s house. “I heard her mention it, but now that I think about it, I forgot to ask her." I respond, an awkward grin replacing the angry form of my mouth. He hummed for a second, digesting the information. "The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful magical artifacts in Equestria. Well, most ponies keep it in that regard anyway. The Elements, as they are most commonly called, is the power of positive personality traits packed into five small necklaces and one crown. The magic they can create has the ability to purify, so as such they have been used during great times of need to keep evil at bay. It has been said that the Elements are powerful enough to move the calculated mass of three planets, however that’s actually a common misconception. They can actually move five." My jaw dropped and my arms fell slack. Five planets. FIVE PLANETS??? The power to move five planets at the same time? That's insane! That's unheard of! Who would have thought that there was something that existed that could hold so much power? We haven't even been able to get that kind of power without containing it safely, not mention containing it into FIVE NECKLACES AND A CROWN. Think of what the human race could achieve with the power to move FIVE FREAKING PLANETS AT THE SAME TIME! WHAT THE FRICK! That clever son-of-a-gun smirked, obviously satisfied by my reaction. "However, to use them, one must gather both the spiritual and physical representations of the elements in the same place at the same time. From there, the being that contain the spirits have control of the magical power and can achieve virtually anything if they put their mind to it." He turned away from me, facing the glowing blue crystal that I had seen before. "This is where Rainbow Dash comes in. She is one of the spiritual representatives of the Elements. As I have stated before, she represents loyalty. In total, there are six powers in all: kindness, laughter, honesty, generosity, loyalty and magic. Gather the jewels and the right ponies for the job and you've got yourself the ingredients necessary to move worlds." Getting close to the cold crystal, he pointed right at it and continued. "The Elements contain one of these kinds of magical crystals in every one of them, each with a different colour and design to reflect the spirit that represents them." I couldn't lift my chin off the floor. It sounded like a very powerful group of objects! I blinked, got my thoughts together and found my voice to ask my next question. "So Rainbow Dash is loyalty? How the heck did that happen? Did she get chosen or something? I mean, is there some kind of process to apply? Why did she get chosen? How come-" "Whoa, hang on," he said, interrupting me yet again and gesturing me to calm down. "one question at a time! First of all, Rainbow Dash didn't apply to be an Element, it just happened. One must be destined to become an Element of Harmony, not simply sign up for it. Second, she got 'chosen' because it was foretold that she would become one of Twilight Sparkle's friends, who represents the cornerstone of the Elements, magic." My index finger found my chin as I squinted my eyes and pursed my lips. "So Twilight represents magic? Well, that makes sense, because she IS a unicorn, after all. But who are the other elements?" "All of Twilight's friends represent an element. Have you met her friends yet?" "Yeah, I have." I say, tapping my toe to get my mind going. Well, at least I’ve met everyone in her main group of friends, unless I’m missing someone because I haven’t met them yet. But otherwise, I’ve gotten myself acquainted with the other five. Now that I think about it, there are six elements, and Twilight has five friends. Six ponies, six spirits, six elements! That means… But then who?… "Ok, I think I get it." I begin. "But who represents what?" "As you know, Rainbow Dash represents loyalty and Twilight magic, but also Pinkie Pie represents laughter, Rarity represents generosity, Fluttershy represents kindness and Applejack represents honesty." he finished, looking at me for a response. I took a moment to percolate. "Yeah, now I get it. Six ponies, six elements. Bring them all together and you get something magical. But so what? Are you trying to say that because she’s an almighty piece of grand old magical power that she has the right to assault me? Because frankly, I don’t see that it does!" I point out, my anger rising again. The cold in the room was numbing, but I was too heated from my previous yelling to be affected much. "Well, you see, that's the thing." he explains, approaching me. "As loyalty, she gets somewhat hot-headed when one of her friends is in trouble, meaning that when the black hole appeared she feared for Twilight's life. When she heard that Twilight was seen approaching the bunker, her heart was lifted to see that her friend was safe. However, when she saw Twilight unconscious, she pinned the blame on you because it made sense to her exactly who the perpetrator was." Now it was all starting to come together. It made sense that as the Element of Loyalty or whatever it’s called she would go to her friend’s need. Also, she would pin the blame on me because the other two ponies on the scene were less likely to have committed the act of knocking out Twilight. Still… "What I'm trying to get at here is that Rainbow Dash, as the Element of Loyalty, has her ups and downs." he spoke. I nod, waiting for him to continue. "Because she's so loyal, she get protective of her friends, whether it constitutes her common sense or not." "And your saying is that that's why she's mad at me? Are you trying to convince me that she's not an absolute bitch, but instead a semi-bitch with some reason behind her completely insane actions?" I ask, getting a sense of why he went to the basement in the first place. "That's not all. Recently, her home town, Cloudsdale was ruined by the storm outside. As the Ponyville Weather Team captain, she was close by when the even occurred-” It was my turn to interrupt. “She was actually telling the truth about the weather control captain thing?” I exclaim. “Well, yes she was. I’m presuming that she mentioned it, but never went into any kind of depth as to what it was?” he quizzed. “Yeah.” was all I could say for it. He sighed, a sign that he was getting tired of the drawing out conversation. Unfortunately for him, I was determined to leave the room more informed that I was when I entered. “The Pegasi in this world can control the weather. As such, Equestria has a whole weather control organization so that the Pegasi can regulate and keep the weather in control. This way, they can have constant sunny days for growing season and rainy days when it gets too dry. To perform these tasks, the Equestrian Weather Station hires Pegasi to work in squads to clear out the weather. Rainbow Dash is in one of said squads, and holds a pretty big position too. As the captain of the Ponyville weather squad, she keeps everything about Ponyville in check, whether it be a cloudy day or a hot one.” he proceeds to explain. “Hmm, that makes more sense.” I comment, nodding in agreement. For somewhat reason at that moment I realized how deeply he was staring into my eyes. During this whole conversation, my gaze was darting over parts of his face, but never really focused on anything. Now that I got a good look at his pupils it occurred to me how old they looked. It was definitely strange, seeing as that you can’t really define eyes as ‘old’ without having the person with the eyes being old, but I dunno, when I looked into those eyes, they just seemed… old. That was the only way to describe it. They were old, wise and analytical. And perhaps tired. But maybe I was just seeing things. “Anyways, with her squad, she fought off the storm and tried to save the city, but failed when she was called back by Princess Celestia. I'm guessing that losing her home meant a lot to her, and she wanted to pin the blame on someone besides herself, meaning you." At first I was furious that she would do something like that in the first place, but then it occurred to me. "Besides herself? What do you mean, besides herself?" The pony closed his eyes and started walking towards the exit of the freezer. I guess he was freezing his tail off standing so close to the crystal. But then again, he wasn't shivering or expressing any signs of discomfort, so what gives? "She was the Ponyville Weather Team captain, Griffin. Being one of the closes squads to Cloudsdale, it was her responsibility to ward off the storm. But she didn't. She couldn’t. Or rather, she was ordered to fall back before she could. Because her home was devastated, she blames herself for the thousands of Pegasus ponies lost in the destruction. Well, I can’t say for sure that they were all killed in the storm, and I’m pretty sure that the princess would have ordered an evacuation for the entire city, but by now the black hole has probably swept up the survivors, and Rainbow Dash still thinks that it’s her fault. I felt my face relax. His sympathetic expression helped me strive to be slightly compassionate to her. I can understand and respect her sense of failure in her duty. As a leader, it must have been awful to have led her squad into the storm just to pull out and not finish the job. I know that when I play leader and I fail, it sucks really bad, but that’s in small junior high school events, while this… This is a huge scale, massive disaster! We’re talking about the lives of an entire city! And if Earth’s big cities are any correlation, I can only imagine the numbers of lost lives in the chaos! Jesus Christ! In addition, as the element of freaking loyalty it must have driven her nuts to ditch her home city like that. I can’t possibly imagine the inner turmoil she had to face during the moments when she received the order to retreat. Heh, now that I think about it, I bet she was tempted to ignore orders and go in anyways. But if she was the captain of the Ponyville team, she must have known some kind of weather knowledge, and thus able to do a threat check on the storm. If the storm was so terrible that it completely destroyed a city, I think that Rainbow would have been able to pick up on that and realize her life would have been wasted if she kept fighting. Jesus, it was a lose-lose situation! Leave and live just for the black hole to kill everyone, or stay and die, a suicidal action! Worst of all, there was nothing she could do to stop the storm. It just kind of happened, and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t beat the storm, she couldn’t ignore her superior’s orders and she couldn’t save the lives of ponies she probably knew from her childhood. The pony lifted his legs over the doorframe and crossed to the much warmer side of the basement, not looking back. His gaze faced the stairs, an obvious hint to where he was headed next. He was done with me, and he believes that I was done with Rainbow Dash. He believes that he made his point, and thus should hang me out to dry. He thought that he succeeded in making me think, analyze and pity Rainbow Dash's plight. And he was right. He did succeed. ... God damn. God fucking damn it. … …But… "But that still doesn't give her a good reason to go on and attack me like that!" I reason. He turned around with his brow furrowed. "Ya know, just because you failed pretty badly and just because things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to doesn't mean that you can take them out on somebody else! It doesn't mean that you can pick a target and harass and accuse and assault them! It doesn't mean that she can FREAKING TAKE HER MISTAKES OUT ON SOMEONE ELSE!" I was huffing and puffing from my little scorn spur. I could see my breath foam up in front of me due to the cold room. I was freezing. Slightly shivering. Even my legs were numb a bit. But I didn't care. I didn't care because he was trying to make his point and he made his point and it shook me up a bit, but Rainbow Dash shook me up more. Me being cold didn't affect anything. The world would still revolve if I was cold, and not a god damn living thing on this planet would care. Well, as if they do now. I was chilled to the bone, and I didn't give two shits about it. Because I was cold in more than one way. "She's only equine, Griffin." That was all he said before he headed towards the basement stairs. The image of his old, aging eyes was burned into my mind for a reason I couldn’t decipher. The clip-clop of his hooves rang out into the room with the hum of the freezers lights and the low moan of sound that was coming from the crystal. I stood in the ambiance, thinking about what I've been through, and where I've been so far. I've witnessed so much death since I've gotten here, I'm not sure what to think of it anymore. I've seen Twilight breakdown three times, and seen myself break down multiple times. I think that because I was here, on this planet, in this universe, everything was falling apart. I could surely tell that things were definitely not normal for this place. I bet that without all the rain and thunder and destruction that Equiss would have been a very beautiful place. A place that had life, and lived underneath its own heat. Its own sun, with two goddesses to watch over the land. It used to be a lively planet with ponies frolicking about, doing their own business and enjoying life. That was all before I got here. But it isn't my fault! … … …Is it? I grit my teeth and ground them beneath my jaw. This was too much to think about. Too much for a teenaged boy to handle. I tried to ignore my sub-concious's ramblings and listen to the outside world. The stallion just reached the stairs as it groaned and creaked underneath its weight. Drops of water dripped from the wooden bars onto the stone floor below. There was a soft hissing sound coming from deep inside the freezer, invisible unless you really listened. The metal of the structure groaned and shrieked above me. The wooden pillars that made the foundation of the bunker seemed to buckle under some kind of weight. The air pressure popped in my ears as a rush of air swept through the downstairs. Gravity seemed to be lighter, and- Oh god. Ohhhh god. Oh lordy lordy lordy lordy lord. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that I've been through this before. This chain of events, this change of atmosphere seems all too familiar. But could it be? I mean, I'm in the basement, so it's hard to tell, but at the same time… It couldn't be. It's too soon! And this place is so well fortified, so why would it happen now instead of just happening before? What is different now that could cause this to happen at this point in time? Oh god, please don't tell me… I don't want to believe it… It can't be. Suddenly, water burst from the cracks of the walls, tearing down the old bricks that used to make up this place. It surged onto the floor, quickly filling up the room with liquid. The water was absolutely dirty, brown in colour from the dirt and dust it had collected. I wouldn't say it was sewage, but that water had definitely been seeped from the earth. It was pouring into the room. In a panic, I jumped up, shouted "Oh shit!" and started sprinting to the doctor's location. He was currently standing on the stairs, bewildered as to the situation beneath him. I took a great leap over the freezer door and started running through the gigantic puddle, with the water splashing everywhere I was stepping. The room wasn't nearly filled enough to be dangerous, but it was filling, and water already covered much of the ground, so I had to hurry. Besides, if my theory was correct, then we were in a whole lot of trouble.