The tunnel was a whisper of decay, echoing emptiness through every step the infiltration team took. Castin's eyes struggled to adjust to the near-total darkness, the dim illumination from their gear creating shifting, angular shadows along the damp, stone walls. Moisture beaded and ran slowly down in steady rivulets, pooling in the cracked stone beneath their feet.
The air hung thick and heavy, laced with the metallic tang of stagnant water and old rust. The deeper they ventured, the more oppressive the silence became, swallowing even their footsteps into a muted shuffle.
They walked in a loose formation, Matias and Kiernan leading, Castin just behind, with Lorne, Vance, and Garret pulling up the rear. No one spoke. Each was cocooned in their own thoughts, haunted by anticipation and nerves frayed raw by the silence.
Minutes stretched on endlessly, punctuated only by the rhythmic dripping echoing from unseen crevices in the ceiling. Castin felt the pressure of the silence like a physical presence, pressing in on him, compressing each breath. He adjusted his grip on his rifle, fingers flexing nervously against the cool metal.
He glanced sideways toward Lorne, noting the tightness around his friend's eyes. Lorne's expression was grim, every line etched deep with tension, lips set into a thin, wary line.
"This doesn't feel right," Lorne muttered finally, his voice barely audible but sharp enough to carry clearly through the stillness. "We haven't seen a single guard, camera, or even a damn trap. Nothing."
"Maybe they don't expect anyone to get this far," Garret ventured quietly from the back, though his tone lacked its usual bravado.
Vance shifted his grip on the shotgun, knuckles whitening. "Or maybe they want us to get close. Easier to deal with us in a closed space."
Castin considered this, the words scraping at something already raw within him. He didn't reply, not trusting himself to say anything useful. Instead, he focused his attention forward, tracking the small movements of Matias and Kiernan, who moved with practiced efficiency.
The walls around them grew tighter as they pressed forward. The air turned colder, sharper. The texture underfoot changed subtly from damp stone to rougher, uneven concrete, layered with grit and small patches of what felt like oil or grease. The ceiling dropped slightly lower, making the already narrow passage feel even more oppressive.
They had just begun to adjust to the cramped darkness when suddenly, without warning, the path stopped abruptly.
Matias slowed to a halt, a quiet grunt of frustration escaping him. Kiernan halted beside him, quickly glancing back over his shoulder. "Dead end?"
Castin moved up beside them, squinting into the darkness. From here, it seemed like the tunnel simply terminated into solid blackness, swallowing their limited vision whole.
"Can't be," Castin muttered, shaking his head. "Roe's journal was clear. This has to be it."
Kiernan sighed softly, pulling a small flashlight from his belt. "Guess we'll find out."
He thumbed the switch, and a stark, brilliant beam of light cut through the dark. Immediately, the group took a collective step back, startled by the sight that greeted them.
The wall ahead wasn't stone. It wasn't concrete. It was smooth and perfectly flat, stretching upward and outward far beyond the scope of Kiernan's narrow flashlight beam. The surface was metallic, polished to a mirror sheen that reflected their own startled faces and tense postures back at them in ghostly distortion.
"Damn…" Garret breathed softly.
Castin moved closer, placing a tentative hand against the cold metal surface. It was almost icy beneath his fingertips, vibrating faintly with a subtle, barely perceptible hum.
"What kind of metal is this?" he whispered, glancing back at the others. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Your Military-grade?" Vance guessed uncertainly.
Lorne shook his head sharply. "No. Nothing like up top. This isn't our tech, at least none I've seen."
Kiernan moved the beam slowly across the surface, illuminating more of the wall. There was no obvious mechanism, no door handle, no keypad, not even a seam visible to indicate any kind of opening.
Castin's heart quickened slightly. If this was indeed the entrance to Nikodemus's compound, it was built to withstand more than just curious explorers.
"Now what?" Matias growled quietly, frustration evident in his voice.
Castin stared into his own reflected eyes, noticing the tension drawn clearly across his features. He took a deep, steadying breath, fighting down the rising sense of unease.
"Now," he said grimly, stepping back from the wall, "we figure out how the hell to open this thing."
A tense silence settled over the group as they stood before the imposing metallic wall, each pair of eyes searching fruitlessly for some hidden mechanism or clue.
"Any ideas?" Lorne asked gruffly, frustration creeping into his voice. He stepped forward, squinting at the reflective surface as if sheer annoyance might force it open.
Castin shook his head slowly, stepping closer to inspect it again. "No handles, no control pad… Nothing that looks like a seam, either. I'm not even sure if this is meant to open."
He cautiously reached out, his fingertips hovering inches from the polished surface. His reflection stared back, distorted, uncertain.
Taking a slow breath, he let his palm connect softly with the metal. Immediately, the wall rippled beneath his touch, not like water, but something far stranger, a movement like scales shifting subtly under a creature's skin. Castin jerked back instinctively, eyes wide.
"What the hell was that?" Matias murmured, eyes narrowing sharply, his posture stiffening in response to the strange reaction.
Vance surged forward, a gleeful excitement lighting his face as he racked his shotgun loudly. "Move outta the way, Castin. It's my turn!"
Before he could raise the barrel, Garret's hand shot out, gripping the shotgun firmly and angling it toward the ground. "Not so fast, ya gun nut. Ya shoot that wall, and we'll all be fulla bullet holes."
Vance grumbled but relented, stepping back slightly while casting longing glances toward the mysterious barrier "but I wanted to shoot it…"
Matias held up a paw, silencing any further protest. "Everyone quiet," he ordered, voice steady but firm. He turned his gaze back toward Castin. "Touch it again, Castin. Carefully."
Castin hesitated, but Matias gave him a subtle nod of encouragement. Exhaling slowly, Castin stepped back toward the wall. This time, as his hand drew close, the wall began to shimmer faintly, like it anticipated him, almost eager.
His palm met the metal again, and a ripple expanded outward from where they touched, radiating like a wave through the strange scaled surface. But nothing else happened. After a few moments, the ripples subsided, and the wall snapped back to its perfectly flat, metallic sheen. Castin pulled his hand back, shaking his head in mild disbelief.
"I don't think it likes that," he muttered uneasily, stepping away.
Lorne scoffed quietly from the side, shaking his head in frustration. "The hell do you mean? It's a wall. It shouldn't 'like' anything…"
But as he spoke, something changed.
The scales shifted again, rippling smoothly as they subtly transitioned, their polished metallic sheen giving way to dull, weathered stone. Within seconds, the reflective metal disappeared, replaced by the exact appearance of the tunnel walls they'd walked through moments before. To the group, it looked as though the mysterious barrier had simply vanished entirely.
Garret let out a low whistle, impressed despite himself. "Now that's one helluva trick."
Matias frowned deeply, his eyes scanning the seemingly innocuous stone surface with suspicion. "A camouflage system. It's mimicking the tunnel, must be a fail safe."
Lorne huffed "Kinda like getting your password wrong a few times too many."
Castin moved closer again, lightly brushing his fingers across the now-rough stonelike material. Beneath his touch, he could still sense that faint, strange hum, betraying the truth of the hidden structure beneath the illusion.
"It's still there," Castin confirmed, stepping back toward the others. "It hasn't moved, just…changed."
The team drifted back from the wall, regrouping a few steps away, expressions tense. Matias set down his pack heavily, the others following suit, fatigue evident in their movements.
"Well," Kiernan began, voice heavy with weary sarcasm, "this just got a lot more interesting."
"Or complicated," Lorne added dryly.
Matias folded his arms, looking at each of them in turn. "We need options. Let's take a moment, get our heads straight, and think."
They settled into uneasy silence, each absorbed by their own frustrated contemplation. Castin sank onto a nearby stone ledge, massaging the bridge of his nose in thought. His mind spun with the strange, shifting surface, the odd reaction to his touch. Something wasn't right. Whatever Nikodemus had waiting on the other side, he clearly didn't want unexpected guests.
"So," Castin finally said, breaking the silence, "how do we convince a wall to open?"
The quiet laughter that answered him was humorless and brief, fading swiftly into thoughtful silence once more.
The tension in the tunnel deepened, the oppressive silence amplifying each second. Castin leaned against the stone wall, frustration grinding away at his nerves. They were stuck. Staring down a riddle they couldn't understand, with no clear way forward.
Matias stood with arms crossed, his brows drawn in thought. After a long pause, he spoke quietly into the uneasy silence, voice thoughtful yet wary. "You know, maybe we've been going about this the wrong way. Think about who we're dealing with. Nikodemus doesn't strike me as the kind of person to leave anything to chance. He's always had a thing, a hunger, for control."
Castin looked up sharply, eyes narrowed. Matias continued carefully, seemingly weighing each word. "Back when he was still around, the Rat King used to talk about it. Said Nikodemus always needed things done precisely his way. Maybe the solution isn't force. Maybe what we need is… permission."
The group stilled as the idea sank in, the quiet growing brittle. Castin's jaw tightened, his knuckles whitening where they gripped his rifle. A quiet, simmering anger began to rise in his voice, "Just how well did the King know him, Matias?"
Matias fell silent, averting his gaze. Castin felt his frustration boil over, pacing away from the wall and gesturing sharply. "All of the destruction, all the lives lost, all the pain… Man, you'd swear ol' Red was in love with the guy."
"Castin, that's enough," Kiernan interjected firmly, placing a steadying hand out, trying to ease the tension.
But Castin wasn't listening, the words pouring from him in a heated rush. "Really, Matias, after all the shit we've been through, you can't even answer me a simple—"
A faint tremor ran through the ground beneath their feet, cutting him off abruptly. Small pebbles scattered and jumped across the stone, followed by a low, resonant hum reverberating through the tunnel. Everyone froze, breaths caught sharply, eyes snapping toward the disguised wall.
Kiernan quickly brought up his flashlight again, the beam slicing through the gloom to reveal the stone surface shifting again, scales rippling fluidly and rapidly. The illusion dissolved away, revealing the stark, polished metallic wall once more, scales cascading upwards like a reversed waterfall of liquid metal.
A new voice spoke from behind them, clear and oddly calm amid the chaos. "Well, you don't see that every day."
They turned sharply, weapons half-raised, eyes wide. Jennifer stood casually at the edge of their lights, walking steadily toward them with a faint, enigmatic smile.
Castin barked angrily, exasperation plain in his voice. "Now you're here too? What the hell is happening anymore!"
Jennifer didn't reply, continuing her calm approach until she stood beside them. She tilted her head curiously at the wall, as if appreciating some strange work of art.
Before anyone could demand further explanation, a soft, mechanical female voice resonated clearly through the tunnel, echoing gently off the metal surface:
"Biometric match identified. Welcome back, Nikodemus."
For just a flicker of a moment, Jennifer's eyes darted toward the wall with something between awe and dread, before her smile snapped back into place like a mask sliding home.
Everyone stood stunned into silence.
The scales along the barrier surged upward more rapidly, folding smoothly away, retreating into hidden grooves. The wall parted silently, revealing an opening into a vast cavern, stretching far beyond what any of them had expected.
Ahead lay Nikodemus' compound, sprawling and starkly illuminated by lights fixed high on the cavern's vaulted ceiling. An immense central facility loomed large, dominating the expanse. Walkways and smaller structures branched away from it, forming a complex web of activity and purpose, all encased in the eerie stillness of abandonment.
Several meter tall mech suits that looked like they were meant to haul heavy objects stood in row to their right with no pilots, just another ingredient of eeriness to add to the soup they found themselves swimming in.
No one spoke, eyes wide in stunned disbelief. Finally, Vance broke the silence, a low whistle preceding his dry, comical observation:
"No, you don't see that every day."