Jessie

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  As his vision cycled through colors that normal eyes couldn’t see, Jessie felt a headache form. So far, there was nothing. Despite everything he couldn't see anything that could project Augmented Reality. There had to be something here, or where were the controls? Where was anything that this place needed to be used as a lab? Nothing about this made sense, it was like they were wrong! Jessie blinked and then his mind went over everything about this place. Everything had made them decide that this was for the making of weaponized life. He looked around, trying to see anything that might work against his thoughts.

  “Did you see anything?” Bryke asked, a note of hope in his voice.

  Jessie looked at them, and after a moment he shook his head. Best to keep his thoughts to himself, the extra caution the others had might be good. And if this wasn’t a weapons factory, then they might lose that caution. “Nothing. I think maybe they had something to allow them to see the AR signs here. I think this is just for observing the water around here.”

  “So no magic word to open the doors then? Well, nothing more than good old-fashioned elbow grease!” Zevortro said with a chuckle, moving towards the door.

  Jessie fell into step with Terra and Bryke behind him. Once at the door, Zevortro looked back at Jessie and smirked a bit. “I don’t think you have a trick to get stronger Jessie?”

  “Nope!” Jessie said with a sigh as he looked at the doors. He had tried that a few times, but he had never gotten past creating an aura around his body. That one ability would have let him handle a few of his problems so easily.

  “Then raw strength it is then! Me and Zevortro on one side, you and Bryke on the other Jessie!” Terra exclaimed as she walked to the right side of the doors.

  Jessie looked at Bryke who shrugged, a look that asked if Jessie had a better idea. With a sigh, Jessie put his hands through the gap and onto the door he nodded as the others did the same on their sides.

  “Ready everyone? Pull!” Zevortro roared moments before they all stumbled as the doors moved like they were on ice.

  As he fell and looked down a hallway that was over a hundred feet, it was all Jessie could do to keep from laughing. Finally, he lost that battle and started to chuckle. That quickly turned into full belly-breaking laughter as the others all joined in.

  After everything that had happened to them, they needed something like this. A few moments of joy to counter all the chaos and terror that they had experienced. As Jessie watched Zevortro pound the deck, he saw Terra laugh in joy.

  “I can’t believe it!” Bryke was able to gasp as he fought to get control. He laughed again before he wheezed out one final line. “I can’t believe it was that easy!”

  At that one sentence, the others all laughed as hard as when they started. The others all laid back and laughed until they looked at each other in joy.

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  Terra

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  Terra got back to her feet and looked around at the others. They were all just sitting there, letting their laughter die down.

  “You know it’s been bad when that’s the reaction to that,” Jessie said, all serious as he smiled.

  “What Mr. Hunter? You don’t think we need to let loose sometimes when we’re safe? Is that it?” Bryke asked with a smirk on his face.

  As Jessie denied that, Terra looked down the open tunnel. There were lights on the ceiling, but there was space in the darkness between each. All in all, she thought that there might be at least ten feet between each light source, maybe more. And to add to that, she could see maybe ten such small patches of light don the tunnel.

  “Not much,” Zevortro said as he joined her at the opening.

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  Terra heard the others come up behind her and she swallowed as she looked at them. She could see the unease on Jessie’s face and understood, there could be anything in the darkness. The more they tried to get to safety, the more danger they got into. And the reality of this was that they had no choice but to go into that danger to survive.

  “I’ll lead. Whoever wants to be behind me, that’s fine. Let’s make sure that we can get out of this alive. So stay alert for anything,” Jessie said as he looked at the others.

  Terra felt herself nod and then Bryke snorted. She glared at him as everyone looked at him. “What is it?”

  “Nothing. I have no reason to be a little mad about this!” Bryke bit out as he looked down the tunnel. “So four people going down a dark in the most dangerous place they could find. Yeah, I’ve heard nothing but good stories about people who do this. I am excited about this plan! I’m overjoyed to be a part of this!”

  Terra felt her face flush as Bryke gave word to everything that she was feeling. But the sad thing was, there was nothing else that they could do.

  “Does anyone have a better idea? Maybe go back up?” Jessie asked and Bryke scowled.

  “There isn’t another way to go! And if there is, it’s hidden! We’ve got no choice and I know that! I just want to say my piece so everyone will keep their ears open for anything!” Bryke said as he crossed his arms. “But let’s go. The sooner we’re at the other side, the closer we are to the next deadly place to go!”

  Jessie only nodded and then he turned and started to jog down the tunnel. Terra ran after him and then she heard the others following behind. As they ran for the first light, Terra could only hope that they weren’t all making a mistake.

  After a few minutes of running, suddenly the lights went out. As they looked around in the darkness, suddenly more lights came on from the four sides of the tunnel. Terra looked up and her breath left her mouth in shock at what was revealed.

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  Zevortro

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  He felt his mouth drop open as he stared around in shock. The walls of the tunnel and the floor were nothing but hard-view screens. All around them was an aquatic realm full of life and creatures. He stared at long fish and tall fish two feet high, and long snake-like fish that ate some of the smaller ones. The ones that weren’t carnivores were eating strange-looking plants that were blood-red. And the mobile life? They were all colors of the rainbow, and all of them seemed to be swimming like they weren't seeing the four of them. What did this mean?

  “What is this!? I mean what is this!?” Bryke exclaimed in shocked horror.

  “Is this what’s happening around us?” Terra asked in a whisper.

  Zevortro looked at her and then he looked at the view they were seeing. The most amazing thing was that they were seeing this in this chamber. One of the large fish over ten feet tall and skinny was swimming right at them!

  “OH STARS!” Bryke roared in fear as the giant fish swam right at them.

  “Back to the room! We’re closing the doors and Terra can freeze them!” Jessie ordered

  “Wait! Look there!” Terra cried out.

  Zevortro followed her finger and saw a fish that was materializing out of nowhere to their right. “Wait, what is this!?”

  They all turned to gaze at the big fish and they all saw it disappear. Then they turned their heads and saw the big fish materialize on the opposite side.

  “What the nova!? This is a viewing platform!?” Bryke exclaimed in shock.

  “Wait, is this for looking at deep-sea weapons? But why?” Terra asked, her voice almost breaking as she tried to understand this.

  Zevortro looked around, trying to figure anything out about this. If the builders of this place were able to do this? Then why wasn’t it done in a control room? Was this for people to see something with their eyes? But no, that thought died as he looked down the tunnel and saw that the view was the same for around a hundred feet.

  “What kind of weapons factory is this!?” Bryke asked, anger in his voice almost physical pain.

  Zevortro had to nod as well. If the tunnel was on the floor of this sea, okay fine. If it was buried, that was better and it might be safer. But one of their weapons mutating and developing a way to dig down here, then there was danger. And he knew of a few creatures that lived in oceans that dug dens to keep safe! And these were all weapons, the builders had to have thought about those kinds of things! But that was only if they were smart enough to do that. “Oh stars! Did these idiots not think of what could happen if their weapons broke free or mutated?”

  Zevortro looked around, seeing that Terra and Bryke had paled their eyes wide in horror. He understood what they were thinking, and he wanted to take his words back but he couldn’t. They were all in danger, and they needed to know. If they came across something, they would have to be even more careful.

  “Black hole!” Bryke said with horror in his voice. “Could those fools have been that brain dead!?”

  Zevortro only looked down and then he looked up and saw the way that Jessie’s face was set. And that was all Zevortro needed to know that there was something that Jessie knew. Something that he wasn’t saying anything, something that he might have figured out. He was keeping it from them. And that was something that Zevortro wouldn’t let stand. “Or there is something else that our master Bounty Hunter hasn’t told us just yet? There isn’t anything is there Jessie?”

  As everyone looked at him, Jessie looked away for a few moments. “It’s just a strange feeling I have. Nothing that has any evidence, just a small thought jump I had.”

  “And we both know how many times your jumps are true, so tell us!” Terra said with a scowl on her face.

  “It might not be a weapons factory after all,” Jessie said with a small frown. “It was the way the room back there was set up. And then here? It just seemed to be a bit of evidence, circumstantially really.”

  “Would you stop and just say what you think you figured out!?” Bryke said with a scowl.

  Jessie looked at them and then he sighed, shaking his head. “Okay, if I’m right, then we crashed atop the same thing that we crashed from. That means that this whole thing is the remains of a pleasure cruise ship.”

  Zevortro looked at Jessie and then his vision started to feel fuzzy.

  “Are you serious!? There is no way that we could have that happen to us!” Bryke exploded and Zevortro wanted to agree with his friend.

  But some things made Jessie's thoughts resonate within his mind. There were things made that seemed that it could be right. The forest they saw up there, could have been plants that had grown wild. And if the creatures were trained to obey orders, they might have been trained to teach their young. And the islands? That could have been to clean them, and they could have made life to do that when they were released.

  “I can’t believe this. I really can’t! What are the chances that this would happen?! And the ship is upside down?” Terra exclaimed in shock.

  “YEAH! We thought this place was upside down! Were we wrong? No, what about that room we came into, with the escape hatch? What about that?!” Bryke asked.

  Zevortro looked at his friend and then sighed. “We thought they were master of gravity. Could that have been an escape hatch? You know, in case of an emergency?”

  As Bi3 looked at him, Ze1 had one thought only. Why would a pleasure cruise ship need the kind of robots that had attacked them? That was the one question that he couldn’t figure out an answer to. And he knew somehow that one question was the most important question there was to answer.