Renascentia - Corner Of An Eye 3D Render, Digital Artwork by RedSpartan

! REPORT

Renascentia - Corner Of An Eye

3D Render by RedSpartan

She stood there for a moment, revelling in the glory of the kill, satisfied that another mech, albeit a simplistic one, had met its maker in a suitably violent fashion. Now if she could just figure out why it was so damned important.

Then, as the seconds ticked by, she began to feel a bit self-conscious and somewhat silly. She glanced at the corpse again and silently cursed as she conjured in her min’s eye what looked more a mocking grin than a congratulatory smile.

‘You ain’t got nothing to gloat about shithead!’ She told it bluntly, then stepped off the downed machine and walked to the console.

She could swear that its screen had been glowing before, part of the faint illumination that had lit up the room. But it now it stood dark, as devoid of life as the mech behind her. She scanned around it but concluded that its power supply was internally linked to the mains. She surmised that the death of the mech may have created a localised power surge that had blown everything in the room. The LED’s had gone out too, but the regen tanks light still shone their sickly yellow glare. A separate power supply she supposed.

She glanced back at the dark, empty screen. No answers there then.

She looked about her and noticed a large arched doorway off to her right, the corridor beyond brightly lit compared to the chamber she was in. She moved cautiously toward it, suddenly shivering as a cool breeze met her. Before the gathering of information would be the need to survive she thought, which meant getting dry, finding clothes and hopefully some sustenance. She stepped beyond the arch to find another passage running horizontal to the one she’d seen. She glanced left and right but found only darkness and a foreboding sense of unease. She’d stay in the light as best she could, and hoped it would lead her somewhere more appealing.

The corridor proved to be arched in shape, its walls damaged and decayed from what she supposed must have been years of neglect. The ceiling was cracked open in places and tangled vines had found their way in and spread along the walls. Light seeped in and illuminated the smoke and dust, but, she noted, the overhead lights still glowed weakly as well. There was still power being generated somewhere in this place, and conduits and cables still managing to transfer it. The dying mechs power surge must have been pretty localised. She wondered what had damaged the walls so catastrophically, time and natures unending need to reclaim, or something more destructive.

The floor was as the Regen Chamber room had been, flooded with dirty water to a depth of about twenty centimetres, strewn with various bits of garbage, crates and the odd barrel of what she knew not what. She moved along the corridor carefully, aware that the murky water may hold hidden dangers to her bare feet. Being naked was a definite disadvantage and the sooner she found something to wear the better.

It was then, some thirty or so paces beyond the room she’d left that she felt a sudden unease. Her skin prickled with goosebumps and she span around quickly to look back the way she’d come. Had she seen someone watching her? Or something? A flickering shadow?

‘Hello’ she said, loud enough to startle herself as she realised how quiet this place was. The distant trickle of water and a soft moan of a breeze beyond the walls were the only sounds she could perceive. She stood still, waiting with a growing anxiety, listening intently for a sign someone or something was there, hiding in the darkness beyond the distant corner. No reply came, and no other sign that she had not merely imagined a presence. Yet she was convinced that she’d seen something from the corner of her eye, a figure, what had seemed to be a human shape standing against the dark of the doorway. But nothing revealed itself. After a time she let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, shaking her head slightly in frustration.

‘Seeing ghosts now you idiot?’ she whispered. She turned and continued her trek through the muck and water, still not convinced that she hadn’t seen something.

No, not convinced at all…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the story continues. Thanks for the look and the favs, as always, much appreciated