Day 70: Bus 2

[gald_digger]

As usual, night had ended too damn early. Anise really wanted to see what was at the end of that tunnel! But on the bright side, it sounded like she and her friends could get back there easily.

Actually, maybe it was a good thing that they got interrupted when they did. Today was a field trip day; it'd give them a chance to stock up on any tools or supplies they might need for their venture into the unknown. Anise just hoped the Head Doctor wasn't going to interfere with them going back, now that they were so close...

The outfit selected for Anise that day was a little colorless for her tastes, but the style was cute enough to satisfy her. There was a long, striped sweater with a hood. Two long flaps dangled down from the hood, resembling the floppy ears of a rappig. She fidgeted with them as she was led aboard one of the buses. It looked like she was the first on this bus, so she went ahead and sat down in a window seat.

With little else to do at the moment, she took the blueberry muffin from her paper bag and started breaking off tiny bits with her fingers to eat.

[Free!]

Comments

[his_legacy]

"I'm in a group with a few other patients. We've been travelling into the basement these past couple of nights." And it had certainly been an interesting ride thus far.

"Have you been holding up well?"

[armoredsoul]

Al raised his eyebrows. "There's a basement? I don't remember hearing about that."

He grinned and shrugged. "As well as you could expect, I guess. My first night I was caught by some sort of ghost thing that haunted my brother, myself, and someone we met that night through the next day." He grimaced at that. "Then last night I met up with some people from my world that are here too, and we went looking for the third floor the head doctor had talked about. Didn't get too far with that, but we did find plenty of supplies to make weapons with."

[his_legacy]

Ah, so he had yet to hear about the basement. Link nodded.

"Yes, apparently there are secrets to be found down there. The exact nature of them... I'm not sure if anybody actually knows." He paused, listening.

"There are others from your home as well? That's interesting..."

[armoredsoul]

"Hmm. It might be worth it for us to go looking down there too, then." Al frowned as he pondered that. "What have you found so far?"

He nodded. "Aside from my brother, there's two other people here--though they had both been dead before." He frowned then. "They both remember dying, but then woke up here."

[his_legacy]

"The entrance is located in the back of the kitchens. There is a giant cold room... called a refrigerator, or something of that sort. There is a secret entrance in the floor tiles. I would advise you be careful, though- there was a great firebreathing beast in the kitchen when we entered." He frowned. The cursed thing had been extremely resilient.

"Upon entering, there is a great, round room that seems to serve as a central area of sorts, with many hallways branching off."

He looked up at Alphonse, shocked upon the mention of the dead being risen.

"Nobody can raise the dead..." That was within the realm of the gods! The only way it could ever conceivably happen would be if somebody wished upon the completed Triforce of legend, which he knew was impossible! The mark still rested on the back of his hand. Alphonse seemed like a trustworthy young man, yes, but Link wasn't so sure he believed him in this.

[armoredsoul]

Al nods along, making careful mental notes of what Link says. "A fire-breathing beast? That's going to be difficult--how fast is it?"

Alphonse shook his head. "I know, it sounds impossible, but it's the truth of it. I know exactly when and how both of them died, and it wasn't long before I'd woken up here--though both of them have been here a lot longer than that."

He sighed, leaning back into the seat and pulling out his granola bar. "Maybe they were brought here just before they truly died, and the doctors here revived them somehow--if they could get my body back from the Gate, then brinking someone back from the brink of death might not be so difficult for them."

[his_legacy]

"Fast, for a creature its size." He continued listening, resting his forehead in his hand. He had heard of time being warped and manipulated, but this was something beyond the ancient technology he was aware of. Timeshift Stones were thought to be long gone, and how could they possibly cause something like this?

Then there was the simple matter that these people supposedly remembered their deaths. If Alphonse's account and their accounts were exactly the same, how could it be argued?

He didn't even ask about this supposed Gate.

"I can't believe it... I don't even know if we should be calling it technology or magic."

[armoredsoul]

"Maybe it's both, or simply something that's so far ahead of both our times we can't even comprehend it." Al grimaced and chewed down a bite of his bar. "But...even given the circumstances, I'm glad they have a chance at life again. Scar especially; his life has been so full of pain, but he has a chance now to find at least a little happiness here."

He shook his head then, with a self-conscious grin. "It's weird to think that what our captors have done can wind up being good for some of us, though."

[his_legacy]

Link almost stood up out of his chair- a terrible idea, given that the people mover was currently moving.

"He's alive?!" He whipped his head around to the back of the bus, noticing the tall, imposing fellow sitting several seats behind him.

"I just saw him... A few nights ago... He was dead! Goddesses, I told people he was dead!!" People he didn't know! They had clearly been very upset, though... Did they know he was okay?

[armoredsoul]

Al jumped when Link spun around, blinking wide-eyed at him in confusion. "I--he told me he'd woken up in the morgue the night before last after he was attacked. So...really, I guess you weren't actually lying?"

[his_legacy]

"You were saying he was resurrected twice?" Link turned back around, staring at the seat in front of him. At least he now knew that he wasn't completely insane. And hopefully whoever it was whose day he'd ruined would notice.

"This place is insane."

[armoredsoul]

"No kidding," Al said, grimacing and shaking his head. "Do you know who you told? Because if it was Lust, she already knows he's back. She was with us last night."

[his_legacy]

Link perked up, nodding. That had been the name on the original post! It was an easy one to remember, if... very strange.

"Yes! Okay... Good. I believe there was one other person... Perhaps I should track her down. Do you know anybody by the name of Tsubaki?"

[armoredsoul]

He nodded at Link's relief, but then frowned a bit and shook his head. "No, that name isn't familiar."

[his_legacy]

Link deflated a bit.

"Okay. Thank you for your help, though. I must say, I feel better knowing that one less person has truly died."

The only remaining matter was the question of how in the world had they done it? There were a scant few places in the history of Hyrule where people had been able to cross dimensions like they did when entering the Institute. Link could at least accept the reality of the possibility. But to raise somebody from the dead? It was preposterous.

[armoredsoul]

Alphonse nodded. "It's no problem. We need to all work together here, you know?"

The thought of the dead coming beck--truly coming back--wasn't an easier thought for Alphonse either. The implications were not ones he cared to contemplate, and left him wondering what other assumed laws of nature they had been able to shatter.

[his_legacy]

Link nodded as well, watching outside the window. He was silent for a moment before speaking, almost embarrassed.

"Have... you seen a machine like this before?" It was like an enormous metal wagon without horses. Perhaps it ran on that elektrisitee stuff that Alphonse had mentioned before. It certainly moved much faster than a horsedrawn buggy could.

[armoredsoul]

Al nodded. "Yeah, though not one this big before. Well, I guess some of the military's trucks came close, but those weren't designed to hold passengers like this."

[his_legacy]

"I see..." It was strange, the vibrations at his feet, the way the world flew past them.

"We have nothing like this in my home, if that wasn't already obvious."

[armoredsoul]

Al chuckled. "I kind of figured. What is your world like, by the way? I don't think I ever asked before."

[his_legacy]

"Nothing like this one, that is for certain..." Link said with a slightly laugh. It was difficult to describe his own world. It was his home. He took the simplicities of it for granted, the ways of life.

"I suppose the technology isn't nearly what it is, here. We use fire for light, not electricity." Once again, he had to sound out the word. "And we travel on foot or on horseback."

[armoredsoul]

"Sounds like how it is out in the country back home," Al said with a smile. "The only thing really linking my hometown to the bigger world is a train line that goes past us, and that's only there because we produce a lot of wool from the sheep herds!"

[his_legacy]

"Train?" Link tipped his head questioningly. He had never heard of such a devise. Sheeps, though, he knew. Ordon was known for its goats, predominantly, but the two were similar enough.

[armoredsoul]

"Trains are a kind of locomotive, the same as this bus," Al explained, "but instead of being able to drive around freely on a road, their wheels are designed to run on tracks that are laid out across the land you're traveling over. They're split up into different vehicles, technically, with the front one being the engine that pulls the rest. Sort of like a wagon train, but able to go much faster and pull a lot more weight."

[his_legacy]

Link wasn't even going to try to remember the word 'locomotive.'

"I see..." Sort of. He felt very foolish in a place like this, coming from Hyrule where people traveled in covered wagons and on foot. The idea of an 'engine' wasn't even a distant thought.