Page 115 of Immersed
They continued forward with Maddie in the lead, utterly silent except for the occasional sniffle coming from her direction.
“Theyweregoing to slow us down anyway,”he murmured, voice pitched for Levi’s ears alone.“This might be for the best.”
“We’ll find them,”Levi insisted, though with less conviction thanheintended.
Asher’s fingertips brushed against the back of Levi’s ankle, a gesture too deliberate to be accidental.“Of course,”he agreed, the lie smooth as silk.
The distant echoes of screams interrupted any further conversation—raw, primal sounds of terror that froze them all in place. The criescame from somewhere below, in the direction Owen and Zoe fell.
“Oh God,”Maddie whispered, hands pressed against her mouth.“That’s them.”
Levi felt a sickening lurch in his stomach as the screams intensified, then cut off with chilling abruptness. The silence that followedwassomehow worse than the crieshadbeen.
“We need to go back,”Jasper insisted, already trying to turn around. “We can’t just leave them.”
“It’s too late,”Asher said flatly.“Whatever found them is already done with them.”
“You don’t know that,”Elliot snapped, shooting a glare over his shoulder at Asher, but his pale face suggested he didn’t believe his own protest.
Another tremor shook the tunnel, more violent than before. Metal groaned around them, the walls visibly contracting.
“Move!”Tyler shouted, pushing Maddie ahead of him.“This whole section is collapsing!”
They scrambled forward, abandoning any pretense of stealth or caution. The tunnelwasclosing behind them like a throat swallowing,the metal panels folding inward. Levi felt Asher’s hand at the small of his back, urging him forward with insistent pressure.
The tunnel ended abruptly at a vertical shaft with a ladder bolted to one wall. Without hesitation, they began to descend, the sounds of collapsing metal growing fainter above them. The ladder seemed to extend endlessly into darkness, their flashlight beams barely penetrating the gloom below.
When Levi’s feet finally touched solid ground, he found himself in a cavernous space filled with machinery. Massive gears interlocked, some moving, some static, while hydraulic pistons pumped with rhythmic determination. The air hummed with energy, the floor vibrating beneath their feet.
“What is this place?”Maddie asked, her voice hushed with awe and fear.
“The building’s heart,”Levi realized, taking in the intricate systems.“This is what controls the reconfiguration—all those moving walls and shifting corridors.”
Jasper approached a nearby gear assembly, examining it with grudging admiration.“This is incredible engineering. Way beyond what should have been possible when this placewasbuilt.”
“Fainewasahead of his time,”Asher said, moving to stand beside Levi.“In all the worst ways.”
They spread out cautiously, exploring the chamber while staying within sight of each other. The spacewassurprisingly well-maintained, the machinery gleaming with oil and free of dust. Whatever powered this systemwasstill operational despite the decades of abandonment above.
“Guys,”Jasper called from across the room.“I think I found something.”
Hewasstanding before what appeared to be a control panel near one of the three exits from the chamber, its surface covered with gauges, switches, and a small monitor glowing with green text. The triangular symbolwasetchedinto the metal above the display.
“What does it say?”Levi asked, joining him.
“System status normal. Reconfiguration Protocol 7 active. Guardians deployed: 3 of 5.”
“Three guardians,”Elliot repeated.“The one that chased us, and probably whatever got Owen and Zoe.”
“And one more we haven’t met yet,”Tyler added grimly.
Levi examined the control panel, noting the layout of switches and indicators. “This might be a way to control the building’s configuration,”he suggested.“If we can access the system, we might be able to create a direct path back towards the Administrative Assistant Offices.”
“Where the second key is located,”Maddie said, a hint of hope entering her voice.
“Can you access it?”Elliot asked Jasper, whowasalready experimenting with the interface.
“It’s not exactly modern tech,”Jasper replied, fingers dancing across the control surface.“But everything is labeled, so in theory…”He flipped a series of switches in quick succession, then turned a large dial to the right.“There!”
