Chapter 1
“Are you ok?” He called, hearing his voice echo through the cave that had just reopened thanks to his friend’s weight. Hearing the wind enter the cave created a slight sound barrier, and the echos of the small rocks and pebbles fell one after another, hoping to listen to his friend’s voice call back even after the scream and thump of him hitting the ground. His hands shake, grabbing the hole’s edge tensely hoping it doesn’t cave in on his weight.
After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, his friend finally calls back in a pained voice, “Yeah, I landed on my wrist though.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “Hey Ei, get down here.” His friend’s voice was partly panicked.
Unsure if he should listen, he looks back into the forest that surrounded them, feeling the sun beaming onto him through the tree leaves above. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves as he sat with his legs propped into the cave entrance, dangling his legs. He mentally says his last goodbye to the forest above before pushing against the dirt and sliding down the tunnel below. His mind was racing, adrenaline spiking, falling into the cave that thankfully wasn’t too deep. His feet made contact with the ground first, firmly feeling the rock that had eroded over time to create this tunnel hidden from society for so many years.
It was dark, his hands scraped a bit from sliding down against the rock. He claps his hands together, getting as much dirt off as possible before placing his hands on his knees to get to his feet. He quickly pushes his hair out of his face before calling, “Storm?”
“Here!” His friend calls from the right, his eyes still adjusting and using the sound of where his friend’s voice came from. He walks slowly, taking one step at a time with his left hand out just in case he doesn’t hit a wall by accident. Before he knew it, his foot pushed against something on the ground, tripping him as he fell forward. His hands make contact with something that wasn’t as hard as a rock, his first thought was some sort of animal. Gaining goosebumps and the spike of fear that followed, he jumps back until his friend’s late reaction comes, “Ow.”
Eisuke mentally smacked himself, he tripped over Storm. Feeling defeated, he falls back, laying against the dirt and rock not caring about the small rock now poking at his side like a needle.
Eisuke could see a bit more now, the small amount of light from the tunnel’s exit/entrance was emitting just enough light for him to see Storm thankfully. Storm was holding his left wrist tightly while sitting against a wall, his hair had been messed up and he was covered in soot and dirt.
Great, Eisuke thought. Rolling his eyes at his stupidity for following Storm’s words. Thinking about all the better ways to get him out of here instead of them both being stuck. He trails his hands down to his phone in his back pocket, watching the phone light up and seeing SOS in the corner of his screen only solidified this was a stupid idea. He holds down the flashlight button on his Lock Screen before pointing to Storm who flinched at the light entering his eyes.
“Get that shit out of my face, dude,” he shifted his face right, closed his left eye closest to Eisuke, and held up his uninjured hand to block out as much light as possible.
“Why did you call me down here,” Not moving the light, he felt anger begin to boil to the surface.
“There’s something down here,” Storm began, his voice full of confidence yet still unsure how he knows himself almost, “It’s like something calling to me. Like the dreams I had.”
Eisuke lowered the flashlight and raised an eyebrow, “your dreams? You mean like the one where you were modeling on the runway in your underwear in front of Britney Spears?”
A rock came flying to Eisukes face, missed by a few inches to the left, and disappeared behind. It made a thud somewhere in the dark.
Storm’s voice came out a bit more agitated, “Help me up already.”
Eisuke stood up, cleaning himself off as best as he could by patting and swiping off the dirt and soot from his shoulders to his knees before walking over and holding out his hand in front of Storm. With his good hand, he hoists himself up. Storm began to move almost instantly after standing up, not caring to fix his messed-up hair before. Holding the phone up and following Storm, Eisuke couldn’t believe he was indulging in this.
His eyes wandered as they walked, watching the cave patterns and different carvings the cave had created over the years. He could hear the different insects that lived down here moving through every so often, the rocks falling and moving as they walked and vibrated the area. Storm, on the other hand, had his eyes set forward almost like he was in a trance.
The silence between them was dawning, both seemed to have their resolves of why they weren’t talking to each other, or so Eisuke thought. Until Storm stopped abruptly. Eisuke was one step ahead now, turning back to see why his friend had suddenly stopped. Storm’s eyes were looking up, wide open, mouth agape. Slowly moving his own eyes to see what Storm was staring at, his face followed suit.
A large robot-like creature sat in front of them, it was fully submerged in the dirt beside the head. It had large blue eyes and, a metallic face that looked almost humanoid to an extent. Its head was pretty smooth besides the blue eyes, metal melted together to create a line between the upper and lower part of the face, and two antennas stood up from the sides where the ears would be, painted a blue color that matched the eyes. The eyes began to flicker before glowing bright blue.
Eisuke took a step back, his hands shaking and sweating from this giant robot that could potentially cave in the entire area. Storm seemed unbothered, standing strong now. His hand still grasping his now swollen wrist, but kept his eyes on the robot.
“Pilot found,” a female robot voice echoed from the robot, filling the entire cave. A loud mechanical sound came from the robot as if gears were turning and different parts were unlatching from one another, old metal parts scraping against each other as the two pieces of metal on the face began to split apart. Just a few inches below the eyes, almost like a mouth that was from ear to ear, slowly began to lower. It was almost frightening to see the gears and bolts moving within the mouth of the robot but had a path that had glowing red lights, similar to an emergency exit, as if asking to be entered.
“Storm, I think we should-“ Before Eisuke could finish his sentence, Storm moved. Walking to the mouth of the robot and enters, lowering his head and bending his knees to enter the already low ceiling. Eisuke watched as he disappeared into the robot. The mouth closed behind him, fully taken by the robot.
“Storm!” Eisuke called, unsure of what to do. A couple minutes pass, watching this robot do nothing as Eisuke stands there hoping his friend is ok while trying to conquer his fear.
Then the ground began to shake, his eyes darting as if a large earthquake decided to hit just this spot. Rocks began jumping and the walls felt as though they were caving in; dirt, soot, and dust were falling from every which way. Eisuke called out to Storm once more, trying to keep his balance before the ground below him began to crack. Panic set in, he tried to turn and run before he fell deeper but his foot tripped over the crack that formed only moments before, Eisuke falling forward once more.
His eyes closed, hands out, hoping to at least catch himself before falling to his death if he can prevent that. Or maybe he will just die of everything caving in on him because he followed his dumbass friend decided to follow his gut, again.
His life flashed before his eyes, and a face and a voice came to mind, wishing he could see her one last time.
He landed not too long after on a large surface that felt like a large pair of gloves. Eisuke opened his eyes, looking at the gray fabric he had fallen on. Slowly looking up, he saw the robot looking down at him, his eyes moving along the face down to the now-revealed shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands that he realized he was now on top of.
The sound of the movement of the robot picked up as the hands slowly created a ball around him as if he were a bug the robots didn’t want to escape. The cave began to shake again, now in the dark with the little light seeping through the hands of the robot, Eisuke closed his eyes once more hoping everything would be ok.
