[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/vcyTlTu.png[/img][/center][center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center] [hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔻: 𝔻𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℍ𝕒𝕝𝕝 / / ~𝟙𝟚𝟝𝟘[/color][/center][hr] Guards walked up to him almost immediately after Sander had exited the dining hall and Christmas felt another shot of anxiety hit just as the previous stomach pains finally receded. Double whammy. His breathing ran ragged with nerves and fear, but beyond shaking visibly he didn’t protest when they hauled him out of his chair and grouped him with an unfamiliar girl. The forced walk to the security outpost was mostly silent, affording him some time to consider every single way he was about to die. Had he done something wrong? Maybe they would kill him because he hadn’t cooperated with the doctors. But wouldn’t it make more sense for them to keep him alive and locked…up… [i][color=8493ca]Please no. Please, please no.[/color][/i] He turned to look at the girl accompanying him, gentle face and mischievous eyes betraying no hint of fear. Maybe she didn’t know where they were going either? Or maybe she did and didn’t care? Christmas couldn’t bring himself to ask in the guards’ presence and settled on picking at the loose bandages on his right hand again. He had never been the type to test the waters in situations like these—or in general. [i][color=8493ca]I don’t want to be locked up.[/color][/i] A worry he didn’t dare voice. And one that was quickly put to rest when Daisy explained the game to him. It only vaguely made sense because he wasn’t paying attention through the sudden relief. When she let up on talking to watch the screens and repeatedly check her phone, he stared at some of the displays closest to the ground, watching the movements of various students going to and fro from various buildings, or talking with each other in lounges with lidded cups in hand. A couple sat in a study lounge with their heads together, faces hidden in the camera’s high angle. The girl’s wavy, brown locks draped over her boyfriend’s right shoulder, her hand clasped in his while he caressed it with a thumb. They seemed to be enjoying the silence of each other’s company, though from the bird’s eye view, Christmas couldn’t quite be sure they weren’t talking. Just that they were still. Calm. Peaceful. [i][color=8493ca]I miss that.[/color][/i] What aspect, though, he wouldn’t identify. He let that train of thought continue without him, watching instead another batch of screens displaying a curiously demolished city. Where was that? The map he had tried so hard to remember before only drew itself vaguely in his mind, with the dining hall and dorm building the only locations he could place. But even then he knew there hadn’t been any location like “ruined city” or “ravaged borough” marked on the map. [hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 ℤ𝕖𝕣𝕠 / / ~𝟙𝟞𝟚𝟘[/color][/center][hr] The various screens kept him busy and staring long enough that by the time he realized he had been mentally gone for several hours, the sky on several of the cameras was already starting to lose its daylight colors. He would have been surprised if he wasn’t already used to that. Staring at screens had always helped him tuck his mind away into daydreams and wishful thoughts—a habit he had developed to dull the boredom and solitude of being “grounded.” Now it had ascended to a mental reflex, and Christmas wondered if one day he’d run off in his own dreams and never bother coming back. Tempting and terrifying all at once. The sudden movement of the guards pulled him back completely and Christmas managed a few vacant blinks as they took him and the other girl out of the room, escorting them towards that broken metropolis he had seen on the screens. Even as they approached, the jarring presence of a jagged sidewalk edge suddenly appearing beneath his feet where barren, broken dirt had been before was nothing short of surreal. For a second, he wondered if he was still daydreaming, but the nudge of a rifle barrel confirmed this was very much reality—or something like it. It was just a game, right? But that reassurance didn’t help his renewed fear when they separated him and the blonde-haired girl ([i][color=8493ca]…I didn’t ask her name,[/color][/i] he finally realized) and dragged him towards an open manhole, its cover nowhere to be found. [color=8493ca]”Wh—”[/color] his shock translated into that single noise as they gestured at the wide iron rungs protruding from the smooth concrete of the sewer entrance’s shaft. [color=f7976a]“Down,”[/color] was the order and he only hesitated a second before obeying. The rungs were spaced just far enough apart that he fumbled with his feet nearly every other step, occasionally almost losing his footing. Well before he reached the bottom, the overwhelming odor of rot, feces, and stagnant water wracked his lungs with coughs in an attempt to expel the foul air and stung his nose until tears welled up. He remained still on the step irons for a while, trying to stop his body from retching. The air was already chilly in September, but even at the halfway point down, the further decrease in temperature covered his skin in goosebumps. [color=f7976a]”Move!”[/color] the guard above him shouted, voice echoing around them. He moved, breathing as little as possible with every step downwards and clutching the step irons even harder in an attempt to quell the shivering. The stench and chill only got worse and by the time he reached the bottom Christmas was ready to throw up his lunch and curl up in a corner for whatever measly warmth his body could provide. The manhole shaft had lowered him onto a narrow walkway (and not directly into sewage, luckily) that seemed to span the length of the large sewer pipe, but his nausea forced him to the ground for a short while, one hand against his mouth while the other braced against the floor. Compromising in some small regard, the soldier gave him a few minutes to recover while checking his phone before pulling a small flashlight out from one of the uniform’s many pockets. Before long, though, Christmas was forced to move again, following behind the only source of light other than the dim column of evening sunlight petering down from the open manhole. His shaking hands patted the clammy cement wall for stability, small pangs of pain from his right palm completely overwhelmed by the drastic change in environment. [hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 ℤ𝕖𝕣𝕠: 𝕊𝕖𝕨𝕖𝕣 / / ~𝟙𝟞𝟜𝟘[/color][/center][hr] The guard’s flashlight was quite strong for its size, and in its bright beam he could make out the water-stained, circular walls and dark liquid several feet lower than the walkway. Shadows of service platforms and smaller, parallel piping on the walls and ceiling darted between short and long erratically as the light bounced with the escort’s movements. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the space, especially where Christmas followed the soldier onto rusty steps and steel catwalks connecting opposite walkways, the sound bouncing rapidly and shattering the eerie silence of the subterranean tunnel. Finally, at a small juncture where a lower walkway ran around the perimeter of a square, four-walled room with passageways extending on every side, the two of them stopped. Christmas reluctantly stepped down the small set of stairs that connected the path they had used to the current room, and the tacky feeling of walking onto concrete layered in a thin covering of that murky liquid seeped into his every step. The guard handed Christmas the bright flashlight, a sharp [color=f7976a]”Stay hidden,”[/color] the only order he received before the man deftly flicked on the mounted light of the assault rifle and turned away, leaving the boy down in the muck and grime. The flashlight’s beam shook violently in Christmas’s hand as the echoes of the soldier’s footsteps finally faded. He strained his ear to listen for anything other than the thudding of his own heart and the irregular breaths his body forced him to take despite the pervading reek. Some small hope had whispered in his mind that someone would find him quickly and he wouldn’t need to be here long, but as the minutes ticked by with only silence as comfort, he could no longer hold back the rising panic. He sat down on the steps leading up to an adjacent corridor, wrapping his arms tight around his stomach and fighting back the tears he already knew would spill out despite his best efforts. The sounds of quiet sobbing soon rebounded faintly around the room. [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center] [hr] [hider=OOC Notes] Sewer cameras are displaying footage through infrared illumination. Resulting feed is monochromatic (green). [/hider]