[b][i]“What is the order of the day then Edward?”[/b][/i] asked Janus as Vates prised open the door to the elevator shaft. The shaft was dimly lit by radioluminescent lights every couple of floors. At the bottom of the shaft light could be seen through the roof of the broken elevator, its doors wide open to the building’s lobby.

“I need to replace these cores” said Vates out-loud, motioning to his gauntlets. He preferred to speak out-loud when he could as it felt more natural, although he had been training himself to speak inwardly more often. “The light core in the right gauntlet seems to be fine, but the kinetic core in the left is basically out as you know. And obviously I’d like to obtain as many spare water cores as possible!” continued Vates. When the small water cores first ran out he had thought little of it, being more focused on finding food and the like. However, these water cores discretely kept the gauntlets and covered skin clean and it only took a couple of days for them to start smelling awful and get itchy. Vates couldn’t remove them either as he would have no way of putting them back on; this was due to both the way they were fastened and the way they were implanted to pick up nerve signals.

[b][i]“We will take a weapon.”[/b][/i] Janus stated in an uncharacteristically firm voice. Janus knew that Vates hated the idea of killing someone and thus saw no need for any lethal weapons.

“No. We’ll exit the building, cross over the street and continue to the old Monument Bank. From there we can take to the roof tops or various routes where I can keep us out of sight. If we do somehow come into trouble on the way to the stockpile then we run.” commanded Vates climbing onto the ladder, unwilling to budge his stance on the weapon. The stockpile they were heading to was a small military one Vates knew about prior to the event; it was well hidden and surprisingly hadn’t (to the best of his knowledge) been used by anyone else since. Perhaps it was due to the proximity of the area from the wall or any other point of interest within the city. Whilst the stockpile had some handy equipment, there was more than a few trips full in carry weight and Vates didn’t like to be weighed down – not wanting to be seen entering the stockpile either, Vates only ventured to it every now and then. 

The ladder was never pleasant, regardless of whether one was going up or down, nor how often one used it. One of the things Vates would collect on this trip would be some rope or wire so he could fashion some sort of fireman’s pole. He was half way down at floor 9 of all places when he slipped, causing a loud clang as he managed to regain his hold. The noise caused a stir behind the door beside him, a large scuttering of heavy footsteps and a reverberating growl. Vates quickly carried on his descent not wishing to attract the attention of the beast inside any further. The beast was one of the few things he had even considered killing, but had managed to justify not doing so by telling himself that it made for an excellent guard. 

Vates eventually found his way to the large marble lobby, now wide open to the street without the glass windows or doors. The bottom of the building had suffered in the event, with multiple cracks rooting along the walls and pillars. There were many blood stains and pieces of graffiti here and there as well – a gift from some temporary tenants some time back. Vates stopped in his tracks and his heart clenched as his gaze caught a horrifying sight before him: a young child, no older than ten, who could have been a boy or girl, with wide white eyes, sharp teeth upon a vacant smile and a body covered in blood, ran towards him screaming with a long rusty cleaver. 
Vates fell back in horror, his body having moved faster than his feet. He looked up to find no sight of the child and sat there with adrenaline pumping and a heavy breath.[b][i]“Do not worry Edward, it was just a vision. You are fine.”[/b][/i]

“Thank fuck!” exclaimed Vates in a high pitched voice as he begun nervously laughing. These little visions were the most annoying but also the most useful (thus far anyway). Having gotten to his feet Vates continued outside. He only took a couple of steps out of the door before hearing a noise to his right, and turning he saw the child standing there for real. 

“NOPE!” yelled Vates as he hastily sprinted off in the opposite direction.
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