Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 90: Ark

Toren Daen

Darrin was the first to break out of our collective reverie. He turned back to us, gesturing to the shoreline below. "We gotta get down there soon," he said.

I shook myself out of my surprise. The Empire State Building was intimidating, but was it truly beyond anything I'd seen here before? The ground below, however, drew more immediate attention.

"There are no corpses about," I said quietly. Sure enough, only the dark gray of asphalt welcomed my eyes. Instead of a zombie-infested city, I felt I was looking down upon a ghost town.

There was a palpable unease traveling through the group. We'd grown used to watching out for hordes of undead down below. This zone seemed to take pleasure in planting expectations like a watching farmer, tending them and nurturing our perception. And when we thought we understood our place, our entire crop was ripped from the ground and tossed to the side.

"We've planned for the potentiality of a horde waiting for us," Darrin said. "But we couldn't account for everything. This seems to work in our favor, doesn't it?"

The striker's words seemed to resonate with the group, instilling them with a measure of courage.

"So," Jared said from the side, "How are we going to get down?"

Darrin exchanged a look with me. "Have you ever heard of elevators?" he asked the group, a wide smile on his face.

In short order, our group managed to find a set of elevators, primed and ready to take us to the ground floor.

There was no elevator music on the way down. I had hated the music the last time it had scraped against my eardrums. But now the silence felt hollow; devoid of any sound or emotion whatsoever. I found myself tapping my foot against the metal floor, the claustrophobic mishmash of bodies ramping up my anxiety.

When the doors finally opened, I was among the first to shove myself out. The other mages were suitably intrigued by the elevator, just as Darrin had been, but I needed to occupy my mind. I scanned the bottom floor, which revealed a wide-open lobby space. The ceiling was easily thirty feet above us, giving the lobby a sense of grand scale. Pristine marble floors and statuesque reception desks revealed this to be some sort of grand hotel if I hadn't been able to tell from the rooms above already.

And the fact that the words 'Marriott' were plastered everywhere. That was kind of a dead giveaway.

"Alright," Darrin said, stepping out in front and scanning the lobby. "We need to get to the edge of the water, then Jared, Jameson, and Hraedel can start forming our raft."

A few people made nervous noises. Dima looked like she wanted to ask a question, but she visibly centered herself. There was something undecipherable in her eyes as she looked at the leader of the unblooded party.

The group slowly moved toward the exit, eyes on every surface. I hobbled along in the center of the group, suppressing my limp the best I could as we made our way to the automatic doors.

"We were ready for a huge fight, too," Alandra said with a bit of a chuckle. The sentry was hanging very close to Jared, who in turn kept wary eyes forward. "It's a good thing we aren't getting swarmed. I don't think we could've held off those undead hordes."

Alandra's words seemed to buoy the spirits of the group. Everyone was tense at the unexpected ease of our passing. And ascenders learned to never expect the Relictombs to hand them an easy escape.

"Don't let your guard down so easily," Hraedel said with a grunt as he stepped out under the dreary sky. "This zone has been nothing but hell. It's foolish to assume we'll be given any sort of reprieve. This is a trap of some sort."