Orpheus

37

'Eerie'

One word; it was all that echoed through Riley's mind as they descended down the dark and empty tunnel towards Sector 7.

'There's something wrong, seeing the place turned into a horror movie; only now, it's real.'

'It's like you're in the horror movies Riles; the horror is real.'

The tunnel was dark, and colder than the space they floated in. Out there they at least had the stars; the only light here was from the sides of their helmets. The only sounds here were their own shaky breaths, whispering back to them.

If the wormhole was hell, this was the fields of Asphodel.

The four of them descended slowly. Riley could almost hear every second pass in trepidatious gloom. If there were air around her, Riley imagined she'd hear their footsteps too, but it was all quiet, too quiet for her liking. She turned her head and looked at Owen; he appeared grim and sapped out of life.

'Like a ghost...'

"Almost there." Connor announced from down below. The static from her radio only added another layer of discomfort; the tension was almost physically hurting. The longer they climbed down, the more she began to feel like the tunnel was closing in; the throat of a beast swallowing them whole. Her palms were sweating under her suit, her shoulders wailing.

Suddenly the tunnel below her opened up into a huge space; Sector 7. There may have been four ladders in the tunnel, but there was only one leading down to the floor, so they began filing up. As they went down, one by one, Riley glanced over towards the far end of the Sector, where it connected with the power supply.

Or perhaps did connect would have been a more appropriate term; the walls were replaced with twisted metal and space.

"Whoa." Owen merely spoke what the rest were thinking; the gnarled cables and metal stuck out against the infinite black, the stars spiraling outwards. With a double-take, Riley remembered they were the ones spinning, gravity merely an illusion.

'Look at this... All of this... We could've so easily died...'

Riley turned her attention towards the ship stationed away from the gaping hole; Magnus looked beat up, having lost its sheen. "There's the ship." Owen muttered, stating the obvious, before beginning to walk towards it. Along with the others, she began moving towards it. If Pratham saw them coming, he didn't do anything.

Connor went up to the front of the ship and rapped on the glass repeatedly, before mimicking putting on a helmet. The ironic part was that the windows were dark and protected; one couldn't see from the outside what was happening on the inside.

"This is messed up..." Owen spoke beside here, the grainy radio static doing little to cover emotions. "We were so not prepared for this..."

Riley turned back to look at the tear in the wall; she couldn't agree more. The sheer scope of it all was catching up to her.

'In this vast space, we are alone; pinpricks in an infinite ocean. And somehow we're meant to save humanity.'

'We are so not prepared...'

Suddenly, the side door of Magnus began sliding open. All the air inside shot out, wailing; a man screaming his final words before kicking the bucket.

Riley looked sideways at Owen, and found that he was looking at her as well; his eyes were laden with discomfort. He nodded in slight acknowledgment, before beginning to walk towards the ship. The four of them moved cautiously, not knowing why; human instincts are hard to shake off. Elise went in first, followed by Connor. As Riley stepped into the ship, a feeling in her bones told her something was off; the ship, it almost seemed murky and rustic; old.