Search and Ye May Find

Posted on Tue May 6th, 2025 @ 11:38am by Glitch & Kyleigh Arynson & Ombretta del Carlo

3,737 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Welcome to the Hometown
Location: Ruins

Celia and Johnny caught up with Kyleigh and Ombretta quickly, their packs stuffed with a few things.

"Where are we going?" Johnny asked as he used his power to illuminate about ten feet around them.

Ombretta was unsure how to answer, especially since none of this was her idea. Part of her still wondered why she had volunteered, but she supposed it was better to do something than nothing at all. Suddenly, she had an idea. She closed her eyes, allowing her to focus on her other senses.

Her eyes did not know what to look for, but she knew that the local flora would be able to share something. All around her, she heard a cacophony of songs, all of which exhibited some form of dispair. Ombretta attempted to soothe the voices and sort out the discord. As she focused, her right hand slowly rose, and pointed in a direction. "That way," she whispered.

Kyleigh looked toward Flora. "Any way you can tell how

there are?"

Flora opened her eyes and shook her head. "Plants can only feel, not see. Even after all these years, there's still much I don't know."

Kyleigh offered Flora a smile. "You gave us a direction to go in, and that's more than we had a few minutes ago. Thank you," she said, then gestured forward with a hand. "Let's get moving and hope they're too far ahead of us."

Celia stepped forward and cocked her head to the side. "I can cause tremors, but so can everything else that moves," she said. "I can pick those tremors up a bit better than your average person, so a footstep would be like a slight echo to me."

She looked at Flora. "If you can tell me which plants were hurt and which way, I'll try to get a read from that."

Johnny looked around and illuminated the area a bit more. "This is creepy and I don't even have a weapon."

Flora nodded and closed her eyes again. Just like before, the cacophony was overwhelming, but she was able to slowly filter each song out. Her eyes were still closed as she started to move in the direction she pointed earlier. Slowly and carefully, Flora adjusted her direction, taking it one soft step at a time.

Then suddenly, she opened her eyes. "This is the way," she said confidently. "And it looks like they are already a great distance ahead."

"I think most of us are without a physical weapon," Kyleigh stated as she cracked her knuckles. "But then, some of us are weapons. Let's get moving before they get much farther ahead. I will totally understand if any of you want to go back." And with that, she began to move in the direction Flora indicated, not waiting for a response. Time couldn't be wasted.

With Johnny lighting the way and Cordelia keeping a lookout, the group followed the trail for about another hundred feet, where it vanished over solid concrete that had no weeds to lead them in the right direction.

However, a ringlike object nestled in a crevasse in a crumbling building caught the light coming from Johnny and reflected the light back into Kyleigh's eyes.

Kyleigh blinked a time or two before she moved over to crevasse and reached in to pick it up. She looked it over as a slow smile spread. This would certainly ruin someone's day, and wouldn't require the battery power a taser would.

Flora stood at the edge of the concrete and cautiously looked around. "The song ends here," she remarked. "No more trampling..."

Suddenly, her head whipped to the left. Her ears had heard something, almost like a metallic rustling. Then there was a whisper of a song, something that felt like forced movement. "I think," she said in a tone that betrayed her nervousness, "I think we need to go that way."

Celia had seen the flicker of something metallic before Sparky took it. "What did you find?" she asked her politely.

Kyleigh sin wed them the ring she found and slipped it onto her finger. "It resembles a plug, but in ring form. This could certainly come in handy."

Johnny increased his illumination and winced as his skin got a little redder, but he endured it.

The light showed a single story building stretching to the left and right, the surface overgrown with vines. There were no windows to look in and there didn't appear to be any cracks, either, which was strange after nearly three decades of no upkeep. To the right, the wall ended around a corner and several piles of rubble.

Ombretta, ever the curious when she encountered new greenery, approached the vines without caution. She knelt down to the base of the structure and reached a hand out to touch a leaf and learn its song, only to hesitate just before her mossy fingers made contact. "Something's not right," she said cautiously. "These vines have not seen the inside of the structure, but I can feel a... a darkness in their song."

"I can feel it, too," the young blonde haired woman said with a shiver. "We need to find a way inside. If Eb and Cordy are inside, I can guarantee nothing good is going to come of it."

Ombretta moved her head slowly to the right and then to left. She closed her eyes and listened carefully, hoping to glean some insight. "Just like before," she said, opening her eyes and turning back to the group, "I can only feel the darkness. But, there is some silence this direction. Maybe that's an opening." She pointed off to the right.

Johnny turned that way and his light illuminated the way to where the building turned the corner to the right with more piled up rubble leaving them little choice but to go right or go back without their companions.

Celia looked ahead and at the others. "Then let's go find them," she said.

Ombretta stood next to Johnny and looked in the direction he was shining. She had to blink when something almost flashed in her eye. As she blinked, the flash hit her again. That's when she realized that something wasn't flashing at them, but rather Johnny's light was reflecting off of something. "I think there's an opening," she announced softly to the group.

And then, the woman who'd been shy this entire adventure, took the first step forward. Sure enough, there was a thin path through the rubble, which Ombretta navigated without trouble. Only then did she find the source of the reflection. "It's a toliet," she called back, identifying the porcelain object. "I think we have a way inside."

Kyleigh followed behind Ombretta, keeping an eye on their surroundings as best she could. "Do you want to go in first?" She found herself asking, giving Flora the opportunity to take a step back if she wished, but had a feeling she might just go inside first this time.

Ombretta shrugged, looking ahead. "It's just a bathroom," she admitted. "How harmful can a broken commode be?" Truth be told, Ombretta was absolutely frightened, but she figured standing behind everyone was scarier. If there was a need to turn and go, she could follow everyone out because she did not know the way back. It did not take long for her to enter the bathroom and make it to the other side.

Johnny followed and looked to his right, gagging when the sight of a bloody toilet was illuminated by his light. "Where are we?"

Dimly flickering bulbs of weak yellow light sporadically illuminated the bathroom, but gave up no other answers.

Celia looked around and out towards the exit and up at the lights. "This place has electricity." It wasn't unheard of, but that was usually provided by a mutant like Kyleigh or some type of old technology.

And that had Kyleigh wondering if others like her were powering this place. The thought sent a shiver down her spine. There were individuals out there that would exploit the powers of others for selfish reasons. "I'm not sure where we are, but I don't get a good feeling from this place."

Flora stepped up to the door and pressed herself up against the wall. Slowly, she opened the door and was almost blinded by the bright spotlight in the hallway. She squinted, then closed the door slightly to give her eyes time to adjust. "I don't see anyone," she whispered. Though she did see plenty of dirt, decay, and even several upturned chairs in the hallway.

Kyleigh had to shield her eyes from the bright light. "None of this sits well," she said softly, hoping her previous theory was wrong. "Let's keep moving. I have a very strong feeling that Eb and Cordy are in serious danger here. We stick together."

Johnny turned his power off, grateful to get a break from the constant burning and stinging of it on his skin. He looked at the strange symbol on the floor. "I wonder what that means?" he asked.

Celia stepped around it. "I don't know, but I don't want to touch it."

The corridor ended about fifty feet down, one way leading right to a shorter hall, one door immediately to the right with two doors and one straight ahead.

"I say we start with this one," Flora said, pointing to the set of double doors near them. "If something goes wrong, we'll be able to leave quickly." She reached for one of the door knobs and found quickly that it wouldn't move. "Looks like these are locked."

"Should we go in?" Kyleigh asked. "I think I can get us in without drawing any attention."

Celia made an adjustment to the mechanical gauntlets on her arms and flexed her fingers. "I can shake the lock apart if you want?"

Kyleigh looked toward Celia and nodded her head. "That's definitely better than me pushing it off the hinges. We'll go with your idea."

Celia nodded and aimed her hands at the lock and concentrated for a moment. Then almost visible ripples in the air came out from her hands and the locking mechanism started to rattle and shake. After a moment, there was a clank, then she stopped. "That should do it."

Flora carefully and cautiously reached out to test the door handle. Sure enough, this time it was loose. She adjusted the grip her moss covered hands had on the piece of metal and gave it a firm twist. It turned easy, and the door started to turn inward... only to stop after moving an inch. She looked inside the narrow opening and remarked, "Looks like it's barricaded... From the inside? That doesn't make much sense."

"I can take care of that," Kyleigh said. "Everyone should move back a bit just in case whatever is back there is some sort of trap. No one needs to get hurt."

Johnny and Celia moved aside and watched. They knew that Sparky could shoot electricity, but they didn't know what she was going to do with it here.

When the door was clear of her companions, Kyleigh placed her hands against the door and began to push, hoping whatever was on the other side wouldn't explode or anything. When she was met with resistance, she pushed a bit harder until she'd found the right amount of pressure to get the obstacle out of the way.

The few bits of furniture, chairs and a table pushed aside revealed two more pieces of furniture farther in the room. One was a couch with the back towards them. The other was a working television that only projected static from the screen. A sickly sweet smell came from the couch.

Celia held a hand to her nose. "What is that smell?"

Johnny shrugged. "It smells like something rotted."

Flora cautiously stepped into the room, taking care to guard her mouth and nose in the process. The television was an interesting sight, something she hadn't seen in years. As she approached it, something on the couch caught her eye.

On the couch was the figure of what had a been a man, but most of him was a skeleton in ragged military clothing.

The plant manipulator gasped. Her hand, which had been in front of her face, tightly clamped down over her mouth in an attempt to keep herself from screaming. "Oh god," she did manage to whisper. "What the hell happened here?"

Kyleigh surveyed the room and shivered when she saw what remained of the body on the couch. A wave of nausea rolled through her as she moved closer to the couch in an effort to get a better look at what secrets the skeleton might hold. "I have no idea," she answered softly. "But, I hope that answers might be forthcoming."

Shine and Celia moved a little closer. "It looks like he starved to death," Shine said.

"I wonder why he barricaded himself in here?" Celia asked.

The uniform had an ID and key card attached to a lanyard attached to the corpses neck, identifying him as John Myers, Janitor.

"I'm so sorry," Sparky murmured as she very carefully removed the ID and key card from around John's neck with minimum disturbance to his remains. The key card might not work any longer, but given this building still had power, having it might come in handy at some point if it was still active.

As she tucked the card and ID into her pocket, she turned to the others. "If I had to guess, I would say it was to keep someone or something from getting inside. Why? Well, that remains to be seen, and if we want to find out, then our only option is to move forward."

Johnny looked at the TV that was still blaring static. "I wondered if this thing ever showed anything or he just wanted some noise and light."

"We'll never know," Celia said. "Shall we get out of here?"

Ombretta observed Sparky taking the key card, and thought of something. "Any chance that opens the locked door next to this room?" she said, moving back to the room's entrance. The way they came in was still open, and just outside was a security panel next to another locked door.

"There's only one way to find out," Kyleigh said, making her way to the panel. "He's been dead for a while, but there's no harm in trying." And with that, she took a deep breath and tried the key card.

It took a moment, but they were rewarded with a click when she used the card on the reader by the door,

"They sure made a lot of neat things back in the day," Johnny said.

"Yeah, they did," Kyleigh agreed as she looked to the others. "Looks like we're going in." To which, she very carefully opened the door.

When the door was opened, it revealed a small room, one illuminated by a single bulb high to the left. Directly across from the entrance portal was another door. What was more disturbing however, was the red symbol on the floor. It did not look old, but it looked like it had been distressed.

"Think they were dragged through here?" Ombretta whispered.

Kyleigh shivered. She didn't have a good feeling about this, but they needed to find the others and get them away from who knew what. "I suppose anything is possible," she whispered back, looking to the symbol and committing it to memory. "Shall we go through?"

Johnny shivered as he looked at the symbol on the floor.

"Or carried," Celia said. "Keep going." She suggested as she made an adjustment to her arm gauntlets.

Ombretta, wondering how she was now the person in front, nervously stepped ahead and carefully opened the next door. She had expected another room, and she was instead greeted by another dark hallway. She could see two sets of doors to her right, one set to the right, and a junction some ways down the hall. "Right or left?" she softly asked the group.

"Right," Kyleigh suggested, sticking close to Flora.

Johnny sniffed and wrinkled his nose. "Something smells off." he said.

Celia leaned towards the area where the young boy was and inhaled daintily. "It's probably a dead animal...or another poor soul like the one we found."

Flora instantly decided that the smell was another person. This place didn't seem welcoming to either human or animal, but she figured the chances of it being an animal were very slim. She stopped in front of the next set of double doors and rustled the door knob. "Locked again."

Kyleigh tried to ignore the smell as she moved to stand next to Flora. "That's not surprising. They want to keep outsiders out. Sadly, for them, we're not leaving here until we have the others with us," she said softly as she checked for a place to use the key card. If there wasn't one on this door, then brute strength would be their way in.

This door didn't have a key card and seemed to have two solid locks on it.

Celia looked at them and frowned. "This looks like deadbolts. Solid bar of metal through the door."

"Looks like brute strength it is. You three keep an eye out in case we end up with company. This process won't be a quiet one," Sparky said as she began to stretch her arms.

Flora stepped back, unsure of what awaited them behind the two slabs of metal.

Johnny stood back to and looked back the way they came while Celia moved back as well. and looked the other way "Go for it," she said.

This wasn't going to be a quiet operation, but there wasn't much of a choice if they wanted to find the others. And she definitely did.

Kyleigh took a deep breath as she placed her hands on the door, flexing her fingers until she had the best grip possible. Not wasting a second, she began to pull, the sounds of the wall cracking around the door as it began to give.

With another crack and wrenching of metal, the doors gave in and the stench of death came from the room. Several benches with a variety of tools splattered in blood were on them, and row after row of homemade wooden coffins.

"Oh my god..." Ombretta muttered just before she was quickly overwhelmed by the stench of rotting fresh. What little was in her stomach threatened to come up. Any other time she wouldn't have tried to stop it, but clearly they were in the domain of some demented soul and she did not want to leave any more evidence of their breaking and entering.

Kyleigh gagged at the smell, but it was also the sight that greeted them that had her stomach turning. What kind of things happened in her? And were there actual bodies in the wooden coffins? Given that she gagged a second time was enough to confirm that suspicion. "Let's try to stay close," she said softly, pulling her pack off her back to produce a cloth once she opened it. "Cover your mouth and nose with this until we make it through." With that, she began ripping pieces off to give to the others.

Johnny took one as he looked around and into a few of the open coffins, his sunburnt face turning pale at what he saw as hew covered his mouth. "These...these look like...like mutants."

Celia turned to him and looked in the nearest one at a unidentifiable being that seemed to have skin like a rock. "What..."

Kyleigh frowned as she moved to the coffins. She didn't want to look inside, but did anyway. It seemed that her previous thought about their kind might have a little truth to it. "We'll have to see to it that these poor souls have a proper burial after we find Ebenezer and Cordelia. I just hope they're still alive. No matter what... someone will pay."

Johnny moved to the entrance of the door and rested a hand against it as he took several deep breaths. "We need to find the others and get out of here," he said after a moment.

Celia agreed completely with the young boy. "I hope that Pulse and Elixir are still alive."

Flora covered her mouth and ventured into the room. The stench in the back was certainly far more foul than the smell in the front. A glance around told her there were salts and oils deliberately placed to counter the smell, a job she certainly could attest that they were miserably failing to do. "The bodies in the coffins near the front are fresh," she attested. "If Pulse and Elixir are alive, they likely won't be for long."

A sinking feeling formed in the pit of Kyleigh's stomach. This was definitely not what she thought they would encounter when they first entered this facility, but now there was an urgency to find Pulse and Elixir as fast as possible. "Let's keep moving forward. Once we've found the others... alive," she paused, really hoping that they would indeed be alive when they found them. "we can look into maybe getting these poor people buried properly."

"I agree," Celia said as she held her nose.

"Can we get out of here, please?" Johnny asked.

Flora was the first to leave the room, stepping out into the hallway and struggling to breathe. It was like the entire facility was immersed in evil, and the deeper they went the worse it got. "How many more rooms are in this place?" she whispered, not wanting her words to echo down the hall.

"I wish I knew," Celia said. "There's a room across the hall."

Johnny left and looked to his right. "There's one down here, too."

At that point, a loud thud was heard and the whirring of gears before a giant monstrosity of a humanoid robot stepped around the corner about twenty feet from them. "Halt!" it commanded in a grinding metallic voice.

"Here we go," Kyleigh murmured as she cracked her knuckles and looked to the robot before them. "I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not feeling very cooperative today. Especially not after seeing the heinous things that I've seen."

 

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