The Other Side: A Second Chance Chapter 96: The Ruin

Oscar Reynolds

With anxiety building in his chest, Oscar was the last to dip his head into the hole and crawl into the cool and musty interior of the cavern beyond the makeshift bunker wall. Coughing after inhaling a cloud of kicked-up dust, he spat to the side and groaned as he got to his knees and peered back at the gaping hole. On the other side, he could faintly see Anne still asleep against the wall as a nearby soldier nad Amy Greene stood by to watch over her. The thought of leaving Anne with strangers did not sit well with him, yet the being known as Ben assured him that the little girl would be safe and that he was needed for this minor operation.

Though he still couldn’t shake the uneasiness inside, his brother and sister-in-law would hate him until the end of the day if anything happened to her. That’s why he made a deal. With himself, of course. If anything seems to go sideways, he’s out. He’ll turn around and rush back to Anne as quickly as possible. Would he seem cowardly in front of everyone else? Hell, yes, though, unlike the soldiers he was following, he doubted they’d care; honestly, they’d probably prefer it if he stayed out of their way.

With that little plan in place, he got to his feet, though he had to bend his knees as his head nearly ca into contact with the low-hanging ceiling. At least the entrance—the cavern he and the soldiers crawled into—wasn't that big. It was large enough to fit the six of them, though it was cramped, and everyone except for the dwarf Jax had to be hunched over. The interior stretched outwards by at least six or seven strides before coming up to a dead end; they all got a good glimpse of it when Sheffield shone her magrite torch upon it.

“There really isn’t anything here,” the lieutenant said as she side-eyed Oscar from over her shoulder.

Oscar gulped. “Ben said there was what they called an illusive field,” he said as he recalled the term their mysterious benefactor used. “If you recall, I described it as an illusion.”

The lieutenant nodded slowly. “I rember, Mr. Reynolds, however,” she said, holding a bare hand out towards the rough stone wall before them. “You can’t tap on illusions.” She wrapped the back of her knuckles against the wall. “This little cave is just an airpocket and nothing more.”

The soldiers shared a glance, and Jax cleared his throat. “But what about the draft? I still feel it, and from what I can see…” The dwarf trailed off as he walked towards the wall that shouldn’t be there, according to Ben, and looked around. “I see no gaps or crevices yet…” He popped two fingers into his mouth, pulled them back out, now slick with saliva, and held them up. “Aye, it’s steady.”

“Perhaps…” The elf Coleman began in a slow draw. “Are there holes we cannot see with our naked eyes?” He suggested.

“Unlikely,” the dwarf said with a shake of his head and pressed his hand against the wall. “I’ve spent my fair share of ti within the undermines, and I–” As Jax went to lean against the wall, the mont his body weight rested against it, he phased through with a startled cry and vanished within the forrly solid wall.

Imdiately, Johnson and Coleman yelped with surprise as Sergeant Archer and Lieutenant Sheffield stared with a seemingly calm expression, though their eyes said otherwise. Though Oscar had a feeling nothing was as it seed, he too was unable to express his shock when the dwarf vanished from reality, or so it appeared.

“Corporal,” Sheffield called out. “Corporal, can you hear us? Are you okay?” She stepped towards the wall as they all stared in stunned silence, listening, hoping they could hear Jax on the other side. If there was another side, such a thought disturbed Oscar greatly.

Then they heard it. Or him, for that matter. Jax’s voice was muffled, distant, and dreamlike. Hearing the dwarf on the other side, the lieutenant pressed her ear against the wall Jax had gone through before gasping and jolting back as if having been shocked. Her left hand clutched her cheek briefly before pulling her hand away to look at it.

Oscar and the other soldiers crowded around her. “Are you alright?” Oscar asked as he felt Ben vibrating in his pocket, though he briefly ignored him.

“Yeah, I’m good… It shocked ,” she said, rubbing her cheek and ear again. “Like…” She started again and reached out towards the wall.

“What the hell are you doing?” Coleman sputtered as he reached out to stop her but stopped when Sheffield glared at him. “You said it shocked you!”

“I did,” the lieutenant said, her hand now hovering over the wall. “Though that wasn’t the right word… Its… You know that feeling when you’re swinging a stick around and you slam it so hard into sothing it makes your hands hurt?” She asked everyone. The n around her all shared a glance—a look that they all could relate to. Every young kid, especially boys playing soldier, knew that feeling well. Sheffield continued, "Well, it felt more like that. The wall’s vibrating really, really fast.” She pressed her hand onto it and kept it there now. “I didn’t notice it early when I knocked on it, but… holding my hand now.” She knocked again on the wall. “I feel it now.”

Jax’s muffled voice called out again, though Oscar couldn’t understand the poor dwarf. Sheffield turned towards the wall, leaned into it, and shouted, “Hold tight, Jax! We’ll be coming through shortly!” Though admittedly, she and the others weren’t too sure about that.

“How in the hell do we get through this?” Coleman asked, “Sprint towards it and hope we’re worthy?”

Archer snorted as he took a few steps away from the wall and rolled his shoulders. “And maybe get free passes to a wizadry school?”

Once again, the caster in Oscar’s pocket vibrated, but this ti with an increased intensity. No longer being able to ignore it, he pulled out the device and opened it. Already Ben was writing with evident frustration, “Push through the damned thing, you moronic imbeciles! I swear, you guys see one little magic trick, and it’s like the discovery of fire all over again. Just move!”

“Sheesh, calm down; I get it.” Oscar muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“What is it, Mr. Reynolds?” The lieutenant asked.

Taking a breath, Oscar straightened up. “Ben said we just need to simply push through it..”

Ben hastily wrote, “Indeed. The wall, while it feels real, is not. It’s a powerful ocular and material-based illusion that is projected at a resonance…” Oscar turned his attention away from the caster. As curious as he was to learn how the damn thing worked, Ben was right in that they didn’t have the ti.

Sheffield nodded slowly. “Alright then. Archer,” she said, looking at the sergeant. “Stay behind . Coleman and Johnson, keep an eye on Reynolds, and follow behind.” The two n nodded as Sheffield turned to the wall. “Mr. Reynolds, if I bounce off this wall like a dumbass, we’re going to have a stern talk.” Before Oscar could respond, the soldier crouched down for half a second before rushing forth. In an instant, she jarringly phased through the wall so that Oscar’s mind couldn’t understand what he’d just seen.

Shaking his head, he glanced at the two other soldiers before him, who simply shrugged. “Well,” Coleman gulped as his pointed ears twitched with a bit of nervousness. “I’ll go next.” Just like the lieutenant before him, the elf ran forward and shifted through the wall.

Now alone with Corporal Johnson, the human man glanced at Oscar and smirked. “I’ve broken through plenty of walls in my career; I never thought I’d be going through one like a ghost,” the man said as he rolled his shoulders. “C’mon.” He motioned for Oscar to co over to him.

Muttering under his breath, Oscar said, "Well, it isn’t a real wall…” He stopped himself when he noticed the soldier rolling his eyes. The man pointed at the ground beside him.

“We’re going through together; there's no point in keeping the other waiting.” Oscar felt a twinge of nervousness once again in his chest, and he hesitantly glanced back at the hole the soldiers had made earlier. Part of him debated returning to Anne, though he unfortunately wouldn’t have the luxury of waiting for long as the soldier grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards him.

With his mind made up for him, Oscar positioned himself beside Johnson and stared at the wall. Every instinct in his body told him that running at a solid wall was incredibly stupid. “You’ll make yourself look like a dumbass,” his conscious cried.

“Maybe I’ll wake up from a stupid dream,” he thought to himself.

That did little to calm his nerves. With a firm slap to his back, Oscar gasped as Johnson bolted forward. Oscar followed behind him without a second thought as the two n rushed towards the fake cavern wall.

The wind was knocked from his lungs as his body made contact with the cavern wall. Every fiber stung for only a microsecond as his body whacked what his brain thought was solid rock before suddenly said rock began to shimr and morph. The world around Oscar parted like water he was subrging into; what he thought was stone clung to his form as if trying to keep him on the other side but was released once he was sufficiently away from the faux material.

The world on the other side was dark, damp, and chilly. By the gods, it was chilly. Oscar took in heavy gulps of cold, stale air and sighed as he shook away the goosebumps. As his vision adjusted to the near pitch-blackness in front of him, he noticed a very faint, dim light behind him. He glanced over his shoulder, and his eyebrows raised in astonishnt. Behind him was nothing. Not like nothing, as in, there was no body or objects. It was a black abyss, yet at the base of this abyss was a thin streak of white light that shone brightly. It’s light, like a faint candle that hardly illuminates anything.

“Finally,” the dwarf Jax said with a raise of his arms. “Took you dumis long enough.” He rolled his eyes.

Johnson snorted. “What can I say? I wanted to enjoy the sights.”

“What sights?” Archer rolled his eyes. “Dust and stone?”

“That and the magical fake wall of infinite darkness.” The corporal waved his hand at the black void.

“Cut the idle talk,” Lieutenant Sheffield said. “Mr. Reynolds, why aren’t our torches coming on?” She waved her magrite torch around, and before Oscar could respond, the light suddenly ca on, blinding Sergeant Archer, who cursed loudly and recoiled away from the light.

“Roots, orry!” Sheffield gasped as Ben vibrated in Oscar’s hand.

Oscar glanced at the caster as the magical and now illuminated text appeared: “The illusive field temporarily subdued the ether in all of your magical devices. No fear, as you see, they’ll gradually co back on.”

Oscar read what Ben said out loud to everyone, and Sheffield bit her lip. “There aren’t any more fields like that, or potential AM fields here, are there?”

Ben didn’t respond right away, and Oscar felt his gut sink. Finally, Ben responded, and Oscar wished he hadn’t. “Probably,” the mysterious benefactor said.

“Probably?” Sheffield scoffed with disbelief. “I thought you knew everything down here?”

Ben hastily wrote back, “I never said that! This Far Reacher ruin has been down here longer than any of your species. Even I am unaware of how well maintained certain security apparatuses are until we go deeper.”

“That’s not really reassuring,” Archer muttered as he rubbed away the splotches of color from his eyes.

"Well, forgive , Darell, but if I wanted to be a ray of sunshine, I’d do nothing but make up happy lies, and doing so would make wish to vomit.” Oscar blinked as he read this out loud and looked up.

“Who the hell is Darell?” He asked, and Archer blinked repeatedly with a shocked look on his face.

He shook himself back to the present and looked at Oscar. “That’s my… first na. How the–”

“Questions later,” Sheffield said. “Ben, please try not to withhold any information like that in the future.” She then shone the light of her torch towards an eerie crevice ahead of them, just wide enough to squeeze through. “Archer, you take the lead; I’ll be behind. Oscar, you and Ben will be in the middle with that fancy map and tell us where to go. Johnson and Jax, you two watch the rear.”

“What about , ma'am?" Coleman asked.

Sheffield pursed her lips. “You stick by Mr. Reynolds; make sure he doesn’t step on so sort of booby trap.”

At another ti, Oscar might’ve been offended by such a phrase. He hated it whenever people assud he wasn’t up to a task or perhaps even a danger to himself. Nowadays, he was more than happy to let soone take the lead, and he sure as hell didn’t trust himself inside an ancient ruin, let alone a Far Reacher ruin.

“Yes, Ma’am.” The soldier saluted, walked towards Oscar, and patted him on the back. “Stick close to , sir, and keep that little jerk in your hands safe.”

“Oi!” Ben vibrated intensely in Oscar’s hand. “I am not a jerk!”

“That’s debatable,” Oscar muttered. “Ben, can you show us the map of this place again? If you’re able to.”

“If I’m able to?” The caster repeated. “Of course I am. Who do you take for?” Oscar didn’t bother answering as the caster shifted from text to a simplified overhead map. The once dark background shifted to a textured appearance that resembled old parchnt, like an ancient map he’d seen on scrolls. He had no idea why Ben went so far as to stylize the display, yet part of Oscar found it amusing if unnecessary.

Ben wrote in fancifully written letters out of view of the main display, “Proceed ahead for another thirty garos. The path may appear to end in another dead end, but to the bottom right, you’ll find an old maintenance hatch near the floor, partially obscured by a stalagmite. Hurry, for you’re already running out of ti. If we move now and with haste, we should be able to arrive in ti.”

Oscar relayed this to everyone, and Sheffield nodded. “No ti like the present; let's go.”

Partially obscured was an understatent. That hatch was entirely obscured. Oscar also wondered how Ben knew about the stalagmites that covered the old hatch. He had assud Ben was so sort of powerful wizard or even archineer that was scrying through the caster, or even one of them, or both. Oscar wasn’t a master at the arcane arts, but as an archineer, he at least knew the limits of such capabilities. Seeing as he had to work with magic daily to get the damn mystical stuff to talk with technology, Whoever Ben was, they were powerful. Like, very powerful. Or maybe they’re a one-trick pony.

Oscar didn’t know. What he did know, however, is that Ben wasn’t entirely right about everything. The stalagmites are the first red flag. Ben had reassured the group that the maintenance hatch would only have a single stalagmite in front of it, large enough so that they’d need to awkwardly squeeze past. That wasn’t true. There were at least multiple sharp and scary-looking rocks surrounding that thing.

It wasn’t a significant obstacle. Thankfully, Jax and Coleman had their standard issue entrenching tools, made for digging dirt and strong and sharp enough to chip away at the nasty things but took up valuable ti. Not only that, it was loud. Oscar had expected the entrance to a Far Reacher ruin to be vast and beautiful. A massive sprawling door big enough for fully grown dragons and pillars lining a hallway, but no.

Instead, they found a large wall made of so sort of tal. It wasn’t a tal Oscar had ever seen, and Ben briefly explained it to be so sort of lightweight alloy composed of adamantium, mithral, and sothing else he couldn’t recall. The tal appeared to be a sort of blueish purple and was shockingly dust-free. It looked no older than when it was put here, or so he thought. He had asked Ben while the n worked on clanging away at the stone, and the mysterious benefactor vaguely ntioned sothing about a pulse wave that keeps most surfaces clean.

Oscar was aware of such a spell. Visage was what he knew it to be. It was an enchantnt. It allowed wearers of material to consciously change their clothes' appearance; however, it was an illusion. So if he was eating a sloppy al and dribbled so steak sauce on his shirt, he could ntally hide it from everyone, but at the end of the day, his shirt still had steak sauce on it, and he had to go get it washed.

Ben sarcastically congratulated Oscar on his astute assumption before imdiately telling him that he was wrong and shouldn’t try to hurt his brain's understanding. All he needed to know was that the Far Reacher ruins had a unique way of staying clean.

Aside from that little fact, Oscar wasn’t impressed. Ben reminded him that they weren’t going through the front entrance; as a matter of fact, the front entrance was gone. “What do you an it’s gone?” Oscar asked the caster as a chunk of stalagmite was tossed away from the guys and landed in front of him before rolling away.

“I an exactly that, Mr. Reynolds.” Ben said it without sarcasm.

“What I an is, was it eroded away?” He asked.

“Eroded away?” Ben repeated it slowly. “Ha!” they wrote. “Nuh-uh. What you know as the Far Reachers would never develop anything that could be whisked away by nature of all things. Like they could do anything to what the Far Reachers built, haha!”

Oscar raised an eyebrow. ‘You seem to speak highly of these Far Reachers,” he stated. “Do you… study them or sothing?”

“Study… them?” They repeated his words once more. “You could say sothing like that; sure, let's go with that.”

Oscar frowned at that, as he knew where this was going. Oscar liked to think he had a good poker face, though inside, he could feel his heart racing a bit as an idea ca to mind. “Don’t tell you’re–”

A loud clang followed by crumbling rubble and a heavy thud drew his attention toward the far right corner of the room, where the maintenance hatch was. With a loud groan and stretch, the dwarf, Jax, straightened up and declared, “That’s the last one. The path is clear, Lieutenant.”

Sheffield, who had been sitting off to the side this entire ti, straightened up. “Excellent. Are we able to open the hatch?” The dwarf turned towards the tal panel on the wall, where an embedded handle could be seen. “Looks like it…” He leaned down and grasped the handle.

Imdiately, Oscar felt his gut surge with fear as he reached out to stop the dwarf but halted when the hatch squeaked once and then swung open silently outwards. Oscar sighed as part of him ntally kicked himself from panicking at the thought of it possibly being trapped.

“Pathway cleared,” the dwarf said, sticking his head into the hole. “A bit tight, even for ,” he said. “If there’s any danger inside, they would most likely hear us clanging away.”

Sheffield nodded. “Best we keep being careful then. Archer, you take the lead again.” The man nodded and unslung his rifle as he stowed his entrenching tool.

“Will do, but I don’t think this rifle will be much help in there.” He glanced at the cramped hole. ” Sheffield unholstered her pistol and flipped it around so that she held the grip out towards him as she held the barrel.

“Take this then.” She said as she handed him her magrite torch. Once everything was squared away, Sheffield turned to everyone and said, "Well, has anyone else ever been in one of these places?” She jutted a thumb back at the tal wall, and everyone shook their heads. She smirked. “It seems like it’s our first ti; well then, stay focused, everyone. No ti for sight seeing.”

Just like the exterior. The tunnel was surprisingly spotless. Oscar had expected his sinuses to go nuts within an ancient ruin. He thought his sensitive nose would crinkle at even the slightest bit of dust going in when he breathed, yet that didn’t happen. Instead, it was spotless—almost too sterile. The air had a faint sll of chemicals, yet he couldn’t quite nail what kind. Perhaps engine oil? Magrite? Probably magrite; the place had a strong ozone sll.

It also wasn’t quiet. While still in the cavern, Oscar heard nothing from within the hatch. Now that he was inside, he could hear a faint, deep rumbling. As he crawled over the tal panels in the tunnel on all fours, he could sense vibrations, and he knew that wasn’t coming from the soldiers around him.

The ruins were not dead. The active, illusive field should’ve given that away, but now that he was inside, He knew for sure that this ancient facility was still doing whatever its original purpose was.

It was a labyrinth. The tunnel constantly twisted and turned, with many exits leading sowhere else, yet Ben made it very clear they were not to make any detours. Oscar had lost track of how many tis they had gone left, right, then left again, left, left, and finally another right. It was confusing. If it hadn’t been for the handy, simple, yet stylized map Ben had provided them, Oscar would’ve never been able to figure out where the hell they were going.

It wasn’t until about the twenty-minute mark that the boredom turned to fear. “Gods, my knees are killing .” Coleman complained. “Are we almost there yet, Mr. Reynolds?”

Oscar groaned at the question. “Ben says we’re only a quarter of the way.”

“A quarter? I feel like it’s been multiple gilos since we’ve crawled. How big is this place?”

“Coleman,” Archer growled from over his shoulder. “Either you cut the complaining. Or I’m turning this trip around.”

“By the roots you are, Sergeant,” Lieutenant Sheffield said with a sigh. “We have a mission. Cpl. Coleman, if I hear you bitch one more ti, I’ll put you on guard duty in the cave.”

The corporal bit his lower lip. No way in hell did he want to be alone in a dank cave. “Aye ma’am–” A loud, heavy thud ca from sowhere beyond the tunnel wall, and everyone fell silent.

Oscar’s heart nearly lept into his throat when a second heavy thud, followed by another, and another ca from sowhere outside but nearby. It was tal on tal, and whatever it was, it was heavy. Ben vibrated in Oscar’s palm and glanced down at the caster.

“Stay quiet.” Ben wrote, and without any form of sarcasm, he added, “Ten gotts from your position in the main hall, there is a patrolling autonomous shell. The guard is ard and aware of your presence.” Oscar’s blood ran cold as all the color drained from his face. “Do not fear,” Ben said. “I am doing my best to blind it to your presence. Move, but do so quietly.”

Oscar tapped on Sheffield’s right thigh, who was in front of him. Getting her attention, she glanced partially over her shoulder as he held the caster up towards her. Letting her take it so she could read what Ben wrote, her face also paled briefly. She returned the device to Oscar, held up one finger, and made hand signs for the other soldiers.

Oscar wasn’t familiar with the gestures, but he got the idea. One bad guy on the other side of the wall moved quietly. The others nodded briefly, and as quietly as they could, they began to crawl forward. As they began to move, the thing on the other side of the wall let off what sounded like a bellow and began to speak in a language Oscar had no idea, with a tallic voice.

Ben vibrated again, and Oscar glanced at the caster as they crawled ahead of the tal monster. “Disregard the last order; move quickly.” Ben vibrated. “Like now! Move NOW NOW NOW!”

“It knows we’re here!” Oscar shouted.

A lot of things happened just then. The mont Oscar alerted everyone, a blinding light engulfed the entire tunnel, and his upper back was seared with agony as he felt his flesh being cooked. Behind him, Coleman shrieked for only a second as the sound of screeching tal overca whatever noise the corporal made.

Archer and Sheffield wasted no ti looking over their shoulders at whatever the hell was going on and began hastily crawling forward as quickly as they could. Oscar moaned with pain as his upper back felt raw and throbbed, though as adrenaline began to kick in, he ignored it and pushed forward.

Beyond his sight, the monster bellowed sothing once more as Oscar heard Jax shout sothing in his native tongue. A loud crack of a rifle sent Oscar’s already racing heart into overdrive.

“Jax!” Sheffield scread from up ahead. “Move it!” She ordered, though the dwarf didn’t respond as the rifle barked again. The tal monster shouted as Oscar briefly glanced over his shoulder and imdiately regretted doing so. Back where Cpl. Coleman was now a charred corpse of what was once an elf, the wall gone and lted. Molten slag could be seen dripping from the thick line of whatever the monster shot and tore through. Behind Coleman’s corpse was Jax, his face red with rage and his hands burning as he clutched Johnson’s rifle that he had traded.

“Move!” Johnson shouted as he pushed Jax forward. “We need to move!” The man pleaded.

Jax shouted slurs and curses in his native language as he shoved the rifle through the newly opened window and fired at the monster. “Mr. Jax!” Oscar tried to shout, but it ca off as a painful wail. “We need to run!”

The dwarf wasn’t having it, though. The man’s eyes were red with rage as he cranked another round into the rifle and went to fire again. But couldn’t. The tal sheet before the dwarf tore open as a massive gauntlet hand clamped around his face and violently yanked back. The dwarf’s body beca a ragdoll as the soldier was aggressively torn out of the tunnel, rifle and all.

Johnson scread as he watched his comrade being torn away from him, yet he quickly regained his composure. Once Jax was out of the way, he scrambled over Coleman’s corpse and hurried forward. When he passed the molten window, the tallic hand of the creature shot toward him at an alarming speed.

“Duck!” Archer shouted, and both Sheffield and Oscar plunged forward as the human fired the pistol at the massive tal hand reaching for Johnson’s leg.

The magrite bolt slamd into the monstrosity's arm with impressive force and caused the creature to jerk. Yet, despite that, it might as well have been a wet towel, as the machine recovered imdiately, but that’s all Johnson needed. Scurrying away at the last second, the machine’s tal palm slamd into the base of the tunnel floor.

“Go! Go!” Johnson scread at Oscar, who wasted no ti in letting the man shove him.

Pushing through the agony, Oscar barreled forward behind Sheffield and Archer. Behind them, he could hear the autonomous unit shouting and a new noise. A high-pitched hum that grew louder and higher in pitch as if building up to–

“Duck!” Oscar shouted this ti, and without question, everyone dove into their bellies as the entire tunnel was engulfed in a blinding light. Searing heat sang over them as super-heated tal began to rain down on them, causing everyone to shout and scream in pain. They had to move fast; everything was becoming too hot, and they were about to be cooked alive in there.

“We need to leave!” Sheffield shouted.

“On it!” Archer replied through gritted teeth. Up ahead, only a handful of gotts was another hatch. The problem was that it opened up in the hall, directly where the monster was.

Roots take him. The man thought. He’d rather die seeing the thing than be cooked alive where they are now. Crawling forward, he lunged out, grasped ahold of the handle on the hatch, and shoved it open. Without wasting anyone else’s ti, he shouted, “Here!” and dove out into the hall.

One by one, each of the remaining four flopped onto the cold, tal floor. Their assailant could be seen A little down the hall, just where they had been. Getting onto his knees, Oscar panted as he looked at the creature and gulped. It was humanoid. Yet it had the build of an orkani. Large, broad shoulders, arms thick as torsos, and the height of two n. It was massive.

Clutched in one arm, it appeared to be a weapon, possibly the device that lted Coleman and the tunnel. Strapped to its leg, it had so sort of lee weapon. Oscar couldn’t tell from this distance if it was a baton or a scary knife. Whatever it was, the thing was enormous, scary, made of tal, and was now looking at them.

“Lieutenant, what do we do?” Archer panted.

Sheffield gulped and made sure her rifle was prid. “We run.”