It took a few minutes of wandering along the walls, but Dr Hale did come into the two’s sights eventually. Even from the larger distance, the woman had clearly been agitated at some point, Troy able to see that a part of the habitat domes close had been damaged at a few points. Nothing serious, of course, but it was enough to see that the woman had been serious in her kicks.

And being the mildly agitated person that she was, Dr Hale was even able to notice Troy and Charlie before they got too close. Not that this meant that she had stopped doing her other activities, as the two got little more than a glance before attention was put back on the current task. On that note, though…

“What are you doing?” Troy felt the need to ask, not fully understanding why the woman was doodling on the walls. To the side, a map of sorts had been drawn with only the barest of details. The young man couldn't understand half of it, lines intersecting at the most unusual of spots, circles being made endlessly, and even a few points being without any connections to other parts.

That all could have been excused, though, as it could have been made to be a memory refresher. Nobody could have blamed the woman to get a few details wrong, so putting it all out graphically would have allowed her to get it all right. But, such excuses did not really work for the other work on the walls.

What was that even supposed to be? Crosses, circles, grids, and all other sorts of places sat a few meters away from the end of the map. It could have been that there was some pattern to it all, but, really, who could have expected Troy to get it, if anything was there? With how many quotes about hidden languages had come from the woman, he knew it would be a lost cause to even try deciphering it himself. Hence the question in the first place.

“Optimized blast points,” Dr Hale said, only seeming to speed up in her hand. Lines were beginning to be drawn between seemingly random points. “The walls have been reinforced at the more likely breach locations. Luckily for us, one of these points is the exact place that we have to go through if we ever want to reach our current destination. Charlie, do I have to explain it to you, or can we hurry this along?”

“I understand it just fine, Mara,” Charlie answered, taking one of the larger machinations of the bag Troy was holding, before walking over to the wall. Dr Hale went away from it to give him space. “It should only take a few seconds to get right.”

The woman seemed satisfied with the answer, not bothering to actually say anything verbally. The young man was weirdly irritated about that, irritated by just how calm Dr Hale was about everything. Yes, she might not have been through the same as they had, yet the man felt that there should have been something on her face. Maybe her stressing out about the time, or some frequent glances to make sure nobody was getting close. Anything. But there wasn't. If anything, Troy wouldn't have been able to see her face right now and imagine her to be in a life-and-death situation at all.

To take his mind off things, the young man just tried to look at Charlie working instead. And… It sort of worked? The muscular man was certainly efficient, bringing out various tubes that had wires attached to the main body of the machination. Through small drills at the end, the tubes would be inserted at various points in the walls. There was no hardship in doing so, the cylinders sliding in as easily as if there had been a hole before.

That was about the time they began to lit up, each tube showing off another colour from the rainbow. Which was formed, actually, on the wall. Troy wasn't sure how the feat was done exactly, yet small lights lit up the wall so that it formed a decent colour spectrum in the area that the tubes were inserted. Perhaps it was meant as a form of calibration? Troy was not anywhere sure about that idea, yet it did look incredibly interesting.

Charlie began taking a few steps back from the wall, holding the main body of the machination. A circle of lights had appeared at the top, much like the one that Troy and Dr Hale had used to stop any spying from occurring. There were a few guesses on what would happen when all the lights fizzled out, yet the speed at which this happened and the non-stopping backtracking did not leave Troy to think about it, more concentrated on getting what seemed to be a safe distance.

Yet even those extra five meters hardly did anything in the long run. There was no real explosion or anything. Instead… how could it be described, really? Troy felt everything begin to vibrate by a small bit. The hair on his neck had begun to rise from the low humming in the air, just when a small section of the floor just… collapsed. No piece bigger than his pinkie-toe was left in the dust, as everything, well, had turned to dust. It all just fell to the ground, spurring up all kinds of things into the air. A few coughs were certainly had, as the larger parts began to settle down.

“Now what?” Charlie asked, not seeming like he wanted to details, instead just hoping to get on with things. The man was not happy, and there was not a single person in the world who would have been able to blame him for it.

“I would say that we should move forward immediately, but it seems that Darlow is being incredibly slow. I do hope you explained the situation to him. In the meantime, please memorize the map that I have drawn on the wall, as it will lead us to where we need to go,” Dr Hale said. The woman sounded plain, never raising her words yet still sounding like she was criticizing somebody with the sharpest of knives.

“Darlow is dead,” Charlie said back. “Dr Fidelis killed him.”

“Dr Fidelis killed him? As in, Dr Fidelis is currently up in the observatory?” Dr Hale immediately questioned.

Did she- No. Troy could not believe what he was hearing. The woman had just skipped the fact that a person had an idea entirely, instead of focusing on the location of the murderer. Somebody had died, and she could not give it the slightest bit of respect. Even a pause in speech would have been enough sign of respect. But, no, she couldn't even do that.

“Yes,” Charlie answered, walking over to look at the map that had been drawn on the wall. “He has been contained for the time being.”

“What did it cost, and for how long should we expect it to last?”

“We do not have access to our main shield anymore. Expected time is anywhere from five hours to an entire day,” Charlie answered quickly. “Is this the entire journey we need to take before we get out? If so, I am utterly surprised nobody else has done it.”

“To not take Dr Fidelis lightly. It is how we ended up in these circumstances to start with,” Dr Hale said, in her own way of scolding. “And, no, this is hardly the start. It is only the start. Before anything else, we have to perform an extraction. That's how we got there. After that, we can begin the actual journey to get out.”

With a nod of the head, the trio began to take the walk into the old parts of the facility. From the first breath inside the place, Troy could already feel that he preferred the stony air more. Clearly, there had been no ventilators setup for the longest of times. With age and more than a little humidity, the place had turned into a loving space for plants and a contact of death for humans. God, there was no chance that he would be able to stay in the old part of the facility for that long, lest he would fall over from the air quality alone.

Even the looks of the place weren't worth staying there. Troy had only been down in the old parts once before, and even that experience had been different than the one he was having now. Yes, the foliage had taken its toll there as well, but… not nearly in the amount that was being seen where he was now. Really, if not for the lack of bigger light sources, he was sure it would have all been overgrown by now. Where had it all even come from?

Perhaps an uncleaned botany lab? Those had been used for cultivating some more… extreme version of standards growth, in the last few decades. Bad weather, acid rain, and not the most stable of seasons had left most countries in the need of developing crops and forests able to handle the harder difficulties in survival. That had culminated into very great, very sturdy plants being made. Those that had been shown off had great attributes to them, to the point of some countries showing it off as a national symbol. Troy could hardly blame them.

The higher versions of the redwoods were still ingrained in his mind. Trees and plants known for already being extreme had been augmented to the point of insanity. A single tree high and thick enough to match older sky-scrapers, plants with the durability of lesser steel, grass able to transmit warnings over several kilometres. It didn't even scratch the surface of what had been achieved in the last many years, and Troy knew that he did not know half of it.

However, every person in the world had their own little theory, and the young man was not an exception to that rule at all. If a single tree could stretch thousands of kilometres wide with the help of roots, was there no plant that could spread itself by that amount as well?

The only limitation to growth was the resources at one’s disposal. If a plant could dominate others if it could take what is owned by others for itself, would it not be able to grow endlessly? The world would become its oyster?

It would have been even worse if the requirements for the plants would be low to the point of nothingness. No light, no real air, not even that much water. Yet… it would still grow. Troy could see nothing in the facility that would facilitate growth. There was nothing but hard rock, hard materials which should not have come close to provide any meaningful nutrients to anything. This had not stopped the plants.

They had grown everywhere in the hallway. Even in the low lighting, the glint of green provided an eerie backdrop to the already quiet scene. It was a miracle that a few of the emergency lights still worked every now and then, else they would have been left to fend for themselves in the darkness. God, would that have been a terrible way to go out.

In some way, it was fortunate that Troy did not have to worry too much about everything there. He just had the easy task of following Charlie, the man having seemingly memorized the map given at the start in what amounted to ten seconds. No questions were asked about that. Nothing but silent appreciation.

Without a doubt, the muscular man really was essential to everything here. He had all the gear, had more than just a little intuition when it came to defence, and had a utility that allowed incredible amounts of leeway. If Troy and Dr Hale had been left to deal with it all themselves, without the gadgets, without anything from the man, there was no doubt that they would have never even gotten this far.

…

Was that the only reason Dr Hale was bringing Charlie along? Was the only reason for his inclusion because of the gains that would come from it? That had to be the case with Troy at least. Hell, the woman had said it herself, only hiring him in the first place due to his more… agreeable personality. He had been hired so he could be used.

That was not the same with Charlie. From the information gotten over time, the two had known each other for longer than that. Dr Hale should have hardly started any plans, in the first few years the two had spent together. Their friendship would not have been based on what could be gained, right? There was no way. Troy knew that she could be calculated, that she could be cold, yet… she was not that far down. He just hoped for that to be true. Her lacklustre reaction to something that should have put her down a notch, at least to a point of pause…

Troy spent a long time thinking about that, not noticing when they stopped. It did cause a moment of surprise, as he walked into Charlie’s back. There weren't any comments made, however, the other two focused on something much greater.