Kauss, Helona, and Killian stared at the old man's body, wondering what had happened to him. He had bite marks covering him and his insides spilled out of a wound on his stomach. Kauss didn’t know if the flying creatures had anything to do with his death, but he had no other lead to go on. They were in unknown territory and no matter how beautiful the place looked it still contained just as many horrors as the first floor.

"You know what this means?" Helona began talking. "If there's an old man here, wouldn't that mean there are others living here?"

How Helona pieced the idea together that there were more people nearby was through simple reasoning. The man was old, and no one besides Kauss' Mom and them had ever climbed the tower. That meant that he grew up on the second floor, but he most likely couldn't have survived by himself. Whatever those things in the sky were, they showed to Helona that she barely knew anything about the world she lived in. There could have been much more fearsome monsters out there, and that meant survival would be nearly possible alone.

Him being old also meant that someone had to take care of him for him to live to the point he grew gray hairs. Even the most sturdy of people in the first floor became nothing but a walking pile of ash, so without anyone to care for them even the slightest breeze could blow them away. She assumed that didn’t change too drastically between floors, but then again she didn’t know.

Helona also examined the trail of blood that had trickled along the grass. She saw that he had been walking from somewhere with a wound on his person. Sooner or later, he reached this spot, layed down, and died. Once that happened, the creatures came around and began eating at his corpse, if they weren’t the reasons he was dead to begin with. He had to have been coming here for some reason?

Helona turned back toward the elevator they had left. Only when she decided to look back, did she notice they managed to pass by something incredibly important. A machine was beside the elevator with a medium sized pipe attached from the machine to the side of the elevator. The pipe was see through, so Helona saw how the energy flowed from the elevator and into the machine.

The machine's main body was a silver box with a few buttons on the side. In front of the machine, a ramp led to a stand that had two devices sitting on it. Helona could hear the faint whir of gears and energy coming from it, but it was silent enough that they didn't hear it until they had their eyes focused directly onto it.

Then the machine made a faint click, and another device spouted out from the exit and landed on the stand with the other two devices. Helona walked up to the machine to get a closer look at the device. When she got close, she picked it up and inspected it for any hints about what it was.

The device she held in her hand looked like a tiny capsule. Inside of it, she could see some red fluid inside a transparent container. She lightly touched the capsule and could feel a slight burning shock. She recoiled her hand back from the sudden shock, but she went back to touch it anyway. It wasn't too bad to touch, but she didn't want to mess with it for long just in case it had any negative effects. She was already hurt enough, so she didn't need to get sick as well. She placed the capsule back onto the stand as Kauss approached her. Killian watched the area just in case any threats decided to spring up on them at any moment.

"Any idea what it could be?" Kauss asked.

Helona shrugged. She had a theory, but it wouldn't make too much sense without more evidence first. She looked at the elevator and began to approach it. There was one more thing she wanted to see before they went onward toward whatever town or city was near. Kauss limply followed behind, managing to keep up with her despite his injuries.

Helona looked at the elevator and there was still a hand imprint on the door. She placed her hand on it, but nothing happened. She tried to pry the elevator door open, but it wouldn't budge for a single moment. She stepped back and realized the real reason no one came back down to the first floor. It wasn't just that they died. It was because they were unable to go back down.

"We're trapped here." Kauss said with a grim tone.

Kauss wasn't expecting anything less, but he had hoped that they might've had some out if they wanted to stop climbing the tower. He was glad they got their bags and supplies out while they could. If they hadn't, then not only would their clothes, food, and weapons be gone, but also would his grandmamma. He wasn't planning on leaving her ashes behind, even if he needed to.

"Hey guys!" Killian called out.

Kauss and Helona looked toward him and stopped dead in their tracks. A man, around their age, stood a few feet away from Killian with a staff in his hand. He looked to be around six feet tall, and was well dressed and clean. His blond hair went down to his shoulders and a single strand of hair was dyed green.

The man looked at all of them then settled his eyes on the dead man. He shut his eyes for a brief moment and mouthed a few words. When he opened back his eyes, sadness and regret showed through blocking out every other emotion.

He looked at Killian, who had already taken a fighting stance, and the man pointed his staff at him. Killian wasn't afraid of having to fight someone with a weapon if he had to. It would actually be more fair, since if he didn't have one, then Killian would turn him into dust.

"Do you know what did this?" The man asked.

Killian slightly lowered his guard, but only by a fraction. The man didn't seem to harbor any intent to fight, but anything could happen in a moment's notice.

"No," Killian answered. "We only just climbed up here recently."

The man didn't show any signs of lowering his weapon. At that point, Killian was sure that the man meant them no harm, but he wasn’t too sure to justify lowering his guard completely. They were both locked in a match of a mental game of chicken. They both didn't have a one-hundred percent guarantee that the other wouldn't strike, so they held up their weapons not realizing that both had already called a truce.

"So, you all come from the first floor." The man said, lifting his staff slightly higher. "Will you kindly step away from the machine? I have to grab some things."

Kauss and Helona backed away from the machine, not wanting a fight when they're already incredibly injured. It wouldn't take much to bring them down. All anyone would need is a reason and slightly above average strength, and they wouldn't be able to stand a chance. From the man's looks, it was obvious he had some experience with fighting.

He walked forward and toward the machine while keeping his staff held high and his eyes on Killian. Killian looked back at Kauss and Helona, wondering what he should do. As soon as the man walked past, Killian could pounce and beat him before anything bad happened. He stood on his toes and readied himself to jump at the man as soon as his back faced toward him.

Killian looked back again for the go ahead to fight him. If Kauss and Helona said to do it, or if they didn't say anything at all, he'd throw as hard a punch as he could. Those two were heavily injured, and even if they weren't, he would be the best person to take someone with a weapon down.

When he looked back, he slightly caught the sight of Helona shaking her head. She mouthed a word that Killian interpreted as no, so he lowered his fists but didn't let down his guard entirely. If they wanted it, then he'd let the man through.

The man saw Killian's stance drop, and he took it on himself to lower his weapon in return. He carried it at his side, the end pointing toward the ground. He was glad he didn't need to fight back, since he didn't want to be responsible for killing anyone. If they were truly from the first floor, then there would be no way they would know the power of his staff, and many weapons people had carried.

He walked past Killian, and noticed his eyes were still locked on him. He sighed, wondering what could have been down there for people to behave like this. Not many people came from the first floor, but the last time someone did it didn't end well. He wasn't old enough to understand what had happened, but his Dad had told him what occurred back then when he had asked.

He made it to the machine and inspected the capsules that came out. He touched the glass and felt the shock that it exuded whenever anyone touched the container. It was perfectly natural since it was pure energy, so keeping it in a locked capsule only somewhat negated the effects rather than erasing it entirely. He wanted to keep it locked in a much thicker casing, but by doing that it would make it harder to use them.

The man flipped his shirt up and grabbed a case that was hidden under it. He unhooked and opened it, revealing three slots that were perfectly molded to carry the capsules without harm to user and product. He grabbed the capsules and placed them in, closed the case, and put it back under his shirt. He walked to the side of the machine and pressed a few buttons to get it going again. Once that was done, he decided to head on home until he looked at the other two people that were nearby.

One of them was a girl who looked beat up and scratched. The man would've assumed the guy did it, and he would've brought the girl to safety if that was the case, but something seemed off about the guy as well. He was slumping over and his skin was pale. He was grabbing onto the woman's shoulder hoping that would keep him up, but he was still sweating from exhaustion. The man assumed that the guy was injured somewhere as well, and three people sitting out injured with the beast on the loose didn't bode well with him. He was taking a risk, but his heart wouldn't allow just leaving them out like this.

"Hey," The man called out. The two of them looked at him oddly, most likely wondering if they should trust his words or not. "How about you three come back to my place?"

The three looked at him oddly. He was unnerved by the glares, but it was to be expected by injured people. They tended to be much more defensive then they would be if they were healthy.

"We don't even know your name." Kauss said.

The man realized he hadn't even given him his name, and he chuckled at his own stupidity. Giving out a name was the first sign of trust between people. If they give out their name, then that means that they wouldn't expect the person to use that information to their advantage.

"The name's Linux Fausting." The man said, pointing his thumb at himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you."