The path was narrow and overgrown with brambles. Penny broke away from the group and ran ahead. Isaac and Oliver were jostling each other back and forth, laughing wildly, and it was slowing them down. Dove was hanging back; she didn’t want to be here in the first place. Penny didn’t want to wait. She had to see it.
Penny reached the mouth of the path before the rest of them were even halfway through. She turned around and groaned at how far away the others still were. “Come on,” she whined, “hurry up already!”
The boys caught up with her quickly, but Dove stopped walking entirely, about ten feet back. Penny sighed and trudged back to her, grabbing her hand. Dove was probably ten to Penny’s twelve, though they’d been born in the same year, and besides she had always been the nervous one. “Come on,” Penny said again, softer. “You’re always scared when we do stuff and it’s always fun, right? Let’s go, let’s go!”
Dove dug in her heels. “I don’t want to,” she said. “It’s not safe. You know it’s not safe.”
“You didn’t have to come with us,” Penny pointed out.
Dove frowned. “Yeah, but you guys get in way worse trouble whenever I don’t.”
“Dove,” Penny whined. “Come on, we’ve come all this way. … Dove? Hey!”
Her eyes were fixed on a point just past Penny. “... where did they go?” she said, her voice taking on a slightly panicky edge.
Penny turned around. The mouth of the path was empty, the place where Isaac and Oliver had been standing completely deserted. She frowned, releasing Dove’s hand and moving toward where she’d last seen them.
“Isaac?” she called. “Oliver? Ugh.” Penny kicked at the dirt, hands balled into fists. “They always go on without us when you get scared,” she complained, looking back at Dove.
“No,” Dove said. She was trembling, shoulders nearly up to her ears. “No, no, they didn’t leave, I saw– they were just– they were there, and then they were gone–”
Penny frowned. “What? That doesn’t make any sense. Let’s just go find them, okay? Then you’ll see.” She took Dove’s hand.
Dove shrieked, ear-splitting, and stumbled backward. “No! Penny, I’m not going in there, I’m not–”
Penny backed up, eyes wide, hands held up in surrender. “Jeez, okay. You don’t have to be so freaked. I’m not gonna drag you in there if you really don’t want to go. I’ll just go find them and we can go home, okay?”
“No, no,” Dove shook her head, “no, let’s just go, Pen, please–”
“Just gimme a sec,” Penny insisted, and turned back to the mouth. Dove’s panicked sobs followed her in.
The laboratory grounds were way overgrown, like a garden left to its own devices for a hundred years. Ivy climbed up the sides of the short building, nearly covering the glass of the walls entirely. The smokestack had some sort of flowering vine growing out of it. It was sunny here, though it’d been cloudy just a second ago.
“Isaac?” Penny called again, looking around. “Oliver?”
From what sounded like very far away she heard a muffled, “Penny?”
“Oliver!” she called, turning around, scanning the treeline, the building’s windows, the courtyard.
There. Oliver was curled up on the bricks right in front of the door, staring right at her. Penny broke into a run, but stopped in her tracks when he shouted, “Don’t!”
“What? Oliver, where’s Isaac?” Penny called.
Oliver didn’t meet her eyes. “Inside,” he mumbled, so quiet Penny almost couldn’t hear him.
She frowned and marched closer, ignoring his panicked yelps of warning to peer into the window through the vines. It was pitch-black inside, unnaturally so for a building made of glass and bathed in sunlight, and Penny couldn’t see anything at all.
“He’s in there?” she said, looking back down at Oliver, who just nodded miserably. “How long?”
“Dunno. It’s… my head hurts. I don’t know. I can’t tell. How long’s it been since we came in?”
“Just a couple minutes. Oliver, you’re scaring me.”
Oliver flinched, finally meeting her gaze. There was something haunted about it, something that made Penny uneasy. “That can’t be true,” he insisted, grabbing Penny’s wrist. “It’s been forever. I’ve been here forever.”
Oliver’s grip was scarily tight and Penny reacted instinctively, stumbling backward. She’s reminded hysterically of Dove, just minutes ago. But Oliver didn’t let go like Penny had; his grip brought her crashing down to the brick stoop next to him. “Penny, you have to believe me. We’ve been here forever. We’ll always be here.”
Penny kicked out blindly, dislodging Oliver’s hand. “Stop it, don’t say that! We can’t stay here, we have to tell someone. Someone who can get Isaac back. Mom, or– or the old professor–”
Oliver blinked at her, gaze a thousand miles away. “He’s not coming back.” He stood, swaying toward the door. “No one comes back. We’ll always be here. We’ll always be down there.”
Penny grabbed his arm. He didn’t resist, stumbling after her. “We have to go,” she said firmly. She dragged him all the way across the courtyard, pushing him past the mouth of the path before looking back once more, hoping Isaac might be there this time.
(Chronoclasm backstory.)
Log 1
I’m not sure if anyone else will ever see this, but the longer I spend in here the less real I feel, so I have to start writing stuff down.
My name is Isaac. I’m 14 years old and I’m trapped here. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. It can’t have been that long because I haven’t needed to eat or sleep. But it feels like it’s been years.
I haven’t seen anyone else. There are these squat little robots hovering all over the place but I’ve been trying to stay out of their line of sight.
If you’re reading this, please try to find me. I want to go home.
Log 3
One of the robots finally spotted me. I was right to avoid them. I managed to escape this time, but I don’t think hiding is going to cut it anymore. It feels dumb to try to fight them without a weapon, but where would I even get one?
The others were right behind me before I got trapped. My sister and our friends. Are they here too? I hope they aren’t.
Log 6
I heard a voice. Just the one. I thought at first it was Oliver, but Oli doesn’t sound like that. And I’ve never heard him talk to himself like that, either. I couldn’t make out the words, and I couldn’t find whoever it was when I went looking. Just more robots. I really need a way to deal with them. If I could even just destroy one of them, maybe I could steal its gun…?
Log 7
I don’t think any of the others are here. I said I hoped they weren’t, but now… I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. Like, I really am alone in here, aren’t I?
I think I might have figured out a way to destroy one of the robots. There are these jets of flame on the floor in some places. Maybe I can trick one of them into following me across one. I have to try, anyway. Last time I saw them, one totally charred the sleeve of my hoodie. I don’t think I can survive too many more encounters without a weapon.
I’ll call it Operation Fried Circuits. Get it?
Log 9
… I think I died.
It sounds stupid. But one of the robots finally caught me, right in the chest. It went all the way through. No way you can survive that, right? But… I woke up back here. No scar or anything. I’m not sure if I’m looping or if it’s deja vu or something else, but I guess it makes a twisted kind of sense.
At least I can try Operation Fried Circuits again. As many times as it takes.
Log 13
Died again. I don’t even know what I’m going to do once I get it. Who even knows if the blaster will still work?
Log 16
YES!!! I did it! That was so freaking cool!!!
… I hope that was actually worth it. The blaster seems like it’s in okay shape, but I have no idea what the mechanisms that made it work actually were.
I bet Penny would know. That’s my sister. She’s really good at this kind of stuff, even though she never really tries all that hard at school. I don’t even know how long it’s been for her. I wonder if she ever found a reason to apply herself. I always told her I thought she could do something really cool if she tried.
Log 18
… The blaster exploded in my face and killed me. Again. I wish I’d tracked how many times I’ve died. There were definitely more than I bothered to write down. The longer I’m in this place, the hazier my memory of it gets.
I remember everything from before really well, though. I really hope that doesn’t go too. At least now I know how to work the robot blasters. Sorta. Gotta take the wins I can get.
Log 19
Managed to get another robo-corpse to work with. The blaster on this one is way less damaged to begin with. I can’t get it to reliably fire yet, but maybe soon.
I heard that voice again. Still couldn’t make out any words. I didn’t go looking for him, though. I’m starting to think that whoever’s in here is maybe somebody I don’t want to cross paths with.
Log 21
I figured out what makes it fire! You have to tug one of the levers in a specific way. I feel a little bit less defenseless. (Even though my aim isn’t great yet.)
I saw the guy today. Around a corner. I don’t know if he knows I’m here or not. Half his face is totally covered in the same weird crystals as the robots. I have no idea why he’s here, but I sorta… really hope I don’t find out.
Log 24
I found this weird room today. It had some kind of machine in the center. The whole room glowed purple. I got this really bad feeling. Like it shouldn’t exist. Like I should… stop it. Destroy it. Something should be happening and that room is stopping it. I don’t know. It almost… doesn’t feel like my own thoughts. I don’t know if I should listen or not.
Log 25
I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t, but… it’s like I was sleepwalking. I woke up and I was in the middle of blowing up that room with my Roboblaster. (Isn’t that a cool name? I think so.) But now I just feel worse. I think something really bad is going to happen, really soon.
Log 27
The crystals are singing. I can hear them. It’s like a low hum in the base of my skull. I don’t like it. I can feel it under my skin.
Log 28
This might be my last log. I don’t know. There’s something really weird going on at the end of this hall. I should just turn around and run, but I… I can’t. I have to see. I have to know.
If you’re reading this… well, I hope you’re not reading this. ‘Cause then you’re probably just as doomed as me.
(Selected logs from Chronoclasm.)