Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 4: Down
By: AVM516

-10 Minutes ago-

On schedule, so far….

As he looked around the collection of pipes and troops scattered, he figured it would be less than hour before everything was set.

Though he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. This seemed too easy and disappointing. This facility, or if you could call it one, just didn’t seem like anything compared to the ones 10 years ago, at least to records. There were at least automated defenses, traps, and even hallucinogenic gas used in deterring intruders in all facilities related to Scarlet.

There was NONE of that here.

Just one big hole stuffed and surrounded by these enormous pipes of white, glowing liquid. Sure, there was that teleporter that could take them deeper (if they could access it). But even so, if you got this far, you’d think there would be at least SOME type of automated defense to—

“Lieutenant!”

“What is it sergeant?” The Lieutenant asked, facing the soldier who suddenly approached.

“You have to see this…” he said, thumbing behind him.

The Lieutenant followed the trooper to the outer edge of the cave wall. After a moment, he saw what the trooper was informing him of:

A small hatch in the ground…

It was both inconspicuously hidden between two massive pipes and camouflaged by the rock surface of the cave with its rusted doors.

The Lieutenant looked surprised. “That wasn’t in the Pact’s report…”

“I don’t think they knew, sir.” The Sergeant replied. “It was actually luck and good eyesight that one of my squad members noticed it.”

“Did any of you take a look inside? Does it lead deeper into the facility?”

“Uh, we did take a look sir… It’s not an entrance to go deeper.. But…” The sergeant seemed to gaze away.

At that same time, the Lieutenant noticed the other members of the squad give similar gazes of unsettlement.

“What’s wrong? What’s inside Sergeant?”

The human sergeant gave a long depressive sigh and motioned one of his squad members. One of them removed a torch from her side, lit it, and offered it to the Lieutenant. He took it, though still giving a look of concern to the Sergeant.

“Sir… You REALLY need to see it for yourself. It’s difficult to describe with words.”

Immediately, one of the troops undid the lock on the hatch and swung it open. The lieutenant just gave one more curious stare at the Sergeant and approached the hatch.

As he looked down with the torch, he saw that a ladder was attached at the base leading down to pitch black darkness below. Turning around he descended down the ladder, while cautiously holding the torch with one hand.

After a few seconds of descending, his paws finally reached the bottom. ..

…And it was then that he noticed that there was something wrong with the ground.

It was uneven. TOO uneven. As if the entire ground was made up of short sticks that shifting loosely upon his impact. After finally getting both this paws flat on the ground, he swung the torch to see what exactly what he was stepping into…

And his eyes widened in horror.

The sergeant and his squad above exchanged glances. Not, sure what to say after witnessing what they found.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the Char officer emerged from the hatch. His eyes full of solemnity.

“How many other troops know about this?” He asked immediately.

The squad exchanged glances. “Only us, sir,” The sergeant replied. “What do we tell the—?“

“We don’t tell them anything.” The Lieutenant interjected. “We report this to Captain Magnus as soon as the operation is over.”

The squad looked stunned. “W-What?! But sir! Don’t you think the people have a right to—?”

“I understand what you want to do, Sergeant.” The officer cut in with a tone that was both strict and full of sympathy. “But believe me, the last thing the people of Lion’s Arch want is to know THIS… It took half a decade to get them settled. They don’t need to know this to have those wounds open again…”

At first the Sergeant opened his mouth as if he was going to refute… But no words came out. Instead he looked depressive downward as if reluctantly agreeing it was the correct answer. He then took one deep breath and answered, “Understood, sir.”

The lieutenant nodded. He then approached him and gave the human Sergeant one sympathetic pat on his shoulder.

“Proceed with the operation, Cub…,” he said. “I want this place buried within 30 minutes.”

The Sergeant nodded slightly, and motioned the rest of his squad to follow. Carrying their satchels, they proceeded down the pipes.

As the Lieutenant now stood alone, he looked back at the hatch behind him. …And gritted his teeth snarled loudly in anger.

To think… She went that far…!!!

He then climbed back up atop the pipes and continued his supervision of the troops. Though it didn’t show on his face, the thing he witnessed severely hampered his concentration. Even after reporting to Captain Magnus, he knew definitely he was not going to have a good night’s sleep any time—-

He squinted at the distance.

What were those two troops doing? He noticed they hadn’t moved an inch for quite some time. Were they slacking off?

Then it looked like one of them kicked something away, and they immediately ran the other dire—-

BAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!

“WHAT IN PYRE!?!?”

= = =

A loud ring
A deafening, loud, shrilling ring echoed within her head.
It made her whole body numb and paralyze, even hampering her ability to wonder if any of her limbs were still attached after the blast.

“—ia!! –ia!!”

She could tell what was up or down. She tried moving. She felt her palms hit a smooth, cold floor. Curling her fingers, she squinted and shook her head. The voice got clearer..

“—Okay? —ia! Lilyia!”

Eyes still squinting, she looked forward and the bright white vision soon became more focused. Colors and shapes began to form and realized that Tom kneeling in front of her.

“…Am I dead?”

“No.”

“…Am I dreaming?”

He sneered. “No, your not dead or dreaming. Here, let me help you up.”

She pushed him away. “Oh, lay off, Tom. I’m fine.”

She immediately got up, and placed a palm to her forehead. She glanced behind her and saw the explosion point. It was a miracle the pipe was still intact, save for a large webbed crack on its clear, crystalline surface.

Tom looked offended. “Geez, no need to get all attitude. Especially since this was all your fault.”

She eyed him, still holding her head. “My fault?! What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do I mean?’” Tom replied, surprised. “YOU were the one who armed that mine in the first place.”

“EXCUSE ME!” Lilyia yelled, now directly looking at him with her senses back. “It’s not my fault someone goofed up and placed a proximity mine in that mountain of explosives I dragged here.”

“Well, you were supposed to notice.”

“How am I supposed to notice? That thing was looked nearly like all the other charges in there, and you didn’t notice till later.”

“Well YOU didn’t notice it at all.” Tom replied angrily. “If I didn’t tell you it was a mine, we would have been dead before. Maybe if you actually did your job seriously, like actually READ the refresher manuals, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place. …Gods. The Lieutenant is gonna kill us now. All because your freakin stupid and lazy.”

“—Oh, heck no. WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?”

“Yeah you heard me!” Tom snapped back angrily, adjusting his glasses as he did. “You’re freaking stupid and lazy. You don’t ever take your duty seriously and you don’t care to learn about anything! I don’t even know why I hang around you. I feel like I have to babysit some dumb, teenage brat sometimes!!”

“Oh yeah! Well at least I’m not some know-it-all, four-eyed geek!”

“…Really? Seriously? That’s the best come back you got? Sorry to inform you Lilyia, but everyone kinda grew outta name-calling after child-hood, ya know? Then again, maybe are you are still a child. How old are you? Five years old? What am I? Twenty? Sorry if you missed out on a few years or that your mom didn’t give you that info, but I guess you can’t help it, huh?”

“OH. THAT. IS. IT!!” She withdrew the bow from her back and knocked an arrow. “I am so gonna head-shot your butt!”

Tom withdrew a pistol and aimed at her. “Pff! Fine then, bring it on blue girl! But lemme ask you first dummy: How do you ‘head-shot’ my ‘butt’? That doesn’t make ANY sense. Those are two different—“

“WHAT IN PYRE’S HAIRY TAIL IS GOING—?! Oh, it’s Curry! And the side-dish Thompson! Why am I NOT surprised?!”

They looked to the side and found the Lieutenant approaching them with a handful of troops behind him. Immediately their heated argument drained in an instance, their faces transformed to horror and dread.

“Oh crap…“ Tom began.

“It’s not my fault, sir!!” Lilyia cried, immediately bowing her head. “I was just laying down charges like ordered but there was a—-!“

CREEEEAAAAAAAAAK!

Everyone froze. Lilyia, Tom, and the Lieutenant exchanged glances. Before any of them could ask what that loud, screeching sound was-

CRAAACRACKAAACRAAA-

Like thin ice, a large web of cracks began to form on the large pipe the two were standing on. It spread from the explosion point and quickly extended to where Lilyia stood. As she looked down, the cracks began to spread around her feet. Then there felt a slight shift down, and small spraying of liquid began to spurt out.

She immediately looked at Tom. Her face was blank, but her eyes were wide.

“Tom…?”

“Lilyia..? Y-you need to move. You need to-“

“Tom. What do I-AIIIIIEEEE—-!!!“

The ‘ground’ underneath her cut her scream short as she seemed to sink and disappear into the pipe. Immediately a large fountain of white liquid erupted on where she was just standing .

“LILYIA!!” He ran toward the geyser and reach out, as if to grab her within the hole—-

“NO DON’T, DON’T’!!” The Char officer pounced on him, keeping him pinned down. “Don’t touch the liquid! Troops hold him, down!”

Several of the other troops join in on holding the young private as he still reached out, calling.

“Lemme go! LEMME GO!! We gotta get her outta there!! She’s—“

“She’s gone private!!”

Tom was paralyzed.

“I already told you… Just a spray of it will kill you.” The Lieutenant gritted under his teeth.

Tom made no reply. He just stared at the bubbling white poison flowing from where she was standing just moments ago…