“S-Space?” Lillian stuttered, trying to grasp what the boy had just said.
“Yeh,” He replied, simply.
“You mean…” She pointed upwards. “Like, outer space? Up there.”
“Yeah!”
“H-How!?”
“Well, what do you think all those stars are doing’? The sun’s a star, it’s spinning around 9 planets, and shouldn’t the others be doing something similar?”
“B-But… wait, how could you possibly know this?”
“Um…” The boy trailed off. “Now’s not the time for much discussion.”
“But, you still didn’t answer my questions, what the hell was that!?”
“A Timbus,” The boy paused, and then continued. “An incredibly dangerous species, they broke Law 54, and they’re going to be eradicated…” He paused again. “By me.”
“B-By you?” Lillian shook her head in disbelief. “W-Why you? You’re just, a regular person.”
“Well, excuse you!” The boy retaliated. “I can assure you that in several different ways I am far from normal!” He pointed at Lillian, making her take a step back.
“O-Okay, okay…” Lillian saw that from what had just happened, she had nothing else to believe in. “Y-You were… sent to, eradicate these… Timbus. H-How are you going to do that?”
“Well, that’s simple.” The Traveller smiled, even though the situation wasn’t fitting for it, at all. “The way the Timbus work is through a hive-mind, all their thoughts are connected through neural tethers. When a thing is tethered, there’s obviously something they’ll be tethered to. Timbus Drones are connected to the Timbus Queen, which is the center for the hive-mind of a colony of Timbus.”
“…” Lillian didn’t know exactly what to say. “W-What?” Well, other than that.
“Doesn’t matter…” The boy put his palm onto the door. “The Timbus Drone is gone, let’s go.”
"Wait? Go? Back there!? Are you insane!?"
"Either we go back in there and kill the queen or you stay in her and die."
Lillian thought for several minutes. After what had just happened, she honestly didn't think starvation was as bad of a death: it beats being eaten by that monster, anyway.
"O-Okay." Lillian said as she looked up from her feet, only to find that the boy had left. She saw the door slightly ajar.
"Oh, I am going to kill that boy." She said to herself as she walked up to the door and looked outside it. The hallway was indeed lacking that Timbus thing. With a deep breath and all the courage in her little 15-year-old heart. She stepped forward out of the hallway.
Then, she heard something that she very much had wished she hadn't hear, it was a howl.
Slowly she turned around, seeing just what she had expected: The Timbus.
The monster stared into her eyes, it lowered into another pouncing stance. Lillian swore in her head, for several different reasons. The monster took a step forward, she took a step back. It took another step forward, she took a step back.
Then, just as the monster was about to jump, Lillian heard a bang, then something whizzed right past her face in into the monster's. Almost instantly all the colour drained out from the Timbus' tentacle and it fell to the ground, dead. Lillian turned around and saw The Traveller, holding a rifle, and carrying several more behind his back.
"T-Traveller!?" Lillian said in disbelief. "W-What in earth!?"
"Rifle-ex-machina." Traveller stated simply as he tossed one of his guns at Lillian. She stumbled to catch it at first.
"W-What, Traveller? I don't know how to use a rifle!" Lillian said, following The Traveller as he walked down the hallway towards the lower floor. Lillian watched as The Traveller pulled a handle on the rifle and a case fell out.
"Just point at a thing and pull the trigger." Traveller walked up to the door that lead to that staircase. He opened the door and began running down the stairs. Lillian followed.
"B-But what are we going to do with these rifles?"
"We're gonna shoot the queen!"
"B-But... won't it like, kill us?"
"Don't worry." He smiled as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "I don't let any guy die."
That didn't really make Lillian feel better, but she doubted she could get anything better out of this person. She followed The Traveller past the living room and through several others. Before reaching what looked to be the cellar.
"W-We're going in there?"
"Yup!" The Traveller yelled before running to the door an opening it. But, he didn't open it like you normally would. He had decided that this would be a raid, and as such, would treat it like one. He kicked the door down, with surprising force.
The door rocketed down the stairs and landed at the bottom of the cellar with a crash. “Come on!" Traveller yelled as he began running down its steps.
Lillian quickly followed, clutching the rifle in her hand tightly, she still had next to no idea how to use but if anything could save her it was probably this.
The two reached the bottom of the cellar where Lillian beheld what she assumed was the queen, as horrifying as it was, as I am about to describe.
In a simple phrase the Timbus Queen could be known as: Absolutely disgusting. It was absolutely enormous, with thick black skin, yellow eyes, and a mass of green tentacles coming from its neck. But, other than that, it's similarities with a Timbus Drone ended. The creature lay in a pool of reddish-green mucous. The Queen's body looked puffed up, like some kind of slug or termite queen. It pulsated slowly, Lillian's stomach churned at the sight. She took a step back, while The Traveller ran towards it.
He stopped just before the pool of grossness and pointed his rifle towards the beast's eyes. But, just before he could make the shot, the monster's tentacles wrapped around his legs.
"Oh, sh-" Before he could finish his words the Traveller was propelled towards the walls of the cellar.
Lillian screamed at the white blue of The Traveller being thrown straight into a wall. Then, the tentacles darted towards her! She shut her eyes and pointed her gun in front of her. Then, she pulled the trigger.
A bang rang through the entire room, Lillian was almost knocked back by the recoil of the gun. She opened her eyes and saw, the monster, was dead.
Lillian stood in front of the corpse, she saw the body start smoking as it seemed to literally evaporate, the green mess of liquid seemed to disappear as well, leaving only the red liquid. Lillian knew what it was, and that it was already too late. She sighed deeply.
"Wow..." She heard beside her. "Um… good job.”
Lillian turned to her head and saw The Traveller standing beside her. "Y-You're still alive!?" She staggered in disbelief.
"Uh, yeah. It’s a thing I can do.” He replied.
"B-But..." She stopped and looked back to the stained blood on the floor. "Actually, what does it matter now?" Lillian said. "Both of my new parents are dead, am I supposed to go back to the orphanage?" She spoke to The Traveller. “What’ll they think when Lillian come back saying that her new parents were eaten by monsters?”
The Traveller spoke quietly. “Well…” He began. “You don’t have to back to your orphanage.” He said.
“What? How? If not the orphanage, then where?”
“Maybe…” Traveller spoke quietly, almost nervous. “You could come with me?”
"W-What? With you?" She didn't fully understand.
"Well, yeah. This isn't the only Timbus queen, and, you’re, um...."
"But, where do you live? Or, how.-“
The Traveller smiled, cutting her off. "Follow me, I'll show you."
Lillian followed The Traveller wordlessly up the steps towards the back of the mansion. Traveller opened the door to the back and Lillian’s eyes widened again at what she saw.
In front of her was a tall metal door, it seemed to be made of shining white steel, on the top and bottom were bright yellow and black stripes. Below the top stripes were the words ‘CAUTION’ and ‘Do Not Enter!’ It was EXACTLY like the door Lillian had seen in her dream, while driving here.
“Alright, you ready?” Traveller asked as he began walking towards the door. Lillian just nodded, not knowing what to say. Her life was being thrown head over heels, what was there to say?
“But… where does the door lead?” Lillian asked. Well, I guess she could say that.
“I’m showing you.” Traveller opened the door and a brilliant white light shone out from it. Lillian shielded her eyes, but suddenly, she was shoved from behind. She flew forward but used her arms to suppress her fall. But, her hands didn’t land on grass…
Lillian opened her eyes and looked up, she couldn’t even believe what she saw. Through the door, where she could see nothing, there was an entire room!
The room looked quite large, several meters long and across, in fact, it was in the shape of a cube. The walls, ceiling, even floor was metal-plated. But, what Lillian didn’t see was actual furniture. The room was completely empty. She got up and turned around, she saw what she assumed to be the other side of the door.
“Welcome to Doorway, Lillian!” Lillian turned her head and saw The Traveller standing beside her.
“D-Did you push me?” She asked.
“Um… not important.” Traveller replied before walking to the west wall of the room. He flipped a panel and underneath were several rows of buttons. He pushed two of them and suddenly Lillian saw the ground shift underneath her feet!
The metal panel seemed to be replaced with something that resembled bronze, in the center of the room appeared a giant glass pillar that seemed to be filled with a viscous purple liquid. Around the cylindrical glass vat came a control panel filled with buttons and levers and switches and lights and sliders.
“I-Impossible.” This was beyond Lillian’s comprehension, she stepped towards the control panel marveling at the sight. She felt like she was in a dream, wait, a dream! That’s got to be it! She’s still sleeping!
Lillian pinched herself, nothing. She pinched herself again, still nothing. One last time… rubbish.
“So… this, still isn’t a dream.” Lillian looked to the mass of unlabeled controls. “How do you control a…” She looked behind her. “Door?”
“This isn’t a door,” Traveller said, walking beside her. “This is Doorway!”
“What’s the difference?”
“I-It’s a proper noun.” Traveller stuttered.
Lillian still could hardly believe it. “So… this is where you live, Traveller?”
“And if you want, you can live here too!” He smiled and pointed to a hallway to Lillian’s left. “Go that way and pick any room you fancy.” He said. “I’ve got some techno jargon to do.” He began pressing buttons on the console as weird beeps came from a large monitor.
“Um… okay.” Lillian said as she began walking into the hallway.
As she stepped inside she found that the hallway was perfectly white, it wasn’t like it had been painted white, but that it just… was, if that made any sense. She saw 3 doors, and tried the closest.
She opened the first door and saw a small cozy room, at once Lillian had found she rather liked the size of the room. It felt just right, she took a single step into the room and at once the floor morphed under her feet. The white floor transformed into wooden panels and the walls became a pale blue. From one corner of the room grew a bed with blue floral sheets and in the opposite corner grew a mahogany desk. Beside her entrance came a mahogany dresser with a large mirror. Lillian saw between the bed and the desk grew a window, she ran up to it and looked outside seeing a beach, with the waves of the ocean gently rolling across it. Lillian had always dreamed of living next to the ocean.
Out of sheer awe Lillian stuck her arm out the window, only to feel the cool breeze. A tear came out of her eye, this was real. This was beyond amazing. She could still hardly believe it.
“Wow, I like your room.” She heard from behind her, Lillian turned around and saw Traveller looking around the room. Without a word she ran towards him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Thank you, so much!” Lillian said burying her face into The Traveller’s sweater, trying to contain her excitement.
“H-Hey, it’s fine… Doorway does this all the time.” Traveller replied as Lillian let go. She saw Traveller’s cheeks flush.
“U-Um, I’m gonna let you bawl over a little bit more, see you.” Traveller walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Lillian walked to the dresser, still filled with glee, she opened it and saw that all her clothes were already inside! “N-No way…” She said to herself. Lillian looked around her room again, it was absolutely perfect! Everything felt so cozy, and Lillian loved the soft blue of the walls.
Lillian leaped onto the bed onto to be enveloped in its softness. She giggled to herself, feeling like a child again. “Look at me…” She said. “Rolling on a bed, given to me by a boy, inside a metal door.” She laughed at it. The bed was incredibly comfy, it was very, very comfy. Lillian rolled over to her side, she hadn’t realized how tired she was until now. She closed her eyes for only what seemed like a second, and she drifted off.
End of Prologue
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Yup, that was just the prologue. This was pretty much just the beginning of our two characters. The real adventure is just beginning! Be sure to leave a review, whether you liked it or hated it. You are perfectly entitled to your opinion. Anyhow, be excellent, you’re fantastic, I love you, and cheers.
-The Unsuspectful Stone
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