The Quiet Room

Inside the room were jail cells lined within the sides of the walls. The room was barely illuminated with a sole crystal in the ceiling far out of Garrett's reach. Each of the jail cells had sturdy iron bars that separated Garrett from whatever lied within. He turned to the left and peered into the cell. There was a figure in there, lying on the ground motionless, and covered in ratted and horrendously disgusting clothing.

"Hey! Hey, are you alive?" Garrett asked, knocking his sword against the bars, echoing throughout the entire room. There was no response. "Hey! I'm not here to hurt you!" He knocked harder, but there wasn't any movement. It was only now that Garrett began to recognize the scent of death and decay permeating the air. He held himself back from gagging and covered his nose.

"Hey! Anyone else in here!" He shouted into the darkness of the room, hoping for some sort of reply. There was only silence. Garrett wandered from cell to cell, finding more and more bodies that appeared to have died of neglect. A few of them were twisted and mangled in unnatural ways; limbs were broken and bones sticking out of holes that they shouldn't have. "What kind of place is this?"

He didn't know anything about Prism or what these robots were doing down here. It mostly looked like they were here mining, but then what were these people doing here? Were they some sort of test subjects? It didn't look like there were any robots for testing, but he hadn't seen everything. Were they just prisoners who were left to die? Maybe the mangled bodies were prisoners who got too rebellious. Still, there had to be a reason that this room was protected by a sentry turret. What could be worth protecting?

This room was long, with at least twenty jail cells on each side. As he continued to walk by the jail cells, he noticed the other side of the room had another metal door. He walked over to it and examined it closely. This one was much fancier and was protected by a keypad consisting of various symbols he didn't understand. It looked as though he needed a six-figure code. There wasn't anything around that would have told him where or how to figure out what was needed. He put his ear against the door to listen for what might be on the other side.

It was quiet with the odd sound of a gentle hum. Unfortunately, that was all that Garrett could hear. There weren't any gaps or secret entrances that he could see. The only way to get through was to figure out the code. Even if he had the raw power to break down the door, it was too much of a risk without knowing what was behind it. No, he had to find the code.

As he turned around to leave and regroup with Cerezie and Plex, he noticed something in the corner of his eye, or rather, someone. In one of the jail cells was a gray-skinned woman wearing an apron. It was hard to make out the details in the darkness, but Garrett could see a few things about her. She was lying on the ground, blindfolded and her mouth was gagged by cloth. Her hands and ankles were tied behind her back and she wasn't moving. Slowly, Garrett approached the jail cell and knocked on the bars. "Hey, are you alive?"

There was a pause of silence before the gray-skinned woman lifted up her head and turned it towards Garrett. She looked like she was struggling just to keep her head an inch off the ground. "Hey, I'm going to get you out of here." The woman just laid her head down, out of strength as her body went limp, though Garrett could see that she was still breathing. "Okay, how do I open this?"

The iron bars were much too thick and too sturdy for Garrett to try cutting them down with his sword. The lock was held by a large deadbolt that required a key to unlock. This, however, looked to be much thinner than the bars. "Okay, here goes something." Garrett lifted his sword up over his head, aiming his swing, then bringing the sword down with all his might onto the lock. The sound of metal against metal rang through the room and up Garrett's arms. He cried out in pain as his sword clattered to the ground. After a bit, he looked at the lock, which didn't even seem like he did anything to it. Once he regained proper feeling in his arm, he studied the lock again. He didn't have anything he could use to pick the lock, nor did he have the skills to be able to do so. But, that gave him an idea. He picked up his sword and called out to the woman. "Okay, so I can't break open the door, but I know someone who can open it. I'll have to go get them, but I will be back."

The woman didn't respond, so Garrett left on faith that she was still alive and would be when he got back. As he exited the room, he peered around to see if the turret was still stuck. The vines were still surrounding and ingrained into the turret, but they were clearly more shriveled from before. He looked down at his ring but decided against using it again. Unlike his bracelet, there was no indicator of how many times he could use this or if he even could. Carefully, he stepped out of the room and headed back into the tunnel that led to Plex.

As he emerged back in the room where he had left Plex, he saw an unnerving sight. Plex, covered in dirt and scrapes, was still in the room and the large robot with the flamethrowers was nowhere to be seen. However, the tunnel entrance that Cerezie had taken was covered in rock and earth. "Plex! What happened?" Garrett asked as he rushed over to Plex after picking up his spear.

"Boss! You are alive!" Plex saluted, the returned to moving rock out of the way. "When you left, the robot split and chased after both you and Cerezie. I was stopped by the robot and unable to follow you, so I attempted to pursue the one chasing Cerezie. As I did, it attacked the walls and caused the ceiling to cave in. I only had dug myself out moments ago when you entered."

"So, Cerezie is trapped in there with the flamethrower robot?" Garrett asked, staring at the collapsed tunnel entrance. "How quickly can you get it cleared?"

"It would take a few hours," Plex said, working at the quickest pace that it could.

"Cerezie," Garrett said, putting a hand out for Plex to stop. "We're going to have to leave her for now. There's something more pressing."