New friend

Having found out a peculiar pathway being hidden, she ventures forward in hopes of finding fellow humans. It is rather dim, but thanks to Bit's built-in flashlight she can go further. She finds a hallway with different scriptures on the walls.

"Look at all this. There might be children living around here somewhere."

"I assume that their parents deemed this place safe enough to be a playground."

"Maybe I should make a scripture of my own as well."

"We don't have the necessary equipment to do such activity. For now just keep searching for any sign of life."

After a long walk, she sees the end of they hallway. When she approaches, she is greeted with an astounding sight - an entire town, in a huge cave and she can hear the sound of people or in another case, sense it. She walks downward through the iron stairs neatly made in the shape of a spiral. Some people have noticed her as they start talking among themselves. Someone questions if she's a visitor while another shudders at the chance of her being a scavenger.

"Chella, the locals have noticed you. I'll call the Driller if anything happens."

"Geez, they look harmless. I just need to show them that I am as well."

All the talk between townsfolks soon becomes a commotion. Probably due to this place never had a visitor before as well as the rumors about infamous scavengers wandering on the surface. With people in the town gathering around the stairs. The mayor himself has to come out and resolve this soon-to-be conflict.

Chella reaches the bottom as she is greeted with curious eyes, some of them look doubtful. The mayor walks pass the crowd and disperses the noises as he gets himself ready to give a new face a proper greeting.

"I've never seen you before. Who might you be, lass?"

"Humans everywhere, you're all humans with all kinds of facial features."

"Uh...yes we're humans. Kindly state yourself and your purpose of coming to this town."

"I'm just a wanderer, I simply found some footprints and they led me here. I wanted to see if there were any humans besides me."

"Well, you don't seem to have any hostility. As for the footprints, I think I know who you're looking for."

The mayor assures his fellas that Chella poses no harm. The crowd slowly disperses themselves. He then leads her to the house far east of town. The 2 people he knows seems to have left a remark on the guess and it's best to introduce them to her. He begins pressing a white button right next to a white metallic door.

"Hey, our town has a visitor...no, you have a visitor."

"Mr. Mayor? Please wait a bit."

A voice of an old man about 70 years old can be heard. After a few seconds, the white door opens revealing an old man in a lab coat. He seems to be in a middle of a experiment. His head is sweating a bit, his silver hair all point behind him making it seem like he likes combing his hair that way. Along with a lab coat is a black shirt underneath. He looks at Chella curiously with his white eyes.

"Visitor? Is it her?"

"Yes, Gilbert. She came all the way to this town because of the footprints you and your granddaughter left behind yesterday."

"You'd like to meet us? Come inside, you too Mr. Mayor."

"I'll have to decline, I still have some paperwork to do."

"That's unfortunate. Come whenever you're free."

With that, the mayor waves goodbye and leaves the house. Gilbert leads Chella to the workshop in the back of the house. He still has some experiment to focus on so he tells her to meet his granddaughter in the workshop. Chella sees a bunch of devices and tools laid around in all corners. At the center of the room, a girl wearing a thin yellow shirt and brown pants fixated in a part to another.

"Hello, are you his granddaughter?"

"Huh? A visitor, your face seems new. What do you need?"

The tinkerer takes off her goggles when she hears Chella's voice, she sees a girl a bit older than her with dark green hair and eyes. Some places on her body is comparably bigger than her. Chella seems to notice something as she begins speaking.

"My name is Chella and I came from somewhere faraway. I followed the footprints you and your grandfather left which led me here."

"Glad to have a visitor to our town. The name's Noelle Hawkins but you can call me Nova. Do you want to be my friend?"

"Sure! Me and Bit would love to?"

"Is there someone else with you?"

"Here."

Chella shows Nova the watch on her left wrist. The fact that Chella has an A.I in her possession intrigues Nova more. Nova has never seen an A.I before despite the reused technology in her town was pretty advanced. Bit begins an introduction.

"Greetings, Chella's acquaintance. I am an A.I and an archive programmed mainly to record information as well as piloting the Omega-Driller Model Zero. You may refer to me as Bit."

"Model Zero? You even have your own vehicle? May I see it?"

"We left it on the surface but if it's a request of a friend then I can let you."

"Thank you Chella. Granpa, these 2 are awesome!"

A voice can be heard upstairs, telling Nova not to talk so loud. Nova calms herself down and proceeds with her works, saying that Chella could watch while sitting on the chair near the wall. Nova is about to finish another device of the day after the one made by her this morning. She puts the small cube she just created inside a hoverbike and stands up wiping all the sweat on her forehead.

"It's done, I've upgrade the hoverbike."

"Sounds awesome. What does it mean though?"

"It means that it doesn't just simply hover above any surface. It can FLY! This idea is inspired by an old film I watched known as E.T."

"E.T? I watched it too."

"Really? I can see us being great friends in the future. Here's looking forward to be with you."

"Same. Should we try the thing, like right now?"

"Sure. Grandpa, we're going out for a bit?"

"Don't do anything reckless you hear?"

Gilbert has finished his experiment and is about to have some coffee. He sees them off as they ride a hoverbike. Nova drives it straight forward for a bit until the hoverbike slowly flies further from the ground. Some people notice this while doing their own things. Eventually, everyone all look above.

"She's at it again, that brat..."

"That looks awesome, can I get one, mom?"

Meanwhile, Nova enjoys the vivid air surrounding her as well as the softness from something behind. She knows if she were a guy something would definitely be rising. Chella simply enjoys what it feels like to be floating. The 2 of them is like happy friends playing around with their toy. Both of them laugh enjoyingly, looking down at the bright town from above.

The hoverbike stops at midair as Nova decides to just enjoy looking at the town she enjoys living in so much. Chella also takes her time with the one-of-a-lifetime scenery. Calm silence ensues, nobody utters a single word. Yet their faces show genuine contentment. The view in this town is nice, on the contrary to the barren and lifeless borderland up there.

However, such exquisite moment won't last long. An upcoming danger is already on its movements. All the nice chatters of people with people will fade and be replaced with panic and sheer anxiety for having been surrounded from every corner without a single strand of hope, or so it's supposed to be.

"Chella! I lost connection with the Driller. It must've been hijacked."

"What?"

"Is there something wrong, Chella?"

Nova notices Chella having a worried face, something bad must be happening and it concerns her. As if fate doesn't give Nova the time to think, a rumbling sound can be heard within the walls. Everyone stops what they're doing when they hear such a sound. Then something pierces through the wall. It's a huge drill, coming out of the huge crack are a bunch of armed scavengers. There is no mistaking it for everyone, it is an attack. Now screams can be heard everywhere, some guys tried to fight back but due to having no advanced weapons, they get injured. Without any hope of countering scavengers armed with plasma guns, everyone soon get cornered. Someone gets out of the Omega-Driller and stands above the gazing eyes of his captives.

"MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! It's always easy to oppress the likes of you. As a piece of cake as this is, I can never grow tired of stepping on your heads."

"Oh man, why does it have to be him?"

"H-he's here! We're all screwed!"

Everyone continues panicking while Chella questions herself how the maniacally laughing man was able control the vehicle. Bit notifies her that the administration has been overwritten which means access is blocked. Not only that, the townsfolks seem to recognize the man leading the scavengers.

He has long grey hair and eyes, he wears a white robe and a green shirt underneath along with brown jeans. The man enjoyingly looks at the terrified captives of his, eager to strip away their hopes. Yet, Nova's grandfather - Gilbert won't let it go like that as he draws out a high-tech shotgun painted all black while its inside is coated in dark yellow.

"I did not expect you of all people to show up but I won't stand by."