CHAPTER 5

Riley is in denial. This elevator refuses to do what it was created for. It refuses to respond to its master's will. The scientist, drowning in his own delusions, refuses the refusal.

Riley is inside the box playing around with all the switches, commands, and mechanisms. He had to open the door manually using all his strengths. The only button that worked so far was the one to close the door. Said door slammed itself such so hard the sound traversed the whole desert. The assassin and the kid heard that. Seeing this, the doctor has been on double duty, punching everything he sees while begging that something works.

For Zephyr, this is what his people described as "nutjob behavior". The doctor can see with his own two eyes that this thing is a malfunctioning pile of junk. This doesn't stop him from endangering his life, sitting inside this device on the precipice of disaster. A one-way ticket to his death.

Nil and Urth jumps into a frenzy, and they are not the only ones. 

It's bad enough for Zephyr to deal with the assassin. Now the person he protects is throwing his life away by messing with relics that shouldn't be messed with. He can vividly call back to the remaining villagers evoking on a regular basis to not touch the elevator. That prompts him to dash at the doctor's direction, ignoring his opponent entirely.

Alister is left empty-handed. Leg broken, walking properly again is not an option, unless he wastes money on a bionic leg. Too expensive for what they do, too shameful for the reasons he became a bounty hunter. Even if he brings Riley's head back, whoever leaves this desert dead makes no difference. 

It's the end of his career.

Nonetheless, emptiness is soon replaced by more anger. Everything should have went according to plan, but this doctor, this filthy man, is going to escape thanks to some child living in a desert. Even if the scientist dies, without a trace of his death, Alister will have sacrificed his whole body in exchange for forced retirement. 

Maybe the money has more to do with it after all. Maybe it's this teenager with a massive sword, that somehow crawled out of nowhere and decimated Alister.

 Maybe it has to do with the assassin's old man, and the legacy that has been stolen from him.

Factors that the hunter hadn't considered up until now, because he discarded them from his consciousness long ago, are now resurfacing outside of his will. This newfound resolve makes him limp with all his energy left towards the doctor.

As soon as Zephyr gets near the elevator, he shifts to damage control.

"Sir, what are you doing!? Get out of that elevator, now!"

"Fools! All of you are fools!" Screams in agony the doctor. "How long have you lived here!?"

"I-Well, I've been here my whole life!"

"Amazing! Can you explain to me why no one, not a single SOUL, had the bright idea of FIXING this marvel of mechanical engineering!?

"I don't know, look everyone in Gallows left but me! I've been the last survivor here for, well, a little while!" Admits the young blacksmith.

"That doesn't change anything! I left this village a decade ago! SOMEBODY should have come down here during the last three thousand six hundred and fifty days, and ARRANGE this BLASPHEMY!!"

Unreachable. This scientist is so discombobulated he won't buy a word of his protector's mouth.

"Sir at least listen to me! You need to leave the elevator before it breaks apart!" Repeats Zephyr, hoping the scientist would understand the predicament.

The young man's mind bounces in too many directions at once the more he listens to the scientist's babblings. This man, he used to live here, in Gallows.

A decade ago?

Like lightning hitting a factory, Zephyr's mind explodes at the thought of those three words. A decade ago. This doctor used to live here, a decade ago.

A set of events starts clicking in his head. Past moments re-emerge. There was another scientist in Gallows, before it became a ghost town, 10 years ago. Red hair, like this man. Similar physique. About as tall. Maybe is this scientist, THE scientist? The one Zephyr has been looking forward to meet, for a decade.

Zephyr starts to shake. Looking at the doctor, it's obvious that he's too preoccupied with the elevator to care, but the young blacksmith is now mumbling his words. He's uncapable of speech.

If this man is who Zephyr thinks he is, then it is imperative that he answers the young man's many, many questions, something that has been bothering his mind ever since the scientist Zephyr remembers left Gallows.

If he could just, beforehand, confirm this man's identity, anything that could-

"Your name."

Silence.

Zephyr, lost in his thoughts, jumbles these words out.

Your, in the same family of words as you, the 2nd pronoun that we use when talking to people. Name, as in either the common name of an object, a species, a plant, or a noun designated to someone. These two words, as simple as they are in application, have so much impact that it feels like time has stopped. The scientist halts his movement.

"I… I didn't want to change the subject this drastically, but what...what is your name?" Continues the blacksmith.

Zephyr doesn't know this man's name. The boy hadn't heard how the doctor was called before meeting these lunatics.

The doctor stops what he's doing and slowly but surely looks back at Zephyr, starring the young boy in his eyes. 

The young blacksmith cannot see what's behind the scientist's goggles:

Realization.

Fright.

They look at each other. They both have no idea what to do, lost in a trance.

However, before Zephyr could confirm his terrifying suspicions, a voice in anger roars behind them.

"I'll have to come and get you outta here myself, Doc! I won't accept retirement without bringing your dead body back!" Screams Alister.

The assassin's presence alone is enough to pressure the doctor into smashing EVERY SINGLE BUTTON as fast as possible. Nil moves in front of the young man, small rocks already loaded inside its submachine gun, threatening to shoot Zephyr and the assassin down if they dare get any closer to its master. Urth is right behind him, hoping to propel its buddy's pebbles even faster thanks to its magical wind. Eylventh is flying around the elevator, ready to report on the current state of the machine.

The animals and their team coercion, the doctor frantically stomping everything that remotely looks like it can activate the elevator, and the assassin limping behind him. This is a potluck of confusion for the teenager. How is he supposed to fix this predicament with these bombardments happening all at once?

Too late.

Zephyr hears something creek. 

The flying crocodile starts screeching in utter consternation at the strange creaking noise it's hearing from the elevator. It's losing grip. The scientist's meaty and juicy 6 foot and 155 pounds is enough to send this poor excuse of a mechanical marvel backwards, bending it. A skinny and tall lunatic is forcing his own creation to drop down inside the Bottomless Pit. It's only when he looks at the side and sees that the elevator is now bent 15 degrees back that the scientist understands how much he's screwed. 

Saying that he is scared is an understatement.

In dismay, the youngling runs to grab his backpack, dropping in the process the torch blade. He grabs a rope. The hunter, seeing the state of panic in the boy's face, limps faster towards the elevator.

The doctor tries his best to open the front door but can't make it budge. Nil's first order of business is to shoot the door's glass window with a pebble. The doctor sees this and moves his hands in agitation.

"Nil! You idiot! Don't shoot at my direc-!"

The doctor's sentence is cut short, as a pebble flies at the speed of sound and pierces the door. It almost hits him in his left eye. The elevator is now bent around 30 degrees. The doctor could have died at the paws of his favorite pet.

It took him year after year of research, underground affairs, and criminal acts, one after the other, so he could prepare, get back in Gallows and explore the damn pit. After all this time, the scientist will be able to see what's inside the unknown universe that thrived below humanity for four decades… as a lifeless shell, that joins the pile of other corpses.

Perhaps two idiots and the three pets as well, who wants to rescue this donkey from hitting his head on a cliff.

We then hear a clang as the elevator detaches itself from the last remaining parts that supported it.

In an act of desperation, the doctor activates his rocket boosts and prays the contact with the glass doesn't hurt him too much. He indeed shatters the glass of the door before the elevator starts to fall too deep. He gets out of the failed machine with a few scratches. The scientist overs in the air for a few seconds, panicking as he notices his boot's fuels are near depleted.

Nil and Eylventh climbs on Zephyr's back as he's running, with Urth alarmed and confused at the two other creature's actions. The boy rapidly throws a rope at the doctor, hoping for him to catch it. 

The scientist barely manages to grab on to it despite his boots giving up on him at the last second.

The elevator falls so deep that the doctor can no longer see it when he looks down.

"Oh! Wh-Who did this!? That person deserves the blessings of the gods, I swear!" Ejects the doctor, elated and terrified.

"Mister, stay calm! I'll get you up in an instant! All you need to do is relax!

"Oh goodness it's you again! Boy, you have no idea how hard it is for me to stay calm right now! Get me out of there, ASAP, please!"

Zephyr is pulling the rope with everything he got, even receiving help from Eylventh, which is using its mouth to pick the rope. 

Alister is watching them using all their strength to get the scientist back on the surface. He can't help but smirk as he's occasionally puffing in pain. He gets rid of his helmet before sweat pouring out covers too much of his face, throwing it on the ground nonchalantly despite the fatigue and hurt.

When Zephyr turns around as he's pulling the rope, his eyes meet with those of the assassin once again. Behind the headwear and the bloody mess resides facial features akin to those of a prince. The ruthless hunter, ready to throw his leg away for a paycheck, has the apperance of charismatic leaders from those old early 2000s romantic comedies his father usually played. The irony isn't left unnoticed by the blacksmith.

"Honestly, I was expecting scarier, Alister!"

"Says boy wonder with his big ass sword. If I were you, I'd shut up and pull that rope."

"How about you help me get your precious target out of there, if you care that much!?" grinches the blacksmith as he's working hard to pull the doctor out of the pit.

"No thanks. A part of me wishes you drop the rope and let him fall, but I'm too livid to give the shithead that chance. I need him dead, and as soon as you get his ass back to the surface, he's mine."

Zephyr has no words to give to the assassin. He doesn't listen to the hunter's melodrama, focused on pulling up the rope.

The scientist, in his small corner, is still looking downward. The prospect of descending in the Bottomless Pit is as scary as he imagined and that is not changing. There is a feeling that is triumphing the overall sense of panic...

Remorse.

The doctor is thinking about the people he selfishly threw down in this hole a decade ago.

The doctor is thinking a lot about the people he selfishly sacrificed in the name of science for the last decade.

In the dark, he hears noises, grunts, and moans. They are distant at first, but as the scientist dives further into his shame, hands start moving, bodies begin to climb. Some of those monsters he sees have no face, some of them have no eyes and teeth, some of them are pale like chalk, some dark like charcoal, and burnt to a crisp. Some are dismembered, some have more limbs than a human should. Whichever variation, they are all terrifying to look at. They are in the thousands, some climbing on top of each other.

In the twisted mind of the scientist lies remains of people. They climb the rocks of the pit, trying to return, reach for him. They scream in agony as they get closer. Their hatred is palpable, unescapable.

"I didn't want to do any of this. I wanted to contribute. I wanted to be someone you all could look up to, I swear." He mumbles to himself.

He closes his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opens them back, the living dead vanishes.

Regrets materializing inside of his thoughts.

His body weights more and more as he's piling on the atrocities. He looks back at the surface, with a somber look on his face.

"That boy. He's one of those Alexanders people, isn't he? He really is that boy."

The more he wonders about the teenager, the less he can bear the fruit of his labor. He can picture the young blacksmith from when he was younger. The memories add to the guilt. The uncertainty about the boy's identity is overwhelming. He's not mentally prepared to find out.

Upstairs, Urth decides to stop the slacking off and check on its master. The man that conceived it and its companions is now tearing a fountain of tears. Urth sees this as a bad sign. He lets a loud ribbit noise, which Nil picks upon. The cat goes to scratch Zephyr's right leg. The young man is at first puzzled but understands it as a warning to pull faster. Alister is worried enough about the situation to keep an eye on things.

The hunter won't have to wait that long for his worries to be satiated. 

Out of the blue, the scientist starts screaming:

"BOY! FORGIVE ME! MY SINS ARE AWAITING ME DOWN IN THE DEPTHS!"

"What!? What are you talking about! Enough with the crazy talk and let me help you!" Desperately screams Zephyr. 

The blacksmith is so close to getting the doctor out of this mayhem. He's a just a few meters from reaching the surface again, the blacksmith can feel it. And so close to the finish line, the scientist gives up on himself. Zephyr doubles down and pull the rope faster, but his supplies of energy are failing him. He can barely manage to hold on.

"Hey hey hey, what the fuck!? This is not going down like this!" Alister lets out.

The assassin decides, seeing how turbulent things have turned out, to limp back to the edge of the pit and to get the scientist himself.

" Come on! Don't waste our fucking time!" Ragequits Alister. "You wanna face your sins now!? How about you come back up and get a taste of my blade, Riley J. Smith!"

Alister lashes out the name of the scientist unto the world.

Seconds, minutes, hours. All of these are concepts, and Zephyr's brain no longer abides by those concepts, hyper focusing on that name.

Riley J. Smith.

That name echoes in reverb. It lasts for too long.

Flashes. noises, twisted imagery. Things that are familiar to the boy: a woman being kidnapped; bodies inhabiting the streets of Gallows; the sun; everything, everywhere, all at once. Zephyr's eyes grow bigger than his stomach. Although he stops pulling the rope, the animals can discern that the boy's grip is far tighter.

Then silence.

The world refuses to move, to let time flow by. Zephyr's expression morphs into fear, rage, frustration. There's a lot that is combined in there, and the blender is having a hard time mixing it together. But when it succeeds, what it creates:

pure, utter shock.

Zephyr starts breathing heavily and fast. For a few seconds, seconds that feels like minutes, he can hear his own heartbeat.

Alister gets taken aback by this primal shift, as if the boy he just faced a few minutes ago swapped into something different, abnormal.

With a new tinge of brutal determination, the blacksmith pulls the rope faster than before, with more strength. He shouts with a powerful sense of exacerbation with every pull.

For Alister, this is unknown territory. Posed like a statue, he's back at waiting to see what happens.

For Riley on the other hand, what's happening is as clear as crystals. He's got to let go of the rope, now.