The navigator checked her stopwatch.

  “That’s time again.”

  Anya and the others reached into their pouches and each took a pill. Some of them also took Perception Pills.

  “How’s your leg?” Kite turned to Anya.

  “Could be worse, at least I didn’t have to shoot myself this time.”

  The tunnel had opened up, and its ceiling now stretched so high that it could not be seen through the thick air. A fracture ran down the middle of the tunnel, with jagged plates of concrete lining its sides. They clambered over the sharp cracked terrain, the light of the navigator’s lantern disappearing into the darkness as she dived in and out of the rubble.

  The cracks writhed up the tunnel’s sides, becoming wider and deeper as they progressed, until eventually nearly half the height of the tunnel was filled with cracked stone and concrete.

  Yet amongst the desolation, a beacon could be seen ahead. A soft emerald light that cut through the dark.

  “There’s the door, the ladder should be nearby.” The navigator called out.

  Kite loaded a flare into his rifle and fired it in the direction of the light. For the briefest moment the tunnel shone brilliantly, giving the group just enough time to see the warped ladder hanging from the side of the metal walkway that lead to the beacon.

  “Why didn’t you use those before?” Anya asked.

  “They’re expensive, to be honest I’m only using it because I’m sick enough of these tunnels to warrant the cost.”

  Anya could feel the blood soaking through her bandage and drying on her skin. Her leg felt weak, and she struggled to climb the increasingly steep slabs of concrete. She stopped and pulled her pistol and a magazine from her belt.

  “What are you doing?” Kite questioned.

  “How do these rounds work?”

  “Great question. The doc told me the metal probably scatters some chunks of whatever it hits into an ocean and the buoyancy pulls you up. You’re not going to shoot yourself again are you?”

  Anya pulled one of the rounds from the magazine and inspected it. It was a solid piece of metal in a dart-like shape. “Do you reckon it needs the whole thing to work?”

  “I don’t know, what are you thinking?”

  She held the round against the edge of a nearby slab, and slammed on it with her foot, snapping it in half. She loaded the cut round into her pistol, and fired it into the sole of her boots. “It feels a little lighter.” Performing the same operation on four more rounds, she fired one into her other shoe, and three into the corners of her Anchor Case. With the weight on her body lessened, she grabbed the ledge of a tall slab and pulled herself to the top to meet Kite.

  “Pretty neat, though I’d try save the rounds — you won’t find any in the city here.” he exclaimed.

  “Sure, think we’ll find any rope?”

  “I doubt they’ll be selling it, most of the rope comes from a guild in Beta-2 and they like to hike their prices when demand gets high.”

  With her equipment lightened, Anya and Kite climbed their way to ladder. The navigator had reached the walkway already, she tugged on the ladder and jostled slightly, a plume of dust bellowed out from the disturbance. She held her lantern up and searched for another way onto the walkway, yet there was only darkness in either direction.

  “It’ll have to do, I’ll bother the city to get their entrances fixed.”

  She ascended the ladder carefully. Anya, Kite, and the other members of the group followed after her. One of the Irises collapsed onto the walkway as she pushed herself up over the final rung. The metal reverberated as her palms came crashing onto the grating, the receding sleeves revealing both of her arms and hands to be mechanical.

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  The Iris scrambled for her Perception Pills, reaching into her pouch and pulling out a handful, throwing them into her mouth and swallowing almost all of them together. Anya knelt down beside her and offered her canteen.

  “I’m fine, this is just how it is for me,” the Irises retorted in an exasperated voice. She dug her palms into the grating and pushed herself back up, her arms visibly trembling as she did so.

  The group came to the door at the end of the walkway, the bright green bulb shining above it. The door itself was heavy and rusted, and it creaked open to reveal a narrow passageway lit with a trail green lamps. Etched along the concrete wall in large angular letters was a repeating phrase: BEHOLD THE JESTER’S KEEP, WHERE LEADS THE ROAD OF FOOLS.

  “This is the entrance to the city?” Anya asked.

  “One of them, there’s probably a few dozen if I were to guess, though they’d never admit that.” The navigator replied.

  They walked in single file through the passage, which itself narrowed, widened, and turned in all directions. Anya found herself at the back of the group, the metal-armed Iris just ahead of her. The passage went on endlessly.

  “Why did you take so many pills?”

  The Iris glanced back at Anya, then pulled her sleeves up to show her mechanical arms. She stopped briefly and did the same with her trousers, revealing both of her legs to be metal too. She pulled down her high scarf and the mask across her face, showing that even her lower jaw and the entirety of her neck were artificial.

  “I have been in the Tanglements for one cycle only. After the Gateway I was transported to Delta-1. Do you know anything about Delta-1?”

  “I don’t, no.”

  “It’s a flat concrete plane. It goes on forever, and forever, and forever. There is almost nothing there, nothing you can survive on. I walked and withered, the sickness began to take me. A Cartographer found me when all my limbs had faded away and my neck had begun to crumble. I could not see her when she found me, I could not hear her, I could not feel when she picked me up and took me to the Travellers Foundation. A Mechanist gave me the limbs I have now, yet the Tanglements still wants to take me. It will either be that or an overdose of pills.”

  The passage finally ended, and they were greeted with a small room containing a few benches and an empty pill dispenser. A guard stood protecting another metal door, above which was a golden plague emblazoned with an emblem depicting a shield decorated with a jester’s hat. There was also a cobbled together lectern by the door.

  The guard was tall and covered in a thick plated armour. He carried a rifle similar to Kite’s, yet it was bulkier and possessed a wider set of barrels.

  “State your business with the Keep.” He bellowed out.

  The navigator held up her badge. “Emergency supply unit from the Traveller’s Foundation.”

  The guard lifted a sheet of paper from the lectern and checked it over.

  “I need to see your badge. Foundation teams are usually seven or eight strong, did you lose some members?”

  The navigator handed her badge to the guard. “Dog attack, lost a scout and the demo. Also found the body of another scout from some other team, I’ve got all their badges with me.”

  “My condolences. The previous team reached us with only three members left.”

  “Are they here still?”

  “I believe so, yes. Badge looks good, the Keep thanks you for your services.” He turned and opened the door. Anya and the others held their badges up one by one to be checked, as they walked through the final doorway and into the city of Jester’s Keep.