Liam didn't take his eyes off Adrian.
The leader of the settlement stood calmly beneath the flickering lights, his expression unreadable.
Noah shifted his grip on his sword.
"Talk about what?"
Adrian looked at the sealed steel door before answering.
"About why this place exists."
He glanced toward Victor.
"Go back upstairs."
Victor frowned.
"They've already seen the door."
"I know."
"They'll need to know eventually."
Victor hesitated, then gave a reluctant nod before walking away. His footsteps faded up the concrete ramp, leaving only the four of them in the underground garage.
Adrian folded his arms.
"When we first found this building..."
"...the door was already sealed."
"We thought it was another emergency shelter."
"So we tried to open it."
He smiled bitterly.
"Three people died."
Noah's expression darkened.
"What happened?"
"They disappeared."
Liam frowned.
"Disappeared?"
"There wasn't any blood."
"No bodies."
"No screams."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"They simply walked through the door..."
"...and never came back."
Silence settled over the garage.
Marcus' voice echoed from the ramp.
"Liam?"
The older man hurried down with Emma and Rachel close behind.
"We were told you came down here."
His eyes immediately found Adrian.
"What's going on?"
Adrian sighed.
"I suppose everyone's involved now."
He explained everything again.
The missing explorers.
The sealed shelter.
The voices.
By the time he finished, no one looked comfortable.
Rachel stepped closer to the steel door.
"If people vanished..."
"Why not destroy it?"
"We tried."
Adrian pointed toward several deep grooves carved into the steel.
"Explosives."
"Fire."
"Ice."
"Lightning."
"It repairs itself."
Emma blinked.
"Repairs itself?"
"As if the damage never happened."
Liam stepped closer.
The steel felt strangely warm beneath his fingertips.
Then...
The gray Administrator window appeared.
Administrator Authority Detected
Authenticating...
Everyone suddenly heard a loud metallic click.
The massive locking wheel on the door turned by itself.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Adrian's eyes widened.
"It..."
"It's opening."
The reinforced door slowly swung inward.
A rush of cold air escaped from the darkness beyond.
The lights inside flickered on one by one.
Not electric lights.
Crystal lamps.
Soft white light illuminated a long underground corridor.
Its walls were smooth black stone unlike anything Liam had ever seen.
No concrete.
No steel.
No signs of modern construction.
It looked ancient.
Older than the city above.
Older than history itself.
Emma whispered,
"This wasn't built by humans..."
Liam silently agreed.
The gray window flashed.
Administrator Facility Identified
Archive Vault 17
Status: Dormant
Access Level: Visitor
Visitor?
Liam had expected Administrator.
Not Visitor.
Noah looked at him.
"You can read that thing again, can't you?"
Liam nodded.
"It says this place is..."
He paused.
"...an Archive Vault."
Adrian frowned.
"You've seen this before?"
"No."
"But somehow..."
"...it knows me."
A low hum echoed through the corridor.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Something was waking up.
Far down the hallway...
Two pale blue lights appeared.
They weren't lamps.
They were eyes.
Mechanical eyes.
A tall figure emerged from the darkness.
It stood over eight feet tall.
Its body was forged from silver metal covered in intricate golden patterns.
Instead of a face...
It wore a smooth mask with glowing blue eyes.
There was no weapon in its hands.
Yet every instinct Liam had screamed that this thing was far more dangerous than any monster he'd encountered.
It stopped exactly ten meters away.
Then...
It bowed.
Not to Adrian.
Not to Marcus.
Not to anyone else.
To Liam.
A calm, emotionless voice echoed through the corridor.
"Welcome back... Administrator Candidate."
The words hit Liam like a hammer.
Back?
Before he could respond, another line followed.
"You are 4,782 years late."
The entire corridor fell silent.
No one moved.
No one even breathed.
Liam could only stare at the machine.
One impossible question echoed through his mind.
How could he be thousands of years late... for a place he'd never seen before?