Chapter 290 - Finding An Exit (2/2)

”So they were basically all alone for the past... how ever long?”

”They don't even know how long it's been. In truth, the only thing that kept any of them sane was a voice from a creature who called himself Rok. He's the only one that was able to speak to them over the years. He was also the one to spread messages among them, fed them news, entertained them... through his voice he provided the entire whole of their social existence. Even then, it was always a sad day when he had to announce a death to everyone. In the end, very few were awake enough to even communicate with me, let alone come with me. The Rainbow Devourer told me that the voice of Rok was coming less and less and many of them had started to give up hope.” Ruby shared some of the things she had learned from the creature she had combined with.

To her, it was simply the little bit of info she had from the small space the snake had lived in for the past how ever many years. But Laz immediately understood that it was actually his master, Rak'Sha who had been the voice to them.

Maybe he did it for himself. Maybe he did it for them. But either way, the reason his voice had stopped speaking as much was because he was dying himself and knew that he couldn't keep it up. But he must have realized as well that as soon as he stopped speaking all together, the few remaining living creatures would give up hope as well. So instead, he timed it to allow himself to last as long as possible.

Laz couldn't help but feel more respect for his late master while at the same time vowing to himself to one day let the last of his family know his fate, even if it meant leaving Earth one day.

Laz had a complicated look on his face, but noticing Ruby looking at him, he shook his head. There would be time for discussion later.

For now, they needed to get clear of the lab and the biggest problem was the hallway that they had come in from had been blown up, effectively blocking the door and locking them inside.

”Why only two days baby?” Ruby finally asked, following up on his earlier statement.

”The creators of this place, some sort of technical race... collected species from all over the near universe and brought them here to study them. They wanted to increase their strength by bringing in a biological aspect, something that their race had long discarded but only realized how much that had hurt them down the line. One of the things they brought in... I don't even know how to describe it but I can tell you that it's locked underground and it wants to be free and get revenge. Getting free will destroy this outpost, but at the cost of it's life. But it no longer cares about that.”

”What about the owners of this place?”

”From what I can tell it's been long abandoned and is basically running on auto pilot.”

”You seem to know a lot more than I do.”

”I met a blood ancestor of my own while we've been here...”

”It was still alive? I thought the only ones still breathing were the ones I rescued?”

”My blood ancestor was the voice that was helping them survive...”

”That... that is a very noble creature...” Ruby didn't have words, but if she could, she would have expressed her thanks to it.

”Yes. He was.”

”OK. Well then baby. Enough of this for now. You're damsel is in distress and needs rescuing. So how about figuring out how to get me out of here?”

”Just like that and it's all on me?”

”Well. I am a damsel. I am in distress and you are my... ”white knight.” So yes. It's like that...” Ruby laughed as she poked fun at Laz.

Laz pouted, but in a playful way. He was also scanning the huge room to see if there was another way out. But he found very little that could be helpful.

He finally worked his way back to the wall where his master had been strung up, traces of dried, dead blood still splashed the wall while the spikes were still jutting out from the wall.

”What happened here?” Ruby asked in horror.

”The final resting place of my ancestor.”

Looking around, Laz noticed something he hadn't seen before. Underneath where his master had been kept, there was what looked to be a drain cover that was hard to separate from the floor thanks to the layers of dust and rubble. It would make sense that Laz's master had probably bled a lot from the area where the spikes impaled him or even thanks to his missing lower half. It seemed like the drain was there to collect the resulting fluids.

Laz had an idea... but he didn't like it.

Looking at Laz and then turning to look at the drain he found, Ruby knew what he was thinking.

”You thinking this is a problem? Darling, I once crawled through and hid in a septic tank to escape some foreign gentlemen who were mad that I offed their boss. This is like a nice walk through the woods compared to that....”

”Ruby?”

”Yes Laz?”

”That's... kind of hot...”

”Shut up and get the lid open....”