Shrouded Seascape

Charles arrived at the bottom of the elevator shaft. The moment he arrived at the noisy, chaotic space, a young man with a nose ring called out to him from the nearby elevator entrance.

Holding a jar filled with a brown, murky liquid in his hands, the young man raised it up to Charles. "Esteemed Governor, I was just about to go look for you. Could this be what you are looking for?"

Charles' attention sharpened as he quickly reached out and took the jar from the young man.

He shook it gently and managed to catch glimpses of a half-round skull submerged in the brown liquid that was flecked with bits of ice. Charles pried open the wax-sealed lid.

Before the young man could even ask how they should confirm its authenticity, he watched in shock as the Governor of Hope Island plunged his metal hand into the jar. The man wiped it down slightly before placing it directly on his head.

Charles closed his eyes as he tried to focus on the sensations. After a moment, his face was painted with disappointment as he took the skull off. "No, it's too large. This isn't mine. Where did you find this?"

The young man was taken aback for a split second. He then quickly gathered himself and led Charles toward a sloping path in the distance.

After walking for several minutes along the uneven slope, they arrived at a dilapidated specimen room.

The room was filled with jars and containers, though they were either shattered or frozen solid. Within the specimen room, several men were carefully cleaning and sorting through the remaining intact specimens. The room looked exactly like the kind of place one might store a skull.

"There's no need to be so cautious," Charles instructed. "It's fine even if the skull is broken. All that matters is finding it."

005 had only requested him to retrieve everything he had lost. She hadn't specified that they needed to be intact. It wouldn't matter even if his skull was broken into pieces; he just needed to find it.

Transparent tentacles shot up from the ground and thrashed wildly at the surroundings encased in ice. Glass shards and chunks of ice scattered through the air as the room was cleared with brutal efficiency.

Despite the chaotic and violent method, the search progressed quickly. It didn't take long before the entire specimen room had been cleared of ice.

The group meticulously inspected each jar, but unfortunately, Charles' skull wasn't among them. However, he found something far more intriguing. He found other parts of his body.

Charles crouched before the few jars lined up in front of him. The several chunks of flesh within the jars were encased in a layer of frost.

Those were samples of his organs, harvested by the Foundation's sadistic doctor after they had captured him.

Charles couldn't recognize most of the samples, but he could definitely recognize that large chunk of his liver. After all, he vividly remembered watching it being removed from his body.

After that, the Foundation had even taken these organs, mixed them with other things, and created countless monstrosities on that forsaken plant island.

Charles immediately ordered the nearby explorers to bring the samples along. Since 005 had asked for him to retrieve everything he had lost, these body parts should be included in the list too.

To make transportation more convenient, the fragmented organ pieces were all transferred into a single jar. With a gentle shake, the chunks of flesh bobbed in the preservation liquid. If one didn't know better, they would have thought the jar was just frozen meat stew.

With the jar in hand, Charles returned to the elevator shaft. He took a look at the map of SITE 6 and calculated his current position. He approached the demolition crew that was still blasting through the ice layers within the shaft.

"How much longer until we reach the bottommost floor?" Charles asked.

The man's lips were a deep shade of purple due to the bone-chilling cold. His lips trembled as he shouted, "Governor! Because of the confined space and the increasingly thick ice the deeper we go, we can't accurately assess the situation below and are unable to give an exact time!"

"It doesn't have to be exact. Just an estimation will do."

"If we work in shifts for 24 hours non stop, and there are no other complications, we'll need at least ten days!"

A hint of irritation flashed across Charles' countenance. The lengthy timeline was getting on his nerves, but he didn't push for the demolition team to go faster. If it took longer, so be it.

Cradling the jar in his arms, Charles stepped onto the rope ladder and began his climb upward.

The young explorer from earlier didn't follow Charles. He chose to remain below with the demolition crew and helped to transport the broken ice into the specimen room they had just cleared.

The descent was quick, but climbing back up was slower. After about five minutes of steady ascent, Charles found himself back at the entrance where he had previously accessed the computer.

A faint cold mist was still blowing out of the entrance. After a brief moment of hesitation, Charles jumped in and pulled out a black spike from his prosthetic arm, intending to scratch a warning on the wall.

Just as he was about to finish scribbling his warning, he glanced inside instinctively. Suspicion was stirring within him.

The mirror on the wall was once again coated in a thick layer of frost, and the computer he had used not long ago was similarly encased in ice.

Could that mirror be the source of the entire SITE 6 being encased in ice? Charles thought. At the same time, warning bells began to ring in his head as he approached the mirror with heightened caution.

As the sound of shattering glass echoed through the cold air, chunks of ice fell from the wall, and the black mirror revealed itself before Charles once again.

Charles thought for a moment before he reached into his eye socket to pluck out the spider. With a flick, he tossed it onto the surface of the mirror. The hairy legs of the spider skittered across the glass, scraping the surface as it glided.

When the same peculiar sensation appeared again, something clicked in Charles' mind. Bright electric arcs crackled in the air, briefly illuminating the dark room. Yet, despite the new light source, the mirror remained pitch black.

It was not a mirror!

Charles hurried forward; he raised his steel arm and smashed the surface. With a loud crack, shards flew in all directions, and the black surface fractured into spiderwebs of fissures.

This isn't a mirror! It's a round opening covered in ice! All the ice in this room is spreading out of this hole!

Just then, Charles felt that unsettling sensation of being watched once more. The source of that feeling was unmistakable now. It came from the blackness behind the icy round hole. Something was in there watching him from the frozen abyss.

Charles quickly pried away more of the shattered ice. Deep in the frozen darkness, he could make out several white, curved fissures.

At first glance, the fissures looked like nothing more than cracks in the ice. But as Charles focused his gaze, he could see that the marks vaguely resembled the outline of a person.

And the sensation of being watched came from those very cracks.

Whatever it was, since it could observe him, then they were definitely intelligent.

The moment Charles realized their existence, a wave of unease washed over him. Previously, he had thought that the entire SITE 6 was safe since it had been fully encased in ice. No external threats would be able to enter.

But what if something could move within the ice?

Charles bolted toward the elevator shaft as fast as his legs would carry him. He shouted both upward and downward. "Everyone! Evacuate this place immediately! Now!"

A piercing warning alarm from Sottom blasted through the air. People began to fill the elevator shaft as they scrambled frantically up the rope ladders toward the exit.

In the face of an unknown being, an overwhelming unease was gnawing at Charles' heart. That feeling even intensified when he returned to the icy opening and saw that the cracks—those human-shaped fissures deep within the ice—had vanished.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

A sudden, blood-curdling scream pierced the air from somewhere above. Charles snapped his head upward just in time to see a man wearing a headlamp plummeting toward the bottom of the shaft.

An invisible tentacle extended and caught the man mid-fall, pulling him to safety. When Charles returned to the elevator entrance, a cold shiver ran down his spine. The very same humanoid fissures he had seen earlier were now etched across the ice surrounding the elevator entrance.

They were everywhere!

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