Industrial Carnage

Content Warning: Grievous Bodily Injury, and indirect Reference to Death (https://youtu.be/TCQu4shQ-20?si=CyW27vcE4p8E6WK-) Just under a week of travel to reach the 4th layer of the Astral Highway System was pretty good time in Nar's book. Could you get to the 4th layer fast? Hell yeah. You could get there in a day or two if you knew what you were doing, what to look for, and how to avoid dying along the way. Hell, Nar could probably have done that, if it wasn't for his objective. He was here to look for Amy, and there's no telling what layer she might have ended up in. Checking as many highways as possible before moving on would yield far better chances of him finding her than simply rushing through the layers in a day. Not to mention, the deeper you get in the AHS, the more dangerous it becomes. This is Nar's first highway in the 4th layer. He's encountered a fair share of dangers before now, but now, he expected every highway to be a death trap. So when the first highway he entered in layer 4 looked to be an old, abandoned factory full of equipment, he was pretty skeptical. What was even weirder to him was how the door opened into a long, straight path with no twists, or turns. Just open space between row upon row of rusted machinery that flanked both sides of it. What's even stranger to Nar is how the factory is perfectly lit. You would think a run down factory full of rusted machinery would have some busted lights too. Then again, this is the AHS, and things tended not to make any sense here. Nar skates along the path for a good 10 minutes with little change in scenery. The rows of machinery just keep going off into the distance, and it doesn't look like there's any way for him to get past them to look for any other routes. He begins to contemplate turning back, and looking for another door from the previous highway. However, a noise causes his ears to perk. It's a little difficult to pick out, but he thinks he hears someone whimpering from inside one of the rows of machines. "Hey!" He calls out. "Is someone there?" The whimpering stops. It could be some sort of entity, luring him into a trap, or it might genuinely be someone in need of help. If there is someone there, and Nar leaves them, they'll end up the same as Amy likely did.  "Are you okay!?"  The whimpering voice finally responds. "I-I'm lost! P-please help me!" The voice sounds like a teenage girl, likely around 16. It's still quite hard to pinpoint where exactly the voice is coming from. He's going to need some time to figure out exactly where to look. Using a Thaumaturgy cantrip, Nar boosts his voice to be three times as loud. "Don't worry! Just keep calm, and try to talk to me as loudly, and clearly as possible! I'll find my way to you!" He barely hears the voice sniffle before it responds. "O-Okay! I'm over here!" Sounds like she's further down. As Nar makes his way further down the path, he calls out again. "What's your name?" "S-Samantha!" The voice responds. "Alright Samantha. Do you know anything about where you are right now? I don't mean your surroundings. I mean all the doors you've probably seen around the different places you've been through." "N-no! I don't know where I am! I'm scared!" "It's alright! I'm a part of an organization that's explored this place for a few hundred years. I'm trained, experienced, and I know how to get you out of here safely. Do you know how long it's been since you first went through a blue door marked with a star?" "I don't know!" "Do you remember how you ended up going through the door?" "I was with my friends! We were playing Truth or Dare on our way to a place to eat, and took a shortcut through an alley! My friends dared me to go into a door we found, but when I did, I turned around because I got scared! They pressured me into going in until I found where it lead, and I got lost!" Nar's heart drops. Her friends had no idea what they were getting poor Samantha into, and now, she'll be scarred for life. If she manages to make it out of here alive, and sane, that is. "Where are you from?" Comes his next question. "Manehatten!" Nar begins to formulate an idea in his head, when Samantha's voice calls out once again. "Hey! I found some sort of panel! It has a switch on it!" For a brief moment, Nar panics. "Don't touch it! We don't know what it does! Just stay put! I'll find my way to you!" "But it could help us get out of here!" For some reason, it seemed she'd completely ignored, or forgotten how Nar told her he was trained, and experienced with this place. As well as the age old rule of 'don't touch random stuff if you don't know what it does.' "No! It's too risky! This place-!" Nar is cut off by the sound of a loud TA-CHUNK from inside the machines. Shit. "I flipped the switch!" Nar curses under his breath. He opens his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by a sudden, loud, buzzing alarm from above. The sound of heavy machinery begins to fill the air. From within the machines, Samantha lets out a shriek. "The machines are moving!" Nar shouts back. "Flip the switch off!" Samantha's voice is filled with panic, and terror. "I can't!" Shit. Shit shit shit. What advice does he give her in this situation? "Can you find a way back?!" Samantha begins to scream in sheer panic, and horror. Her screams are cut by the sickening sound of snapping bone. She inhales audibly. Samantha unleashes an agonized cry into the air, which is cut short by the sound of more bones snapping only a second in. Then, she goes silent. (https://youtu.be/pnXTfD81cKQ?si=Eo6BjZGYCUQvMgC0) Nar pivots back towards the way he came. Now he notices that the machines around him are starting to close in. They're trying to cut off his escape. Nar dashes forwards, grabbing onto a pipe that has extended into his path. He uses it to vault through a rapidly shrinking opening in the path. His horn just narrowly avoids being crushed by the machinery closing in. Before his feet even hit the ground, the machines around him begin to close in. The motors on his skates whir to life, and Nar begins a mad sprint back down the path he'd come from. The machines close in around him, but it appears they have some sort of limited range, as they only try to block the path ahead of him by about 10 feet. Not nearly far enough to block off his retreat with how fast he's going on his skates. Though his dash back to the entrance is a harrowing one, Nar does not doubt himself, or that he'll make it out alive. Judging by the movement of the machines, it looks like they'd have no issue with someone on foot, but are not fast enough to  counter Nar's modified rollerblades. The dash back takes only half the time the initial trip in did, and Nar manages to open the door, and enter back into Layer 3 with a few seconds to spare before the machines close in. Once he's back in Layer 3, Nar picks up his radio to report to Micro. As he speaks, he breathes heavily, trying to recover from his sprint. "Got a new highway for you to catalog. Abandoned factory that tries to kill you by moving machinery to crush you. Layer 4." Micro's voice responds a few seconds later. "Oh dear! I trust this means you made it out unharmed?" "Yeah. Unfortunately, the teenage girl I met in it didn't." Micro does not respond for several seconds. When she does, her voice is filled with shock. "You sound awfully calm stating that." "I didn't see it happen. I just heard her screaming, and then bones snapping." "That's... Still concerning for how calm you sound." "You know Micro, with the stuff I've seen in this place, I'm not surprised." "You know. You should probably go to therapy for this." "I have. It doesn't work as well as I'd want it to. If it did, I wouldn't be in here looking for my girlfriend who I lost 5 years ago." "Do your family, and friends know how troubled you really are?" "Nope. Don't intend to let them know either." Micro lets out a sigh. "You really shouldn't bottle things up like this, you know. One day, it's going to kill you." "Yeah. I know."