Vordone Daycare

"Are you hearing that...?"

Salinae shined her light into the window of the daycare. The no doubt once colorful building was now broken down. Its overhang sagged and debris littered the crumbling, weed infested street.

Just as every building in the abandoned village of Vordone.

Oushiqae stepped up beside Salinae, her thick boots crunching in the gravel & loose cobblestone. She peered in.

"Nothing in there but some old toys and dust, Sal." Oushiqae sighed. "Doubt it has anything."

"Forget the scavenging, Oush." The lizard hissed. "...someone's crying."

"Crying?"

The large cow's ears flicked. A deep frown crossed her muzzle.

"You hear it...?" Salinae asked. "Like a moaning..."

"Yeah...I hear it."

Salinae nodded, handing the light off to Oushiqae. The front door was already blocked by collapsed wood beams on the inside.

Taking her rifle, Salinae smashed the window with the stock, clearing off the shards and hand-removing the splintered wood supports.

"What year's this building?" Salinae asked.

"Records for the rest of the village say it's mid 7th turn, but some of the buildings were rebuilt."

"Best to not take any chances." Salinae said, handing her rifle to Oushiqae. From her waistband she took a gasmask, securing it to her face and installing a fresh filter. She wound her pocket watch.

1 hour.

Salinae hoisted herself up through the window, dropping onto the wood.

"Oush, hand me the Purdy." Salinae's voice was muffled behind the mask. The cow produced a thick yellow box tool with a handle, reaching through the window to hand it over.

Salinae clicked the device on, the air purity sensor humming, the four lights remaining dim. Nothing yet.

With a nod, Salinae stepped deeper into the daycare. The sound she heard from outside had silenced...all she heard now was her own breathing and the crunch of her boots on wood and glass.

She nearly jumped.

A moaning sob thrummed dully on the wood.

"Did you HEAR that??"

"Yeah..." Oushiqae said, leaning through the window.

"What in the world..." Salinae huffed, creeping across the floor. "Imma go deeper in. You wait there and come after me if I don't come back in 40 minutes."

"40, aye." Oushiqae said, setting her own pocket watch.

The crying had quieted down again. Quickly, Salinae stepped over a few old toys and overturned tables, moving into the old hall of the daycare.

The entry hall was dark. Salinae flicked on a small electric lantern affixed to her chest, a small cone of light lighting the space.

Immediately she saw colorful walls, decorated with fun, smiling characters painted on the walls. Tassles that once hung on the ceiling now littered the ceiling plaster coated floor

A multicolor shoe rack, painted wood chairs, a stylized mural of the Illamini map covered the hall.

And there, on the far wall, shimmering in the light Salinae's chest lamp, in big gold painted letters, was the most prominent mural:

"VORDONE DAYCARE: THE BEST PLACE FOR CHILDREN TO LEARN"

As Salinae passed under the archway with the painted sign, she began to see classrooms.

"TEAM ARTS AND CRAFTS!"

Sat above the entrance to a class filled with long tables and knocked over stools. Old, discarded art tools and forgotten mounds of play clay sat on the table, one in front of each chair, starting with a lump to a molded lump to a painted lump.

There were a few of these "TEAM ARTS AND CRAFTS" classes.

Still the moaning cry was silent.

"Hello...?" Salinae called, shining her light in another classroom. She saw posters for how to count, 'Never Give Up', and recognizing signpost warnings.

BEEEP.

Salinae jumped, the air purity monitor shuddering in her hand. The rightmost light flashed a slow pulse red. The air in that classroom was mildly toxic.

Salinae checked her pocket watch.

47 minutes.

She took a breath, feeling herself sweating behind her mask.

She continued on, sweeping the sensor around the classrooms.

BEEEP.

That was another low toxicity classroom, showing much of the same posters. The air was uncomfortable on her skin.

BEEEEP.

Salinae took a sharp breath, seeing a high pulse on the forward light.

It was much more toxic up ahead.

"Hello?!" Salinae called. "Answer! I'm here to help!"

She didn't know why she was calling. At this toxicity level they'd have been passed out by now.

Yet she was shocked. Terrified.

The moaning cry came back, louder, deeper in.

"I'm coming!" Salinae shouted, rushing forward. The air purity sensor wailed in protest. Salinae worriedly checked her watch.

44 minutes.

Her quickened pace took her somewhere new. Instead of wood now the floor was slick tile. All around her were lockers.

There, in an archway just across the locker room, Salinae saw a shimmer in the dark against her lantern light.

As she stepped closer into the next room she saw what it was.

Water.

Several pools of different sizes for different ages sat in the room, water still and filthy.

The moaning was even louder. Salinae swung her lantern towards where she heard it. There, she saw one of the larger pools in the massive room, still shallow enough for kids to wade in.

But she still didn't see anyone.

She walked along the pool, light in the direction of the moan.

The air purity sensor screeched.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

It was harder to hear the moan over the warning sound.

At last, her walk to the far end of the room met her with only a wall and a shallow pool. Salinae was dumbfounded. Yet the moaning cry was louder than ever.

She adjusted her light towards the pool, where she heard the moaning coming from.

"Where ARE you?!" Salinae yelled. She was sweating. The air purity sensor screeched.

Finally, her eyes caught sight of something: a tunnel.

Salinae squinted at the bizarre sight. The pool seemed to...continue down a narrow tunnel that looked just big enough for Salinae to wade into if she got in the water.

Her heart sank as she realized the moaning was coming from within. Rattling the walls.

"Ugh..."

Salinae crouched down, taking a small white stick from her satchel. It wasn't a perfect test of water purity but it'd at least determine if she could come out of the water with little more than a rash.

She dipped it, held it, and took it out.

Oddly...it was clean.

Nothing but debris and plaster, no chemicals.

Salinae grunted, gripping the air purity sensor tight and stepped in. The water was viscous and clammy, as though she had just pierced through a decades undisturbed sludge.

This was stupid. Whoever this was should be DEAD.

"Come OUT!!" Salinae yelled into the tunnel over her screeching sensor's beeps.

She was met only with more sobbing cries.

She grit her teeth, taking out her pocket watch.

39 minutes.

"I'm not messing around, you gotta get out!" Salinae called, pocketing the watch.

Again, the moans were her only reply.

"Oh for the love of...hey!" She yelled, stepping closer to the tunnel. "HEY!!"

The moans silenced.

"Come on out!"

Silence. Salinae shined her light in. She...didn't understand what she was looking at.

She couldn't see the end.

"What kind of daycare is this...?" She muttered, wading forward, trying to see deeper it. The tunnel seemed to only continue, the sloshing of water echoing from deep...deep within.

Even here, the walls were colorful. The painted characters merrily, silently, invited her inside.

She began walking forward, the scream of her air purity sensor resonating dully on the walls. The ceiling of the tunnel scraped on her head. This was clearly made for children only.

For a while, she only heard her own sloshing movements and the beeps of her sensor.

All the while, more and more painted characters invited her to go deeper.

Deeper.

Salinae was horrified. The tunnel curved. Left...right. On and on. The colorful characters beckoning her on. On.

And yet there was no end. It didn't loop. It just kept going.

Her legs were burning. Her heaving breaths choked on the thinning air of her mask.

She pulled her stopwatch out with a splash.

28 minutes.

Her neck ached from crouching in the narrow tunnel. All four lights on her sensor flashed wildly, screeching beeps. The air was poison.

And it was all...

...familiar.

The moaning cries began anew. From deeper in the long tunnel. Deeper...deeper. The happy painted characters beckoned Salinae on.

But she only stood. Heaving. Exhausted.

Terrified of her realization, of where she stood.

As she stood, waist deep in disgusting water, cramped and slouched, choking inside her gasmask as the only line of defense from toxic air that'd kill her in a moment...

...she realized it was just like the Roppi mines.

She remembered the classroom, teaching numbers, hazard signs. The assembly line arts and crafts tables.

Salinae was shaking.

Vordone Daycare really was the best place for children to learn.

As Salinae stared down the dark, endless tunnel, listening to the wailing sobs that seemed no closer, listening to the fever pitch of the purity sensor, she checked her pocket watch.

23 minutes.

She stared at it. Long and hard. Watching the clock's hand slowly move.

At last...she closed the pocket watch...

...and turned around.

The wailing sobs died off. Now it was only her and the sensor as she slowly made her way out. Out the tunnel, out the water.

She checked the watch.

9 minutes left. The air was even thinner now. Breaths labored.

She looked up, hearing Oushiqae's voice.

"Sal! Where have you gone?!"

"Here, Oush!" Salinae called, walking with heavy steps and waterlogged clothes as Oushiqae thundered into the pool area.

"Oh thank...-! Sal, where've you been?!"

Salinae shook her head, shaking off her clothes.

"Couldn't find what was making that noise." Salinae admited. "C'mon, I ain't got a lot of time left."

The two women hurried out, pushing aside debris to get back to the window quicker.

At last, Salinae took a breath of fresh air.

"Haven't heard the moaning in a while..." Oushiqae said, taking off her gas mask as well. "What do you think it was...?"

"Sure wasn't a person." Salinae sighed, taking her rifle back from the cow. "Not anymore."