New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

She walked toward a small elevator and got on. Alex followed in, and the woman put her hand on a scanning pad before the elevator dinged and started going down.

Alex was curious how many sub-levels this company had, but he could tell there were a few.

There were no numbers in the elevator, so he had no idea how fast it went down, or how far down it went, but when he felt a little pop in his ear, he knew they were deep because the atmospheric pressure had changed.

Using his excellent memory, he remembered from his science classes in high school that this only happened after reaching almost a kilometre of depth underground.

Alex felt the elevator slow down and understood they had reached their destination.

*Ding!*

As the elevator doors parted, bright artificial lighting greeted them both, along with the sound of gunshots and shouts.

Alex fell on high alert, but the calmness of the woman next to him, as she unboarded the elevator, made him realize he was over-reacting.

He followed her off the lift, as the doors shut and he heard it zoom upward once again. The air he breathed in smelled fresh, yet stale at the same time.

'Air scrubbers. This is a facility cut off from the top side apart from that elevator,' he surmised.

The woman walked up to a railing and stretched her body casually, looking down on something.

"Ahh! Home sweet home," she said, before turning to Alexander and straightening up again.

"Alright, follow me, Mr. Leduc. The barracks are this way. That's where you'll shower, while I grab you a uniform in the armoury."

Alex nodded his head, but before following her, he walked over to the railing to see what she was looking at.

And under his gaze, a massive underground compound with various areas revealed itself. From up there, he could see a cafeteria, a gym, a sparing center, and even some military training facilities from which the gunshots were coming.

All of this was across what looked like an incredibly thick glass pane.

Alex's breath escaped him for a second as he took in the sights.

'Just how many underground facilities does this damned city have?!' he wondered, his mind still not grasping the size of this.

Building these without alerting the whole world to it must have cost billions of dollars. And for what?

A training center off-grid, that the government couldn't legislate or control?

It seemed like overkill.

But he was in no position to start and shove his nose where it didn't belong. He was too busy, anyway.

"Come on, Mr. Leduc. I have other matters to attend to. I can't be babysitting you all day."

The woman's voice brought Alex out of his thoughts, and he rushed after her, apologizing for his daydreaming.

Now that she interacted a bit with him, Talbot thought he wasn't such a bad guy. Hell, he was a handsome bad guy, if he was one.

But his demeanour had changed ever since they left the Bianchi mansion, and she felt more at ease around him. Like the darkness he had displayed earlier was gone.

Like the ice around his heart had melted away, letting a warmer person out.

She led him to the barracks, and pointed him to the showers, before leaving again, heading to the armoury.

The old coot in the armoury tried chewing her up for asking for a new uniform. But when she told him it was for a visitor, under Alfred's orders, he quickly changed his tune.

"Of course, young lady. Anything for a guest of his. Does he need a weapon as well? Or just the one uniform? Maybe he wants an extra one, just in case?"

Talbot almost laughed at his attitude change, but insisted on only the one uniform. Once she had what she asked for, she rushed back to the showers.

She doubted the kid would be done washing out the blood from his hair, but she didn't want to keep him waiting, either.

As she entered the barracks again, she walked toward the showering area. The showers here were mixed, since as soldiers, they had seen each other in much worse conditions than their birth suit.

But as she spun around the corner, she bumped into someone, slightly kneeing them in the crotch.

With an 'Oof!' the man backed away, but dropped his towel, as he grabbed his balls that had just been turbo-smacked.

"Aww, man. That hurt," Alex complained, slightly bent at the waist.

Talbot, on the other hand, now had a complete view of the young man. And what caught her eye was not the schlong in Alex's hand, but rather, the immense burn marks on his back, which his bent position did nothing to hide.

"What the… What happened to your back, kid?" she asked, confused at what could have caused this.

She had seen burns like these before, although not as detailed. These were third-degree burns.

But they were so artistically formed that she wondered just what had caused them. Had he been tortured as a kid?"

Alex raised his head, noticing what she was referring to.

"Hmm? Oh, these things? Would you believe me if I said inside a game?"

He wanted to chuckle to make her understand there was nothing bad about it. But the woman frowned at the words that came out of his mouth.

"What kind of sick game involves burning someone like that?"

Alex quickly understood what she was thinking.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. This wasn't caused by someone. I assure you these come from a game. They come from inside New Eden, just as the rest of my abilities do."

Talbot looked at him like he was a phony. She threw him the uniform and just stepped out of the barracks.

"Get dressed. The boss wants to see you up top," she hollered as she left.

Alex was left there, feeling like she had misunderstood him, and sighed.

"No wonder she didn't believe me. It sounds crazy even to me…"

But he had no time to wallow. He knew that Richard was not the most patient, and he preferred not to keep him waiting too much.

'At least, this is almost over,' he thought to himself.