Chapter Text
“Are you coming?”
Zach looked over at Atlas, then back to the small passage that just opened up. He wanted to see what was there, he had a hunch that something, something important, was down that passage. It was the same kind of gut wrenching feeling he always got when he was close to digging too deep.
Atlas had been annoying to say the least, if he was actually going to go in… well, Atlas didn't see it just yet. He could go in alone, take care of this by himself like it always ended up being. Go back to normalcy, routine.
‘You left me, I wanted to see what you would do and you left me. You said you were thankful that I was gone.’
He didn't. He didn't do any of that, so why did he feel like he needed to help what that stupid AI hurt? Zach didn’t need to. He had a choice.
‘What do you hate most about yourself?’
He looks away from the passage and takes a step towards Atlas, “Y- yeah, sorry.”
And he followed because he knew what he hated about himself and didn't want to keep repeating that mistake. Not today.
Atlas hadn't moved until Zach caught up to him, it took a long moment for him to realize he was being stared at.
He met Atlas' eyes and despite the large dark circles, despite the way Atlas looked like he would pass out from exhaustion at any moment, his eyes were wide. Like a deer in headlights.
“What?” His words sounded accusatory, he didn't mean it like that. It was just… he didn't know. It just came out that way, maybe he was more exhausted than he thought.
Atlas stiffened, coming back to himself. “I- nothing, nothing, its just—” Atlas’ eyes flicked to a spot in the caves where they just came from, then back to look at Zach.
For the first time since they've met who knows how long ago, maybe days ago, Atlas’ rigid, shaky posture eased.
The man turned again to continue through the caves, “let's go.”
Zach wanted to prod, he wanted so badly to get at least one straight answer out of this damn place before he went insane with all this nothing he's been getting. He keeps quiet and follows behind like usual.
Except he doesn't. Atlas, who has been swiftly walking ahead this whole time in some mindless attempt to get them separated, has now slowed down to walk side by side with Zach.
He doesn't know if its more weird or oddly comfortable. This whole time they've been alone together, trying to work independently where they could, having a few good moments like with the clone, but mostly just two people trying to be as far away as they could while being civil.
Suddenly it feels like they're just.. together. Nobody is alone here.
They keep walking in silence, his legs are starting to hurt from walking up the steady incline this tunnel seems to have. He wants a distraction from that, at least, from the pain in his calves and the fact that he still hasn't solved anything. There hasn't been a puzzle to solve in over an hour, he probably just walked past it when he decided to follow Atlas.
He wants to talk to Atlas about something, anything, but as soon as he opens his mouth he realizes he has nothing to say.
His jaw clicks shut and he ignores the pain of hours and hours of walking, hell, it isn't even that bad, it just feels worse because he's tired. Zach has been through worse, he knows he has. He just has to keep—
“Is something on your mind, Zach?”
It was weird to hear that voice from so close by, without having to hear it echo down the cave.
“Ugh, I don't even know any more Atlas, like—”
‘Atlas? Atlas! Whatever this thing has said to you—’
He wanted to throw up. He sounded like that thing and it sounded like him. It had pulled words out of his mouth and twisted them. Made Atlas think he wanted him gone, it had recordings of his voice from when he was thirteen. It had…
Well, no sense in thinking about that now. Not now. (He wanted to think more about not ever but he knew all too well that he would have to at some point. All of his cases come back to that).
“…Like?”
“Like this place sucks, there's a manipulative piece of AI software, though I'd argue all generative AI is manipulative, trying to do who knows what with us, and we still know next to nothing about this place! I— ugh, it's a good thing I care about your well-being or else I'd have logged off ages ago.”
“You…care.” Atlas’ tone felt like the opposite of an echo, whatever that meant. Just.. hollow, still.
He scoffed, “well obviously, you think I'd be here wandering around aimlessly like a horror movie side character if I didn’t? I said I’m here to help you so I'm here to help you.”
“I can handle myself, you know. I’m not an idiot.”
“Clearly not, you solved a good few puzzles from this place on your own, I just think that this place is a lot easier to deal with when we play by our rules instead of theirs.”
Atlas kicked a random rock only for it to roll up a little before tumbling much further down the tunnel, the incline was getting pretty steep by now, “It's only made to work for one person at a time, right.”
“Yeah, so we just have to stay together and keep going until we find the person who made this.”
“Not stay alone together?”
“Oh my god, shut up. You knew what I meant by that.”
“It's still an oxymoron.”
“And you still had to retry that mace hit thirty-eight times.”
Atlas scoffed but he smiled for just a moment longer before it faded alongside their conversation.
For a while after that, they continued in silence, it was a miracle that they haven't been kicked out of here yet. Maybe it can't since there's two people? Maybe CLAIR was doing something?
Mindlessly, like every time a part of one of his investigations was going on for too long, he pulled out his handheld recorder and started to review the footage for anything strange.
Were those letters written in the stone near the beginning? Did they go through the same passage that he thought they did? He pulled a small notebook out of his jacket pocket to compare his notes on Atlas’ videos to what he's seen so far and puts the handheld camera away for now.
He's so invested in looking through his notes so far that he misses the first part of what Atlas says next, “ight- I see light! Zach, put that away, I can see the surface.”
He stuffs the notebook into his pocket and looks into the distance where Atlas is pointing.
Zach is not built for seeing, one of his eyes can’t even perceive light and the other has always been more adjusted for seeing in the dark. Half of his body is covered in sculk from the deep dark.
So he doesn't see a fraction of what Atlas could be talking about “If you say so, let's get going then,” he picks up the pace to match Atlas’ new speed and slowly he starts to see what he was talking about.
An actual exit to the caves.
They were out of there. Away from the puzzles, away from the danger, away from CLAIR.
They were just in open plains, sun high in the sky and a gentle breeze in his hair.
Atlas turned around to face Zach, only for his gaze to get stuck behind him. He turns and—
The entrance to the skin caves is gone. Just more field. “What the..?”
“It's just gone?”
He opens his small holographic menu, originally to fetch the coordinates of where its supposed to be in case it's important, but quickly that stops mattering.
Atlas is on the tab menu.
Now, he'll admit it, there was a part of him that was suspicious that Atlas wasn't actually Atlas, he wasn't on the tab menu and there is a thing that can copy people.
But there is the proof. Atlas who is standing three feet away from him, and their name on the tab list. Atlasnofly.
“So what now?”
Zach has no idea.
“If we leave it'll send us back to the beginning tomorrow. What if there's something important here?”
He hums and nods along, “yeah, you're right. We can just stay up here but we should probably rest. ive been up since eight in the morning and its noon the next day.”
Instantly, Atlas looks unsure, “I'm alright, you can just leave if you w—”
“No. We've already been over this. We're sticking together, okay? Let's go get some materials to build a shelter.”
Atlas opens his mouth to argue, who knows what he was about to say, but Zach beats him to it. “Please? We're not going to be solving any puzzles like this, we're both tired.”
“Fine.”
Of course, by the time they've built a semi functional house and scrounged up enough supplies for a bed, its almost night. Even then, Atlas still has it in him to continue making comments.
“You really aren't that good at building.”
“Shut up,” He groaned, “I'm tired and you’re not much better.” The last part was a bit of a lie, Atlas clearly had a knack for building even on what could be two days without sleep.
It didn't even matter anymore, while Atlas placed down the door, Zach took off his shoes and flopped onto the bed. He wanted to cry from how good it felt to not be on his feet anymore.
Atlas stood beside the bed awkwardly, “uh, Zach?”
He rolled onto his side to look at Atlas only to realize that he had been taking up all the space on the bed. “Oh, sorry,” he mumbled, making more room for Atlas to lay down.
After a very drawn out few seconds, Atlas took off his boots and curled up at the edge of the bed on his side.
They laid there for a while, Zach was too tired to do anything more than try to process everything that happened today. It was… that was just one day. Imagine what Atlas was thinking about right now. He probably had it so much worse, plus he already tried to lea—
What if Atlas tries to…?
Without really thinking, Zach grabs Atlas’ hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing.
“Zach? What are you—”
“So you can't leave without me. Together. You got that?”
Atlas squeezes back and for a moment, they feel safe.