Oxygénia

the City of the Rememberers. Now he could breathe again, but he
didn't see anything. He stood there in the unpermeatable darkness,
the only glowing point was the plane behind him with its open door
from where a greenish light emitted.
Concerned, he wiped his hand across his forehead. At this
moment, a beam of light lit up his surroundings. The source of this
light was presumably at the upper edge of the breather; from there,
the beam spread out, and now he could get an orientation of where
he was. The plane stood on a round concrete disc within a giant
concrete trough. All around him, giant walls grew up, grey, bleak,
smooth, steep walls of concrete. Not a gap anywhere, no door, not a
soul around. 'Code number three' came to his mind. 'Nonsense.
There's no sign anywhere here, no letters, nothing. There isn't
anything to decipher...' But still. He took the glasses from the
pocket. The round discs fitted precisely into the eye openings of the
mask. Where the light beam had only lit a grey concrete wall before,
now a giant map was visible, the same that was to be seen in the
video before. He went towards it. After maybe twenty steps, the
picture began to vibrate and then was gone, and again, he only saw
the smooth, steep concrete. He grabbed at the discs and turned
them. Affected, he stopped.
He found himself at the entrance of an airlock system. A blue
light beam indicated in which direction he had to go. On a
dashboard were blue buttons with vibrating arrows on them,
indicating the direction they had to be turned to. Left from the blue
markings, a second airlock formed the entrance to another tunnel.
Here, all signs were colored a rusty brown. This path led to the City
number Five of the Rememberers. A crossroad like in a fairy tale.
When he was a child, he had read about things like that,
shuddering, with faltering heart. Now, he stood at the crossroad: to
the right the dangerous and uncertain escape, to the left the even
more dangerous and uncertain adventure, if he wanted to bring the
map and the keys to the canyon...
He didn't hesitate. He decided for the path with the rusty brown
markings. Likewise, there were buttons for pressing and turning
and levers... but without signs or explanations. 'Maybe the
glasses...' Again, he turned the discs which were to be adjusted to
different codes; now, the rusty brown signs started to shine, and
arrows became visible. He turned the first button, and the gate of
an airlock opened. The light beam from the breather shone brightly.
He hurried forward and found himself in a wide, deep cave. The
ground of the cave was a moving pathway, presumably the same
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