Hypocentre

Corpse Carrier - Act 1 | Chapter 13 - Hypocentre
Two Hours and One Minute After Juna Died

Theo gnawed on his lip and hesitated. He took a quick glance at Juna who waited just as confused as he was. Then Theo asked,

“...we should do what now?”

“Descend,” Radu said. He sipped his tankard.

Juna leaned forward over the table. “Into…that giant crack outside the village?”

Radu wiped his mouth. “The Chasm. Yes.”

“Haven’t you been, like, telling us how dangerous the Chasm is?” Theo said. “And now you want us to go into that creepy split?”

Radu nodded. “Precisely. The Chasm is home to a significant amount of ideas, objects, and especially Fossils beyond human comprehension. Thus even with the danger the Chasm poses, so many Gritborns gear up and venture into the unknown.” Radu swirled the tankard in hand, gazing with narrow eyes into the swishing liquid. “I can believe that the two of you truly did come from another world, only because I believe in the Chasm’s sporadic ability to bring you both here. Though don’t go telling anyone else that information about you both. Not many are as flexible with their beliefs as I am.”

Radu set the tankard down with a thud, crossed his arms, and smiled.

“The Chasm brought you here,” he said. “and everything that comes from the Chasm must return down to it. That is the one and only belief I do not waver on.”

“Okay, but how is going down there,” Theo pointed somewhere in the air where the enormous fissure might be, “help us get back up there?” He pointed upwards.

“It’s not. After all you both are from a completely different world. Nothing awaits you above the Chasm.”

“But we’re not from another world. We—”

Theo was cut off from the trembling beneath his feet. He looked down. The bar floor shook slightly at first, then convulsed with tremors so brutal the shack felt as though it would tear from the ground. An earthquake. Radu’s tankard bobbled across the table before clattering to the ground along with a dozen other drinks. As the chairs battered the wooden floor and parts of the ceiling splintered from the beams, Juna scrambled underneath the table along with Specks.

Theo almost joined her if it was not for the sight of Radu. The pale man waited patiently in his seat, arms crossed and unbothered, as if the rumbling ground was just a light storm. He even made time to gesture for another drink from the waiter. Theo watched the man, how unyielding he was while the earthquake rocked the shack. Theo decided to look over the railing, peering his head at the floor below them.

He didn’t know what to make of the sight. Matching Radu, all the other patrons sat in the same unbothered manner. Some tapped their fingers on the shaking tables while others sighed. Not a single worried look appeared on anyone’s face, not even a single frown.

Then—like that—the earthquake stopped. The rattling tables all simmered to a halt, and any fallen tankard was immediately retrieved from the floor by the staff and returned to the counter.

“Quite a big one from Coloana-Vie today,” Radu said, accepting his new tankard from the pearl-haired lady.

She nodded. “I wonder if the Second Layer’s Gritborns have aggravated it in any way.”

Radu chuckled. “They can do whatever they please so long as that monster doesn’t breach the barricade up here.”

The pearl-haired lady giggled in agreement, then politely walked away.

Radu took a sip.

A very peaceful sip.

Juna remained under the table.

And Theo yelled.

“What kind of reaction is that Radu?! The whole Earth just shook and you’re sitting there like it’s tea time!”

Radu cocked an eyebrow. “Earth? Tea? What are those concepts you’re talking about?”

Theo slammed a hand onto the table. “There’s cracks in the ceiling! Why are you so calm?!”

“The shopkeep will have it fixed by noon.”

“Radu, there was an earthquake. An earthquake! Are you not the least bit worried!?”

“Settle down, outsider. I have no understanding of what you are possibly going through. Being from another world and all.” Radu took another sip. A peaceful, annoying sip. “The commotion was only from the Coloana-Vie tunneling through the Chasm’s Second Layer.”

Only? Theo thought.

“It is hardly anything unusual,” Radu continued. “And though I told you to fear the beast named Coloana-Vie, I can assure you it will not breach the First Layer’s entrance and show itself at Ground Zero. If you require them, I can have a couple of Gritborns stay with you until you calm down.”

“What are you saying!” Theo shouted. “Layer, Layer, Layer, that’s all you keep spouting! Just nonsense after nonsense about some stupid Coloan–” Theo stuttered, waving his hands around trying to pronounce the rest of its name. “Freaking Vile or something! I don’t understand any of it. Nothing! Not this Gritborn, not the Chasm, not this utterly stupid lizard Juna found, nor this world—

Theo stammered.

“My world! Earth! My world, this is my world! I’m here right now on Earth with Bakersville just above me!” Theo looked under the table. “Right Juna?!”

She quivered beneath the table, clutching Specks with both hands against her chest. Juna didn’t move let alone speak. Almost as if she was scared, frightened by something. The earthquake, she was still startled by the totally normal earthquake. That had to be it.

A clunk sounded from above on top the table. Theo looked back up. Radu had set his new tankard down and stared at Theo with eyes not from this world—not from Earth.

“If you lose your composure so easily up here, then you won’t make it past a single Layer down in the Chasm,” Radu said.

Theo bit his lip and clenched his fist. Then without saying another word or even looking at Juna, Theo left. Down the stairs, out the door, and back towards The Mound.

Diligent. Diligent was a word Theo tried so hard to hold onto—though every hour made it so much harder.