The room was long. It continued far beyond what my light was illuminating, and I could sense that it was going for at least tens of meters in, in a gridlike pattern, with some square rooms in between.

  -Are you sure that… this is not the source of smell?

  -No. It’s not like with that singular guy. This… Ygh, it’s getting worse. It’s coming from further in.

  I stepped closer to one of the skeletons.

  It didn’t look broken, no visible holes or cracks. If the ones by the entrance were like that, I guess they didn’t get attacked.

  -Maybe that room…

  I guided us to the first closest different room, the square one. I was unsure what it could be, but apparently it was just storage.

  And, according to Mike, it was the source of the disgust.

  -Fuuuck…

  I definitely agreed.

  Even without smelling, I could tell what was going on.

  The bunker had plenty of supplies. Too bad that most of them were right now literally oozing out of its containers and onto the floor, creating an unidentified pile of sludge.

  -What is this mess? - asked Mike through blurry eyes, the smell getting to him apparently.

  -Food. Or, well, used to be - I said approaching one of the broken containers. - And here I thought that canned food can survive centuries without going bad.

  The can I picked up was blown open from the inside.

  What could even accomplish something like that?

  There were plenty of those lying around, and I was not that curious to inspect the closed ones. But I was curious enough to check a set of small glass ampules lying on the shelf nearby.

  Those were open and used. There was no label any more, be it thanks to age or just that they weren’t labeled in the first place, but I couldn’t help but think I’ve seen something like this before.

  -Give me that - said Mike, also interested.

  I stepped through the pile of goo and gave him one that wasn’t covered in the sludgy bile scattered all over the place.

  -I think… I know this…

  -Oh?

  -I wish I could smell this, but…

  -Heh. I doubt that would help, if this was next to this pile of puke I doubt it smells any different.

  He visibly recoiled.

  -Eugh. Fuck. If I am correct, then no.

  -Hm? Then have a quick walk, it’s not that far.

  We took a few ampules with us and quickly left to the surface, or at least to the staircase where the smell was not that bad according to him. That is, besides…

  -Move. You smell like shit.

  -Eh?

  -You were pretty much standing in that garbage, if you’re next to me I can barely breathe!

  -Ha. Fine, fine. Let’s get out then, maybe you won’t be that bad outside.

  We went out.

  He stayed in the building and I just was standing on the street, trying to not smell like shit.

  -So, how is it?

  -I still can smell you.

  -Oh, fuck off.

  -Just go away somewhere further.

  -Ehe.

  At this point, I was pretty sure that he was just trying to get rid of me.

  I felt like this was coming sooner or later.

  But it genuinely could be just the smell. So…

  -Eh, whatever. Water.

  I conjured a ball of water above me and promptly dropped it on my head.

  I doubted that it would help much, and I was not going to try and figure out a cleaning spell on the spot, so I just repeated the process a couple of times, until Mike actually noticed that I was up to something.

  Or it might just be that I’ve been flooding his building with goop water.

  Could be both.

  In any case, good news. He didn’t ditch me, and the water actually helped a bit, at least to the point that he wasn’t actively recoiling when he got closer.

  And he even came to me on his own.

  -So, what is it? - I asked, stepping out of a puddle of my own making.

  -Iodine.

  That was surprisingly direct.

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  -Iodine. In those… Yeah, they used to package those like this… - I said looking at the glass container he gave me.

  -You are not surprised.

  -No. I had a hunch before. Not about the iodine, no, but it being here only feeds into my suspicions. And it doesn’t bode well for you.

  He only nodded.

  He was not stupid. He managed to put two and two together.

  Iodine.

  A radiation treatment.

  A large hole, destroyed buildings, people hidden yet perished with seemingly pristine skeletons.

  A very unpleasant device has exploded here.

  -Ehhh… Should’ve known. People always go back… - I sighed.

  -Fuck that. I am more worried about myself.

  True. The “sickness” he felt before, about now I was pretty sure was just radiation sickness.

  “Just”.

  He did get better, although I am pretty sure that was soon to change.

  It also explained the cans. Or, at least I thought so.

  Could it be possible that some kind of radiation could penetrate the containers and contaminate the food?

  Or… just plainly cook it?

  If that would happen to food… What happened to humans?

  I didn’t want to think about that.

  Not a pleasant way to end. Although I had a hard time thinking it was really what happened. It must’ve been a very, very modified bomb to reach underground like this without completely destroying the shelter.

  -I should probably go back. And you leave this place as far as you can - I said to Mike.

  -While I hate it… you might be right.

  -I expected more resistance from you.

  -I am not stupid. It’s either that or converting myself on the spot.

  -To be honest, it’s probably best for you to do it anyway.

  -...

  He didn’t reply, but from his expression I could tell he wasn’t disagreeing.

  Despite his overwhelming disdain to have a crystal body, he was seriously considering that, meaning he realized the situation was serious.

  -I… I know - he finally replied. - We don’t know how it’s going to affect me. But if it is still just as human would, I am in trouble.

  -”Trouble” is mildly put. And I would consider doing that sooner or later. If you were to get sick again, you are not going to be able to do it to yourself.

  -I’d be on your mercy - he nodded, grimacing. - I am aware.

  -And you still are going to do that.

  -Honestly? I don’t fucking know.

  He was weighing which one he hated the most. Be it getting help from me to turn him into a crystal or doing it to himself.

  Neither seemed like a good option. In his eyes of course. If I were him I would’ve done it to myself already and that would be it, but he wasn’t me.

  -Mgh… OKAY. Fine.

  -Fine what?

  -I’ll do it. But I don’t want you to watch.

  -Huh?

  That was a weird request.

  What, he was going to strip or some shit? That’s not something to be ashamed about. It’s just a spell. Well, ritual, but at this point, what’s the difference?

  What was he trying to hide?

  -Er… Okay…? - I carefully replied. - And that is because…?

  -Do I have to give you a reason every time?

  -Not really.

  -I need you to search the bunker in the meanwhile - he said instead. - I will take care of myself while you do that.

  -I was going to do that anyway, you know? - I said, raising my non-existing brow. - Why can’t we do it together… after that?

  -Cause I don’t know how it will affect me.

  -Okay…?

  I don’t know how it was connected in any way, but I was not going to argue. As long as he survived, it was fine.

  Wait a second.

  Why did I even want him to survive? I mean sure, he used to be a friend, but now.

  I shook off those weird thoughts and just shrugged.

  -Fine. Do what you want. I'm going down.

  Of course I was going to keep monitoring him. It didn’t matter if he was going to escape or something, but if he was to prepare something against me I’d prepare as well.

  But I doubt he was that stupid. He knew I would be able to sense it anyway.

  Just as I said, I again went and descended into the bunker.

  I was going to avoid the storage rooms at first, but after a bit of wandering around corridors filled with skeletons, I decided to check those later anyway.

  I mean, it’s not like the smell and the bile was bothering me, but I honestly thought that I’d find something interesting on a person or bed instead of digging in storage.

  With people themselves it was clear that I wasn’t going to get anywhere. How much can some bones tell you? It’s not like they still can talk to me.

  And I thought that if they were just skeletons, it was obvious that most things decayed to the point of uselessness, but there still was some stuff to find. It did take a hot second, though.

  I finally did find some plastic scrap - that shit was going to outlive anyone and anything, really. Among that, there was some interesting stuff.

  I managed to find some IDs.

  Names weren’t telling me shit, but I did find at least where we were. Or, well, mostly.

  While plastic did survive whatever happened here, it wasn’t untouched. I barely could read the letters, and the fact that it was definitely not English was not helping.

  -So a place that doesn’t use the latin alphabet… - I mumbled to myself, trying to get a better look at the scratched piece of plastic. - About the year…

  Yeah, year.

  If I was to assume that people didn’t find some eternal youth serum, it didn’t seem like much time passed, really. Which was surprising, considering what we were thinking about our teleports and all.

  I don’t underestimate the ability of the human race to go into extinction, but damn, it was fast.

  Judging by the date of printing of this little thing it looked like it didn’t even take them twenty years to go nuclear on each other.

  Disappointing, but not unexpected.

  I sighed and placed the ID back on the skeleton I found it on.

  -Poor bastards. Well, doesn’t matter much.

  I gazed up towards where Mike was.

  While digging through the bedframes and other crap, I noticed that he’s been gathering mana for a good while.

  I want to say he was having a hard time, since the orb of magic was growing at a slow pace, but it was probably because he was also focusing on something else. I mean, it’s not like it’s a quick process. I think.

  It did seem like he was indeed doing what he said he was, so I wasn’t going to bother him and just started heading towards one of the storage rooms hidden deeper in the bunker.

  Of course, all of them were a mess.

  Each and single one of them that contained food had been turned into a disgusting place by the bile of processed spoiled food.

  If I still had my sense of smell I doubt I’d be so eager to explore each of those.

  I wouldn’t miss much, anyway. Besides spoiled food and more vials of what we thought was iodine, there was some medicine remaining as well.

  Those only survived, again, thanks to plastic containers. Not like it was useful to me in any shape or form, so I just ignored it and started digging deeper.

  I think only in the third or fourth room did I finally find something of interest.