Callia grunted as she slung the limp corpse over her shoulder, the body was covered by pitch-black plastic. The basement under Kara’s clinic had led to a confined, rotting, and decaying tunnel. The doctor had given her black scrubs to wear, a pair of sanitary gloves, and disposable boots.

  On the contrary, had she not chosen this endeavor, she’d have to seek out more dangerous employment.

  The bag barely fit around the body. Somehow, she had the strength to move it—probably a remnant of whatever conditioning she had. Parts of the limbs occasionally peeked out. She did her best to ignore it. It wasn’t haunting in the slightest, but it did disgust her.

  The smell intensified when she came to a crossroads, and not the corpse. Mildew, rust, something stale—something dead other than the decomposing thing she carried around?

  Multiple paths lay strecthed out before her. Dim lanterns illuminated some of the walls, barely enough to see.

  Something caught her eye. The tunnel was unstable and definitely lived in. Holes were everywhere, some big enough for a human to crawl through, others tiny and ripped out of the walls, reminiscent of Swiss cheese.

  A thought plagued her. Swiss cheese? Switzerland—that was a place on Earth. The Earth may have been her original home. It kept jumping up in her head.

  Her thoughts were cut short. Strange, wet gurgling sounds echoed from the walls in unseen corners. Some sounded like little feet tapping on dirt, gravel, and rock. There were things lurking here, small squeaking noises.

  The amnesiac threw the body on the ground, retrieving the little glass scroll in her pocket. She flipped it open and immediately called her employer. The thing idled and vibrated as she waited.

  The scroll confirmed her connection. “So, uh…the walls are squeaking. Anything I should be worried about? There are holes in the walls everywhere.”

  Kara’s voice cracked through the device. “Just some critters. Ignore them, keep moving, and get the job done.”

  Callia’s gut said otherwise. There was something wrong down here. “Are you sure? When was the last time you were down here?”

  “Never. I usually send my assistants. It’s the people you have to worry about down there. Just keep moving, or the deal is off.”

  She shouldn’t have agreed to this, she wasn’t a sacrificial lamb.

  The light tapping got louder, and a malformed thing peeked its head out of a small hole. Mutated and rat-like, It had a bulbous head with tumor-like appendages, way too many teeth in all the wrong places. Bone cracked and stuck out of its head, cracking in ways that didn’t make functional sense. The bone retracted as it spotted her. It hissed.

  Three more popped out and lunged at her. Callia backed away, as the thing bit into her wrist. She shouted, “Get off, get off!” trying to shake the thing off her.

  She brought her fist down, smashing the thing into the ground. It splattered everywhere, in her face, pieces of blue blood staining the tunnel walls. More started making their appearances, the strange spawn started twitching as they arrived, clamoring to the corpse in droves. “Ew… Kara, a weird jelly rat just bit me!”

  “Jelly rats? Oh no, It’s not even winter yet. Never mind. You’re a fighter. You can handle it.”

  “Kara! You didn’t warn me about this!” There was no reply. Was it a setup of some kind. A ploy, or maybe– No!

  Callia’s adrenaline kicked in as the things started surrounding her and the corpse. Her psionic energy flared, and she shot it out of her hands, sending a blast of force at the crowd of creatures. They fled in hordes, creeping back into the walls. One remained, glaring its malformed face at her. It jumped towards her with almost zero resistance, gliding in the air. She punched it square, turning the creature inside and out. The vermin coated the dry walls in gelatinous, glowing gore.

  She stared at her hand, this psychic energy she didn’t understand where it came from, why she possessed it. The doctor had called her a psyker as well.

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  “Kara!” she shouted at the device. “Why can’t I just leave the corpse down here?”

  A shrieking noise came out of the comm. “NO! Scavengers and tunnel men, they’ll take the cybernetics. Sell the data, I can’t risk that. You’ll also be feeding the fauna down there, nasty stuff.”

  “You could’ve at least warned me!” she countered.

  “Get used to it, do you know how many corpse thieves I had to stave off when I tried rescuing you? Huh? Huh! Keep moving. And don’t call me unless it’s critical.”

  Callia turned off the comm.

  “What a bitch.”

  She picked the corpse up again, staring at the tunnel walls. Another thing felt familiar. Had she done this before? Fight off hordes of little mutated tunnel rats? The hole in her head refused to answer. Callia kept walking for what felt like a mile or so. Every step forward felt like she was being watched. A massive hole in the tunnel wall made her uneasy, but she kept going. Footsteps came from up ahead.

  Callia became weary. She stopped, waiting. A man in a gas mask approached, stepping in her direction, but slung his rifle over his back. She stood stiff, one wrong move, and he’d shove it at her face. He nodded to her, staring at the body, his other hand obscured behind his rifle, definitely carrying some kind of failsafe. She waited until he passed, then resumed walking, both of them glared back at each other every ten steps.

  At last the light of the tunnel came through, and Callia breathed a sigh of relief. Carrying the bloodstained body bag, it became heavier and heavier as she started sweating with exhaustion. If she needed to walk another half hour, she’d have to drag it. The smell of rot was starting to get worse. She couldn’t stomach it, but she had to.

  Just like Kara had told her, a slum appeared the moment she moved through. It looked more like a settled junction of everything. Judging by the excavated hill range. Hopefully, there were fewer bad things than jelly tunnel rats. There were probably some tunnel snakes somewhere too. No, there wouldn’t be. Reptiles were mostly native to Earth unless they had brought them along when colonizing this backwards dump.

  Passing by the decayed slums, she took note of the decrepit poverty that claimed the settlement. There were no neon lights here as there were in inner good rift, just shacks and dirt, and the ghastly view of the massive metallic scrapyard behind it.

  A man watched as she moved, glancing at a few others, but did nothing. Glancing at a view of others, but didn’t do anything. Perhaps they knew better, not to stick your nose anywhere it didn’t belong. Reaching the scrapyard entrance, an older man stood in her way, blocking the narrow passage. Before she could speak, he gestured to a pit, his expression unreadable as he smoked a spliff, spat on the ground, chewed on his gums, and repeated the cycle.

  “Do what you need to do, daughter,” he said. As he stood up and walked away he whispered. “The road is long and troublesome ahead.”

  She pondered on his words, but ultimately shoved in the back of her mental ram. Could just be some old man addicted to his substances.

  She moved inward to where the local river flowed and tossed the dead man in, just as Kara instructed. The metal pit visibly shifted, pulsating in a circular formation, dragging—the body to its depths, first consuming the plastic covering, then the body… The face of the corpse briefly resurfaced as the grotesque water shook him, his eyes open and hollow, staring at her.

  She tapped the little scroll again. “I’m done!”

  “Good, now get out of the area.”

  “Yeah.” The smell was really getting to her, she couldn’t understand how people could live with this.

  The intrusive pop-up, hopped in her eyes again.

  QUEST COMPLETE – "WASTE MANAGEMENT"

  Objective: Dispose of a body. Quietly. In the Wastes.

  Time Taken: 1 Hour 19 Minutes

  REWARDS:

  $ +400 Credits Transferred

  ?? Mandatory Quest Cancellation: Pending Employer interaction.

  ?? Approval with Dr. Kara Maris: (She doesn’t say much, but that’s a good sign.)

  Then another.

  [SYSTEM ALERT: MANDATORY QUEST CANCELED]

  ??Quest: Outstanding Legal Debt (Nullified)

  ? Reason: Debt Cleared via Alternative Compensation

  ??Status with Dr. Kara Maris: Neutral ? Slightly Favorable

  [System Notice: No further action required.]

  (But let’s be real—you probably still owe her something, even if it’s not on paper.)

  Callia breathed a sigh of relief. Her debt was canceled at least—she just needed to pay penance for her sins. She killed two men yesterday. Or was it the day before? Stained the blood of her hands with a corpse whose soul was unsullied at the very least.

  She did not know whether she believed in a god before, but this high strangeness she was feeling, it was luring her in. She needed something to cling to.

  The little scroll buzzed.

  “Don’t come back. Not yet. My client is here. I don’t want them worry about why a dirty amnesiac crawled out of a tunnel,”

  Callia’s brow shifted above her ridge. “You want me to what? Wait in the tunnels.”

  “No, well, yes. Just move close to the basement floor. Should be safe, right?”

  No, if she had to ask, it probably wasn’t. At least she could complain about it tomorrow in one piece. As she started moving backwards, her eyes caught a glint of metal. There, next to the scrap pile and junk.

  A dog tag. Alone, no dead remains close to it. She picked it up, doing her best to read whatever was inscribed on it. The inscription was chipped away, but she could vaguely make out some initials. A. R. Paige. On the back of it, was scribbled in capital letters A S F S. She held it in her hands.

  None of this meant anything for her. But Kara had mentioned the ASFS to her. It was very like that this Paige dropped with her during the descent. A fellow soldier, a comrade. If that's where Callia even came from. She slipped the tag into her pockets and started walking. She’d keep the dog tag around, see if it clicks a fractured memory or something at least, if nothing else, it could serve as some connection to the world she lost. And maybe, lay the memory of this Paige to rest somewhere.

  Somewhere quiet.

  Callia didn’t make it far before the system harassed her again.

  [THRESHOLD POINTS EXCEEDED]

  [PLEASE CHOOSE A CLASS, URGENT, YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON IT]

  “Oh, for fuck's sake.”