Chapter 80: The rung

Jelo began scanning the room methodically, his eyes searching for anything that might indicate a portal or some other means of transportation. He knew it was a long shot, portals required significant infrastructure to maintain, complex machinery and power sources that wouldn’t simply be sitting around in abandoned buildings.

But he couldn’t entirely dismiss the possibility. Strange things happened in contaminated zones. The radiation and residual energy from the weapons that had destroyed this city might have created anomalies, tears in space that could function similarly to constructed portals.

He moved through the space carefully, checking corners with systematic thoroughness. His hands pressed against the wooden walls at intervals, feeling for temperature differences or vibrations that might indicate hidden machinery or spatial distortions.

He examined the floor, looking for seams or patterns that might suggest concealed doorways. He looked under what little furniture remained, a broken chair, a table with two missing legs propped against a wall, a shelf unit that had partially collapsed.

But he found nothing. No portals, no anomalies, no hidden passages. Just old wood and accumulated dust and the detritus of a life abandoned long ago.

But he couldn’t shake the hope that something might appear, that his search might reveal some unexpected way out of this situation. Hope was a stubborn thing, persisting even when rationality said otherwise. And right now, stuck in this world with no clear path back to safety and Mira still missing somewhere in this wasteland, Jelo needed that hope to keep moving forward.

After searching through the main room for what felt like an eternity with no success, Jelo decided to try a different approach. Maybe he wouldn’t find a portal, but perhaps a map could give him some answers or at least help him understand the layout of the building and the surrounding area.

Maps had been common before the city’s fall, people needed to navigate, to know where things were. If this had been someone’s home, there might be street maps, city plans, something that could orient him and help him figure out where he was in relation to the portal exit point.

With renewed purpose, Jelo started opening drawers in what appeared to have once been a kitchen area. The drawers stuck from years of humidity warping the wood, requiring significant force to pull open. Most contained nothing but dust and the occasional dead insect, their bodies desiccated and fragile.

He moved to shelves next, carefully removing items and checking behind them for anything that might have been tucked away. Old containers, empty boxes, fragments of things he couldn’t identify in their deteriorated state.

He checked behind old boards that had come loose from the walls, thinking perhaps something might have fallen into the gaps. He examined cabinets that still had doors attached, peering into dark interiors filled with cobwebs and shadows. His search became increasingly thorough, increasingly desperate as each location yielded nothing useful.

But again, he found nothing of value. No maps, no documents, no information that could help him understand this place or find his way. Just more dust, more decay, more evidence of abandonment and loss.

Frustration started to build in Jelo’s chest, a tight feeling that made his jaw clench and his movements become less careful. He’d been so hopeful when he first spotted this building, thinking it might provide shelter or supplies or some clue about what to do next. But it was just another dead end, another disappointment in a series of setbacks that had defined his experience since arriving in this zone.

He began to feel genuinely discouraged, the weight of his situation settling more heavily on his shoulders with each passing moment.

The building seemed to make no sense, why was it still standing when so many others had collapsed? Why did it appear relatively intact from the outside but offer nothing of use on the inside? What was the point of its existence?

Nothing he did was giving him any new information or bringing him any closer to solving the problems he faced. The systematic search that had seemed so logical and methodical when he started now felt pointless, a waste of energy and time he couldn’t afford to spend.

Jelo stepped back from his search, his hands falling to his sides as he considered simply leaving. The building had nothing for him. He should get back outside and continue looking for Mira, stop wasting time on false hopes and dead ends. The feeling of failure was settling in, heavy and uncomfortable, making him question his decisions and his ability to handle this situation.

As he turned toward the door, preparing to leave this useless structure behind, his eyes caught something he hadn’t noticed before during his initial search. There was a strange section of the floor near the far wall, an area that looked slightly different from the rest of the wooden planking.

Jelo paused, his attention focusing on the anomaly. The section was slightly raised compared to the surrounding floor, creating a barely perceptible elevation that he might have missed if he hadn’t been looking at just the right angle when the light came through a gap in the walls. And the shape was oddly regular, too geometric to be natural warping from age and moisture.

His curiosity immediately rekindled, pushing back against the discouragement that had been threatening to overwhelm him moments before. What was that? Some kind of structural support? A repair that had been made to damaged flooring? Or something more deliberate, something intentionally hidden?

Jelo crossed the room quickly and knelt down beside the strange section, his enhanced vision allowing him to see details that would have been invisible to normal eyes in the dim interior light. Now that he was closer, the oddity became even more apparent.

The boards in this section were definitely different from the surrounding floor, slightly newer perhaps, or made from a different type of wood. And the way they fit together suggested they weren’t meant to be permanent, that they could be moved or removed.

He examined the section more closely, running his fingers along the edges, feeling for mechanisms or triggers. The wood was smooth under his touch, worn but not rotted like so much of the rest of the structure. His fingers found slight depressions at intervals along one edge, like finger holds that had been deliberately carved and then disguised with careful craftsmanship.

Pressing on the section experimentally, Jelo felt it give slightly under the pressure. Not breaking or collapsing, but shifting in a controlled way that suggested hinges or some kind of pivot mechanism beneath. His heart rate increased slightly with anticipation. This was something. This was different from everything else in the building.

He applied more pressure, pushing down firmly on the raised section while simultaneously pulling at one of the finger holds he’d discovered. For a moment nothing happened, the floor resisting his efforts. Then, with a grinding sound of wood against wood and the protest of mechanisms that hadn’t been used in years, the floor began to shift.

The section opened slowly, revealing darkness beneath. A hidden compartment, or more accurately, an entrance to something below the main floor. As the concealed door swung fully open, Jelo found himself staring down into a dark space that extended beyond what the limited light could reveal.

The opening was large enough for a person to fit through comfortably, and looking down, Jelo could make out the top rungs of what appeared to be a ladder descending into the darkness below.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep