As the steel door was broken from the hinges, Navia placed one foot higher and pressed it down, pinning the steel door down to the ground. Around her stood around twenty people, some shocked by what had happened, while a few of them had already picked up knives and pointed them at her.
“Isabell! Quick!” Shouted Navia, ignoring the confused crowd around her. The young woman pushed the wheelchair with her mother into the room. Barnacles were falling behind her from the stairs as a wave of them pushed against each other.
People in the staff area already blamed Navia for what was about to happen, as they had no idea how to block the hole left after her kick. An elder man in the corner began to pray as he saw death approaching them.
Some of them couldn’t believe their eyes as Navia picked up the steel door with her own two hands. She looked like a fragile and thin young woman, yet she had strength that many of those men around her dreamed of. Once she pressed the door to the place where it used to be, she moved her finger around it, leaving a lot of blood in the gaps and gluing it to the wall with her dry blood.
The monsters mashed their fists against the door, but they were unable to break through. Navia dropped to her knees, relieved that they were safe and feeling weak after losing so much blood. Her head felt a little dizzy, but she knew that she only needed a bit of time to regenerate lost blood.
As she looked back into the room, Navia saw two men standing in front of her with long kitchen knives pointed at her. “Who are you?” Asked a familiar-looking man. He was the one who checked the ticket for the premium clients. Seeing as he had a mark left by a blue frog's blood, Navia realized that he must’ve been the one who killed the frog in her room.
Navia was feeling weak, but she had the strength to talk, yet as she was about to open her mouth, Isabell’s mother shouted, “Don’t hurt her! She saved us!”
Some of the people looked back at the woman in a wheelchair. The man with a knife looked back and then again at Navia. “Now I remember… You were with your aunt, pushed in the wheelchair…” As the man put the knife away, the other guy did the same, but he remained near the door. He then moved back into the room and whispered something to an older man in a whole white outfit, lightly covered with red stains from blood. The man also wore a white sailor cap.
“Cerfull captain, her aunt told me that she doesn’t have… a right head.” Whispered the man with a knife.
The captain regarded Navia for a moment and looked back at the man. “I’ll keep that in mind, August.” The captain moved to the center of the room, and a few crates and chairs were placed around the room. People leaned or sat on them, but all of their eyes moved toward the captain. “Only twenty-three of us survived this… Unexpected… Phenomenon? Attack by the gods? I am not sure how to call it. Inside the staff area with have only enough food for two days for all of us. Unless there are more survivors out there.” The captain then looked at Isabell and her mother for confirmation.
Both of them shook their heads, and Isabell spoke, almost choking on her words. “We didn’t see anybody else.” A young woman, a kitchen worker judging by her clothes, gave her a cup of water.
“That means that two hundred people weren’t as lucky as we.” The captain looked down, and the room went silent for a moment for the people who had died.
“You must be the captain. Did you see what happened? Where are we now?” Asked Navia as she slowly got up from the floor, leaning against the wall, as she had to support herself somehow with how weak her legs felt.
The man took a moment before answering, “We got sucked into a whirlpool, and somehow got pushed into a massive island. On a shore, there was a cavern which led into a waterfall; thus, the fall we all experienced.”
Navia didn’t push further with the questions, because she knew that the captain wasn’t about to tell her the whole truth. “I’ll have to speak one-on-one with him if I want to know what really happened.”
“I, too, have a question. Where are you from? Witnessing your strength, we are a bit worried about your background.” The captain sat down and reached for something in his pocket. He placed a cigar in his mouth and lit it, enjoying the taste of smoke.
“I am a member of the Order of Tomorrow. I have to be strong to protect people. Like them.” Navia pointed her open hand at Isabell and her mother and then moved it all around, pointing at each person. “Like all of you.”
“Glad to hear it.” The captain let the smoke out, observing it fade into thin air. “My name is Oswold, and I am the captain, the one responsible for all of you who are left…” As he looked around, he got a closer look at the newcomers, imprinting their faces into his memory. “Get some bandages. This woman is hurt.” Looking at Isabell’s mother's leg, he froze. No one in there had any medical knowledge, having to leave the older lady in the state she was. “I’m sorry mam… We can’t do anything about your foot.”
The older lady simply looked back at her broken foot. She knew very well that this was a bad condition, something that needed the attention of a proper doctor. “I understand…” She answered, her voice a beat weak, tired.
“Someone pass a blanket!” Shouted the captain, and a young man with torn clothes ran up to him with a large towel. “Better than nothing.” The captain placed the towel on the elder's legs to warm them. “Rest for a bit. In an hour or two, there will be a meal ready for everyone.” The captain nodded to the kitchen worker, and she nodded back before moving toward the kitchen.
The people spread out around the room, continuing their conversations, comforting each other. It was easy to tell that everyone was on the edge. None of them was sure if they would leave this place alive.
Navia was curious only about one person, the man with a knife, August. The man quickly noticed that she was heading toward him. He let out a groan and turned toward her.
“There was a dead frog in my room with a wounded throat.” Stated Navia, wanting to prize the man for his bravery.
“If you have a problem with that, send a complaint to the captain.” The man grunted, taking Navia’s words as a mockery of some sort.
“So I was right. You’re the one who killed it.” Navia smiled back at the man, breaking his negative attitude toward her.
“Well… I did… But didn’t leave unscathed.” The man lifted a sleeve and showed burnt flesh on his left arm.
“You’re not the only one.” Navia showed her arm, which had blisters from a healing wound. The burns she received were much smaller than they used to be because of her rapid regeneration. “It used to be bigger.”
August was left with mixed feelings about the woman in front of her. Seeing her bust the doors and seal them up, praising him for killing a frog and making him feel better that they were a problem for her too. As she looked at her, he could swear she entered the ship with someone, but as he tried to remember that person, he couldn’t. “Must’ve imagined things…” He thought.
The staff area took most of the lower floor with a massive kitchen, a storage room, and a few rooms for the staff with beds and tables. Two people worked in the kitchen: the staff member and one of the clients who used to be a cook. The smell spread around the area, making everyone’s stomach growl. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was something.
The helping young man had two boxes of eggs in his arms that he took from storage. “Put the eggs back.”
“Oh. So we don’t make eggs right now? What else do you want me to bring you?” Asked the young man, curious about what the chef had planned for dinner.
“Nothing.” She answered as she chopped the last tomato she had on the table, putting all the cut vegetables into a pot.
“But… Will that be enough for twenty- I mean, twenty-three people?” The man asked, confused as he stood in place, waiting for the answer.
“It has to. We have food for two days, and we don’t know how long we’ll stay here. Eating less right now will let us survive for one or two more days.” Explained the cook. As the man looked into her eyes for an answer, she was empty; there was not much hope left. She was just doing her job for the last time in her life.
The man didn’t answer, he just swallowed everything he had on his mind and kept it to himself, not wanting to throw into panic by arguing with the chef.
Navia overheard the conversation as she stood somewhat in the middle of the staff area, having an eye on everything and everyone. “It looks like Brimwon all over again…” Thought Navia, remembering the same lost people imprisoned in a shelter on an island full of monsters. “This time I am stronger. I can save them.” Navia watched her clenched fist, growing determination inside her was visible to everyone as she stood out the most in this depressed group.
Since there was at least an hour before breakfast, Navia asked if this room was taken since it was empty at the moment. The people who used to sleep in there let her in, thinking she was going to take a nap. She closed the door and sat with her legs crossed.
Once she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the next time she breathed and opened her eyes was inside her inner world. It was the same misty, barren wasteland like last time, except the two gates she discovered were close to each other.
The Blood Gate was bearly open like it used to be, but she noticed one thing: some of the soil fell toward it, like the doors had been wide open but shut again. The dirt was as hard as it used but Navia knew there would be less work now, thanks to what had happened.
“Was I really able to open the doors so wide?” She thought, almost in disbelief.
Navia hoped that something had happened to the other gate, but it was the same as it used to be, even the shadows were in the place she had left them. She looked at the Shadow Gate, thinking about how to open it, but as no ideas came to mind, she switched to mining the gate out of the soil with her own hands.
She was so focused on the task at hand that she forgot how much time had passed. It looked like she did nothing, but she knew very well that there was some progress, even if it was a little, step by step, she was getting stronger. “After all… One day I might face a god…” She whispered to herself, not stopping her work, constantly scraping the floor with her bare fingers.
As she dug the soil, she replayed the conversation with Sie in her head. That’s when she remembered something odd. “She told me that I don’t need to eat since I am already dead… Why did she order a specific healthy food? There must be a good reason…” Looking at her arms, she realized what Sie meant. Her body is dead but continues to live; it needs nutrition to grow, to become stronger. “That means physical training isn’t meaningless…” Clenching her hands into fists, she began to punch the floor with all her might. Feeling tired from the constant flow of punches, she stopped to see if she accomplished anything.
A grin appeared on her face as she noticed a crack in the hard soil. “Even though they are barely an inch large… It’s more progress than scraping it off with my fingers.
Navia began to swing her arm around, preparing her joints for another round of punches. Hearing a knock, she was pulled out of her inner world. Isabell lightly peeked out through the door. “The dinner is ready…” She whispered, unsure if Navia was sleeping or not since she was sitting with her eyes closed.
“I’m not hungry…” Navia answered, a bit disappointed that an hour had already passed. She thought about the food that would help her grow stronger, but this wasn’t the right moment. Those people needed it more than she.