The journey to the unknown

The roar of the helicopter blades receded into the vast emptiness of the mountain range, leaving Riana enveloped in an unnerving silence broken only by the whisper of the wind against the jagged peaks. There was a motel in the middle of the woods here where there will get they things ready, Riana will have to learn of the territory and memorize the terrain. 

 

Early the next morning they made preparations for the day ahead. Riana stood alone on the designated landing zone, a small, somewhat flat expanse of rock that felt more like an unstable nest than a starting point.

 

Her gaze swept across the imposing landscape, a labyrinth of towering cliffs, slopes, and ice-laden valleys. The air was thin and cold, it stung her exposed skin, a stark reminder of the altitude and the inherent hostility of this environment.

 

This was it.

She reminded herself, There was no turning back. A knot of nervous energy tightened in her stomach, a familiar sensation that had always accompanied the start of a challenging journey, but this time, it was laced with a sharper edge of apprehension. Five year. Five years she had worked alongside Silas. His steady presence, his quiet company , it had been a constant in her life, a reliable anchor in the often, stormy waters of her explorations. 

 

He had been more than just a driver and a logistical support; he had been her partner, a sounding board, a friend in the isolating world she often lived in. She needed him, his detailed planning, his uncanny ability to anticipate problems, had saved her more times than she cared to count.

 

The memory of their last conversation, just before she got inside the car, was vivid. His eyes, usually crinkled at the corners with a ready smile, had been filled with a deep concern. "Miss Smith," he had said, his voice low and earnest. Why he always called her so formally, Riana did not know. She had once asked him why yet he just said “ you are my boss, and so I should respect you”

This time around Silas was looking straight into Riana’s eyes with a look of ridicule "are you absolutely sure about this? This… this feels different."

 This would be the first time she did a mission on her own, ever, it had always been the two of them, against the world.

Riana just offered him a wry smile, trying to mask the tremor of uncertainty that had flickered within her. "It's just another climb, Silas. A bit more remote,  but just a climb neither less." she too not very sure or trusting of the words she said. But they both knew it wasn't just another climb. The rumors surrounding this particular location, the whispers of unusual energy readings and unexplained disappearances, had painted a different picture. It was the kind of mission that others deemed foolishly reckless, bordering on suicidal. 

 

And that was precisely why she had chosen it.

 

"Your family, your sisters…" Silas had continued, his gaze softening with understanding. "They worry about you Miss."

 

She had shrugged, turning away to check her gear, unable to meet his gaze. The weight of her family’s expectations, their unspoken disapproval of her isolated life, had become a heavy burden. This mission, in its inherent danger and separateness, felt like a depraved act of rebellion, a desperate attempt to carve out a space where their concerns couldn't reach her.

 

"Silas," she had said finally, her voice firm, "you have a wife, children. And so this is not a risk I can ask you to take."

 

He had nodded slowly, his understanding evident in his eyes, but the worry had remained. Now, standing alone amidst the imposing mountains, his absence felt like a tangible weight, a void where his reassuring presence should have been.

 

 She missed his quiet efficiency, the way he always seemed to have a spare piece of equipment or a comforting word at the ready. She even missed his dry humor, the subtle jabs that had often lightened the tension during difficult moments.

For two whole months she had made preparation, two months of careful preparation, of immersing threatening warnings and unsettling legends, had culminated in this moment. A moment of solitary descent into a place where no one returned.

 

Looking at Silas's face, she thought, it was engraved with concern, a quiet petition to reconsider. She pushed the image away, the guilt a sharp, unwelcome pang. 

 

Thinking, he had a life, a family, a future. She couldn't, wouldn't, drag him into the abyss. ‘This is my path’, she told herself, the words a mantra against the growing ripple of doubt.

 

She looked outside her window, at the city's outskirts, once a familiar landscape of crumbling buildings and overgrown streets, began to morph, the shadows deepening, the ruins taking on a sinister, predatory element. 

 

The vehicle's headlights cut through the thickening gloom, adorning twisted metal and crumbling concrete, remnants of a world long past, a world now tainted by an unseen presence.

 

Riana remembered all of Anya's warnings of the Crimson zone, the shapeless perceptions, the bloodlust. As she adjusted the air filtration system, the hum of the machinery a steady counterpoint to the silence that pressed in from all sides. 

 

Sighing she recalled Kai's sensations, that thought of what if this might be her last mission? That what if the challenge she had wished for might just be the reason she placed all her cards down and called it quits on her ambitions? She gripped the leather sits besides her, knuckles white, her senses heightened, every shadow a potential threat, every sound a whisper of the unknown.

 

She had to make it.

 

The navigation system, its holographic display a fragmented map of the city's ruins, flickered erratically as they approached the Crimson Zone's perimeter. The pulsating red line, marking the boundary, seemed to writhe, to pulse with an unnatural energy. The air grew heavy, thick with a sense of dread, a real weight that pressed down on her, knocking over her breath.

 

As she crossed the invisible line, the world around her shifted, warped, as if the very fabric of reality had changed. The ruins, once a familiar landscape of decay, now resembled a monstrous mockery of their former selves, twisted and contorted, their silhouettes elongated and menacing. The air shimmered, a faint crimson haze clinging to the ruins like a blanket, distorting the light, casting everything in an unsettling, blood-tinged hue.

 

Her heart started to beat quite rapidly, fear tripping in.