Chapter Text
“Your final mission is to find an exit to the Backrooms and leave,” Said Kat from Team Overseer “You 3 have all proven yourselves as strong and capable wanderers.”
Atlas can’t argue with that, as he's been in the backrooms for 7 years and a member of M.E.G for 5, leading many teams during expeditions and discovering many things. He's also heard of the woman standing next to him. Her thick hair the colour of fertile soil woven in a braid, tan skin even in the backrooms and amber eyes. She's a little shorter than him, but she could still most likely over power him. She's called Lucky by most and is one of the most skilled fighters that M.E.G has, so definitely an important member of the mission.
The other woman in the room he's never seen or heard of. She's pretty short, which could be an advantage in backrooms with narrow hallways, vents and many caves. Her curly sandy hair is in a tight bun, with eyes the colour of storm clouds. Her expression is hard to read. Atlas thinks that she's probably a member of a different group that M.E.G needs for this mission. Maybe the B.N.T.G or maybe a member of the many other groups that exist in the vastness of the backrooms.
“This is a dangerous and important mission, but I know all of you understand that and it's really nothing new, except for Olivia of course,” Kat continues.
Oh, that's her name, nice to know. Why would she not know anything about missions?
“Do all of you understand and agree?”
“Yes,”
Atlas has no hesitation, he trusts M.E.G with his life as many others do. He's willing to put his life on the line to protect the sanctuary of humanity. That's the full reason of course, why would he have any other reasons for his lack of hesitation.
Soon after his response a chorus of yes follows.
“Wonderful.. I’ll leave you three to properly meet each other.” Kat exits the room and leaves the three of them in an awkward air of silence. Lucky decided to speak up first.
“Uh.. Hi guys! I’m Lucky and I like painting.” She takes a little pause to look at them. “Mainly I’m a fighter, but I can do other things too. I think I’m a little worse at “smart” stuff.” She smiles at them little, turning to Olivia."What's your name?”
She sighs as if she's done this hundreds of times “I’m Olivia and I like to be alive I guess.” She shrugs” Haven't had time to do much else. Uhh…Food is probably my fav part of the day, so that too I guess." Taking a small pause to look at the ceiling until a realization is shown on her face and her cheeks redden. “Oh, uh.. Almost forgot, I’m gonna be support, like healing and navigation and stuff you know.”
Atlas takes this as a cue to introduce himself.
“I’m Atlas and I like to..” He racks his brain for what has happened to him recently that included anything but missions and expeditions. His mind goes back further back with his best friend when they could do anything. No… that's not it. His mind goes even further back to the time before this liminal hell was his life. This time was a lifetime ago. His mind slithers through the cracks in this wall he built between this him and previous him When he lived in the real world as a normal person. Yet, it's too painful to bring things up from those times so he settles on something “normal”. “...read. But, I really enjoy food too.” He pauses for a little to collect his thoughts. “My forte is exploring and just that I have been here for a long time.” There's a longer pause as his words hang in the air and no one really has the urge to speak for about half a minute.
“Since we’re done with like all the introduction stuff you know, what are we planning on doing, you know with the mission stuff?” Vocalized Olivia interrupting the silence.
“I think first get all the resources we need,” replied Lucky as a second of thought.
“And after?” asked Olivia with a slightly sarcastic tone.
“Level 11 has many organizations with archives and information. So logically the goal should be to get to level 11 to investigate the important organizations and people of interest that we find,” Atlas immediately formulated a plan.
Olivia and Lucky looked at him impressed and nodded.
“So we eat, get resources and head to level 11, right?” Clarified Lucky
“Yeah,” Olivia reaffirms, Lucky nods at this.
***
The three of them walk down the hallways of Base Alpha. The lighting is cool and gives the base a hint of unnaturalness. The cool gray concrete hallway is sparse with people so their footsteps echo loudly. Shortly the hallway opens up into a larger room, the cafeteria. The furniture in it is strange and out of place. Of course in the backrooms this isn’t anything special. The desks are similar to those in American schools. The tops an ugly butter colour with spots that if it was butter would be mold. The chairs too look as if they are from a high school in America. They have an off center kind of blue plastic on them.
Maybe to others this is a pitiful sight. But to Atlas, it meant much more.Atlas has grown to love this Base. He was here when there were just a few people just trying to get by and fend off entities. Exploring was the end goal of course, but to explore you need to be alive which was a struggle in itself. There he met a person that would change his life for the much better and the worse. In a miss it and you blink kind of way the Base grew and exploring the entire backrooms became less of a dream and more a destiny that M.E.G would reach sooner or later. Now there are hundreds of people here at any moment. The cafeteria encapsulates this growth perfectly. Used to be a whatever-you-find system that now has dedicated workers just for the kitchen and serving. It's a symbol of hope for so many that humanity can truly survive anything. That life doesn’t end the moment that you enter the Backrooms. Atlas personally is filled with determination to come back, see what humanity can truly do.
It hits Atlas mid-walk that if this mission is a success that he’ll never see this place again. His legs stop working for a second and he just stops taking it in for a second. Lucky turns around smiling a little
“Hey, why’d you stop?” she asks.
“Just thinking, we might not see this place ever again,” He replied looking away from them looking at the line for lunch. Trying to avoid eye contact.
“I'm sad to leave this, too. I have so many memories here. My own personal bed and a constant thing to look forward to in whatever the backrooms truly are. Really can’t do anything about it though, so just gotta soak it in and enjoy our last meal here,” Shared Lucky also looking out into nothinings, as Atlas turns to look at her. He never expected to hear this from someone that he met 30 minutes ago. It makes him squirm a bit internally. Olivia stands a bit off to the side from them, he sensed a smidge of resent coming off of her. She probably feels left out, he realizes.
“Yeah,” He quietly breathes a response, truly soaking in the cafeteria.
***
The triad gets their food and sits down at a table in the corner. The food is nothing special. Just as things a lot of times are, when we expect something big and celebratory to complement the big thing we’re going through, but the universe doesn’t bend to one person's struggle. It stays the same, truly makes one feel small. A little ant in a sea other big events that one doesn’t are happening. Truly- Olivia’s voice cuts through his thoughts like a warm knife through butter.
“The food here is so different every time. The last few times I was here the food was… fresher to say the least.” She makes a face
“I’ve noticed that too!” Exclaims Lucky “I think It has something to do with B.N.T.G trade and what expeditions have found recently. Of course I dunno for certain, it's just a theory.”
“A food theory,” murmurs Olivia.
“What?” Asks Atlas
“Nothing,” She says and goes back to looking at the food with a stare that makes it very clear that she finds the food to be unappetizing. Lucky notices this too as she speaks up immediately.
“I know it's not the best food ever, but you have to be at least a little grateful and get all the nutrients you can,” She sympathetically remarks.
“Easy for you to say, you’re probably used to it,” Vocalizing her pent up emotion.
“Lets not get into insults, we’ve just formed a team and are already arguing,” remarks Lucky, leaning in a little to try to maintain the peace. “Just eat the food.”
“Fine,” Olivia squeezes out of herself and starts very intently eating her food.
“So. Supplies,” Lucky states turning away from Olivia and toward Atlas.
“Yes, supplies. What about them?” Not getting where this is going.
“What specific supplies do we need? Do we need just the usual stuff or maybe extra just cause it's a longer mission?”
“Hmmm. For starters we need the highest quality gear possible,”
Images of entities come to his mind. He remembers being chased by many entities. There's a scar on his arm that tells the story of his encounter with a smiler. Went to level 2 to check up on the railroad progress and ended up being caught in a blackout. A smiler sensed him like sharks smell blood and came running. Atlas put his arms up over his head and the smiler started to attack the leather, if it was a little thinner he would get a way bigger injury to deal with. So good protection is a must.
Environment is another big concern. Don’t want your boots to break in the middle of a level or to slip because of crappy material and just not wanting to walk miles with uncomfortable shoes.
“Imagine your shoes just come undone in the middle of a fight and you die because of shoes. That’ll be a dumb way to die,” Olivia bluntly states and snorts after saying this. The trio shares a small laugh over this. That too thinks Atlas. “On a more serious note, medical supplies and just a ton of them. Like I’ve used anything and I mean ANYTHING, but real supplies are better.”
“What do you mean by ‘anything’, Olivia?” Questions Lucky “Wait. Never mind I don’t wanna know. Oh and I have a new idea.”
“What is it?” Asks Atlas.
“So since Olivia said that she used anything, I thought we could get some basic tools because they last longer. I.I.I’m not sure though. I could be wrong,” She describes looking away.
“Yeah that's a really good idea,” he replies. Olivia nods in agreement.
“ Really?” She chirps
“Of course. Tools will be super useful.” He smiles at her in affirmation.
“Alright, so we need good gear, medical supplies, of course food + water and some tools. I think we should be like good.” Everyone nods in agreement with Olivia. The rest of the meal is spent in silence enjoying each other's company and taking in the cafeteria.
***
After grabbing all the necessary supplies the triad took some time for each of them to say goodbye to whoever they needed to. For Atlas there really wasn’t anyone who he would consider a friend and most of his closer acquaintances were on an expedition. He lays down on his bed just waiting for the time to pass. Getting deeper into his thoughts.
It’s not as if Atlas is lonely, no he's mostly satisfied by being alone in his free time. Making acquaintances during his expeditions, even friends for short periods. They usually end one of two ways. Either the friendship was forged out of proximity of the expedition and not true friendship or they die, as simple as that. That's the Backrooms for you. All your friends die. Sometimes in front of, sometimes in your arms or on an expedition far, far away with no body to ever see. People say to get your finger burned, but if that's a candle then that day is a whole house fire, Atlas thinks. He's a more introverted person anyway. Or maybe just a little cursed, it can’t be a coincidence that almost all his friends die? Oh well.
Getting away from the thoughts of death he looks around his room. Perks of being a very long term member. Most operatives get a bunk, but he gets a whole room. It's only fair as he's worked more missions than most of the people here combined. There's little drawings that he made(not Atlas) all around the room. Snapshots of different expeditions. A desk that has some paper laying around on it. Souvenirs all around the room in boxes. Places where sentimental items used to be until he packed them away with his gear. A tiny tear makes its way down his cheek. He's going to leave. For real. Or die. That's always an option in the backrooms. He's going to leave. Leave all of this behind. All the memories and people. Two halves of a whole. Both gone forever. He's going to leave. See the real sun. Experience a moment of true entity free existence. See his mom. See his brother. Go to college. Be a normal human for once. Just existing with not a care in the world. He's going to leave. He's going to leave. He’s going to leave.
He suddenly stands up remembering that he has to go to their meet up spot. Atlas takes some deep breaths to calm himself down. Yes it's happening and yes it's going to be okay. It's time to go.
***
The three of them meet at the no-clip location, curtly nodding at each other.
“Let's go,” Said Atlas
“Let's go,” Said Lucky
“Let’s go,” Said Olivia
And in they went. Three souls tied together with the red lines of fate. Stepping past the boundary of safety. The line of no return, into the jaws of the beast. Setting their destinies into the motion of change. Will they make it out of the backrooms or not? Lets wait and see.