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So many things to do, so many things to check on, but only so much time in the day. That's your life. "Anthony, you've been here a while, right?"
"Yes sir. I know my way around this place like the back of yer hand."
"Why do you keep saying that?"
"Ain't that the saying?" Anthony scoffs, almost offended that you're questioning him on this. "Like, ya know a place real well, like the back of a hand?"
"I-it's the back of MY hand. T-that's the saying. 'I-I know something like the back of my hand.'"
Anthony opens his mouth, but all that comes out is a confused grunt. It takes a moment for him to figure out how he should respond to her. "Really? Shit, have I been sayin' it wrong?"
"Yes." You bluntly answer. "Okay, look, that's BESIDES the point. We got a lot of things to do so! We need YOU to lead the way."
"Well, sir, I do know this here facility..." He pauses all of a sudden. What is he doing? "Like the..."
"Don't you fucking dare."
"Back of your hand." He 'winks' with his one remaining eye.
Lucy covers her mouth in a vain attempt to muffle her giggling. You have half a mind to strangle this bastard right here and now. Feh, whatever, he's been helpful enough, and you don't like your odds on fighting him. He survived in this facility for thirty-something years; he can probably put up a decent fight despite how decrepit he is.
"Anywho, where did ya wanna go first?"
"Oh, right. Do you know a man named Rudolf Pierce?"
"Man!" Anthony nearly bursts out laughing then and there at your question. "We go way back. Probably before ya were born. Been a while since I met the old sonnvagun. C'mon, follow me."
You and Lucy trail behind the old timer. You hope he actually knows where to go and that he's not going to have another old man brain fart. Any worry you had about his competence in this regard, thankfully, vanishes when he starts pulling some outright nonsense.
He leads you down a turn that was <span class="mu-i">not</span> there before or that, somehow, you missed this turn. He leads you down a completely different path than the one you're normally used to. Unmarked doors line the hallway, and when you check the map that the <span class="mu-b">Man</span> gave you, you can't locate most of these doors.
He DID mark it down, but it's a smear on the map, something you could've easily confused as an error in his notes.
"Where the hell are we?"
"Ah, there are a few gaps here or there. Space is wibbly-wobbly in this facility even at the best of times, ya know?" Anthony explains with an off-handed, casual tone you'd normally hear if you asked someone about the weather. "Ya learn to SEE these gaps here or there. They're sometimes there, sometimes not."
"Heard rumors about someone findin' weird eggs or somethin' in between the gaps. Or something LIKE eggs?"
"A-an egg-" Lucy squints as she tries to remember something. "Where did I-I hear...oh." She shoots you a cautious look. "Like THAT-"
You shake your head. Best to not talk about the mysterious EGG you have in your satchel.
