Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

towering giants that held so much light and life, were now gray and lifeless, reminiscent of tombstones—a mass grave for an untold number of dead. Yet, despite the horror of what I was seeing, freedom burned within my heart. Maybe now I can put my ghosts to rest.

Once the plane had safely landed and shut its engines off, we were led out in a single file line. We’d landed at another airport, though this one was clearly for military use. Several rusting and burned-out wrecks of fighter jets and a few guard stations clustered around with numerous heavily armed soldiers standing watch.

There was a huge building that looked to be an old army command center, lit up like a Christmas tree. Every window burned with bright light. I thought this was where all of us were heading, but we marched past the building to a warehouse situated around back. The rusted, corrugated door screamed in protest as it was shoved open. I expected more rusted metal on the inside, but it was clear that this wasn’t a simple warehouse. The walls were reinforced concrete latticed with rebar supports and massive I-beam columns to support the weight of the roof, which looked sturdy enough to survive a bomb strike.

Maybe it can. This must be a survival bunker leftover from the Beggars’ Revolution. My thought was only confirmed as we were led to a huge freight elevator, and a hundred of us at a time were taken down. Sophia and I were in the first group, and with a heavy groan of metal, we started down.

We descended for almost five minutes. It had to be at least a full mile below ground. With a jarring stop, we reached the bottom.

The elevator opened into a massive man-made cavern. Concrete and steel, from floor to ceiling, stretched at least a hundred feet in the air and as far back as my eye could see. The space was amazing, but the sheer volume of people moving around sent my jaw plummeting.

A hundred thousand souls stared at us as the elevator opened, craning their necks to get a look at the new blood.

I didn’t know there was anywhere near this many survivors left. Sophia was ecstatic and kept jerking on my clothes, pointing this way and that, showing off something new she’d seen, while I wasn’t as enthusiastic about the sights. It was damned impressive, but when you took away the sheer size of it, it was just another refugee camp.

Without any ceremony, we were led in groups to the showers. The showers were small, one-person affairs, but the water was almost boiling, and I stayed under it for a long time, scrubbing myself with soap till the stream that ran off me and swirled down the drain was no longer tinged with brown. Once I was clean, I dried myself with a towel and found rows of shelves with clean clothes and toiletries, plain white t-shirts and gray sweatpants in every size.

I got dressed and stopped by the sinks to brush my teeth. The mirror was large and spotless, giving me the first good look at myself in a very long time. The years of malnutrition and living in squalor hadn’t been kind. My skin was pale and thin, stretched too tight over the bones.

One look at my wiry beard and tangled hair, and I snorted in disgust. I took a nearby electric trimmer to both. When my copper hair filled the sink, I squirted a liberal amount of shaving cream and shaved my face clean. I almost wished I hadn’t when I saw the result. With my clean-shaven face and hair cropped so close to my scalp, I looked emaciated and hollow.

I wiped my face and cleaned up my mess before heading outside to wait for Soph.

She arrived about ten minutes later, looking much more refreshed than I felt, and if I thought she was pretty before, with her dirty clothes and grimy skin. It was nothing compared to her now. She practically glowed. She was wearing identical clothing as me, but my eyes were drawn to her chest, as it was apparent she wasn’t wearing a bra, and I quickly averted my eyes.

“You look nice,” I said with a cough.

She beamed at me, her face flushed by the heat of the water, and ran a hand over my buzzed hair.

“So do you,” she said, helping me to my feet.

We waited for the rest of our group to finish bathing, then we were taken to a communal mess room, where teams of chefs worked with the speed of demons to serve several hundred people at once.

After a light stew, we headed deeper into the facility, past bunkhouses, medical tents, sports fields, and even an arcade until we arrived at a heavy steel reinforced door guarded by two guards, both armed with serious firepower.

With a nod from the doctor, they let us pass. The heavy steel door swung open without a sound. Once inside, I found us walking down a large hallway. It reminded me of a hospital. White tile and soothing, non-threatening, beige-painted walls, all undercut with the sharp white fluorescent bulbs, which hummed constantly.

Once the last person filed in, the heavy door swung shut and locked with an ominous click. Soph took my hand and clung to my back as we walked down the corridor, though the identical walls made keeping track difficult. We reached a particularly long hallway with wooden doors spaced about a hundred feet apart. A team of scientists walked out and ordered us into smaller groups of fifteen to twenty each.

Our groups lined up by each of the doors, and we all filed inside. The room was large. Sharp and clinical, surgical even. Floor to ceiling sparkling white tile and stainless-steel carts next to strange machines. The entire back wall was dominated by computer screens and monitors, blinking lights from a hundred