From Moving Crates to Killing Gods-Chapter 13: Blue Moss

Ember, looking for a place to rest her legs, backed up toward the tunnel entrance and plopped down onto a soft looking patch of blue growth clinging to the rock. The moment she made contact, the moss flared with a brilliant, electric cyan light, buzzing audibly. Ember shot back to her feet with a yelp, swatting at her backside as if attacked by bees.

"Gah! What in the world was that?!" She yelped, spinning around to stare at the now gently glowing moss as if it had betrayed her.

Mira let out a short, sharp breath, the closest thing to a laugh she’d managed in days. "Congratulations. You’ve found the dinner table." She stepped closer, examining the moss. "I recognize this. My father described it. Blue sustenance moss. It’s one of the few things out here that’s actually edible for humans. It reacts to body heat and pressure. And you just... sat on it."

A ripple of desperate hope traversed through our group. We’d been without food for days now, surviving on water and determination. My own stomach had gone from painful cramping to a hollow, distant ache that was almost worse.

Darien’s voice sliced through our excitement. "Corruptors will smell the hope every one of you is leaking right now, I can see it on your faces." His jaw tightened. "Breathe slower. Think of nothing. If that’s too hard, focus on your blisters, your thirst, anything but clear hope."

The group stiffened. I watched as faces around me emptied of expression, one by one, like candles being snuffed out.

"How do you know it’s safe?" I asked, skepticism overriding hunger.

Mira’s eyes met mine, steady and certain. "The Zeros who survive bring back information. It accumulates. This moss grows around the ruins of the forgotten Argent. The bright blue is distinctive."

"So we just... eat it?" Kira asked, doubt clear in her voice.

"Not without testing." Darien said firmly. He glanced around the group. "We need a volunteer."

Silence fell. No one wanted to be the test case for potentially poisonous alien moss. Then, to my surprise, Phinyx stepped forward.

"I’ll vibe with it." He said, trying to sound confident despite his trembling hands. "My vibes might help neutralize anything nasty."

Before anyone could stop him, he reached out and plucked a small section of the blue moss, popping it into his mouth. We all watched, breath held, as he chewed thoughtfully.

"It tastes..." He began, then paused, searching for words. "Like paste, but with actual flavor? Kind of sweet. And..." His eyes widened. "The hunger vibe is... diminishing. Rapidly."

Within minutes, it was clear the moss wasn’t going to kill him. In fact, Phinyx reported feeling better than he had since before the exile. The rest of us started gathering and biting moss like starving animals, which, to be fair, we were. The texture was strange, springy yet dissolving quickly on the tongue, but the effect was immediate. A small handful left me feeling as satisfied as a full meal of nutritional paste.

As we harvested the moss, stuffing extra portions into our pockets for the journey ahead, I found myself thinking about the implications of these ruins. If Argent once extended this far, what had caused its retreat? War? Resources? Or something worse?

"Why weren’t we told about these outer settlements?" I asked Kira quietly as we worked. "Even just as history?"

She glanced toward the Zeros, then back to me. "Probably the same reason they don’t tell us much about anything. Knowledge is power, and they don’t want us to have any."

"But this isn’t just information." I insisted, my fingers working mechanically to gather more moss. "This is evidence that they lied about Argent being the only place were humans ever lived. If there were outposts, there might be other settlements entirely. Other groups of survivors."

Kira’s hands tensed. "You think there could be other Citadels?"

I shrugged, not willing to commit to the idea but unable to dismiss it either. "I’m just saying, if they lied about this, what else did they lie about?"

Kira’s eyes darted toward the Zeros, then back to me. "Everything." she whispered, her voice barely disturbing the air between us.

With food in our bellies and a plan forming, the group began to consolidate. Darien, Mira, and Finn got together, mapping a path through the metal jungle that would take us toward the Citadel while providing defensive positions and access to the water sources Kira had detected.

I walked a few paces away from the main group, needing a moment to process. The yo-yo spun from my fingers, its familiar weight grounding me as I tried to make sense of our new reality. Switch had saved us in the tunnels, but at a cost I was still recovering from. Out here, with space to move and things to manipulate, I might have more options... might.

"Hey." Kira’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. She stood beside me, arms wrapped around herself despite the warmth of the air. "Can I ask you something?"

"Besides that question?" I raised an eyebrow, falling back on old habits of deflection.

She smiled faintly. "What happened back in the tunnel, when you collapsed... Could you do it again? If we needed it?"

The question hit me harder than I expected. Could I? The hollow feeling in my head was fading, replaced by that persistent hum. The yo-yo felt right in my hand, each throw and return like a tiny exercise. I was recovering.

"Maybe." I said finally. "But not in the same way. I need to be smarter about it."

She nodded, accepting this without pressing. "Good. Because I have a feeling we’re going to need every trick we have out here."

In the distance, the Citadel gleamed, it was visible, yet impossibly far. The metal jungle between us and Argent seemed to shift in the faint breeze, vegetation rustling against corroded silver frames.

Darien’s voice cut through my contemplation. "We move now. Stay close, stay quiet, and for the sake of survival, try to keep your emotions in check. The less hope you broadcast, the better our chances."

As we gathered our meager belongings and prepared to set out, I caught Finn watching me, his expression hovering between gratitude and guilt.

"What?" I asked, my voice low.

He flinched, then shook his head. "Nothing. It’s just... thanks. For the tunnel. You probably saved all of us."

A cold knot tightened in my stomach. "Finn." I said, keeping my voice flat and quiet. "Are you trying to get us killed? Gratitude’s an emotion. Right now, feeling anything is like painting a target on your back and shouting for the Corruptors. Don’t thank me... at least not when being grateful feels like a death sentence."

His face went pale. "Right. Sorry."

"Don’t be sorry, either. That’s another one! Just... feel nothing. Or if you have to feel something, aim for bored. Aim for mildly annoyed." I jerked my chin toward Phinyx, who was calmly adjusting a strap on his pack. His face was a perfect, placid blank. "Like him. The vibe guy. Is he having the best day of his life or planning our silent doom? No one knows. That’s the goal."

Finn nodded, swallowing hard, and he slowly morphed his features into a hollow mask. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

In the silence that followed, the only sound was the low, persistent howling of wind through the metal passages ahead.