The Ultimate Regressor System

Ryker paced across his room, jaw tight, fists clenched and confusion plastered on his face. Seeing Lucas still wanting to leave made him confused.

"Why? Why didn’t it work?"

He tried to find an answer but nothing he could think of could have the credibility that satisfied him.

"It should have worked. It worked on every one of them. Why not him?"

He just couldn’t wrap his head around why what he did failed to have an effect on Lucas. It had worked exactly as intended on Eleanor, on Mark, on a dozen others scattered throughout his growing collection of "guests" that slowly lost interest in leaving. That was the entire art of it, the reason his Faction had grown earlier on from a dozen desperate survivors into a fortress full of people who believed they wanted to stay.

And as always, Lucas remained the single exception.

"Unless he’s found a way to resist it. Or he already suspectednsomething."

The thought was alarming. If Lucas suspected the truth, if he was somehow able to figure out why his companions had suddenly had a devotion to this place then the carefully laid out over the past month stood at the risk of collapse.

He wasn’t going to sit here and watch one fire wielding nobody with an inconvenient resistance to destroy it in a single week.

"He’s the problem. He’s always been the problem, since the moment he walked through that gate I’ve never been this wary of a human in my life..."

Ryker stopped pacing and looked out the window towards the courtyard below. He saw Eleanor moving through it now with the soft pace that looked like she now belonged here.

He didn’t want to resort to this. He really didn’t. He was perfectly content with patiently earning Eleanor’s trust and somehow think of a way to keep her here.

But Lucas’ arrival had completely derailed that plan.

His mind drifted to Lucas. The way he spoke to him, visibly unaffected by whatever he had done to them and his chest tightened in anger and frustration.

"The Terror." The title surfaced again, no longer amusing like the first time.

He was a threat. He had changed his opinion about him. He was no longer a rival for Eleanor’s attention anymore, he was now an active, unpredictable threat to everything Ryker had spent over a month carefully building.

"He needs to go," Ryker murmured, his voice carrying a cols edge... "One way or another."

He turned from the window, already calculating, already thinking of another plan to get rid of him.

He exhaled. "I’m going to kill him..."

***

Lucas found Iris near the training yard the next morning, watching a group of Ryker’s fighters run drills with the same faint and contented approval he had started noticing on far too many faces around this fortress.

"Iris. Hey." He said, falling into step beside her. "We need to talk about leaving."

She glanced at him, something close to confusion flickering across her face. "Leaving? Why would we do that?"

Lucas’ eyes widened before they narrowed again. "Iris, this isn’t our Faction. We’re supposed to be regrouping, not moving in."

"I don’t see the rush," she said unbothered and eyes drifting back toward the training yard. "This place is safe and well supplied. Why risk the road again?"

"Are you listening to yourself? Iris, this isn’t like you." His voice cracked with frustration he could no longer fully contain and he stepped closer which made her step back. "Knowing you, you would have had a plan mapped out for leaving within an hour of arriving. You don’t just... settle."

Something flickered across her face, like Lucas had said something completely alien to her. "I really don’t see a need for that. I’m... comfortable here..."

"Comfortable," he repeated flatly. "You. Comfortable?*

"Is that so strange?"

"YES! it really is!." Lucas’ voice came louder than he intended. The Iris he knew wouldn’t get so comfortable in a place like this. Matter of fact, she refused to let her guard down even back at their own faction...

She used to be the person who constantly questioned his calmness across countless fights. Now he was the one bothered about her calms expression.

"Iris, please. Try to think about it. Does staying here actually make sense to you?"

She considered the question for a short while before answering with a shrug. "It just feels right," she said finally in the same unbothered tone that almost threw Lucas into a panic.

"Okay, what about Callum. Aren’t you worried about him?"

"He’ll be fine. If he doesn’t show up here, he’s probably safe."

"Safe? As far as I’m concerned, in this hell, there’s no such thing as ’safe’"

He walked away before the conversation could go any further his fists clenched and his jaw tight.

Every other person he met had the same unbothered attitude and the same reluctance to leave...

"This just doesn’t make any sense..."

His eyes landed on Eleanor and when their eyes met, she darted them away.

"Great. Eleanor’s avoiding me now."

He’d noticed the way her attitude changed towards him.

She found reasons to be elsewhere whenever he approached, and every time he did saw her, she was near Ryker, laughing at something he said, their conversations flowing like they had actually become close.

This wasn’t the Eleanor he knew...

"Alright. Something’s actually wrong...."

***

The dining hall was filled with its usual evening crowd, survivors from both factions gathering around long tables for the last meal of the day. Lucas stood near the entrance, lost in thought as always before finally deciding to sit down near the edge of the table.

"You’ve had a long day," Ryker said, setting one plate down in front of Lucas with a calm smile. "Figured I’d bring this over myself."

"Thanks," Lucas said, distracted. He was too busy thinking of a way out of this mess.

’Something specific is causing this... food, water, something in the air, I don’t know. But it started after we arrived, and it’s gotten worse the longer we’ve stayed.’

He turned the thought over in his head while chewing and paying little attention to the food infront of him.

’What happens if they completely lose the will to leave?’

"You seem distant tonight," Ryker observed, settling next to him as a nervous looking cook brought him his own plate.

"Just thinking." Lucas took another bite without looking at him, mind still racing.

"About what?" Ryker pressed, mild curiosity in his tone.

"Nothing important." Lucas waved the question off, a bit of mild annoyance in his tone.

But Ryker didn’t back down. "You’ve been asking a lot of people about leaving," Ryker said, "Any particular reason for the urgency?"

"Just want to get back on track." Lucas didn’t look up from his plate, mind still churning. ’What exactly is going on here? And why am I the only one who doesn’t seem affected?’

Across the table, Eleanor sat close beside Ryker and Lucas caught her eye for half a second before she looked away entirely, her attention dropping to her own plate like it needed her full concentration.

Lucas’ eyes narrowed. ’She won’t even look at me now.’

It troubled him more than he’d like to admit. He kept thinking about what exactly had happened to his friends...

"You’ve been eating rather slowly," Ryker said, studying him carefully. "Something wrong with it?"

"No, it’s fine." Lucas answered dismissively. "Just tired. Long few days."

"Understandable." Ryker’s smile didn’t waver. "Eat up. You’ll need as much strength as you can get."

Lucas finished the meal without fully registering he’d finished it. His mind still consumed with theories he couldn’t yet confirm and he excused himself not long after, going back to his room to try to think of something, anything that would help.

"Get some rest," Ryker called after him, his voice oddly pleasant. "Tomorrow’s a new day."

Lucas stood still at the doorway in silence before walking out, refusing to look back.

He made his way back to the room he was given, the fortress’s evening sounds fading behind him.

He passed a small cluster of his people laughing together near the hall’s entrance, all of them wearing that same untroubled contentment, blissfully unaware that something was terribly wrong.

He collapsed onto the bed without bothering to remove his boots, mind still spinning and looking for a plan.

"I’ll figure it out tomorrow. I just need to sleep."

Well he was going to try to sleep. Despite his fears, he wasn’t outside anymore. Inside here, there was no need to fear that something would take his life in his sleep.

His doors were locked after all, so he could afford to let his guard down.

Days of losing sleep was already clawing at him anyway so he decided to let himself sleep, even if it was for a while longer.

It wasn’t like he was going to die in his sleep. He was behind locked doors anyway.

’Anything could happen though. I just don’t want die...’

The drowsiness came heavier now. ’Yeah, I won’t die. I’m safe here.’

’Or am I...?’

He closed his eyes, exhaustion finally winning over his stressed body and despite a part of him clearly against it, he had finally fallen asleep...

.

.

.

.

.

[You have died.]

’I knew it!’