The pair continued down into the basement using the torches that Tom had provided. As they descended, the smell assaulting their noses got worse and worse. Leo could barely retain his dinner from last night, meanwhile Tom was struggling having vomited at the landing platform.
As best as he could describe it, the smell was a mixture of sewage, death and rot. The smell got bad enough that Tom had even taken off his mask and closed his nose to get any relief as they continued. From what they could see on the stairs, there was already a pile of trash and grime just from slumfolk dumping trash into the basement.
Nearing the actual basement, the trash was starting to fill so much that there was only one narrow path that was walkable, likely made by the streetwalker while it lived here. Leo was rapidly regretting their choice of hiding the pure mask in this place, but if Leo was being honest, no one in their right mind would come down here.
Stepping off of the stairs and into the basement, Leo looked around with the torch. The piles of trash were everywhere, clearly slumfolk had used this as a dump before the streetwalker had moved in. Using abandoned buildings was actually quite common for trash disposal in the slums, as they were plentiful and easily accessible.
Tom touched Leo on the shoulder and pointed to a somewhat cleared area. Nodding his head they walked towards it. As they approached, they realized that this was likely where the streetwalker had slept.
There were piles of bones tossed to the side, clearly meals that the streetwalker had eaten long ago. The bones were mostly all cracked and hollow in the center, likely to eat the marrow inside. Rotted meat and clothing that the creature decided were not worth eating were close by.
Leo shook his head. While this place was cleaner than its surroundings, that wasn't the goal, and Leo would prefer a more secluded section of the basement to hide the mask in. The pair looked at each other and signaled that Leo would go to the left and Tom to the right.
Watching for any place that would serve as a hiding place, Leo saw many rats and bugs scattering as he walked between the trash. Nothing really stood out, the basement was just mountains of trash upon mountains of trash.
Eventually Leo was convinced that he found where the streetwalker relieved itself and immediately turned around. While Leo wanted a good space to hide the mask, he didn't exactly want to walk past that every time he had to collect the mask.
Continuing to explore, Leo slowly mapped out the walkable paths in his mind before he saw a light walking around. Realizing that him and Tom had gotten through the entire walkable areas they discussed what they saw.
"Back my way is the toilet." Leo stated plainly. He could see Tom briefly gag, even with his nose covered, just the thought was apparently almost enough to make him retch.
"There was a locked door back my way, it looked promising, but obviously I couldn't check it out much beyond that it was locked."
A locked door?
More than anything, Leo was surprised that such a thing even existed in here. Surely looters would have ripped it off of its hinges years ago when the building was first abandoned right?
"Lead the way."
Tom nodded his head and waved for Leo to follow. A few minutes of walking later and the pair stood before a solid red metal door. After a brief inspection Leo now understood how this door remained for all of these years.
First, the hinges were on the other side of the door. Second, the thing lacked a doorknob, only revealing a keyhole on this side of the door. Third, the door was solid and left no space to even try to pry the door open. Finally, the door was incredibly heavy.
Leo gave it a tentative push and could feel that the weight of the door was immense. Trying to push his way through was unlikely to work, and the wall around it was solid stone. Unlike the walls that were on the upper floors, this wall was practically carved out of the rock that was already here.
Giving a shrug, the pair gave up on the door for now. Looking around the two were at a loss, there was no real good hiding location unless they made their own trail through the trash to one of the empty rooms. And so, they did.
The process wasn't particularly difficult for the laborers, but it was absolutely disgusting. Some of the bags of trash simply fell apart when moved, others hid colonies of bugs, or families of rats. Before long though they managed to get through to one of the smaller rooms.
Inside the room was fairly clean, devoid of the trash that filled the majority of the basement. Happy with the location, Leo took a deep breath. Last time he tried to take off the pure mask was an ordeal upon itself, but after getting some understanding of the mask, Leo was somewhat confident he could take it off.
Putting his hand to the face of the mask, Leo imagined it coming off of his face. For a brief moment it refused before loosening its hold on Leo's face. As he pulled the pure mask off, the awareness of his blood's flow lessened until it was gone as he began to place the mask down in a corner of the room.
An immediate sense of vertigo crashed over Leo as he was no longer in contact with the mask for the first time since he obtained the cursed item. After settling his stomach, Leo felt blood begin to dampen the improvised bandage he had placed over his legs wound. He had expected as much, and hopefully it would clot completely soon.
Leo covered the pure mask with a couple pieces of rubble that he had collected from the building earlier. It wasn't perfect, but it would serve the purpose. Granted, to even find the mask someone would have to be willing to enter a supposed streetwalker's lair, have a means of seeing in the dark, and know the exact path to the mask before collecting it from the rubble.
Satisfied with the levels of protection, Leo placed his old yellow mask over his face and nodded to Tom that he was ready to leave. Walking in silence the pair retraced their steps back out of the basement. As they neared the first floor once more the both of them took a deep breath of air and turned off the torches.
Taking a moment to gather themselves they realized that the stench of the basement had clung to their clothing. Leo groaned and Tom swore as the pair realized a bath was likely necessary.
"Breakfast?"
"Aye."
"One thing before we go," Leo looked at the old man, puzzled, "if you plan on doing anything with that mask, you can count on me to help."
Tom simply stared at Leo and held out his hand as he said this, the seriousness of his tone conveying his intentions. A smile creeped up on Leo's face as he grabbed Tom's hand.
"Glad to hear it old man."
Even having a single soul on his side gave Leo a great confidence and eased the burden on his mind. The two of them walked out of the building and towards the distributor for breakfast. The light of day had finally broke free of the horizon, marking the workday would be beginning shortly.
Breakfast wouldn't be served much longer depending on how many people had already awoken. Judging that their chances of getting food was diminishing by the second, Tom went ahead to save a spot for the much more tired and weary Leo.
While Tom ran ahead, Leo took a look at the crowd that had surrounded the dead streetwalker. It had been less than a half hour since him and Tom entered the basement, and the crowd had grown dramatically in size. Clearly the guard were still inspecting and hadn't finished moving the body away yet.
Leo hoped that his involvement in the incident would never come out, but just to be sure he stopped by and asked someone what happened.
"Dunno, people are saying that two streetwalkers got into a fight."
"I heard that someone say they found chunks of flesh on the ground over by the dump."
"Maybe one of them caught a slumfolk and fought over the meat?"
"I don't know, but whatever killed the thing I'd rather I never meet it."
"I heard the fight last night! I was staying in the shelter right over there and the whole damn building shook from the monsters crashing into the wall."
Having heard enough from the various people he talked to, Leo continued to make his way to find Tom in the distributor's line. Before long, he found the old man and got in line next to him.
What a long night... Leo thought as the line moved forward.