Reunification

by Timothy L. Cerepaka

  Chapter Twelve

  When I had teleported back into the original room I and Kiriah had been only moments prior, I dashed toward the door, though I soon regretted the hastiness of that action, for my stomach lurched and almost made me throw up. However, as I had not eaten much if anything in a day, I did not barf anything (though I felt awful nonetheless).

  I made it to the door, however, and slammed it open with my shoulder. I then looked both ways down the hallway, trying to determine which direction I should go in, but I was still as ignorant of the layout of the building as ever, so I did not know which way lead out and which way would simply take me deeper into the bowels of hostile territory.

  But I had no time to simply stand around and think, for I knew that any minute now Kiriah would be back, and once she was, I would likely be forcibly placed in the Brain Editor. 'Twas a terrifying thought.

  Hence, I turned to the left and ran down that hallway as fast as I could. My shoes slammed against the tiles, making loud echoing noises, but I did not care because I knew that mine cover was already blown and that it would only be a matter of time before Kiriah or one of Reunification's other members found me.

  I dashed by a camera, but as soon as I did, it detached from the ceiling and flew after me. I glance over my shoulder at it in surprise, watching as it flew with the speed of a humming bird, though it had what appeared to be a tiny rocket speeding out of its behind rather than wings. A bothersome and loud alarm shrieked from its body, which only made me wish to turn around and break the stupid machine like the toy it was.

  I at first wondered why it chased me until I realized that it was trying to keep an eye on me. Perhaps Kiriah had sent a message to Reunification's security or perhaps the camera was designed to automatically chase anyone who seemed suspicious. Whatever the case, I knew I could not shake it easy.

  Hence, I continued to run, almost literally flying above the tiled floor, hoping against hope that the stairs at the end of the hall would take me down closer to the exit. Of course, I hardly had much of a chance of survival even if I escaped the facility, but I pushed that thought from mine mind so I could focus on what was truly important at the moment.

  And thus I ran until I reached the end of the hall. I found double doors at the end which I managed to push open without much difficulty, but before I could close them, the annoying flying camera swooped in after me, though I succeeded in closing the doors afterward. Then I barred them with a chair I found leaning against the walls, sticking it under their handles, though I had no idea for certain how long that chair would hold the doors shut.

  The camera's alarm was even louder in the tiny room I found myself in than it was out in the hall, almost deafeningly louder. But I still lacked something to throw at it, so I would have to tolerate it slightly longer than I liked.

  As annoying as that alarm was, I was happy that I had managed to make it in here without being caught. I turned to run down the stairs, but stopped when I saw that there were no stairs for me to run down. 'Twas simply an empty room, with a platform on the floor similar to the teleporter I had used to escape my sister in the first place.

  I thought a thousand curses to the Old Gods, but then stopped when I realized that Kiriah was likely still coming after me. She might not have been alone, either, for this facility could have all kinds of security systems that I did not even know about. Therefore, I would have to figure out how to use the teleporter in this room to escape, which now seemed to me to be the way that the Reunification members traveled through this facility.

  So I jumped onto the teleporter and expected it to teleport me away to wherever I was supposed to go. That was, after all, how that previous teleporter had worked. Why would this one not behave similarly?

  Unfortunately, the teleporter did not send me anywhere, even though I had made certain to land on it. I stomped on the teleporter in frustration, but it still refused to teleport me anywhere. I wondered briefly if it was broken, which would be just mine luck, but decided that instead there must have been something else to it that I did not know.

  I looked around the room frantically, but I did not see anything that looked like a control panel or anything. How did these Reunification members use these teleporters if they had no control panels? Was I missing something? This was another reason I utterly loathed Xeeonite technology, for it so rarely made sense.

  The camera continued to blare its alarm, which made it even harder for me to figure out how to use this teleporter than before, for its sound distracted me greatly. 'Twas like someone screaming in my ear, and I had no way to shut them up.

  It seemed to me as if all hope was lost, for if the teleporter did not work and I had no way to figure out how it worked, then I would inevitably be captured by Reunification. And then mine personality would be rewritten like the incoherent scribblings of a scribe.

  'Tis then I noticed a vague holographic keyboard hovering above the front of the teleporter, the end facing the doors. How had I not noticed it before? Ah, I see. It was so transparent as to be almost invisible.

  Nonetheless, I ran up to it and looked down at it. The keyboard resembled Kiriah's wrist holographic keyboard, but unfortunately, as with my dear sister's keyboard, the keys on this one were etched with Xeeonish letters.

  Whilst I was not much of an expert in Xeeonite tech, I understood that I needed to input some kind of code in order to operate this teleporter. That did seem like a simple task, but unfortunately, I did not know what code I had to input.

  At this point, however, I was desperate enough to try anything, so I raised my fingers to begin typing at random until I found the code when I heard the doors budge.

  I froze in place and looked up. Through the tiny windows in the doors, I saw Kiriah banging her fists against the doors. She was screaming, too, but what she might have been saying, I did not know, because the doors muffled her screams. I could guess, however, and it did not endear me much to her, that was for certain.

  But Kiriah was not alone. Though the windows were too small for me to see much detail, I saw something large and metallic also beating against the doors. It was probably some kind of robot—everyone on this gods-forsaken world seemed to have one—but I doubted it was a mere service clicker. I could imagine what it would do to me once it got hold of me, which snapped me out of my paralysis.

  Having never typed before, I found it hard to input letters and words into this keyboard. 'Twas especially difficult for me to focus because of the sounds made by Kiriah and her robot friend as they tried to tear down the doors, not to mention the alarm made by the damn camera, which now circled my head like an annoying insect that was destined to be swatted.

  And then there was the texture of the keyboard itself. It was clearly not solid, but when my fingers awkwardly danced over its surface, I had no problem whatsoever with touching the keys. I kept expecting my fingers to pass through it with every stroke, but they never did, for which I was thankful, as this was mine only way of escape.

  But every time I entered in what I thought was the correct word and hit the large button that I had learned through trial-and-error to be the enter key, a red 'X' would appear in front of me. There was no doubting what that meant, which is why I kept typing away anyway, hoping that the luck of Walnak would save me.

  Yet as the red 'X' came up again and again, I began to lose hope. Especially when the doors were almost knocked inwards; the chair holding them back almost crunched under that blow. All Kiriah and her robot friend needed was one more blow like that, and then I would truly be dead.

  That thought was by itself almost enough for me to cease typing and simply accept my fate. Yet I did not, because I was still a Knight of Se-Dela, and Knights of Se-Dela did not give up no matter how grim the situation was.

  Then the doors burst open. Their sudden opening sent the chair flying over my head, striking the camera and sending it crashing to the floor near my feet. I paid it little attention, however, because I was still pecking my way across t
he keyboard, still hoping that Walnak would bless me.

  Nonetheless, I looked up anyway, just in time to see Kiriah and her robot friend enter. Their combined bulk blocked off the doorway, so there was no way I could run around them if I wished. Not that I had ever seriously considered that plan; I noted it only because I now had one less way of escaping this place alive.

  The robot that had entered with Kiriah was not as slim as Assassin. It was shorter and bulkier, built more like a battle ax than a rapier. It had round fists like boulders, with pistons behind them that were clearly what gave its attacks their punch.

  “Rii,” said Kiriah, her voice far deadlier—and hurt—than it had been before. “Why did you run? I thought you were loyal to Reunification.”

  I did not answer, because I was still typing madly across the holographic keyboard before me. Besides, I knew that Kiriah already knew why I had run; she was no idiot, even now, after having her personality irrevocably altered by that hateful machine, that machine I would someday destroy, assuming I lived long enough to do that.

  “I guess I forgot to tell you what happens to people who try to back out of Reunification at the last second,” said Kiriah. She gestured at her robot. “Usually, they wind up broken and in pieces across the Dead Lands, generally by Guard here. We can't have any flip-floppers on our team running around telling everyone who we are and what we're up to.”

  “But I am your brother,” I said, briefly glancing at Kiriah before looking back down at the meaningless gibberish I typed away in a fury in order to strike gold. “Does this organization and its secrets matter more to you than the life of your own brother?”

  As I suspected, Kiriah hesitated. Perhaps her personality had been rewritten by the Brain Editor, but she still seemed to care about me. If I could just take advantage of that for a little while longer, then I would be fine.

  But then Kiriah stepped aside and said, addressing her robot companion, “Guard, teach my brother what happens when he tries to trick his sister.”

  Guard slammed his round fists together and ran at me much faster than a robot of his size should have been able to. He swung his fists through the air like the wrecking balls of a Xeeonite crane.

  I should have run, but what good would that have done me? After all, there was nowhere to run to. Still my best hope lay in deciphering the secrets of this accursed teleporter, which now seemed to be intentionally keeping me from discovering the code word I needed to escape.

  But I had little time in which to do so, because Guard was rapidly approaching. I estimated I had less than six seconds before it smashed its fists into my skull, which prompted me to type faster and faster, even though my increased speed did not help me find the password any more quickly than before. All I succeeded in doing was making the large red 'X' appear again and again, without any indication, not even a slight one, to let me know if I was any closer to escaping this place alive.

  Guard's fists were so close now that I could feel the wind that followed them, like the strong gusts of the Cyclone Mountains. I had no more time. This was it. I was going to die, and all of my striving would be for naught.

  Just as Guard's fists came within range of my face, just when I was absolutely certain that I was going to die, I inputted the last word I knew I would ever get to type.

  And rather than another wicked red 'X' appearing to steal away mine hope, the entire keyboard glowed a bright blue, followed by a dinging sound that even I, someone who knew virtually nothing about Xeeonite technology, understood to mean that I had successfully found the right password.

  As before, the world shifted around me. Guard's flying fists slowed down and became like mud, but soon they faded away and I found myself standing alone in a room identical to the one I had just been standing in moments before.

  Still, mine heart raced, for I understood that I had just narrowly avoided death itself. 'Twas such a shocking feeling that I merely stood there, unable to comprehend completely my own success and the magnitude of that action, not even thanking the Old Gods for their help. I almost wanted to scream, even though I was currently in danger from nothing at the moment.

  Then a loud beeping noise, like a siren's wail, made me jump. I tripped over my feet before regaining my balance and looking down at whatever had made that siren.

  It was that security camera from before, the cur, its awful smoke filling my nostrils, the one that had chased me down and annoyed me with its loud alarm. I assumed it must have teleported with me, likely because it had been lying in the teleporter when I had teleported, but that did not make me at all happy about it.

  Instead, I kicked the damn thing, but 'twas much heavier than it appeared, for as soon as I did, pain exploded in my toes. I grabbed my foot and hopped around, shouting a thousand different curses, whilst the camera continued to lie there as if I had not touched it at all.

  The pain in mine toes subsided quickly, however, allowing me to lower my foot back onto the teleporter I stood upon. Nonetheless, I glared at the smoking, wreck of a machine, but shook my head and turned away. 'Twas no threat to me anymore; for what purpose, then, did I have to waste time punishing it, even though, were it a human being, I would say that it rightfully deserved to be punished, in accordance with the Six Laws of Justice laid down by Jakonal, the Old God of Justice, at the beginning of time?

  So I stepped off the platform and walked over to the double doors. I hoped that these next few floors would offer even less of a challenge, even though I knew that that was naught but wishful thinking of the highest order. Still, perhaps Walnak's luck would strike again, and I would face no obstacles on my way out of here. Stranger things had happened, after all.

  Thus, I pushed open the double doors, confident that I could handle whatever lay beyond … and then a sword flew from the opened doors and slashed across mine chest.

  ***