by Jason Levine
The ride was slow at first but quickly began speeding up. After a couple of minutes, the tunnel began to slope downwards. Murray gripped the handle until his knuckles turned white. The tunnel ahead split into five segments and Murray’s cart leaned as it took the second tunnel from the right. A few more seconds and another split approached fast. This time Murray’s cart leaned to the left as it went down the leftmost branch. Finally, the cart rocketed up a steep incline. As the tunnel leveled off, the cart slowed down until it came to a stop. The bar lifted up and a section of the wall to Murray’s right slid open.
Murray stood up and stuck his head through the door. The other side was a small room large enough for two or three people. A small light on the ceiling flickered, barely spreading its feeble light across the floor.
As Murray entered the room, the door slid shut. He stumbled, barely preventing himself from falling as he felt the entire room rise.
“An elevator,” Murray said to nobody in particular.
After a minute of ascending, the elevator shook to a stop and one of the walls split in two. Murray walked out and found himself in the middle of an alleyway. He turned around just in time to see the walls close behind him. Had he not known what was behind there, he would have never suspected that this was anything other than a normal brick wall.
Staying in the shadows as much as possible, Murray peeked out at the street at the end of the alleyway. In preparation for his first visit to Sampson Technologies, he had familiarized himself with the entire neighborhood. It didn’t take long for Murray to figure out which way he needed to head. The problem was going to be getting there unseen. Sneaking around in his work suit at night was easy. Doing it during the day would be much harder.
“Should have come in normal clothes and changed once there,” Murray told himself as he ducked further into the alleyway.
“Then you might not have found a place to change,” came Sean’s voice in Murray’s ear. He had forgotten about the communications device.
Murray extended his mask.
“Your roller coaster ride brought me close,” Murray said into the mask’s microphone, “but I need to get there quickly. The street and subway are out...” Murray glanced up and shielded his eyes as he stepped into a patch of light. “But ‘up’ is definitely doable.”
Chapter Sixteen: Return To Sampson Technologies
Murray filled the tank in his pack and started his airflow. After turning his watch off, he ghosted. Murray started his thrusters and adjusted them so that he was soon riding above the building’s rooftop. Murray leveled off and glided from rooftop to rooftop, pausing every ten minutes or so to de-ghost and refill his tank.
It took Murray a half hour, but he finally reached the perimeter of Sampson Technologies. Murray glided over to the oak tree he had used during his last break-in. He perched there for a minute, taking the opportunity to de-ghost and refill his air tank again.
Murray switched his goggles to binocular mode and scanned the yard. He had guessed that there were more guards today and, sure enough, there were. What Murray didn’t expect, though, were men in military fatigues patrolling the grounds alongside the guards. There were about ten men in total in the yard. Then, Murray almost fell out of the tree as the ground shook. A large figure rounded a corner and began walking towards him.
“Brawn,” Murray muttered to himself along with a few choice obscenities.
“Murray,” Sean said, “there are too many guards to take on alone. Especially with Brawn lurking around. You need to find another way in.”
Murray moved further into the tree to hide amongst the leaves. Brawn turned and headed back towards the building. Murray examined the yard. Sean was right. There were too many guards and not enough darkness to simply sneak past them.
Murray ghosted and used his pack to rise higher in the tree. When he was as high as he could go, he glanced down. None of the guards or Brawn were looking upwards. Murray moved towards the lab as quickly as he could. He reached the lab undetected and passed through a window into an office on the fifth floor.
Murray glided to a stop and de-ghosted. He filled his air tank as he examined the room he was in. It was spacious and very white. Everything from the walls to the cabinets to the floor tiles were white. In the center of the room was a long, flat table with four sets of straps along its length. A smaller wheeled table was sitting alongside it bearing a wide array of very sharp surgical instruments.
Murray exited the room and walked cautiously down the hallway. The sounds of footsteps made him freeze in his tracks. He grabbed a nearby door handle only to find it locked. For a split second, his mind raced, trying to figure out what to do. Then, he remembered the obvious solution and simply ghosted through the door.
He found himself inside a very small room with a computer sitting on a very small desk. The room was less office and more glorified walk in closet. A stack of papers was kept in place by a paperweight as they rustled from the air conditioning blowing into the room from a vent in the ceiling. Murray allowed himself to float as a ghost, listening to the guards outside the door.
“...It doesn’t matter. the boss wants us to search every room on every level,” one guard told the other.
“I know. I know. It’s just that those zombie guards freak me out. You don’t think we’ll be zombified, do you?”
“They’re not zombies. If you insist on calling the client’s men that then you might just find yourself working for him.”
The second guard gave an audible shudder as the door handle to the room Murray was in jiggled. Murray heard footsteps heading away from his door and breathed a sigh of relief.
“This door’s locked,” the second guard said. “Let’s move on to the next one.”
“Are you an idiot?” the first guard asked. “We check every room inside and out. Even if they are locked.”
Murray heard some keys rattling on a chain and the handle moved again. He quickly looked around, searching for an escape route. There were no other doors and no windows. If he went through a wall, he had no clue where he’d end up. The papers rustled again and Murray glanced up. The door unlocked and opened slowly. Murray quickly turned on his thrust and silently passed through the air conditioning vent, out of sight of the guards with no time to spare.
Had Murray not been afraid that some guard would hear the echoed sounds, he would have laughed to himself. Before he had powers, he considered crawling through air ducts to be movie mumbo jumbo. It was something that looked good on film but rarely worked out so well in the real world. Now, though, he could use the duct-work as a guide as he ghosted through the walls.
Murray followed the ducts until they headed downwards. He continued on silently–passing branches which serviced other levels. Finally, Murray’s duct-work passage leveled off. He was at the bottommost level.
“Good timing,” Murray whispered as his clasp began to vibrate to indicate that his air levels were low.
Murray glided through the duct-work until he came to a vent. He poked his head through. The room appeared to be deserted. Murray moved into the room, de-ghosted, and refilled his air tank.
He was in a small control room of sorts. Various computer systems displayed readouts that Murray didn’t even come close to understanding. The sounds of marching diverted Murray’s attention from the computers. Pulling out one of his staves, he opened the door slightly and peeked out into the hallway. At the end of the hall were twenty men. All but one were wearing identical guards uniforms. The last one wore a dark suit with two large white stars on his jacket’s upper arms.
“He’s somewhere on this floor,” said the man in the dark suit. “I can feel it. Search every room. Report to me when you find him, but do NOT engage.”
Murray quietly closed the door as the men scattered.
“Sean,” Murray whispered, “did you see the guy in charge? Does Eddie know who that is?”
“Yes,” Sean replied. “I showed him the image and he confirmed that’s the General.
Somehow, he knows you are there.”
“I need to get out of here. Any second, this room will be crawling with guards. I could ghost, but I don’t think I’ll find another another level to go to. Besides, I need to find that goo. Preferably, as quickly as possible.”
The footsteps outside the room got closer. He couldn’t ghost back into the vent. If he did there was no guarantee he’d find his way to another room before he ran out of air. Murray noticed another door. Maybe this led to a hallway. Even if it was just a closet, it might help. He might be able to ghost into the wall and wait until the guards left. Murray tried to pull on the door but it was locked. The door to the hallway started to open as Murray ghosted through his only hope of escape.
Chapter Seventeen: The Voice In The Dark
The room Murray entered had white walls all around. At least, the portion that he could see had white walls. It was so dark that he could barely see a foot in front of him. The room might have been two feet big or two hundred. It was impossible to tell.
“Freedom!” growled a voice.
Murray spun around looking for the source of the utterance. It was a futile effort with the darkness. Suddenly, the darkness began to swirl. It moved away from Murray, twirling and condensing into a spiral before starting to move slowly towards Murray.
“Freedom!” the voice repeated.
Murray backed up to the door. The voice seemed to be coming from the darkness, but at the same time he was sure that no sound was being uttered. He tried to ghost–figuring that a few guards were preferable to whatever this was–but found himself too terrified to even move. The staff fell from his hands, clanging at it hit the floor. The swirling darkness was about to engulf Murray when the room was flooded with blue light. The dark mass retreated. It coalesced into a humanoid form in the center of the room.
The figure writhed on the floor, its body a churning inky darkness. It cried out with a low pitched growl that seemed to vibrate everything in the room. Murray, keeping one eye on the creature on the floor, reached down and retrieved his staff. The creature looked up from the floor and gazed directly at Murray. There was no nose and just the barest sign of a mouth on its face. The eyes were the only feature on the creature that were different. They were a bright white. Perhaps it was the contrast of the rest of the inky blackness, but Murray almost thought they were glowing.
“Free me!” the creature demanded.
“Um… hi?” Murray said uncertainly. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I understand. Who are you?”
“He is coming. Chaos will reign. Free me.”
Murray tried to ghost out of the room, but he still couldn’t activate his powers.
“Sean, can you hear me? I’m stuck in a room with a powered guy that they’re holding prisoner. Sean?” Static crackled in his ear briefly before cutting out altogether. “Great. The room must be interfering with communications. Looks like I’m on my own.”
“Free me,” the creature repeated.
“Look I’d love to help, but I seem to be stuck in here too. At least until the guards come in.”
“Bad guards,” the creature moaned. “Take essence. Increase chaos.”
“Okay, Murray think,” Murray said to himself. “You’re trapped in a room with some kind of power dampener and a crazy guy made of darkness. How do you get out?”
Murray ran his hands along the seams of the door. They were barely visible. He searched his pockets. He mentally came up with and discarded a dozen plans as he took a quick inventory. Finally, he figured that his best bet was using one of his small explosive charges to turn off the disruptor. The only problem was that this might let Crazy Darkness Man engulf him.
“What will you do if you get out?” Murray asked the creature.
“Protect. Defend,” it replied.
“Protect who? Defend what?”
“Protect! Defend!” it insisted.
“Okay, let’s try this another way. If I free you, how do I know you won’t hurt me?”
The creature looked Murray up and down. Murray got the distinct impression that it wasn’t just examining his outfit but was looking deeper somehow. It’s breathing slowed. The bright eyes closed as if it were trying to collect its thoughts. When it spoke, it formed its words slowly and deliberately.
“I... pledge... not to harm you. Only… wish… for freedom.”
“All right. I’m going to trust you for the moment,” Murray said. “Not that I have much of a choice,” he thought.
“My name’s Murray by the way. What’s yours?”
“Name?” asked the creature. “Been so long. Don’t remember. I protect. Defend. Keep order.”
“How about if I call you Shadow?”
The creature seemed to consider this name for a second and then nodded his ascent.
Murray pulled out his knife and extended the blade. The creature looked at him intently as he walked to the center of the room.
“If I can use this to pry a ceiling tile loose, I might be able to use a small explosive I have to shut off the disruptor”
Shadow silently nodded in agreement. Murray reached up and instantly realized a flaw in his plan. The room was nine feet tall and Murray was only five foot ten inches. Even stretching up on his toes, he was still a foot away from the ceiling.
“Rats! It’s too high.”
“I… help,” Shadow said approaching Murray.
Murray stepped back, unsure of what assistance Shadow would offer. As he arrived at Murray, he growled in pain. As he did so, his body compressed. His head, arms, and legs all contracted into his torso which, in turn, transformed into a flat, foot and a half high platform.
“You can use your powers with a dampener on?” Murray exclaimed in shock.
“Only… with great effort…” Shadow’s voice answered from the flat platform. “And not… for long. Please hurry.”
Murray quickly climbed on top of Shadow and worked his knife under one of the ceiling tiles. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to loosen one slightly.
“This isn’t much,” Murray told his newfound assistant, “but it should be enough.”
Murray pulled a small charge from a pocket and squeezed it. Using his knife to keep the tile open, he pushed the charge into the space above the ceiling. He quickly pulled the knife away and pushed up on the tile to make sure that it didn’t allow the charge to roll back into their room. Murray jumped off of Shadow.
“Get to the sides of the room,” he shouted. I’m not sure how much damage this will do.”
Shadow formed arms, legs, and a head again and crawled to the wall opposite Murray. Murray pressed himself against the wall, mentally counting down how many seconds until the explosion.
“Five, four, three, two, one…”
There was a muffled bang and a slight curl of smoke came out of the loose ceiling tile. For a second, nothing else happened, but then the blue light flickered. Murray groaned in pain. Flickering power dampeners were worse than steadily active ones. He could get used to having or not having his powers. That wasn’t too bad. However, having them for a one split second and then not having them for another was impossible to get accustomed to. Shadow seemed to be even worse for wear. He was laying on the ground screaming, the sound emanating from him vibrated the room.
Murray couldn’t think. The sensation of having and then losing his powers repeatedly combined with the vibration of Shadow’s screams was too much for him. He could feel himself losing consciousness. He tried to hold on, but was overwhelmed.
Luckily, the dampener was overwhelmed too. The explosion had damaged it and Shadow’s screams pushed it over the edge. The blue light glowed strongly once more and then abruptly shut off. All illumination vanished from the room.
Murray lay on the ground, exhausted. He felt like he had just run a mile at top speed. In the darkness, he could just barely make out Shadow striding towards him. His white eyes glowed strongly against the darkness as he approached Murray quickly.
“Protect! Defend! D
estroy all!!!”
“No,” Murray said weakly, fighting to stay awake. “We had a deal.”
Shadow stopped his advance and looked at Murray again. His body shifted into a swirling mass of darkness and rushed directly at Murray. At the last second, he veered and slammed into the wall to the left.
As Murray lost consciousness, he saw Shadow was smashing himself against the door. It broke open and Shadow flowed out of the room. The last sounds Murray heard were of gunfire and the screams of guards.
Chapter Eighteen: General Confrontation
Murray swam in a dark sea. He struggled to keep his head above water, but an inky black wave roared over his head. As Murray looked up at it, Sean’s head floated above the wave.
“Murray,” called the disembodied head. “Murray, can you hear me?”
Murray tried to respond but the sea was too rocky, he was barely keeping his head above water, but the giant wave crashed down on top of him, pushing him under. Murray kicked his feet and pushed with his hands until he broke the surface. He gasped for air.
“Murray. Respond!”
Slowly, the dark sea vanished and was replaced by a dark room. Murray remembered the dampener and Shadow’s escape.
“Murray!”
“I’m here,” Murray groaned, leaning on the wall to help him back onto his feet. “How long was I out?”
“I’ve been unable to reach you for a half hour.”
“Sorry… There was this room with a dampener. It interfered with my communications…”
“Unfortunately, we have a bigger problem,” Sean replied. “The junkyard is under siege.”
Murray shook the last bits of grogginess from his brain. “Under siege?!”
“There are armed guards all around. My robots are barely holding them back. Considering how much loss I took the previous night, they won’t be able to keep it up for long.”