It was more on instinct than anything else that Jericho dipped and leaned to the right, as the Guardian’s control stick continued its upward arc, and barely missed his left side. As the Guardian realized it had missed, the control stick stopped its arc a foot above Jericho’s head, hesitated and began to come back down. In that moment of hesitation, Jericho stepped back. Just enough for the control stick to barely brush the front of his shirt as it came back down, but thankfully it did not make solid contact. He kicked out and down with his right foot, and hit the stick just above the handle with vicious power. It came free from the Guardian’s hand and clattered to the ground and through the doorway, and landed just inches from its own foot. As Jericho stepped back again, the Guardian’s other arm snaked out in an effort to grab him. Gracefully Jericho dodged this attempt, as he spun away and swung the chain. As he held it by the end, the length of chain swung over and across, and wrapped around the Guardian’s outstretched arm. It reached for the chain with its other hand, and Jericho lay both hands on the end of the chain, as he dropped his own control stick, and pulled with all of his might. It seemed like minutes or even hours to him, but in a flash of seconds, the Guardian toppled forward, even as it struggled to get its hands out to stop the fall. It smashed to the ground with a heavy clang of metal, as Jericho released his grip on the chain, leaped onto its back, and then ran through the door. Once on the other side, he turned, reached down and grabbed the Guardian’s control stick from the floor, and quickly touched the Guardian on the back of its leg. The now familiar blue light sparked. The Guardian convulsed and then froze, as smoke began to poor out of it. Jericho turned, expressionless, with control stick in hand, and continued down the new hallway.
He was cautious as he made his way forward. This hallway was also brightly lit from the ceiling panels above. It was white, with smooth walls and floors, just as the previous one had been. He slowed at each corner, and peered around carefully, with his control stick held firmly in his hand. As he saw that the next stretch of the hallway was clear, he rushed ahead. He had made several turns, some left, and some right, when he finally came to the next junction. Here the hallway was a crossroads, which continued ahead some distance before it turned to the right, and branched both to the left and right from the junction. He looked left, and could see a turn ahead, and when he looked right, he saw the same. With no way to know which direction to go, and no way to know if any of them would ultimately lead to Gabrielle, he paused. He quickly tried to reason in his mind, one direction or another, but with no other information, there was no logical choice. He looked left, and reached out with his mind, and hoped to get some feel for this choice. But nothing came to him. He looked right and tried the same, but again nothing came. He looked forward and tried again. He closed his eyes and tried his best to feel something, anything. But again, he felt nothing. He took a deep breath. He thought again of Gabrielle. Of her smile, her eyes, and her love, and then without hesitation he turned to the right and ran to the turn ahead.
Just past the turn, the hallway dead ended with another door, Its control panel rested in the wall to the side. As he approached, the symbols and numbers on this pad were the same as the last, and without hesitation he tapped in the four digit code. Four green lights appeared at top of the panel as each key was depressed, and the door slid open. White blinding light hit him, and caused him to step back. He blinked and raised his arm to shield his eyes. A wave of heat poured over him, and he was accosted by an acrid smell that instantly made him want to gag. He shielded his senses as much as he could as he stepped to the side and used the doorway frame to protect him. He gathered himself against this sensory onslaught, and peered around the corner. Slowly his eyes adjusted slightly, and he gazed out of the doorway. There was a huge vast open area, larger than any he had ever seen. It stretched out as far as he could see in every direction. At the horizon of his view, straight out of the hallway, loomed a large building. But from his vantage point he had no way to judge its actual size. But he didn’t need to. He knew this building, even from this angle of view that he had never seen. It was the factory.
His eyes scanned the lines as they came from each side of the factory, as he recognized the rusted panels and supporting pillars that bordered the sides of the entrance and exit roads that connected the factory with the village. His eyes had begun to adjust to the bright light, as he stepped out of the hallway into the outside. The hallway delivered him onto a wide metal scaffolding that ran to the left and right. He checked quickly in both directions, and assured that he was not being observed, dropped to a low crouch and made his way to the edge of the scaffolding. As he approached the edge, he could not believe his eyes. Over the side was a huge crater, ringed completely by the road walls. A network of scaffolding ran around the left side of the crater from the factory, and as he peered further over the side, he could see that the scaffolding continued in multiple levels along this side of the crater. Further to his left, he could see series upon series of large metallic piping as it ran out from tunnels cut into the side of the crater. It ran down and disappeared into the floor of the crater. And it was then that he noticed the smoke. As he looked around, he could see smoke and steam as it rose from the blackened floor of the massive crater in all directions.
Suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and quickly dropped prone on the scaffolding. He squinted slightly to focus his vision towards the motion. It had come from the left side of the crater, and moved along the scaffolding that ran from the factory. It appeared to be a large boxy object, and moved at a slow speed. Then as it came halfway around the crater, it turned into a large tunnel and disappeared. And once again, aside from the wisps of smoke that rose from the crater floor, there was no motion. He noticed what appeared to be a bundle of pipes that originated from the under side of the scaffolding at the tunnel, and then continued its way back around towards where he lay. He rose to his feet from his prone position, and crouch walked back towards the hallway door. He glanced left and then right, and he could see that the hallway he had come from was set into the side of a large building that ran for some distance in both directions. And there appeared to occasionally be other doors in the wall, all of which were closed. He hesitated outside, as he looked for an exterior access panel to the doorway and saw none. Not even a depression or raised area which may be a contact panel. It was a one way exit he surmised. He stepped back inside, and felt the coolness from the inside wash over him.
A few steps inside, he hesitated, stopped, then turned back to the door and activated the control panel to close the door. As he rushed back to the intersection, he realized that though he knew where two of the branches went, he needed to check the other two as well. He approached the intersection and stopped and made a mark on the wall using the back end of the control stick. Satisfied that he would be able to see it later if needed, he entered the hallway that he had come from originally and made a similar yet decidedly different mark on the wall there as well. If, or when, he returned to this intersection, he would know which hallways he had explored, and where they went. From his position in the first hallway, he now continued straight across the intersection and rushed up to the first turn, a left turn. He stopped and peered around the corner. With the hallway empty, he ran towards the next turn, which went back to the right. Here he stopped again, and checked to see that the way was clear. He continued down this hallway for quite a ways, when he began to hear sounds. Rhythmic machine like noises that grew louder as he continued forward. As he came to the end of the hallway, again a door blocked his way. He quickly tapped out the same code that he had used on the last door, and the door slid open. Inside, darkness, and loud whirring sounds. He stepped up to the doorway, but hesitated, unable to see inside because of the darkness. He cautiously stepped through, and made sure of his footing before he fully committed. He stood in the darkness, as the bright light from the hallway streamed from behind, and his eyes began to
adjust enough to see a maze of pipes that led in every direction. He moved forward slightly, but still careful of his footing, when suddenly his right foot almost slipped off of a ledge.
He caught his balance, and crouched down to look over the edge, but it was too dark to see much more than one of many series of pipes that ran downward from overhead. The area was filled with loud whirring and rushing sounds that made it impossible to hear anything else. He made his way to the right, and shortly ran into a wall. And based on his earlier exploration, he surmised that this would be the exterior wall, with the huge crater on the other side. Series after series of pipes lined the wall and ran downward. He wondered if these might be the same pipes that he had seen that had run under the scaffolding earlier. He worked his way back to the left, and was able to see much better now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, even with the small amount of illumination provided by the open doorway. He passed by the doorway, and came to a portal in the side wall. He peered through, and could see some of the cause of the loud sounds that he had heard. In the faint light, he could see a stack of relatively flat objects, which one by one, were being mechanically be lifted from the stack, placed on a small rail, and from above a square like object with flexible hoses that led to the top, came down and deposited some substance onto the tray.
“The serving wall.” He said, as he realized that what he watched were the serving trays as they were filled one by one, and then slid away on the rail. He was watching the meal serving process from behind the serving wall. The pipes must contain the meal itself, being piped in from outside. He stepped back towards the doorway, and mentally organized all that he had seen, and tried to meld that with the world that he knew. From his escape from the interrogation room earlier, and what he knew from his interrogation, he knew that the huge building that he was now in housed the control center, and now he realized that it also housed the meal room. As he began to think of the village layout, he realized that this one huge building only appeared to be separate buildings in the village. As he crossed the threshold of the doorway, and activated the door closing mechanism, he thought of the last hallway from the intersection that he had yet to explore. It would lead toward the village, but from memory he knew there were no buildings or doorways there, just a high blank wall. What must be the outside wall of the building that he was in now. Could this be where Quarantine was? Right here in the village? But what about the plague? He thought as he reached the intersection, made a tiny mark on the wall, and turned into the last hallway.
He rushed down the corridor to the first turn and peered around. He again saw the way was clear, and rushed to the next turn. After several more turns, he came to another intersection, with his options either leading left or right. He peered down both hallways. The coast was clear, and he turned left and headed to the next turn. As he peered around this turn, he saw a Guardian ahead as it stepped through a doorway on the right side of the hallway. He gripped his control stick tightly and began slowly to make his way towards the doorway. He hugged the right wall as he progressed. Just before he reached the doorway, he realized that there was a doorway on the left side of the wall which was open. He moved stealthily across the hall to the edge of that door, and glanced ahead at the door that the Guardian had gone through. He could see no sign of it. He turned and rushed into the open doorway beside him.
There she lay. Her hair lay in a puddle around her face, which was turned away from him. Her helpless naked body strapped to the bed. A hideous multi armed machine hovered over her. Its many arms clicked as motors whirred. Two of its sinister looking manipulators held open the huge gaping wound that ran the entire length of her chest. Blood dripped from the round jagged edge blade above. Another arm rapidly sliced apart the delicate internal organs of his beloved. Jericho’s face went white. His heart ached. His fear exploded as he rushed the horrible machine. He dropped the control stick and grabbed the arm that cut at her and tried with every ounce of his strength to pull it away from her poor mangled fragile body. The sound turned to that of a whine as the machine fought to complete its motion. Rage filled Jericho as he pulled, and suddenly the arm came free. Up and out of her chest, as it was ripped off its connecting rod, and he tumbled to the floor. He landed hard with the now immobile arm in his hands. Without hesitation, another mechanical arm went quickly into motion, in an effort to complete the task at hand. The machine ignored Jericho’s presence as it inserted the second sharp tipped arm directly into her chest cavity and began to slice. At once Jericho reached down and grabbed the control stick from the floor, and then jammed it upward to make contact with the extended arm of the machine. Blue sparks flew, and the machine ceased to move immediately. She convulsed once, the arc from the control rod having traveled through the metallic arm, and into her from its contact with her flesh. Her back arched with the power, and then she slumped back to the bed.
Jericho rose slowly, as he trembled. His eyes now filled with tears as he looked at her. At what they had done to her. Immense sadness flooded his veins as he looked at her poor broken figure. At the drips of her blood that had ran down her sides onto the white sheet. At the horrible arms that held open her chest, as they bared her insides to the metallic beast. Through his tears he could see the paleness of her skin, and a deep dark hatred began to boil throughout him. A pain so deep, that death could not end it. A stark raving lunacy of retribution began to overcome him, as he screamed.
“No!” He yelled, as he attempted to touch her, to hold her. He reached around and through the awful contraption that had taken her life. “No.” He sobbed, and gently reached to her face, and brushed her hair away.
Chapter 15
Immortal Page 14