Jericho brought his hand slowly to her face. His finger tips shook as he did so. The heartache nearly overwhelmed him, as his skin made contact with her hair. The tears that filled his eyes made it difficult to see clearly, but he had to see. He gently brushed her hair away from her face. He blinked, and tried to clear his eyes enough to see. He quickly rose up, and brushed the rest of her hair away from her face. He took a step back as the realization overtook him. This was not Gabrielle. He stared in disbelief. He turned back towards the open doorway. He knew she must still be here somewhere, and he had to find her. Find her before one of these mechanical monstrosities could hurt her. Deftly he grabbed the control stick from the floor, and lunged through the doorway. He looked both ways for Guardians, but the hallway was still clear. Then he cautiously approached the doorway across the hall, that the Guardian had entered only moments before. That door also still stood open. He peered around the edge of the doorway, and his heart began to race.
There she was. Her eyes were closed, with her head turned towards the door. Above her a Guardian loomed, as it attached a series of straps that held her down. The Guardian’s back was to Jericho, and he slowly and carefully entered the room. Two steps in, the machine at the head of the bed came to life. Metallic arms suddenly flew up into the air, and positioned themselves over Gabrielle’s unconscious body.
“No!” Jericho yelled as he leaped forward towards the Guardian, which spun in place and brought its arm down and knocked the control stick out of Jericho’s hand. Jericho whirled to the side, as he heard the control stick bang harmlessly across the floor. The Guardian’s other arm flew at him, and as he sensed this, he dropped to the floor. The arm barely grazed his back. He somersaulted away from the Guardian as it whirled towards him, control stick now visible in its hand. He rolled under the bed as the control stick stabbed down. The tip bounced harmlessly off of the floor.
He emerged from the other side, and came up quickly in a crouch, just as the control stick swung over his head and made contact with one of the metallic arms that descended towards Gabrielle. Sparks erupted, and the whirring sounds from the machine came to a stop. The Guardian paused, as if in thought. As if unsure of what had just happened. Then suddenly it moved into action again and jabbed the control stick towards Jericho through the now immobile metallic arms. Again the tip touched one of the arms, and sparks flew, but there was no hesitation from the Guardian now. Jericho began to step to the side. He moved closer, and then lunged back, and dodged his head to and fro. The Guardian withdrew the stick and stabbed again and again through the metallic arms, repeatedly it struck metal, and caused even more sparks to fly.
Gabrielle’s eyelids began to flutter, as she slowly began to regain consciousness, but still unaware of the battle that raged just inches over her. Jericho stepped closer to the bed, and the Guardian jabbed the control stick deftly between two frozen metal arms. As the control stick came through, Jericho could see its movement as if it was in slow motion. He shifted his body to the side, and turned as he went. He raised his arms in perfect timing, as the control stick reached its maximum distance. The Guardian’s arm jammed in between the looming metallic arms with a dull clank. Jericho’s left hand now firmly gripped one of the metallic arms near the head of the bed. His right hand continued its upward arc and wrapped around the tip of the control stick. Instantly he could feel the voltage surge through his body. Up his right arm, through his chest, and back down his left arm into the metal of the thing attached to the bed. Sparks flew from the Guardian’s arm where it was jammed, as its body began to vibrate spasmodically. Smoke and flames began to erupt from the Guardian, as Jericho released the tip of the control stick.
“Jericho!” Gabrielle screamed. Her eyes were wide with terror. He ran to the other side of the bed, and wrapped his arms around the still smoking Guardian, and heaved it to the side, away from the bed. “Get me out of here!” She yelled, as she struggled with her bindings and he began to free them one by one. “What happened?” She asked, as he continued to undo the straps.
“Not now.” He responded breathlessly. “We have to get out of here.” He said, as he released the final strap, and gently helped her off of the bed. He did his best not to notice her nakedness. She reached down and snatched the sheet from the bed, and quickly improvised a tunic again, as he carefully extracted the control stick from the metallic arms above, and then grabbed the one from the floor over against the wall. “Are you okay?” He asked. Eyes still wide, she nodded. He handed one of the control sticks to her, as they approached the doorway. “Just touch them with this if they get in your way.” He said, as he showed her how to hold it.
“The Guardians?” She asked, and he nodded his reply, then looked into her eyes. He kissed her. Shocked at first, she instinctively pulled back, but stopped herself and kissed him back. They pulled apart, but their eyes were still locked. Jericho took a deep breath, she followed suit, and then they turned to the doorway. He peeked outside, and saw nothing. They left the room. Jericho led the way back down the hall. He intentionally did not hesitate or draw attention to the open doorway where the ruined body of the other girl lay. He did not want Gabrielle to have to see what he had seen. They ran down the corridor, and he slowed at the first turn to peek around the corner. The corridor was full of Guardians, as far back as he could see, and they all walked towards them. He quickly pulled his head back, and threw his back against the wall.
“Run.” He whispered.
“What?” She asked. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her back around towards the way they had just come.
“Run.” He said with urgency, but still tried to remain as quiet as possible. She ran back up the corridor, with him right behind her. He quickly passed her as she had stopped and dug through a bin next to the wall. Assorted grey clothing hung in her hands. “What are you doing?” Jericho asked, as he looked back.
“I am not wearing this sheet any longer.” She said and ran after him as she carried the clothing with her. They came to a turn just past the room she had been in. He did not slow, or pause to look around the corner. He continued to run, and grabbed her hand as he went by, to make sure that she stayed with him. They continued to run past a series of connecting hallways, closed doors, and intersections, before they finally reached a dead end. Here stood a door larger than the others that he had seen, but he quickly noticed the now familiar keypad beside the door. He quickly entered the same combination from before, and the door slid open, and revealed steps that led down into a large dark open room.
“Inside!” He yelled, and pushed her ahead. He stopped as he crossed the threshold, and looked around the interior of the doorway for another access panel to allow him to shut the door, and then saw it not next to the door, but on the adjacent wall. The panel was larger than the others he had seen, with many different keys than just the ones he had seen before. He tried to use the same pattern as before. But nothing happened. He tried again, and again nothing happened. He realized a different sequence might be needed, as he held his palm over the pad, and began to force himself to relax. As he did so, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Gabrielle had dropped the sheet that she wore, and had began to put on the clothes that she had brought with her from the bin. He did his best to focus on the keypad, but try as he might, he could not help but glance at her beautiful silhouette.
“Hey!” She yelled at him. “No Peeking!” He blushed, and looked back at the panel. Suddenly he could see one key brighter than the rest and touched it. A light far inside the large room came on. He calmly relaxed again, and another key seemed to call to him. He touched it and more lights flickered on.
“Just relax.” He said to himself, as he took a deep breath. He slowly exhaled, and he began to see an entire series of key strokes. He implemented these one by one. After more lights came on, the sound of machinery began to hum. One light went back out, and then he finally hit upon the correct sequence. The door slid shut.<
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“What are we running from?” Gabrielle asked, as she stepped down from the stairs to the main floor of the vast room, some twenty feet below.
“Guardians.” He said, as he followed her down the stairs. “There were so many I couldn’t count them.” She nodded.
“What is this place?” She asked, as much to herself as to him. Now at floor level he began to really look around the vast room and noticed the row after row of shelving and scaffolding. Each shelf held a vat of varying sizes, with tubes and wires coming out of it, then neatly arranged and attached to the support structure, where they disappeared into the floor. They walked further into the room and passed row upon row of the high shelving. They did not see a single empty shelf. The sounds of whirring machines and running pumps could be heard from everywhere. Suddenly, a rectangular box shaped machine zoomed out of one of the aisles ahead and disappeared into the aisle across from it. Jericho quickly jogged up to the aisle and peered around the corner. The control stick was in his hand, ready for action. As he watched, the machine stopped halfway down the aisle, and suddenly the top part rose up into the air twenty feet. As it came to a stop, metallic grapples came out of its top section, and reached out and grabbed a vat from shelf, and set it onto its top. Then as suddenly as it had risen, the top came back down and settled into its body, and without hesitation, it shot back up the aisle towards them.
Jericho and Gabrielle threw their backs against the rack of shelving, as they tried to disappear into it. The boxlike machine came to a stop in the middle of the main corridor, and then turned and quickly accelerated ahead of them. As it approached a doorway ahead, the door slid open, it zoomed through, and the door slid shut. Jericho looked at Gabrielle, and she just shook her head. She had no idea what had just happened either. She began to walk ahead towards the door.
“Wait.” He said, as he turned down the aisle and took a closer look at the vats on the shelves. Each had a series of black and white speckles on the bottom right corner, which varied in pattern from vat to vat. As he got closer, Jericho could see that the containers were actually clear. It was the liquid inside that made them look opaque. He reached out and touched a small one at waist high level. “It’s warm.” He said to Gabrielle who had walked up beside him, but cautiously watched back toward the main corridor. He attempted to open the top, but could not find anyway to release the lid, and was in fact, unsure there was even a lid to be opened. He pulled the container closer to the edge of the shelf, and in the process he jostled the container, and felt the liquid within as it shifted. Suddenly he lost his grip on the smooth surfaces of the small container, and it fell off of the shelf. The hoses disconnected as it fell, and spewed liquid into the air. The container crashed onto the floor and shattered. A cloudy liquid ran every which way. Both Jericho and Gabrielle jumped back, reflexively. As they both saw what was in the container, confusion was quickly replaced by terror as they realized that something lay in the middle of the shattered glass, surrounded by the puddle of filmy liquid. It was eyes. Blue eyes. One looked straight up at them, and one lay on its side, with bits of nerve and muscle tissue strung out from each.
Gabrielle turned away. She bent over and wretched and heaved. Jericho took another step back, and stared in utter disbelief. Then slowly he looked down the aisle, and saw row after row of shelving, and each shelf contained a vat of varying size. His expression shifted from shock to anger as the reality of what he saw sank in. He ran to the other side of the aisle, and slung another container onto the floor. As it crashed open, what appeared to be a type of cloth was left lying in the puddle. But as he looked for a moment, he could see clearly the shape of a hand, which lay folded back onto itself, as if deflated. Human skin, he realized. He grabbed the next vat above, and slung it onto the floor. As it crashed open, a small red organ the size of a fist, skittered across the floor, and came to a rest at the edge of the far shelving row. He watched in horror as it still beat, the rhythmic pulses made it rock on the ground.
Enraged, he began to haphazardly run from side to side. He began to grab and throw container after container on the floor, until rivers of opaque fluids began to stream past horror after horror. Gabrielle had begun to regain her stomach, but weakly leaned against the row of shelving. She watched helplessly as Jericho continued his destruction, until at last he too slumped against a shelf, and cried. She carefully walked down the aisle towards him, and tried not to fall as she stepped through the viscous slippery fluids that ran across the floor. She tried not to look at all of the pieces and parts scattered about the floor as she walked, as she constantly fought the gorge in her throat that threatened to rise back up. As she reached him she laid her hand on his slumped back, and he spun with a rapid movement, the control stick in his hand coming up. She tried to step back, but he stopped himself, came back into the moment, and recognized who she was. He dropped the stick and embraced her. He held her tight. She returned his embrace.
“Quarantine.” He said weakly. “It’s a lie…it’s all a lie.”
Chapter 19
Immortal Page 18