“What's going on?” Lenth called out to them.
“Edgar's in there, and so's the Lof—” the guard said, while looking Lenth up and down as they ran, “that is, the other Lofu. The one with the kn—well, you have a knife too, but—”
“Yes, yes, Six. I get it. Has he hurt anyone in there?”
“At least one lady got slashed in the arm. Other than that, I don't know. Edgar just told me to go get more guys.”
“Thanks.” Lenth looked back to Leena. She was wiped out, limping, and holding her middle due to runner's cramp. He turned to the guard he'd been talking to. “Hey, I'm good to go ahead. Can one of you guys make sure Leena stays safe?”
The guard turned back without breaking stride. He tapped the other guard, and pointed back at Leena. “You, go look after her.” The second guard nodded, and started jogging back towards Leena.
Leena dropped her pace to a walk, and looked to Lenth with arms spread. “Seriously?”
With no words coming to mind, Lenth just waved with a sheepishly apologetic smile. He turned back towards the elevator building and pushed himself to full speed. Fatigue was getting to him, but he was still doing notably better than the guards.
There were a few people leaving the building, chattering worriedly.
“What's going on in there?” Lenth hollered at them as he approached.
“Lofu...killed a guard!”
“And Edgar?” Lenth asked.
“He's in there, talking.”
“Thanks,” Lenth said as he passed them by, entering the corridor. He ran as quickly as he could, nearly knocking over a couple of Citizens along the way.
He came to the large loading room that had the door to the elevator. Six stood with his back against the elevator door, still a mess from Mike's blood. He held a guard as hostage, weapon against his throat. A dead guard lay nearby with an open throat. Near where Lenth came in, Edgar and another guard stood at the ready.
“Ha!” Six yelled when he saw Lenth. “Your pet baby Provider is here, Messenger! Now will you open the door?”
“He's here?” Lenth asked.
“Yes,” came Messenger's voice from the little eye-slot in the door. “This man seems to think I owe him a ride.”
“Tell him, Lenth!” Six seethed.
Lenth sighed. “Messenger, this guy is Six.”
“He told me so. He also says he was in one of the food crates when you came here.”
“Did he mention that the Providers want to catch him?” Lenth asked.
“Providers,” Six spat. “I don't care about them. I want to go up! You want up too, don't you, Lenth? Maybe to see this Actual? To ask him about...to ask about everything!”
“Messenger!” Lenth called out, “He's killed about seven Providers, and I don't know how many Citizens, including an important leader.”
“What? Mike?” Edgar said.
Lenth nodded. “It was...it was horrible. Leena was—”
“Enough!” Six screeched, giving his hostage a jerk. “Have we established I'm not a Citizen, Messenger? Let me on! I'm done with this place! Do you hear me? Messenger! Take me up to Actual!”
“Blasphemer!” Edgar took a step towards Six, still many metres away from him, and stood tall, with his spear planted firmly beside him. “Messenger cannot take you to Actual, you're mad! Messenger! Six must stay here and pay for his crimes with his life!”
Leena scrambled in beside Lenth at this time, squeezing the most out of her second wind. “Are we talking about killing Six? I stake claim! He killed Mike! I have the right!”
“Which Citizen did he kill first?” Edgar asked. “It would be the right of—”
The elevator slammed down about a centimetre, the weight of it shaking the room.
“Lenth,” came Messenger's voice finally, “who was the first person that Six killed?”
“Why are you asking him?” Six snarled. “It was my Rubberman! Manager, whatever. He killed my Brother by smashing the grating down on him, so I killed him right back!”
“Six, you told me that story,” Lenth said, “but are you sure it wasn't an accident? My Brother died because of a mistake that maybe my Rubberman made, but I don't—”
“What do you know?” Six jostled his hostage again in agitation, pressing the dull blade firmly on his neck. “Lenth, they turned you into one of them, a mindless Provider!”
“Augh, Six, you've gone way too far! Even if your Rubberman meant to kill your Brother, that might explain your killing him, but what about the rest? What about attacking Diane? She did nothing to you! Or your other Brother, Eyes?”
The elevator groaned loudly, rising by the lost centimetre. They shut up again, and Messenger spoke. “Lenth, Six. Give your weapons to a Citizen, and then all Citizens will leave the loading room.”
“Then we can get on?” Six asked.
“Yes. Weapons and Citizens leave now.”
Many Citizens were already obeying the voice of the Messenger. Among the handful who still lingered, Leena and Edgar stood forefront.
“What, you're just going to leave?” Leena said. “You can't just take off after all of that!”
“It's for the best,” Edgar stepped up to say. “As long as Six never comes back here, it's good enough.”
“The hell it is!” Leena readied her machete and stepped forward, unconcerned about the hostage. Before she got close to Six, he pushed his hostage away, with a firm, flat-footed kick to the backside. The hostage went sprawling forward, before scrambling away.
“I'm fine to settle this with you, little girl!” Six snarled.
“You worthless sack of blood,” Leena snarled back, side-stepping to plan an attack. “You think you're the only killer in the room? Before Mike took over, do you have any idea how hard I had to fight every day? How many times my attackers ended up dead? How many had to die before I got any peace from the savages?”
“I'll give you peace!” Six screamed. He charged at Leena. Leena had not been ready for Six when they first met, but this time Leena's combat experience had her well prepared. She deftly sailed under Six's thrust, and she sprung back up with her machete sliding up.
Six dodged, but only well enough to avoid a fatal strike. A streak of red now decorated Leena's blade.
With a throaty bellow, Edgar threw himself shoulder first into Six. Six's hissing snarl ended with a pained grunt as they landed on the floor.
“Giant moron!” Six grunted. They struggled, Edgar’s robe concealing their violence.
“Get off! I had him!” Leena yelled.
Just as Leena and Lenth were about to get into the fray, Edgar sat up, a fresh gash on one of his forearms. With one hand, he held Six down by his wrists.
Six still held his knife, wet with a streak of fresh blood. Six spat up at Edgar's face.
“You hold him still,” Leena said, “and I'll gut him!”
“I want him alive,” came Messenger's voice.
Edgar held his free hand out to Leena, signalling her to stop.
“Why?” Leena asked Edgar. “Why do we care what Messenger wants? This fucker slaughtered Mike, and I want the deserved justice!”
“Justice is for the one wronged first,” Edgar said, “and you should care what Messenger wants. He is our link to Actual, and without him, we would quickly starve.”
Leena reluctantly backed away and lowered her weapon. “Fine,” she grumbled, “but I want a piece when others are done with him.”
“I'm glad you see it that way, Citizens,” Messenger said. “Now, as I said before, search Six and Lenth for weapons, remove them and yourselves, and we'll be going.”
While Edgar roughly turned Six over, Lenth started handing over his arsenal to Leena.
“You're going?” Leena said, still regaining her composure. “I thought you were planning on staying. Isn't that why you came in the first place?”
Lenth made a tight-lipped face and looked away. “Well, not really. I came to explore. To find out what was up above where I was.
Now I guess the only thing up is—”
“Actual!” Six scrambled away from Edgar, and got to his feet, up against the elevator door. “See, I knew you and I were on the same page! Going up!” Six banged on the elevator door twice. He winced, and put his hand against his arm where Leena had managed to cut him. It was hard to see his bleeding due to Mike's blood all over him.
Edgar, bloodied from holding down Six, was backing away from him, holding two confiscated knives. “Messenger, you will have to communicate with a new leader now if Mike is dead.”
“And the asshole wrecked the device after calling for you,” Leena said. “Can we get another?”
There was a moment of silence before Messenger's voice came from the door again. “It should be possible. It may take time. Next time I come, have the old one here so I can take it away.”
“Many thanks to you and Actual, Messenger.” Edgar said with a bow as he reached the doorway. “Coming, Leena?”
“Edgar, Leena,” Lenth said, “work together, all right? I don't see any reason for the … uh...unfriendliness to continue.”
Leena and Edgar eyed each other, both having expected to be the new leader. “Ehh, I guess he has experience,” Leena said.
“And doubtless, Leena will retain Mike's followers,” Edgar said. “An alliance of convenience would make some sense. We'll see.”
“We'll see,” Leena agreed. She smirked at Lenth.
“I might see you all again,” Lenth said. “I'm sorry about Mike.”
“Yeah, he was my favourite of my three men.”
“Three?”
“Can we just get on with it?” Six wailed and winced in pain.
Lenth patted Leena on the shoulder. “Be safe.”
She nodded. “You too. If you come back this way, I might have time and be in the mood to 'educate' you a little.” She forced a smile, punctuated with a wink, then turned to exit with Edgar.
The door closed. A split moment later, a latch was heard from the elevator.
“'Bout time,” Six murmured.
The elevator door slid open steadily as Messenger dragged at it. He peered at the bloody Six as he did so. “Get to the far end.” Messenger gave Six a wide berth, and once Six was on the other end of the empty elevator and Lenth was inside, Messenger started closing the door. Without a second handle to help, Lenth just picked a spot on the door to press his hands against and push.
“Oh, who's the favourite?” Six teased.
Messenger ignored Six and closed the latch. “Thank you, but it wasn't necessary,” Messenger said quietly to Lenth.
“Helpful Lenth! So helpful,” Six hollered from across the elevator's big empty cargo space. “So helpful, helpful, helping Messenger, helping Citizens, helping Providers to help the Rubbermen make the little men work forever in ignorance! So helpful!”
Lenth scoffed. “Yes, because killing them is so much better, huh?”
“If it means freedom?” Six tossed his hands up, looking at the stains of blood on them. “If it means not getting shocked? Yes!” He pulled his injured arm back towards himself quickly.
“Six, the shocks weren't so bad, or that often. And I notice your freedom involves a lot of crawling around and hiding! The only thing I've had to hide from is you. And I haven't killed anyone.”
“The shocks weren't so...Lenth, do you hear yourself? How did you get so much freedom anyway, huh? Why didn't the Providers toss you back in your hole, or kill you, or whatever?”
”I've been a little curious about that, too,” Messenger said quietly.
Lenth gave them both a bewildered look. “Gabe said they didn't want to put me back down there and tell my Brothers a bunch of stuff, and they were lucky that could get another Br...” Lenth paused, seeing the problem. His freedom just meant that some other ignorant worker was needed.
“Lucky,” Six mused. “And your Brothers? Are they free, or does your Rubberman still force them to work and support the Providers? And shock them when they don't?”
Lenth fell silent and stared at the floor. “How bad is that cut?” Lenth grumbled.
“Hurts. That revolting woman.”
“Shut up. You more than deserved it.”
“It doesn't look so deep,” Messenger said, “I have a medical kit, if you want to bandage him, Lenth.”
Lenth huffed, and after a moment, he nodded. “But I don't know how to do that kind of thing.”
Messenger opened a little door below the control panel, and pulled out a cloth bag. He handed it to Lenth. “Dig out a white cloth, and dab off the excess blood around the wound. Pull his sleeve away from the cut first.”
“All right,” Lenth said, rummaging through the bag, “but why don't you do it? You know how.”
“I'll talk you through it. It's easy,” Messenger said without answering the question.
“What are you doing? Keep away from me,” Six murmured.
“But you're bleeding,” Lenth said.
“Just give me the rag, I'll deal with it. It's not that bad, my clothes protected me a little.” Once he had the cloth, Six tried to use it as a bandage right on top of his clothes, but couldn't get it to stay on, much less tie it with one hand.
“I don't think that's how it's done,” Lenth offered.
“It isn't,” Messenger confirmed.
“Shut up, it doesn't matter.” Six threw the now-bloodied cloth across the floor.
Messenger sighed, then turned to the elevator controls. “If it makes either of you feel any better,” Messenger said, “the Units are the largest population section, so most of the work they do is to support themselves. It's not like Providers get more food or something.” He pressed a few buttons and the elevator groaned to life.
“Food? What about knowing things?” Six said. “What about reading, knowing who's out there, and women? I don't—wait a second!” Six bounced into a ready stance, hands out to the side. “We're going down, aren't we?”
Messenger nodded. “You need to go see Contact.”
“What?” Six exploded, charging at the elevator's control panel. Messenger fluidly moved aside and watched Six fumble with the buttons. “How do I make it go up?”
“Sorry,” Messenger said in feigned remorse.
Six slammed Messenger against the wall, his forearm under Messenger's chin. “Make it happen, Messenger! Do it! Now!”
“Can't,” Messenger choked out, surprisingly dispassionate about it all.
Six grabbed Messenger by the back of the neck and arm, and forced him over to the controls. “Can. Or I strangle you.”
Lenth had mustered the courage to tackle them, but Messenger spoke before it happened. “The controls are locked until the elevator reaches the destination floor.”
Six backed off. “So...can't can't?”
“Can't.”
Six stared at Messenger. He looked over to Lenth, who just raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
Six looked around, shaking his head in disgust. “All right, I'm getting out of this can.” He ran over to the door latch and started yanking on it. “It's locked too, isn't it?”
“What would it matter, Six?” Lenth asked. “It would just open to a solid wall! And we're still moving!”
Six darted around the side of the elevator, looking for another way, finally giving up, and wandering to the middle.
“Are you done?” Messenger murmured.
Six stared blankly at Messenger, then looked down at a little recessed section of the floor. He reached down and pulled up at it.
“Don't mess with that,” Messenger yelled. Lenth stood ready to charge at Six.
Six pulled harder, and the nature of the floor-hatch became apparent. It was a square about a metre in size. “Oh look! A way out that isn't blocked by a wall!” He stepped off of the square and yanked it up hard. The hatch swung on its gritty, neglected hinges before slamming open with a deafening sound that rattled the floor.
“Idiot, you'll get yourself killed! Close that thing right now!” Messenger called
out.
Six grinned, lay face down on the floor, and stuck his head down through the hatch to look around. “Oh! Nope!”
Messenger broke into a run and dove to grab Six's feet before Six could scramble down. Six kicked back, hitting Messenger in the face before Lenth could get his hands on to help. Six wailed in frustration and kicked harder. A foot got loose and jabbed a toe back down on Lenth's hand. Lenth recoiled in pain for a moment. It was enough of a chance for Six to slip down the hatch fluidly, leaving a wide but faint smear of blood on the floor. Mike's blood was drying on him.
“Six!” Lenth leaned closer to look. The dark, seemingly endless abyss below him hit Lenth. The dark concrete panels seemed to stretch the tube of the elevator shaft eternally, steadily coming at him as the elevator continued its journey.
“Did he fall?” Messenger asked. “Nope, wait, I hear him.”
It sounded a little like footsteps, but when Lenth looked in the direction of the sound under the elevator, he saw Six swinging carefully from one grab-bar to the next, legs dangling below, moving to the edge of the elevator shaft.
“He's getting away,” Lenth said, “hanging off the bottom! I'm...I guess I'm going after him!”
“No, don't be an idiot,” Messenger said. “At best, you'll get into a fight under there and get you both knocked off.”
Lenth obeyed. The gaping void below, and the dizziness it caused had dwindled his courage anyway. “Six, what are you trying to do?”
Six stopped at the last rung at the edge of the elevator car, right by the shaft. With the elevator still in motion, it looked like the shaft was creeping upwards at them continually. Directly in front of six was a ladder tucked in a vertical alcove that seemed to run the entirety of the shaft. He watched those rungs pass in front of him, one by one.
He cranked his neck to look over his shoulder at Lenth, still poking his head down from the elevator's interior. “I'm going up, Lenth!”
“You moron! You're going to—”
Six swung off of the elevator's last rung and flung himself towards the shaft's ladder. He hit a little harder than either of them expected and fumbled for a grip, falling about three rungs, and faster than the elevator's decent. He caught himself with a pained grunt, but was soon laughing to himself as the elevator passed him. “That was sloppy,” he called out.
Rubberman's Cage Page 19