Part 8 (1/2)
Magnus started awake. Like her, he stared in surprise at the surroundings.
”How did we...?”
Telisa almost sobbed in relief. He wasn't dead.
”I don't know. I just woke up and we were here, and I thought... I thought it was happening again.”
”Then we're back in the lair of whatever killed Jack and Thomas.” Magnus cautiously stood up and swung his slug thrower in a slow arc, ready for anything. ”What is that s.h.i.+t? It reminds me of something.”
”Project blox,” Telisa said. ”More project blox caves.”
”Yeah, it's those green spikes. They remind me of the sticks that hold the project blox together.”
Telisa looked at the floor. ”Oh my G.o.d. Look at the floor, where we were sleeping!”
The floor beneath each of them was perfectly flat. Smooth turquoise tiles were intact in the shape of their p.r.o.ne bodies. Telisa remembered the color and pattern as identical to what had been behind the bar.
”Uh, whatever's going on here is even weirder than I suspected,” Magnus said. ”Either we got moved here with the tile by some sort of transport mechanism that we didn't feel, or the whole rest of the room melted away.”
”I remember that ledge we were on before, and the light in the ceiling was sheared in the middle, like it just melted away.”
Magnus nodded. ”I bet that's why there aren't any UNSF people here. Their complex is slowly changing into this... whatever it is.”
”And the computer network is probably damaged in the same way,” Telisa said. ”But we didn't get melted or changed or whatever it is.”
”What did you mean just know, about it happening again? You mean someone dying?”
Telisa looked away for a moment. ”It's... it's dumb, I know, but one time, years ago, a boyfriend and I snuck into some maintenance tunnels to steal some extra VR time. We were at our quotas but we thought the rules were stupid and he knew a way to hook us in without being charged. We had a good time too, until later when I jacked out and found that he'd been killed right there next to me in the tunnel, run over by an automated maintenance vehicle.”
Magnus absorbed her story for a moment. ”I'm sorry to hear that. So it reminded you of that time, waking up next to me just now, and you thought I was dead.”
Telisa nodded. ”At first, I blamed myself for his death. We had been reckless for sneaking in there and cutting off all our senses to the real world. But a part of me blamed the government and their laws. I couldn't help it. I just thought we would never have had to go there in secret if people were in control of their own lives. I don't think I still hold that grudge, but it was the start of my resistance to the ideology of the world government. And of the rift between me and my father.”
Magnus stood up and held out a hand for her. She accepted his boost up to her feet.
”Well, we're both still alive, and I intend to keep us that way. Let's see if we can find any of the regular unmelted place.”
Telisa liked the sound of that. Being back in the alien cavern reminded her of what happened to the others. It had occurred so quickly, with no warning. Telisa feared one of them would explode and die at any second. She had never imagined such an awful feeling before. She took a deep breath and tried to quit shaking.
”Magnus, I just realized. This must be what you went through for months, in the war. Knowing that you could die from an orbital strike at any second, and you wouldn't even know what hit you.”
Magnus nodded. ”Yes, it's a sinister feeling. But we got used to it. You'd be amazed what people can live with, given time.” Magnus took a deep breath. ”Although I'd forgotten a little, what it was like.”
Telisa realized that his hands were shaking too. ”My G.o.d, Magnus. Are you having some kind of... you're shaking as much as I am.”
Magnus sighed. ”It's my neck. I'm really feeling the burns.”
”Oh no. We don't have the real medical pack. It was with the others. I have some minor stuff, though.” Telisa felt foolish for not offering the first aid earlier. Somehow she had just fallen asleep without thinking to help him.
”There's nothing that can be done,” he said.
Telisa broke out a can of artificial skin. Without thinking, she tried her link to read the instructions from the manufacturer, but they didn't come through.
”d.a.m.n, I forgot our links are hosed here. I guess I'll have to do this the old-fas.h.i.+oned way.” Telisa brought out the plastic packaging and searched for written instructions.
”Says here there's an embedded a.n.a.lgesic,” she said.
”Sounds good. Just spray some on and let's get going,” Magnus suggested.
Telisa applied the spray over Magnus' angry red skin. The weeping burns had bled in spots, forming scabs. The artificial skin covered it with a smooth protective layer.
Magnus sighed. ”Thanks.”
”I'd say we should go back and get the pack... if I knew where that was,” Telisa said.
”Yeah. Let's just keep looking for the exit.”
Magnus led the way into an adjoining cavern. It seemed like just another gloomy cave until Telisa noticed brighter light coming from another tunnel. She saw what looked like a human-built set of metal cabinets in the distance.
”Look, there's a part of the human complex,” Telisa said. They moved over into the next cavern. One side of the area was a normal-looking locker room, with about a dozen lockers against the far wall, and a door. Half the floor was natural stone and the other half was bathroom tile.
”Just like before,” Telisa said.
”And the other side is safer, unless it was coincidence that we were attacked when we came upon the caverns before,” Magnus said.
”Well, safer or not, I'd rather wander through the old installation part. These caves are too dark.”
”The spot we came in from is in that part too.”
”Unless it melted away to become a cave.”
”If we search the whole complex and don't find a way out, then we can check the caves.”
”Okay. This is just another storage room or maybe the gym lockers,” Telisa said. ”I hope we're about to stumble across the exit.”
Magnus shrugged. ”The place must be enormous. I tried the computer again, but it's still almost useless.”
Telisa came to the other door and opened it slowly, holding her stunner out before her.
”It's another corridor,” she said quietly. ”Doesn't look familiar.”
Telisa went out into the hallway. Magnus came out and closed the door. The corridor was lit from above like the others they had seen. There were three doors within sight so they advanced to the next door on their left. Magnus opened the door, sticking the end of his slug thrower through first.
”It's an office,” he said.
They moved into the room. A hardcopy machine sat next to a data store system, the standard arrangement for creating a permanent store for sensitive information. Most people worked from home, manipulated electronically stored files, and attended virtual meetings, but there was still an occasional need to create and store real paper doc.u.ments.