I stared at him blankly.
“Can I have all that in chronological order?” I asked. Eddy’s tone became dry.
“Disease in Europe. Guerillas panic. Big-time politician panics. Big-time politician makes broken antidote, you’re the test subject. You have horrible hallucinations and go into a coma. You get out. Guerillas find out about whole thing. Guerillas get pissed. Guerillas attack city. Happy?”
“I guess? And wait… how do you know so much about me?” Eddy just leaned over close to me.
“Leo… you’re one of the most wanted men on the planet right now. Think about it. You survived taking that drug AND saw Miller’s facilities firsthand. It was one hell of a time, yeah, but you’re still alive. You’re just as good as a blood sample with the cure to cancer just lying around, and we both know how he would abuse that if we gave ‘im the chance. We need your help to get things back in order, they’d need you out of the picture.” he whispered. Silence followed once again. Not another word was spoken for a while. I looked to the side, outside the helicopter, and saw the destruction slowly fading away. We were on the outskirts of what was once the city. I could see a few ant-sized men rummaging through rubble down there, searching for provisions and sanctuary in a world torn by war. I tried to turn my head away from the harvest to soon be consumed, and I was able to utter another question.
“So… where are we going now?” I asked.
“U.S.P.L. HQ. Heh, say that five times fast… Anyway, we got some things we need to show you, and some stuff we need you to do too. You’re our right hand man now, Leo!” he patted me on the shoulder with one hand while pulling a big fat cigar out of his pocket, placing it in his mouth, and lighting it all in the same motion.
“Oh! One more fing, you mow mis mick?” he asked with the cigar taking up half his mouth. I wouldn’t have understood a word he said if he didn’t pull out another paper from his pocket with Danni’s photo and a label that said “Danni Saide”. I grabbed it right from his hand.
“Where’d you find this?”
“She’s another one of the refugees found ‘round where you were. We need to talk to her a bit too because she ‘broke’ you out. Y’know, got to show everyone how effed up Miller’s new system was. Don’t worry, she’s at HQ.” Eddy pulled the cigar out of his mouth and let out plenty of smoke, which stayed in the cabin for a second before pouring out the open sides of the helicopter.
“Yeah, you’re gonna love this place… you’ll see. ” he absent-mindedly noted while looking out the window. Not even five seconds later, a wide grin spread across his face.
“WE’RE HERE!” Eddy declared. I turned my head so I could see; I saw our helicopter heading into a massive factory, and my first reaction was to trace my eyes along it vertically until they reached the top… they never did. Just as soon as I was trying to wrap my mind around this metallic Tower of Babylon, its shadow started to eat away at the helicopter. Our height, velocity, and all those delightful little details of physics started to decrease as the pilot prepared for a landing inside the facility. We were flown inside through a long tunnel at the base, colossal steel gates closing behind us. Once the gates were closed, for a split second, we were in complete darkness. I was a bit worried over how the pilot could see. Just as soon as that thought entered my head, bright, scrutinizing lights on the ceiling were turned on. Somehow, the factory looked bigger on the inside than on the out. We were now inside a massive square room with unnerving rust-colored walls; the strange place reeked of dust and burnt tires. The wear and tear displayed let me know that its ancient days once saw a less lonely existence, but that was all abandoned with the carelessness of time; footsteps once thundered in this mammoth prism, but now were lost in the echoes of time past.
A neat landing pad with radiant, inviting blue lights was in the center. They flashed on and off, on and off, screaming out. The helicopter slowly started to rotate towards it. Eddy jumped out once the helicopter was a few feet from the ground, and he motioned me to do the same. I hesitantly did so, and grunted once I hit the hard metal bars that made up the floor nearby. What I hadn’t noticed before was that what was beneath them seemed to be an endless abyss, nothing but darkness and decay for miles. It greedily swallowed up any particles that fell through the grates, and practically asked me if I was feeling lucky that day. I gulped and hurried on toward Eddy, who was already on a safer area. He motioned me again to follow him through a doorway. The heavy iron doors automatically slid open once he was within a few feet of the path they were diligently guarding, and inside was a hallway with tiny red lights on the ceiling to illuminate the way. Each light was an eye, watching my every step but not recalling any of it. Eddy waited for me to catch up this time, and we both walked inside, side by side.
“I just wanna tell you right now that…well, you’re a techie, right?” he asked, one hand on my shoulder.
“A little bit.”
“You’re gonna love this.” he concluded. When I looked up to him, I noticed that his round, red-tinted goggles were gone, and he had bright red marks in their place around his dark brown eyes. He must have taken them off when I wasn’t looking. Once we reached the end of the hallway, there was another heavy iron door. This one was a bit more stubborn, and did not open immediately. There was a keypad with glowing red numbers on it above the door handle. Eddy quickly pressed the numbers in sequence, and a low hissing could be heard from behind the door. He took one look at me, back at the door, and threw it open.
Oh my God.
Thousands, if not millions of moving machines. A living, hissing, screaming, creaking, whirring being. Stretching for what seemed to be miles, the factory had a mind-blowing number of intricate pieces all working at once. Sentient iron arms hastily piecing together new sentient iron arms. Wheels spinning in place, sending smoke into the air. Machines hiding in the man-made canopy inhaled this smoke and spat it into the endless maze of pipes far above our head. Mechanized men supervised the entire production line, speaking in bleeps and bloops.
“Ain’t she a beaut’.” Eddy grinned. He had his hands on his hips as he proudly surveyed this world of metal until he was distracted by a short bot bumping into him.
“Hey!” he shouted at it. He picked it up with both hands and it panicked; it struggled with all the vigor its circuits could provide it! I couldn’t get a very good look at it, but it seemed to be around three or so feet tall, and humanoid in shape. Upon its head and around it’s stomach were yellow blinking lights, which were flashing excessively as it struggled to break free while crying out in its native electrical tongue. Eddy chuckled, put it back down, and let it resume its business.
“Eddy… this is all… I mean, how the hell can you afford all this?” I asked while watching the robot make independent decisions, to my astonishment.
“Don’t you get anything about the black market? Everything that you end up paying hundreds and thousands and millions and billions of bucks for…it’s all there for cheap if you know where to look. Gotta get the right men in the right places. Gotta make a network. Maybe I’ll tell you more about that another time.” He pulled the little black device out of his pocket again, read it for a moment, and put it back in his pocket. He looked at me and smiled again, but seemed a bit more sincere this time, instead of being friendly for the sake of business.
“Alright, we’ve got time. You could either see your friend now o—”
“I want to see Danni. Now.” I pleaded, but it seemed to come out as more of a demand. Eddy let out a bit of a sigh and led me down another iron hallway lined with red lights.
“Yeah, I’m startin’ to think you and your friend are gonna make a good team. She’s gonna be really helpful to us too. You know she’s got a photographic memory?” his words hit me like a ton of bricks at the same moment he threw open another door. I didn’t even have time to focus on the startling revelation when I was tossed in; the room was dark and dank just like all the others, and Danni was sitting on a stool in front of a lab wo
rker holding a pen and clipboard. It seemed that she was taking a test of sorts, but any concentration she may have had was gone the second Eddy and I walked in. The second she saw me, she turned around and immediately jumped off of her seat and into my arms.
“Oh God, Leo…!” she held me in a surprisingly crushing grip. I had never seen her like this, so all I could do was wrap my own arms around her, and give her some soothing words.
“I’m here Danni, don’t worry, it’s fine… it’s fine…” She suddenly jolted up and glared directly into my eyes. In all honesty, I was more concerned with the scratches she had on her face and the crack in her glasses.
“Don’t you ever do that again!” Danni sternly commanded. Yes, she was fine again.
“Gee, thanks mom.” I replied. Then again, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was that I wasn’t doing again, but the most important news was that we were safe and sound, together again. I then thought about what Eddy had said about her having a photographic memory, but I was quickly pulled from the bear hug and pushed out the door.
“She’s busy right now; you two can catch up later. Right now, I gotta show you another thing.” Eddy told me as he closed the heavy iron door behind us. I was led down the red-stained hallway once again, each eye still looking straight down, and still remembering nothing. I was brought down a different corridor which was now illuminated by a less piercing white light. At the end of this hallway was a heavy steel door, much larger than any of the others. It jealously guarded its secrets, putting several security measures in place. It had two keypads, eye scanners, and fingerprint readers. He typed in the code, let the machine read his eye and he pushed his fingerprint onto the pad. All the necessary info was entered, and the door hissed and whined before becoming unlocked. Eddy had to push the door open with all of his might, even with all the security measures down. Inside was a large room very different from any of the others. The most noticeable quality it had was how much light was in the room. Mammoth windows let light stream inside the dusty brown and gray area, and titan pillars held the room up. There was much less grime and decay in this room. Electrical cables, black and faceless as their messages intertwined amongst all the pillars, sending millions of volts to and fro above our heads. The cables hung loose and carelessly, being supported poorly. It also smelled much more clean and sanitary than the rest of the factory. At the end of the room was a mech. This one had no cockpit, so I was left to assume that it operated itself. It was humanoid like the rest, but it was lonely, sitting all by itself. Cables clung to its sides, making sure it had every ounce of energy it needed. At the moment it was lifeless, shut down.
“There he is! C’mon, I’ll show you.” Eddy hurried me along to the far end of the room where the mech laid. As we walked along, I couldn’t help but notice the neat geometric pattern of gray tiles on the ground. Upon closer inspection through the somewhat translucent material, each tile was filled to the brim with circuits, like a treasure chest of electronics in plain sight. We soon reached the end of the room, and I was in awe of the mech.
It probably stood around ten feet tall, although it was hard to tell by the sitting position it was in. Its right arm had a menacing drill instead of a hand like the other arm did. Its body was wide and thick with metal plates and strong titanium; not a single scratch was on it. Its composition was rigid. Very few curves adorned it except for the chest, where there were more plates attached. Finally, at the top was a very square and squat head, practically hiding behind its impenetrable fortress of metal on the chest. The entire frame gleamed with a reflective silver. It had two very small light bulbs in place of eyes, but they were inactive at the time.
“Meet Tank.” Eddy let out a long, proud sigh, once again with his hands on his hips.
“Tank?”
“Mhm. Built him myself. Practically from scratch.”
“From scratch? This?” I asked in an incredulous tone.
“Mhm!” He smacked my back in a good-hearted manner. He went over to a small control panel on the wall beside the mech. He typed in a few numbers once more, and I looked around the room when I heard a very low mechanical drone, slowly decreasing in pitch. It sounded like a computer of some sort was shutting down. Eddy went over to the mech and started pulling the wires and cables off of it a few at a time. Once they all were in a bundled heap on the ground, the mechanized beast’s eyes lit up red. I stepped back, startled, but Eddy held up a hand to tell me it was alright. It spoke with the sound of thousands of grinding gears, language refined for electronic ears. After it was done regurgitating computer commands and outputs, it slowly rose; I could hear hundreds of little zips and zaps from the circuitry inside. It stood up perfectly straight, as if it was a soldier in the military; the only difference was that this machine would rank far, far higher than any mere grunt man.
“What’s it…what’s it used for?” I asked in awe. Eddy walked around this machine, this “Tank” and stood by my side.
“Mostly defense, sometimes other things. When we need someone to go scouting an’ it’s too dangerous for one of our guys, we send Tank in. HE’S not getting blown to bits anytime soon.” Eddy grinned, showing his shining white teeth once more.
“Yep…” Eddy walked up to Tank once more. “Steel platting six inches deep. Can see in every mode of light. Infrared, X-Ray, normal you-and-me vision, you got it. Sees for two hundred-fifty miles in fine, fine detail. ” Eddy put a cautious hand onto Tank’s drill, the one it (he?) had in place of a right arm.
“THIS, this can drill through just about any material. Can go for hours without breakin’ an oil sweat. Oh, and he’s quick as hell!” Eddy laughed. Eddy stepped back, and pulled on my arm. He led us to a pillar that was quite far away from Tank, maybe twenty-five feet.
“Electrifyin’.” Eddy smiled. He pressed a few buttons that were integrated into the pillar, and Tank was immediately alive. Tiny drones fell from the ceiling, hovering a few feet above the ground. They were simple metallic spheres with a tiny gun built into themselves, and an even smaller white “eye” on the front. It didn’t even take five seconds for Tank to dispose of half a dozen of them. He put his drill to good use, scrambling in mere milliseconds the small robotic brains that the drones had. With his free hand, he smashed the others to bits, slamming them into the ground. The entire time, Tank was a symphony of spinning gears, a whirring drill, and twisting pieces. Only moments later, spare parts, oil, and small fires were all over the place. Of course, for good measure, Tank used the tiny extinguisher in the compartment in his shoulder to put out any fires that were created.
“He’s a Swiss Army Knife too?” I sarcastically asked. Eddy beamed once again.
“Yep! He’s got a Geiger counter, flashlight, compass, visual and audio recorders, and a self-repair mechanism.”
“And this thing is built to defend?”
“Basically.” he shrugged when he replied. I was too afraid to ask what Eddy could come up with if he wanted a machine for advancing on an enemy in true war, an all-or-nothing battle, the very kind that was simply waiting to happen in the powder keg we lived in. However, there was one thing I wasn’t too afraid to ask.
“NOW can we get back to Danni?” I begged. Eddy sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, alright. Gimme a sec.” Eddy went over to Tank, guided him to the wall, pressed a few more switches there, and he was lifeless once more. Eddy plugged all the necessary cables back into Tank, and we were off back down the hallway. We went through the labyrinth doused in red once more, opened the gate to the room we were previously in and found Danni again.
“Good timing, Ed. We just finished up a minute ago.” the lab worker reported. He looked over to Danni and me, and clasped his hands together. He was now wearing a white lab coat, very closely matching his skin tone. He had short, wispy white hair, a white mustache, and large horn-rimmed glasses. He looked like a man raised by hazardous, prismatic chemicals and taught by an endless stream of books filled with equations and formulas until they were re
ady to burst.
““Well…for those of you who don’t know, I’m Doctor Beich. I’ve been working for U.S.P.L. for quite some time, doing research in general science, medicine, and recently, the disease in Europe.” He held his hands together and created an awkward silence. Each person in the room knew he was done, so we silently resumed our tasks.
As Eddy went over to discuss the results with Beich, I took the opportunity to get Danni to explain to me her own situation here. We walked into a corner of the room so we could have a little privacy in our chat.
“Danni, what the hell? What are you doing here, and why didn’t you ever tell me you had a photographic memory?” I asked.
“Hey, it’s been a nightmare for me too. When I was just going to go visit you earlier in the new prison… well, what was the new prison…I had no idea what it was like inside. I saw you wandering around, and how relaxed everyone was. The guard looked like he was drunk, high, or both, so I took the opportunity. I dunno what I was thinking; I just wanted you out of there, especially since I wasn’t able to see you when you were in the hospital. So I got you out, and I must’ve seen the helicopter before you. We got split up from there… after that—”
“Wait, when was I in a hospital?!”
“You were there for weeks after the case! The security in those places was tight; I could only get a quick glimpse at you. In the hospital, they basically just threw you in a glass box with some tubes and crap. You’re lucky you didn’t die. When I heard about you being taken out of the hospital and being thrown in jail, I just assumed that you were better again. I never even found out what exactly happened to you until the doctor filled me in on everything…” she threw her arms around me once more.
“Believe me; you don’t wanna know… it was hell. It’s behind me now. But… photographic memory…?” I smiled gently, just to try and change the subject. She groaned in an irritated tone.
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