by Paris Singer
Just as we had started walking across it behind her, a sudden hissing sound came from farther along the platform we’d just been standing on.
With quicksilver speed, she turned and forced us both to the floor, pinning us in place. “Shh,” she uttered, squinting ahead.
I turned my head in time to see a faint figure walking slowly along in the opposite direction we’d just been heading. Its body and shape were distorted and mostly veiled by the dim, flickering light and mist. It moved slowly and steadily through the shadows as repetitive muffled clangs echoed with its every step. Soon, it passed us, and I heard another hissing sound coming from around the door we’d used first enter the area.
The mysterious girl spat a word in a language I didn’t understand, and said, “We haven’t much time. We must hurry.”
She grabbed my hand and hurriedly led me forward along the black metallic walkway. Luckily, I had just enough time to grab hold of One’s arm and pull him along. He still appeared dazed, and would probably have remained there had I not done so.
“Was that one of them?” I asked in a loud whisper, already knowing the answer I’d receive.
“It was,” replied the mysterious girl simply without looking back.
“What’s going to happen? What will they do? What do they want?” A flurry of questions escaped my lips like steam from a boiling pot. There hadn’t been time, but I—we—had been promised answers, and I was going to make sure I got them.
“I already told you,” began the mysterious girl as we hurried along the walkway in tandem. “They’ll try to kill us upon seeing your escape, as you’ll no longer be of use to them. They sought to learn from you—your habits, tendencies, thought processes—to better understand your species and reap from it. When early in your life you showed a natural ability for strategy, it was suggested to them that they use you as advisor for battles they fought against your race. The perspective of a Simian, to them, was invaluable.”
“What?” I couldn’t digest or process what I’d heard. Like a cluster bomb, hundreds of further questions and conflicting emotions exploded around inside my mind, drowning in each other’s voices. “Do you mean. . ?” I began, unable to finish as I felt light-headed again.
“Yes, Seven. The strategy classes were real. The enemy you fought was, in reality, your own kind.”
My legs faltered and I tried to stop, but the mysterious girl, increasing her grip on my hand, pulled me harder, and I continued with One, who still ran silently behind. I looked back at him, surprised at his lack of response, but saw he was still lost in his mind as he gazed through me.
Turning my head to face forward again, I asked, “What about One?”
I wanted to know if he’d been used in the same way to eradicate his own species. Had he secretly been led to believe he received private strategy classes? Most importantly, however, was the question that burned inside my mind—why did he look exactly like me?
I looked hopefully ahead at the mysterious girl as she half-turned to face me, and with regretful eyes, she began, “One is—”
A shrill alarm cleaved the misty, stifling air, resounding all around the large, cylindrical area.
“Damn,” spat the mysterious girl, squeezing my hand even tighter. “Run!”
We dashed down the last of the walkway, and reaching the higher platform continued hurriedly along it. With still no attackers in sight, we stopped abruptly beside yet another door. As the mysterious girl punched a series of buttons on a control pad next to it, One brushed my hand off his arm.
I looked around at him. He smiled earnestly and mouthed the words, “I’m okay. Thanks.”
Once open, we ran inside another dimly lit tunnel with the mysterious girl still grasping my hand and One closely following. Whatever had happened inside his mind, he now appeared to have regained his senses and seemed to be the same guy I’d known aboard the Sky Drifter, and for the first time I was glad about it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“THIS WAY!” cried the mysterious girl, her voice echoing through the dark steel corridors as we ran.
I kept looking back to make sure One was still keeping pace with us. I found myself worrying he might slip back into a daze and fall behind. Even as I looked at him, I still hadn’t been able to digest the fact he was like my double. It was hard to believe that he and I had faced each other inside the sphere not so long ago. I felt the sting of the fresh cuts and bruises he’d given me when still he wore his mask and he was nothing more than just an annoying thorn in my side. How far away that now seemed.
As he ran, I started seeing him in a different light. To me, he wasn’t the One I’d known any-more. I didn’t know what it was yet, but there was a definite link between us beyond that of our mirrored faces. If only we could find a quiet place, I’d insist the mysterious girl tell us what our connection was.
The shrill alarm pounded inside my head as we exited through yet another door into a small cylindrical space, which extended up and down as far as the eye could see into darkness. Directly in front of us, as well as above and below, was a short metallic walkway leading diagonally down to another door, beyond which was another long, dim tunnel.
Despite the mysterious girl’s hurried pace, and the constantly-sounding alarm, we had yet to see any attackers. I wondered if she’d over-estimated the situation. Maybe these creatures, which according to her, were the Morex I’d known, weren’t as cold and blood-thirsty as she thought. If they were, wouldn’t we have already seen some signs of them? Aside from the shadowy figure that had ambled past us in the large, misty area earlier, there hadn’t been a single other encounter. Where were they all? Not that I wasn’t glad, just that I questioned whether we needed to hurry as much. Maybe, I thought, we could stop and rest a while, and the mysterious girl could finally reveal all she knew.
“Where…going?” shouted One from behind me.
She just kept running along the tunnel, possibly unaware of his question. Wondering the same thing myself, I placed some weight on my heels to try to slow her down and repeated One’s question loud enough for her to hear.
“We’re getting…of here!” she cried back, frowning.
When the mysterious girl made to run again, however, I planted my feet firmly on the oily, metallic surface, causing her to spin round and look at me with puzzlement.
“Why are we running? There’s no one here!” I shouted.
“I’m taking…entrances! They won’t be…Are coming!” With those barely audible words, she tugged my arm so hard I thought it would rip out of its socket, and we resumed our escape.
In that moment, I realized just how much faith I placed on the tall yellow-skinned girl. As her long, green hair swayed behind her, the thought that this new world began and ended with her distressed me. If this was all some bizarre game she played, why go through all the trouble? What purpose could it all possibly serve? No, I couldn’t believe it. The very notion seemed ridiculous.
I remembered how worried she’d been when we’d met in the alleyway following the explosion. If the Sky Drifter really had been an illusion created to study One and me, then I could see why she would have been worried when I’d asked questions about her. Whatever the mysterious girl’s role in this place was, she’d clearly been going against the Morex’s wishes by having direct contact with me.
If they were as savage as she claimed, she really must have been fearing for her life as well as mine. Why had she contacted me at all? Just who was she? If my reasoning was correct, and she helped us escape our false reality at the possible cost of her own life, she had to be a friend. I didn’t just need to trust her—I wanted to.
Soon after, we entered a wide corridor, along which blue dials flashed on a series of control panels along both sides. The shiny black metallic floor clanged with our every hurried step as I continued trying to avoid touching the many mossy strands that hung from above.
All of a sudden, a piercing, agonizing cry came from behind me. I swung round, forcibly
shaking my hand free of the mysterious girl’s grasp. Standing with his eyes and mouth open wide in surprise was One, his body jerking uncontrollably as long, blue bolts of electricity wrapped around him.
“No,” I uttered, breath catching in my throat. Our gazes met, and he mouthed something.
Before I was able to react or even think, One crashed onto the floor where he remained, unmoving.
Every sound, every movement, faded until all that remained was the thump of my beating heart. Not only had I witnessed my own horrible demise mirrored in One, but I’d lost my only anchor to the only reality I’d known and loved. Despite our past differences, the game had changed for us, and even if we hadn’t had the chance to say it, One and I had found silent acceptance and solidarity in each other. I hadn’t thought it possible, but the ache my heart felt at the loss of One would leave a hole that would never again heal.
The mysterious girl tightly grabbed my hand again, and with a forceful jerk, forced me back along the corridor with her.
“We have to keep going. Come on!” she cried as we scrambled forward, the severity of the situation now firmly branded in my mind.
***
The cold grip of fear seized my heart as in my mind unimaginable terrors were relentlessly gaining on us with every step we took. A surge of energy fueled by fear flowed inside me, making my legs feel numb.
As I found myself speeding on ahead of the mysterious girl, I heard her cry, “Turn here!”
We dashed and snaked through a labyrinth of dim, hazy corridors until finally we reached a large domed archway. As I crossed its threshold, I was astounded at the sheer magnitude of the area in which I now stood. The metal and stone cylindrical area was at least three or four times that of the one I’d first seen, and like it, extended above and below as far I could see.
I found myself standing on a long narrow metallic walkway, at the end of which was another archway. As I frantically ran along it, it jarred slightly and began to retract into the dusty stone wall on the other side.
I turned, realizing I hadn’t heard a word from the mysterious girl for what felt like too long, and saw her lying on the threshold to the archway, blue liquid gushing from her leg. Her hand, grasping the wound, was also saturated in her blood. My heart sank as I looked up into her tearful, defeated eyes.
“No!” I cried. “You are not giving up! Jump! Get up! Jump. Get up!” Hot tears streamed down my face as I watched her stare sorrowfully back at me.
In that moment, my world extended no further than her. She was my saviour, my guide, and the only friend I had. She was all I had left, and with every passing instant that the walkway retracted, the possibility became greater that I would lose her, too.
“Jump!” I screamed so loudly my throat hurt as I stretched my hand out as far as I could as if I could grab her.
Why wasn’t she moving? Despite my pleas, she continued to gaze lamentably into my eyes, tears streaming down her face. I couldn’t understand why she was giving up. She’d ripped me from the illusion of the Sky Drifter and brought me to this point. Why give up now? After all this? After all she’d done?
No. There was still time. With the walkway retracting farther and farther with every passing moment, there was no more time to think. I’d lost everything and everyone I’d ever cared about and I was not going to lose her, too. I knew then just how important the mysterious girl had become, and the thought of losing her sent a cold shiver down my spine into my core. My mind was made up.
With no time to hesitate, I took a couple of steps back and then threw myself forward across the dark void below me, landing just next to her.
“You are not doing this. You are not giving up!” I cried, stooping down to her side and then throwing her arm over my shoulders, forcing her to her feet.
“Go!” she screamed violently. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t hide the unexplained sadness in her eyes. “Leave me!”
“Stop it!” I shouted, matching her anger. “Get to your feet or we both die.”
The anger she’d tried to convince me she felt faded from her face as a certain look of wonder merged with her sorrow. Both were gone in a flash and replaced with a refreshed determination that glinted in her eyes.
Along the corridor behind us distorted growls and clangs echoed ominously in my ears. Without another word, we looked ahead, took a few steps back, and one arm around each other’s waist, ran as fast as we could, leaping toward the retracting walkway. It had receded too far to land on, and we began falling toward the dark abyss below.
I instinctively extended my arm up in blind hope and my hand connected with the platform. I grasped the cold metallic grid of its surface, and as the full weight of our bodies hung suddenly from my limb, my shoulder popped violently out of its socket.
I screamed in pain at the searing feeling that instantly spread around my arm. Just as I felt my grip slipping, I saw the mysterious girl reach up and grab the other end of the walkway.
“Hold on,” she said firmly. With incomprehensible strength, she pushed us up as she held a firm grasp of my waist until my chest was level with the edge of the walkway.
“Go.” She grunted.
With all the strength I could muster, I pushed myself up with my arm, propped my knee on the surface and stood. My arm throbbed with pain so intense I feared I’d pass out. I tried to shake off the feeling and turned, extending my good arm to the mysterious girl, who was already lifting herself onto the walkway. Dark blue blood flowed from the gaping hole in her leg, forcing her to limp as she walked forward.
“We have to keep going.” She winced.
I hurried forward and forced her arm over my shoulders to support her, which she seemed to reluctantly accept.
We walked through the domed archway on the other side just before the walkway had fully receded into the stone and metal wall. Beyond it was a large room whose black floor, walls and ceiling glistened as if they were liquid. If not for the ever-present blobs of pulsating moss, the room would have looked very clinical. Directly ahead, a series of circular holes, whose diameter would have easily accommodated Pi, lined the wall. I wondered why she’d fought so hard just to take us into that room and suddenly felt like caged prey.
“Watch the entrance,” she cried with authority. After letting go of me, she hobbled over to the control panel, which stood against the left wall and spanned its length, streams of blood flowing from her leg and onto the floor.
“What are we doing here?” I asked nervously.
“We’re leaving. Watch the door and tell me when they’re coming.”
As though her very words had triggered it, the sudden light rumble of the platform sounded from just beyond the door. I turned and hurried to its threshold to see as it steadily began extending outward. I raised my head and saw what I feared I would. Looming in the darkness just beyond the archway were the steady, yellow orbs of the Morex, every single pair fixed unblinkingly on me.
“The walkway is extending!” I cried.
“I know. Just tell me when they step on to it,” sharply replied the mysterious girl as she continued furiously typing on the control panel in front of her. I didn’t understand what she was doing. She’d led us to a dead end, and now the murderous Morex, or whatever they were called, were soon to reach and kill us. Terrifying as the situation was, however, I wanted to trust her. I needed to trust her.
Soon the walkway had almost completely extended, and was moments away from giving the Morex direct access to us. “Whatever you’re doing, do it fast. They’re coming!”
I turned toward the mysterious girl, feeling my limbs seizing up in fear as my arm continued to throb painfully. Just as I’d begun walking toward her, I heard the faint bang of the walkway reaching the other side. I felt like a trapped animal about to be viscously devoured, grasping to the hope that there was still a way. That we’d somehow still escape.
Turning rapidly toward me and grabbing hold of my arm, the mysterious girl exclaimed, “Done!” She limped to th
e back wall. Before I could formulate any kind of question, she placed me roughly in her arms and threw me legs first down one of the holes.
I slid down a steep, dark tunnel until I dropped into the middle of a surprisingly soft surface. My gaze darted all around as I tried to absorb my new surroundings. The space was tight but large enough for two bodies of around my size. Above me, four long windows were divided by a cross frame, which extended seamlessly down to the surrounding walls. I lay on a type of firm, black mattress that went halfway up the sides.
I heard a sudden noise coming from the hole above me, and quickly moved aside in time to avoid the mysterious girl landing on me.
“What n—” I began to say as the capsule we were in exploded forward at tremendous speed, pinning me tightly in place. From beyond the windows above, thin, curved strips of white light flashed successively by as the craft whooshed rapidly along.
Moments later, the long tunnel gave way to the vastness of space. Still the vessel hurtled forward through it at great speed. It was only then that I noticed the mysterious girl held tightly on to my hand.
Looking up outside, I knew my eyes were seeing something they never had before. The stars, planets, nebulae, all seemed brighter, more vivid somehow. Without moving my head, I asked, “Where are we going?”
“Your planet,” she replied softly. My heart frantically beat as a strange, electric feeling surged in my stomach and chest.
“My planet.” I exhaled with wonder. My mind reflexively conjured images of what I believed to be the planet I’d been born on, only to remember that it, like the beauty of the universe I’d seen aboard the Sky Drifter, was nothing more than an illusion created for me.
“Is it the same?” I asked, still clinging to the hope that what I saw in my mind was, at least, true.
“It was once,” replied the mysterious girl regretfully. “The memories of the land you hold in your mind are those extracted from your mother.”
“My mother?” I exhaled, turning my head to face the mysterious girl.
