Solipsis: Escape from the Comatorium (22 page)

This
is no ordinary sword fight. No weapons are allowed in Solipsis. The
attackers have had to find loopholes to create their weaponry. Since
people like to smoke, small lighters are allowed in Solipsis. The
flaming swords are made by stringing together thousands of virtual
lighter tips to create the blade. Since they used the virtual tip and
not any part of the actual lighter, the blade does not have any
matter to it at all. It can cut through absolutely anything, since
the physics engine doesn't see the blade as having any matter to it.
Renee cannot block any attack. Fire doesn't stop fire. Unable to
block, she must take the offensive.

Renee
sprints away from him, but not straight way, instead running a circle
around him. Since the angel is being controlled by a man at a
console, he has to turn with her, which can be disorienting and
clumsy. Once the angel starts keeping up with her rotation, she stops
and sprints back the other direction. The angel is slow to react, and
in that moment, she closes the circle, and slides feet first,
reaching out and slicing at his knees, cutting them both.

She
quickly gets to her feet. The angel walks towards her, balanced on
his thighs. The angel realizes it won't be able to chase her, and so
he winds up to throw the sword at her. Just before he can release, a
rock smashes into his back, knocking him down. The sword handle
skitters across the rocks. Medved picks it up and he and Renee run
for the mountains with Percival's torso still clinging to Medved's
neck.

Renee's
red face cracks in the freezing wind as she climbs a near vertical
face. She holds the blue flaming-sword over her head, slicing away at
the rock face. She yanks out a neatly cut chunk of rock and tosses it
clear. She hoists herself up onto this makeshift ledge and looks
back. Medved is perched ten meters below her, resting on another
ledge she created. Hell lies miles beneath them. The sun is below
them. This is a flat world, the sun is just part of a flat sky-box.

“
Hold
on,” Medved shouts. Exhausted, he needs a rest.

“
We
can't stop,” Renee says.

“
Just
a second to catch my breath,” Medved mutters.

“
It's
not real air, come on.”

Percival
starts screaming bloody-murder. Medved holds his head into his fur,
muffling his screams, hoping he won't give away their position.

“
They're
torturing him,” Renee says. Medved simply nods. “They're
torturing Mom too. Come on, we have to keep moving.” Renee
helps Medved up another rung. They wait on the ledge for a moment,
Medved catches his breath. They both try to ignore Percival's screams
of pain. Medved buries Percival's face deeper into his fur.

“
I
can't believe this is happening,” Medved says ominously.

They
push onward and upward. Time stands still as a fluttering of wings
casts a shadow across them. Renee holds up her sword, ready. An angel
swoops in, coming right out of the sun. The angel lunges for Renee,
and she precariously hops out of the way, keeping her balance on this
tiny ledge. The angel fights to keep his wingtips away from the
rocks. The angel gains altitude, then tucks his wings in, enabling
him to get closer to the rocks. He falls past Renee and slashes
through the rock. She jumps out of the way, but her foot slips and
she nearly falls, grabbing a protruding rock and steadying herself.

The
angel pulls out of his dive and flutters back up level with her,
staring her down. Medved is unable to help, a good twenty meters
below Renee. He climbs quickly, hoping to protect her.

The
angel hovers, his eyes level with Renee's feet. He flies with his
wingtips just centimeters from the rocks. He leans in, swiping at her
ankles. Renee jumps out of the way, landing right back down on her
tiny perch.

Renee
swings at the angel, but she can't lean forward at all or else she'll
lose her balance. The angel stabs at her feet again. She splits her
legs around the sword. His sword darts toward her right leg, she
balances on her left foot. He swipes back and she switches feet
again. She deftly dodges, but can't keep this up forever, especially
not on this tiny slippery ledge. Medved's climbing as fast as he can,
but still unable to help.

Renee
uses her sword to slice into the rock above and behind her while she
dodges. After several cuts, she spins, slicing at an upward angle.
This final cut releases a large chunk of rock, which slides on this
incline she created, sending it toward the angel. Renee ducks beneath
the falling rock.

The
rock surprises the angel. He flaps to get away but isn't quick
enough. The rock slams against his chest plate, sending him off
balance. He tries to recover, but his wings clip the rock-face and he
plummets down toward Medved below.

The
angel smashes against Medved's right-arm, pinning it against the
rocks and crushing the bones of his forearm like twigs. The angel
continues to fall down the cliff helplessly.

Medved
lays on his back in serious pain. The bones of his forearm stick
clean through his skin. Percival's upper half lays beside him. Renee
climbs down and tries to help Medved set his bone back in his arm,
but he is in too much pain, pushing her away.

Renee
pulls Medved up as they near the peak. Medved's arm threatens to
simply fall off. It's in a sling Renee made from a strip of her
clothes. She tries to adjust the sling but Medved interrupts her,
“Just leave it alone.”

“
The
bone's not in place,” Renee says.

“
Don't
touch it,” Medved insists.

“
Relax
Peter,” Percival says from his spot on Medved's back, “she
can help you.” Medved nods to Renee and she takes a firm grip
of his broken bones.

“
My
name is Medved,” he says through gritted teeth, as Renee snaps
the bone back in place.

They
make their way finally to the peak. Renee slices new ledges and hand
holds into the rock. She helps Medved, pulling him by his one good
arm. They made it.

All
of Solipsis is laid out below them. Renee and Medved take a seat and
look out on their devastated world. “It's beautiful isn't it.”
This voice seems to come from nowhere. “Over here.”
Embedded in the icy peak is a man's face. His body has been
completely crushed and has frozen into the mountain. The slope down
is littered with people, those whose catapult ride didn't quite get
them over the mountain. “Here comes another one.”

“
Another
what?” Renee asks. A woman comes flying at the mountain,
screaming. She is coming right at them, with a very high-pitched
scream. She just clears the mountain, nearly taking their heads off.
She flies down the far side of the mountain, screaming at a much
lower pitch. The Doppler effect in action.

Renee
leads the climb down the mountain. It's much more difficult to cut
ledges into the mountain on the climb down than it was on the climb
up. Medved and Percival trail behind her.

Renee
lays down on a tiny ledge. She reaches down below her, making four
cuts into the rock: two vertical cuts, a horizontal cut, and then a
cut at a downward angle. The chunk of rock then drops away, leaving a
half-meter wide, twenty centimeter deep ledge. With no sheath for the
sword, she drops it into the side of the new ledge. The hilt stops it
from falling straight through the rock. Renee then lowers herself,
holding tightly to the ledge she has been laying on. She blindly
searches with her feet for the new ledge below her. Her feet find the
ledge and she lowers herself. Her foot has almost completely lost its
rock coating, revealing the burned skin below, charred and black. Her
hands are the real issue, completely torn up, cracked and bleeding
from every wrinkle.

On
her new ledge, she lays down, takes the sword from its stone sheath
and begins cutting a new ledge below her. Medved is making the climb,
several rungs higher up the ladder. The mountains are so steep, this
is the only possible way down. She makes her cuts, then lowers
herself, searching for the ledge with her feet. She finds her footing
then drops down, starting the process all over again.

Angels
fly by periodically, keeping a watch on them, but their attacks have
been fruitless, as they simply can't fly close enough to use their
limited weapons. The thin air doesn't help their flying either. An
angel hovers ominously nearby, watching her from a distance.

Renee
grabs the ledge with her bleeding hands, lowering herself, blindly
searching for the ledge with her feet. She lowers herself.

This
time she slips just a little bit. She starts leaning backwards, over
the abyss. She reaches for the rock face in front of her, but finds
nothing to grip. She falls backward, in a last desperate attempt, she
reaches for the hilt of the sword, embedded in the ledge. She gets a
hold of it, but the sword comes free, slicing its way out of its
rocky sheath. She falls clear, picking up speed. Her sword tumbles in
the air nearby, threatening to slice her into pieces.. She hits the
side of the mountain after falling twenty meters, desperately
reaching for anything to grip, she bounces off, falling away from the
rocks. As she accelerates the sword trails behind her, having a lower
terminal velocity. The jagged rocks at the bottom of the mountain
wait to pulverize her. She flails through the air, unable to do
anything. She's going to be crushed into a paste and left to suffer
like a layer of algae on the rocks.

A
shadow comes across her, but she tumbles through the air and can't
focus on anything. An angel approaches. It tucks in its wings to
reduce drag, chasing after her. The angel plucks her from the sky. He
holds her with his arms and extends his wings and flaps hard to slow
their descent. They're moving fast, and his wings can't carry the
weight of the both of them. They slow down, but smack into the rocks,
tumbling to a stop.

“
You
okay?”

“
Yeah,”
Renee replies without thinking. She sees the face of her guardian
angel for the first time. It's Seth. “You saved me. Why'd you
do that?”

“
I
don't know, I saw you fall and just went for it. Seemed like the
right thing to do.”

“
Is
this a trick or something, like trying to get me all Stockholm
Syndromed?”

“
I
don't know what that means,” Seth replies.

“
Okay,
well, thanks for the rescue, but I've gotta go.”

“
Where
are you going?” Seth asks.

“
I'm
not telling you that,” Renee replies as she hops across the
rocks, heading for the shore of the lake. Her sword lands not far
away, hitting a rock at an angle, the hilt bounces off tumbling over
her head and falling into the lake, sizzling to the bottom.

“
Maybe
I can help.” Seth says.

“
Why
would you help me?”

“
Are
you trying to get back to Earth?” Seth asks. Renee is
suspicious and won't confirm or deny. “Because if you are, you
know they cut the neural net, so nobody can get to their animatron.”

“
I
know,” Renee replies.

“
So
where are you going?”

Seth
follows Renee down the craggy rocks and toward the lake and the city
of Solipsis beyond it. In the distance, the hot air balloon holding
all of the televators hovers above the city. A dragon circles it
silently.

“
So
that shouldn't be too hard,” Renee mutters.

“
You
need a televator? I know of one,” Seth says. They reach the
shore of the lake. Seth starts walking into the shallow clear water.
“Come on.”

“
In
there?”

“
There's
a televator on the bottom of the lake,” Seth says. He takes her
hand and tries to ease her into the water. “You afraid of
drowning? Running out of imaginary air?”

“
Yes.”

“
Come
on, I'll show you,” Seth says. Renee stares at him, trying to
figure out the ruse.

“
I
don't trust you,” Renee says.

“
I
wanna help,” Seth says.

“
If
you want to help, then go alert the media, send for help, flip the
breakers, do anything, you're on Earth,” Renee says.