Solipsis: Escape from the Comatorium (31 page)

In
the dark, Seth hunches over a broken robot. He's reattaching the
back-plate after having replaced the battery. Paul walks in and
stands over him, holding a gun. “Hurry up, he wants to plug her
in now.”

“
Just
a second, she's almost ready.”

There
is a display on the back of the robot, the boy presses a button and
the display says "Downloading."

“
Done,”
he says. Paul motions and a cultist helps Seth as the two of them
drag the
flesh-bot
that holds Renee's mind away. They disappear down the hallway, taking
Renee back to the Comatorium.

The
room is now silent and empty, except for Renee's old animatron, which
sits like a statue against the wall. The displays labeled SC P1 are
all blank, showing no data. Her brain computer resides in the
animatron now. But next to that display are several other blank ones.
As the footsteps disappear down the hallway, a second blade computer
turns on. It's right next to the SC P1, and all it says is:
Uploading
1%

Lazarus's animatron lays on the
wet Comatorium floor, propped against the central node of wires. His
animatron is plugged into the node through a crudely made docking
port. Lazarus is conscious, but his animatron has no hydraulics,
having been nearly destroyed in the assault. Paul and the other cult
member bring in Renee and sit her lifeless body down next to Lazarus.

“
There
she is,” Lazarus says, excited. “Send her on down.”
Lazarus's eyes close and his consciousness disappears into Solipsis.
Paul plugs Renee into the node, and connects her brain back into
Solipsis. Renee awakens in the televator and takes a quick step out,
finding herself on the judgment platform.

Renee
looks up at the large sun and the fingers of fire spreading across
the skybox.

He's
the administrator. But he can't be the administrator, he'd never have
himself vivisected.

The
angels' frozen armor begins to thaw under the bright sun. Renee walks
around to Lazarus, picking him up, frozen like a mannequin. S
he
carries him toward the catapult to hell.

“
What
are you doing?” Lazarus asks.

“
I'm
going to torture your ass in hell,” Renee says

“
Torture
me? You moron, I'm not vivisected, I'm just sitting at a computer.”

“
Nice
try,” Renee says simply.

She
kicks the lever and the catapult swings into the air and flings them
toward the icy peaks and to hell on the other side. They fly through
the mountain air, they aren't going to clear the peaks. Renee rides
him as they slam into the jagged mountain. Lazarus is crushed by the
impact, in a lot of pain. He tries to get away, but Renee pins him
down. She hugs him, her body acts like a heat sink, soaking up all of
his thermal energy. Water vapor condenses and freezes right out of
the air all around Lazarus, freezing him into the snow-packed rocks.

Renee
picks up a rock and holds it over his chest. She slams the rock
against the breastplate, the cold metal has become brittle and
cracks. She smacks it again, breaking off his armor like it was made
of glass. She smashes the rock against his sternum, cracking his
ribs.

“
Give
up your admin privileges,” Renee demands.

Lazarus
starts laughing.

“
What's
so funny,” Renee asks.

“
You
have so much evil in you,” Lazarus says. Renee thinks to the
ticking bomb hidden in the Comatorium, it ticks down through 20
minutes. It's poised to blow up the entire Comatorium and kill
everyone in it.

“
Give
up!” Renee shouts. She smashes the rock against his face
repeatedly, breaking his nose, busting open his lip, tearing a hole
in his cheek. She relents for a moment. He spits a bloody clump of
cheek at her.

“
I
locked the admin privileges I couldn't give them up if I wanted to!”
Lazarus replies with a bloody smile. “You can't win.”

Renee
is overcome with rage, she repeatedly bashes in his face, then drops
the rock and punches him as hard and fast as she can. Lazarus laughs
through the beating, seeming to enjoy it.

Renee
stares at her gleeful victim. He's enjoying this. “Give them
up!” Renee shouts.

“
I
told you, I can't! They're locked. I can't give them up.”

Renee
sits upright, wiping her bloody, bruised hands off on her pants.

“
Well...If
you die you give up admin privileges,” Renee says.

“
And
you can't kill me here. I'm immortal you idiot,” he says.

“
Right.
I can't kill you,” Renee says slyly, “but you can.”

“
What
do you mean?” Lazarus asks.

“
You
think heaven awaits you when you die.”

“
Of
course it does!”

“
So
you were planning to die at some point,” Renee says.

“
I
can live forever down here.”

“
Yeah...but
you don't want to,” Renee says, “You have to have a way
out of here.”

“
What's
your point?” Lazarus says.

“
You
knew eventually you would have to die,” Renee says, smiling,
“You knew you might be captured. We might very well return the
favor and send you to the hell you made for us.”

“
What
are you talking about?” Lazarus says dismissively.

“
You
have a self destruct,” Renee says happily.

“
I
don't,” Lazarus replies seriously.

“
Yes
you do,” Renee says, laughing. “I can see the plug-in you
installed.”

“
Dammit,
how did you turn the display system back on?”

“
Just
a little trick my mom taught me,” Renee says. She picks up a
sharp rock and stabs between his ribs, piercing a hole into his lung.

“
I
don't have a self-dest-” Lazarus says, but it interrupted when
Renee presses down on his chest, expelling the air from his lungs
through the hole in his chest. His words become nothing more than a
gasp for air. The hole in his chest wheezes as he talks. “I
swear I don't.”

Renee
carves out a chunk of his sternum with a sharp rock. She picks up the
bone and jams it in his mouth. She slaps him across the face.

“
How
about now? Still don't have a self destruct?” Renee asks. She
punches him in the throat. “How about now?”

He
chokes, spits out his sternum, takes a deep breath, and smiles at
her. “Do your worst.”

Renee
is taken aback by this reaction. He must be in intense pain, but he
seems to not care, actually, he seems to downright enjoy it.

“
Neuroscientists
don't like to use the word evil,” The voice booms through a
glass atrium that's playing host to a neurological conference, “so
I will say that I study the minds of psychopaths.”

The
debate plays back in her mind.

“
Those
with more advanced psychopathy are obsessed with power, not just in
terms of being presidents and dictators, but in social situations.
They like to humiliate others, they like to abuse their power, to
teach people lessons, to feel in control. Nearly all of these
psychopaths exhibit serious sexual dysfunction. They fixate on their
own desires, unchecked by empathy, they relish in sado-masochism.
They derive sexual satisfaction from either inflicting pain or having
it inflicted on them.”

“
You've
used all of man's baser instincts against him,” Lazarus shouts,
“You're offering up every last indulgence, lust, gluttony,
you've taken a selfish, short-sighted society and given them anything
they could ever want. You're a slut, guiding them away from the lord,
away from virtue, down a path to an empty life; a godless,
never-ending detour into hell. I'm just showing them the way.”

The
cold wind whips up in Renee's reddened face on this mountain peak.
“Come on! Torture me. Bring it on!” Lazarus smiles at her
creepily. Renee then starts tearing and ripping her own clothes off,
exposing much of her skin. She straddles him, leaning in close,
pressing her cheek against his.

“
What
are you doing?” Lazarus demands.

“
What
have you been doing, dirty boy?” Renee whispers in his ear. She
licks the hole in his cheek. Renee whips him, then tears his frozen
arm from the ground, and makes him grab her breast. Lazarus's eyes go
wide.

“
You're
trying to make me sin!” He exclaims.

“
You
want to sin,” Renee whispers in his ear, “You want this
so bad!” Renee tears off his armor cod piece.

“
Stop!”

Renee
whispers, “And we're not even married. How naughty.”
Renee whips him again, while she sits up right, straddling and
rubbing against him. “You want to fuck me don't you?”

“
You'll
damn me to hell you bitch!” he exclaims.

“
That
wasn't a no,” Renee says. She rubs her breasts in his face.

“
I'm
not a sinner!” He says with his eyes clinched closed.

“
Then
I guess you should self destruct before we sin too much,” she
whispers. “You wouldn't want to go to hell would you?”

“
Oh
god, oh god, oh god!” he says.

“
Go
ahead,” Renee says seductively, “I've been a bad girl,
you can punish me.” She turns around, sticking out her ass.
“Just give me a spank.”

“
Oh
god no!” Lazarus exclaims. Lazarus mentally opens the menu
display and finds the self-destruct button, hovering over the button
in his mind.

“
Come
on, just a little spank, you can do it.” Lazarus shuts his
eyes. Rene turns back, laying down across him, pressing her body
against him. “Did I mention I'm a virgin,” Renee whispers
in his ear.

“
Leave
me alone!”

“
Do
it already, don't make me get weird with this,” Rene warns.

The
world turns upside down. Lazarus has reversed gravity. Rene reacts
quickly, grabbing onto Lazarus as he's anchored into the ice. All
across the virtual world, everything that's not nailed down falls
upward into the sky. The water from the lake splashes skyward.
People, rocks, buildings, monsters, all flying into the sky, destined
to crash into the skybox above.

Rene
hangs onto Lazarus. He laughs, thinking she'll fall away, leaving him
stuck in the ice. But his plan fails as the very mountain itself
begins to fall apart. The rock he's frozen to comes loose and they
take off toward the heavens.

Rene
loses her grip as the wind rips her apart from Lazarus and the rock.
Experienced with zero gravity and free-fall, she maneuvers through
the air, sending her flying back at him. She grabs a hold, planting
herself onto him. Rene reaches toward his crotch, looks him square in
the eyes and says, “are you going to fuck me or what?”

Suddenly
his whole body shudders. Renee looks closely into his eyes. He
squints in pain.

“
Yes!
A Xenon Shock! You did it! You're dying,” Renee exclaims. “I'm
so proud of you,” she coyly slaps him on the cheek.

“
Don't
you see how evil you are?” Lazarus chokes out.

“
Shh
shh,” Renee whispers in his ear. “Don't worry your little
head, you've got just about oh, eight minutes before you die. Maybe
we should spend your last few moments sinning, that way we can make
sure you go to hell.”