Spheria (35 page)

Bang, Bang, Bang… Bang… Bang… Bang… Bang, Bang, Bang.

Louder this time. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Ghosts
, he thought. But he never believed in that supernatural stuff, so he decided to open the door.

He fumbled through the key-chain the janitor had given him. He found the old iron key, the only one of its kind. He put it into the lock and jiggled it around. It made little scraping sounds.

Bang. And then nothing.

Whatever was making the noise had stopped. Walter guessed he was making the noise now. Maybe it was rats. No, that was impossible. It’d have to be a giant rat. He imagined such things existed and had second thoughts about opening the door.

Then he heard a faint “help” from the other side. Rats don’t speak, no matter how large they are.

Walter finished fiddling with the lock, and it clicked open. He lifted the thick bar and began to swing open the door. As he did so, it was flung open from the inside. A short Asian woman, almost black with soot, darted past him. “Thanks,” she said as she disappeared around the corner of the cage.

“Wait,” he said, chasing after her.

She led him to the main incinerator door. It was completely dark. She tried to lift the bar but it was too heavy, or stuck. He walked over and pushed it with her, and together they swung the bar up and pulled the door open. A man crawled out, gasping for air. His shirt was wrapped around his foot.

The woman squatted down and hugged him. “Thank God you're alive!” she said.

“Thank God for us both,” he said.

“Um,” said Walter. “Why are you guys in the incinerator? That’s only for bodies, you know.”

The woman looked at Walter and said, “Thanks for letting us out. You saved our lives. I’m Min, and this is Max.” Min looked at Max’s foot, then back at Walter. “He needs help. Can you get us a wheelchair please?”

“Of course,” Walter said, and he shuffled off to find the cage where they stored them.

Max smiled a sooty grin and asked, “So, care to tell me how we’re still alive?”

“Dumb luck I suppose. I got through the vent, but the clean-out door was locked from the outside. So it was hopeless. I tried to climb the chimney, but it was blocked by a scrubber of some kind. I was blocked from every direction, so we were both about to die. That’s when it hit me. They wouldn’t install a scrubber like that without putting in some kind of fail-safe mechanism. After all, what’s the point of having it if it could fail and release hazardous materials into the air? So I grabbed a shovel I’d found and wedged it into the fan. It nearly pulled me up and took my arm off, but it stuck, and the fan stopped. The system shut off and, judging from the cooling airflow, the pilot lights went off also. It worked! We were saved. Or at least I was. I tried calling you, but you never responded. I was sure you were dead.”

“I thought so too,” said Max. “I said something to you because I heard things starting up and knew the blast was about to fire up. The last thing I remember, and I don’t even know why, I stuck my finger into the hole in my foot to see if there was a bullet there. My finger passed right through, and it hurt like hell. I started screaming, and I think I passed out from the pain. I don’t know for how long. But when I awoke I heard you banging. I tried to call out, but it was too noisy for you to hear. My foot was still bleeding, I've no idea how much blood I lost, so I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my wound. I think I stopped the bleeding, although it hurts like a son of a bitch.”

Walter reappeared with not only a wheelchair but also a teal patient robe.

“Thank you!” said Min and Max in unison.

“Glad to help,” said Walter, as he assisted Max into the chair.

“Now where can I take you?”

“The seventh floor,” said Max.

“No,” said Min. “I know what I need to do. You go to security and bring them to the board meeting. I’ll join you there.”

Chapter 48 - Liberation

“Liberation is not deliverance.” - Victor Hugo

As Fa∙ro paused, the ground began trembling beneath him. Then a sound like thunder rose in the distance, getting rapidly louder. The foliage around the clearing shook violently.
 

A herd of Zalisk burst forth, flooding onto the battlefield! They immediately impaled the five nearest Soldiers, shattering their cores and flinging their limp carcasses into the others. More Soldiers went flying. Others were trampled. Some began to retreat. A handful of the best, led by Ga∙zo, managed to flip one of the beasts with their whips. But before they could finish, another bowled into them scattering them like teetering rocks.

It became evident to everyone that for some unexplained reason, the Zalisk were only attacking the Soldiers. The Workers were ignored. Those mixed with the Soldiers were stepped over, unharmed, and were freed by the flailing beasts. The Workers began running for the bridge and resumed entering single file. Fa∙ro was the only one with an explanation, and his fury reached an all-time high. He flung his legs down with such force that they dented the ground. But Le∙ma was gone.
 

He glanced toward the bridge; she was running toward it. While distracted, he’d let her escape. He charged after her, but his path was blocked by a Zalisk, who seemed to take a particular interest in him. It thrust at him, but he dodged it, jumping onto its back. It thrashed around, spinning, trying to dislodge him. He hung on, pulling it onto its side. It dug in three of its six legs and rotated itself on the ground, but Fa∙ro stayed behind its back. Grabbing the top three legs for leverage, he managed to snap one off. The beast went wild. It rolled its body over on top of Fa∙ro, flattening him. It jabbed its tusks into the ground, pinning four of Fa∙ro’s legs in place.

Ga∙zo arrived with three others, and they snared the beast. They began pulling it off Fa∙ro, but it was hooked into the ground. It tried to claw at Fa∙ro with its remaining legs, but the whips held them back. Fa∙ro looked at Ga∙zo, then toward the bridge and commanded, “Get her! Get my artifact!” Ga∙zo followed his gaze. At the entrance to the bridge, Le∙ma disappeared, followed by Sa∙ma. They were the last remaining Workers. The battle was between the Zalisk and Soldiers now.

As commanded, Ga∙zo abandoned his master and sprinted toward the bridge. Two Zalisk converged on him, but he managed to leap back, and they collided, knocking each other over. He clambered over them and had an open field before him. With all the speed he could muster, he closed the distance and peered into the tunnel across the Rift.

When he visited the tower in the past, he’d stand under it and admire the view. It seemed to go on forever, the four vertical lines converging into a small distant square. The thought of the height and the Workers up there made him dizzy. Now before him was that same view, and he was about to enter. Halfway across, he could see the Workers moving away. Closer, not yet finding their rhythm, were Le∙ma and Sa∙ma.

Ga∙zo entered. He walked up to the edge of the Rift where the ground stopped, and the immense chasm began. Only the zigzags formed by the girders provided support, and there was much more empty space. He stepped onto a beam. It seemed stable. He brought two other legs there and reached out to the next beam. Then with two and three working together, he began to move across.

He looked up along the hollow passage, and it was empty. The Workers were either too far to see, or on the other side. More puzzling, Le∙ma and Sa∙ma were missing.
Did they fall?
He doubted it. Then he suspected the answer. He stood on one of the side beams and popped his eye sensors through a gap in the ceiling. There they were, moving along the top surface of the bridge, faster than the others. They were buoyed by the knowledge that if they fell, they had another layer to grab onto.

Ga∙zo climbed onto the top as well. He proceeded slowly at first because the gaps were at a different angle than before and he had to relearn where to place his legs. But having five helped, and he soon found a rhythm that he used to get some momentum. Indeed, he was moving quite a bit faster than the two Workers he was chasing. They looked back, saw him approaching, and attempted to speed up. But that just made Le∙ma lose her footing, and Sa∙ma had to help her back up. Their pursuer was closing in on them.

“Keep going!” shouted Sa∙ma.

Le∙ma glanced back to see Sa∙ma turning to face Ga∙zo.

“No!” she said.

Without looking at her, he repeated, “Go! I’ll handle Ga∙zo.”

She hated to leave her master but knew the artifact must not fall into Ga∙zo’s possession. She sped up as best she could.
 

Ga∙zo arrived and stopped before Sa∙ma. “Let me pass!” he said.

“Never, Ga∙zo. Your false god has corrupted you and your kind. Return to him and figure out how to survive without Workers.”

“You speak blasphemy! For that, you won’t be forgiven, even by the gods!” He struck Sa∙ma with a leg, but Sa∙ma parried with one of his own. Ga∙zo swung at him from the other direction with another leg, and again, Sa∙ma blocked it. With Sa∙ma teetering on just two legs, Ga∙zo leaned forward and threw him off the bridge.

Sa∙ma flew a good distance, then stopped abruptly. Ga∙zo was yanked to the side and barely managed to grab a girder. Sa∙ma had managed, just as he was getting thrown, to grab the loose end of Ga∙zo’s whip. He fell, swinging beneath the bridge, and came up on the other side. Ga∙zo and Sa∙ma both hung from the top of the bridge by two legs, facing each other.

Ga∙zo didn’t hesitate. He kicked through the bridge at Sa∙ma’s core, but Sa∙ma released a leg and swayed to one side. Ga∙zo slid over and kicked again at where Sa∙ma was, but he did it in the other direction. Ga∙zo noticed Le∙ma making progress to the other side of the bridge.
The artifact.
He glared at Sa∙ma hanging there, disregarded him, and began moving quickly along the top of the bridge. He had the advantage now, and would reach Le∙ma before she made it to the end.

She looked back to check on them and saw Ga∙zo gaining on her. But even worse, a line of Soldiers began entering the bridge. The Zalisks must’ve given up attacking when she lost the focus to control them any longer.
 

She turned and tripped, nearly falling through the bridge. She recovered and sped forward. But it wasn't fast enough. Ga∙zo was within striking distance and raised his whip to snag her. As he flung his leg toward her, it stopped in mid-air. He yanked again and again it stopped. Turning, he saw that Sa∙ma had reached him, and had attached the loose end of his whip to one of the girders.

“Enough with you!” fumed Ga∙zo, and he swung into the bridge, coming up underneath Sa∙ma, kicking him into the air. Sa∙ma tumbled and fell through a gap on top of the bridge. He extended his legs just in time to stop from falling past the bottom level. Before he could react, Ga∙zo dropped down on top of him, hitting him dead center with all of his weight. Sa∙ma’s legs folded, and he slid through the gap. He plunged down into the black void of the Rift below.

Le∙ma screamed, “Noooooo!”

Ga∙zo saw her standing inside the bridge, but on the other side of the Rift. It wasn't too far away, and he began closing the distance, skipping every other girder now. She grabbed the end of the bridge and started pushing. “Help me,” she called. Other Workers joined her, pushing sideways. The bridge began to shift, the end moving toward the edge of the Rift.
 

“Push!” the Workers shouted in unison, and the end lost contact with solid ground. They heaved it into the chasm with Ga∙zo and the Soldiers still inside it. Le∙ma gripped it a little too long and lost her footing, falling to the edge of the Rift, hanging by two legs. Two Workers grabbed her to prevent her from slipping, and began pulling her up. But she seemed heavier than she should have. They peered over; Ga∙zo was hanging from her other two dangling legs. He reached up, ripped off the artifact, and attached it to his own core. The world spun, and she would’ve fallen had the Workers not been holding her legs. Ga∙zo paused for only a second, then began climbing up over her.

As he reached the rim, the two Workers holding her backed away. He stood on her two legs, locking her in place.

“Push him!” she screamed at them.

They hesitated, not wanting to risk her by shoving him so close by. Ga∙zo, reacting to their delay, reached down and lifted her up, holding her in front of him.

“Back off, all of you!” he said, “or I toss her into the Rift.”

The crowd of Workers cleared a space around them. Ga∙zo crept sideways along the Rift, dragging Le∙ma with him. A forest of dense foliage began mere steps away. He was about to escape into it, possessing the artifact.
 

Le∙ma understood the implications. Although he would be the only Soldier on this side, he would hold the artifact. This would put their new freedom at risk. It would jeopardize all they had fought for. Would they be able to establish a new homogeneous Colony with his interference?

With her last bit of strength, she pushed the ground away, and both she and Ga∙zo tumbled backward into the Rift.