“Not to bite the hand that feeds or anything, but sometimes I just can’t help myself,” he says pompously as he laughs at his own joke like a madman.
My restraints begin to give a little as I labor vigorously for my freedom. I’m going to kill this man.
“Don’t get too comfortable over there you two. We’re saving you’s for dinner,” screams the demon that knocked me out from across the room.
I notice Cyrus tied and crying on the post behind me.
The plastic gives.
One hand breaks free.
The other slides out behind it.
I’m free. Now what?
Motionless, I stay in place waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. As far as Jason and his men are concerned, I’m still their prisoner.
I don’t think I can take all of them at once, especially unarmed and injured. My only shot at this is to run.
No one is guarding the exit. Why would they? I’m supposed to be tied up.
I try to position myself without them noticing, giving the illusion I’m still restrained. As soon as they weren’t looking, I sprint to the doorway.
One of them shouts something.
Footsteps immediately behind me.
I race down the stairs and through the maze of Argo praying desperately for a sign of escape. Metal beams and steel walls collide with my attempt at freedom.
There!
I see the light from the Outlands shine through an opening in the bow.
A hand grabs me through the skeleton of a wall.
No!
It pulls my shirt. Completely stopping me.
More footsteps getting closer.
I jerk as hard as I can, ripping my shirt and breaking free from death’s embrace. With every ounce of energy left in me, I run through the opening without looking back.
He jumps and grabs my foot, tripping me. I snatch my hidden sword from the sand and shove it straight through the eye of the first cannibal.
As the second one exits, my sword separates his head from his body, splashing red across the side of Argo.
The third meets me on the way back to Cyrus on the stairs. He swings a machete and misses. I aim for his head and find his wrist instead, removing it from his arm. He sobs as the edge of my blade slides across his scrawny neck.
The terror in their cold eyes when I stepped back into the room empowered me. Jason and Bones rush for their weapons.
I kill Bones first. His back to me, he slides off the tip of my blade, dead before his body hits the ground.
Jason swings a hatchet for my head and misses. The crazy old man dodges my attack and takes off running, jumping through a porthole. He lands, rolls, and sprints quickly up a dune, struggling to maintain balance.
My sword ready, I hit the sand right behind him.
He slips, falling up a dune.
I walk towards this monster, towering over him as he continues to crawl. He’s helpless. Desperate.
My weapon slaps his away disarming him with sparks.
He stops struggling, doesn’t even make a sound. With his cold, dark eyes he just stares at me, understanding his fate.
The tip of my blade pushes through his skull. Bright red blood drips from the tip of my steel onto the warm sand.
Heading back out of this hellhole after cutting Cyrus free I walk past the half-working computer again, but something stops me this time, drawing me to it. Moving the thick silver wire, I click the screen illuminated with big red words THE DELTA PROJECT: Life From A Different Perspective.
Scrolling through the long lists of names, I spot her.
Kallista 34.
My heart burst into a million pieces.
Kalli’s still in there. Jacee lied to me.
Chapter 10
A fresh sun peaks between the crystalline buildings that stretch far into the morning sky. It finds my eyes through the half-cocked blinds. From the 113th floor, I can perfectly see the world around me for miles. It’s absolutely beautiful. The black sand-covered hills encompassing the city glow brighter than even the passing billboards plastered with Archer Lethe’s anniversary clip looping at every rotation of our building on every screen in sight. They’re still trying to push the illusion of order, like everything is fine.
My alarm flashes on the surface of the window, obscuring my near-perfect view. A buzzing tone softly compliments the message I set. The alarm isn’t convincing enough though. Mid-stretch with arms and legs fully extended in the empty bed I try to ignore it, hoping for the slim chance to fall back asleep, but it’s no use. The persistent little pixels manifest on any digital surface my focus directs its attentio-
Something catches my ear.
The faint sounds of running water clashes with my sudden paranoia. It’s coming from the rear of my flat.
I reach for a tablet that’s been collecting dust on my nightstand for weeks. My legs refuse, but I force them down the loft stairs and towards the washroom across the hall. Inching step by step, the sound grows louder.
Hidden within the uproar of what I’m now certain to be my shower, my ears pull from the air a gentle melody belonging to the voice of a woman.
My grip tightens as I approach the washroom door. I can feel the perspiration collecting over my brow. My heart beats my chest faster. My lungs sprint towards hyperventilation.
The intruder’s humming continues to combat the sound of the pouring shower, completely oblivious to my existence just meters away.
My hand slowly finds the door’s metallic handle. It turns carefully without making the slightest of sounds. A cloud of warm mist rushes past me desperately trying to escape as I step closer towards the shower.
Through the fog, the silhouette of a woman still humming her song stands under the water. Who is this woman? Why is she in my home?
I lift my hand towards the shower wall, pausing just before the tips of my fingers make contact.
The obliqueness of the glass wall abruptly fades as the pixelated hex pattern disappears in a chain reaction, pixel by pixel
