The Arena (Book 1)

Workrooms

The longer it takes me to reach Dawn, the less time David has. I want to save him but each passing minute it feels like I have less and less of a chance. And even if I had unlimited time, there's still a greater chance that it wouldn't work. A simulators consciousness has been transferred to a robot thousands of times, but that's never been tried on humans, not even tested.

Finally, I reach Dawn, she's outside of Davids room. Once I explain to her what I'm trying to do, without hesitation she comes with me to find the engineers.

"So you're Davids sister?" I ask as we start to run down the hallway, looking for the others.

"Yes, did he never say anything?" She asks.

"No, he never mentioned his family," I reply.

"Oh, I see." After a while, we finally find them, or most of them at least. Dawn just motions for them to follow her and they do. "I have high authority over most of the workers here." She smiles slightly as we make our way back to Joey.

"Must be nice not having to explain everything." I sigh as we finally make it back to the workrooms. To my surprise, Joey is already printing the metal plates and moving onto the designs. He must be done with blueprints I assume.

"Oh, good you're back. Okay, all engineers, finish with these designs. Dawn, I need DNA and blood." Joey instructs.

"I'll get an IV," Dawn says as she runs out of the room.

"What should I do?" I ask, eager to help.

"Right now, I need you to stay out of the way, no offense." He replies reluctantly.

"Oh...okay." I sigh as I turn to walk out of the door, but before I leave, I quickly turn around, "Joey, one more thing. Make sure you add a waterproof shield." I say, remembering what happened to Fire Fox.

"Right, I'll remember that." He says, getting back to the 3D printer. I step outside and close the door behind me.

Well...what do I do now?

Suddenly I remember the very reason why we have to do this. Liam Eston. I don't know why but I suddenly feel the need to find him. I don't even know where to start though, but I bet he was taken into custody. Lily, or Luke. What if I find one of them? No, not Lily, her robot was Witch Doctor, and she killed Tigris. So, Luke, I need to find Luke.

Dawn comes rushing back around the corner with the IV. I stop her in her tracks, "Do you know where I can find Luke Eston?"

"I think he's in one of the other workrooms actually, but I don't know which one. You'll have to look around, I guess. Excuse me I have to go." She pushes past me into our workroom and shuts the door behind her.

I don't have time to waste, so it'd be pointless opening each workroom door looking for Luke. There are literally hundreds of workrooms down here. I try to think back to the first time I was here, which room I saw Luke in. I keep trying to think while walking when suddenly I run into someone, causing them to drop their design sheets everywhere. I begin to help picking them up.

"I'm so sorry." I politely say.

"N-No, don't worry about it." He replies, when I look back up, I drop the sheets again.

"Luke?!" I almost shout.

"Y-Yes?" He replies, a bit scared.

"I need your help."