Barrenlands: An Odyssey (Old Work)

Chapter Twenty-Four.

1

IT happened over the span of a minute – the room had been quiet and devoid of life but for a few technicians, only for flashing lights and a wailing siren to sound through the chamber. The Engineer watched on from her hiding place, monitoring in her mind the new sentries that had begun to stream through the doors. There were many of them; maybe a few too many to be a random guess of where the Engineer and her accomplice could be throughout the complex. Needing a quick place to hide, the Engineer and Little Girl had stashed themselves amongst the pile of disabled cyborgs – amongst the graveyard in which the bodies of circuits and chips were held until they could be put to a new use. The man must have tripped the alarm once he had discovered they had escaped, but the rapid response? He either had this planned to run like clockwork, or this must have happened before. And a sinking feeling in the Engineers stomach told her it was the latter.

Careful to not make a sudden move which could cause the pile to topple and give their position away, the Engineer continued to peer out from her gap between the cyborg limbs. It was stifling and uncomfortable to know that she could have had ended up in the same place and in the same condition had she failed. But that didn't happen, and here she was alive and in the now. The room they have had stumbled on must have been the maintenance chamber where the mechanical technicians were put to good use. Several Rovers were parked across giant, deep pits, and a number more were parked along the walls with their hoods propped open by long metal prods. She could just make them out, but their bays were filled with an engine that glowed a faint green – modified to the conditions. Drawing her attention back to the guards, she watched as a trio of sentries came within close proximity to the trash heap, their shoes coming within touching range. The Engineer heard a crackle, and a voice over a speaker.

"Keep on your positions, I'm coming."

The Engineer tasted the feeling of hate – a bitter, disgusting flavour – but she swallowed it hard. It was the man. The man was on his way.

"Roger that, Commander. Yet to see anything move and yet to see another ping." Expecting to hear a human voice, it was rather electric and somewhat monotone. And a ping? What was a ping? The Engineer moved her head closer to Little Girl so her lips were now next to her ears. She hoped – with her fingers crossed and the stares of fate aligned – that Little Girl had finished rebooting from shutdown. But hope was a faltering thing, and the Engineer knew not to be met with an answer. Though, she still tried.

"Do you remember what a ping is?"

The Little Girl shifted slightly, her voice slow with a hint of a sleep-ridden brain. "Ping? Isn't that how they monitor their employees? By radar or registration of details? They have a map and see their employees location through sensors."

Of course. The Engineer became silent, continuing her monitoring of the room. There was a hiss, and the captor came into view, a large rifle hoisted over his shoulder. She could see him constantly mutter into a small microphone that was in front of his mouth, his eyes darting in all directions.

"You there!" he called, turning towards the sentries closest to their position. The Engineer and Little Girl saw their boots pivot on the concrete floor, their toes now pointed at the man. "Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Everything's dead, good Commander." The same electronic tone.

"The system said that they are around here somewhere. Scour the perimeter until you can bring me something tangi-" The man's face flashed wildly, his lips breaking into a smile as if something had just dawned on him; dawned on him in a massive way. A gamechanger. Coming to the realisation that their time may be limited in a significant way, the Engineer leaned towards Little Girl once more, her mouth moving quickly. Whether it would work, she didn't know. But it was worth a try and there was a small chance of surviving if they were to do nothing at all.

"Dead," the Commander whispered to himself, feeling an electric vibe flow through his body. The sentry may have been on to something...

"Sentry. Shoot a couple of pulses into that pile behind you, would you?"

And then the trio did as they were instructed. Raising their own, smaller guns towards the trash pile, they didn't fire once but three times; the nozzles on their weapons glowing bright with each trigger pull.