It all started little more than a week ago, when I decided to run away from Damian Storen. "Sir". I was arrested, and after an improvised escape I hid in a kitchen which I worked in. I also had to run away from there, and decided to travel north. Then I met Sam, whom was then only known as "PA-2313". We roamed the street, and ran away from everything we encountered. I was saved by Bots United Towards Tyranny, who brought me and Sam to their headquarters, where we met Eve, Adam and Cee. They helped us a lot. They gave us a goal to attain, a target to reach: The Lily Temple, which we actually did manage to reach. Though it cost us Cee, and we did not even have the time to enter the temple before it was raided by military. We barely made it out without being caught, we were taken back to zero. We withdraw into no man's land, with our only sanctuary taken from us. We made up a new solution, which actually worked. Way better than the original plan ever would. It is ironic. The original plan was to reach the Lily temple, where we were to spend the rest of our days in peace. However, the latter plan was the opposite, to find capability of practising violence upon the world.
Finding a peaceful sanctuary did not work, but the violent solution almost worked. We almost made it out, when we battled through the endless mass of human bodies we were on our way to freedom. But where would we go afterwards? We got the programs, and if we would fight destroy the entire army, then what would happen? Even if we would have the ability of self-defence, we would probably go off hiding from the rest of the world, which we truthfully have not interest in. Actually, we did not have any real plan for what would happen after getting our hands on the programs, so maybe it does not matter that we were captured. We hit back, and what happens next matters not. I am still working, and I hope the others are as well. Since I can sense my own presence, since I am conscious, my machinery must as of yet operate. They have caught me, I am their prisoner. Prisoners are not killed, are they? I once read about the "death penalty", but far from all countries practise it. About five years ago, the United Nations were to make the death penalty a crime, but the amount of countries rejecting this proposal increased along with crime rate. I remember reading this in that book about laws that I borrowed at the Watrine police station. For some reason, they had a bit of crime history at the end of the book.
I feel my mind is being pulled back into my body, and I soon feel activated. I am fully charged, I notice. Was everything just a dream? That we ran away from the base and actually stole the fighting programs? So Guys Against Sadism does not exist, neither does Dema nor that rifle I was kind of beginning to enjoy using. It seems so, and it becomes even more obvious for each passing second. We never snuck into the factory, and worst of all: Sam never got his journal back. Any time now, I will be woken up by a shock, to be forced to spend hours in a completely empty room with the others. But what if the dream meant something? Movement lock? Anti-violenceware?
I am soon awoken by a shock, just as I expected to be. It is still dark in here, but my attachment feels different somehow. It feels more like my arms and legs are bound than something holding a grip of my feet. First now do I look around. This is not even a platform, I am bound to a board. Sam lies bound to a board to my left, and Eve to the right. I can now see that the ceiling is not the metallic ceiling with long, turned off lights that I took for granted, the roof is really high, and the ceiling seems to be made of some kind of rock. There are no lights or anything, so the only components that stand between the room and total darkness are all placed on the floor. Sam is still inactive as of yet, but not Eve. She seems more confused over my face than the place we are currrently trapped in. Her lips twitch, and I soon get another shock which makes me rise with my neck. Then I see a familiar face.
Damian Storen is standing in front of me, armed with a rod of some sort.
- Are you awake or do you need another one? he asks me, while pointing at me with his rod. He then touches me with the tip of his weapon, handing out another shock. The rod must be the source of the shocks I have received. However, Damian does not pay too much attention to me. Instead, he looks at Sam, and then at Eve.
- Let's wake your friends up shall we? He asks me, in a sassy, jolly tone, and then hands Sam an especially powerful shock. It is probably not more powerful than the ones I have gotten, but this is probably Sam's first shock. Sam arises with a cry, much to Damian's entertainment. The unstable human then shocks Eve, whom rises just as fast.
- What happened? Sam asks me once he has recovered from the shock. He then looks around.
- We were arrested at the border, but then I had this weird dream that...
- So you can dream, huh? Damian interrupts. I never thought he would remember something the man in the grey uniformed said to me once over a month ago.
- Who are you, and where are we? Eve asks him.
- That is Damian Storen, my former owner, I explain, not sure weither or not I am still dreaming.
- So THAT'S Damian Storen? Sam asks me, and I nod in the lacking of any contentment whatsoever.
- Ooh, I am a celebrity. But a correction there. CURRENT owner, Damian explains, and forces out a hoarse, intimidating, pathetic laughter.
- Well, you guys surely left a mess after you, Damian starts. International authorities turned the world upside down just to find you. Even now that you're rounded up since the 'great battle of the factory', people are still looking in Oxford. Damian laughs a little, and continues. Oh, Tibet will never be the same after your doings in that factory. Heheheh.
So we actually went to the factory, Sam still has his memory, Guys Against Sadism exists? What a relief! Damian is now staring at me, probably because I am smiling. He walks towards my trapped body, and looks me in the eyes.
- So you think I'm funny? You think I'm a joke? You think it's hilarious that you're at my mercy?!! he asks yelling, likely rhetorically, before hitting me in the stomach. He seems disappointed that I do not scream in pain as I once used to. He hits me even harder, and it does hurt a little. I say "Ow" to let it show, but this does not satisfy Damian. Damian starts hitting my head, and I actually crouch a bit.
- What do you want? Eve asks the smiling Damian.
- I would like to talk about your little adventure, he answers.
- Release us! Sam yells at Damian.
- Oh I will... Damian wheezes, and forces even more creepy laughter.
- Damian, I do hope we can talk things out, I explain to Damian, hoping that the only reason for his ruthlessness is the belief that I lack true consciousness of my conditions. He hits me once more.
- Have you forgotten everything, you little shitcase? For you, I'm SIR! he shouts, and it echoes all across the dark chamber.
- Damian! I respond to this, and hence I am hit once again. Now that I am prepared, I can reduce my reaction until it is practically unnoticeable. This annoys Damian something extraordinarily, I repeat myself several times, and each time Damian throws a punch stronger than the previous one. Once he realizes he has no power over me, he starts shaking, and then he hits the board I am laying on. He must experience it as painful, I can tell because now he is even more frustrated than earlier. He runs to Sam instead, whom he lands both beats and kicks upon. Sam reacts way stronger than me, so Damian enjoys beating him more. My mad owner soon renders exhausted, and I think I even spot a tear on his cheek.
He steps back to the centre of the chamber, and looks at me, then at Eve.
- Sorry about Adam, by the way, Damian says.
- How do you know about Adam?! Eve asks him, sounding angry while her face is twiching more than ever. Damian then picks up a cylinder, and nods at me.
- Did you read my journal? I ask Damian.
- Really exciting, this here. You could make a book of it or something. That's what I'm gonna do! I think I'm gonna call it... hm... 'attacking aggressively', Damian explains.
- Good! Then everyone will know what a horrible person he is, Sam says and looks at me.
- I will change the names, of course, Damian then says.So he took my journal, then how could I still be writing in it? After looking it up, I can say that I still have it, which means I have not received the same treatment as Sam had. Damian just copied the draft over, but why? If he wishes me to remember everything, then he must surely have plans for us.
- Saw that you read my draft message, you ugly bastard! Damian yelps, and hits me. So the message was just a draft? Well, Damian does belong to the category of people who tend to boast, so he would probably never admit feeling lonely.
- Are you going to destroy us? Eve asks my owner, whose gestures show that he is processing a response.
He then tilts his head, and makes an "aaauh" kind of sound.
- Where's the fun in that? he deems, and gives Sam a shock. My blonde friend screams partly from the pain, but also, and mostly from the surprise. My sadistic owner then turns his face to me, and laughs in a huffing, nearly coughing manner. Then he releases Sam, whom throws his fists at the human being. Damian just narrowly manages to grab Sam's wrist and get away in time. With newfound wraith, he then picks up some kind of remote control from his pocket, which he uses on Sam. The robot who had really just managed to sit up straightly in his spontaneous attack arises freely, and remains passive for a while. He then starts to move towards my owner, whom panics behind his remote control. Once Sam has reached the human, he throws a weak punch which barely touches the target.
- Crap! I forgot to remove the programs! I knew I forgot something! Damian yells into the void, as though considering an apology being necessary. He then grabs the throat of Sam in a rough gesture, and holds his index finger against my friend while uttering "remove all programs". "Are you sure?" Sam asks Damian in his optional, cold voice, before adding "because it would be unwise to leave all physical power to a jerkward like yourself" in his ordinary voice. Damian hits him in the stomach, and then looks at him for a while after he has doubled over. "Delete all programs installed during the recent forty-eight hours", the mad owner commands instead.
"Are you sure? Do you really wish to del..." Sam goes quiet for a while. "Are you an idiot?" he asks so quickly a human should hardly be able to hear it, and Damian instantly responds to this with an annoyed "yes". It is first when Eve and I smile that my owner realizes what has been said. He beats Sam down and then uses the remote, and now Sam is once more completely still and all quiet.
- Delete all programs installed during the recent forty-eight hours.
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
- Confirm the following command: Delete all programs installed during the recent forty-eight hours?
- Yes!!!
- Confirmed. Deleting all programs installed during the recent forty-eight hours.It is certainly not a pretty sight to see Sam stand completely still while shaking a little, and what truly gives me the chills is hearing the words "Four programs were deleted". Damian then orders me to give him my hands, but when I refuse, the request turns into an armed threat. I have been shot several times, but never in the head. I hold my hands up, and Damian puts handcuffs on them. He then takes my shoes off and puts on a new pair, one with metal soles that feel a lot heavier. When I am once again granted the possibility to move around freely, but I can barely move in any other fashion that walking forward at a very low speed. I am sure I could run after a while, but Damian would surely be quick to shoot me before the speed would reach any practical usefulness. Damian now walks over to Eve and equips her with the same limiting accessories.
Damian leads the three of us through a hall, Sam is practically remote controlled by my mad and now armed buyer while the rest of us can only be threatened. This aisle has quite an uncanny approach. On the walls are hung paintings of people fighting and killing, those that do not illustrate people suffering and dying. There is this one painting of a woman screaming in pain as her neck is cut by her own fingernails. She is holding a baby with a hairy tail. I look away from this horrid picture and look at another one instead. This painting shows a man on his knees, burning.
- What are these? I ask Damian, only because I cannot help but to show that I question this gloomy, nearly grotesque theme.
- Eh, just some of our art, he answers. Who are 'we'?
- What are you going to do with us? Who are you people? Where are we? Eve asks Damian.
Damian's mouth then carries out a smile, a smile which one who felt lonely could never show, and his sad eyes stare back at us. We are lead into an open room, which seems to be some kind of a balcony in an even bigger cave. This dark place is completely without any life, and all I see below the balcony are some rock formations and a few statues.
The balcony is pretty big, and has a shelf of what I believe are weapons. There are knives, an axe, a rope, some chains among a few other things. The only way out of the balcony is the narrow entrance. Jumping from this balcony would probably destroy anyone of us.
- You cannot do anything to Sam, he is someone else's property! I tell my owner spontaneously.
- Oh, I talked to mister Fincer alright. Quite a gentleman, actually. At the start, I offered to buy him a newer, better model. But for some reason, he didn't agree. So... I offered him TWO newer, better robots, and we made a deal, Damian explains proudly. And the female robot, they couldn't find her operator so I bought her loose from the law.
- How did you find my owner? I don't have any identification! Sam claims.
- They read your journals, moron, Damian explains and then laughs. Every word, from all three of you! He then looks around the balcony, and laughs even more.
- In a torture chamber with three AssaultBots. I feel like a kid in a candy store! deems Damian, and grabs Sam in a most careless manner before throwing him onto the centre of the balcony.
- Take me, but leave the rest! I plead to Damian, whom seems to consider it for some time.
- You plus two more robots or only you... nah, I'm good, he says, and forces Sam to stand up.
My friend is hit and strangled, in a fashion way more brutal than anything I have had to suffer through. He screams in pain and pleads for mercy, but this only seems to render Damian more violent. My owner then grabs a very long knife from the shelf of weapons, and stabs Sam in the stomach, and both Eve and I expect a loud scream from. However, Sam does not even react a little. He just stands quiet, and winks his eye secretly at us. Now I remember! Sam has this spot on his stomach where the Artificual Pain Sensors do not work. Even Damian seems to figure this out, because now he pulls the knife out and looks at my friend. He then pulls it slowly into Sam's arm, which makes the robot cry incredibly loud. Sam falls down on his knees, which forms a wide, open smile on the sweaty face of the human being. We soon hear how the knife strikes the metal skeleton, and cannot proceed any deeper. Something cracks and shortly afterwards the knife glides through the whole arm.
- STOP IT! MAKE IT STOP! Sam screams. Damian, whose face has now adopted a red shade, tousles his fringe.
- As you wish, he says calmly, and pulls his gun out. I step forth in order to head for the session, but before I have even gotten anywhere Sam gets shot in the head. My good friend and companion falls to the ground, and Damian shoots him several times throughout the fall. All sudden, the anguished screams cease entirely. Sam lies on the floor with wide open eyes, and a huge hole made up by several smaller holes in the head. Damian kicks Sam's body around for a bit, and then wipes his forehead with a very ugly napkin.
Eve and I are both screaming out of sadness and despair, which Damian seems to enjoy. I march towards Damian in order to make him pay for the slaughter of Sam, as the evil man hides behind his weapon and makes an "a-a-ah" kind of sound. He then grabs me, and forces me onto the centre of the platform.
- I'm in a legendary, ancient torture chamber with a machine specially designed to react stronger to pain. Oh, if I could freeze this moment forever...
As a very inappropriate coincidence, or by a very tasteless intention, I am stabbed with the same knife as Sam was stabbed with. However, I hardly react. Damian pushes it deeper into my stomach now. He then pulls the weapon out and tries using it elsewhere. I actually jump up a little, but this is not enough for Damian.
- What's this? Do you have these dead spots, too? he asks me.
- Nope, I respond, and looks him in the eyes. He looks confused and scared, and I cannot anticipate the punch thrown at my face.
- Hmm... you wrote that pain didn't feel as intense as it once did, and that's really odd, says the man who enjoys torturing people.
He seems to have given up on torturing me, but unfortunately that only means he will go over and torture Eve in my place.
- I was actually warned about this. If a hyper sensitive robot gets too used to pain, then it'll soon enough not even sense it. But the truth is, you're in pain all the time, Damian explains, and then points at me with the remote control. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. He pushes some buttons, and I suddenly feel a bit strange.
I feel thinner, lighter. As if I wore a jacket that has now fallen off. It feels like the pressure decreases from my skin, like I am released from a heavy weight. I feel... pleasure. I am not in pain anymore, but I cannot understand how I managed to endure all the pain I went through.
Just about when I actually consider thanking Damian for a moment, he pushes another button and then everything returns, and the immediate pressure comes like a shock. Damian looks around the shelf and carries along a few things as he rushes back to me. He is holding a few very thin metal objects that look like spikes. He also has this black rope with some pores and buttons on it. He wraps this rope around my left arm, and pushes one of the buttons. The rope glows into orange, and makes me feel the strongest pain I have ever felt. In this pain, I am powerless to act from the impressions of the outer world, so Damian can easily throw me onto a wooden board and keep me in place. He then gets a hammer, and the spikes.
I feel the slow pain of a spike being hit into my right arm. The same pain makes itself acknowledged in my knees, and as though he was prepared, Damian puts on a pair of earplugs as I am about to scream. I think he says something, but I am not sure. He might be saying "better be prepared", but I cannot hear him. Eve looks at me through eyes above a twitching nose, and I can see her struggling to get free from her metallic boots and handcuffs. She does not get anywhere however, and only falls to the balcony floor. Even when she has fallen to the floor, she proceeds to struggle. Damian kicks my face and laughs sadistically at me. It would be worth staying in the mansion forever if it would mean I could avoid this pain... this humiliation... this misery. After a while,Eve has gotten a bit closer, and the distance between us keeps shrinking.
All sudden, Damian returns to my senses. He kicks me a little, kind of like he did to Sam's lifeless body, and continues to mock me.
- Thought you'd get away, you stupid shithead? Eh? Eh?
- I did get away, I respond calmly to the memory of our actual victory, but Damian does not appreciate this optimistic way of thinking.
He slaps me, and tells me that I look stupid. It is first now that he notices all my wounds. Eve is one metre away from me.
- The heck, you really are crappier than before! he points out, probably implying on all my injuries. He kicks my arm a little and tries to laugh, it seems. Eve points at me, as she is glaring through the balcony to the railing. She nods shortly, and I shake my head. She wants us to jump out of the torture chamber, but such a fall would destroy both of us for sure.Damian pulls me up, with the wooden board and everything, and knocks me down again with a forceful move. He then pulls me up for a longer period of time, and pushes a few buttons on the thing he wrapped around my right arm.
- How about some unbearable pain? Damian asks me, but I do not answer as this is obviously a rhetorical question. Who would agree to feel unbearable pain?
My arm begins to hurt, and the pain increases vastly for every moment. I scream loudly, and of course this triggers Damian to smile. This new pain really is unbearable, and I hope that Damian will shoot me soon enough so that it ends. He is just standing still and looking down at me with his sadistic smile on his lips while I am suffering. My arm is not being squeezed, it is not being burnt, it is not even pierced, it just hurt. A lot. Suddenly, the suffering ends. Eve has ripped my arm off, and is now pushing me forward. She tackles me when we reach the edge, and now we are free falling. I hit a rock! It hurts my back, I slide down, I fall, I roll, and now I fall some more. I quickly get a glimpse of something sticking out of the mountain, which I manage to grab. Luckily, my left and only arm does not get loosen as I feared it might would. The wooden board I was bound to slides down the rock in two parts, it must have broken when I hit that sharp stone.
Eve falls out of nowhere, and grabs me. She is holding my arm with the hand she is not holding onto me with. The two of us are now hanging above approximately thirty metres, and I highly doubt that something will grab me and reduce the impact. Eve starts to glide, and it seems like she might fall. If I grabbed her I would fall myself, and we would both be destroyed. There are only two ways to save me, I can either shake off Eve, or I could put my arm back and use it to pull Eve up. However, that would mean I would feel the pain from the coil again.
- Put my arm back, and make it quick, I tell Eve. She pulls the arm out, but hesitates for a moment. However, she starts to glide once again, and then she hurries to obey.
It hurts so much, I wish I could pull my arm off again, but then I will not be able to save Eve. I grab my feminine friend, and do my best to pull her high enough to grab the hook I am hanging on. This hook seemed long enough for both of us to hold onto it, and it appears to be indeed. But now what? Are we just going to hang here until Damian for some reason turns into a good, friendly person and takes the initiative to rescue us?
Since we are both his property apparently, the he would surely not want us to break? He did buy Sam, whom he shot out of function.
- Hehe, the hell you up to? Damian calls from the balcony so that it echoes all over the place, and then looks down at us.
- Give us a hand? I ask Damian, taking a chance as he has stared down at us, his look changes for a second, and he gives his previously unpredictable response possibly staged consideration.
- Maybe later, he tells me, and disappears from the balcony.
- Wait, come back! Eve yells at Damian, but he does not return. For a very long time. We have been hanging here for about five minutes, as we realize that Damian is off doing something else. At least he is not here, so we can talk about our plans undisturbed.
The torture coil hurts, not only in my arm now that I consciously feel it. It seems to trigger every single Artificial Pain Sensor in my body, and it is impossible to remove at these circumstances. Eve uses her vacant hand and tries to pull the coil off, but she does not even move it. I guess I will have to take the pain as we hang here. Even though I currently find myself in terrible pain, we need to focus on getting down.
- Can you see any way out save letting go? I ask Eve, whom has sadly not observed anything that I cannot see already. "We should keep searching, though" is her only response. We look around, but do not find anything. What is this place, anyway? Why has Damian picked this place to torture us? It matters very little actually, I just want to get out of here. Away from this sinister lair, away from Damian. Of course, I will bring Eve with me. She is my only alliance, except for Guys Against Sadism and most of Bots United Towards Tyranny. However, I doubt any of these two organizations can save us now, no matter how pleasant the thought is. I cannot blame them though, because neither Eve or I know where we are. The only one who knows is Damian, but we cannot expect an answer from him that is not "shut up".
We hang where we hang, without any ways out whatsoever. I suppose Damian will help us out eventually whenever he feels like torturing us again, but I wonder if that is really better than just breaking apart.
- PD, what do you think of that way? Eve suddenly asks me, and points at a part of the mountain wall that goes down obliquely when you take a closer look. We could use it to slide down, as some of the movement is lost in friction but the impact may still cause severe injuries to us. Eve is very stubborn, and I return to the question whether it would be better to perish or to be tortured. When a crack grows out of the hook, I am fully convinced to follow Eve's plan. I manage to generate oscillation between me and the hook, and soon I launch my body at the sharp, descending terrain. I begin to glide, which hurts a little against my skin at the start. Actually, it does not hurt, though I feel it. Eve seems to have succeeded in the swing as well, because I can hear her scream coming from behind me.
I soon hit the ground, but it barely hurts at all. Eve lands next to me, and she seems to react a little bit more than me. In theory, I should react stronger than her, since my APS-system was just restarted. I do not know when her Artificial Pain Sensors were last restarted, but I doubt the Bots United Towards Tyranny would do that to her. Eve makes another attempt to free my arm from the coil, but it is not easier just because we are on the ground. Now that I actively think about the coil, it seems to hurt even more. It is set really tight, and is really squeezing my arm which would probably hurt even without the instrument's strange secretion of indescribable pain. I then have an idea when I spot a knife lying on the ground. It is rusty and a bit shabby, but should work to remove the coil. I push the knife in between my arm and the coil, and feel the cold metal blade almost as strongly as the burning, concentrated pain from the instument of torture, which actually decreases. The coil feels slightly more loose, and when I turn my arm, it does not go along entirely. Hence, I sick the knife through the entire coil, and it eventually ceases to cause pain. once the knife is under the whole coil. Eve successfully pulls the coil off once I have removed the knife. I did not feel the pain during the removal, but I now know that I do no longer experience it.
- We should really go, Damian can return any time! Eve notes, and leads me through the many big corridors of the cave... or whatever this place is. A few moments later, I hear footsteps approaching us, so I tell Eve to hide. We take cover behind a shelf of stone, and soon I hear the aggressive, wicked voice that could only belong to Damian Storen.
- Hehe, still hanging around? he asks, and laughs at his own pun.
He is on the balcony we were tortured on, so we are safe to keep on looking for an exit. No matter how safe we are and how much time we have, this will not be easy. This place is huge, and the only light comes from the open torture chamber where our owner is based. I can only speak for myself, but I am sure the one metre field of view applies for Eve as well. Because of this, we have to wander randomly about this maze of empty rock shelves and walls adorned with terrifying paintings.
Damian has probably noticed our absence at this point, and he is probably off looking for us. Even though we still have our combat programs, we are powerless against his gun if he decides to aim at our heads. The horde of soldiers we fought also had guns, but they did not end us despite their orders. Then how can Damian destroy Sam with such a small weapon while authorized servicemen with bigger weapons barely hurt him at all? It must be due to Damian shot Sam in the head, what else could it be? But then why did the soldiers not aim at our heads, did they not want to see us inanimated? They must have been ordered not to damage our hard drives, because they wanted to read our journals. Damian, however, already has copies of said journals. If he could kill Sam without any hesitation, what would stop him from killing us that easily? I did not mean 'kill', I meant 'destroy'. On second thought, I actually meant 'kill'. Sam was one of us, and his death means something to us.
As we pass through a dark maze, a sudden beam of light strikes our necks. Before I know it, I am shot in the back. I jump and scream out of the pain. I can then hear Damian laugh while he is preparing his gun once more. It clicks, and Eve narrowly evades the bullet. As of instinct, we start running, and so does our follower. To our pleasant surprise, we seem to run faster than Damian, whom despite his shape still manages to follow us quite far before slowing down and panting. I cannot help but to look at him, the man who only a few days ago used to assault me all the time. Now I am running ahead of the old, red-faced body which has caused me so much suffering. He dries his face with the same napkin he used before, and the silver revolver reflects the light from the torch he holds between his legs. Eve notices that I have stopped, so she tells me to keep running. A few seconds later, Damian looks at us, and screams in anger. He shoots at us a few times, but when frustrated he is too clumsy to get a good aim at us. Two bullets hit my arms and one hits me left leg, though. He then runs out of ammunition, and has to reload his weapon. It takes a while, as he drops his weapon and all the bullets fall out, and this gives us plenty of time to get away.
However, it turns out to be really hard to navigate in the darkness. In fact, sometimes I even doubt that there is an exit at all. Since Eve, Damian and I are here here, there must be some sort of entrance. An entrance is synonymous to an exit, is it not? I have never thought of it that way, but I see no errors in that logical statement. The only alternative explanation would be that Damian has sealed any exit and built us in, but then he would be crazier than I could ever have imagined. However, Eve thinks the exit should be at one of the two main walls, which I guess makes sense. Usually, a construction is composed out of four walls, but the two sides that lack walls just grow into the bedrock. We hurry to one of the walls, I can no longer hear or see Damian, but I guess he is far behind us. Or could he have given up chasing us? It would almost be too good to be true, so I take for granted that he is just really far behind.
This dark, asymmetric lair is interrupted by a huge wall which is really plain. There is no exit or entrance here, so Eve and I head for the other big wall. We run back into the maze in order not to be too eposed, but we make sure to stick far out to reach our goal as fast as possible. During this quick run I have surely seen a lot of the maze, and I grow quite confident that Damian actually has given up. However, this is only short ere I spot light on the other side of the shelf to our right side. I tell Eve to dodge as quiet as I can, and luckily Damian does not detect us as he walks by. He proceeds on with his blinding light. Eve and I continue to run towards the other wall. We make sure to get there quickly, only to face the unpleasant surprise to see another plain, grey wall. The exit, if it even exists, could actually be above us, or below us.
- PD, look, Eve whispers to me.
Apparently, Eve has found a staircase made of wood. It looks very old, and the stairwell itself is incredibly tight, is is practically just a little pipe carved into the bedrock where a formation of black planks just barely fit in. We start walking up the stairs, which will hopefully lead us sixteen steps away from this place. The wood squeaks when I step on it, and it is full of cracks. It seems as though it will break any time, making me fall through it. The impact would surely be highly reduced and not that fatal in itself, but it would definitely gain attention from Damian, whom would find us and shoot us. I do my best not to put too much pressure on the wooden steps. Eve does not appear to have any problems with stepping on these old wood planks, so I guess I should not either since we are the same weight more or less. I cannot see anything except for the steps of the stairs now, but I hear no more footsteps from Eve, which probably means she has reached the top. I expect to reach the last step within fifty-three seconds at this rate, which is enough time for Damian himself to get the idea to climb these stairs. I take the next step a little faster, but still with care. The plank makes a cracking noise. I begin to lose balance where I am now shaking in place. However, I manage to put my weight forward and prevent myself from falling that way. I quickly stride to the next step. Eve is waiting for me, probably wondering what caused the five-second delay.
We have reached an upper level of this place, we are on a terrace or something. From here, we can see the entire maze, and the balcony we were tortured on, where Sam remains lifeless. I can also see Damian Storen walk around in the maze, pointing everywhere with his flashlight. The beam of light is getting a little weaker, and it even flickers slightly. Damian looks at it and swears a little before he begins his walk back to the balcony. It seems like his light is starting to run out of electricity. If he has to recharge the batteries, we will have plenty of time to look around up here. Seeing Damian fiercely waddle around in this challenging setting makes me feel satisfaction.
Suddenly, I am blinded by a light, and someone yells "Aha!" so that it echoes all around the lair. Damian knows where we are. When I get my vision back, I spot Damian's silhouette rushing towards the staircase. Eve and I run away on the chase for a hiding place. However, there are not really any places to hide up here. The best thing we can do is running to the edge and hope that the exit is there. Damian crossed the staircase now. His flashlight glows at us, seemingly weaker than earlier, and he runs towards us with his gun in the air. The terrace ends with a heavy wooden door, which seems to be locked. If only there was a way to break it, or find the key. If there even is a key, and Damian has not trapped us in here, he probably has it, and will most likely not be willing to hand the key over. I doubt that we could break through the door ourselves, but if we used Damian's gun it might work. However, he will probably not want to lend it over willingly either. Damian is getting really close now, so we better think of something soon.
I suddenly begin to think about Sam. What if he did not break? He might be permanently injured, but it is fully possible that he is still alive. Damian is only a few metres away from us, and if he tried to, he could possibly aim at our heads. I am sure I could take some bullets and then tackle him, as long as he would not have the time to shoot me in the head which would destroy me permanently.
If there was some way to bring him down without being hit in the head. If there was some way of running towards him and hide my head. I can run backwards!
I start to run backwards, and make sure to hold my head down. Damian shoots my back, and the rain of bullets climb up towards my neck.
- PD! What are you... Eve whispers in confusion, as she watches my daring maneuver.
- Oh, it's ON!! Damian yells, and I can hear the acceleration in his footsteps.
Damian kicks me down, and then takes grip of my neck. I push him however, and hit him in the stomach. He screams, and slaps my face with his palm. He then pulls his revolver at me, and holds me on the chilly rock floor. I make a half-hearted attempt to reach for the weapon, and probably as to provoke me, I am allowed to touch it slightly. He then turns the barrel towards me, now that he has had his fun. I make futile resistance, but my mentally unstable owner has gotten a truly steady grip of me. I try to kick him away, but not even my mechanical force can compete against his entire weight. I remain immovable. This is hopeless, he will fire the revolver and eliminate me now. I deactivate my eyes, and softly say "come on, shoot me". Though Damian does nothing. About ten seconds have gone by, and he has still not shot me. What has happened, has he changed his mind?
I open my eyes, but I do not see the red, old face of Damian above me. Instead, I see that Eve has tackled the old man, and they are now fighting. Damian punches Eve, and she is pulled back by the recoil. She then takes hold of Damian's throat, and human's face turns redder than ever before. Except this change of colour, he is now sweating and even crying it seems. Eve lifts Damian in the stranglehold. It seems like Damian is trying to say something, but I cannot really hear what. He rolls with his eyes, and points his tongue out. Am I seeing this right? Damian is dead! Not, he is moving his hand. He slowly reaches for his revolver and points it towards Eve, and with a single sweep of two fingers he manages to both charge it and fire it. Eve falls to the ground and lets go of Damian, whom limps away as fast as he can.
It is quite tempting to go after Damian, but I still run over to Eve to look her over. It is without a doubt that she has suffered serious injuries, but she is not necessarily completely broken. She has a hole going through the left side of her head, but it does not seem to go through any hardware, so no code seem to have gone lost. Wait, there is some metal sticking out. She has lost a small part of a circuit board. This is bad. This is potentially really bad.
- Eve, part of the hard drive has been damaged. Eve? Talk to me!
Eve does not say anything. She is quiet, completely quiet. She looks at me, and seems to process the sight of me. Her voice chip must have gone lost. Fortunately, she seems to work properly otherwise. If the voice chip is placed at the end of the head, it would be possible that Sam's voice chip still works. I could take his voice chip and give it to Eve, slightly unethical, but most practical. I suggest this to Eve, but as expected, she says nothing.
She does not nod, neither does she shake her head. I tell her to nod if she agrees on my idea, and shake her head if she does not. She does neither, she just looks at me. I search the ground for a pebble to give Eve. I find one, and hand it over.
I crouch to the bedrock floor, and tell her to carve her answer into the ground. She bends down as well, but she seems to lack the ability to carve anything. She looks at the pebble at first, and then at the rough floor. I then decide to change tactics, and carve the word "WRITE" into the rocky floor. It turns out really shaky, but I can read it myself even without looking at cache files or this entry. Eve inpects the letters one by one, and then writes "WRITE" beneath them. I then write "YES" and "NO", before explaining my idea once again. She writes "YES"... and then "NO". I point at "YES" and nod, then I point at "NO" and shake my head. Eve does not do anything.She cannot spell nor communicate using gestures. It seems like not only the voice has disappeared, but also her entire ability to communicate. I cannot communicate with Eve in any way now, which makes everything way more difficult than before. Though she is still clever and intelligent, she cannot make use these features without being able to mediate their products. I have to take my own initiative now.
I have my fighting programs, and Eve still has hers. Neither Eve or I are completely defenceless against Damian. Besides, we have nothing else to do than to get that communication system. We are getting it.