(Baird's POV)
"Should've killed Urban when I had a chance." Aaron growled, "If only I had, we wouldn't be here!"
Keira nodded her head vigorously. "What's wrong with us, that we thought he was safe to bring along?"
"Blame me for that, Aaron." said Khemera. "It was my zealousness and gullibility that brought him into our fold to start with."
Aaron gave Khemera a hard look. "That's true. Makes me wonder about you too."
I frowned and came to Khemera's defense. "Why in the world would you have suspicions about Khemera? He's given us literally no reason not to trust him!"
"Yeah, and that's suspicious." Aaron replied, narrowing his eyes. "His altruism seems a bit too extensive to be realistic."
Khemera's brow wrinkled. "So my care for the welfare of others is now suspicious to you? Why am I not surprised?"
"You're not surprised, because you know for a fact that my concern's not unwarranted!" Aaron barked.
"I find it strange you've only just now come to this realization. It seems quite whimsical."
"Guys, why're we discussin' this, anyhow?" Hannah asked innocently. "We know for a fact, Jedrek betrayed us. I don't reckon dat means we have to start passin' 'round blame now!"
"Exactly!" I agreed. "Jedrek seemed sketchy, but potentially useful. Obviously, if we'd seen this coming, we wouldn't have had him tag along at all."
Sila turned to me. "Imbecile."
My face heated up. "What? Who're you calling an imbecile?"
"Everybody."
Now Aaron glared at his robot. "Woah, and how is it your place to call us stupid, exactly?"
"Childish."
"We're not childish!" Aaron exclaimed.
"Maybe we are, though." I said, "Think of it! Here we are, bickering about whose fault it is ultimately, that we're in this mess, when it's clearly Jedrek! When we could be constructively attempting to create a solution!"
"What solution is there?" Keira asked, meeting my gaze. "We're trapped here, and soon, we'll be trapped there."
"Yes, but think of it. There's gonna be a transition. They're holding us in here until we get to the Iron Hallway, but what if we find a way to escape during transfer?"
The mood in the room dramatically lifted. All faces seemed injected with a healthy dose of optimism, even Hannah's.
"That sounds great," Aaron began, "but how exactly does that work?"
I eyed the black robot sitting next to Aaron. "Perhaps Sila's the key." I said thoughtfully. "How strong is it?"
Aaron squinted in confusion. "Pretty strong...? I haven't tried to quantify it before."
"Well, let's compare Sila to you. Who would win an arm wrestle?"
"I don't know. It doesn't know how."
"Well, let's show it how!" I exclaimed.
Aaron nodded and seated himself on the floor. He rested his arm on the single prison cot and eyed Khemera. "Shall we?"
Khemera shrugged. "I suppose so."
After Khemera moved into position, the two men clasped hands, and after Hannah counted off, they began their struggle. Both men strained and gritted their teeth. For a solid ten seconds, neither of them could so much as budge the other. Despite Aaron's bulging biceps, it appeared Khemera's strength was equal, though not as visually apparent.
With a grunt, Aaron began to push Khemera's arm down. 45 more degrees, and he would achieve victory. Khemera closed his eye. He pushed back with a slow, but steady pressure. Little by little, Aaron's arm moved down, until only a 15 degree angle stood between him and the cot. He huffed and struggled to regain his advantage, but finally, his muscles gave way, and his arm lay pinned flat.
Khemera nodded calmly, but refrained from any boasting of his victory. Aaron, on the other hand, eyed the old man, obviously quite perturbed.
"The table's uneven, I think." Aaron commented.
"Sure it is." I replied, but only to humor him. "Now, Sila, you caught that, right?"
"Yes."
"Well then, switch arms and let Sila have a go."
Aaron grumbled something inaudible and moved to the other side of the cot. Hannah counted off again, and the second match began. The brawny inventor gritted his teeth even harder and pushed with all his might to overcome his own creation, even ignoring the fact that his strain was causing blood to trickle faster out of his bullet wound. The robot's lanky arm lowered little by little, and any comeback looked highly unlikely.
Without warning, Sila jerked its metallic hand, and Aaron's wrist popped loudly. He yanked his arm away and roared in agony, grunting as he pushed it back into alignment. "Who taught you to do that?"
"You."
Aaron growled. "I should've never shown you that!"
I smirked. "Not to be insensitive, but perhaps that's just what we need. I've got an idea."
"What's that?" Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, you'll see in due time."
*******************
Several minutes later, the low, droning hum of the juggernaut submarine's engines subsided. Not long later, footsteps echoed down the hallway, and our cell door slid open. A team of eight armed soldiers entered with grim faces.
I rose to my feet first with a pasted-on grin. "Hello, gentlemen," I began pleasantly, "before you take us away, I have a special...challenge...for you."
The soldier nearest me shook his head. "We don't do challenges. We do our jobs."
"No?" I asked, "Well, that's a shame, because that means our speculations will never be resolved. You see, I was under the impression that Alcontean soldiers are the strongest, most disciplined, and best trained army this world has ever seen."
"That we are." a second soldier answered, "But I fail to see where you're going with this."
"Well, you see, Aaron here has made a remarkable robot here, Sila. Say hi, Sila!"
"Hello."
A few of the soldiers halfheartedly waved, the others too confused to oblige.
"Now, Sila here is very strong, remarkably so. No man has beaten him yet. But to be fair, no Alcontean soldiers have tried so far. So...no pressure, but perhaps you could demonstrate your superiority for us, before you take us away?"
Every one of the men eyed me suspiciously. This is gonna fail. I thought, Abigail's the actress, not me.
"We were given orders to escort you out of this vessel to meet the extraction team down in Unterstat. We're not here to fulfill your foolish curiosities."
"Aww, that's a shame!" Keira exclaimed dramatically, "I've always wanted to understand the appeal of Alcontean men, but I guess I'll have to pass up on that."
The men eyed Keira all at once. Upon studying her, a few of them softened their countenances, and their resolve appeared to drop somewhat.
"C'mon," said the soldier with the most youthful face, "let's show the girl what we're about! Then we can go." When enough of his comrades assented, the man shut the door, locked it, and met my eyes. "So, how do we prove our superiority?" he asked, rolling up his sleeves.
I bit back a chuckle as Keira theatrically gasped at the sight of his hairy forearm. "Just an arm wrestle should suffice." I replied.
The soldier smirked and plopped down on the floor on one side of the cot. "Sounds good to me. Count it off, Arneski!"
An unkempt man smirked and stepped forward. He counted the two off, and the match began. Of course, the prideful soldier achieved the upper hand at first. He cast a lustful glance at Keira, who pretended to be entirely invested in witnessing the struggle. Then the young man gasped. Sila twisted his wrist even harder than it had done Aaron's, and the unnatural angle his hand hung from thoroughly disturbed me. He screamed in agony and curled into a sobbing ball.
"The robot cheats!" shouted one soldier.
"My profuse apologies." I said quickly, "Sila, refrain from such violence, and play fair."
"Okay."
Another man glanced at Keira coquettishly. With a grin, he ripped his shirt off entirely and plopped down across from Sila. "I'll betcha can't win against this hunk o' meat without cheatin'!" he declared proudly, beating his chest like a gorilla.
"Possibly."
"Well, let's have a go at it! Count it off!"
As before, the Arneski fellow counted to three, and then the struggle began. This brute pushed Sila's arm down much quicker than the previous contender had, and with much more gusto. But nonetheless, the robot still snapped his wrist, and he collapsed with a roar.
The remaining six soldiers fell into an uproar, shouting profanities, expletives, and little else. Aaron leapt to his feet and punched the closest soldier in the nose, apparently having decided to add to the calamity. Sila kicked another man in the groin, also landing its chunky metal foot on the other, uninjured wrist of its youthful first challenger.
Khemera shrugged and leapt to his feet, throwing a flurry of lightning-fast punches at the soldier nearest him. The man gasped for breath, clearly desperate. Before he could strike back, Khemera leapt up, kicked him in the chest, and sent him flying into the wall.
The brawny man who had just arm-wrestled Sila, finally struggled to his feet. He licked his lips and charged at Keira. I smirked and stuck my leg into his path, causing him to trip and fall at her feet. Without hesitation, she kicked him several times in the head, finishing off her attacks with a heel to the spine.
Barely three minutes later, all eight soldiers lay in a comatose pile on the floor. Aaron had done most of the work, despite his constantly trickling wound. Hannah, on the other hand, had declined to take the slightest part in the action, instead opting to hide behind Khemera.
Presently, Keira stooped down and looted the limp bodies for key cards, keychains, and a map. "Okay, guys," she began, "we need to find some way out of here."
"Ooh, is dat a map?" Hannah asked excitedly, "I love maps!"
"I'm glad you do." Keira replied, handing the paper to her. "Because I can't make heads or tails of this maze."
Hannah's eyes widened as they scanned over the cluttered piece of paper. "It is confusin', but gimme a sec, an' I reckon I can figure it out."
We all stood around and eyed one another while Hannah studied the map. Khemera rubbed his temple, Aaron massaged Keira's shoulders, and I whistled a catchy tune from one of Abigail's musicals. I missed my girlfriend so much by this point that it physically hurt. We had to succeed here so I could find her again and reunite.
"Okay!" Hannah shouted, grabbing everybody's attention, "So, if we exit this cell, and go down dat hallway, we'll find ourselves back at the warden's desk. Well, from there, we've got two other possible paths, besides turnin' 'round. If we keep goin' straight, we'll reach the confiscation department, where I reckon our weapons are bein' held."
"Alright," I said, "so we go there first to get our equipment. Then what?"
"Easy peasy! From there, we head back to the desk, and from there, we can take the other path, which leads to an elevator. If we take dat to the bottom floor, we just need to make a couple lefts, and I reckon we'll then be in Unterstat!"
I took a second to visualize Hannah's directions. "Is there an alternate way, besides the elevator? That sounds like a really easy way to get trapped."
The girl looked down at the map again. "There is..." she said, tracing her finger along the path, "but it's super duper long, and I think it's equally dangerous to go dat far just to avoid it. We'll have to face so many guards."
I nodded. "Fair point. Just face that laser gun of yours at the door when we're about to exit, and I guess we'll be fine." I remarked with a smirk.
Hannah grinned. "Yeah! That'll do!"
Aaron nodded. "Well, here we go, then."
With that, he scanned a keycard, and the cell door slid open. We stepped through one at a time, beginning our risky escape.
********************
A/N: Honestly, this chapter so insanely fun to write, it shouldn't even be legal. Only in the Iron Hallway would we get a chapter whose conflict mostly revolves around a series of arm wrestles, am I right? 🤣
So if you had as much of a blast reading this as I did writing it, please do give it a vote and some comments. I always appreciate it. 😁
Now, is it just me, or is it incredibly satisfying when you're watching a movie or reading a book, and the protagonist may have been dragged along for the whole thing so far, but then suddenly, when things get tough and all the usual suspects start to give up, they take charge? I'm so excited that this chapter essentially became that for Baird. 😆
Well anyway, I guess I shall formulate you a random question: What's the most remarkable dream you've ever had?
(I swear, my most interesting dream, if cinematized, would be some Oscar-winning 💩, at least if it came out the way it looked in my head. This random girl was hunting me down like a serial killer because she claimed we were soulmates, and I wasn't interested. So this long dream followed, of me just trying to live my "normal life" [the one I had in the dream, anyways], but with my head always peeking over my shoulder because she would show up anywhere at any time to begin a new chase. It was truly the makings of a great horror movie. Unfortunately, I forget the conclusion, so a new one would have to be written.)
Well, with that image fresh in your brain, I shall take my leave. Have a good week, and don't die from the unresolved tension I've left you with, okay? Bye-bye! 😂👋🏻