Jack had been issued a little badge as an apprentice that granted him access to areas where students are typically not permitted. The badge looked like a small gear that had the school symbol in the middle. It seemed to allow certain doors to open if it was swiped near the specified sensor. Jack had the opportunity to operate and see various machinery. He found some of the mechanisms hard to believe. One machine’s entire purpose was just to open a door when a person approached. He believed it was magic when a number of the academy doors opened for him as he passed through them. Turns out it was just science.
His favorite new machines to work on were the giant devices that operated under the academy and the city. He only got to see them a few times because Security was pretty high, and he could understand why. With the right knowledge, one could cause a lot of damage. The machines were utterly colossal. Ms. Belle seemed to know how every machine functioned and was happy to show Jack as she worked. He got to learn a great deal about proper repair techniques. Jack was quite knowledgeable about fixing things, but he had to teach himself everything he knew. There were many fundamental things that he learned to do more efficiently. Even something extremely simple, like when you’re cleaning a big dirty machine, you should start from the top. Because if you start from the bottom, as you clean up, the dirt from higher up just falls onto the cleaner base.
Unfortunately, a lot of the maintenance that the school required was just cleaning stuff, but he was happy to do it because it turns out apprentices receive a small fee. The small fee was huge for his standards, and he would have been happy just cleaning and maintaining the machines for the rest of his life. The government had something different in mind unfortunately and Jack had to continue his training.
Today he had been given the task of cleaning and maintaining one of the large machines that operated the gigantic security doors that were all over the academy and the city. It was a fairly simple piece of technology. It was just a huge slab of steel. Unbelievably thick, he had wondered how they had possibly got the giant doors to their locations. He had some creative ideas for how he would have accomplished it, but none of them were particularly effective. The huge slab was lifted and dropped by a massive mechanism. The mechanism was a simple engine that would spin a giant gear. The gear had a pivot rod that was attached to the slab. The slab was slotted in the ground and was only able to slide up or down. As the wheel would turn, the rod would push or lower the door. After ensuring it was off, he got to work. Jack cleaned and buffed the pivot rod. The machine’s joints needed to be lubricated, and he checked to make sure the fluid pressure was full, and it didn’t have any leaks.
After finishing his work Jack was cleaning up his mess when he heard a sound he recognized. It was a quiet ticking sound, that sounded just like Pyke. A ticking rodent infestation? he thought. Here? That’s not good. He followed the sound down a small side access tunnel that was supposed to end with a couple of power panels. At the end of the long dark hallway, the ticking sound got a lot louder. The end of the hallway which should have been a dead end had a small hole in the wall. The hole was just large enough that if Jack wanted to, he could squeeze through.
After a moment of consideration, his curiosity got the best of him. Jack slowly squeezed through the hole. He was wearing a headlamp and could see the hole wasn’t very far and seemed to open into some sort of room. He could smell something familiar, but it was hard to pinpoint what it was.
After squeezing through Jack looked around. The space he had thought was a small room was actually just the sewers. Because he had been homeless, he instantly knew the smell of a sewer. “Aw fuck, it smells horrible.” he quickly went to crawl back through the hole when he heard the ticking again. Now that he was closer it sounded different. From this close, the tick-tock was deeper, and he had almost mistaken it for his own heartbeat. What is making that sound?
He continued investigating the noise. The sewer was gross, but he had experience with gross and he was really curious to find out what was making the sound. Walking down the sewers, he was able to walk on the tiny pathway along the side. He was hunched over slightly as he walked. Fortunately, he didn’t have to walk far. Jack found the cause of the sound. And he really wished he didn’t. he had found himself right in front of a huge mechanical abomination. The sewers had opened into a large junction, and in the middle was a disgusting-smelling beast that was part flesh and part metal. The beast seemed to be asleep and was very slowly breathing in and out. With every breath came a deep tick for an inhale then a tock for exhale. Each breath smelt worse than the last and Jack almost threw up when he got a big whiff of its breath.
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Jack, his eyes wide, slowly started back peddling when he saw these tiny little red gems in the corner of his eye. He looked to the left and saw a small salamander with red eyes. The creature was fully mechanical and was definitely the same species as Pyke. Looking at the salamander and then looking back towards the disgusting abomination he unexpectedly noticed a similarity between their mechanical parts. Suddenly the lizard started quickly scuttling towards him. He panicked, almost falling into the water. He just caught himself as the lizard scurried right past him, it just missed his foot. The lizard continued to scuttle down the tunnel none the wiser. Jack was confused and looked after it for a moment before hearing the monster behind him shift its position he quickly continued back down the tunnel.
Jack found the crack and squeezed back through it. Interestingly he found the lizard there. The lizard was meandering around the hole. It seemed to be smelling or looking at something on the ground. That’s when Jack noticed he had dropped his maintenance badge when he had squeezed through the tunnel. The lizard seemed fascinated by the badge and was analyzing it all over. He tentatively reached down and picked up the badge. The lizard seemed even more confused by that. But once he attached the badge to his chest, something interesting happened. The lizard’s mannerisms completely changed. It had been meandering around casually. Once he reattached his badge, the lizard’s head snapped around and this time Jack was sure it was looking right at him. “Uh hello,” Jack said. The distant ticking that was the sign of the sleeping beast suddenly stopped. It became eerily quiet as he stood there for a moment. The lizard was still on the ground staring at him.
Jack bolted. He sprinted down the maintenance tunnel. He remembered how to get back to the access ladder from here and quickly ran down the tunnels, a left, then a right, then another right. He was at the ladder, and he was out of breath, but he instantly started climbing. The thought of that disgusting monstrosity chasing him was plenty of motivation. Jack was halfway up the ladder when he looked back down the long dark hallway. That was when he noticed a red glow quickly approaching. Then there it was. A giant red eye was looking down the hallway at him. The eye was a huge gem that was the color of blood. Jack didn’t waste any more time. He quickly hustled up the rest of the ladder. Once he was on the surface, he immediately locked the door and ran to the maintenance office.
“I have to tell someone!” He yelled.
A hectic afternoon later, Jack was leading an advanced security force through the tunnels. “I swear it was here,” Jack said deflated. They had gone back exactly the way he had gone before but the monster was no longer there.
“There have been many sightings of weird creatures and we have had a few missing persons reported, so we will continue to search for now. We appreciate your input as a citizen of the nation. Don’t tell other people about this, we don’t want to create a panic.” The security guard had been reasonably nice to Jack, but after searching for hours and not finding anything concrete, they had to stop.
When Jack went back to his dorm, he was cautious around Pyke, but the rat seemed completely normal. He was looking into his eyes. “They had been red, then I accidentally blasted you with electricity and your eyes changed color. Hmm, maybe I shorted out the piece that was being used to control you. I sure hope you aren’t being controlled by that abomination.” Jack thought back to the beast he had seen. Nothing in the books or in class looked like what he saw. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a great look, but it kind of looked like a really fat spider with too many legs. He hadn’t seen a mouth and had only seen one eye. God, I think that was an eye. Jack’s memory of the moment was a little fuzzy. Unfortunately, he had so much adrenaline flowing through him he hadn’t really paid attention to detail.
Jack opened the Mechanical creature book he had been given and started looking through to see if anything would spark something. The large issue was that nothing in the book seemed to have flesh, and the monster under the city definitely was made partially of flesh. The flesh was patchy and looked multicolored. Eventually, he gave up searching through the book after going through it front to back and back to front more times than he could count. “I just don’t know what to do.” Jack looked over at Pyke who had curled up into a ball and was happily sleeping in his favorite spot on Jack’s desk. “I don’t know how to sleep knowing that thing is out there.” He wanted to go pee, but he was having issues using the toilet since his sewer experience. Jack pushed the urge to pee aside while he thought of his next move.