Jack cursed internally. Really, he should have expected as much considering both his luck and just how well put together the facility was. The company that ran it might have been using it as a dumping ground and punishment for their discontented employees but that didn’t mean that it was completely uncared for.
“So? What’s your plan? You’ve managed to get us this far so I’ll trust you have some way of getting us out of this as well.” Charise looked at Jack somewhat expectantly.
Jack meanwhile struggled to remain standing upright. His body barely functioning after the constant abuse it had suffered tonight. He spoke, his words came out slurred and impossible to understand. “Ihanoda. Syihughs.” He labored to swallow and tried again. “I have no idea. Sorry. I am just about completely tapped out at this point. I have pretty much nothing left. If you got any ideas, I’m all ears.” After speaking he tugged on the towel wound around his arm trying to get it tighter.
Charise shrugged tiredly. “Not really, I was hoping that you had something. Still trying to figure out just what has been going on. So far it seems you’ve been honest, so my choice has been to stick with you.”
As the two of them stood there and endeavored to figure out just what they could possibly do to get out of the situation they started to hear the group behind them grow closer. They needed to do something, anything, and fast.
Finally, Jack let out a deep sigh. “I think our best bet might just be to try and talk to whoever is in charge out there. Hopefully we can use the fact we are no longer controlled by the parasite and that they call people patients to get them to let us go. Not the best plan, I know, but I’m not really certain we have many other options at the moment.”
With that he stumbled forward grabbing the door handle. As he began to pull it open Charise spoke up, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No, but I don’t think there are really any good options available. We are hopefully picking the least bad choice.” Jack managed to heave out, shrugging a single shoulder before continuing, “I was really hoping that getting past the people in the hallways was as much as we would need to do. I really should have known better.”
With that statement the two of them opened the door and went out of the building. To Jack’s surprise, the environment outside of the complex was also almost completely deprived of mana. His theories had centered around the building itself being a three-dimensional array. If it affected the outside of the building as well that meant that his suppositions may have been completely off base.
He swayed on his feet and almost collapsed, only kept up upright thanks to Charise’s hand shooting out and catching him before he fell. He had a brief flash of clarity as he thought that he shouldn’t be trusting anything that he could come up with at the moment as he certainly was in no state to be thinking critically. In between his physical exhaustion and wounds, as well his being emotionally compromised from the backlash of the ritual that ended during their escape up to this point, the only thing that he could hope for was managing to be even moderately sensible while trying to talk to whoever was in charge.
“You mind calling out to them? I think I will need your help just to keep moving.” Jack tried his best to keep his voice steady as he asked for Charise’s help.
She gave him a look over before nodding and quietly saying, “Sure.” Right afterwards she shouted out to the people surrounding the facility. “Hey! We want to talk to the person in charge!”
There was a short moment of silence and then a voice called back “Stay right where you are. If you attempt to come any closer, we will use force.”
The two paused their trek forward. Charise looked back at Jack and asked, “What exactly are we asking for? Or offering?”
Jack shook himself, trying to stay focused, but the only thing that he accomplished was almost causing Charise and himself to go tumbling as he lost his balance. “Shit. Sorry. Ugh. We should try and see if Madam Blue is here. She had claimed to be the director the one time I met her. Is she was honest about that then she should be here. I… I would think at least. I’ve not interreacted with too many wealthy or powerful people.”
“Okay, so we’ll ask for her, what about the other stuff?” Charise acknowledged trying to steer Jack back on track as his mind started to wander.
“Right, right. Uhh… What I did with you and plan to do with… Daisy? No… Lucy? That’s not it. Fauklin? Franklin? No, Fawler! That sounds right but I can’t remember her first name. What was it now…” Jack started to explain before he trailed off distracted once more.
Charise adjusted her grip on Jack so that he was supported by the crook of her elbow and snapped in his face to get his attention. “Focus please… Jack. Do you have something else I can call you? It might be your name but it’s hard to bring myself to call you that.” She scowled slightly and berated herself, “Gah, now I’m getting distracted. So, we are going to offer them treatment to be free of the system?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Jack shook his head very slightly, “I’ve never had anything else to be called. You can call me whatever by this point. I’ll manage. But no, it won’t be treatment for them but I’ll share the method I used for you and let them view as I free at least a few more.” As he kept on talking his tone became groggier and groggier. “This place is theoretically to help break people free or at least part of it is. I’m sure that there is far more to this place then they would ever want to admit. So don’t say anything that you might have suspicions about. Like the fact that the whole building is a huge array. You shouldn’t say anything like that where they can hear.”
Charise sighed and agreed in a slightly aggrieved tone, “Right... I’ll make sure not to do that. You should be careful about it as well.”
“Uh-huh, I will. I’ll be the best at not telling anything about what I think they have hidden here. I have a lot of suspicions though.” Jack nodded and swallowed heavily as the world spun.
At this point their hushed conversation was interrupted by a gruff male voice calling out to the two of them. “So? What did you want to talk about?”
“We want to talk to Madam Blue!” Charise shouted back before side whispering to Jack “That was the name, right? Madam Blue?”
“Mmhmm.” Jack grunted affirmatively as he worked to keep his stomach under control.
There were a few moments of silence before the same voice as before called out, “And why would Madam Blue be willing to talk to you?”
“We have proof that people can be cured of the parasite. And we are willing to share the method. But only with Madam Blue.” Charise called back with what Jack had told her just a bit ago.
There was another period of silence before it was broken by the man again. “The Director is willing to talk if you can indeed produce proof.”
Jack elbowed Charise before she could respond, “Make… sure you ask… about what assurances they will give for us to not be attacked or anything.”
She nodded and shouted back, “We can do that. What assurances do we have of our safety?”
“We can give you our word to not attack you unprovoked but nothing more than that really.” Came the response.
Jack and Charise looked at each other and Jack shrugged. He wasn’t expecting much as they were certainly not coming at this from a position of power. He was mostly hoping that the methodology that he had created could be replicated by others and would hopefully be enough to secure their release.
After their brief silent conferment Charise called out, “Alright. We don’t really have any choice but to accept it.”
There was a pause before the voice called out a final time, “Very well, stay where you are and we will have a contingent escort you to a screening. From there you will then be taken to meet the Director.”
Jack and Charise stood there beaten, bloodied, and exhausted. Jack only staying upright thanks to Charise. She was barely standing herself, not only had the fight and subsequent run been draining but she had had to carry an unconscious body for the entire run, plus Jack for a good portion of it as well. Now that they were simply standing there waiting the adrenaline began to wear off and the exhaustion hit them hard.
Charise still was struggling with trying to determine just what was reality or not and Jack was once more hanging onto the present by the merest of margins as emotions and memories slammed into him in waves. The wait for the squadron to reach them felt like an eternity as they struggled to keep it together.
Eventually a group of well armored security personal came up to the pair. It was a mix of several species but they all wore the same Telipar Industries logo emblazoned on their equipment. Both groups stared at each other for a minute, assessing one other before one of the security guards opened their mouths and simply said, “This way. Don’t try anything funny or you’ll regret it.”
It was as everyone started to move that the unconscious beastfolk stirred. They saw Jack right in front of them as they bounced on Charise’s shoulder. Letting out a loud yowl she attempted to launch herself from where she was being held toward Jack claws extended.
Startled by the sudden sound Jack fell backwards unable to keep his balance as his exhausted body attempted to react. His collapse took his head right below the sharp nails that had been slashing at his throat.
The officers immediately responded to the perceived threat by tackling Charise. Taking her to the ground. That sent the beastfolk out of her arms and into the air as she went down. The beastfolk girl kicked herself off of a guard and redirected herself into another lunge at Jack.
Frantically trying to twist his body out of the way Jack managed to only acquire a new set of long narrow gashes on his ribs. He let out a desperate punch in response, not expecting any good to come of it, but not willing to let himself be killed without doing everything in his power to prevent it. His weak jab was caught in the one of the girls’ hands. She gave him a cruel smile as her other hand flashed down to gouge out his eyes.
Like many of the thralls back in the hallway brawl her obsession with attacking Jack was what caused her downfall. Other than the initial kick off of one of the officers she didn’t even give them a second’s consideration. Instead, all of her attention was focused solely on the elimination of Jack. As she reached down to take his vision she was hit over the head with a heavy baton and returned to unconsciousness.
Jack lay pinned to the ground by her unconscious body. He took several deep gulps of air trying to steady his nerves. He tried to convince himself that it was simply just another tally to the list of near-death experiences from this obviously cursed case and not something to worry about. After a moment of stillness one of the guards approached him and chuckled stating, “Well I don’t know what to think about this. I can say if you were hoping to run off in the confusion it would have helped you better if your distraction attacked others and not yourself.”
Jack let out a pained groan in response, “Wasn’t really planning on that. Was hoping she would be out for a bit longer than she was there. Not to unleash her but was planning on using her as part of the proof for Madam Blue.” At that he let out a pained laugh. “Like everything else recently didn’t seem to go to plan at all. Is Charise alright?”
The woman talking to him paused and glanced over to where Charise lay on the ground before turning back to Jack and saying, “Your other companion? Yeah, not happy at being taken down it looks like. But she’s okay.”
Jack wheezed out, “That’s good…. That’s good.”
Reaching down and pulling the unconscious person off of him the guard stated, “Right let’s finish getting you lot to screening. No more of this nonsense now.”