Hendrick
The navigating process through the second stage was a lot easier than through the first one. Hendrick didn’t need to go one defined way or miss his destination, he just searched for an open space to reorientate and they were good to follow the red beam in the sky. They had around three days of journey in front of them before they would reach the factory. After that, things would get more complicated
He needed to make sure that he wouldn’t get killed. The truth had to come to light soon. If he would have to taste just a single strawberry ever again, he would go insane, or more likely, more insane than he already felt.
Vines that looked more like cables covered the space between massive copper and brass painted trees. A river of oil slithered its way through the scenery nearby. From the lush trees hung lightbulbs as fruits, keeping the place lit accompanied by a faint buzzing of electricity. There was no visual explanation from where the forest got its energy, but he knew better than that.
Hendrick held out his arm to stop Anna and Jim, which had been walking briefly behind. He raised his voice in a quiet tone, said: “Shh… You see that one right there?”
He pointed towards a deer drinking from the river of oil, its metallic ears twitching back and forth in high alert. It had copper-coloured skin, pistons and other machinery covering its body for the most part. Here and there a part of the real faun looked through, but only faintly. Smoke emitted off its shiny nose as it breathed slowly.
“Is that a… cyborg deer?” Anna asked, had leaned forward in an attempt so see the creature more clearly.
“This one’s infected. Look closely now.” Hendrick moved out of the hiding spot, slowly approached the being from behind. It was busy drinking, but he still needed to make sure it wouldn’t notice him.
Prey has a wide field of view. It’s in their nature. It is to make sure they can spot any predator or danger close to them early enough so they can run away. The eyes of a predator – on the other hand – are good for locking prey.
Hendrick’s eyes were locked.
He lifted his newly acquired weapon – holding it tightly with both hands – up, brought it down at a spot between the creature’s neck and upper back where some fur stood out between the metal. The blade cut through the flesh smoothly; the deer letting out a mechanical bleat before stumbling to its knees and finally falling to its side. Its pistons stopped moving, and the smoke ceased to emit from its nose.
Jim and Anna followed after a wave of his hand, moved closer as he cut the creature open, revealing leftovers of organs as well as some which were replaced by all sorts of cables and machinery. Some parts of its flesh was tainted like metal, some clumped up and hard, and some even soft, almost like rubber. “This is what happens to living creatures after they infected them with their disease. They take out what they need and let the rest here as spare for later.”
Anna, who avoided looking directly at the deer, said, “Who would do such a thing to an innocent creature like that? Is that infection the reason why this whole place looks like this?”
“Yea. And if we won’t move fast enough towards the center of this place, the border will kill us.” He pointed upwards. Anna followed his finger, saw something which looked like a red static field far in the distance. It was barely visible through the treetops because of the dense fauna, maybe 5 kilometers away from their current location. “We have enough time for sleeping, since it moves rather slow, but we still have no time to waste. The barrier is some sort of Energy field which kills everything that has less than a certain percentage of machinery inside of it.”
Jim, who hadn’t even moved a single muscle of his face while looking at the cut open deer, looked Hendrick straight in the eyes, said, “What exactly is in the middle? The portal to the third stage?”
“Yes, and something else.”
“What do you mean with something else?” Jim kneeled down next to the deer, looked at some of its parts closer.
“The factory.”
Suddenly, a low humming sound accompanied by rhythmical beeping could be heard rapidly approaching.
“A spreader is coming,” Hendrick said. “We need to hide now.”
Hendrick waved in a direction, started moving a couple of meters away from the deer. They hid underneath a bush made out of rather fine copper wiring, from where they were able to look out from underneath the bush. The sound increased in volume, the sudden pressure of air making the bush move back and forth slightly.
The low humming was now close, but their view was limited to close to the ground in front of them, where the deer was still laying without any glimmer of life left. Hendrick took a glance to the right, where Anna and Jim looked in the direction of the deer. Anna was lightly shaking, seemed to be attempting her best to remain calm. It was clear that she was scared, but she had it under control. Jim, who appeared to be calm, held his scissor knife ready in one hand; placed his other hand on Anna’s shoulder. Anna stopped shaking.
Hendrick smiled.
From barely out of sight, a couple of mechanical tentacles descended, their ends roughly resembling oversized human hands. Their palms were opened, fine strings which came out of them embedding themselves inside of the deer’s body. They weren’t like the Doll-Maker’s, they were thicker and had a different texture.
The spreader has begun scanning, he thought. It’s important that Anna and Jim see one of them, since they need to understand how this place works.
The spreader retracted its strings, pulled them back inside of its palms. The appearance of one hand shifted, changed to something which roughly resembled a tube. It then proceeded to spray something on the creature’s wound from the tube, the other hands on tentacles moving it and relocating the position of the previously cut open parts with frightening accuracy.
After around one minute, the deer almost looked like before it had been killed. The wound had been closed by mechanical glue and everything was back where it was supposed to be. All tentacles retreated as the deer jerked once, then got back onto its hooves with shaking movements. Its pistons started moving again, and steam emitted from its nose. The parts where it had been fixed now appeared to be mechanical as well.
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The low humming noise slowly faded into the distance, the rhythmical beeping and the air pressure accompanying it.
The deer turned around.
And it once again started drinking from the lake of oil,
as if nothing had happened.
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Jim
Jim trusted his arm forward, using his weapon as an extension of his arm. The tip of the sharp object pierced right through an imaginary enemy close to where he stood. He panted, stopped for a moment to regain some stamina.
The air had cooled down over the duration of the last hour or so, a gentle breeze blowing over the metallic mountain he was standing on. A handful of trees and bushes softened the otherwise harsh edges of it, which probably had been stone and boulder a while ago.
The sky above was pitch black. It was rather a single colour than an actual horizon – just like back in the first stage. He did prefer black over the bright red from back then though. It was much more relaxing for the eyes.
Hendrick had told them they could use the mountain to reorient as well as get some rest. There was a small cave – if you could even call it that – embedded into the mountain, which provided them some protection from the weather as well as whatever else was out there. They had also found a single small tree which wasn’t infected, had chopped it down and brought its wood with them. The tree’s resources were currently warming the inside of the small cave where Anna and Hendrick rested in.
Jim repositioned himself, checked his footing, then brought his attention back to his imaginary opponent. The air was less refreshing than you would expect it to be around a forest, a stale note of factory clinging to every object. He had to make sure he would be able to protect the rest of his friends once the time for it came. After all, this was his opportunity to go on a real adventure, and he was not going to waste it. But first he needed to get stronger, get better at fighting. Jim tried to remember the combo, saw the controller inputs in front of his inner eye. It turned out doing stuff like this in real-life was a lot harder than pulling it off in the video-game.
A brief step to the side was followed by a large one forward, the cutting edge of the scissor slashing forward in a wide radius. Almost... he had been a little too slow again. Move back, check footing, deep breaths in and out.
Refocus.
He took a brief step to the side…
“Still out here, huh?” Anna’s voice broke the silence of nighttime like an owl under the full moon.
Except there was no moon.
Jim stopped his current attack, lowered his weapon as he saw Anna. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, yawned.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?”
A chuckle escaped Anna’s lips. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“Yea, you’re probably right with that one. I go to sleep soon, I just…” he lowered his gaze a bit, “couldn’t force myself to just go to sleep after what happened.”
Anna moved over to a bigger rock close to Jim, its alloyed surface lightly reflecting the warm light which gleamed out of the cave entrance. She sat down, looked out towards the treetops of the jungle-like forest which laid perhaps 20 meters under them. Jim sat down next to her, leaned the scissor against a smaller rock to his right.
The dense forest which revealed itself in front of them was mostly dark, but countless little lights illuminated it through the metallic leaves and such. Most likely more of the variously shaped and sized lightbulbs which they had seen earlier today. Without these, even the days would have been very dark in the jungle, since the dense fauna had blocked off the most of the sky down there.
“We can’t change the past,” Anna said. “Let’s focus on tomorrow.” Jim turned his head, saw the distance in her gaze.
Several dark red dots were present on her lips – spots where Anna’s mouth had been sewed shut. For a moment, pictures of the box toy from the cave flashed through his head.
“Anna,” Jim said. “I will make sure no one will hurt you or Hen anymore. I promise.” And he meant it.
Anna tightened her lips. “I appreciate that. But please don’t try to carry all the burden yourself.”
Silence once again covered the surrounding area. A soft breeze paved its way through the air and moved some wire-bushes around. Jim felt his brown, messy hair move as well, looked back at Anna.
“Ann… after all of this is over…”
“Yea?” she turned her head to face Jim, held eye contact. Her blonde hair moved with the breeze, every single line of air flowing in peace with the surroundings.
Jim hesitated, thought about saying something.
“Lets… uh, all go to a fucking… fast-food restaurant? Get some nice-ass burger, ya know.”
Anna formed what seemed to be her first real smile in a while.
“Bet.”
Jim reacted with a delayed smile, saw Anna get up from the rock. She put her right palm against the back of her neck, yawned while scratching herself. “We should really get some rest now. Tomorrow won’t be any easier than today if Hen keeps up his marching pace.”
“Like an army general, lol.”
“Yea, Right?” She laughed. “...You coming?”
They locked eyes again.
Jim used his weapon as a lever to get up. He looked at it for a second, then back at Anna, said, “Yea soon, I just want to try that one move a couple more times… I’m so close to nailing it. I will go to sleep after that, I promise.” He had the blunt side of the half-scissors resting on his shoulder now, holding it in his hand with a loose grip.
Anna raised a brow, shrugged. “Fine, I’m not your mother after all. Don’t hurt yourself, Mr. hero.” Her voice carried that glint of irony which always managed to make Jim smile. She crossed back to the cave entrance, waved over her shoulder without looking back, then disappeared inside.
Jim scratched his nose while looking after her, shook his head, then turned around.
I should have said something, he thought, Now would have been a great moment for it. But… emotions can’t be in our way right now. Keeping her safe should be my main priority.
Scissor still leaned over his shoulder, he stepped close to an edge of the mountain. He managed to keep his breathing calm, looked down the steep slope in front of him. Jim felt the cold air flow through him, the broad ocean of metal beneath him plastered with little lights shining into his very soul. It was like a night sky underneath his feet; a reflection of reality in the mirror of creation. In the distance, a red, wall like structure towered high into the skies.
From here it almost looks like it’s not even moving.
Jim backed up from the edge, felt his anxiety ease as he moved back to even ground. He brought his attention back to his focus. Deep breaths, fix footing, position weapon. Just like in the game.
“Alright,” he whispered to himself,
“Just one more try…”
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