Hendrick
It was there, right in front of his nose. The beating of the heart of the factory had gotten louder, the flesh close to the pitfall lightly pulsing in its rhythm. Hovering over the hole out of reach, a platform floated in the air, silently waiting for the events to unfold.
The deactivated portal, he thought. Now we only need to activate it.
He felt the box on his back get a little more heavy.
“Ann?” he asked.
“Yea.”
“We are going to run through.”
“But… there a-”
“They aren’t much slower than we are. And this will be our only chance.”
Anna looked down at her bow. “And what if they catch us?”
“They won’t.”
“…”
“If we wait for too long, Jim will get caught. Come on. You said you are gonna make it, right?”
Anna frowned, looked back up. There was a fresh glint of light in her eyes. “Yea. Let’s do it.”
Hendrick smiled, but before he could say something, Anna added, “One question before we go. What is in there?”
His smile disappeared, was replaced with a more serious expression. “Like I said,” he pointed towards the hole, “you need to see it with your own eyes.” He spotted an opening between some of the metallic horrors. “To be honest, I am afraid you wouldn’t follow me there once you knew the truth about this place. The truth about all of this.”
Anna looked like she wanted to say something, stopped.
Hendrick started moving.
“You really plan on taking all the burden for yourself, don’t you?” Anna asked. “Isn’t it harder that way?”
Hendrick started scratching his thumb against his middle finger subconsciously. “We need to go now. We won’t get another chance.” He continued walking, Anna now following behind him.
Their destination was only around 200 meters away from them. He saw an angle, made sure Anna was still there, then started running.
And while running, as the metallic creatures started to chase them, Hendrick couldn’t help it but think about him. He saw the white mask in front of him, the inhuman smile fixed on it. He felt the pain of a thousand deaths… and then realized he was smiling.
Soon I will see you again, old friend,
and this time,
I will be the one with the bigger smile.
---
Jim
There wasn’t a hint of emotion left on Jim’s otherwise soft face.
He stepped over another cut open creature, some of its inner parts already extracted. Its hard metal shell had been cut open around the chest and stomach area, bent open like an oversized can. He looked down, found himself closer to the center yet again. In the distance, close to the place he was headed to, two small figures were running towards the hole.
“Finally. Things were starting to get troublesome.”
He had been lucky to not fall off on that jump earlier, had barely made it onto the line with his leap. He was now standing high up in the air, trying to find a way back to his friends.
Jim dodged the attack of another metal demon as he used the creatures momentum to push it off the production line. It fell for a bit before smashing into a machine on its way down. He picked up his pace again.
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These damn things really don’t give up, he thought. Now they are even up here.
And as he got close enough to see Anna and Hendrick more clearly, and he reached a cross section on the assembly line, he was met by around half a dozen beasts of different appearance. Yet again, two of them looked quite human-like, almost familiar.
He held his weapon up, remembered the drawing Jack had made back in school. That dumb little drawing, edgy like it was, now came back to him.
“Something cooler than a typical berserker, huh?” He glanced to the side, saw Anna and Hendrick approaching their destination.
He looked at the sharp edge of his weapon, saw the huge sword of Jack’s drawing in front of him.
“So it’s now or never…”
And he pushed forward.
“This one’s for you, Jack.”
But before he could even strike the first one of the enemies, he got caught off guard. A sharp blade, which was attached to one of the creature’s hands, moved in an unexpected way and embedded itself inside of Jim’s left shoulder from above downwards.
His eyes widened.
He quickly jerked his weapon upwards, caused it to clash against the beast’s weapon as it got forced out of his shoulder again. Jim ducked under a swing, finished the creature off with a stab to its heart. He pulled the weapon out, gave the metallic being a light shove to the side, making it fall off the assembly line.
He backed off a little, held his shoulder. It felt warm and cold at the same time.
The beating of his heart could now be clearly felt, unlike the sound, which was being drowned out by a sound emitting from the hole. He had mistaken it for his own heartbeat before, but it wasn’t… and it had gotten louder.
Another sharp blade almost hit him as he barely blocked it off. The creatures were now approaching as a group, clanking and steaming forward like a wave of alloy.
Jim looked down at the pitfall underneath him, but he wasn’t afraid of the height anymore.
He felt the pain in his shoulder, but he did not care anymore.
And as the beasts leaped towards him, he found himself calm.
As a single thought kept him pushing forward.
“The coolest one of them all… Guts the swordsman.”
---
Anna
50 meters, then 40.
Hendrick fought off another metallic deer, defeated it with one clean strike. It was almost frightening how accurate he could be in battles like this. She had never imagined that he would be so good in combat, the rather chubby and awkward kid he usually was.
Now that she thought about it, since when did he use his right hand? Wasn’t he left-handed, or was she just confusing things right now?
The pulsing of the heartbeat had reached a loud volume, them now being close enough to slightly look inside of the giant hole. There was no metal scrap left underneath their feet, now only a gory mass pulsing with the rhythm accompanying their steps. No giant pillars, no assembly lines around here.
30 meters.
She had seen some assembly lines moving downward as they had gotten closer to their destination. They had disappeared inside of the ground, to not be seen again. Maybe they led down there? She risked another glance, tried to spot anything besides pulsing flesh in crimson colour, but whatever was in there most likely was buried deeper down.
20 meters.
She gripped her bow tightly, fetched the arrow she had held onto for so long now. It was the first one she had built back in the jungle, visible by it being a little more ugly than the other ones. She just hoped it would serve its purpose now.
15 meters.
Anna saw Hendrick get the box off his back, made himself ready.
10 meters
“Go!” Hendrick’s scream was loud enough to be heard through the deafening heartbeat sound. Anna ran forward. For a moment, she could have sworn that the metallic creatures had stopped chasing them.
Now standing right in front of the edge leading to the pit of hell, she made sure to get into the right position. She calmed her breath as much as possible as she held her bow up straight.
She glanced down at the heart of hell, but before she could really comprehend what it was, the box flew into her field of vision.
“Now!”
She saw it fall downwards,
took aim,
and she shot off the arrow.
The arrow darted across the air, flew with accuracy towards the falling box. And as the box had gotten close enough to whatever this thing down there was, the arrow pierced the box.
Now it would be finally over. The arrow would cause the box to explode, and that abomination of a being would be turned into metal like the rest of these creatures. Everything would come to a halt, and they would be able to move on to the last stage. Together.
At least so she had thought...
But the box did not explode.
Anna exhaled forcefully as something pierced through her from behind. Her eyes widened as she felt her inability to breathe. She looked at herself, saw the tip of a reddened scissor stick out of her chest.
An agonised scream was audible in the distance.
She coughed up some blood.
As she tried to say something, only a gasp escaped her lips.
Then she felt her vision blurry.
---