She kicked the wall of glass. It didn’t break. Shouldn’t she be stronger now? A sob wracked her body. How could she have failed? She looked at her palms. Not even a scar showed where the wounds had been. Her vision zoomed in on her hands—every little speck of dirt was visible.
So the lard had given her super-sight, instead. How many cans would she have to drink to be strong? She was out of silver pennies. Pressing her nose against the glass, she looked at an abandoned parking lot. Fallen streetlights and an old tire were out there. Gazing intently, she could see all the way down to the Grand Canyon, nine miles away, and heavily distorted by heatwaves. The nearest building had to be seven miles—all too far to walk in the desert heat, even if they escaped. The class didn’t have the blessing of the lard like she did, and they could die of thirst after being trapped for so long.
When she pulled away from the glass, she heard Snaggletooth’s distinctive footsteps. Her hearing was stronger now, too. She could almost sense his heartbeat.
“Kid.” His voice was somber.
“Snaggletooth?”
“I like to come up here, just to see the sunset. Nice, isn’t it?”
“Yeah…”
“I can reflect on the glory days of Axeblade, and not have a care in the world.”
She snorted snot and it ran down her throat. Still holding her arms across herself, she wept.
“Kid, I’m sorry all this is happening.”
She spoke between sobs. “What can be done?”
“I don’t know. All the exits have been shut off. Even if you got Sangre’s controller, you wouldn’t be able to operate it. It has a face scanner, and only works for him.”
Then they’d need to kill him and hold it up to his face to open the exits. There’s no way he’d open it for them while he lived. But she couldn’t say this. A mere child, killing a man? How backwards had this ‘adventure’ become?
“I can’t do it,” she said. “Not now.”
“Then I will. It’s time to face him, together. There’s no telling what he’s doing to your friends.” He rested a hand on his skinny side, where a small lump was beneath his jacket. “I have a gun. I got it last time I went out, knowing it might be my only chance.”
“Did you see where he went? Where did he take them?”
“To the lowest level of the abattoir. B 79. The Mycelium Mines, where the fungus grows. Who knows what we’ll find down there.”
“There’s no sense in waiting, then.” Under the influence of the lard, she felt no need to sleep. What’s more, the sense of control and fearlessness she had at her first dose had returned. It strengthened with every passing minute. However, it did nothing to touch the despair in her heart.
“You need to relax.” He gave her a pat on the head. “Don’t let your anger, fear, or despondence rule you.”
“I won’t.” She breathed out her nose and in through her mouth. Covered in guano, oil, dirt, and all sorts of filth, the stench never really went away. At least she wasn’t tormented with super-smell! That would be too much to bear.
“Then we’ll go. Hopefully he turned the elevators back on. I can’t imagine him taking all those stairs.”
They walked in silence. To the back of the lobby was an elevator, and it was active. They took it as low as it would go. Descending into darkness, Kid strangely felt little fear.
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She would save them, or die trying. There were no other options. When the elevator door opened, she stepped out.
Snaggletooth led her. “This way.”
They went down a flight of stairs, all the way to B 76. Only three more floors to go, but the stairs had long since fallen apart.
Kid looked down at the fall as the stairs ended. A landing was a five or six feet below. She could make that jump, but Snaggletooth couldn’t.
“I’ll go on,” she said.
“Are you sure? I’m not doubting you, but I think it’d be wise to stick together. There must be another way to get down there.”
She heard a whisper, and used her strong vision to peek through the darkness. “Look!” Kid pointed. Through the gloom, on the lowest level, she saw her classmates. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’ll find another way down, then.” Snaggletooth was shaking. Whether from fear or exhaustion, she couldn’t tell.
Without hesitation, she jumped. A pain shot through her legs, and then another, stronger pain came through as the lard healed her injuries. She ran for a mile across the cavernous space. Around piles of dirt, bats, and small maintenance shacks she ran. The robots there were all dead or malfunctioning, but some continued to work without paying her mind. They were digging pits that dotted the final floor, hunting for more fungus.
The kids were being ushered into one of the shacks. By the time she reached within throwing distance, the door was locked and Sangre stood outside. She kept herself hidden behind a mound of dirt. Only the top of her head down to her eyes poked out. One of his fingers on his belt twitched towards the cleaver. A key hung on a necklace around his neck.
He didn’t look at Kid by moving his head, though his eyes were on her. Lin was missing, and it made her uneasy. Had he noticed her? With the noise she made running, she might have ruined her chance. Where was Snaggletooth? Hopefully he was taking aim. She didn’t want to wrangle Sangre by herself.
Fortunately, Sangre seemed to not know she was there. After a moment she realized he was staring into space, not at her. He pressed something on his control panel and the lights turned off.
Kid could still see in the dark, with her super-sight. So Sangre had super-sight too, and that probably went with strong hearing. All around, the red eyes of robots glowed. The bats fluttered above, chirping.
She followed the sound of his footsteps to another shack. When he was inside, and snoring, she advanced towards her friends. Their building was locked, and she needed another key.
That key had to be the one on Sangre’s necklace. On her way toward his shack, her rage swelled. How impossible this whole misadventure had become! How could she do anything, if Snaggletooth was missing? Maybe she could kill some time while waiting for him to show up.
A smell of rotting drifted from her right as she walked, and a light in the dark expanse caught her attention. She looked, and saw a deep slope in the dirt that went down to a glowing yellow fungus. If she couldn’t save her friends, then at least she could ruin his plans to fatten them. She looked around for any tool she could use to destroy the mushrooms.
She found a rusty old cleaver, propped up on a rock, and began to hack. As soon as the mushrooms were cut, their light went out. Good! She left none standing, and even kicked dirt over them. When she finished, she held onto the cleaver.
I might as well keep this for a while, in case I need it. She felt nasty holding a weapon, but what else could she do? Even with her newfound bravery, the fear was almost too much.
As she turned to leave, something shook the earth, in a subtle way. Like a footstep, but bigger. It reminded her of the way elephants stepped, when she had been close to one at the carnival. Maybe a set of stairs nearby had collapsed? She heard a low pulse, like a heartbeat, at the very limit of her hearing.
She climbed out of the pit, careful with the meat cleaver, and heard a distant noise. Another tremble of the earth. Looking around, she didn’t see anything that could have done it. The fear must be getting to me. A moment’s pause assured her that Sangre had awoken—there was no more snoring.
Where was Snaggletooth?! Her heart picked up pace and drowned out the finer details of her hearing.
“Stupid kid,” Sangre muttered. Then he raised his voice. “I know you’re out there. Come quietly and I’ll have mercy.”
She briefly considered throwing the cleaver at him, but she didn’t want to lose her only weapon, nor enrage him with a non-fatal blow. He clicked his panel and aimed a laser at her nose.
“I see you!”
Kid froze in place.
He clicked another button as she began to run. The remaining robots’ eyes turned green, and they began to chase her. Again the earth rumbled.
One of them—a security robot—shot a dart at her. It pierced her back, and Kid yanked it out. A green venom poured over her finger tips and she dropped it. The cleaver slipped from her weakening hands. In a matter of seconds, the world turned dark.