Eli reached up, his hand shaking as he found the handholds set into the bottom of the metal bed frame above him. Swinging his body out slowly, he stepped lightly to the floor, but halfway through the maneuver, his grip failed. He stumbled across the walkway into the opposite wall of occupied beds. He braced himself against the impact, bringing his right arm up. Or rather tried to. Instead, his left arm came up uselessly, being behind him as he careened into the lowest bunk.
The metal skullcap hanging around his neck by the leads swung down and glanced off the face of the sleeping man's helmet. The impact was light, but the sound boomed, the clang of metal on metal louder than Eli believed possible. It was so loud Eli slammed his eyes closed in response. When he opened them, a moment later, they went wide as he watched the cap swing slowly, at a glacial pace up over the face of the sleeping man. Beads of sweat formed on Eli's forehead as he watched the metal cap reach the apex of the swing. Puzzled, he watched as he held its position at the top before slowly starting its descent.
Eli reached out instinctively to prevent it from smashing into the man's face on the return trip, once again the wrong hand responded. His left hand moved painfully slowly and wasn't positioned correctly to reach it. He tried again, reaching with his left this time, and his right responded. He watched it slowly reach out. With enough time to adjust the angle and position, he caught it before it hit the man's face.
A drop of sweat dripped from Eli's face down onto the man's helmet. The splash of water sounded like a drum. Eli watched the man's lips twitch, but otherwise nothing. The armored man was breathing slowly, but every breath was like the sound of a strong breeze.
Eli carefully pushed himself back and lowered himself to the floor. From the floor, he could hear the breathing of the dozen people sleeping nearest him. He slipped the headset into his shirt pocket, fastening it in.
Good news. Not purpalized. Bad news, right is lemon and sound is ampule. He frowned at his thoughts. He understood what they meant, but they still felt wrong. Damocles it! Eli turned over and crawled, slowly, as quietly as he could. His left and right arms worked opposite as he intended, but his legs worked correctly, which made no sense to him. He shook his head as he looked around. This room, with its similar layout, was different in that beds were replaced most of the wall area. He counted the beds he could see and guessed at the ones he couldn't; there were over a hundred people sleeping in this unit.
Making his way to the door, he used both hands to push himself up to where he could stand in front of it. He decided, for now, to do everything with both hands, hoping that his system would correct itself after some rest. He looked back. None of the sleeping forms paid any attention to him. Using both hands, he reached out to open the door, but before he could, it opened on its own. A large man stood in the doorway, white polymerized metal armor covering his head, neck, and much of his chest. Eli froze.
The man stepped forward, and Eli dodged to the side, getting out of his way as the man ignored him, walked past, and headed for a vacant bed. Eli slipped out into the hall, his head turning one way, then the next.
He read the room number. 727. I'm on the severeth floor. Heading toward the lobby, he plotted a path towards the first floor. With some relief, he realized time had resumed its normal speed, unfortunately; the sound was still very loud, even stepping as quietly as he could. He still felt like he was stomping loud enough to wake the dead. Eli swallowed. Right. What to dole. If someone attacks me just rust, rust as fast as I can, and get to my appliance. Lost the door. Safe.
He made it to the lobby without incident, cringing when his steps on the marble were even louder. Reaching the lift, he pressed the down button with both hands and waited. The sound of the lift arriving was nearly deafening. The doors opened revealing a woman, partially covered in white armor, wearing a dress. Eli panicked, stepping back as the woman's head rotated towards him. He was just about to make a dash for it when she stepped to the side to allow him to enter.
Eli looked around to make sure there was no one else present. When he confirmed he was alone, he stepped into the lift and to the back, out of the way. He confirmed the lift was heading for the first floor and waited while the doors closed.
"Oh poor dear," the woman's voice was raspy as she turned towards him. Eli closed his eyes again at the extreme volume. He knew she wasn't trying to be loud, but it sounded as though she were yelling.
"You must know I won't let them take you," she shook her head. "It's not right how they treat your kind. Here." She stepped in front of Eli, where he stood against the back of the lift. "You just hide behind me and you'll be fine."
My kind?
Eli stood still, counting the long seconds before they descended.
"Oh?" her hand moved to her neck. As she turned back towards him. The light for the sixth floor illuminated. Eli was stuck between the desire to flee the lift and the fear that it would stop and let someone else in. He moved back further until his back was against the back wall of the lift.
"Shh now, there's no need to thank me, I would do the same for..." she stepped closer, "Oh, how bold.. There's... ah, there's... ah ah," the woman's breathing increased as she pressed against him. Her leg came up, her foot resting on the lift's handrail. She pressed him into the corner.
Pinned against the lift by the woman's armored body, he felt trapped, her every whisper a booming echo that physically hurt his head. His eyes darted to the panel. They were still descending slowly.
She bent down; her face closing towards him, her breath was hot and shuttering as she pressed her lips closer. He put both hands up between him and her; he felt as her lips touched his hands, her tongue came out to taste them.
"You taste," she began grinding against him, pulling her mouth back, "sweet... I must have you." Eli dropped to the floor and scrambled to the panel, his arms failing to make it easy. He pulled himself up, looking at the floor indicator. 5th. He pressed the button for the 4th floor. Then turned to shelter himself, bringing his hands up.
The woman was smiling now, her tongue coming out to play along her lips. She pressed forward, trapping him again. He darted around the other way. Around he circled the lift, skirting the woman until the floor indicator settled on 4. He stopped in front of the door, his legs shaking, as he nervously eyed the doors. The woman stepped up behind him. Pressing her body against his, she leaned over his shoulder, her breath tickling his ear.
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"That's it, there now," she cooed, whispering at a headache-inducing volume. "It'll be over soon." Eli watched the door, his body poised to dash out. As the doors opened, and he moved to exit, the woman's mouth found his neck and bit into the muscle. The shock of the pain caused him a second of confusion before he bucked the woman off, tearing her mouth from his neck.
Dashing through the lift doors, he reached up and touched his neck, his hand coming away bloody. He pressed onto the wound, trying to stop the flood of blood. Eli headed around the corner, the woman in pursuit, her lips stained with his blood. He found the stairs and headed down, two steps at a time, leaving the woman behind.
As he entered the stairwell, emergency lighting started flashing, strobing at each level as he descended. He kept looking over his shoulder for the woman, but after the 3rd level, he didn't see her again. Reaching the first floor, he opened the door and peeked around the corner, trying to avoid anyone.
Heading his way down the hall, an armored man was pushing a cart. Eli ducked back inside but tracked the man through the narrow pane of glass as he pushed the cart by. Through the pane, Eli saw a corpse in the cart as the man went by. He looked up at the man pushing the cart, but his face was covered by a solid plate of armor, providing no clues as to his state of mind. Eli waited for a moment before opening the door and watching the man and cart turning a corner.
Eli looked up the stairwell for the cannibal woman, but he heard nothing and was sure she no longer pursued him. With his back pressed to the wall, Eli considered making a run for his apartment. But the corpse and the man pushing it made him curious. Knowing it was foolish he decided to follow, the man at a distance.
He crept after him, pausing at the corner the man disappeared behind. When he got there he discover a doorway that opened into a dark room lined with other carts and bins. In the center of the room, a gurney sat under a single light. A corpse was laid out on the gurney where the man was working to strip it of armor. After freeing a thigh plate, the worker walked to a bin and dropped it in. The sound echoed, magnified for Eli. He braced himself against the wall as the echoing armor physically hurt his head. After it passed, Eli poked his head back around the doorway, peeking back into the room. The room was hard to make out in the dark, but there seemed to be different bins for each armor part. From where he was Eli couldn't tell if any of the other carts had bodies.
The worker removed the faceplate, exposing the corpse’s oddly flattened face. Connected to the face armor was a series of tubing. He pulled it free from the corpse. The breathing and feeding tubes slid out with amplified slurps and wet sounds, that made Eli nauseous. The worker headed towards the doorway, causing Eli to retreat. The steps were loud, and the worker approached and dropped the feeding armor into a bin near the doorway. Eli pressed himself against the outside of the wall, remaining still, and holding his breath to prevent the slightest noise.
Without moving, Eli inspected the hall, looking for any number he could remember so he could find his way back, once the man left, and appropriate some suitable armor to protect himself. Down the hall was a series of doors similar to his own, he made a mental note of the number before peering back inside.
The worker was in the process of yanking the skullcap free of the corpse, the leads going taught before ripping free from the neck where they were implanted. Dark blood dripped down the leads as the worker wrapped the leads around the cap, and walked towards the wall. Eli retreated again, remaining still as the worker dropped the headset into a bin.
With the corpse stripped and bare, the worker pushed the gurney towards the far wall. Used a panel to open an illuminated and much larger dematerialization port. That would have been convection to kneel about, Eli thought. The gurney attached to the wall, the man working to clip it into place, before returning to the panel and starting a series of servos to lift the gurney up. The servos whined at the effort.
Eli watched as the gurney slowly moved up enough to block his view of the worker. His heart racing, Eli stepped around the corner into the room, and scanned the bins, he quickly spotted the bins for the headsets and nervously stepped closer, and reached both hands into the bin to retrieve a headset. The headset he removed was tangled with another, but he pulled it out, the second swinging behind the first before quickly retreating back into the hall.
Eli wrapped the two headsets and their leads together, grimacing and the dried blood, before stuffing them into his pocket. He waited, silent and still, until the noise of motors that were lifting and lowering the gurney stopped before looking one last time. The gurney was empty, the corpse deposited into the dematerializer. He shook his head in disgust at casual disregard for whoever had just been dematerialized.
Eli retreated before turning and heading towards his unit. He'd made it back to the main hall, and started heading toward his unit when ahead a man exited the room and headed towards him.
"I never thought you would show your yella' belly in town after I run you off last time." The man stopped in his tracks as he noticed Eli. He stepped apart and brought his hands up to his waist. "Now I'm gonna finish the job."
Eli kept walking by.
"Draw", the man mumbled as his hand came forward from his hip in a quick motion, freezing at the last, his finger working the trigger of some unseen firearm. Eli held his hands over his ears as he stumbled past the would-be gunslinger.
The man fumbled with his unseen sidearm, inspecting it. After a moment of fumbling with it, he aimed his finger at Eli as he tried to walk past, and fired again, the telltale jerk of his hand combing back with every finger squeeze.
The man turned around, his mouth going into a firm line as his shots proved ineffective.
"A glitch," he murmured, as he looked down and inspected his imaginary firearm.
Eli kept moving, increasing his pace. He was getting close to his apartment. Behind a door opened two fully armored people. Eli glanced back, noting that it was a man and woman this time.
"Halt." The two turned towards him and followed.
Eli didn't stop. Instead, he sped up, breaking into a run.
"Eli Timothy Davis, by the authority of the Department of Net Compliance, we order you to halt." The woman's voice yelled after him, her voice hoarse, cracked on the word order.
Eli stopped in front of his room and slapped his hand on the bio-scanner. His door opened, and he darted inside. Once inside, he turned and closed the door, using the control panel.
He waited. His back against the wall. He waited, and he breathed deeply, catching his breath as he wiped the sweat from his head.
Pounding came from the door.
"Department of Net Compliance," the man's voice, though muted through the door, Eli could still make out every word. "We're here to review your recent activity." Eli staggered away from the door, heading towards his sleeping area. The relief he felt at being back inside his familiar room was cut short the next moment.
"Your door will be unlocked in five seconds. Stand ready to receive us."