Helona grabbed a device and marched her way to the door. Linux yelped as she pushed him out of the way and ran to the door with a fresh wave of hope crashing into her. She slammed open the door, crashing it into the carpet wall. Brown electricity sparked from the impact. She ignored the spark and walked up the stairs so fast she nearly broke into a sprint.
Linux called up to her, telling her to calm down, while Killian followed after her. She made it up the stairs, the only thing blocking her way being the cabinet that hid the entrance. She grabbed the cabinet’s side and pushed it open. The light from the bedroom broke into the stairway, momentarily hurting her eyes from the sudden change in lighting.
When it was out of the way, Helona walked into the bedroom and made her way toward Kauss. He was still sleeping, snoring and drooling into a body pillow. He was in a decent position for her to attach the device.
She rolled up his shirt, exposing his back. Killian and Linux came into the bedroom as she lifted his arm, exposing his armpit. Aiming the needle, she pierced it into his skin, causing him to moan from discomfort. She could only imagine what he was dreaming as she pierced him with the needle.
A second passed with the device on him, and lightning worked its way outside his body and encompassed him. He woke up screaming and squirming from the pain he was suddenly under. His fingers twitched, eyes wide with panic, and mouth open, screaming all the pain away.
The lightning vanished shortly after, leaving Kauss as a heaping mess. Pain filled tears fell from his eyes, and he breathed so quickly he became light-headed in no time at all. Suddenly, he felt someone hug him from behind. He turned and saw his girlfriend looking over his face with a smile.
“What’s going on?” Kauss asked. He forgot where he was or how he even got to the place. He took the time to think and remembered a tiny portion of what had happened. That’s when he realized something. “Where’s our bags?”
Helona looked away, almost ashamed to even look at him. His eyes widened as he realized they left their bags out by the elevator with a monster on the loose. In a sudden moment of panic, his brain gave him a shot of adrenaline, filling him with energy. He shot out of bed and ran to the door, but someone grabbed him by the shirt.
“Enough.” Linux ordered, grabbing his shirt collar. “You may be healed now, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no danger out there.”
“What do you mean, healed?”
Kauss had no clue what was happening. He remembered waking up from feeling something pierce his skin below his arm. He moved his arm and could feel something oddly metallic in his armpit. It didn’t hurt, whatever it was, but it was fairly annoying to feel every time he swung his arm.
He looked at Helona and noticed something about her. The last thing he remembered before passing out, she was beat up and bruised all over. Now she was completely healed, and it even looked like she was a year younger. A thought came to his head, but it was too stupid to consider. But it still nudged at him, and he had to check.
Pulling up his shirt, his bullet wound was healed with no scarring or trace he had ever been shot. The stitches stuck out of him, but there was nothing else to show he had been injured otherwise. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. As a test, he grabbed one of the stitches and tugged. It came out with a pinch, and blood trickled out from where the miniscule hole it created. The bleeding stopped and the most magical and horrifying thing happened.
Tiny amounts of lightning sparked from his blood and wound. The blood flowed backward and re-entered the wound, quickly sealing the hole. Kauss had no words as he stared at the scene as it unfolded. Out of curiosity, he pulled out the rest of the stitches one by one. Like before, the blood re-entered his body, and the holes sealed themselves.
He had only one thing to say in such an impossible and mystifying situation. “What the hell.”
“Are we immortal now?” Killian asked.
Linux shook his head. “Sadly, no. You can still die, but the device you have will make sure you have a clean corpse.”
Kauss began walking over to the door. Linux, once again, grabbed his shirt collar, keeping him from doing something stupid. He knew that if they were caught, they’d die right away. Everyone on the floor knew each other, so if even one person catches them, they’d be questioned and killed. He was safe at least since even if it came out that he hid them, they wouldn’t be able to do anything against him. As much as he hated his position, at least it came with decent perks as long as he gave up his life and soul.
“You can’t leave. I’ll go and get your bags myself. You should stay here.”
Kauss turned his head at him, a demon’s soul staring through his pupils. “And tell me why I should trust you?”
“Because you’d be dead if I hadn’t found you.”
“Not that.” Kauss shouted. “How can I trust you not to break what’s in there?”
Linux sighed and dug in his pocket. He took out another device, this one somewhat different from the rest. Instead of a needle, it had four claw like attachments on the side. The pegs had two sections that bended so they could effortlessly clamp onto anything.
“This is somewhat the same type of device as I gave y’all, but it works on smaller items.” Linux explained.
Considering that the entire town was covered by a dome that made the town invisible, as well as a device that can heal a person’s injuries almost instantly, it wasn’t a surprise that he had a similar device for objects.
“Are you going to let me get your stuff now?”
Kauss looked at Linux and the device, thinking of the risks that could happen. He wanted grandmamma, and he could just ignore his request and leave after him. With the monster outside the town, who knows if he’d even make it there. Linux was the only one out of them that could realistically fight that beast.
“Okay, but under one condition.” Kauss said. “Give me a weapon and take me with you.”
Linux stared back with a certain look in his eye. Kauss knew what was coming, and he was getting ready to deck him in the face. Indeed, moments later, he started laughing. Kauss pulled back his fist and went to uppercut him, wanting to shut him up. He saw it coming and dodged out of the way.
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“Woah.” Linux said, the last remaining laughter leaving him. “It’s not as easy as getting a weapon then using it. You need practice or you could end up hurting yourself.”
“Then just tell me how to use it on the way.” Kauss demanded.
Linux sighed, scratching his head. “You aren’t going to let up on this, are you?”
Kauss stayed silent. He was sure he made his point clear that he was going out there to personally bring grandmamma back. Linux shrugged, finally giving up. He lowered his head in defeat and headed toward the hidden room.
“Follow me.”
Linux stepped down the stairs, and they followed after him. After a few seconds, they entered the lab that constantly hummed. They approached the finished weapons table and Kauss looked over them all, eyeing up which one he liked the most.
One weapon was a spiked chain, nothing really impressive. A sword sat right by it, the hilt glowing from the energy it gave off. A pair of gloves with straps sat next to a dual sided blade. Two blades were attached to a handle on opposite ends of each other. Kauss had no clue how that was even useable.
However, the weapon that caught his eye as soon as he entered was the simplest. A standard kitchen knife sat next to the sword. The knife’s edge glowed a pinkish red, and the hilt glowed in the same color. He went to pick it up, but Linux got to it first when he saw he was eyeing it.
“I got to tell you something before I give this to you.” Linux said. He pointed to the handle and Kauss looked closely. A button was inserted into the hilt, begging to be pressed. “Don’t touch this button. Lightning will shoot out and without training, you could hurt yourself or your luggage. Most likely both.”
Carefully, keeping his fingers away from the button, he handed Kauss the knife. Kauss examined the blade, testing the edge. He pressed his finger against the blade, cutting himself, testing how sharp it was. There was no worry if it was sharp or not since it sliced through his toughened skin. He could only imagine how deep it could go in someone if he put all his weight into a swing. It would have been better if it was anything other than a plain kitchen knife, but this could do the job.
Linux unhooked his staff and walked to another table. He dragged out a bag and rummaged through it. Grasping onto a shirt, he lifted it out of the bag and put it on. It was an orange, loose-fitting shirt with a Linyol, a scavenger bird that looked for corpses in the sky, imprinted onto the front.
They headed back up the stairs and approached the door leading outside. Before leaving, Linux grabbed the case that he left on the stove and gave it to Helona. She grabbed it and looked at him, wondering what was going on.
“Bring that downstairs.” Linux said. “Don’t do anything down there. You can kill yourself with the more dangerous stuff.”
With that, Linux and Kauss headed out and toward the dome walls. Kauss remembered the dome faintly, and now that he was fully awake, he could appreciate the majesty of the place. Linux exited the dome first and Kauss followed, shaking from the pleasure. They were outside, entering the monster filled region of the second floor.
----------------------------------------
Kauss stared up at the sky. Apparently that’s what Linux called the ceiling, but he thought it needed a better name. Sadly, he couldn’t come up with one right off the bat, and instead observed the flying creature soaring through the sky. He asked what it was, and got the answer right away.
“It’s a Linyol.” Linux said. “It’s a scavenger, keeping watch for any dead body to feast off of.”
Kauss took his eyes off the bird and walked quicker, catching back up to him. “That thing is large. Why doesn’t it just kill prey itself?”
“Because compared to everything else, that thing is the least threatening creature here.”
Just as he said that, a shadow cast over them. They looked up and a giant, mangy beast jumped over them, jaws wide open. The Linyol saw the monster jump at it and tried to fly away. It dodged the beast’s jaws and flew away to safety. However, the wolf jumped again, seemingly in midair, and redirected itself. It snapped its fangs shut over the Linyol, blood and guts falling from its maw.
It fell back to the ground, prey in its mouth. It’s grey coat fluttering as the wind breezed past. White fur covered its face, stained with the blood of its prey. Claws dug into the ground, ripping the earth apart from the sheer force of its muscles. If that thing attacked them, Kauss doubted that even the device’s magical properties could keep them alive.
It looked over in their direction, acknowledging their existence. Kauss went to draw his knife, prepared to fight rather than die passively, but Linux held his arm back. He looked at him, wondering what he was doing. If they didn’t take out their weapons, then they’d be nothing but an easy meal. However, the beast walked away, running with so much speed it picked up layers of dirt, sediment, and wind. Its tail flapped wildly, almost as if it had no control over it.
When Kauss was sure the beast was no longer a threat, he stared at Linux, fury filling his core. “What were you thinking?” Kauss yelled. “That thing could’ve snapped us in half.”
“That’d be impossible.” Linux countered. “The devices protect us, and even then it was afraid of us.”
“How could something like that be afraid of us?”
Linux began walking again, seemingly not giving two shits about what just happened. “We’ve put the fear of humans into them.” He explained. “After we made these weapons, everyone set up a code. For every one human they kill, we kill five of them.”
Kauss wondered why they would even do that. It would have been really shitty for them in the future when they kill any available meat source. Linux looked back and saw he had come to the sensible conclusion.
“Yeah, we screwed everything up. Several species went extinct, and the only ones left feared us like a plague. Soon, every generation of beast would take one look at us, then run for the hills.” Linux’s face seemed to cast itself in a shadow as he thought about something. “All except for one.”
With that grim note, they kept on moving, not wanting to be outside for longer than necessary. Kauss knew what beast he was referring to. Although he had a hard time with remembering much of what happened in the past two hours, he remembered the monster that attacked them to a tee.
A monster that could disguise itself as a human was something that he only ever dreamed about. At night, on the first floor, he would dream his Mom turned into a monster and would chase him relentlessly throughout a nightmarish landscape of his choosing. He would always wake up as soon as it caught him, however, so he did not know of whatever fate his dream counterpart awaited.
It didn’t take too long to reach the elevator. Without two injured people and a dead man weighing them down, it was around a twenty-minute walk. Kauss wondered how he stayed up for so long without passing out. He had trouble walking with his injury, so the fact he walked such a distance surprised him.
The bags were neatly stacked near the elevator as they had left them. The vase was in one of the clothing bags in order to soften the ride. He ran up to the bag and dug through it, tossing clothes aside and clawing his way through many shirts, pants, and underwear.
His knuckle hit something hard, and he felt his way to it. Grasping his hands around the vase, he carefully pulled it out. There were no signs of cracks and the lid was still as tight as ever. He wanted to test it, but considering his strength was on a much higher level than before, he didn’t take the risk.
Linux brought out the device and checked to see if it was in working order. From what he was seeing, nothing should be awry, so it should fit on perfectly. He approached the vase, the device outstretched, the pegs ready to latch on to its master.
It grabbed onto the vase and electricity shot out of it and circled around the surface. The lightning quieted soon after, and the vase creaked as the material tightened beyond comprehension.
“Just to let you know, it doesn’t have the same regenerative abilities as we have. You’re still going to need to take care of it.”
Kauss nodded, expecting some type of downside. He wasn’t as naive as to believe that great ideas don’t come with some sort of flaw. Life is just like that, and nothing would stop the disasters as soon as they began.
“I’m going to sort through your stuff.” Linux said. “First thing you need to learn about climbing the tower, don’t take too much stuff with you. And this,” Linux nudged the bloated bags with his foot. “Is way too much. Imagine running from a beast and you’re weighed down by all this stuff.”
Kauss let Linux do his thing as he kept watch. Anything could sneak up on them at a moment’s notice. He held on to the vase with one hand, while gripping the knife’s handle with the other. The machine next to the elevator hummed almost silently, giving some sound to an otherwise silent moment.
He turned his head toward the north from the elevator’s perspective, and he saw something he wasn’t expecting to see. A person was standing still, waving at them. They weren’t too near, but they were close enough that he could see their face.
“Helona?”