Mother
Alternate
Finality
Chapter Five: Run, human, run
You’re out of options…
There is no turning back.
Would you have done things differently?
Could you have stayed on the same path?
There is no time for contemplation now.
…power…yourself…
Joshua felt the cold metal of the elevator brush up against his back, eliciting a surprised gasp as he watched the army of Starmen advance menacingly on him and his friends. His mouth was open and his chest was heaving while his hands began groping the wall in search of a door, a switch, a button…anything to get them out of this mess.
Vee let out a feral growl and backed up against the wall as well. Her newfound sword was raised, its blade parallel to the ground and the tip pointing its wielder’s opponents. Both the eyes of the master and the blade of the weapon shone with a cold light that demonstrated both attentiveness and fear.
Peel tried not to show it, but she was scared beyond belief. Instinctively she began formulating a plan that would get them out of there, but her hopes fell when she discovered that she was unable to think of anything other than just how scared she was. Her palms began sweating and her brow became furrowed as she tried to stand her ground, but found herself pushed back by an unknown force…probably her own fear.
Julian wasn’t as resigned as they were, though. Like the others, he too was backing up in an effort, futile as it may have been, to escape the horde waiting to tear them apart, torture them, or worse. Instead of preparing to fight, however, Julian was focusing on another plan. He’d gotten out of worse situations than this through the course of his adventures, and he was too close to his goal to spoil everything right now.
Carefully he summoned the Gleyd Aswer and held it at the ready, then began peering over the shoulders of the rapidly advancing Starmen. There was a door on the other end of the hallway, and all of the Starmen were concentrated around the entrance to the elevator, so if they could manage to get to the other side, then they’d have a chance to run…
Julian began concentrating, his mind clearing of all extraneous thoughts as he sent a telepathic message to the little boy behind him. It was going to be a long shot, but after a short message from Joshua, and visual confirmation out of the corner of his eye to make sure everything was ready, Julian knew they’d be able to pull it off.
Quickly Julian swung his hand and held it behind him, commanding the Gleyd Aswer to hide behind its master. This action alarmed the two Starmen at the front of the group, who began charging up their weapons and preparing to fire.
They never had the chance; Julian swung his arm once more, this time holding it out in front of himself, in order to reveal the Aswer, which was now covered in small, vibrating spheres of white psychokinetic energy. With a shout Julian released the Aswer, and it plowed through the 24-odd Starmen as if they were made of tinfoil. Once it reached the center of the group, Julian turned to Joshua, who nodded and raised his hand grandiloquently, causing the spheres attached to the Aswer to explode, taking out even more Starmen.
In the midst of all this confusion, the four humans huddled together and were soon enveloped by a yellow light, which swallowed them and whisked them over to the other side of the miniature army, depositing them at a safe distance from the cloud of smoke, rubble, and robotic remains. They turned and ran for the door they second they materialized, not bothering to look back.
Once they made it to the other side of the door, Joshua turned and extended his fingers, calling forth a stream of fire that enveloped the door and melted it shut, providing a blockade that would stop any more Starmen from coming from that direction, if only temporarily.
It was fortunate that he did, for waiting for the humans on the other side of that particular doorway was another, lesser group of Starmen, which showed no quarter and began charging the intruders the moment they showed. Vee and Peel stepped forward to handle this one while Julian and Joshua focused on the door. The hallway was then saturated with sound as the two human girls began pounding away at the Starmen. Two fell to Vee’s blade, and another four were disabled as Peel electrocuted them with one of her trademark Bolt Mines. Within a few moments the hallway was clear of Starmen once more, and the youths continued on their way.
No one could really tell just how much time had elapsed since that moment—it had all become a mish-mash of memories, all of which seemed to repeat themselves in an endless cycle of destruction, running, and adrenaline. They didn’t speak much as they made their way progressively deeper into the base, beating anything that got in their way and sealing any doors they came across so as to prevent being chased by anything they might have left behind. It was all a blur.
Eventually the group reached a narrow catwalk overlooking a large chasm. What was surprising about this room wasn’t the catwalk itself, since the four humans had come across any number of rooms, all different, on their way here; no, this room was special because it was empty. Julian and his friends slowed their frenetic running down to a wary stroll as they entered this room, and crossed the catwalk with an air of uncertainty. Once they were on the other side, and had crossed the doorway which led from this room to the next, they let out a sight of relief.
This room was empty as well.
Without a second thought Peel turned and rigged the door of this metallic room with landmines, and Joshua used a burst of pyrokinesis to weld the door to its hinges. In the meantime, Julian and Vee inspected the room they were in.
“There are two doors…where do you think they lead to?” queried Vee tiredly, her sword hanging limply at her side.
Julian shrugged, his hands coming to rest inside his pockets. This had been the first time since they came in that there was actually a choice of where to go. “I don’t know…you think we should just…pick one?”
“Well, what if we pick wrong?”
Julian didn’t get a chance to answer as Peel and Joshua walked up to them. Peel wiped her brow with the back of her hand and sheathed her wrench, saying, “It’s sealed,” with an air of exhausted pride.
Julian acknowledged Peel, and then returned to his previous problem. “I think we should just pick one. If we pick wrong, then we can just pick the other door, right?”
Upon the consent of the others, Julian walked up to the first door, the one on his left, and stood in front of it, silently waiting for it to open and let it through. He stood there for a few seconds, expectantly, until he saw that the door wouldn’t budge. Cautiously he stepped closer to it and waved a hand in front of the doorway, as if trying to alert it to its presence….still nothing.
Somewhat annoyed now, Julian curled his hand into a fist and rapped on the door, expecting to hear a hollow, metallic knocking. Instead of that, though, the sound of a dull thud reached his ears.
“This door’s a fake,” he mused. “There’s nothing on the other side…”
Vee stepped up to the other door and knocked on it. “This one’s fake too…so this is a dead end…”
Julian dropped his gaze to the floor and laid his hand on the smooth, metallic wall, overcome with confusion. What were they going to do now? They were stuck in a dead end, and they had sealed the door behind them…
BAM!!
Julian was jarred from his thoughts the second he heard a loud pounding on the door that he and his friends has used to come inside, and gasped as he saw the metal bend and strain under the force of something assaulting it from the other side.
“It’s the Starmen…they’ve caught up to us…” Joshua clenched his fists and stepped away from the door. “What are we going to do?”
“Anything, as long as we do it quickly!” was Peel’s response as she took her place beside Joshua and readied her bazooka. “Damnit! Why did we have to walk into a dead end now of all times…”
Vee heard that last comment, and it triggered a thought in her head. “Wait a minute…what if this isn’t a dead end?”
Julian rolled up his sleeves and dropped into a fighting stance. “I’m listening,” he said.
“Well, think about it…if they’d wanted to make a dead end, then they would’ve just made it—you know, without the fake doors. But there are fake doors here. It’s almost like they’re…”
“Hiding something,” finished Julian, who took a step back and rushed to the far wall. “You guys keep them busy! I’ll try to find whatever’s in here!”
The others accepted Julian’s orders and prepared themselves for the onslaught as Julian went up to the wall and placed his hands on the shiny metal, feeling frantically for the grooves that might indicate a door.
The door was ripped from its frame on one of the corners, and a tentacle slithered in, trying to open the door from the inside. Peel fired her bazooka at it and ripped it from its owner, causing it to tumble helplessly to the ground, but the tentacle was soon replaced by two others, which succeeded in getting part of the door unhinged.
Julian felt what seemed like a break in the wall through his fingertips, and his eyes widened. There was something in here…he had to find out how to open it, though.
This time, a Starman was able to fit its entire body through the door. It attempted to fire on the intruders, but was quickly silenced as Joshua shot a bolt of PK Thunder at it, shocking it and two others which just happened to be touching it at the time.
Finally, Julian found what seemed like a small, barely palpable indentation in the wall, and he pressed it in with his finger. Almost instantly, the wall began to whirr and click as unseen motors and servos on the inside were set in motion. Julian took a step back and watched in awe as the hidden door revealed itself by sliding to the side. Like lightning he whirled to his companions and called out to them.
“Let’s go! I found the door!”
The others
disengaged themselves from the incoming mass of Starmen
and ran through the doorway, which led to another metallic catwalk. This one was different from the other,
though: for one thing, it was outside.
It was thick and concave, like a gutter, and filled up with dirt, much
like the soil of
Julian and his friends began running along the pathway as the Starmen finally made their way into the room and onto the landmines that Peel so cleverly placed the second they set foot in the room. The explosion sent a shockwave of air which knocked everyone to the floor and onto their faces. They scrambled to their feet and began running again, now hearing the sounds of laser fire as the Starmen began their attack on them.
Julian looked ahead and noticed that the platform on the end of the catwalk was actually paved with primitive looking brick—and it was hovering, detached from the rest of the walkway by a meter-long jump. Desperately, Julian reached for it with his hand, and everything went into slow motion as he and the others reached the end of the walkway. With a yell the four children made a huge leap from the catwalk and onto the platform, tumbling clumsily onto the surface.
As soon as the humans landed, the platform began to rumble as a pink, translucent dome materialized over the platform, and it began to separate itself from the rest of the surreal catwalk. The Starmen, which were now far away, didn’t fire on the dome for some reason, and instead opted to crowd around the end of the walkway, glaring menacingly at the four humans.
Julian looked on from his position on the floor, and then checked on his friends, who were in equal shock. The platform glided silently above the ground, until it was far enough away from the mountain, then stopped.
Julian barely had enough time to question the fact before the platform shot up at an amazing speed, and he lost consciousness.