NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 17
I have no intention of running into whatever is making those distant sounds. It’s almost certainly looking for a fight, and I’m barely holding myself together as is. The only problem is that the echoing hallways distort all sound, making it seem like it’s coming from everywhere. I can keep track of how distorted a sound is to have a rough measure of the distance between me and it. The less distorted it is, the closer they are. Even if that alone doesn't help me figure out the direction, it’s better than nothing.
I carefully make my way through the compound. Keeping away from whatever is out there is a constant chore. Far more often than I’d like I have to retrace my steps when they sound too close. The further away from the elevator I get the more active they seem to become. It’s far too dangerous to go more than a mile away from the elevator.
I walk down hundreds of hallways, checking tens of thousands of doors. I can’t skip a single one, any one of these rooms could have what I’m looking for. Of course none of them even have the smallest clue as to where to go. When am I ever lucky?
With every room I check my safe options are rapidly decreasing. There has to be something I can do to either make it easier to avoid the creatures, or to give me a fighting chance against them.
Every room is the same, a solid metal table that sometimes has a file on it. The table doesn't even have bolts that I can unscrew, it’s just a solid chunk of steel. Even if I was strong enough to pick it up, it’d be too impractical to be of any use. Unless I can think of some way to use a text file as a weapon, I’m going in unarmed.
Eventually I’m out of options. Every remotely safe room has been scoured for anything useful. I drop into the corner of the final safe room, staring at my fractured hands. I should just leave, tell the others, and try again when I’m healed. I already told them I could do it though. Leaving now would be worse than not trying in the first place. I just have to be perfect, it’s that easy.
I push myself to my feet and head back into the endless hallways. One thing I can do is to manipulate the threads at my core into makeshift shoes. The threads hitting the ground instead of my metal feet should hopefully make my footsteps a little quieter. Every step sends a shot of pain to my core, but I can’t care about that. It’s not doing permanent damage to my mind so I’ll just have to deal with it.
I begin to silently creep outside of the one mile safe zone. The rooms out here are no different, but that doesn't mean I get to stop checking them.
I hate being out here. I’ve only checked a dozen rooms and am barely 100 feet outside the safe zone when I think I feel eyes on the back of my head. It might just be me being paranoid, but the doors opening do make some noise and it might be enough to attract unwanted attention.
Every time I peek my head in a room I expect something to grab me from behind. I’m never doing this again.
Just before I’m about to turn a corner I hear a faint sound, different from the incomprehensible distant noises. A single drop of liquid hits the ground followed by a sizzle. No no no. Don’t run, don’t panic. I slowly back away from the corner and turn another.
Nearly inaudible footsteps begin to slowly make their way towards me. If I weren’t hyper aware that something was there I would never have noticed them. The footsteps don’t sound human, there are too many legs.
It always stays just out of sight from me, I can’t just keep running. The doors make noise when opened, but maybe I can trick it? As I walk I open random doors along the hallway. Once a dozen doors are open I slip into a previously opened door. It’s not a good plan, but what choice do I have? Maybe it’ll just check the furthest door and give up.
I do my best to make myself as flat as possible against the wall close to the door. It won’t be able to see me without coming in, and if it does I might be able to get the drop on it.
Sniffing noises come from the hallway, from what I can tell it’s checking every room. That’s it, I’m dead. I can’t just pull myself out of here without risking shattering my mind. Maybe I can hit it and race back to the elevator? Or maybe it’ll leave me alone if I can get back into the safe zone?
The footfalls stop just outside my door and it begins to sniff. It’s not coming in. Why is it not coming in? The sniffing stops and the creature moves on. I don’t believe I’m safe for a second, there’s no way it doesn't know I’m here. It just happens to not carefully check my room? No way.
Just how smart is this thing? If I was just some virus trying to hide there’d be no reason to pretend to not see me. Unless it’s calling for backup. Shit, that’s exactly what it’s doing, isn’t it? I have to get out of here as soon as possible.
I strain my ears for any hint of a sound from the creature. It sounds like it is checking the last open room and continuing down the hallway. I wait until it sounds like it’s turned the corner and slowly peek out of the room.
It’s abandoned, now's the time to move. I move as quickly as I can while staying silent away from the direction the creature went. It’s away from the safe zone, but it’s better than fighting whatever that is. I reach an intersection and turn the corner.
In front of me sits what looks like it was once a dog, crouched and ready to pounce. Its pure black body juts out into wicked spikes at impossible angles. Its foot long, pure white fangs and unnatural green acid dripping from its mouth is the only visible color on it.
The creature leaps at me before I can react with acid flying from its mouth as it screams. It’s all I can do to lift my arms to brace for impact and to drop low to the ground. It’s not likely to work, but maybe I can drive myself upwards into its stomach, sending it flailing behind me. As the creature connects with me, I am no longer myself.
Barking. Crying. Howling. Panting. The noises are overwhelming. I need something, but what? I flail around, finding something to latch onto. A liquid fills my mouth, the best taste in the world. I can’t get enough of it. I drink and sleep and drink some more.
After a long time of milk and sleep I make a discovery. I can see! There’s a whole world around me! I can see that the milk comes from mom! But none of that matters, there are others around me, trying to drink my milk! That’s mine! I bark and bite and fight and get my milk. I grow much larger than the others! And the larger I get the more milk I get!
Soon I get too big. They remove me and the others and put us in a big pen with hundreds of other dogs. They place another big dog with mom. What’s he doing? That’s not how you get milk.
The other dogs in here are mean, and there’s not even any milk, just gross hard crunchy food. Why would the bigger dogs bite and claw when I get close? Why are they so mean? Even if it’s gross, I’m hungry too. I need to grow.
For a long time I’m left in here with the others. I have to steal mouthfuls of food when I can, but it’s never enough. I’m always hungry, always snapping and biting. Sometimes the other dogs stop moving. I don’t like those meals.
The longer I stay here the weaker I get. My legs and chest are getting skinny with weird hard bits jutting out. I don’t like them at all.
Other dogs are sometimes taken out of the pen, every time I hope they’re here for me. They never are. They only like the big mean ones, someone like me would never get picked, or so I thought.
One day someone picks me up and places me in a small box. It’s even more cramped in here than it was in the pen. I can’t stand or walk or see. The crate shifts uncomfortably as I’m carried somewhere. It’s all I can do to try to sleep and hope I get to leave this box one day.
The moving eventually stops and I’m pulled from my box. I’m too weak to fight back as they strap me into some device. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. They grab a metal hat with spikes jutting out of it and place it on my head. An instant later everything goes dark.
Pain. Anger. Fear. All three consume me one after another, washing away any previous feeling. My mouth is dissolving and reforming every instant from some neverending liquid and my body is broken and malformed. Stop the pain. Stop. Run. Endless hallways blur by as I run in endless circles.
A thing appears in front of me. No time to think. Bite, rip, tear, shred. Every bite makes the pain go away for just an instant before returning. Bite again, again, again. Bite until the thing beneath me is gone, only a dissolved pit remaining. Run again. Fight again. Bite again.
Through millions of miles and hundreds of fights I survive. I grow. With every fight I take their memories, becoming whole from their fractured minds. I learn to deal with the burning in my mouth, I learn to map out the entire maze, I learn what it means to live.
The only two parts of the maze I don’t own are the center and the furthest hallway. Both areas hurt my head. I’ve tried a couple times to go near but it’s never worth it.
I prowl the maze for days, hunting for anything still alive. A noise at the center always used to signal the arrival of new prey nearly constantly, but one day it stopped. I’ve been alone for so long.
I awake from my stupor to a signal, a glorious sound. Fresh prey. It’s moving too slow, the others always fled from the center right into my open jaws, but this one? It’s different.
I make noise to attract it to me, to challenge it. It doesn’t accept, instead staying in the hurting zone. That’s fine, there’s no way out for it. I’m fast and it’s loud, I can simply hide at the edge wherever it goes.
Every passing moment makes my mouth produce more green pain, desperate for relief. But the other doesn’t care, it taunts me right at the edge too many times, and in my excitement I end up making noise. I just scare it away so many times.
Finally though, it enters my domain. I get between it and the painful zone, cutting off its escape. I follow just around every corner, it’s trying to be quiet, but every step is like an explosion to my ears. I sprint ahead silently, waiting around the corner, salivating at what’s coming.
No! It turned around! The stupid thing heard me! It’s not running though, there’s still a chance. I let it turn the corner and follow again. It opens many doors, trying to hide. Poor dumb thing, I can hear exactly which one it walked into.
I’ve been ambushed like this before though. I need to make it think that it’s gotten away so I can surprise it. I sniff at each door, loudly and obviously, while making sure to stay out of the room it’s in.
I pace my way to the end of the hallway loudly enough that even it can hear me and turn the corner. Silently I sprint, taking turns I’ve taken a thousand times, finding my way in front of it once again. I wait as footsteps approach. It turns the corner into me, its neck wide open. I leap but it’s fast, barely dodging my fangs.
The beast's memories recede, leaving me as myself once again. I’m sprawled on my back and the beast lays behind me, still grappling with my memories. I’ve seen this thing move, there’s no outrunning it, I have to end it now.
I struggle to my feet and stand over the shaking dog. He’s dead to the world for now, but there’s no way to tell how long that will last. I bring my foot down on its head, at the moment of impact ice spreads from my foot, encasing the poor creature’s head. Blow after blow slowly leaves his entire body encased.
The acid dripping from its mouth is slowly melting my work but that’s fine. It only has to last until I get control of the system, and I know where to go now.
