Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 6: The Impersonator

Phil (1st person)

We awkwardly stared at each other for a moment. I went over to her, and she inched away from me and closer to the wall. She'd been sitting on her bed. "I guess it makes sense that you don't believe me. I'll come back later when I either find a way out or get this thing off..." I said. She blinked. I left her room and decided to try Pico again. I got there and ran into the humanoid that had been in Pico's room. "Oh, hello," they said. It sounded like a male. "Uh... Hi..." I said. "I haven't seen you before. Are you new?" They asked. I wasn't sure how he could ever tell the difference between anyone. "Yeah..." I said. "Oh, alright. What's your label? Or do you not have one yet? Mine's 54321," they said. I thought 5 was the only one whose name was a number. "Uh..." I said. My suit beeped and my wrist vibrated. I looked down at it. There was a small screen that unfolded from my suit. It said 'save label?'. I figured it meant save this humanoids one, so I just pressed 'yes'. "Can you take this suit off?" I asked. "Take it off? Why would you want to do that?" He said. "How do I use the bathroom?" I asked. "What? Um... Never mind that, do you have a mentor?" They asked. That meant that he wasn't wearing anything under it. I was still wearing my jumpsuit. "N- Yes..." I said. "Okay. Hey, would you mind taking the night shift for me? I have to get home," they said. "No, sure, I'll do it. Is it just this building?" I asked. "Yep. You shouldn't need to go into the others. You don't have to interact with them, you can just watch the cameras. Make sure none of them get out," he said. "Got it," I said. They gave me a small friendly nod and left. "Oh, wait, one more thing!" They called. "E6 might be overheating, just make sure to check on 'em frequently," he said. "Alright," I said, looking down at my map. E6 was Pico. Why would he be overheating? "Wait!" I said, running up to 18765. "Hm?" He asked. "Uh... What happened to Laur- Er... E7," I said. "What? Oh, you heard it? I just paralyzed her, she'll be okay," they said. "Why'd it sound like a gunshot?" I asked.

"Are you sure you have a mentor? I used this; it has a small needle in the bullet. Since the paralyzer takes a while to work, the bullet'll distract her," he said, holding up what looked like a pistol. "Oh..." I said. "Yeah, don't be alarmed if there's some blood. If it seems like a dangerous amount, use this," he said, tossing a small white tube to me. "Just put it on the wound and it'll reseal within a couple of minutes. Oh, and if you do choose to engage, be careful. They can be dangerous and persuasive," he said. "Okay..." I said. If the wound resealed, wouldn't the bullet still be in her? I went to Pico's room and put my hand on the pad, but it wouldn't open. I looked at the screen on my wrist, which unfolded again. It said 'level 2+ required'. Was I level one? How do I get to level two? I went to Lauren, and the same thing happened. I tried a random door, and it opened. Why did only some of them open? This was Pico's variants room. He glanced at me. "Hey, it's me, Phil!" I said, hoping he'd believe me. "Oh. How'd you get out?" I asked. "When one of the humanoids brought my food, I knocked them over and put them in my cell, then I found this suit and I can't get it off," I explained. He gave a small nod.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" I asked. "Kind of. I don't know why we're here, but I know why Lauren's variant took Smiley," he said. "So, Smiley injected with Zack, and Zack was Lauren's partner. Lauren probably wanted Smiley dead, but it's easier to take on an eleven year old rather than someone who's in there thirties," he said. "Right, because if Smiley dies, then the variant dies too..." I said. "Yeah," he said. "What about the cybervexes? Do you know why they came? Like, originally?" I asked. "Hm? Oh, not really. Everything was fine, and then they just randomly appeared and massacred almost everyone," he said. "When was the invasion?" I asked. "A while ago. We were about to graduate when it happened," he said. I assumed he meant high school. "Okay, well, thanks. I'll come get you when... Err... If I find a way out..." I said. "Okay, well, I'll just be here," he said. I left his room and went back to the security camera room. I looked to Pico's camera. He wasn't wearing his jumpsuit, and he didn't look conscious. I looked to Lauren's camera. She was laying limply on the ground in a pool of blood. It seemed like a 'dangerous amount' to me. I thought about the level two thing. Surely some humanoids have to be level two. The humanoid in my cell. They could be level two. I went to the cell, and the door opened. The humanoid in there seemed to be panicking. "Hey, what level are you?" I asked. "Two," they said. "Can you open a cell for me?" I asked. "Alright... At least I'm finally getting out of here," they said, rushing outside. "Which one?" They asked as I led them towards Lauren's door. "Here," I said. "E7? Alright," they said, putting their hand on the pad. The door slid open. "Thanks," I said. "Mm-hmm. I'm gonna go look for the escaped one; E5," he said.

"Okay," I said. I walked into the room. I immediately smelled the blood. I gagged. My wrist vibrated again. 'Block smell?' It said. I pressed 'yes'. I guessed that the suit had some sort of filter, because I couldn't smell the blood anymore. I went to Lauren and looked at her. Before deciding weather or not she was alive, I dug around in her wound for the bullet. I found it and pulled it out. I used the cream in the tube, and within thirty seconds, the wound closed. It was weird; watching the skin form back into its normal shape and sealing the wound. The blood was still there, but at least no more was coming out. Now she wouldn't have a scar anymore, and hopefully, no more pain. I looked over her face. Her eyes were closed, but her chest was subtly rising and falling. Her breathing was shallow, but there wasn't really much I could do. She groaned. Her eyes opened, and she jumped.

"Lauren? It's me, Phil," I said. "Phil? What happened? Where are we? How'd you get out?" She asked. "Are you okay?" I asked, ignoring her other questions. "Yeah, somehow I'm fine. How'd I heal so fast?" She asked. "This cream," I said. "Where's Zack? Oh, what about Pico, is he okay? Did he get shot too?" She asked. "I don't know, I'll go check on him now..." I said. It occurred to me that I couldn't check on him, since his cell door was still locked. "Hey, why isn't your room hot?" I asked. Her room was a bit chilly, like the rest of the building. "I don't know. Why would it be hot?" She asked. "Never mind..." I said. I pried the grate off of the vent, which didn't have any screws holding it in, just a hinge. I found that the cold air was coming from somewhere else, and it just went two ways, into Pico and Lauren's room. Pico's was blocked by something. I reached my arm as far as it would go. I could barely reach it, much I managed to pushed the block out. "We need to get in through there," I said, partly to myself.

"Can that suit do anything?" Lauren asked. I looked to the wrist-screen, which came out again upon me thinking about it. It had a ring divided into several sections. Temperature, settings, contacts, weapons, tools, and navigation. 'Temperature' was the overall temperature of the suit, external and internal. 'Settings' was a bunch of numbers that I didn't understand. 'Contacts' had the labels, which I guess are like names and phone numbers in one. 18765, who I'd talked to before, was there. 'Weapons' had a huge selection on guns, knives, swords, grenades, stuff like that. 'Tools' had normal stuff like shovels and crowbars. 'Navigation' was a large map of all four buildings and some stuff beyond that. One of the weapons was a flamethrower, so I pressed that. The wrist on my suit grew outward and molded into a flamethrower. Cool. It expanded past my hand, so my hand wasn't visible anymore. I could feel a long pole and a button, so I pressed that, which was how I used it.

I put it in the vent and started melting the walls. "Um... What are you doing?" Lauren asked. "You'll see," I said. I melted  and deformed the vent enough so it was big enough for me to fit through. "Oh, I see. But won't you burn yourself?" She asked. "I doubt it," I said, putting my hand on the metal. I winced and took my hand off. It didn't hurt too much, but still, the suit wasn't completely safe. "Well, maybe the suit has something for this," I said. I set the suit's temperature to be as cold as possible, but I was freezing, so I put it down a bit. There wasn't a temperature where I would be immune to the hot metal and have a good body temperature. "Okay, well..." I said. I looked through the weapons. There was a symbol for the flamethrower, but it had a snowflake next to it. I selected that, and my hand switched from one flame thrower to the other. I tried using it, and it shot out a stream of blue steam. I held it to the metal, which froze. I deactivated the weapons, and my hand went back to normal. "Be careful, Phil," Lauren said as I climbed through the gap and into Pico's room.