Babylon Lost

Chapter 10

Jiro sprang for the door slamming it shut as quickly as he could. He had to buy himself some time.

There was an old locking bolt on the inside of the door that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. Mustering his strength Jiro put both hands into pushing it through the rusted hole.

He took a few steps back to examine the door, searching for anything else that might reinforce it but nothing stood out to him. This would have to do.

Soon Jiro could hear the footsteps echoing throughout the facility. Whoever was moving toward his position wasn't running but wasn't exactly walking either. Just a steady pace that got louder and louder with each step.

Jiro spun around to take a survey of the room. There had to be another way out.

The Alter.

He made his way to it and began to pull with every bit of strength he had, hoping to reveal some sort of passage beneath.

The thing didn't budge. It was bolted solid to the ground.

"God damnit" Jiro yelled as he put his back into a second attempt. He tried a third time with even more effort, but it wouldn't budge.

He looked down at the body next to him, the bulging eyes stared back up at him, still hiding whatever it was that happened here.

"Jiro, based on the reverberations of sound in this room, I believe the space directly above us is hallowed." Pax said.

Jiro craned his neck, the ceiling wasn't made of concrete but metal "like a duct or something? How big?"

"I cannot say for sure, but the vibrations would indicate there's adequate amount of space to crawl through."

That was enough. Placing the transponder on the ground he stepped on the alter to give himself access to the ceiling. Moving his hands across the surface he tried to feel for any indication that there might be some space on the other side but he could feel nothing. He'd just have to trust Pax's readings.

"You'll have to force your way through" the AI said.

Jiro knew what that meant, suddenly and violently he took a quick jab at the ceiling, hoping to breach the metal. Instead, his hand just bounced off and Jiro could feel he had sustained some mild damage in that limb.

He looked at his fist and then the place in the ceiling he'd just hit, estimating it would take a year to punch through if that was the kind of damage he was inflicting. Soon he could hear the echoing footsteps outside get louder. Whoever was after him was almost at the door.

"Pax, I want you to reroute as much power as you can to the upper body."

Jiro felt the surge of energy in his arms and shoulders. Leaning back to give himself some space he began to frantically swing at the ceiling above. Putting in as much power as he could with each punch. At first there was nothing but soon he could see the surface buckle in on itself.

It still wasn't much, just bigger dents really. But it was something. It had to work.

Jiro could hear that his assailant was outside the door now, he didn't stop to look. He didn't have the time. He just hoped the door was as strong as it looked.

For a moment he didn't hear anything outside. The constant barrage of his fists on the ceiling above, violently echoing in the little room filled the room. Yet for all the deafening noise, all the physical exertion he was still making little progress.

He needed the door to hold.

It didn't.

Suddenly the room was filled with a blinding light.