Robotic Eyes(Metallic Heart)

Chapter 4: Now Hacking: Firewall

Cale shudders as he and Yaomi steps past a pool of blood drops of the liquid trailing deeper into the tunnel, the rusted red color blending into the gloom of the tunnel. Yaomi stares at the blood, then moved forward to touch it.

Cale frowns, slipping his pocket knife back into his sleeves as he stopped her. "Wait. Why are you going towards the blood?"

"To take a closer look at it?" Yaomi tilts her head slightly, looking at him. She then stares back toward the puddle, whispering lightly. "I think it's still fresh."

Before Cale could stop her, she dips her finger into the blood.

"Are you crazy?" Cale snarls, wrenching her fingers out of the pool of blood. "Why would you put your fingers into the puddle? What if it wasn't blood, but something that looks and mimics how blood looks?"

Yaomi frowns back at him. "There's probably nothing like that around here, Bob."

How do you know? Cale grumbles in his head. There are human-eating half-robot monsters around here... who's to say there aren't blood-mimicking monsters?

Then, a voice in his head caused Cale to stumble, nearly falling into the blood pool himself.

"Bob!" Yaomi yanks Cale backward, her hands on his shoulders, looking him up and down. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Cale rubs at his forehead, hand moving to brace against the tunnel wall. He stands up, glaring into the darkness.

*Cale! Cale, can you hear us?*

Why are they speaking up only now?

*It's not our fault, sob... Cale, what in the world is up with your body?*

What do you mean? Cale brushes Yaomi's hands off his shoulders and turns his head towards Yaomi. "Well, you got us here. We might as well continue." They emphasize that there is something different about my body a lot... I should probably figure that out as soon as possible.

"Bob... Are you sure you're okay?" Yaomi stares at him worriedly.

"I'm fine." Cale shook his head lightly, then motioned for her to go on. What's going on, you guys?

... Guys?

... Crybaby? Glutton? Why are you so quiet again?

Cale swallowed, silently following behind Yaomi, as he realized that there would be no reply answering him.

I should have known something was wrong. They've been too quiet.

From waking up in an unknown place with a headache, getting chased down by cyborgs, investigating creepy buildings... Cale has had no time to rest. And yet throughout this entire time, there was a feeling of familiarity, of remembering that he has not heard from his ancient powers for some time now.

Was I asleep for longer than I thought?

*+-----~{@}~-----+*

"?!" Yaomi makes shocked noise, eyes moving back to glance at Dino. "New garbage? What do you mean?"

Still stuck on his hypothesis of Myers Corp not being abandoned, Cale thought back to the cyborg corpse he saw.

Was he talking about that?

Cale felt chills down his neck. If the cyborg corpses were what Dino was 'cleaning up...' how strong is he?

Not for the last time, Cale felt that looks could be incredibly misleading.