Sinner's Game

11 - Virus

Anna

Anna got pulled out of her dream by something lightly shaking her shoulder. She immediately darted up into a sitting position, pushed the hand away while doing so. As her view cleared from the fogginess of sleep, she saw a lightly confused Hendrick kneeling in front of her, who had backed off in surprise.

"Oh... It's you." Anna's expression softened.

Jim was standing a few meters behind Hendrick, leaned against cave wall. He was balancing his scissor on the handle, seemed to be in thought about something. Rays of blue light shone into the cave, reflected the metal which plastered the walls. It also made the tip of Jim's scissor glimmer like it had been bathed in a blue sun.

"I think you should see something," Hendrick said. "Both of you."

Anna's sleepiness was like washed away by the sudden urgency of the situation. She got up, swiped some hair out of her vision. "Alright." Jim pushed himself off the wall, caught the handle of his scissor mid-air. Anna wondered how he could look awake after being awake for so long last night. Just for how long had he continued practising?

The small fire they had made yesterday had been reduced to nothing but coal and ashes, a faint line of smoke still rising from its middle, where a couple of lightly glowing embers fought for survival. They really had been lucky to have found a piece of real wood in this jungle of steel and metal, a nice relief from the so cold seeming surroundings they were facing.

Hendrick waved with his hand and started walking towards the entrance of the cave. Jim and Anna followed him. Outside, they were greeted by a light-blue, single coloured heaven. The trees underneath them reflected the light, emitted a heat that could be felt even up here. The jungle itself had been rather cool, probably because it kept the light and warmth shut out. It made sense that the reflection of the sky caused the area above it to heat up.

Weird that there is light even though there is no sun up there... and heat as well. Almost as if god went out of every colour except light-blue. Well, it's still calming to see the sky for some reason. Even if only temporary.

Hendrick guided them around the mountain, along a small hillside towards the north. Anna made sure she would stay as far as possible away from the steep slope to their right, since she really didn't want to risk falling around 20 meters before getting pierced by the tips of the metal trees below. She noticed Jim keeping even more space from the slope, while Hendrick basically moved right next to it.

The border was a lot closer to them now than the night before. She still couldn't spot how fast it moved, but it had to be rather slow. As she followed Hendrick along the mountain's side, she asked, "For what is the border good anyways? If they only want to scare people away, then why should it move? Also... why is it so slow?"

"It's purpose is not to scare people away, Anna." Hendrick stopped for a moment, nodded towards the barrier. "It's that slow because you are meant to outrun it. And it's supposed to pressure living beings towards the factory. That's also why the fountain shows us where to go."

The mentioned fountain was now clearly visible as well, a red line piercing straight into the sky from somewhere hidden behind a mountain rather far away. From their current location, it was not possible to see where it came from, but Hendrick had told her yesterday that if they moved towards it, they would find the factory. And the factory was where they had to go.

Jim stopped as well. He looked at the fountain, said: "So we are running towards where they want us to go?"

"Exactly. The portal is over there... which makes it our only option. Don't worry, I know how to get around most of the conflict in there."