The Sleepwalker

Part Three: 8

Agent Key


Key was in quite the predicament.

Agent Jinx, who happened to be a fellow security guard who worked on the same shift time as him, had just woken up. Of course, it was right as he had grabbed her hand, thinking that Quan, Infinity, and anyone else in the room was focused on the screen that broadcasted what was happening in the Expanse. He had about three seconds of feeling her hand in his before her eyes fluttered open. He dropped hers and unconvincingly looked up at the ceiling, pretending to be busy.

"Key? Is that... that you?" Jinx asked, evidently and thankfully still under meds.

Key pretended to look at her for the first time. "Oh hey Jinx. How are you feeling?"

She blinked rapidly and tried to sit up. Key placed a hand on her chest and gently pushed her to the pillow.

"Doctors' say you broke three ribs and got badly scratched, I'd suggest you stay down."

A skeptical thought crossed her face, but she laid down without a word. "What happened to the cat?"

"The... cat? You mean the divergence? You sliced its tail right off, and it suffered from blood loss. They had to put it down. We're all wondering what the heck happened in there, all the cameras were kinda disabled."

Jinx frowned and looked up at Key. "All of them? That doesn't make any sense..."

She was suddenly engulfed in a hug as Quan and Infinity noticed she was awake. Key felt like he wanted to join in but realized it might not be the greatest idea.

As an Agent of the Society, you write off any pleasures that a normal person would have as part of your inauguration. That includes love, and the Society makes sure that any ability to have children is removed. Attraction between Agents isn't unheard of, but if caught could have severe consequences, including getting shifted to another Aspect and maybe even Gaslit (when they erase memories) about the romance altogether.

That really sucks when you have intense feelings for a security guard subordinate, doesn't it?

"Jinx!" Quan squealed, "you almost gave us a heart attack, they said you were terribly hurt!"

Jinx weakly smiled. "I think they were right, to be honest."

She gained a light punch from Infinity. "Bah, I knew you'd bounce back, After all, you are the mighty Jinx, guardian of Earth. Oh and by the way... HOW and why on God's green earth and black void of space did you walk into the cell with an unrestrained divergence?!"

Jinx shook her head. "Long story."

"Good thing we've got all day, they gave us it off to spend time with you."

Key was thankful that Jinx was one of his underlings; it gave him an excuse to check in on her.

Key felt like he was intruding on their conversation just by being there, so he looked over at the holographic screen that showed footage from the Expanse. Three nurses stood partially in the way, but he got the gist of what was happening: nothing. The Polybius machine stood on one side, the Sleepwalker sat on the other, completely still. Key thought nothing of it.

His attention was suddenly torn to an Agent who sat in a corner bed, across from the sleeping Hazard and two beds down from Jinx. The Agent, who Key didn't know the name of, began to cough violently, each one worse than the last. The three nurses rushed over and began to bustle about, each doing their own thing. One checked vitals, another, gathering medicine from the cupboard, and the final one felt his forehead.

"He's burning up!" The final nurse cried out. Yet the Agent began to shiver.

"Uh..." A nurse pointed at the bedside monitor and began to back away. Key couldn't see what was on that screen, but knew it must have been bad, because it began to rapidly beep a high-pitched noise. He stood, making his Nebulium arm into an Indexer. He saw Infinity and Quan rise from Jinx and do the same.

"Hey!" Key shouted, cupping a hand to his mouth, "what's happening over there?"

A male nurse turned his head as if noticing the group for the first time. "His insides, they're... superheated."
Key cocked his head and a confused look crossed his craggy face. "How so?"
The nurse swallowed hard. "His organs... they're liquid..."

Just then the Agent on the bed gave a few last lurches before falling still, mouth hanging open. A small buzz sounded, and without warning a fuzzy blood-red bee flew from the Agent's wide maw. Everyone stood in silent shock as the insect hovered inches from the still-unnamed Agent's nose.

"Oh dear... that's a Red Bee," Quan said quietly with a gasp.

"No crap sherlock," Key whispered, "but what is it?"

"It's called a Red Bee. Usually they're harmless unless you disturb the hive, in which case the entire swarm of roughly nine-hundred bees will sting you up to ten times before killing themselves," Quan tapped her arm ten times violently but also with as little movement as possible, "each sting is filled with a burning hot venom that can theoretically liquify your flesh and bones."

Key made a face of disgust. "Sounds spicy."

"Guess it isn't theoretical anymore," said Jinx in a low voice.

They watched the bee buzz around, each being as still as humanly possible. One of the nurses began to back up toward a central control terminal on the other side of the room, most likely to put the medbay on lockdown lest the divergence escape.

The Red Bee suddenly spun, its little wings beating furiously, and (forgive the pun) beelined right for the brave nurse, who yelped and dived right for the control board, tapping a big red button right as the bee sunk its black stinger into his neck.

The two windows on the far side of the room that looked into a kind of lobby area for any off-duty Agents to hang out suddenly had two grey blast shields slammed over them. Six red lights ignited and over the already-tough door (which was the only entrance and exit to the medbay) twin sheets of metal closed like a sideways jaw. Key knew that more reinforcements would be placed inside the walls, because the Society had realized that if something like the Only Incident happened again, having a well defended medbay was crucial. Nothing could get in. And of course, now the Red Bee couldn't get out. And neither could any of the Agents.

"Shoot to kill?" Key looked around, holding up his Indexer pistol.

"Are you asking or telling us?" Infinity asked, but Key knew she didn't expect an answer. The bee had pulled out of the limp body of the nurse and had spun to face them, bug-eyes scanning everything in sight.

Key waved his free hand at the two other nurses, urging them to slowly move away.

"Fire at will," Key ordered once the nurses were out of the danger zone.

The first dozen shots erupted from the tips of each Agent's index finger with the sound of a tight metal cord being strummed. Even Jinx pitched in, even though her shots missed spectacularly. Half a dozen bolts sank into the control board with nothing but a sizzle, and the rest hit the wall.

"Again!" Key shouted.

"That thing is barely a single inch cubed!" Quan returned, obviously stressing. More shots were fired, none hit. You'd be surprised at how inaccurate pistols are. Indexers are no different.

Key got extremely close, so close in fact that the bee flew sideways from the heat. Infinity suddenly growled.

"None of us are going to hit the blasted thing from back here." She murmured, walking forward. Key felt like smacking his forehead at her stupidity. Or bravery. Either one worked just as well as the other.

The Bee noticed Infinity and began to fly towards her, thinking she might have been easy prey. But the female Agent stood her ground, a defiant look on her face.

The only sound in the room was the buzz as the bee drew closer. Everyone was silent, wondering what would happen. Key felt the urge to help, but didn't really know what to do.

Then it happened. In one quick movement, Infinity had backhanded the Red Bee right out of the air and onto the floor; it was crushed beneath her boot in seconds. The Agent with blond hair lifted her shoulders halfheartedly when she saw the other Agents' shocked looks.

"That was really good! Quite a performance!"

Heads turned to a bed next to Jinx's. Agent... Nuke, was it? (Key couldn't quite remember) was clapping and congratulating everyone on their amazing 'performance'. A female nurse came over, looking shaken but still one-hundred percent business mode. "Sorry, he's a bit out of it. The medications he's on mess with his brain."
​
Key nodded to her and turned to the other Agents. Quan looked impressed, Infinity looked ready for violence, and Jinx seemed to be struggling to keep herself awake.

"We should focus on getting the Lockdown lifted." Quan said, moving over to the slightly blackened terminal, scooting past the fallen nurse's body as she did so. Key, thinking ahead, covered the body with a sheet from an unused bed. He noticed that the white tile floor was now covered in gross sticky stuff; the bee sting had begun to decompose the corpse and turn the flesh into a viscous liquid. Agent Key also looked over at the original Agent that brought the Red Bee into the medbay and was disgusted to find the wreck that lay there in the sheets. He covered that as well.

"Well," Quan looked up from the cracked screen, looking alarmed, "we fried the internal electronics. lifting the Lockdown will be a pain now."

"How do we do it?" Infinity asked.

"We'll have to find the control box in the walls, then we'll have to get to the said control -"

She was interrupted by a large snore, which came from a bundle of sheets in the corner opposite to the original Agent's corpse. Indexers were raised as Key took initiative and approached.

Another snore, but this one was cut short as Key tore the bedsheets off. Agent Hazard, chained to the bed by her ankles and wrists, startled awake and shot a bitter look at Key, oblivious to everything that had just transpired.

"D'you mind, you uncivilized little moron? I'm trying to get some shut eye!"

Suddenly, the floor shifted and the entire room shook like a child was playing with it. Beds rolled to the side, crashing into each other and knocking the Agents down. Quan got lost beneath the pile, and Hazard's bed got flipped onto the melted corpse one, causing her to scream. Lights flickered and metal creaked. It was complete and utter chaos.

Then, as soon as it started it was over. Key got to his feet and helped Infinity up first before going to the pile of beds. Jinx was fine but had fallen out of her bed, the two nurses had dived out of the way at the last moment, and they easily pulled an injured Quan out of the pile.

"Is everyone all right?" Key asked, breathless.

A chorus of 'yeps' sounded, except for Jinx, who rubbed her side and looked up at them, petrified.

"I think we might have to rename the Only Incident to the First Incident."

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