The Sleepwalker

Part Three: 10

Agent Quantum
​

A cloud of smoke rose to the ceiling of the medbay and Quan jerked her head out of the wall just moments before a flurry of sparks flew out.

"I did not expect that." She muttered as calmly as she could, staring into the mess of wires and pipes. Key had been able to pry a metal sheet from the wall with his pocket knife and by proxy exposed the guts of the station. Including a certain control board that controlled the medbay's lockdown, conveniently found on the fifth try. Great as that were, actually lifting the lockdown was close to impossible. It wasn't that the Society's technicians didn't install a safeguard; it was that Quan just did not know how to turn said safeguard on.

"Did you make any progress before it blew up?" Jinx asked from beside Quan. After who knows how many hours of healing Jinx had the strength to stand using a makeshift cane made from a bed frame leg. She'd heal quickly. All Agents did, and that might have something to do with the enhanced bodies the Society gave them. Well, 'gave' is the wrong word. They were broken down, genetically, and put back together again, with the end result being something like a superhuman. Faster healing, bigger muscles, and so on. It took months to 'upgrade'. Quan remembered them. They were... not fun. 

Quantum sighed and took a good long look at the multicolored wires before responding. "The system... I don't know. None of my attempts to shock the system with a low level Indexer beam into a forced reboot mode provoked any electrical response from the main capacitor but managed to get into a few RFID signals."

"That... isn't good?"

"It's like taking one step forward and falling into a crevasse of nothingness."

"Ah, so we have that kind of luck."

"Doesn't help that I've only got one good arm to work with." Quan held up her bandage-covered arm and hand. It had been crushed beneath a metal bed frame, nothing permanent but still enough to make her unable to bend her fingers. Wrench said it'd heal quickly. "So yeah our luck is pretty bad."

They turned around to see Key and Infinity attempting to pry open the door with bed frame legs, sharpened to a point with the heat from Quan's toolcasters. Key had been quite impressed when he saw her invention, and she gave him the extra one meant for Hazard. Speaking of whom, Hazard was still chained to her bed, with a special cover over her metal arm, but the Agents didn't exactly know why she was chained in the first place. So they decided it would be for the best to leave her restrained.

"Maybe there's a reason why she's locked up," Quantum had said about an hour earlier. Everyone agreed, except Hazard of course, but her vote didn't count for obvious reasons.

"Idiots, you can't break through the shield!" Hazard now shouted at them as Key's bed leg snapped. He threw it in the ever-growing pile off to the side. "Those things are meant to survive multiple nuclear blasts, y'now. Not ever your stupid little weapon pens worked."

Quan and Key watched the other two Agents work at it for a bit longer until it was clear nothing was changing.

"It's just an excuse to do something," Jinx eventually said quietly. "After so many hours of nothing, we need something to hold onto, a purpose. It's clear that the lockdown won't lift until the power is back on."

"The main power, you mean. The lights are still on, emergency power is running fine."

"Right. Still, we're stuck here for a while."

They were silent for a while until Agent Nuke walked over to them, holding a small pointed vial in his clasped hands as if it were a tiny animal.

"The nice lady wanted you to take this," He said, handing the vial to Quantum. She looked over at the two nurses who were organizing and documenting any and all medical supplies they had left. Earlier they had introduced themselves as Wrench and Fenix, Wrench being the male and Fenix the female. Quan knew they were relatively young, probably twenty or so, but they had stayed calm even in the face of whatever was happening outside, which is what truely matters. No amount of knowing how to survive will do you any good when you can't think past the fear.

"She told me to tell you to make sure you put it in your arm," Nuke said in one breath.

Quan knew exactly where to administer the liquid paracetamol, but she smiled and thanked him anyway. As she put the pointed end to her exposed wrist, Jinx watched Nuke go.

"I thought he broke his leg," Jinx said, visibly confused, "but now he's acting all wonky and weird. And walking."

"Might've been an accident with a divergence, and the leg thing was just a rumor." Quantum commented as she pushed down the syringe's plunger.

Hazard scoffed, listening from across the room. "Wouldn't be the first time the Society hid something from you guys."

Infinity, dripping sweat, paused trying to open the door to take off her helmet, which she cast onto the floor. She glanced at Hazard while doing so. "We all have reasons for joining the Society. You might not remember yours."

Hazard let out a mirthless laugh but still didn't pull her gaze from the ceiling. "I wanted a purpose. Not to die here out in space. Give a crazy guess of which I got."

Key suddenly threw his bed leg to the sid, obviously aggravated, and walked toward Hazard, taking a white thing out of his pocket as he did so.

"I know why I joined." He held up the white thing eye-level. "It was because of this." Pressing a button on the side, a short blade popped out. Hazard maintained eye-contact.

Key went on. "This right here was made out of the fingerbone of a divergence known as the Crick. It killed my father and brother. My mother joined the Society and hunted it down. This here serves as a reminded to me that without the Society, things like the Crick would be mass murdering hundreds of people unhindered."

"Oh, you're just oh so pure. Truly a hero." Hazard yawned, obviously unmoved by Key's story. And he knew it, because he stormed back to the door and picked up another bed leg as he went. Infinity joined him once all her armor was off and she was only in a tight black jumpsuit.

Quantum tapped on Jinx's shoulder. "You should talk to him."

Jinx tensed slightly. "No way. Just because we're in the same age bracket that doesn't mean we love..."

"What? No! I need you to ask for his bone knife."

"Oh..." Jinx looked embarrassed but regained composure quickly. "Right of course."

Quan watched her wobble away and turned back to the control board, considering what her plan of attack was. She didn't have many options that didn't include a huge risk. Soon she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Jinx holding onto Key's arm for stability.

"You needed this?" He asked as Jinx let go of his arm to lean on her cane, muttering how she didn't like acting like some old person. He held out his bone knife, and Quan took it without hesitation. "But what for?"

"Bone is conductive," She explained as she pressed the button on the knife. An odd looking key made of white gears popped out. Key's arm reflexively went up to the side of his neck and pointed to another button on the other side.

"That one is for the knife." He muttered, as if a big secret had just gotten out and he was somehow ashamed to have a key that didn't appear to work.

Quan pushed the weird key back in without question and instead triggered the knife to spring out. "Anyway, if I wrap these copper wires around the knife and position my Indexer right at the tip, just to give it a little shock..."

Suddenly electricity arced down the knife and into the motherboard. Everyone, even Quan, jumped when the main lights flickered on and the metal shields everywhere were lifted with jerky motions. Quan felt like jumping for joy. That is, before the shields shuddered and began to slowly close over the windows and close sideways on the door. The board was fried now; they only had one shot at escape.

"Everyone out!" Key shouted aggressively. Quan barely had time to gather what little belongings she had in her possession and throw them into her lab coat pockets (things like extra copper wire and the bone knife), grab Jinx's left arm (Key had her right) and rush to the actively but slowly closing door. Infinity, Nuke, and the Nurses were already in the hallway when the trio got there, breathing heavily.

"WHAT ABOUT ME?!"

Quan turned to see Hazard, still inside the room, straining against the metal chains that kept her, as far as Quan knew, dead once those cold grey jaws closed once and forever. However, Key had different ideas. He let go of Jinx and quickly reached into Quan's coat and pulled out his knife all in one swift motion. Cursing, he full out sprinted back into the medbay and toward Hazard. Seconds later and his knife was inside the chain links and somehow he snapped the link just by turning the white blade. To Quantum, the blade seemed to widen just a bit as he twisted it, but disregarded it as stressful hallucinations and the fact she was quite far away.

The Crick must have some interesting bones, Quan thought as Key forcefully pulled Hazard from the bed and made a mad dash toward the door that seemed to be taking its time to close. Maybe it was indicative of their escape? Maybe their luck was finally...

The shield shuddered and jerked closed about four inches. Key and Hazard were barely five feet away from the door. The gap was four feet. Now three.

Key, grunting, dove through the barely two foot gap and pulled Hazard behind right before the door shook and slammed shut. All of Key was fine, most of Hazard was fine also, except her rational side, which she seemed to have left in the medbay.

"YOU LEFT ME? ALL OF YOU IDIOTS LEFT ME TO DIE!?" She shrieked, falling to the metal floor of the hallway and looking quite unprofessional (Quantum thought to herself).

"You should be thankful Key risked himself for you," Infinity said to the hysterical Hazard, "because I wouldn't. The Society kept you locked up for a reason. I don't like how she's free now."

Quan leaned over and picked up both broken chains that trailed from Hazard's wrists and tied them together in a rough knot using some copper wire to connect two links."Problem solved. We can take turns holding the chains."

Hazard scoffed. "What, and walk me like a dog!?"

But no one was listening to her now. They were listening intently to... nothing. There was no noise coming from either side of the corridor. Here and there, the already dim lights would flicker and buzz, and there seemed to be the steady hum of some large device, maybe the engines, somewhere, but it was unclear exactly where it was.

"Where is everybody?" Jinx asked no one in particular, because everyone was asking that very question. What about the guards? Or the sound of feet pounding on the metal? There was nothing, it was like the artificial gravity and booster rockets that kept them stable in the Solar System had all shut off and they were now in the silent void of space; Everything just felt different.

"Indexers out," Key said quietly, and everyone but Hazard (Who still had a metal clasp over her special arm) took out their weapons. Even the Nurses did, but they had to shoulder two makeshift backpacks filled with supplies first.

Key took the lead and began to stroll forward, checking every door that they
passed. Nuke was right behind, looking a bit dazed but still holding his Indexer out.

Suddenly they began to hear something approaching from ahead. Like many feet running on metal.

Key looked at the group behind him, confusion evident on his face. They slowed down a little bit, but no one noticed that Nuke did not stop.

"What do you think it is? A friend or a foe?" Infinity asked quietly, looking back at the others.

Quan looked up and saw Nuke about five feet away. "Agent Nuke! Come back quick - !"

The wall suddenly exploded. Chunks of metal were thrown everywhere as - no joke - a giant muffin bursted through. Four dark brown legs supported its large, bus-sized light brown body. Quan found herself staring right down its chocolate-chipped toothy maw, and she wondered if there was a meter for how bad their luck was. It'd probably break with these insane circumstances.

The Muffin gave something between a roar and a snarl before turning toward the group. Everyone had already shot three times before Key even said to fire. Each shot bounced off the doughy parts of the Muffin divergence, but Infinity, being the best shot of all of them, sank a few into the chocolate chips that peppered the top of the monster. It roared again, evidently hurt now, and out of desperation readied to charge at them.

"Outta the way!" Key shouted, grabbing Jinx. But moving was unnecessary, because right then Nuke lifted himself from the rubble of the wall that had knocked him down and tackled the nearest leg of the Muffin, sending it to the ground with a crash and even collapsing the floor below it. Roaring, it slid right into the hole and took Nuke down with it to another hallway below.

Quan and the others rushed to the jagged hole and peered down about 10 feet. The Muffin bit and attempted to eat the small human, but Nuke was able to dodge every attempt and deliver a few useless shots here and there. Well, almost every attempt. The Muffin was slow but not stupid. It headbutted Nuke, slamming him against the wall.

Fenix gasped. "We need to shoot it!"

Infinity shook her head. "We could hit Nuke. It's too risky."

"If we were to fashion a rope, we could pull him out..." Quan began, looking for materials, but right then the Muffin opened its mouth and Nuke slid right down his maw, part getting eaten, part diving in. Everyone, even the Muffin, looked surprised that it was just that easy. That is, before the Muffin began to shake and shudder. It took one last look up at them with its milk chocolate eyes and suddenly blew up with the sound of a very gaseous fart, spewing bits and pieces of itself all over the corridor below and even a little got stuck to the ceiling above the hole. Nuke was nowhere to be seen, but his metal arm was sitting in a pile of melted chocolate. The Muffin had eaten Nuke. Nuke had blown up the Muffin. It was a draw.

No one said a word. No one even moved, until Quan took off her glasses to wipe chocolate off of them.

"Multiple Divergences have escaped." Crackled a speaker overhead, making them all jump, "this is an emergency. Code red, very bad. I repeat, multiple Divergences have escaped. Kill on sight. Power... low, running on... emergency... get to... the.... ESCAPE..."

It shut off just as easy as they turned on. It was evident now that there was going to be no help, and no time to waste, just like there is no time to mourn for the loss of a fellow Agent.