Absent Link

Chapter 13: Breakout

Charles Reid used some special access to get inside of Keith's room, where the nurse was in the process of injecting Keith with Dylan's blood. It was much darker, now, with some part of it separated into a separate container. Keith was still motionless, and when Charles asked for an estimated completion time, he was met with the response, "I'm almost done with the injection, but he'll still need some more time before waking up."

Charles looked back at Dylan, prepared to say they would leave Keith, but he realized this wasn't an option. This might not have been his mess, but it was his son's, and Dylan wouldn't give up on saving his best friend from it.

"Dad, I'm going over to find Amelia—"

Charles, as if anticipating this response, blurted out, "No."

"I think I know what she wants, so I can talk to her."

"You're staying here until Keith is ready to move along and then we're getting out of this place."

"Amelia isn't angry at me."

Charles shouted, "She doesn't care about you!"

Dylan stepped back, and the two glared at each other for a moment. Charles closed his eyes and wiped his forehead, only for Dylan to say "In that case, I'll turn back and find Keith by the time he's ready to go."

Charles sighed deeply. He closed his eyes for a second, then opened them, glaring at Dylan. "Are you on a suicide mission? Or are you just tired?"

"I came here to save Amelia."

"Well tough luck." He turned around and waited on Keith again, about as agitated as he could have been without expressing it. A minute went by, during which he impatiently tapped his foot and crossed his arms.

"You know," the nurse on the other side of Keith said, "even when he does get up, I don't assume he'll have much energy to run out of here with you."

Charles thought for a second, then reasoned, "You're suggesting I carry him out like this? Is that dangerous?"

"Um, it's less optimal, but his body isn't—" something else caught her attention. The nurse pointed lightly at the door to the exit where Dylan had been standing just a second ago, "So he just left..."

"What?" Charles spun around and charged at the door, looking around for Dylan. It seemed he had sprinted out, as he was nowhere in sight of the short hallway. Charles glanced back at Keith, but only for a second as he rapidly began jogging to where Amelia had just been destroying every and anything in her path. Where else would Dylan have gone? A few minutes of running eventually placed him right in the center of sector 15, a broken system of rugged walls and destroyed pipes. He hadn't noted the immense destruction of the place until he reached this point, but now that he looked around him, he saw it all. Pulverized glass, shredded walls, busted ceilings and upturned floors... blood covering much of it. She hadn't held back. And Dylan? Where was he? Charles didn't have time to reach the camera room, and no one was inside it to communicate with him. He relied on his knowledge of the facility to navigate his way around, searching for his idiotic son.

Of course, it was always possible that Dylan had turned the other way from Keith's room. That side led much more directly to the above-ground sectors, and to the many exits. But he didn't really consider this. Dylan wouldn't just leave like that. Charles debated looking for Dylan a few more minutes here but decided to try his luck in scanning his way loosely back to the far edge of sector 17 where Keith was. He quickly started running that way, weaving his way around the loose shards and upturned furniture of the place, dreading that this might become the entire facility. Not many paths were blocked, as past a certain distance Amelia hadn't wrecked much of the structure, but little signs still indicated that she had come this way. A lifeless body thrown to the side, or a hole cleanly punched in the dense wall. He noted that past a certain point, these punches were not delivered by the colossal fists her advanced form possessed, but by her small fists. They still had to be practically supernatural to dig into the stone walls like that, but it was at least somewhat comforting to know that—