Isolation-#Wattys2015

Excerpt 24-Error Code

When I kicked back to reality, I found myself in a hospital bed. Everything looked fuzzy and I felt like I'd been broken in half and was hot like I was being drowned in molten lead at the same time. Sarah and Matt were standing at the entrance to the room and Sarah was talking with Jacob, though I couldn't make out what they were saying.They had what looked like an argument before Jacob turned and left. Sarah shut the door behind him as I tried to sit up, but failed miserably.

"Easy Sky", Sarah said walking up to me, "you banged yourself up pretty badly from that fall."

"How bad am I?", I winced as Sarah helped me sit up.

"You cracked two vertebrae on your spine, broke a rib, two bones in your tail and got a pretty had concussion", she answered, "there is slight trauma to your heart and you were running a 140 degree fever for a while too, but lucky for you I managed to get it to come back down to 100."

"Is that why everything looks fuzzy?", I asked leaning back, "the concussion?"

"Yes", she answered, "there was pressure on your eyes from your brain, but I managed to get the excess fluids out of your head."

"I don't even want to think about how hard that must have been", I said.

Sarah laughed lightly and held up her bandaged arm, "your blood stings like a bitch. The concussion should go away in an hour or so and if you don't mind the pain, I'll walk you back into the lounge."

I smiled at her and looked at Matt.

"You want that beating now?", he asked smiling, "or will you like me to wait until your better so I can put you right back in that bed?"

"Save it until after were off world", I told him, then turned to Sarah, "so bring me up to speed, how long was I out and what's happened since then?"

"You were out about five hours", Sarah said, "Matt and Allen went out after Martin sent us a picture of you laying at the base of the tower. Twisted the way you were, we thought for sure the fall had killed you. Martin went completely dark since then. Usually when your out he's taunting us and telling us how were all going to die, but now it's nothing, Allens wondering if Martin is even...."

Before Sarah could finish her sentence, the room went dark. The main lights, computers, everything went jet black. Then the intercom clicked on, then clicked right back off, then clicked on again, with about two seconds in between each click. It almost seemed to me like Morris Code, like someone was sending a message, but then again, if it was a coded message, then it wasn't any code I've ever heard before.

"I don't think that's a good sign", I sighed pushing aside the covers, "get me back to the lounge, I can rest there."

"That's not a good idea", Sarah said.

"Got a better one?", I asked.She sighed, "let's go, take it easy."

I reached out and took her arm. She helped me out of bed and step by step we walked from the medical room back to the lounge. On the way there though, everything started turning weird colors and the sounds of my foot steps seemed muffled, an effect of trying to walk with a concussion no doubt."

Sarah", I said, my voice sounding rather muffled as it came out, "my head hurts."

"I told you it wasn't a good idea", Sarah said opening the door to the lounge and walking me in.

She sat me down on the sofa next to the door, got a few pillows and then laid me down, making sure the pillows were underneath my head and that they weren't going to fall off.

"You stay there until your brain returns to normal size", she said laying a heavy blanket over me, "understand."

"Yes", I said closing my eyes.I heard her walk and Matt walk off. More footsteps returned and I cracked open one eye to see Matt drop one of the bean bags and his sleeping bag next to the couch. He flopped down in it as the others started talking.

"Why are the lights out?", Jacob asked, "Martin couldn't have gone out to Ransol, those mutated Japanese Hornets would tear him to pieces."

"The Cluster 300 is throwing error codes all over the place", Tyler said, "I need more time to see what's going on, but it seems like everything is going wrong, CHDISK is acting like every single system in this lab that can possibly brake, deteriorate, or other wise screw up is doing it all at once."

"Could Martin be feeding the 300 false codes?", Sarah asked.

"Not even remotely possible", Tyler said, "the 300 will scan the source of the code, and block it if the code isn't a registered problem with that device. Which means if I wanted to make the check transmission lights on the generators come on from my tablet, I would have to rewrite the operating system on my tablet."

"A simple no would suffice", Sarah retorted, "what else? Could he be taking data out of the computer data bank?"

"Banned address", James said, "I'm the only one in the lab with the code to reinstate an address, and seeing as how I never told Dr. Walnuts, or anyone for that matter, what it was, it's out."

"So if Martin is feeding the 300 false codes", Tyler said, "then he has an army of synthetics with supercomputers for brains running around, but in that case why not just send them here to pick us off? After all, what are the odds he thinks Skyline will be there to meet him, I mean the man hurled him off a 400 foot tower."

"So Dr. Vodka Martini is clean", Jacob said, "could the 300 have some creature chewing on it?"

"Pyronauts?", Sarah asked."Extinct on this planet", James said, "could it be Dorite Metal eaters?"

"Voltage would fry them like a pancake", Jacob said, "nanobots?"

"I think they'd run into a similar problem", James answered, "okay...usual suspects check out, so if it's not Martin, not creatures, then what the hell is it?"

"Like I said", Tyler told him, "I need more time."

"Time is something we don't have son", James said, "we have a lab full of creatures, disabled cage locks, no security force and a deranged lunatic running around like a free range chicken, get my 300 back to full operational capacity."

"Yes sir", Tyler said before disappearing into the security room.I sighed at myself.

This planet was getting less enjoyable by the minute. I needed to hurry up and get better so I could get back out in front of it.

"Now there's a breach to the 300 on top of the mutants, Martin and whatever else is running around underneath the radar", Sarah sighed, "where's the light at the end of this tunnel?"

"Right now?", Jacob said, "the train coming right at us."