Chronic Fatigue

Chapter Four

Mistletoe stood with her back pressed against the door, the spider-mechanism still scissoring abrasively just on the other side. She was breathing heavily.
"I have to think about this logically," she thought. "Yes, I'm afraid of spiders," she reasoned, shaking slightly, "but this isn't a real spider, so what am I afraid of'?" Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door, readying herself. Everything was still, quiet. Mist held her breath, then she saw one of the legs as it edged its way out from behind the door. With a quick movement, she flung open the door, stepped back a pace and let the spider come scurrying out.

It paused momentarily, near her feet and that was enough.
"'Ave it!" she said, kicking it deftly toward the far end of the landing. The 'spider' flew through the air, whacked against the wall and rolled down into a heap on the floor, making a weird whimpering sound, lying inert, legs all at awkward angles. Seeing it now, Mist began to worry that she'd broken something important.

"What is this and how did it get in our house? So like the thing in my dream. But Roan's always buying gadgets and stuff. Oh, now my bedroom's a mess of feathers. I thought we had all synthetic stuff, I'm allergic to dust mites - perhaps it was the feathers all along." She picked up the spider device and poked the dangling legs back into its body one by one until it was in its original egg-like form. She put it by the TV. "Where is Roan?" she thought, "He hasn't texted me. Where has he got to? I heard that Gum's voice this morning. I'll bet he's with him again. When Roan gets home he has some answering to do." Mistletoe gave the device by the TV one last frown and set about her housework.

                                                                                      *****

As Elmo 3124b trudged back down the corridor behind the silent Foby 1, Elmo 679 faced a different conundrum.

"You need to see this," 352 said, barely pausing as he walked past, obviously expecting his junior to follow him. He continued striding purposely out of the investigation wing, 679 jumping up and hurrying to keep pace. "We have an unexpected situation. Certain things aren't going quite according to plan."

"They never are," thought 679, "We're never going to get home, it's all messed up." The thought was interrupted as they passed the I.T. department; someone there was shouting nervously, "He is trying to find it!" Feet could be heard hurrying backwards and forwards.

"Don't ask!" 352 put in, "Just don't ask. Don't know why we bother with this," he muttered, placing his thumb and fingers onto a scanner aside a reinforced door. "352," he said into a microphone, and then, "Equally pointless!" His disdain for the security system was obvious as he rolled his eyes during the usual retinal scan. Nevertheless, the reinforced door slid aside with an airy weightlessness and the pair strode through.

They stopped before a glass panel. 352 gazed at the shadowy room beyond.

"This is the cloning centre, the green room!" 679 regretted the obviousness of his statement as it came out.
352 glowered, "Just look inside."

A female figure within saw them, marched to the viewing window.
"That's Mistletoe. I didn't think we had brought her in."
The woman stopped and placed her palm on the glass.
"No, it's not. That's the form she has in the UnKnown World."

"What's she doing in the green room? Who brought her here? Is that wise?"
"That's just it," 352 said in a softer voice, "No one brought her here. She just appeared of her own free will. What's more, I think she's been here before.
"This is a cloning facility," the woman growled. "Aren't there enough of you yet?" She then demanded, "What is the ogre-eater? the beest that can change its shape? I know it comes from here, but why is it rampaging about the UnKnown World. What does it want?"