Dang Convergence Vol. 1

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE CHASE AND CALEB

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHASE AND CALEB

Tiger led the way through the caves, sprinting down the path carved out by the murderbots with Wombat in tow.

"Chase! Caleb!"

They screamed the names of the twins as they passed multiple rooms, filled with metal and scrapped decommissioned murderbots, but they got no response. Wombat pulled up beside them, matching their pace.

"Hey, you think Dang's going to be okay? That was a lot of murderbots."

"Yeah, he'll be fine." They responded, "He's Dang after all. What we need to be focused on is finding the twins and getting them out of here. That's the mission."

Of course, the mission. They knew it was selfish but a part of them hoped that they'd run into 'Kai' again. This time, they were ready and they could take revenge for Anna, but they had a feeling that Dang would beat them to it.

They continued down the cave corridor, passing many more cave rooms filled with uninteresting things; spare heads and other body parts, Tiger figured that this part of the cave was used for storage, and a part of them wondered whether or not they were going in the right direction.

They slowed to a stop and Wombat did the same.

"What's up?"

"I don't think they're here." They answered, "We've not seen any movement since, not even from stray murderbots."

"Probably because Dang drew all of their attention to himself."

"But with our kind of luck, you don't think it's weird that we've not encountered anything? Not even one?"

Wombat thought about it for a while. "Okay, do we go back? Search another place?"

"Yeah, let's-"

They stopped mid-sentence, cut off by the figure standing at the front end of the hall. Their vision focused and she noticed a second one beside it. Human definitely...not robots. And they were short.

Kids.

"Twins?" they called out, and started making their way towards the figures.

It was them. It had to be...but something was off about them. There was an eerie air about the way they were stood. They didn't make any movements or act like they were happy to see Wombat and Tiger. They didn't recognize them at first.

Tiger started to slow down but Wombat hadn't noticed what they'd noticed and he pushed forward.

"Finally, guys. We've been looking all over for you."

One of the twins raised his arm and outstretched it at them. Wombat still didn't realize what was happening.

"Daniel! Wait!" Tiger called out but it was too late. An invisible force slammed into him and thrust him back, into them. They willed the wind behind their back to slow him and set him down beside them.

"You okay?" They asked Wombat, who was rubbing his head.

"I'm good, but that one got me good. I didn't even have time to react."

They helped Wombat to his feet and regarded the twins, who were now walking towards them. They moved unnaturally and in sync.

"Megan...I think they're-"

"Yup," they cut him off, "they're brainwashed."

They both assumed defensive stances.

"So, what are we going to do?