Mech

Chapter 6: That's Not My Name

We rushed after Esclave as she took a tight turn down the next street over. Heading straight for a large pipe-looking structure; we ran into pitch black darkness. The headlights on her motorcycle were the only dim light in the tunnel. Suddenly, she stopped, causing us all to run into each other quite gracefully. Climbing off the bike, Esclave felt around on the wall for a lever and opened a hidden door.

"Alright Rebel babies, in the bunker, single file, no cutting, watch your step," Esclave said, motioning for us to enter and talking as if speaking to two-year-olds.

I rolled my eyes and followed Ian in, who somehow ended up in the front. We entered a small hallway that stopped about ten feet in leading to a ladder.

"Ladies first?" Ian asked, looking at me.

"What, scared of a ladder?" I replied, squeezing past him and beginning my decent.

The rusty ladder felt like sandpaper on my hands, and the muggy claustrophobic atmosphere of that ridiculously confined space made it a bit hard to breathe. I felt like I was climbing down forever, and that unnerving feeling you get when you have to go first was slowly getting to me. When I finally reached the bottom, I turned around and saw a rather large room filled with many bunk beds. There were four rows, each row had four beds. Our whole group made it down and observed the area. Esclave came down last.

"Welcome to my back up bunker. You should be safe here, or not, but there's a good chance," She uttered, taking a seat on one of the beds, "Alright, you got questions, ask them."

The group looked questionably at the hostess' provided shelter. This didn't seam like an efficient place to live. I could have sworn I saw a rat crawling around on the floor.

Max spoke up first, "What is this place..or..err, what was it, I mean."

"Workers quarters," The girl answered, "Nothing special."

"Why not just stay here? Why were you camped out in that other building? It didn't seam all that safe." Ian asked immediately after.

"Please, there's no supplies down here. Can't get food, can't get water, hell I'm lucky I got a light working. Getting all those necessities down here would be pretty tough, I'd be caught making trips back and forth to get enough down here to last a year or so. I'm more of the move-around type, I never stay in one spot."

There was definatly a rat crawling around, I saw it dart from underneath one bunk to the next. It was actually just a shadow cast from the blinking lights. I shivered, I hate rats. Of course, no animals actually exist in Mech, and I had never actually seen a rat before. I had read about them, however, and the idea of such a disgusting creature made me very uncomfortable. After reading of the Black Death and the awful diseases these creatures carried I never wanted to ever encounter one. My mind was playing tricks on me.

Jason spoke next, "Why aren't there any Cycoffs? What happened to them?"

Esclave smiled and chuckled a bit under her breathe, "The Moxi, they took care of those bastards. Well, not really took care of them, but they got them out of the way. Captured them, if you will."

I pushed past Jason and stood before her, "The Moxi, what are they? And the Cause? Are they dangerous? Did you write the message in the pharmacy?"

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I was hallucinating rats under the bunks, but I was completely sane I assure you.

"Slow down kid. You saw the writing on the wall too?" Esclave asked, standing.

I nodded, and she turned around, placing a hand over her mouth as if trying to process this information.