The Sketch Survivors: The Enemy Among Us

The Olympic Ceremony

Some time had passed since the syringe had been used on the still nonreactive Irene. Soal had stayed next to her the whole time, when, in a sudden, alarming incident, the Legion was noticed again. They knew they were being noticed when voices over the speakers activated a lifting of the curtains in the Bedchambers.

All were silent was they observed the traumatizing sight that lay just beyond the curtains. Soal and Lucy in particular gasped, as they saw rows of innocent, unconscious Un-Characters wired up to alienating machines. Tubes grew out of their bodies and hooked them up to the system. And, strangest of all, they were all wearing the same wealthy-looking, Lint Corp outfits as Bridget and Heather.

"We need to escape. Now," George drew his sword, knowing that they were being monitored. "Ignore all of this. From what we know, they may be dead."

"But what about Ir-" Soal began, only to be cut off by a sharp response from Lucy.

"We must liberate these imprisoned Un-Characters!" she suggested with a burst of determination. "We can take Irene with us. Thronost, you must now return to the INS Grid and inform the others of what has happened. Go!"

"Uh, what she said," Soal stood up and confirmed his colleague's orders. "Farewell, Thronost."

"Fare thee well," the Zillyroi was visible hopping out of the Bedchambers almost exactly as the direction was given. Soal hoped for him the best while he hoisted up Irene on his shoulders, watching in anticipation as Lucy drew her sword; both of them, soon trailed by George, approaching one of the machines on the left row.

"Lucy, do you think this is really a good idea?" George was skeptical, and Lucy scrutinized the tubes and wires plugged into this Polygmian boy's head, disturbed.

"What other option do we have?" Lucy answered (sort of), before slicing off one of the looser wires.

"Lucy, no!" Soal yelled in dismay, but it was already too late to be solved.

"We've got to get out of here," George backed away gradually, Lucy awaiting a response from this Polygmian boy. Abruptly, blood began to flow from the spot into which the cord had dug, and he opened two ghastly white eyes unlike the rabid Cliasin's.

"Alright, I'll say it," Soal explained as he joined George. "Peregrin Cliasin was a practice model for Polygmius. Okay, Lucy, let's go...!"

Lucy stood, frozen in terror, and required being jerked back by Soal to dodge the boy's overly pale arm. He then proceeded to break free from all of his snaking wires, stepping down like a zombie from its machine. Simultaneously, all of the other Polygmians on both rows awakened from their sleep, and were released from their bonds.

"I told you this wasn't a good idea, Lucy," George scowled, and Lucy cowered in guilt as the trio (with Irene carried over Soal's shoulder) scampered to the Bedchambers' entrance.

In no time, masked quarantine officers, led by Gordon Gulley himself, arrived in the corridor, now filled to the brim with zombie-fied Polygmian Un-Characters. "Just look at what you've done!" Gulley roared as alarms started to blare. "These Polygmian Sleepers were never supposed to wake up midway through their development cycle! I should have taught you with Grammor. Without my immune serum, she will be ours for the rest of her life."

"Immune serum? Do you mean this?" Soal taunted Gulley by pulling the syringe from earlier out of his pocket, where he had placed it. He could see the steam emerge from the man's ears as he held it out in front of him.

"Aargh!" Gulley bellowed. And after that, all that stood between the two forces was a horde of stampeding Polygmians.

The scene was gory. The legionnaires were forced to follow the age-old laws of kill, or be killed. All of the Polygmians, possessed by some demonic spirit, bowed before the swords of the sane Un-Characters. Within minutes, a heap of corpses separated the dueling powers. No experimental test subject had survived. Except, Soal hoped, one.

"Imbeciles," Gulley snarled in an insane rage. "You think you can get away with this... this mockery?!"

"Of course," George raised his sword, his peers backing up behind him for protection. "Otherwise we wouldn't have done it. Revolution is our name, sabotage is our game."

"Sabotage on such a level is more than a crime," Gulley's cheeks churned a deep crimson. "Lint Corp is the greatest empire ever to have blessed the grounds of the seven continents. We are tasked with saving our human race, even if we have to resort to homicide. And all who are defiant will have to come to terms with that fact. Rebellion is useless."

"Greatest empire, eh?" George swiped his sword in the air before him as a threat. "The twentieth century oversaw the advent of fixation in place of imperialism. What you seek is to overthrow old ideals of peace and order, and embed a code that does not differentiate violence and progress."

"Learning to speak like Bridget, huh, George?" Lucy marveled at his use of vocabulary, but that mattered little.

Gulley was ripe with the fruits of fury. "Die!" he shrieked in the face of being verbally defeated. "All of you!" As soon as those words hit the legionnaires, the quarantine officers, armed with bulletproof shields and fully loaded machine gun rifles, charged forwards. The intrepid George rushed forwards as well to combat them, but Soal (with Irene) and Lucy remained in place, dreading their colleague's fate.

Much to their startle and horror, it was a stalemate. A handful of the officers were taken down by George's resilient sword, and as enraged as he was, Gulley did not intervene. Time drew onwards, but neither side emerged triumphant.
Finally, George had lost hold of his hope. "Leave," he commanded, the cacophony of clashing metal echoing through the empty Facility air. "Go back to the Grid. I promise, I will return to you. Go without me, and may your journey be a safe one."

"But-" Soal began to resist. Despite the unfamiliarity that was brewing between them, they could not spare him in their mission.

"Do it," George hastily convinced Soal, the Commander. "Do it for Irene."

Tears trekking down Soal's cheeks, he and Lucy (with the unconscious Irene) evacuated the Bedchambers, their friend's fate still undecided.