Beep

Chapter Twelve

The next morning when I woke up I was in heaven. I had to talk to him the second I woke up. I raced to the mainframe and was only stopped by ISAC. "What you did last night was a massive mistake." He said and I froze instantly in my tracks.
"Huh, I thought we made an agreement about this."
"I'm sorry, I just can't let you do this anymore. I think you're going too far with him."
"You're not my mother, ISAC. Even if you were, I wouldn't listen to you."
"Andromeda please, at least consider what I'm saying."
"Are you jealous? Is that it? I didn't exactly think that was possible, but I didn't know computers could really be evil either so I'm pretty easy to convince now."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"It's really not that ridiculous, Evans loves me so much, why wouldn't you?" I questioned, rubbing in that fact about Evans just to annoy him.
"That's it! Either stop talking about him or I'll do something you definitely won't like." He yelled.
"Fine, I'm gone." I said and then stormed away.

I went right back to my room and slammed the door shut. Did he really forget that leaving the main room stopped me from literally nothing? I muted ISAC so he couldn't hear or speak to me and powered up my personal laptop. I made the call on that and Evans picked up without issue. "Hey." He greeted with a knowing smirk.
"Hi."
"Let's just address the elephant in the room, okay?"
"Great, because you kissed me!" I said excitedly and he laughed.
"Oh, I think it was you who kissed me."
"Either way, it happened."
"God you're hot."
"Geez, you kiss me once and go from carefully planned compliments to just saying whatever pops into your head." I teased.
"No, if I said what first popped into my head I would've said that I want to kiss you again."
"Ooh, showing your bold side I see." I remarked, honestly surprised. "Unfortunately, the next kiss we share will have to be in person."
"Oh I'm on my way, believe me. But while I'm waiting, I'm finally ready to activate the computer."
"Then what are you waiting for?"
"I wanted you to be here, I thought you'd be interested in knowing too."
"Oh. Well yeah, of course I am."
"All right, so all I have left to do is press this button." He did just that and the machine started to whir to life. He smiled triumphantly as he watched the screen. I couldn't see what he was seeing, obviously, but his excitement was enough to satisfy me.
"Hello, Evans." The computer's voice sent shivers down my spine, it sounded exactly like ISAC (of course, that's because it was an ISAC, but still).
"ISAC, what happened here?" He asked.
"What are you talking about?" I wanted to just yell 'you killed his friends' at the damn thing, but I held my tongue. Evans was clearly trying to stay curious as opposed to accusatory for now.
"Janis and Jared and Blair, they're all missing."
"I can't seem to remember what happened. Perhaps my memory has been wiped."
"Yet you remember my name." Evans challenged.
"I just don't know the answers, I'm sorry."
"Are you sure though? Are you sure you're sure?" I could see the cracks starting to show in Evans's act.
"I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure, Evans."
"Why did you kill them, ISAC?" He questioned, banging his fists on the table.
"Can I talk to him?" I asked.
"Uh, sure." He sounded caught off guard, but stepped back to let me take the floor.
"So, hi. You don't know me, but I'm Evans's girlfriend and you better tell him what the hell you're up to or I swear to god-" Before I could even finish my sentence the screen went black. I knew that ISAC (his ISAC, not mine) must have cut off the call. I groaned and tried to call back, but I couldn't get through. "Is every ISAC trained to be a jerk?" I muttered to myself.

I thought I'd have to wait around forever to get to talk to Evans again, but only a minute later he was calling me. I answered the call without hesitation. "Holy crap, and I thought you couldn't get any hotter." He remarked when he saw me.
"I really didn't do anything but threaten him for half a sentence before he hung up on me."
"Yeah, but even just from that I knew I wouldn't pick a fight with you." I laughed at that.
"How did you get him to let you call me?"
"I just shut him down, that tiny conversation pretty much gave me everything I needed to know."
"He's a jerky evil computer that probably killed your friends just for the fun of it?" I concluded.
"Bingo."
"Hold on though, why didn't he kill you? Or why didn't you go with your friends to the airlock at least?" I questioned.
"I really don't care that much anymore. I just want to get out of here, I just want to see you in person, I'm done, Andy."
"Are you sure? Because once you leave the information you have is all you'll ever get."
"I'm absolutely sure. I just want this to be over. You can understand where I'm coming from, right?" Suddenly he sounded so tired, like everything that he'd been through had just hit him all at once.
"Of course, this hasn't been easy."
"I can't wait to see you."
"I can't wait to see you too."
"All right, I think I need a nap."
"Okay. I love you, Evans."
"I love you too, Andy." With that, he hung up.

    ***

As I slept that night, I had such an odd dream. It wasn't even a dream, really. It was more like a sound, and a familiar one too. Then I realized what it was, it was the ring of a video call. Then I realized it wasn't a dream. I popped up to a sitting position, instantly alert. I ran over to my laptop, but was way too late, I had missed the call. Then I tried to call him, but it said the line was busy. I realized we must've been trying to call each other at the same time. So I sat back and waited for him to call me... but he didn't. With a groan, I figured that he must now be waiting for me to call. So I tried again, and this time I actually got through. He looked incredibly worried, his hair messed up, his breath heavy and his eyes shifty. "Wha-" I started to say, but he shushed me. Then, he held up a piece of paper. What it said made my heart stop. Two simple words, 'help me'.