Once Again

Chapter 6

A walk through a building, in normal terms, was tedious at its best. This one didn't even merit a fancy word like tedious. It was just death and exhaustion and crap bottled up in a massive container made of limestone and extra crap.

Merle had passed her case off onto its own wheels, and now it made an annoying deluge of noise as it squeaked and rolled across the floor.

"Maybe you should carry that, instead of...that," Heron suggested. Merle glared at him. Of course not, her arms would probably systematically fall off and it was heavy.

"Y'know what? I'm fine, why don't you carry it?" Heron blanched, looking at the case that was busy squeaking its way across the floor.

"I think that it's fine where it is."

"Me too." They passed Ashley at one point, causing Merle to crouch against a wall and hope she was invisible, with Heron somewhat confused as to why Merle bothered hiding for her. A man spilled coffee in a cup labeled CoffGee, which just sounded like some name for cough medicine, but in reality was a pretty famous coffee brand that had outpaced Keurig and Starbucks back in the 3000's, making it splash in waterfalls of bitter crap near her leg.

The man hadn't bothered apologizing, which she supposed was somewhat good, as a really polite (and rich) person would probably try to pay her back or something. It still was annoying, as he almost burned her, something that she wouldn't like very much, and then ran off cursing about his ruined jeans.

Twenty or so rooms away from the entrance, about to attempt navigating the complicated path that lead to what was hopefully the entrance, they saw cameras. Lots and lots of cameras, each a black little bat hanging off the wall with a beady red eye. The cameras weren't the techiest. They could only point one way unless rotated, and didn't have the option of a 360-degree view. Which wasn't even helpful, as they were all positioned in such a way that one couldn't sneak into a blind spot or something.

"What if there are lasers?" asked Heron, pointing at the red lights, that now that Merle thought about, did somewhat resemble lasers.

"No one uses lasers unless they're in novels," said Merle, hoping that there wouldn't be any. "But let's go in, just in case."

Heron frowned. "Well, won't the cameras see us? If we waited until later..."

"Someone will find us and we'll be in trouble."

On that note, they walked forward a couple steps, Merle fully expecting to be proven wrong and promptly roasted to a crisp. Nothing happened, which was somewhat of a disappointment, beyond a slight whirring from the cameras, which was probably the cameras realizing that people were trying to get through. The red lights promptly blinked off, the glass covers of them still dimly shining in the afterglow. Merle pressed her lips together. So, based on the fact that the lights coincidentally turned off the moment they stepped in, they were probably screwed.

"We should maybe run," said Merle, knowing that she wouldn't be able to run long. Heron nodded.

They ran. Patches of light dimmed and brightened based on where the fluorescent lights illuminated the surrounding area, the occasional mural once again appearing. Merle's chest felt tight, tighter, stabbing knives hitting her lungs. And she had only been sprinting for about ten seconds. Her stupidly slow suitcase was catching up to her, and it was a somewhat animate object. She kept sprinting, though by that point it probably didn't count as a sprint anymore, but more like a jog. Heron slowed down a decent amount so they continued at the same pace. Merle kept expecting to hear the sound of thumping feet behind, and a couple times even convinced herself there was somebody chasing them. There wasn't, but Merle just became more paranoid. And tired.