Seeing Double (Yoglabs)

Chapter 2

Xephos and Lomadia ran along the confusing hallways of Yoglabs as fast as they could, and although Lomadia is keeping up, she had long since given up keeping track of where they were heading. Besides, she trusts that Xephos knows where he’s going. He shouts over his shoulder

“The next door up ahead should get us to an exit!”

Lomadia internally sighs in relief, thankful that this adventure would be ending soon and that nothing too terribly bad had happened. She allows her shoulders to relax as Xephos quickly types in his pin, but then tenses back up when the red words ‘ACCESS DENIED’ appear on the screen. He tries again, making sure his fingers don’t slip, but this time an alarm rings with the abrasive words

“ACCESS DENIED, UNAUTHORIZED PERSONEL”.

The message echos in the silences for a few moments as both she and and Xephos cringe. Then, all too suddenly, hidden doors open to show robots with fire arms just beyond a thin layer of glass. Xephos’ eyes widen with shock and yells

“That was not a feature I approved!”

He half pulls Lomadia behind himself and equips his sword, however, the robots show no signs of moving and Xephos whispers to Lomadia

“They need a voice command, but to my knowledge, they only react to me and one of the testificates, who thankfully just took a weekend holiday away.”

He nudges her slowly down the hallway in hopes he could lead her to another exit, but before they could make much progress, his clone comes striding out from around the corner. His arm is bent awkwardly causing small spouts of electricity to escape him and his eyes glow a dangerous color of blue. He twitches a bit before smirking,

“Did you really think it’d be that simple?” The clone pauses and lets out a a loud laugh

“You’ve been stuck in that cell for how many days, and you still think your pin number would be valid? HA! You fool!”

Xephos stiffens in front of her and grimaces, but stays silent as the clone crackled on.

“And the best part?” he adds rhetorically

“These robots may only operate on your voice command, such a shame really, but luckily you’re not the only one with your voice!”

The Xephos double pulls back his coat to reveal a switch with a large button and, rather dramatically, points it at the robots and presses the button down. The glass slide away and Xephos began to inch himself and Lomadia closer to the other exit. However, the clone notices them quickly and shouts

“And where do you think you’re going? The party has just begun!”

Lomadia huffs at his theatrics and mutters under her breath

“Oh, please!”

Xephos looks at her apologetically and mumbles back to her

“I swear I didn’t program him!”

Lomadia counters playfully,

“What do you even do, then?”

Xephos just gave her a look of impatiences before nudging her to move faster.

The clone continued to rattle on about how smart his plan was and how clever he was being, all without noticing the other two slowly creeping away until Lomadia had just grabbed the handle and opened the door slightly. The door created a loud noise that echoed in the large hallway, causing the clone to finally snap out of his evil speech and take action, shouting

“Wait! STOP!”

Lomadia and Xephos took no heed and instead bolted down the other hallway. They hear the clone shout the on command to robots and the echo of metallic footsteps grate on their ears. The two shout in fear when the door and wall, for that matter, explodes behind them and Lomadia is just barely able to dodge a flying piece of rubble. No longer holding hands, both sprint faster down the twists and turns of Yoglabs, taking sharp turns around the corners. Suddenly remembering the way she came in, Lomadia grabs Xephos’ arm and yanks him to a halt. Aware of the robots smashing through after them, she speaks hurriedly