The Knife Machine.

Buruaz Beste

My mouth gaped as I made it to the elevator. He'd jumped clean over it and landed smoothly on the hard floor many feet below. I quickly jumped into the elevator; it called like a wild animal from my sudden weight. Then I hit the fastest control button on it and the elevator flew down, still swinging from side-to-side. It hit the ground with a scraping crash. Before the poor door could even find the power to open itself, I forcefully pushed it down and left out after the already disappearing blue eye. Past escalators, the chambers, machinery and into a few other androids, then past the first cages and into the workshop. Then he skidded to a halt. The room was dark and much more cramped than it had been, many more metal skeletons were piled around the room. The purple light of my eyes cast towering shadows of the misshapen bodies against the wall. They watched the blue eye as he turned round, broken, tattered, black eyes looking into mine. The purple light lit the empty sockets, exposing wires, cogs and bars. He gave off a very convincing menacing look.

"Alright, you're still here, good. I have an idea, but it is pretty ambitious. There's a door to the aircraft unit in here, and from there, there's a door to the outside runway and freedom. The aircraft have not run in years and years" He rambled, shaking his head. "There should be a way to open the door, might have something to do with the planes, might have something to do with a button, worst case scenario, it's something to do with the main computer"
He blinked, silent, before turning away and slipping into the surrounding darkness. There were clicking noises sounding around me, they seemed to be coming from the end skeletons. I shook it off as the wind of the fans blowing on bust circuits but on closer inspection, the crippled skeletons seemed to be moving. The clicking got more rapid. Twitching and shaking. They shuddered like rabbits caught in headlights.

Then one of the skeletons from the top of the pile tumbled and crashed onto the floor. Then everything fell silent.

"You're not killing people back there, are you? If you're not busy stabbing somebody, could you come help me find the door to the aircraft unit? It's so dark in here, I can't see my own hand in front of me" chimed the concerned voice of the blue eye. I turned and swiftly made my way to source of the voice. Not being able to see, I walked straight into the the door to the aircraft unit sending a loud crash around the room. I fell back, holding my head as if were about to fall off. "Oh great! You found it. Come on, let's go" he said while grabbing my free hand and dragging through the door as it opened.

He yelped as he banged his head on the door. I had barely got my bearings before he dropped my and rested his hands on a huge wheel. It was more than a few centimeters taller than him, bigger than a large tractors wheel by far, they was almost completely smooth from wear. "Say hello to Buruaz beste! The largest aircraft in the building. She was used for taking cargo and machinery to the other factories and to storage buildings. I don't know why they don't use her anymore"

I stared up at the plane. It was a humongous jet, its cockpit was about the size of two double Decker buses next to each other and then got smaller to the pin-sharp nose of the plane. The wings were very thin compared to the rest of the plane but dwarfed the plane's body in lenght, casting deep, dark shadows across the floor. It had only one conjoined tail fin and five huge jet engines, two on each wing and one on the back of the plane. Written on its side in bold italics was "Buruaz Beste." The smaller details were too hard to see, the only source of light was a single line of office lights. Too the side of the plane was a tall flight of metal steps which were so vertical they were pretty much ladders.
"Those stairs there lead to the cockpit and living space. That's where the pink eyes that weren't flying the plane sat so, being pink eyes, the living space is very fancy. It even has its own air conditioning!" he said, pointing to the staircase "they always leave it open, we could go inside if you want."

I looked at the door to the plane. It didn't look particularly inviting. I tossed the thought in my mind for a while before saying "inside.. That?"

"Yep. I wouldn't worry, as long as she's not in the air, she's completely safe" he said, patting the worn out wheel he was leaning against. I gave him a brisk nod in which he respond by grabbing my life paw and dragging me unwillingly to the flight of stairs, across the stone floor. "Ladies first" he insisted while giving me a friendly shove up the first step. I peered up at the long climb above me, then back down at him, then peered up again. Shuffling my back feet onto the first step and my front feet onto the third, I started to climb. The steps squeaked, strained and howled as I cautiously stepped up them. The blue eye followed behind me; he was muttering under his breath about how slow I was going. He had the advantage of arms so he had a hand free to catch me when I misjudged the steps.

After a few falls and a lot of struggling, I made it to the metal ledge before the door. Behind me, the blue eye had made it up the stairs with ease but was shaking his hand from having to catch me a few times. "Finally" he complained "I was beginning to think we might have to grow old together on these stairs, couldn't you of gone any faster?"

I didn't respond. I was too busy trying to figure out how to open the door; its lock was ten times as complicated as the blade control panel, with colored buttons, numbers, letters and symbols, it would be near impossible for a stranger to open it.
"I thought you said they left it unlocked" I muttered. "Oh yeah, they usually turn of the lock so you can get in, even if you know password" he replied in his casual loud tone. Then one long lanky arm poked over my shoulder and with a few beeps and pips, typed in the code. The door squeaked quietly as it slowly creaked open. "Wait here, don't go in yet, ok?" He called while stepping over my head and into the cockpit. There was the sound of quick paced, heavy footsteps disappearing into the plane followed by the slam of a button or maybe a switch being pressed.

The engine roared into life, a low chatter bouncing around the room. An earthquake shattered through the ground. The engine revved before calming down; a low growling and shuddering lingered in the chamber. Suddenly there was a clap of mechanics as the lights in the plane, one by one, turned on. "Alright you can come in now!" He called from the front of the plane. Stepping over the lip of the door, I looked inside. The inside was a long rounded room with polished black walls which looked to be made of plastic. Next to the door were a row of red leather seats with seatbelts strewn across them like dead snakes. Opposite to me, identical to to the row beside me, was another row of chairs, there appeared to be a bit mark taken out of one of them. Further down the room was the cockpit, a huge curved control panel with clusters of different buttons and levers. The blue eye was leaning against it with a rather proud-of-himself expression. "I've spent a lot of time in this plane, you know. Not like I had anywhere to go during spare time so one day I just spent my time working out the controls and codes for her. I still don't think I could fly her though, they don't program blue eyes with that. I could give you a tour of what I know though, if you'd like" he said, gesturing the the panel. I gave him a nod and stepped towards the cluttered panel.

He got up from against the panel and turned around to face it. I looked down at the curved panel; there were bits of what looked like food, weird sticky stuff seeping out of some of the buttons topped with a thick layer of dust, covering the panel like snow. "Alright, let's start with the T button" he eased, grabbing my paw and hovering it above the panel "that I believe effects the seat belts.." He smacked my
paw hard against blue button. The once limp seatbelts shot tightly into their socketsand out of the wall came short metal armrests. "I honestly don't know what that's for.." he continued "and then there's the little..steering wheel, I guess?" His other hand was placed and a rounded lever that lent slightly with the weight of his hand. Its hinge was rounded too, giving it the ability to do a 360. "I think this is what controls the direction the plane goes. It goes up and down too." He pulled it upwards, full force and with a deafening crunch that seemed to sound all around plane, the lever spun upwards like a screw. Then, after a bit of pushing, he shoved the lever into the inside of the planes panel with the same lightning crack of joints, longer this time. He looked over at me and waited for a comment. I still said nothing, the words seemed to jammed in my mouth and completely unable to come out. We kept staring at each other until he spoke again.

"Then there this lever at the bottom" he edged, pulling the red knobbed lever attached to the front wall of the panel up and down. "That stops the steering wheeling moving. Yet again, not sure why it does but there's that-" he paused with a scratch, like a video tape. A shiny blue light flickered from his eye sockets with a feeble buzz.

"Shut it" he hissed across to me, bending down below the panel "somebody's here with us"