The Oasis

Chapter 9

Ch 9 

Jake woke up, coughing and sputtering, then tumbled two meters to the floor. It was dark, wet, and cold. He couldn’t stop hacking up water. He lay on the ground, weak, exhausted, and aching everywhere. When his coughing fit finally died down, he rolled to his back and looked around. The sound of intermittent drips filled the vast cavern as shapes came into focus. He lay in the middle of rows upon rows of processing drones, their massive funnels laying dormant as they recharged upon their racks. Jake closed his eyes, laid back upon the floor, and breathed evenly, relieved for his escape. For the best he could tell, the drone he believed would bring him certain death, was actually returning to its station, bringing him along for the ride.

                  Jake smiled. All of Control may want him dead, but at least God wanted him alive. How many people could say they survived an imploding submarine? And what was more, for all control knew, he was dead. A broken COM lost in the crumpled heap left at the bottom of the reservoir, with no body to worry about? They couldn’t have tied it up any better if they used a pretty bow.

                  Of course, being a dead man and all, he couldn’t exactly stay in the city. He had to get outside. What exactly lay in waiting for him was yet to be seen, but if he was ever to get to the bottom of the mystery, he had to do something. Thankfully, without a COM, he couldn’t be tracked, and no alarms would go off if he snuck around after hours.

                  He thought about getting a message to Dr. Lauren to tell her he was alright, but he wasn’t so sure that was such a good idea. Up to this point, she hadn’t been implicated in any of this madness, but any communication Jake had with her could put her at risk. Best not blow his cover and her safety just yet.

                  Of course, without his COM, he had no idea how to tell what time it was. He didn’t want to make a break for the perimeter in broad daylight. Control probably had facial recognition software that could pick him out of the crowd. That’s assuming they were still looking for him, which was less than likely, but in a one-man verse the world situation like this, paranoia was Jake’s friend.

                  The floor in the center of the room opened up, and a crane-like system delivered another drone to the middle, dropping the craft into the water as it fired up for its shift. The segment of ground Jake rested on rumbled beneath him as it retracted into the walls. In fear, Jake rolled off the floor and into the water, only to swim to the edges in order to avoid the drone dropping in from above. As the beast sank, Jake watched its progress. The drone reached a pre-set depth, then powered forward through the underwater entrance tunnel. Before it vanished from sight, Jake saw the multi-colored refractions from beyond flow across the hall of the drone. Now Jake at least had a way to tell if the sun was still up so long as light reflected of the exiting drones.

                  The sections of floor jolted into motion again, sliding together in the center. Jake reached up to grab hold of the segments. They slid on above him slipping past his fingers. Jake swam closer to the middle, getting just ahead of the segments, and he tried reaching up again. The level of the water was several feet from the closing floor, and Jake had to practically jump out of the water like a fish. With powerful kicks, he rose high enough to grab the edge above him. The moment he got hold, the floor segment dragged him through the water, and his fingers slipped from the force. Jake swam forward again, getting ahead of the segment, and timed his jump. He forced himself up, grabbing the edge of the floor again, and immediately raised his legs out of the water. All his weight returned, and the force strained on his fingers. Jake tensed, keeping his grip long enough to flop his elbows over the edges.

                  The floor behind him was closing in fast. The segments along the right and left loomed closer as well. In a matter of seconds, the floor would converge on him. His adrenaline kicked in again, and he labored to pull himself over the side. He struggled against his own weight, slowly lifting, little by little. His hand slipped on the wet surface and his face smashed against the floor. He rebounded from the collision and swung over the edge, clinging to the ledge with one hand as the rest of him dropped into the water, feeling the drag in full force.