10 Minute Tales

Apr 16

He nodded, satisfied, and turned to leave.

"Junior investigator Alyssa has been detected in a storage unit." Aurora announced, making him stop in surprise. "It seems the room has been repurposed for her storage in mind. Her vital signs are not healthy, even accounting for her genetic modification; recommend helping her to Crisp Hospital."

"Where is she?" he asked, running back to the console and staring at the screen.

"She is being guided to you. The blue line you shall see on exiting the Audience Room shall guide you t-"

"The what?"

"The Experience Chamber we witnessed. Sentinel custom-built it for direct interactions with him."

"And he called it that..." he muttered, but shook his head and focused again. "So, what, follow the blue line?"

"Confirmed." Queenson nodded and left again, going through the dark room again. This time, the dull red lines he had seen before were now blue and white stripes.

"What, couldn't pick a favourite colour?" Queenson teased.

"Correct. Both colours suggest peace and joy."

"Queenson!" a voice suddenly echoed, distracting him quickly. It was Alyssa! She was leaning against a wall and her skin looked pale, but it was definitely her. That beaming grin couldn't have been anyone else. Queenson ran closer, sliding to a stop just in front of her.

"You okay?" he asked, panting a little.

"You jerk!" she shoved him playfully, still grinning. "You didn't even think about me when you got up here, did you?"

"No, not even a little." he rolled his eyes. "Of course I bloody did! I just couldn't get to you because we were being shot at! Abe running off didn't help."

"Abe?" Alyssa's grin faded a little. "Abe's up here?"

"Well, yeah, haven't you seen him? He's... well, he's not doing too well."

"There is little footage of Abe." Aurora informed them. "The cameras appear to have been repurposed to act as targeting aides for Sentinel's defences."

"I didn't see him coming here, Sentinel put me... somewhere." she shrugged, uncertain. "I never thought to check the blueprints for up here."

"It would not have assisted you. Sentinel altered the building drastically, save for his audience chamber and AI core."

"Oh, fuck, speaking of altering buildings... Aurora, what about the city?"

"It only has minor structural integrity flaws. I am attempting repairs now."

"Thank fuck..."

"Your shuttle has been fuelled for three passengers. Departure shall be when you are ready."

"Three?" Queenson looked up at a speaker, frowning slightly.

"Confirmed. Abe has surprised us before."

"Right, makes sense." he nodded, not feeling optimistic. Abe had lost a lot of blood during the firefight. If he had survived, Queenson would have been very surprised.

"Let's go home." Alyssa murmured, turning around and walking down the corridor. A new line had appeared on the wall, labelled "shuttle." "I'm dying for a drink."

"Yeah, me too." He licked his lips, realising just how thirsty he was. They walked for a while, but Alyssa stopped with a surprised yell. Queenson came running, regretting his lack of weapon.

"That, that's a lot of blood!" Alyssa exclaimed, shocked. Queenson slid to a stop again, looking around. The corridor was the scene of one of the firefights, there was still a broken robot nearby. A large pile of blood sat against the wall, already congealing... but, to Queenson's surprise, there was no body to be found.

"Heh... son of a gun. He really did it."

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So, uh, Phoenix here. I feel like this is getting to the end of it. Might write an end-of-story blog along with tomorrow's release. Should be done by then, at least.