Mechanical Gods (lgbtq+)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Cat and Mouse

Amanda's screams emanated throughout the shaft, and it took all of Tyler's strength not to look down what the Android had done to her.

Suddenly, her screams cut out. Tyler knew what it meant.

He wanted to continue moving forward toward the surface, but it was so dark he wouldn't know when he'd hit the top. The lights streaming through the elevator roof's latch barely broke through what's in front of him.

Tyler had to think about the Android below him. One trigger was all it took for him to ascend using the elevator, and in seconds, he'll be dead.

He could feel the Android's eyes on his back, no doubt using its night vision to single him out in the darkness. That was a significant disadvantage for the Android's part and one that Tyler was helpless to combat.

How could he move forward when he's already losing a battle with the dark?

Tyler found an air duct a few feet up. It was a Godsend, and he almost gasped in excitement.

Standing on the rungs of the ladder, Tyler wasn't sure if he could make it. The air duct was seven feet away from the ladder. Then, he saw a metal platform just beneath the air duct and a bit closer toward him. He could use that.

Leaping off the ladder, Tyler hurled himself toward the platform, but only managing to get one hand on it. He dangled, and with his uninjured left leg, he found another platform from the bottom, albeit only an inch wide.

It was wide enough to pull himself up toward the grating of the air duct. Tyler pummeled on it twice with his fist until it loosened, grasping the metallic grating and pulled it out.

The grating fell and hit the Android on the head.

The Android looked up and snarled.

Tyler made the mistake of looking down. He had chopped Amanda up in unrecognizable pieces. He felt dizzy, and any moment longer staring at her, he would've lost his grip on the platform, and inevitably fall beside the Android's grasp.

With his shoe scraping on the smooth, vertical surface of the wall. There was little traction. Tyler managed to get his other arm up on the ledge, enough to keep him from falling, and hauled himself up with all his might.

Tyler wiggled inside the air duct.

Tyler crawled in fast with no idea where it led, but it beat staying in the elevator shaft with a murdering robot at his heels. Plus, the air duct was tight enough that the Android might not be able to fit. Heck, he could barely fit himself.

He kicked his right leg. That was a mistake. Pain scorched up and he yelped as the glass shards that once protruded out of it was still fresh in his memory when he escaped out of the window. He could still feel the Android's tight grip on his ankle, and he didn't want to repeat that. The Android almost broke his heel, and thank God he wasn't able to.

Just keep crawling, Tyler. Find a way out of here, Tyler repeated like a mantra.

He hoped to see Echo or Gideon Reese on the other side. For a facility as heavily guarded as this, Tyler expected a sensor to pick him up crawling in the air ducts, and then rescue would arrive at the end of the shaft. How amazing that dream would be, but Iago or whoever was controlling Aiden's body took over the facility's systems, and undoubtedly following his trail.

Behind him, he heard the elevator whirred back to life. He didn't know whether it was going up or down. If it was up, then, the Android might've decided to try going after him in the air duct. If he went down, he might be working another way to get to him. Both options terrified Tyler, pushing him deeper into the air duct for a way out.