Unreality

32. Inhuman

Rosemary had believed herself to be alone with the dead, but it turned out one of the bodies amidst the pile of corpses was still clinging to life. Her shock was such that the female cyborg had become speechless, forcing the one amidst the dead to speak up once more.

'Hey... did ya hear me?' he asked in a low voice. 'Who are you? Was it you that opened the door? Or did someone else open it and dumped you in here?'

'I-it was me...' Rosemary replied in a hesitant and shaky voice.

'What are you doing here? Did ya run away and come here to hide?'

'Y-yes...'

As her eyes became more and more used to the dark, the young girl was slowly able to make out the features of her interlocutor, realizing he too was a cyborg. He must have been aware of their kinship from the start, having seemingly been locked in that dark room for a while.

'That's perfect...' he said with gritty smile. 'Let's not waste time then — help me outta here, will ya?'

'W-what? How...?'

'Just get down near the edge and reach out your arm. I'll jump and grab your hand, and you pull me up.'

'I-I don't know if I can...'

'Of course you can,' he assured her in a mildly miffed tone. 'You're a cyborg like me, and your technology is clearly more advanced than mine.'

'...Okay, I'll try.'

The male cyborg adjusted the ascending pile of bodies in front of him so as to make it more compact. It was a dreadful sight, and Rosemary could barely stand to look at it, but she reached down and extended her arm nonetheless.

'Okay, here I go...' said the male cyborg, before climbing up the mountain of corpses, and jumping towards Rosemary's arm after reaching the top.

As he had foretold, their cyberized hands were able to meet in the air and clasp one another, and the young girl then pulled him up and out of the hole with the strength of her cyberized body.

As both of them sat on the floor and caught their breath after that bit of exertion, their gaze finally met on even ground. Rosemary noticed he was a youth like her, and that the flesh on his exposed torso was covered in bloodstains. In spite of his miserable condition though, there was a fire in his eyes which she had not expected to find in someone that had been left to die and rot in a place like that.

'What's your name?' he surprised her by asking, doing so in a very low voice, probably to avoid giving away their presence.

'...Rosemary.'

He got back on his feet before replying.

'I'm Victor. Thanks for the help,' he said as he extended his arm, helping her get back to her feet as well.

With the two of them now quite close to one another, Rosemary noticed an odd and nasty odor of blood and guts coming from his breath. It was a bit unsettling, but as he had not batted an eye at the grotesque scarring on her face, she did her best not to react as well.

'A few more bodies and I woulda done it myself, but the sooner the better,' explained Victor, glancing towards the pile of corpses below. 'Besides, now we can escape together.'

'E-escape? You think we can do that...?'

''Course we can. I was already planning to do it by myself, but with the two of us it'll be even easier.'