Ellipse

Chapter six

It was eight O'clock, and as usual at eight O'clock the sun was down, and Roland was annoyed, that was also usual.
"Would you calm down?" he said, pouring some camomile tea, "what's wrong with you."
Monroe had completed the drawing of the machine, and was spiraling around the kitchen speaking in a frantic jumble of words. "Look, look, look, do you know what this is!" he said cramming the picture in Roland's face.
"No I don't know what it is," Roland replied pushing it away, "and neither do I care. put that away and sit down!"
Monroe threw the drawing on the table and excitedly poured himself a cup of tea, spilling most of it on the floor.
"I'll tell you what it is!" he said ignoring Roland, "it's a thing, no, no, no... it's a machine yes, it's an egg incubator!"
Roland looked at his brother, slightly concerned about his sanity.
"A.... what?" he said as he stirred his tea slowly.
"Yes you heard me right," Monroe said. He set his cup down and a chip flew off hitting the window, making a sort of twang sound.
"An egg incubator?"
"Yes!"
"Why eggs?"
"Well it's not an egg, but it's round see?" he pointed at the sketch of the orb he had seen, on the paper it looked nothing like the real one but he found the idea as good as the actual thing. "The machine keeps this, this orb-like thing stable. But I think it does more than just that, look here." he pointed at where he had drawn the inside of the machine, "these pipes are airtight, and this jar is connected to the pipes, but it can be removed see?"
"I think so,"
"So, the fact that it's airtight gave me the idea that perhaps an ellipse is somehow brought through these pipes. But if you look here you can see that the ellipse is let into the glass dome, into the dome where the orb is."
Monroe paused and sketched something next to the dome, and took a sip of his tea.
"You see?"
"No," Roland said, "you haven't even told me what happened."
"Oh," Monroe replied thoughtfully, "I didn't?"
"No."
Just then someone knocked on the door, and through the window they could see someone's hat and eyebrows.
Monroe stood and opened the door.
"Evening Monroe."
"Er... hello Felix, what are you doing here so late."
"Just come to ask if you... may I come in?"
Roland angrily glared at Felix, Roland did not like Felix, never did. And was always trying to convince Monroe that no matter how hard he tried, Monroe could never change his character.
"yes," said Monroe, "would you like some tea?"
"No, I abhor tea, nothing against you though." Felix's eyes examined the place, and then got stuck on something that sat on the table.
Felix seemed a bit out of character, instead of his usual swagger with an uninterested expression on his face, he was glancing around eyes open wide; and a bit jumpy.
"Where did you get that?" he asked walking up to the table and picking up the piece of paper that Monroe had been drawing on.
"I drew it, it's just something I'm trying to figure out, you see Mildred had me build this machine for him-"
"Mildred did?" Felix interrupted looking a little nervous, but there was also a bit of excitement on his face. He looked at the drawing and put it back on the table, and looked back up at Monroe skeptically.
"So you know about this?"
"Well yes, I guess you could say that."
"So, s-so you're with them?" Felix began to back up towards the door, a strange look of horrified elation lingering on him.
"With who? I don't understand, what are you talking about?"
"I just remembered I forgot something," Felix reached for the door handle, Monroe put his cup down and a chip flew off towards Felix. "Ah!" he exclaimed opening the door, and almost falling out. "I got to go," he whirled around to the stairs and ran down, looking back only when he reached the bottom.
"What is wrong with everybody tonight?" Roland said in an exasperated tone, as Monroe closed the door still looking out the window as he watched Felix run off.
"That was very strange," he said, and then sat down next to Roland and thought. It was all so strange, it seemed everything as of late was like that, or maybe it hadn't and he just didn't notice yet. Either way, something needed to be explained. And it didn't help that he still felt a little off, when the machine exploded something felt wrong. It was almost as if he had drank a very strong cup of coffee with that somehow got infused with the triple amount of caffeine. Perhaps this was the cause of over excitement, "I think I might send a letter to Enoch."
"Now?"
"Yes,"
"The message machine is closed."
"Not the last round, on the other side of town. I'm too impatient to wait till tomorrow."
Roland buried his face in his cup and drained his tea, he was completely annoyed and tired. "I'm just gonna let you figure, whatever it is, out yourself, and I'll go to bed. How does that sound?"
Monroe put his coat and hat on.
"I'll be back," he said and walked up to the door. He turned the door knob and looked up through the window, but he did not open it. For staring back at him from the window was a white skull, he lept back in surprise. No it wasn't a skull, it was a mask, a gas mask, like the old ones used by the military in the war. But it was white, and the dark lenses that covered the eyes looked like the empty sockets of dead skull. The figure outside was just standing there looking in, and it seemed so surreal Monroe was not sure what to do. The door was unlocked, and the person simply opened it and walked in. Above the white skull-like mask they wore a top hat, and under they whore a burgundy waistcoat. With one hand free and the other held behind his back.
"Who are you?" Monroe said stepping back towards the bedroom. The stranger didn't say anything, they just stepped closer. There was a noise coming from behind the mask, slightly high pitched. To Monroe's confusion the person was laughing, "is this some kind of joke, what are you doing here?"
The masked person swung his right hand around from behind his back. But he didn't have a right hand, he had a left hand, not a right one. In its place was a very large, round blade, with jagged teeth, sharp and dangerous covering the entire blade. The blade was connected to a mechanism that trailed up along his arm.
"What?" Monroe said, the person only laughed more, and swung the sawblade-hand. There was a CLICK and the mechanical blade rotated into place. This movement caused the saw blade to start spinning at a dangerous speed.
This was enough, Monroe stumbled into the table, nocking all the chairs over. And then quickly swung into the bedroom and slammed the door shut locking it.
"What's going on?" Roland exclaimed, as he watched Monroe pull a dresser in front of the door to barricade it. "Why are you doing that?"
"Do we have a gun?"
"No," Roland replied.
"I swear we had a revolver somewhere around here, wasn't it put away somewhere safe?"
"Moe, you took it apart! remember?" Roland shouted his face twitching nervously.
"Right," Monroe said trying to remember for what purpose, he pulled open the drawer to the desk and dumped it out. "Anything important Roland?"
"What?!"
"Passports! We probably don't want to leave those behind."
"What are you talking about?" Roland asked as he watched Monroe dig around in a drawer.
"And take the money, darn why did I destroy the gun?"
Monroe ran up to the window and opened it, he stuck his head out to observe their options. The building they lived in was the tallest on their street, and all of the buildings where quite close together. In fact Monroe had never considered how lucky they where to live so close to their neighbor buildings, just in case something like this did happen. Monroe honestly never thought something like this would ever happen, but as he began to gather up the money that he had neglected to put in the bank, he realized that he took a lot of things for granted.
"Aagh!" Roland shouted as a great buzzing noise was heard on top of the door, a thousand tiny little shavings of wood flew from the door as the circular blade cut across the panels.
"What's going on? Who's out there?"
Monroe climbed onto the window and stood on the sill, "alright," he said to Roland, "there is a crazy maniac with a saw in there, I'm going to jump to the roof of the other building. If I fall to my death, you can choose your fate. But if I make it, you better do it too."
"I'm not doing that!" Roland said stubbornly.
But Monroe had already jumped harum scarumly out of the window and landed on the roof feet first, and slipped backwards knocking off a good number of roofing. He got up, brushed himself off and looked back at Roland, "come on!" he shouted back. Roland looked back at the saw, as it continued to cut through the door, and then he looked down into the alleyway. A cat was running off, frightened by the commotion of the falling roofing. Roland climbed onto the window sill not sure whether he was going to actually do it, but then there was a loud CRACK! And the door broke open revealing the skull gas mask.
"Aaah!" Roland shouted as he jumped from the window, but he didn't exactly land the right way and he started sliding off the edge.
"Help, help, I'm falling!"
"Hold on, I've got you." Monroe said inching down to grab Roland. The masked person pushed the dresser over that was barricading the door, he looked around the room and then out the window.
"Hurry just get down on the platform," Monroe said, first Roland dropped down on the platform with a metallic crunch! And then Monroe after him. The masked figure crouched on the window sill, he reached in his coat and pulled something out that resembled an apple, a deadly metal apple that was full of poisonous gas. He pulled a pin from out of it, and tossed it. It landed where they had just dropped from the roof and rolled off landing on the platform. But Roland and Monroe where no longer there, they had seen what he threw, not knowing one hundred percent what it was, needed no time to figure out as they practically fell down the metal stairs from platform to platform trying to get away. If they had lingered any longer, they would have been dead. For as soon as it hit the top platform, it began to shower a sickly colored smoke into the air. At the sound of it whistling Roland looked up, and watched as the thick heavy gas fall through the metal platforms towards them.
It did not take them very long to reach the ground, they ran into the street and only now did they look back. The wind had now picked up the sick cloud of horrid smoke and blew it up into the sky for the birds to breathe. The stranger had not jumped from the window, in fact they didn't even see him. "Where...did... he...go?" Roland gasped searching the stairs of the first building.
"It doesn't matter," said Monroe, "we need to get to the authorities, Come on!"
They turned to run the opposite direction, and had about made it past the first building when out of nowhere the man landed in front of them. He was covered in steam as he landed, the strange backpack he whore was making an odd whistling sound.
"Sorry friends," he said, his voice sounded sharp and quivery as if he couldn't hold in a giggle. "In order for me to scare the rest away, I have to make this messy." he laughed a high pitched chuckle and threw his arm, the saw made a click and rotated around. That movement turned on the ellipse, the water that was contained in a little tank on his shoulder began to boil from the heat of the ellipse, and sent steam to the blade causing it to spin. He reached in his coat and pulled out another bomb, "let's have another construction accident," he said and pulled the pin out of it with his forefinger and thumb. Monroe turned around grabbing Roland by the jacket and ran the other way, but the man had thrown the bomb in front of them. And a thick cloud began to billow from out of it, the light from the ellipse lamp caused the smoke to look orange. This was close enough so that an unhealthy smell drifted towards them, they turned from it and faced the man who stood behind them. The smoke drifted over the man's head in a thin layer of thin mist.
"What do we do, what do we... we're gonna die!" Roland kept whispering over and over again twitching nonstop.
Monroe said nothing, only looking in the only direction they could go to escape. His mind was racing faster than it ever had before, none of the questions that had been bugging him earlier were on his mind now, only that one on how they were going to get away from this freak.
Roland started to cough, and held his sleeve up to his mouth so that he wouldn't breath the stuff in. Just when Monroe had decided that there was no escape, they heard a noise. It was the low buzzing half whistle of a steam vehicle, maybe, just maybe whoever it was on that steam vehicle was coming their way. But the sound evaporated into the night as quick as it came, and they were both plunged into frantic disappointment. The man came up to them and stood arms distance. Monroe was not sure what to do at first, but now decided to act on instinct. And that was to run, and that was precisely what he did. grabbing his brother by the arm, for to him it seemed Roland would have just stood there staring at the man forever. He pulled Roland sideways from out of the way of the crazy killer, and away from the suffocating gas. But as they ran into the street, the man threw another bomb, and almost as soon as it hit the ground in front of them the air began to be polluted.
The glowing orange cloud grew around them, and before long they were to be surrounded by it and be killed either by the gas or the man with the saw. yet again the same sound of the steam vehicle was heard coming from behind them, and this time it was close. And into the scene there appeared a steam cycle, the rider another man with a gas mask. The man drove in between the man with the saw and them, the man with the saw began to sprint towards them.
"Hurry," said the man on the cycle, "get on!" Monroe grabbed Roland, who he knew well enough would never trust a masked person even under dire circumstances, he shoved him on the back forcing him on the cycle. The cyclist handed him a gas mask. By now the man with the saw for a hand had reached the cycle, but the fellow on the cycle drove out of harm's way circling in a sort of doughnut fashion. The man with the saw pulled out a gun and aimed it at the cyclist, there was a loud bang. But he missed. The cyclist backed up fast and out into the smoke and out of sight, Monroe watched as they disappeared, and then turned towards the man behind him. The man had the gun pointed in the direction the cyclist disappeared, and then turned towards Monroe. But instead of shooting, he pulled the lever on his backpack and in a burst of steam flew up in the air, and as it seemed just in time. For from right underneath him the cyclist tried to ram into him, stopping inches away from Monroe. "Get on you!" the cyclist shouted, his voice muffled from the mask. Monroe needed no persuasion. He grabbed a hold of the side, and faster then he thought a steam cycle could drive, it blasted from out of the smoke almost dragging him. "Roland, help me!" he cried.
Roland helped Monroe get on the cycle, he looked odd with the gas mask on his face.
After they were out of the deadly mist Roland took off the mask, and tried to get a better look at the stranger. "Who are you?" he asked.
"It's Mildred," said Monroe, who had recognized his voice.
"Listen! is he following us?" Mildred said sharply, they looked back as well as they could. They could see the man, he was flying in mid air, neither Roland nor Monroe had ever seen any kind of device before.
It very simple looking and small, but seemed to have enough power to propel a man into the sky. The man seemed to be wondering what to do next, but he seemed to have decided for he began to come at them almost at the same speed as the cycle. "Yes," said Monroe.
"Okay," Mildred replied looking into the mirror to see if he could spot the man hovering above them, "hold on!"
Mildred swung the cycle around into an alleyway, the curve was so sharp, Monroe was sure they would be flung off the cycle into the gutter. It did not help that the vehicle was not made for more than three people.
Mildred brought them through the alleyway, and into a busy street. He pulled right in front of a large steam vehicle, and swerved through a couple of startled people cursing at them. And after a while of skidding and twisting, they finally emerged into the flow of vehicles and people. And continued in one direction. The whistle of the cycle was loud, and therefore hard to heard anything anyone was saying.
"Where are we going?"
"What!"
"Not talking to you! Mildred where are we going?"
"We're headed to the train station, it'll be leaving in exactly five minutes, if we can get there in time, we might be able to escape safely."
Mildred tried to look in the mirror to see if he could spot the man, but in the seconds of his distraction he almost hit an old man.
"Damn! look behind us, can you see him?"
They both looked up, "I don't see him." Monroe said.
"No, no," yelled Roland, "look on that building!"
The man was using his flying devise to get from one building to another. He was hiding from the eyes of any of the people out on the street, yet he had his own eyes on them.
"He can see us," Monroe said.
Mildred made an angry shout, and swung the cycle around and shot through a train tunnel.
"You're crazy!" Roland shouted.
"I don't think he's crazy," Monroe said to his brother, "the bloke who's trying to kill us is."
And that was true.
Monroe couldn't help but look behind them, even though it was painfully dark in the tunnel just a glimpse of the man on their heels would be helpful. But he didn't have time to look, Mildred took another sharp turn, and it was all Monroe could do to keep from falling off the cycle. Mildred had turned down some kind of construction tunnel, it was hard to decide what it was they were speeding past so fast. He took another turn, and yet another, until they shot out the small little tunnels into the lit up street of the crowded street at the top of the the city. Mildred turned and veered past a crowd of well dressed individuals. The train station to get out of the city was a good three minutes away, and time was ebbing fast. The orange-red lights of the city past by in a blur, as they came closer to the station.
"We're almost there, we can't miss this train!"
Mildred's heart was racing faster then his cycle, they couldn't miss it!
He looked into the mirror, no sign of the man. He knew a short cut, at least he thought he did. Mildred swung into a no vehicle street, ran through it afew seconds, then went off through a very small space in between two buildings. Yes the shortcut worked, he could see the station now. He crossed the street, and screeched to a halt. The stop was so sudden that the back wheel of the cycle flung itself in mit air and Mildred almost toppled out from the front. The back slammed back down again.
"What in the world?" a man said standing there scratching the back of his head.
Mildred took off the mask, and searched the crowd of people, he would not get on the train if he did not see Enoch.
"Mildred!"
Yes, there he was.
"I bought your ticket and... Monroe, Roland?"
Monroe was getting off the cycle, and Roland was standing there looking very Ill. "I'm feeling Ill!" he said.
"But... are they coming with us?" Enoch said.
"Yes, where's Gladys and Adelaide?"
"On the train, but I didn't buy tickets for them."
"Don't worry about it, just get on the train."
"But-"
"Go on, I'll take care of it!"
"Wait!" said Monroe who was still sure that alerting the authorities was the best way to on with this. "I don't even know where we're going! Are you willing to at least explain something to us?"
Mildred turned red and his eye began to twitch. "Just get Roland and yourself on the train." Enoch said leaving Mildred, "We are headed to your parents house."
"What! Why?"
"I'll let Mildred explain when we get on the train, I don't even know exactly what's going on. Just go along with him."
They got on the train, and Mildred not long after them.

Almost exactly as the train departed, a man appeared from, as it seemed, out of nowhere. He was wearing a burgundy waistcoat and a top hat, although one of his arms was hidden in his coat, leaving nothing but a loose sleeve hanging by his side. He seemed a bit out of breath, and as he saw the train he turned towards the man behind the desk, who was getting ready to leave for home.
"Where's that train going?" he asked.
"Conk, obviously." said the man at the desk.
The man in the waistcoat tried to scratch his head, but instead scratched his top hat. "Conk," he mumbled as he turned to leave. And as he emerged into a dark place, he put the mask on and disappeared into the night.