The Fall of the Society

Chapter 25: Freedom

     Sid looked around the room, looking for anything that might give him an idea on how to get them both out. The beast had taken to walking around the edge of the room, swirling the fog so much that it had almost dissipated. The siren emitted again as the two continued to work out the problem. Looking up at the ceiling, Sid noticed an air vent and came up with an idea. "Can you climb up there and see if you are able to dig into that spot?" The beast met his gaze and immediately shot up the wall. Sid, realizing the danger of staying on the ground, where debris would soon be cascading, and lunged his way up onto the catwalk and slipped into the narrow opening he had entered through. A moment after he took cover, huge chunks of steel and cement crashed to the floor, dust clouds billowing and blocking his view.

     Crackling echoed through the sound of the debris hitting the ground. "Stand down!" the voice shouted. "SGEPS! Stand down!" Panic rang in the man's voice. "There will be consequences if you do not stop!"

     SGEPS leaned back, still grasping onto the wall with all ten of its feet and reached its right claw over and pealed the speaker from the wall, sparks showering down. He then went back to burrowing into the ground, the upper portion of his body past the front two legs obscured, dirt now falling instead of man-made materials. Staring around the ceiling as debris continued to fall, Sid noticed a series of sensors. They were small and almost completely concealed but the pattern of them gave away the locations.

     These sensors must be how he knew what had been going on. They were not video, the set-up had far too many locations for that. It had to be a thermal sensor system, that was the only thing that would make sense. If someone was to hack into the system somehow, they would not get a very good view of what they were actually observing. Only someone who knew what they were watching would be able to make out the shapes. This realization suddenly hit him fully. Whoever was watching would know that he had not been killed by the creature yet, and this posed a problem. If they knew he was alive, they would go to any length to find him. Thinking quickly, he whistled up to the beast. SGEPS crawled back from the hole and looked down at him, slightly confused. "Drop down here please! A bigger crash would be better," Sid shouted up.

     Tilting his head slightly to the side, SGEPS released its hold on the wall and fell toward the ground, landing with a thunderous crash that sent rubble from its dig pile careening through the air. Sid shielded his face with his arms as the beast landed directly in front of him. The shadow of the creature had completely enveloped him. "Lean your head down here like you are going to eat me," Sid said a little more quietly, just in case there were any listening devices being used as well. SGEPS lowered its massive head directly to the side of Sid, rubbing up against him. Sid grasped hold and the creature tilted his head back, looking up toward the ceiling, as if swallowing something. During this movement, Sid slid onto the back of the beast and got a good hand and foot hold. A moment later, they were rocketing upward back toward their soon to be escape route, putting his hold to the test the entire way.

     The beast had begun digging as soon as he buried the top half of his body up to his middle legs into the passage. Before he had been careless with the way he had been digging, not caring if any rained down on himself, but now that Sid was holding onto his back he was being much more careful not to let anything fall onto his back. A short while later, they had become completely enclosed by dirt and were beginning to level out. SGEPS had been digging straight up originally but had recently changed directions, which was a nice pace as it allowed Sid to relax his grip slightly.

     The ground had become rocky, and they began to see pieces of roots that had been growing downward. Slowing his digging, the SGEPS gently punched a hole through the topsoil and pushed the very top of its head through, giving him a good view of everything around. Comfortable that there was no one in the area, he pushed the top half of his body out of the ground and allowed Sid to step off onto the hard soil nearby. The moon was high overhead, large fluffy clouds dotted the sky, stars peering between them. Now that Sid was clear, SGEPS began kicking his last two sets of legs inside the hole, causing a loud rumbling sound as the ground began to shake. The tunnel below them was collapsing and the room was filling with debris. Ground around them began to sink slightly as more and more soil cascaded downward. As quickly as it had started, the rumbling stopped, and the creature pulled the rest of his body from the ground.

     Sid stared up at the creature's large black eyes, the moonlight glinting off of them. "You are a surprising creature, but it will be hard for you to find a place in this world," he said softly. Reaching out a hand, he scratched the side of its massive head. "I need to give you a better name, what they called you down there is unworthy." Placing his hand on his chin, he began to think, and it finally came to him. "I will call you Koton. That is a suitable name for you."

     Koton clicked his mandibles together energetically in agreement. Lowering his head, he motioned for Sid to climb back on. Not wanting to leave any prints, Sid obliged and climbed onto the beast, pointing to the south. Moving silently, Koton swung around and glided through the foliage, his gracefulness was astounding. Sid laid back and watched the sky and trees pass above him. Soon his mission would be complete, and he would have a large amount of data to dig through, hopefully some of it would provide him worthwhile information that will drive his investigation forward. He needed something heavy that could really help hurt the Society, something that they would be afraid of leaking. Everything anyone had found up to this point had been brushed aside by most or at the very least apologized away as a misguided path an individual took. He needed something that could not be ignored, otherwise he would have to implement a plan that he had hoped he would be able to avoid. There was also a major factor missing from that plan at this point that would be just as difficult to remedy if not impossible.

     Sitting up, he noticed that some of Koton's eyes were looking back at him, watching what he was doing. Scratching his back, the eyes began watching the surroundings, keeping a lookout for anything that did not belong, beside himself. The trees had started to thin, and they could hear the crashing of waves upon rocks. "This is where we part my friend," Sid said as he slid off his back. "Are you able to swim? If so, you may want to find a remote place far from here to call your home. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself."

    Koton nuzzled his massive head into Sid's chest before turning and walking out into the water. Most of his body had been engulfed in the churning and foamy water, as he took one final look back at Sid, who waved and could not help but see the sadness in the creature's many eyes, even in the poor lighting. The next moment, he had completely disappeared beneath the waves, not resurfacing for at least one hundred yards. Sid watched until Koton had completely vanished into the expansive ocean.

     Based on the maps he had memorized, his current location put him about a half a mile from the supplies he had stashed for himself. He began to jog across the sandy beach, enjoying the salty air blowing in on him. He had been in the facility for just over twenty-four hours and he was happy to be beneath the open sky once more. His trip across the beach took very little time, and he quickly recovered his bag from a very secluded spot that would have been underwater during high tide. Unsealing the bag revealed numerous items. The first thing he pulled out was a bottle containing water, and he drained it in one drink. He then sat on the sand and pulled a few small food items from the bag and devoured them quickly as well. Once he had finished eating, he stood back up and removed his tattered clothing.

     As he pulled on a wetsuit that he had withdrawn from the bag, followed by flippers. He then hooked a waterproof GPS unit about the size of a large phone onto his waist and placed the rest of his items into the waterproof bag and slung it onto his back. The faint sound of rotors spinning in the distance drifted into his ears and he looked skyward. Reinforcements were finally arriving, meaning the Society was wasting a large amount of resources in hopes of tracking down Koton. A small smile crossed his face, the amount of frustration the Society Elites must be feeling right now brought him a great deal of satisfaction and made everything he had been through even more worthwhile.

     Sid laid back into the water and could feel the current pulling him out to sea, the sky had begun to darken slightly, a storm was fast approaching. For the most part everything had gone according to plan, even the storm was a factor he had planned. He would be impossible to find swimming in the maelstrom, if they even looked for him, but over planning things like this was just what he did. The beach soon vanished behind him and he could hear the rumbling thunder in the distance, and he dove under the surface of the water, disappearing into the night.