Glitch | #ONC2020 ✔

Chapter Seventeen

"What the hell?" The scientist mutters as he opens the door, only to be greeted by an angry looking brunette college student holding a handgun.

"Back up." Her voice is quiet but loud at the same time. It comes out raspy, as if she has been crying, but commanding,  as if she was confident.   

Allen Williams backs up with his hands raised, not wanting to be shot by Aeryn.  Aira slips through the two smart people and runs toward me with a knife.

I inch away from her, afraid that she had become an anime character type  that has a knack for being in gruesome scenes. She huffs at my attempts to escape and grabs my chair, ceasing my scooting.

"Do you want to be set free or not dumbass?" Her voice is a low growl, making me want to just smile at her. Maybe Aira is not as terrible as I once believed.  

I nod quickly at her and she gets behind me, starting to saw away at the rope.  "Room service?" I chuckle, remembering what she said a few moments ago.

"Shut up! It got him distracted did it not?" I feel the rope loosen, making me sigh in relief.

"Yeah, but it still was funny.  You could have gotten him even more confused if you were wearing a maid costume."

The sawing of the rope stops and Aira pushes the chair over so I fall on the ground, but cannot get up.  "This was a quick plan, we did not have time for unnecessary shit like that!"

I glance at her, only to realize that she is blushing.  "So you are telling me that if you had more time, you would have worn a maid outfit?"

She blushes even more, making me question if her hair color was real or just an extension of her face.  "Do you want to be tied to that chair for the rest of your life or something?"

I shake my head aggressively at the girl.  Did I make a mistake? Is she pissed off at me now?  I'm the middle of my thoughts, I am interrupted by my wrists being freed.

I immediately rub my wrists that are now red and bruised.  Blood is rushing towards my hands, but I am pretty sure that the only reason why I have zero pain at the moment is because of the current situation.

I look up at Aira who is smiling at me.  "I thought that you did not know how to be a good person?"

She extends her right hand out to me and smiles.  "I could not leave a friend alone with some creepy old man, who knows what could have happened?"

I grab her hand and pull her towards me.  She shrieks as she falls, only to land on the ground a little too hard.  She begins to laugh as we just sit there for a moment with her head on my lap.

"Hey lovebirds, we cannot just wait here for you two to finish snogging!  Let's just go!"

Aira scrambles to a standing position and I do the same a few seconds later.  Once we both are standing, we crack up laughing. 

"I said we need to go!" Aeryn yells.

I roll my eyes and start to walk towards the door, only to stand at the sound of metal on cement.  "Aira, get down!" I tackle her right before a giant claw almost went through both of us.

Aira's eyes are widened at what just happened.  "Cyrus-"

"Shut up!" I interrupt her.  I look behind myself and see the robot the scientist was tinkering on, except, it looks different.

It does not have a computer screen.

"Shit…" I mutter before grabbing Laura's hand and running. Once I get close enough to Aeryn, I grab her wrist as well.

The hallway echoes our loud breathing and footsteps. Once we are a good three hallways away from the robot I stop and let go of the two girl's wrists.

"What was that all about?" Aeryn questions me.  She did not seem to see the machine.

"The machine did not have a screen."  Aeryn and Aira freeze at the news. "We cannot fight it like we usually do."

"But…" Aira trails off, her eyes glancing toward her knife.  "How do we defeat it?"

I lean on the wall, listening for the mantis bot.  "I do not know."

"Well we are not going to just sit here and wait for that monstrosity to connect us to the system." Aeryn begins to walk away with Aira and I in tow.  "As long as we keep quiet, we should be able to avoid the bot."

As if the cliche gods wanted to harm us in that very moment, I pause as I hear metal scraping.  "Uh guys-"

I cannot finish my statement as the wall next to us collapses, revealing the robot.  I attempt to dodge out of the way, but end up getting a large piece of wall crushing my right leg.

"Cyrus!" Aira screams before darting towards me and attempting to lift the piece of wall.  Aeryn is shooting at the robot as precisely as she can, due to only having eight bullets.

Once Aira and I push off the wall, I grimace at the sight. My leg is at an unnatural angle and bleeding profusely.  I groan in pain as Aira looks at me with concern. "Can you walk?"

I nod, forcing a smile.  "I can force myself. "

Aira stands up and offers me her hand, which I gladly take.  With her help, I stand up and lean on the wall, not putting any weight on my right leg.  "Do you need help?"

I nod and she puts my other arm around her shoulders, making me put some weight on her.  She and I start to walk away along with Aeryn who is facing the machine while backing up.  "The closest entry point is a hallway down, we can make it!" Aeryn takes my other arm and puts it around her own shoulders. 

With the help of the two females, we reach the entry point with the machine approaching fast.  Aeryn puts her hand to the doorway and it slides open, only to reveal something that makes my heart drop.

The way to the hideout is lined with stairs.  With my current state, I cannot walk. I would only weigh them down and get them caught.

"Go," I mutter out, scared of what will happen to me.

"Cyrus, we cannot just leave you!" Aira cries out and attempts to drag me into the entry point, but I lift up my arm and push her in.

Now with only Aeryn holding me up, I glance at her.  "You and I both know that I cannot make it in my current condition Aeryn."

The brunette looks at me and then at Aira before smiling at me.  As gently as she can, she helps me on the ground so I can sit and not stand.

She walks into the entry point, holding back a screaming Aira.  "We do not even know what they will do to you! What if you die?! You cannot do this Cyrus!"

I smile sadly at the girl and crawl towards the entry point.  "I'm sorry." And with that, I put my hand out at the entry point closes.  My last image of Aira is tears pouring down her face in a very unattractive way.

I shift my weight so I can face the robot coming for me.  And once it shows it's ugly face, I want to scream at Aira and Aeryn to come back.

I am scared.

The robot crawls toward me and raises it's claw.

I flinch and close my eyes before feeling the impact on metal on my head.

And then everything went black for the last time.

Chapter WC: 1311
Official Book WC: 19196