Fallen Empire

chapter 19

IV. 

Ryland opens his eyes, suddenly aware of the fact that two Sentinels are carrying him. They carry him outside, with Ryland’s arm over each of their shoulders. They take him outside to their sleek BMW intercept cruiser. Once there they hurl Ryland against the car and start asking several questions. The questions come at him in German, a language that escapes Ryland at this moment. “I’m sorry but I can nae understand you.”

          The Sentinel switches languages, “A Scot! What are you doing here?” It says as it searches Ryland for weapons.

          “What exactly is my offense?” Ryland asks passively allowing the search.

          “An attempt was made on the Furor’s life. The order has gone out to rid the world of the Human parasites once and for all. We will teach you vermin how low on the food chain you really are.” The Sentinel places half of its electric handcuffs on Ryland’s left wrist and reaches for his right. Upon touching Ryland’s right wrist his Temporal Gauntlet appears, “What is this?” The Sentinel inquires as he removes it from Ryland.

“Thas’ just my watch, it’s a family heirloom.” Ryland tries to mask how desperately he needs that.

“Humans are not allowed possessions,” The Sentinel says while securing Ryland’s right hand in the restraints. The Sentinel opens the passenger side door of the car and tosses the Temporal Gauntlet on the front dash. The Sentinel who carried Ryland’s left side opens the back door and roughly escorts Ryland to his seat then closes the door. Both Sentinels climb in the front of the vehicle and begin to drive away from the museum.

The Sentinels converse with each other in German; Ryland can’t follow what they are saying instead he simply looks out the window. From this vantage point he can see the mechanized mob that had gathered hunting Alice and himself. Ryland hopes Alice made it to safety and for his own purposes he thinks maybe getting arrested could be a good thing, after all the last time he was in jail he met delightful lass that altered his scope of reality. These pleasant thoughts keep Ryland company for a while but as they get closer to their destination every memory of something pleasant abandons him.

 They approach the massive walls of a prison, it is made from steel but age and time has turned the metal an ugly shade of green. Guard towers inhabit every corner with high-powered laser cannons and the entire perimeter is surrounded by laser grid. They proceed through the only entrance that Ryland can see and the car comes to a stop.

The driver says something in German to his computer and the massive gate opens vertically with a shrill whine. It opens fully before the car starts to move once more. Ryland looks at a guard station inside the gate and sees a sign in German. Ryland gives the driver a quick glance to see how closely he’s being watched. They are not watching Ryland so the visor section of Ryland’s suit reaches around from his spine to cover his eye. He looks at the sign again and mentally tells his suit to translate. The sign reads: -Organic testing lab-. The visor retracts back into Ryland’s spine as he thinks about how bad that sounds.

          The car comes to a casual stop in what Ryland considers a backwards factory. It is backwards because machines are placing humans on a conveyer belt. The Sentinel who was driving gets out of the car and pulls Ryland to his feet. It takes a moment for Ryland to regain his footing but as he does he notices another car entering from what must be a second entrance he didn’t see. Another Sentinel pulls out a dark-skinned prisoner.

          Ryland is placed on the conveyer belt and his feet are locked into place. The dark skinned man resists at first but three Sentinels coerce him to cooperate locking him in place behind Ryland. Ryland silently debates about helping this man but knows escape will be wiser once the Sentinels look away.

The conveyer belt takes Ryland into the first t*****e chamber. It is a small room ten feet squared. The entrance and only doorway closes as both Ryland and the dark-skinned man are brought in.

As soon as the door closes, sprinklers come to life from both the ceiling and floor. The small room starts collecting water rapidly. “They’re giving us a shower?” Ryland says unaware it was vocalized.

            “Not at this temperature, they’re sanitizing us.” The other man offers bleakly.

As the water continues to rise Ryland begins to agree with him. Ryland thinks this is rather an elaborate set up just to perform an autopsy.

The water continues to rise to Ryland’s neck and he is very tempted to turn his armor on and breathe fine; but he has become very mindful of the Guardian’s wishes so he decides to leave the armor down as long as he can. The water reaches Ryland’s lips and he is about to activate his armor when suddenly the water begins to drain away.

The water continues to drain away as quickly as it appeared. When the path of the conveyer belt emerges from the water a second doorway slides open and the conveyer moves them into the next room.

Inside this room are two large mechanical arms on opposite walls; they are large enough to easily reach the conveyer. The advance stops as Ryland reaches the center of the room. One of the mechanical arms comes up behind Ryland and attempts to weld a locator chip into his neck. In doing so it triggers his armor to maneuver into position breaking his bonds. Ryland staggers forward momentarily and he looks back at the arm that shocked him now pulsating with electric shockwaves.

Ryland leaps for this malfunctioning arm and catches it by a hydraulic cable. He pulls out his dagger, cuts the cable and swings towards the other arm. The arm he is swinging from goes limp and in the process almost preventing him from landing on the second arm. He magnetizes his armor to assist him, climbs to the top of the second arm that was about to put an implant a chip on the dark-skinned prisoner. Instead the arm-twists at its elbow to knock Ryland to the ground. Ryland grabs the second arm’s hydraulic cable as he is falling to the tearing it as he falls.

Ryland crashes to the ground and takes a moment to recover his bearings. With both mechanical arms taken care of and Ryland sprawled out on the ground the second prisoner asks,

“What are you?”

Ryland picks himself up and says, “What are you on about? What kind of stupid question is that?” Just then he notices he is wearing his armor and mentally tells it to retract and it complies.

“You’re not one of them. You’re something else.” The prisoner says astonished.

“I was nae supposed to use that here so just pretend you didnae see it.” Ryland asks.

Looking both ways the still bound the prisoner asks,

“Who am I going to tell?”

Both the entrance and exit open up at once and Sentinels come pouring into the room. In the midst of them comes one inside of a mechanized suit that doubles its size, this suit is designed for repairing the now lifeless, hanging arms, but not knowing that makes it a menacing sight to behold.

 The mechanized suit has a collar for one of its hands that it places on Ryland’s neck, the other arm grabs the second prisoner instantly the clamps on his feet release. Both Ryland and the second prisoner are held with their feet off the ground. The giant metal beast carries the two men away from the conveyer belt and into a metal hallway with a grated metal floor. Once in the hall it throws the two men against the wall and shouts something incomprehensible at them. There is no answer to this question so it is repeated in English, “How did you break free? Don’t you want to help our Empire study Human mortality?”

“Is that a trick question?” Ryland smarts off.

            “I see we have a guest who finds himself amusing. Laughter of the dammed! We will not bother educating such lower life forms on how inferior they really are, we will simply treat you like the garbage you deserve!” The Sentinel says as the collar shrinks around Ryland’s neck. It picks the two-men back up and continues to walk down a hallway, “You will be incinerated at dawn.” it said tossing both men in a holding cell. The Sentinel turns to leave, as it clears the doorway and an energy barrier activates blocking the exit.

Ryland watches the metal beast walk away getting as close as he can to the energy barrier without touching it. He strains to watch the Sentinel walk down the hallway and into the room with the damaged arms to start repairs.

          Ryland and the other prisoner are alone in their cell. Ryland is lost in thought planning an escape when the other man says, “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s pointless, there is no escape from here.”

“Escape is easy I need to know where they took my…. things.” Ryland says catching himself.

“Who are you?” The man asks Ryland, but Ryland is far too lost in thought to answer. The other man rolls his eyes and continues, “Trust me if there was any hope I would be on your side. The truth is there is only death here. Humans don’t walk out of this place.”

Ryland smirks, “Until now”

“I admire your spirit my friend but if my army can’t break me out of here what chance is there for the two of us?”

“Your army?” Ryland scoffs.

The man looks at Ryland very sincerely and says, “If the Cyborg-Legion knew who I was I would be dead already. As it stands now the Human-Brigade will hear of my death and it will empower them to destroy the Nazi’s reign of terror.”

“If you were really as proud of this army as you claim you should want to lead them on the battlefield rather than die before the battle begins.” Ryland says sagely.

“Who are you?”

“Ryland Macfall, you can stay here if you want but I’m leaving.”

“I’m Bizmark, Bizmark Hensley and I’m all for escaping, just answer me this question, where are you going to go?”  

“Where do they take the prisoner’s belongings?”

“You were better off with the idea of escaping.” Bizmark says shaking his head “I have seen the schematics of this facility. You will never make it to the loading dock. Nothing you had could be so valuable to throw your life away for.”

Ryland pays this pessimism little mind and says,

“I disagree with you friend but your welcome to your opinion. Now where is this loading dock?”

“I’ll show you if you can tell me how you’re going to pass through this barrier.” Bizmark asks tossing a coin from his pocket at the barrier. The coin is incinerated on contact.

Ryland’s armor stretches into place as he says, “I’ll pass through it the same way you will.” Ryland activates his deadening-sphere and the barrier disappears. Ryland quickly steps into the hallway followed closely by Bizmark, “Now, which way?”

Bizmark takes the lead and heads off into the opposite direction from the room they originally entered. They turn a corner and two Sentinels are standing guard. These Sentinels quickly turn towards Bizmark and Ryland.

Ryland pulls out a dagger and charges at them. Ryland drives his knee into the one on his right while stabbing the one on his left. Ryland concentrates his attack on their human parts. He pulls his dagger out of the Sentinel on the left to slice the one on the right’s throat. Both Sentinels topple to the ground and the coast is temporarily clear. Bizmark picks up one of the Sentinels laser riffles. Ryland asks, “Do you know how to use that thing?”  

“My mother taught me when I was five.” Bizmark says with a slight smile.

“What a fun childhood you must have had. Which way?”

Bizmark takes a moment to remember, “There is an elevator down this hallway.” They take a few steps and turn a corner.

Down this hallway are five Sentinels and Bizmark opens fire on them hitting two of them. The remaining three Sentinels return fire and Bizmark ducks behind the corner.

“Does the term ‘stealth’ mean anything to you?” Ryland says as he joins Bizmark in hiding.

“Yes” Bizmark says leaning forward to take a few more shots, taking out a third Sentinel.

“Use it.” Ryland says as he goes down the corridor to finish the two remaining Sentinels. The Sentinels fire several times and Ryland’s armor absorbs each hit. Bizmark follows Ryland down the hallway Ryland slices the one on the left as Bizmark fires at point blank range at the Sentinel on the right.

 The elevator doors open up both men look to the sliding doors, no one is inside. Bizmark lowers his weapon as they step inside “I can be stealthy if I need to be, but sometimes noise is required in escaping. Besides those first two you took out have probably alerted the entire compound by now. They’re all connected by satellite link ups.” Bizmark defends himself as the Elevator begins to drop.

“All I’m saying is donae’ blow our chances of us sneaking away.”

The elevator stops moving, “And all I’m saying is that chance is already gone.” Bizmark says as the elevator doors open and three Sentinels lunge inside. Ryland deflects the first into the wall and sticks a dagger in each of the other two. Bizmark promptly shoots the first Sentinel causing all three to fall to the ground at the same time. Ryland retrieves his daggers when laser fire comes from the deep hallway carved in rock. Several laser bolts hit Ryland and Bizmark jumps behind the Scotsman using him as a shield. Together they step into the hallway. There are six Sentinels each taking shots at Ryland.

Bizmark emerges to shoot one and ducks back down behind Ryland’s armor. Ryland sees an opening, “So where is this loading dock?”

“It’s left at the end of this hallway, how stealthy do you want to be?” Bizmark cracks as he takes another shot at a Sentinel.

They continue down the hallway through an endless attack of laser bolts that have no effect on Ryland.

They approach the end of the hallway and Bizmark is able to take out a third Sentinel.

 Ryland approaches the three remaining Sentinels and takes the first’s riffle away and smashes it over its head, flooring the Sentinel instantly. Ryland pulls out his dagger and stabs the second but before he can get to the third Bizmark shoots it,

 “I had him!” Ryland says in a huff.

“We have no shortage of enemies here.” Bizmark says as he heads down the stairwell leading to the loading dock. The elevator doors behind them open and more Sentinels come pouring out. Ryland quickly pursues Bizmark to the dock. The two-men enter the loading dock where a transport is taking off slowly.

 “Our… things… are… on…. that transport!” Bizmark says as he runs down the steps. Ryland slides down the banister beating Bizmark to the bottom. The transport leaves the room as both men reach the ground. A giant metal door begins to close with a thunderous commotion. Bizmark stops running to fire at the Sentinels closing in from every direction. Ryland continues for the door. Bizmark tries to stay with Ryland but is making slower progress. Ryland reaches the door with enough time to roll underneath it before it closes but he looks back to see Bizmark bravely fighting to his last breath. Right then, in that moment Ryland decides he can’t let this man be killed for assisting him in an escape attempt. This moment of thought costs Ryland his freedom as the massive door comes to a halt into the ground sealing Ryland and Bizmark inside.

Bizmark joins Ryland at the now closed door and continues to fire on the advancing mob of Sentinels “I told you I’d die a martyr. I am sorry you didn’t make it though.” Bizmark says gravely.