Kate
Twenty-eight minutes, and fifty-six seconds.
That’s how long it takes me to figure out how to work this metal contraption like aboss.
I take it slow. There are hundreds of hidden buttons and displays I have to work through and learn. No one comes into the room as I investigate and experiment; it makes me wonder if I was simply forgotten.
I only open the door when I feel confident enough, peeking my head out and keeping the rest of my body hidden behind the slab of stone wall. From my vantage point, I see nothing but a long stone walkway with old wooden doors placed sporadically throughout. It seems empty so I silently step out, shutting the door behind me.
I move through the stone corridor quickly until I find the entrance to the fields where right now, moonlight is casting a soft glow over the surface of what has to be thousands of metal suits.
Before I leave the safety of the room, I mute my emotion sensor, or at least I think I do. Strangely enough, when I reduce the emotion sensor, my real emotions seem to stabilize. I’d do well to keep my emotions in check anyway, just in case it’s all in my head. But imagine if I was right? Imagine these people being able to just shut off their feelings?What savages a species would become with no empathy or guilt or care for each other. They’d be reduced to predators and prey, simple animals.
All the men have the same reading.Calm. Patient. Indifferent. They speak quietly in groups, relaxed.
They seem to be waiting for something or someone.
Shuffling on the balls of my feet, I shift between the roving bodies. My heart drums fast in my chest but I remain calm, continuously streaming a relaxed emotional state.
“Do you think this is a deception?” a voice whispers close to me.
I tilt my head slightly and face a giant of a man who is speaking to another in low tones. Neither seems to notice me slither closer to listen.
“He’s demonstrating his new power,” the other replies. He nods his head up toward the sky and everyone surrounding us follows in the gesture. Quickly, I glance up too, still trying to listen to the conversation—but I can’t make anything else out.
A pulse of light spreads out across my vision. It blocks out the sky and jerks my head back. I catch myself before I stumble back and alert everyone around me that I’m the enemy. A metallic ping reverberates through my mask and static fills my ears. A pinprick of white light opens into a large rectangular box and suddenly, a stream of video is playing in front of my eyes.
The image before me is very familiar. Sharp features of an unmasked Rune, blue eyes wide, his forehead caked with blood. My body stills yet my pulse races beneath my skin. This is a video of when Rune was attacked—just before Claire was taken. Close up, the mask acts like a pair of 3-D glasses and I feel like I’m hiding once again in the shadows of that street. In the background I can hear my sister’s screams in surround sound.
The fight is brutal, yet it’s not whole. There are only the parts where Rune is attacking and when his mask gets ripped clean off his face and tossed out into the street. Whoever took the footage wants whoever is watching to think Rune is the bad guy. I want to close my eyes to the rest. I don’t want to relive it, but just before I go to shut my eyes, my face takes up the entire screen.
A low hush carries over the crowd.
A sense of discomfort crawls down my spine as the men shift uneasily on their feet.
The camera pans out until my hands are shown—they grip Rune’s mask tightly to my chest—the audience audibly gasps in unison. In the background my sister calls my name, but they never replay her getting plucked up from the ground. Just a still shot of my face smeared with dirt and scrapes, my hands full of Rune’s bloody mask. The last scene is Rune, lying in a puddle of blood as the wordExpiredblinks over his body.
The close-up of my face fills the display again.Mission: Find Human.
Oh my God.They’re all going to think I killed him.
Before the little slideshow can blink out, I’m halfway through the crowd of creatures, hurrying to escape to a safe place. A quick yank on my elbow pulls me back and I bump into metal from behind. “I told you to leave,” Rune’s voice bites into my ear. His tone overrides the details that the electronic voice in my head is telling everyone about the human they must find.
I freeze mid-run and glance over my shoulder.
Standing behind me in a steel mask with bright green markings is Rune. It has to be; the sound of his voice, the stupid way he rumbles, I’d know it anywhere.
Straightening my spine, I face him and nod a curt greeting. “Asshole.”
“Why are you out here?” he asks.
“I didn’t get what I came here for,” I say, stepping closer.
“I told you I would find her.”
“Sorry,” I say dryly. “I didn’t quite believe you.”
His eyes narrow slightly but his expression remains blank. My display tells me his mask belongs to a man named Core and that he is relaxed and reflective. Cool metal fingertips wrap around my wrist and both of us tense.
