Deep In The Heart

Chapter 115: Time Is Running Out


<Objective>

Mrs. Schneider blinks suddenly, as if waking from a trance. "I've been killed…"

Schneider's jaw clenches. "It is no matter… we'll have to find another to step in."

"I tried talking to them," Schneider's wife explains. "But they are gone… seduced by communism and anarchy."

"The young ones are the most susceptible to corruption," Schneider postulates. "We must do something about those schools when this is all done… Again, it is no matter. The weapon is active."

<Zoe>

Everything's moving too fast. Kevin and I made a break for it back towards the stadium, bracing for whatever unknown horror was coming. We didn't know what to expect when re-entering the stadium, but Ruth being stuck in a gigantic tree that kept growing impossibly fast in front of our eyes certainly wasn't it. Kevin calls out to her, but I'm just speechless. I feel as if I'm going insane in real time. We haven't even gotten over our shock at Ruth's predicament when the earth begins violently shaking.

"Ruth!" Kevin shouts out.

I follow his gaze upwards to see that Ruth is about to fall out of her tree. She's fallen over and is hanging onto the branch with the grip of her fingers. The man in the cowboy hat, hovering mere yards away from where the tree's expedited growth took her, is no help- he's simply turning and jetting away, back to the spectator's stands. With a particularly violent quake, the branch snaps, leaving Ruth to plummet towards the earth!

Before I can even think of what to do, Kevin, with unnatural speed, zips towards the spot of her landing. He reaches his arms out to catch her, but ends up falling to the floor as she lands on top of him.

"My apologies, Kevin," Ruth says. "It's a particularly poor time to be fat."

"Nah- no worries!" Kevin says, putting his one free hand into a thumbs up. "I've survived worse!"

Ruth promptly rolls off of her friend and into a sitting position. "As you might have noticed, we were too late to stop the weapon's activation," she says.

"We… I don't know how it happened!" Kevin sputters.

"The good news is, I've regained my magic abilities, and then some," Ruth continues. "Our first order of business should be re-grouping and making a new plan, and fast."

"You mean psychic telepathic stuff?" Kevin asks. "It's working again?"

Ruth nods. "I figured out why it was- there's no plant life here." She gestures up at the humongous tree she fell out of. "Once my tree here started releasing pollen, my vision cleared up."

"So you can find them?" I ask hopefully.

Ruth nods. "I just need a little time to concentrate… cover me, please." She closes her eyes and enters a meditative state.

Kevin and I turn around. Several of the miners are scattered across the arena, watching us, looking befuddled and lost as to what to do about the giant tree that just appeared.

"Think they're gonna attack?" Kevin asks.

"Um… we'll see," I answer. They have seemed reluctant to attack us so far, but who knows what the current scenario will bring.

I flinch involuntarily as the announcer's voice begins blaring through the speakers once again. "Attention everyone!" he says. "Please make your way inside the stadium within the next five minutes! The governor urges everyone to move in an orderly and calm fashion. This is all in the name of your protection!"

"I think that means our shift's over," the worker closest to us says. To my relief, they one by one, abandon their tools to join the crowd in the stands.

"I don't think we should follow them," I tell Kevin. "What if the crowd up there pulls guns on us, like in the restaurant?"

Ruth opens her eyes. "I found Anja," she says. "Now to…"

She doesn't finish her sentence, instead hurriedly ducking behind a large tree root as a bullet whizzes past her head.

From the stands, bullets begin ringing out, fired by several men and women in the crowd. Many don't even get close to us, though- small arms fired from a long range are rather imprecise.

"You were saying, Zoe?" Kevin says, turning to me and grinning.

Which is the expression his face is frozen in as we watch a bullet fly straight into his head.

Ruth and I gasp in unison… I'm stunned with shock, waiting for the blood to start spilling from the hole, for him to fall over…

It doesn't happen; instead, the bullet simply falls out and to the floor.

Kevin scratches his head where he was hit. "Uh, ow?"

I grab Kevin by the arm and pull him down to behind the root with Charlotte.

"Very interesting!" Ruth says, shifting herself to a criss-cross position on the ground.

"Kevin, you just got shot!" I say. "Are you… okay?"

"I… feel okay?" he says, tilting his head as if wondering if that's the appropriate reaction.

"Do Personas usually make one bulletproof, Zoe?" Ruth questions.

"No!" I say indignantly. "I mean, bullets aren't instantly lethal to us like they are in real life, but… they still hurt!"

"Ah, but you forgot one thing, Zoe," Kevin says. "I'm not a human being anymore- I'm a vampire. I can only be hurt by silver bullets!"

"Sounds like we're all learning a lot about each other's powers today," Ruth comments. "Are you venomous, as well?"

"I am, in fact," he confirms. "In fact… that gives me an idea. Stay here, mortals!"

He dashes out from our nook in the roots, no fear of the raining gunfire, and starts jumping up the tree, going from branch to branch like Tarzan.

"That's no fair…" I complain to myself. "I wanna be bulletproof too…"

<Nova>

"...Well, we can just muscle our way through them!" Ashley argues.

"Easier said than done!" I protest. "You weren't there when they attacked at the restaurant! They're vicious!"

"Well, I'm sure we're not gonna like what happens out here, either!" Ashley shoots back. "Pick your poison, I suppose!"

Charlotte looks back and forth between us nervously, unsure who to side with.

Honestly, though, I don't even have a counter-plan. How can we prepare for a "weapon" that we know nothing about? All I know is that I'm not letting Ashley boss us into walking into hostile territory.

Then, her eyebrows lift, and I feel it too- Ruth.

Stay where you are; Anja is on her way, Ruth says, or uh, thinks I guess.

AWE YEAH! I think back.

I told you she'd come back! Ted's voice growls in my head. Wait, I can hear him too? I guess Ruth made some kind of group mind link, Miss Martian style.

What about you? Where are you? Ashley asks.

In the middle of the stadium at the center of this place, Ruth explains. Zoe and Kevin are with me. You don't want to be here right now, though.

Well, we're out of the loop out here! Ashley argues. Why is everyone running around?

I'm not certain, but it is related to Schneider activating some sort of ultimate weapon, Ruth explains. We don't know what it is yet, but it's the cause of the shaking and the evacuation notice.

THAT'S NOT GOOD! I observe.

Well, can we shut it down? Ashley demands.

That's what the three of us were just trying to do. We failed, Ruth says succinctly.

Then we'll just have to beat the weapon, Ashley says. Any idea what it is?

Uh… I don't think this place is being evacuated just to make for a cooler fight scene, I comment. What if the weapon is, "this whole outer ring gets filled up with noxious gas and we all die?"

I suppose that would be fitting, wouldn't it? Ashley comments.

OR MAYBE IT'S THE CREATURE! Charlotte butts in. Remember when we were walking in?

Either way, maybe it'd be better for us to get into the arena after all, Ashley insists.

There might be a third option, Ruth says. I was checking around the perimeter and there is a small aircraft bay with a few helicopters. I'd rather watch what's going on from outside the potential danger zone.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Uh, yeah, just one problem, I point out. None of us know how to fly a helicopter.

And Anja didn't know how to fire a gun before she first came to the Metaverse, Ashley retorts. Your point?

"You guys are thinking about me, I just know it!" Anja's voice says aloud.

My heart rushes as Anja turns the corner into our little food court, grinning ear to ear.

"Welcome back," Ted says simply, a rare smile on his face.

"You could hear all of that, and just waited to say something so you could surprise us?" Ashley snarks. "What a drama queen."

I run to her, wrap my arms around her waist, and hold her close, close enough to smell the flowery conditioner she uses in her hair. I realize all at once how scared I've felt since I realized she wasn't with me, and I squeeze her harder.

"I'm so sorry I left you behind," I tell her. "I didn't mean to, it was just…"

"We… will work on that sometime," Anja says. "But for right now-"

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry," I say, clinging to her, clinging like I'm never going to let go, trying to show her that I mean it, trying to make her forgive me…

"H-hey, is that a Mjölnir in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" Anja jokes, her voice slightly pained.

This catches me off guard, so much that I accidentally loosen my grip. "Huh?" I say.

Ashley scoffs. "Whatever lover's quarrel is going on here, can we-"

Ashley's statement is cut short when the ground moves from underneath us.

Not the quaking from before, but instead one big shift all at once.

Charlotte nearly faceplants as Anja and I grasp each others' hands to stop the inertia from sending us stumbling over.

"That helicopter's looking good right now," Ashley says.

Charlotte gulps.

<Zoe>

While I can't tell what Kevin's doing up there, he's drawing the crowd's fire to him; they don't seem to have realized yet that it isn't working. For Ruth and I down here, there's a short moment of relative peace.

Emphasis on 'short.'

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Something's coming towards us," Ruth says.

"I hear it," I say. "Is that… the weapon?"

"I doubt it," Ruth says. "But it probably isn't friendly either."

I carefully poke my head out from behind a root…

Walking straight towards us is an iron man. Not like Iron Man from the movies. This one is bulky, bronze, blowing smoke from a pipe on top like a locomotive. The thing must be twice my height. The arms, legs, and torso are held together by obvious screws, bolts, and washers. In the front, there's a slitted vent, and on top is a hulking gold helmet with a blue visor that betrays no human emotion. Watching it, I'm reminded of something I'd see in the movie "Treasure Planet;" it has that type of brutal mechanical aesthetic.

"Come on out, children!" says a warbly voice I've never heard before. "We've had playtime for long enough. Time to listen to the adults and come quietly!"

Its speech was not monotone like a robot's, but rather a human voice with frightening effects placed over it; a distorted, low-quality speaker playing jagged audio, reminding me a bit of when a human speaks normally into an auto-tune microphone, but with no musical cadence; only an inhumanly harsh, jutting pitch change from sound to sound.

"Zoe… I'm sorry, but my telepathy is the only thing keeping the team together right now," Ruth says. "And I don't know if a little plant magic would do much against that thing anyway… can you deal with it, or at least stall it?"

I gulp. "I'll… do my best."

And then, feeling like I must be an absolutely madwoman, I jump out from behind the tree to face the metal monster.

"Okay! I'm here!" I call out to it. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

"Ah, where are you friends?" the metallic voice says.

"Just me right now!" I lie. I figure there's no chance this actually works, but I'm only supposed to stall it, right?

"I wasn't born yesterday, you know," the hulking thing chides. "I know that at least two children were seen getting into our energy storage! You really shouldn't be back there, you know!"

"W-well, the scanner thing just let me in!" I counter. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" it says.

"It's the truth!" I insist. Because, yes, it really is the truth. "Whoever made this system, maybe they should consider, I don't know, making the lock check people case-by-case, and not just by family line? It doesn't make sense."

"Hmm… you are correct there," the mech says. "Even Tom should know that family can go rotten… To think, a respectable member of our community breeding a terrorist!"

"Oh, I'm not the rot in my family; I'm the cure!" I say confidently. "I'm here to teach a lesson to all who take the Lord's name in vain!"

"How interesting; I suppose you've personally spoken to God yourself, hmm?" it says tauntingly.

The cowboy man's voice once against sounds from the speakers. "Speaker, can't you see that this girl is wasting your time?" he chides. "Find the one with dark hair tied in a bun! She's the mastermind of this whole operation!"

My blood runs cold; That's Ruth! How did they know?

"You are just wasting my time, aren't you?" The robotic voice calls out angrily.

"Isn't it better to talk things out rather than fight over things?" I offer.

The mech shifts, arms raising into an offensive position. "Not with a deluded child," it hisses.

I don't wait around to see what's about to be fired at me; I dive behind a different tree root, going opposite from Ruth in hopes that she won't be affected.

Sure enough, I hear a thunderclap followed by a sizzling boom shooting by in the direction of where I was standing.

"Now check the other side of the tree!" The cowboy announcer's voice says, speaking slowly as if explaining something to a child. "Forget the blonde one for now!"

Damn it! I need to think of a way to shut up this announcer guy! Ruth is in trouble now!

"I'll do you one better!" The mech suit says. I hear a staticky click sound like something being turned on, and briefly, the horrible sound of microphone feedback. I cram my fingers into my ears as the mecha's voice, now amplified several hundred times, booms out right from the suit's speakers.

"PEOPLE, CONSTITUENTS! I AM HERE TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE HAVE MADE A NEW JOINT RESOLUTION, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNOR!" He calls out to the crowd. "DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF TERRORISTS IN OUR MIDST, WE ARE DECLARING MARTIAL LAW! AND I CALL ON ALL ABLE-BODIED GUN OWNERS TO ENLIST AND… HEY! WHAT HAPPENED?"

I look up to the crowd, realizing that I haven't been keeping an eye on them.

The people are still there in the stands, packing it full… and all appear to be slumped over and limp. Whatever is causing it seems infectious, as new people pouring into the stadium are promptly falling asleep as well.

"They're, er, asleep," the announcer's voice says.

"WELL, WAKE THEM UP!" the mech demands.

"If our voices aren't waking them up, they must be out cold," the announcer reasons. "Never mind… I'll send one of our agents after the other girl. You focus on your mission."

I gulp. How many more of these guys are there?

<Anja>

The feeling of the floor strangely moving away from us was enough to finally get the five of us moving our asses towards the waypoint that Ruth beamed to us.

The place is already basically deserted; the people who had been walking around hitting up various stalls and businesses had dutifully followed the announcer's instructions and went to the center. It was quiet as we quickly walked, Ted making a rare show of his walking on all-fours to keep up.

While nobody said anything, I'm sure we were all wondering the same thing. What is this weapon, and how did it cause the quaking and the strange shift? Like I said before, I've never lived in a place that gets earthquakes before, but I know from science class that they're caused by tectonic plates colliding or rubbing against each other. Charlotte's comment about a 'creature' makes my mind wander to picturing a robotic, insectoid thing, built under the floor in secret and now emerging from it, big enough to where its emergence shifted the ground itself. Perhaps it's coming towards us right now, cruising above the floor with insectoid wings as large as we are…

We feel it again- a major shift, as if the floor below us is opening up. Nova almost trips, stumbling for a few steps before catching himself and regaining his balance, his arms out like a fighting game character. Charlotte jumps and gives a startled "eep!" Ashley halts and ducks her head down until it passes, and Ted almost doesn't seem to notice, but stops a few seconds after everyone else and turns to us.

"What are we feeling right now?" Ashley questions.

"Adrenaline, I'm sure," I say.

Ashley shakes her head. "No, I mean the shaking. What's causing this?"

"I'd be okay with not finding out, so let's keep moving!" Nova says, his voice a bit squeakier than normal.

There's an undeniable truth to what he says. The party silently agrees, and we continue on, picking up the pace to a sort of jog.

We got our answer within another minute or so anyway.

At a point, I notice something strange… the ground seems to bend upwards, like a ramp. At first I think it's some sort of mirage, as I don't remember ever seeing an elevation change in this place. Then, the ground shifts again, and with a clear visual reference, we can all see that we just sank lower, and our section of the floor is now jutting out at a slight angle. And worst of all, where that "ramp" was, there is now a gap where we can see open sky.

The stadium is ejecting its outer part.

"Shit!" Ashley says. She scoops up Ted into her arms, and books it. So do Charlotte, Nova, and I.

Creek. Another shift. Now we're tilted at a forty five degree angle…

The flat part is still yards away… are we gonna make it?

We're so close… my feet are pattering along as fast as they can take me.

Then, a CRASH! as we all collectively feel the floor wrench away, making us no longer standing upright but falling sideways.

I leap for the next section of floor, using my wind abilities to put a spring in my step. But I'm falling too fast- I see myself quickly dropping lower, too low to step foot there- I reach out both hands- and I just barely grab the edge with my fingers.

"UGH!" I hear Ashley's voice say from behind me, followed a couple of seconds later by a thud from below. She didn't make it.

Nova lands in front of me on the floor, one arm wrapped around Charlotte, the other using his trusty Mjölnir in propeller mode to set them firmly on the floor.

I look up at Nova, who's looking past me with a grimace on his face.

"A-Ashley and Ted?" I ask.

"They smashed against the wall," Nova says. "I think Ashley's bleeding…"

He lets Charlotte go and starts to crouch down onto the floor. "Anja, take my ha-"

He's interrupted by another shift below us… our precious new section of floor is next on the chopping block. My fingers dig into it, trying not to slide down, as Nova falls onto his face in surprise.

"Nova, listen to me," I say. "I'm going to go down and help Ashley."

"Wh- no!" Nova shouts. "I'll go get her, you need to…"

"She's hurt, and I have healing abilities; you don't," I say simply. "I also have wind magic, so I'll be fine. You have the best chance of reaching the helicopter. Take Charlotte and get to it. We'll rendezvous later."

"Anja… I can't leave you again!" Nova protests, his voice breaking. "I… I gotta make it up to you!"

"We have Ruth now, we'll be okay!" I urge.

"No! I left you alone at the tournament, and you got uncomfortable!" Nova interrupts. "I left you just now in the palace, and… I'm not doing it again! I promise!"

"We need more than just promises!" I retort. "We need to communicate!"

"I… I'm trying!" Nova says, looking close to tears. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't say you're sorry until you know what it's for!" I snap.

"I… what do you want from me, Anja?" Nova pleads. "Tell me what to do!"

"Right now, we need to finish our mission!" I say sternly. "You can't let something that happened yesterday sabotage you! It's not that we can never be apart, that was never the problem. It's just… oh, we'll talk about that later! There's no time!"

"I have to know that things are okay between us," Nova pleads, bending low on the ground in almost a bow, tears finally starting to roll down. "You… I need you, Anja."

"Nova, we're going to make this work!" I say emphatically. "I believe in you! And if I can believe in you against all the doubting voices in my head, then you can believe in yourself! And you HAVE to! That's the only way this is gonna work! Do you understand?"

"I… I think so," Nova says quietly.

Creek.

The platform I'm hanging onto for dear life is shifting further. Charlotte yelps, starting to stumble over…

Nova gives me one last desperate glance before getting up and catching her, retrieving his trusty hammer to propel them once again.

"Go… let's do our solo levels and then beat the boss!" I say, smiling. "Then we'll meet on the high score board!"

"I… okay!" Nova says. "I'll see you soon! Promise!"

"Promise," I repeat.

Giving Nova a final beaming smile, I let go, and let myself float down to what used to be the walls of the last segment.

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