“Come on,” Kaern said. “Now we hurry.”
They ran now, rushing through the long tunnel back toward, Simone hoped, the temple.
Simone barely had time to notice how smooth the walls were, but covered in glowing dust…that she found disturbing. Kaern just passed it off when she asked him about it, however.
“The light systems have been activated after at least a century,” he said. “The dust had time to accumulate. Now it’s being burned off. It’s harmless to humans, or would be if the Truelight defenses hadn’t been active.”
“How worried should I be?”
“You’re going to have one wicked sunburn tomorrow,” he answered. “So will everyone else…the demons more than the humans.”
They raced through the glowing dust, sending waves of it flowing behind them as they ran, a luminescent wake that chased after them. At the end of the hall, Kaern barely paused as he came to the dead end, calmly ripping another panel clear off the wall and pointing to it. Simone palmed the cold space without asking questions, enduring the buzz and the heating until it was over and the wall dropped out of the way.
The two of them emerged into the temple, the sound of clashing fighting attracting their attention to where Caleb was facing off against a group of demons and Elan was staggering to her feet. Simone was so relieved to find them alive she smiled, but beside her Kaern cursed.
“This is bad. They’re fighting on an active—” He started, only to be cut off as a flash of brilliant white light blinded them for an instant, and when they looked again, Elan was gone, along with Caleb, several demons, and a large group of children who’d been huddled nearby.
“Transport platform. Kiantze!” Kaern ended his statement with a word Simone didn’t know, but had no doubt was an epithet.
She didn’t know what had just happened, but there was no way it was good.
“Shit.”
*****
The blinding white light nearly set Caleb on his ass as he backpedaled as quickly as he could to get away from the demons that had been close enough to strike at him. Instead of putting his back to a wall, however, he stumbled back over something on the ground and did sprawl to his ass with a thump and a clang as his blade struck off the floor. He kept a tight grip, not wanting to lose his only defense as he blinked furiously to clear the spots in his eyes.
The world had changed color somehow.
The marbled black and grey stone of the temple walls was gone, and as his vision cleared, Caleb didn't see the glistening black of the demons either. Instead, everything was white, gleaming white, the likes of which he’d never seen. Caleb heard the sound of someone retching and twisted, spotting Elan a dozen feet away. She was heaving as she emptied her stomach onto the gleaming white floor, but otherwise seemed fine. Others were with them—children that they’d been protecting in the last moment—but only Elan seemed to be in any physical distress…though Caleb rather expected that the physical was the least of the children’s worries at the moment, judging from their sobs. For the moment, however, he focused on her.
“Elan!” he called, scrambling to his feet.
She looked up at him, a miserable expression on her face just barely masking the confusion he felt as well. He started in her direction, for the moment ignoring the kids around them as he kept an eye out for the missing demons.
He was halfway there when an unexpected voice filled the air.
“Transport Complete. Eight Unauthorized Entities Dispersed Per Protocol.”
Caleb swung around. “Who said that?”
“Unauthorized User Command.”
“What?”
He spun around, trying to find the source of the speaker, but kept moving toward Elan until he was standing beside her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, not looking down as he kept searching for any threats.
She moaned, not answering at first, and shook her head. “I feel like someone is pounding my head from the inside, and I think I’m seeing things.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, risking a look down at her. She didn’t look good, but then, in his admittedly limited experience, few people who just finished throwing up ever did.
“Everything looks white,” she said painfully.
“Yeah, that’s not you, unless I’m seeing things too,” Caleb said.
She planted a foot under her and winced as she climbed to her feet. “Where’s my sword?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t see it.”
She swore, swaying as she stood up. Caleb reached out to steady her, letting her lean into him for a moment as they both took stock.
“Where are we?” Elan asked. “This isn’t the temple.”
“I don’t know, I—” Caleb started, only to be cut off by the voice from earlier.
“Transport Pad Nine, Atlan Sea Facility.”
“Who said that?” Elan asked, wincing as she twisted to look around and immediately regretted it.
“Atlan Sea Facility EI, Designate: Merlin.”
“Is that your name?” Caleb asked, turning with Elan as both tried to find the speaker.
“Unauthorized User Command.”
“What in the demonic filth does that mean?” Caleb demanded.
“Unauthorized User Command.”
Elan looked at Caleb, who was still supporting her. “What does unauthorized user mean?”
She knew what command meant, she thought.
“I have no—”
Caleb was again cut off by the strange voice.
“Facility Has Been Locked Down With Emergency Protocols. Commands Cannot Be Accepted From Unknown Persons.”
Okay, that made a little more sense. Not much more, but a little.
“Wait.” Caleb sounded indignant. “Why am I unknown but you’re answering Elan?”
“Unauthorized User Command.”
“Oh, screw you,” Caleb told the voice with feeling.
Elan, who was still blinking furiously and wincing with every motion of her head, looked more curious than the outrage of her friend.
“Do you know me?” she asked, confused.
“No.”
That was a straight and far shorter response than she’d been expecting. “Then why are you answering me?”
“Emergency Protocols Allow For Flexibility In Identification For Chain Of Command Purposes.”
Elan groaned, not understanding half of that, and pled softly, “Simpler please?”
The voice seemed to grow softer. “You are the great-granddaughter of the last executive officer of this facility. In the absence of survivors, protocols allow me to respond to you.”
She was about to ask more questions, but a quiet sobbing caught her attention and Elan looked around to see many of the children they’d been guarding were clearly terrified.
“We have to see to them,” she said, pushing herself off Caleb and walking a little unsteadily across the flat floor to where the kids were grouped. She counted them off quickly, noting that they had twenty-three of the city’s children with them. Elan dropped gratefully to one knee. “It’s alright. We’ll make sure everything is fine. Don’t worry.”
“She’s right,” Caleb said, backing her up. “Come on, we need to find a safe place for the kids…and then figure out how to get back to Simone and the others.”
“You’re going to leave us!?” one of the braver kids spoke up, setting off a chain of wails through the rest.
“No, I mean…” Caleb waved his free hand as he rested his blade on his shoulder. “I…but…”
Elan groaned.
And I thought I was bad with people. She sighed as she got back up to her feet. “Watch them. I want to look around.”
Caleb hesitated, both because he really wanted nothing to do with the pack of kids who were even then sniffling and crying and because he genuinely wasn’t certain she was going to get very far without collapsing. “Elan, you’re not looking…uh…” Her glare shut him up and he just waved his free hand. “Alright. Be careful, though, would you?”