Pursuit

4***#6

Who is he? I thought to Mikey as we crept out of the room and into the hallway. He checked down the length of the hallway before answering.

He's... He's hard to explain. We are really close, like we came from the same place. A place that's not the Lab.

So like brothers? I asked, following him down the hall.

I don't know what that is. I could hear his sadness in my head.

It's when you have the same parent or parents as someone. Or they're just very close.

We are very close. He takes care of me. Mikey stopped at a fork in the hallway and turned to me. You can't tell anyone about this.

I won't. I promised.

He nodded silently and pushed on the wall next to us. The wall swung inward and he leaned down and walked right into it. My eyes widened when he turned back to me. He motioned for me to follow him, his demeanor urgent. Scrambling, I ducked my head and entered behind him. The wall clicked shut behind us.

Inside the wall was dark and musty smelling, making my nose itch. Mikey coughed, waving his hand to guide me down the right path. Rubbing my nose, I carefully followed him, almost slipping on rubble a few times. After a few minutes Mikey stopped and turned to face me.

"We can talk now," he said. "We're now technically outside of the Lab's boundaries."

I looked at him in awe. "How did you discover this?"

"I'll tell you the story when we get there. Come on, just a few more minutes."

Our footfalls echoed across the entire tunnel as we continued down, the only other sound being my uneven breaths from walking for a long time. The gravel dug into the soles of my feet through the thin cloth of slippers I adorned, causing me to wince every few seconds from the jabbing pain.

"Almost there," Mikey said to me in a reassuring tone, almost as if he could read my mind. Then I thought for a minute and realized that he probably could.

Mikey if you can read my mind... say... taco.

Silence.

I guess my experiment didn't work.

"Oh it did, I just don't know what a T A C O is," he laughed, spelling it out.

"You've never had a taco?!" I asked incredulously.

He shook his head. "And I can't just read your mind, when you direct your thoughts toward me I can understand what you're thinking. So don't worry, you still have privacy."

"Oh."

"We're here, by the way." Mikey stopped walking and looked at me, raising his eyebrows. "You ready?"

I gulped and nodded. "Yep."

He nodded back and placed his hand on a small circle engraved into the interior of the tunnel. "Killjoy," he whispered. A rumbling ensued as the wall separated into two parts, revealing a small room, scattered with random electrical odds and ends. A hunched over figure with greasy long black hair and goggles was leaning over one of the tables, intently staring at a small spherical object that was twitching and releasing sparks. They looked up at us, large eyes framed in dark lashes blinking inquisitively.

"23, who might this be?" The figure asked, tilting their head to the side.

"This is 6... well he says his real name is Pete," Mikey introduced, gesturing towards me. I waved shyly, trying to smile politely. They just laughed and motioned for me to come closer. Shooting a glance at Mikey, I approached the table cautiously and nodded to what I guessed was #84.