VOCOM

chapter XXIII

“You’re insane! You’re bloody mad! You’re trying to kill yourself—“

I snarled aloud, my voice echoing in the massive, empty space, to get him to shut up for five minutes! I had to focus on getting up, and there was only one way I knew how to do that. My arms were burning from holding me up—even for the short few seconds I was hanging there, and tried to wretch my left arm free from where it was lodged in the railing.

“Ugh. This view would make me sick if I were human.” VOCOM said in a low tone. She was too angry at that moment to offer any support or advice. So much for teamwork.

I glanced down and quickly looked back up. I couldn’t afford to lose any time gawking over my hanging above nothing. I swung my right arm over to a railing bent at an adjacent angle to my left arm, hooking it there and still trying to break my left one free. I grunted stressfully, my upper body strength beginning to give in. I fought harder to release my arm, and it only came free after sapping my strength and energy.

Breathing hard, I aimed the Trans Shooter downwards, whipping out a beam of light horizontally beneath me. With exasperated sighs of relief, I let go of the railing, landing firmly on the safety of the light-bridge. I immediately started running up the bridge, it not staying in one spot for too long before dissipating, making it by whipping the Shooter about in front of me as I went along.

I ran perpendicular to the catwalk until I was at a high enough altitude to turn and run towards it. At the right moment as I was about to go over it, I jumped, landing on the solid lattice nestled against the same wall that the aperture was still glowing on. Breathing hard, I pressed myself up against the wall, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to quiet my shuttering heart.

I tried to relax and calm my tense muscles. I had been put in precarious situations before, but none of them had me literally dangling over an edge like that before. I was certain my body wasn’t too happy with that little stunt, and already I could feel that it was going to be a very long day.

I waited for a bit, needing one to rest and two, Quintley to get his butt down where I was. I took a few more deep breaths. If Benlark knew about our presence, why wasn’t he coming after me? It was obvious he was waiting for me to go to him, and I had no choice but to fall into his simplistic, overly-obvious “trap”. Maybe even by then I’d think of a counterattack.

“Well, you’ve landed in a very good spot.” VOCOM informed me. “Benlark is very near your location. Hurry up, you Briton.”

“I’m waiting on her!” came his annoyed voice. “Vera, what now?”

Trying to remain stable on shaky legs, I eased over towards the edge of the catwalk I had been struggling on, its sketchy sturdiness still very susceptible to giving away at a moment’s notice. I couldn’t see the light from the hole, oddly enough, but I knew that it was directly above me.

“Hang on,” I yelled up. “I want you to jump on the beam I’m sending up.” I instructed, hoping he could hear me. “You’ve done this before and you know how this works.”

“Yes, of course, of course. Mhm, yeah. You send it up, and I’ll be right down.” His faint voice was hard to decipher between seriousness and sarcasm. Sometimes I wanted to laugh at how he basically talked to himself. It was probably self-assurance, but I didn’t care enough to ask.

I unstrapped my Shooter so I could focus the aim completely with Gala’s. I aimed upwards and released a steady stream of the light. I was surprised with how well Gala’s unused gun worked despite years of neglect.

“Do you see it?” I called.

“Yeah, yep—there it is!”

“When it gets to as high as it can without dissipating, jump!”