Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 49: The Hideout

The four of them found themselves in the midst of a cave. Somehow, this was Fuller's idea of a hideout. James guessed he could add this humiliation to the long list of grievances he had against that creature.

Neither Elena nor her son spoke for quite a while. Apparently, they were still in shock and just trying to process all that they had been dragged into.

Cybil was still functioning, to everyone's surprise despite what she'd been put through. She was glassy eyed with dried tears evident on her face, but functional otherwise.

Oddly enough, the inlet had been devoid of most organic life. A few ants and roaches scurried about here and there, but otherwise, nothing.

That bothered him. Or maybe it should have. At this point, he wouldn't have been surprised to find himself on a movie set with all of this being one big prank.

A man could dream, couldn't he?

Eventually, he found some unnatural carving in some rock deeper into the cavern. Wiping some dust away, he found a keypad. Thinking back, there had been something else given to him aside from the coordinates themselves: a series of digits. He went to ask Cybil whether she had retained the pass code (the answer was most likely "yes").

He didn't get very far, or even to open his mouth, before he heard a tone of acceptance from the keypad and a large boulder moving aside to make an entrance.

Ty had entered the combination.

"How did you..."

"A king never forgets." A ghost of pride played at the little boy's tone as he said this. James wondered if the boy enjoyed showing off his photographic memory.

Come to think of it, had he ever seen the boy smile?

A decent sized lab awaited them inside. Even Elena seemed to come back to reality and be impressed at the tech being shown. Of course, much of this wasn't seen by the outside world. It was the type that the more unscrupulous members of the "techno-underworld" were accustomed to.

Mad scientist equipment lined the deceptively large space, but more for decoration than anything else. The real tools were computer systems, each containing GPS tracking equipment, and a generous amount of tools that lined the area around said computers.

Despite everything, this is awesome!

Before James could voice this thought, however...

"We're not living in here." The deadpan voice was Elena's.

He turned to her in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. We are not living in this cave."

"With all due respect ma'am," James responded, trying to keep calm. "We do not have a choice."

"Yes we do. Why don't you call up your little friend so he can arrange something to put us somewhere else."

There were so many things wrong with that sentence that he didn't know where to begin. "Okay. First off, Fuller is none of our friends. Secondly, neither of us is in any position to be picky about our accommodations."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Picky? Tell me, what do you expect us to eat?"

He pointed to the mini fridge in the back of the room.

"What about going to the bathroom?"

"We passed an outhouse on the way over here..."

"No."

James gritted his teeth. "Look, Missy. We do NOT have time for this!"

The woman's countenance turned ice cold. "Did you just call me 'Missy', as if I was your daughter or something?"

He realized his mistake quickly, to his credit. "Sorry, but people want me dead..."

"They can get in line!"

This would not be a good day for James's blood pressure. "I know you're angry and hurt..."

"Angry? YOU RUINED MY--"

"Stop it!"

Ty put a stop to the fight. "I don't want to hear it! I'm going to die and now have nowhere to even do it at! I get it! I'm gonna go... somewhere where I can melt away in peace!"

The boy took off before his mother or creator could stop him. Cybil didn't need to be commanded to take off after him.

The two adults turned back to each other with the same look in their eyes before staring back at the former scene.

It said: What have we done?