Immortalys II: The Expansion

Chapter Five: The Woes of the Virus

Friction suddenly felt himself being shaken awake. He opened his eyes in the darkness of the spacecraft. "...What's going on...?"

Bedsheets rustling nearby told him that the girls were getting the same treatment.

"You three must come with me," rasped the deep voice of FitzEdmund. "It's an emergency. Leave your Surfaces; bring a coat."

Friction hastily sat up and pulled his coat out of the suitcase. "What's happening?"

"I'll tell you when we get outside. Stay quiet."

Still groggy with sleep, Friction followed Willow, Blainey, and FitzEdmund quietly out of the room and towards the door. Indeed it was much colder outside than it had been in the evening; Friction could only guess at what time it was since the silent landscape looked pretty much the same as when they had left it, but perhaps even a little darker.

There were no crickets, no wind, no sounds at all except for the sound of their four pairs of feet crunching softly on the rocks. FitzEdmund led the three of them away from the spacecraft and into the shadow of a tall crater ridge, looking hesitantly in all directions as if he was afraid of being caught.

"I don't understand," said Blainey sleepily. "Where are we going?"

"Shh!"

Friction, who was rapidly waking up thanks to the cold air, suddenly remembered a previous instruction from that evening.

"Hey... Paige said we weren't supposed to leave the spacecraft during the night," he whispered. "So what kind of emergency is this?"

"This is the emergency where I save you from obeying stupid orders of all kinds," muttered FitzEdmund. "Shut up and follow me."

Feeling more unnerved with every step he took, Friction glanced sideways at Willow and Blainey. "I don't like this," he mouthed to them.

They finally stopped running when they could no longer see the spacecraft. "So," said FitzEdmund, "I am now giving you three a new task."

"Wait... a new task?" Willow repeated dubiously. "In the middle of the night?"

"Is this task department-approved?" inquired Blainey, shivering.

"Of course not," FitzEdmund replied with a dark smile. "We're now taking matters into our own hands."

"What?" Willow whispered.

"You see this building?" The four of them had come upon a large rust-colored warehouse that rose up out of the middle of an old crater, the rocky ridges surrounding it giving it the look of an ancient fortress. "This is where they keep the precious resource we are wanting."

Friction and the girls stared at the building for a couple of seconds before realizing what FitzEdmund was implying that they do. Friction's stomach made a dull flop. "...No!"

The officer pointed toward the building's door. "Go on."

"I'm not stealing that stuff from these people," Friction said flatly. "That is not what I came here to do. You've tricked us!"

Shivering, Blainey backed away from FitzEdmund. "I'm... I'm going back to the spacecraft!" But before she could escape, FitzEdmund seized her coat collar and held onto her. "Hey!"

Friction and Willow rushed forward to help her, but FitzEdmund was faster. He whipped his other hand out of a pocket and held a large, shiny knife to Blainey's back. "I said, shh!"

Friction and Willow, horrified, froze in their tracks.

"You will assist me in getting this resource... or else..." FitzEdmund growled dangerously while Blainey stared at her friends with eyes as wide as the nearby crater. FitzEdmund's face, half lit by reddish starglow, seemed almost beastlike as his eyes glittered coldly at them.