Immortality Code

Chapter IV

Chapter IV:

Darkness. Cold. Confined spaces. Metalwork.

It is dark.

So very dark.

There are flickering blue lights.

And warm whipping orange flames.

But it is still so very dark.

There is also no floor.

Just a latticework of pipes and rods, metal and plastic.

A web.

It is so very complicated.

There is no obvious up or down.

Aside from gravity, of course.

I mark the direction of “down” in my mind after seeing my blood drip away.

After all, I am still bloody ruin.

I need to heal.

To regenerate.

And I need those orange materials from the bottle to do so.

It is difficult to move.

Some of my muscle strands have been severed by those quiet guns.

Everything, everything aches.

Everything.

I hear movement.

Metal on metal.

Loud. Coming closer.

Indicative of many moving components.

Another centipede?

Not quite.

There are multiple noises.

And they are coming from multiple directions.

So, more than one centipede.

One was painful enough,

I do not think I can take two of them. Not at the same time.

I need a weapon.

Something overhead explodes.

Burning debris rains down around me.

They cauterise my wounds.

I scream in agony.

But my flesh will grow back.

The pain has made me lose my grip.

I am falling.

My head and left hand smash against two separate bars in the darkness, both cold metal.

No broken bones this time.

My mobility is not further impaired.

This dark space is getting very, very loud.

Too many sounds to count.

I remember what I have been told.

This place is underground.

The invaders must have come from above.

So, to evade them, I need to go down.

Evasion.

I can't remember when I last did that.

It was before I entered the cube, certainly.

I slip between the bars and fall through the deafening black.