LOCKED (6 page)

“Obviously…it didn’t work.
Seeing how that worked out, Miller wanted to keep things quiet; he didn’t want
the guerillas to know he was working behind their back, and ESPECIALLY that his
‘solution’ was completely broken. He bought up all the districts around you
quick as he could, keeping a close eye on everything. Just like every other
city he bought out, his ‘experimental’ institutions went up in no time flat.
I’d say three weeks.” Eddy opened his mouth once more to speak, but I
interrupted.

“What about the election
posters?” I asked, arching a brow.

“Ah, that’s for show.” he
waved his hand with a laugh, “Just for public support, that’s all. Looks a lot
better if someone is elected in, ‘finds’ one of his citizens with a weird
sickness (just in case the antidote screwed up, which it did), and goes ‘I’ll
fix it, I’ll fix it!’, rather than someone who just BOUGHT their way in trying
the same stunt. That’s exactly what happened though.” he explained, readying
himself to continue the story.

“So, that happened. He made
his way in just a day after your hallucinations and you went into your coma— “
I cringed, momentarily interrupting him, “—and told everyone just how great you
were
gonna
end up being. In no time, he had his
prison, hospital and ‘court system’ in place to deal with the issue. Your
family was never allowed to even see you in Miller’s hospital, so they knew
they had to take matters into their own hands. Problem was, they tried using
the law. Miller’s new court system was in place already. The court was just a
formality; nothing really legal to it, especially seeing as he made every
decision. I don’t think I need to tell you how that went. You were then sent to
another one of his facilities which I’m sure you’re familiar with…the prison.”
he smirked.

"What the hell kind of
prison lets you walk out?" I had to ask.

"What the hell kind of
kid gets in prison to begin with?" he snapped back, but with a smile so I
was aware he was half-joking.

"Anyway... after one of
Miller's guys chased you 'round the city, the word about what Miller had been
trying to do (and failed to accomplish) reached the guerillas VERY quickly.
Obviously, they didn’t like that one bit. Miller had some men to try to hold
the guerrillas back, but it was useless; most of the city was razed in hours.
Unfortunately enough, the disease finally made its way to the West Coast over a
little time before. Must’ve been carried by someone who snuck into the country.
The guerillas basically are a mess right now, more so than usual.” Eddy finally
concluded.

“Ok…so…you are…?” I tilted
my head, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

“We’re U.S.P.L., United States
Preservation League, and we're trying to RE-establish order, not break it down
anymore. We're trying to get the U.S. to be the UNITED states again! We’ve been
around for a while, but you don’t really hear much about us, probably ‘cause
we’re a little more outta the way other guys ‘round here. We came here after
all the fighting to try and get any supplies we can or to help anybody who was
stranded, like you. You’re a little more helpful than the average man,
though." he proudly beamed. 

I stared at him blankly.

"Can I have all that in
chronological order?" I asked. Eddy’s tone became dry.

“Disease in Europe.
Guerillas panic. Big-time politician panics. Big-time politician makes broken
antidote, you’re the test subject. You have horrible hallucinations and go into
a coma. You get out. Guerillas find out about whole thing. Guerillas get
pissed. Guerillas attack city. Happy?”

"I guess? And wait...
how do you know so much about me?" Eddy just leaned over close to me.

"Leo... you're one of the
most wanted men on the planet right now. Think about it. You survived taking
that drug AND saw Miller’s facilities firsthand. It was one hell of a time,
yeah, but you’re still alive. You’re just as good as a blood sample with the
cure to cancer just lying around, and we both know how he would abuse that if
we gave ‘
im
the chance. We need your help to get
things back in order, they’d need you out of the picture." he whispered.
Silence followed once again. Not another word was spoken for a while. I looked
to the side, outside the helicopter, and saw the destruction slowly fading
away. We were on the outskirts of what was once the city. I could see a few
ant-sized men rummaging through rubble down there, searching for provisions and
sanctuary in a world torn by war. I tried to turn my head away from the harvest
to soon be consumed, and I was able to utter another question.

"So... where are we
going now?" I asked.

"U.S.P.L. HQ.
Heh
, say that five times fast… Anyway, we got some things
we need to show you, and some stuff we need you to do too. You're our right
hand man now, Leo!" he patted me on the shoulder with one hand while
pulling a big fat cigar out of his pocket, placing it in his mouth, and
lighting it all in the same motion.

"Oh! One more
fing
, you mow
mis
mick?" he
asked with the cigar taking up half his mouth. I wouldn't have understood a
word he said if he didn't pull out another paper from his pocket with Danni's
photo and a label that said "Danni
Saide
".
I grabbed it right from his hand.

"Where'd you find
this?"

"She's another one of
the refugees found 'round where you were. We need to talk to her a bit too
because she 'broke' you out.
Y'know
, got to show
everyone how
effed
up Miller's new system was. Don't
worry, she's at HQ." Eddy pulled the cigar out of his mouth and let out
plenty of smoke, which stayed in the cabin for a second before pouring out the
open sides of the helicopter.

"Yeah, you're
gonna
love this place... you'll see. " he
absent-mindedly noted while looking out the window. Not even five seconds
later, a wide grin spread across his face.

"WE'RE HERE!" Eddy
declared. I turned my head so I could see; I saw our helicopter heading into a
massive factory, and my first reaction was to trace my eyes along it vertically
until they reached the top... they never did. Just as soon as I was trying to
wrap my mind around this metallic Tower of Babylon, its shadow started to eat
away at the helicopter. Our height, velocity, and all those delightful little
details of physics started to decrease as the pilot prepared for a landing
inside the facility. We were flown inside through a long tunnel at the base,
colossal steel gates closing behind us. Once the gates were closed, for a split
second, we were in complete darkness. I was a bit worried over how the pilot
could see. Just as soon as that thought entered my head, bright, scrutinizing
lights on the ceiling were turned on. Somehow, the factory looked bigger on the
inside than on the out. We were now inside a massive square room with unnerving
rust-colored walls; the strange place reeked of dust and burnt tires. The wear
and tear displayed let me know that its ancient days once saw a less lonely
existence, but that was all abandoned with the carelessness of time; footsteps
once thundered in this mammoth prism, but now were lost in the echoes of time
past.

A neat landing pad with
radiant, inviting blue lights was in the center. They flashed on and off, on
and off, screaming out. The helicopter slowly started to rotate towards it.
Eddy jumped out once the helicopter was a few feet from the ground, and he
motioned me to do the same. I hesitantly did so, and grunted once I hit the
hard metal bars that made up the floor nearby. What I hadn’t noticed before was
that what was beneath them seemed to be an endless abyss, nothing but darkness
and decay for miles. It greedily swallowed up any particles that fell through
the grates, and practically asked me if I was feeling lucky that day. I gulped
and hurried on toward Eddy, who was already on a safer area. He motioned me
again to follow him through a doorway. The heavy iron doors automatically slid
open once he was within a few feet of the path they were diligently guarding,
and inside was a hallway with tiny red lights on the ceiling to illuminate the
way. Each light was an eye, watching my every step but not recalling any of it.
Eddy waited for me to catch up this time, and we both walked inside, side by
side.

“I just
wanna
tell you right now that…well, you’re a techie, right?” he asked, one hand on my
shoulder.

“A little bit.”

“You’re
gonna
love this.” he concluded. When I looked up to him, I noticed that his round,
red-tinted goggles were gone, and he had bright red marks in their place around
his dark brown eyes. He must have taken them off when I wasn’t looking. Once we
reached the end of the hallway, there was another heavy iron door. This one was
a bit more stubborn, and did not open immediately. There was a keypad with
glowing red numbers on it above the door handle. Eddy quickly pressed the
numbers in sequence, and a low hissing could be heard from behind the door. He
took one look at me, back at the door, and threw it open.

Oh my God.

Thousands, if not millions
of moving machines. A living, hissing, screaming, creaking, whirring being.
Stretching for what seemed to be miles, the factory had a mind-blowing number
of intricate pieces all working at once. Sentient iron arms hastily piecing
together new sentient iron arms. Wheels spinning in place, sending smoke into
the air. Machines hiding in the man-made canopy inhaled this smoke and spat it
into the endless maze of pipes far above our head. Mechanized men supervised
the entire production line, speaking in bleeps and
bloops
.

"
Ain't
she a beaut'." Eddy grinned. He had his hands on his hips as he proudly
surveyed this world of metal until he was distracted by a short bot bumping
into him.

"Hey!" he shouted
at it. He picked it up with both hands and it panicked; it struggled with all
the vigor its circuits could provide it! I couldn't get a very good look at it,
but it seemed to be around three or so feet tall, and humanoid in shape. Upon
its head and around it's stomach were yellow blinking lights, which were
flashing excessively as it struggled to break free while crying out in its
native electrical tongue. Eddy chuckled, put it back down, and let it resume
its business.

"Eddy... this is all...
I mean, how the hell can you afford all this?” I asked while watching the robot
make independent decisions, to my astonishment.

"Don’t you get anything
about the black market? Everything that you end up paying hundreds and
thousands and millions and billions of bucks for…it’s all there for cheap if
you know where to look.
Gotta
get the right men in
the right places.
Gotta
make a network. Maybe I’ll
tell you more about that another time." He pulled the little black device
out of his pocket again, read it for a moment, and put it back in his pocket.
He looked at me and smiled again, but seemed a bit more sincere this time,
instead of being friendly for the sake of business.

"Alright, we've got
time. You could either see your friend now o—"

"I want to see Danni.
Now." I pleaded, but it seemed to come out as more of a demand. Eddy let
out a bit of a sigh and led me down another iron hallway lined with red lights.

"Yeah, I'm
startin
' to think you and your friend are
gonna
make a good team. She's
gonna
be really helpful to us too. You know she's got a photographic memory?"
his words hit me like a ton of bricks at the same moment he threw open another
door. I didn’t even have time to focus on the startling revelation when I was
tossed in; the room was dark and dank just like all the others, and Danni was
sitting on a stool in front of a lab worker holding a pen and clipboard. It
seemed that she was taking a test of sorts, but any concentration she may have
had was gone the second Eddy and I walked in. The second she saw me, she turned
around and immediately jumped off of her seat and into my arms.

"Oh God, Leo...!"
she held me in a surprisingly crushing grip. I had never seen her like this, so
all I could do was wrap my own arms around her, and give her some soothing
words.

"I'm here Danni, don't
worry, it's fine... it's fine..." She suddenly jolted up and glared
directly into my eyes. In all honesty, I was more concerned with the scratches
she had on her face and the crack in her glasses.

"Don't you ever do that
again!" Danni sternly commanded. Yes, she was fine again.

"Gee, thanks mom."
I replied. Then again, I wasn't sure exactly what it was that I wasn't doing
again, but the most important news was that we were safe and sound, together
again. I then thought about what Eddy had said about her having a photographic
memory, but I was quickly pulled from the bear hug and pushed out the door.

“She’s busy right now; you
two can catch up later. Right now, I
gotta
show you
another thing.” Eddy told me as he closed the heavy iron door behind us. I was
led down the red-stained hallway once again, each eye still looking straight
down, and still remembering nothing. I was brought down a different corridor
which was now illuminated by a less piercing white light. At the end of this
hallway was a heavy steel door, much larger than any of the others. It
jealously guarded its secrets, putting several security measures in place. It
had two keypads, eye scanners, and fingerprint readers. He typed in the code,
let the machine read his eye and he pushed his fingerprint onto the pad. All
the necessary info was entered, and the door hissed and whined before becoming
unlocked. Eddy had to push the door open with all of his might, even with all
the security measures down. Inside was a large room very different from any of
the others. The most noticeable quality it had was how much light was in the
room. Mammoth windows let light stream inside the dusty brown and gray area,
and titan pillars held the room up. There was much less grime and decay in this
room. Electrical cables, black and faceless as their messages intertwined
amongst all the pillars, sending millions of volts to and fro above our heads.
The cables hung loose and carelessly, being supported poorly. It also smelled
much more clean and sanitary than the rest of the factory. At the end of the
room was a mech. This one had no cockpit, so I was left to assume that it
operated itself. It was humanoid like the rest, but it was lonely, sitting all
by itself. Cables clung to its sides, making sure it had every ounce of energy
it needed. At the moment it was lifeless, shut down.