A few paces on and the tunnel turns sharply to the left where the light is brighter. I can hear yelling. Bike boy is yelling.
Someone is talking back to him, but he’s laughing too. I let out my breath and relax a little as I creep forward into the chamber. The first thing I see is the wrecked bike mounted on a red mechanic’s lift. Then toolboxes, some weird contraption that looks like a… robot, rolling around? A computer, then another, and another. A whole wall of computers, actually. Food wrappers and half-empty protein shake containers. Parts. A black muscle car. A long table lined with shit that looks like pieces from a chemistry lab. And a massive aquarium-sized tank holding luminescent jellyfish.
All this time bike boy is yelling and waving those black-gloved hands in the air, splashing a protein drink all over the floor.
“What the fuck, Case? I told you not to mess with my bike, you asshole.”
“I didn’t touch your bike, Lincoln.”
“Stay the fuck out of my business. I crashed the goddamned bike and had to hitch a ride home and Sheila is somehow offline. Offline! You motherfucker!”
“Calm down,” Case says. “She’s not gonna miss anything being offline for a few minutes. In fact, if I were you I’d be asking how it’s possible she got knocked off so easy. Doesn’t that strike you as weird?” It comes from a giant face on a wall-sized flat screen mounted on the side of a… cave? What the fuck? “And you lost your right to work alone months ago, so don’t get all self-righteous about me being around today.”
“What’s that supposed to—“
“Hey, asshole,” the guy on the screen says over bike boy’s tantrum, cutting him off.
“I didn’t need this complication—” Bike boy stops talking. Because the guy on the screen is waggling his eyebrows at me. “What the fuck are you doing?” bike boy asks. “Stop making stupid faces—”
“We have com-pan-eee.” The guy on the giant screen nods his head at me.
Bike boy whirls around, shoots me a dirty look, and then growls, “I’ll call you back,” as the giant screen goes black.
We stare at each other for a few moments, our eyes locked. “Oh, my—”
“You’re still here,” he says over me.
“—God.” I look around one more time.
1. Cave filled with…
2. Super bike.
3. Souped-up muscle car.
4. Giant flatscreen phone chat.
5. Computers everywhere.
6. Robot?
7. Some kind of science lab.
A few loud beeps interrupt my list. “Online,” a female voice says from the ceiling. A pause, and then, “There has been a breach and we have a visitor.” A hologram in the form of a woman appears in the middle of the cave and I can only assume this is…
8. Sheila, apparently back online.
I look around a little more and spy… not a cape, thank God, but a… a…
9. Helicopter, parked at the far end of the enormous cavern.
And then I get the perfect list after all, because I see…
10. Guns.
No, they are more than mere guns. I know my way around a gun and these are—
“What the fuck are you doing here, gun girl? I thought we parted back in the forest.”
“Oh, my God,” I repeat. “You’re Batman.”
My name is Jessica Samuels.I am an author addicted to caffeine, and I have imaginary friends that keep me up at night begging for me to tell their story. I love writing in my spare time a long with reading books since I have been an avid reader since elementary school.
.jpg){kind=link}
