14 | The Divide

The pursuit force had bowed away from Gavin and Roshe as expected when they had pulled far enough away. It was no contest when they really pulled the gusto into their escape. There wasn't any chance of them catching the pair of them with all the tricks they'd prepared on their bikes. Roshe looked to have a pouch of what looked like to be explosives that he could have used to gain traction away from them if the previous attempts had failed.

Just as expected one of the pursuit officers had noticed their camp. LUCAS could hear the scream of what looked like the leader of the group—his different colored helmet gave it away. Their motorcycles had changed course and LUCAS could see the shimmering off of the side mirrors approaching quickly. Behind them dust trailed in large billowing clouds that shielded the mountain.

LUCAS had wondered how they were traveling so quickly through the sands—the logic of wheels on sand had conflicted with what he had assumed to be normal, but as they grew closer LUCAS had seen the bikes weren't actually making contact with the ground. The wheels were emitting a turquoise light as they spun and hovered.

Laven's grip tightened, and he returned it as tight.

The thundering of the motors grew and echoed as they approached. I reset my vision back to normal and out of the corner of my eye I saw Laven trying to steady her breathing. As the pursuit officers finally arrived they encircled their small camp and slowed to a stop. A screaming voice came from behind them and LUCAS saw three of the officers—clad in black garb and dark blue helmets that shielded most of their faces—carrying sighted rifles they held up and aimed at the both of them.

The screaming man behind them called for their hands to be raised. The two of them obeyed and their hands were in the air. LUCAS felt like this was going south, fast. He sat staring at the three officers staring at them with the weapons pointed at them rigidly. He did not dare to turn around to face the one that was barking the orders.

He felt a rough shove from behind and his arms were forced down behind him. There was a clicking sound as his hands were bound together, quickly. It felt like some sort of magnetic bracelet had been snapped around his wrists.

He didn't try to break the seal, but he figured that he would have been unable to if he had tried. He looked over to Laven as he saw the officer shove her head forward from the rear and cuffed her hands together, too. He got a second to look at the commander before being shoved from the side by one of the other officers. The commander wore a deep crimson helmet and his jacket was the same shade of blue as the others's helmets.

He fell over, landing in front of Laven and hit the ground pretty rough. The commander hoisted Laven over his shoulder and stepped on LUCAS's ankle as he crossed. He cried out as the sharp pain shot through his system. He couldn't see it, but he was sure that the commander was grinning.

"One of you grab the kid," he growled as he tossed Laven like some old doll over the back of his bike. She let out a sound of discomfort as she hit. He looked back to her and coughed up a nasty lob of spit on her. "Shut it."

One of the other officers—probably the one who had shoved him down had picked him up by his arms. He was swung over the officer's shoulder just like Laven was. He was brought over to the officer's bike and similarly flung over the back like a fresh kill. He was splayed out over the back and his body was patted down from top to bottom. When they had found that he had not been carrying a weapon they finished through and the officer had gotten back on his bike.

He could see the commander's bike slightly out of his left eye, Laven was facing away from him, he saw that their search of her person was a lot more thorough. It angered him, but he tried to avoid showing it.

The officer's bike roared to life and they were off. Whether this worked in their favor or not, there was now no turning back. They were in it for the long haul.

~...~

The bikes rode in tandem across the desert. Each crest they crossed LUCAS felt the rising and falling in his abdomen. He feared he was going to slide off and be left to die with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Over an hour of riding brought them around the mountain and into a cavernous entrance with a wide berth. The bikes started to slow and keep pace with one another in a line as they traveled inside. LUCAS's vision went dark as they went inside, the only light available were the headlights of the bikes which only cast directly in front of them. He couldn't see the commander's bike any longer and by extension he couldn't see Laven either. They kept going ten minutes deeper into the cave as they started riding up and up further.

Light broke as they slipped through a rear exit of the cave. LUCAS craned his neck and saw a building as large as...he sat and stared at the building as something in the deep recesses of his memory flooded to his front mind. An image of an identical building lie in ICARUS's records as the Republic Plaza building that sat in what used to be Colorado, Denver. The top twenty floors were illuminating the entire area as bright purple letters were affixed to the exterior, "CR". His mind told him that this in those days stood for Colorado Rockies, a team of baseball players that had existed in the world before.

Strange experiments took place in this building back then—something...what is...this? Information was flying through his mind at super-speed. He saw Gavin—one of the records that he had seen when he'd first introduced himself. This building was...fictional. Or...at least, this was a fictional version of a real building. How did this make any sort of sense? He thought about it, there wasn't anything visually different between the real building and this one—the records show them as exactly the same, but he just knew that they were different. The real building was never used for the experiments that had been in this one. He didn't know how he knew those experiments happened, but he felt sure in thinking so.

That brought on the follow up thought—would more fictional objects appear in this world? Why had this one now...and what did this mean for the coming times? It was not a pleasant thought to think about, and he would have thought about it longer, but his focus was pulled back to his present circumstance.

The bikes approached the building and all found themselves parked. The officer on LUCAS's watch had grabbed him up and stood him upright. He was a bit dazed from being set upright. The officer was tooling around with something on his wrist—it looked like it had a display of some sort on it.

A few options were selected and a bright blue chain extended out from his wrist through LUCAS's body. He looked down and felt a new force pulling on his wrists. He looked over his shoulder to see the chain was made of light and was attached to his cuffs, which he saw were a shined silver.

The officer sighed and began walking with the rest of the group—LUCAS was forced along, pulled from the back side. He almost tripped over himself as he was yanked backward. He turned quick on his feet and jogged to catch up so he could at least walk normally.

He slowed when he got close enough the tether wasn't tight and saw Laven walking similarly a few officers ahead. They continued all the way toward the entrance to the building. stone columns lined the face supporting glass panes that branded the building as it was. It looked ripped out of another time entirely, and its appearance here brought uneasy feelings.

They walked in-between the two columns and several of the officers dispersed, walking in various different directions. All that remained were the commander with Laven attached to him and the officer that LUCAS was attached to. The commander turned to the officer and started tapping on his wrist.

"All right, meet back here in ten, we'll go reassemble a unit to go on patrol in case any of those idiots come strolling around the area looking for these two. Toss that one with the others," he nodded toward LUCAS.

The two officers split up, carrying each of their prisoners different directions. LUCAS followed the officer down through the main lobby. He saw that the floor had a strange black and white checkerboard design. The front desk was unmanned, and LUCAS didn't know if that fact concerned him more than if it were. He hadn't a long time to think on it as he was yanked forward as the officer grunted. With little more than a whimper he was led out into a hallway that felt too cramped to be comfortable. He could see through the window panes that cover the walls through to the entrance to the valley the building sat in. The mountain's edges curved around the cave's entrance in a cold embrace.

"Calling in. Do you read me?" The voice rang in his head. LUCAS recognized it as Blaise's terse timbre.

"I got you, we're inside the building now," LUCAS thought back.

"Where's Laven?"

LUCAS had to adjust his pace so he could continue to think back without tripping over himself. "She was taken a different path. They've separated us. I don't know if they know I'm an android yet. They haven't mentioned anything regarding it."

There was silence in his head as he could feel the calculation running behind his mind.

"Keep moving according to the path you're on. You're headed toward an elevator. Hopefully they'll bring you to the second through fifth floor. Any of those we can navigate you to where you'll best be served."

"Where would that be?" LUCAS asked.

There was silence from Blaise's end. It was certainly unsettling. LUCAS wasn't sure he enjoyed not knowing. But then again, he did have a mission of his own. Maybe it was for the best then that he be left to think about that instead of balance the two.

"How are you going to keep in touch with Laven?" LUCAS then asked.

They had reached the elevator at the end of the hall. The officer reached his arm up and called the elevator down to their floor. They waited in silence as LUCAS hung on waiting for a response from Blaise. When it finally came he felt like he knew the answer, but it was of some comfort to know the answer instead of not.

"She was able to successfully hide her communication device. We are in her ear as we are yours. Bambo is with her."

That was good news. He saw them be pretty thorough with their search, but they must not have been too concerned with anything that wasn't a weapon. It was relieving to know that she wouldn't be on her own in here.

"We're headed in the elevator now," LUCAS said.

"I can see your movements. There is no need to give me a play by play."

LUCAS bit his lip, a move not unnoticed by the officer. He yanked hard on the binding and pulled LUCAS hard into the elevator. Letting out only a grunt, LUCAS followed inside as the doors shut behind them. The officer pulled LUCAS behind him as he pressed a button and they started moving upward. He was facing away, so he couldn't tell what floor the officer had pressed. He brought up the map in his mind and saw they were moving past the second floor, third, fourth...

"Blaise," LUCAS thought.

"I'm aware," he said back.

"I think you should go help Bambo with Laven," LUCAS thought. "I'll adapt from here. I have the map downloaded. She doesn't have the same resources I do."

"That's not the plan."

LUCAS needed this to work, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The elevator continued rising—which seemed to now exist in the background of everything. "Plan's changed. I've got an idea of what I need to do, I can navigate out of here. It's not my first venture in a large facility like this."

Blaise seemed to be thinking on the other end, and he very slightly heard Bambo at the edge of his thoughts. Blaise said something LUCAS couldn't hear in response. He waited as the hum of the elevator was the only sound that kept him and the officer company. The officer cracked his neck, but otherwise remained still.

"Okay. Ring if you need help." Blaise's salute was as brief as anything as he had said previous. He felt something turn off inside his head, and he knew he was alone. What might have been frustrating and terrifying has now loosened up his tense knuckles as his hands know relaxed. Laven was off in her own sector and had both of their support team aiding her, and he was now free to explore.

The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened slowly. He looked inside himself and saw that he was stopped on the thirteenth floor. What good tidings this was. It almost seemed like it couldn't be any more of an omen.