Chapter Four

“Who is it?” A voice echoed from afar.

“Didn’t see the face. But got him,” the other knight said.

“Then move your ass…”

There was a passage of stillness, then the footsteps gradually descended away. I finally left the breadth that I didn’t realise holding for a long time. The blood started to stink, and the wet leaf signed by Edwin soaked in it. Was I dreaming? I jumped to stick with the wall when a sudden cracking sound echoed again, but it wasn’t from the storey, it was from Armdan. I stretched my leg and gently flipped the heavy body into the pool. The voice echoed again from the brick-size communicator he held in his hands. I slowly leaned to reach it, it took a while as his fingers were tightly wrapped around the communicator.

“Armdan-” Edwin’s voice boomed from the communicator.

“This is Clinten,” I murmured.

“Clint… Connect me with Armdan.”

“He’s…” I checked the wet body in the pool. “He’s dead.” Silence. My hands started to tremble. “Are you there?”

“Yes… Yes…”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s an unfortunate day, Clint,” the voice came with a sigh. “We have been captured.”

My mind went back, and pushed me to my knees, a lot of questions ran through my head but none of it dared to utter on my lips.

“I need to get out of here.”

“I wish I could help.”

“Did you contact Red Beard? Did-”

“I tried,” he came up before I could finish. “He doesn’t appear in range.”

“Did you try other alternatives? Did you-”

“I'm sorry Clint, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Red Beard is our only contact.”

“He is right behind the gate.”

“I know. The gate is the only way in, I don't know how they surfaced. They didn’t pass the gate.”

They didn’t come through the gate, they didn’t know the opening that leads to Condor; the gate was the only way in and the only way out.

“They don’t know about the gate?”

“They might not.”

“So I can use the gate to leave.” There was silence, he didn’t say a word which means yes, there was still a possibility. “How to get to the gate?”

“The knights may not know about the gate, but they are everywhere,” he paused. “You cannot reach there.”

“If I get through the gate, I can get Red Beard,” I made him think, I made him realise I was the only option he had. “All I need to do is get there.”

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“Where are you now?”

“I’m on top of the stuck elevator ceiling.”

“You can open the gate-”

“It’s already open.”

“Climb through it and find where you are,” he continued. “And don’t get yourself killed.”

I raised my head cautiously and peeked from the elevator gap. It was an empty passage, the floor was a plain metal layer filled with holes with another metal layer under it, one side was a simple brick wall and the other side was wrapped containers, a long ladder was placed against one of the containers.

I put all my strength, pushed the floor and climbed above. The storey felt more dangerous from above, I took each and every step with heedful cautiousness, ready to fall back any minute. I fell under the ladder and checked in all directions, when the surroundings were clear I made the climb. It was actually a short metal ladder, extended into a long one, it had wide steps held by hard rubber for balance.

As I climbed up, a stream of bright colours blinded me, and innumerable containers of tightly packed elements raised above me. Three giant metal arms suspended from the dark clouded ceiling, two of them swung the containers and wrapped them in the air stacking them on one another, the other pulled the cylinders from the stack and sealed them into small carriage-like cases. A cold sensation passed through me, I took a step back and realised the elements under me.

“What have you done?”

“Are you in the storage?”

“Yes, I am.”

“There was no distribution, we didn’t know what to do with them,” he said casually. “Do you see the yellow wall with grey stripes, like a tunnel?” There was a huge wall at the end of the storey and its corner had an opening like a giant open mouth.

“Yes.”

“That’s the stairs, it leads directly to the testing ground,” the containers near the stairs cast shadows on the wall that moved around.

“There are knights.”

“Where?”

“Everywhere.”

“I warned you,” a long silence occupied our conversation. “Do you swim?”

“What?”

“If you get down to the other side of the containers, on the right end you would find a small station with levers, I want you to reach there.”

I tried to track a path, but it wasn’t simple, the containers were arranged like a maze made for rats. I slipped down the container and prowled straight till a turning appeared, I stuck to the corner and checked for knights before I made each turn. I somehow reached the middle where the containers led in three different directions. I dodged behind a huge stack when a knight strode through the way. Chills filled my neck. I saw him going past in his heavy metal armour wearing a massive bag on his back, almost inhuman.

I moved again, waited, moved again, and repeated until I reached the room at the end. It wasn’t exactly a room but more like a booth with lots of small levers and one huge one in the corner, very similar to the control.

“I made it.”

“Good, do you see the lever?”

“Which one?”

“The biggest one,” he continued. “Pull it.”

I hesitated for a moment but realised there was no better way I knew. It had some bumps in between but reached the bottom. I felt an instant impact on the floor, the layer under the holes vanished, bubbling noise raised from them, followed by water. The knights woke, shouted, and sent warnings. But before they could reach the source of the commotion, the whole storey was underwater. The element cylinders start to flow free. I grabbed the tiny breath possible in that little time and kicked my legs below.

Before getting trapped like the knights, I reached a certain height. Even when the element cylinders flew around, the knights stayed close to the ground. Their heavy armour pulled them to their feet. I didn’t have such weights but I still had to pull and push the floating cylinders to gain forward. I checked the yellow wall and the knights now and then, kicked and pushed; bubbles popped through their helmets, hands extended to grab me, arms raised, element beams projected through and went past me. One went right on the element cylinder, vibrated the whole surroundings and pushed me abruptly. I kicked the water as fast as I could but consistently got blocked between the wall and the beams. The beams formed waves flapping underwater, collapsing the whole storey. Upon reaching the opening, I discovered that a gate was blocking the stairs. I crouched down and used all my strength to land my feet on it. The gate burst open, and water rushed out, propelling me upward until I broke through to the air and floated to the shore of the higher floor.

I gasped and coughed trying to inhale, fell back on the half-submerged stairs, pulled out the wet communicator, and threw it aside.

The communicator immediately started making some juggling noise. “Good work,” the voice echoed.

“Why didn’t the element spread?”

“Water counteracts the elements.”