Erych & Teddi Escape

Perfect World story (The INTERIM) Erych & Teddi Chapter 2

When we last left our young heroes, they were investigating the ruins of the old city (which looks suspiciously like New York) and had found and used a projection room in the main library which had revealed some disturbing images from the past. Of course they weren't supposed to be doing that, so a robotic retrieval unit from the Obedience Training facility was dispatched to bring them back. We rejoin the youths as they encounter the unit...

(from last chapter)

"Hide!" Erych suddenly shouted, and the both of them dove for the floor, narrowly missing being caught by the strong white light which burst from the front door. The door bumped open, and a large humming cylinder floated in, a white metal hulk shooting bright light in all directions.

Oh, no! Teddi thought, and looked at Erych, who peered back, eyes wide. They both mouthed the same thing:

THE O.T.!

BOOK TWO

Chapter Two- Going Low, Getting High

(continued from 'Erych & Teddi Journey Back, April 17, 2009)

Teddi began to stand up, resigned to spend another weekend in the O.T. facility, but was tugged back to the ground by Erych. "What the heck are you doing!?" he hissed.

"We're caught, Erych. The Sentrii found us. Running will only make things worse."

"Don't give up yet... I have a plan." He rummaged around in his pack and produced a ball of twine. "Give me your hat." He tied one end around the hat, rigged it with something else from the pack and said, "Stay low. Crawl down to the front exit and when you hear the Sentrii speak, slip out and wait for me at the side entrance."

"What will you do?" Teddi asked nervously.

"What else? Fool the robot. Now start crawling!" He tossed the ball of twine to the opposite side of the room as Teddi scampered away, then crawled low to retrieve it. The robotic Sentrii, sensitive to motion and heat, floated intently toward the ball, just as Teddi's hat caught fire. Erych tugged the twine and the flaming hat followed, hopping into the air as the twine snapped over a seat back.

"FIRE---FIRE---FIRE---", the Sentrii warned as it reprogrammed itself as a rescue unit, just as Erych knew it would, and spewed retardant foam at the blaze. Teddi heard the cue and ducked out of the theater. Erych tugged and the hat flew high into the air again, the foam missing its target.

The O.T. robot took a more direct approach and floated to the hat's location, dousing it heavily with foam and extinguishing the blaze, but in that time Erych had slipped out of the theater and used the remaining twine to tie the door handles together, locking the Sentrii inside.

"You're crazy, do you know that?" Teddi asked him as they bolted away on their hyperbikes. Actually, Teddi was very impressed with Erych's quick thinking, but feared it was only delaying the inevitable. "You know the Fathers know it's us, right? They've probably already triangulated our ID chips and are sending out additional Sentrii units to pick us up! Oh, why did I get mixed up with this?" Teddi moaned.

"Because you love me, that's why, Teddi," Erych grinned. Besides, I cloned our ID chips months ago. When they enter our codes, they're gonna find about 30 signals for each of us, all around the state-- good luck finding ours! Hey, I have something else I want to show you, but we have to get off the street. Pedal down that stairway there, Teddi."

They veered towards an archaic stairwell set into the sidewalk, surrounded on three sides with a protective cast-iron railing. A sign once hung in the center but was worn and broken; all Teddi could make out was the large round symbol in the center -- 'E' -- and wondered what it could mean.

The stairs leading down were quickly swallowed up by darkness; they flicked the lights on their hyperbikes and continued down. Antishock technology cushioned the jarring downhill ride; the bikes reacted as though rolling down a big feather bed dotted with pillows. On smooth floor they resumed their normal operation. "What is THIS place?" Teddi asked, peering into the gloom.

The bike lights were powerful but unidirectional, Teddi could only tell that they were in a long tunnel. The walls and ceiling were tiled squares; cracked and missing pieces dotted the surface. They seemed to be on a long platform made of a smooth grey rock similar to the sidewalks outside, a platform which ran alongside a drop-off of several feet, extending to the left and right as far as they could see. It looked like a trough, and the bed had two shiny metal rails running down its length.

"The Olds used to go from place to place underground in metal cars that rode on these rails. This place is called a 'trainway' or something. C'mon, we're going to 34th street," Erych directed. "Hop down and set your bike's gravitractor to 'positive'. We're rindin' the rails! Yeee-haaa!"

Standing stationary, Erych wound-pedaled his bike, and at full tension popped his own gravitractor and static release simultaneously, sending him hurtling down into the trough. Right before hitting bottom, strong magnetic forces kicked in and snapped the bike's wheels into alignment with one of the rails, transferring unused momentum forward and giving the bike a lurch. "C'mon... we can kick ass! It's not far!"

Grumbling about trouble Teddi reluctantly followed, and being lighter than Erych, hurtled past him on the parallel track. This Erych viewed as a challenge, and changed the gearing on his bike to match. The track was still smooth, even after all these years, and Teddi wondered why there was no rust buildup like there was on every other metal surface in the old city.

The tracks faded off smoothly to the left and out of sight. The tunnel was cool as a grave and dark as pitch. They entered another trainway platform; Teddi could make out a sign on the wall which read '42nd Street', made of alternately white and black tiles.

"Ah! 42nd Street... one more trainway and we're there. You're gonna love it!" Teddi was getting a little tired of Erych's endless enthusiasm, and almost inexhaustible energy... actually, Teddi was just getting tired. "Pick up the pace, Teddi... there's only eight more blocks to go."

So pick up the pace they did. The tunnels were damp and musty, and every noise echoed, adding to the ambient cave moan Teddi thought sounded like the Army of the Dead. Also, there were definitely small furry animals scurrying about. Ugh-- GROSS! Teddi thought, and pedaled a little faster... which was getting harder, since they were now fighting a stiff breeze. It seemed a little lighter, too... and noisier, like an approaching tornado...

"ABORT, Teddi! Go left!" Erych made a grab for Teddi's handlebars as he veered off his track and hugged the left wall. Teddi needed no other prompting, since the light in front of them was now obviously coming from a source... a rapidly approaching source! Teddi shut off the bike's gravitractor drive and also shot left, smacking into the wall behind Erych and almost rebounding back toward the rails if not for Erych's strong hand on the bike.

With a whoosh an enormous trainway car shot past them, disturbing the air with such force it rattled every appendage on their hyperbikes, sending their bodies whomping against the rock wall. Fortunately it was only a single car, and was gone almost as it had arrived. They fell to the ground in shock. A long moment passed before Erych stirred, shook his head, and said, "... Are we dead?"

Teddi sat up, spitting crud and said, "I'm not... but YOU will be when I get my hands on you! You almost got me killed! You're a crazy loon, that's what you are!" and jumped and landed on Erych, punching him lightly about the head and body.

"Stop! Ow! Stop! I'm sorry, okay? I forgot they still used the traincars down here sometimes. But we've arrived, see? The trainway platform we need is right there. Let's go... you really have to see this!"

Erych hopped up on the platform and dragged his hyperbike up after him, then offered his hand to Teddi, who hesitated for a long moment before grabbing it with a snort. Then Erych pulled Teddi's bike up, too, and dusted it off with his sleeve, then looked up, pitifully hopeful, batting his long eyelashes towards Teddi, who held out just long enough for both of them to burst out laughing. Then they got on their bikes and power-assisted up the stairs.

There it was... still the same old ratty deserted city, except further uptown. But Erych was singleminded in his drive. "This way!" he shouted, and headed straight for an enormous all-steel building across the avenue, a road which was wide but empty, save for debris and plant growth pushing out from any available cracks in the pavement. He rode across the street and entered the building, with Teddi on his heels... or more accurately, on his wheels.

The lobby was dim, but obviously Erych had been there before-- he disappeared into a small doorway and suddenly, there were lights everywhere. He emerged with a wicked grin on his face. "Did you know they have complete schematics for every building in the Old city available on the computer ?" He motioned to a bank of odd sliding doors. "In here."

They entered one and crowded into the small room, bikes and all. Erych pressed a button on one wall, one of many. It lit up and they lurched upwards. Teddi gave a little yelp. "Ohh... this is like some kind of a corkscrew escalator, but with... walls and a ceiling?"

Erych sniffed. "I call it a slowriser."

Teddi looked at the control panel and read, "Otis Elevator Corp. I think they call it an elevatorcorp, Erych."

"It doesn't matter. We're here." The door opened onto the end of a long velvet-roped queue. The ropes were long laid to rest and on the floor in dusty hunks, so they walked straight to the turnstile. "Leave the bikes."

Erych hopped over the turnstile; a buzzer and flashing red light went off for ten seconds, then stopped. Teddi followed through, and set them off again. Erych pushed open the doors and walked out to a deck high above the old city, staring silently at the magnificent view.

Teddi joined him, stood beside him. They both said nothing. Teddi could see so FAR-- it was an awesome feeling! Erych pointed; Teddi followed his finger and could clearly see New City above the horizon, unique because of its single building mesa-structure reaching over a mile into the air. Then he circled around to the other side of the building. There, the sun was beginning its daily descent through layers of atmosphere, its ever deepening hue painting the world in golden beauty. As they watched the sun kiss the horizon Teddi was filled with a dizzying happiness, and glad to be alongside Erych. For his own part, Erych had absentmindedly draped his arm across the other's shoulders, but was now bringing his other arm up to close the circle, drawing Teddi into a warm embrace.

"What are you doing?" Teddi asked.

"I told you before... you love me," Erych said, "and... I love you." He drew close, closed his eyes, and kissed Teddi on the lips-- softly, tentatively, awaiting some cue.

Teddi was completely surprised by the move, but not the least bit apprehensive, and kissed back slightly, with softened lips; then said, "I didn't even know that you knew I was a girl, Erych."

Erych lurched backwards, slamming into the outer wall, his eyes wide, and gasped,

"You're a GIRL!?"

Copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman