Kill Switch: Chapter 2

The Heavy Silence Sends My Mainframe Shuttering

“Is this death?” I ask, because all I can see is this, like, nothingness darkness, and I hear a scraping sound, and I’m all, like, “am I dead?” and I hear a woman telling me to unGlass, so I’m, like, “what, why?” but I do it anyway because my glass is clearly ransomed or something, and then there’s another kind of darkness, a lighter kind of darkness, and then I’m hit with a blinding light that moves and spins, and I can still hear the laser beams shooting above, but the sound is dull and faraway now, and there’s this strange sensation of coldness against my IRL skin, and I feel myself standing up, and the light is swooping, and my gaze adjusts so that I see this silver smooth substance all around, and I run my hand over the cool smoothness, and I make a sound, like, whoa, where are we?

“This way,” the unfamiliar voice says.

I whip around. A jumpsuit walks down the corridor toward nothing.

Shots thud overhead, muffled, and the screams gradually subside as we make our way down the grey surround. “Is this metal?” I’m wheezing, out of breath, and hungry. “I’ve only seen pictures. This must be, like, millions of coin worth of metal.”

“It’s steel,” the voice says, and then the body turns, and I’m hit with a face like I’ve never seen before, round and freckled, and I reGlass real quick, and the Mounjie skin surfaces. I realize it’s the hellaThick chick from earlier, and she’s surrounded by all this glitch because there aren’t any sensors on the steel.

“Who are you?”

Something hits my skull, and the voice is all, “unGlass, motherfucker, now!” so I unGlass, and I watch as the stranger removes her entire sensor assemblage and tosses it on the ground, and then she orders me to do so too, and I do, because I have no spine to speak of.

We keep walking, and like an idiot, I'm, like, “I’m Vonn,” hoping my name will break the proverbial ice or whatever, but nothing is going, so we keep walking in silence for awhile. I can’t help but stare at the freckles on her cheeks. I’ve never seen real freckles before. And finally, I build up the courage to say what I’ve feared all along: “you’re from The Without, aren’t you?”

And the heavy silence sends my mainframe shuttering.

We keep walking, and at some point I’m, like, “are you going to kill me?” and she snort laughs, and the sound is so human that it does something to my chest.

“I’m serious,” I say, “are you going to kill me or bring me back to your camp? I’d rather you kill me now. I don’t like the idea of being someone’s goo.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” she says, “and I’m sure as hell not bringing you back to camp.”

Her calves curve with muscle, and she’s moving very fast, too fast to keep up with, so I fall back, wheezing. She notices and turns. “Hey, let’s go. We’ve got, like, five seconds before Middle Management finds us down here.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I say, “until you tell me your name.”

“Claudette.”

Just as I suspected. A name from theWithout.

“My name is Vonn,” I say.

“I know, you already told me.”

I feel like a total idiot, so, to change the subject, I ask her why she saved me back there, at theUnderWorld.

Her cold blue eyes pierce through me. “I’m asking myself the same question.”

She stops. She’s holding something in her hands, and the something is beeping. She stands on her tip toes and pushes. I’m impressed by the balance. A trap door raises open, and the white surround of theWithin fills the square. She hoists herself up, hands clutching plastic, and then she’s gone, and I’m certain that she’s left me down here to die, and then I see her hand, strong and veiny, drop like a rope, and I laugh at the thought of her lifting me, because I’ve been playing hella derrick9 and getting hellaCoin and spending all that coin on roids so that I can improve my bulk, which means, like, the thought of this chick lifting me is hellaDroll.

“Come on,” Claudette says, “grab my fucking hand already,” and I'm all, like, “no way, simul, no way. I try to lift myself up, but my arms are like hell nah, and I drop down, wheezing, and then Claudette lowers her ropelike arm again, and I'm all, like, “nah, simul, go get a ladder or something,” and then the hand dissipates and returns a few seconds later with a blaster, and Claudette’s very human voice is saying “grab my hand or I swear to Abzu I shoot,” and I'm, like, “who’s Abzu?” and then she cocks the blaster, and I'm, like, “alright, alright,” and the hand with the gun dissipates and then comes back without the gun, and I feel her skin against my skin, and with my free hand I grab onto the plastic, and I’m amazed when I feel my feet leave the ground, and then, before I know it, I’m back in The Within and surrounded by white.