Something Trapped

He breathed heavily as he slumped up against the wall in the darkness. The only source of light being the little pulsating green orb of the VI core that Ed had inserted into the small, 5 centimeter round slot after he had destroyed the CNet AI core. He had tried to get out of the room ever since the small gap that the parted walls had made a few hours before, though in all honesty he really had no clue for how long he had been struggling to get out.

            “Sheila,” Ed had been out of breath due to all the struggling, his knuckles was sore and bruised with bloodied spots that had formed on it.

            “Commander.”

            “Unlock this door.”

            “I cannot do that,” the VI replied. The voice came from somewhere in the room, but also from nowhere. Ed had no idea what exactly had gone into the building of the stronghold as it had been built thousands of years before and have since undergone slight upgrades every decade or so, but he knew that speakers must have been built somewhere into the walls. “Anomalous presence detected, and for your own safety, you are to stay inside until anomalies have been dealt with.”

            “You can’t take control of the self defense systems. CNet would have made sure of that when I shot the core.”

            “Which is why you are to stay here.”

            “I’m going to suffocate!”

            The VI was silent for a while, proving Ed’s theory that CNet must have been able to corrupt or possibly even flash the VI cores during its degradation. “You will be missed,” it finally said.

            Ed had attempted to shoot the core before, but had since run out of bullets. He was never one to carry more than an extra magazine or two on his person – especially not while in one of his own safe houses.

            Ed hanged his head forward as he tried to think of another way to remove or destroy the core. He could try and remove it by force, but then he would stand the chance of being electrocuted to death. All VIs had been programmed with minor self-defense functions in case a stronghold would ever be overrun by Others or any other faction that the Agency had stood against in the past.

Safu had managed to get the girl to settle in to a bed that he had been able to drag from one of the smaller rooms into the master bedroom he had claimed, and had long since fallen asleep while Ed was out trying to fix CNet or do whatever it was that he would do. Safu never really understood a lot when it came to the technical side of things – especially if it was all about a programme that would possibly have some sort of intelligence affixed to it. He was at Stronghold Romulus during the time after the Fall, when the last remaining survivors had decided to cut all ties with the Agency and cut all ties with the strongholds. He had been the Captain underneath Ed in the hierarchy, though neither Ed, Dev nor Ian or he had ever seen it that way, and all of them had sort of become a family and while Dev and Ian were overseeing Prime’s deactivation, he and Ed had oversaw Romulus’.

            It only became strange as he got up sometime that morning. He knew that the sun had long since risen and that it must have been somewhere around 12 AM as he made his way down the long hallway and entered the main hall. Elizabeth was still fast asleep, due to the toll that the previous couple of days had put on her, even though he was used to the heat of the Egyptian sun.

            No power had yet been restored to the stronghold, which was strange as Ed must have been able to get it fixed already.

            Safu made his way to the other room and flicked the iron switch below the fireplace but nothing happened. He flicked it twice more before shrugging and making his way back to the main hall. He figured that Ed must have gone out, though after pressing hard on the massive doors to open, he noticed that the huge key Ed had used to open it from the other side still hung on the wall. He pushed against the door again, but it wouldn’t budge, even after attempting to unlock it.

           

Safu had returned to the fireplace and attempted to open the secret compartment yet again, to no avail. He then walked over to the opposite end of the wall and pressed his ear against it. He heard a soft scratching noise coming literally from the other side of the wall. His eyes shot wide open as he started to slam his side against the wall in an attempt to have it open up.

Ed had resorted to slowly scratching the wall with the small of his nails as he lay against the wall with his back. He repeated the process over and over again, slowly scratching up, then down, then up, then down, then up again, one quick, one slow, and another quick in the manner of an SOS message. He had no doubt that Safu would look for him and would probably be pressing his ear against the wall – the man had always had exceptional hearing – but he could only hope that Safu would get up any time soon.

            He had done it for at least an hour (or at least that is how it had felt) before he noticed a number of thuds coming from the other side of the wall. He jumped up, reinvigorated and started slamming against the wall too. It took a few tries but he managed to time his slams so that it would come right after Safu’s. Together they may be able to get the wall to move just enough for him to at least get some air.

            “You are only wasting your own oxygen reserve,” Sheila stated after he and Safu had been at it for a few moments. For a VI, the articulated female voice seemed excessively cold and heartless, something that Victor had never been before Ian must have dragged it home in order to turn it into an AI.

            “Shut up,” Ed said, slamming his body once more against the wall.

            “Yes Commander.”

They had gone one for a while before Ed could not carry on any longer. The little bit of oxygen still left in the room was enough for him to breathe normally, but not enough for him to muster up enough energy to continue with the assault, both on his body and on the wall. Safu had subsequently noticed that Ed had stopped, and stopped too. Ed only hoped that he would think of something, and fast.

           

An unknown amount of time had passed, and Ed lay slumped against the generator. The VI core pulsating regularly beside his face. He had tried once again to get the wall to budge but nothing would happen. He had no choice but to get up and try to remove the core with some force.

            “It is inevitable,” Sheila said flatly as Ed stood up, heaving heavily, and put his hand on the little round core.

            “Try me, bitch,” he said and started to unclamp the thin barrier that cupped the upper half of the core. As if to answer Ed’s challenge, a shock ran through his fingers and then his arms. He wasn’t fazed and carried on. He had managed to remove two of the four clamps before another shock ran through his arms, this time even harder. He jumped back and held at his right hand. His arm felt like it was burning from the inside out. He snorted and attempted to remove the rest of the clamps. He managed to get another before another jolt went through his body, this time causing him to stumbled backwards and fall flat on his butt, his arm still burning like hell.

            “It is inevitable,” Sheila echoed sometime after Ed had fallen down.

            Ed looked up at the pulsating green orb. Only one more clamp to go. He stood up rushed forward and started to unscrew the last clamp. Jolt after jolt had gone through his arms so many times that he had started to lose the feeling completely in them. Only after he unscrewed the last clamp and removed it, had a jolt of energy shot through his arms, so hard that he fall backwards immediately, somewhere between being conscious and not.

He had no idea what had happened then, but as he closed his eyes, he managed to hear a massive rumble and saw a blinding white light. His vision faded into nothingness slowly as he heard three muffled voices, and felt how his hands were lifted form the ground. He felt being carried, almost as if hovering, and then being put on a cold hard surface. He felt something touch him and a coldness rush over him as he felt his shirt being removed. All he knew for sure was that he needed to close his eyes and get some rest. Everything else was only secondary. The burning in his arm had slowly faded away as his consciousness did too.