literature

Pallet's Ascension: chapter three (Third draft)

Deviation Actions

xxScrAtcHxx's avatar
By
Published:
163 Views

Literature Text

....The yellow light had fallen behind the red dirt mounds off in the distance by now, and it was starting to get dark. The poles that ran along the "sidewalk" (as CL9 had described them) started glowing with their own yellow light. "Hey Pallet" Lever said, reaching towards his pack. “Hows about we stop for a while and eat somethin'?" I had been so focused on getting to the big white building that I didnt even realize how hungry or tired I was until he had mentioned it. I didn't want to stop though, we were so close! I looked back at the gate and Lever continued "C'mon pallet, I wanna help her too but it ain't gonna do us no good goin in der when it's dark. Besides  yeh need to eat somethin to keep goin anyways!" After a moment of hesitation I nodded and sat down next to him.

He was already starting to tear his food box open when I started to get mine out from my pack. Everything was packaged in these plastic container things that I had to tear open with my teeth. My meal consisted of a brown hunk of meet that was all chewy, some yellow mushy sweet stuff, and something called a “cookie.” " I began eating my cold meal with my hands, and lever looked at me with raised a raised eyebrow. "whatcha eatin it like dat for? Here lemme show you.” He reached into my box and pulled out another long green package. Then, he stuck the meat package into it. Next, he poured a little water into it and shook it up. The package started to bellow little white smoke. "Careful, dats hot. Oh, and here use dese" He said as he handed me yet another plastic container with little white tools in it. I always threw that little bag out, I never knew it heated up the food inside the box. Lever demonstrated how to use the little white plastic tool, then handed one to me. "Thanks Lever" I said appreciatively as I started to eat with the tool. Lever was always so smart, and strong, and brave. after today I thought he could to anything. We sat there in the dark under the lights of the poles and finished our meals. After he was done, a wide, gaptooth smile spread across his face and he dropped his box onto the floor.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........."Please-do-not-lit-ter. Re-mem-ber,
Pitch-it-or-tick-et!"

It was another one of those tube things with the rounded top. just like before, an arm unfolded from the side, picked up the box, placed it into the hole and spit out a piece of paper from it's belly.
"Have-a-nice-day" it said as it turned away and rolled off back it's spot."
"cmon Pallet, give it a try" Lever said, still wearing his grin. I hesitated for a moment, and then dropped my box on the floor as well.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........."Please-do-not-lit-ter. Re-mem-ber,
Pitch-it-or-tick-et!"

we both laughed as it picked up my box and spit out another piece of paper. We did this several times with each bit of plastic from our containers. Soon, we ran out of stuff to drop, Lever let out a big yawn. "UUUUUUGH.....awight Pallet, time to go to sleep." He got up and took off his pack, set it down by the gate and used it as a pillow. "G'night Pallet" he said through closed eyes. I looked one last time at the big white building in front of us. Somewhere inside there was the medicine we needed to save Sprocket, and I wouldn't give up until we had found it. I sat down next to the gate and put my pack on the ground. I put my head down on it, and felt all the bulky stuff I had put in it. The pack wasn't comfortable, but it was better than nothing. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.....but I couldn't...I couldn't stop thinking about all the bad stuff that could be, the what -ifs. I thought about uncle Gearbox, and Sprocket, and Cog. they were all alone down there, in the dark.......just....like.......we...................wer...........

"Rise an shine sleepy head" I heard Lever’s voice and could feel the light on me through my closed eyes. I guess I had fallen asleep after all because Lever was standing over me, shaking me awake. I mumbled something like" mrrfrrrmmrrhrrrr..." and slowly and painfully got to my feet. sleeping on my pack as a longshot from the comfortable bed I was used to. My back and neck were sore from sleeping on the boxes of glowsticks and unopened food boxes that were stuffed in there.

The big yellow light was coming up, but from the other side of the buildings. The sky was a bright shade of red where it was rising. the plates along the sky glistened with what looked like an endless number of bright sparkles. It was so beautiful.... I wished Sprocket was there to see it with us. Lever picked up his pack and put it back on. "you about ready to go?" he asked. well, I was ready to "go" but not inside the gate. Hang on a sec I gotta....y'know. I had to look around for the most private spot I could find before I could.....well you know. After I had finished I came back around the corner to find Lever working on getting the gate open. He grunted and groaned as he pulled as hard as he could, but it wouldn't budge. "Dis is no good, it's not gonna open." He said after tugging one last time. Then, for the first time, I had an idea before Lever. "Maybe theres a way to open it from inside. Lemme up on your shoulders and i'll climb over." Lever smiled a little "good thinkin' Pallet" He said as he kneeled down to let me up. It was just like Lever's idea in the "evelatuh"...it was his idea, I just used it again for this. Lever boosted me up and I began to climb over the gate to the other side.. as soon as I was over I dropped down and turned to look at the building. what I saw were.....bags. Black bags stacked on top of each other. They all had this funny green symbol on them, and they had dark red splatters on most of them and the ground all around them. The bags were stacked on either side of a large walkway that led up to a big statue thing that spit up water. I turned back around to look for a way to open the gate. I saw a booth to my right, there was a red button inside it. I reached in and pushed the button. Heard a loud creaking noise, and the gate began to slide open. As soon as it was wide enough, Lever slipped in. "awight!" he called out, his smile had turned into a wide grin again. He started walking towards the big white building, completely ignoring all the bags. There was something about those bags that gave me a queasy feeling. " hey Lever" I asked " whatcha think is in those bags?" Lever glanced at them, still walking "probably nothin' too good if they smell that bad." he replied.

We made our way around the water spitting statue and found ourselves in front of the double doors of the big white building. It looked dark inside. What I could see was all messy like the insides of the buildings outside the gate. Lever's smile faded as the doors opened up in front of us all by themselves. The smell of this place was almost like Uncle Gearbox's room mixed with a bunch of new smells.....disgusting smells. Lever and I both pinched our noses and pulled out Glow sticks from our packs, lighting them. There were white arrows on the floor pointing towards something behind the desk in front of us. The desk itself was covered in scattered papers and strange black squares that stood upright on legs. We looked behind the desk but could barely see anything under the dim light of our glow sticks. Lever put his hand on the counter to lean up further for a better view, and he accidentally pressed something underneath the papers. A voice rang out but there was no one around

"....Administrators have advised us to keep regular audio logs to record the progress of this test group. The idea was simple really, advertise a trip to the first mining colony on Mars...where opportunities of riches and fame would await anyone who agreed to our terms, then we would study the effects of the Martian spores on the general population. needless to say this experiment carries great risk....and even greater reward if we manage to cure the sickness that is caused by these spores. We currently have 759 citizens registered to this mining facility."

then the voice changed to a more somber tone...one of grievance.

"That was years ago... if you're listening to this then that means either you're immune to the effects of the Spores, or you're a recovery team in Hazmat suits coming to clean up this mess. I guess it doesn't really matter which anymore. I've all but forgotten about being rescued. If you are here to find the truth as to what happened, you'll find the answers in these holotapes that I have scattered all around the hospital. oh and don't bother trying to breach my saferoom without first listening to all the tapes. Each tape contains a number, and you'll need all of them to get in. if you do manage to find them, and if you're not infected, then maybe you can take the truth back home and tell everyone about what really happened here."

"didja hear that?! he said he has medicine in his saferoom!" I shouted, feeling hopeful for the first time since we came to the surface! the voice continued on.

"I guess you'll need the first number now....it's 2" the voice finished, before a small click was heard and the recording stopped.

Lever picked up the "holotape" and put it in his pack. "betta save dat for later just in case we forget the numbah" he said as he motioned me to follow him. "c'mon lets get goin" the two of us started down the hallway to the left. I was used to the dark from being in it for so long, but this darkness felt different. the stale air and the silence left me with a funny feeling in my gut. Something in the back of my mind kept telling me that something bad was going to happen...or already did happen here. we continued onward down the stark white hallway. all we could see was the numerous doors that lined the hallways. some of the lights above us flickered on and off, which only made the feeling in my gut even worse. it seemed like the hallway was taking us no where.

Every time we came to the end of one hallway, two more hallways split off in either direction. Lever tried reading some of the signs, but i guess those words were too big even for him. So we kept on walking, in the darkness, with only glowy sticks to light our way. Then we came upon a sign that Lever could finally read. "Sta-urs" he read out loud. I don't think we needed to be able to read to know what it meant because underneath was a picture of a little man walking up a blocky ramp thing. "guess we head up" Lever chirped as we started to make our way towards the stairs. "Lever?" I whispered to him in as i quivered uncontrollably. "Is it just me, or does this place seem....wrong?" Lever raised an eyebrow at me again."whatcha mean?" he asked as we reached the door to the stairs. I replied " I dunno, there's something about this place. it, it’s scary, but......it feels real familiar. it's like I've been here before." Lever kept a straight face. He was probably thinking about this like I was, but I couldn't Tell. The staircase came to an end after "floor 7" as Lever read it. on the outside of the door was more white arrows on the floor, pointing us towards somewhere. This place was different than the downstairs area. The doors in these hallways led to single rooms with beds in them and other metal things with wires and tubes in them. Each room looked almost identical to the last. then, we heard
something in the dark silence...

Clank..........Clank.........Clank..........Clank..........Clank.........

the clanking noise was getting closer. it was coming from behind us. "quick, in here" Lever whispered as he pointed to one of the rooms. We ran into it and slammed the door shut. We sat down on the wall to the side of the door. Lever put his finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet. Lever put away his glow stick to douse the light and i followed his lead, putting mine away as well.

Clank.........CLANK..........CLANK..........Clank.........Clank............

I held my breath as the clanking noise stopped for a moment. That didn't stop that thing in my chest from pounding again!  I think Lever felt the same because he was breathing heavy as well.I heard an odd buzzing noise, then the clanking began again, growing fainter with each sound. I turned to the window to peek out of it to see what it was that had passed, but....all I saw was a dark hallway. "it's gone" I whispered, and lever got to his feet. "Whatever we're lookin for, lets find it and leave! I don't wanna meet whatever dat was!"

Before now i had thought Lever was fearless, but I could see it in his face that he was just as scared as I was. Lever creaked open the door slowly to check out the hallway for himself, then we both padded down the hallway to follow the arrows. These arrows led to a large room with a single bed in the middle and various tools spread out on a table. they were sharp, but shiny tools. just like before, the arrows led to another "holotape" on the table with the tools on it. Lever picked it up. and started looking for the button he had pressed earlier. I looked around the room. there were splatters of red stuff everywhere, and somehow there was still one working light, which shined over the bed at the center. i heard the voice again and jumped. Lever had found the button.

"....effects of the spores seem to vary according to age. In older subjects, the infection is lethal, resulting in a kind of comatose state in which the nervous system stops functioning altogether. in our young adult subjects the infection closely resembles the effects of Tuberculosis...which is to say patients slowly begin to cough up their own lungs. the most interesting effects are on young children. The infection seems to degrade the neural processes of the brain and cause an almost feral state of mind. The children become unstable and attack anything in sight. Oddly enough the spores have no effect on infants and toddlers. We may have a further avenue of research to pursue here..." The voice changed again " Dear god......how many children are in those bags out there?! what kind of monsters were we to expose them to this...."Martian Madness" infecion?! I had to make this right somehow. the only way I could think of doing that was to give these last four test children to someone I could trust for safekeeping while I tried to find a way to cure the sickness from up here. Each of them was exposed to the spores in their infancy in order to see if they had developed anti-bodies to fight the infection. One of them may have succeeded...it was up to me to attempt to recreate these anti-bodies and develop a cure. I hope to god those children are still alive to hear this tape....to hear that maybe something what was done here made a difference. thats all I have left to take comfort in...... I've reprogrammed on of the old MAL-9 bots to patrol the lower levels and stop anything that has been infected from reaching me. i've taken to calling it Malnyne. If you're not infected, it should leave you alone. Oh right..... the next number is 5."

then....we heard it again....

clank..........clank.........clank..........clank..........clank.........

My chest started pounding again! The tape must have attracted whatever it was that was clanking. It got closer, and closer! Lever and I were too scared to move!

then we saw it!

a metal man just like CL-9 but with an all white body and a white mask over it's face! it had the same glowing red eyes, and had red splatters over it's body! It was holding what looked like a metal sheet with teeth, which was also dripping with red stuff.

IN-FEC-TION-DE-TEC-TED!-IN-IT-IAL-I-ZING-PURGE-PRO-TO-COL!

It then began to walk towards us....

Clank..........Clank.........Clank..........Clank..........Clank.........

I was frozen solid! Malnyne's Glaring red eyes seemed to be looking right through us! "RUN PALLET! RUN!!!!!" before i could react I was being pulled along by Lever who had managed to gather enough courage to run away! I could hear fast paced clanking from behind us! We ran blindly through room after to room, our glow sticks barely lighting the way in front of us! I didn't dare look behind us as we continued to run as fast as we could until finally we hit a wall and couldn't go any further! We were trapped at the end of this hallway and Melnyne was right there in front of us, menacingly clanking towards us! Lever and I had our backs pressed against the wall! my hands clapped frantically against the wall and i must've hit a button because the wall opened up behind us to reveal a tiny room with a light in it! it was AN "EVALATUH" "CMON LEVER" I yelled and pulled him inside! Melnyne was getting closer with each passing moment! C'MON LEVER C'MON" I frantically cried out as he started looking for the up button! Melnyne was almost on top of us when Lever finally jammed his finger into the up button and the doors slid closed! we could hear pounding from the other side as the evalatuh began to rumble and climb upwards.......

we had escaped Melnyne for now....but how would we make it past him once we found what we were looking for?
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In