RECAP: Saxon wakes up frozen in a pod. The pod is opened by a woman who tells him to protect a baby by the name of Kate. Saxon breaks out of the ice with a yell after the woman leaves with a weapon in her hands. He somehow has all these facts in his head without knowing where he learned them, he doesn't know why this baby is there and who he is and why he was in there. In the room, there are over a hundred other pods exactly like his, only they are all empty. Saxon, with the help of a mysterious voice in his head called Mother, learns how to walk and pick himself up, eventually reaching the baby. But as Saxon turns around, he sees a metal man carrying a loaded weapon. And it’s pointing straight at him. The story continues…
Chapter 3
The fire coming from the weapon in the metal man’s hand was devastating. Hellfire poured out of it, and it was effective, as well as fast, incredibly so. And the noise. The noise inspired terror in me, a terror that was self-conscious, obvious that its creators intended it to be so.
“SAXON!” Mother screamed in my head. “Get Kate and [frick]ing run!”
Instinctively, I grabbed the baby, cradling it in my arms, its head close to my chest. I don’t know how, but I performed what I later learned what was called a combat roll. I was amazed at how efficiently I performed it, especially considering that only minutes ago I had just learned how to walk. Just like the terror the weapon that my aggressor used inspired, it seemed that these were the situations I had been made for. Mother agreed with me.
“Saxon! Just follow your instinct! But get that damn baby to a safe spot!” This was when I had realized that my roll had taken me at least 5 feet, as I was in the next row of silver, bulky pods that only a short time ago I was frozen in. When I was awoken by…
Who was that woman?
But that didn’t matter right now. What mattered right now was getting away from that metal man. Getting Kate away from that metal man.
From the metal man came a voice. A male voice. While Mother’s voice was heavenly and encouraging, this new voice sounded like death itself, a voice that chilled the bone, inspiring absolute terror in those that heard it.
“Curses,” it said. “The bitch was trying to stall me after all. I should’ve known you would have been awake by now. No matter, as my sensory analysis shows that you’re only following instinct.” The metal man had stopped firing its weapon. “But to be fair she did manage to destroy two of my warriors.” What? What was this metal man talking about? Were there more of these metal men? “No matter, my sensory analysis indicates you barely know how to walk. Pathetic.” I turned to the metal man. Its blue eye’s gaze petrified me, but it soon turned to Kate. “The baby,” it said to me, like a revelation had just been revealed to it. “Give me that baby!” It immediately started firing once again at me, the belt of bullets moving quick as a flash into the chamber to be distributed furiously. But there was a different pattern in its targeting. It seemed much more will powered than strategic, almost like it was panicked. Obviously this baby was wanted by this metal man. He almost seemed needed. But it was also obvious that this need was out of some sense of fear. Why? What was there in this infant to be afraid of?
The metal man continued its speech, silencing the rattle. But somehow its voice was considerably calmer.
“What good is that baby to you, soldier?” What was a soldier? “You know doubt have only been alive for no more than an hour or two. Why do you deem that baby so important to you? Just give it to me and I will cease my attacks.” The metal man made sense. It occurred to me, why was I protecting this baby with my life? What good was it?
Because the woman who awoke me told me to.
My mind was set. I wasn’t going to give away the child, no how. I looked ahead of me and saw a pod. I saw next to it was a keyboard, no doubt a controlling mechanism, based on all the cables leading from it to the pod. I moved to it, following my instinct like Mother told me to. I would later find that Mother was very wise in her teachings, and I would come to trust her with my life, because wasn’t that what she was saving right now?
It took merely seconds, I barely remember it. In those few seconds I pushed the button on the keyboard to open the pod, and put the baby inside the pod, then closing the door. “The pods are bulletproof, great thinking Saxon. Now let’s take care of this guy.”
I rushed down the row of pods, the metal man’s weapons firing at me like lightning, and rushed and crouched behind the pod at the end of the row as the rattle of the weapon continued, until a click ceased it. The metal man had run out of ammunition, the belt had run out. “Saxon look at the wall.” I looked and saw a case, the front made of glass, and it read “EMERGENCY USE ONLY.” And this was an emergency if I ever saw one. Inside the case was a red bladed weapon. Suddenly, white text appeared from the side of my eyes and centered in them. A line extended from the text to the bladed weapon
WEAPON_USAGE: HANDHELD
DESIGNATION: AXE
PRIMARILY USED FOR IMPROVISATIONAL ESCAPE DURING FIRE EMERGENCY
I sprang to my feet. Whatever an axe was was good enough for me. In a flash I broke open the case with my bare hands, finding the glass quite fragile, and picked up the axe. I turned, axe in hand, at the metal man, hurriedly loading another belt of projectiles. More text appeared in my eyes. What was this? It informed me that the metal man, that it called an “Emperor Drone”, had a weak spot on the very top of its head and at the base of its elbow. I rushed towards the drone and swung my axe accordingly, and before I knew it, the metal man was lying in a heap of scattered pieces, chopped up by the axe, which I decided I’d keep for the time being. But just as soon as the text was there it disappeared, and my vision was naked once again. My mind returned to the baby. I had to get it out of that pod, Mother told me. She informed me that once the pod was shut, after 5 minutes the freezing process responsible for me being frozen when I awoke would activate, but I told her to relax. I knew where the baby was.
But when I got to the pod that my mind was certain that I had put the baby in, the door opened and I was incorrect. “Saxon, which pod did you put Kate in?” The words terrified me as I spoke them tentatively “I… don’t remember….”
And the realization came to me: I had passed the five minute mark.