Erin lay in bed, eyelids heavy, while Mina paced.

  “If it’s the couplers, then where does he expect to reroute all that power?” She punched her palm, to emphasize her question.

  Erin mumbled a reply and watched her charcoal drawing expand on his bedroom wall. They arrived back to his and Cenn’s apartment after Talin’s but Min had returned on a feverish rant.

  “So you did it then,” Erin said after a long silence, his voice came out sluggish, and thick with fatigue.. “That’s what he’s been working on?”

  “What?” she said. “No, I’m just guessing at the critical frame density… I’m still not sure what…”

  He closed his eyes, just for a moment. Surely she wouldn’t notice… The bedroom dissolved, along with the weight of his body. He floated in a dreamspace, imagining if he simply lingered there long enough, she’d slip under the covers beside him, bringing her anxious energy to rest. Sleep does sound good, she’d say.

  “Erin.” Her voice was soft, but a crease furrowed her brow. “Erin!”

  “Yeah, yes. I’m—couldn’t agree more.”

  He licked his lips, suddenly alert as his eyes adjusted. She was more distressed than he thought.

  “What’s going on?” he said.

  “What do you mean? I told you that I’m trying to figure this out,” she pointed at the drawing.

  Erin refused to glance at the bedside clock, instead fixating his mind on the drawing, really looking at it this time.

  “It’s different, Mina. But did you expect anything else from your dad?”

  “I… no.” She stared as though the answer might be hidden behind the wall itself.

  “Mina,” he said, rubbing the soft spot between her neck and shoulder. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure out how this thing works.”

  She melted against his hand, suddenly he felt more awake. He leaned in, lips brushing her skin, but then she stood, leaving him with nothing but air.

  “I’m going.”

  He sank back onto the bed. “We’re all going. But please—can we sleep tonight?”

  She grabbed her satchel and slipped her journal and a few tools into it. He sat up straight again.

  “Wait—going where?”

  “To the garage.”

  This time, Erin did look at the clock. “Mina, it’s three-thirty in the morning; the place is locked up. Let’s talk to Mark in the morning.”

  “I’m going,” she said roughly.

  Erin’s shoulders hunched as Cenn’s snoring on the other side of the wall paused, then resumed a moment later.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. She slept through the Martian riots, sober.”

  He stood and looked for his shoes.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  He ignored her, his search for a second sandal requiring all his focus. He slipped on the first while hunting for the other, the floor tilting under him, and fell back on the bed.

  “You stay,” she said.

  She kissed him and his eyes fell shut. She leaned away from the bed and his hand shot out to gently grab her wrist. With his eyes still closed, he said, “I’m coming, just help me find my sandal.”

  The night air was refreshing. Not as comforting as his bed might have been, but after a mile through the dark streets of Tosamir, he preferred it.

  Their hands swung in quiet unison. Set on their path to the garage, Mina had ceased her obsessive meck muttering. Erin, never the talkative one, wasn’t keen to interrupt the moment anyhow.

  They rounded the corner, and in the briefest view they had of the garage, Erin saw two people at the side door. Every sense came alive with sobering clarity. He grabbed Mina and pulled her back around the property wall.

  She protested, but quieted once she saw his concern. They both perked up, listening now to the unmistakable sounds of burglary. Together they leaned around the corner. There was a small one, and a taller one, in the shadow of the building where the street lights failed.

  Mina took a silent step forward, and though Erin tried to pull her back, she slipped by. He’d rather have called the police, or Mark, or anyone than confront them himself. Erin took a breath and turned the corner.

  He joined Mina around the corner from the side door, just as Mina turned back to Erin and silently punched her own palm, just as she’d done back in his apartment.

  Erin shook his head furtively, and mimed that they should call the police. She seemed repulsed by the idea of calling for help. Erin grimaced, and thought this was how Snake must feel going about trying to get people to understand without words. He peaked around the corner to get another look. This close they could hear the voices.

  “If you hadn’t—”

  “If I hadn’t what?” the smaller voice said.

  “Been so damn clumsy.”

  “What, should I have learned to levitate? I was this close to getting us inside.”

  “Yeah, sure. Well now my pick is inside, and we’re out here. So why don’t you… Hey!”

  The voice caught sight of Erin and Mina, and scrambled forward so suddenly they backed away from the corner. Mina set her stance so Erin stepped beside her to do the same.

  A balding nest of black hair poked out of the corner, discerning eyes honing in on the two of them.

  “Roman?” Mina said. It was like whatever volume meter they were all using had been thrown to the wind.

  “Mina.” Roman’s eyes went wide, then settled back into his face.

  “Mina?” The other voice said, trying to wrap itself around Roman to get a look and nearly knocking them both over in the process.

  “Arthur,” Mina said, all trepidation extinguished. “What are you two doing here?”

  Roman looked around as though lost, but Erin noted how quickly he found his balance for someone drunk. “Just a stroll.”

  Arthur simply nodded, letting Roman’s confidence take point.

  “A stroll…” She repeated.

  Roman shrugged. “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” He nodded to Arthur, who nodded back.

  Whether it was the liquor rewetting his sense of humor, or the scene really was as funny as it appeared, Erin laughed.

  Mina turned, eyes accusing and he covered his smile with a hand.

  “Sorry.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She turned back. “Now really, what—”

  Arthur interrupted her with a stamp of his crutch, and then crossed his arms. “What are you doing here?”

  “Fair question, my friend,” Roman raised his eyebrows with mock innocence.

  “I didn’t. I mean… we didn’t come here at all.” She turned back to Erin, her face shifting from accusing to pleading.

  “Just a walk,” Erin said, looking up at the stars. “Beautiful night.”

  Roman and Arthur looked at the sky at the same time, wearing the same false ponderous expression. Erin couldn’t help himself; he laughed again, earning another heated glare from Mina.

  “Alright, alright,” Erin said. “Why are we dancing around it? Obviously we’re all curious what he’s been up to.”

  Arthur broke the tension with a big gust of air.

  “I didn’t even want to come—honest. Roman said he needed a grease man, or whatever that is, and it sounded like fun at first—” Roman kicked Arthur’s crutch from under him but Arthur caught it and rallied, “You did! Said I was the only one who could help.”

  “That’s ’cause you’re the only one small enough to fit in the second-story windows. But you blew that when you lost my pick.”

  He and Arthur shared a simmering glare. Then Roman looked toward Mina. “So, if you came to have a look, you probably have a way inside.”

  Erin shrugged, and looked to Mina who shrugged with annoyance then leaned down to pick up an unadorned stone. She slid a false bottom from underneath then flourished the key within.

  “This doesn’t get out,” she said.

  “Deal,” Arthur and Roman said at the same time.

  Erin pressed his forehead against the glass window next to the door. The surface was warm, soothing compared to the predawn air. The place was dark save for the occasional flash of red.

  “We already checked,” Arthur said, “Daiko’s not in there.”

  Mina held the key an inch from the door.

  “Come on,” Roman chided, “you think we’d still be here if he was in there?”

  With her eyes still peering into the dark garage she said, “I don’t doubt you think he’s gone.” She turned to Erin. “Do you see him?”

  Erin took the building in, noticing the empty driveway.

  “Looks like the meck’s in the main hold, and Mark said he came in his truck. I’d guess he went home.”

  Roman scoffed, “even if he catches us, what’s he gonna do? We work here.”

  Mina deftly keyed in the security code, then unlocked the deadbolt with her key. A wave of heat crashed into them as the door opened, and the sound of things spinning very fast hummed nearly ultrasonically.

  It took just a moment for Erin to start sweating. Mina stood on the threshold before stepping through, Roman following quickly after.

  Erin made eyes with Arthur, who looked to share his caution. Arthur took a breath like a man heading beneath the ocean before following them in.

  The heat was all-consuming on the inside; the sliver of cool air extinguished as the door closed behind them.

  The garage was pitch black, save for a dozen red lights that flickered on and off every few seconds. Each pulse painted the garage in the same red light, but only briefly. The darkness in between felt more suffocating because of it.

  “Lights don’t work,” Arthur said from near the door.

  “He probably turned off some of the breakers for all this,” Mina said.

  Feeling an eerie chill despite the heat, Erin made his way toward her by following a wall of neatly stacked boxes that ran along the center of the garage’s main floor. He timed his steps with the brief flash of light so as not to trip on the cords coiled across the floor.

  While stepping over one and rounding the corner of the box wall, he looked up and took a sharp inhale involuntarily.

  Affixed the back wall hung a demon with sharp lines cut from shadow. It vanished as the light died, but the bloody image was already burned into his retinas.

  Erin dropped into a crouch, preparing for anything. The heat sent a wave of nausea through him but he managed to steady himself just as the flash of light came again. The demon was still there, a looming menace fading into darkness once more a moment later…though Erin noticed an odd assortment of cords leading up to it. When the red light flashed again he knew what it was…it’s the meck.

  His hackles lowered just as Arthur turned the corner behind him. “That is not the same meck that we’ve been building is it?”

  “It is,” Mina said from nowhere. Then Erin picked her out of the darkness, standing at the foot of the meck and inspecting a control module. “Here, I think I can—”

  The dimmest of lights suffused the garage, like bulbs illuminating a meter underwater, but it was enough to give the garage dimension. With it, Erin was able to make out more details of the meck. The limbs were suspended at an odd angle, and its chest retractors had been opened to reveal the cockpit. As it was, the meck looked like it was in the middle of some mad scientist’s experiment, which explained why the intermittent light had made it seem more alien.

  The three of them made their way closer to Mina. Erin saw he wasn’t the only one to have sweat through his clothes. He also noted the cords weren’t haphazard at all. In fact, they appeared color coded. Makeshift countertops had been fashioned from upturned crates and neatly angled like church pews, leaving a clear path to the meck. One countertop was butted against the wall nearest the smelter. Roman seemed affronted by this.

  “He told me I didn’t need to cast anything else.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t mean he didn’t need to cast things himself.” Arthur’s reply was distant, transfixed by a meter-tall metal ring at the base of the meck

  “Ouch,” Mina said, but with approval in her tone.

  “Hm?” Arthur looked over at Roman, who seemed surprised, not offended. He shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the ring. “Just saying.”

  “Mina,” Erin said, “this is that shape on the blueprint. The ring you’ve been drawing on my wall.”

  She squinted for a moment, then unhitched the slab from its podium, taking the screen with her.

  “What is—” Arthur coughed. “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure,” Mina said.

  “Something you don’t know?” Roman teased.

  Mina hardly registered the comment, “It’s a component of the cockpit, I think.”

  Her tone dipped, and she began to sway. Erin caught her by the shoulders to steady her.

  “I’m fine,” she said, regaining her balance.

  Erin thought otherwise, but saw that she was piecing the puzzle together in her head and let her be.

  She studied the wires lining the ground, then the ring, then the servers, each one emitting that nearly imperceptible, ever-present whir.

  “What?” Roman asked, seeing the precipice Mina was standing on.

  “I think this might be some sort of governing board.”

  “This?” Roman said, incredulous. “It’s way too big.

  “I know,” she said.

  “And the wrong shape,” Erin said, feeling the side of it, cool to the touch despite the heat. “Where’s it supposed to go?”

  She handed him the slab, but when he reached out to grab it he missed, leaning back against the crate. The world was not all straight lines anymore. He watched as Arthur either fell or squatted to pick up the slab

  “I think it goes—” Arthur coughed again, pointing meekly at the cockpit, “right… near…the heart…”

  Then Arthur slid down his crutch to lay on the ground quietly, as though falling asleep there, at the center of the garage, had been his plan all along.

  “Erin…” Mina mumbled, and Erin turned just in time to catch them both as he cushioned her fall.

  He looked down at her, as his own eyes fluttered closed. This was what he wanted all along, wasn’t; it to sleep? It was so warm… so right.

  “Arthur,” Erin heard Roman say, “Erin.”

  But it was bedtime…

  Erin was shaken out of his stupor a moment later by Roman’s sharp features.

  “We have to get out of here, man.”

  A sliver of urgency slipped into Erin’s mind. The clues that this was the right decision were all around him. He nodded weakly.

  Slowly, Roman helped him up.

  “I’ll get Arthur. Can you get Mina?”

  Erin grunted and leaned down to see if she was awake first then lifted her. His muscles tingled, light and insubstantial, but still he managed to hoist one of her arms over his shoulder, then the rest of her body; just as Cenn taught him.

  “Come on,” Roman said ahead.

  Erin followed slowly, and only one laborious step at a time to avoid tripping on the cords, which now writhed like snakes swimming in blood as the red light continued to flash.

  They nearly made it to the door, when Roman fell toward it, Erin a moment after.

  “Ah, damn,” Roman said, sighing next to him. “I can barely feel my body.”

  “What… what do you think…” Erin wondered whether he’d said the words aloud or only thought them But then Roman replied.

  “I don’t know…”

  Erin let his head roll back and saw the meck’s sharp edges peeking over the wall of crates. It was impossible, but he thought he saw a face materialize in the heat mirage above the frame. The moment elongated like a rubber band of molten cotton candy.

  There were fleeting thoughts of urgency, of escape—and then blissful thoughts of a pristine gazebo atop a grassy hill, backdropped by a cerulean ocean.

  A voice came from the future. Rugged and sharp, “We owe you one.”

  A coldness licked at his consciousness as the wind whipped atop the hill. Maybe just a little longer, he thought. Just a little… then he shivered awake.

  He was lying on the ground outside the garage. Roman stood beside him brushing off his pants and looked like he was considering vomiting. Erin’s body thought to join him, he noticed Mina laying beside him, unconscious along with Arthur.

  He rushed to her side and, after seeing she was still breathing, touched her face gently as her eyes fluttered open.

  “They’re fine,” Roman said, “I’d guess we were only out a minute or two.”

  Snake stood next to him with his arms crossed.

  “Did you get us out?” Erin asked, and Snake nodded. “How?”

  Snake made his fingers walk across his palm, then pointed back at the garage.

  “In the area?” Roman asked, what were you doing—”

  “Who cares, you saved our lives.” Erin stood on shaky legs and gave the man a hug.

  Snake then pointed at the building and shaded his eyes with one hand, as though squinting against a bright light that wasn’t there.

  “The meck?” Erin asked. “Yeah, it’s in there. You came to see it too?”

  Snake nodded.

  “Yeah,” Erin scratched his head, “maybe we'll wait after all. Probably got ahead of ourselves.”

  Mina groaned as she stood to join them.

  “Wild night, huh?” Roman said. .

  “Yeah…thanks for the help, Snake. I think that was exhaust from all the processors. We should’ve been more careful.”

  “Guess that’s what he brought in the truck,” Erin said.

  “He could’ve at least kept the windows open,” Arthur said from the ground.

  Snake smiled, walked over to him, and gently patted his chest, finishing with a thumbs up.

  “Peachy,” Arthur said.

  They waited there together until their feet felt strong enough to carry them home.

  “Thanks, Roman,” Erin said as they waved goodbye. “You saved us too.”

  “Sure, sure. Anytime,” he directed Arthur down the street, and watched him correct his trajectory twice before they rounded a corner.

  Alone, Mina looked at Erin. “I’m ready to go home now.”

  Finally.

  “Satisfied?” He asked, not unhappy at all for the way Mina leaned on him for support.

  She gave him a squeeze. “Never.”

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