Outside the Box - Chapter 14

14 

The wind pulls at my clothes and hair, even fiercer than I’ve ever felt before. Falling, falling, falling … 

I slam into something hard and groan with the impact. Everything hurts. I open my eyes and try to find out where I am. The world seems to drop away around me - leaving a tiny pole that I’m perched on and the streets of a city far, far below. 

The dizzying height makes my heart pick up speed. My thoughts begin to blur as I imagine the pain blossoming in my chest if I fall. Not if, when. 

The wind is strong up here, the whole pole seems to sway with my weight. 

On the streets I can see people watching me, laughing and pointing. None of their voices carry high enough and their faces are too far away for me to see clearly. 

“Stop!” I try to tell them. “I need help!” 

Suddenly, my mouth fuses shut and I can’t speak. I try to pry it open, digging at my lips with my fingers. In the process, I lose balance and topple. 

A scream escapes my mouth as I plummet downwards, hurdling at the ground. Just as the ground seems like it will crush me, everything disappears leaving behind milky darkness - so black it’s almost tangible. 

Then I realize it is tangible. I reach out and grab hold of the black, gripping it tightly. The darkness is warm, but I can make out a humanoid shape. 

I estimate where the lower areas would be and pull up my knee, striking the darkness hard. It doesn’t make a noise, but it rolls off me, clutching its wounded body. My vision returns fully and I realize that the creature was causing the darkness and the falling picture. 

I lunge for a gun nearby and flip on my back as the creature pounces on me. 

I drive the weapon into its head, and the creature recoils but still remains silent. Not far away I can hear whimpers and grunts from Aspen. But I don’t dare look, not when my enemy is still alive. 

As the creature stumbles I fire a bullet straight at it. The bullet makes contact and immediately the darkness disappears. 

I turn to Aspen. 

The other enemy is directly over her face like a blanket, draped across her. Fingers twitching, whimpers escaping her mouth, Aspen looks so pale and fragile and helpless. 

I kill the other dark creature without hesitation. 

Aspen bolts upright, rubbing her head. Her eyes are red and puffy and she notices me standing there. But because the darkness was on her longer, I guess it had more time to do whatever it was doing to her. Confusion passes her face, and then recognition. And then fear. 

Her eyes dart around me, not locking on to anything. She shivers once, mumbles something about spiders, and falls back to the ground, her expression blank. 

I fall to my knees beside her. At first, I think she’s dead. I don’t want to check for a pulse - I’m scared that I won’t find one. I wait for her chest to rise, but it stays sunken for a few moments before Aspen sucks in a breath. And then another. 

She turns to look at me, her eyes brimming with tears. “I want to go home.” She beside me. 

I help her sit up and gather our supplies so they’re at least in our general area. But as soon as that’s taken care of Aspen buries her face in my shoulder, her body racked with silent sobs. I let her there for a little, but soon it becomes evident that she is in no mood to move. 

And that’s a problem. Who knows how long we’ve been here and how long we still have to go? 

“Aspen,” I warn her. “We should probably get going soon.” 

“It was me!” Aspen interjects suddenly. “It was me, Jake!” 

“Aspen?..” 

“Shut up and let me talk,” she screeches and I move away from her a bit. Aspen notices and calms down enough to start crying again. “It was me all along. Miguel never told you what happened to him - he didn’t want you to hate me.

“I was on the mini trip when my parents and his father died. We were just coming back from a meeting at Social, and we were almost home. I don’t know why they brought me with them - I think I begged and begged my parents until they let me join them. But a bunch of Ninjas hijacked the car. My parents told me to hide. I did at first, and the Ninjas found my parents and Miguel’s father. 

“They held them outside at gunpoint, and they shot my mother and father. I watched as the blood spilt on the sand. I didn’t want them to kill Miguel’s dad too, so I grabbed a gun. I was young at the time, but I had seen my parents aim guns and my father had taught me a bit. So I pointed it at the Ninjas and fired them off until all of them were gone. I didn’t know the bullets were deadly. Someone snuck up behind me, and I shot them. And when I turned back around Miguel’s father was getting to his feet. I mistook him as a Ninja and shot. The bullet hit his leg, but it was bleeding bad. 

“I didn’t want to face what I had done, so I ran. I ran as far as I could, I didn’t want anyone to know. I could’ve saved his dad. I could’ve brought a medic to help him. But I ran into the forest like a coward and hid there for two days, eating and drinking only what I could scavenge from our car. The Ninjas came and took the bodies, and then the Hidden found me in the jungle, asleep. They took me home and nurtured me. I thought I was a murderer - they convinced me I hadn’t shot anyone. I was too young. Well they all died too, now didn’t they. And the only people I’ve told are Miguel, Gretchen, and you.” 

Aspen pauses, looking up at me with her eyes red and puffy. “I didn’t want to kill him. But I did.” 

“Anyone would’ve done what you did,” I say, trying to calm her. We need to keep going… 

“You don’t get it, do you?” Aspen scoffs. “Everyone always says that they would make the same mistakes as me. But none of you understand what it’s like to be me. Miguel was always a leader, Gretchen was a good shot. Ezra could cook and heal. But all I was - I was only a hacker. I could play with tech. And the only job I had was holding on to the hope someone would get my message. I am worthless.” 

“Aspen, we need to get going,” I sigh. She looks confused for a second. “Look, I know you’re going through some big emotional troubles right now. I know, but we can’t stop. The whole program could collapse on us at any second. We need to keep moving.” 

She nods her head, wiping her tears. “Fine, I understand.” 

She grabs her stuff and storms off, but she returns a minute later. “I’m sorry, Jake. I shouldn’t be blaming this stuff on you, or taking it out on you.” 

“It’s fine,” I begin, but Aspen interrupts. 

“No, it’s not,” she says, clenching her fists. “I want to keep you as a friend, so let’s keep going before I say something I shouldn’t.” 

“Sounds great,” I mumble, shouldering the brunt of our stuff. Aspen sheepishly steps aside and lets me pass. I smile at her, but she drops her gaze. I decide not to dwell on her emotions. Right now, Ezra and Miguel’s lives are in our hands. And everyone in the city. 

I can’t think of what failure would mean. So I lead the way deeper into the maze. 

Aspen doesn’t stop and rest - and when I mention it she has me keep going. We have to be getting close to the middle of the maze soon.

I shoot a tiny blue weasel that unhinges its jaw and tries to eat Aspen’s foot. She doesn’t thank me - doesn’t talk to me. It doesn’t matter to me that she’s the reason Miguel’s father is dead. Maybe it should, but I know she didn’t mean to. She was scared - anyone would’ve done that in her situation. 

But Aspen doesn’t seem to think so. She doesn’t seem to think much of anything. 

She runs into a wall once - too busy staring at the ground. 

I’m getting close to the end of the song - it’s slowly coming back to me. I haven’t told Aspen about my actual mother yet - that I know what she looks like or that she was impersonated by one of the creatures. 

A few hours later, I have one line left in the song. There haven’t been any traps for a while now, I’m wary of the path. 

But Aspen is still distracted and she walks ahead of me now. The path should be straightforward from here - or we’re in trouble. 

And then when we round a corner, there it is. The legendary Sphere of Power. 

It seems unimpressive, compared to what I was expecting. 

I mean, it holds the entire programming for the city. I was expecting a giant, glamorous ball that was several feet tall and glowed. 

The actual Sphere is the size of a tennis ball and silver. There’s a tiny black screen blinking with green letters too far away for me to read. I don’t know how they put programming in a whole different program, but here it is. 

“It seems too easy,” I mutter to myself. 

The entire maze has been full of traps. Aspen and I made it through alive somehow - but here we are. 

“What do we do?” Aspen asks me, finally looking up. “Should we … touch it?” 

I laugh, rolling my eyes. “The entire maze has been trying to kill us. You really think that we should just run up and try to touch the sphere?” 

“I mean, what else are we supposed to do?” Aspen shrugs. “Dr. Barron was supposed to lead us here and tell us what to do. And here we are. I guess I just go up to it and look for a mistake in the code and fix it.” 

“Check for traps or something first,” I tell her and Aspen nods in agreement. 

She finds a rock on the ground nearby and chucks it into the corridor with the Sphere. Immediately, the rock is shot with lasers, pounded with bullets, and impaled with spikes. Then everything disappears back into the walls. 

“That might pose a challenge,” Aspen says, eyes wide. 

“Might?” I laugh, and then Aspen laughs too. 

All we’ve been through, the maze and the Bunker and this war against the Box - Aspen and I have lived through it. Here we are, against all odds, standing in front of the Sphere of Power. And we still have to figure out how to get to the Sphere without dying. 

Aspen bends down and scoops up another rock, tossing it at the corridor again. This time, nothing pops out to shoot it. “Maybe they only work once.” She comments, shrugging again. “Do you think it’s safe?” 

“Safe is not the word I would use, but I suppose we can try to sneak through,” I sigh. “Besides, it probably just set off an alarm so every monster in the maze will come after us. No big deal.” 

“C’mon, let’s hurry before any of the monsters decide they’re hungry,” Aspen smiles as she grabs my hand. 

We dash through the abandoned corridor together. My gun is ready and loaded, propped up to fight. Aspen immediately drops her bags and begins to tap away at the Sphere. “Give me ten minutes and I should be able to fix everything. The mistake was relatively easy to spot.” 

“Ten minutes, easy for you to say,” I roll my eyes. 

And I’m right. Without any hint, my gun shifts into a long sword. So do my other weapons as well. I feel a bit uncomfortable - close contact is not my preference in fighting. 

“Jake, is everything okay?” Aspen asks, still tapping away in concentration. 

“It’s fine. Just peachy,” I mumble, clutching the sword tightly. I’ve never used one before, hopefully I won’t need it… 

Just my luck, something jumps down and lands right in front of my feet. It steps into the torchlight and I take a step back. Then another thing jumps down beside it. They both get to their feet, wiping off their knees where they landed. 

“Aspen, how much longer?” I ask, taking another step back as the two people approach. 

“Seven minutes, at least,” Aspen answers from the Sphere. 

“Hurry, please,” I say with a hint of panic seeping into my voice. 

These are the first creatures I’ve seen look entirely human. And that’s only because, well, they look like me. 

The first person is like a clone of myself, the other a perfect replica of Aspen. Both are clutching swords not unlike my own. Unlike me, however, they look like they can wield them well. 

Aspen doesn’t look up from her work, but her face is scrunched in concentration. 

The people are approaching me carefully, swords pointed at my midsection. I’m wearing my armor, but I’m not prepared when they strike. 

I wish I could just hit pause and the world would stop for a moment so I could gain my thoughts. But it doesn’t work like that. I drop to the ground and girl up in a ball. I can almost hear the other me - which I’m calling Facob (Fake Jacob) - and Faspen - Fake Aspen - laughing at me. 

Facob drops his sword, I can see the smirk on his face as he kicks me in the ribs. I groan in pain - but it doesn’t hurt as much as it should. Probably the armor. I decide that I need to hide the armor and when Facob kicks me again I pretend to retch. 

Faspen brings down her sword like she wants to cut off my head, but I roll away to avoid the hit, leaving my sword between them. Not that I can use it anyways. 

“Five minutes, maybe,” Aspen calls out to me. 

“I’m a bit preoccupied,” I manage to gasp before Facob leaps on top of me. He pins my arms down with his feet. He’s like the spitting image of me - but evil. 

Aspen doesn’t look up, but I can tell she wants to. 

But I can’t let her get distracted, not when she’s so close. Facob beckons for Faspen to bring him his sword, and she does. But before he can land his blow I knee him in the backside like I did the smoke creature not long before. He falls for it and flies over my head. 

Faspen punches at me, outraged, but I kick her in the stomach as I spring to my feet. 

Dr. Barron said I am special. 

I am stronger, faster, better than Facob and Faspen. 

So when Facob attacks again, I punch him straight in the jaw. He stumbles backwards, clutching his now bleeding mouth. Faspen lets out a roar of pain behind me and charges, only to trip over Aspen’s outstretched leg. 

She smiles at me before getting back to work. “Three minutes,” she tells me. 

Three minutes is not enough. 

I have to keep Faspen and Facob at bay long enough for her to save the programs. 

Facob lunges at me again, spitting blood. Both Faspen and Facob have lost their weapons, the brawl has become hands only. 

I bring up my knee in Facob’s stomach, wheeling my arms for balance. Faspen tackles me from behind, pushing me to the ground with her knee in my back. She grabs my arms and pins my hands behind my back. 

I am stronger. I am faster. I am better. 

I save up my energy for a moment before throwing my back end into the air. Faspen tumbles off, hitting the wall hard. She moans but I immediately change my attention to Facob and can’t see if she’s alive. 

Facob is sneaking up on Aspen now, he must think I’m subdued. 

I run at him, feet pounding on the ground. I barrel into him, forcing him against the wall. He begins to punch and kick but I knee him in the groin and he yelps in pain. I land a punch on his face and hear a crack. Blood squirts from his nose as it swells. 

Faspen lets loose another feral cry as she crawls for the sword. One of her arms hangs limply at her side, her shoulder looks … wrong. 

I kick her in the stomach before she can get near the sword and then kick the sword away. Aspen must be done soon, but I’ve only enraged Facob and Faspen. Both are getting to their feet - injured yet resilient. 

“Almost done!” Aspen cries out, only to attract the attention of Facob. 

He launches himself at her again, only to see her wheel around and punch him straight in the neck. He stumbles backwards, and Aspen gets back to work. 

Suddenly, something slams into me from behind. I feel the blade of a sword poking my back. Sweat drips down my face, onto the ground. Faspen forces me to the ground, into a small pool of blood. Maybe hers. Maybe mine. 

“It should be done,” Aspen calls out from the Sphere. “I just want to check everything to…” Her sentence is cut short when Facob must run into her. 

Aspen yelps in pain, clutching her stomach as a blade is shoved into the soft flesh. 

Her panicked eyes meet mine and I realize that she must be dying. And if the program isn’t really fixed - which is a possibility since she didn’t check everything -  she could actually die. 

Blood dribbles down her lips and tears pool in her eyes. A ragged breath escapes her and Aspen collapses to the ground, breathing shallowly. 

Faspen yanks my hair, pulling up my head and exposing my neck. 

She mutters something that sounds like “goodnight” before she slices the blade across my neck, slitting my throat in one swipe. 

Blood. Everywhere. Pain. 

I struggle to breathe but I can’t. Blood spills relentlessly from the wound on my neck. I meet eyes with Aspen as my vision begins to blur. 

This can’t be happening. Not now, we were so close. 

And then I die, right beside Aspen.