Menace by Ella Summers

Author:Ella Summers [Summers, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2015-09-10T23:00:00+00:00

~ 5 ~

525AX May 3, Wellspring

SINISTER AS THEY appeared, the machines did not attack. Instead, they rolled to either side of the arched open doorway and froze. The red lights in their eyes went out, and it was as though they had never been anything more than metal statues. It was then that Isis noticed each machine was holding a broom, not a gun. Ariella had picked up on this as well. She moved toward them, an amused expression on her face.

“Wait,” Isis said, grabbing a hold of her arm.

“It’s ok.” Ariella tapped the nearest machine with her fist. A hollow thump resonated from the metal chest and echoed off the concrete walls. “See? They’re harmless. I think we just ran into the housecleaning staff.”

“What use would an abandoned old building have for housecleaning staff?” Isis posed.

“Who knows?” Ariella shrugged. “Maybe they’re just being stored here between jobs. You know how the Selpes love their technology.”

Isis leaned in for a closer look. “I’ve never seen such machines before.”

“Neither have I, but we’re hardly experts in this sort of thing. This is only my second time outside Elitia,” replied Ariella. “Besides, we want to get out of here, and that there is the only door I see around here.”

Ariella was right, but that didn’t make Isis feel any better about the prospect of turning her back on those machines.

“Ok, we’ll take the door.” Isis pressed her back to Ariella. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

As Ariella moved toward the door, Isis kept with her, her eyes trained on the machines. They didn’t so much as twitch. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Still backing up to keep pace with Ariella, Isis nearly tripped over her friend, who had stopped in her tracks. Isis tore her eyes off the inanimate machines and turned to look at the new room.

It had the smooth, marked floors of a gym. Ropes and ladders hung against the walls, which extended high up into a metal framework ceiling of enormous spotlights. The spotlights blared down hot and bright upon the glossy floor, making it shine with circles of reflected light. A smooth swish sounded from behind Isis, and she turned as the door slid shut. When she tried to pry it back open, a second layer of sliding doors—these made of thick metal—slammed together, nearly gobbling her fingers.

“Isis, look,” Ariella said.

Isis returned her attention to the oversized gym. Thick metal tubes were sliding slowly out of rows of holes in every wall. They looked like gun barrels. Dozens and dozens of gun barrels. And they were all aimed right at her and Ariella.

Swoosh. A ball shot out of a tube, whistling past their faces. It bounced off the wall and rolled back across the floor to stop at Isis’s feet. As she squatted down to swipe her finger across its fuzzy, violently bright yellow surface, a second ball shot over her head. Rising, Isis took a step forward, and a racket fell down from the ceiling to land at her feet.

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