Welcome to the 14th installment to The Nothing’s Child. The world is nothing like we know anymore. Or something…

If you are new to how the links work, each section shows all the links for the specific section. Otherwise there is a link for the start of each section. It is easy to catch up to where we are now.

Section 1
The Nothing’s Child
Section 2
Life is a Dumpster Dive
Section 3
Bleuthor Encryption
Section 4
Behind the Bookcase
Section 5
Interrogation with no Egg to Stand On
Eggsistential Confusion
Relatively Painless
Section 6
Mental Warfare

Eggsistential Confusion

I woke in a puddle of drool. Something about sleeping when you can’t move and your pillow is little more than a hard wooden table. I was sure my face looked like the table won the fight.

What was it that woke me? Oh ya, it was a scratching noise, like metal scraping metal. I heard it again. Someone was unlocking the door. It wasn’t like I could do anything about the invader. I couldn’t even clean up the drool.

A short person, their face covered by a black hoodie came into the room. “Why am I always saving you lately?” I knew that voice. Jen pulled the hood back.

“Please tell me you are getting me out of here.” I didn’t want to sound too overjoyed. After our last conversation I thought that might be the last I saw of her.

“I can’t let you wallow in here,” she said. “We don’t have much time. I have a car waiting.” She dropped the keys to the handcuffs into my hands. The straps on the chair were easy to release after that. “Let’s go.”

I followed Jen down the hall. Where the room I was held in looked like something from a draconian torture chamber, the hall was downright happy. Not that I was spending my time looking around and admiring the view but it was about what you would expect at a world power corporation.

“I have the security system shut off between here and the parking garage. We just need to run.” She meant that too. The trip to the garage was an endurance course. At least it felt that way. Couldn’t have been more than a quarter mile or so but damn there were quite a few twists and turns through the halls.

The car waited just outside the doors into the garage, another black sedan. The windows were blacked out so I couldn’t see the driver. At this point I had to trust Jen and hope for the best.

She beat me to the car and ripped the door open. Right on her heals I threw myself into the car. She piled in on top of me and slammed the door shut. “Drive!”

She squished into me as I was pushed into the back of the seat by the g forces. The car had some pick up. It didn’t slow down as it slammed into the guard arm blocking the exit. The arm splintered as we passed through. There was no turning back.

“Took you long enough,” the driver said.

“They hid him better than I expected,” Jen said. “This car clean?”

“I scanned it and killed their tracers before I fired it up.”

I righted myself in the seat. The driver’s blonde hair stood out in the dark car. “Wait a second…”
“Oh, hi,” Michelle said. “Couldn’t go a day without making friends could you?”

#

“We’ve been running a numbers game on them,” Michelle said. “It’s been a fight so far. We haven’t been able to get into their system.”

We were back at the warehouse. The car, we ditched it, well before making it back. So far this place remained a secret hideout to keep out the corps. Siera was up and moving now. Her arm was still broken and her body bruised but she was in better spirits.

“I don’t know what happened to Drake,” I said. “But they raided his place. They went in after I left the other night.”

“I was afraid they might,” Michelle said. “He never was good at hiding his stuff.”

“Bleuthor was just what we thought it was, a password,” I said. “I needed it to get into his private chamber. Jacked into the Net and went into his home.”

“I’ve been trying to get in there for days,” Jen said. “Even with the power at the corp office I couldn’t crack his code.”

“Only way in was through his connection in his hidden room.”

“Only a few people knew what the run was for the other night,” Michelle said. “Drake being one of them. We needed to see if someone could get inside.” She was pacing again. “We didn’t expect him to actually get anything.”

“He picked up something,” I said. “I found an egg in his cyber home. The thing latched onto my brain.”

Michelle and Jen exchanged a look. “What do you mean ‘egg?'” Jen asked.

“Just what it sounds like,” I said. “It was on a pedestal. Damn thing was shaped like an egg. When I touched it there was a burst of energy and it shot up my arm and into my brain. I haven’t heard anything from it since though.”

“I think he might have found more than we thought,” Michelle said. “We’re going to have to look into your mind.”

“We will have to take a trip for this one. This place doesn’t have the right equipment for this.”

I didn’t like where this was going. “So now you want to poke and prod my brain. Is that it? Should I just cut my head open now so you can dig your fingers through?”

“It isn’t anything like that. I think he might have coded an app onto your brain. The tech has been there for a while now but no one has used it too much yet. This was designed originally for sending messages back and forth. But the tech wasn’t good at protecting the human host.”

“This egg could kill me?”

“I imagine the process is much safer now. At least it should be,” Michelle said. “We need to get you to the testing facility.”

#

They left us, left us alone with the elephant in the room. I didn’t want to look at her. I sure as shit didn’t want to talk to her. But I needed answers. Hell, I needed answers more than I needed this thing out of my head. At least for me. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t running for the corps?”

“I wanted to, so many times. The thing is, we didn’t know who we could trust.” She tucked her hair back behind her ear.

“We have history Jen. Hell, used to be that I knew you better than anyone else alive,” I said. “I thought you switched over completely.”

“I almost did. I died inside when we split. I couldn’t take it.”

I took her hand. She jerked away but left her hand in mine. “We let too much get in our way,” I said. “Were you working for these people that whole time?”

“I never wanted to hurt you.”

“No you would rather throw our life away and pretend like I don’t mean a damn thing.”

“It isn’t like that, was never like that.”

“Don’t give me that. You knew what you were doing. You’ve always known what you are doing. You played me.”

“You’re right. I couldn’t admit it to you. I couldn’t admit it to myself. For a while I loved you. Still do.”

###

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