Chapter XI: Deadly Halls

Chapter 10

Sean

We wasted an hour looking for Brian. Neither Anna, nor I, could find any tracks that indicated where he went, or that he had been there at all. That was the weirdest part. Anna was muttering under her breath a line from the prophecy we had found in the car.

“The Child of Martias shall enslave,” she was saying. “Do you think that could be referring to Brian?”

“Who the heck is Martias anyways?” I asked.

“It is Latin for March. March was named after Mars.” She replied. That kind of made sense. Brian was a child of Mars, so it could be referring to him as the one enslaved. I pointed this out, and she looked more worried.

“Listen,” I said. “If Brian has been enslaved, then he is inside that city,” I pointed at the City of Gold. “That means, if we head inside and stop whoever plan, then we can rescue him.” She looked at me funny.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“No, but that's the best thing we can do at the moment. Anyone who would do any enslaving is inside that place.” To put power behind me words, I walked up the wall and tried to find a way to get over. Anna solved that by drawing a honest to Gods arrow from her bag and a length of rope. She attached the rope to the back of the arrow (through a loop) and fired it over the wall. I heard metal hitting metal, then a drill sound. Once the drilling was done, she tugged on it then handed me the rope.

“Why me first?” I asked.

“I don’t want you looking at my butt during the climb.” She responded simply.

“But its such a nice butt. Anyways, don't be staring at my firm heiny.” Then I started to climb. As climbs go, it wasn’t too bad. When I got to the top I waited for Anna and took a look around. At the point where the arrow had landed, by the doors on the inside, there was a circle of grey people staring at it in confusion. One of them looked down the hallway.

“Caligulan Steel Unit 35 has detected an anomaly.” It yelled, the others did the same thing using different numbers. What the heck was Caligulan Steel? Anna finished her climb and looked at the automatons.

“They feel...wrong somehow.” She said. I nodded and then moved away towards the staircase, as long as they were distracted we didn’t need to bother them. Anna followed and we moved further into the fortress.

We climbed down the stairs to the main floor and took the first door we could find that lead into the castle. At every intersection we checked for enemies, but found none. What I did notice was that it was getting hotter the further in we were.

“Notice that heat?” I asked. Anna nodded, then pushed me into a door that was open just and followed me just as an automaton entered the intersection from a hallway that was perpendicular to ours. We huddled just inside the door so that it couldn't see us and waited. It didn’t move away, and its head was swiveling back and forth as if looking for something. From other hallways we heard some fighting and Automatons yelling about intruders, but we dared not move. Then we heard a creak from the room we were in. We looked into the darkness and saw two red eyes.

I was able to jump over the Colchis bull just as it charged at me, and it busted through the wall, breaking our cover. The other automaton, the one waiting in the intersection, sprung into action. It grabbed a spear off its back and charged the bull, which squealed in fear and charged the new opponent. Anna and I hid in the shadows of the room. The bull, who normally runs with enough force to break through a wall made of six inches of steel, was speared by its new opponent and lifted off the ground. The automaton threw the bull through the other wall and followed it into the next room.

Anna and I didn’t wait to see who won, and moved further on.

Chapter XII