Episode 13: Ascend, Descend!

GABE: Or you all could take the maintenance shafts.

JASMINE: Gabe!

SCARLET: Holy shit.

VIOLET: Where did you even come from.

GABE: There’s maintenance access right beside you. You just weren’t paying attention.

SCARLET: Don’t tell me it’s–

GABE: Narrow as hell? You bet. But it’s safe enough.

VIOLET: I’m not getting in there.

GABE: Then you can go ahead and take on those walking ping pong balls.

JASMINE: Thanks, Gabe. We’ll come with you. Lead the way.

***

GABE: First, the easy part. We go down a floor in this here elevator shaft.

VIOLET: Great.

GABE: Then, the hard part: we open up the hatch that goes under the escalators, and we take the tunnel back up and over the professor’s room.

VIOLET: Even better.

GABE: Oh, wait, that’s not the hardest part. I forgot: there are cocoons all along the damn shafts.

VIOLET: A perfect day. Really.

JASMINE: Like the one we saw before.

GABE: You bet. Same bougie bugs are all over the place. Looks like a fuckin Emerson, Lake, and Palmer album in there. Real Giger-type shit.

SCARLET: Okay, so we drop down through the shaft and go up through the tunnels. Easy.

GABE: If you wanna call it that, sure.

SCARLET: No time to waste, then.

The four stood before the freight elevator. Gabe jammed the crowbar into the doors and Scarlet pried them open. Scarlet winced at the pain from her efforts. She wasn’t mortally wounded, but she sure hurt. Scarlet was the first to descend, and Jasmine slid down behind her. Gabe took to the cable and climbed to the next floor with a handful of expletives. Then it was Violet’s turn. She stared down the empty pit below her. If they missed the cable, slipped even once…

SCARLET: Come on, Vi, you gotta go.

The creatures in front of Sterling’s lab had followed them, and soon there came pounding on the door. A hammering of fists, then of shoulders and bodies thrown against the wood. They were trying to break in, to blank Jasmine’s memories.

VIOLET: I…I can’t. I can’t do it.

SCARLET: If you don’t, you’re dead. I’ll catch you.

VIOLET: I…

One final concerted push from the mimics and the door gave way. The blur-faced creatures rushed into the room, gunning straight for Violet. She gasped and froze in place. It wasn’t until they were in her face that she made the plunge.

Violet leapt into the empty shaft and grabbed the suspension cable. They slid a few feet, and their hands burned with the friction of it. Slowly, hand over hand, she moved down toward Scarlet and the others.

SCARLET: All right, Vi, pick up the pace. I don’t want to alarm you, but–

Five mimics launched themselves at the metal ropes. Two missed, and fell an unknown distance into the dark. Three managed to latch on just above Violet. They stretched their sticky limbs out toward her face. As they got closer, their expressions changed, started to merge into something resembling a face. Her face. Violet tried to slide faster, but one of her hands slipped. Now Violet was dangling by one hand over what was surely her death. The creatures with Violet’s face wrapped their extended fingers around her remaining hand, and peeled it off the suspension. Violet yelped, and she fell.

SCARLET: No!

Jasmine reached out for Violet’s hand. A shimmer of color appeared in her palm, which flashed for just a second. In that second, she saw glimpses of Violet’s past, mingled with memories from her own childhood. She saw a little girl collecting flowers and leaves in a jar, making a home for a moth. She saw herself tripping and hitting her nose on cement. She was in a play, one she’d never seen, in front of a whole school full of strangers. She was eating a burrito in someone’s room at 2am. She was in a red jeep, bumping along a gravel path. And then she was in the maintenance bay, watching herself watch Scarlet and Gabe pry open the elevator doors. She focused on this memory from Violet’s mind, one of her last, and held tight to it. She could feel the scene bristling with energy, an oversaturation of color and light. The sheer force of the image weakened her grip on the other memories around her. It started slipping through her fingers, fading into static. In order to keep her hold, she had to let something else go, release other memories. She let loose the fall, the late night dinner, her first pet’s name. She no longer remembered how she got the faint scar above her nose, nor that she had one at all. But she saw the elevator bay clear as day. Jasmine reached out, reached into the scene, and her hand came back awash in swirling hues. She closed her eyes, and felt the colors move through her arm, up her shoulder, and into her head. The image beamed from Jasmine’s forehead in a rectangle of projected light, up the elevator shaft, and then all went dark. Just for a moment, she was on the dewey grass again.

Then Jasmine was standing in the bay. Scarlet and Gabe had just pried open the doors, and Violet stood behind her, anxiously tapping one foot.

JASMINE: I…you…

VIOLET: What? You look all…deranged, Jasmine. You were muttering something. You losing it?

SCARLET: What’s up, you two?

VIOLET: I think Jasmine’s–

JASMINE: I’m fine. Look. We need to bar that door out to the main hallway. Those blank things can break through if we don’t reinforce it.

GABE: Didn’t think we’d be in here long, but not a bad idea.

SCARLET: All right. Gabe, help me move this old desk in front of it. We should be able to jam it under the handle.

GABE: Got it, boss.

Jasmine stood in the middle of the room, eyes wide, every nerve and neuron firing simultaneously. She could feel every vibration of every molecule, every thought in her companion’s heads. It didn’t last, though. It faded almost as quickly as she could sense it. The desk’s metal legs screeched across the tile floor as Gabe and Scarlet shoved it in front of the door.

SCARLET: All right, I’ll drop first.

JASMINE: No! Violet, you need to go.

VIOLET: No, I don’t.

JASMINE: You…just listen to me, okay?

SCARLET: Jasmine’s right. You’re going to be the slowest getting down. You should go first and if those things break through, the three of us can hold them off together better than you or Jasmine could alone.

VIOLET: I hate this place so fucking much.

Violet leaned into the elevator shaft, and tentatively pulled the suspension to test its security. It didn’t budge. Violet called on all her experience from the two gym classes they actually showed up to in high school. It was a long moment full of yelping and swearing, but a moment later, she was safely on the floor below. The mimics were pounding at the door, but it was holding steady. Jasmine, Scarlet, and Gabe quickly followed.

SCARLET: Good call on the door, Jasmine. I didn’t expect that kind of tactical thinking out of you. No offense.

JASMINE: It’s…Yeah, thanks.

The group, led by Gabe, crept through the foyer of the 14th floor. Octagonal marble pillars rose high throughout the lobby. Jasmine could see the evening sky through patches of the glass high on the wall. She was so close to the outside, but still so far. Gabe led with a flashlight, and Violet trailed behind. Soon, they were at the foot of a large escalator that was out of service. Gabe crouched down at the base and opened up the control hatch.

GABE: Now normally what you have here is just a little spot to mess with the escalator. But since this whole place is like a goddamn haunted house, it connects with all the other maintenance areas, too.

JASMINE: Like arteries.

GABE: Arteries filled with people turning into butterflies, sure.

SCARLET: Let’s move. Violet, get between me and Scarlet–wait a minute…get between me and Jasmine. Just in case.

Gabe, Jasmine, Violet, then Scarlet all climbed into the hole in the floor. It was just barely wide enough to fit a single person. All along the way, the metal bars and gears were dotted with cocoons–some small, some as big as a soccer ball. And the whole tunnel was hot, steaming with the heat of working machinery.

SCARLET: Don’t touch anything, okay? Those gears could take your hand off, and who knows about the goo sacks there.

VIOLET: Too late. I kicked a few.

SCARLET: Now why the hell would you do that?

VIOLET: Don’t like bugs.

*screech from below*

JASMINE: Come on, Violet, seriously?

A rumble came from the tunnels below. Round one narrow corridor inched a mammoth caterpillar. Its razor-like beak parted and let loose a string.

SCARLET: Ah, get it off, get it off!

The pale green giant began pulling the silk back into its mouth, dragging Scarlet closer to its chattering jaw.

JASMINE: Does anyone have a knife? Or a lighter?

GABE: You think this thing likes to get smoked out like the one in Alice in Wonderland?

JASMINE: No, silk’s flammable. If we can’t cut it off, maybe we can burn it.

GABE: Here, catch.

JASMINE: Thanks!

*sliding sound*

SCARLET, with some effort: Anytime, guys, would be great. Any fucking time.

*lighter flicks, burn*

The strand around Scarlet’s ankle burned bright and quick, until all that was left at the top of her boot was a ring of charred ash. She kicked off the remnants and the four of them climbed as fast as the passages would allow. The caterpillar followed in hot pursuit, until the chamber above Sterling’s lab proved too narrow for its rotund frame. They opened the maintenance hatch near some of Sterling’s equipment and dropped into the room one by one, followed by a few errant ropes of silk.

STERLING: Violet! Scarlet! You must be Jasmine Control. And…friend! Good to see you all, despite the fright you just gave me. How was the journey?

VIOLET: Oh, you’re going to love it Sterling. Felt like I was in a coffin for 20 minutes with three other corpses.

STERLING: I…I see.

SCARLET: What, you claustrophobic too?

STERLING: I…well enclosed spaces and I simply don’t get along.

JASMINE: All right. Now that we’re here, I’d like some answers, Sterling. You set this whole thing up, right?

STERLING: Well, yes and no. What I proposed was a simple training regimen. A gauntlet of increasing difficulty, but never actual danger. The plan was to see if we could produce in you, Control, any kind of heroic aptitude or other supernatural phenomena. To see if we could do this without full exposure to the birdsong. But I suspect something was amiss from the very beginning. The first floor of your test should have been a simple task: find the communicator and reach the stairs. There were no Larks involved in this trial.

SCARLET: But there sure as hell were Larks, Sterling.

STERLING: Right. So that leads me to believe that either a mistake was made somewhere along the line, or one of the higher-ups had different ideas for this experiment.

JASMINE: What do you mean?

STERLING: Well, in order to get approval for the plan, I had to include you, Scarlet.

SCARLET: Use me, you mean.

STERLING: Well, that’s what I wonder. Did the Primaries include you as an overseer, or are you a subject as well?

SCARLET: If that’s true, then we all are. You, me, Violet, we’re all still in their fucking game.

STERLING: That’s the concern, yes. That leaves us with two options, and I’m not sure which is worse. It’s either a catastrophic accident, or an intentional catastrophe.

VIOLET: Both suck.

GABE: And I must be an important part of this shitshow somehow, too.

STERLING: I…I don’t think so.

GABE: Oh.

STERLING: T-though you’ve been integral in their escape, I hear.

GABE: Hell yeah, man.

JASMINE: Sterling, let’s say you were right. Let’s say I did get some kind of…affinity for psychic stuff during your test. What then?

STERLING: Well, we would have studied the results, ensured its safety, and replicated the test in all future hires. Maybe even in myself. Theoretically.

JASMINE: What if it wasn’t theoretical?

STERLING: Pardon?

SCARLET: She fought off a Lark with her bare hands, dude.

STERLING: Incredible. What was the experience like?

JASMINE: I could see into its–Copper’s–mind. I could see his memories. My own, too. Almost like a home movie. But I…I reached in, somehow. And those lights that the Larks have? I had it in my hand. I could use it.

STERLING: That’s…performance beyond all expectations. I…almost hesitate to believe it.

JASMINE: There’s more. I think I can…see the future. Or change the past. Or something. Because I saw Violet die, earlier–

VIOLET: What the fuck.

JASMINE: –Sorry, Violet. I saw her die. I saw both of our lives flash before me. And I saw the moments before her death. I tried to hold on, tried to keep her in my head. Like I did when Scarlet had me take a jaunt.

STERLING: Hold on. Scarlet? You allowed a jaunt? She was in your memories?

SCARLET: I don’t know how this shit works, genius, but I had to do something. That mimic from the Blank Commission was gonna kill her.

STERLING: This is very reminiscent of…No, I don’t believe it. If she’s anything like him, we’re…

SCARLET: We’re totally porked.

VIOLET: Ew, come on.

GABE: You mean that guy in the glass case?

STERLING: Excuse me?

GABE: Yeah, the dude in cold storage. You talking about Green something?

STERLING: He’s here? He’s alive!?

GABE: I cleaned his place a dozen times.

SCARLET: Gabe. I want you to think really hard about this. Are you sure it’s him? Because what you’re saying right now is that Green is alive, in this building, and has been in what sounds like a prison for the last…what, three years?

GABE: I mean, yeah, sounds about right. That any weirder than a stoner bird guy or a song that turns you into a fuckin scooby doo villain?

**********

GREY AUTHORITY: Of course. I’m completely on board.

YELLOW ACCESS: Good. You’ve been a model employee, Grey. You may even be in line for a promotion, dear.

GREY: You’re very generous, Yellow. What’s the next step?

YELLOW: We have our control, and we have our dependent variable. Now we need a sledgehammer.

GREY: That will be me.

YELLOW: Once Green’s birdsong is released. You will test their limits. Push them beyond their sensory experiences. Harm them, if you must.

GREY: For the good of the office.

YELLOW: Yes, the office. We will all benefit.

GREY: What if it doesn’t work?

YELLOW: We flush the fish down the drain and start again, darling.

GREY: The new employee orientation.

YELLOW: Sterling and the others will assume this is all part of the test Blue approved. But you will interrupt that orientation.

GREY: Any guidelines? Or…

YELLOW: I trust your judgment, Grey. You have the authority to do whatever you see fit. Whatever it takes to unlock their potential. Now let’s go meet Green and see what a little time with him can do for you.

******************

STERLING: This is…unconscionable. Impossible!

VIOLET: I straight up don’t believe it.

SCARLET: I thought he was gone. Disappeared.

JASMINE: Wait, so the guy who designed the building is alive, and he’s in it? We have to find him. He’s our best bet for figuring all this out.

SCARLET: I think we’d all like to see Green.

VIOLET: Assuming Gabe didn’t hallucinate this whole thing.

GABE: Hey, man, I haven’t hallucinated in 12 hours. Wait, nope, scratch that. Unless there really is a horse with the green m&m’s face in the corner over there.

SCARLET: Okay, so maybe the source is unreliable. But Gabe’s a good dude. It’s not their fault the bosses fucked them over here.

STERLING: The bosses…if Green’s here, they must know about it. That lends further evidence to the theory that this was all intentional.

JASMINE: All of this…for me?

STERLING: It would appear that way.

VIOLET: Great. Then why am I here?

STERLING: There’s still much to be learned. The upside is that it seems Jasmine here can hold her own against the building’s defenses. That’s quite a boon to your team.

SCARLET: She’s not a boon, okay? She’s a friend. I’m sick of her being used.

STERLING: Scarlet, I didn’t mean it like–

SCARLET: You want her to be the Department’s nuke.

STERLING: I didn’t say that. Not in that sense, no.

JASMINE: Look, let’s just calm down. We need to keep going. We can’t stay here forever. Can you climb up the maintenance port, Sterling?

STERLING: I…I don’t think I will.

SCARLET: You’re joking. We just got back together.

STERLING: Scarlet, I…I’m not bold like you, and I have little in the way of survival skills.

VIOLET: I’m staying here, too.

SCARLET: Why? What is wrong with you?

VIOLET: Jasmine just said she saw me die. I watched a minotaur get cut in half by a fucking elf. I’m no help to you all. I’m not fast and I’m not strong. I’d literally be safer here than following you.

SCARLET: Maybe, but–

STERLING: Scarlet. If this is all according to the Primaries’ plan, things are only going to escalate as we descend. I doubt Violet and I will survive. You have a jaunt, Jasmine has…what she has. This lab is built to sustain ballistic missile strikes. I think we’ll have better chances here.

SCARLET: So you’re giving up. That’s what you’re telling me.

VIOLET: We’re being realistic, Scar. We’re both better off.

SCARLET: I’ll drag you if I have to…I’m not leaving you behind.

*click*

STERLING: I’m afraid you must.

SCARLET: You absolute clown. Handcuffed to the desk. Really?

STERLING: I believe in the two of you. I know you’ll return to us when it’s safe.

JASMINE: I promise.

SCARLET: Violet, you’re just gonna go along with this? Jasmine?

GABE: Gabe’s here, too.

SCARLET: Fuck off, Gabe, I–

JASMINE: Scarlet…

Jasmine rested her hand on Scarlet’s back. Scarlet flinched in anger, then she let out a deep sigh.

SCARLET: I hate it when you’re right. Mister big brain over here. It does look pretty secure here. If the two of you–

GABE: three–

SCARLET: –fuck OFF Gabe! If the three of you stay here, and stay quiet, maybe they’ll leave you alone.

VIOLET: And we can always crawl back through Satan’s asshole up there if they bust in.

SCARLET: Right. Fine. I hate this, I hate every second of it, I hate that we’re walking away. But Jasmine, let’s go.

JASMINE: There’s work to be done.

SCARLET: And some managerial ass to kick.

STERLING: Good luck. And Scarlet? Keep an eye on her.

SCARLET: I will. Only 13 more floors to go.

JASMINE: Should only take, what, three? Four hours?

GABE: Faster if you take the freight lift.

SCARLET: What?

GABE: Yeah, man, that’s why I came looking for you. Well, for Jasmine. I got the freight elevator working again.

SCARLET: Why didn’t we take it here in the first place?

GABE: It can only go one way. And it’s gonna move real fast when it goes.

JASMINE: Are you sure it’s working?

SCARLET: And it’s not just gonna drop us?

GABE: It’ll go down.

SCARLET: Let’s try it. The faster we get out, the faster we can help Sterling and Violet.

JASMINE: and Gabe.

GABE: and Gabe.

SCARLET: And Gabe. Thanks, bud. Jasmine, let’s go. We’re heading to the lobby.

END