ABANDON

Chapter 15 -- Left Behind

The yellow lights were on again, crackling and sizzling, making Jane's headlamp go out. Jane looked up and noticed several holes about a centimeter wide in the ceiling.

"Jane." Harris suddenly appeared around the right. Jane jumped.

Harris laughed. "I got you! I got you good! You should have seen your face." He grabbed Jane, and shook her before he moved to the unexplored area. "C'mon."

"Look at this." She pointed up to the ceiling.

"What have we here? Hey Ibber, come take a look at these holes. They go all over. But they're not bullet holes. And they're in metal, the excess metal is bent up. That means whatever caused in was on this side, on our side. They go all over, except your office Jane." He paused for a reaction but received none. "Ibber?"

"He probably can't hear you." Even though she wasn't, Jane felt like she had to shout just to get over the separated noise of the busy comm.

Harris blew her off with a wave of his hand. "Oh he can hear me all right. He's hiding. He's got something planned for us." And the way Harris said it, even though she couldn't see his eyes, Jane knew they were filled with glee.

"We just found all the stuff." Callivar said.

"What are you talking about?" Faringoth asked.

"This."

Images of desks and other assorted office furniture filled the empty hallway. Everything was carefully sorted into piles of identical or near identical items. A pile of scissors next to a pile of old computer user interfaces, their cords hanging out like the tails of mice. In the corner was a mountain of chairs and beside that was a structure made of framed pictures. Some items, rather than sorted by what they were, were sorted by what they looked like, or what colour they were.

"It looks like they brought everything here. That is bizarre just by itself, but it gets even stranger. I had Rutherford go up the short ladder just so you could understand the whole effect."

The view changed from Hausen's to Rutherford's and Jane found herself staring at an arrangement of random items that made a perfect human face. Anything a soft peachy colour—carpet, markers, boards from a disassembled shelf—were the skin. Tan and yellow objects—tubes of compressed oxygen and nitrogen, old intravenous bags, and yellowed manuals of every shape and size—were placed side by side and end to end to form long flowing hair that curved around the edge of the face and rested on one shoulder. But the eyes, those eyes were made from capsules of water, vibrantly blue and staring right at you, the sadness was palpable.

"There's our water." Faringoth's voice was almost a hiss. "Who did this?"

"Maybe someone was left behind?" Hausen postulated.

"Whoever it was, I think he went crazy." Faringoth answered.

"It must have been his girlfriend." Harris blurted out, but was ignored just as quickly. "It kinda looks like Jane."

"If anyone was left behind, they'd be long dead by now." Faringoth said.

"Unless they hibernated."

"And where were they supposed to do that? Have you seen any pods?" Hausen said. "These sculptures are huge--"

"You mean there are more of them?!" Faringoth interrupted.

"Yeah, there's about six?" Jane could hear voices confirming Hausen's number in the background. "Yeah, six of 'em. Show 'em the one with the server cabinets."

The image broadcast from Rutherford showed two men side by side. One of the men was reaching his hands up into the air, his feet spread wide with one knee bent, as though he was about to run. Four lines came out of the man's belly, two on each side. His head was turned away from the man beside him, who held a long device in his hand. It could have been a rifle, or a sword, or even a large stick, but whatever it was it was obviously being used as a weapon. The second man held it over the first and it was descending, almost on the man with the four lines coming out of his belly. The picture disturbed Jane, because the second man, the one with the weapon, had no head.