Delta

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Trick

I have to give myself credit for not fainting on the spot when the robot touched me. Its cold metal fingers ran down my arm, sending chills through my body.

"Hello?" It asked, moving its hand up to my face.

I stood as still as a statue, not even daring to breath. Lee's warnings echoed through my head. 

Don't open your eyes. Don't move. Stay quiet.

I imagined what it looked like as it stood directly in front of my face. The horrible artificial skeleton of a robot. 

It ran its hand up to the top of my head, feeling the headset I was wearing. It knocked the visor down as it felt my hair and I tried to suppress the terror I was feeling. 

"Hm. Maybe I'm wrong," it said, and to my relief it withdrew its hand and I heard its receding footsteps. I stood still for a few more seconds until I was sure it was far away. Then I turned towards the wall, brought my hands up to the sides of my face, and opened my eyes experimentally. I expected to see darkness but to my surprise I could see the wall in front of me with surprising clarity. Everything in my vision seemed tinged green though.

As I tried to work out what was going on, my hand brushed against the visor and everything made sense. I could see! The visor allowed me to see in the dark!

With this new discovery I felt like I actually stood a chance now. The problem was that I wasn't sure if the robot in the room with me would be able to see my eyes.

I took a shaky breath and turned around. 

At the other side of the room, a tall figure stalked around, its back to me. 

My eyes were drawn to the center of the room, where a small piece of paper lay on the floor. My breath caught in my throat and I almost lunged for it, but forced myself to take slow, quiet steps.

I approached the paper and knelt down, glancing timidly up at the robot. It turned around, revealing its horrible, creepy face. White eyes bulged out of its metal sockets and wires stuck out at random places. I gasped and stilled as it looked right at me. It made no reaction and walked right past me. As soon as it was gone I snatched up the paper and ran to the opposite side of the room. I had the paper. Now I just needed to get Jason to let me back in. I glanced down at the paper in my hands and saw a set of numbers. It really was the code.

"Well done."

I flinched at the familiar voice which filled the room.

"You've finally figured out how to use the headset. It took you long enough. At least I had the thrill of watching you sneak around, scared out of your mind. You had some pretty close calls at some points, and you didn't even realize it! Anyways, all that matters is that you've found the code while risking your life in the process."

All of a sudden, the paper I was holding exploded in a cloud of smoke and was reduced to a small pile of ashes.

"And it was all for nothing."

Before I could react, the robot looked around curiously. "Hello?" It asked.

"Hello A3DG793R. Tell me, have you been feeling lonely?"

The robot managed to look excited, though I don't know how.

"Yes!"

I got a queasy feeling in my stomach as I got a feeling of what was going to happen.

"Lucky for you, I can help you find your friend. In fact, she's right...here."

A sudden burst of bright light spilled over me, revealing my position.