Solipsis: Escape from the Comatorium (27 page)

“
We've
turned the neural net back on,” Renee declares, “the
televators are on.” The crowd of survivors whispers excitedly.
There is hope after all. Medved looks up at the hot air balloon
holding the televators in the sky.

“
So
how do we bring them down?” Medved asks. Before they can
answer, the shadows of dozens of angels cover the building. Seth and
Renee's presence hasn't gone unnoticed. The entire army of angels is
after them. There's only going to be a few seconds before this epic
battle begins.

“
We're
going to bring them down,” Seth says.

“
You
guys have to rush to the televators when we do,” Renee says,
“We need to overwhelm them on Earth.”

“
Go!”
Percival shouts. Renee and Seth rush to a stairwell and disappear
into the building just before the attacking angels arrive. The first
angel lands and immediately finds himself in a bear head-lock. Held
still, a survivor slashes off the angel's arm. The dropped flaming
sword is immediately scooped up by another survivor and put to use.

The
rooftop deteriorates into chaos. Blue flaming-swords fly through each
other. Nobody can block the sword's blows, so they must all go on the
offensive.

An
angel comes flying in, smashing into Medved. With Percival on his
back, he heads to the corner in severe pain. His arm dangles by the
skin.

“
We
can set it,” Percival says, knowing it's not going to happen.
Medved's inner anger finally comes out. He roars angrily, ripping off
the dangling end of his arm. He throws his arm at an angel, knocking
him off the edge of the building. What's left of Medved's upper arm
is a boney stump. With his other hand, he uses a flaming sword to
cauterize the wound and sharpen the bone into a point.

An
angel, preoccupied with a sword fight, suddenly finds a bone spear
coming through his chest. Medved unleashes hell on the angels. He
charges them fearlessly, roaring like a grizzly. He slices them to
pieces, impales them on his spear of an arm, and throws their mangled
bodies off the roof.

For
a moment the battle is won. But more angels are flying in to attack.
Far too many to fight off. Lazarus, leading the assault, stops them.
“Wait! They're not here anymore. Spread out and find them!”
Lazarus grabs Paul, “Not you. We're gonna find them in the real
world.”

Two
angels stand guard atop the giant ball of televators high above the
city. The balloon itself towers over them. Two dragons circle below.
Renee and Seth come flying up from above. A dragon takes off straight
toward them, unleashing a wave of fire. They don't stray from their
path, bravely heading for the fireball.

“
You
feel so warm,” Renee says quietly with her cheek resting on
Seth's chest.

“
It's
really weird when you talk when you're this close to me,” Seth
says. “Your mouth and tongue all move when you talk, but they
don't actually make noise, it's just a speaker hidden in there that
makes the noises. This close up I can sense those things working
independently.”

“
Oooh,
that does sound weird,” Renee says almost excitedly.

“
Does
this mean we're...dating?” Seth feels embarrassed saying it.

“
You
know we might die in the next few hours,” Renee says. “So
I'm not sure I can make a whole lot of commitment right now,”
Renee half-jokes. “We fooled around, that doesn't mean were
instantly in love or anything,” Renee says.

“
Just...checking.”

“
I
can't get over how warm you feel,” Renee says, with her head
back on his chest.

“
Your
body is rubber and metal, the specific heat isn't very high. I'm
mostly made of water, which has a high specific heat, so I retain
heat a lot more than you do.”

“
That's
it,” Renee says profoundly.

“
What's
it?”

Seth
flies toward the hot air balloon, grasping Renee tightly. A fireball
looms in front of them, but they push on. The air around them is like
a sonic-boom of cold, a cloud of ice crystals follows in their shock
wave. In this cocoon of cold, they fly through more fiery attacks.
Seth and Renee fly past, slicing the head of the beast clean off. The
body tumbles to the ground like a plane shot out of the sky. The
angels on the balloon yank on the heaters, sending flames into the
balloon. They hold them down, accelerating the balloons quickly
upward.

Renee
and Seth fly to catch up to the rising balloon while the other Dragon
pursues them. The balloon is getting away, rising faster than Seth
can fly.

From
the ground, the survivors watch and wait for the televators to rain
down and give them a way out.

In
the Comatorium, the hidden bomb ticks down.

Seth
watches in horror as the balloon is getting away. Renee seems
unfazed. They fly on. Suddenly the balloon comes to a crashing stop.
The balloon has hit the top of the skybox on Solipsis. The angels are
thrown upward and land on their backs on top of the pile of
televators.

Lazarus
and Paul run down the halls of the simulation floor on the Solipsis
Ocean Platform, checking every window, searching for Seth and Renee.

“
If
they're plugged in they have to be in here somewhere!” Lazarus
says.

“
We've
looked everywhere!” Paul says. Lazarus stops to think.

“
No,
there's one place we didn't look.”

Lazarus
and Paul emerge through a clean room door connecting to the side of
the Comatorium. The nervous systems of thousands of people glow a
purple blue in this vast dark and humid cavern. They run between the
vats, frantically searching.

In
the center of the Comatorium, Seth sits next to the giant collection
of cables running up to the simulation floor above. His presence on
Solipsis is controlled just by his laptop. Renee is hooked directly
into the node, her animatron, the
flesh-bot
,
is unconscious.

Seth
hears footsteps and distant shouts. He knows they're about to be
caught.

Seth
lands on the edge of the giant ball of steel beneath the hot air
balloon, releasing his grip on Renee. The angels come to meet her,
swords drawn. Renee runs for the center, the opening of the balloon.
Seth runs alongside her, then suddenly stops, standing perfectly
still. Renee looks back at her frozen companion. He's AFK, no longer
controlling his avatar. She doesn't have much time.

“
Hands
up!” Lazarus shouts to his own son. Lazarus and Paul aim
pistols at Seth as he slowly lifts his hands away from the keyboard.
“Unplug her,” Lazarus commands. Paul yanks the laptop
away.

Renee
runs for the opening. The angels try to stop her, but as she runs
toward them, they freeze up, their metal armor frosts over and
freezes together holding them hostage. She climbs the ropes leading
into the balloon itself. The water in the air around her condenses,
crystallizes, and falls as snow. The balloon comes down from the top
of the skybox, dropping slowly at first, picking up speed. The
balloon becomes little more than a deflated parachute within moments
as Renee sucks all the heat out, storing it away inside her modified
body. The bulging balloon begins to deflate. Their ploy, changing the
specific heat and rate of absorption of her avatar, has worked.

The
balloon starts to fall, picking up speed, deflating further. The
balloon becomes little more than a streamer trailing behind the ball
of televators.

Renee
wakes up, sitting on the floor of the Comatorium with Lazarus holding
a gun in her face. Renee tries to run, but quickly discovers that she
is unable to move. Her arms drip hydraulic fluid. She's been drained.

“
Turn
the neural net off,” Lazarus says. Paul holds out a small touch
screen. “Password,” Lazarus says insistently, jamming the
gun in her face.

Survivors
all across the city run toward the falling ball of televators.
Angels, behemoths, dragons, all flock toward ground zero. The ball
crashes sending the indestructible televators bouncing in all
directions. The entire resistance group, with Medved and his
sharpened spear-arm, lead a charge toward the televators while
monsters form a perimeter.

Behemoths
run for the stampeding mob, crushing people. Angels form a line, like
the Spartans, trying to hold back a horde. Medved rams into the line
of angels, spearing right through a shield, and tossing the angel
aside. Solipsis unleashes thousands of hiding survivors. Medved and
Percival are among the very first to reach the televators.

“
This
better work!” Medved shouts. He lowers Percival's torso into a
televator and lays into his own.

The
doors close, then the doors open back up. Percival stands up, able
bodied. “The neural net is still down.” Behemoths head
for those who have gotten to the televators, smashing them with their
giant fists.

In
the Comatorium Control Room, part of a broken display shows:

Neural
Net Restarting : 89%...90%...91%

Dragons
spray fire over the survivors who have gotten to the televators.
Percival and Medved close their televator doors and are safe from the
flames. Others aren't so lucky. Some survivors stay in place, hoping
the televators will turn on. Some flee. Still many more are pouring
in from the ruins of the city.

Dozens
of cult members sit at computers on the simulation floor. They are
controlling the angels, dragons, and behemoths. The atmosphere is
growing more and more tense. They had been ruling this world with
impunity, and now their plans are falling apart, perhaps moments from
turning completely against them. They all concentrate at their
consoles, maiming and incapacitating as many people as they can.

Lazarus
and Paul drag Renee between vats, leaving a trail of hydraulic fluid.
“Maybe this will change your mind,” Lazarus says as they
press her face against the glass of a vat.

“
That's
Nellie.” Lazarus aims at Percival's suspended brain. “Turn
it off.” Paul holds the display up to Renee, waiting for a
password.

In
the Comatorium Control Room, a broken panel says:
Neural
Net Startup Complete

The
cultists at computers try to defend the televators, laying waste to
many people, cutting them in half, decapitating. But even these
efforts back fire as they create a killing field lined with torsos,
bits and pieces of people that are still fighting. Severed heads are
carried along by the broken bodies, torsos and remnants of people
like the bucket-brigade, sending the heads to the exits. Every avatar
that gets to a televator represents a robot that's free inside the
building now.

“
They're
inside!” a cultist shouts.

“
Stay
at your consoles! Keep them in Solipsis!”

“
But
they're coming,” a cult member says ominously. He abandons his
console, picking up a sub-machine gun and aiming at the door.

“
Stay
at your consoles!”

Heavy
footsteps approach. The door crashes open and an animatron runs
screaming into the room, only to be cut down by gunfire. In a shower
of sparks, the animatron falls limp just past the doorway. The
distracted cult members look to the door, hearing many more heavy
footsteps approaching rapidly. Two more cult members grab guns and
prepare to hold off the robots.

“
Everyone
else stay at your consoles!”

A
wave of robots breach the door, all cut down by gunfire. The entrance
is littered with robot bodies and hydraulic fluid pools on the floor.
While they reload, another wave strikes. Some cult members are able
to quickly make their guns ready, but it becomes a chaotic scene.
Peter breaks through the line. He grabs the first man at a console he
finds, squeezing his neck and throwing him against the wall. He
rampages through the men at consoles, killing, maiming, destroying
everything in his way. He's struck down by a hail of bullets, his
animatron falls limp.