Chapter 23 – Zulu 4 [Part 2]

Walking through the orderly arranged workshop, the sound of metal on metal ensured that he was deaf to all else. The green dyed vision from his right eye combined with his left eye that saw the natural state of the large workshop floor was giving him a headache. Even with the headache though, he couldn’t take his eyes away from watching the robotic arms heat, break, cut and move the things they were making.

Had the metal work not naturally require large orange flames to keep them mendable and produced constant sparks from the cooler cutting of them, the room would have been pitch black as no other light was turned on.

There being only one source of constant white light, that seemed like nothing but a dot when he first spotted it, he was naturally heading towards it. Like a moth to a flame, he wasn’t questioning anything he saw. There is a plan. That was what he was thinking, what made him follow the instructions to find Zag. Zee wouldn’t leave me with her without good reason.

Wiping the sweet from his forehead, I need a towel, he thinks to himself as his uniform was already soaking wet. Why do I even need to sweat? He questions as he knows that his body temperature was already twice the norm.

Ideal Body Temperature. 18 – 72 Degree Celsius

“Zag” he calls out seeing the words appear, but as he had expected, receives no reply.

Ever since he saw his headgear state [Communication Disconnected] over 3 hours ago, he hasn’t been able to get in contact with her. There is a plan he thinks again as he looks down and behind at the small box shape like car following him.

“How is this fun and exciting?” He questions it before looking back in front, knowing that he wasn’t going to get a reply.

Night Vision De-Activated

Having reached a point where the source of light that was once nothing but a dot now seemed to occupy half of his vision. The sudden change of green to natural lighting makes him shut his right eye and try to rub it, but fail in doing so. The glass covering it prevents him from touching it.

In turn, shutting his eye tightly, and shaking his head from side to side, This is going to take some getting used to, he acknowledges before looking back up and ahead to see a sudden change.

The machinery at this point change to implement the use of conveyer belts, the sudden transition from ground to table was stark and did not flow well. However it was both irritating and beautiful to see, as the unison of movement from ground to table spread across both east and west of him for as far as his natural eye could see. Watching things move in sync was always something he found pleasing to see.

**** 4 Communication Established

“Hello there,” Zag speaks into his ear, cheerfully, loudly and clearly despite the fact that his noisy surroundings should’ve technically made it impossible to hear, “You’re moving faster than I had expected you to.”

“It would have been easier if you gave me a map.” He replies, still heading towards the light.

“Have you even tried to retrieve one?”

“Am I not meant to get to you with what you’ve given me…like all the other times.”

“You are.” she says back, “What we gave you is on your head.” With the sound of cranking coming through, “Use your head.”

“Use my head.” He repeats then thinks questionably retrieve map.

Classified

Personal Map Booted

A transparent image of where he has been and what he has seen appears over his right eye, transparent enough that he can see what’s ahead of him, but not so transparent that it’s difficult to see what is being displayed. Still though, annoying as only half his vision shows it.

“I’m not authorized to be here?” he questions once seeing the word [Classified] appear.

“We are authorized to be everywhere.” She answers as the sound of gears turning starts up, “authorized no matter what anything or anyone says.”

“You’re telling me to break into files that are classified?” he shouts unintentionally, “Just authorize me!”

“What’s the problem?” she asks, sounding surprised, “Have you not already gained access to restricted material without permission?”

“They weren’t,” he replies, “Those supposed restricted material are only frowned upon, it was not illegal by law to access them.”

“Ha,” She releases one loud laugh, “Is that what you tell yourself? That because the things you accessed without permission is not stated in written words it is not restricted material? That even though it has been said multiple times in spoken words, but not written that it is not illegal?”

“The restricted material I accessed was history, philosophy, culture, arts, science and past government policies,” no longer loudly, “none of which is technically restricted.”

“If everybody says that something is restricted, and majority of people believe that it is, but it is not written in words. Does that make what the people say is restricted restricted?” sounding amused, “Who makes the laws? Is it the people or is it the ruler? Does that matter though? Should we not look at who enforces the laws? If someone says white is black, and everybody starts saying that white is black, then proceeds to enforce that judgement onto other people, soon making everybody who does not agree with it say that white is black, does that not make it true?”

“What I accessed is and should never be restricted!” he states back his belief, understanding what she was saying.

“What could happen if everybody knew history, philosophy, culture, arts, science and past government policies? Could people not start yarning for other things, could people not start wanting to use weapons that cause irreversible damage? Can a revolt not occur if too many people start having too different opinions? Is it not correct for us to remove the chances of this from happening?”

Staying silent he does not reply to the questions, instead choosing to stop and think.

“Is the life of the majority so bad even though they do not know? Does it even matter that no one knows of it? If people are happy with their way of life should it not just stay the way it is?” she continues her rant as the small box shape like car drives in circles around him, “The people agree that what you have gained access to is something that shouldn’t be made available to everyone, even though they do not know what it is, they have agreed to it.”

“That is only because they don’t know anything about it!” he states back firmly, “if they were to only look at it themselves they would want it, and not deny it like what has been happening.”

“But they don’t want to look.” She answers, “Is it wrong that they don’t?”

Going quiet again he just ponders the question.

“The answer,” she continues to speak, “is that it does not matter!” she starts laughing hysterically.

“What!?” he kicks the toy car, making it fly “How does that not matter?!”

“The people’s opinion does not matter.” Stifling her laughter, the toy car safely parachutes back to the ground “People’s opinion in general does not usually matter.”

“The people’s opinions do matter!”

“People are often stupid.” She states flatly, as he hears the sound of gas being release feed into his ear “Request the map, your I.G.S will retrieve it for you.”

“Authorize me.” He replies angered.

“You have told me that the people’s opinion do matter, but then state that their want to not know the past is incorrect.” She sighs, as sirens begin to wail in her area, “You have gained access to materials deemed illegal by the majority and yet state that it is not.” The bright white light blinks off.

Night Vision Activated

“You are currently being nothing more than a hypocrite. You tell me that the people’s opinion do matter, but perform actions telling me that you believe they do not. Retrieve the map.” She states

“No,” he says again, “This place,” He unconsciously waves his hands to indicate the floor, “Is obviously something the normal person has no way of accessing, this place is rightfully classified! If the normal person cannot access here, that I have no right to gain data to it.”

“We,” she says as if she was having a headache, “are not the normal person. You are no longer the average person. We are different. Get the idea that we represent the normal person out of your head. We no longer do. We are separate from them. We are a part of the military but not in the military. We are authorized to be everywhere, no matter what anything or anyone says.”

Sighing for a long second, “Now retrieve the map and come to me.” She states sounding satisfied that the argument was finally over.

Scratching his head in frustration, “Argh” he shouts before sighing. He could not find any fault in her last rebuttal. He was no longer the average person. The average law no longer applies him. He knows that the unit has special privileges, he has seen Zee use these privileges an untold number of times.

Retrieve Map he thinks

Access To Server Established

Map Retrieval Completed

The transparent image of the workshop’s three dimensional blueprint appears expanded upon his right glass. It zooms in than out, above then under. Giving a quick, in depth overview of his location before setting in on a location with him in the centre and a 100m radius transparent outline of the room around him.

“I have the map” he tells Zag

“Good,” she replies, “Now get into the state you were in before and run towards the direction you were before.”

Shutting his eyes and concentrating, he feels his heart beat, his lungs expand and shrink. He finds that he can feel it more precisely, and it comes to him quicker. Opening his eyes, it stays maroon in colour.

“Run you said?” he asks.

“Focus on your leg muscles as you do though” she instructs

Doing as he instructed, he feels his blood circulate quicker and muscles contract, taking a step forward he runs. Running faster than he thought possible. The wind pressure he feels throws him off balance, making him stumble and go head first into the conveyer belts.

Tumbling over them, he breaks the mechanical arms and rolls under multiple belts.

“Did you really just fall over?” Zag asks laughing at the incident.

“Ye..Yes” he stutters pulling out a screw in his right hand.

“Well, get up and try again.” She tries to stop her laughter, but fails

Grunting he gets to his feet, cuts and bruises line all across his shoulders, arms and back. Looking at where he fell he sees that not just one or two conveyer belts had been halted, but over a what seemed to be two dozen had been disrupted.

Shaking his head to right himself, he looks ahead and runs again. This time not falling from the air resistance, he can’t quite tell how fast he is running, nor is his vision too well either, blurry fazed figures is all he sees.

“STOP!” he hears Zag shout into his right ear.

Responding to the yell he forces himself to halt but feels the ground shake, making him involuntarily jump. His sight un-blurs as he flies through the air, revealing him in a wider area. No lights are apparent and only the green coloured vision allows him to see.

Smashing shoulder first into a wall, he falls quickly down to the ground gasping and sees a four metre high robotic figure with six limbs. A ball with three limbs at the bottom supports it to stand up right, whilst the other three move freely above the mid-point. The letter Z could also be seen on each limb.

“Sorry,” Zag apologizes, not sounding sorry “I was trying to catch you but missed!”

Sitting up against the wall, he clutches his shoulder in a pain. “You could have told me how to stop before telling me to run.” He answers back.

“I could have,” the robot moves like a ball towards him, “But where’s the fun in that!”

Standing up to face it, “You’re in there aren’t you?” he questions. “The noise I was hearing was you getting it ready?”

“Yep!” She says happily, “I’ve been wanting to test this thing for a while now, but the others didn’t want to help me”

“And I will?”

“You will.” She sneers, “Else you’ll just be in pain.”

A robotic arms flies horizontally from his right. He jumps and braces himself for impact, not even believing that he’ll dodge.

“Nice!” she shouts, as he dodges and thus she makes another arm come from above. Smacking him back to the ground, “don’t worry,” she says, “I’ll stop before you die!”

“You’re crazy!” he spits as he crawls on the ground.

“I’m not,” she respond, using another arm to grab him by the neck, “You’re not even trying!”

Gasping for air, “Stop!” he tries to yell but sounds like a puppy yelping.

“I’m doing this for a purpose,” she responds casually

“No..” he struggles to in the grip, “..aching” he states feeling his blood flow somehow quicken.

“There we go,” she says happily letting him fall to the ground, “your eyes are now red”

--------

A/N

How do you guys find Zag so far? Took me a while to get those questions Zag asks down right.

Ended up re-writing this chap quite a few times because of that ~

Do you guys find the multiple rhetorical questions annoying? Firs time using that many in quick successions.

Thanks for reading by the way. And as always, Hope you enjoyed it ^.^