Chapter 3: Exodus
Locating an exit had been simpler than anticipated. No one seemed to think that even reploids would want to leave Neo Arcadia it seemed. The maintenance tunnels were dark, and cramped in areas, but they lead straight to the outside and were close to the ruins that Ciel had mentioned. A few teams were sent to scout and investigate the ruins for supplies and possible dangers. In the mean time, everyone spent their time preparing themselves.
A day later, the scouts returned with news that the ruins had a large stock of food, as well as a functioning generator and water purifier. That was good news for Ciel, as it meant she wouldn't be walking into a certain death. It was decided that they would move that night to release as many prisoners as they could, and make their exit from Neo Arcadia...
053 had chosen those among his brothers who would participate in the raid on the detainment center based on their familiarity with the place. They worked through the building- half of the squad lead by 053 along the right wing, and the other half lead by 274 along the left. Reaching stairs to an upper level, 053 paused. This was the 'max security' block, where the most dangerous of the arrested reploids were supposedly detained. Placing a hand to the comm device at his ear, he contacted Ciel. "Do you know if there's anyone in the upper block, Ciel?"
A few moments of silence, and she replied. "That block's empty. Either there was no one there to begin with, or they've already been terminated... Keep moving."
He nodded, continuing the search. Ciel had been able to hack the systems, and the pantheons had been no hindrance in their advance. After a while her voice sounded again. '053, is everything all right on you end?'
"Right as rain, why?" he asked.
"I was looking through the records before your squad entered. There was hostile activity detected in the cell block you're about to enter," she said. "Be careful."
Hostile activity? Perhaps there was an actual maverick in this one. "We'll watch our backs Ciel. Thanks for the head's up." He moved in, the others in his unit following cautiously.
"There may also be a prisoner loose inside the complex right now. I haven't yet detected their whereabouts onscreen yet, but apparently the incident occurred just before you arrived as they were being taken for disposal. I have direct control and vid-feed from a pantheon standing guard outside cell number 045a... You may be coming close to it now in fact, so if it moves, it's not hostile..." she responded.
"Understood, we're coming up on that cell now..." he said, nodding at the pantheon and sliding the door open. "!" He stared a moment, looking at the blood that had been smattered on the floor and nearby walls. "Looks like we were too late for one of them..." he said, noting what seemed to be a body slumped against the back wall. "Poor bastard..."
"Unnng... who's there? Come back to finish me off?"
The entire group had jumped collectively at the sudden and angered voice coming from what they'd thought was a corpse, and 053 heard Ciel's gasp in his ear as the sight of the poor reploid. He'd lost the top half of his face almost completely. Momentarily, 053 wondered if it'd be kinder to just put him out of his misery, but the medic of the group took action first. "Shit he's alive?!" he said, going to him immediately. "I'll handle this. You all keep going..." he said, un-slinging the satchel on his back. "It's okay," he said to the injured reploid. "We're here to help you and get everyone out of here."
Nodding, 053 backed away from the cell. The wounded reploid inside seemed to calm as the medic began cleaning him up. "Help...?" he asked. "I dunno who you guys are, or how you got in, but if you see a reploid guy with long dark hair running around... his name... his name's HE-22. Please find him if you can. Those damn drones were draggin' him off for disposal..." he said, before leaning back against the wall with an exhausted sigh to let the medic work.
As he finished saying that, 053's ears picked up the sound of rapid footsteps coming down the hallway. He gripped his blaster, one of the few they'd managed to hide from being confiscated, noting that the other two with him had heard it too. "Ciel, got something coming up the hall toward us and fast. Is it a guard?" he asked.
While waiting for Ciel's reply, 053 watched as a figure skidded to a stop and bolted back around the corner they'd just come around. "I think it's a person, 053. Maybe the friend that man mentioned inside the cell?" Ciel said as she backed the pantheon she was remotely controlling into a corner.
053 nodded. "I'll get him, he's probably scared..." he said, holstering his blaster and starting to the corner the other reploid was hiding behind. "HE-22? You can come out, we're not here to hurt anyone..." he said, keeping a level tone. "Your friend's hurt but he's going to be okay... He probably would be happy to know you're okay too."
The long haired reploid leaned timidly around the corner, before moving into the hall. "You aren't here to take him away?" he asked, seeming to be in disbelief.
"Not in the sense you're probably thinking. We're getting everyone out of here that we can, including you and your friend," 053 said.
HE-22 didn't waste any time. "Owen?!" he called, pushing past 035 and into the cell. He didn't stop, running up and hugging the shorter man tightly. He pulled back after a moment, trembling slightly. "My god- your face..." he said quietly.
"Eh, it coulda' been worse..." his friend replied, grinning weakly after being literally blindsided by that hug. "Anyway, it's nothing that can't be fixed up proper later on. I'm just glad you're all right."
"I hate to rush you two, but we need to get a move on before our hacker gets noticed," the medic said, gathering his gear as 053 and the other two continued down the hall.
"Yes, I'm sorry..." HE-22 said, taking his friend's hand in readiness to lead him out. "Thank you so much for this."
053 put a hand to his earpiece. "274, what's the status where you are?"
"Going smoothly" his brother replied. "We've pulled almost everyone on this side... Just a few more cells..."
He nodded. "All right. Aim to be out of here in five minutes."
"053, how's everything going?" Ciel asked as he continued down the hallway.
"Seems to be going well," he replied, looking back and watching the medic and HE-22 guide the injured reploid out of the cell. He and the other two went further down, checking cells. "Not many on this side..." he noted.
A small shuffling of movement in one of the back cells caught his attention, and he opened the door... A little girl reploid stared up at him fearfully through a disheveled mat of dirty blonde hair. He stared. She couldn't have been any older than 403... but to be locked away here...
He watched as she quivered in terror, little shoulders quaking as she wrapped her tiny arms around her equally small legs as though trying to shrink away from his gaze completely. He walked over quietly. "Hey... Don't be scared... I'm here to help you," he said softly, kneeling down to the newborn's level. He offered a hand, not wanting to just grab the frightened girl. "It'll be okay..." he said, smiling gently.
The girl flinched and shrank away - if possible - even more as 053 began to approach, but slowly seemed to relax as he spoke. Hesitantly, she uncrossed her arms and took his hand. "O-okay..." she whispered, standing up to follow him out.
"The rest of the cells are empty," one of the others said from the hall. "Let's get out of here."
053 stood, leading the child out of her cell. Despicable that a newborn of all reploids would be placed here, but there was nothing more to do now than get her and the others out. "All right, let's go. Time's getting short and we need to get going now."
"Yes Sir," the other two said. The medic had already started out with the two prisoners from before.
He carefully scooped the girl off her feet, carrying her out at a faster pace than what they could do with her following. "274, you out?"
"We're waiting by the front gate," his brother replied.
"Go on and head to the exit point. We're not too far behind you."
"Are you all done, 053?" Ciel asked. "I've just engaged the cell locks again, though I'll hold control of the Pantheons a little longer until you and the others have cleared a minimum safe distance. We're waiting near the agreed upon rendezvous point..."
053 nodded, continuing. "We're almost out. 274's group should be at a safe distance by now," he said, nearing the exit. He grinned slightly, feeling quite good about this. Neo Arcadia had been lying to everyone, even the reploids who had once policed their streets. But they would be free of it finally. And maybe, in time, they could help those who were still living in this place under these unjust laws...
The doors shuddered as they neared them, the alarm suddenly sounding and snapping him out of his thoughts. "The hell!? Ciel what's going on?" he asked, starting to run as the doors began to close and the pantheons around them began to move and react to them. "Ciel!?"
There was no response. 053 tapped his earpiece, only getting static. "No way is it ending here; keep running!" he said, sprinting for the doors.
The group passed through, the massive doors shutting mere moments after 053 had gotten through, and in the face of one of the two who'd been running with him. The SR unit pounded his fists against the door, before turning and facing the approaching pantheons.
Meanwhile, Ciel gasped as red lines of jumbled code invaded the screen on her data pad and she was forced out of the system. "Ah! No!" The pad beeped angrily, before the screen went dark and switched itself off. Feeling as though she'd been hit by a bolt of lightning, the young child jumped to her feet in shock as she realized what had happened. Somebody had discovered that the prison network had been overridden, and had forced her out as they sought to regain control!
Desperately trying to reactivate the portable pad, Ciel tried not to panic as she tried to respond to 053. "053, we've been discovered! Please hurry and escape as quickly as you can, I've lost control of the network and the pantheons will reactivate any moment!" she called. She paused to listen, hearing only white noise in her com. Setting her lips in a thin white line, the girl waited anxiously for any signs of response, or familiar green outfits as the SR Guard came to make their escape...
As she fumbled with the device, c-23 ambled over. "Is something wrong..?" he asked.
She looked up at the tall command unit, fighting back tears. "I'm so sorry, it was my fault. Somebody realized that the prison's mainframe was being hacked. They traced the signal back to my pad and forcibly disconnected it from the server, then reactivated the prison's defense systems. I couldn't stop it," she replied.
The command unit sighed almost soundlessly, about to respond, when the data pad reactivated suddenly. A male voice - obviously disguised - beginning to speak. "Think it's fun hacking other people's things? I do too, you know..." he said, the silhouetted figure of the speaker appearing on the screen. "I suppose you should be so lucky that this device doesn't have a camera function... Who -are- you, exactly?"
c-23 scowled, replying before Ciel could. "None of your f*king business. Now hang up!" he said, his voice hardening into an edge few would ever think possible.
The voice chuckled. "Defiant, are we? Oh this will be fun. Good day, sir," he said, before the device overloaded and ceased working.
Ciel stared up at c-23 as his expression softened again and he rubbed his throat with a wince. "Why did you do that?" she asked. "Oh no... Now he's going to think you hacked the prison!"
"It's better that way..." he said, patting her shoulder softly. "If they were... caught in the prison, then... it's better they think we... did this ourselves. If things... go south, you can just say... we kidnapped you."
"But that's a lie!" she protested.
"Doesn't matter... as long as you're safe," he said simply.
At that moment, 274 and his group arrived. c-18 and 165 met up with them, looking over the group. "We're missing four; where are 053, 117, 166, and 362?"
274 gave a salute. "Sir. We split up to cover more space. We got out before they did, and I lost contact just after the alarms went off, Sir," he replied.
c-18 frowned, but nodded. "Alright. Everyone get ready; we're leaving now!" he called, starting for where the bulk of the group was waiting.
Leaving? It took Ciel a few seconds to register exactly what c-18 had said before she gaped wordlessly and took a step back, her throat suddenly feeling very sore and dry. They couldn't..! "Leaving? B-But 053 and the others aren't here yet, we can't just run ahead and leave them behind!" she said, clutching tightly onto the broken data pad in her arms as though it would anchor her to the spot until the other reploids had arrived. 053 wouldn't have left anyone behind if he could help it, they couldn't do that to him just because he wasn't here yet!
165 looked at her and shook his head. "Look, we've lost contact. Most likely they didn't make it out, and if they did they might be getting tailed here..." he said. "I don't like this any more than you do, but best to save who we know we can, instead of waiting and risking getting caught and executed on the spot. I'm sorry." He turned away, motioning to the rest. "Let's go people!"
"But..." Ciel responded weakly, glancing back and forth desperately between 274's leaving group and up towards the dark corridor where they'd just come from. She didn't want to believe 165's words or that 053 might have possibly gotten caught, though he was right in that there was no sign of him yet... She frowned, not wanting to give up hope that easily. Hope was the only reason they'd gotten this far, and she wasn't done with that just yet.
"You're gonna wait... aren't you?" c-23 asked, smiling faintly.
She nodded. "I'll wait here just a moment longer and see if anything's keeping the others, and tell them where you're all headed if you're gone before we can catch up. Please don't worry about me; Neo Arcadia won't convict a human of maverick activities, and I'm only nine so technically I'm below the age of conviction anyway," she said with a grin.
"Happy to see you know that..." c-23 replied. "But don't get caught... either way. 053 wouldn't want... anything to happen to you..."
With that he followed his brethren, and Ciel started up the corridor. She shivered a bit from cold and fear as she traveled through the shadowy tunnel, barely able to see where she was going, but the child broke out into a wide grin as a familiar face emerged from her pocket and began to glow faintly. "Oh, that's much better! You're so clever, lighting up the way like that!" She grinned, cupping the little cyber elf in her palms gratefully as the route was gently illuminated with soft pink light. The elf peeped happily, pleased to hear the girl's praise. "Now... where are you, 053?" she asked, waiting.
053's feet pounded against the asphalt, along with his brothers and the two male prisoners they'd rescued. Nearing the start of the exit point, he paused, signaling for the others to also. "362, are we being followed?" he asked. It was quiet, but there was no way to be certain.
His brother looked back cautiously around the corner they'd turned. "All clear, looks like..." he said quietly. "Dammit... I can't believe we just left 166 like that."
"We didn't have time," 053 replied. "We just- ...We can grieve once we're out. Right now, catching up with the others is top priority."
"Yes Sir."
HE-22 panted for breath, letting go of his friend's hand a moment and resting his hands on his knees to gather himself. "Oh gosh... I was not made for marathon sprinting..."
As HE-22 let go of his hand, ONB6 turned towards where he was standing and squeezed the taller reploid's shoulder firmly. "Maybe not, but you're doing a good job of runnin' so far so don't stop now! Made it this far already, haven't you?" he replied with a lopsided grin underneath the makeshift bandage that was currently wrapped around the top of his head, concealing the worst of his injuries. The shorter reploid hadn't been cooped up nearly as long as HE-22, and had been steadily keeping up with the group thanks to HE-22's guidance.
"We're almost there," 053 said encouragingly as he set the girl he'd been toting down and worked with the medic to open the passage. "I'll hold it; 117, get her and the rest in there and to the evac point."
"Yes Sir," the medic said, picking up the girl and starting down the passage.
HE-22 smiled, taking Owen's hand again and leading him in. "Okay, you'll have to step down... Be careful."
"You didn't have to do all this, you know..." ONB6 said softly as HE-22 helped him down the awkward step. "Helping me out, giving me a name and all. Why'd you do it? Because I haven't really done a damn thing for you in return, least of all anythin' like that..." he said, swaying lightly as he landed before HE-22 steadied him.
HE-22 frowned as he steadied his friend. "Now don't you start talking that nonsense, Owen. You already nearly got yourself killed because of me, and I feel terrible about that..." he said softly. "Friends help each other, and that's what I'm doing. I'm helping the only friend I have right now."
The scruffy-looking reploid was speechless for a few moments as he registered HE-22's words, but his mouth slowly broke out into a wide grin as he held onto the taller reploid's hand a little more tightly. "A friend, huh? I like that... but I'll only stop talking nonsense if you get a name too. Doesn't feel right with you calling me Owen and me just calling you HE-22... Hmm, how about... Henry?" he asked.
Henry smiled. "I like that, a lot... Kind of surprised I didn't think of it myself, heh," he said, following 117 down the corridor. 362 and 053 followed quietly.
The dark passageway didn't seem half as daunting to Ciel with the little digital being in tow. It was as though she was drawing both strength and courage from the warm light the cyber elf emitted. A minute or two passed with nothing of interest happening, the sounds ahead just as faint as ever, so Ciel couldn't help but squeal in fright as she suddenly heard a gasp and gentle thump behind her. Darting behind a bin as quickly as she could, the human girl trembled at the sudden surprise, but soon became curious as she then heard the sound of sniffling. Pantheons didn't cry... did they? Inside her hand, the elf cooed up at her encouragingly, and with a shaky nod in return, the young child poked her head out from behind her hiding place.
"W-Who's there?" she called out softly, holding her small hand out to illuminate the darkness and see who or what was crying...
403 looked up at the light, eyes wide and teary. He'd tripped and scuffed his knee while trying to follow her. He sniffed again, trying to get up and go over to her. "…"
"Oh 403!" Ciel gasped as she recognized the young reploid boy, his tearful expression unmistakable thanks to the gentle pink light filling up the passageway. Jumping out from behind her hiding place, the young girl hurried to the young boy's side and hugged him happily, before bending down to examine his scuffed knee. She rubbed the cut gently with the back of her coat's sleeve - not a bad wound, but scuffed knees always felt like they hurt more for some reason...
"I thought you left with your brothers... Were you worried about 053 too?" she asked him, bringing the little cyber elf closer to them both so that more of the darkness around them was pushed away. The elf smiled upon remembering the boy's face and glowed even brighter, emitting gentle warmth.
403 stared at the cyber elf, smiling lightly and wiping his eyes dry. Footsteps and voices sounded from further up the corridor, and both children looked toward them, unsure what to do. The cyber elf peeped, flashing several times to alert the two youngsters as to the approaching crowd...
"Somebody's coming...!" Ciel whispered to 403. It didn't sound like the Pantheon drones coming their way, but the human girl swallowed and squeezed the boy's hand protectively – ready to hide again just in case.
The footsteps continued coming down the corridor, before they paused. "Am I seeing things?" a voice asked. "There's a red light ahead."
"Pantheons?" another asked, followed by the sound of a blaster priming.
A third voice spoke up. "That's too bright to be a pantheon; it looks more pink than..." the voice paused. "Ciel?" it called.
403 immediately perked up, grinning as he recognized the voice. Ciel too broke out into a wide grin as she began to make out distinct words and recognized who these people were. It was the missing group, safe and sound after all! Turning towards the reploid boy, the young human girl pointed at the dark figures just ahead.
"403, look! It's your brother! 053 and the others are okay!" she said eagerly before tugging him alongside her gently. The cyber elf flickered brightly and glided ahead, bouncing up and down happily as she guided the two children towards the approaching group. Within moments, both Ciel and 403 had reached the group, the human girl throwing her small arms around 053's waist in a tight hug and the SR child following suit. Despite 165's words, the girl had been certain that 053 hadn't gotten caught, and seeing him alive and well again after the earlier scare when his comm went dead was the best feeling she'd had all night. "You're all okay! I'm so glad! Umm, the main group has gone ahead already, but 403 and I came back to get you. We need to leave as soon as possible, they know we're trying to escape!" she said to the group quickly.
053 hugged Ciel and 403 back gently. "I'm glad you two are okay... Let's catch up with the rest, all right? It's been a long night..." he said, the group continuing.
It wasn't long before the path widened, and the exit was visible. Ciel and 403 ran through, taking off for the ruins as the sun began to peek over the cool sands in the distance. 053 watched, following quietly. So this was what Neo Arcadia was 'protecting' the humans from? Broken land that was slowly healing around them... And now it would be their home, a sanctuary for those who had been cast aside by their former home.
This was their great escape... their Exodus.