¨¨°º©o., Chapter 3: Toto ,.o©º°¨¨
The rope was breaking I could hear it snapping above us. My heart was racing so fast as I looked around trying to figure out what to do. Her head was buried into to my chest afraid to look down, or up for that matter. So at last when the rope snapped we fell. The air was rushing around us, windows filled with light streaming by.
Suddenly I reached out with my wounded arms and grabbed one of the metal bars of the fire escape. I grit my teeth as it jarred my arm the fall suddenly stopping. She slid from my arms, the inertia keeping her moving. She screamed reaching for me and I grabbed her wrist suddenly. We hung there panting, as I pulled her up.
"Grab the fire escape" I growled. She did as she was told and pulled herself up onto the fire escape. The metal clanked rickety, and attached precociously to the wall. She reached out to me and helped as I pulled myself over the metal guardrail onto the semi-solid perch.
"Thank you" she wheezed leaning against my arm.
"For what?" I asked.
"Saving my life" she whispered sitting up again. I smirked at her and shrugged out of my trench coat. I looked at my wounded arm, prodding the gash the bullet had left.
"Luckily it only grazed you" she said reaching into on of the pockets of her leather pants. She pulled out a small recognizable vial.
"Potion" I said nodding as she handed it to me. I gulped it down, allowing the warmth of the healing drug flow through me.
"Better?" she asked with a small smile.
"Yeah" I said climbing up to my feet now.
"Where to next, Dorothy?" I asked starting to climb down the stairs of the fire escape.
"We gotta meet up with my friend Toto. He's got one of the pieces of the Emerald" she said quietly from behind me.
I followed her always to Toto's flat which was across town in the My Final Heaven apartment building. The place was huge, and loomed over most of the other buildings in the city. Too bad the apartments weren't better quality.
The elevator ride up to the twentieth floor was an adventure all it's own. A wonder that it didn't crash, bringing the entire building down with it. Dorothy didn't seem to mind. The route a familiar one to her. The elevator dropped them in a dingy hallway, with a large window that was open at the end. Newspapers strewn about the wall wafted lazily around in the wind. Dorothy led the way to a door with the gold number 145 tacked onto it. She knocked hesitantly glancing at me before she did.
There was no answer, and eventually she just tried to let herself in. She shook the locked gold doorknob cursing out loud.
"Watch out" I told her as I backed up a bit from the door. I slammed into the door tumbling into the dark apartment.
"Toto?" Dorothy called following me, hesitating to flick the light on. The apartment was thread bare the only furniture a lawn chair and a beat up TV with an ancient video game system set up to it.
A yelping brought my attention to the far corner of the room. Dorothy rushed over to the man crouched next to him. He was wearing torn up cloths, and dirt was smeared across a prominent tattoo on his face. His blond hair was caked with dirt and stuck down onto his head. She backed up a bit when the dirty man yelped and snarled at her. He moved away from her on all fours, his movements incredibly dog like.
"Toto?" she whispered reaching out to her. He bit at her growling.
"Something is seriously wrong with him" I said striding across the room. She looked up at me as I grabbed his head firmly in both hands. I tipped it back moving the hair aside to reveal two punctual in the back of his neck. A microchip was imbedded beneath it the skin fused around it.
"What is it" she asked as I firmly held his head in my gloved hands.
"His brain has been hacked" I replied stonily. Brain hackers were the worst of the cyber lot. Working for pennies to screw up anyone's life the corporations wanted dead.
"What are we going to do?" Dorothy asked moaning into her hands.
"I'll hack it back" I said planting my lips in a firm line.
"You'd do that for me?" She asked looking up at him with wonderment in her eyes.
"Hell, your paying me" I said smirking at her a bit as Toto continued to bite at me.
"Of course" she said looking a bit disappointed. She stood up and hugged herself and took a step back.
"We'll need to restrain him. And a bed or something to tie him down to" I said looking around. She moved into the kitchen and I heard cupboards banging.
"Duct tape" she said tossing it into the room. It landed at my feet bumping against my boots.
"I'll take him into the bed room" I said pulling the man to his feet. He continued to bank and bite at me as I manhandled him into the bedroom. She followed me after picking the duct tape up tape from the floor.
"Let's do this" I said slamming him down on the bed. Dorothy winced a bit and brought the duct tape over. I took it from her and drew it out of the roll with my teeth. I secured him down quickly and took a step back.
"I'm going to need you to stay calm," I said. She nodded slightly fear coming to her eyes.
"Okay, what do you have to do?" she asked.
"Thinks are going to get a bit bloody" I answered yanking my gloves off one at a time.
"I can handle it" she said her blue eyes never leaving mine.
"Good. Let's begin" I said.