5
Marcus looked down the stone corridors in the heart of the abandoned subway tunnels. He listened for a moment, and then sighed relief. "I think we're safe now... I doubt they could follow us so far in the tunnels."
Sekhmet was nervous. "The Twins could…"
"Follow, yes. Track? That's iffy," he replied. Sekhmet smiled. "Good point. Thanks." He slumped against the wall, and opened his coat. "Hasn't stopped bleeding...." He inspected the Twin-inflicted razor wound. Her eyes widened. "Marcus…" She knelt beside him, pressing her hand to the wound to try and staunch the blood flow.
He shook his head. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. I'm 'undead' remember?" "But… if you lose enough blood, won't you need more?" "Point," he said, looking down at the slash mark. Then he looked around, an expression of ironic amusement on his face. "You know... in my original function, I'd be getting rid of places like this."
Sekhmet tilted her head to one side. "What did you originally do?"
"I deleted useless or redundant programming once it stopped having a function."
She was silent… for a long moment. "Programs like me?"
He shook his head. "No, I didn't delete whole programs. I just trimmed them." "Oh," Sekhmet replied, looking thoughtful. He looked questioningly at her. "What about you? What was your original function?"
Sekhmet smiled wistfully. "Sunrise."
"More glorious than my job."
"Yeah, but we're replaced really fast."
He cocked his head. "Why?"
"No sunrise is the same. As soon as it starts getting repetitive… I think I've lasted the longest."
"Ah." He thought for a moment. "I was replaced because I didn't work fast or efficient enough. Glitches got past me. I couldn't hit all the redundant programs fast enough."
"How long did you do your job?"
"I'm not sure."
"How long have you been an exile, then?"
"I'm also not sure... when you live in the dark, time has a tendency to blur."
She impulsively hugged him. "Well, you look like you're about nineteen or twenty." "That doesn't say much," he replied. "I think the bleeding's stopped." She drew her hands away and checked. He was right. "Well, in any case, you're older than I am."
He stood, pulling his coat around him. "You're thinking in human terms."
"So?" she asked him.
"Point... after all, I suppose you looked relatively human while you did your job."
She nodded. "More so than I do now…," she looked sadly at her tail. "My form was job-dependant -- and not always human." He started to walk down the corridors again. Sekhmet dropped it and followed him.
"Now... where do we go from here?" Marcus questioned. Sekhmet spoke hesitantly. "I… have heard of rebels… human rebels… within the Matrix…"
"Me too. What about 'em?"
"Maybe… they could help us?"
He gave her an odd look. "How?" Sekhmet sighed. "Give us a place to stay, maybe undo the Merovingian's extraneous programming in me…?"
He thought over this as he walked. "Good plan." She brightened. "You think so?" he nodded. "They may be the only people we can get help from." "Yeah… I hope they'll be willing to, though," she said.
"Everyone hates the Merovingian. They'll help."
Sekhmet smiled, then frowned. "Now… if only we knew how to find them…." "I think, when the time comes, they'll find us." Sekhmet gave Marcus a curious look. "Life has a way of working out like that," he replied.
"All right…."
In the opposite direction, but quickly closing on the programs' location, a young woman with short blond hair ran as fast as she could through the abandoned tunnels, her great jacket flapping as she huffed through the labyrinth, taking blind turns in an attempt to lose her relentless pursuers. Great... you've gotten yourself into a jam here, Pyre.... just who are these government psychos? And that Poni chick... what was her problem?
Sekhmet's cat-ears caught the sound of pounding feet and froze. "Someone's coming!" Marcus looked around for a hiding place. "Damn... we're out in the open." "Any shadows?" Sekhmet queried urgently. He gave a few quick looks. "Here... in this alcove. If we bundle up close, maybe we'll avoid attention." Sekhmet nodded, running to it with him.
Just a second after the reached it, a young girl, somewhere between her teens and early twenties, crashed down the hall. She had short blond hair, which was dyed red along the tips. Panting loudly, the girl collapsed to her knees, dust now covering her grey sweat pants. "I... can't... run... any... more...." She huffed, struggling to get back to her feet as sounds of pursuit began to sound behind her.
Sekhmet sucked her breath in. "Marcus, we have to help her," she whispered, getting ready to run for the girl. He looked over at her and nodded. "But how?" "Maybe we can fit her in here with us? I'm not very big…"
Her head snapped over to the two programs. "Oh great.... more weirdoes." She stood and started to back up.
Sekhmet stepped out of hiding, her hand up to show she was unarmed. Okay, technically, she wasn't, but…. "Wait, please. We won't hurt you."
"That's what those freaks in mirror shades said," she replied.
"Mirror shades… Agents?" Sekhmet looked back to Marcus for confirmation. "Fuck if I know...," the girl replied. Sekhmet's eyes widened. "Marcus! If Agents are near…."
"Yeah... I know. We've got to hide her." He looked around a bit. "There was a culvert about fifty meters back... we could hide there, if you think you can make it."
The girl sighed. "Sure, why not. Let's go."
Marcus led the way while Sekhmet brought up the rear, keeping an ear out for agents. The sounds of approaching dress shoes running at fast speeds came closer and closer. Sekhmet swallowed, hoping they'd be able to hide before the agents caught up. Marcus finally leapt into the culvert, his arms snatching out and pulling the two girls in after him. Sekhmet clung to him, burying her face in his coat, unaware of her tail brushing against the other girl.
The girl shied away. A tail!!!? Holy Christ! Sekhmet didn't notice just yet. She could still hear the agents. The sounds of feet in dress shoes echoed past... and then stopped for a moment in front of the culvert. Sekhmet clung tighter to Marcus' coat, twining her tail around her legs to keep it hidden.
"Where is the girl?" one emotionless voice asked.
"We can't get a fix on her. She may be half-logged out of the system already." Came a second voice.
Half-logged out? What do they mean by that? Sekhmet wondered. The youth huddled down closer, almost not daring to even breath. Sekhmet gently slid an arm around the other girl's shoulders, trying to offer comfort and support. She looked to her and smiled weakly, but said nothing. Sekhmet smiled back, also silent.
After a few more minutes of incomprehensible speaking, the Agents wandered off, although still seemingly on high alert. Marcus and the girl still dared not breath. Finally, Sekhmet's grip on Marcus' coat loosened, and she peeked out just a little. The broken hallway was empty. Completely and totally. She came back in and whispered, "Do you think it's safe?"
The girl shook her head, huddling against the wall. "I don't want to chance it..." "I agree," Sekhmet replied, looking to Marcus for confirmation. Marcus nodded. "We stay here a bit longer… just in case."
The younger program nodded, sinking to the ground with a sigh. "I think… Agents may scare me more than the Twins," she told Marcus. The girl gave them an odd look. "What does that have to do with anything... Twins... Agents... cat people... the Matrix... what the hell's going on?" Sekhmet sighed. "I'm not supposed to look like this."
The girl just stared. "Yeah... yeah, now it all makes perfect sense. Thanks." "I'm not too sure myself," Sekhmet answered. "I guess me knowing a lot about the Matrix wasn't considered too important.
She blinked again. "Right. The Matrix. Okay. Sure."
"You're the one who asked."
"Where's the Scottish chick when I need her?" she mumbled. She took a cell phone out of her pocket. "Ever since she gave me this thing..." Sekhmet blinked, confused, and looked up at Marcus.
Marcus shrugged too. "What does a cell phone have to do with anything?"
"A girl claiming to be the hacker Poni gave it to me... said she'd tell me what the Matrix is... the truth about the world, and told me to call her if I was ever in trouble," she said, looking at the thing half-repulsed, half-curious.
"So why don't you call her?"
She looked over at the two. "I'm not sure... after those mirror shades chased me... is it really worth it?"
"Probably," Sekhmet replied. "If there are Agents after you, you need all the help you can get." She sighed. "Alright, I'll call." She dialled a number on the phone and waited. Sekhmet watched, huddled by Marcus' feet. Marcus held her.
"Yeah... hey... it's Pyre. I'm in the tunnels by the sub... you already know? Okay... how long? Alright... good. Bye." The girl closed the phone and leaned against the wall. "They'll be here in about five minutes."
Sekhmet nodded, a wave of doubt beginning to come over her. Surely the rebels would realise she and Marcus were programs? Marcus seemed to be coming to the same conclusions... but they couldn't just leave her here...
Sekhmet smiled weakly. "Maybe… they won't delete us?" she whispered. He smiled. "Remember what I said about them finding us?"
The girl, Pyre, gave them an odd look, and dusted off her lime green shirt. "This has been a very strange week."
"You have no idea." Sekhmet replied.
"I'm being chased by rejects from a bad kung fu movie and rejects from a bad X-Files episode. I'm huddling in a sewer with catgirl right out of bad shoujo and what appears to be a vampire. I think I have some idea."
Sekhmet looked confused. "Shoujo?" She shook her head. "Never mind." Sekhmet looked at Marcus. "What's a shoujo?" he shrugged. "No clue." She sighed. "So… I guess we wait." And wait they did… until new footsteps began to trod down the passageway.
Sekhmet drew in a short, sharp breath. "They're here…."