Chapter Six
She had no problem squeezing in through the bars that formed a vent over the shaft of light. A series of rungs reached in both upwards and downwards directions, they were positioned at various distances between each jut, obviously designed to allow different sized robots to use it. Thankfully there were rungs that would oblige her small human frame. The next biggest decision that she'd have to make now was which direction to climb; having no idea of the layout of the facility there was no way to know whether to go up or down. In the end she figured it'd better to go down, and then maybe she could find a basement sewer pipe or something. As she climbed down a thought passed through her head, what if she was on a ship? Floating up in space somewhere and then there really was no escape, unless she could steal a shuttle and suddenly understand giant robot-eese and fly to freedom back on her fractured world.
At the bottom of the shaft she was able to gauge the distance to the top better while she stood still to look up. It looked to be at least 10 floors high before her human eyes were no longer able to register the length in the dimming light. She climbed through the bottom bars and found herself in a dank corridor. It was sparsely lit along the floor line, the occasional one flickered feebly. Staying close to the wall she navigated along the snaking corridors watching for more vents or anything that looked like it might provide an escape. Having no concept or judgement of time proved irritating to her as she reached another junction. She turned left and walked along at a brisk pace. Suddenly something grabbed her attention. She stood still and strained her hearing, what sounded like footsteps, metallic footsteps rustled somewhere from behind, but there wasn't as much weight to them – perhaps a smaller robot? It was definitely too much of a metallic sound for it to be a human escapee or wild animal that may have found its way in. The next sound that rang out chilled her blood, it at first was a snort like laugh, which suddenly began to erupt into a lengthy and insane cackling. Turning she was able to see the owner of such a petrifying sound process.
"Hello little human! Oh how happy will the Lt. Commander Arcee be when she sees how fastidious I have been in my duty!"
The small Autobot stepped out into a larger beam of light. Rangimarie froze momentarily with horror when she saw his twisted face, a grin etched deeply into his metallic features, scorch marks about the left cheek whereas the right one had what looked like a screw head sticking out.
"She will then see I'm am a cheerful mech! Cheerfully carrying out my duty! My duty of patrolling the basement levels of the ark! Then she will let me return to the City, oh yes, little human, I will be well rewarded for my delightful demeanour".
He threw his mangled head back, gripped at his sides and laughed that unnatural laugh.
Marie watched, taken aback by his obvious mental defects, she couldn't help but focus on him for just a moment longer. His laugh continued it changed in pitch and speed; he bent forward so he wasn't looking at her and laughed and laughed and laughed. Marie decided to take this as a hint that she should be running, escaping, something, anything to get the hell away from this lunatic. Doing so didn't interrupt his manic episode. Upon reaching another junction in the passage ways she realised she was completely lost and had no idea which way she'd come from and which way she needed to head. She took a right and sprinted towards another light source.
"You can't run away from me, little human, I'm a good Autobot, I'm competent and cheerful and oh so obliging to my superiors! I won't let you ruin my impressing of my superior, my superior Lt. Commander Arcee, she's my superior, don't you know little human".
His voice was tainted by the twisted structure of his faceplates. His cackle continued to echo through the bowels of the Ark as he began his methodical limp after her.
"I'm coming for you little human, you won't stop me pleasing the Lt. Commander".
He bellowed.
She found herself at another junction, on the left wall she found what looked like a garbage shoot. He reached her quicker then she had imagined. She was already up and through the metal flap when his cold fingers wrapped around her ankle, squeezing tightly around.
"I've got you little human, soon I will have pleased the Lt. Commander, she will let me return to the light! I will be free of the dark! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA".
His laugh continued. She twisted her form, pushing her hands against the edges of the shaft and then reached out with her free foot and slammed it into his face. Her heel struck the nail poking from his face, she felt it move only slightly and his laugh changed into a pained scream. He promptly let go and she slid head first down the almost vertical shaft. He slammed his fist into the wall, tearing into it, but she was already down too deep for him to reach her.
"COME BACK HERE LITTLE HUMAN I WON'T LET YOU RUIN MY CHANCES TO MAKE EVERYONE CHEERFUL AND FULL OF GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!!!!"
Eventually his giggles tapered out as she slid further away from the source of the insanity.
She hit the bottom of the shaft hard, it tilted slightly and she found herself suddenly tumbling along towards a destination which she had no control over. The destination suddenly arrived and she found herself outside in a puddle of muck, the origins of which she decided not to contemplate upon. The only thing she could give real thought to was escape, if that maniac raised the alarm that a human had escaped the lab, well, she didn't' want to think what would be chasing her across the vast American country side.