I really need to thank all of you guys: POL has officially hit 1,000 hits!! All you guys who hit this story rock my socks, even if you didn't like it; I try. I thought I would compliment (complement, either one, I suppose) you guys by making another chapter, so I hope you enjoy it, while I enjoy trying to figure out what's wrong with my computer.
Ergo Proxy: Proxy of Life
Month Two: part 2
Beep…beep…beep…
The noise would not quit! Re-L Mayer tried to cover her ears to try and bring back the silence that she had welcomed so gratefully just a few minutes ago. But how could she be even sure that it had been minutes? However fast or slow the time went the obnoxious beeping was not going to help her flaring temper. Some annoying scratching followed after her hands touched her ears and she made a grimace, and finally she got perturbed enough where she sat up with a start, giving at a mean glare at…
To her surprise, it wasn't Kristeva, Vincent, or even Pino. Re-L was nearly blinded by all of the white light that surrounded her, and a doctor – an actual person was standing by her side. He wore a blue mask over his nose and mouth, and Re-L stared at him with incredulity.
"Nurse, she's awake," he mumbled through the mask. Three Autoraves ran to Re-L's side, all running diagnostics on her at the same time, trying to make sure that the machines that Re-L was hooked up to were functioning correctly.
"Where am I?" Re-L gasped.
"You are in the hospital," replied the doctor.
"No, idiot, what dome is this?" she spat at his impertinence.
"This is Desdra dome."
. . .
Vincent meandered his way along the eerily empty streets of Desdra dome, kicking a small pebble along the way. He wasn't surprised that the streets were empty, the dome was so small! It was quite a change though, going from the damp, dark, cold outside to the bright, clean inside of the dome. Everything smelled so fresh, so clean, so…homey.
Vincent hardly cared about any of those things anyway, all that mattered now was that Re-L was safe, and was being taken care of by the top medicine-practiced people in the entire dome. Of course he felt slightly uneasy, but she was in better care now than she ever was aboard the Rabbit. Kristeva had done a good job, though it was still nice to have her somewhere where he knew her condition was to be stable, and stay stable, unless…
No. He forced himself never to think of the 'unless', or 'if' questions and statements these days; all of this was just too strange for him! Besides, there were too many anyways, and if he got himself started, he wouldn't be able to stop the endless torrent that would flood his mind, and make him even more hyperactive and paranoid than he already was becoming. Vincent kicked the pebble extra hard; it rolled away out of sight.
A small child ran up to him, her curious eyes looking at him like a frightened deer. She had picked up Vincent's pebble, handing it to him and saying, "What's wrong, mister?"
Vincent took the pebble, stuffing it in his pocket and walked on his way, ignoring the child.
"Wait!" she cried, catching up to him, her small red scarf bouncing along the way as she used her arm to keep her small beret on her head. "I've never seen you before, are you those new people that came in that cool ship?"
"Mm," Vincent agreed. He wanted to be alone for now.
"Wow, that's neat! Where did you come from? Are you those rebels that my daddy keeps talking about? He won't like you if you are."
"Rebels?" asked Vincent, deciding to treat the girl similar to Pino. Maybe he could introduce them later; then they would both be occupied and leave him alone.
"I'm Loretta," the small girl beamed, apparently deciding to ignore Vincent. "What do you think of Desdra dome? I know it's really small, we barely have any Autoraves, even! Did the place you come from have Autoraves?"
"Yes."
"Wow, what are they like? The only people here that have Autoraves are either the really rich people or the doctors, 'cause they've all been discarded otherwise 'cause they've all…" Loretta rambled on, excited at making a new friend, but Vincent had stopped listening. His senses became alert; his whole body tingled with how sharp and perfected the sensation had come upon him. He was beginning to feel sleepy, even though his glowing green eyes were wide open. He felt poised to kill, and he was aware that his nose wrinkled in disgust. Then, just as suddenly as it came, it was gone.
"Vincent?"
Vincent, snapped out of his trance, and looked down at the little girl, who was looking up at him curiously. "How did you know my name?"
"'Cause," she smiled up at him again. "Come with me!" she exclaimed, taking his hand and dragging him along the empty street. Loretta was pretty fast for such a small girl, Vincent hardly had time to mumble an 'excuse me' or 'sorry' when he bumped into the odd person wandering around the streets.
"Slow down!" he cried, after tripping over a crate. It was only a few seconds later when she stopped in front of a tall spire, towering above both their heads. "Whoa…" gasped Vincent. "Where is…" he began, but he realized that Loretta was no longer with him. He had hardly felt her hand leave his when they had arrived. Shaking his head at the nonsense that was beginning to form inside his head, he opened the door inside the spire, realizing that it was just the hospital in which they had taken Re-L.
"Excuse me," he said to the Autorave at the front desk. She merely gave him a glance and returned to doing her computer-work. "Um, do you know which room Re-L Mayer is in?" he asked, not a bit offended by the Autorave's inhospitality, for he was near used to it by now, between Pino and Kristeva, who were both Cogito infected.
"That is highly confidential, information denied," it droned.
"But…but…!" spluttered Vincent. "I came on the ship with Re-L, and –"
"Information denied, please leave," it interrupted.
Grumbling, Vincent wandered out the door, only to return quite sneakily, hiding behind a plant sitting in the corner of the room. A long stretcher came in, carrying a man that was bleeding badly from his head. Vincent followed the stretcher down a long corridor until he came to an elevator, and he jammed his finger in the button, hoping that Re-L was in one of the top floors.
The doors opened with a 'ding' and Vincent swore under his breath, hoping that nothing heard the small sound. He climbed in and the doors shut without a sound; it seemed he was in the all-clear, now he just had to figure out which floor Re-L was on between the three rows of buttons that had twenty buttons each. He closed his eyes and pressed a random button, feeling the elevator begin to move. He still had his eyes squeezed shut when the door opened with another 'ding'. Vincent took a deep breath and stepped out of the elevator, more than ready to begin his search for Re-L.
Approximately three hours later, Vincent hauled himself into the elevator, finally pressing the second to last button. It lit up, and Vincent felt the elevator going up, trying to keep his breakfast down as best as he could. He squeezed his eyes together once more to try and block out the now obnoxious 'ding' of the elevator as it reached the next floor, but it still penetrated through his aching skull with notorious fierceness. Vincent stumbled into another corridor that looked unsurprisingly like the one before it, and even the one before that one, and the one before that one…
He wearily dodged to one side as a couple of Autorave nurses passed by him, then continued on. He was so tired he almost passed Re-L's window altogether, and had to do a double-take, his head and neck muscles screaming at him for the sudden movements.
There she was; his angel, his Re-L. She was sleeping (peacefully, I might add), although she was hooked up to many machines, each one of them making a different tone of horrendous beeping. Vincent secretly hoped that the beeping would annoy Re-L just as much as it did him. She was so beautiful! It took his breath away every time he looked at her; her strong jaw, her prominent nose, her ice-blue eyes. She was almost like a goddess in herself, and not even her ferocious temper could dampen how Vincent loved her so.
And now he was going to be a father. How the hell was he supposed to do that? He was a Proxy for Pete's sake…he'd never had a father, he was created by Him! What did a father do? How did a father act? This was all too strange for Vincent to even comprehend at the moment, and he just let his breath create steam on the window, deciding to be comforted by Re-L's mere presence, even though it was barred by glass that he could oh-so-easily shatter.
"Identification, please."
The voice startled Vincent, and his hand involuntarily went to where his gun was usually holstered, but he found that it had been removed. Vincent stuttered at the Autorave, and when he didn't answer, the doctors swarming inside finally noticed him, yelling at him for being up here, and that this floor was extremely confidential. Two large Autoraves came up from behind him, menacing and threatening, and Vincent decided to make a run for it, for he knew what they would do if he was caught. Probably prison, interrogation, and a large ultimatum of memory erasing of some sort.
This pitiful dome probably doesn't even have the technology to do that, he smirked to himself wistfully. Given a glimmer of new confidence, Vincent bolted past the single Autorave and sprinted down the corridor to the elevator. The 'ding' no longer bothered him, and his motion sickness disappeared in the chase as it descended down to the ground floor.
When he reached the lobby, a few more guards had congregated there, and so he nonchalantly walked out the door, pulling into a run when they finally spotted him, and raced down random streets until he figured that he himself was lost enough so that they would not find him.
Vincent meandered his way along the eerily empty streets of Desdra dome, kicking a small pebble along the way. He wasn't surprised that the streets were empty, the dome was so small! It was quite a change though, going from the damp, dark, cold outside to the bright, clean inside of the dome. Everything smelled so fresh, so clean, so…homey.