Chapter two- Souls

Get up. This is not over.

Everything hurt. It was hard to move. My left arm seemed to have stopped working, hanging lifelessly by my side. There was a tear along the fabric of my leg, which made walking all the more difficult. I did not want to move.

Get up.

There was so much anger in the voice. And I felt compelled to listen. The voice was the only thing I had, wasn't it?

I stood, searching in the darkness for the device. As my eyes slowly began to adjust, I found it, bringing it close to my stitched-up chest. I began to limp slowly, not knowing where I was heading, but I didn't think it mattered. All the voice demanded of me was movement.

A shape began to form in the distance. It was small, as I was. As the others had been. Except this one seemed lifeless. Two feelings caught in my throat. One was sadness. The other, hate. I couldn't understand why.

Once I was close enough, I began to make out details. The small shape also resembled the others. A small tuft of hair stood atop the doll's head. Its skin was formed from striped fabric. One of its eyes was significantly bigger than the other.

The device shuddered in my hand, causing me to lose the small grip I held it with. It fell onto the dirt, snapping open without warning. I fell back, rather startled. Green light began to glow around me. I felt satisfaction fill me. I did not know if it was my own, or the voice's.

A green beam shot from the device, into the inmobile doll. Within seconds, the device snapped shut once again, leaving me back into the hands of darkness.

The doll began to move. I was filled both with fear, and curiosity. Could I trust it?

Once it had sat up, its eyes snapped towards me. It tilted its head sideways, judging me just as I judged it. Moments later, it smiled at me. "Zero,"

The voice was soft, both shy and confident. More like 9's than my own, or 7's. It was a him then. "Zero?"

He nodded his head, a dopey smile tugging his small mouth upwards. Then he pointed at himself. "6."

"You're 6." I nodded.

Seemingly satisfied, his eyes wondered around, stopping when they reached the device. A small gasp escaped him, and he picked it up, hugging it close.

Keep moving. There's more like him.

I slowly began to understand what I was doing. There seemed to be. . . Life, trapped within the device. And I was giving it back. I smiled. Giving life. . . It couldn't be bad, could it?

No, not life. Souls. I was returning the souls, trapped inside the device.

I reached for it, but 6 moved it away from my reach. I frowned. "I need that."

He simply stared.

"Please," I reached again, but with the same result. I shook my head. "Follow me, then."

6 nodded eagerly.

I couldn't complain. The darkness felt a little less suffocating, knowing there was someone else by my side. Our progress was slow. 6 wandered around, running back and forth, while I limped forward with an agonizing rhythm. I felt impatient. No. It felt impatient. The voice. I slowly began to discern my own feelings. And all I felt now, was pain.

"Zero!" 6 waved at me, pointing upwards.

I looked up, realizing that's the only direction we could go now. "Climbing. Pleasant."

6 snickered. I smiled. It felt good to do so.

The impatience inside me grew stronger as we climbed. With 6's helped I managed to do it at a much faster pace than I would have, had I been alone. I began to wonder about the others. What were their stories? How had they come to find the device? What was the device?

I expected the voice to answer, but nothing but silence resonated within my mind. I guessed it didn't want to share any information it didn't need to. I could feel the answers within me, hovering just out of reach.

When we reached the top, all I wanted to do was crumble. But the alien impatience pushed me forward, towards the next shape in the ground. This one's face was frozen in an expression of anguish and surprise. One of his eyes was missing, replaced instead with a patch of thick leather. 6 placed the device close to the new doll, his eyes wide with hope.

"Friend." 6 said, patting the doll's small head.

The device shuddered, mimicking the same routine as before. When the green light faded, the doll's eyes began to blink, slowly adjusting to the world.

"Friend!" 6 shouted, his smile widening even further. The small doll before him stared in surprise.

"6? It's . . . It's really you." Low voice. Soothing. He ran a hand through his head, shutting his eyes momentarily. "I . . . what happened? I don't. . . remember. I remember The Machine and then I. . ."

The doll flinched, seeming to recall an unpleasant memory. His eyes finally came upon me. "Who are you?"

"I-." Didn't know how to answer. Luckily, 6 replied for me.

"Zero!" He shouted with glee.

"Zero? That's your name?"

"I . . . guess." The doll before me seemed to have far more vocabulary that 6 had. It was slightly intimidating. The more words he knew, the more he was bound to use to make questions. And I didn't have any answers. "It's what. . . he's called me since he woke."

"Woke? So you . . . Brought us back?"

"Well," I pointed at the device, which had found its home back within 6's arms. "The device did."

"Oh. . . Well, Zero, I'm 5."

"5," I echoed, nodding my head.

"Do you know where the others are?"

Ah. Something I did know. Although I wasn't to eager to return, seeing as to how I'd stolen the device. I pointed across the broken bridge. "They're on the other side. I. . took this from them. Then fell. That's where I found 6."

There is yet two more. You must continue.

I held back the urge to keep moving. 5 looked across the small abyss, frowning with worry. Then, as the rest of my words settled, he turned back towards me. "You took it from them? Why?"