Mable: This takes place during chapter five, after Abe left Vesper's apartment and before he returned… Enjoy!
Within Reach
Chapter 7: The Guardian Angel
Vykker's Pavilion, a grounded version of Vykker's Labs located in the grimy bottom dregs of the city of Nolybab. A place of foul research instead of healing, kept barred from the general public as to hide whatever twisted experiments were happening in the sealed labs that were the building blocks of this place. It was a nightmarish; who knew how many met their end here being pumped full of the Vykker's toxins.
It was a miracle that Abe had made it inside at all. The security around the pavilion was moderately tight, but he had found a weak spot- climbing above the pavilion using the walkways and then going down into it through the air ducts and pipework. Surprisingly, it had worked, and he managed to squeeze in without much detection. Though that wasn't saying much as many of the labs were locked behind security doors that he simply couldn't get through.
The meager glimpses he did get of Vykker's Pavilion were not promising. A messy surgical theater, empty holding cells waiting for their next prisoners to hold, stretches of tiled floors with rusty stains filling in the cracks; it gave him chills. He didn't find any Mudokons on the way in- he had found more traversing the city than inside the complex- and was in for a nasty surprise when he caught his first glimpse at the security staff.
Instead of typical Sligs, Vykker's Labs was patrolled by Interns. Interns were particularly unsettling creatures; tall, lanky, with long-stretched heads and stitched up vertical mouths. Their fingers were long with too many joints to count, and they walked on legs that bent in what looked like unnatural angles. If Sligs scared Abe because of what they could do, Interns scared Abe because of what they were.
That being said, this was not the first time Abe had seen an Intern. Accidents were common back in RuptureFarms and injuries, or deaths, could lead to a decline in productivity. Though instead of making the plant safer, Molluck would occasionally have a medic sent in to do rounds and wrap up any quick procedures in one go. These medics were almost always Interns.
Abe had unfortunately been the recipient of more than one of this assembly line surgeries and each time had been a horrendous experience. Sedation was used, mostly to keep the Mudokons from moving during the work, but the amount was wildly inconsistent. During one experience you might be able to feel every stitch as its going in, during another you might be knocked out and be groggy and confused for days- and still expected to work.
Needless to say, he wasn't fond of Interns, so it was a relief that he wasn't having to engage them head on. He couldn't afford to be seen and there weren't any Mudokons waiting to be rescued, so he could just slip by without any guilt. The thought of having to touch an Intern enough to tape it up made him feel uneasy in a way he couldn't explain.
Thankfully, his guide knew where she was going, and instead of letting him find the way for himself like usual instead nudged him in the general direction of somewhere. Currently he was heading down a dank passageway towards an unknown location. He could feel cooler air on his feet and knew he was coming to an opening. He started shuffling down a little further when he hit a particularly slick spot and lost hold with his left hand.
He scrambled to hold on as he plummeted downward and just barely managed to get ahold of the sides again before he could fall straight out. It didn't necessarily do him much good though, as his legs were now dangling out in plain sight. Thankfully, the room he was lowering into was especially dark and it didn't sound like there was anyone nearby, so he looked to make sure he could see the floor and then quietly dropped down.
The thump of him hitting the ground seemed to echo in the cavernous room, the noise giving him a better feel for how large it was. The floor was made of cold, unforgiving tile and it was so dark that he couldn't see the walls or ceiling. There was only a single source of light, a white spotlight mounted on a column towards the center of the room and aimed down at something that looked like a pedestal in the center of it.
This room gave him a strange feeling. Abe couldn't tell if his guide meant to lead him here or not, but something felt significant about this place. He cautiously looked and listened for any signs of life before carefully making his way to the center.
The pedestal was strange to say the least. Not really a typical kind of narrow and tall pedestal but instead wide and cushioned with a slightly bowl shape to it. Mounds of blankets were laid out on it, woven and dyed in a way that almost resembled what he had seen in native Mudokon tapestries, but not quite. One of them hung off the front of the pedestal and he felt compelled to reach forward and touch it.
It felt… Familiar. No, not felt. Something was familiar about it, but he couldn't put his finger on what that was.
Abe grabbed bunches of the fabric in his hand and lifted them to study them closer. It wasn't until he lifted the fabric closer, cautiously daring to press it against his cheek, that he knew what it was. It was the smell that came from it. It was hard to pinpoint it, not even strong or distinct enough to describe, but it was a smell he remembered from years ago.
It smelled like her.
But where was she?
Abe looked over the pedestal in confusion, now recognizing it for what it was: a massive bed. This must've been where they were keeping her. He looked over it in surprise and confusion. Why did she need such a big bed?
That was when the light suddenly shifted. Abe froze up as the spotlight turned and rotated around, causing his shadow to circle until it was laying across the very bed he was staring at. He could hear something mechanical humming right behind him and could feel the light peering over his shoulders. Eyes wide and teeth clenched tightly, Abe began to slowly look back over his shoulder.
A glowing white face stared back.
"ABE."
"GAH!" Abe yelped as he jumped back away from the creature. The backs of his knees hitting the edge of the pedestal and sending him falling back into the bedding feet up. The large face followed closely, hovering over the edge of the bed and overtop of him, and he crawled back in a panic. It was then that he saw its many, many arms as it eagerly closed in on him.
It reached for him. Abe closed his eyes and raised his hands in defense-.
"BE NOT AFRAID, ABE. I AM YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL."
Abe slowly cracked his eyes open to see that the machine had stopped where it was. It smoothly swept one of its arms forward and brushed his arms downward, then reached in with another arm and poked at his right stitch with a cold, metal finger. He looked down in surprise as it traced crisscross over his stitches.
"I KNEW YOU WOULD RETURN."
"Return…?" Abe looked up at the glowing screen in confusion. This seemed to confirm his suspicions. "I've been here before…?"
"MORE THAN BEEN. YOU WERE BORN HERE."
It finally moved back, revealing that it was not hovering but instead attached to a lengthy arm connected to the ceiling. Its large, white face was actually a projection on a screen mounted to the front of its orb-like body, showing a ghastly image that somewhat resembled a Mudokon. Its extra arms stuck out like wings at its side while the two in its front, the ones that touched him, folded together almost contently. An illuminated halo was mounted over its head.
He had seen one of these machines before, but he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that the cartel used them as interrogators. It seemed weird that Vykker's Labs would have one.
Without looking away from the screen, Abe scooted forward to sit on the edge of the bed. His heart was still pounding, and his stomach felt sour as he stared up at the intimidating creature looming above him.
"Who… Where…?" It seemed like he knew the answer to every question. All except for one. With large, pleading eyes he asked, "Where is she?"
The Angel hummed through its body in a way that almost sounded upset, or like it was letting off literal steam from somewhere.
"THEY HAVE TAKEN SAM TO THEIR FLYING LABS. VYKKER'S LABS 13. THEY KNEW YOU WOULD COME FOR HER."
"Sam?"
"YOUR MOTHER."
Abe's heart dropped. They knew he was coming, and they had taken her somewhere else. He didn't even know anything about Vykker's Labs except that apparently there were at least thirteen of them, a rather high number if he was expected to go through each one. He came all this way for nothing. She was gone. He couldn't see her; he couldn't meet her.
…Her name was Sam. Now he knew her name.
"SHE LOVES YOU," the Angel said. It leaned in closer to study him and his reflexively tilted his head back. "SHE STILL SPEAKS ABOUT YOU. WONDERS ABOUT YOU. I TOLD HER ABOUT YOUR ESCAPE."
"She knows about me?" Abe perked up with almost excited interest. He fumbled for questions before gesturing at his stitched lips. "Did she… Did she tell you why she… These?"
"I WAS THERE," the Angel revealed. His eyes widened eye more as he leaned in with interest. "YOU WOULD NOT STOP CRYING. THE OTHER HATCHLINGS WOULD BE SETTLED BUT NOT YOU. THERE WAS ONLY ONE WAY TO QUIET YOU."
That was not the answer he was expecting, as shown by how his mouth dropped open in horror. "Wait… Wait, are you saying… THAT'S why she stitched my mouth?!" He almost felt sick. Suddenly he was much less excited to see her in person.
"YES. AND IF SHE HADN'T THEN YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED. SHE DID IT TO SAVE YOU," the Angel clarified. That sickness dissolved right away, but it was replaced with a sad sort of pitted feeling. Abe fell silent as he listened to the machine continue. "SHE SAID YOU WERE SPECIAL. I THOUGHT SHE MAY HAVE BEEN BIASED BY YOUR COLORING BUT NOW I SEE SHE WAS CORRECT. YOU ARE DIFFERENT. YOU ARE SPECIAL."
Abe's head fell and he stared down at his feet. He felt like he had just ridden on an out-of-control emotional minecart and felt just as exhausted and beat up as if he got off of one. He always wondered why she had given him these and thought it was connected with this would-be prophecy he found himself constantly attached to, but no, it was to save his life.
She didn't stitch his lips for the good of the Mudokon race, she stitched his lips for him. She had saved him. Maybe she really did love him, but how could she when she didn't even know him?
"YOU MUST FIND HER AND TAKE HER AWAY FROM VYKKER'S LABS," the Angel said, interrupting his thoughts and getting him to look at it again. "SHE TOO IS ENSLAVED."
"What?" Abe's eyes widened again. He hadn't even been thinking about her reasons for giving them to RuptureFarms, but in hindsight this was the most obvious answer. He almost felt bad that he had doubted it, that he had thought she would actually willingly sell them away. "Why would they want her…?" he asked, dreading the answer.
"BECAUSE SHE IS NOT JUST YOUR MOTHER."
The Guardian Angel suddenly lifted away and traveled through the air, lowering itself down near the far wall and searching through what looked like a stack of crates of some kind. There was a tearing noise as it pulled one of them apart. Abe stood up from the bed to follow it over, but it swung itself around and returned before he could. It held out a piece of one of the cartons and Abe took it and turned it over in his hands.
The piece of the carton showed part of a logo of what looked to be a cartoon Mudokon face along with two cryptic words: Labor Eggs!
"SHE IS EVERYONE'S MOTHER. EVERY MUDOKON YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN. SHE IS THE MUDOKON QUEEN."
The Angel didn't need to elaborate, Abe suddenly knew exactly what it meant. He looked to the nest bed, to the walls where in the shadows he now noticed hollow niches waiting for something to be place inside, like said eggs. This was the nursery where he and the other Mudokons were born, and where his mother was kept producing her eggs. It was a devastating realization and he ached for it.
"WILL YOU FREE HER?" the Angel asked simply. He looked up at its screen for a paused before nodding definitively. "VERY GOOD. SHE LAID HER TRUST WELL."
"How do I get into Vykker's Labs?" Abe asked. He reached back to put the piece of carton into his bag before pulling it up securely onto his shoulders. He looked to the Angel attentively and waited to receive further directions.
"HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?"
Abe blinked. "I, uh… I snuck in."
"DO THAT."
"But…" He was almost dumbstruck by how quickly it decided it was done and started to leave, raising itself up towards the ceiling, like it was preparing to take the position it had when he came in. "Do you know where it lands? Where it docks to fuel up?"
"VYKKERS LABS DON'T LAND."
"Oh…" he said defeatedly. He gave a tired exhale and accepted that this, like everything else, was going to be extremely difficult. It wasn't like he could ask anything more either because he knew what it was going to say. He had an airship, he made it to Nolybab in one piece, he made it in here without getting caught, so he had no excuse to not make a go at it.
With a small hum, he looked around for a door out of the room. Eventually he managed to find a set of large, swinging doors which seemed to be the only way out, as he was sure he wouldn't be able to go back the way he came. He quietly pattered across the tiled floor towards them only to be interrupted by an intrusive squeak of metal from behind, loud enough that it caused him to wince.
"ABE."
Abe turned around right as the Angel swung itself in and flinched back only to have it stop a few feet behind and above him. He was bathed in its white light once more.
"WHEN YOU GO OUT THAT DOOR IT WILL TRIGGER THE SILENT ALARM. DON'T LET THE SILENCE FOOL YOU. THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE HERE," the Angel warned.
"…That's good to know," Abe said in a small voice. The last thing he wanted to hear too.
"AND ONE MORE THING," the Angel added. "ONCE YOU FREE YOUR MOTHER YOU MUST TELL WHOEVER IS TO TEND TO HER ABOUT ME."
"Okay, sure… Why?"
"SO THEY WILL KNOW OF ME BEFORE I COME TO FIND HER."
That line with no additional context succeeded in creeping Abe out, but he kept his mouth shut and nodded obediently. The Angel asked nothing further and instead raised back up into the ceiling. He watched as it perched itself up on one of the columns before shutting its screen off. He almost felt a little bad leaving it here alone, but he didn't really have much of a choice. Steadying himself, he carefully stepped through the swinging doors.
What followed was a very tight escape that was surprisingly similar to how he got in. After outrunning a group of Interns who nearly cornered him in the halls, he managed to find a way back into the ductworks and used that to slowly crawl his way out through the roof of the complex. Eventually, and this would be another hour or so, he escaped the pavilion and was back to climbing on the walkways.
Other than managing to snag a whole slew of delivery worker Mudokons slaves who were stocking vendos at the crack of dawn, Abe's main goal was to get out of the city as fast as he could, because unlike inside the pavilion the alarms on the walkways were anything but silent. As he was racing upwards through the city, he could hear security rousing underneath him and climbing at a similar pace.
In a stroke of good fortune, Abe managed to find one of the public lifts made for carrying larger groups at a time that would be able to cover multiple levels, if not get him directly to the top. It gave him the chance to catch his breath while covering much more ground. As humid as the city was, his skin felt clammy in the morning smog, and lungs felt heavy trying to gulp in air. He couldn't wait to get back to the blimp.
Outside the grating on the lift door, he could see the city slowly drifting downward as he carried upwards and out of it. What a haunting place, it was just as bad as they had always heard. Not quite what he had expected, but a grimy, muggy pit full of Glukkons and Sligs nonetheless. Just because he got out relatively easily didn't mean it was any less intimidating than when he first came in.
He wondered how close he was to the surface and looked at the illuminated number displaying what sublevel he was on, and it was at that moment that he realized he was rapidly closing in on Vesper's level. Not that he recognized it beyond the number, after all the traversing he had done he could've believed that he was halfway across the city by now. Far from the small apartment he had spent the night in.
He couldn't help but smile a little when he thought about last night. There were some unresolved feelings about the freak out and worry about it happening again which Abe didn't want to think about right now, but everything else had been so comforting. For a little while he had been able to escape from his responsibilities and the weight always present on his shoulders. It was a somber thought but a warm one.
Abe had hoped to get out of the pavilion without stirring up security, so that he would have one last chance to go back and see Vesper. Subconsciously he might've been hoping to have an excuse to stay over another night, even though he knew it went against his mission. It wasn't just because of the perks either. Sure, food and a safe place to sleep were always appreciated, but he could tell it was something more than that.
Vesper was different. Not just in the sense of being another species, Vesper made Abe feel differently than he did around other Mudokons. Affection was not that rare when it came to the others, though he never felt like he could go out of his way to ask for it, but the affection exchanged with Vesper had felt so much more intense. It didn't feel like he was being comforted by one of his brothers and he didn't feel like he had been letting him down accepting it.
Just the thought of it made his stomach do weird things. It felt like it was getting twisted, but it was a pleasant sort of sensation. A giddy excitement that was normally reserved for the highest of successes and even then, it didn't feel like this.
He really, really liked Vesper. It was a shame he wasn't going to see him again.
Which Abe reluctantly accepted as the lift approached and then passed the level in question. All of that fluttery warmth was dashed into a cold sinking sensation in his chest as he came to terms with this. While he wanted to imagine that someday they would see each other again, he knew better than to get his hopes up. It was a one and done deal and, while it had been nice while it lasted, he had to return to reality once again.
Though he knew when things got rough, he was going to hang onto those memories, and hope maybe someday they would see each other again. Maybe he would eventually return to Nolybab and sneak into the city one night, find his building, and offer him a way out- if he hadn't already left. Or maybe on day out of the blue, he would return to the Mudokons only to find Vesper among them, having tracked him down. Unlikely, but possible.
Someday they would see each other again, Abe was certain of it.
…
Someday wasn't quick enough.
He hastily pressed the emergency stop button and the lift came to a sluggish halt. He stood there for a long moment considering what he was about to do. Security was already on his trail and in a matter of minutes the city would be abuzz looking for him. Here he was so close to making an easy escape and he was about to throw it all away for a chance that may go wrong. Swallowing down his doubt, he sent the lift back down.
As the lift neared the level, Abe lifted his pendant in his palm and looked to his guide. She looked back with glossy blue eyes filled with attentiveness and acceptance, as though she already knew what he was going to ask.
"Help me get back to Vesper?"
She smiled back, closed her eyes, and lit the way.