Chapter 12: Chapter 8 – Be A Hero, Save A Life

"Hey. You okay?" Spencer asked Alice seeing her shiver a bit from the cold.

Zeel noted that Spencer was like a hawk, carefully watching Alice until she showed a kink in her stoic armor.

Spencer proceeded to offer his jacket to keep warm her up, but Zeel immediately intervened in the conversation.

Alice, at this point, had grown increasingly annoyed by Zeel's possessive actions but she also noticed that he held himself back a fair deal – almost as if Zeel had little experience with controlling his impulses.

"Here," Zeel said taking a cuff located on his bicep.

Alice looked confused, staring at Zeel with a deadpan gaze "I'm fine!"

'What could a cuff do anyway?' She thought internally.

"Come on," Zeel said understanding her lack of interest due to her primitive mind.

Zeel pulled Alice toward himself, with his strength she could not refuse.

"It has an internal temperature modulating system to keep the body temperature within tolerable limits," Zeel explained briefly.

While he didn't feel cold, the nanites inside his body required a perfect temperature sensitivity to awaken at optimal capacity.

While Zeel and Alice were getting along for the first time, Spencer jumped into the conversation, though he did it from the opposite side of Alice, careful to avoid Zeel's piercing eyes.

"Do you remember anything?" Spencer asked while staring intently at Alice.

"No. Nothing before the train." She replied.

"And you?" Alice asked.

"No. Nothing," Spencer replied.

As a savior should, Kaplan interrupted everyone's conversation "I found an alternate route, but it's gonna cost us time. We double back, cut through Dining Hall B... then we're right on track,"

"We're behind schedule. So let's move it. Come on," James said leading everyone away.

Had they stayed a bit longer, they'd be able to see the drowned lady open her eyes, which would give them all a scare.

Zeel was able to catch the scene from the corner of his eyes but thought nothing of it.

Zeel thought it was the current Universe's Primary Biological Weaponry. Besides, such weak Zombies was no threat to his life, and why would he care about the life of anyone there?

A few twists and turns later, the group now stood in front of what seemed to be a floor reminiscent of every horror movie ever watched since childhood.

The eerie atmosphere of the floor was like saying 'Please come in to die!'

"Where I am from, they said never go to such places. My mother is Eutopian-African so I'm part black. My father said we die first in such places," Zeel said recounting the lessons from his childhood, not aware that everything he said made it that much more difficult for James to give an order to explore the supposed 'Dining Hall'.

Zeel didn't know that his statement would somewhat sensitive in the current era. Where he came from, everyone no longer segregated based on skin color, religious belief, or any other primitive concept.

"Dining Hall B," Kaplan said looking a bit confused by what he was currently seeing "That's what it says on the map,"

"Maybe you're reading it wrong," James commented also a bit peeved.

"Maybe the corporation's keeping a few secrets down here. Something you're not supposed to see," Matt spoke for the first time since entering The Hive.

"I like you, rats live just short of cockroaches," Zeel said in a complimenting tone of voice, though nobody in their right mind would actually take his attempts as an actual compliment.

"Rain, keep the prisoner. Everyone else spread out and be cautious. Keep it tight. Move it," James commanded as everyone dispersed to investigate the shady-looking floor.

Alice began wandering around feeling a bit out of place near the group, especially with Zeel annoying her.

Truth be told, she was warming up quite a bit to his annoyances. This both surprised and scared her since she could tell Zeel was a very dangerous person.

Zeel, on the other hand, felt right at home. He walked around looking at the containers and examining the monstrosities on the inside. He then proceeded with extraction, this area had exactly what he required – huge amounts of mercury-variants.

This area of The Hive was primarily used for tissue generation and their method of tissue production used enormous amounts of mercury-variants in combination with other substances.

Ripping out a container from behind one of the chambers, Zeel proceeded to chug down the liquids inside.

He would have preferred to wait a bit longer, but the current situation was not exactly promising. Still, he stopped consuming Mercury-variants just below the threshold required to awaken the nanites.

That way, he could delay the hibernation period until he returned to a safe location.

"Why do you keep following me around?" Alice asked not minding that Zeel was consuming something that could poison him to death.

With any luck, he'd be too sick to continue following her.

Zeel wiped the Liquid Mercury from the corners of his mouth as he responded "You know I actually don't know! It's a bit confusing for me too since emotions are new for me!"

"What?"

"Nothing, Let's just say it's an investment on my part. And you're the product I'm investing in,"

"What happens when your investment doesn't work out?"

Zeel walked toward Alice and placed a knife at her throat, he then cranes his neck a bit until his mouth is near her left ear.

"Then you eliminate it!" he whispered breathing onto her neck.

"Careful what you say, sometimes an investment can cost you your life," Alice replied as a dagger was pressing against Zeel's abdomen area.

The two looked at each other and flash genuine smiles on their faces, appreciating for that moment, they were the same kind of people.

Still, Alice was a bit peeved, she noticed that her body and mind somehow wanted to be near Zeel. This started the moment she stared into his eyes coming down the stairs.

"I said keep it tight," James said popping up out of nowhere with the reminder, but Zeel was sure he waited for the perfect moment to mess with their intimate moment.

"Sorry. I'm not sure I want to remember what went on down here," Alice said after hurriedly turning away from Zeel and staring into a nearby chamber that had a mass of tissue that looked truly disgusting.

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"I don't blame you," James said.

"I think it's a bit beautiful. The evolutionary path that your world chose," Zeel commented more for his own self, but was still overheard by James and Alice who just wrote it off as the rambling of a mad man.

James ordered Spencer along with Rain to secure the 'Dining Hall' as a precautionary measure before moving on.

                                                                        ∞∞

After a couple more twists and turns, the group made it to the terminal access point. From here, they could access the core of The Red Queen.

Kaplan began working his magic on the computers. Zeel could not fully understand what Kaplan was doing.

For Zeel, programming was akin to a caveman trying to draw a planet on the wall using mud. You can't understand what he was doing, but after seeing the final picture, you can then infer with great difficulty.

Going from a super-advanced civilization to a primitive one was a confusing experience. While Kaplan had to write code, Zeel just had to use his intentions alone.

At least, that would be the case when his nanites re-awakened.

"Red Queen's defenses are in place. She's making it difficult," Kaplan said with Zeel behind him analyzing the code and learning at speeds impossible for the humans.

All of a sudden the door unlocked and James said "Let's pack it up!"

"Wait I don't think it's a good idea to head in there right now!" Zeel said stunning everyone in place.

He was the most powerful, all of them would likely die before him.

"You stay here," James said dragging a duffle bag with an EMP into the transparent corridor made up of glass and other impenetrable metals.

"What is that?" Zeel asked clearly interested in the tech James was dragging behind.

Half the reason Zeel was in this corridor was mainly to see the peak human tech of this world.

"That's what will shut the Queen down. Delivers a massive electrical charge. Scrambles the mainframe and forces it to reboot," Kaplan replied in a bragging tone overhearing their conversation.

"Well, I guess I'll go with him", Zeel said entering the door.

However, not long after they entered, the doors shut down automatically, sealing them inside.

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

All of a sudden, highly concentrated laser beams activated and made its way towards Zeel and James at moderate speed.

The pattern was basic at first with a single line that was easily avoided. Soon, it increased into a multitude of laser beams; Zeel and James were dodging the beams as if the beams were their ex-girlfriends.

On the outside, you could hear Alice yelling at Kaplan to get the situation under control since she was someone who naturally cared for those around her.

"Some kind of dormant defense mechanism. Opening the door tripped it," Kaplan replied trying to type code faster than should be humanly possible.

"Put it back to sleep," Alice yelled.

"Working on it,"

By this time, the fourth round of lasers was about to begin, Zeel felt a shiver run down his spine all of a sudden.

"James step back quick this one is a bit tricky,"

"I got this!" James replied.

Zeel considered for a moment since his intuition was telling him this would be the Red Queen's killer shot.

Zeel wore a special synthetic polymer on his body that had reflective properties but not enough to completely bounce the laser beams away; however, it could cause enough interference to make the grid collapse.

Zeel thought 'Since you wanna be a hero so bad. Let me help you save a life,"

Zeel then talked to James "Wear this it could help in the case we get burned,"

James, not questioning Zeel's action, quickly put on the coat Zeel gave him.

After James was finished wearing the coat, Zeel mumbled a low 'sorry'.

Not long after the lasers turned into crosshatches, Zeel jumped and kicked James in the back, sending him cascading towards the laser grid.

A sizzling sound was heard, not that dissimilar to cooking fish in oil. James' body was dismembered into fine pieces of flesh.

The reflective properties of the coat made his body last a bit longer, destabilizing the laser grid just enough for an opening to be presented.

Zeel jumped and made his body horizontal to the ceiling, falling he did two rolls followed by two hops and a duck that managed to just barely avoid a laser from splitting his head in perfect half.

The reflective properties of the coat he had given James was just enough to interfere with the lasers.

When everything was over, Zeel watched as James' body on the ground slowly split apart into fine pieces.

Zeel vomited a bit in his mouth. He has seen many dead bodies and killed many too, but laser sushi? This was the first one for him.

Not long after, the door opened and he rushed out, not wanting to risk any more confrontation with an AI that could turn people into Sushi at will.

Kaplan and Alice's faces turned grim when they saw James' dead body inside.

"Could've been worst," Zeel said eyeing Alice carefully, he was sure she had seen him kick James to the dogs without any hesitation.

Alice, however, showed no outwards reaction to his stare as if saying 'It was only natural'.

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