89 Dead End Deal

I slowly got back on my feet to see what was going on. The scientist began doing something on the console. Suddenly, the glass doors of the tubes opened, Idil's body and her clone was released. Yet, both were standing still inside the tubes, unconscious. Not even the clone was doing anything.

I looked at them in sadness. I couldn't keep my promise, despite all she had done for me... I couldn't save her.

The scientist noticed me looking at the bodies. I looked back at him. I could see the regret and sorrow on his face. He really wanted to help, but he had no choice.

My head started itching. My ears were ringing with a high pitched noise.

This sensation was familiar. I knew what it meant.

A soft, cold breeze cleaned the air inside, and slowly began turning into a storm. The scientist and the other man was surprised.

"What is going on?" the man asked.

"No idea." the scientist replied.

"The time's up!" Thirty minutes had elapsed. The Community was here. For the first time in my life, I was feeling happy with their presence.

"Who is there?" the man asked. No one replied to him. He slowly walked to the door to take a look at the corridor nearby.

"It is now or never." Cansu whispered to me.

"Wait." I softly replied.

The glass doors of the tubes closed back again.

The scientist then left the console and went to the back of the room. There, he grabbed something from a shelf and slowly walked back. He silently approached the other man from behind.

He raised his hand, and with all his strenght, he hit the man in the head. I was startled. The man dropped down. The scientist dropped whatever he was holding in his hand, and looked at the man. After a couple of seconds, I heard a chuckle from him.

"What is going on?" I asked. The scientist's chuckles slowly turned into some sort of manic laughter.

"Please go. There is nothing else we need to do." Cansu insisted.

"Wait." I said again.

"No." she said. "There is nothing we can do. There is nothing we will gain by standing here."

The scientist slowly turned back, towards me. He was still laughing, with some blood on his white uniform. I was scared of him, but the exit door was on the other part of the room, where he was standing. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't say anything.

He ignored me and walked back to the console, still laughing. After a while, the glass doors in front of the tubes opened again. Idil's original body fell off the tube, but the cloned body stood there.

The clone slowly opened her eyes. She looked around in wonder.

The scientist left the console and got out of the room, but his manic laughter was still audible for a while.

I slowly walked up to Idil's cloned body.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"In the core segments of the underground facility." I explained.

"What is going on here?" she said. Judging by her lack of knowledge about recent events... It could be her real self.

"Cut the chatter." Cansu told me.

"We have to quickly get out of here." I said. "The Community won."

"Help me out." she said. I helped her as she got out of the tube. We got out of the room and started running. I could no longer hear the scientists.

We got out of the core segments of the facility, and started walking around in search of an exit. This place was huge, so it could take a while.

After we entered a wide corridor, the doors in front and back of us suddenly closed, trapping us inside.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" The Community had followed us as we ran away. "You have some piece of information we want to get. Now that you got what you asked for, it is time for us to get what we wanted in return."

"We need to secure our exit first. Then, you will get the information." Cansu replied.

"This wasn't a part of our agreement." the voice said. "We deny. Your lives are in our hands."

"What the hell did happen when I was gone?" Idil asked. "What did you guys agree on!?"

No one replied to her.

"Okay, let me think." said Cansu. It was next to impossible to deceive The Community again. Just when I thought we were finally safe... We had got ourselves into another trouble.

"Perhaps this will help you think." the voice said. The wall on our right began making a loud sound, and moved a bit towards us, narrowing the hallway.

"They are going to crush us!" Idil shouted.

"No, no; you got the wrong idea." the voice said. "It wouldn't be fun."

A little hole appeared on the wall, and the surrounding parts cracked open slowly. There was some noise coming from the hole.

"What is this?" Idil asked.

I carefully approached the crack on the wall to take a look. As I approached the crack, I began smelling rotten flesh. I noticed some blood dripping out of the crack.

"Oh, I hate this already." I muttered and peekd into the hole. Inside, there was someone trying to crawl to the tiny hole. On closer inspection, I saw that it was a naked adult man. He had wounds all over his body. He noticed me peeking into the hole. He looked up to me, screamed loudly into my face and tried to reach me with his fingers. I pushed myself away from the hole in horror. Idil was also startled, and she ran away from the crack.

"What is this!?" I shouted.

The man was now hitting the wall from the other side, trying to widen the hole to get through. His behaviour was resembling those of an animal rather than a human being. Perhaps he was one of the subjects who had escaped the facility during the crisis. At least that was the best explanation I could come up with.

"Hold on, I though we had a deal!" I shouted.

"And we are now gathered here to 'enforce' the deal." the voice replied and laughed. "We met your demands, but we still got nothing in return." Her voice suddenly got a lot more serious.

"Was this a part of your plan?" I asked Cansu.

"Okay, well, my teacher... Admittedly not."