The robotic people like Flicker were beyond formidable, but looking around I saw bits and pieces of them strewn about almost everywhere. What monster had the Code created that could have done all this?

I looked to Flicker, but she shrugged, as if to say that she had no idea either.

Apparently sometime after Flicker's transformation into robotic form; version 2.0 had been put in the works, only it had bitten back. Worse than that was the thought that it might still be alive.

It had been a year and a half since the collapse of the Code. It was a long time for anything to be still alive shut up in here, but looking around I had to acknowledge that there had been plenty for it to eat. If it was still alive it would be very hungry by now.

I was as bad as a kid freaking himself out by watching scary movies that his parents had forbidden him to, but I couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that seemed to overwhelm me.

Stop it, I told myself mentally. Get what we came for and get out and make sure to lock the door on the way out.

Closing the door would not be the only thing that took place on our exodus from the facility. I'd make sure that this place blew sky high from the explosives that I had brought along with me. There was no way I was leaving this place for anyone else to find.

First we had to find the device, which was going to be hard given what a jumbled mess the place was. Where was Flicker?

She wasn't in the room with me any longer!

I quickly moved over to another room and with relief I saw her. I was about to tie into her mentally for leaving me without notice, when something about her stillness gave me pause.

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I stepped up beside her. She stood in front of an elevated table that had operation room written all over it. I stayed silent waiting.

"The very worst nightmares aren't the ones that you can imagine, but they're the ones that have actually happened." Flicker said.

"What happened here on this table?" I asked softly wanting to provide her with an outlet for what she needed to share with somebody else, even though hearing of her torture was the last thing I ever wanted to hear about in life.

Her face quivered, as tears dripped off her chin to land in the grime of the floor, "I was asleep and then I woke up, but I couldn't move. I tried, even struggled to get up and then I realized that I had no arms or legs. I screamed and screamed. I can still hear the sound in my head. I saw them then, the scientist and their assistants all gathered about me. They were laughing! Two of them even picked up my own severed arms and started slapping each other with them! I can see it all as if it was yesterday."




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