Escape from Metal
Chapter 17: Suspected traitor

Location: Rebel HQ brig.

Jake didn’t feel so good. His head was killing him, and he could feel the blood pumping in his head.

He slowly heaved himself up as he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. The light rushed into his eyes and felt like tiny knives were stabbing them. A side effect of the headache he guessed.

Around him was a relatively symmetrical room save for the potted plant in the corner. Red light washed through the room. Jake quickly turned to face the source of the light and found a wall of red facing him.

No doubt a prison cell with some sort of energy field. He’d seen them before, he tried his best not to remember where and how he knew that. A dark feeling came over him as the memory crept at the edge of his mind.

“So, you’re finally awake.” Akilina said as her voice reached out from the shadows. “You bloody psychopath, I knew I should have thrown you into the pit when I had a chance, you almost killed me.”

“I never…” But before Jake could finish his sentence, he heard footsteps leaving the room.

“I never tried to kill you.” He said softly to himself.

Jake’s back hit the wall as he sunk against it. He stared at the energy field. With little on his mind. Waiting for anything to happen and maybe get answers to why he was in a prison cell.

Finally, after waiting for what felt like an eternity the door opened. Dan quickly stopped midway between the two rooms.

“Hi, Jake.” He said.

“Hi.”

“You know you’re lucky she called me, if not I dare not imagine what would have happened.” Jake kept silent and drooped his head again.

“You’re in quite a bit of trouble but… uh since you’re new here and I can’t believe the story of how you went from barely being able to pull the trigger of one of the most basic rifles. To nearly beating Akilin in hand to hand. I’m going to give you a chance to say your say.”

“Well…I don’t exactly have anything to tell.” Dans eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“Is that an admission of guilt?”

“No, well I’m not exactly sure. I-I can’t remember anything. One moment I was at the range the next I’m stuck in this cell.”

“Tell me Jake how is that possible, I’ve seen some pretty strange things here but never heard of anyone with as selective amnesia as yours.”

There was a slight pause between the two men. Jake got up from his slumped position and started walking from side to side very slowly. Taking one step at a time almost as if his legs were stilts.

“Look Jake, I get it some people enjoy hurting other people. Some people might do something rash and try not to take responsibility for it but at the very least you could tell me which one you are.”

Jake tried to look Dan in the eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. So, he settled for looking at Dan’s shoes. He never noticed before how clean they were and didn’t exactly look suited for the jagged ad deteriorating areas outside.

“I…I can’t remember anything.” Jake said the words barely leaving his mouth as he said them.

“What do you mean you don’t remember anything, do you not remember the last week or couple of weeks.”

“No.” Jake said pausing for a couple of seconds before continuing.

“I can’t remember anything at all. I woke up a little over a month ago in one of those towers. There were… dead bodies all around me and I didn’t know what my name was. I’m not even sure if Jake is my real name, the name tag on my shirt said, Jake.”

“All I remember is a giant battle on some scarred world. Huge ships crashing into the ground. It’s not clear but I get these flashes and then it’s blank and I wake up somewhere else.”

“You’re the first group of people that haven’t tried to exploit me.”

Dan was taken aback by what Jake had said and was no longer sitting but instead standing with his hand on his chin.

“I’ll have to discuss this with the others, Jake.”

“Does that mean you believe me?”

“I’ll be back in a day or two,” Dan said as he left leaving Jake to the potted plant and the red hue.

*

After what seemed to be too long the door finally opened. Jake’s eyes burned with the fresh light running into the room. Akilina and Lee stepped through the door.

Akilina turned off the energy field from a panel next to the cell. Lee quickly raised his hulking gun and aimed it at Jake.

“Walk.” Akilina said pointing to the open door.

Jake not wanting to become a splatter on the wall quickly complied. Not because he felt afraid of the gun but something else. A creeping feeling. It crawled up his spine and into his mind. Terror, fear, anxiety.

He wasn’t sure what emotion it elicited staring down the barrel of a gun, but he knew what this feeling was. This wasn’t the first time that he started down the eye of death. He imagined how irrationally uncomfortable this made him feel last time it happened it was not among such tolerating company. Jake’s deep thoughts had made him stop dead in his tracks.

“The lady said move.” Jake’s hesitation wasn’t going to be tolerated.

Jake was escorted back to the living space where he first met the seeming leaders of these ragtag bunch. It was a lot bigger than he remembered. The furniture was all done away with in favour of several chairs arranged in a circular fashion, all facing one single chair. It seemed this one was broken and had no back support.

Only Dan and Akilina took a seat on one of the chairs. Lee seemed to be standing in one of the corners of the room his weapon on standby.

“Where are the others?” Jake asked.

“They had other matters to attend to.” Dan said.

“Before we decide what to do with you Jake, I wanted to ask you a question.” Akilina said.

“Have you heard of the planet Tagon, I suppose not since you claim to not remember anything. Now, Tagon is a relatively backwater planet. It is mostly covered with jungles and has nothing quite significant about it. You could replace it with almost any other planet in the galaxy and it would make no difference. Except for one thing that had caught my eye. It had quite interesting birds of prey. Quite big actually almost as big as a man.”

“When these birds of prey grow up the females develop their ability of flight months before the males do. As soon as they are able to start hunting and providing for the flightless counterparts. When the time comes, and the males are able to fly the females must choose a mate. They will slowly soar over all the prospective mates until they see one that catches their eye.”

“In a flash, they will dive down and grab the male by its wings with their talons and fly as high as they can and start diving again. After a few seconds, they will release the male and pull away from them. Now keep in mind the females only choose the males that pull up the latest and closest to the ground on their maiden flight.”

“Now the male has two choices pull up as soon as he can and surely survive but become an outcast and never replace a mate again or he can dive as long as he’s able. Picking up tremendous amounts of speed with each second. If he decides to go as far down as he can and survives, he will secure a mate for life. However, in most cases when the males try to pull out from the dive, their wings snap from the sear strain of the speed they are going at and then they plummet to their deaths in the last few seconds. Knowing full well. That they failed.” Akilina had been pacing around Jake all this time, slowly walking around him. She took her seat next to Dan.

Dan seemed to almost instinctively roll his shoulders after she had told the story.

“Thank you for that…lovely story Akilina.” Dan said.

Jake shifted in his chair nervously fidgeting with his hands not sure where to let them lay. Even though there were only 4 of them in the room Jake could feel Akilina’s eyes boring into him. Jake didn’t dare make any eye contact with her and it looked like Dan was about to say something. Jake opted to instead bounce his eyes between Lee and whatever part of the room he felt most appealing at that moment.

“Jake… Jake.”

“Huh, yeah?” Jake said as his attention was pulled back to Dan.

“Did you hear anything I said Jake?”

“Uh, yeah sure.” Jake said trying to mask his anxiety.

Dan gave Akilina a knowing look and leaned back in his chair. He took a deep breath, paused for a few moments and spoke.

“You can’t stay here Jake.”

Jake wasn’t surprised by this. He knew whatever he was going to tell him wasn’t going to be good news, he could feel it. Even though it went against every screaming instinct he had to know why he had to ask them.

“I’m not even sure what you’ve accused me of and now you want to banish me?”

“We have over two dozen witnesses Jake.”

“How is it that I can’t remember anything, you know something and you’re not telling me. Forget about telling me what’s wrong with me can I at least know what the hell I’m doing here?”

Jake mentally recoiled at his own words. It felt unnatural for him to be so aggressive. It felt out of place. He just couldn’t remember why. He couldn’t replace the memories that were tied to this feeling.

“Fine.” Dan said visibly preparing himself to recall whatever it was, at least in a mental capacity.

“More centuries ago, than we can count humanity was thriving across the stars minus a couple of wars. We started building machines to help us. To fight for us, work for us and take our burdens from us. One day we built a station above one of the core worlds. It was mainly built to help manage the planet. However people started disappearing. One at a time. Now the station that served us has changed and moved far from humanity. It figured out how to remake our bodies and put us in the new ones. Now we serve it.”

“That was until a couple of months ago, I’m not sure exactly how it happened but a rebellion began and pushed the machines back to their innermost sector and here we are trying to survive.”

Jake’s foot was tapping the ground at a rapid pace now. He could feel his fear boiling under the surface.

“So… we have no idea where we are and can’t leave?”

Lee’s voice broke through the silence from the back of the room.

“For the moment.”