Jackson could no longer walk.
He was half delirious and on the verge of death from all the blood he'd lost.
Eric considered killing him, but the numerous biometric locks which dotted the base made the supervisor retain some use.
So Eric walked through the corridor, dragging Jackson along by his collar.
He checked each room within the ward but was met with no sight of Victoria.
Nearing its end, doubt had begun to settle in Eric's heart.
He was tired. Beaten.
Blood caked his face in a horrifying mess.
His nerves screamed from Narcosa's torment, making every movement torture.
The new scar on his belly throbbed, its stitches tugging in protest at the abuse he put them through.
Sharp jolts of pain sometimes blinded him mid-step, a result of his waning adrenaline.
Eric wanted to stop. To remain still, sit and rest.
He wished the anguish would vanish.
"Are you insane?!" Eric screamed into the silent hall, jolting Jackson from another bout of delirium.
'I must not forget who I fight for.' Eric gnashed his teeth. 'What I fight for.'
His shaky breaths grew steady as he trudged forward with renewed vigour. 'My life. My sister's freedom'
They reached the end of the hall.
Looking down, his hope was further emblazoned by the system's holographic arrows pointing into the last room. It looked more like a containment facility.
Eric glanced at the terminal to its side and unceremoniously slammed Jackson's head against the scanner.
The door slowly hissed open. Cold gas gushed out as the lights gradually came on.
[SECONDARY ENERGY PRINT REACHED.]
[HEAVEN'S LOOM MARKED.]
[RECALIBRATING DIRECTIONS.]
Eric watched the arrow trail bend, leading deeper into the base.
The room was empty of equipment.
Small, cold and of the facility's sterile white.
He saw her in the corner, huddled into a human ball.
Her skin, an unhealthy pale. A result of years without sunlight.
She was thin. Her skin hugged her so tightly, it showed detailed outlines of her bones.
The faded V-neck tunic and straight-leg trousers she wore, underscored her fragility.
Each new detail he saw tore at Eric's heart.
His eyes grew reddened.
Victoria's head snapped towards the intruder. Carefully watching Eric with her brown narrowed eyes. This brought a small smile to Eric's face.
"Hello Victoria." Eric croaked out, his voice uneven in tone.
He watched her deep set frown turn into a look of puzzlement, then disbelief.
Warily she stood, her head zipping between Eric and Jackson's unmoving form.
Her breathing became hectic and her body began trembling.
"Eric..?" Tears pooled in her eyes as she gazed at her bloodied brother. "Eric!"
Chills went down Eric's spine when he heard her voice.
"Sister." He called.
With a speed contradicting her current state, Victoria dashed at him, embracing him in a tight hug.
Wrapping his arms around her, Eric feared he would break her ribs.
They both wept into each other's clothes, drenching themselves in tears.
Eric dove his face deeper into her hair for comfort.
All the unease, doubt and pain of his past life along with the torment of what he had done to get here were pushed to the back of his mind.
'I fight for our freedom!' Eric thought solemnly.
He revelled in the moment.
"Why are you here?" Victoria asked breathlessly, breaking from their hug. Her eyes were the same deep red as Eric's, but with a shade of worry.
"To get you out of course." Eric replied matter of factly.
"To get me out...?" Victoria whispered, her mind still reeling.
For a precious second, the world shrank to the feeling of his sister's presence. Then, the blare of a distant alarm shattered the silence. Eric's face hardened.
Composing himself he wiped his tears and continued. "Raz is supposed to extract us. If he's not here then he's not done with the secondary missions yet."
"Raz?" She muttered with a nostalgic smile that deepened her stupor.
'I can't leave her alone in the base, Raz has no way of finding her. And we can't both stay here. The guards should be clearing all the subjects of interest for evacuation. With that alarm, no doubt they'll comb this area soon.' Eric receded into his thoughts while Victoria was still in a daze.
'The system's arrows point towards a dead section of the base. It might be safer there and we can wait till Raz reaches us. But it's an unknown...'
'The other option would be us trying to find Raz through what I can remember from the Base's layout. From how long he's been in the base he should be at the data banks now. That presents its own risk of taking us right into the heart of the mayhem and starting a wild goose chase.
'Known known or known unknown?' Eric thought grimly. His mind stirred, thinking the best solutions that didn't involve much gunslinging.
Then, an idea flashed across Eric's mind.
'Might as well start exploring the limits of this thing.' He thought.
'System, is there anyway to determine if there are hostiles close to heaven's look's location?'
A short pause came where Eric held his breath in anticipation. Victoria watched him with a perked brow, his odd demeanor breaking her from her stupor.
[ATTEMPTING COMMUNICATION WITH HEAVEN'S LOOM]
[CONNECTION SUCCESSFUL]
[REQUESTING SENSORY DATA FOR HOST'S PATH]
[SENSORS GREATLY DAMAGED, RELEGATING HOST AS AMPLIFIER]
'Wait what?' A quizzical look settled on Eric's face at the last notification. Then he sensed it.
A wave of ...something, hurtling at him from the direction the system led.
Instinctively, he switched to his Qi sight.
It still stung from his recent use but he muddled through the pain to watch a great swathe of blue hues barrel towards him.
Before he could even think of reacting, the great blue substance enveloped Eric.
It felt cool and weightless, a wave of pure information he could sense rather than a physical force.
But the immortal core in his chest began heating up, causing him discomfort. He grabbed at the wall to remain stable.
"Eric?" Victoria called worriedly, noticing his grimace, but blind to the spectacle Eric underwent.
Before it worsened, the blue hue entered Eric's body and he felt it converge within the immortal core.
[DATA RECEIVED]
[MINIMAL HUMAN THREATS DETECTED ON HOST'S PATH]
[HEAVEN'S LOOM VICINITY DEVOID OF LIFE]
Eric turned to his sister as the discomfort vanished. "Yh, I'm fine."
Clutching his chest he straightened himself and continued speaking. "We can't sit here waiting. The guards are going to storm the place any minute."
Eric noticed Victoria's eyes linger on the area his hands caressed and spoke before she could voice her concerns. "So we're going on a little side mission."
After some silence Victoria finally replied.
"Another one of your adventures?" She joked.
Eric heaved a sigh of relief. Victoria not asking more questions was a sign she recognised his decisions and his unwillingness to speak about them now.
But they would be spoken about, later.
His smirk broadened at her words.
"Of course. What's life but a collection of misadventures." Eric said as he moved to Jackson.
If not for the weak breathing Eric heard from their close distance, he would have thought the man dead.
The supervisor had now become a liability with little use.
Eric had no wish to continue logging his body about while protecting Victoria. But he recognised the convenience Jackson's clearance granted within the base.
This left him with a gruesome choice.
Raising the scalpel, Eric positioned the tip at the inner corner of Jackson's right eye, where the socket met the bridge of the nose. With a scowl of concentration, he pushed.
"Huhhhh" A failed scream escaped Jackson's lips. He jerked weakly at the pain but could do little else to protest.
Eric shoved harder, burying half the blade into the supervisor's skull.
He sliced, twisted, and pulled, dyeing his palms in a new coat of red.
Blood and tears streaked out of Jackson's eye as Eric pried the eye out of its socket.
Eric continued his hideous operation till he had the dislodged eye within his palm. Pocketing the orb, Eric realised Jackson was already dead.
Staring at his lifeless body, Eric expected some sort of relief to wash over him. But nothing happened. He felt the same, not even sadness or happiness crossed his heart.
Discarding the pointless thoughts, Eric searched Jackson's clothes till he found a key card in his breast pocket.
Then he stood and faced Victoria.
He was prepared to see disgust or horror on her face, but all he met was an empty stare.
It wasn't even at him.
She watched Jackson's corpse with a silence that scared Eric.
"Victoria?" He called, waking her from whatever trance she had entered.
Her eyes refocused, but a strange, distant shimmer lingered for a moment, like she was seeing something far beyond the corpse on the floor.
"Let's go." Eric said.
She weakly nodded before following Eric out of the ward.