Chapter (40):the great escape part 1
"Hey Smiley?!" Emma asked.
"Yes?" replied Smiley.
"Can you tell me something?" Emma asked Smiley.
"Sure, of course, what is it?" asked Smiley.
"Why... do we always end up in situations like this!?" Emma screamed.
Emma and Smiley were running to escape the Golems chasing them through the hallway at high speed.
"Damn it! This isn't the first or second time! It's the fourth time we've run from those cursed forest creatures!"
"Haha, seems fun to me, playing chase all the time," Smiley said cheerfully.
"Smiley, I swear you—"
As Emma turned toward Smiley and looked back at the Golems, one of them moved its hand toward her.
Its hand shot out like a rocket, attached by a thick wire, aiming for Emma's mask. But at that moment, Smiley moved and struck it, sending it back toward one of the Golems, slowing their movement.
"Damn it! They won't even give us time to talk!" Emma shouted angrily.
"Yeah, hey! We're having a conversation here! Stop bothering us!" Smiley yelled loudly.
After Smiley's shout, they stopped running and slowed down.
"Oh, did they actually listen?" Smiley said in surprise.
But the next moment, they heard a sound ahead and saw more Golems coming from the direction they were running in. Emma was shocked.
"Damn, they're in front of us! Turn right!" Emma screamed, pulling Smiley in another direction.
Both ran quickly, turning through several hallways. Each time the Golems got close, they nearly fired their equipped weapons. Emma managed to dodge thanks to her fairy boots, but she was starting to struggle under the mental and physical pressure of escaping.
"Hey! How about a break? My friend here seems tired—just five minutes, okay?" Smiley asked.
The response he got was large spikes hurling toward him at high speed, which he dodged as easily as someone avoiding a slow baseball.
"Man, do these things even listen to a single word I say?" Smiley said, slightly annoyed.
"Do you really think those things would listen to you? They're war machines, genius!"
"Wait, how do you know that?" Smiley asked.
"Know what?" Emma replied while running.
"That they're war machines?"
"It's obvious! These things are every nation's dream weapon! I don't even know why or how they were made, but I'm sure this place cost a fortune to build."
"Ooooh," Smiley muttered in admiration. "But I still don't get it. How can rusty machines like these be every nation's dream?"
"Smiley, just keep— Wait, what?!" Emma said in shock.
At the end of the hallway, she saw dark shadows—a dead end.
"Damn! They led us into a trap. Wait, there's a door!... A steel one?" Emma stared hard ahead and noticed a strange-looking iron door on the right with yellow markings.
"It's our way out, come on— Ugh! The door won't open! Smiley, open it quickly!"
"Oh, sure!" Smiley said.
He moved fast and punched the door with full force... but it didn't budge. His eyes widened in surprise.
"What?! Is this door made of steel?" Emma said, slightly panicked.
"Oooh, a tough door. Guess it's time for the magic word."
"Just hurry!" Emma urged, seeing the Golems approaching.
"Open sesame!"
**BOOM!**
Smiley struck the door with all his might, creating a shockwave. Only a small dent appeared, but it was enough. He forced his hand in and pried open a gap just wide enough for them to slip through.
"Ladies first," Smiley said, gesturing toward the gap.
Emma squeezed through with difficulty, followed by Smiley, who slid in easily like a weasel. They were now inside the room.
"Smiley, close the door fast!"
Smiley grabbed the iron gap and bent it back into place, then pushed a nearby cabinet against it. The Golems pounded on the door, but it had no effect.
**Knock! Knock! Knock!**
Smiley and Emma looked at the door, and Emma let out a relieved sigh.
"I doubt they'll open it anytime soon. That door made me use my full strength, and I barely made a dent. Must be solid steel," Smiley said, cracking his knuckles.
"Yeah, hopefully," Emma replied, breathing heavily.
"So... where are we now?" Smiley asked.
They looked around and saw a room in complete disarray—filled with old devices and a large machine neither of them recognized.
"No idea, but it's a place Talos couldn't infiltrate, given the locked door... or maybe he avoided it on purpose. (Sigh) I don't know, but we're safe for now," Emma said, eyeing the machine.
"Let's check that big machine first."
They examined it but found nothing explaining its function. However, they spotted another door leading to a room and decided to go there. Emma suspected a control panel might be inside.
Entering the room, they saw numerous file cabinets. To the right, as Emma expected, was the machine's control panel—and something else. In the corner stood a desk, a chair, empty water bottles, a notebook, and... a corpse sitting on the chair.
The body was fully decomposed, leaving only bones—likely an old factory worker. A notebook lay in front of it. Emma and Smiley looked to see what was written.
**[To whoever sees this—if you're one of them, let me tell you this: The Cadmus Program... succeeded. Too well. It went out of control. It took over all the Golems and launched a large-scale attack across the factory. The lab was breached extensively.]**
**[I hid behind these walls, hearing people scream as they were killed. But I saw them again... as Golems.]**
**[Whoever you are, heed my advice: Don't trust the voices here. Don't trust the spirits here. Don't trust that you're safe. Don't trust anything written outside this room. Everything out there is under its control. It makes the rules. It decides everything.]**
**[Most importantly, never believe you're lucky. Every move you make is one it predicted long ago. The only way out is to leave as fast as possible.]**
"Well, that was weird. Like we're in a horror movie, hahaha. But... maybe it's true," Smiley said.
"Yeah, but compared to what we've seen, his writing feels more... human," Emma replied.
"How?" Smiley asked.
"I don't know. It's just a feeling. I can't explain it exactly."
"Strange. Oh, by the way, is that door over there our ticket out?" Smiley pointed to another steel door requiring a lever to open.
"Yeah, that door leads out."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's open it," Smiley said, heading toward it.
"Wait!... Smiley, don't open that door," Emma said.
"What? Are we sleeping here?"
"No, but it's the first thing it'd expect us to do if trapped. The moment we try, Golems will swarm us from all sides and kill us like mice in a box with cats."
"The only way out is to break through a wall where it wouldn't expect and escape fast."
"Then I'll make a hole in the wall, and we'll leave. Follow me," Smiley said.
"No! We don't even know where we are. Breaking a wall randomly could get us more lost, not to mention the walls might be steel-lined. There has to be another way. Let's search the cabinets for anything useful."
"Oh, like an investigation game! I love those. Let's do it," Smiley said.
They opened the files one by one. As Smiley skimmed through one, he asked:
"So why did you say these things are every nation's dream?"
"Because every leader wants an army like this."
"Pfft, an army of old robots?" Smiley mocked.
"Not exactly."
"Then what?"
"Obedience... absolute obedience," Emma said firmly.
Smiley's hollow eyes glowed with curiosity.
"An army without emotions, carrying out orders without pity or guilt. One that can commit massacres without blame. And if things go bad, they can be replaced with new machines, keeping their image clean no matter the crimes. They'd just say the machines went rogue."
"Man, that's dark," Smiley said, grinning.
"What's truly dark is this factory's existence."
"You mean because of Talos?"
"No... Remember the files we got that day?"
"Oh, the code?"
"No, the name records."
"Oh, those? What about them?"
"There were over 400 different names on those papers."
"Over 400? But what does that— Ohhh."
"Exactly. Hundreds died making these Golems—maybe more, since those were old records."
"Well, Emma, your knowledge never fails to impress."
"That's not knowledge. It's logic."
"Logic? Pfft. Emma, are you seriously talking about logic here? We're in a factory being hunted by killer machines!"
"Yes, I'm talking about logic—because it's why they exist."
"Huh?"
"No matter what era or world we live in, two things never change."
"And those are?"
"Survival and domination."
"We fight to survive, then dominate as much as possible for future generations. And those generations repeat the cycle, no matter the method."
"...Oh, enlighten me, wise Merli," Smiley said, bowing comically.
"Can you stop joking for just one minute?"
"Nope!"
"(Sigh) Sometimes, you need to stop being childish and look beyond the fence."
"Oh, speaking of which—I found something useful." Smiley handed Emma a sheet.
"Really? Let me see... Wait, this is— a factory blueprint! Now we can figure out where we are."
"Great. Mission accomplished. What's my next quest?" Smiley said, as if in a game.
"Let me check... There! That's where we are. According to the blueprint, all walls are steel-lined except one spot. The exit is... Damn it! We're too far because of the chase!"
"(Sigh) There's no possible way to escape from here," Emel spoke while sitting on the ground.
"What's wrong?" Smiley asked.
"We're stuck here."
"Think of the positives—we're still alive."
"Positives? Smiley, we're literally in___" Emel stopped speaking as her eyes widened.
"What is it?" Smiley asked.
"You're right," Emma said.
"I am?" Smiley spoke in surprise.
"Right now, we're dealing with a monster we barely know anything about, and likewise, it barely knows anything about us. We both also have the same thing."
"It has something we possess? Is it the magic shoe?" Smiley asked.
"Ace card," Emma replied.
"It doesn't know what we're capable of, and we don't know what it's capable of either. Both of us have a trump card—whoever uses it wisely will be the one to win."
"It's like playing poker," Emma said.
"Oh, I see now," Smiley spoke, his grin widening.
"The only way to win is to take a gamble—a crazy gamble," Emma said.
"I like the sound of that," Smiley said.
"We're going to escape the factory using the most primitive and stupid method."
"Get ready, Smiley," Emma said with a cold expression, staring at the door.