Chapter 1.1.45 — All that We See or Seem

In Emmett’s mind, he’d never left the abandoned warehouse.

There was another flash of light as a duplicate of Porcelain detonated. Emmett managed to cover his face in time, but pain seared the front of his body—his arms and chest. Through the haze of light and dust, he saw circuitry between the cracks in his enemies’ white skin.

…That wasn’t right. Porcelain wasn’t a cyborg. At least, there was no record of her being a cyborg.

But Emmett had been wrong before.

Maybe he was wrong again.

Either way, he didn’t have time to ponder it. Porcelain’s eyes were black and glossy, completely without recognition or pity. The Code wouldn’t save Emmett. Porcelain was trying to kill him, and if he stayed to fight, she would probably succeed.

Emmett turned and ran, stumbling at first. It felt like he was running in slow motion. Stoney hands reached for him—tore at his hoodie and ripped it. The tatters of it billowed as he ran.

It wasn’t until Emmett got to the end of the hall that his panic subsided enough to realize Clara was still in the room behind him. Flashes of light pulsed even faster than Emmett’s racing heart.

It wasn’t just him fighting for his life. Clara was fighting for hers, too.

“Run!” Emmett shouted, but his voice came out a muted whisper.

He didn’t have time to shout again before a wall of duplicates tackled him. They crashed through the wall and out into the painfully cold night air of Belport.

They were so much higher up than Emmett remembered. Four stories up never looked so daunting. Now Emmett was falling—picking up speed until he was plummeting—and still the duplicates wouldn’t let go of him. The ground raced up at them.

The duplicates’ stone-white skin flaked away as they picked up speed. Soon their faces were nothing but blue cybernetics, metal, and wiring—

Then even the metal began to peel away, revealing skin and flesh beneath.

Clara’s face peered back at him—Clara and Lock’s three friends from the party. They stared at Emmett with unblinking eyes until they hit the ground.

Instead of concrete, Emmett splashed into dark water. The impact still knocked the air from his lungs, but now he was clawing his way to the surface, only vaguely aware of which direction was up.

Hands grabbed at his legs, trying to drag him back down.

When Emmett finally reached the surface, his lungs were burning and gasped for air. His mouth tasted like oil and copper. A bright, blinding light hung somewhere above, and all Emmett could see was the churning water—a swirling mix of deep red and utter black.

~

Emmett didn’t know how long he swam or how long he fought off the hands grasping at his legs, but he made it to land. He lay face down on a shiny, metallic shore, with the dark waves lapping at his feet.

His feet…

Emmett looked back and found his skin sloughing off into the water. A mix of silver and flesh. Oil and blood.

Which of it was his? Which of it was really his?

Across the shore, Lachlan watched the scene through a keyhole in a door at the edge of the beach. Watched as his roommate struggled to stand.

Emmett had no idea what was going on, and there was no way that he should’ve been able to see the tiny sliver of Lock’s eye through the keyhole, but somehow Emmett knew that his roommate was watching him.

Somehow, he knew.

As Emmett struggled to his feet, other figures rose up out of the sand: People and machines. They staggered toward one another, battering each other with fists. And as their fluids scattered across the shore, the swirling ocean rose up to drown them.

~

Emmett ran from the shore and through a barren forest. Branches scraped his arms and seemed to grab at him as he passed.

He didn’t stop until he came to a sandy clearing in the woods, like he was standing on the beach again, unable to escape his fate.

In the center of the clearing, Lock stood over the lifeless corpse of Dr. Venture. Both men were completely still—Venture in death, and Lock staring down at him.

Emmett blinked in disbelief, and the two men switched. Now it was Venture looking down on the corpse of Emmett’s friend.

“What are you doing?” Emmett shouted, but the words came out muffled and unintelligible. If Venture or Lock’s lips moved, Emmett couldn’t see them or hear their reply.

Tears welled up in Emmett’s eyes. Each time he blinked, the two men swapped.

Clara’s scream brought Emmett back to the moment—from somewhere deep in the forest. Before Emmett could run to her, someone lunged for him—

And knocked him to the ground.

Emmett struggled, but the attacker held him down. He wheezed as weight pressed down on his chest. No matter how he struggled, Emmett couldn’t get out from under his enemy. Cold metal gripped Emmett’s chin and forced his cheek against the sand.

Across the clearing, Clara’s face was twisted into a silent scream. Far behind her, steel mountains rose up along the horizon and belched black snow into the air.

Emmett seized the cold hands that were around his face and neck. He squeezed and wrenched with all his strength, just managing to loosen them. Emmett struggled and turned his head upward to face his attacker.

It was like staring into a twisted mirror.

His own face stared down at him, a face cast in perfect, seamless metal.

Emmett felt himself losing the struggle, felt cold hands wrapping around his throat again. Felt his duplicate choking the life out of him.

Unblinking, unflinching metal.

It reminded him of that night on Champion street. Of how he felt as he saw that truck flying through the air right before it crushed him.

His strength was fading, not just from lack of oxygen, but from inevitability. Deep down, Emmett knew that there was no other way out of this. There was no other way the story ended.

His vision went white.

~

The white light didn’t fade. If anything, it got brighter. Emmett squinted, but he couldn’t see anything. He wanted to block the light, but his arms wouldn’t move.

There wasn’t any weight on him anymore, his arms just wouldn’t move.

“It’s okay. You’re back in the lab,” Dr. Venture said.

“You’re safe,” Clara added. She sounded relieved.

Emmett couldn’t open his eyes wide enough to find them, but he knew they were close.

Was it over?

“What happened?”

“You were hallucinating,” Venture replied, light glinting off his glasses. “Take a minute to wake up.”

Footsteps sounded on the tile.

“Don’t—don’t go,” Emmett muttered.

Venture replied, “We’re not going anywhere.”

Emmett breathed deep and nodded. He could finally see the outline of Dr. Venture as he looked at the wall monitors. And Clara’s smiling face as she leaned over the hospital bed. Her eyes and her cheeks were red.

“You look relieved,” Emmett said, trying to match her smile.

She laughed. “Yeah, well, you gave us a good scare.”

“Like last time?”

Clara shook her head. “Not like last time. You must’ve been having some crazy dream.”

Emmett sunk down into the bed. His heart was still racing, and he could still vividly remember the feeling of being choked by his own twisted hands.

Finally, he said, “You have no idea.”

~ ~ ~