The Rift 2: Spirit Tomb - Chapter 7 & 8

Chapter 7; - the Return

Sara’s whole body froze. She was facing Jimmy, like all the other people in these glass orbs, wired up, floating in the glass. Wires pumping and all, was he dead?

‘Um, is this a good time?’ Emily asked down inter-com.
‘It’s… Jimmy.’ Sara replied.
‘Yes, yes I gathered.’ Emily answered.

Before anyone could say anything else, Sara began bashing keys on the keypad on Jimmy’s Orb.

‘Um, do you really know what your doing?’ Emily said, while Sara was still bashing keys until…

The top of his orb began spinning, it lit up, and then a purple like ghost came shooting out of Jimmy’s Orb, it flew up, and in to a large glass structure on the wall.

Seconds after that had happened, the cables in his body retracted and fell out, the suction caps fell off and the helmet pulled up.
There were hydraulic noises; steam came out his orb and then the glass window opened!

I awoke, I began coughing, and wafted away the, well it must be more than steam.

I walked forward, but struggled like I had a new pair of legs.

I made it down the machine, on to my feet. I stood there, looking at Sara for a moment, and then I smiled and wrapped my arms around her for a hug.

‘Sara! What are you doing here?’ I asked.
‘I could ask you the same question!’ She replied.

Before any more conversation could continue, the glass structure that the purple thing went in started vibrating, getting worse, and then smash!

The glass structure, from floor to ceiling, smashed to a million pieces, we ran behind my Orb, and watched the pieces fall, some purply pink smoke glided around the room, which danced, flying up and down, curling around itself to make spirals. Then it shot down to the floor, at the other end of the room to where we were standing.

It flew behind a whole row of orbs with penguins in it, and once it went behind the last one, light emitted from behind the final orb, there were screeching sounds, and as it came past the last orb so we could see it again, it had turned in to a massive, pink see-through dragon, with my head!

It glided back up to where the glass structure was before, and it perched on the window ledge up above, it looked down, I could tell it was going to pounce.

‘I can tell it’s not friendly!’ I shouted, while running away pulling Sara with me.

I was right, just after we had started running, it swooped down, screeching.
Once it noticed it had missed, it swooped back up again, flapping its scaly wings.

I ripped my staff from behind my back; we took cover near an orb, I fired Fire Blasts at it, no luck, it went straight through it.

‘It’s a c-type 43, and that’s bad! Uh oh, we’re in trouble!’ I muttered.
‘What’s c-type 43?’ Sara questioned.
We ran behind the orb and I replied to the question.
‘It’s basically a hologram, accept it can hurt us, one touch and he has control of all the elements, fire, water, and the air in our lungs, all the rest. Just we can’t hurt him, unless I can access the main servers that run this space, I can temporarily disable the spirit field in this room.’ I replied, ‘Uh oh! He’s on to us! Don’t let him touch you, here, take my staff! I’ll hack in to the server and see if I can destroy that thing.’ I continued.

We split up and ran; I shot across to the other side of the room, where there was a large screen and a computer like thing from the future. Sara started leaping from top of orb to orb, firing Fire Blasts at the dragon to annoy him, she couldn’t hurt him, and it just annoyed him.

I plugged my portable Rift Manipulator in to the computer, I activated the screen, and it was eyeball screen! You just looked at it and it turned on!

‘Welcome,’ the computer said, ‘please choose what you’d like to do.’
‘As if, it’s probably under contradicting orders, I think I’ll do it my own way.’ I replied, and then thought, I’m talking to a computer?

I pressed the activate button on my Rift Manipulator, it hacked in to the computers system, it had a mind of its own!

‘Computer, have you been ordered to contradict my commands?’ I asked.
‘Confirmed.’ The computer agreed.
‘Do not accept RM-3000 commands.’ I ordered.
‘Confirmed.’ It replied.

I pressed the Log In button on my Manipulator, it took me in to the Admin Settings for this whole area, I opened current clients, I found ‘0 – dragondefaults’ in the menu, I pressed delete, turned round too look, and the dragon wasn’t gone! I went back through the menu, I found something even more interesting, I didn’t want my records there! ’42 – Jimzhh29’ I hit the delete key, turned around, the dragon started flickering, then it went all crackly, like when you go to a non-existent channel on TV. He fell to the floor, and then the dragon disappeared!

I hopped down, unplugged the Manipulator, put it in my pocket and headed to Sara.

We hugged each other in happiness.
‘You genius!’ Sara said.
‘You were the clever one, releasing me.’ I replied.
‘So where do we go now?’ Sara asked.
‘Through that hatch there, I think someone’s watching us.’ I said.

I ran over to the computer again, plugged in the manipulator, and I opened the hatch.

A ladder dropped down through the hatch, I climbed up quickly, pulling Sara up.

‘Zulag. What a funny name! Zulag!’ I said in confidence.

Two purple monsters, dressed in white general suits which didn’t fit them, lay slopped at the other side of the room. The room was the same as downstairs, purple, bumpy walls, blue brushed metal floor, everything had a bit of sci-fi feel. When you looked out the windows, I saw a planet, far away in the stars.

‘Why did you use fake pictures up the window? Shy to show the real thing?’ I asked.
‘Who are you? How do you know so much?’ The low voice from earlier asked.
‘Ha? I am Jimmy, and, ooh, you can see where the paper splits.’ I replied.
‘Doesn’t matter, looks like you were trying to make a bit of an escape? Hmm?’ He said.
‘Who are you?’ I ignored his previous question, asking my own.
‘Captain Sargis of the Zulags, my second in command here is Lieutenant Ekora, who is your lady friend? The one with the heart?’ He asked.
‘Oh this? This is Sara.’ I replied.
‘Pleased to meet your… Captainness…’ She said.
‘That’s not a word…’ I whispered in her ear.
‘Ekora, I don’t have time to talk to these people, kill them and send them in to the Extractilator Unit once away!’ Sargis commanded.
‘Yes sir!’ Ekora replied.
‘Wai… Wai… Wait one minute! How can you kill a dead man?’ I questioned.
‘What do you mean?’ Sargis replied.
‘I’m dead, I have no heart.’ I said.
‘Well, if we can’t kill you, we can kill her!’ Sargis said.

The hatch behind us closed and sealed.

‘How do you plan on killing us?’ Sara asked.
‘There are electric terminals in the wall, once charged with electricity, will zap the room full of electricity, stopping your heart. Your friend will survive, he has no heart.’ Sargis replied, confidently.
‘You kill her, and I kill you.’ I said.
‘Fair Enough, your plan would be wise if we feared death, I have a new clone about to be implanted with half of one of your friend’s brains, so much knowledge, so many juicy memories.’ Sargis replied.

Ekora’s arm fell towards the red button, I knew this would be the end of Sara if Ekora hit the button; I had to think of something, quickly.

Chapter 8; - The Best Day of my Life

I watched the arm sink to the button, my heart beat raced, and my head was ticking down, 3… 2… 1…

‘WAIT! Do you want to know how I’d stop you?’ I quickly said.
‘Yes, okay…’ Sargis replied.
‘Simple, there are two of us…’ I said.
‘And there are two of us too? So what are you saying?’ Sargis questioned.
‘I can stop you… like this…’ I said.

I pushed myself forward, towards Sara who was facing me right now, I put my hand behind her head, pushed her head to meet mine.

Basically we kissed, it was meant to drive the Zulags to the verge of insanity, but I kind of enjoyed it.

‘Auugghh!’ The Zulag Commanders cried, and turned in to purple jelly, and flopped to the floor, and jelly slopped across the floor.

I didn’t stop the kiss, she seemed to love it, so did I, that was my first kiss, and it was beautiful.
We stopped when we decided to, relaxed for a minute, before I started explaining.

‘Zulags can’t stand the emotion love, as soon as they see it being expressed, they decompose, and they seem not to like vinegar aswell…’ I explained.
‘The kiss… couldn’t you think of a better way than a kiss?’ Sara asked.
‘Well, I have… liked you for quite a while now… I thought it was time.’ I said.
‘Same here!’ Sara giggled.

I blushed, but soon after, so did she, so I knew we were happy.
After thinking it through a little, and smiling at Sara, I ran across to where the commanders were standing, up to the computer behind it, I plugged the manipulator in and started feeding in commands, Sara relaxed a little, and started questioning me.

‘You know… I’ve also… liked you for a while… But I always told myself, if it was meant to be, it would happen by itself. It did, and it was just a matter of time.’ Sara explained.
‘Next you’ll be telling me your life story!’ I joked.
‘Hehe!’ Sara smiled and laughed.
‘We should… spend more time together, how about me and you, go for a Pizza after this, and watch a play at the Stage?’ Sara asked, hoping for a nice answer.
‘Great idea!’ I replied.

A couple of seconds pause. Dang I always hate those awkward pauses!

‘What actually are you doing with that computer?’ Sara wondered.
‘Trying to open that hatch,’ I explained, then the sounds of hydraulics followed, ‘Aha! Opened! Voila! Any more words meaning there you go of some sort?’
‘Don’t think so. Hey! Ladies first…’ Sara said.
‘Oh how silly of me! Down you go!’ I said.

We climbed down the ladder, and walked to the orange teleporter from earlier, giggling and laughing. This was the best day of my life, I was dead, but who cares? I was the living dead!
We got to the orange teleporter and stood in.

‘Want to do the honours? Type in 371’ I said.
‘With pleasure!’ Sara said, hitting the keys, before the colour jelly was all over us, and we were gone.

We arrived in a smaller version of the previous room, but more modern, there were five penguin orbs, bigger, the wires and the suction cups were bigger, but the penguins inside, there we’re only two full, but they were familiar.

‘Will! James! They are here! Jimmy! Look!’ Sara said, overjoyed.
‘Yeah! But somebody’s coming! Hide behind Will’s Orb, I want to confront anyone else face to face, I’m fed up with all these hide and seek games.’ I said.

The footsteps got louder, until I heard a hydraulic door open, I turned round, it was General Blobber!

‘Jimmy! How lovely to see you! Why are you out your cardiac-restorer?’ He said.
‘I wanted to talk to you.’ I replied.
‘Okay, let’s go to my office.’ He said.

I and the General set off in the direction he had come from, through the hydraulic door, and into his office, I sat down, and then the questioning began.

‘So, what do you want to ask?’ He said.
‘I need to know, with these cardic-restorers, you have to store the body and the spirit in separate places don’t you?’ I asked.
‘Yes, this is the Body Restoration Delta room.’ He said.
‘So where do you store the Spirits?’ I questioned.
‘In the Spirit Tomb of course!’ He replied.
‘Why do you need to know? We can tunnel your spirit back inside you direct from there?’ He asked.
‘Well, the spirit that you will automatically give me is not mine.’ I said.
‘You must explain?’
‘A long time ago, I shut down the Rift House, while doing so to access a Master Switch, I had my spirit changed in order to continue, and I did my research, all the spirits released in to the skies get tunnelled directly in to the Kendal Restoration Centre.’ I explained.
‘You have done your homework, but before you can do such a journey to the Spirit Tomb, I must implant a micro-restorer in your chest, you could die without one, and it will keep you alive.’ He said.
‘Okay, how long will the operation take?’ I asked.
‘Operation? Pha! No no no! With the technology here, we can decompile the atomic structure and recreate it inside your body!’ He explained.
‘Well, do it then!’ I commanded.
‘He picked up a tiny black wafer thin box, he put it under what looked like a microscope, he pressed the button on top, and it vanished! He pressed another button.

‘Finished! That is basically your heart. No heart attacks! A benefit eh?’ He said.
‘Yes! I’ll be off then! I’ll be back soon!’ I said, walking out his office.
‘I’ll be back in one million years…’ I whispered to myself.

I walked back to where Sara was, I quickly opened James’ Orb. The glass opened, he limped out.

‘Jimmy?’ James thought he was hallucinating.
‘Yes, Jimmy, remember me? Or has it been too long since we last met?’ I said.

I tapped the buttons on Will’s Orb, it opened and he walked out.

‘JIMMY!’ He yelped and hugged me.
‘Ok… get… off… me!’ I said, trying to fight him off.
‘Ok, you guys have got to get out of here, now, believe this, I am dead, I died and I have no heart, I have lost my spirit and I’m going to get it back. I won’t be long, the time I was missing for was spent in one of those orbs you were in, when Sara came along and saved me, I freed you, now I won’t be long, not much time, I must go! Now, trust me this time, I will not be long, if I am more than two days, come back and find me.’ I explained.
‘I believe you! I’d trust my life with you, Jimmy!’ Sara said.
‘Same here, thank you, Jimmy.’ Will said.
‘Thanks for everything, Jimmy.’ James said, for the first time he said something positive about me!

‘Trust me, I’ll be back. Ready for when Club Penguin’s Song will end.’ I said, like a phrase of ‘truth’ got implanted in my brain.
‘What?’ Sara asked.
‘I don’t know? It just came out my mouth…’ I replied.
‘Okay, it’s time we were getting off, Jimmy, I want you back in one piece!’ Sara said.
‘Roger that! I’ll teleport you back to the sub.’ I said.

I tapped the Rockhopper Island Main Frequency in and they arrived back at the Sub.

It’s time for me to go on an adventure of my own.
I found a way in to the air conditioning system, crawled through the cramped air vents, round the corner, in to what seemed to be a modern sewer, I found a ladder, and climbed up, I found myself in a tropical forest.

‘Thank God I am out of there, and now to the Spirit Tomb!’ I said, to myself, which was weird.