Chapter 5: The Robot Factory

Mikael shakes his head. He feels the muscles in his throat clench as he cheers his companions on, but at the same time hears the motor of the boat behind them, ever present, ever closer. "C'mon guys, we gotta go faster!"

The strain of keeping her concentration in this tense predicament starts to take its toll. This was not an easy day - avoiding Krafta checkpoints, finding Louise, the trip to the Black Hole... then hijacking vans, sneaking in the school. And now this! A dangerous chase underground?!?
She feels Exhausted, and will definitely need three days of solid sleep, if she comes out in one piece.

Continuing to push herself to her limits, Sabine paddles the boat furiously, listening to Mikael's prompts and for the sounds of their pursuers. The cold and exertion are beginning to take their toll on the young rocker though, as she feels the burn of the exhaustion coming on.

Henry paddles along with the others, reminding them as they go to remain quiet and paddle as one, so as not to splash frantically and give away their location.

He takes a few seconds to show them how to reduce their noise as they scoop their hands through the water, and counts them into a rhythmic paddle!

Stina clenches her teeth.
You gotta do this. Stay focused. Don't let your guard down... don't do like that night, driving straight. You had seen Anna's cat. You waited for it to take action. Well, it didn't. You were passive... Not now, you gotta stay in control, now. Others are counting on you.

"Try to get in that side tunnel, guys!! Right there, slightly left!"

Henry begins to feel his body start to give out as they proceed with their getaway. The sneaking around, the boat ride and visit to the Ugly encampment, the break in, and now this. He paddles, but feels his body protest with every stroke.

Stina sees that, despite the frantic paddling and steering, their raft is going to miss the turn.
In a desperate move, she hangs on to the raft ropes and raises her legs, preparing to push with all her might against the opposite tunnel wall in the hope of steering the raft those last ten or so centimeters it needs.

She double kicks hard, feeling a sharp pain in her ankle. She winces in pain.

As he's calling out orders, Mikael suddenly becomes inundated with everything that's happened over the last day. He realizes its been nearly 24 hours since he slept, and the last half day has been filled with sneaking around, boat rides, and all manner of physical activity. He felt like he'd been at a rave all night, jumping around for hours, music blasting his ear drums. "Guys, we gotta go!" he says sharply, in one final effort of encouragement.

All of you are running on high adrenaline as you paddle forward through the tunnels. Mikael leads you on while Stina tries to keep a mental blueprint of the underground maze of the Loop in her head. You take turn after turn, always closely followed by the ever closer sound of the engine.

At one point, the other boat actually catches up to you and you see a group of three Krafta agents closing in on you when Mikael pulls out his strobe and blinds them just as Stina throws the radio down one tunnel and Sabine and Henry quickly and quietly move the boat down another. The radio only floats and plays for a moment before it is fried by the water and dies down but that moment is enough to put the blinded Krafta agents down the wrong path, buying you enough time to get some distance back.

Once the engine sound seems far enough away, you find a hatch and manage to climb out, pushing the boat down the tunnel to misdirect your pursuers and closing down the hatch behind you again before you are seen.

Breathing heavily, exhausted, frightened and injured, you find yourselves back out in the snow. You're pretty sure the Krafta agents have gotten a good look of all of your faces down there. Which might come back to bite you. But for now, you're safe.

It takes you a while to figure out where exactly you are but since Stina kept mental track of where you went, you soon find your way back to Järnek's cabin where your two cars are still standing.

"We need to get to the school," Mia says. "We can use the labs there to make the cure." She looks at her dad. "We can figure out everything else once we know we can help all those who have contracted the Ugliness."

Järnek nods. "If Krafta realizes that the experiment is a failure - that we reversed it and that there are no more Phase 3 vials - they'll probably give up on it and just do damage control, denying any involvement," he says. "But until then, we're still in danger."

- - -

Split up between the two cars, you make your way back to the lab at school. Krafta still has roadblocks in place but you manage to avoid them and safely manage to get back to Stenhamra. Once there, Järnek and Mia immediately get to work while you stand watch. The two Järneks use up all of the Phase 3 vials to create a fairly large amount of what they say should reverse the effects of the Ugliness.

"I'll pass some of this on to Louise," Mia promises. "So she can start on curing the people at the Black Hole. As for the students who are still at school, I'll take care of them tomorrow. Once all of them are better, Krafta will release the ones they've been holding and we can help them as well!"

It all sounds very optimistic but Mia seems convinced that it might really work.

By this point, it's already closer to the morning than to midnight and especially after that latest escape, none of you feel really able to stay on your feet anymore, so you decide to head home and into your beds.

- - -

You reconvene the next day at school, having barely slept and feeling sore and exhausted. The rumor mill at school is going wild. Word has spread that a cure for the Ugliness has been found but no details on how or by whom or any more information on how it started.
Järnek is not at school today, with him just being sick as the official story. But Krafta agents are hanging all around the school, seemingly keeping their eyes open for him.
You haven't had a chance to talk to Mia yet but you've seen her around and she already looks a good bit shorter again than she did the last night, even if she's still towering far above the heads of the other students.

After the first break of the day, assembly is called and Fru Lindberg, in Järnek's place, is leading the vote on Lucy of the Year. With every candidate except Julia and Mia still gone from the school and Mia having withdrawn from the election, the vote is more of a formality than anything else but it's still taking place. And it's giving the four of you an opportunity to meet up again and discuss where to go from here. What should be done about Järnek? Should you share the truth about the Ugliness or better keep it to yourselves?

Henry rubs his shoulder deep. The pains of yesterday still carried through to today, unfortunately unresolved after a night of deep sleep. He was very much in a just-need-to-make-it-through-today kind of mood. When he meets the others, he tries to play it cool.

Massaging his muscles, and yawning deep, he gives them knowing eyes.

"Long time, no see. Good night last night?" a wry smile on his face.

Stina found a crutch at home, from that time her Mom had foot surgery. She told at home that she fell on the stairs at their friends'.

She drags herself out of bed.with a titanic effort, and gets to school late, despite a lift from her Mum.

She hobbles on the crutch next to Henry, unable to load any weight on her foot.

"Morning... I'm more dead than alive... But at least we're not in Krafta's hands"

It had taken most of the reminder of the night to get the chill out of her bones, after the prolonged exposure to the cold, the cold air, and the freezing waters down in the old tunnels. Sabine has lingered by the fireplace, plied with hot beverages, warm blankets, and body heat from her very concerned girlfriend, for several hours before she could find the energy to crawl into bed. Sleep has finally come. It was a short rest, but a satisfied one on a personal level.

Though, morning had arrived way too early and if not motivated by Kajsa and the need to know whether the cure was working for those unfortunates who had contracted the Ugliness, the young rocker teen would still be in bed even now.

Sabine enters the assembly hall with Kajsa at her side. The hood of her hoodie is pull up around her face and her green eyes are completely masked behind a pair of dark shades. A thick winter coat is pulled over the hoodie and her steps are slower than usual.

Sitting down amongst the others of the nocturnal investigating crew, Sabine gives a slight waving gesture and a single word in greeting, "Morning..."

Mikael got home in the early hours only to find, yet again, his house quiet and empty, the same boxes strewn about the living area, half the furniture gone. He sighs, too exhausted to be annoyed, and trudges upstairs to his bed, where he falls face-down into his pillow, still clothed, and falls almost immediately to sleep.

--------------------

Too few hours later, for his taste, Mikael joins Henry and Stina and sits on the bleacher. "Hey," he says, his eyes glancing over the crutch Stina had next to her, "I don't know about you guys, I feel like absolute shit. I could sleep the rest of the week straight, I think." He leans forward with his arms crossed over his knees and face down to block out the light.

Moments later, Sabine arrives and greets them. "Morning," he responds. He lifts a cautious eye up to the side and offers a weak smile, "How you doin' buddy?"

"Physically, I feel like shit , Mikael." Sabine replies to his concern. "But I'm holding it together and the aches and exhaustion will pass, after I get a bit more sleep tonight. Emotionally, I feel pretty happy at what we all accomplished last night. How about you?"