Light bulbs with its powerful luminescence bouncing on the pristine white walls that greatly resembled the Dome lighted the area. The only difference was what lay before them was not a huge span of space. Instead, it was a narrow corridor, barely fitting three people if they stood side by side.
"You sure we should go this way?" Gadge swallowed his dry saliva. Something inside him was warning him of the technological mechanisms that surrounded the corridor. It didn't look simple at first glance. Although no one else could see them propped just behind the spotlessly clean walls, Gadge could detect all of it clearly. "Just so you know, guys. There might be traps strewn all over this corridor. We should be watchful when we move forward."
Suddenly, laser-like beams of light flashed and bounced on the pristine white walls, sending off a pinging sound and making the group flinch. With the array of lasers filling up most of the narrow corridor, everyone was beginning to doubt that they could make it safely to the other side. As they were thinking of the safest way to cross it, one of the laser beams wildly shot off towards them. Fortunately, it shot towards Gadge's bag filled with humanoid parts he salvaged from a few Outclass humanoids from the past rooms. To their surprise and disbelief, the laser effortlessly left a gaping hole through the bag, also melting the tough metal in it in the process.
"This is a bad idea." Scar voiced out, his voice almost cracking. He had always been confident in his strength but seeing the Outclass humanoid spare parts melting in a split second, Scar's confidence crumbled to dust. At first, he concluded that he could take a hit from the lasers but that one scenario turned his mindset the opposite way.
As the group discussed their next move, they suddenly noticed Red taking a step forward. The laser beams suddenly turned off, probably recharging for the next wave. Without hesitation, Red strained his ankle and dashed through. The corridor was only fifty meters in length and with Red's calculation, he optimistically convinced himself that he could scale the room in four seconds.
Suddenly, the laser beams shot off once again, just as Red reached the middle of the corridor. It only took a few milliseconds before the laser beams shot off once again, this time, the firepower was primarily focused on Red.
Red didn't stop running, however. He leaned sideways, planting his feet on the right wall of the corridor. With his momentum going sideways, he planted his left foot next on the ceiling of the corridor. While in mid-air, Red ducked, avoiding the laser beam heading towards his head with a single breadth of hair to spare. He continued spinning sideways, this time, his right foot stepped on the left wall of the corridor, making a full spin while running. It was like an imitation of the screwdriver vault, except it was performed in mid-air and with feet involved.
Blond and the rest of the group gaped their mouths open in shock until their jaws almost touched the floor. Scar's expression was the most noticeable one since his saliva dripped on the sides of his mouth. For a moment, he got too engrossed in watching Red's masterful performance that he forgot to close his mouth. He quickly wiped off his drool before anyone noticed it and continued watching Red.
By the time Scar re-focused his eyes on Red, he was already on the other side of the corridor, opening the breaker that enabled the laser beams and shutting it down. Red broke his limits, he only needed a little more than three seconds to scale the fifty-meter corridor. The fact that he didn't need a run-up to achieve his top speed was something that left the group astounded. After all, it was humanly possible to run fifty meters in four seconds, that is, if the person was running on an incline and if the person had enough momentum that he would almost tip forward.
If Red had lived in the past, he would've held countless world records with how fit he was.
With a warm smile on his face, Red motioned for Blond and the others to move forward, coaxing them that the corridor was already safe.
"I already turned it off. Let's get going. We don't have much time." Red spoke in simple words but there was no pause in his voice. He didn't even break a sweat after what he just did.
.....
A few minutes ago...
After Red's sudden revelation to the group, he didn't disclose any more of what he knew. Doing so would put a great strain on the minds of the others after all. And now that they need to utilize every second that they need, Red decided to encourage the group— except Blond of course— to slowly try to remember their past. With this, they'd be able to understand the things they badly wanted to interrogate Red with, and also saving them plenty of time.
To Red's amazement, the group willingly accepted his suggestion.
"We could hardly fathom the fact that this is not our first year in the corporation, what more if you explain everything else? That's why I agree with Red on this one. We'd better try to remember our past, otherwise, we'd all be left behind by these two." Freckles said, pointing at Red and Blond as she spoke to everyone else. "If we can't do something that simple, then we might as well get left behind."
"Don't say that, Freckles. You're all invaluable to this team. Take your time remembering the past but don't take it lightly either. We need everyone back as soon as possible, hopefully, before the next event happens." Blond cut Freckles off. Although it was important to remember everything, it would only slow things down if they get pressured to do so.
"You mean... the Runners Survivors, right?" Curl said. She remembered hearing about it from the earpiece that Red stole from Jarxen. It was part of the announcement from one of the radio stations of some sort.
"Yes, don't dwell too much on the Runners Survivors. We'll explain everything to you in due time." Blond said. He didn't want to overload them with information.
"For now, our sole priority is getting out of here," Red said, his tone changed into that of a grim voice. "If you didn't know, this Humanoid-section is much worse than the Mock Battle that we just got out of. That's why we have to stay vigilant."
Curl's ears perked up as she quickly nodded simultaneously with Freckles. As for Gadge and Scar, they just stared at Red. They still had a lot of questions in mind but they knew that now's not the time. That's why they just remained unmoving and speechless. On the other hand, Cat was acting the same thing as ever. Before she knew it, she was already behind Red. It was her force of habit to sneak up on Red. It's as if that movement was drilled into her subconscious whether she liked it or not.
"Now that we're done eating. Now's not the time to sleep." Red motioned for Blond to open the door to their far left. There was a total of three doors but Red chose to open the far left one. As to what the reason was, no one knows except Red. Even Blond didn't have the slightest idea why but he still followed Red's order nonetheless.
The group gathered around the door as Blond opened it, what lay behind the door came as a surprise to the group although it shouldn't have been.
Before they had a chance to react, three pairs of eyes flashed their blue lights, marking the startup of the three Outclass humanoids.
"Leave it to me." Gadge suddenly charged forward and incapacitated the Outclass humanoid in less than a minute. With the help of the tasers from the Mock Battles, knocking them down was a piece of cake since Gadge already examined their structure and he knew all their weak spots.
"Now we're talking." Red grinned. "Lead the way, techie Gadge."
"Stop giving me weird nicknames," Gadge called back.
.....
.
"Well, that was easier than saying a tongue twister backward," Red commented as the group arrived on the other side of the corridor. It had been a few minutes ever since they entered the first door that led to the three Outclass humanoids. Three doors later, they finally arrived at the narrow corridor with laser beams.
Before anyone could speak, Red already opened up the fourth door.
"So this is like a series of tests before we could earn our freedom." Scar boorishly said. He wanted to sound indifferent after his embarrassing display of drooling a few seconds ago.
"Partially correct. After this, we still have to keep the Runners Survivors in mind." Blond corrected him.
And he was right. The Humanoid-section, although deadly and many have lost their lives here in past, was nothing compared to Runners Survivors. Comparing the two is akin to comparing a domesticated cat and a tiger.
"Let's keep going." Red signaled as he stepped inside the fourth door