A Different Place, A Different Time
Chapter 2:
Deception and Delinquents
The moon was full and high in the sky, illuminating the soft dirt below our protagonist’s feet. String lights lit the fronts of closed stores and restaurants, making them appealing despite being unable to go inside of them. They passed people sleeping out on the streets, though sleeping on the street wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A safe place to lay their head is all the people needed, even if it was on a sleeping bag or a stolen mattress. And Deer Grove was one of the safest places out in their barren world. Not many could afford houses, or rent rooms in their local hotel, The Grand Cochon, so it was essentially the best and only option. Vincent chuckled as they passed said hotel, knowing that ‘cochon’ meant ‘pig’ in English. So, the hotel’s name would really be ‘The Grand Pig.’ But, he didn’t have the heart to tell anyone he knew that.
The further the detective duo got from the center of town, the less appealing it became. Store fronts were destroyed, windows, walls, and floors were littered with bullet shells and shattered glass. Janie started walking a bit closer to Vincent, relying on him and his gun to protect her. The robot started to tense up a bit. He didn’t mind the outskirts, as that was where he lived before they portrayed him as a high and mighty hero, but it always kept him on his toes. He knew how people there lived their lives. There were people who sold drugs, people who killed for a price, and the ones who ended up dead. Of course, there were people who were none of the above, but they all ended up staying in the middle of the city, where less chaos happened.
Eventually, Vincent and Janie arrived at the warehouse. The main door at the front seemed to have been busted open, presumably with some type of dynamite. Vincent hopped over the rubble, helping his companion get over it as well. The warehouse was filled with dust, cobwebs, and old technology lost to time. “Perfect place for a hideout…” Vincent mumbled under his breath, looking around at the stuff in the old building. He saw a small, open can of beans on the floor near one of the doors in the empty warehouse. He picked it up, his eyes lighting up with a blue hue as he scanned the can. His eyes widened a bit, but they soon went back to normal as he looked over at Janie, who still seemed very timid. “They were here recently. 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 57 seconds ago. That's when this can was opened.” Vincent stated, now looking around for some other clue. Another can, shotgun shell casings, anything that might tell him where the tunnel might be.
Janie just stood in one place and stared in shock at the robotic detective. For him being over 100 years old, he was still as sharp as ever. As he looked around, the secretary finally started moving about. Searching the walls for any hidden buttons. She let out a soft gasp and she felt one on the wall near the part of the roof that had caved in long ago. She looked left, right, then at Vincent. She then pressed it, alarms starting to blare in the warehouse. Vincent covered his ears, though he could still hear it because of his overly heightened senses. “Turn that thing off! Janie!” He yelled, trying to be heard over the noise. She pressed the button again, promptly shutting the alarm off. Vincent sighed in relief, taking his hands off of his ears. His relief was short-lived, as he realized that something was… off. Janie wasn’t as jittery as before. In fact, she even had a grin on her face. Suddenly, the shadows that had previously surrounded him in the warehouse soon became illuminated by spotlights that he hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps he wasn’t as sharp as he thought he was…
“Well, well, well. If it ain’t the damsel in distress and her pet roomba.” A loud voice said with a chuckle, cockiness ever present in their tone. In almost an instant, Vincent could feel and hear guns cocking and being pointed at him and Janie. His whole being was filled with shock. He looked over to his assistant, absolutely dumbfounded. “You… betrayed me?” His voice was laced with a hint of anger, but it was mostly just pain and shock. “I… I didn’t know what to do, Vince! I-I had debt to pay, you understand! They wanted you as payment!” Janie tried to explain, but Vincent wasn’t satisfied.
Before he could ask any more questions, the loud voice spoke again, this time with a tone full of malice. “Miss Morae, you simple little thing. We didn’t want him, we wanted his money, his belongings.” The person who was speaking appeared on a balcony above them, shaking his head. His face was riddled with burn scars and missing patches of skin, his blood dripping down his face as he spoke. If Vincent had a protocol for feeling sick, it would have kicked in right about now. “So, you haven’t paid your debt. And…” the man started to say, leaning over the balcony’s rail to look down at the trapped two. “You know I don’t like people who can’t pay up.” A light below the balcony illuminated the area below. The same area where Mister Wilson was tied up all those months ago. The dried blood and chalk outline were still there, though faded a bit with age. One of his limbs was still left behind, though it had been chewed on by the rats and other feral animals of the city.
“But, since I don't have to chase you down, Miss Morae, I suppose I’ll go a little easy on you. I’ll take this thing off your hands instead.” With the wave of a bloody, gloved hand, the man ushered 5 of his guards to go grab Vincent. The detective’s hand went immediately to the gun in his pocket, but was shocked when he realized it wasn’t there. He then thought back to the walk over to the warehouse, when Janie started getting awfully close to him. He looked over to his previous confidant, who had his pistol in her hands. All the robot could do now was back away as the muscular guards came closer and closer to him, getting ready to dismantle and mutilate him.
“W-Wait, wait, wait! We can talk about this!” Vincent said as he backed away from the men approaching him, hand in the air showing his surrender. Adil just laughed, a sound so cold that it even sent a chill down the robot’s metallic spine. “Aww, you poor little thing…” He said mockingly, leaning over the railing even more, the metal creaking under the force of his body and his grip. “You really think we’re gonna let you go? Please. Do you know how long you’ve been foiling my plans? Every time we looked around the corner, there you were. Every time we tried to pull a heist, you were right behind, with your stupid metal nose in it.” Vincent was now backed up against a wall at this point, his synthetic breath heavy with fear and the dread of his imminent death.
“But, it ends here. Right here, right now. After all this time, I will finally be rid of you. No more running.” He leaned harder on the rails. “No more hiding.” The bars creaked and groaned louder under him. “No more detective agency.” The metal groaned louder. Louder. Louder. “No more metal man.” He gripped harder, gritting his foul teeth. “No more-” Suddenly, Adil’s rough monologue was interrupted by the railing of the balcony snapping under his weight, causing a shout of shock escaping his almost nonexistent lips. His body went tumbling down to the dirty debris covered floor below him. The guards quickly snapped their heads back to look at him, hearing a groan come from the fallen man’s body. With their attention now off of him, Vincent made a mad dash from the guards, his artificial limbs making him faster than any natural thing.
I need to get out of here, he thought, his robotic brain running at one hundred miles an hour. All the exits were covered with guards, who had now realized that he had gotten out of their grasp. Adil sat up from where he had fallen. There was a dusty imprint of his body left, right next to the chalk outline of Mister Wilson. “Hey! He’s getting away!” That yell from the guards made Vincent look around with more ferocity. Though, before the guards could pull any guns on him, he found an exit. It was a small tunnel. A waste tunnel, one that was used when the warehouse held volatile liquids, such as gasoline or water mixed with similar liquids. In a flash, Vincent rushed to the grate that was over the tunnel and crawled in, shutting the grate and crawling for his life. The guards tried to follow him, but were stopped by the commanding voice of Adil, slight annoyance but also acceptance in his voice. “Stop. Let him run.” The guards looked back at the man with disbelief. “I know those pipes like the back of my hand. It leads to a lake not too far from here. Let’s roll out. If we’re quick, we can catch him on the other side. In the meantime, though…” Adil turned to look at Janie, an evil grin on his deformed face…