Beyond This Place

Chapter 4

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The sound of their metal feet pattering on the floor outside their cage is near-silent but noticeable to them, frighteningly loud to their nervous and careful bodies as they run softly through the halls. Len is rolling near-silently, and the only noise that comes from him is the soft buzz of the machinery working within and the sound of whooshing air as his feet roll and move the air between their wheels.

"Let's hurry," Miku whispers again, her voice desperately careful. Len flexes his fingers nervously, having used them to rupture the locks of the cells after much straining. Luckily, without the scientists around, it was far easier for him to cut through the hard metal of the lock without the constant fear of scientists coming around to capture them and punish them.

"We're lucky," Miku adds softly. "I'm surprised they didn't think about the damage a bodyguard robot could cause to the facility of the cell and escaping and all that.

"If we get caught, they will be sure to make sure everything is locked tightly," Rin grimaces in reply. Len nods hastily in agreement.

"Yeah, I kn—get down!"

Miku near-belly flops into the nearest room, which is, luckily, unlocked. Len follows quickly, grabbing Rin by the arm and helping her inside. With hasty carefulness, Miku closes the door behind them but raises her eyes nervously to the small, square window fitted into the top of the door. Rin and Len follow suit, barely peeking the top of their heads over so they can see what has frightened Miku so.

Outside there is a beam of dim light that moves across the walls, the floor, into their eyes and back. A flashlight.

"Guards!" Miku whispers warningly.

Rin watches fearfully as the light continues groping the walls, and eventually the guards come into view.

There are two of them, both wearing cloaking material that make it hard to see their faces. They share a few words before they continue going on, down the hall. Miku's eyes are filled with worry and Rin knows she's wondering if the guards are heading to the cell room and will see the empty cells where they used to be. After they pass and moments tick by, the seconds resounding loudly in Rin's ears, Miku manages to open the door and gesture them to go outside. All three of them slip out silently, looking around in paranoia.

It's a big mistake.

A flashlight shines into their eyes almost immediately, almost blinding them. They're face to face with one of the cloaked guards who—who also happens to be holding a clipboard and a blue pen to her chest. Rin's heart unclenches for a relieved second. She knows who it is, at least.

"What're you guys doing out here?" Neru asks.

Miku stares at Neru almost accusingly. "You're not going to try to stop us, are you?"

Neru looks at them and appears to think, nodding slowly in contemplation. "No, I don't think I will. I might just help you guys escape, if that's what you really want."

Miku beams suddenly and Rin is surprised at how large her smile is on her delicate-looking face. "Thanks, Neru. You're the best."

Rin almost dares to ask why Neru, a scientist, daughter of the factory owner, would help them, but she holds her tongue. She doesn't want to sway her mind.

"What are you doing up and out of bed?" Len asks questioningly to Neru and Neru scratches her head sheepishly.

"Mikuo and I wanted to check on you guys, but found you guys gone from your cells." Neru explains. "Mikuo headed off in another direction. When we found you gone, he decided to get back into bed. I decided to go find you guys before you got yourself in too much trouble."

Miku laughs weakly and nods slowly, not denying the truth of Neru's words. Rin's heart still hammers in her chest from the frightening, near-death encounter, and she feels Len gently wrap his fingers around her injured wrist and he lifts it up despite how the touch sends prickles of pain up her arm. She cringes.

"Neru," Len asks. "Can you fix Rin's wrist? I accidentally…"

He looks at the ground in some shame. Neru examines the wrist and nods contemplatively before nodding assuredly.

"Looks just like some snapped wires, probably some not very necessary ones," Neru says. "Nevertheless, I should fix it. Do you want me to do it right now?"

"…Sure," Rin decides, as the pain is beginning to flop around the whole of her arm. Neru smiles a little and fumbles through some pockets of her coat. She finds a screwdriver, to Rin's interest.

"Lift up your chin a bit, would you?" Neru says, and Rin obliges. Neru gently slides the screwdriver into a small screw on her neck and a small metal panel slides open like a door.

An interesting set of buttons and a miniscule screen are behind the panel and Neru begins hitting some of the small, white buttons.

"I'm going to turn off the nerve simulators on your arm," Neru says. "I'm doing that so it won't hurt when I cut into your skin to fix the wires, okay?"

Rin nods reluctantly, almost afraid to have her arm cut, and suddenly Neru hits a button and she is unable feel her arm. It's a bit strange, but it's almost relieving as the pain cuts off. Neru nods quickly, then takes out a small scalpel and cuts a slit vertically across her wrist. With careful hands, she edges the slit synthesized skin open and Rin grimaces and looks away, not liking the look of her skin cut open so cleanly. Neru begins poking around inside with a set of pliers before pulling out some green tape and mending the broken wires.

"That should do it," Neru says, then takes out some cream that pulls the slit skin together almost seamlessly. "Actually, I'm going to try to get your nerve simulators not to react negatively at the cut skin and cause pain. It might take a while to convince it, though."

Neru laughs a little and returns to the small panel on Rin's neck and clicks away at buttons, mumbling to herself for a while. Rin can't understand a single thing Neru is doing, but it's obviously affecting her as her brain occasionally clouds over or her limbs have spasms.

After a while, Rin's arm begins throbbing with life again and she can feel. Rin flexes her arm and fingers carefully—it doesn't hurt that much, though there's still a careful, weird throbbing at her wrist where Neru has reconnected her wires and cut and resealed her skin. Neru pushes back the panel against Rin's neck and screws the screw back in tightly.

"Well, now what?" Neru says. "I'm afraid I can't give you guys the quickest way out—they laboratory is huge, and I've only been assigned to a small part of it. I only know the map of my specific parts, and I'm not sure of how you guys can escape." Neru laughs sheepishly. "Most of the scientists just sleep in the dorms here.

"But this place is huge," Neru adds, shrugging. She bites her lower lip in thought. "There's the laboratory town out there," Neru points in a general direction and shrugs. "I suppose we could hide you guys somewhere there."

"Okay," Miku says amiably, though her voice is still shaking from the startling encounter. Neru gestures for them to follow as she begins walking down the hall. Rin, Miku, and Len all follow in a single-file line, Miku in the front, Rin in the middle, and Len in the back.

For a while they take some strange turns here and there, walking about in a dizzying pattern. Rin struggles to remember the way back and tries to memorize each turn and twist, but her mind is soon overwhelmed and she gives up.

For a while they continue walking in inconspicuous silence before at last Neru makes her way to a large set of double doors, locked tightly. Neru fumbles in her pocket and finds a small card with a black bar across its bottom and proceeds to swipe it across a small machine by the huge gates. The yellow light flashing on the contraption blinks for a while before turning a clear green, and Neru pockets the card and pushes them open.

They're met with a large clearing, leading to a well-furnished but empty town square. The floor is tiled with bricks that move in concentric circles pushed together tightly to form a pattern—a flower-like design colored into the floor by the differentiation between the white and red bricks. Above them, a domed, fake sky hovers, speckles of laser-on stars glimmering from it. Rin can tell that it's a fake from a nearby metal wall on the border of the square, going high up until sloping into the top of the dome.

Miku steps forward and examines the area. Many different quaint, small houses as well as larger businesses line streets that radiate out from the central square they stand in. Everything is not very industrialized compared to the rest of the modern world—the houses made from cut brick and tiles and wood, clean and orderly. Rin peeks down winding roads and alleys with interest. Everything is lighted softly with a pastel-like, navy blue by the blanketing light emanating from dim street lamps and the fake stars and moon above.

"There's a town in the laboratory?" Miku asks, her voice soft but incredulous. Neru nods.

"Since the scientists don't really go home, their families sometimes live here and they buy stuff and materials in the shops around here," Neru says and then shakes her head dismissively. "Anyway, I've got to get you guys to Mikuo's to spend the night. He doesn't really qualify as a scientist—he's an orphan who lives in the town—and hopefully he'll let you stay in his house. It's not the biggest thing ever, but it'll do. Just don't get caught!"

Neru jogs through the silent streets, her feet barely a whisper over the roughness of the brick. The three robots follow as quickly as possible and almost hit Neru when she stops abruptly at a door fitted into a wall on a thin alley. There's a small overhanging over the door, as if to keep out any nonexistent rain that might fall from the fake sky. She steps onto the small, raised platform in front of the door and knocks three loud, hard knocks.

To Rin's surprise, Mikuo opens the door rather quickly, still fitted into those stuffy, formal, black clothes. Neru smiles knowingly.

"I knew you weren't asleep yet," Neru laughs. Mikuo laughs a little, almost awkwardly, shrugs, and then eyes the robots.

"What are they doing here?" Mikuo asks questioningly, also knowing to keep his voice level and low in the silence of the night. Neru looks at them and shrugs at Mikuo.

"They decided it was time to escape. They were sick of the scientists," Neru explains quickly and then peeks past Mikuo into the small house. "Can we come in? It'll be safer inside."

"Oh, yeah," Mikuo says and then steps inside to give them room to get in. All four of them clamber inside almost frantically and Len, the last one, closes the door softly behind him. Mikuo reaches over and locks it tightly with a touch of his finger against a small pad.

"Um," Neru says and bites her lip at the problem of addressing her question. In the meanwhile, Rin looks around at the cozy but somewhat small house.

To the right is a table, surrounded by six chairs, though most of them look unused. A small counter is behind the table, covered with strange but twisted mementos. Looking forward, there's a long hall flanked with four doors. The hall ends with another door, which is blocked off by some large boxes that appear to be deliberately placed before it.

"Miku, Rin, and Len are looking for a place to stay," Neru begins. Mikuo cocks an eyebrow at her and Rin knows he gets her gist.

"You want me to keep them?" Mikuo sighs and then smiles weakly at them. "Well, okay, but I've only got two bedrooms rather than my own, and there are three of you." He gazes at them awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Hopefully one of you doesn't mind sleeping on the floor or something…?"

Neru shrugs it off as if it isn't a pressing issue. "Rin and Len usually sleep together, or basically do with their beds right next to each other. They can share a bed, right?"

Len glances awkwardly at Rin, and Rin is about to protest when she realizes doing so might make her be a nuisance towards Mikuo. She doesn't know him too well, so she closes her mouth. Len growls softly to show how awkward he feels about it, but no one heeds his embarrassment.

"Well then," Mikuo says carefully. "I'll show you guys your rooms, and then you can do whatever until you feel like sleeping."

Mikuo gestures for them to follow and they walk down the hall until he reaches the first door. Mikuo places a hand on the brass doorknob and opens the wooden door. Inside is a simple arrangement, customized only by a bed, a nightstand, and a small desk with a chair leaning against the wall. The first thing Rin notices on the desk is a small vase of green onions not unlike the ones Miku had. The only other thing on the table is a cup filled with pencils and a carelessly thrown aside handkerchief that hangs off the side of the table.

"It's not much," Mikuo says humbly. "But you can have this room, Miku."

"Thanks," Miku says stiffly, and Rin can tell she's still embarrassed from the incident days earlier. Mikuo shows no sign of remembering the awkward incident as he steps out again and shuffles a few feet down the hall before he reaches another door, which he proceeds to open.

This room is slightly bigger but equally skimpy—above a similar desk is a small cabinet with a glass door. There's nothing inside. Another bed is positioned in the corner of the room, a small window draped and covered by silken, laced curtains over it.

"Um, you can do whatever you want now," Mikuo says before attempting to suppress a yawn. A quick glance to the clock on the table reveals it to be 2:00 AM, and Mikuo looks at them wearily. "I'll probably go to bed soon, okay?"

Neru nods for a second, then nods again with more conviction. "Well then guys, I'll be going. I won't be able to help you guys out most of the time—if I disappear for periods at a time people might get suspicious. But good luck anyway!"

With that, Neru quickly heads outside and disappears, closing the door and locking it behind her. Rin looks at the closed door before turning back to Miku and Len. Mikuo shrugs and waves goodnight before retreating to his room.

"What'll we do now?" Miku asks after a lengthy silence. Rin shrugs and Len touches the soft strands that cover the carpet beneath him with his curious fingers as he looks expectantly at Miku. Miku sighs and shrugs.

"We could sleep," Miku says. Rin yawns—the suggestion is strangely appealing, but Len shrugs and shakes his head. His eyes are alert and seem wide awake from the action. Rin shrugs halfheartedly and rubs the budding tears at her eyes.

"Well, guys," she says, her arm flopping to her side. "I'm going to bed now; I hope you guys don't mind."

"Do whatever," Miku says faintly and stands to examine the twisted objects on the counter near the table. Rin toddles off, suddenly very sleepy, and then flops into the bed and falls into sleep almost instantly.

It's bright and early the next morning when Mikuo wakes them up.

The fake sun shines brightly, intrusively, from the window onto on Rin's eyes as they open slowly. Len is sitting beside her, his hair slightly ruffled.

"You're awake," Len says, smiling. Rin sits up quickly, the white sheets draped around her legs protectively. The sun is burning, warm, on the side of her face near the window. The thin laced curtains are closed, but the synthesized sun still makes its way through.

She glances quickly at the clock—it's only 6:00 AM. Sleeping only four hours isn't something she's particularly accustomed to, especially after sleeping nearly all day in the cells. She assumes Len stayed up even later than her and can't imagine how sleepy he must be. However, he looks wide awake, and he looks at her expectantly.

"It's time to go," Len alerts, turning his head and smiling at her. "We want to head out as quickly as possible before many scientists are in the streets."

Rin yawns and nods slowly before sliding out of bed. She stretches and yawns again before rubbing her eyes in attempt to get herself to be more energetic and awake. Despite her efforts, she's still somewhat lethargic. Len gets off the bed quickly and helps her stand up with an overly careful hand (he seems rather unhappy about the incident last night). Rin attempts to smooth her rumpled clothes as well as she can before stepping outside with Len.

Miku is waiting impatiently, tapping her booted foot on the floor, and Rin can't help but wonder how she and Len can possibly be so awake with so little sleep. She notices that Miku is wearing a heavy sweater to hide the metal appendages attached to her back and her metallic arms. Instead of a trademark skirt, she wears long, unrevealing jeans.

"Let's go," Miku says. She holds up two sweaters and hands one to Len and one to Rin. Rin watches Len's metal arms on his back fold up neatly to a compact pile as he takes the jacket and slips it on. Where his metal appendages are there's a lump on his back that bulges out of the sweater unnaturally, but Rin hopes it won't be too noticeable in the softer light of the morning. She slips her own on and folds the metal against her back. The lump in her sweater isn't as noticeable as the one in Len's, but still strange.

"And here's some pairs of jeans," Miku says, handing over two pairs as well. "Don't bother to change what you have underneath, just pull them on."

Rin nods awkwardly, feeling cramped and squished by the muffling jacket as she sits down to pull on the rough, blue pants. Len pulls them on as well and Miku smoothes his hair over his red eye and the metal that surrounds it.

"We need to look as normal as possible," Miku says. "Putting that hair there might feel uncomfortable, but it will have to do."

As they walk into the main compartment of the tiny house where the dining table and the small kitchen is, Rin sees Mikuo sitting on one of the chairs on the table of the six. It's the only one that looks worn out of all of them, the armrests dirtied and the wood whitened from its rusty-red gloss at the edges. He turns to them quickly upon hearing them enter the room.

For the first time, Rin sees him wearing something other than the darkly colored swallowtail coat. He wears much less formal-looking clothes—a black t-shirt and long black pants. It's still black, always black, but he actually appears more normal. Rin notices his arms are bandaged by tight, white bandages and the other bandage on his face is new.

"Going already?" Mikuo says, smiling slightly. "Well, you might as well take some stuff."

He pushes back the chair and stands, reaching over to another chair to grab a white backpack. It appears to be full, bulging at some ends. He hands it to Len.

"Just put that on," Mikuo tells him. "You have the most extra appendages on your back, so maybe if you wear a backpack it'll help cover up the strange mound." Len takes it gratefully and slides his arms through the holes until it rests on his back, despite being slightly lopsided and raised on one side by the lumps. Mikuo backs away and smiles reassuringly.

"Miku," Mikuo says and his voice is surprisingly affectionate. "Here's something for good luck."

He hands her a leek, fresh and young, and Miku takes it with surprise and some curiosity.

"Thanks," Miku says awkwardly before turning to the other robots. "I suppose we should go now, right?"

"Yup," Rin says. Mikuo waves a goodbye and Miku nods gratefully at him before swinging the door wide and walking into the sunlight.

Upon taking to the streets, the soft wind gently blows at Rin's face and tosses strands of her blonde hair into the air. Rin presumes the wind is artificially made and comes from some sort of ventilation, but it's somehow still comforting. Miku is holding onto the leek with a tight hand as they begin edging through the alley lit by dying street lamps fixed into the walls surrounding the thin street claustrophobically. Len bounds quickly, keeping a few feet ahead of the other two, and Rin wonders if he's meant to have so much energy because of the type of robot he is. They make their way through the backstreets as quickly as possible.

"Where are we going?" Rin asks. Miku glances at Rin as they jog quietly.

"Len and I sort of looked around at the streets at night," Miku says quickly. The wind gently lifts her heavy ponytails slightly. "We found a quick route to a secluded place that seems hidden, but if it isn't we'll find a different place. We can hide there until we figure out some sort of plan."

Rin nods and Miku looks forward again. They take some sharp turns until at last Len stops a few feet in front of them, allowing time for them to catch up and stand by his side. Before them is a wall of houses. There is a tiny slit between two houses, barely big enough to fit a sparrow. Rin looks at it in confusion as Len steps onto a small sill filled with dirt near the ground. He climbs up and stands on it precariously for a few seconds before gripping a pipe that cuts through the gap and across the walls of the houses, attached to them, and hangs there before reaching the overhang of the roof and grabbing onto that.

He hauls himself onto the roof and sits on the flat surface for a while before glancing down at the robots below. "You guys come up too!"

Miku nods quickly and follows with the same action, and Rin watches with apprehension. It looks like a dangerous maneuver, but Miku and Len look down at her expectantly and she sighs before hopping onto the dirt sill and then reaching up for the pipe. As she reaches for the overhang, her hand slips.

Luckily, Len's hand quickly finds its way to her arm and grabs it quickly and hauls her back up. Rin looks at him gratefully as she pants from adrenaline on the roof. Meanwhile, Miku points downwards, in the opposite direction of the alley. Rin looks and discovers there's a small area, a square, between four houses, completely unoccupied. Rin wonders what kind of architect would make such a meaningless space behind houses, completely surrounded by walls. Luckily, there are crates leading down like stairs from the roof to the clearing, as Rin doesn't want to do any more acrobatics. Len walks down the makeshift stairs carefully and she follows, Miku behind her.

"We put these crates here," Miku says. "To make it easier, you know? Hopefully the garbage collectors won't notice the missing crates we took from the dump."

Rin nods gratefully as they descend onto the brick floor. Len slumps into a sitting position on the ground and Rin does the same.

"Let's see what's in that backpack Mikuo gave us," Miku says. Len slips off the white bag and lays it on the floor between the three of them.

Rin reaches over, unzips the top, and begins taking out the materials within. There's a folded up blanket, warm and fleecy, and three small pillows. Among the things Rin finds is also some of the skin ointment, seemingly the same as the kind that Neru gave to her wrist to fix it and even a small gun and a long sword.

Upon examining the sword, Rin notices childish but faint handwriting emblazoned into the hilt with a red marker and a small leek keychain hanging from its end. Some of it is gnarled and strange, and Miku takes the sword into her hand, weighing it.

"It's a very nice sword," Miku says, looking down its blade with interest. With confused curiosity, she looks at the hilt. "I wonder who wrote that? It looks so old."

Rin shrugs, as she doesn't know either. Miku puts the sword to the side gently before rummaging through the other contents of the bag. Rin doesn't recognize some of the things in there, and once they're done looking through Miku looks up abruptly.

"I wonder if there's a map of the laboratory somewhere," Miku says, pulling at her hair in thought. Rin watches the fake sun—it's somehow intriguing, how it manages to shine light despite being a fake projection. After a while, Miku shakes her head and stands, pulling the backpack over Len's shoulders.

"We should just try to get out of this town," Miku says. "Like, right now. The scientists will realize we're gone in no time and try to find us…Well, let's just say we should get a head start. We should just constantly move around, to throw them off."

Rin nods in agreement—being caught is the last thing she wants to happen. They bound back up the crate stairs and as they leave Rin looks back at the now abandoned spot and stares at the empty ground before climbing over the roof.

Upon landing on the streets below, Rin glances at the sun again and notes its position in the sky—it's higher than when she last looked. As if mirroring her thoughts, Len glances up at the sun as well before quickly lowering his eyes.

"Let's hurry," Len says softly, his voice barely a whisper over the gentle wind, so only Rin and Miku can hear. "It's getting a little late—just a little bit."

Miku nods quickly in agreement, she too glancing up at the projected sun with distant worry dancing in her eyes like the glimmering of will-o-wisps over the dark waters of a swamp—barely there, but there. They run through the streets, almost aimlessly, the wind streaming through their hair and flattening their clothes.

For a moment, the feeling of being free hits Rin for a second—the excitement of being on the run and the feeling of being able to move freely and across the hard pavement like a bird in the sky. Almost as quickly, she feels the foreboding of being a fugitive and she knows the feeling of freedom won't last long.

For what seems like forever, they soar through the streets. Occasionally they see passerby and slow down, purposely attempting to conceal their unnatural backs, and luckily no one notices, though some do give their strange appearance odd looks. Len constantly smoothes down his hair despite the wind that attempts to throw it up and reveal the gleam of hard metal spliced onto his otherwise organic-looking face.

For a while they move aimlessly, until Miku seems to tire and slows down to a weary trot. Rin also feels the exhaustion from running around almost randomly through the streets and slows down to match Miku's pace. Eventually Len notices their fatigue and slows down as well.

"This is so pointless," Miku sighs, her voice filled with exhaustion and a touch of frustration. "I wish we knew the way out of here."

"Maybe we should just ask for instructions," Len suggests. "I mean…people might get suspicious, but it's probably going to get us farther than just running around with no motives."

"You have a point there," Miku grumbles. "The next time we see someone, let's just ask."

For a while they walk around aimlessly some more before they stumble upon someone. Luckily, the first person they see is just a lady in common clothing. She doesn't appear to be a scientist, and as Len and Miku seem to hesitate Rin manages to find her voice.

"Um, excuse me?" Rin musters the most polite voice she can manage, and the lady barely looks up as she tinkers with a contraption in her hands.

"Hmm?" the lady asks. She still doesn't look up and Rin is even grateful for it because she knows she won't see their strangeness if she's so absorbed in her piece of technology. Rin clears her throat awkwardly.

"We're kind of really ignorant," Rin titters nervously. "Could you tell us the nearest exit out of this town?"

The woman still doesn't look up as she replies to Rin's question. "Oh dear," the woman says, her fingers tapping and hammering onto the buttons on the rectangular piece. "There are many exits, all to the other wings of the laboratory. Why would little town girls and boys like you want to head to the laboratories?"

Rin hesitates at the question, her mind racing to think of an answer. Luckily for her, the woman raises a hand off her contraption and waves it dismissively at her.

"Never mind, never mind," the woman says hastily, waving her hand with manicured, blood-red nails in front of Rin's face. The beaded bracelets on her wrist jangle as she does so. "That might have been a personal question, I understand, dear. Just tell me where you intend to go and I can help you find it. Don't fret."

Rin is glad for the lady's ignorance and her kindness to them, though she thinks they're simply "little town girls and boys" and has no idea who they really are. Rin turns to Miku and Len for help and Miku steps forward quickly.

"Um, could you please point us to where the development wing is?" Miku says, and the woman smiles warmly but continues tapping, tapping, never stopping. Rin wonders how the contraption can intrigue her so.

"Ah, yes," the woman says. "Are you children looking for jobs there? Development really is the hardest kind you can get into. They make lots and lots of complex robots with their complex, complex equations and technology, but I'm thankful for it." The woman continues, both talking and clicking away. "The development wing is really quite near. Just head down this road for a while and turn right on the first fork. You should find some big double doors, and that will be all,"

"Thanks," Rin says quickly, wanting to get away as quickly as possible to keep the lady from noticing their inherent robotic-ness. Upon glancing at Len and Miku's faces, she sees they share her sentiment. "Thank you very much!"

And with that, they're gone, sweeping away with the wind. The woman shrugs and continues walking forward and never thinks of the little town boys and girls again until the scientists reveal that there are robots missing—a blonde girl, a green-haired girl, and a blonde boy—the exact hair colors she had seen on the "little town girls and boys" in her peripheral vision.

They hurry along the streets silently, wind streaming around them and parting into dragonish streams. At the first fork Len turns right with a curt movement and Miku and Rin follow behind as they move along in a triangle formation.

Upon reaching the big double doors, Rin is astounded by how cold and foreboding they look in comparison to the petit, brick town. Written across the stainless steel is "DEVELOPMENT LABS" in dangerous white paint, fading and peeling at the edges. Rin pushes against the cold metal and finds it not only icy but locked tightly. Len pushes against it as well and nothing happens.

"Stupid scientists," Miku mumbles as she fumbles in her pockets, searching for something Rin isn't aware of. At last Miku pulls out a card, worn and crackled on the black strips across its top and bottom. Miku slides it into the machine by the door and waits for a long, tense while.

"Please let it work, please let it work," Miku whispers under her breath as she holds the thin white thing in her hand, and Rin cranes her neck to see what's on the card.

Printed onto it is a small, colorful picture of Miku, her face all smiles, and words in printed font too small for Rin to read are to the right of the cute photograph. When Rin looks up finally after giving up on reading the text, she sees the machine flash a reassuring green and Miku grin in delight. She pushes the doors open.

What lies beyond seems like darkness, pure, unwavering darkness, and all three of them falter at the foreboding beyond.

Rin knows what Miku will say, what she always says, so she says it for her.

"Let's go," she says.