1.42 – Thank You For Being a Friend
Shots are fired at us before the elevator opens, it’s not surprising that Kay would put traps up here for us either. We take cover behind the elevator walls. When there’s a pause in firing, I roll out two grenades. The first is just a smoke bomb decoy, it fills the hallway with smoke, the second explodes and causes chaos. Kai sends out a medium sized drone and there’s some shots before silence.
“We’re clear,” Kai says.
We enter into the hallway and there are no gunshots, but the smoke has made a laser security grid visible that wasn’t there before. We could try to find a way to deactivate it, or we could try to maneuver through it.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Kai says.
“What’s that?”
“You’re thinking time is short, and it would be best to go through the lasers. I promise you, I’m very flexible, but not that flexible. We’re going to have to find a way to hack it.”
Kai sends out one of his smaller spherical drones as I lean against the wall and watch him manually pilot the drone through various lasers. Some of the lasers are set in still positions, others set to rotate. I guess the only saving grace is that Kay has basically choreographed the way to win this thing. The hall only contains two other exits. At the far end, a door which likely has the room where we upload the data. The second, another elevator, likely to the next floor. I let Kai concentrate on the lasers as there isn’t much for me to do other than hang around and twiddle my thumbs and hope the other guys are okay down there. Kai’s drone shoots a hole in the wall but Kai doesn’t budge so I don’t worry. The drone enters the walls and slowly lasers start to vanish one at a time, as others begin to appear then vanish. After a few minutes, our path is clear.
“Good job Kai.”
“Thanks Dre,” Kai begins to make his way down the hallway, and I follow. “Want to hold hands again?”
“Why would I want to hold hands?”
Kai shrugs, “seemed like you enjoyed it, just thought I’d ask.”
Inside the room is filled with what I can only describe as tech stuff. I recognize a ton of server cases similar to the ones we have at work. A lot of the other stuff, looks like high tech tool boxes or something way beyond my field of expertise. At the end of the room is a massive computer terminal with screens taking up an entire wall. Kai instantly plugs in the drive and begins to work on distributing the cure. I take the moment to glance out the window into space. An infinite number of stars lighting up the dark. I always thought it would be just plain black but there are shades of blue and purple in there too. I have to remind myself this isn’t actually space. It’s a video game, and I’ll probably die on the next level.
Still, “it’s really pretty.”
“Did you just call me pretty,” Kai asks with a confused grin.
“No, I was just space is really beautiful. It’s so big, and we’re so small. Even if it’s just a game, it’s a crazy experience.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s the kind of place that you want to bring a person you cherish to. Just experience the universe with them as you stare into forever.”
“I don’t know if I would describe it that way,” I almost chuckle but spot Kai’s face out the side of my eye. “But I know what you mean.”
Kai returns to the computer and makes some adjustments as I continue to stare out into space. Something is on his mind, but he’s not saying it. There are times I feel like I can see right through Kai and our minds are linked. Other times, I’ve got no idea what is going through his head. Kai comes back and joins me at the window.
“I’ll have to stick around and enter some prompts every now and then, but you can head to the final boss. I’ll meet you up there with Daamin and Kevin, so don’t get killed before then.”
“Hey, did you want to tell me what was on your mind earlier? You didn’t get to finish what you were saying back on the ship.”
Kai pauses for a moment, glances at me and then stares back out the window. “I actually think I’m okay.”
“It seemed really important back then.”
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll have all the time in the world for me to tell you later.”
“Alright,” I don’t pry any more. After a pause I ask, “can I say something to you?”
“Sure.”
“Kai, we’ve said it a lot in these life of death situations we’ve been facing. But you’re my best friend. When we get out of this, and we will, I want us to be real world friends too. I’ve been thinking about how you said you were lonely in real life, and that makes me feel bad; so, I’ll be coming to see you. Also, thank you for being a good friend. You’ve always stuck with me. Even right now as we might be heading towards our deaths, you’re still with me. You could have backed out at any time but you stuck with me.”
“I could never turn my back or walk away from you Dre.”
“Thank you for being a friend.”
“Travel down the road and back again.”
“Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant.”
Kai laughs, “is this what we’re doing now?”
“You started it,” I give him a light shove.
“If I threw a party, and invited everyone you know.”
“You would see the biggest gift would be from me.
We sing together, “and the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.”
Kai wraps his arms around me and buries his head into my shoulder again. He’s a hugger, and a crier, but he’s my best friend so I just wrap my arms around him and let him cry. I know I keep telling him everything will be fine, but this could very well be the last time I see him.
“I hate seeing you cry,” I can’t help but wipe a tear away from his face when he lets me go. “It always makes me feel sad.”
“Then I won’t cry anymore,” he quickly uses his sleeve to wipe his face dry.
“You can cry, just don’t cry over me anymore.”
“I won’t cry over you anymore, as long as you promise to come back.”
“I promise to come back.”
“You better.”
Kai gives me another quick hug before I make my way to the elevator. Sometimes it seems like nobody understands me as well as he does. I’m really going to miss him when I’m dead. I know Kevin was the wrench in Kay’s plans and everything has flowed well, but I’m pretty sure Kay has a little something extra to kill me.
***
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