Chương 58: Chapter 20: The Listener

The music grew in intensity as the five of us were thrown to the back wall of the room. A surprised yelp came out of Nori as we slammed against it. As if the gravity was slowly getting turned on, we all slid along the wall and onto the floor, everything being sideways as the central ring continued to accelerate. Run. Fast. Go! The music was screaming to me to get going, get in the car and drive as fast as it would go. I needed to get Nori out. I needed to get her to the upper decks of the ship.

I stood up along with the other melodians, Nori having a hard time standing, likely due to how much taller she was. I grabbed her hand and started pulling her toward the door. Abel grabbed the back of Nori's shirt, holding her upright as we made our way out of the small room. Despite their differences, the melodians had no interest in seeing harm come to Nori.

"Go! Just go! I'll just slow you down!" I heard Gron from behind as Flint tried to help him toward the doorway. As we exited the room the music got louder, each instrument was telling me to move, to go as fast as I could. Flint ran past us, just barely beating us to the vehicle as Abel and I pulled her up into the back. I jumped in the awkwardly large passenger seat as Flint started to drive with Abel holding Nori down in the back. The music changed, the pitch shifted, the instruments changed their tone.

Something was wrong as Flint started to bring the car up to speed.

"Flint!" I yelled over the sound of the wind as the car gained more speed as we raced toward the first ramp to an upper floor.

"What?!" he asked, sounding angry that I was interrupting him as he focused on driving.

"I think I need to drive!" I yelled to him.

"Ignore her!" Abel yelled from the back, her arm wrapped around a part of the trunk area with her other arm wrapped around Nori's chest "Just go, Flint! We don't have much time!" As the first ramp came up the music shifted again. Instead of the raw emotions from before it shifted to something more complex. The instruments spoke to each other, each playing in time as they wove a tapestry of emotions into their sounds. As if it was speaking to my very soul, I could tell what it was saying.

The ramp to the upper floor meant death. The ramp down was safety.

"We need to go down!" I yelled to Flint. He turned to look at me like I was crazy "What are you… No we need to get to the surface!" he yelled back.

"Please, Flint" I started to say as Nori interrupted. She was holding onto the sides with Abel being her main support "Tess, we need to get up to the top" she said in a pained voice as the gravity we were feeling was starting to get fairly strong. It felt similar to the lower green floors. We started to make our way up the first ramp, the gravity getting noticeably lighter, yet the music kept screaming to me, telling me we were going the wrong way. I needed to drive. It kept telling me I needed to drive.

"Flint! Please!" I yelled out in desperation. With each passing floor the music became sadder, telling me there wasn't much time to fix it as we got closer to a point of no return. The music guided me forward, reminding me I had my own steering wheel. I couldn't reach the pedals, but I could at least attempt to take over the car. I grabbed it, the drum beat shifted, I could feel it, it told me to give the car a gentle nudge to the right. I jerked it to the right, grabbing Flint's attention.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to kill her?" he screamed, his attention getting pulled away from what was ahead of him. The music shifted. I knew what I had to do, but it wasn't time yet.

"I'm sorry Flint!" I yelled out. He looked at me in confusion for a moment when the music shifted, telling me to jerk the wheel to the left. With Flint's attention on me, he didn't notice we were headed a little too close to a stray beam toward the side of the road we were driving along. The front left wheel hit the beam, bouncing the car violently upward, knocking Flint right out of his seat and tumbling back alongside Nori and Abel.

All three of them screamed, holding on for their lives as the car's magnet firmly held us against the floor. I didn't waste any time as I jumped over to the driver's seat and took over the controls. I'd never driven one before, but it didn't seem too difficult. Similar to cars on earth, they had one pedal for gas and one for brake with the rest of the controls being up on the steering wheel. Faster. Faster. Drive. I still had time. I could feel it. We were cutting it close, but we still had time.

"What are you doing?!" Abel yelled out.

"Please just trust me!" I yelled as I pushed the gas all the way down, accelerating the car forward and driving us closer to the next set of ramps. Flint pulled himself up, reluctantly getting into the passenger seat as he glared at me.

"This is on you Tess" he yelled to me. I ignored him, focusing on the music as it told me to turn into the down ramp.

"Wrong way! Wrong way!" I heard Abel yell out. The music drove me forward, telling me to ignore her, to shut them out of my thoughts. The music told me there was still safety in reach, but we'd have to go fast. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Down. Keep straight. Down. Don't stop. Don't listen. Drive. I could feel it in my core, the music changing in its specificity with each passing moment.

Sometimes it told me to guide the car around specific obstacles that were out in the road, other times it remained simple, just telling me that I needed to go fast and that I was on the right track. We went down another level, the gravity getting heavier as it felt like we were getting into the first levels of the red zone. With each passing floor we got heavier, but the music also kept telling me to go faster, making us lighter as we were driving against the motion of the ring.

As we went down yet another floor the music shifted once more as it told me to push the pedal as far down as it would go, pushing the car as fast as it could go. With the bottom of the ramp in sight something new came into view. Along the side of the street was a large series of windows looking out into space. We'd reached the bottommost floor.

"Tess what are you doing?" Flint yelled to me. He didn't sound angry anymore as I only heard concern in his voice. We could both hear Nori in the back, groaning as the gravity got heavier. I ignored him, I couldn't focus on him and the music at the same time and the music said to drive. Faster. Faster. Don't stop. The car picked up in speed, the lowest floor being completely flat without any obstacles, letting the car go as fast as it wanted.

With the increase in speed I could feel the gravity getting lighter, but the central ring kept spinning faster, making it hard to beat it out. My hands were held firmly on the steering wheel, keeping us going straight as the sides of the corridor turned into a blur. I guessed we were going at least a hundred fifty miles her hour. Faster. Faster. Keep going. Almost there. So close. The earth came into view underneath us through the windows, but it looked like it was slowing down.

We continued to gain speed and as I saw the earth I knew what the goal was. Artemis wanted us to get to zero speed, to match the speed of the central ring. The music began to change, telling me that I needed to trust it, to follow its guidance exactly as it was told. I knew Nori would be safe if I listened to it.

"What are you doing?" I heard Abel yell out from the back. The music slowed for just a moment, as if it was giving me a chance to answer her.

"Listening!" I yelled out. The music changed, not just telling me to turn to the right, but it became hyper specific, telling me exactly how much to turn, when to do it, how hard to hold the wheel. It was as if time was slowing down as it guided me over to the lookout windows. Without giving a moment of hesitation I followed its directions, invoking a scream from all the inhabitants of the car. I didn't care. I didn't listen to them. The only thing I focused on was the music.

I didn't have to worry about what to do or how to drive the car, I only had to listen. To follow the directions. The car veered onto the windows, suddenly losing grip on the ground. We were in zero G's and like Flint had said, windows aren't magnetic. The car lifted up in the air, the intense speed of the wind knocking us to the side. Just as the electromagnet was about to lose all of its grip I was told to jerk the car to the left.

There wasn't enough time to get it back onto the metal, but the jerk to the side sent the entire car spinning through the air. I lost my orientation, but the music told me I'd succeeded, that I'd done what I needed to do. A moment later we slammed against the ground once more, the music picking up in tempo, the instruments changing from dread to excitement.

It took me a moment to get an idea of what had happened, but when the music told me to steer to the right I noticed the hallway had a gentle curve to it all of a sudden. To my left I could look out the windows to see the earth, now to the side of us. I blinked, looking forward once more as I realized we'd landed on the wall of the hallway, the music shifted as more instruments came into play as they celebrated the maneuver, but the instruments underneath kept their original tone underneath.

We still weren't in the clear, we still had to get out. A ramp came into view ahead of us. I didn't have any choice but to take it since the wall was so narrow and didn't have any way of choosing a different path. As we rode up along the wall another ramp came into view, but the music was guiding me to another spot. Just before the ramp was a large hatch that went up to a completely black room above it. I had no idea what was there, but the music told me to stay down near the ground.

I could feel the path Artemis was laying out for me, we needed to swing up through the hole at a very specific angle. The others were saying something, yelling something to me, but I couldn't pay attention to them, I had to stay focused. Thankfully, the music got louder as we approached the opening. I steered suddenly to the right, swinging us up through the hole as the wall underneath us became extremely bumpy.

It was hard to hold the steering wheel straight, but Artemis's music kept telling me where to hold it, how hard to grip, when to turn it. I couldn't see anything but that didn't matter as I was guided by the music. I turned, dodged, moved around whatever objects I was being told to maneuver around. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel their presence through the music. I didn't know what to do until it was time to do it as I let all of my trust fall into the music.

Flint reached forward, pressing a button on the panel in the front of the car, causing a set of flood lights to turn on. Suddenly I knew where we were. We were in the place Flint had taken me to. The room with all the pipes and the endless void above and below us. We were riding along the pipes, the electromagnet doing its best to keep the car in place. With the next swerve I knew what we'd been dodging.

Platforms, bridges, access points, we were going along a path that took us perfectly between them while keeping us on an upward trajectory, moving ever closer to the center of the ship. The music guided me to the right, turning us up in a more vertical orientation as we'd exited the lower parts of the ship.

Exchanging the horizontal speed of the car for vertical speed, keeping us in line so we weren't experiencing too much gravity but still trying to keep us going toward the center of the ship as fast as we could manage. With another change in pitch I turned the car further upward, the bumpiness of the wall underneath us dimming down as we were running the car in parallel to them.

I could tell we were nearing the center, the gravity was getting lower, the shape of the walls around us were getting a more familiar amount of curve to them. With another shift I turned to the left, suddenly seeing where we were going. A light in the distance, it was our exit. The music changed, the complexity entering into the song as I felt like I could feel the path we had to take. Once again, Artemis wanted us to exit at a very specific angle.

I squinted my eyes, leaning forward as I focused on it, letting the music guide me. With one final push, we drove through the exit, barrelling out into the sunlight on the other side. For a moment we were weightless, I couldn't see what was going on as I was blinded by the light. With a little trill of joy the music seemed to congratulate me on a job well done just before it went silent.

I only had a moment for my eyes to adjust before I saw the ground, which was very much on the wrong side of us was coming up to meet us. The car slammed onto its side, the metal screeching against the surface of the inner ring and sending everyone in the car flying out of it. It wasn't a hard fall, we weren't very high, but we were going incredibly fast.

The smooth surface of the inner ring worked in our favor, letting us all slowly slide to a stop as the car zoomed past us as it turned and started flipping end over end. I was shaking, my muscles tense as I could barely control my breathing. Only a few feet away I could see the others, just as shaken as I was. Flint was the first to stand up, looking extremely confused at the sudden change of surroundings. As I made my way over my attention fell to Nori, who was laying on the ground, unmoving.

"Nori?" I asked as I ran over to her. I placed my hand on her cheek, looking over her to see if there was any sign of injury.

"Nori? Are you okay?" I asked, tapping her cheek gently. She opened her eyes, coughing as she suddenly woke up. I sighed in relief as I slowly started helping her to sit up.

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" Abel yelled, "she passed out after that… Flip… Thing… How did you do that?" her statement going from anger to genuine confusion as she spoke. With Nori being safe I was able to focus a little more on my surroundings as I realized we had a massive crowd of mechara on the forward side of the ship and a crowd of melodians on the back side of the ship. They'd been all set up for the gravity games so they were on the surface, ready to watch. Instead they got whatever we just did.

"I uh… I'll tell you all about it but I think we should find somewhere secluded first…" I said as the crowds both started to converge on us.