So, even though no one's reading this at the moment...
Dear Musashi,
...I thought I'd update anyway. Put up there you know? My back up file.
Oh yeah, the poem from Book seven was "Rites for Cousin Vit" by Gwendolyn Brooks. The choice of that poem foreshadows stuff... ha ha. But won't tell y'all until everyone's read it.
And the poem from Book fire was "With the Face" by Laura Riding.
BOOK EIGHT: LOVE SET YOU GOING LIKE A FAT GOLD WATCH
Name: Osseus
Order: Sirius
Class: Seraphim
Sex: Male
Excess: Bones
What was it like? LWhat was it like? How can you sit there and ask me what it was like? It wasn't like anything, it just was. Fucktard.
You want to know what I have to say? About it? About everything? You don't have the right to ask that. You who did nothing have absolutely no right to ask what I have to say.
Bullshit. Let's act like adults, shall we? Let's cut the bullshit and just be honest with each other. Stop lying to me, and stop lying to yourself.
Alright. Here's what it was like. It was like having everything around you suddenly start crumbling around you. Like your world spontaneously combusting. It was like getting everything you ever wanted in the most horrible way possible. It was a nightmare and a dream come true all in one, and when I woke up with what I wanted I finally realized the price I wasn't willing to pay. But it was too
late.
Hate them? Hate them? Jezu, you are stupid. No I don't hate them. They did what they thought they had to. And in the end, they succeeded. I mean, I'll always wonder what would have happened if they had tried my way...
But no. I guess that's a moot point. I guess it's stupid to think about those kinds of things.
Because in the end, I know that things happened the way that they did because they had to, and for no other reason than that. If it hadn't happened that way, well. Things wouldn't be the way they are now.
I wouldn't be sitting in this goddamn chair for one thing, talking to you. Which all in all, I suppose is one of the things that speaks against it.
It started on a day not unlike every other day. People rose from their beds and had a normal breakfast, engaged in normal chatter, and went about their day doing their normal activities. It's almost disappointing, how normal it is. Because you'd think that on the day where your whole life gets turned upside down everything should seem more special. And it's not just that everything should be special, but that everything should be meaningful. There shouldn't be a single thing out of place, everything should speak to the deeper meaning of what is about to occur.
And there's very little warning for when it begins. Almost none, actually. All the faith that the whitecoats placed in the Premonition Excess, all the faith that the other Excess themselves carried, resulted in absolutely nothing. The only warning they got before the storm was all the Premonition, Cassandra, Tiresias and the others, clutched their heads and began rolling around on the floor, screaming like there was no tomorrow. That was only seconds before.
It was the only warning they had, though. And it wasn’t enough to properly react. Before anyone even began to comprehend what was happening the walls started to shake, and the noise of loud explosions in the distance started to sound throughout the Wards. Alarms were going off, but they weren’t alarms that any of the Excess recognized. They had no idea how to respond. And ironically, most of the whitecoats didn’t know what was going on either. The alarm was supposed to be for rebelling Excess, and that’s the assumption that everyone came to, even the other Excess. That Phoenix and Osseus and the others were rebelling again, this time in a more violent fashion.
Except that it didn’t take anyone long to realize that Osseus was in the Commons room, as well as many of the other Excess that had rebelled. And they were looking just as confused and alarmed as the rest of them were.
So whatever was going on, it wasn’t the rebels.
The second thought was perhaps it was Phoenix, acting on her own. Indeed, that was the conclusion that Osseus himself had come to. His first deep and dreading fear, was that Phoenix had finally snapped, and that she was using Eiros to carry out the revenge she always wanted.
It turned out later, that he wasn’t exactly far from the truth. Although who was using who still remained a mystery, and subject to debate.
No, what finally started to clue Excess and whitecoats alike as to what was happening, this dreadful horror that was occurring all around them, was the innocent child-like laughter that carried throughout the Wards that were soon followed by agonized screams.
Osseus figures out who it is, but he doesn’t understand why. Why would the Excess rebel? It hadn’t been so long since he last saw them, and the last time he saw them they were mindlessly loyal. It didn’t make any sense.
It makes even less sense when whitecoats came rushing in, bleeding and terrified, yelling at them to kill anything that wasn’t an Excess or a whitecoat. Not all the Excess knew about the Enhanced, Osseus knew that. So the distinction had to be made. But it doesn’t make any sense. Even if the Enhanced had started rebelling, they were the whitecoats’ pet project, and the wouldn’t want to have them destroyed. They didn’t even want any of the Excess to be destroyed, and they were rapidly becoming last year’s model.
What Osseus failed to factor in was that fact that dying men become desperate, and often lose sight where the interest of science is concerned. Especially after they’ve seen many of their fellow co-workers die around them - cruel deaths, drawn and quartered and hamstrung. It must have been horrible for them to see all that. So it’s really only reasonable that they’d want the Enhanced dead at that point.
Osseus doesn’t know that though, not at the time that it’s going on. The only thing he knows is that chaos is happening, and amidst chaos the best of opportunities can be found. So he wandered about the Facility at his leisure, ignoring falling men and crumbling walls.
He entered a room and stopped short. Three Enhanced are standing over the body of Dr. Rousseau. They glared at him, angry and hostile and willing to defend.
He tried his best to look harmless. Luckily (perhaps luckily, at any rate) he recognizes on of them. “Aleph, was it?” He asked casually.
Aleph cocked his head and studied the Excess. “You are one of the rebels.”
“Yes.”
The younger boy nodded. He pointed to the body of the doctor. “They lied. They aren’t superior at all.”
“Yes, I do believe you’re right.” Osseus said coolly.
“We aren’t going to kill them all. We’ll be leaving after this. Right now. We just wanted to make our point. They shouldn’t come after is, shouldn’t even try. We’re stronger than them. You don’t come after us either, because we’ll destroy you too.”
Osseus sincerely doubted that they could, but he doesn’t bother to argue the point when he’s outnumbered and they’re standing on top of a dead body.
Aleph lets out some kind of high pitched whistle, and he and one of the other Enhanced leave, almost as if they flew, out of the building, towards freedom. Things began to quiet, and it appears as if they’ve all left collectively, like ants.
One of the Enhanced remained. A young girl staring unblinking at him. Osseus wondered if perhaps she stayed behind in order to kill him, but then she spoke. “We’re leaving. But it’s not going to be the end of things. Someone else has been waiting for this opportunity, and the chaos has only begun.”
He nodded, because he understood. “Thank you for the warning.” He said, meaning it.
She nodded once, and then flitted out the door.
Osseus looked at the empty-eyed remains of the doctor and sighs. This doesn’t bode well, and now he has to find Phoenix. Because it’s her, her and Eiros that he has to worry about now. They are chaos, and right now they’re in their element.
Charlie figured that the death and destruction going on around her should have bothered her more than it did. But oddly enough it seemed like just another day in the Facility. Her heart was beating faster, and she was scared, but that all seemed about normal.
Early on in the events of her world falling apart she had left the Commons. She didn't know what was going on exactly, not as first, so she didn't know what she felt the need to leave the place. She decided later that it must have been the desire to avoid people.
As she rounded one corner she caught the last glimpse of a trail of long dark brown hair waving slightly against bright red material. "Phoenix!" She yelled out. She ran off after the other girl. That too, didn't seem like a good idea. Because obviously, when the world is ending, one does not run towards the person opening up the Seals in a merry fashion, but Charlie wasn't acting in her best interest at the time.
When she caught up with the other Fire Excess she was already breathless. That was mostly from dodging the bits of ceiling and fluorescent lights that were crumbling down upon her. "Phoenix." She said, almost desperately. "Where are you going?"
Phoenix's eyes flicked towards her, in a brief way of acknowledging her presence. "Rhodon immediately went to Lin when the Enhanced started acting up. I think this is good, but I'm going to make sure they both get out of here now. He might not come to that conclusion on his own."
"We're leaving?" Charlie said, blinking in surprise.
"Well, of course. You think I'm going to waste this opportunity?"
Charlie was going to say something but it took her awhile to process everything that Phoenix had just said. The Enhanced were doing this? That didn't make any sense.... and did Phoenix... "Did you have something to do with this?" She asked suspiciously, not even remembering to check what she should be saying to the destructive girl.
“Well I gave the Enhanced a shove in the right direction.” Phoenix admitted, not really revealing anything with her voice. “But I hadn’t expected this.” She paused, and then said in a slightly pleased tone of voice, “This is much better than anything I could have
expected.”
Charlie stopped and gaped at her, but then had to hurry to catch up. Phoenix thought this was good? People were dying... well, it was Phoenix after all. But still.
They reached a Ward that Charlie had never seen before and Phoenix kicked the door open, Burning it with her foot. Charlie wondered how Phoenix knew about it, but didn’t put too much thought into it when she was able to look around.
Dozens of scared pregnant Excess were huddled in a corner. Dozens of Excess that had disappeared, “failed to return” during Operations. Pregnant. Charlie couldn’t understand what was going on.
In the middle of the huddled Excess was Rhodon with his arm around Lin (so that’s where she was). On the floor was the remains of a doctor, his flesh slashed to threads, which gave a clue on how he died.
“The door was already open, Phoen.” Rhodon said nonchalantly.
“I just like Burning things. Why’s there only one on the ground?”
“The rest ran away.”
“Ah. Pity.”
“Indeed.”
“Would you two death happy psychopaths shut up for a second and tell me what the hell is going on?” Lin snapped. Charlie admired her for it.
“The Enhanced are rebelling.” Phoenix explained haphazardly. She tilted her head. “Actually, I think they’ve left by now. That will give us some residual chaos to work with, and then a few moments of calm before it happens.”
“Before what happens?” Rhodon asked suspiciously.
“The Second Wave.” Phoenix said simply. She gazed about the crowd of pregnant Excess. “Do any of you still want to stay in this Facility?” She asked calmly. Everyone shook their heads emphatically “No.” Phoenix nodded. “Alright then.” She turned her eyes towards Rhodon. “How do you want to get them out?”
Rhodon opened his mouth but Lin stopped him. Only she wasn’t looking at him, she was looking at another Excess who wasn’t noticeably pregnant yet. Syne, Charlie realized. They both turned their gaze towards Phoenix. “Rhodon and I will get everyone out, Phoenix.” Lin said authoritatively. “There’s something you need to see.”
Phoenix continued to frown at her, but she seemed to take it all in.
“I’ll go with you.” Charlie said impulsively.
“Yeah.” Syne agreed, to Charlie’s surprise. “That might be best.”
So once again Charlie was following Phoenix into strange areas of the Facility that she had never been before. Only this time Phoenix was following Syne. It seemed strange for all three female Fire Excess to be together like this, and brought back memories from
when they all trained together. Except training had never been like this, and afterwards certainly hadn’t been. For the first time in what seemed like forever, all three Excess appeared to be on the same side.
After awhile, Syne started talking, and Charlie paid close attention. “The Facility-” Syne started, not quite sure where to go with it. She seemed to pause and then changer her mind about something. So she started talking about something else. “It wasn’t nice there. In the Maternity Ward. I mean, they did everything they could to make it nice, but it almost seemed like everyday was the last meal day for a prisoner on death row, you get what I mean? They were nice, but it seemed like the niceness was only a last kindness provided before something- bad.
“And we’re not stupid.” She put in. “Even the ones completely loyal” - She left out the part “like me”- “could tell that something was wrong with all this… with how they kept us here away from everyone. And every time a new girl came in, well, I was the latest, but I was told that every time someone came in they would always be surprised by the fact that we were here. I mean, I was, and I’m sure you were. So, why were they keeping our existence a secret? What happened after we- you know, gave birth?
“Every time someone gave birth they were taken out of the Ward, and none of us ever heard from them again. Not in either of the Wards, because they told me some of the names of the people who had came to term and they weren’t reintroduced into the Wards, so it really made us nervous.
“And then one day Lin and I decided we had enough of it. That we were sick and tired of waiting around until it was our turn to find out what was going to happen to us. So the next time someone came to term, it was Delilah, remember her Charlie? She was Orion. But yeah. It was her, we decided to follow them into the birthing room. I mean, it wasn’t exactly easy, but Lin used her Electricity to mess up some of the systems and I even managed to Burn a few things that got in our way.”
She took a long pause. It was like she was remembering something, and didn’t want to remember it. And because she didn’t want to remember it, she didn’t know how to put it into words properly.
Finally, after a long walk down the corridors of the hallway she stopped in front of a door and faced the two other Excess. “Apparently, we don’t give birth like ‘normal’ humans.” She said abruptly. She was looking at both Charlie and Phoenix, but her gaze ultimately ended on Phoenix. “Remember what it felt like during the Rebirthing? When our Excess consumes us entirely and it feels like we’ve died? Well, it’s like that. The woman’s entire body gets consumed by her Excess and the Excess of the father. And it gets destroyed, leaving the baby crying on the table.”
Charlie let out a hiss in surprise. Her eyes widened as she focused in on Syne. “But you-” She stopped.
Syne laughed, almost bitterly. “But I’m pregnant, right? That would mean I’m going to die in about seven months time, give or take.
“Except, as we found out, it’s not like that at all. Otherwise we’d have died at our Rebirthing, see? The way it works is the whitecoats pump us up with something during the Rebirthing, and then pump us up with something afterwards that stabilizes the body around the Excess. It turns out that they could do the same thing to the pregnant Excess during birth- they just don’t. Because if they did, there’s a chance that the baby won’t inherit its own Excess naturally, which isn’t the goal of what they want to achieve with getting us knocked up in the first place. They’re trying to create the better human, one born with powers of its own. If they save the life of the mother, than they compromise scientific pursuit.”
There was another long pause. Phoenix wasn’t saying anything at all and it didn’t look like she was going to. So Charlie spoke up, “what happens to the children?” she asked quietly.
“Glad you asked.” Syne said. She opened the door behind her. When they stepped inside they were met by the cries of children.
It was a room filled with children, ranging from infants to twelve year olds. They weren’t kept up, not locked like Excess were, but you could tell that they were monitored heavily. There wasn’t any whitecoats around, and because the door was left open, Charlie figured that they must have run away when the chaos started.
They stepped into the room, wonderingly, and appalled. Syne gave the formal introduction, “all the older children you see,” she explained, “The toddlers and up and the like. They’re children who have the Excess gene, mutation or whatever. I think it has something to do with Junk DNA but I’m not sure. Whatever reason, it’s what we all have, had. We were born with it, and it’s what makes it possible for whatever drug the whitecoats pump us with to take affect and give us Excess. Not everyone has it, obviously, just a small minority. And those that do can only be transformed when they’re fifteen to twenty, otherwise they’ll die. So when the whitecoats find children who are younger than the appropriate age they just take them and keep them until it’s time to give them the drug. The babies are, well. You
know.”
Charlie was horrified by all this, and she felt everything she ever had faith in crumble. Not faith in the scientists, but faith in humanity. Faith that life isn’t really as cruel as all this. Faith that good things come, if only you wait for them. Faith that people can’t really be so heartless as everything she had ever remembered.
She wanted to argue, to say that it couldn’t be true. That it was all a lie. But she was a rebel, and Syne was loyal. The fact that this information was given by someone loyal to a rebel was the only thing that made it so Charlie couldn’t deny what was in front of her.
Phoenix still wasn’t saying anything. She was standing in front of a crib that belonged to one of the Excess babies. Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted the baby up and looked him in the eyes. When she turned around, tears were streaming down her face and she whispered, “How?”
The baby had dark brown hair and slightly Asian features. Its eyes were black though, a dark black that seemed different from any other shade of black.
There really was only two people that could have produced a child that looked like that.
Syne looked at Phoenix measuredly, “We don’t know how. We, Lin and I, figured that you would know.”
“I thought-” Phoenix looked down at the child. “But they didn’t inject me with anything, and I didn’t die.”
Syne looked down. “Lin figured as much. She figured, her theory was anyway, that what causes the mother to die is the interaction with the mother’s Excess with the father’s. And- she figured that yo- that the parents of the child, that their Excess didn’t interact in a negative way. That the father’s must have helped Enhanced the mother’s.”
Phoenix closed her eyes, and pressed her forehead against the child’s. “He was beautiful. Still is.” She whispered to herself.
“Phoenix- I have to ask you something.” Syne said urgently, and Charlie was surprised that she was going to interrupt something like this.
Phoenix ignored her.
“Phoenix. Is the Facility- is it going to last through whatever is happening?”
Charlie froze. After a pause Phoenix answered shortly, “no.”
Syne nodded. “Alright then. We have to get the children out.”
Phoenix paused again, then walked over to Charlie. She handed the infant to a surprised Charlie in a very gentle manner. “Get the children out of here.” She ordered. “Make the older children carry the infants out.”
“Where are you going?” Syne asked suspiciously.
Phoenix lowered her eyes. “It doesn’t matter.” She answered.
She kissed the infant on the forehead and took one last long glance at it. “I am no more your mother than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow effacement at the wind’s hand.” She said sadly. She turned her eyes towards Charlie, and then to Syne. “Make sure he’s safe.” As she turned and walked away she added, “Make sure they’re all safe.”
Oi, I just realized I shifted tenses so much during that. Eh. whatever.
The poem from this one is yet another Slyvia Plath. "Morning Song" I believe it's called. It's appropraite for the Book too.
And yeah, I just used Syne to explain a lot of things in the text that I would have otherwised revealed one at a time if I wanted this to be a full length novel. Which I might actually do sometime. It's too bad, because the whole thing with Lin and Syne and the preggers I really could have done a lot with, but I didn't 'cuz of wordcount.
Ha ha, I find it funny that I had the opposite problem that NaNoWriMo kept on telling us we'd all have.
Anyway, when I'm done posting for NaNo, I have absolutely no idea what I'll post in here next. I mean... a lot of the things I write probably wouldn't be appropriate for various reasons... meh. We'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Phoenixeiros
...I thought I'd update anyway. Put up there you know? My back up file.
Oh yeah, the poem from Book seven was "Rites for Cousin Vit" by Gwendolyn Brooks. The choice of that poem foreshadows stuff... ha ha. But won't tell y'all until everyone's read it.
And the poem from Book fire was "With the Face" by Laura Riding.
BOOK EIGHT: LOVE SET YOU GOING LIKE A FAT GOLD WATCH
Name: Osseus
Order: Sirius
Class: Seraphim
Sex: Male
Excess: Bones
What was it like? LWhat was it like? How can you sit there and ask me what it was like? It wasn't like anything, it just was. Fucktard.
You want to know what I have to say? About it? About everything? You don't have the right to ask that. You who did nothing have absolutely no right to ask what I have to say.
Bullshit. Let's act like adults, shall we? Let's cut the bullshit and just be honest with each other. Stop lying to me, and stop lying to yourself.
Alright. Here's what it was like. It was like having everything around you suddenly start crumbling around you. Like your world spontaneously combusting. It was like getting everything you ever wanted in the most horrible way possible. It was a nightmare and a dream come true all in one, and when I woke up with what I wanted I finally realized the price I wasn't willing to pay. But it was too
late.
Hate them? Hate them? Jezu, you are stupid. No I don't hate them. They did what they thought they had to. And in the end, they succeeded. I mean, I'll always wonder what would have happened if they had tried my way...
But no. I guess that's a moot point. I guess it's stupid to think about those kinds of things.
Because in the end, I know that things happened the way that they did because they had to, and for no other reason than that. If it hadn't happened that way, well. Things wouldn't be the way they are now.
I wouldn't be sitting in this goddamn chair for one thing, talking to you. Which all in all, I suppose is one of the things that speaks against it.
It started on a day not unlike every other day. People rose from their beds and had a normal breakfast, engaged in normal chatter, and went about their day doing their normal activities. It's almost disappointing, how normal it is. Because you'd think that on the day where your whole life gets turned upside down everything should seem more special. And it's not just that everything should be special, but that everything should be meaningful. There shouldn't be a single thing out of place, everything should speak to the deeper meaning of what is about to occur.
And there's very little warning for when it begins. Almost none, actually. All the faith that the whitecoats placed in the Premonition Excess, all the faith that the other Excess themselves carried, resulted in absolutely nothing. The only warning they got before the storm was all the Premonition, Cassandra, Tiresias and the others, clutched their heads and began rolling around on the floor, screaming like there was no tomorrow. That was only seconds before.
It was the only warning they had, though. And it wasn’t enough to properly react. Before anyone even began to comprehend what was happening the walls started to shake, and the noise of loud explosions in the distance started to sound throughout the Wards. Alarms were going off, but they weren’t alarms that any of the Excess recognized. They had no idea how to respond. And ironically, most of the whitecoats didn’t know what was going on either. The alarm was supposed to be for rebelling Excess, and that’s the assumption that everyone came to, even the other Excess. That Phoenix and Osseus and the others were rebelling again, this time in a more violent fashion.
Except that it didn’t take anyone long to realize that Osseus was in the Commons room, as well as many of the other Excess that had rebelled. And they were looking just as confused and alarmed as the rest of them were.
So whatever was going on, it wasn’t the rebels.
The second thought was perhaps it was Phoenix, acting on her own. Indeed, that was the conclusion that Osseus himself had come to. His first deep and dreading fear, was that Phoenix had finally snapped, and that she was using Eiros to carry out the revenge she always wanted.
It turned out later, that he wasn’t exactly far from the truth. Although who was using who still remained a mystery, and subject to debate.
No, what finally started to clue Excess and whitecoats alike as to what was happening, this dreadful horror that was occurring all around them, was the innocent child-like laughter that carried throughout the Wards that were soon followed by agonized screams.
Osseus figures out who it is, but he doesn’t understand why. Why would the Excess rebel? It hadn’t been so long since he last saw them, and the last time he saw them they were mindlessly loyal. It didn’t make any sense.
It makes even less sense when whitecoats came rushing in, bleeding and terrified, yelling at them to kill anything that wasn’t an Excess or a whitecoat. Not all the Excess knew about the Enhanced, Osseus knew that. So the distinction had to be made. But it doesn’t make any sense. Even if the Enhanced had started rebelling, they were the whitecoats’ pet project, and the wouldn’t want to have them destroyed. They didn’t even want any of the Excess to be destroyed, and they were rapidly becoming last year’s model.
What Osseus failed to factor in was that fact that dying men become desperate, and often lose sight where the interest of science is concerned. Especially after they’ve seen many of their fellow co-workers die around them - cruel deaths, drawn and quartered and hamstrung. It must have been horrible for them to see all that. So it’s really only reasonable that they’d want the Enhanced dead at that point.
Osseus doesn’t know that though, not at the time that it’s going on. The only thing he knows is that chaos is happening, and amidst chaos the best of opportunities can be found. So he wandered about the Facility at his leisure, ignoring falling men and crumbling walls.
He entered a room and stopped short. Three Enhanced are standing over the body of Dr. Rousseau. They glared at him, angry and hostile and willing to defend.
He tried his best to look harmless. Luckily (perhaps luckily, at any rate) he recognizes on of them. “Aleph, was it?” He asked casually.
Aleph cocked his head and studied the Excess. “You are one of the rebels.”
“Yes.”
The younger boy nodded. He pointed to the body of the doctor. “They lied. They aren’t superior at all.”
“Yes, I do believe you’re right.” Osseus said coolly.
“We aren’t going to kill them all. We’ll be leaving after this. Right now. We just wanted to make our point. They shouldn’t come after is, shouldn’t even try. We’re stronger than them. You don’t come after us either, because we’ll destroy you too.”
Osseus sincerely doubted that they could, but he doesn’t bother to argue the point when he’s outnumbered and they’re standing on top of a dead body.
Aleph lets out some kind of high pitched whistle, and he and one of the other Enhanced leave, almost as if they flew, out of the building, towards freedom. Things began to quiet, and it appears as if they’ve all left collectively, like ants.
One of the Enhanced remained. A young girl staring unblinking at him. Osseus wondered if perhaps she stayed behind in order to kill him, but then she spoke. “We’re leaving. But it’s not going to be the end of things. Someone else has been waiting for this opportunity, and the chaos has only begun.”
He nodded, because he understood. “Thank you for the warning.” He said, meaning it.
She nodded once, and then flitted out the door.
Osseus looked at the empty-eyed remains of the doctor and sighs. This doesn’t bode well, and now he has to find Phoenix. Because it’s her, her and Eiros that he has to worry about now. They are chaos, and right now they’re in their element.
Charlie figured that the death and destruction going on around her should have bothered her more than it did. But oddly enough it seemed like just another day in the Facility. Her heart was beating faster, and she was scared, but that all seemed about normal.
Early on in the events of her world falling apart she had left the Commons. She didn't know what was going on exactly, not as first, so she didn't know what she felt the need to leave the place. She decided later that it must have been the desire to avoid people.
As she rounded one corner she caught the last glimpse of a trail of long dark brown hair waving slightly against bright red material. "Phoenix!" She yelled out. She ran off after the other girl. That too, didn't seem like a good idea. Because obviously, when the world is ending, one does not run towards the person opening up the Seals in a merry fashion, but Charlie wasn't acting in her best interest at the time.
When she caught up with the other Fire Excess she was already breathless. That was mostly from dodging the bits of ceiling and fluorescent lights that were crumbling down upon her. "Phoenix." She said, almost desperately. "Where are you going?"
Phoenix's eyes flicked towards her, in a brief way of acknowledging her presence. "Rhodon immediately went to Lin when the Enhanced started acting up. I think this is good, but I'm going to make sure they both get out of here now. He might not come to that conclusion on his own."
"We're leaving?" Charlie said, blinking in surprise.
"Well, of course. You think I'm going to waste this opportunity?"
Charlie was going to say something but it took her awhile to process everything that Phoenix had just said. The Enhanced were doing this? That didn't make any sense.... and did Phoenix... "Did you have something to do with this?" She asked suspiciously, not even remembering to check what she should be saying to the destructive girl.
“Well I gave the Enhanced a shove in the right direction.” Phoenix admitted, not really revealing anything with her voice. “But I hadn’t expected this.” She paused, and then said in a slightly pleased tone of voice, “This is much better than anything I could have
expected.”
Charlie stopped and gaped at her, but then had to hurry to catch up. Phoenix thought this was good? People were dying... well, it was Phoenix after all. But still.
They reached a Ward that Charlie had never seen before and Phoenix kicked the door open, Burning it with her foot. Charlie wondered how Phoenix knew about it, but didn’t put too much thought into it when she was able to look around.
Dozens of scared pregnant Excess were huddled in a corner. Dozens of Excess that had disappeared, “failed to return” during Operations. Pregnant. Charlie couldn’t understand what was going on.
In the middle of the huddled Excess was Rhodon with his arm around Lin (so that’s where she was). On the floor was the remains of a doctor, his flesh slashed to threads, which gave a clue on how he died.
“The door was already open, Phoen.” Rhodon said nonchalantly.
“I just like Burning things. Why’s there only one on the ground?”
“The rest ran away.”
“Ah. Pity.”
“Indeed.”
“Would you two death happy psychopaths shut up for a second and tell me what the hell is going on?” Lin snapped. Charlie admired her for it.
“The Enhanced are rebelling.” Phoenix explained haphazardly. She tilted her head. “Actually, I think they’ve left by now. That will give us some residual chaos to work with, and then a few moments of calm before it happens.”
“Before what happens?” Rhodon asked suspiciously.
“The Second Wave.” Phoenix said simply. She gazed about the crowd of pregnant Excess. “Do any of you still want to stay in this Facility?” She asked calmly. Everyone shook their heads emphatically “No.” Phoenix nodded. “Alright then.” She turned her eyes towards Rhodon. “How do you want to get them out?”
Rhodon opened his mouth but Lin stopped him. Only she wasn’t looking at him, she was looking at another Excess who wasn’t noticeably pregnant yet. Syne, Charlie realized. They both turned their gaze towards Phoenix. “Rhodon and I will get everyone out, Phoenix.” Lin said authoritatively. “There’s something you need to see.”
Phoenix continued to frown at her, but she seemed to take it all in.
“I’ll go with you.” Charlie said impulsively.
“Yeah.” Syne agreed, to Charlie’s surprise. “That might be best.”
So once again Charlie was following Phoenix into strange areas of the Facility that she had never been before. Only this time Phoenix was following Syne. It seemed strange for all three female Fire Excess to be together like this, and brought back memories from
when they all trained together. Except training had never been like this, and afterwards certainly hadn’t been. For the first time in what seemed like forever, all three Excess appeared to be on the same side.
After awhile, Syne started talking, and Charlie paid close attention. “The Facility-” Syne started, not quite sure where to go with it. She seemed to pause and then changer her mind about something. So she started talking about something else. “It wasn’t nice there. In the Maternity Ward. I mean, they did everything they could to make it nice, but it almost seemed like everyday was the last meal day for a prisoner on death row, you get what I mean? They were nice, but it seemed like the niceness was only a last kindness provided before something- bad.
“And we’re not stupid.” She put in. “Even the ones completely loyal” - She left out the part “like me”- “could tell that something was wrong with all this… with how they kept us here away from everyone. And every time a new girl came in, well, I was the latest, but I was told that every time someone came in they would always be surprised by the fact that we were here. I mean, I was, and I’m sure you were. So, why were they keeping our existence a secret? What happened after we- you know, gave birth?
“Every time someone gave birth they were taken out of the Ward, and none of us ever heard from them again. Not in either of the Wards, because they told me some of the names of the people who had came to term and they weren’t reintroduced into the Wards, so it really made us nervous.
“And then one day Lin and I decided we had enough of it. That we were sick and tired of waiting around until it was our turn to find out what was going to happen to us. So the next time someone came to term, it was Delilah, remember her Charlie? She was Orion. But yeah. It was her, we decided to follow them into the birthing room. I mean, it wasn’t exactly easy, but Lin used her Electricity to mess up some of the systems and I even managed to Burn a few things that got in our way.”
She took a long pause. It was like she was remembering something, and didn’t want to remember it. And because she didn’t want to remember it, she didn’t know how to put it into words properly.
Finally, after a long walk down the corridors of the hallway she stopped in front of a door and faced the two other Excess. “Apparently, we don’t give birth like ‘normal’ humans.” She said abruptly. She was looking at both Charlie and Phoenix, but her gaze ultimately ended on Phoenix. “Remember what it felt like during the Rebirthing? When our Excess consumes us entirely and it feels like we’ve died? Well, it’s like that. The woman’s entire body gets consumed by her Excess and the Excess of the father. And it gets destroyed, leaving the baby crying on the table.”
Charlie let out a hiss in surprise. Her eyes widened as she focused in on Syne. “But you-” She stopped.
Syne laughed, almost bitterly. “But I’m pregnant, right? That would mean I’m going to die in about seven months time, give or take.
“Except, as we found out, it’s not like that at all. Otherwise we’d have died at our Rebirthing, see? The way it works is the whitecoats pump us up with something during the Rebirthing, and then pump us up with something afterwards that stabilizes the body around the Excess. It turns out that they could do the same thing to the pregnant Excess during birth- they just don’t. Because if they did, there’s a chance that the baby won’t inherit its own Excess naturally, which isn’t the goal of what they want to achieve with getting us knocked up in the first place. They’re trying to create the better human, one born with powers of its own. If they save the life of the mother, than they compromise scientific pursuit.”
There was another long pause. Phoenix wasn’t saying anything at all and it didn’t look like she was going to. So Charlie spoke up, “what happens to the children?” she asked quietly.
“Glad you asked.” Syne said. She opened the door behind her. When they stepped inside they were met by the cries of children.
It was a room filled with children, ranging from infants to twelve year olds. They weren’t kept up, not locked like Excess were, but you could tell that they were monitored heavily. There wasn’t any whitecoats around, and because the door was left open, Charlie figured that they must have run away when the chaos started.
They stepped into the room, wonderingly, and appalled. Syne gave the formal introduction, “all the older children you see,” she explained, “The toddlers and up and the like. They’re children who have the Excess gene, mutation or whatever. I think it has something to do with Junk DNA but I’m not sure. Whatever reason, it’s what we all have, had. We were born with it, and it’s what makes it possible for whatever drug the whitecoats pump us with to take affect and give us Excess. Not everyone has it, obviously, just a small minority. And those that do can only be transformed when they’re fifteen to twenty, otherwise they’ll die. So when the whitecoats find children who are younger than the appropriate age they just take them and keep them until it’s time to give them the drug. The babies are, well. You
know.”
Charlie was horrified by all this, and she felt everything she ever had faith in crumble. Not faith in the scientists, but faith in humanity. Faith that life isn’t really as cruel as all this. Faith that good things come, if only you wait for them. Faith that people can’t really be so heartless as everything she had ever remembered.
She wanted to argue, to say that it couldn’t be true. That it was all a lie. But she was a rebel, and Syne was loyal. The fact that this information was given by someone loyal to a rebel was the only thing that made it so Charlie couldn’t deny what was in front of her.
Phoenix still wasn’t saying anything. She was standing in front of a crib that belonged to one of the Excess babies. Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted the baby up and looked him in the eyes. When she turned around, tears were streaming down her face and she whispered, “How?”
The baby had dark brown hair and slightly Asian features. Its eyes were black though, a dark black that seemed different from any other shade of black.
There really was only two people that could have produced a child that looked like that.
Syne looked at Phoenix measuredly, “We don’t know how. We, Lin and I, figured that you would know.”
“I thought-” Phoenix looked down at the child. “But they didn’t inject me with anything, and I didn’t die.”
Syne looked down. “Lin figured as much. She figured, her theory was anyway, that what causes the mother to die is the interaction with the mother’s Excess with the father’s. And- she figured that yo- that the parents of the child, that their Excess didn’t interact in a negative way. That the father’s must have helped Enhanced the mother’s.”
Phoenix closed her eyes, and pressed her forehead against the child’s. “He was beautiful. Still is.” She whispered to herself.
“Phoenix- I have to ask you something.” Syne said urgently, and Charlie was surprised that she was going to interrupt something like this.
Phoenix ignored her.
“Phoenix. Is the Facility- is it going to last through whatever is happening?”
Charlie froze. After a pause Phoenix answered shortly, “no.”
Syne nodded. “Alright then. We have to get the children out.”
Phoenix paused again, then walked over to Charlie. She handed the infant to a surprised Charlie in a very gentle manner. “Get the children out of here.” She ordered. “Make the older children carry the infants out.”
“Where are you going?” Syne asked suspiciously.
Phoenix lowered her eyes. “It doesn’t matter.” She answered.
She kissed the infant on the forehead and took one last long glance at it. “I am no more your mother than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow effacement at the wind’s hand.” She said sadly. She turned her eyes towards Charlie, and then to Syne. “Make sure he’s safe.” As she turned and walked away she added, “Make sure they’re all safe.”
Oi, I just realized I shifted tenses so much during that. Eh. whatever.
The poem from this one is yet another Slyvia Plath. "Morning Song" I believe it's called. It's appropraite for the Book too.
And yeah, I just used Syne to explain a lot of things in the text that I would have otherwised revealed one at a time if I wanted this to be a full length novel. Which I might actually do sometime. It's too bad, because the whole thing with Lin and Syne and the preggers I really could have done a lot with, but I didn't 'cuz of wordcount.
Ha ha, I find it funny that I had the opposite problem that NaNoWriMo kept on telling us we'd all have.
Anyway, when I'm done posting for NaNo, I have absolutely no idea what I'll post in here next. I mean... a lot of the things I write probably wouldn't be appropriate for various reasons... meh. We'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Phoenixeiros