Signs of Humanity Chapter 10 - Sign 4
Signs of Humanity Chapter 10 - Sign 4
Sign 4
Lilith couldn't hear or see anything when she woke up, but she could tell her legs and arms were bound and she was suspended in the air.
Casting her mind back to the last thing she remembered she was standing in the cave passage with Marcus. Jericho had entered the room a little while ago. As time went on Marcus was becoming more and more agitated. She went to ask if he was ok, but she suddenly heard a splashing noise from behind her.
Turning around and pulling up the gun to aim at whatever was advancing on her she saw... nothing. Suddenly feeling the hairs on her neck rise she looked back at Marcus to see him suddenly moving towards her. She pulled the gun back around, first firing at nothing as her finger began to twitch nervously. Then firing a second time when she brought the gun to bear on Marcus hitting him in the arm. As he stumbled away and she prepared to fire again, she now understood why Jericho had told her to make sure to shoot Marcus.
She felt a coldness form around her body, looking around she saw a massive bubble consuming her. She tried to push her way out but the bubble but it was thick like swimming in soup, it quickly engulfed her. Unable to breathe she could feel herself slowly losing her strength and the sensation of drowning came over her. In her fear, she wanted to call out but simply couldn't as she was completely submerged.
Then she was here, where was here? No time to think about it now, she just needed to focus on getting out as quickly as she could. She began to pull at whatever was restraining her. It didn't feel like a chain or binding, it was warm like a massive hand. As she moved around, she suddenly heard a voice.
"So, you're finally awake, I thought it would be best to let you have one last peaceful moment to yourself".
"Who's there?" Lilith yelled out.
"Oh, of course, my apologies I like the dark, it hides the glumness of my world. Marcus the lights if you would."
Suddenly the world around her lit up in a blinding light, she closed her eyes as it stung them. Slowly Lilith opened her eyes to see, that she wasn't in a dark cave as she had thought. She was outside, in a beautiful garden filled with many different kinds of plants and trees, with wildflowers growing from every surface. The sky was clear and a beautiful blue.
Before her sat a woman, unmistakably beautiful, with long brown hair, amazing blue eyes and an elegantly green dress that seemed to fade into the thrown she sat on. The throne, looked like a massive chair interwind with an equally massive oak tree almost like it had grown into the shape of a chair.
Looking at her restraints, Lilith was confused by the site. It was like the roots of the tree the woman was sitting on had come out from the ground and wrapped around her arms and legs. But something was off, they didn't feel like hard wood but rather soft and warm like they were made of flesh.
Lilith's attention fell back to the woman below as she began to speak "So sorry about the sudden abduction, but I simply needed to have you here. Do forgive my appearance, although I am hoping you can help me with it".
Confused Lilith couldn't help but reply "You look fine to me; I don't see how I could help with that unless you want to borrow some make-up or something? Unfortunately, I don't have any. Also, where..."
Cutting her off sharply Olsen barked "I see you are as mouthy as your friend. No matter you can't escape me now, I have a few questions to ask you before we begin."
"Where is Jericho, what did you do with him?" Lilith struggled, pulling at her restraints.
"Forget about him for now, he's in no better situation than you. So, you should keep quiet and... "
"And you Marcus, I see you there how is that bullet wound doing, Jericho was right about shooting you" Lilith interrupted again spitting at Marcus below her with his head bowed towards the woman.
His arm had been hastily covered in a crude bandage that blood was already seeping through. Lilith also noticed that blood also seemed to be pooling around the tail on his costume, which also had a bandage tightly wrapped around it.
Lilith laughed "Looks like Jericho got you as well, serves you right you filthy rat".
At this Marcus snapped and turned to yell at her. "Listen here you little..." suddenly he dropped to the ground and began screaming in pain. Confused Lilith stared for a second until suddenly a great pressure in her skull thundered to life, causing immense pain. She tried not to scream but it was unbearable.
Slowly the pain receded and Olsen began to speak slowly "Now you two, you are here for me, I will not have you speak without my say so do you understand?"
Marcus grovelled for forgiveness while Lilith refused to answer.
"Good, now my lovely, why don't you tell me your name? Seem only fitting we introduce ourselves". Olsen spoke softly and sweetly.
At first, Lilith refused to answer or even look at the woman. But as she did this the pressure returned, the ringing in her ears began to scream again and pain washed over her. She yelled out "Lilith... my name is Lilith". Just like that, the pain went away.
Olsen laughed at the irony, she had been playing God, and now she was about to take the body of someone with such a biblical name "Very good Lilith, such a splendid name. I am known as Mother Tree, but I'll drop the façade for you. My real name is Kelly Olsen."
Still holding her tongue Lilith refused to acknowledge Olsen. "I guess I should let you ask some questions about your new home and me, as I am the guide to your new life, so go ahead and ask away." Olsen insisted.
Confused by the statement Lilith look at Olsen then at Marcus and then at the garden around her. Out of instinct, she asked "What is this place?"
Olsen laughed, "oh yes I assume this place would be a bit of a shock to you after all you wouldn't expect a garden to exist in the Antarctic let alone in the bowels of a place as clinical as the Helix Towers. Granted it has seen better days, I would take better care of it but as you can see it's a little hard for someone in my situation."
Lilith was now even more confused, what was this woman talking about, the Antarctic? Helix Towers? She was in a cave system outside the small village she was stationed. "What do you mean? What are the Helix Towers? And this can't be the Antarctic we are in Russia."
Olsen's massive eye looked down at Marcus with what seemed to be a frown. "I don't know Mother, she has been like this since I found her, Subject 24 knew more about it, he would insist I not acknowledge it. I think she might have suffered some great trauma perhaps, something that would cause severe dissociation perhaps?" Marcus explained.
"Curious, I wonder how far this extends? Lilith tell me what do I look like to you? You seem not to be very put off by my appearance". Olsen said now leaning her massive misshapen body towards Lilith like a doctor would when listening to a patient.
Lilith paused for a second in confusion, but not wanting that horrible pain to grip her again "You... you have long brown hair, blue eyes, you appear to have a rather slim build, a beautiful green dress and you are sitting on a tree that looks like a throne... or a throne that looks like a tree not sure which it is meant to be."
"Fascinating to think a delusion could differ so far from reality," Marcus said blankly, not before his head began to pulsate in pain.
"You don't need to give your opinion Marcus" yelled Olsen.
"Lilith, let's get off this topic, it's not important for what I want from you. Tell me what are your powers? How far have you developed your Release? Oh, and what is your Affinity? Olsen's tone shifted to be more clinical like a coroner taking notes during an autopsy.
"What are you talking about? What's a Release? and what do you mean by powers? Do you think if I had anything like that, I wouldn't have used them by now? As for an Affinity, I'm not sure what you mean, I'm a good field medic and I’m pretty good at mending clothes if I do say so myself.
"What? You are a Psychic are you not? I can feel it, Marcus she is isn't she, you can smell it on her right?" Olsen spat at the ludicrousness of Lilith's answer.
"Yes, Mother, she is, it is clear as day she is." He replied in a panic.
"What do you mean Psychic? Like can I read minds or something? You are joking right?". Lilith said almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.
"Enough, I didn't want to break your mind open out of fear of damaging your brain but you leave me no choice". barked Olsen.
Suddenly that pain was back but a hundred times greater, and now Lilith could feel something or someone moving behind her eyes.
"What is this? Is this how you see the world? So fascinating. Let's dig a little deeper, see the memories you are trying to hide from me." Olsen's voice bounced around in Lilith's mind she tried to resist it, tried to contain her thoughts but, thanks to the pain radiating through her head, she couldn't concentrate for more than a few seconds.
"What is all of this? These memories make no sense, they are too simple and some a stacked-on top of each other like a computer has been trying to rewrite data, wait, it couldn't be?" Olsen, to Lilith's relief, released her grip on her mind ever so slightly.
"Marcus, what do you know of project Wildfire? Was it ever actually put into production?" Olsen turned her massive hulking body towards Marcus.
"Wildfire? Now that is an old project. I recall a lot of work went into its production there were plenty of moving parts to it, creating offspring from Gen X's, studying a Psychic's development, testing the effectiveness of the old mind chips on psychics, and the list goes on. As for what happened to it, I believe the project was "put on ice" something about it being blasphemy. Marcus rattled off lost in his memory of simpler days.
"How far did they get into the project?" Olsen asked.
"Hard to say, the researchers knew the higher-ups would come down on them for it so they kept most of it under wraps until they need to publish their findings, but I believe they had a viable subject at one point," Marcus replied.
Marcus thought for a second "Do you think this woman is the result of that project?"
Olsen turned back to Lilith "I do, something in her mind is constantly writing over her thoughts changing her perception of reality. Until we remove that chip, I cannot proceed with my plan." Olsen turned back to Marcus "Marcus, I need you to go and find as many recourses on Wildfire as you can."
"Right... but umm Mother, about Subject 24, could..." Marcus fell to the ground once again in pain.
"Marcus, I am not in the mood for your little games right now, I gave you an order, you will do it, if you do it well enough, I will have Subject 24 waiting here for you when you get back." Olsen roared.
"Yes of course Mother, forgive me" grovelled Marcus as he slumped away into the darkness.
Now turning her attention back to Lilith, who until now has been trying to gather herself from the last mental onslaught before Olsen began once again.
"I'm sorry, my lovely this will only take a bit longer, I need to see if there is anything else hidden in your memories the mind chip might have missed. But as a little prize why don't I give you a taste of what the real world looks like."
As the pain gripped her head once again Lilith noticed her vision was changing, like someone was ripping a hole in the world. Through the whole she could see a dark damp version of the garden around her. Instead of beautiful wildflowers, there was dead and dying weeds, horrible gnarled trees and instead of a blue sky. There was a massive glass dome sectioned with rusted metal framing.
She tried to look away but where ever she looked the hole in the world followed her, growing larger and larger until it took over all her vision.
Then she could feel it, the slimy wetness of the thing that was holding her in place, the overpowering smell of decay and rout and the coldness, had it always been this cold?
As the last of the whole took over the entirety of her vision, she could only see the world for what it was. It was like she had been pushed through a portal into a nightmare version of the world.
In front of her, instead of the beautiful woman sitting on a throne made out of a tree was a horrible creature that looked like a tree made of flesh. With what appeared to be fungal growths making up the foliage. A giant bulbous red eye at the centre of the mass. Embedded in the trunk of the tree was the misshapen torso of a woman. Twisting and folding roots that sprouted from the base looked like tentacles of a nightmarish octopus. Two of which were coiled around her arms and legs holding her in the air.
Lilith had never seen something so horrible, so nightmarish, so otherworldly. All she could do is scream, while Olsen laughed. Lilith's vision collapsed back into what she would consider normal. But she did not stop screaming and sobbing, not for the pain in her head but rather for the truth she had been shown.