Signs of Humanity Chapter12 - Sign 2
Hilux made her way back to the observation window wiping sleep from her eyes, a blizzard had kicked up causing the drone carrying the payload to land temporarily until the winds died down. This had dragged out the operation timeframe a few more hours. Luckily, she had managed to get a few hours of sleep on some boxes stacked in the back of the hut. This wasn't an easy task; the one-room hut was packed with the musty smell of four people, none of which had the luxury of a bath in some time.
She was in a particularly foul mood with the team, just as she had managed to fall asleep, one felt it necessary to wake her regarding a disturbance a sensor had picked up from within the Towers.
"Commander..."
"What?!" Hilux snapped at one of the timid grunts, however, she didn't deem it necessary to look at the man and continued to glare at the small dot on the horizon that was the Helix Towers.
"Are you ready for the report on the disturbance we recorded from the Towers?"
Hilux sighed and pinched the corners of her eyes, why did it matter? The place was about to be vaporised, but when it came to indoctrination units if you didn't play everything by the book, they would hound you until you gave in.
"Fine, what does it say"
One of the men jumped to his feet with a handful of papers and began reading out in a bland robotic voice "Approximately an hour ago, sensors outside the Helix Towers picked up abnormal seismic activity. Sensors we still have access to within the facility detected a large heat, electrical and radiation signature located coming from a part of the facility below the ice. The anomaly sustains a constant reaction for 1 minute and then disappeared completely. We recommend that we postpone the cleansing of the Helix Towers until a full report can be completed on this event."
As soon as the grunt finished speaking Hilux responded with a flat "no".
"But commander..."
"Listen, soldier, I don't care about protocol at this point we have orders to destroy this facility as it and its contents pose a significant threat to the Seon Empire. Its destruction is of top priority, do you understand?"
Without hesitation, the 3 men in the room snapped back, "Yes commander!" And returned to their work. Under her breath, Hilux muttered to herself "I'll be damned if I have to stay here any longer than necessary."
"Give me an ETA on the drone"
"One hour ma’am!"
Lilith's eyes shot open; she couldn't remember when she lost consciousness, but she was now lying on her back staring at the iron dome dotted with flashing yellow lights, like a simplified version of the night sky.
As the memories came back to her she shot upright patting herself down, examining her body for burns or wounds. The memory of her skin bursting a light played across her mind, she remembered being terrified, but the fire didn't burn, it hardly even hurt. A memory of flying and a blinding bright light flashed in her mind, but nothing after that. Her body didn't feel the same, it was like she was lighter, and moving felt like it took less effort, she felt... good, like she had finally recovered from a horrible illness, she did however have a dreadful ringing in her ears.
She stood up to take in the site around her to see if Jericho was near by, or if Olsen was lurking around her, but what she saw shocked her so much she crumpled back to the ground. The overgrown forest that had surrounded her seconds ago was gone. All around her was a flattened black surface, the ground scorched and covered in ash. Random sections of the ground were pockmarked with chunks of glass that reflected the flashing lights above. Giving the scene an eerie magical twinkle.
Lilith turned around on the spot and couldn't see any trace of Jericho or Olsen. "Jericho!" She yelled out but got no response. Looking into the distance she was once again blown back by the destruction around her. What trees hadn't been burnt up, rocks and twisted metal of fencing were all crushed up against the walls of the dome. As her hearing began to clear, she was gripped by a new feeling of panic. The noise of rain filled the air, her eyes scanned the domed sky above her, there were signs of water pouring down, droplets caught in the flashing yellow lights.
The metal dome had buckled and shifted from the explosion of Lilith's powers awakening, and what remained of the glass behind the shutters had cracked and imploded from the water pressure. The emergency shell wouldn't hold for much longer and would soon give way. While Lilith couldn't be certain of all this, she knew that if water was making its way into the garden, its time was limited.
Now with even more panic, she ran around in circles trying to look through the darkness into the ring of debris that surrounded her, looking for Jericho, Olsen or an exit, anything that could give her some hope. As if willing to be able to see more with her eyes they responded. It felt like they throbbed in their sockets for a second and more light flooded into them. She could see clearer than normal, and she had this sense that she could see things she couldn't normally.
Looking at the lights above her it seemed like there were thin glowing lines that connected them all. Was that the wiring? The electricity maybe? It didn't matter that wouldn't help her at this moment. Glancing around she saw two things she hadn't noticed before. There were two bright spots she hadn't noticed before in the clustering of destruction.
One was larger than the other, it had a red tinge to the light it gave off and felt almost familiar like it was her, but not her at the same time. The other smaller one was tinged with blue, it was foreign in every way, but she had this feeling that it was something she had felt before. Lilith had a choice to make, these bright spots she knew had to be Jericho and Olsen, but which was which?
Was Jericho the larger one that felt like her? Or the smaller foreign one? Jericho had referred to himself as a Brute, and Olsen kept calling her a Psychic. Lilith guessed Olsen would have been a Psychic as well, after all with all the power she had displayed forcing yourself into someone's mind was something a Psychic could do, right? While heading to the red light felt like the right choice, like running to an old friend's side, Lilith decided the blue was the better option. It was smaller after all, maybe that meant whoever it was, was weak meaning she could run if she was wrong.
As she closed in on the blue light, she could see it was coming in from within a pile of broken, smouldering tree trunks, which rustled and pulsed as someone within tried to push them aside. For a moment she hesitated and cautiously she spoke "Jericho... Jericho, is that you" bracing herself to turn and run. A familiar voice responded.
"Lilith? Glad you're ok, could you give me a hand?"
Relieved Lilith leaned down, placed her hands on the trunk of a tree and readied to push.
"Ok, one, two, three." With great effort, Lilith pushed on the tree, but it didn't budge.
She repeated her attempt but nothing, Jericho wasn't even helping, for a moment she panicked, did something happen to him? "Are you still there?"
"Yeah, hurry up, its hot in here the trees are still smouldering"
Annoyed she barked back at him "I can't move this on my own, I'm not strong like you!"
"Are you trying to move the trees with your muscles?" Jericho responded calmly
"Yes, of course!" What was Jericho talking about, did he get paid to be annoying?
"Why?"
"Why..." She paused for a second, Jericho was right, why was she trying to move the trees with her strength? She had just caught a tree, it felt like it was nothing, she just needed to do the same thing again.
"How, do I do that again... Without..." She stopped looking over the devastation surrounding them.
"Don't worry about that, it only happens once, thankfully. As for using your powers... I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? You were all blades and body horror not just a minute ago. How do I do that?" Maybe someone did pay him to be annoying.
"No, I mean I'm a Brute not a Psychic like you, I'm not sure how you would use your abilities. But if they are anything alike, the best way I can think to explain it would be, that your powers are like an extra limb, they have always been there and your body knows how to use them, you just need to practice with them. It's like a child learning to walk, you have all the tools you need to do it, you just need to figure out how to put them into motion." Jericho explained in a usually calm voice.
"You've already done it once... Just do it again." That made things a little bit clearer, except for that last part, if she could just do it again, she would have already.
If her powers are meant to come to her as naturally as breathing, then it should be easy. She thought back to when she stopped the tree, she didn't think about using any magical ability to stop it, she just acted, and her body followed her lead. But there was a bit more to it she was grasping for power in the moment and her body gave it to her.
She readied herself, placing her hands on a tree and instead of lifting, she closed her eyes searching for that feeling of power again. This time she felt a warmness flowing through her body, it moved and shifted like a living creature floating around in her blood. This wasn't the same as before, before she would have described it as lightness incarnate, like everything it touched would be weightless including herself. But what she found felt like a restless snake of flickering light, for a moment it felt like the black smoke from before but changed into different unfamiliar sensations. She sighed in frustration.
"What is it?" Jericho asked in his calm manner that seemed far too out of place for the situation.
"I can't do it, every time I think I've found the power it changes, and I don't know how to use what it changes to."
"You don't need to wait for it to be what you want it to be. It's yours master it, manipulate it to what you want, you own the power it doesn't own you." That sounded... empowering. Lilith thought Jericho was going to be afraid of her. The way he reacted when she caught the tree the look of horror on his face, terrified her. Not that she could blame him, after the destruction that followed, his reaction seemed almost expected. But now here he was patiently coaching her through her... development. That didn't seem like the right word, she didn't ask for this power, but she had it now and Jericho was walking her through how to use it. At least she had something to protect herself from Olsen if she came back.
As if on cue the pain from Olsen's mind washed over her. It was weaker than before and more chaotic like a wounded animal lashing out in the dark. But this time it didn't infect her thoughts it merely brushed along the surface of them.
"Jericho..." Lilith’s voice trembled for a moment.
"Don't worry about her, she's just throwing a tantrum, focus on the tree". He shot back in a calming tone.
Lilith took a deep breath and focused again, finding that writhing snake of light she focused on it willing it to act like that feeling of weightlessness. It pushed back, like it didn't want to take shape, but Lilith pushed on it with her mind and like snapping a lock closed, the power cracked into the feeling of weightlessness. She opened her eyes, her arms from her shoulders down to the tree were completely engulfed in thin wisps of black smoke.
With little effort, she began to raise the tree into the air, while it wasn't heavy, moving it was slow going as the air pushed back on the tree as the massive object passed through it. It was like flapping a massive paper fan. Once Lilith got the tree away from Jericho, she made to throw it, but as soon as her hands left the surface of the tree it slammed to the ground almost crushing her foot.
Just because she could move the tree didn't make her super strong, she was as strong as she ever was, and the tree just became lighter. She turned back to Jericho and could see a hand covered in blood giving her a thumbs up.
"Good start, now let's get the rest of me out" After a few moments of Lilith easily moving large tree trunks aside, the effort of which was non-existent for her, she had finally dug up her companion.
"Look at you... with eye's wide open now, how do you feel?" Jericho said with a playful tone.
Lilith on the other hand looked down on him, with shock, horror and distress. "Jericho your..."
"Now, now don't you freak out on me..." Jericho's broken form lay below her, he was covered in blood, limbs broken, gaping wounds revealing muscle and organs, not to mention all the singed and burnt flesh. All these life-threatening wounds however seemed to be closing, skin sloughing off with fresh skin underneath and... were there extra bones growing on the outside of his body?
"… when we are so close to winning." Despite his state, Jericho was smiling with a greedy glint in his eyes.
Slowly the broken man climbed to his feet, bones cracking under his weight, like it was the first time they had been used. He stumbled up and out of his bed of broken trees.
"Are you ok? How can you move? You look like a corpse." Lilith said in disbelief.
"That's a good description, I definitely feel like one." Jericho looked down at his hand as he moved his fingers, opening and closing his hand, examining its performance.
The backs of his hands and fingers were covered in what looked like white bones that traced his appendages and snaked their way up his arms and under his Jacket. The same bone peaks up the back of his neck and into his hair, if Lilith had to guess Jericho had these bones all over his body. He noticed her staring and addressed the strange sight.
"My body is shot, without some rest, I won't be able to move for much longer, my muscles are at their limit and can barely move. I had to strip away some of their mass as well to fill in some of the holes. These bones help me keep moving for the time being, they're like an exoskeleton, but they don't make me any stronger."
As he spoke a thin blade slid out of his hand ending in a grip like a sword.
"You think that will be enough?" Lilith said completely losing sight of the situation, the little white blade was only a meter long and compared to the other shapes and weapons Jericho had been changing his body into, this one seemed almost pitiful.
"At this point, it's a miracle I can still stand, Olsen's not doing much better either, that blast would have done a number on her."
"How can you tell?"
"Take a look around" Lilith eyed the area but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. There was just a massive empty plain of scorched earth in front of them, and the ring of meters high debris crammed up against the walls. Then she looked closer at the ring, she noticed when Jericho started pointing at different parts it was just a repeating pattern of junk.
"Her illusions have gotten lazy; she must be either exhausted or her wounds are breaking her focus. Either way, she still isn't intending to let us go. Luckily, we have a full-fledged Psychic who can see through the Illusions now. Lilith, where is Olsen?"
Lilith looked over to the place she had seen the red light from before, but it was gone, she strained her eyes in the dark and caught sight of the dim red light slowly moving through the middle of the plain.
"She's just there close to the middle"
"Perfect, get a weapon and let's finish this." Jericho began to walk to the middle of the plain but stopped when Lilith didn't follow.
"Like what? I can't use this power for anything other than moving things and once I stop touching them they regain their mass and fall to the ground." Lilith said looking at the down, I'm still no good in a fight."
"Nonsense, let's get you something." Jericho smiled and wandered over to the mounds of trash behind them. After rummaging around he pulled out a long piece of mostly straight metal, it must have been a piece of hand railing before.
"Ok, we don't need to get into the weeds of it right now, we don't have time for it, but the short of it is that you are a Multikinetic. It's great news, means you are strong, and you will have a boatload of powers at your disposal. However, we are just going to focus on the one you know, telekinesis. That black smoke is a field you put off that can let you move things with your mind." He handed the pole to Lilith, and she gazed at him.
"I can move stuff with my mind?!" She explained in shock.
"In time... maybe, but right now it's just barely a parlour trick, but that’s ok, even a trick can be a weapon if you wield it right. What I want you to do is concentrate on the poll with your powers and focus on the black smoke pushing everything away from it. Go on give it a go, give that log a swing." Jericho pointed to one of the many chunks of tree piled up beside them.
Lilith took a deep breath and focused on covering the poll in smoke, it quickly washed over it and danced on the surface making it weightless. She brought the poll above her head and slammed it down on the log.
It bounced off the surface and the impact rung up her arms, she dropped the poll as her hands shook.
"No, you need to put more into it, you protected the poll from hitting the log, but you aren’t pushing anything away from the surface of it. If it helps, when I've seen someone else do this the whole pole was engulfed in smoke, you couldn't see the metal underneath."
Lilith readied herself again and poured more of her power into the pole, when it seemed like enough, she doubled it for good measure, her head was beginning to feel light, but she lifted the pole above her head and tried again.
This time the pole slid through the wood like a hot knife through butter, as she hit the ground the two halves of the log blasted apart, shooting twenty meters in either direction. For a moment she felt faint and stumbled and almost fell face-first on the ground. Jericho caught her and helped her back to her feet.
"Great job, might have overdone it, but no one expects perfect control for a first timer. Just keep in mind your power isn't infinite, you'll exhaust yourself if you go too hard, but we only need to get one good hit in, do you think you've got one left?" Jericho clapped her on the back.
Breathing heavily Lilith Looked at him and smiled "Yeah, I think I can do it one more time, what do you have in mind?"
"I'll grab her attention and when you think Olsen is distracted, sneak up behind her and do to her what you did to that log. Now tell me again where, is she?"
Lilith pointed and Jericho ran off to the middle of the empty plain kicking up ash and crunching glass underfoot. While Lilith ran around the edge of the perimeter wanting to get behind Olsen.
Olsen was hurting in every sense of the word, the blast had picked her up and tossed her across the gardens, burning her flesh and burying her under rocks and trees. Now that she had dug her way out and was using all the remaining strength to keep up a paper-thin illusion to make her way over to Jericho and Lilith. She needed a new body and needed one now, this one wouldn't last long and would soon bleed out. Her drive to capture Lilith was doubled now, she still wasn't sure what her abilities were, but if that blast was any indication of what she could do, her body would prove to be quite powerful.
She was hoping to catch them by surprise but, somehow Jericho was coming right for her. How did he know where she was? He should still be looking at an empty plain, but somehow, he knew exactly where she was. He was alone, Lilith must be hiding, maybe that attack had worn her out and as Jericho came closer Olsen could see the blood covering his body. He also only had a thin white blade in his hand, no doubt that blast had done a number on him as well.
"Perfect," Olsen thought to herself, all she needed to do was take care of him and Lilith would be easy pickings. Olsen dropped her Illusion and appeared in plain sight in front of Jericho.
"You look like a wounded pup" she mocked flailing her tentacles at him, he dodged but not as gracefully as he had done before, more like stumbling out of the way, the man was tired and on his last leg.
Without reacting he launched at her, slashing with the sword leaving a cut along one of her tentacles, but it was nothing, it was the equivalent of a paper cut to Olsen's massive body.
Olsen made to mock him, but Jericho was already pushing forward jumping up and grabbing on to her with a vice-like grip, his hands digging into her flesh, as he began to wildly stab into her. In a moment of panic, Olsen screamed as she flung him aside. But in an instant, he was on his feet and racing back at her. His eyes were blank and emotionless, but his movements were that of a wild animal, viciously and unrelentingly attacking. He would be closing to attack, evade, launch at her and madly hack away, Olsen would try to get some distance from him, but he would soon be on her again.
It was almost suicidal the way he was throwing himself repeatedly at her. She was beginning to panic; he wouldn't give her a moment to collect herself for an attack. Affecting him mentally was out of the question, she would need a few seconds to build up an attack but by then he would be on her hacking away at her.
She was so preoccupied with the madman at her heels she didn't notice the person sneaking up behind her. Lilith was edging closer and closer behind Olsen, taking time to make sure not to step on any random plates of glass on the ground. She was terrified that the smallest noise would give her away. Her heart was pounding in her ears and the long walk seemed to both take forever and no time at all. Before she knew it, she was behind the lumbering tree of flesh as it swayed back and forth trying to keep Jericho away.
Lilith's hand on the pole trembled as she readied herself, she had never killed anyone before. But this person... this thing had tormented her, exposed her to worse pain than she had ever suffered, broken her perception of the world and flung her into this nightmare land. Worst of all she wants to take her body and lock her away in this ice-cold hell to die alone. Her hands steadied as the pole was engulfed in a thick black coat of smoke, ignited by her rage and hatred she stepped in to take her swing.
Olsen suddenly felt a sensation of a massive amount of energy moving into the bubble of her projected Psychic field. It had to be Lilith; Olsen didn't know what she was doing but couldn't take the chance that Lilith might be about to end her. Impulsively she threw herself backwards, hoping to use her body weight to crush the girl.
Lilith stumbled and fell backwards, as she saw the tree coming down on her, the feeling of defeat washed over her, she closed her eyes and waited for the end.
"What are you doing... hurry up!"
Jericho was behind her, holding up enough of Olsen to keep most of her mass from crashing down on them both. He was glaring at her; he couldn't keep it up for long the bones supporting his arms and legs were snapping and cracking apart. Without a second more hesitation Lilith plunged the pole into Olsen's back.
Olsen's weight helped the poll slide easily into her, from her perspective she felt a sharp pain, but it was but a pinprick for her, she would be able to lay there for a minute that should suffocate the two. With a little luck she should be able to recover Lilith's body, resuscitate her and claim her prize. In the end Olsen would be able to snatch victory from the jaws of...
Jericho and Lilith shouted in unison "PUSH!"
In an instant, Olsen erupted into gore and viscera as she exploded from the inside severing her into two massive malformed shapes connected by a scattering of organs, blood and bones. The event had happened so quickly that Olsen didn't even realise she had died and in the centre of her remains left two, exhausted, broken and filthy people clutching each other thankful to be alive.
"No left, left!"
"Ok, ok sorry. You know this would be easier if you walked yourself"
"It would be easier if you used telekinesis to carry me."
I can't I'm... I get your point."
Jericho and Lilith managed to make their way out of the gardens, it was easy enough now with Olsen gone, but they still needed to find a door under all the debris and clear enough away to make it through. The whole effort had drained Jericho of the last of his strength, the exoskeleton that he used to move his body had broken away, now his arms were now just useless slabs of meat, moving his legs was about the only thing he could do. Standing upright was an impossibility, if he wasn't leaning on Lilith he'd be splayed out on the ground. With the effects of the Heart Cutter all but gone his vision was beginning to fade, sleep was threatening to take him with the only thing keeping his eyes open being determination and the fear that he might not open them again.
Lilith wasn't doing much better; the constant use of her new abilities had left her both physically and mentally drained. It left her with the feeling of an impossible exhaustion that felt like it would cripple her for the rest of her life and as the seconds wore on it only seemed to get worse and worse.
"Is it always going to be like this when I use my powers?"
"No, not normally, you just learnt to walk, and I forced you to run a mile. Sorry."
"You don't need to apologise, without you we'd be dead back there, hell I'd probably be stuck inside that thing's body by now."
"I suppose... you should let go of your Release, the longer you use it the more it takes out of you."
"My what?"
Lilith looked down at Jericho in shock, he laughed in return.
"Your Release, you can't see it but right now your eyes are bright red, your eyesight probably seems better now, maybe you can see things you normally couldn't, and you can feel things outside of your body. It uses up a lot of your mental energy and will make you feel more drained."
Lilith couldn't believe that her eyes had changed colour, when her vision shifted, she had accepted it as a permanent change, as for that expanded sense of touch, she assumed it was adrenalin making her hypersensitive. If she could turn this off, she welcomed it.
"How do I stop it?"
"Just let go, your body will snap back into place" Jericho said chuckling to himself, it was like he was talking to the children he grew up with again as they developed their own powers.
"But I'm not trying to keep this up." Lilith couldn't see how she was holding a power still, if she lost concentration the black smoke would whisk itself away in a flash, holding on to something for so long seemed impossible.
"You're probably holding onto it out of fear without realising it, that's normal, I've done it plenty of times. When you are scared having eyes as open as possible is a go-to response, we are out of danger for now, just close your eyes and take a deep breath."
They stopped moving while Lilith did as such. When she opened her eyes again the world seemed darker, the lines of light in the walls had gone, Jericho had lost his blue glow and the feeling of herself had shrunk down to just her body again. She also felt lighter, like she had dropped a set of weights, she didn't feel any less tired, but the drain on her spirit had lessened making her feel better.
"See back to green, feel better?"
"I do, how much further do we need to go? Feels like we have been walking for hours?"
"Not much further, it should just be around..." Jericho stopped and began to sniff the air.
"What? What do you smell?" Lilith did the same, but she couldn't pick up anything out of the ordinary.
"He's still there." Jericho sighed.
"What, who's there? Do we have to fight again?" Lilith began to panic, fighting in this state seemed impossible.
"No, he shouldn't be in any shape to fight, let alone move, I guess that's why he is still here. But I have to warn you, what you're about to see might be... nightmarish."
Nightmarish didn't even begin to describe the sight that greeted them. Golem was still in front of the escape pods, but instead of his normal hulking form, his body had morphed into a massive thriving mess of body parts and exposed organs. After Jericho had split the creature in two its ability to heal had tried to fix his body. Instead of letting one half die and reform the other or making two equal Golems. His body had continued to create new body parts to fill in the gaps between the two halves.
What was left was a mess of human anatomy as if a giant had scooped up a hand full of humans, crushed them into a writhing ball and jammed them into the hallway. The sight washed over Lilith like a torrent, she found she couldn't even make sense of what she was seeing, all she knew was that she suddenly felt sick to her stomach and began to heave but had nothing in her stomach to release. Jericho was equally horrified, but it was something he was expecting and quite frankly he was too exhausted to care, his only desire was to get into the escape pod and lay down on the ground.
"Jericho, what do we do?" Lilith asked with her voice trembling.
"Just walk past him, he can't do anything.”
As they approached slowly Golem roared to life, he couldn't move around at all, he was completely stuck in place. The best he could do was randomly flail his forest of arms and legs around violently. The sight was even more unnerving as a sea of eyes and mouths snapped open in a sickening wave across the fleshy mass.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" A cacophony of voices rang out from Golem.
"Ignore him, just get in the pod." Jericho muttered with a hint of spite in his voice, he was reaching the end of his rope.
Lilith was shaking in place and was about to dive through the door when Golem screamed again.
"WHERE IS MOTHER? HER PRESENTS HAS GONE SHE HAS LEFT US! WHY WOULD SHE LEAVE ME!
Lilith slowed as they passed through the doorway trying to not set off the creature again, but Jericho snapped and shouted at Golem.
"We killed her, your god was nothing!"
Golem erupted into a whaling scream, that resolved into a pain-filled shouting "HOW COULD YOU! YOU CAME TO OUR PROMISED LAND AND YOU DESTROYED IT, YOU SNAKE, YOU FILTH, I WILL DEVOUR YOU!"
Jericho spat on the ground "I don't care, you can have your rotting tower, I hope it collapses on you."
As the door to the escape pod slid closed Golems muffled screaming devolved into sobbing.
"Was that necessary?" Lilith asked as she sat Jericho down in one of the pod-shaped chairs.
"Probably not, but he tried to make a deal with me to leave you here, wanted me to let Olsen have your body in exchange he'd let me leave." Jericho said now struggling to keep himself awake. There was nothing to stop it now, he would fall asleep soon. Trying not to, was like trying to push a boulder up a mountain with broken legs. It was physically painful to fight it, like needles were being fed into his eyes.
"Oh, I see, why did you come back for me?" Lilith asked standing at the control panels "How do I launch this thing?"
"Just pressed the green button, the course was already set we just need to launch." Jericho said now so dreary he was losing focus.
"Right" Lilith hit the green button and machinery outside the pod came to life as the sound of another door shut behind them, it slammed closed silencing Golem's crying completely. A second later they felt the room fall and then suddenly accelerated as the escape pod decoupled from the Helix Towers and began to pull away.
Lilith settled into her own pod chair, facing Jericho who had his eyes closed "Well?"
Jericho stirred; he was just on the edge of sleep now. "What?" He murmured.
"Why did you come back for me?" She pressed, although she had her own eyes closed now, she would be asleep soon too.
"Oh... I couldn't leave you to that fate, you saved me before from drowning. Didn't sit right with me to not return the favour. Also... I promised Sam, I'd take you..." Jericho muttered.
Lilith suddenly sat upright filled with a little energy again "What?! Was Dr Sam real? Where is he now? Why isn't he here? Did he already leave?" She was about to pull herself out of the pod chair but found she didn't have the strength.
"No, he... He wanted to stay; didn't think he'd be welcome outside." He was barely awake now, Jericho wanted to open his eyes, but he simply couldn't his consciousness was slipping away, and his thoughts were scattering.
"Oh..." Lilith paused for a long time, her mind was trying to make sense of everything, suddenly she asked "Jericho, what is the outside like? Are there more things out there like what we saw today?" Lilith suddenly found she had so much to ask but she knew there was no time, both needed to sleep, and her eyes themselves were already sealed tight.
"Lilith." Jericho summoned the last of his strength.
"Yeah?" Lilith lazily acknowledged him.
"Once you wake up go through my bag, there should be things in there that will help you."
"Help me with what?"
"I'm sorry, I'll have to burden you with this..." His mind finally slipped away, while he was terrified that he might never open his eyes again, he was relieved that it was worth it, Lilith was safe, and he felt that his mother and father would be proud of the effort. He had to admit to himself he was looking forward to finally being able to rest.