Ignorance

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 1

When you have nothing to lose, all you have to gain is yourself. But when you have everything to lose, all you have to lose is yourself.

“The Brindus Empire consisted of several grand cities and inside them sectors that have formed since the outbreak of the alien threat, everyone had two choices. Either move to the cities and start a new life, or die, simple, wasn’t it? Of course some people refused to move from their homes and jobs; they believed we were treating them badly to cut down costs, or using our “power” to move them closer to us so we can gain more tax, some even made up conspiracy theories.
In the end, the ones to were left behind died viciously by the aliens, their massive arms swung down to their hearts, the sound of their beating flesh being cut open by a claw was heard by the people who ran out of their homes. Many people suffered by not listening to our wise, tactical voice of reason, we managed to be the saviors of those who sided and put our loyalty to us. But who are this “We”? It’s simply the heads of Brindus, the people who devote their mind, body and soul to ensure the continual of human existence.”

“But that was fifty years ago.”

Delven looked down at the young man, his words triggered whispers among the council, and their voices pierced the walls that protected them from the violent snow that drifted through the sky, making nature their own. The man was at the very center of the large, slim architecture of the room. His rugged face showed years of patience, loss and frustration, his eyes cold from exhaustion. The man had a slim figure, wearing a white research cloak, grey shirt and brown pants. His glasses glared in the hot light hanging over his head. Delven took a deep breath; his lungs felt pain, a sign of his age, despite his numerous biological transplants and modifications.
 
“Yes, I understand that, but do you understand why? Because we would not have been successful in the transition of people had not followed our rules and procedures and cooperate with us. Your actions have demonstrated that you are unfit to continue this…this ‘research’ you were conducting.”

The scientist shook his head. “My work has the potential to save lives, and not just your lives, but everyone. Think about it, we’re so close, so very close to understanding and controlling these powerful creatures. This is the closest thing we have to gracing intelligent life not native to our solar system, why kill them when we can learn from them?”

“Because their intention is to kill us, and offering us the power to control them in return of the normal development and health of other people’s brain or body is simply out of the question. They are a threat, and your experiments are the same.”

The scientist stopped himself from arguing, wisely, he accepted the silence of defeat. Delven looked around the council members who sat on the flat, cylinder-shaped seats that curved up to their backs, many were men who owned major plants, others were researchers and a few were the military leaders, the rest were the various moderators of all of the sectors in Brindus. He rubbed his bald head; he felt his tender veins pump into his brain. He then looked at the people around him, Shyrougen, Falla, Nou, and Merrican, all of the leaders were seated, here to decide the fate of the scientist before them. Delven looked at the man, the scientist’s posture showed defeat and desperation, and then he made his decision.
 
“Leo Gairel, you have been found guilty under the charges of using unethical and inhumane reasons to continue your research. Not only you will be denied to continue your research, but we will revoke your license and ban you from any sector or populated area in Brindus. You are to be moved in the rehabilitation asylum care for ‘reprogramming’ for the bio-modification of Samantha Taylor, the deaths of three children, the emotional and psychological disorder of your coworkers and jeopardizing the safety of everyone in your classified sector.”

“-jeopardizing the safety of everyone”

“-of everyone”

“-everyone”

“everyone”

Leo continued to rewind the tape, the sound of Delven’s voice echoed in his white-washed cell. Leo then re-winded to the beginning of the tape and threw the remote at the holographic unit; the small circular unit quickly stopped emitting rays of images and fell on the ground from its plastic stand. Leo fell down on his mattress, his eyes glared at the ceiling above him, he then started to silently count the paint cracks that formed on the ceiling, like he usually did. He knew it was 74, but did it anyways. Afterwards he began whispering to himself.

“In the past, many had to go to the extremes for the benefit of humanity; I was simply one of those many. Am I a bad person for what I have done? My intentions was not to hurt others, but mistakes happen and eventually humanity locked me up in here, throwing me away and looking down at me assuming I’m a mad man. I didn’t want to hurt those people, I didn’t…”

Leo was too under-fed and too tired to form tears in his eyes, and just fell asleep. Behind a glass wall was a man in a blue suit and a nurse, observing the patient, their blank stares roamed around in his cell, feeling no pity for the dying man.

“What exactly happened to him?” The nurse in the white clothes with green stripes pondered about Leo, curiously. The man in the suit shook his head. “I don’t know, no one even knows why he has been sent here. All we got was the copy of that tape he was watchin’.” The nurse continued to stare, refusing to lift her eyes, the man continued. “I want you to talk with him, observe him and report back to me about his condition. A special request has been made by my moderator to check the well being of this one.”

The plump man in the suit sneered when he said ‘about this one’ and walked to the door out of the room. The nurses nodded and continue to look ahead, then left through the door, leaving the scientist to run through the hundreds of calculations and concepts he learned over and over again, once again having the same nightmare about the aliens in his dreams.

[twigstik97]

That was awesome, i love your stories!
Pure awesomeness literature.

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 2

Life is when you go up the stairs to achieve success. But what goes up must come down.

5 years ago

“Look at it; she’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Samantha smiled at the newly born granger, it’s small, fragile head was being cradled in her fair hand. It’s bright, black eyes shone at the lamp light hanging over them. Leo chuckled as he was scanning the granger with the two narrow pillars between the granger, emitting a brilliance of cold blue and dust.

“What makes you think it’s a girl?”

“It’s a woman thing, we can always tell.”

“Oh, so now there’s this secret order of woman with magical powers? Come on now, technically it has no gender, it carries no reproductive organs or external body parts that could support such a function.”

Samantha shrugged and looked down at the granger. It was licking its upper part of its mouth and caressing its small arm on its tummy.
“Don’t listen to Leo the meanie, honey. It’ll be our little secret, right?”

Samantha winked at the granger; it started to move about, trying to cough something up. Then it spurted its first words; “Grrrrrawwrrawr!” Leo chuckled again then the scanners stopped emitting the blue dust and lights, it halted to a jolting stop.

“Okay, put the little guy-“

“You mean girl.” Samantha teased.

“Whatever- in the nursery and meet me in the study, I want to show you something.”

Samantha accepted and picked up the granger in her arms, the granger’s tiny feet started to move up and down furiously, trying to rest on a suitable part on Samantha’s arms. Leo looked around the room for his books. It was a clean, grey and white room with a solid blue stripe enveloping around it, and near the front was a computer terminal, two scanners and a health bot, jittering to itself happily. He saw his books near his feet and picked them up, then went near the computer terminal and saw a sheet of white paper slowly being printed out of a slim slot, above the screen.

“Shit computers.” Leo muttered to himself then quickly tore the paper from the machine impatiently; on it was typed codec’s of the granger’s genetic prints. Leo slipped it into one of his books then left towards the sliding door.

Leo walked through the metal hallways of the Aura sector, and then went through a diagonal stairway to a glass walkway, in his mind felt numb as he walked. He then went up an elevator and almost ran to the study, shoving several scientists and workers on his way. He then went to his private section of the large, well organized study which had rows of documents and tables with instruments on them. He left the door for Samantha and was quickly sorting through his desk for papers, he picked them up and placed them on a wall, the papers stuck on to them, responding to his brain patterns. He then picked up a model of an Overmind and placed it on his desk, then kept re-reading his papers and revising his calculations.

Samantha entered the room late, and tried fixing her blond hair, but knew it was no use. Recently she hasn’t been eating many vegetables lately and refused to modify her body because of her beliefs, thus not only was she weak and slim but her hair was just a loose mess. Leo nodded to her then pointed to a plastic chair, then continued reading the papers he had on the wall. Samantha sat down and waited, then took out a pen and started nibbling on it.

“That’s not a healthy habit.” Leo stated, not bothering to look back at her. Samantha pouted then said “I did it when I was 3, you know that. Besides, this pen is entirely organic, can’t hurt me.”

Leo shook his head. “That’s not an excuse, and it’s disgusting.”

“Okay Leo, why am I here?” Samantha snapped, trying to change the topic. The warm gleam of intent shone from Leo’s eyes when he looked up, then showed her the model of the Overmind.

“You see this?” Leo asked. Samantha rolled her eyes. “What about it?” Leo started to walk around the room, cradling the model. “Overminds, such a vast and evolved species of alien, able to work out and solve problems faster than any human, clone or computer on earth. Built for tactical and aggressive maneuvers, they control and direct the aliens where, when and what to do something, but what makes an overmind tick? What allows it to communicate to these aliens freely? The answer is simple:  Gamma waves. There’s a reason why its brain is less dense then ours, so these waves can easily penetrate its physical body and be sent out as packets. These packets are then decoded by the aliens; essentially, the overmind is like a computer server."

Samantha nodded, and then said “We know this, your point?” Leo shook his head. “Listen, now, how does an alien pick up these packets? What allows them to understand the overmind?” Samantha started nibbling on her pen again then replied “That’s one reason why we’re here; right now everybody accepts the theory that the aliens develop a complex set of tissues that pick up these ‘waves’. Leo shook his head. “Not possible, think about it. The aliens are built for war, and in a matter of seconds they are born and then evolve, all that energy has to go into changing their physical shape. It would take too much time and energy to also change the soft, undeveloped brain that was made since birth, and why should it? The brain knows everything it should, wasting energy making it run faster won’t guarantee a successful evolution. Samantha nodded slowly, and then said “What are you trying to get at? If their brains aren’t deciphering the packets, what are?”
 
Leo smiled, his white teeth curved in a mischievous smile. “Simple, the body itself. Technically it’s the most advanced part of the alien being, and how does the body decipher the packets? Its body is always shaping, preparing for a new evolution at any time, but this reshaping allows it to take any disturbance, in this case a packet of information, externally and absorb it. This is why they’re so sensitive to Lucifer blasts or nuclear and plasma intake, the packets charge through any part of the body the overmind wants and uses it, for example, the overmind telling a marauder to raise its arm and attack the left side of a human face.  The old theory states that the packets are sent to the alien’s brain and then the instructions are transferred to wherever part of the alien the overmind wants, but that would take about 0.7 seconds, way too slow if a millisecond decides the fate of whether the said alien is going to survive or die.

Samantha got up and threw the pen on the ground, trying to fix her hair. “This sounds great Leo, but I need to go and you’ll need some-“
Leo took the papers from the wall and threw them at Samantha; she quickly made a grab for them and read them. “Proof Samantha? I have over 466 pages of proof and 3 tests to not only vanquish the old theory, but prove my own.”

Samantha gasped at the results, calculations and explicit diagrams of each alien’s body structure, and perked her head up at Leo, he continued to smile, as if he won a easy victory.

“Leo, we should show this to the moderators, or someone higher up, I-I mean, loo-look at all of this.” Leo took the papers away from Samantha and bellowed “No!” Samantha stepped back as Leo took his glasses off his face and cleaned them.

“See Samantha, if they knew about this, they would hire a team to explore this further, give us a raise and that’s it. They wouldn’t let anyone of my level to continue this discovery, besides, I have a better idea.” Samantha gulped, and waited for Leo to finish.
 
“What if every soldier in Brindus had the power to control the flow of these packets, Mmm? We have the power to create a bio modification that emulates the characteristics of an overmind, think about it. No more war, the aliens would be wiped off completely if they have no instructions ordering them what to move and what to do, they even need instructions of when to eat. If we understand the complete body of a clone, we can end this war, forever.”

Samantha looked at the wall, trying to ignore Leo’s glaring face, his eyes full of dreams. Then she said “The clone schematics are not only illegal to carry, but no one but the top powers of Brindus has them, not even the black market. This seems too much, but I can’t look at myself passing up the opportunity to end this, I think I agree with you. We need to take this into our own hands, but where?”

Leo chuckled, took out a map and showed it to Samantha. “We’ll request a party of researchers to participate in the next working unit scheduled to be sent to Kairth, you know, that new research and manufacturing installation near the arctic regions. Brindus has been stamping their propaganda posters in the halls for awhile now, trying to get people to go, but what I do know is that copies of all schematics are going to be sent up there, where no alien can survive in the extreme conditions.”
Samantha raised her eyebrows. “Where did you get all of this information?” Leo smirked. “I did my homework, that’s all you need to know. First, we’ll have to get a group of ten or so people we can trust with this information to convince the Brindus staff we’re fit to go.”

Samantha looked her watched and “tsk’ed”. I got to go now, they’ll suspect something’s wrong if I’m late for my shift, we’ll talk later. Leo nodded as Samantha left; he went to his office chair and laid on it, thinking of his new future as an adventure.

"No, not a adventure." Leo thought to himself. "The beginning of history."

“Leo Gairel? May I speak to you?” Leo woke up from his dream and saw a nurse in front of him, holding a computer tablet with a bodyguard beside her.
“I’d like to have a talk with you.” Leo looked at her, and then suddenly his eyes lit and had an idea. “Of course, but you can just call me Leo. I’m guessing you’re here because…?”

The nurse nodded then said “I’m nurse Vallance, this is Richard, beside me. Richard sneered and Vallance continued.  “I’m simply here to get to know you better, would you mind?” Leo smiled, calmly; he replied “Of course, but if you want to talk to me, you’ll have to talk to me alone, privately with the monitors in my room off.” The nurse nodded to Richard and he left the room, Vallance then typed a command on her tablet, waved her hand at the window and the cameras moved towards the ground, no longer functioning. Leo “tsk’ed”, almost too closely like a friend he once knew. “Val, how about that microphone that’s attached to the upper right button of your uniform?"
 
Vallance looked at Leo in disbelief, but turned it off anyways. Leo felt a strong sense of suspicion as to why she was obeying him willingly, but he knew it didn’t matter anyways.
“Okay Val.” Leo said, taking in a deep breath. I’ll tell you what you have to know, and I will answer any questions you’d have to ask me. Remember that asking any questions is unnecessary since I agreed to tell you what’s required by your administrator, so any attempt to ask one is stepping into a place where you will have no chance of turning back, are you ready? Leo laughed as Vallance seemed taken back as to how he knew her administrator asked her to interview him, but reassured herself that people in his position can guess anything, and she replied “Okay, let’s start from the beginning.”, trying to act professional.

Leo shook his head. “No Ms.Vallance, its only the end of the beginning.”

-

That was awesome, i love your stories!
Pure awesomeness literature.

Hey, thanks.

[your face]

suspense! this is really a great story, keep it up.

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 3

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but none thinks ahead for salvation.

“So Val, how old are you?” Leo was inspecting his right thumb, noticing the ever-growing length of his nail. Val continued to tap keys on her tablet, inserting Leo’s age and physical appearance. “22.” Val replied bluntly.”  “May we continue?”

Leo laid his back on the cold wall where his mattress was lined up to, his eyes searching. “Which sector do you live in Val? Have you heard of Transit L24’9?” Vallance shrugged. “I’m not really in any home-regulated sector; I’ve been given my own room in the asylum.” Leo crossed his arms and a frown appeared. “I see, I’m surprised you live here and are still sane. I guess employers want their workers closer to the workplace.”

“But I did use a transit train before, what is your point?” Val replied. Leo twisted his neck, trying to exercise his muscles, and then said “I was an organic anomaly student, with a degree in Bio-modification science and I dabbled in kinetic and cranial research, simple I was an alien researcher. I just had to duplicate and report any new data about the aliens to my administrator that might help us to learn more about them. Many people say it’s just a waste of tax money, but then again, they said the same for the researching developments of the prototype Lucifer.”

Leo stopped to look up, his eyes fixed on the cracks in his ceiling.  “I had a co-worker, everybody was assigned to at least one partner and many believed it not only would improve security but efficiency. Usually our admins would partner us up with someone of the opposite gender, unless we weren’t heterosexual, simply because they didn’t want any relations in the workplace. But in my case, they didn’t have anybody else to partner me, so they chose a woman.  Samantha Taylor.”

Vallance entered the notes her and tablet and asked “What exactly about the aliens were you researching?” Leo shook his head, lifted a finger and waved it. “Tsk tsk, already you’re stepping where you don’t belong, but I suppose I don’t have much of a choice.” Leo looked at her, wondering if she didn’t suspect anything. Samantha then lifted her head up, as if proud of her authority, and then Leo knew she thought she had control over him- a sign of weakness on her part. “We were learning what exactly made aliens behave and such, our last project before we left to Kairth was to pick up a few important documents then expand our studies from there. At least, that’s what the idea was.

5 years ago…

“You mean you couldn’t find anyone?” Samantha shrugged; Leo turned back and then started rubbing his head with both hands out of frustration. Samantha just looked on, chewing bubblegum while sitting on her briefcase. “We need atleast ten people to get the Kairth report staff to agree to get us on the next transit to the docking station, what are we going to do?” Samantha got angry and snapped. “Hey, you were supposed to get people too, don’t blame this on me.” Both of them were outside of the Aura sector, farther off from the research center they worked in. They were standing in front of a booth near the square of the Market, a section where citizens (mostly families) go to get their supplies, electronics or go to the various booths to report or sign in to various duties. Leo looked at the operator, a man dressed in a suit who was looking at them, was waiting for a response. Leo went up to the man and asked “Listen, theres only two of us, but is there any way to get our passes? Look, we even checked with our admins for our documents to be allowed to switch our jobs to the ones in Kairth.” The operator shook his head and replied “I’m sorry sir.” His voice had a hollow echo, as if an electronic bass was stuck in his throat, the consequence of using a humanoid droid as an operator. “But what I can do is take your documents and make you and your accomplice official staff in Kairth, but you won’t be able to ride the next transit to Kairth in two weeks. According to the rules, transits, especially ones on a migration from one job to another, are only allowed for 7-10 people who wish to go. If you do not meet this requirement you’ll either have to go down to the transit station and wait in line to obtain a ‘special pass’ which would probably be too late for you then, or wait two weeks when we allow smaller groups of people like yours to go. Right now we only allow larger groups for organizational and rational purposes, so have a nice day.”

Leo slammed his fist at the side and the booth and yelled “If you make us the staff when we’re not in Kairth, where will we get the money to survive two weeks? Our monetary currency has already moved there and we only have enough to last us the trip! Hey asshole, I’m talking to you!” The operator twitched as Leo’s aggressive behavior rose, it looked like as if Leo was about to punch him when Samantha intervened and asked “Then authenticate our documents so we can be the staff, then we’ll head to the station for these ‘special passes’ you keep talking about. The operator nodded, glad to see Leo back off as Samantha moved in to hand in their documents. Leo walked away and took out a cigarette, trying to calm himself down. “Brindus is full of fucking bullshit. Goddamn machines don’t know what the hell to do. ‘Regulations this and rules that.’ He tells me, we better damn get on that craft or else I’m going to strangle someone. ” Leo muttered to himself as he took out a tablet and ordered a taxi for the nearest station.

Leo kept quiet as they rode in the taxi to the station; Samantha kept repeating to herself what they would have to do when they got there. She then looked up at Leo and pinched him, Leo jerked in his seat as Samantha giggled. “Hey Mr. Angry, calm down. We’ll have plenty of time to get those passes, so just relax and we’ll be fine.”  Leo gave her a dirty look and peeked through the window, the fluorescent blur of lights and sounds passed them as they stopped at their destination. Leo opened the door and stepped out, threw the money at the driver’s window and walked away. Samantha followed, carrying her briefcase as they walked.

They went down a flight of stairs, passed the metal detectors and guards then entered the station. The station buzzed with the talk of people and children. Everything seemed to have a shifty feeling to it; the floors were nicely waxed and on the walls were stamped with posters everywhere. In the middle was a huge set of old bullet trains, their metal hulls and wires skimmed through their exterior. Leo and Samantha headed through to the middle where people were waiting for the transits to take off; above them were monitors of the next destination, the words “DOCKING STATION” were lit brightly. Leo looked up and saw an advertisement depicting an alien, specifically a tyrant, wearing giant shades called ‘Incredibly Stupid Glasses. He shook his head in shame. “Who the hell is in charge of advertisement placement? They’re making creatures as powerful as a tyrant look like a joke.” Samantha replied “I want a pair.” Leo rolled his eyes.

Samantha dropped her briefcase next to Leo and said “I’m heading up the stairs and checking in with the operators for those passes, stay here and be negative all you want, just watch my stuff. Leo shrugged as Samantha ran up, his eyes fixed at the destination terminal.

“What do you mean you don’t have any more passes?” The operator shook his head. “Sorry, but we’re all out. We create all passes out of an alloy with a chemical signature that cannot be duplicated, but the alloy has run out. If you read the news recently, the closest manufacturing plant has broke down, thus we cannot wait to make you more.” Samantha shook her head. “This can’t be, how so many things can go wrong coincidently, there must be some way-“The operator held up his hand, a sign of silence. “I’m sorry; there is nothing we can do. Good day.” Samantha turned around and tried to fix up her hair, trying to calm herself down. A man in a uniform overheard the conversation and walked up to her. “Hey there’ lady, I heard what happened.” Samantha looked up to see a senior man with a face full of sympathy. “Listen here, you part of Kairth?” Samantha shrugged and said “Yea, I guess, but I only have one pass and me and my friend need two to go there.” The man looked away in silence, and then Samantha saw what he was holding. It was a peculiar white package, rather large and burly. “Ah, so you noticed.” The man gave her a weak smile and pointed at the box. “Listen, this box here’ is some imported meat that needs to be delivered to Kairth, but I don’t have the need just to fly to some station just to deliver a bunch of meat, I’ll give you an offer. You’ll sign a digital signature on my order tablet accepting that you’ll deliver this safely, and in return I’ll give you this pass I gots’ from the fancy droid. Remember that this ain’t any ordinary meat, it’s imported and expensive. Just sign this waver saying that I’m not responsible for this box anymore, you hear?” Samantha smiled.

“So let me get this straight. You’ve met a man you never heard of, took a box you don’t know what’s inside, signed a digital tablet and waver you “kinda” read and now we have to drag this meat to Kairth with us?” Samantha shoved Leo aside as he was criticizing Samantha. “Hey, I got us the passes, just deal with it and carry it with you.” Leo looked away and both of them waited in line impatiently. A woman was calling out in the crowd of people, her cries of help was absorbed by the laughs and talk in the crowds. “Herman, Lilek, oh Nell’ura where are they?” Leo turned to see the woman sobbing as everyone was ignoring her. “My god, what the hell is wrong with everyone?” Leo said, then left Samantha and said to her quickly “Stay here.” He ran up the lady and tried to talk to her. “Hey, whats wrong? What happening?” The woman looked up, her wrinkled face in tears.

“My grandchildren, they went up a flight of stairs to the next level and there were guards. I told them I just wanted to get my children but they wouldn’t let me, no one is helping me and I don’t know who to turn to. They didn’t come down and…” The woman continued to cry; Leo looked at her and perked up. “Why don’t you get the authorities or a moderator? Wait, I don’t even recall seeing one here.” Leo looked around, and called to Samantha. “Samantha, where are the moderators?” Samantha shrugged and Leo said to the woman “Don’t worry, I’ll go find them.” The woman looked up, her shawl covered her grey hair and she replied in a deep voice. “Bless you.” Leo ran out of the area, through a set of sliding doors and walked through a large, industrial-set room and saw several guards stationed near the stairs.

“Excuse me, there was an old lady who wanted to go up and get her children, what’s with all the security?” Leo questioned as he walked up to them, one guard nodded to the others and replied “Sir, there is a breach on the upper levels, and we have deemed it unsafe to continue. We sent men up there to investigate, we’ll try to contact them and tell them to spot out any children, but you’re not allowed to pass for your own safety. Leo curiously looked up, the winding staircases and walkways ringed around to the top; he looked back at the guard and asked in a low voice “What kind of breach?” Suddenly a large ‘thump’ was heard, it echoed down the room. “What the hell was that?” On guard asked frighteningly, then observed as a large chunk of concrete exploded and fell near them, rubble was still falling down as a man from the top fell of a broken railing and fell, slid down on the fallen concrete and left a trail of his own body. Leo stared, gawking at the dead man as the guards responded quickly and dashed up the stairs. Leo pulled himself together and ran up with them, trying not to stare back at the body. Soon people came out of the double doors to see what caused the noise and eventually a crowd built up, their chatter could be heard below as Leo made it to the top.

The guards split up, one headed through a pile of construction, and the other two left towards a door at the far end of the level. Leo looked around, surprised that they didn’t even check to see if this level was safe. Around him was shell casings and boxes strewn atop of each other, the lights flickered as sounds of thumping and explosions of falling rocks continues. Leo looked around the boxes, checking to see if he was safe when he spotted a small crack made by a square structure intervening a large, sliding door far away from him. He walked up to it and crouched, he could briskly see outside, but the bloom from the shining sun distracted him. He was about to leave back down until he heard laughter. He crouched again and heard more laughter, his mind raced on the thoughts of the children. He decided to crawl through the space; he pushed himself out and held up his hand to protect his eyes from the sun.

Outside he saw the two children playing on what seemed to be giant processing towers, they were running around on metal grating that circled around the towers. Beside it was a hangar, but it was shut by two large, metal doors. Up ahead was a walkway leading to an exit, but other than that it was just rock.
“Hey, what are you kids doing up there?!” Leo yelled at the children, waving his hands trying to get them down. They stopped playing and looked at Leo as he walked in front of them. “Listen, get down, your grandmother has been worried sick!” Leo took a good look at them while shielding his eyes; he saw that there was an older brother and a sister. The brother turned his head and said “You’re not the boss of us mister, we don’t even have a grandmother!” The sister replied “Yeah, dummy nerd man!” The both started to chant “Dummy nerd man” and giggled to each other, Leo made a face and said “But someone who claimed they were your grandmother asked me to get you, just get down already!” They both stopped and looked at Leo, gawking. Leo thought he was scaring them, so he told them “Hey, just come down and it’ll be alright. Leo heard more “thumping”, much louder this time, and the sound of gas behind him. He turned and saw what they were really gawking at.

The hangar doors behind him were giving away as something kept hitting it, the noise of bending metal was heard and gas started billowing out of the crack. Suddenly the doors erupted, torn open and flung across as hot, powerful bursts of steam hit Leo’s face and Leo choked for air. The steam moved as a body fell out of the eruption- a soldier. Then a shadow came out, Leo gasped at the sight of a dragoon, his posture aggressive and proud, but Leo looked on. The dragoon’s skin quickly began to be washed and dried away of the steam and his whole body looked like it was molting. He quickly turned into even more of a monster, no longer his tough, leathery skin was purple but grimy brown and slick green, his skin dropped onto his bones as if he was a hundred years old. He then roared as he pounced in Leo’s direction as metal from the inside of the hangar flew and a pipe landed near Leo. Leo dodged the dragoon and without thinking, picked up the pipe and held it as if it was a shield. The dragoon ran towards him and Leo gave it a good “thwak”, the dragoon muffled a high-pitched shriek and backed away, Leo was surprised as how weak the dragoon was, but then he remembered that the steam almost killed it, thus weakening it immensely.

Leo held the pipe still; he knew that if it attacked again, he wouldn’t get another lucky shot. It stared at him with its cold, black eyes, and then decided it wasn’t going to take the chance. The dragoon looked up and saw the two children its eyes locked on to their stomachs. Leo screamed at the brother and sister as the dragoon prepared to pounce towards them.

[Vortexx]

MOAR.  Dig this very much!

[your face]

MOAR.  Dig this very much!

word

[Repatition]

wow!

[Minimum]

I dunno, but it lost the terrific quality later on in the third chapter - Otherwise its untouchable. Ten million cookies.

More coming?

[Prophet]

Don't eat the sausage!

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 4

The food you eat is my body; the liquid you consume is my blood. I feed your soul, but my taste is poisonous. What am I? No, the question is, what have I become?

The dragoon moved his body to the walkway; his teeth lusted for the taste of flesh. His large, burly arms held to the grating and made an attempt to chomp at the boy, he snapped back and his sister screamed, tears pouring from her frail, innocent face. The dragoon managed to sink his teeth on the boy’s elbow a second time when the sound of a spurt of energy ripped through the air. The goon’s left side of his head crippled and was ripped out of the socket; pieces of his anatomy got stuck in the small holes between the grating and his blood splattered on the boy. The green fallout of the blast trickled down; some disappeared in the glow of the sun. Leo looked behind him and saw the soldier who was swept by the steam he held a mass driver firmly in his grip.

The soldier sat on the floor, breathing deeply as Leo brought the children down from the towers, the boy twitching furiously at his wound. “Let me see it.” Leo whispered to the boy. He refused to let go but Leo pulled his arm away, revealing a long set of cuts that bruised it badly. Leo ripped part off his shirt, using a sharp knife he took out of his pants. He wrapped up the boy’s wound and called out to the soldier. “Listen, we need to get these kids to a doctor.” The soldier looked up and said nothing, but got up and walked towards Leo. “My name is Ark, Ark #467. My new objective is to lead you three out of here and into a security checkpoint where you’ll be treated for injuries. Follow me.” Ark was heading back into the hangar, Leo was quick to object. “Are you serious? Maybe you didn’t realize that we could go back through that exit, why go back into the place that almost killed all of us? And what if there’s more of those aliens back there?” Ark turned back and said “You can do that, but I’m pretty sure Brindus has already sent a representative down, and as far as reps go, the media will follow. We don’t want injured children tarnishing our reputation, so either you come with me or else you’ll have controversy on your hands.”Leo shook his head. “Comon kids.” Leo mumbled, and they walked down towards the hangar.

They entered the large interior; the rusty walls showed signs of use but the floor was slick and shiny, as if new. Equipment parts were scattered around the edges of the hangar, but the left over aftermath of the steam made everything hard to see. In the middle of the hangar was an aircraft, it was an old model, but it looked functional and beside it was what looked like a flotation balloon, but Inside of it was more equipment parts. It seemed to Leo that the hangar was used more as a junkyard then an actual hangar. Leo looked at the ceiling and saw what created the steam, on the ceiling it was tiled by various vents and pipes that poured hot steam through it, but it looked like they exploded. Ark saw Leo looking up, then pointed to a different part of the ceiling and slowly said “Basilisks.” Leo looked and saw a bloody mess that was stuck in a rather large vent that connected most of the pipes together. “Ark, this is not a good idea, who knows what else lurks in here?” Leo protested. Ark ignored him, he continued walking and stated “Near us is a temporary base me and my comrades established, we’ll be safe there, now stop complaining.” The sister tugged on Leo’s shirt, Leo looked down wondering what she wanted. He then got the message and picked her up in his arms. They later arrived near a base, the sound of the reactor chatting and beeping soft noises echoed in the small, clean section of the hangar.
Inside the section was various turrets placed beside each other, all in a random order. The reactor hung far back into the wall, away from the comfort of the turret’s protection. The armory stood next to the reactor, but the medistation was placed away from it. The base was quite a disaster, as soldiers were sulking behind the turrets, chatting to each other casually. They all looked at Leo and the children in wonder, but turned around, their minds set on their conversations.

The two children ran towards the turrets with a spark in their eyes, thinking as if they’re toys. Leo sighed, amused that the children’s thoughts were easily assimilated even after being so close to death. Ark went up o the armory to fetch some medkits and brought them to the boy then he applied them to his small arms. The boy then thanked him and ran off to ride on the turret like a horse. “Umm, shouldn’t we stop them?” Ark shrugged at Leo and replied “Let them have some fun, meanwhile stick with us until we’re given clearance to go back.” Leo laid his back on the armory, his body tired.  Leo watched as Ark inspected his mass driver, having a tendency to tap his index finger on any abnormal bumps or scratches.

“Ark, what exactly are you doing here?” Ark kept staring at his weapon. “We were originally supposed to move to Kairth, until we encountered aliens and had to act. The filtration pipes blew up because a bunch of aliens tried to go through the vents all at once and clogged up the steam, causing a massive explosion. I saw a basilisk evolve into a dragoon and try to run away before the explosion and I hunted it down, then I met you guys.” I nodded my head, looking at the shell casings on the floor and the bullet holes in the walls. “So, what are your kid’s names?” Leo stared back in him stunned and snapped “They’re not mine, someone else told me to get them.” Ark sneered and said “I don’t care, you didn’t answer the question.” Leo then realized he had forgotten the names of the children the woman was yelling for and blushed in shame, but then called to the children “Hey, what are your names?” The kids stared back and the boy said “I’m Herman.” The girl said “I’m Lilek!” they both continued to pretend to “feed” the turret, petting it as well. “And what about yours, Mr…?” Ark asked to Leo, but Lilek interrupted and said “He’s Mr. Nerd and he didn’t bother to save us from the boogeyman!” Ark rolled his eyes and Leo said calmly “I’m Leo, nice to meet you.” Ark smiled as a loud sound tore through the hangar, the sound of doors trying to close filled the air.
“Illegal personnel with an invalid vital signature confirmed, accessing and deploying emergency hangar door lock.”

Ark resupplied his weapon as his comrades already rushed out of the base to see what was going on, the sounds of grinding metal crawled under their feet. “Stay here! Leo told the children; Leo ran to Ark’s side and ran to the doors as soldiers were already sending lead out of their rifles. Leo looked on, paralyzed to see huge vines attempt to reach inside. The emergency doors shot up, vertically opposed to the horizontal doors that collapsed from the steam. The vines managed to get through but got stuck while the massive doors tried to close in, and some were attempting to lift the doors away as other vines were fending off the human resistance.

As Leo moved in closer to inspect, they seemed less like vines. They had pulsing veins in between the various flexible green plates that covered the moving, dark insides, but Leo couldn’t see what they were.  “Leo. What the hell are you doing here? Get away!” Ark yelled at Leo, but a high pitched wailing slithered into the hangar, the giant creature pushed the doors out of the way, letting the lights having over to reveal its body. Now with its whole self inside, Leo saw that in-between the plates were constantly moving, emerging and churning flesh, slowly boiling with various bits of bones, blood and skin that was held by a thin layer of strong transparent skin that held the interior, protected by the plates.

The creature’s body was abstract; it was essentially a giant pack of revolting tissue with green arms that stretched around awkwardly. The soldiers desperately fired their weapons, in an attempt to hold the giant thing back, but instead it made it even angrier, as it started to fling its arms wildly and soldiers flew into the walls. One vine then tried to reach Leo, but he inched back eccentrically. The creature looked like it was going to crash into the airplane that stood in the middle, but instead its ferocity simmered and suddenly the creature fell, ending its wrath. Everybody stopped shooting and just looked at it, confused.

The body started to slim down, the flesh inside it grew black and smoke blew out of the creature. It looked as if the thing was decomposing until its body was flat, then it broke down as body parts, man animal and alien, spread apart and the tainted blood spread across the hangar’s concrete floor. In the smoke large, round packets were unveiled. The white packets were then ripped open as grangers, marauders and a few tyrants poured out and quickly mobilized. Leo’s instincts told him to run, but he could barely move. The howls of tyrants finally urged Leo to sprint back to the turrets, the screams of soldiers and skin being torn apart followed behind him.
Leo stopped explaining his story, his throat dry from talking so much. Leo started to shiver, his eyes seemed out of focus and as if he really believed he was still there. Vallance just stared at him, but before Leo attempted to continue she held up her hand, indicating silence.

“I think I heard enough Leo.”  Nurse Vallance rubbed her eyes, her fingers tired from typing so much. Leo stared at her, unturned. “I think we covered a lot today Leo, we’re making wonderful progress. I just need to know now what happened to Samantha Taylor while you were, umm…” Leo became angry and moved his eyes all over Vallance, inspecting her eyes and her face. He then snapped and said “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Vallance shifted back and said “No Leo, I think you have quite the imagination.” Leo threw the remote, passing by Vallance and yelled “Bullshit!” He went up to Vallance on all fours and whispered to her ear “Now, now Val, no need to be afraid, it’s perfectly understandable. They too thought I was crazy, all of them. Every fucking one of them, but I saw it. Everyone stopped believing me that the aliens simply assimilated the corpses of their enemies and used it as a means of transportation, but I know you Val. Me and you Val, we’re like good ol’ chums, are we not?” Vallance moved back bewildered as Leo got up and laughed to himself when he turned to the wall.

“Leo, I’ll need to talk to Samantha to continue my report.” Vallance stammered. Leo looked back at her, dazed. He then stated “I don’t know where she is, I heard that she had to be sent to some rehabilitation program like me and they will try to ‘help’ her, but you can find that out by yourself.” Leo sat back on his mattress as Vallance stood up and walked to the door, she then turned to Leo and asked “I’ll go meet her, do you want me to tell her you miss her?” Leo shook his head, with a gleam in his eye. “No, she already knows.” Vallance walked out of the room quickly, brushing off her uniform and took in a deep breath as an attempt to calm her down. She then went down to go back to her living quarters.

“I don’t think you’re crazy, but everyone else does.” A man in front Leo stood before him, his eyes blurred as they moved, his veins fluorescent. He wore a dark suit and sat across from Leo, his eyes piercing right through him. “If I can see you, then I know I am.” Leo said bluntly. The man chuckled then inspected his hand, tapping his thumb lightly on his palm. “I know what you’re doing Leo, but it won’t work. Only I can end your pain, her pain, everyone’s pain.” Leo continued to resist looking behind his back at the man, his head pounding with calculations and memories all processing far too quickly.

“Welcome back Lucca Vallance. The mechanical voice sang to her as she stepped back into her room, the door closing behind her. “Lock the door please, Gyrop” Luca said. Gyrop’s systems buzzed and the door behind Lucca ‘clicked’ into place. Lucca then walked to her bed and sat down, massaging her head from stress. She then took out her tablet and opened her recent document, pages of Leo’s words had been noted down. She then minimized it and opened a picture; on it diagrams of machines were dawn with delicate detail. She looked back at the document then at the diagrams, then hesitated before opening her browser and began researching. She looked at a news article about the Transit incident, pages depicting soldiers rushing in to the rescue as the article glorified their success, but it didn’t go into detail how many people died and from what. She kept reading until her eyes caught a few words that interested her, she then zoomed on them and they read;

“During the confusion, one aircraft was hi-jacked and despite efforts maintained by security, the craft managed to get away. Some speculated it headed up north and carried passengers who had ties in the assault against a moderator and the attacks, but the case has been dropped in favor of utilizing resources instead to help the victims. Brindus has decided to send in a clean-up squad of soldiers to inspect the transit station for any remaining abnormalities. End of article.”

“Up north.” Samantha whispered to herself, she then opened a GPS navigator and located Kairth, far into the northern tundra. She re-opened the diagrams again and stared hard at both windows. She then got up and picked up an old picture held in a frame on a table beside her. Held it up close to her, on it was a Younger Lucca with a few men dressed in casual clothes with research suits, all smiling. Only one of the men was a soldier, who stood beside Vallance, his face was scratched out all but his brown hair. She dropped the picture and grabbed her coat then walked out of her living quarters, with the thoughts of the man in the picture circling her mind.

“Lucca Vallance, why it’s such a pleasure to see you again.” Lucca nodded with a forced smile and replied “Nice to see you too Mr. Howel.” In front of her was a frail, old man with stringy grey hair. He sat on a strong leather chair in a clean and quaint office; he leaned on his chair, waiting for Lucca to speak. Lucca cleared her throat and asked “I’m wondering if I can get clearance to obtain any documents based on Leo Gairel’s relationship with Samantha Taylor and to be allowed to visit her to, umm-“

Mr. Howel raised his hand and looked on at her, his face wrinkled as he pressed his facial muscles in deep thought. “Lucca, I think we know where you’re getting at. You are a valuable and treasured employee in the Hash Bell institute of reprogramming and stabilization for almost 8 years, so I never doubt your intentions. But as I have been informed, your administrator only asked you to inspect Leo, no one else. I believe there is no reason for you to go after Samantha Taylor, as she as no more influence on Leo and thus irrelevant.” Lucca bit her lip, held in and blurted out “I think…somehow she still does. I don’t know if they are telling the truth, but something has to be going on for these two people to be put into our facilities for years and yet no one has attempted to do anything about it. I want to do my job Mr.howel, to help them, not just inspect then leave them alone. I believe I can obtain information from Samantha that can help me understand Leo a bit more, or what has happened.”

Howel looked at her sternly, and then leaned back on his chair, clasping his hands together and stared at the glass window behind him. The window overlooked the city, few security bots flew in the sky as the people below walked beside the towering buildings that held up large, winding wires that snaked from place to place. He looked back to her and asked “Where is your proof?” Lucca smiled mysteriously “I can get much more than just proof.”

-

Thanks for your replies guys, it means alot from teh awesome ppl.
And yes, I too felt the third chapter sucking near the end, but thats because I got tired and rushed to finish it. Next time I'll just end it when necessary to avoid that from happening again. Thanks for the feedback.

[Minimum]

I think you made it better again. Nice effort.

[Amanieu]

I love you.

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 5

The ones who are sane are the ones who are weak, as the world has no need for them.

Lucca coughed in the irritating cold of the building; her breath froze and became visible as it drifted around her chin. Still holding her tablet closely to her chest as if it was another part of her body, she walked up the grim steps which revealed a gritty, metal hall that was in desperate need of repair. The cries of people begging for death washed over her ears, their moans signified the absence of dignity or health. She opened double metal doors that unveiled a large, hollow room that was blinded by the bloom of several hanging lights that strewn on the ceiling of the room. In the middle stood a man, his green uniform’s color was bleached in the light. He was in front of various large structures of human bodies and bone, all winding into strange architecture. The man turned back to Lucca, he smiled in pride and glee in his eyes caught the comfort of her being with him. “We can save them.” He spoke in a calm and warm manner, and she felt as if everything would be all right.

“Excuse me, Ms. Vollence?” A lady with a deep accent woke Lucca up with her incorrect pronunciation, Lucca’s eyes were sore from reading too much from the previous night. She was sitting on a chair, as chairs were placed beside the walls all around in the waiting room. The lady pointed to the stairway that leaded up and said “Sorry Ms.Vollence, you may head up to see her now." Luca nodded and stood up, ignoring the lady as she walked out up the stairs, fiddling with her tablet on the way up.  Lucca walked down the hallway and stopped in front of a door. “Room 67” Lucca muttered, she opened the door and closed it behind her. In the room was bright, yellow walls and colorful furniture everywhere. In the middle was Samantha Taylor, wearing a straight jacket with a teddy bear sitting across from her.

“Samantha?” Lucca gasped, staring at Samantha’s current state. Her hair was straight and lifeless that hung on her underfed body as he hunched on the chair, looking at the teddy bear. Her skin looked strangely moist and her face was dry from crying so much. A camera locked on to Lucca as he walked down and sat in front of Samantha, their eyes never seem to meet. “Samantha, can you hear me?” Samantha looked up, her bloodshot eyes slowly moved to Lucca’s face then decided to move away hesitantly and then she laid her head on the table, exhausted. “Samantha, my name is Lucca; I’m here to help you.” Samantha shook her head and bluntly said “That’s what they said when they put me in here, no one wants to help me, no one to care for me. Even Teddy is starting to ignore me.” “Teddy?” Lucca asked, staring at the ancient stuffed bear sitting on the center of the table. His fur was badly brushed and one eye came off, but the teddy still held a simple smile that was actually string sown on its face.

“Samantha, I’m not like them. I’m here because of Leo.” Samantha perked up, her eyes stared at Lucca’s, as if inspecting whether or not she was telling the truth. She than calmed down and replied “Leo, yes, I know of a Leo. He did this to me, to all of us.” Lucca asked “Wh…..what did Leo do?” Lucca shook her head. “Not Leo, it was Leo. Leo did this, but not Leo. Leo cannot do something Leo couldn’t do if it wasn’t for Leo to help Leo try to overcome Leo if Leo hadn’t killed Leo after saving Leo from Leo’s fate that Leo caused.” Lucca gave a face in confusion, but Samantha talked as if it made perfect sense, but asked “Samantha, I want to know what happened to you in Transit, anything that could help me understand what has happened.” Samantha nodded. “Leo sent you here, my Leo. I’ll tell you what you want to know, but then afterwards you’ll have to leave and try to get Leo into a higher security checkpoint in the institute. Lucca wanted to ask why, but she knew if she interrupted now, she might not have enough time to get everything she needed. Samantha stood up straight on her seat and stared at Teddy as she talked.

5 years go

  “Everybody, please calm down. Our representative will be here shortly to assist and control the problem, just stay where you are and make sure no one is missing.” A soldier called out to the crowd with speakers, as marines were running from place to place to inspect everything for any threats. Guards were leading people out of the transit as everybody were yelling in panic; Samantha was still waiting for Leo, nervously biting on the pen she took out of her pocket. She looked on as a man in a fancy suit with slick, black hair stepped onto the makeshift stage the transit staff made for him. His muscular body fitted well with his rich, dark skin.

“People, please give me a moment of silence to explain the situation.” His voice was tapped with a silver tongue as he gripped the mesmerized crowds of confused people. People stopped moving and guards looked on as the man prepared his speech, their lust for someone to lead them seemed to have simmered down to a stale pint. “My name is Cella, the prime Moderator of the sectors in the left quadrant of the Brindus Empire.” People looked on, a few glanced at each other and it seemed to Samantha that a lot of people were familiar of his reputation. “I will be assisting in helping each and every one of you to safely and quickly evacuate the transit. We have spotted intruders making their way throughout the Transit and we predict they will try to harm you, but we have placed heavy protection all around the area. Please, other than your safety, your prime concern should be to calm down and please organize yourselves into lines and stand in front of the exits as we will deal with the situation. Thank you for your time, you may now quietly and safely continue with this knowledge at hand.” People started to moved in a large, curving line the snaked around the exits, and the tension and panic seemed to have stopped rising.
Samantha seemed to be impressed with how swiftly and easily Cella maintained everybody, but then the lights flickered in the station as a loud explosion ripped through the air. A beam supporting the ceiling fell down as walls were tumbling down. The calm atmosphere evolved into erect fear and panic as everybody ran to save themselves from the destruction. Guards who stood near the exit flew across the room as giant, green vines lunged down.

Samantha’s instinct took control of her body and she started to run away from the destruction, Samantha ran up the elevator stairs, but when she got up in the distance was another sack of flesh, strutting towards her. A little girl was standing near between two platforms that held soil for small plants, but she just stared as the creature slowly moved towards her. Samantha reacted, ran towards her and picked up the girl, but then the creature was about to lunge when the ceiling collapsed and the creature got covered up by the rubble. “I can’t believe all of this is happening.” Samantha yelled, gasping for breath as she put the girl down. “You children are always getting lost.” Samantha said crudely, frustrated to where Leo was. She looked as the child was silent; her eyes just stared at Samantha and began to fill with tears. Samantha sighed and said “Don’t give me that, we have to get out of here and- “

The sound of flesh tearing apart echoed upstairs, the cries of dragoons and the sounds of skulls being smashed inward by the force of a pounce stung Samantha’s ears. “Come on, let’s go!” Samantha picked up the girl in her arms and ran down the stairs. She turned to her right towards two sliding doors when the sounds of claws clattering against metal pounded the door; she decided to run the opposite direction as a red creature emerged from the doors.  The creature leaped from the doors and started to run towards Samantha frantically, then within a second it clawed at Samantha’s legs and she fell with the child.

Samantha turned around, her body ached from landing on the tough rubble, but she felt intensive pain around her leg. She turned back to see her left leg, most of it was badly cut and flesh was already being revealed externally through the flaps of her skin. She tried to bring herself up when the red creature leaped once again and ferociously smacked its tough claw against her head. Samantha fell to the floor, but her body refused to lie there, knowing that she can die at any second. She pulled her hand up and placed it on a large, narrow stub of rock beside her, savoring its cold embrace. She listened carefully through the screams and sounds of flesh being eaten then heard the creature jump again, she then used most of her energy to slam the rock at the creature and was successful. The creature fell to the ground, stunned, as Samantha picked herself up grudgingly and looked around for the child. She scanned the creature’s body and realized that it was a marauder, but she noticed that there was no blue energy veins pulsing electricity which strangely calmed her as it wasn’t in its advanced form. She then turned her head around and her eyes lay on the body of a young girl, unconscious on the pale tiles. Samantha was slowly walking towards her as the marauder quickly pulled itself together and lunged again for another attack, Samantha was ready as she threw her elbow at the creature’s head, the momentum of both of their attacks pained both of them badly as they flinched back for space.

Samantha rubbed her elbow, feeling some sort of ooze or grease and felt bits of skin. She picked it off and saw that the skin was translucent, but within a millisecond she stared back at the marauder and noticed a black spot where its right eye used to be, except its eye was missing. She then felt a wave of disgust from her stomach and picked the skin away quickly as the marauder wobbled towards her then jumped on last time at an attempt to grab at her head. Samantha, out of instinct, held her hands in front of her face then decided to grab onto the marauder’s gaping jaws with both hands. It’s whitened teeth cut into her skin as she tried to resist it’s strength. The marauder tried to swipe at her in a feeble attempt to make her let go, but its arms kept missing her face. Samantha felt the veins in her hands burn with pain, and in frustration swung her kneecap at the marauder’s bottom jaw and pulled the top one with desperate force. Her leg crushed its bottom jaw as she took out the top one; the marauder fell onto the ground with great agony.

The marauder was on the ground; its arms and legs were crippled and scratched out of their sockets because of its crude attempts at trying to swipe Samantha. Its empty mouth was full of saliva that slowly crept out and the body continued to twitch. Samantha looked down at it, her pain ignored by the realization of the creature’s death. She didn’t know what to feel, happiness, sadness, anger, pity, frustration, her body felt too weak and her mind was too clouded to mind such a thing. She looked back at the young girl’s body, and saw that she was still breathing. Samantha looked around, surprised to see all the aliens seem to have left the area and ignored their struggle. “No doubt they left us alone thinking their comrade would just kill us easily.” Samantha thought to herself, and then chuckled at the thought. She picked up the little girl’s and continued to laugh, leaving the area and not knowing where to go. She went through double-sliding doors and the fluorescent lights greeted her, she smiled as she kept stumbling. She then went behind a few metal creates that were placed neatly beside a winding staircase that Samantha was beginning to think was heaven. She rested her body on the wall and let the girl rest on her lap.
“So young, never had to be in any of this.” Samantha muttered. Her mind fell off to a day dream, old memories being taken out of her mind and faintly being remembered.

“Everyone leaves, now!” The solider in a camouflage-style uniform with black amour grabs a young mother and throws her out into the streets. People were walking in an unorganized line out of the city, as hordes of these soldiers stand in a row, forcing everybody to leave.

The girl on Samantha’s lap wakes up, her eyes swollen. She looks up at Samantha’s face and smiles. Samantha places her hand gently on her forehead. “A fever.” She mumbled. Her eyes looked into the young girl’s, and then asked “What is your name?” The girl didn’t answer back; instead she gave her a quiet stare. Samantha ran her fingers through her hair and said “You’ll need to sleep, a lullaby. Yes, something to calm you down.”

“Samantha, you have to leave now.” A younger Samantha shook her at her father, his leathery skin quivered in fear. “I want to go with mommy!” Samantha wailed, her father’s eyes swelled up and he said “We have no choice, if we go, they’ll kill us once we reach outside of the city!” Samantha stopped breathing and stared at her father. “That means mommy would….”

Samantha cleared her throat; her voice perked up into symphony and began to sing.

“Run!” He barked at Samantha, she hesitated before running off into the forest from fright out form their back door. Soldiers broke through into their home and one caught her father. He kicked him in the stomach and pulled his hair so his face can meet with the gun he was carrying, the face of his shotgun meeting his head. Samantha kept running even though she heard her father’s cries. She kept running even though she heard them violently torturing them. She kept running even though she heard the sound of a shotgun being fired ripped through the air.

“Ravens walking, torn apart. In the forest lies their lost hearts. They beat their wings in the air; let them circle through the leaves. Calling out for someone to save them, calling out for someone to love them. Years they have never been answered back, never could find each other because eyes are what they lack. The hunter grimaces in the sun, taking in the joy of hunting them. He gallops through the forest with intent, knowing every boundary but the one set place for cruelty. Takes his weapon, the ravens he leers. His iron sights on their bodies he nears. The whimsical melody that is set off every time the bullet leaves his barrel pierces the small bodies of the ravens. He leaves one to be alive, to be lonely and lost forever. Like him."

Samantha’s eyes close themselves after hearing the girl snore. She drifts off to a dream, imagining herself flying in a forest.
Cautious footsteps can be heard in the area. One man sees Samantha and the girl.
“Reporting to any superior available, located two civilians. One young woman and child, middle class. Need medical attention for both, permission to evacuate?”
The buzz of a strong, tender voice outputted from the soldier’s earpiece.
“Confirmed, we have room for two. Report finding to your nearest squad leader then take them up here. Check for additional injuries and scan area for any findings. Cella out.”

-

Woot! Two chapters! This is to basically compensate for the lack of writing in the past weeks, but recently Life and TF2 took away my time (Mostly life).

[Hendrich]

Ignorance- Chapter 6

Thoughts turn into ideas. Ideas turn into beliefs. Beliefs turn into words. Words turn into actions. Actions shape the world. The world shapes us.

“What is our status?” Cella asked the secondary-class squad leader, his voice muffled by his helmet. “Sir, we held the top floor, middle and bottom area of the stairs. We encountered light resistance from the aliens, no advanced evolutions since day one. We rescued 4, lost two.” Cella nodded his head in understanding, and then turned to the soldiers in front of him. They stood still silently, waiting for orders. He looked at them, and then stared at the civilians, lying on the ground asleep with everyone else. “Everyone, stand guard for now. We can’t risk going out when alien activity is high. We’ll wait for the air craft’s to come down and take civilians away then regain our supplies.” Cella said. The soldiers broke up without a word to defend the small room. Everyone was enclosed in a tight room with a column made out of grating that stood in the middle of the room. Water was being filtered inside the column, it’s quiet splashes being the only sounds other then the coughing and heavy breathing.

Samantha woke up, rubbing her hand on her eyes. She held them up to see bandages where the marauders bite marks were. “Glad to see you’re still alive.” Cella said to Samantha in a casual tone, then took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter. “Where is she?” Samantha said, looking around. “Beside you, sleeping.” Samantha stared at the young girl, her face content. Samantha took a breath of air then relaxed. She then noticed the girl was holding a stuffed teddy bear, but Cella followed her confused face and answered “It was a gift, from us. It’s mandatory to offer the children an item of comfort to settle them down in such…an unpredictable environment.”

Samantha then rubbed her loose hair in joy. “You’re quite young to be a mother; you seem to be the only one I’ve seen around here.” Cella said, walking around the room slowly, as if waiting for something. “Oh, um, I’m not her mother.” Samantha chatted nervously, Cella turned to her puzzled. Samantha continued and said “I just found her, and she doesn’t talk, I don’t…” Cella nodded his head and interrupted “We’ll deal with it once we get everyone into the crafts out of here. But your injury is something that can’t be dealt with to where we’re sending you to. I’m wondering, what exactly happened out there?” Samantha gave him an angry look and said “What do you want from me?” Cella smiled and said “I only want to understand you more, to offer you help.” Samantha shrugged and said “I don’t need help from a sock puppet like you.” Cella’s smile vanished and turned to her, blowing a cloud of smoke from his lips. “If it wasn’t for me, you would still be near the alien base, holding that child with your bleeding hands sleeping defensively. Your blood would’ve attracted more aliens, ending your life. If you’re not going to appreciate what I have done, then please give me some respect.”

Samantha sneered and replied “The soldiers saved me, not you. I had to fight off a marauder and saw people…people I saw before the incident being ripped apart while you stayed here protected.” Cella snapped and yelled “I was here helping them!” He pointed at the other men and woman who all cuddled around each other, tired and injured. He then continued; “I came after this, this horror, I didn’t know. You’re the reason why Brindus can’t help everyone, because you fight us. We offer you a haven, survival, and you complain and try to fight us. If we don’t, you fight anyways.” Cella took another whiff from his cigarette, and then threw it on the ground in disgust. He massaged his head and breathed deeply. He relaxed his body, tense from anger and said “Listen, I don’t care what you think right now; I care about the safety about these people. I’m here because I want to protect them from, these…..these monsters.”

“Monsters, what do you know anything about them?” Samantha said bluntly. Cella stared at her, smiling strangely. “We fight them every day.” A soldier stride back into the room, he held a graph in his hands and said frantically “Cella, we need to talk.” Cella nodded his head and asked “Problem?” The soldier glared at him then replied “Now, outside.” Cella stared back at Samantha then walked with the soldier. They passed through a sliding door, their conversation muffled.

An old woman turned to Samantha and whispered “What was all that about?” Samantha shrugged and calmly replied “I don’t trust him.” The old woman stared at her blankly and said “Neither does anyone here, but he has a point. He’s protecting us, just keep him off from his bad side and don’t drag everyone else into it. People depend on him right now.” Samantha looked away as the old woman and rested on the wall. The other survivors were quietly waiting; low whispers occasionally disturbed the silence. Samantha stared at the young girl; she had brown hair and a light tone. She woke up when Samantha felt her forehead on the back of her hand, her pearly blue eyes shone with a mysterious gleam.

“What’s her name?” The old woman asked, Samantha replied “I…I umm, don’t know. She doesn’t seem to …” The old woman then pointed at the girl’s chest, she slowly took something from her back and lifted it off her head. She held a dog tag in her leathery hand, read from it and spoke out loud “Monu – L4D4D8” “Monu?” Samantha repeated, the girl then nodded her head. “I think that could be her name.” The woman said, smiling. The girl gave a puzzled look, she then took the dog tag from the old woman’s hand and held it, dangling in front of her. Samantha just stared awkwardly, unable to understand her.

 Cella stepped back into the room and loudly said “Samantha, come with us.” This startled Samantha and she asked “Wait, how did you know-“Cella interrupted “Leave the girl here, pack your things and join us outside. Someone named ‘Leo’ claims to know you.” Samantha nodded her head, and then frantically grabbed her coat and the old woman looked up at her. “Don’t worry dear; I’ll keep an eye out for her. You just move along.” Samantha thanked her, but then the girl tugged at her coat. She didn’t want Samantha to leave, her eyes begging. Samantha looked at her sadly, realizing that this child was already attached to her. She then smiled and handed her the box she took from the delivery carrier from earlier. She then noticed Monu was having trouble opening the box.

“Samantha, you better go now.” The old woman spoke in a rushed voice. Samantha understood, then asked “Wait, I didn’t-“The woman replied “My name is Kintle, now enough chit-chat, before you get into trouble. Go, now!” Samantha was already walking out of the room, the sliding door before her. Kintle sighed, and then stared at Monu, watching her struggle with the box. The woman then took the box out of Monu’s hands and opened it for her. Inside were large, plump sausages, still warm. “Don’t these look delicious, child?” Kintle asked. Monu nodded as Kintle handed her a piece.

Samantha walked with Cella through some stairs until they were in a construction area, or an area that was damaged badly and was in repair. Soldiers were already putting up lights and clearing out most of the rubble. Suddenly the light began to flicker eccentrically and a sound erupted the room. The lights flicked back on. Samantha was looking around herself, confused, and then turned to confront Cella, but he seemed to have left.  Near the railing of descending stairs were a few soldiers were standing beside Leo. Samantha exhaled air and ran up to him.

“Leo!” Samantha called, Leo’s face seemed to be blurred as he turned his head, and his eyes were hidden behind his glasses. The lens seemed be glared badly by odd light, then Leo began to run from his spot and ran down the stairs. “Leo, wait!” Samantha yelled, and then ran after him. She followed him down the stairs, and he ran across the bottom floor towards the double doors. “Leo, please!” Samantha called after him, her mind ears filled with the thoughts of the aliens, waiting beyond the doors.

Leo seemed to be unnaturally fast as he made his way down a ramp towards the lower floor. Samantha followed him down, and then saw he went down another level. Samantha had trouble going down, then noticed a blood splatter beside a slate of metal acting as another ramp. She held in her fear and made it down. Posters of human propaganda and advertisements were placed on the walls everywhere, their colors bleached and paper torn from the attacks. At the end of the massive hallway was light- a sign of freedom. Leo was standing in front of the light, staring at Samantha. She ran up to Leo and threw herself at him, but Leo was quick to act and held his arms around her body.

Samantha suddenly let herself be taken away by the emotions she desperately tried to hide, she was sobbing in Leo’s shirt as he smiled. “Its good to see you too, Samantha. I didn’t expect you to be so…” Samantha was trying to hold back her crying, and in whispers said “Leo..Oh god Leo, its so- so hard trying to be strong. I was so scared, I thought I was going….I thought..” Samantha continued to cry, but then Leo replied “I understand, just let it all out. Your safe now.” Leo’s last words seemed to croak, as if he had something in his throat. Samantha then looked up at him, and said quietly “I thought I was never going to see your face again.” Leo chuckled, then lifting his hand and tenderly feeling Samantha’s skin. He then moved his hand towards her neck and kept moving it down. Samantha smiled and calmly said “Its…its okay. This…this will just be only the two of us Leo. Our moment…”

Leo’s hand then held tightly on Samantha’s neck, his iron grip was slowly choking her. With surprising force he lifted her off the ground with one arm, then said “Yes, Samantha. You thought you were never going to see me again, didn’t you?” His voice changed dramatically, croaking and wheezing, as if he had difficulty grasping the English language. With his free hand he took off his glasses, revealing one black eye that glistened with hatred, and the other was missing. Samantha could only stare in horror as she tried to fight against his hand to breathe for her life. He then smiled, revealing a row of sharp, whitened teeth. “This will be our moment.” As his mouth gaped opened wide and lunged at her.

Samantha woke up; she was surprised to see that she felt good, as if her body was healed. She was on a pile of rubble, still in the lowest level of the transit. She looked around, behind her the exit was blocked by the rubble, and now she was lost. She wanted to get up and find her way back, but she mysteriously felt hungry. She looked around her, thinking of finding something. In the far back of the rubble was a grey container. She crawled towards it, and read the label on the front saying “From: Brindus Protecting, Health and Food regulation Master sectors #543. To: Kairth.” She decided to hold her hands on the lid of the cold, metal container and opened it with ease, since the tight security locks seemed to be destroyed. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she decided to follow her instincts and reached inside the container. Her hand felt something warm, and then took it out. It was in a white box; she opened it and found sausages inside.

“I might as well eat before I go back.” She thought to herself, taking a sausage and raising it to eat it. She then stopped herself and felt something moving inside the meat. In curiosity she ripped the sausage in half and a swarm of tiny nanites fell from its insides. Samantha screamed and moved away from the swarm. She looked at the nanites from a safe distance as they moved around in clusters on the rubble, slowly dying due to the conditions outside of the meat. She then made her way and took a closer look at the nanites, then immediately recognized the type.

“Samantha?” Vallance asked, staring at Samantha who was mesmerized in her place. “Samantha….are you?” Samantha nodded, and then Vallance quickly asked “What kind of nanites were they?” Samantha’s eyes met Vallance, then she said in a deep voice “They were military-grade infection nanites, used to go inside a biological body and essentially “Eat” its insides then lay eggs that contains it’s biotic DNA so more can develop. They were an early experiment to be used against the aliens, and then dropped as the nanites seemed to unaffect the aliens since their body seemed to destroy them before they could do anything. The only thing they were confirmed to kill was humans.”

A long silence slid in-between Vallance and Samantha, but Vallance wanted to know more. Samantha decided to continue and said “I went back to where Monu was, but everybody was gone. Blood was found everywhere, as the water the central pillar in the middle was now contaminated with blood. Someone scrawled a warning on the wall. “Don’t eat the sausage” it was written, beside was Monu’s teddy bear and…and I-“Samantha took the bear off the table and held it against her chest like a child. Vallance kept staring in despair, unable to say anything else. “She was like my daughter, but I don’t know why I feel that way. Why did I take that box, she was so young…” Vallance replied “It’s not your fault Samantha, you just-“Samantha suddenly snapped at her and yelled “Bullshit, can’t you understand? I killed her! I killed her, I goddamn, I..”” Samantha held in her tears as she hastily held the teddy bear on her face, the nightmares danced in her eyes. Vallance said nothing, and it seemed like they waited for hours, just being quiet.

“I don’t know what happened afterwards.” Samantha said, calming down. Vallance gave her a puzzled look, but Samantha went on. “I was in the room, then I saw light coming into the room. I heard shuffling, then…..then I was here.” Vallance nodded, but her face wasn’t sure. Vallance then said “I don’t believe you.” Samantha stared at her in anger, but Vallance put her index finger on her mouth and said “I think you know more, something you forgot.” Suddenly the door opened and the lady with the deep accent walked in, she then stated “Mrs. Vollance, visiting hours are over. Please leave, we need to close down. Vallance got up and walked towards the lady. She then stopped and asked to Samantha “Stand back a bit, dear.”

Samantha decided to shuffle back a bit in confusion as Vallance swung her head in-between the point of the lady’s neck and shoulder meets, the lady then fell on the ground unconscious. “Holy shit!” Samantha gasped; Vallance was digging her hands underneath the lady’s dress and found a belt. She then took out the gun that was holstered onto it and pointed at Samantha. “Sorry dear, but you already know too much to be left here. You’re coming with me, and I can assure you that you don’t have a choice.”
Samantha and Vallance were walking out of the room, Vallance still holding the gun. The camera placed in the room was still recording, flickering a red light.

-

To be honest, I felt these two were the worst chapters yet. The quality wasn't there, character development was poor and the coherent ideas were badly executed. But, I wouldn't the the time or patience to keep re-doing them and I want to continue the story plot. I'll might have to edit them for (hopefully) any small errors, since I posted them at 12:00 in the morning and my brain barely works at that time. That being said, I hope you enjoyed them, and I'm aiming at making a new chapter the the end of next week, and start putting better effort into it. Cheers.