IV. Session 416: The Gun

She sat on top of the padded exam table--her bed, so called. There was a moldy, red blanket, but no sheets or pillows save a thin piece of paper. It was nearly impossible to find a comfortable sleep position.

Her mind could no longer withstand the twittering of all the alien minds around her. Whispers of the stretching Core estates belonging to the esteemed doctors' families, and their arrogance which blinded them from how sick their methods of extracting data from human brains were. Sometimes she rode along with people as they returned home in their daydreams. It comforted her, since she was finding it harder and harder to produce her own childhood memories.

Even more distressing, the images of decaying bodies and the woman--the poor woman--who was ravaged in front of her eyes painted bolder strokes across her mind's eye as the days passed. When they forced her to sleep, the visions were the worst. She was stuck in a permanent stasis until she was triggered awake. Like all those citizens from that world who just stopped everything and died. In all her dreams, there was a savage creature, one human, who would appear and attack her. Or, she would watch as she herself become sallow and corpse-like. She didn't know why it haunted her. Perhaps it was because that woman in the projection wanted the rest of the universe to know how the government experimented on an entire planet population, how it all went wrong, and how they tried to cover it up--just like the doctors at The Academy. Now all those children who died buried underneath their stuffed animals or beneath the playground jungle gym, all the employees who rested their heads on their keyboards, all the people who belonged to other planets who were raped and butchered by those savages--reavers--they haunted her like ghosts. Whispering in her ear. Every day they became louder.

Sometimes it got out of control. They were forced to tie her down, which left red sores on her wrists and ankles. They would threaten to put her to sleep if she didn't calm down, and that would only incite her to rebel more. There was always contrast, where she would be underneath the bright fluorescent hall lights or exam lamps, and then, suddenly, back in her dark room or unconscious on the cold, tiled floor, blood slowly oozing from her nose--a gift from one of her peers during Movement Training, and later from a metal bullet during Weapon Training.

The guns frightened her the most. When she killed a man or women with her own hands and body, true, she could feel the bones crack and the life evaporate from the body. However, with weapons, there was no intimacy. It made her feel like a weapon herself--or a target. Even less human than the doctors deemed her to be. Nobody understood her mumblings about the unfortunate planet's fate, which she had accidentally abstracted from the Parliament figure behind the one-way window that day. Not even the interrogator, which surprised her, because, of everyone at the Academy, she thought that he was the one person who comprehended her the best. He saw her from start to finish, and listened to her complaints and requests.

But, River knew Dr. Methias suspected that his prime subject knew about the Parliamentary secret.

He was standing over her, perusing a 3-D image of her brain that was hovering above her head. The girl was tied down more securely than usual. In addition to the straps to her four limbs, there was a metal strap around her neck and waist. She was also sedated, although the drugs did little to quiet her mind.

Dr. Methias finally left the image, and gazed at his subject while he braced his arms against the table where she lay. "I have come to understand that you have accessed some information."

River didn't reply.

"Answer me."

"Subject has learned of the planetary experiment code name--"

"Enough," he interrupted. River turned towards him, her eyes were glazed over. "I do not wish to know the details, but if Mr. Moore is also aware of the specifics, I would like you tell me so now."

"Subject does not know a Mr. Moore."

"He is the person who keeps your data logs."

River paused. It was odd that despite her ever-growing telepathic senses, she was not able to extract the interrogator's name. However, she felt some attachment to the man. She told him everything--he was the closest thing she had to a confidant at this point in her life.

"Answer me now, subject."

The girl swallowed nervously and held her tongue.

She was alone in the room with Dr. Methias, the most dangerous person for her to be with in The Academy. He knew every command to trigger her into her different states. He could essentially force her to do anything. The other doctors had left long ago.

Dr. Methias did just that. River couldn't hear the odd combination of words, but the subliminal command behind them: Obey.

Again, she felt her conscious self slipping out of her body, as it responded, seemingly on its own: "Mr. Moore has heard more than any other personal at this institution. He has long ago had enough information to put together the Parliaments secret failure, but he has not done so yet to my knowledge."

The doctor kicked River's exam table in frustration. "Damn it," he hissed under his breath. She heard his thoughts, they were so loud that her body began to convulse from his stress and anger. Then he looked at River. Her eyes widened even though her conscious self was still far from home. "I want you to do something for me..." Dr. Methias began.

---

"You're very quiet today. How did your session with Dr. Methias go?"

The target. She lifted the safety switch. "He gave me a mission," River replied.

"Really?" Mr. Moore sounded surprised. "Did he tell you your mission out loud, or did you just hear it?"

As she aligns her shot, a voice tears her away. River...River... Her brother is calling to her in her sleep. Sometimes he visits her dreams, and then the next night he isn't there. River searches her memories, but she cannot remember anything of him except his last warm embrace in the parking lot...and even that was beginning to fade away. "He plays hide and seek with me..."

"Doctor Methias?"

"My brother is a doctor. He thinks he can find me, but...I am deep down, and I do not make...a sound." River felt herself slowly retreat to the back of her mind as she remembered the doctor's command to her. Mr. Moore's next question reminded her of it. She did not question how she predicted his next question. She just raised her gun again. I am his weapon.

"River, what mission did the doctor give you?"

"I can't tell you."

"You can tell me anything. You know that," Mr. Moore persisted. River's eyes scanned the room. There were no weapons.

"Can't..." She began, and then she noticed the interrogators pen. Improvise. "...tell," she finished. River held out her hand. "I'll have to write it down."

The interrogator looked at her quizzically, and then slowly passed the girl his pen. For a second, River turned the utensil around in her fingers, studying it. Take the shot. Then, almost wraith-like, she flew around the corner of the table and planted the pen into Mr. Moore's throat.

The attack was not expected by her interviewer at all. At first, he looked at her, disbelieving, as her fist still grasped the writing instrument. His body began to convulse. River released her grip on the pen and stalked around him, her bare feet lightly padding the floor. Mr. Moore tried to speak, but his words only came out in a choking splutter. He breathed heavily as he pulls his pen out from his neck and drops it on the table. Then, he tumbles off his chair, landing with a harsh thud on the floor.

Behind the one-way glass, the guard watches astounded. After he hears the thud through the thick glass, he manages to pick up the phone to headquarters. As he dials the number, the subject jumps out of the shadows and braces herself against the window. Her dark hair was wild and her pupils were wide, like an animal. Her hands smeared Mr. Moore's blood on the screen before him, as she stared directly into his eyes. The guard's hart skipped a beat and he almost dropped the phone.

"I can see you," she whispered to him.