Ok so in my last chapter, I put a little complaint to a previous reviewer who chose to do so anonymously, which I mistook for someone trying to troll me, and to that, I sincerely apologise. I didn't realise you were being serious and now I understand, really really sorry about that! And also, a huge thanks to EVERYONE who has reviewed thus far, I don't think I would of made it here without you. It really encourages me to continue writing whenever I get writers block or I'm typing out a difficult chapter/experiment. I was actually expecting about 2 or 3 reviews by the time I had finished this entire story, but I have by far exceeded my expectations by quadruple or even more! That's so wonderful!
So this, my lovely people, is for you. Enjoy!
"Wake up..." Something whispered in the blurred fever that had become my mind, coaxing me gently to do as it said. I didn't want to listen, but it called me again, prying me from the troubled rest I had been forced into having. It came slowly at first, but eventually my body began to respond, and my eyes gradually began to glimpse colour and fuzzy shapes. Feeling then began to seep back into every cell, and with the feeling, came the dull throb of pain, most prominent in my side.
It took longer than I would like to admit to realise I was bound to a wall (which greatly explained the cold sensation along my back), with what looked an awful lot like tendrils, pulsing with burning colours like red, burnt umber and black. I then heard voices, so many voices around me- all talking, all whispering in something I didn't understand. Shapes changed from permeable to solid, and finally gained detail the longer I tried to see what was in front of me. Squinting, I tried to see the person standing less than 3 metres away from me, who was that...?
She seemed to have short but bright orange hair which in places seemed more brown than others, and she wore some weird leather suit... I swear I had seen her before- "YOU!" I shouted from my binds on the wall, my face immediately taking a vicious glare, "You're the one who's been invading my head! Who are you!" I demanded, the voices around me growing louder, seeming to take on a worried tone. The lady which I still couldn't see in clear detail somehow gave off a calming vibe (in my head of course, seriously, stop fucking with my brain!) walked closer to me, and moved a hand towards my face. I flinched away, fully expecting her to hit me or do something violent, but instead her hand reached up and caressed my cheek as though she was welcoming me home- the calming sensation in my mind becoming even stronger.
"I am your mother," her voice sounding affectionate as she smiled at me ever so slightly. Finally, I shrugged off the calm which had tried to subdue me, and I began to wrack with painful laughter. I laughed in an almost hysterical way, causing flashes of pain with every jolt of my sides, causing the many voices swirling around me to chatter in confusion, even the lady in front of me unsure as to why I was laughing. "...My mother, became a prostitute, and left my entire family for dead in the search for... I don't know what, but she left us," I giggled again, clearly finding the idea that this woman being my mother highly amusing. I must of seemed crazy, insane even with my unhinged laughter echoing through this place. "And you certainly aren't my stepmother, she had my life HELL for the past... 7 years or so?" I laughed again, before finally groaning in agony as my side began to protest and started bleeding again.
The lady simply watched as I had my moment of insanity, then saw the object in question which was causing me so much discomfort- the nasty gash in my side which still had not healed. Sympathy flowed through what I had decided to call the mental link, and she forced me to be still. Reaching towards me, I immediately snapped into realisation that I was in danger here, and panic raced through me causing me to struggle and resist, but whatever she was doing held be firmly in place. God damn it!
Her hand covered my injury, causing a yelp escape from my throat involuntarily, but after a few seconds I felt what was once blinding pain turn into a soothing sensation, and blood had stopped flowing from my wound. I had been completely healed. I looked up in confusion, the pressure restraining my movement now gone. "You healed me... Why?"
The affection from before creeped into my head. "You are my daughter." My frown from before began to grace my features, though more in confusion. "I'm not your daughter, I am- was human, and I was born in England, I have no idea who you are." "I am your mother," she insisted, "you were reborn, becoming one of us... You have gained a higher level of existence than humanity." Joy practically blasted through the mental link and into my head as her left index finger touched my forehead. "Watch," she whispered to me, a note of longing clear in her voice. What I guessed were memories bombarded me much like the emotions she had made me feel, although I could do nothing to block these.
Through the neurones and the synapses that I was sent flying through, there were brief flickers of a village, not to big in the middle of nowhere, and people- I had no clue who they were, smiling at something, a camera? Blackwatch were there, or what looked like the early stages of Blackwatch were present, policing the village while scientists preformed... Tests. There was a brief moment of just pure white covering my vision, then images of a 'perfect world' assaulted my view. There was no disease, no war, no poverty at all, everyone was connected through some kind of link. Everyone was one, with millions of voices united under a single cause. 'What had caused this to happen?' Was my one question until I saw that the people were not actually humans. They were like me...
I was pulled back to the real world, panting after such an experience. She wanted to infect the whole world didn't she? To in effect eradicate all human problems, but destroy all of the humans along with them. That was wrong, but it made sense didn't it? I was infected, yet still alive and the same as before, so what if it wasn't wrong at all? Conflicting opinions swirled around in my head, and a blossom of hope was felt, the voices around me becoming louder, more prominent in their campaign to get me to join them. They wished for me to spread the disease didn't they? Instead of end it...
"No." I called out, abruptly ending their talking, all hope that had congregated in my mind fleeing rapidly. "No, I haven't achieved a higher state of existence. Nor am I superior in any way." The equivalent to shock echoed all around the room, dismay replacing any hope they had. "I was human- and I still am. I am no different! Humanity will always have war, disease and poverty, but that was the way we were created. It is the way we have evolved, to survive!" The lady sighed in sadness and sorrow, the presence of said emotion beginning to make itself known. Then, without warning, I was assaulted with violent images of human atrocities.
Hunger from poor countries was often seen, children starving at the side of poorly constructed houses and roads. Diseases like malaria were predominantly shown too, with people bed ridden with horrid scars, people throwing up blood and bile, and corpses stacked into what looked like a small mountain- rotting and decaying while plagues of flies fed off their flesh. And finally the worst of all, warfare. The military was shown marching through villages, culling families- women, men, and children alike with no remorse or no pity. Women were raped, children with mutations due to chemical weapons were born, and thousands of screams, of terror, of desperation were heard all around my mind. 'Make it stop!' My mind screamed at me, not wanting to see the suffering of the millions before me, and the billions afterwards. As if on demand, the killing stopped, and I was here again, breathing laboured with tears ready to fall in my eyes.
"Do you see?" She crooned, a gentle hand stroking my face as I caught my breath. "We can end the suffering of these souls... Bring them new life..." The voices joined in, a slow drone forming a chant. "Join us," she whispered to me, desperately trying to get me to see her way. "Join us and we can create a new perfect world together... Mother and daughter, the way it was meant to be..." Humans had done many terrible things, spanning throughout the ages, but hadn't all races? We were one amongst a thousand, battling for survival, against others, against ourselves most times, but millions could not be blamed for the folly of a few- no, it wasn't right. I would not let a race be doomed to die because of the actions of the corrupt and immoral!
I didn't have to voice my decision, I knew they heard my thoughts. The lady in front of me seemed so disappointed in my choice, great sorrow and sadness pouring from her voice. "My daughter... How mislead you are." Before I knew what was happening, I felt like I was being torn out of my own body, everything I could see and hear becoming blurred and unclear one again. "Let me make you see..." I made out over the blaring drone of voices, whispers and screaming alike battling in my head to be heard. Everything was so loud... It hurt so much. Just, make it stop! make it stop!
I don't know how I did it, it felt like I was pushing against an entire hurricane which just my bare hands, but somehow, irreversibly, uncontrollably, I broke free. The weight of a thousand minds were repelled from my head and sent packing, clearly surprised that I had the mental strength to fight off the entire... Hive? And evict them from my personal space.
"You are not my mother! And I am sure as hell not your daughter you insane psychopath!" I screamed at her in a glorious rage, which for a moment I thought I was going to be killed for, until an explosion shook the entire building with a resounding 'BOOM!' Two more explosions followed the first, before a large gaping hole was punched right through the wall, on the opposite side of the room which I could now see oh-so-clearly. As the dust started to settle, everything went eerily quiet, as in the improvised doorway stood the bane of my life, and the savour of my existence.
"Greene!" He roared from the hole he had made, his ice blue eyes practically glowing with a need for vengeance and blood underneath that ever-mysterious hood. Within moments, what had turned from peaceful calm had evaporated, and all that was left in it's wake was destruction and bloodshed. Everything that could move was attacking him, cries of fury coming in the general direction he had made his entry from getting closer with each passing second. A variety of infected were somehow batted aside, completely disregarded with little care as my saviour made a beeline for the lady whom I now knew as Greene.
Within moments he was upon her, and she had no possible way to defend herself from the syringe he brought down forcefully into her neck, a sight that could make even the most cruelest of doctors flinch and fidget uncomfortably. Whatever was inside that syringe, it certainly didn't react well. Greene fell to the floor, convulsing and twisting painfully on all fours, before she expelled a large pool of biomass which also convulsed and began to twist. Before I could blink, he was knocked aside by what looked like an even bigger version of the hunter that had kidnapped me and made an attempt on Dana's life which had risen from the pool of biomass on the floor.
Everything had turned to an all out fight, and somewhere in all of this mess, Greene had escaped, and by the looks of it I was about to be eaten by a freaking hunter since I was still bound to this god damn wall! I was about to scream for his help as the hunter eyed me up, but instead of tearing ME to shreds, it instead tore the TENDRILS apart, freeing me enough to get the rest off by myself. It looked at me a moment longer, before a deep distant voice registered inside of my head. "Master..."
Before I could fully respond, it had jumped away, escaping from the hive before my hooded rescuer could make short work of it- seeing as he was currently picking off what looked like the lesser hunters to regain health and biomass. Using what little freedom I had been given, I changed my arm to a blade like my rescuer was using, and cut down the rest of the tendrils."Redcrown we have entered the core hive, ZEUS and HERA are here! I repeat, ZEUS and HERA are here! We are engaging hostiles!" ...oh for gods sake, how many more party guests were there going to be? And I had a name, it certainly wasn't HERA. Knowing that we needed to leave pretty soon, I hacked away at the damn tendrils still holding my right arm and leg, grimacing as blood spurted from each one as it was cut and fell off. Next time I saw that bitch Greene I was going to repay her for fucking with my mind, and it wouldn't just be physically either.
I heard another explosion somewhere from above as a tank shell was fired at me, just narrowly missing my head. I paled, if that had hit, I wouldn't be 'HERA' anymore, but moreover a viral puddle on the floor of which HERA used to stand. He seemed to of gotten the same idea, as without a second glance to the 'supreme hunter' he was fighting, he had leapt over to where I was, picked me up in his arms and was already heading towards the exit in a single dash. The hunter didn't follow either, but rather escaped the same way that Greene went, along with the rest of infected which were picking off any military or Blackwatch they could have a go at.
Moments later, we were already streaking through the manhattan sky, him bounding across buildings with practiced ease. I looked up at him, about to thank him for saving me- again, but the look on his face gave the impression that he was far away from here, his movements almost like they were auto-pilot. Resigned to not speaking as he transported me in his arms (even though I could probably walk just fine) I knew that later on we would talk. Alex Mercer was sure to have an awful lot to say, after the little stunt I had pulled which got me into this mess in the first place.
Don don don! A little bit of a curious note to leave it on, but believe me, I am going to have so much freaking fun writing the next chapter! However a bit of a warning as to why it may be a tad bit late for publishing tomorrow. One, I have the second part of my 10 hour GCSE art exam (since like the person in this story, I plan to be an artist), which means I will be drawing for 5 hours solidly. I will want to come home and relax for an hour before I churn out the next chapter, so please be patient :)
Also, a little fact you may find useful, is that I always publish my chapters everyday between 06:00 P.M and 09:45 P.M (in England), since this is the time I either finish writing or get my iPad which is the device I use to access fanfiction, however on weekends it could practically be any time, since I stay up late during the weekends.
Hope this helps for when to expect my work to be published, and one last question before I wrap this up. Would you like me to create a sequel to this if I pull off a good enough ending?
Hoping to get some replies! See ya!