Chapter 36
Absolution Is At Hand
"From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool."
- B.G., 2.63
Perfect. It's like we never left.
The cruiser descended through the clouds of Aegis7, and as the ground became visible through the cockpit window, Isaac looked out past the massive crater on its opposite side near the jagged stone peaks where he remembered the landlocked Ishimura to have been. As they had just departed from it, it was illogical to think that he might see it there now; however, much to his keen astonishment, he indeed saw that there still appeared to be the very large, looming steel carcass of a crashed ship, jutting partially out of the sand in the same exact location. The Hive Mind watched him, and desiring to put his mind at ease she placed her hand atop his upon the control panel.
We're rebuilding. Just like before.
Where'd... they come from? Who is that?
It won't be long, now. You're getting quite proficient at what you do here.
Isaac watched the wreckage until he finally lost sight of it to their descent past the stone mountain peaks. As the cruiser approached the Colony Isaac turned his attention to the complex, which once again appeared from the outside to be abandoned by all signs of life; however, just as before, he knew all too well that they were not alone in this place.
Isaac initiated the automatic docking procedures as the landing pad came into view, the cruiser navigated its way into position and set down. The stifling silence of the lonely desert environment invaded the cabin the moment the engines choked, muting Isaac's throbbing eardrums beneath its blanket of impenetrable quiet until all he could hear was ringing, and he looked cautiously out the front window. Feeling dizzy he pressed a hand to his head, and the Hive Mind glossed him over with concern.
Take it easy. Don't overexert yourself. One step at a time.
Isaac felt her grip upon him now more than ever, tearing at him within. It was obvious that she was so impatient, so desperate and absolutely hellbent on getting the Marker back to its rightful position by this point, that where she once respected the boundaries of authority over his body, she now thought little of imposing her own personal intervention over him. Now, she no longer had any intention of allowing him rest until the Marker's breach was sealed, and her bond was assured. Unable to resist her, Isaac braced himself and stood upon weak, withered leg muscles that burned with exhaustion, and as she pointed to the exit hatch he took a deep breath and stumbled forward, dismayed by just how heavy his body felt to him.
He exited the ship and stepped out into the open air of Aegis7 for the first time in what felt like centuries, and as he came into contact with the dazzling effulgence of the sun, he raised an awkward, defensive hand to protect his eyes. He realized now that it had been quite a while since he had been in the presence of such unprecedented ultraviolet, since he had breathed air that hadn't been artificially recycled millions of times, and upon all of these revelations suddenly assaulting his sick, degenerated senses, Isaac began to seriously regret having left his suit and helmet behind. Bathed by the sun's painfully sterilizing rays, he looked down and saw with magnified clarity just how physically deteriorated his own body had become over his time spent within the mausoleum of the Ishimura; his burning retinas barely perceived the unholy, blood caked scars crossing every inch of his skin like marks of the beast, and he found himself desperately wishing he had his suit back... anything, just to hide from the terrifying reality.
Ignorance was bliss. Or bliss was ignorant. And relative.
The Hive Mind startled Isaac from behind with a prod of her finger, shattering his concentration. She pointed down the ramp and he gripped the railing with shaking arms, barely able to feel his fingers as he guided his weight down the steep grade. He approached the main deck and dragged himself around the back of the cruiser, reaching for the control panel to unload the Marker, all while occasionally eying the Hive Mind with suspicion as he worked. After several frustratingly disorganized attempts at the controls Isaac finally managed the proper key sequence, and within a few minutes the loading mechanism plucked the giant relic from the bowels of the cruiser and locked its transport cage to the electromagnetic track. When the mechanism completed its task and fell dormant, Isaac slowly collapsed upon the control panel out of exhaustion. But his rest was short-lived as he soon felt the relentless, sharp tipped fingernails of the Hive Mind stabbing into his back.
You can't fall asleep. We have to move it to the other side of the complex.
Isaac grumbled, forcing his eyes open as he turned back to look at her.
No, the... pedestal couldn't be right here... That would be too... convenient, wouldn't... it?
Hey... you know, this is just as painful for me as it is for you. I've had to chaperon this pathetic shit.
Irritated, Isaac pushed himself off the control panel and started for the Colony complex. He stared blankly ahead, and as he passed the Red Marker he absently raised his hand toward it, beckoning it forth. Upon his will the transport cage set into motion, and it followed behind him on the track with a minor display of sparkling fireworks as the electrified rails made contact with the metal cage. As Isaac toted the massive rock along he felt the weight of it counteracting his own forward momentum, and he discovered much to his relief that this supported him like an anchor, allowing him to pitch forward in his unbalanced state without fear of falling over. Taking advantage of the opportunity he continued to drag himself forward on slow, heavy feet, using the Marker to help carry him, until he felt a drop in temperature across his body cast in the shadow of the towering complex.
He opened his eyes, and looked up to see the familiar steel walls of the Colony, built into the desert rock and vandalized all over by marks and words written in dried blood that had by now come to distinctly identify the aura of agonizing madness and death that surrounded this place. As he neared the massive complex gates and looked around, Isaac thought he saw glimpses of heated, red eyes staring at him from everywhere, conveying their deepest respect and fear, darting about the many hidden pathways and watching with the eagerness of children as he headed inside with his enigmatic payload.
Isaac entered through the doors and dragged the Marker into the secondary access hall, then searched out the faintly glowing holopanel of the gate controls with his hands. He quickly located it and opened the gate, hauled the massive stone structure through to the inside, and once beyond he paused briefly to take in his surroundings. The chanting of the Marker reverberated off the steel walls of the room to capture Isaac's attention, reminding him of the very first time he had ever attempted to cross these very same bridges even as the most chosen among the necromorph elite descended upon him like plagues of demonic locust, each and every one intent on bringing his journey to a bloody standstill. He remembered just how terrifyingly enraptured he had been, how his own wild, restless eyes had darted about nonstop for hours that stretched into days in torturous anticipation of his next bloodthirsty aggressor, each of whom was more foul and depraved than the last. He recalled the overpowering odor of their virulent, decaying flesh, how it had managed to somehow permeate even the multifaceted filtration of his oxygen support system as it emanated ceaselessly like smoke from the curtains of hazardous decomposition hanging all over the walls.
All of this he had come to expect, perhaps to even welcome in some way as he again traversed the very same birthplace of such horror, but as Isaac looked around the inside of the Colony storehouse and saw the miraculous progress that the virus had made since his last visit, it became clear that even with what he he had come to see of the Ishimura's growth, his ability to accurately predict the necromorph virus under his so-called control still failed him to a significant degree.
Even the Colony... everything. Reborn as one.
The entire complex was thoroughly entangled in the virus's dendroidal, ever-evolving menagerie of living flesh and assimilated materials, and upon first glance the complex resembled the insides of a gigantically wondrous, conglomerative biological entity. Almost every surface point he could see, be it composed of integrated steel, carbon, chrome, blood, tissue or skin, flaunted a deep, brilliant red bioluminescence from deep within that gently pulsated down the lengths of its muscular structures in perfectly synced cycles, like a finely unified network of neural synapses. The air all around was warm and moist, quickly blotting Isaac's skin with blood red condensation, and it was surcharged with the infectious particles exuded by the breathing of this ominous, biomechanical organism. It was distinctly tinged with an attractive, viral scent that influenced Isaac to draw several deep, absorbing breaths of it.
While he had once again come to recognize the undeniable traits of the virus, Isaac was still amazed to see that, just like on the Ishimura, it's slow, steady consummation the Colony had taken on a most phenomenal, symbiotic integration of life and machine towards a single, superior end that made him in that moment both profoundly honored and deeply terrified to be a part of it.
You are the Architect. Your path is their path.
Isaac tilted his head, perturbed by the Hive Mind's words. She had only hinted at this subject many times now, and as cold and lifeless as her expression appeared to be on the outside, her tone was strained to suppress a sense of idolization as if bearing witness to a most rare and tremendous prestige that he himself did not quite fully understand. Having come to simply accept everything she said - at least superficially - in order to keep the peace and afford him some breathing room, Isaac had been too afraid of her to admit that he still had virtually no grasp on the true nature of his situation, or why she kept referring to him as an architect, but he considered mustering up the courage to question her now. Just as he prepared to speak, she cut him off.
C'mon, Isaac. They are on their way.
He stiffened in instinctive defense.
Huh?... Wh... who's on their way?
I've already told you. Your benefactors.
You mean... from the... from Sprawl?
Her lips tightened a little.
Let's keep moving. We have to be prepared to receive them.
"Entering orbit now; contact time, six minutes."
The Counselor and the Overseer both lifted their heads at the sound of the pilot's voice over the intercom as their shuttle approached Aegis7's outer atmosphere. The Overseer shot his eyes out the window into deep space, anxiously searching for the USG Ishimura, the USM Valor or the USM Credence. He had half hoped that they would have found at least one of the ships reported missing upon their approach, but he saw that the vacant orbit around Aegis7 contained not a single ship in sight other than their own shuttle. Neither the pilot nor any of the other crew had given indication of having picked up the ships' signals on their scanners.
Seeing the odds stacking up against him, the Overseer's heart began to sink with dread. The idea that these three rather well known ships had entirely vanished in the same sector beneath his watch meant that his time, along with the Counselor's, in control over the Marker project was swiftly drawing to an end. It was merely a matter of hours before those above them both would realize that they had fled the Sprawl and returned to Aegis7 in an unauthorized breach of the sector quarantine, and personally sweep in to seize control over the entire planet in what he feared would be no less than a Church-fueled coup de tat. He knew that unless they found and secured the Marker as their negotiation piece, he and the Counselor would never leave Aegis7 alive. Their time in which to act was very short.
"My god... beautiful."
His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the Counselor, who had been contemplating her own weight in personal strife and broke from her inner reflections to remark on the scenery out the side window of the transport shuttle. The sunlight penetrated the thick cloud cover of Aegis7 and bathed their cabin interior in its overpowering orange haze; though it was a vision she could recall having seen many times before throughout her life, she could not remember any one of those times being more poignant than now.
The Overseer, sitting directly across from her on the opposite side of the cabin with arms crossed, had far less interest in their environment, and he neglected to find the same inspiring beauty in it. He simply stared at the Counselor, all the while wondering what it was she knew about this place, and why. His mind was plagued by the fact that despite their close working relationship that spanned several decades, never had there been a time when he did not secretly question her personal motivation and it's inherent effects upon everything she did for the Council, for him, and ultimately, the Church's vested interest. The confirmation of her continued communications with Challus Mercer, whom he had been led to believe by her was already dead, only served to further his suspicions as to her involvement, and why she felt the need to be so deceitful with him. The closer they got to the apparently abandoned Colony, the more the Overseer's fear of her began to evolve into an outright irritation at her intransigence.
No matter what she had in mind, he would be leaving with the Marker in his possession... otherwise, she wouldn't be. He would personally see to that.
He discreetly fingered the charging switch of the hand divet upon his belt.
"Sir."
The Overseer slowly lifted his head to look at Counselor as he heard her voice echo through the cabin.
"...Yes?"
She stared upon him through dark, ancient and deep pitted eyes.
"If my vision serves me correctly, I believe the Marker will be on the opposite side of the complex, near the pedestal. I suggest when we land that we bring some of the soldiers with us."
He considered her suggestion, then nodded dispiritedly.
"You're the one who knows what we're walking into here."
She heard the hesitation in his voice, and she knew that his faith in her was teetering on the brink of collapse.
"Don't worry, Sir. Our purpose will be fulfilled. I promise you."
He had nothing left to say to her, simply stared into her eyes with a distant hope that she was, at the very least, being honest about that. A moment later, the pilot's voice arose on the intercom.
"We'll be on the ground in two minutes. Masks on."
The Counselor and the Overseer donned their open-environment oxygen masks at the pilot's command, detecting with their own bodies a slight change in pressure as they finally broke through the last of the cloud layer. The Counselor immediately spotted the Colony complex on the ground far below, and she began to scan the area all around the massive crater pit in search of a sign.
A sign that he was still there. Somewhere.
She failed to find what she was seeking, but at that moment her eyes suddenly fell upon the distant, knife-edge peaks that ran down the backside of the Colony like a twisting spinal column, and just on the other side of it she was completely astounded to see the jagged, chaotic whorl of what she immediately interpreted to be the crash site of a very large ship. The distance of it from the Colony made it obvious that it was not related to the complex itself, and it was too small to have been the Ishimura. Her eyes widened.
What was happening here? What had he been doing all this time?
In a panic she glanced wildly at the Overseer, and seeing that he was unable to observe the wreckage from their angle, she realized that he was unaware of it. She was a bit surprised and wondering how the pilot could have missed it with his scanners or even his own eyes as they descended toward the Colony, but desperately driven by her own Marker-induced sickness to accomplish her mission, she did not want to distract or derail the Overseer in any way. Instead, she looked down and remained silent, hoping that the crash site would somehow continue to remain undetected by the crew. Only when their altitude finally fell below visible eyeshot of the crash site did she finally feel confident enough to breathe again.
They quickly approached the landing dock of the Colony, which was partially occupied by what appeared to be a USM military cruiser parked upon it and surrounded by the Colony buildings that emerged from the sand like the bones of a skeleton's hand reaching desperately for the freedom of open sky. A few moments later their shuttle landed upon the dock next to the dormant cruiser, and the pilot radioed back through the intercom.
"Sir, I've run a scan on this ship. I've confirmed that it's a scouting vessel registered to the USM Credence. But we're not picking up any life signs aboard it, or anywhere here."
The Overseer drew a breath to respond, but was interrupted by the Counselor.
"Your trackers won't see them, Captain. They're beyond your scope. He's definitely here."
The pilot remained silent over the line, unsure of how to respond to her, until the Overseer finally cut in.
"Deploy the soldiers, Captain."
"Yes. Sir."
The Overseer and Counselor both stood and prepared to exit as the remaining crew, a small company of devout soldiers enlisted personally by the Counselor for their mission, disembarked and surrounded the shuttle. The two emerged from the cabin and descended the loading ramp, and upon reaching the dock the Counselor could now plainly recognize everywhere the weathered streaks of blood, traced into the runes of the Marker.
Just as she had seen once before, here in this place, with her own eyes.
She suddenly experienced a frightening inner vision that twisted her face into an expression of pure distress, and it caught the attention of the Overseer.
"Are you alright, Madam? What is it?"
She heard a voice, echoing like a faraway, foreboding whisper, deep inside her head.
help me i am here
The Counselor pressed a hand to her head and she jumped back with a small shriek, trying to escape the delusional imagery of an aphotic black beast, covered in armored plates and capped by a bright, glowing blue face, as it leapt at her from behind then vanished like a ghost. The Overseer remained frozen to the spot as he watched the sudden terror spill across her face, then after a long, suspenseful moment, she finally looked up at him and nodded curtly.
"I'm fine. We have to keep moving."
She motioned authoritatively towards the Colony complex and the soldiers set ahead, carefully securing the area and opening the gates. Leaving a few of them behind to guard the loading dock and their ship, the Overseer and Counselor headed inside in pursuit of the Marker.
They entered the dank, dimly lit complex, and looked around in order to acclimate to the darkness. The moment they stepped into the enclosed area the visors of their oxygen masks were immediately sheeted in a fine layer of blood particles, which in the darkness hampered what little vision they did have with a runny, crimson haze. The Counselor irritably wiped her hand across her mask to clear the visor, and shivering with premonition she strode into the room. The soldiers set to work on patching into the systems, and once they accessed the emergency lighting grid the Counselor, the Overseer and everyone else present were stunned by the reality that was revealed to them in the harsh floodlight.
Almost every inch of the environment from floor to ceiling was overrun by what appeared to be a smooth, seamless covering of integument, blossoming into tough, fibrous structures that grew upon and spread throughout the entire building like colossal vines to dominate everything in its path. The many tendrils that stretched upward into the darkness beyond the floodlights' reach vanished until all that could be seen of them was the faint, crimson luminescence that emanated from inside their semi translucent flesh. But the significance of what they were seeing lay not only in the strange alien biomatter everywhere, but in the fact that this flesh had come to immaculately embrace, consume and assimilate everything, including the present equipment and technology, augmenting into every system until the Colony itself had become a living, breathing part of it.
Despite this grotesquely mesmerizing display of the Marker's dominion over this place, the Counselor failed to be anywhere near as shocked or appalled as the rest of her company. The Overseer himself on the other hand was frightened to the point of swallowing back a dull, numb taste upon his tongue, and as he lost his nerve he retreated backwards a few steps.
"... Holy hell... what... what is..."
His large, terrified eyes darted about from one massive lifeform stretching across the walls to the next, and the more he continued to look upon them the more of it seemed to manifest all around until he realized that the entire complex was engulfed in whatever strange and foreboding curse this was. He then turned a stark face back to the Counselor, becoming even more unnerved to see that she did not share in his level of complete horror and amazement.
"C... Counselor..."
The old woman ignored him and continued to look around with an almost sadistically childish wonder that disturbed the Overseer. She didn't seem to be the least bit threatened by the hazardous environment but rather willingly embracing it, and as he watched her strange behavior he could only again debate the level of her deception, and just how much about what was happening here that she was actually aware of, if not responsible for in some way. He just couldn't understand it; he had heard the talks between Mercer and the others, he had seen the reports of infection, the casualty tallies. He had personally heard some of the horrifying distress broadcasts that had been intercepted during the time of the Ishimura's tragic events. Still, none of these pieces had in themselves previously come together to paint such a dire and malevolent picture of the truth, and he simply was not prepared for any of what he was being forced to witness now as he came to understand that this was not a viral epidemic – it was a hostile, alien invasion that was determined to control everything surrounding the Marker. The indescribable phenomena he saw all around him only hinted at the breadth of his own counsel's subversion, and he couldn't understand why, even after all of his own involvement and sacrifice towards their goal, they had chosen to keep something so vital from him.
What had he actually been condoning on their behalf? What had they been doing with the executive control he had given to them, and did the Church know about any of it?
The Counselor stepped up behind him.
"It's evolving. The Marker is awake, for sure."
The old man was unable to reply, baffled by this woman who was becoming more of a stranger to him by the moment. He stared at her, irked by the very sound her her retched voice, saw that her eyes had darkened and her expression was almost ghoulish, outright enthusiastic to explore the many gruesome things surrounding them. Tried as he had to this point to support her having come as far as they did, his continuing paranoia of who his Counselor actually was finally pushed him enough to fully rebuke her.
"What are you talking about? This can't be the work of the Marker! I haven't seen anything like -"
"Shut up, you old fool. You have no idea what we're dealing with here. And neither do those of your precious congregation."
The Overseer recoiled as she hissed at him despite his having authority over her, which at this point seemed completely obsolete. Without any further regard for his concerns she stepped past the shocked Overseer, turning her attention back to the menagerie of mutation spreading out before them like the landscape of a living city cast in crimson moonlight. In gazing upon it, she could not hold back a smile from forming on her face as she recognized the trademark precision of a highly experienced engineer's hands and mind directing the virus's integration into the construction of the complex.
What meticulous craftsmanship. She had come to expect no less of him and his work.
Isaac continued on his arduous trek along with the Hive Mind, who by this point was so anxious to finish their mission that she now lead the way ahead of him through the complex, urging him on mercilessly. As he eyed her dark, alluring visage from behind Isaac was disturbingly reminded more and more of Kendra, along with the misfortune of her betrayal that day so long ago. When he recalled his earlier conversation with the Hive Mind about Kendra's fate, Isaac couldn't help but wonder what she had meant by 'gone', and what had ultimately become of his deceptive former Kellion teammate. The more he looked around the Complex, the more he brooded upon how his last journey through this place had ended in Kendra's attempted abduction of the Marker, her cruel, spiteful unveiling of Nicole's final message to him, and her leaving him trapped in that decontamination chamber just minutes before her own brutal death.
After everything they had been through... no matter how briefly they had...
The Hive Mind fell back as she sensed Isaac's desire to be alone, and she concealed herself within the shadows of his mind, listening intently to his mental activity. She perceived as he sadly pondered the animosity between he and the woman he had loved in the shadows of his past, and how due to the tragic circumstances surrounding her demise he had not had the opportunity to make his peace with her. She witnessed his struggle in coming to terms with his predicament; having been so caught up in his obsession to find Nicole, the issue of laying old skeletons to rest with Kendra had occurred to him as little more than an issue of minor importance. But now, in his many long hours spent in isolation with only this empty shell of Kendra's psychic reproduction to accompany him, he felt surprisingly affected by how much he regretted the way things had ended between them.
Seeking to drive away the sadness that threatened to overcome and weaken him, Isaac turned instead to a seething hatred for Kendra's treachery that he found much easier to cope with. The Hive Mind noticed his rising anger as it manifested through the increasing strength in his charge.
You'll have your closure, Isaac... although, I don't really see what good it's going to do. It's simply going to be another barrier that I'll end up having to clear away.
Isaac turned away, not quite sure what to make of her rhetoric, and returned to moving the Marker. However, as time passed he was becoming more and more aware of another presence that was following him, creeping along through the darkness and drawing no more attention to itself than that of a blind spot. At first he thought it might have simply been the energy of one of the necromorphs keeping constant vigil over his pilgrimage to the pedestal, but when he realized that the Hive Mind was not keen to this presence as he was, he right away came to understand that this was not the case. Suspecting who it was he gave no physical acknowledgment to it in order to avoid drawing the Hive Mind's attention, and he continued on.
Isaac approached another set of double gates, and as he stepped through to get to the other side he suddenly caught a flash of something just across the track on the opposite walkway. He looked up with alarm, then quickly concealed his panic beneath a mask of stone just as the Hive Mind stepped in through the first set of doors behind him. Panicked as he was that the Hive Mind might find this hidden presence, Isaac was secretly elated within to know that his friend had not given up on him. He had to fight the urge to smile.
Be careful, Nicole, I don't know how much longer I...
Isaac bolted as the Hive Mind crept up behind him and placed an icy cold hand to his shoulder.
What's the matter? You seem, distracted.
Trying to ignore her, Isaac pressed on without a word to the next room of the complex. All the while he kept an eye out for Nicole, unable to physically see her, sensing her dejection and fear of being left behind. The closer they got to the other end of the complex and the Marker's pedestal, the more concern he had for Nicole, imagining her tender, defenseless body to be endlessly trapped in this foul place, just like him. He again reflected sadly upon what his actions here would accomplish, what would happen to them all once the Marker's bond was completed, and this filled him with certain doubt about their future.
it will destroy you
Isaac paused and glanced up upon hearing Nicole's soft, seraphic whisper inside his head.
this thing is your true enemy
Isaac became frantic. Nicole's voice was resonating louder and louder, and he was certain that the Hive Mind would pick up the vibration at one point or another. Still, he continued forward without outwardly expressing any psychological cues and fighting through a layer of ice cold sweat across his entire body.
you must face your reality
The nagging, incessant voices of the Marker he had also been hearing the entire time suddenly increased in volume, pounding against the insides of his temples, as if in direct retaliation to Nicole's attempts to communicate with him. Isaac squeezed his eyes shut.
Shut up... Go away... goddamnit, just go away...
Isaac approached the final set of gates within the complex, leading outside to the rear bridge and the Marker's pedestal. He opened the gates and stepped out through them, but was forced to pause just beyond the threshold, out of breath and raising his hand in defense against another onslaught of the sun's rays as they seared his skin from nearly a billion miles away. Once having acclimated himself enough to carry on, Isaac struggled to haul the Marker through the open gates.
As Isaac reached the start of the bridge and paused to look around, he became overwhelmed by the memories he carried of this particular place. He recalled the countless necromorphs of all the most violent and frightening persuasions that had descended upon him, all with insidious, twisted bodies black as burning cinder and fast as lightning. He remembered the horde of wild, undulating tentacles that had erupted all around the bridge, covered in their own blood and explosive, infected flesh, swinging recklessly to and fro upon even the slightest approach in defense of the Marker and its pedestal. Upon seeing that the rocky outcropping was now thoroughly devoid of any of their kind, Isaac briefly wondered to himself just where all of these beasts had vanished to in his absence, and whether they had undergone the same form of evolution as those aboard the USG Ishimura.
He glanced ahead of him to the rocky ground at the end of the bridge as it fell away into a steep drop hundreds of meters down into the crater pit, recalling as the once monstrous form of the Hive Mind, imminently devastating and unstoppable like an earthquake, emerged from this very same chasm to defend what, at the time, rightfully belonged to it.
Had he only known then what terrible fate awaited him... he would have gladly pressed the face of his plasma cutter to his own head and pulled the trigger.
How startled he was to hear Nicole's voice emanate from somewhere behind him.
Isaac, don't give up on me.
He looked over his shoulder and smiled to see Nicole padding her way toward him on silent feet, her hands clasped before her chest. As she neared he saw how her blood smeared face seemed drained by her sorrow, her usually bright eyes dimmed now by the disheartening realizations she had come to about Isaac's rising sense of defeat and consent to return the Marker.
You'd better not listen to her.
As painful as it was for him to do so, he refused to embrace her and kept moving forward.
… I have to. I... have no choice.
Nicole's eyes widened and she closed in, coming short of his position by just a few feet and afraid to get any closer. She eyed the small, rocky catwalk that ran parallel to the bridge he was traversing, and seeing as it placed her safely just of his reach she jumped up onto it and continued to follow alongside him, her pleas becoming more and more adamant.
Yes you do! You don't have to do this. She'll do anything she can to get that Marker back where she wants it. She doesn't care about you. If you put that Marker back...
Still, Isaac continued forth.
We... we can't move on... until I finish what I... started.
We'll find a way, Isaac! As long as the bond isn't complete, you're still here... we can find a way to outsmart her.
It won't work. Nothing... seems to work. This is... the only thing... left to... to do.
Seeing that she failed to deter him she faltered, no longer able to hold back her tears, and she pursued him like a sobbing apparition.
Isaac, please... please... listen to me. You can't do this. I don't want to die. I don't want us to become lost forever. Do you remember what you said to me, Isaac? You always wanted everyone to know we were here.
Isaac growled and glared sharply over his shoulder at her, resorting to his anger in an attempt to scare her off.
Go the fuck away! You're already... dead, Nicole. Or just a... a fucking... bad memory. I don't know what the... hell you are. Go away!
Still, she followed him relentlessly.
Are you completely insane? What do I have to do to show you that I'm real?
Isaac slowed his pace, then finally stopped and stared at her.
I don't know... really... don't know what's real... anymore. I... don't know what to do anymore... I don't want to do this, Nicki. But it's... the only way.
You know this isn't the only way to end this.
She stared right back at him until her mournful eyes evolved into fiery red lenses.
Remember how you found the Hive Mind, Isaac. As long as the Marker's bond remains incomplete, it can happen again.
As they stared deep into each others' eyes, Nicole suddenly smiled.
They have come to help us.
Roughly a couple of hours after arriving on Aegis7, the Overseer, the Counselor, and their company of soldiers reached the opposite end of the complex. The soldiers opened the gates, and the moment they stepped through the large steel doors they immediately saw the giant red Marker, glowing angrily near the end of the bridge, several yards from the base of it's pedestal. Save for the giant obelisk itself, the entire area appeared to be empty with no one in sight. The squad leader of the company ran a scan of the area, then turned to the Overseer with a shake of his helmeted head.
"No reported lifesigns, Sir."
The Counselor scowled and took an anxious step forward, glancing all around her with shrewd, discriminating eyes.
She knew their secretive ways... and of their rather resourceful Convergent.
The Overseer, who before this day had never personally been to Aegis7 or seen the Marker, failed to perceive the hidden dangers that lurked all around them. In his naively moonstruck state as he stood before the massive stone tower, all he could think about was...
The Marker.
He stared at it, marveled at it, felt it pulling at him from within. He began to hear countless voices speaking to him, luring him towards it, and all of his fears became lost beneath a wave of unexplained, uncontrollable excitement and desire to make contact with the ancient relic. He flashed a ravenous smile.
"Well... Madam... I say, it looks like the Marker won't be as difficult to retrieve as we... thought."
He waved his hand, and a couple of soldiers set out to secure it the Marker. The Overseer swept another glance across the barren area, encouraged by a boost of confidence that spread into a pretentious grin.
"I have to admit, the virus in there is quite interesting, but the way everyone has been going on about it lately, I suppose I was expecting something a little more... eventful."
The Counselor merely continued looking around, ignoring his comment. Picking up little more than the distant vibrations of the endless desert winds, she shook her head with frustration.
He simply had to be here. He wouldn't have led her here for nothing, would he?
As they both stood in complete fascination, both she and the Overseer were suddenly interrupted by a disturbing sound coming from somewhere off to their left. The Counselor, the first to hear it, sharpened her focus and turned towards the sound, coming from the shadows behind a defunct decontamination chamber that was partially constructed into the side of the rock face. The soldiers immediately prepped their rifles and took defensive posture around the Overseer and the Counselor as they subsequently picked up on the repetitive sounds echoing off the rocks – sharp and full of friction like the scraping of a blade across stone. The squad leader shook his head as he looked around dubiously.
"It's probably just some malfunctioning..."
The squad leader's voice ceased as the Counselor raised her hand to silence him, and when they listened to the air again they all realized that the sound they were hearing was actually a voice, breathing raucously and emitting thick, phlegm-laden gags between guttural clicks. The Overseer had never heard such a frightfully bizarre intonation before, and with eyebrows folded in apprehension he pointed in its direction.
"You there... Show yourself! This place is surrounded."
The unsteady, strenuous breathing pattern suddenly stopped, followed shortly after by a heavy dragging sound similar to the abrasions of grinding metal and coupled with loud, penetrating thumps that shook the sand beneath their feet. The fear-inspiring sounds came closer and rose louder until they all could see the silhouette of something very large and dark step out into the sunlight.
Everyone present widened their eyes with revolt to find that they were confronted by an unspeakably hellish and inhuman monster, one whose body was grossly deformed and drenched in blood black as midnight oil, covered in hard, razor sharp skin that appeared to be crisped over as if the creature were literally burning from the inside out. The monster slowly lumbered towards them, debilitated by severely uneven and twisted limbs that had become impaired by a highly abnormal form of mutation. The closer the creature came to them the more of it's tortuous, horrifying details became prevalent, right down to the dark, sunken pits of its eyes burning a fierce red, several additional but useless limbs hanging from its body like the shriveled leaves of a tree branch, the rotting flesh receding from it's skull in several places to expose the raw bone, and rows of vicious fangs the lengths of fingers jutting from its sagging, malformed jaws.
Though the creature's body from the waist up was bare to its necrotic skin, the legs and feet were still partially garbed in what appeared to be thick, armor plated pants and scuffed, dented gravity boots bearing notable CEC design. What little remained of its uniform had been thoroughly assimilated into the entanglement of living tissue that clung all over its body, but enough of it was still visible to suggest that this monster was the risen, necromorphic corpse of someone who was once apparently an engineer or deep space technician.
The Overseer, utterly disgusted and petrified by the very presence of whatever abomination this was, raked a sharp, panicked glare over to the old woman at his side.
"Oh, my... holy mother of Altman... what is this!"
All the while, Isaac had been locked in his maddened, obsessive trance over Nicole, and having completely withdrawn from all of his outer senses he was not the least bit aware of what was happening around his physical body. Though it took quite a while for anything to get through to him, Isaac's delusional interaction was eventually disrupted by the sound of what seemed to be another voice coming from somewhere outside of him. This voice was not one he was familiar with, and this immediately set off a subliminal alarm in his mind that served to snap him out of his daze.
With a stiff shake of his head, Isaac blinked his eyes and looked up to find that he had moved from where he could last remember standing, and was now just off in the shadows of a dark, rocky recession carved in one of the rock walls that ran the perimeter of the Marker's pedestal and connecting bridge. His vision had deteriorated to near total blindness, and it was virtually impossible to discern what he did see as anything more than dark, fuzzy blotches, but as his fevered brain raced to assemble the pieces Isaac suddenly became aware that there was a group of people, most of whom he did not recognize, standing just a short distance away from him.
People...? Alive... here?
Feeling weak and exposed in his condition Isaac was hesitant to approach these strangers at first, and he strained to peer inside of them in some effort to identify them by their ethereal life threads. However, while he knew that they were in fact living human beings, he could not penetrate any of their psyches save for one of them. They all were fresh, uninfected people that had somehow eluded the virus up to this point, and astonished to see them, Isaac began to make his way toward them out of curiosity to know who they were. He raised his heavy, cumbersome arms, feeling almost too exhausted to keep moving on, and finding that his throat was far too parched to speak properly he resorted to waving his hands to communicate with them instead. His debilitated vision made it difficult to accurately depict the details of their faces or their actions, but still Isaac could sense an overtone of hostility in them that only seemed to increase the closer he came. He was puzzled.
What was wrong with these people? Surely they recognized him as one of their own.
Isaac finally stopped half way down the bridge as he became very suspicious of their behavior. He opened his mouth and tried to call out to them, despite the intense discomfort it caused him.
"Wh.. what... do you... want?"
The Overseer pressed a hand to his mouth, stifling the urge to scream as the foul, unbecoming creature continued its slow, arduous approach. As it neared it began to make an aggressive effort to communicate, reaching out with twisted, mangled arms in some sort of beckoning motion, and the Overseer could only watch in sickness as strands of infectious blood clinging from its talons stretched to the floor in thick, malleable threads. The monster then raised it's voice, but it quickly became obvious that deprived of a tongue or working facial muscles the monster could do little more than groan and gag through drooling mouthfuls of its own blood and saliva, practically suffocating on it. The Counselor grappled the Overseer's arm as he started to retreat in fear, and upon her coercing grip to keep him by her side he turned to glare upon her.
"You're insane! All of you..."
The Counselor sharpened her eyes upon the unholy beast that stood there staring them down, swaying upon its rotting, armor plated legs. She unmistakably recalled the ominous, guttural dialect of the Marker as the creature continued to make an earnest effort to speak, for she had, unbenknownst to most who knew her including the Overseer himself, heard these very same sounds from the mouths of such creatures before. She shot a cold side glance at the Overseer, evilly delighted to see that he had no idea that he was face to face with a true child of the Marker. She tightened her grip upon his arm and held her other hand up to all of the highly disturbed soldiers that had been standing at full attention behind them with rifles armed and ready the entire time.
"Stay back! Don't go near it, and hold your fire, dammit!"
The soldiers nervously fell back at her command, expressing an obvious disagreement, but the Counselor merely ignored them and turned back to the necromorph. She recognized in the creature's all too familiar composition many of the common traits that she had come to know about these cursed beasts, but closer inspection made clear to her that this particular necromorph was far different from those that she had encountered in her clandestine past. Apart from the obvious nervous system disorder it was suffering from, this necromorph was far more humanistic, coordinated and articulate, bearing characteristics that set it apart from the rest of its kind; including a flawless set of fine, razor sharp barbs appearing to be composed of a cellular-bonded metallurgic substance that extended from the fingers of its left appendage like long daggers, and glossy, onyx tinted skin tucked beneath its armored plates that was etched deeply with strange, runic scars. The Counselor blinked in amazement.
They were symbols of the Marker.
Isaac was baffled by the behavior of these strangers before him. He shot his eyes between each figure, but unable to make anything of their blurred, hazy faces he stumbled back, exhausted and desiring nothing more than to collapse upon himself. Just as he started to give in however, Isaac was struck with the familiarity of the one member of their party that stood out in his ethereal vision; one that while he initially sensed upon his approach, had not given much attention to in his discombobulated state. Isaac's eyes now became locked upon this figure, and he watched as it appeared to be swinging its arms and shouting something at the other members of its party. He simply could not avoid its oddly familiar aura, and as he continued to look inside it, he detected deep within it's consciousness the tiny black hole of dead space that confirmed its infected status as a necromorph, despite its outer human appearance.
Already infected... but how? Did they know?
Coming to realize that this team of people were being led by one of the Marker's own immediately raised a giant red flag in Isaac's mind. He stepped closer, hissing at them through his teeth and waving with aggravated sweeps of his hands.
"We don't... need your help... we're... under... control... Leave us... alone."
The Counselor, still watching with a sense of wonder as the monster drew near, saw that it appeared to be on the verge of physical collapse; frail, decomposed and shedding long trails of blood from it's obscenely mutilated body all across the ground in it's wake. The necromorph's twitchy, unstable behavior made it clear that it was undergoing vast physical and psychological trauma; its unintelligible speech was slurred and it's limbs were spastic, shaking uncontrollably in a manner resembling some sort of neurological breakdown. The monster's balance and orientation were all but lost, and it had long since resorted to dragging it's heavy, metal encased feet slowly down a wavering path along the ground, bearing the impression of a highly inexperienced tightrope walker. It was constantly shaking its head as if plagued by some unseen apparition, the decayed muscles of it's jaw rippled beneath the lacerated skin of its cheeks as it tightly ground its teeth, chewing into its flesh to suck upon its own bodily cruor, and the expressions of its charred, partially skinless face shifted wildly as its mind was inundated by countless, insanely disarrayed thoughts.
As the eyes of the Counselor and her gathering fell upon the blade-like extensions of the necromorph's left hand, dripping wet with blood and covered in the same ungodly gore that consumed the rest of its body, the anhydrous cracks in the monster's face began to trace upon its features the hint of a smile, and its glimmering crimson eyes scanned the group until they met with those of the Counselor. The monster stared upon her, reprising it's throaty, resonant gagging with what appeared to be an inspired response.
Disturbed by the striking eyes of this creature upon her the Counselor's blood suddenly ran cold, seeing something... someone very familiar, deep inside. Though the hideous transformation had rendered his former human identity impossible to discern, the old, haggard woman still managed to recognize the saddened, tormented gaze of the man she saw trapped beneath all these layers of dead flesh, imprisoned by the diabolical magic of the Marker. She took a step forward, and while knowing that an attempt to communicate with it would most likely prove to be fruitless between language barriers, still she raised her voice.
"... We have come for the Marker."
Isaac watched as the infected figure stepped closer to him, apparently the only one of its group to flaunt the nerve for doing so, and held out its hand in a gesture of friendliness. The twilight of the sun illuminated this person as it drew closer, and Isaac could now see that underneath the environmental oxygen mask strapped to it's head was a human female, highly advanced in age judging by its shriveled visage; the haggard, wrinkled lines of her face, the deep crow's feet carved into her skin, the fading, amber voids of her eyes glazed over with caducity. Her mottled, silver striped hair was pinned back atop her head, her posture was withered, and most notably, a cold, arrogant sneer marred her face that finally sparked Isaac to remember the bitter old hag.
The Administration Counselor from the Sprawl. The one who seemed to have stood at the helm of so much of his suffering there.
Sickness came over Isaac from out of nowhere as he took in the sight of this woman. There was something about her that was disturbing him intensely, and ambushed by the unforeseen onset of affliction, Isaac lowered his head, and unable to control himself, vomited into his hand.
"Oh... oh, fuck..."
Agonized and ashamed by his own degradation Isaac fell to his knees, gagging on the bitter, acidic bile in his mouth as it seemed to burn through his tongue, and staring blankly at the rancid, smoldering blood trailing down his forearm to the ground in front of him. Again he witnessed the repugnant birth of necromorph larvae as they began to expand from the puddle and writhe within it, then he slowly looked back up to those still standing before him, with wide, fearful eyes inundated by blood red tears.
"We're... We're... We're sorry... we don't feel... very well... today."
The Counselor and her group all glanced nervously at each other as the necromorph's body suddenly started convulsing. It quickly pulled one of its deformed hands over it's mouth, but its attempt to suppress its sickness failed. After several racking heaves that rattled the creature's chest it suddenly expelled a mouthful of vomit and blood, which then dripped slowly to the ground with the viscosity of crude oil from its hand and what remained of it's chin. The very moment the discharge hit the ground, the surface of it hazed over a milky white, and within seconds the puddle had birthed forth a collective of unidentified larvae that rapidly grew to the size of fists. Everyone except the Counselor fearfully backed away as the vile white creatures emerged screaming from from the regurgitated fluid, floundering helplessly like displaced fish at the necromorph's feet. The monster looked down at them with a charred, blackened face that was filled with unimaginably suggestive despair, and it's round, dark eye pits seemed to convey a sense of panic and unconscionable suffering that was nearly intolerable to look upon.
Though all of them were utterly nauseated, frightened and deterred by this necromorph's vile presence as it choked obscenely on it's own blood, only the Counselor found within herself a steadily rising sympathy for it. She nervously rolled her lips as she sensed its staggering pain, and with clenching fists she fought back her desire to express what she was truly feeling before the Overseer. He, on the other hand, had no idea of the conflict that was raging inside of the Counselor, and he could only revisit the appalling scene before them with total incredulity.
"No... I don't believe it. This is impossible... The Marker is a holy relic! No, this has got to be something else."
The Counselor only responded to him with a cold, intimidating voice.
"This is only the beginning. You don't understand now. But in time, you will."
The Overseer, utterly bewildered by her desire to socially engage the creature before them, growled impatiently.
"I swear to you woman, this is the end of your lies. You will tell me everything, right now... or you won't be coming back to the Sprawl."
He frowned sharply, and pointed with a harsh, emaciated finger towards the leering necromorph.
"In fact, you can stay here and keep that thing company, since you seem to have such a repertoire with it."
Thoroughly engrossed in her dealings with the necromorph, the Counselor had by now managed to block out the Overseer's incessant raving entirely. She took another step towards the loathsome beast, and the wrinkled plates of disdain slowly melted off of her face. She stared deeply into the monster's lightless eyes, and parted her wilted lips to call out to it.
"Isaac... Isaac, can you hear me?"
Isaac was surprised to hear someone was calling his name, but he was so disoriented and sick that he couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. He had to force his heavy eyelids open, and right away he saw the elderly woman still standing in front of him. He caught the dismal look in her eye, how she pulled her hands to her chest with fear and concern, all of which made him lose his resolve; his body slackened, and he hung his head. Isaac simply could not recall ever having felt so miserable, so sick, so contaminated before, and although he had never been very fond of the Counselor, the association of another familiar person that wasn't the Hive Mind briefly relieved him of his neverending sense of isolation.
a desire for social interaction, physical contact, affection or support may lead you to...
The Marker's voices again filled Isaac's mind, until the only way he could get them to recede was to viciously shake his head. He noticed as the Counselor and the others stepped back out of his reach as he did so, appearing to be somewhat frightened by his actions, and again he wondered what it was about himself that was traumatizing them so much. Again he heard the Counselor call his name, and he looked right at her.
"Yeah?... What do you want?"
Still, something appeared to be wrong here. He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it the only way he knew how, but the confused look spreading upon the old woman's face hinted that something was somehow getting lost in translation.
Why didn't she understand him? She did still speak his language... right?
The Counselor stepped back as she saw the necromorph's erratic behavior, and the propensity for violence burning in it's eyes. But she also recognized that, unlike others of its kind, this necromorph was in fact making a conscious effort to remain civil, and this suggested to her that this one was operating on a level of cognizance that she might be able to exploit to further an understanding between them. She called out to it a second time.
"Isaac."
The necromorph turned to her and responded only with bloody, deep-throated gurgling. The Overseer, having been shocked into complete catalepsy up to this point, finally managed to break his trance long enough to witness the Counselor step even closer to the menacing beast, trying to speak with it as if it were merely another member of their party. He shook his head frantically upon the name she was uttering.
"Why... you're absolutely mad! That... thing isn't Isaac Clarke! I think that virus has gotten to you, too!"
The Counselor now whirled around and pointed directly at the Overseer, thoroughly agitated by the sound of his voice. Having found whom she had been so desperately seeking, the Counselor knew that she required the Overseer's assistance no longer; subsequently, the fear of her plans being exposed to him waned and disappeared entirely.
"Just as it will all of us, including you, you fucking heathen."
Astonished, the Overseer's head shot up at her.
"What... did you just say to me?"
The sharply angled grimace on her face cut even deeper.
"You, and the rest of those misguided Unitologist fools have absolutely no idea what has been happening here. You're simply greedy for the power you think you can take from the Marker. Well, Overseer... today, you are going to learn just how wrong you really are."
The Overseer raised his snow white eyebrows at her, unable to believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"You... deceitful bitch! I knew it... you're not even a true affiliate of the Church, are you? Who are you? EarthGov? CEC private sector? Who the fuck are you?"
"Who I am and what I am doing here does not concern you. Just know this - you're not taking the Marker. A very big mistake was made here."
The Overseer was at a complete loss for words. He had no idea how to respond to what he perceived to be the utter lunacy of this woman, who was obviously as insane as any of the other infected cases, and he couldn't take his terrified eyes off the abominable necromorph standing behind her.
"What? Bringing the Marker back was the entire point of all this! The experiments, the Ishimura, the planetcrack... it was all for Altman! We cannot walk away from this now... we're at the finish line, for God's sake!"
The Counselor slowly dropped her hand and raised her voice, which was now filled with a gravity that thoroughly unsettled not just the Overseer, but many of the soldiers behind him as well.
"You have been grossly misled. We are the ones who started this nightmare, by disturbing what we didn't understand. Now, we must be the ones who end it."
Isaac watched the aggressive, headbutting discourse that was occurring between the Counselor and the old man standing next to her. As he listened to her grueling dialogue, he became quite unsettled by the fact that apart from recognizing her as the Administration Counselor, there was something else that was very familiar about this woman. Though he could not distinctly place what he was feeling, he knew that the chimeric fog of cognition surrounding her ran far deeper than his most recent memories aboard the Sprawl.
He knew that voice. He knew it so well.
The suspicion gnawed at him, and all he could think about was trying to remember who she was. But it eluded him, mocked his every effort to unwind the mysteries of the Marker and those enslaved to it, and he began to feel very anxious. Taking a deep, labored sigh that offered little relief, he looked at the two battling figures before him and interrupted them.
"The... Marker."
The Counselor and the Overseer ceased their bickering and turned their heads the moment the necromorph began to growl. The Counselor tried in earnest to understand what it was saying, but her brows ultimately fell with disappointment.
"We don't understand you."
the marker
The Counselor was suddenly startled by a deep, penetrating and intimately familiar voice that sliced right through her head. Her eyes widened, and as she gazed upon the ominous necromorph she felt an odd, tingling sensation throughout her entire body; the longer she stared at it, the deeper she could see beyond the monstrous veil of this creature and unto the true human it once was. The Overseer cocked his head, still totally confused by her outlandish behavior.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
The Counselor no longer saw, heard, nor even acknowledged the Overseer as she became locked in trance upon the infectious creature before her. As they entered each others' souls through their eye contact, the old woman could now hear the necromorph's mental transmissions within her mind flawlessly and free of the Marker's distorting static.
Thank you... for coming back. I have been waiting a very long time to see you again.
The Counselor paused, swallowed a bit harshly as she eyed the scars across the monster's body with a different set of eyes.
What happened to you, Isaac? What has the Marker done to you?
Isaac lowered his head, feeling ashamed. He couldn't understand why the Counselor was staring at him with such dreadful eyes, even after coming to understand who he was, and it puzzled him even further as to why it had taken her so long to recognize him. Just at that moment, however, sunlight from the setting sun refracted off a shiny, reflective metal panel of the bridge construction at his feet. It captured his attention and he turned to look directly at it, and just as he had in so many illusions before, Isaac saw a horrifying, unholy beast beyond the rancor of any necromorph he had ever seen staring back at him.
No. No.
The utterly unspeakable face Isaac was confronted with blinded him with the glow of its eyes, dwarfed only by the light absorbing gravity of the aphotic skin that covered its body. It returned Isaac's frightened stare through the reflection in the metal panel, penetrating his soul with an aura of pure evil that overpowered his resolve beyond measure. Angered by the vexing, demonic imagery and unable to accept it as truth, Isaac stepped back and pulled his hands to his face just as he recalled Nicole's haunting words.
you must face your reality
Isaac peeked between his fingers at the malevolent reflection, hoping that she had been wrong and he was merely under another Marker-induced hallucination. But he saw nothing of the human he once was; all he could see now was the hateful, putrefied glare and features of the necromorphic monstrosity he had become staring back at him.
No! He was infected, but he was still human. He was real. The necromorphs... they were human, just like him. Just like him! He was the Convergent, the safekeeper. He was not a monster.. they were the monsters. Not him. Not him.
The longer he contemplated it, the more his efforts to hide behind the veil of delusion went in vain. He glanced nervously at his hands, and for the very first time he recognized upon himself what he had not seen there ever before – the charred, smoked skin and decaying flesh of the necromorph elite, the tortuously mutated limbs, the exposed bones and inner organs of his own, rotting body... and Isaac became frantic.
Did Nicole speak the truth? Had everything, including the perception of his own self, been nothing more than an overwhelmingly realistic hallucination? How long had he been a monstrous creation of the Marker, dreaming that he was still a human?
As Isaac came to understand the sheer depravity of his misfortune, he slowly raised his eyes up to meet the Counselor's. He knew what had to be done to stop all of this.
... Kill me.
While she had remained completely aloof from Isaac's affairs up to this point out of sheer spectatorship, the Hive Mind suddenly manifested within his consciousness as his plea struck a very fatal chord with her. Seeing his ploy to free himself of her and seeking to bring him back under her control, the Hive Mind quickly intercepted his thoughts.
Shut up, Isaac!
Isaac ignored the Hive Mind. He held his hands out before him, flashing his sharp, incising barbs, and the Counselor's eyes briefly jumped to them with apprehension even as the necromorph continued to beg through bloodstained eyes.
I... I don't... want it anymore.
The Hive Mind's fear transmogrified into raging anger, and she dug her nails into Isaac's brain.
So help me, if you don't stop...
The Counselor was astonished by Isaac's melancholy plea, and at first she could do nothing more than stare blankly at him. But understanding what he was requesting of her, she broke a small, soft smile.
Don't worry. I have come to relive you of your suffering, but first, there must be no survivors here.
She lifted her hand and motioned towards the Overseer and the soldiers, all of whom were frightened and completely oblivious to the bloody fates that awaited them all.
They are yours to induct, Isaac. Slaughter them.