Chapter 7 "Dead Men Walking"
Simon woke up to fluorescent light shining directly in his face. One bright light above with two smaller ones at his side. Those were moving. He could hear a distant, muffled rotor close by, heavy and bulky. His surroundings started to become clearer.
Metallic walls with barnacle and coral, electronics and pipes actively working, a light bulb swinging back and forth. Orange Power Suits looking down at him, their faces obscured by yellow paint over the visor, made from whatever they could find down here by the looks of it. An intercom sparked to life:
"It keeps burning out.
It will soon fall apart altogether.
It's the ancients.
In these halls, even the soulless mourns," a voice, old and reverend, harrowed by scars, recited in the scratchy microphone for those that could hear. Footsteps echoed down, close and far, tool ignited, valves turning, and oxygen tanks squeaking.
Simon wasn't tied down, restrained, or hindered at all. They were just looking at him. Tools in hand but lowered away from him. Orange Suit 1 and 2 stepped away, turning their backs to talk to themselves, if they even could. He leaned up to find that he was in some sort of medical lab or garage that had a child together. He was on a gurney. Power Suits 1 and 2 had yellow print on the back.
1 had "AHAB" while 2 was "ABEL".
On a small tray next to him was the Omnitool and his bag. The Power Suit was nowhere to be found.
"Where am I? Who are you!" Simon demanded from them, snatching his things and backing up to the exit.
Ahab and Abel sharply shot back, raising the hands to reduce tension. Yet not a word was spoken between the two. They slowly inched closer to Simon as his hand neared the door controls.
"Have no fear, brother, you have found the Commune."
Simon turned to see a Red Power Suit with phytoplankton plastered like a crown over where their forehead should be. Red and orange coral decorated the shoulders and arms like ornaments of honor or hierarchy. The visor was dark brown. On their chest was the yellow print: ASTOCLES
What was with all these A-names? He thought as he stepped back. The situation was not going great. When did it ever?
Astocles was accompanied by two other Power Suits much like Ahab and Abel. He had a mannerism of a prophet with the way he spoke and the way he adorned himself. Simon was never really a man of the faith but he's pretty sure Astocles was Greek in some way.
"Ease yourself, the Holy Creator of the Burned World gave you life and sent you to sanctuary. The Commune harbors all Cabal. Born of droplets we walk anew, the past an eroded bygone of a time before us, we walk forever in its shadow," Astocles told him. "You came with a shell without form or mind. You bear tools to shape one to life. Are you the Creator's Messiah? Have you seen him? Has another seen He Who Bleeds since the days of Areolar? Tell us, brother, are you his Messiah?"
"You mean the WAU? I've seen it, talked to it, and I guess befriended it with my luck. Saved it from dying too," Simon explained to them as it came to his mind.
The Cabal gasped in shock.
"He knows the Creator's name!"
"The Messiah has come again!"
"We are not worthy!"
"Areolar reborn!"
They stepped aside, Astocles gestured for Simon to follow. What choice did he have? They knew this place better than anyone else and it was just him that was the "anyone". They went up a ladder to a little command room that you'd see in some science fiction movie when you saw the bridge of a ship but more down to earth. Other Power Suits-Cabal, he reminded himself, working away at terminals and other electronics. They were all purple with the black visor, how they managed to create so many colors from coral and goo was beyond him.
"Welcome! Welcome! Welcome the Holy Messiah to the Affectionate Awareness! Make way to the Commune!" Astocles preached and was followed without question. The submarine shifted directions, creaking loudly in the silent deep.
"Can I leave? Look, I need to get back to Tau? Do you know where Tau is? Omicron? Theta? Phi?" Simon interrupted the preacher. "I have to go back. I have to-"
A loud BONG knocked out the power and threw the submarine onto its side. The crew flew into the wall as it crashed into the sand. From the reinforced glass window they could see a long, massive, dark creature pass by. The Whale. Its box mouth still with the metal shards of whatever it broke apart or was infused with hung low as many faces along the body writhed in pain. The gigantic blue eyes staring aimlessly at them. The body itself was sliced in complete half then put back together with extensive amounts of Structure Gel.
However, the Commune was not interested in it. They pointed to smaller figures emerging from the darkness towards them. Simon thought they all died in the Curie. There were more of them, more than he imagined. Eerily walking with their bloated heads, blinking lights, and the sand colored bodies drawing focus to their upper half. Of bodies that fell into the deep. Members of ships like the Curie that the WAU's restoration found unharmed, or sorry sods that lost their will to stay. The Flesher or Jjianshi as Catherine once called them.
Astocles sounded the alarm. The Cabal ran here and there, hiding or preparing to fight with tools, they spread out all over the submarine despite Astocles' pleas to stay. The only ones that did were Ahab, Abel, and three others. Amidst the chaos the two brought blowtorches and welders with them, and the three only had themselves and their wrenches. Astocles tugged on Simon to follow. "Come, Messiah, to the Commune.. Through the Old Way. We must go."
"I'm not going to your Commune! I'm going back to Tau! T-A-U. Pathos-II!" he yelled and pulled back.
"Pathos? The home of the enemy? Why-yes! To strike at their hearts! To Pathos!" Astocles declared. He led the charge down the tight halls of the Affectionate Awareness. Abel and Ahab pushed Simon along until he moved himself. These things were nutjobs! Worshipping the WAU as a god. God left Humanity to die and they did. Now the dead are calling technology him. It didn't matter. He just needed to get back to Tau. What was he missing while he's away?
They climbed a ladder up to another section. Below he could hear the Fleshers tearing apart the Cabal for the Structure Gel. Muffled screams were ended by the screeching of metal. Simon went back to help the other three get up so Abel could seal the hatch. The last one struggled to get their footing when the screeching got louder.
"Come on!" Simon exclaimed and reached out.
The power shut off. The emergency lights came on.
A Flesher was behind the Cabal. It yanked it down by thrusting its hand through the chest, tearing it apart until the body went limp, coats of blood splattering all over Simon.
"Close it! Close it!" he yelled, jumping back from the scene. Ahab and one other slammed it shut and threw themselves atop it. The Fleshers banged and banged on the metal. Abl grabbed the welder to seal the gate between them and death.
The banging stopped. The other Cabal listened against the metal.
A hand broke through, smashing the glass visor to reveal their horrid face. Bulging eyes without skin! Flesh rendered far from human and mouthless yet it still screamed the terror of one! It reached out to them but they fled when more tore through to feast on the Cabal.
"RUN!" Simon dragged Abel and Ahab along, turning a corner to find Astocles and the other purple Cabal standing in horror at the mere sight of an opened door leading to what looked to be an older section. They shoved their way inside, ignoring the protests of the prophet muffled by their adrenaline and sealed themselves inside.
"You have doomed us, brother'o'Messiah." Astocles lost his being to dread, sourness, and sorrow.
"Why? What's wrong?" Simon asked, befuddled at their strange mood. This section was devoid of lights. He pointed to the wall. Simon flashed his visor to see what it was:
"LET THESE BE THOSE OF THE CORAL,
DEVIL TO THE CREATOR,
LOST TO US FOREVER,
BOUND OT THE MIND"
He saw the coral, it consumed the zeppelin pad at Delta and overthrew Theta.
Akers…
That memory, that monster, ruined Theta as one of the last places of Humanity that still functioned. Now they're all dead! What's left of them kept alive by the Coral to dream endlessly. He wasn't even sure he killed him when the tunnel flooded. He hoped so.
"Just don't touch it. How long have you sealed this place off?"
"Not that long. A few still roam, thinking themselves sleepers to imprison the dreamers among us," Astocles answered.
Right, cult stuff, Simon thought and pressed on.
"Where's the exit hatch?" he asked while checking an intersection. Four ways to go with four signs.
"Somewhere here. Bright blue lihgt. Way of Creator," Abel spoke for the first time. It reminded him of those foreign partners in American Buddy Cop movies that didn't know English too well.
"Abel, your vow of silence for the Creator!" Astocles hissed at his underling.
"In death the Creator forgives, Holy Messiah worth the break," he answered as his flashlight sparked to life, deep yellow compared to Simon's bright white. Even for a whatever he gained Simon's respect. "Four ways. Five of us. One goes alone."
They investigated the Coral infected signs:
Section Z- pwr Iput
Section E- Cf + Soage
Sec D0 Es ds
Sction S- Droe Cntrs
The gunk and coral made it difficult to decipher what they said. They had to have luck that they found the hatch at all.
"I'll check out Secion S with Abel. Astocles check out E with the other guy. Then head to D. Ahab-" SImon was interrupted by the Purple Cabal.
"I got E. Astocles can check out D," he said then walked off.
"What's his deal?" Simon asked Astocles.
Ahab heard a distance clicking, he ventured off away on his own for but a moment.
"Insubortanance will not be tolerated in the Commune. Our lives are for the Holy Creator. He will do as he does for him. He dies then he dies for your safety."
Ahab tapped on Simon's shoulder.
"Yeah?"
The mute signed to Abel to which he answered for him. "Blue light, he found."
The other Cabal's scream petrified was in here tore him limb from limb.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Simon yelled and followed Ahab to the exit hatch. There indeed was a bright blue light illuminating the exit alright. They hit the switch, the doors hatch unsealed and sucked them out. They flew far into the ocean before landing on a patch of bones.
"That could have been worse," Simon said as he made sure he had everthing from his bag. A beeping on his suit sprang to life. He fiddled with his wrist until he found a portable radio.
"Simon! Simon are you there? You can hear me but I can't hear you. Listen, you need to get back to Tau! We have a problem. The tracker should lead you back. It concerns the WAU, I can't say anymore. I think they're listening! HURRY!"
As the group fled into the ocean towards Pathos-II, a figure emerged from a patch of coral.
"Why won't you sleep? Close your eyes. Accept it. It's okay. I'll find a purpose for you, eventually. You're looking for you,right. I saved them. Put them to sleep. They are safe. These sinking halls, this dead world is not worth saving, only life is precious. The warden will watch over us as we sleep. We failed to save this earth and ourselves. Salvation can only come from the divine warden…"
