Evanesce

Chapter Ten
Walk Carefully

Okay, so I made a mistake. But there's no one out here to tell; there's no one else out here at all. The city seems pretty dead.

And there's that word again. Dead.

I hate that word, but it's got a lot of much worse euphemisms. 'We lost him,' right…. You lost him where? Down an energy conduit? Morons.

But the city is rather… idle. I think the last person I saw was one of them, maybe Dr. Ross, was it? Does it matter?

Maybe it's because it rained. It smells like mud. Kind of nice actually, it's got a springtime taste to it. Might rain again, that'd be nice. Strange, but nice.

I don't even want to think about it. Damn it. Stop it. I'm not listening to doubts about it, what's done is done. I can not think about this, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. So why do I feel guilty? Because… just… damn.

All right, stop. Stop walking, stay still, and take a deep breath. What did I do this time?

I never said I liked the idea, but it's true.

He said we belong to them.

Look, assuming they did find a way, assuming all this is real, then they do, technically, own us.

Yeah. Leave it to him to come up with something so stupid and…. Where am I anyway?

You're telling me to go back, is that it? Fine.

I won't. I swear, I won't. Edwards knows me, so he can tell them if he wants to, I don't care. I'm not going back there, either. I'll walk a straight line and see where I end up. Probably in a nice desert, someplace. Comforting.

'Alone?'

"Yeah, always."

'Never,' laughing… at me?

"I'd prefer it."

'Too bad,'

"Why?"

No answer. To hell with them… that one… whatever. They've been pretty dormant, too, stupid delusions.

She was sympathetic, but why didn't she do anything? They threatened her, but she could have tried at least, instead of leaving us there.

It was supposed to be a controlled experiment in medical science, I don't know what it's become.

This city is stranger than most. New York was mostly made up of ramps, Houston is catwalks, and this place looks like a combination of the two. In a way, like Paris was before it fell.

While I was working on it, I was given aides. No one thought I could do this project alone, and maybe they were right…. I guess it doesn't matter now. Two of them were pretty ambitious about it. The rest thought it was a waste of time.

Can't say I blame them on that one; I'm still a little skeptical about it all but I can't complain. Not really….

Reviving people from being dead isn't my idea of a plausible scientific pursuit, either.

Eventually, we found more supportive assistants and took it on our own. It wasn't quite the same; we had different funding, so it wasn't fully my project anymore. Galen Hollis, my direct colleague, knew the financier, who trusted him more than me, so I took second place.

That name again. I don't know him; don't think I like him either.

But it didn't matter anyway, we had what we needed, our labs and our cadavers, and we were progressing quite swiftly. And then we had our first breakthrough. We managed to restore a trace of bio-etheric energy to a dead man, and we restored his life. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever been a part of.

She gets excited more easily now, or so it seems to me. Maybe it has something to do with being counted among the living again. No, I suppose if I'd come up with some way to bring people back to life, I might be that happy too.

I don't know, I don't even know the woman.

Although, there were problems. Big ones. The subject went berserk right off; really only minutes after he regained consciousness, and he tore up the lab and injured some of our personnel. That put the project on halt until we thought we had the problem figured out.

I'm surprised they didn't scrap it. I guess there's a lot less to be worried about than before.

There's something there that's wrong. It's scaring me, but whatever it is… I don't know. Try not to think about it.

Justin Norton, he was there to make sure of the mental state of our patients, he suggested that the mind couldn't cope with the fact that it had died. By now we weren't going to be discouraged, so we had to figure out a way to bypass that. We came up with trying to erase and rebuild memory. The plan was to inform the patients of what had happened after they came to terms with reality.

The other one, he said so too. Sort of. At least Dr. Ross explained it nicely, unlike a certain egotistical scientist.

I'm not sure if that was such a clever solution now. We got good at it, but…. You, and everyone else, nothing seemed wrong with you, but they went ahead anyway. I tried to get answers, or get them to stop and reevaluate things, but I was pregnant at the time and they forced me to take leave. By the time I got back, it seemed like everything had changed. And they wouldn't let me do anything.

Eventually I was forced to resign, so I packed up and left.

"And you just abandoned us…. Thanks a lot," I shouldn't have said anything, I know that now. But Neil didn't have to add his comments, either. I don't belong to anyone. I shouldn't have taken it out on them, but now I don't feel like apologizing.

Apologizing? I'm not going back there, I'll never see them again, why would I need to apologize?

Because it's the nice thing to do.

"This is so stupid," where in hell am I going to go?

Ah, down would probably be a good start. I don't know how I got so high. Nice view, but… high.

Start back. No, not back – towards the ground. There are shortcuts down along the railings and power ducts. I'll probably get lost, but what does it matter anyway?

It's getting dark again, how long have I been gone? Not long, I think. It can't have been.

Halfway down, I can already see the next level. Don't fall, there's a handhold there, I know I saw it. A little further….

"Ah!" damn slippery sonofa…. I didn't live… well, sort of, live through a war to fall and break my neck. What the hell is this gunk, anyway? What the hell…? It's blood.

What's blood doing on the framework?

If this place is anything like the other cities, then there's a maintenance crawlspace between the way and the drop to the next one down. The hole should be right… here we go.

God, how are people supposed to access these places? I had to haul myself out of a fissure… there has to be an easier way to get in here. Then again, I never noticed people working up here; maybe they don't.

"Ugh," someone is going to have to do some cleaning, though. What happened in here? Wait, what was that noise?

'Freeze.'

Good idea. There's a man down there; can see him through the grating. Harmless looking enough, but better off safe. Can't see much of him from here; the light's not right. Don't stop like that; please, keep going.

Wait a couple of minutes, until he's out of sight and I can breathe again. No, there's that sound again. Up ahead and a little to the left. Light's blocked off, because… someone's there? Not moving, but definitely breathing. Faint, but I can hear it.

"Hey," warm, definitely alive, "Are you alright?" A woman, torn up pretty bad. What hap–?

"Who?" She sounds terrible, "I know…."

"Let's get you out of here," she moves slow, but at least she is moving now. I don't know how I'm going to get her onto a more stable platform. If she can climb, maybe, but… hold on….

"Kris?" It is her… isn't it? She's smiling, "What…'re… you doing here?"

"Lookin' for you, actually, said you were in danger, bu- where is he?" she looks pretty shaken up, "We have to go before he gets back."

"What? What do you mean? Who?"

"Don't know, I do… tell you sometime,"

Hmm. Straight down is out of the question. Up is where we're going to have to go.

Takes a bit of effort, but we can make it back to the walkway. She looks terrible; all cut up like that. Only a little further. I need to find somewhere safe, somewhere…

I have to go back. Probably for the better, and I'll apologize while I'm at it. I didn't mean it, anyway, I just… didn't.

"Come on," Offer refused. Fair enough. She can barely walk, but it's her choice. At least we're on the path; can't fall from here without a bit of effort. Oh hell. Someone else is out here.

This could be bad, Kris looks like hell, and attention is all we need.

'Safe.'

What… is he doing here?

"There you are," familiar, friendly, concerned, "What is it?" And he's acting like I didn't do anything. Typical.

"We need help," Where'd she… oh, there she is. She looks terrible, doesn't she, Captain? I hope he helps, because we don't have anywhere else to go.

"I'm not going to any public hospitals, if that's what you're thinking," Quiet. I barely heard her.

"That might be a problem, but I'll try and work around it," He's not surprised, though, I wonder….

"What happened?" She didn't tell me, so I doubt she'll tell him. "Jane?"

"What?" Wait, was he asking me? Was he…? "I don't know." I don't know anything, all right?

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," nothing's wrong; never was.