Sorry that the last chapter was so quick, it was another toughey. This one
seemed to come easier, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Unlike the
others, it switches points of view a few times, I tried to make it pretty
clear. Thank you all for your reviews, they give me warm fuzzies. Enjoy.
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
"Thud." My head jolted painfully against the side of the van. Pain is good, it reminds me that I'm alive. I take a deep breath and regret it immediately, vomit and sweat-soaked fear permeate the enclosed metal space.
After that shot rang out, we had stood an eternity in silence. Numbly, Joshua had lifted me in his arms and we had all marched to the van. None of the police, all having seen the fight, would dare to stop our progress.
We rode in the same uncomfortable silence, Biggs driving us inexonerabley to the dump that would be our home.
Two hours later, I lay freshly bathed, and dressed, my stomach swathed in bandages; in a makeshift infirmary.
"It's all over the news, our fight that is. The witch hunt has become a god-damned war." I shiver at Mole's words and look at my people, standing faithfully around my bed.
"They'll start flooding in now, every transgenic within a hundred mile radius will flock here to escape the lynch mobs."
I shake my head at CeCe. "This is going to be a media circus too, not to mention the protestors, and probably the military setting up camp on our doorstep." They hit me verbally, all at once.
"We need defenses."
"We need supplies and places to live."
"What we need is a goddamned leader."
Mole and CeCe and Biggs are all looking at Me. I had expected it. You let the animals out of their cages so now you take care of them, seemed to be the most popular opinion. Power settled on my neck like a sinking-stone.
"Aiight, this girl needs to rest, everybody out." I gave Cindy a look of pure gratitude. As they filed out, I caught Biggs' eye and he sat back down in the chair by my side.
He forestalled my attempts at speech, putting up his hand. "There isn't anything for us to do about it Max."
"I can't accept that."
"Well your acceptance of it is irrelevant." His tone softens, and he leans forward.
"Don't you think they tried Max? Manticore's best scientists and psych teams tried to reverse their brainwashing for years, but the highest level proved impossible to change."
"But before, when Alec was trying to convince you to let him go through with it, he said that he was the best at mind control."
"If anything that just makes it harder. He'll have done a top-notch job of burying himself."
"What do we do now, then? We can't just leave him like he is."
"He told me something last week. He said that the only thing that should matter to any of us was your safety." My head snapped up, horrified. I knew what he was suggesting. "Let him protect you Max. If you're as important to the future as we think, you could use a bodyguard."
I didn't know if I could bear the thought of seeing someone I had. know so well day in and day out, a shell of person he had been. Not when he had had so much spirit.
He saw the indecision in my eyes, he pounced. "Don't let his sacrifice have been useless." I know that he is right.
"In the meantime, I would see what advice he, 494 has on stuff like security and provisions. He's real good at organization.
I shudder at the thought. The way he organized the fight, and the smell of my worst enemy bleeding to death. }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
I wake from my stupor to the blinding pain of bones breaking. I stagger to my feet, the grey of my surrounding disorienting me badly. My arm burns like fire, though at a cursory investigation, the limb is whole and undamaged.
Scotch, or whiskey, or codeine, I need something desperately for the pain.
Suddenly, I am choking. Fiery liquid burns my throat, and I swallow the gulp of liquid that has gotten into my mouth from some where.
Looking around wildly, my bewilderment increases; I am alone, nothing but colorlessness stretching as far as my eyes can see.
I slump back down to the floor and try to think rationally. What the hell was going on? Something clicked, and I laughed aloud a bit wildly. I wasn't corporeal really; I was just a personality, a soul, repressed in my body's subconscious.
The subconscious controls dreaming. Up until this point, I had been a dreamer at the whim of higher thought processes; but I had taken control of my dreams in the past.
Shutting my eyes, I took a few deep breathes and concentrated on the space between my outstretched hands. Moments later, I look down in triumph at the bottle of scotch in my hands. Squeezing my eyes shut again, I begin to ease the emptiness of my surroundings.
A short time later, I am comfortable surrounded by the trimmings of a small apartment. For some reason, the only feat of which I am incapable, is changing the color of the walls. No amount of subconscious paint can alter the dull gray.
Now if only I could find a way to see the happenings of the outside world. Even if I couldn't affect the workings of my body, there had to be a way to see what it saw and heard.
I smiled inwardly as the thought hit me, and bent all of my will on the space in front of me. This would show Maxie, her always telling me how useless my television addiction was. I held my breath as I flicked on the screen. }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Lela slid from the shadows, into the dingy building that had housed Jam Pony. The foolish beasts hadn't ever seen her, a last familiar, blending in the shadows.
Unlike her comrades, she was to wise to try her luck that day. She looked down angrily at the badly torn body of her husband. Though they had been legally married to others over the years, those had been weak humans. Lela and Ames had been true husband and wife, joined by Conclave ceremony.
A light sound prevented her leaving. Bending quickly to the floor, her fingers closed tightly over his wrist. A cruelly triumphant smile curved up her lips, at the lightest strumming a very faint pulse.
She had watched every block and punch of the fighting. Watched the pure beast that had dispatched her people, feeling almost a slight respect for it. Unlike the rest of its kind, it didn't try to deny what it was.
She would enjoy hunting it. True prey for a hunter bred.
"Thud." My head jolted painfully against the side of the van. Pain is good, it reminds me that I'm alive. I take a deep breath and regret it immediately, vomit and sweat-soaked fear permeate the enclosed metal space.
After that shot rang out, we had stood an eternity in silence. Numbly, Joshua had lifted me in his arms and we had all marched to the van. None of the police, all having seen the fight, would dare to stop our progress.
We rode in the same uncomfortable silence, Biggs driving us inexonerabley to the dump that would be our home.
Two hours later, I lay freshly bathed, and dressed, my stomach swathed in bandages; in a makeshift infirmary.
"It's all over the news, our fight that is. The witch hunt has become a god-damned war." I shiver at Mole's words and look at my people, standing faithfully around my bed.
"They'll start flooding in now, every transgenic within a hundred mile radius will flock here to escape the lynch mobs."
I shake my head at CeCe. "This is going to be a media circus too, not to mention the protestors, and probably the military setting up camp on our doorstep." They hit me verbally, all at once.
"We need defenses."
"We need supplies and places to live."
"What we need is a goddamned leader."
Mole and CeCe and Biggs are all looking at Me. I had expected it. You let the animals out of their cages so now you take care of them, seemed to be the most popular opinion. Power settled on my neck like a sinking-stone.
"Aiight, this girl needs to rest, everybody out." I gave Cindy a look of pure gratitude. As they filed out, I caught Biggs' eye and he sat back down in the chair by my side.
He forestalled my attempts at speech, putting up his hand. "There isn't anything for us to do about it Max."
"I can't accept that."
"Well your acceptance of it is irrelevant." His tone softens, and he leans forward.
"Don't you think they tried Max? Manticore's best scientists and psych teams tried to reverse their brainwashing for years, but the highest level proved impossible to change."
"But before, when Alec was trying to convince you to let him go through with it, he said that he was the best at mind control."
"If anything that just makes it harder. He'll have done a top-notch job of burying himself."
"What do we do now, then? We can't just leave him like he is."
"He told me something last week. He said that the only thing that should matter to any of us was your safety." My head snapped up, horrified. I knew what he was suggesting. "Let him protect you Max. If you're as important to the future as we think, you could use a bodyguard."
I didn't know if I could bear the thought of seeing someone I had. know so well day in and day out, a shell of person he had been. Not when he had had so much spirit.
He saw the indecision in my eyes, he pounced. "Don't let his sacrifice have been useless." I know that he is right.
"In the meantime, I would see what advice he, 494 has on stuff like security and provisions. He's real good at organization.
I shudder at the thought. The way he organized the fight, and the smell of my worst enemy bleeding to death. }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
I wake from my stupor to the blinding pain of bones breaking. I stagger to my feet, the grey of my surrounding disorienting me badly. My arm burns like fire, though at a cursory investigation, the limb is whole and undamaged.
Scotch, or whiskey, or codeine, I need something desperately for the pain.
Suddenly, I am choking. Fiery liquid burns my throat, and I swallow the gulp of liquid that has gotten into my mouth from some where.
Looking around wildly, my bewilderment increases; I am alone, nothing but colorlessness stretching as far as my eyes can see.
I slump back down to the floor and try to think rationally. What the hell was going on? Something clicked, and I laughed aloud a bit wildly. I wasn't corporeal really; I was just a personality, a soul, repressed in my body's subconscious.
The subconscious controls dreaming. Up until this point, I had been a dreamer at the whim of higher thought processes; but I had taken control of my dreams in the past.
Shutting my eyes, I took a few deep breathes and concentrated on the space between my outstretched hands. Moments later, I look down in triumph at the bottle of scotch in my hands. Squeezing my eyes shut again, I begin to ease the emptiness of my surroundings.
A short time later, I am comfortable surrounded by the trimmings of a small apartment. For some reason, the only feat of which I am incapable, is changing the color of the walls. No amount of subconscious paint can alter the dull gray.
Now if only I could find a way to see the happenings of the outside world. Even if I couldn't affect the workings of my body, there had to be a way to see what it saw and heard.
I smiled inwardly as the thought hit me, and bent all of my will on the space in front of me. This would show Maxie, her always telling me how useless my television addiction was. I held my breath as I flicked on the screen. }{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
Lela slid from the shadows, into the dingy building that had housed Jam Pony. The foolish beasts hadn't ever seen her, a last familiar, blending in the shadows.
Unlike her comrades, she was to wise to try her luck that day. She looked down angrily at the badly torn body of her husband. Though they had been legally married to others over the years, those had been weak humans. Lela and Ames had been true husband and wife, joined by Conclave ceremony.
A light sound prevented her leaving. Bending quickly to the floor, her fingers closed tightly over his wrist. A cruelly triumphant smile curved up her lips, at the lightest strumming a very faint pulse.
She had watched every block and punch of the fighting. Watched the pure beast that had dispatched her people, feeling almost a slight respect for it. Unlike the rest of its kind, it didn't try to deny what it was.
She would enjoy hunting it. True prey for a hunter bred.