Written by kleenexwoman42 (pen name kleenexwoman)
"I'm Marty," Marty mutters, trying to help Doc out of the car. The old man is still dizzy, and his legs are wobbling. Marty sighs and lets Doc sit.
"Leave him here for now," Erik says, "he'll be fine. Come on." He grabs Marty's arm and drags him out of the cell. "Stay with me." They're walking through the halls, in a crush of other...prisoners, Marty assumes. He still isn't sure whether this is a real prison or some kind of asylum. Maybe there's not a difference anymore. Most of the other people look...well, a little weird. Some of them are missing appendages, or have too many, or there's just something very strange about the way they walk or look that he can't quite put his finger on.
The only exceptions are the people standing against the walls, every twenty feet or so. They all look the same, with paper-white skin, shaved heads, and grey jumpsuits. Nobody else looks at them. "Are those guards?" he asks Erik.
Erik is intent on following the skinny man who said something about blood, and Marty has to repeat the question before he looks up. "The grey ones? Genos," Erik hisses. "They say they follow the Path. Servants of the System. They're the only ones who are fanatical enough to risk tainting their pure mind-souls by being around us freaks, making sure we don't get out of line." He grabs Marty's chin and directs his head away. "Don't look at them."
Eventually, the hallway opens up into a huge room with tables and chairs. A cafeteria. Marty follows Erik as he threads his way through the tables, still following the incredibly skinny man who said something about blood earlier. They sit down. "Wait here," Erik says, and disappears.
The skinny man grins at Marty from across the table. "I'm Cyrus," he says. "Welcome, my son, to the machine."
"Uh, thanks," Marty says. There's a tray on the table, holding a single square of spongy beige stuff. He pokes at it. "Do you know what this is?"
"Protein biscuit," Cyrus says. "Very nutritious. I don't eat them. Would you like mine?" Marty declines and watches Cyrus fidget. Erik returns a few minutes later with a huge man in tow. "Stay," he says. The man obediently stops moving, and Erik calmly digs his hands into the man's throat and tears it open. He steps back as the man falls to the floor. "There," he says to Cyrus. "Go ahead." The skinny man grins and clambers over the table, then drops to his knees and starts drinking out of the big man's throat.
Marty feels the blood drain out of his face. He's never seen anyone get killed in front of him before, and it's not a pleasant experience. "You just...you..." He turns to Erik. "That guy...what was that for?"
Erik isn't even looking at Marty. He's rubbing the side of his head and staring nervously at something Marty can't see. "Here they come."
"Here who come? What's going on?"
"I knew they wouldn't like this. But you're here. They won't like you," Erik mutters. He looks around. "Get under the table. Maybe they won't notice you."
Marty isn't going to question him at this point. He slides under the table and curls up into a ball. There's a little stream of blood trickling under the table, and he scootches away from it.
In a few moments, there are five or six Genos surrounding the table. The first Geno stares at the body, at Cyrus drinking out of it. "We will have to dispose of the body," one of them says.
"Not until I'm done," Cyrus mumbles.
"You should not partake of the blood," another Geno lectures. "Your mind and soul are already tainted from your illness. Why do you persevere in keeping yourself alive? Stop trying; it only damns you further in the eyes of the Path."
Cyrus laughs bitterly and lifts his head up. "What is the Path? No spill blood," he sings. "Break the rules, you get no bone."
"Hey," Marty says to himself. "I know that song."
A Geno bends down and stares at him. "What song? Are you a Prismatic?"
Marty tries to slide back. "A what?"
The Geno grabs his arm and hauls him out from under the table. Marty scrabbles for purchase on the slick floor, but the Geno makes him stand up.
He's surrounded by Genos now. They're staring at him with perfectly blank expressions, no emotion at all in their faces. One reaches out and plants its palm on his forehead, and for a second he can't think. The Geno withdraws its hand. "Normal mind. Just a Prismatic, not a freak. How did you get here?"
Marty looks for an escape route. There's only one door, and that leads to a hallway filled with more Genos..."Time machine," he says, and tries to run.
The Genos grab him. Their faces are all he can see, blank white faces, dull eyes staring into his soul. "We can turn him."
"His mind is imprintable."
"The Path is Grey."
"Accept balance. Logic. Neutrality."
He can feel his self being flayed away, emotion and color and memories dropping off, falling until there is nothing left but certainty, paralysis, deadness, he can't move and he can't think...
Something worms its way into his consciousness, a bright sharp sensation on the edge of his perception. A taste, something tangy and coppery and alive. His vision clears, and he spits something red onto the white floor. Erik is standing in front of him, half-grinning. His hands are covered in blood, and he's withdrawing a finger from Marty's mouth.
"The blood," he says. "They don't like it. Human, a monkey-mind thing. I think they have electronic paste in their veins." Marty looks around. The Genos have scattered to the sides of the cafeteria. No, wait, not all of themthere's a dead Geno on the floor. Marty can't see any blood, but his neck is twisted. "Oh, they won't mind," Erik says. "Genos don't care if they die."
Cyrus stands up and wipes his mouth. "Thank you, Phantom. Don't know what I'd do without you."
Erik glanced around the room. "Time to go."
"Aren't you going to eat?" Marty asks.
"The protein biscuits? No. They put drugs in them," Erik says. "Come on. We can figure out how to get out." They go back through the halls, passing the blank-faced Genos lining the walls. Marty stares at the floor, avoiding their gaze.
Erik's room is not how they left it. The DeLorean is gone, and so is the Doc. Instead, there's a lone Geno standing in the room.
On second thought, it doesn't seem to be a Geno. The Genos Marty saw were sexless, with smooth heads, no expression, and certainly no weapons (their creepy little mind tricks must have been enough to keep the inmates in check, he thinks). This one is definitely female underneath her jumpsuit. Her head is covered with blonde stubble, she's holding something that looks like a taser, and she's half-smiling.
Erik stops. "Miss Dagny," he says quietly.
Miss Dagny walks towards them. "Erik," she says sweetly. "You've been very bad. You didn't tell anybody you had...visitors."