The Storm: Prologue


"This is a complete and utter mess," the Chancellor said, her tone stiff and surly. "How has one little mistake a culminated into this?"

"I-I … like I Hexblained to vu Chancellor. Ve do not know how sche Hescabed zee room afder zee Horiginal Hextraczion," came the reply.

The Chancellor sighed in response, infuriated with the answer she had received. Instead, she focused her attention on the girl that lay on the small hospital cot in the centre of the room. Surrounding her were various machines, all hooked to the girl's chest, all providing a different function to keep her alive. For what purpose, the Chancellor was unsure. She had every mind to pull the plug and dispose of the subject quickly. The girl had caused the upset and delay of the results they so desperately needed. But something nagged at her mind, something hinting to her that she was yet done with the girl. Somehow, she needed this girl. They all did.

The Chancellor moved closer toward where the girl rested and gently placed a hand on the thick bandage securing the broken ankle obtained from a nasty fight with the monster. A nasty fight that ended with the girl victorious and the Griever strung up like a little rabbit.

"How long will this take to heal?" she asked the two scientists located by the entrance of the room. Both handcuffed, both scared for their lives.

"Vith vat ve haffe giffen her, ve zink zat Hanozer three days for zee zerum to knit und pind zee vound togezer."

"How surprising that you think," the Chancellor retorted. She twisted her head toward the scientists and determined what she should do with them. Such hope she had placed upon them, such disappointments they turned out to be.

Dr. Chiyoko Takeda, the promising plucky scientist who showed signs of a breakthrough in her experiments. And her mentor Dr. Filip Adlai, the veteran in his field of work and a respected member of their community at the base who was fondly nicknamed 'Einstein' by his younger colleagues due to his striking resemblance of the German physicist. They were both brilliant. Brilliantly stupid in the Chancellor's mind.

"I'm done with the all these excuses. You had one job, one small little job. Fix the goddamn chip, get the data, dispose of the subject!" The Chancellor paused. "How anyone could mess that up is beyond me."

"Vu do not Hunderstand-"

"No, you don't understand!" the Chancellor snapped before Adlai could complete his sentence. "It was a simple extraction and disposable. Fix the chip, gather the data and dispose of the subject. Heck, even one of the kids could have done it. But no, you two had to complicate things and lose her in the process. And then to find out she entered Group A's experiment. You can imagine my anger."

The Chancellor watched as Takeda's lip trembled in fear as the reality of her situation dawned upon her. Adlai took her hands within his and squeezed them for comfort.

"You are both lucky that we were able to rectify your mistake and able to replicate a similar experiment within Group B's test." The room fell silent with the hum from the machines filling the air. "And now that 'Aris' is dead, everything should figure to a similar conclusion we are expecting."

The Chancellor turned her attention away from the disgraced scientists towards the small table located opposite the bed. Here she found a file filled with pages of data collected from the girl's chip and time spent in the experiments. She opened it and flicked through until a small detail caught the attention of her eye. The Chancellor examined the page further, taking in every last scrap of data, trying to make sense of what was presented before her.

"This is interesting," she murmured in part to herself and in part for the audience surrounding her. The Chancellor clicked her fingers together and a tall man with thick glasses appeared in the doorway. "García come see this."

The Chancellor placed the file back down on the table and motioned for García to approach her. He shuffled into the room, taking each step with caution as he closed the gap. The Chancellor pointed to the data she wanted him to examine and waited for the scientist to do what she silently asked. García pushed his large frames up and bent over to inspect the pages in front of him.

"Veo … esto podría funcionar," García muttered under his breath as he absorbed the same information that the Chancellor moments ago had done.

"I dink we can worrrk with dis data," García finally said in his thick accent. "It coult be useful to see de rrreaction of de subject if we carrrrrry down de orrriginal courrrse beforrre de decision of extrrraction. I beliebe …" García paused. He rubbed his hands together in a nervous fashion. "I mean … by placing jherrr back with Grrroup C ant let jherrr continue with de Trrrials we coult gain furrrtherrr rrresults dat potentially can gibe us anotherrr abenue dat coult be explorrret. It coult worrrk."

"And her recent memories."

García stroked his chin in thought as he considered what the Chancellor has said. "Forrr de best rrresults, we ssoult allow jherrr to rrretain de memorrries sse jhas rrrecently rrrequirrret. Dat way we can monitorrr ant still influence de path of de otherrr two grrroups without de worrrrrry of what sse may do if sse doesn't rrrememberrr dem."

García waited for the Chancellor's response to his suggestion. For a moment, the scientist believed that he had spoken out of turn and had angered the woman. Her pursued lips told him he had made a grave mistake and was about to receive the same fate as his doomed colleagues. But as soon as the thought had crossed his mind, her face softened and she nodded her head in approval.

"Excellent García," said the Chancellor. "At least someone here has their head screwed on right."

García let out a sigh of relief. Elated that he had one the approval of the Chancellor today.

"Are the necessary tests complete for us to carry on forward with our original plan?" the Chancellor asked.

"Sí, like Adlai mentionet, de serrrum ssolt be completet in a matterrr of days."

The Chancellor clapped her hands together in glee. "I do like it when a plan comes together. García, I'm leaving you in charge of the transfer of subject C7 and trials of Group C. Do not let me down."

"I underrrstant, señora. Comenzaré el plan de inmediato," García said as he rushed out of the door, the tips of his fine hair brushing the top of the frame.

"As for you two," the Chancellor said towards Takeda and Adlai. "It seems like this is your lucky day, your services are still required for now. Guard, escorted them to their labs and make sure they are kept under close watch. I will follow shortly."

A guard entered the doorway and pulled the scientists out of the room.

The Chancellor exhaled a deep breath and looked at the girl.

"My, my, my," she spoke to the sleeping girl. "What a muddle you have gotten yourself into. I hope you're ready for what's to come."


creseo one and all!

and the wait has finally ended!

for those that have come across this weird message, well to get you up to speed...

on the 6th January 2021 i had an epiphany 'why don't i try and finish my sequel!' and i peeked at my dormant work from 2016 to find rubbish.

so, to try and revamp my story and rid myself of the original plot (where there really wasn't any) I 're'wrote my sequel. AND I FINISHED IT!

now, what does that mean for you the reader that may have read my original first book.

well (i love this word)...

1. i changed the name of the books - i actually don't like my first book title

2. i changed parts of the plot in the first book to match the second - meaning no doctor who :'( - sad i know and the story i had for it was great however i wanted to take it in a different direction so i wrote it out.

BUT, do not worry i have kept similar aspects of what i did write and incorporated it into my new story - which will reveal itself soon.

For the changes, the biggest one is that any mention of the doctor, amy and rory have been written out. everything else has stayed the same. so Clarke been drawn into the maze, the same, the nightmares, different but have the same concept.

basically what i'm saying is what you remember from my first book will not effect you too much in the next - just remove the doctor who aspects and you'll be fine. clarke is still as mysterious as ever.

i know i'm being a pain by changing it, however i really think you may enjoy this version better excusing the poor writing (i should be doing my job, but this came first).

i'll post the new chapters weekly. i've waited this long, i love a bit of suspense.

please please enjoy and don't hate me.

over and out

queenofthetear x