Chapter 4: Only Her
Hummingbird- this is a less emotional chapter. I can still guarantee that i will have been crying while typing, though.
Tigerlily- tuts
Hummingbird- hehe. And BTW, the people are speaking JAPANESE. And yes it is possible to speak Japanese with a thick accent, just like you can speak English with a thick Gloucester accent or something. Oh, great, now my MP3 is playing El Manana and i AM going to cry. Please review.
Noodle was curled up in a ball in a small clearing of wreckage. She was motionless. Nothing moved, even the flames seemed to slow down. It was as if you could see her soul flying away into the rainy sky. Suddenly, something moved. A burning piece of wood was dislodged from on top of her leg.
Noodle's mind flashed. Back in time. Away into the darkness of her past.
"Dr. Ito?" someone with a thick American accent asked, "Where is she?"
Noodle opened her eyes. She was suspended in a thick green liquid and wearing a white, clinical nightgown. She was attached to pads with wires, monitoring her every movement and thought.
She watched as a tall, thin woman walked over to her tube. It was around 3 metres wide. Noodle sensed something weird. She didn't have to breathe? It was strange, the liquid was comforting though. As if she had never left it.
Someone appeared out of the shadows.
"I think she is ready," he answered the woman. He was short, bald and wearing thick glasses. He had a strong Japanese accent, it was a wonder they could understand each other at all. The woman's eyes flashed as she looked up at Noodle.
"Open it." the woman commanded.
Noodle felt the liquid being drained from around her, she fell to her knees and coughed, clearing her lungs, as if breathing for the first time. Her eyes stung.
"What will you name her?" Dr. Ito asked as the woman folded her arms and Noodle struggled to stand up.
"A NAME?!?" the woman laughed, "It's an experiment, not a person!"
Dr. Ito shook his head. Noodle looked out at them all.
"Let her out," the woman called and the thick glass around Noodle lowered slowly. The woman's face softened as Noodle stumbled with nothing to balance her. She held out her hand.
"Come here, girl," she barked. Her face was soft, but her voice was real. Harsh and stony.
Noodle took the woman's hand and jumped out of her tube.
Dr. Ito walked over to the woman and said something in a language Noodle didn't understand. The woman took a step back from Dr. Ito.
"Come, these are your first steps and your first breaths. Don't waste them," the woman told Noodle, handing her a towel.
Noodle looked at the doctor, draping the towel round her shoulders and shivering.
"What is going on?" she asked, croakily.
Everyone stopped.
The woman flew at the doctor.
"You IDIOT!!!!!!!!!! YOU TAUGHT HER!!! YOU KNOW HER!!!!!!! YOU GAVE HER A PERSONALITY!?!?!?!?!? SHE IS A SOLDIER!!!!!!! NOT A PERSON!!!!" the woman screamed, hysterically enraged, hitting and slapping the doctor.
Two men came out of the shadows and dragged the woman off Dr. Ito and into the shadows.
"It's OK," the Dr. Ito told her, kneeling down to speak with her, "Every time i woke you, i taught you something new, then i had to make you forget you ever woke when she came. Darling, you are an experiment. You are superhuman. You are our Saviour. Stay with us and you will never die."
Noodle stared at him. She drew back, scared and confused.
"Here," the Dr. said before she could run. He produced a guitar from the shadows, "i taught you to play, do you remember? You were the best i have ever heard."
Noodle looked at the guitar and then snatched it from him, hugging it tight, as if she knew it. As if she had to protect it.
"Play?" he asked her, standing up and fetching a stool.
Noodle sat on the stool and hooked the strap around her. She held out her hand, ready for something, as if she had done it before.
He handed her a pick and sat down cross-legged in front of her. She played and played until tiny drops of blood appeared on her fingertips.
The Doctor clapped. Noodle smiled.
Noodle moved again, she tried to breathe, and then she slipped away again. She was running out of time.
she suddenly felt angry, she opened her eyes. She was in a white, padded room, there were bodies scattered everywhere.
"Angel, please!!" Dr. Ito yelled, coming into the room.
"Stay BACK!!" she yelled, "Stop trying to HIDE me from MYSELF!!! What AM I? WHERE am I!?!?" she screamed at him.
"Angel!! Please, please, I'll explain, just sit down, stop killing, it won't help," he tried to come closer.
Noodle ran at him, another wave of security guards ran in.
she produced a gun from her jeans pocket and pointed it at them, they all drew back, leaving Dr. Ito in the middle.
"I'll either shoot you."
"Or me," Then, she put the barrel under her chin.
"Who's more PRECIOUS?" she screamed, shaking.
"ME, OR THE EXPERIMENTAL SOLDIER YOU WANTED ME TO BE!?!?" she taunted.
Then, it all went black. Someone else had shot her, not dead. Tranquillised.
when she opened her eyes she was bound to a bed. She quickly closed her eyes again to listen to a conversation. It got louder, even though the people didn't move at all.
"Dr. Ito, i think this is it. Tell her goodbye and we can send her away, for good. I'll pack enough food, it only takes a day to get to England anyway, what with how we're sending her," a woman said.
"No, Toshi-san. I want to keep her here!" he replied.
"She's not a pet."
"i know, but i grew her, i am the only father the girl will ever have!"
"What about her biological mother? Who you took the genes from?" another man asked, exasperated.
"Both donors are..." the Doctor's voice trailed off.
"Dead," the woman finished.
"do you really think this band is good enough for her?" Dr. Ito asked.
"We've done research into every member. She'll make them who they'll be."
"Ok. Ok." Dr. Ito gave in.
Noodle heard footsteps, she opened her eyes again. Dr. Ito, a woman and a man were standing over her. The woman had a syringe.
"When you wake up, you'll have a new family," the woman told her.
"Goodnight, my ten-year-old Angel Saviour," Dr. Ito stroked her hair.
Noodle struggled, she was falling into a deep, dreamless sleep, she didn't want to forget, she wanted to know.
"Why won't you tell me?" she managed to ask, just before she slipped away.
Dr. Ito hung his head. There was a cold silence.
"Sir, she was grown in a tube." the woman reminded him.
"She was MY special ANGEL," Dr. Ito hissed icily. And they walked away, leaving her to be bundled into a crate along with one other thing.
Dr. Ito placed the guitar inside the crate and sealed the lid. He put a stamp on the address and pushed it away towards three men. Who took it away. Far, far away...
Noodle moved again, sliding in and out of consciousness. She was dying, but remembering.
Noodle opened her eyes. She was inside a crate. She could hear people talking, 3 men. She tried to move and then she bumped her guitar. She grabbed at it, holding it tight. Then, she found a letter.
Angel,
You will not remember where you have come from, but you were my child. The guitar you find with you is the one you played to me when you first learnt. These people you are being sent to will look after you if you play the guitar for them. They will be good for you.
Good luck, Angel.
Noodle braced herself, and then kicked. The lid of the crate burst free and she jumped out.
3 men stared at her. One was tall and lanky, sitting on a chair. He had spiky blue hair and deep, black eyes. He looked tired, but shocked.
The second man had dark skin and tubby, wearing a baseball cap and seemed to have been fighting with the third man.
The third man was medium height and had dark hair. He was wearing an upside-down crucifix. She had seen some people wearing them before, but she struggled to remember anything. All she knew was that she trusted whoever had written the letter, and that for them, she would play until she died.
"Hello! I am here to play the guitar for you!" she babbled in Japanese.
The 3 men stared at her in utter wonderment.
She waited and then grabbed the guitar from the crate. She jammed for a few seconds which left them in even more stunned silence.
The first person to do anything, was the tall man. He walked over to her and knelt down. He held out his hand for her to shake.
"Stuart," he said, slowly.
Noodle smiled at him and shook his hand. She thought for a while. A name.
'do i have a name?" she thought. She saw something on the table and pointed to it.
2D went over and picked it up.
"Noodles?" he asked, stunned.
She thought. Then nodded.
"Noodle!" she then yelled, happily.
Noodle opened her eyes and gasped, thick air filled her lungs. She sat up and looked at her hands. They were drenched in black blood. Her black and white striped T-shirt was ripped and soaked in blood, too. But she couldn't feel bleeding. It was as if the wounds underneath had already healed.
"I was dying," she whispered, sitting up and throwing a rock from off her leg like it was polystyrene.
She stood up.
Then, climbed to a top of the wreckage and looked out into the black gorge. There was fire all around her, filling the air with ashes and smoke.
"I SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE!!" she screamed at everything. Then, she collapsed, flames billowing around her.
"Noodle?" 2D sobbed as they sped towards the fire.
"SHUT UP!!" Murdoc yelled at him.
There was an uneasy silence as they sped away. The engine whined.
"Muds, can't this thing go any faster?" Russel asked.
"Look!" Murdoc yelled back, "I KNOW that every second we waste she's dying, but this thing will NOT go any faster so SHUT UP!"
After another few minutes of painful silence, they reached the gorge. 2D leapt out and clambered down a steep slope of rubble.
"Noodle! Noodle? Noodle, angel!" he turned back to Russ and Muds, who were running after him, "I see her!!" he yelled.
She was curled on top of the mess of the Island. 2D ran over and scooped her up in his arms hugging her tight. He felt for a pulse, it was strong.
"She's alive!" he called, holding her close.
They all ran over.
"Let's get her home, quickly," Russ told them.
2D and Russ ran back to the geep, leaving Murdoc standing on the wreckage. He picked up something from the mess. It was the charred, burnt, crushed remains of a guitar. He went round for a minute, picking up some of her things. He found a half-burned photo of them all. Noodle was sticking out her tongue and on 2D's back. He was in the background, looking sulky and Russ was laughing with 2D at Noodle's expression.
"Murdoc!" Russ yelled down at him, "come on!"
Murdoc held up another picture to the sky and let the rain douse the last flame that flickered from it. Then, he ran to the geep, gave the things to Russ and drove like hell.
"We've got to get her to a hospital!" 2D told Murdoc, leaning over the roll cage to talk to him.
"The nearest one is in Essex, we'll get her there, do you know the way, Muds?" Russ asked.
Murdoc nodded grimly and they sped away.
Noodle was standing in a room watching a martial arts class. She could see around 5 people being trained. Four were sitting on the floor and two were standing at the front of the class. She was the girl at the front and Dr. Ito was training her. She walked closer and listened to their conversation.
"Now, Angel," Dr. Ito was explaining, "I want you to flip me over like I just showed you."
Noodle looked at herself closely. She could vaguely remember being giving this challenge. She was only 6, it was one of the times that Dr. Ito had removed her from her tube and then given her an amnesic to make her forget.
Noodle watched herself step back and bow to Dr. Ito, before launching herself at him and flipping him over with incredible ease. He lay on the floor, groaning.
"Father!" she called, kneeling down beside him and taking his hand. She looked shocked at her own strength.
"It's OK! Really!" he assured as a few of the other students took him away on a stretcher.
The room emptied and Noodle walked over to herself as she collapsed onto the floor and started crying, running her fingers through her thick black hair.
She sat down next to herself.
"What am I?" she asked herself.
Noodle tried to put an arm around herself, she could just touch herself.
"You're you," she whispered in her own ear, listening to strangled sobs.
"I'm never going to let anyone make me cry ever again!" she called out, leaning slightly to where Noodle was sat next to her.
Noods smiled and let herself cry.
In reality for those minutes, it was a six year old, crying on the floor, asking herself who she was, over and over.
From the depths of Noodle's 15 year-old, battered mind, it was her, giving herself the comfort that no one else had been there to give her.
Noodle watched herself cry, before hearing someone calling her name.
"2D?" she asked to the air behind her.
She stood up and closed her eyes, throwing a last glance to the girl who was also getting up and attacking the punch bag behind her.
They both closed their eyes, slipping away but at the same time being pulled back.
"Sirs?" a young nurse pulled the curtain open.
It had been 3 hours at the hospital.
"Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Nicalls, Mr. Tusspot. I have some, disturbing news," the nurse was trying to smile, but she looked deathly pale, "There is…" her voice slowed, "Just, run over for me one last time what happened to her?"
"We still don't know completely," 2D admitted, turning his puffy eyes to the nurse from where he was sat at the end of Noodle's bed.
"Well… It must have been big and terrible. But…" the nurse was still fathoming something.
"What is it, for fuck's sake!?" Murdoc yelled at her.
She winced, braced for the worst, and explained.
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with her," she said.
Silence.
Russel shook his head.
"Impossible," he breathed, looking at Noodle's peaceful face.
Hummingbird- I will leave it there for now. Please review. xoxox