Chapter 7
It was late in the evening by the time Isaac and Ellie left the restaurant, and most of the other shops and operations had closed their doors. This turned the city's focus over to the various adult nightclubs, strip joints and street hustlers that while inconspicuous during the day, ruled the night at New Horizons. The shopping centers were dark but the streets were still brightly illuminated by a citywide concatenation of a million neon lights, all glowing brilliantly and competing for the attention of the eyes. The air was filled with strange dance music, and the babble of voices in countless languages coming from all over.
In spite of the inner city's seediness, Isaac still enjoyed the walk back to the apartment. It had been a number of years since he had last been to New Horizons, and it surprised him to see how much the colony had grown over that time. Witnessing the boom in dark activity and lapsed government oversight that the rapid population growth apparently had brought along with it, he figured that Ellie had been right - a place where everyone probably had a reason to live by the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy might have actually been the right move for him. Beginning to have more faith in her judgement, he felt he could let go of his paranoia for the time being.
Ellie wasn't as much inclined to like the place herself, but it didn't matter; simply being in Isaac's company more than made up for it in her mind. She watched him silently while he gawked around as if lost in reverie, observing the bustling city nightlife with the wondrous stare of an alien having never been to such a place, and she jokingly mused to herself whether she had mistakenly left the real Isaac behind and brought with her one of the necromorphs instead.
"Geez. I don't remember this place being so... bright."
"Maybe it's just because you just haven't seen it in a while. Everything looks brighter with a fresh pair of eyes."
They laughed and joked with one another along the way, ignoring the eyes of the street urchins upon them as they passed, until they came across an all-night package store on a corner. Sticking close to one another they stepped inside, and while Isaac trailed behind in an aimless, alcohol-induced stupor, Ellie resourcefully grabbed some snacks, various toiletries, and a 12-pack of beer. Desiring not to loiter for too long they concluded their business quickly, and were on their way.
When they arrived at Red Moon, they entered the lobby and swept past a small crowd of unsavory characters, hanging out in the seating area and smoking. Some were lying on each others' laps or on the floor, sleeping or riding high on drugs. On their way to the elevator, Ellie grabbed Isaac's arm and closed the gap between them as she eyed the colorful collection of criminal types, some of whom met her with hard, leering stares. They passed through the cloud of smoke and entered the elevator, and when they arrived on the fourth floor, she finally felt relieved to be out of the lobby. However, she apparently was alone in her sense of caution, for she had noticed that Isaac didn't seem to mind the environment as much as she did. Or perhaps he just wasn't paying attention to it. Either way, he seemed to be in a better mood.
They walked down the hallway, passing by a couple loiterers lined up against the wall. Tucked within thick, fur-lined parkas they had been taking up nearly the entire walkway, but as Isaac and Ellie neared they pulled their scattered belongings out of the way, darting skittish glances at them. Isaac eyed them curiously as they walked by, until Ellie turned to him.
"You got the Code?"
Isaac looked at her for a moment. Sensing he was confused, she clarified.
"The keycode. For the door."
In a delayed reaction, he raised his finger.
"Oh - yes."
He activated the hololock, they both slipped inside the apartment and closed the door behind them to enjoy the peace and sanctity of isolation from the world outside. Ellie placed the bag she was carrying from the store down onto the counter in the kitchen, and Isaac slowly sauntered up to the large, panoramic window along the back wall. From their current position, three heavenly bodies were visible at this time - the surface of Luna, the Earth, and the sun, each cascading one behind the other with the trajectory of a perfect astral calculation. Ellie noticed as his attention became rapt upon the sight, and she took the moment to remove her jacket and shoes. She then reached into the bag she had and pulled out a small hairbrush, released the clip that been holding her hair into a messy low side bun, and began to brush it out. She faced the counter while she worked, becoming momentarily lost in her own thoughts.
When she finished and turned back around, she saw that Isaac was still facing the window but looking at her slightly from the side, as if trying not to make it obvious he was doing so. She cocked a small smirk.
"What's up?"
He quickly turned his gaze back to the window and shook his head. Then after a moment's hesitation, he waved toward it.
"... Nothing, I was just, admiring the view."
He almost couldn't keep a straight face as he said it, a nearly imperceptible crack in his front that Ellie cued right into.
"Oh. Well, glad to see that it's... to your satisfaction."
He looked at her again, no longer able to hold back the urge to smile.
"Yeah. It's quite beautiful, actually. The most beautiful I've seen in a long time."
She smiled back as they shared in a most fascinatingly awkward moment, until Isaac quietly cleared his throat and looked away. Ellie reached into the bag again and pulled out the beer, extracted two from the pack and walked over to him, offering him one.
"Here you go."
He took the bottle from her hand and sat down on the couch, taking a moment to observe its label in a haphazard attempt to distract himself. She came around the other side and took a seat on the couch along with him, being conscious enough to keep a few feet between them, and proceeded to open her bottle by wrapping the bottom edge of her shirt around the cap to utilize as a grip, then twisting it off. Taking a discreetly defensive posture she sat forward with her elbows on her knees, holding the bottle pensively between her hands, and she stared at the cloud of carbonated fizzle that plumed out of it.
"So. Now that you're settled, what are you going to do, Isaac?"
He glanced up at her through narrowed eyes, a look of feigned puzzlement upon his face.
"... About what?"
She turned and looked at him.
"About you, dummy. What's in your future?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not clairvoyant."
She turned her eye upward, and mocked a look of mild frustration.
"You know what I mean."
Though he was simply teasing her, he certainly knew what she meant. He thought about it, then tossed his hand with little emphasis before opening his bottle and taking a drink, realizing that he was actually just as reluctant to approach this subject as she had been.
"I don't know. I suppose, I could pretty much do whatever I want, really... It doesn't matter. I'm starting over from the ground up. And that's... just fine with me."
Ellie took a drink from her bottle, watching his dawdling, uncoordinated movements with amusement.
"Well, are you really going to just stay here? Is there anyplace else you want to go?"
He shook his head.
"I don't know... I don't think so. Earth is off limits, so that narrows it down, doesn't it?"
Feeling a little anxious, she turned back to the bottle between her hands.
"Well, not really. You know you have a lot of options. You could go anywhere. It's just sad to see you stay in a place like this. It seems... beneath you."
He looked away and took another drink, dismissing her concern.
"I don't have a problem with it, I kind of like the whole anonymity factor this place has. It'll work for me, at least for now. Besides... I'm not sure there's much beneath me, anymore."
"Oh, don't say that. You're just feeling bummed out because this whole thing is fresh in your mind. But it's over, now. Even if EarthGov is after you like you think, at least you don't have to deal with any of that Marker bullshit anymore."
He didn't seem enthused by her logic.
"I don't know about that. I thought the Red Marker was the only one. But then I learned there's a Black Marker on Earth, too. Not that it matters, because they went and built another one. So, what's to stop them from doing it again?"
Without a means to counter his question, she felt a little dismayed.
"... I suppose. I guess it can't be ruled out."
He took a drink, then slowly dropped the bottle and sighed.
"Let's just hope it doesn't happen. Because I am so sick and tired of having to do this shit. It doesn't make any sense. I swear to god... it feels like I'm trapped in a goddamn video game, or something."
Ellie laughed out loud.
"That's a funny way to describe it."
After a moment, she smiled again.
"It's nice to see you open up. I knew you couldn't be all serious."
"I'm just a regular guy. I do have other interests besides fixing things. Or going completely psychotic and killing things."
With a strangely positive expression that stood out in contrast to the dark intent of his words, Isaac took another long drink of his beer then looked around, a silly smile growing on his face. He felt thoroughly pleased; by now, there was not a single voice ringing inside his head.
"Wow. I think... I am officially drunk."
"You can't be that drunk, you've barely had three beers. You're not a lightweight, what are you, 200 pounds?"
He shot a sharp, slightly off-kilter glare at her.
"195, thank you. And for your information my dear, I literally have not had a drink in... years. The only high I've had in a long time is the buzz you get from that... that neural gas, that gets sprayed inside a stasis chamber. You know, that... two seconds you get, right before you pass out... Oh, and they were quite generous with the benzodiazepine, too. I forgot about that. Actually... now that I think about it, I pretty much did spend the past three years totally fucked up out of my mind. Didn't drink, though."
Her jesting grin faded.
"They kept you in stasis?"
In his intoxicated state Isaac was much slower to process, and she could picture his mind tripping over itself with the inertia of an elephant trudging through quicksand.
"Yeah... No... No. Not all the time. They did let me out every once in a while... When they wanted to talk to me. Pick my brain. Or experiment on me. Or stick shit in my eye. Stuff like that."
Despite the sense of humor he projected, the horrific impressions each word left on her mind could not be ignored. Surely his noble attempts to remain positive were hardly enough to mask the sheer ugliness he had been forced to face, and she wondered if perhaps the ability to deflect his pain in such an intelligent way was the only characteristic that set him apart from the much less fortunate Nolan Stross. Fearing where this kind of talk might lead, she felt it was time to redirect the conversation.
"Oh, hey - check it out."
She got up from the couch, walked over to the counter and grabbed the bag. She then came back and sat down, pulled out a hand-sized box, and opened it to reveal about a dozen ripe strawberries.
"These are real, and they're fresh. You want some?"
He looked at the box in her hands, appearing to be baffled as if he were looking at some incomprehensible relic, and when she saw his expression soften, she smiled to see that her plan had worked. Isaac could tell by their color and texture that they were as real as she claimed - grown in a natural, planetary environment, not artificially reconstituted.
"Say, what? Where'd you get those?"
"At the store, duh."
"I didn't see you get them..."
She chuckled, and placed the basket on the table in front of them.
"I don't think you were paying much attention."
With a genuinely amazed countenance, he blinked his eyes.
"I... did not realize real strawberries still exist."
She looked at him a bit oddly, then took one out of the box.
"Of course they do. They import them. They're expensive as hell, though, and a lot harder to find than other fruit."
She looked down at the strawberry in her hand.
"Kinda surprised they had them, actually."
"Hmm. It's been a long time since I've seen real food."
She smiled, and handed it to him.
"Well, time to break the cycle, Isaac. Eat something real. You deserve it."
He took it from her hand and looked at it, admiring it's natural shine - at least, when his eyes could focus on it.
"Wow... How the hell have we humans been surviving out here?"
She snickered at him as she reached into the basket and pulled one out for herself.
"If you haven't noticed, we aren't doing a very good job of it."
He picked at the strawberry in his hands for a few moments, examining it almost childishly, then put the whole thing in his mouth, without even bothering to remove the hull. She eyed him with a smile, then did the same.
"Mmm. Msismoood."
He didn't respond to her, overwhelmed by the impact of its tartness, and he winced. Then, he shook his head in agreement.
"Shomuwlysbnaplit?"
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"... What?"
He rolled his eyes, and took a moment to finish off what was in his mouth.
"I said, so you've always been a pilot?"
She slowly sat back on the couch.
"Oh... yeah. Yeah, for the most part. I first learned how to fly when I was a kid. My dad taught me, he was a mechanic. Alan used to run an industrial delivery company, and he was friends with my dad for years. They began working together right about the time I was in middle school, and I started helping out. When I got older, I moved into flying heavy equipment - solar cranes, freighters, stuff like that - because Alan would be short on crew from time to time."
Isaac made an odd face, then reached into his mouth and pulled out from between his teeth the hull of the strawberry he had forgotten to remove.
"Blech. You didn't go to college, or tech school?"
Ellie nodded.
"I took some schooling later on, but I had already learned just about everything I needed to know by then. So, I used the opportunity to mess around with some of the more modern technology they had at the college, and then I dropped out after two years. I didn't see the point, really. I already had all the future work connections I would ever need."
"So you learned all that from your dad, huh? He must've been pretty smart."
She reached into the basket, grabbed two more strawberries, and tossed one to him.
"I was close to him growing up. My mom wasn't always around, so he raised me for the majority of my life."
"What was up with your mom?"
"She was also a pilot. She worked long-term dispatch, so she would be gone for months at a time."
"I see."
She looked down, thinking.
"Plus, she and my dad... They didn't always get along. She had some affair a long time back, some guy she met on a job. Long story short she left with the guy, and my dad didn't take it so well. He got sick a few years after all that happened. You know, she didn't even have the courtesy to tell me to my face what she was doing, she just left. That's why I don't talk to her anymore."
With a hint of sympathy Isaac looked at her.
"Aww, that's too bad. I don't blame you, though... I don't get along with Octavia, either."
"Who's Octavia?"
He frowned bitterly.
"The lizard that spawned me."
"Hmm. You must not like her very much."
He cocked his head, an expression dark as a storm cloud forming upon his face.
"Not at all. That woman single-handedly destroyed any shot I had at being somebody."
"How did she manage to do that?"
Feeling thoughtful, he took another drink of his beer and leaned back.
"My father... the man built a fortune on his career. I grew up pretty wealthy as a kid."
Ellie broke a facetious grin.
"Oh, so you're a nerd and a spoiled brat. Now it all makes sense."
He looked at her with an expression that seemed to be joking, but perhaps equally as serious.
"Hey, that was a long time ago. Don't cramp my style."
She laughed a little sheepishly, not quite sure how to process his reaction.
"Sorry. I so did not mean to do that."
He sat there for a moment, his eyes gently scuttling about in their sockets. Then, as if struck by a sudden impulse, he glanced up at her.
"... Hang tight. I'll be right back."
Ellie blinked at him, confused.
"Where are you going?"
He placed his bottle and strawberry down on the table, got up from the couch and headed to the door.
"Just relax. I'll be back in five minutes. Don't go nowhere."
Not knowing what to say, Ellie just glossed at him with uncertainty.
"Umm, ok."
Isaac smiled reassuringly at her, then exited the apartment and the door closed behind him, leaving Ellie in the vacuous silence alone. Having no idea what he was up to, at first she felt a sense of dread that perhaps she might have somehow offended him, but if she had, it certainly did not show in his affect. Confused by his behavior, she began to feel somewhat embarrassed.
... Touch and go with this guy.
Seeing as she was obviously going to have a few minutes to herself she sat quietly with her hands in her lap, then started looking around the apartment for something to occupy her attention. When she saw that both of their bottles were nearly empty, she took it upon herself to return to the kitchen to grab two more, then shuffle the remaining unopened bottles into the refrigerator. Then she returned to the couch, placed one bottle next to Isaac's, and slowly reclaimed her seat on the other side. She had opened her bottle and was about to take a sip when the door suddenly opened, and Isaac came back in.
"Alright. You're still here."
She gave him a weak half smile, and shrugged her shoulders.
"Where else would I go?"
He slowly strode up to the couch with his hand in the pocket of his jacket.
"I don't know, but usually the ones who stick around this long mean nothing but trouble."
He winked at her, and she bent a curious eyebrow at him.
"So, where'd you go? Or are you going to keep me in suspense?"
"Oh, just needed to pick up something. Something that'll make these strawberries taste even better, I bet."
Ellie just watched as he sat down on the couch and pulled out a small, round container from his pocket. Leaning forward he unscrewed the container's cap, and dumped the contents of it out onto the table. When the tangy, pungent odor hit her and she realized what it was, a funny look crossed her face.
"Wh... Did you seriously just buy weed?"
"Yep."
"From where?"
He looked at her as if not expecting to hear such naivety, then pointed his thumb toward the door.
"Uh... the kid right outside the door."
He then pulled out a few wrinkled rolling papers, and proceeded to start sifting through the pile of green in front of him. Ellie just stared at him a bit incredulously, then shook her head and took a drink from her bottle to keep from laughing out loud.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing you're getting comfortable enough to start, you know, forming alliances with the neighbors."
He chuckled.
"When in Rome."
She watched him as he started rolling a joint, then smiled.
"So, you're a pothead, too. I should have guessed."
"Of course."
"You say that like everyone is."
Without raising his eyes from his work, he made a curious face.
"I take it you don't smoke?"
"Sure, I do. I just find it interesting how the ones who always do the heavy work - the work that everybody elses' lives depend on - are always the ones who do."
Again, he just smiled.
"Everybody needs a way to unwind, even the ones who save the world. Or at least manage to escape it. Anybody who tells you differently is a liar."
She watched as he worked quickly and with the same precision he displayed in everything he did, and it impressed her. Feeling her eyes upon him, he glanced up at her.
"Sorry. I just need to mellow out, that's all."
"Why, are you nervous?"
"Always. It's in my nature."
With a swift lick along the paper's edge Isaac sealed the joint, then pulled out a lighter from his pocket. He ignited the end of it, took a deep, savoring puff, then let it out in one long, slow exhalation. Enveloped in a cloud of smoke, he briefly closed his eyes and relaxed his head against the back of the couch with a tipsy grin creeping up on his face.
"So... where were we?"
He drew another hit then reached out to hand Ellie the joint. She took it in her hand, examined it, then took a few gentle puffs.
"You were... telling me about... your father."
"Oh, right. So, anyway... Wait, what was I saying about my father?"
Ellie broke a silly smile and tensed up her throat, trying to prevent the urge to cough.
"Heh... I was going to ask you... what he did for a living."
Isaac lazily threw his hands in the air.
"Ok, now I remember... So, he was a ship designer for the Galactic Union Marine Corp. From what I know... he specialized in universal navigation systems."
"From what you know? So... you didn't have a relationship with him?"
"No. He disappeared when I was a little kid."
Feeling her muscles beginning to relax, Ellie leaned forward to hand the joint back to him, expelling tiny, smoke-laden coughs in between her words.
"You don't know... what happened to him?"
"Nope. No one seemed to know. Or, at least no one would tell me. I tried looking for him years ago, to track down what happened to him. But I hit a brick wall pretty early on when I found out his records were sealed."
"His records were sealed?... That's odd, I wonder why."
With his head back Isaac stared up at the ceiling, not realizing Ellie was trying to hand the joint back to him until he felt a tapping against the side of his hand. He sluggishly turned his head, saw her trying to hand it off to him, then grabbed it.
"Who knows. Maybe he got himself into hot water, kinda like I tend to do. Anyway, I digress. So I had this trust fund, that he put aside for me... oh, thanks... so that I could pay for school when I was older... I actually got accepted into The Academy, the same school he went to."
Ellie looked at him with wonder.
"The Academy? You mean The Academy?"
He drew a long puff and rested his hand on his chest, blowing tiny smoke rings above his head.
"Affirmative."
"Wow, you weren't kidding about the wealthy thing. And don't you have to be specially chosen to even get in there?"
He continued on, glossing over her flattering words with modesty.
"Well... After my father vanished, Octavia obviously took a more active role in his finances. And that's when everything went out the window."
"Why, what did she do?"
He paused for a moment, took another drag from the joint, then handed it back to her.
"You see, I couldn't touch the money until I turned eighteen. So, the first thing I did after my eighteenth birthday was go to the bank. But it was already gone when I got there."
"Gone?"
"Yeah. The account was closed. She took all of that money - all of it - and you know what she did?"
Ellie suddenly sensed his demeanor take a dark turn. His face tightened and he glared up at the ceiling, then his eyes shot to the bottle on the table Ellie had placed there. He grabbed it, opened it, and took a drink.
"She gave it to the fucking Church of Unitology, that's what she did. She bought herself a Vested-class seat with it."
Ellie's face slackened with total shock.
"Oh, no... Oh, Isaac. That sucks. But, with your trust fund?"
He shrugged angrily, seething in the knowledge that there was nothing he could have done about it.
"She was my legal guardian at the time. Who knows what she did to get to it. But she spent it all. All the inheritance from my father, she sold off all our properties except the house, and bought her front-row ticket to the Mindfuck Show. And I was totally helpless to stop her. Wherever my father is, I hope he never, ever has to know about that shit."
Finding it increasingly difficult to move, Ellie just stared at him sadly as the joint smoldered in her hand.
"What did you do when you found all this out?"
He flashed her a piercing glare.
"What do you think? I went straight home, and beat the living shit out of her."
She gasped.
"Huh? No, you didn't."
He stared at her for a moment, fuming. Then, his expression softened a little.
"No, not really. I just put that in there for effect. But I wanted to, though... I wanted to fucking kill her."
He bared another derisive smirk as a dark memory came to mind, one he did not wish to share at great length, and he washed it back down with another drink.
"But, we did have a confrontation about it. And the bitch kicked me out. Long story short she threatened me, her and her little friends up there in the Church, not to come back. I left, and haven't seen her since that day. You know, she never even apologized to me for taking that money. The entire time, she acted like she was entitled to it. Like the Church was entitled to it. I was nothing to her at all."
Ellie was absolutely shocked to hear this, but tried not to express too much emotion over it.
"Well, that's... an unusual family dynamic you've got there, Isaac."
"I have no family."
Silenced by his viperous resolution she didn't say anything. She just stared at him, not knowing what to feel, until he finally continued.
"So, anyway... All I had left after it all was one safety deposit box in my name that she didn't know about, which had around five grand in cash, and my father's ring."
Reminded of the last remaining piece of his father's memory he had once had, Isaac glanced down at the empty spot on his left middle finger with an inherent sense of remorse.
"I lost that, too. I was wearing it... they must have taken it from me back on the Sprawl. Fuck... I should have never worn it. I should have left it home. Now I really have nothing left to remember him by."
Ellie darted a glance to the side, thinking.
"Since you can't go back home, you would have lost it anyway."
"Yeah, but... at least they wouldn't have it."
Watching the lines of despair begin to form upon his face, Ellie felt truly sorry for him. Though a paltry attempt she knew it was, still she tried to be encouraging.
"You don't need some ring to remember your father, Isaac. I think... you're plenty enough proof of his legacy. I very much doubt that he wouldn't be proud of you."
He just sat there for a moment, pressed one of his fingers to his lips, drew a quiet breath, and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he turned to her with a gentle, loving smile and held out his hand, expectantly.
"... You just gonna hang on to that all night?"
Her eye widened as she realized that she had completely forgotten about the joint in her hand, which by this point had developed an ash trail almost an inch long. She quickly sat up and handed it over to him with an apologetic look.
"Sorry."
He took it from her, glancing at her amusingly.
"It's ok. You must be feeling good, then."
With a quick, short blow he cleared the joint's ash trail - then suddenly realized his plan had backfired as the ashes dropped all over his lap.
"Shit."
He started sweeping the ashes off, an act that should have been pretty straightforward had it not been for his current state of mind. His hands were slow and uncoordinated as he tried to manage the task at hand while clutching the joint at the same time, and everywhere he swept the ashes only seemed to dig deeper into his shirt. He was struggling to focus his eyes and he kept grumbling, trying to keep his cool while sweeping with total inefficacy, until he was finally forced to his feet to allow gravity to do the work for him.
"Goddamnit."
As he finally brushed the last of the ashes off his shirt, Ellie, who had been staring at him with wide, plastered eyes, dropped her head and began to laugh.
"Oh my god, Isaac... that was classic. You have the... you have the grace of a mackerel. How ever did you survive?!"
He finally stopped and looked at her, trying to keep a straight face.
"If I were actually smart enough to know the answer to that... then... I, probably wouldn't have ended up here to begin with."
Riding the end trail of her laughter, she rested her arm on the couch and laid her head against her hand.
"Well, honestly... that kind of goes for all of us. Doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess we're all dumb."
With a friendly smile, she shook her head.
"I don't think so."
Isaac dropped back down on the couch, taking a moment to check the joint in his hand, then seeing it was nearly finished he took one last puff. He placed the butt on the table, then noticed the strawberry he had put down earlier.
"Oh I forgot about that."
He grabbed it, looked it over and then started to eat it, clearly with even more pleasure than before.
"Mmmmmm. See? I told you. Try one now, if you dare."
Ellie grinned, eyed the half empty box on the table, and reached for it. Feeling considerably buzzed herself between the weed and the beer, she nearly knocked the container over, fumbling it between her hands.
"Oh."
She pulled a strawberry out of the box and started to eat it. However, before she could grasp it properly in her teeth a chunk broke off and fell out of her mouth, then onto the floor. She glared at it with an intoxicated eye, and a thin, red trail of juice running down her chin.
"... You bastard."
Isaac laughed at her jokingly.
"Oh, so I see I'm not the only fish out of water around here."
Beginning to blush, she flashed him a mocking glare.
"Oh, shut your bloody mouth."
She sank into the corner of the couch and finished off what she had left of her strawberry, then her beer. She sat there, thinking over their conversation thus far.
"Isaac... you said your mother -"
He rolled his eyes in disgust, then shot her a stern glare.
"Please don't call her that."
"Sorry... you said that she's Vested, right?"
Pressing the bottle in his hands to his lips, Isaac shrugged.
"From what I understand."
Ellie paused again and lowered her eyes, thinking a little deeper.
"Well... do you think that... that she knows about you? About what happened to you?"
He suddenly froze, and the inebriated look of amusement on his face slowly fell away into a dead stare.
"I never actually thought about that."
He leaned back, slowly and with gravity, and his eyes squared out into harsh, little dark boxes as his mind began to race.
"That's a damn good question, Ellie. If I ever see her again, I'll be sure to ask her that. Right before I pull her tongue out through her asshole."
Ellie widened her eye and looked away, once again stunned by this revealing and somewhat caustic side of him. It was a shade different from the much more reserved man she had met on the Sprawl, and it was wondrous to think how much the survival instinct could mask a person's true colors. Isaac, she was beginning to discover, was no exception to this rule; in fact, it was becoming quite obvious that his personality encompassed a far wider spectrum than their limited encounter had suggested.
When she looked back at him, she saw that he was staring right at her.
"Why do you keep gravitating back to this situation, anyway? You're way more interested than I thought you would be."
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep prying. It's just that... I find it all so fascinating. Your story is unbelievable... in fact, I wouldn't believe any of it if I hadn't at least seen some of it for myself."
A tone of solemnity entered her voice, and her face became much more serious as she homed in on what it was that bothered her the most.
"This Marker thing... it shouldn't exist. It's not right. I want to know why these people would want to mess with something like that, seeing what it can do. Something like that could destroy every last one of us."
Her words only made her kind-hearted nature even more obvious to him, and knowing that she certainly was not to blame for her natural curiosity, all he could do was to take clemency on her.
"Yeah. It uh, it isn't good."
"If you don't want to talk about it, just tell me. It's okay."
"No, it's alright. You deserve to know. And I suppose it's good to get some of it off my chest. I've never talked to anyone about what actually happened there. I mean, at least not in full, honest truth."
Feeling a little more positive, Ellie now sat up with interest.
"So, tell me. I'm all ears."
"You really want to know?"
She nodded.
"I do."
And so, he told her. For the next few hours before morning, Isaac finally disclosed to Ellie the gruesome details of his adventures while fighting for his life aboard the Ishimura. He told her all about his confrontations with the necromorphs, the deranged crew members, and how he first encountered the Marker. He described for her the giant tentacle that had dragged him down the hall, nearly breaking his leg, and the raging brute that had grabbed him, raised him above the floor, and would have torn him in half had he not landed that well-placed shot between the monster's back plates. He sent her spine to tingling as he explained how he grappled the Leviathan in zero gravity, and how he sweat bullets having to blast through a field of asteroids while the Ishimura's automated defense system was down. He delineated the unfortunate deaths of his fellow team members, the crazed, Unitologist fanatics that stalked him, and even about the act of betrayal carried out by Kendra Daniels. Finally he arrived at the Hive Mind, and he told Ellie all about what it was like, how big it was, how he overcame it, and inadvertently sent the entire planet into a downward spiral of annihilation because of it.
The only thing he did not talk about was Nicole. He told Ellie nothing of her broken message, nothing of the indescribable panic he felt when he had first learned about the Ishimura's communication blackout, or the ever-increasing horror as he progressively discovered Nicole's RIG logs, and ultimately learned of her fate. He refrained from disclosing anything about how she had appeared to him, lured him to the planet with the promise of being made whole only to learn she had been a figment of his imagination the entire time. Finally, he did not tell Ellie about the necromorph he had found aboard the escape shuttle along with him, the one wearing Nicole's cold, dead face. And knowing what a painful experience it all must have been for him, Ellie did not find it necessary to ask him anything about her.
Beyond that, Ellie was fully entranced the entire time, clinging to his every last word, and perhaps taking an even greater interest now than she had during any of their earlier conversation. For Isaac it was exhausting to relive it all again, but he didn't mind this time; he was thankful for the opportunity. The more he revealed the horrifying truth that was overshadowing his mind, the more grounded he began to feel - especially with Ellie, who unlike anyone he had met so far was impressively intelligent, seemed to have a perfectly realistic understanding of him, and grasped everything he told her as if she had been there, without any assumptions that he was untrustworthy or deemed 'insane' as a result of being compromised by the Marker. It all felt like a great burden lifted to finally have found a like mind, and this encouraged him to indulge her desire to hear more, until he was taking almost as profound an interest in the subject again as she was.
When Isaac's pace had slowed to a crawl and she could tell he was getting tired, Ellie finally glanced at her RIG to check the time.
"Oh, wow. We've been up all night."
By this point, Isaac was already partially reclined on the couch, with his feet up on the table. He had finally stopped talking, his head was back, and his eyes weren't open anymore. The last empty bottle of beer stood precariously on the arm of the couch, clasped loosely within his limp hand.
"..."
"Isaac?"
"... Yes?"
Ellie shook her head.
"Sorry. I thought you fell asleep."
"I'm about to."
"... Ok. Well, I just wanted to say... thanks for talking with me. I know it took a lot of nerve to. I really had fun... you're an okay guy."
"..."
Ellie tsked quietly at herself with chagrin, feeling her words were sorely inadequate to stand in the place of what she really had wanted to say. Just as she thought that he wasn't going to respond, she heard him mumble.
"... You can have the bed."
"Oh no, Isaac, don't be silly. You take the bed. You paid for it, you should have it."
"No. I don't mind."
"I'm not taking the bed."
He finally raised his head and glared at her.
"Well, I'm taking the couch. You can have the nice, comfy bed, or the cold, hard floor. Your choice, Ellie."
Realizing the futility of arguing with him, Ellie just smirked and crossed her arms.
"Fine. Whatever. I'll take the bed. You take the cramped up couch."
"... Thank you. Was that so hard?..."
She got up from the couch, took a few toiletries out of the bag, and slowly started stumbling her way toward the bathroom.
"Hope you don't mind if I take a shower."
There was no response, so she turned around.
"Isaac?"
She saw that he had sprawled himself out entirely upon the couch, he was completely motionless, eyes closed and he was breathing steadily. Realizing he had already fallen asleep, she rolled her eyes and headed to the bathroom, trying not to smile too much.
"Oh... good night, Isaac."