Martha sat in one of the chairs in a row facing the luggage dispenser.
Felix still had not shown up, and neither had Rossin.
She recounted her dream.
Lists she made while in the dream were still just as fresh as any other.
She closed her eyes - her message still written off to her right
['Had another dream.',
'That police officer was in it...',
'Sort of....'
'How can I wake you?']
She tapped her foot ideally, watching the luggage getting picked up
The people moved like ants.
A rhythm each individual wasn't aware of, but any outside observer was.
She fell deeper into her thoughts
Martha Crisp
'Where were they?'
It had been already an hour since she landed.
A small moment of panic hit her, she was stranded - in New York
['With no real money.'
'Stuck here.',
'Maybe Felix is already gone.',
'Maybe Rossin would not wake up...',
'Maybe...']
She didn't write this list to the board.
She would have kept going except she heard a noise to her right
Rossin sat down next to her.
She turned to him
Martha Crisp
"What took you so long?"
Rossin
'I enjoy my beauty sleep...'
He yawned and looked around
Rossin
'I have no choice in that...
How long?'
Martha Crisp
"About an hour. He's still a no show..."
Rossin nodded
Rossin
'That is to be expected - he is probably eating now...
Which by the way: you should be doing as well.'
Martha Crisp
"I had a snack."
Martha Crisp
"A little power bar - dense calories."
Rossin scoffed
Rossin
'One little power bar...
You need more...
Much more.'
He sat up
Rossin
'Come on, We are getting you more food.'
She got up and matched his pace
Rossin
'So...
Another dream?'
Martha nodded
Martha Crisp
"I remember more of it now.
I think they, I don't know, pulled me out of mine and into theirs.
Captain Alacira was her name."
Rossin hesitated every so slightly in his step
He regained his composure a moment later
Rossin
'Ah...
Her.
I - my author has not heard from the likes of her since, well...
Before you were born.
About forty years now...'
Martha Crisp
"Wait...
You know her?"
Rossin
'My author did...
Long ago...
She was a console member...
Still is, technically, since she is alive...
What has she been doing?'
He mused to himself
He looked back to her
Rossin
'What exactly was she doing?'
Martha started, gathering her thoughts
Martha Crisp
"She was sending me places...
First an old italian monastery, then some weird place with a bunch of gears...
I was finding things for her.
And they made these - patterns.
These shapes in my brain - I still see them."
Rossin
'I see...
And can you put these patterns on that board to your right?'
She tried to fit those shapes into a list, but they refused.
Bulging out from that boundary.
Shattering the well-ordering of her thoughts.
No matter what she tried - they refused to be put inside.
And since she hadn't learned how to put anything but lists.
She tried just without the lists and to her surprise, it worked
//(IMAGE LINKS GO HERE)
They exploded out of the board to the right of her perception.
Fading into nothing - they were still burned into her brain, but that had.
Hurt - she had a splitting headache
Rossin
'Oh...
So she is after that.'
Martha asked through gritted teeth
Rossin
'Are you alright, did that hurt?'
Martha Crisp
"Yes...
My head is pounding."
Everything was too bright, the sounds were too loud
She closed her eyes and covered her ears.
She pressed on her forehead to quell the throbbing
She had migraines before - but this was something else, something worse
She opened her eyes and her vision swam.
Panting she stumbled toward a wall, and slid down it.
Closing her eyes she focused on her breathing
Things grew more quiet and she could finally make out Rossin talking to her.
She couldn't hear him, interrupting she said:
Martha Crisp
"...just - be quiet for a second...
I'm getting better just - hold on for a minute."
He didn't wait a whole minute - but he did wait a few seconds
Rossin
'Felix is close, he is walking toward you - stand up if you can.'
She opened her eyes
Her vision swam.
Corners had extra shadows that danced and stretched.
It was getting better, but slowly
Martha Crisp
"I hope you got a good look - I'm not doing that again."
She braced against the wall and slid up.
Felix came into her vision from around the corner
He was holding two ice cream cones, one of which he was licking.
He spoke as he approached
Felix Danabrus
"You look like shit, good thing I have ice cream."
Martha Crisp
"Bad sleep, hardly any actually."
She took the cone
It was mint-chip.
Not her favorite, by a long shot
>>--ST -o --auto
She took a small bite
The flavor exploded in her mouth
She started consuming chunks of it
She didn't realize how famished she was
Martha Crisp
'And this is the best damn ice cream...'
She realized as she licked at it
Felix Danabrus
"I assumed you would get food too.
This was desert, were you waiting all this time?"
Martha nodded
Her vision was slowly but surely coming back to normal.
And a slow cold swelled in the top of her mouth.
She didn't care, it was just so - damn - good.
It helped with the headache - something to distract from it.
It was a new pain, harmonizing and smoothing out the sharper pain in her brain
['more pain is less pain.']
She saved that thought in a list, partly in irony, and mostly for practice
Felix Danabrus
"We'll walk then, it's not far - grab something on the way."
He held out his arm Martha linked with it
%%%%
Behind them Kent watched them link arms.
He wasn't in ear shot so he just followed them.
They were walking apparently to wherever they were heading.
Which was a stroke of luck for him, not having to hail down a taxi.
He watched them stop at a hotdog vendor.
Felix flashing his phone and the vendor just giving them several hotdogs
They walked off without paying.
He stopped himself, to meet the vendor's glassy stare
It took a few seconds but suddenly he shook and asked what Kent wanted
Kent paid for a hotdog and hurriedly caught up
He watched them enter Idlewild Park and make their way up Brookville blvd.
They walked for some time until they stopped at a building.
Incongruent with the rest.
It was tall.
Thirty stories high when everything around it was nearly flat.
It was black.
And at the top it had symbols on it - stark white against the obsidian.
That's what it looked like on the outside.
Black glass.
Impermeable by light
Felix and Martha went inside.
Kent started to follow, but slowed
The building was so out of place, and those symbols.
They were almost like the one's Felix had shown him on his phone
Kent Barbado
'Were they there so people forgot about it when looking at it?'
He wondered
Kent Barbado
'Either way...'
Into the lion's den
Instinctively he padded himself down
Keys, wallet, phone, gun.
Hopefully he wouldn't need the latter
But more and more he was sure he would
Kent Barbado
"This is some bullshit."
He muttered to himself, stepping up to the building
Kent Barbado
'He was getting to tired for this shit...'
%%%%
Felix Danabrus
"Wait here."
Felix Stepped into the dark hallway
Felix Danabrus
"Something's...
Wrong."
They were on the 4th floor.
The elevator just opened to what he promised would be hundreds of peers.
Instead they found this
Martha stepped out of the elevator
Waiting at the threshold
Felix opened one of the doors in the hallway
He paused
Closing it again, He walked back
Felix Danabrus
"Stay here, I'm going to see if there's anyone in the building at all."
Martha nodded and he entered the elevator behind, pushing a few buttons
Rossin
'This...
Is strange.'
Rossin walked forward
He waved at her to follow him
Rossin
'I want to know what is going on.'
She hesitated only a moment - she too wanted to know
Meeting him at the first door, she pushed it open
Behind it - nothing.
An empty room with a chalkboard in the distance.
Several rows of seats but no humans
A glint caught her eye by the side of the desk.
A broken syringe, glass glittering towards the door
Rossin
'I think there is no one here.'
She looked down the hallway
Martha Crisp
"Do you hear anything at all?"
Martha glared at him then closed her eyes to focus
It was quite enough for her to hear her own heart beat.
And something else.
A rhythmic knocking, and a scratching - faint.
Off to her
Martha Crisp
'To the right: yes, coming from one of the rooms.'
She moved towards the sound
She reached a door, second on the right and opened it
She was not prepared for what she saw
Behind the door were a row of students, missing their heads.
Well, not missing - just misplaced.
Differently placed if you will.
They sat neatly in rows, as if taking a school photo.
They were holding wooden pikes, Balanced against their still bodies.
At the top of these pikes made from broken chairs and desks.
Were their heads.
And seared into their forehead was a letter.
They were arranged carefully.
Space included to spell out the message:
~'UNDERESTIMATED UNDERNET'~
Martha closed the door
But it was too late - details burned into her mind.
Their skin - their arms - were puffy and red.
Like they were boiled.
She noticed a steaming pot on a burner in the back.
What did they do in that room, what happened
She gagged a little, the smell wafting over to her finally.
She leaned back against the door and started to hyperventilate.
Rossin looked at the door, then to her
Rossin turned towards her
Rossin
'Listen, take a few deep breaths.
Not shallow - or else you will pass out.
In...'
He took a breath himself
Martha Crisp
'Did he bre--- no.'
Martha thought
Martha Crisp
'He did not breath - that was all for show, for her.'
She followed suit.
}
{
Rossin breathed out, and she did as well.
In the quiet - she heard the scratching - it was coming from that room
Martha Crisp
"Someone's still in there."
Rossin
'That is what that scratching is.'
Rossin nodded
Martha waited, and that's all he said
Martha Crisp
"So shouldn't we...
Help them...
Get them out of there?"
Rossin shook his head
Rossin
'No one here would do the same for you.
Whatever is keeping them inside - it is probably too risky to get them out.'
Martha shook her head.
She stood back up and steeled herself
But it was too late
She entered the room and called out
Martha Crisp
"Hello, is anyone in there."
She avoided looking at the display of bodies in the center of the room.
Closing her eyes, she pinpointed the scratching down - it stopped
Male Voice
"Don't come in!"
Muffled.
It came from a supply closet on the left, close to the hallway
She approached
Rossin
'Okay - so he is warning you not to get closer...
I just want to point this out when things go horribly wrong.
This is your own decision.'
She pulled at the handle of the supply closet
It was held fast
Male Voice
"Don't open it, don't look at me!"
The voice was frantic, terrified
Martha Crisp
"What happened here?"
There was a pause.
An intake of breath, like he had been sobbing
Male Voice
"I killed them - they killed themselves.
They tried to kill me, I locked myself in here..."
The voice was pained
Male Voice
"I can't even remember their faces, they're gone...
Really gone...GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
He screamed suddenly, a piercing howl
And there was a thumping on the inside of the closet.
So violent it almost shook the structure
Rossin
'Martha: you should back away.'
Martha ignored him
Martha Crisp
"I'm going to get you out of there.
Into safety."
Male Voice
"There is none."
He Squealed
Male Voice
"Don't you understand - it's in me.
I'm dead...
Worse than dead."
Rossin
'That thing inside your head...
It is inside his head too...
Or something like it...
Get out of here now - only a matter of time before...'
The thumping stopped suddenly
Rossin
'Seriously Martha, now...
Get out of here now!'
The closet door clicked open
Martha finally started to back away
Her neck threw every bit of blood it could to her brain, tightening as her heart dropped
>>--TEMPORAL();
His words were slow - or her brain was cooled in adrenaline.
Everything felt like moving through pudding - but she had time to focus all her energy into the run.
Rossin was at the door, urging her to move.
Her feet felt wooden, the whole moment felt surreal
The door opened.
And a sixty year old man fell out
His forehead bloody - scratched to hell.
His fingers dripped with blood.
They had been tearing at a symbol scared into his head.
His eyes were wild.
Tears darker than ink spilled out, scaring the flesh with burns
He was panting.
He crawled on all fours - running at her with an uncanny grace.
Martha slammed the door on him - running for the elevator
It did little to slow him down.
Whatever he was now - still knew how to work doorknobs
She slammed into the elevator and pressed the down button
Then the up button a moment later
Any direction would do - she turned to face the man
He was on all fours - galloping toward her.
She waiting in anticipation
She braced herself and jumped to the side just as he did.
He slammed face first into the elevator
Her hearing was slowed down but not de-pitched
She ran back down the hall
On her hands and knees.
Fighting against time itself
Martha Crisp
"Rossin, can we switch?"
Rossin
'No time!
And I think that I would be ineffective against him anyway.'
There wasn't much hallway, and that thing was striding towards her now
Rossin
'Duck into one of these rooms, they lock from the inside.'
She grabbed the door
It opened inward
She closed it just in time, and could almost lock the door
There was a pause - she could hear him rummaging around in the other room
The glass broke and his fist came through the now open panel on the door
He was holding a syringe
Martha ducked down - still holding on to the knob.
He clawed at her hands
The elevator dinged.
And she was able to lock the door.
She heard it galloping towards the elevator
Martha Crisp
'Oh shit: Felix...'
She heard a gunshot, then a thud
She shouted
Footsteps grew closer, no answer
She started to back away from the door, out of sight.
A head poked in, armed raised cautiously with a gun
It was that police officer from her hometown.
Martha could see the dark of the barrel, and his finger off of the trigger
Kent Barbado
"What the hell was that, rabies?"
Martha slowly shook her head, he quickly glanced back toward the elevator
Kent Barbado
"...Zombies?"
Again Martha shook her head
Martha Crisp
"Weirder..."
Kent Barbado
"Weirder than zombies?"
Again Martha nodded
Martha Crisp
"I've had a weird week."
Sudden relief flooded her.
Adrenaline still pumping and she giggled a bit at the absurdity of it all.
Her neck was still pulsing, her heart slowing and the world seemed to go by faster.
Stifling that down she sighed
Martha Crisp
"A weird fucking week."
Martha said nothing and Kent continued to wait
Kent Barbado
"Are you going to...
Fill me in?"
He asked, as he inspected his borrowed gun
Martha Crisp
"Do you want to tell me why you're following me..."
Kent Barbado
"Well, you broke out of the holding cell.
No one remembers you, and oh yeah, my friend is dead."
Kent looked up at her as she turned to Rossin
Martha Crisp
"I told you, we should have stayed."
Rossin shrugged
Rossin
'We can bring him...'
He trailed off, looking at Kent
Rossin
'Or maybe not...
Maybe we should have stayed...'
Kent Barbado
"Are you talking to Felix?
Do you have..."
He moved his head, peering at her neck
Kent Barbado
"One of those comms under the skin?"
Rossin went up to Kent, studying him
Martha Crisp
"No...
I'm not, and I don't."
Martha said. she was pretty sure under the skin comms was for movies, but
Kent Barbado
"Who are you talking to?"
Martha lowered her hands slowly, gesturing to his gun.
Kent lowered his gun
Kent Barbado
"...Who are you talking to?"
He repeated
Martha Crisp
"Well, his name's Rossin, he's a non-physical person."
Rossin perked up at that
Rossin muttered
Rossin
'Right to the point.'
Kent Barbado
"Non-physical...
So a ghost?"
Martha Crisp
"More like a...
Memory."
Kent Barbado
"Isn't that just a ghost?"
Martha Crisp
"He's not made of ectoplasm...
Is that something that exists?"
She turned to Rossin, who shook his head
Martha Crisp
"Yeah, that's not even a thing..."
Kent Barbado
"So he's a memory, like...
In your head..."
Martha nodded
Martha Crisp
"He's like a computer program...
Only for brains."
Kent Barbado
"The brain isn't a computer -"
Kent interjected, but Martha cut him off
Martha Crisp
"I said like...
Simile, it's similar."
Kent didn't smile, he did raise his lips into what could be called a grin.
Humorless
Kent Barbado
"Okay, so you're telling me you have a ghost in your brain, sure...
Whatever - let's run with that.
Why are you in New York?"
Martha sighed
Martha Crisp
"Okay - so that's a longer explanation..."
Kent Barbado
"Alright, let's start with that surprisingly spry old man outside - the not-zombie?"
Martha Crisp
"He was infected with a very bad ghost in his brain."
Rossin walked between the two of them, facing Martha
Rossin
'This is painful.
Either just tell him everything or stop using ridiculous metaphors.'
Martha Crisp
"What else am I supposed to tell him?"
She snapped, looking over him to Kent to say:
Martha Crisp
"Sorry...
Okay...
So there are these things called namshubs..."
Rossin cut over
Martha snapped at him as she flipped the switch
Martha unwound from that spinning wheel that traded their spots
Rossin stretched his, her, neck
Rossin
"Okay...
I'm Rossin, nice to meet you: So here is what's going to happen..."
Rossin reached out his hand
Rossin
"First you're going to give me that gun."
Kent raised an eyebrow
Kent Barbado
"Why should I?"
Rossin, in Martha's body only stood still as a statue
Rossin
"Because we don't have much time.
Martha needs a reasonable explanation for that gunshot.
If anyone sees you here...
You're literally worse than dead."
Rossin stepped forward
Kent leveled the gun at him, her, with his finger still off the trigger
Rossin
"Any time now: Felix, the one with us, is going to come through that elevator...
With people in tow...
And you really don't want to piss them off by...
Existing.
Your best bet is to hide in an empty room and stay quiet until we all leave.
Which may be a while thanks to all the dead bodies in the next room over."
Kent Barbado
"Bodies...
How many?"
Rossin
"More than you want to know about.
Or see.
Seriously - you are in way over your head here."
Rossin took another step forward - Kent pulled back the hammer of the gun
Martha Crisp
'Do not get me killed.'
Martha watched all this from the shadow perspective studying Kent.
She was sure he was ready to shoot
Rossin looked directly at Martha
Rossin
"You're dead if they find him here, you know that right?"
Rossin turned back to Kent
Rossin
"I'm not going to hurt you, or shoot you.
I'll...
We'll give it back later."
The elevator bell rang down the hallway
Kent stepped into the room
He considered it fitting, as he also borrowed this gun.
Kent made a snap decision:
He unclasped the hammer and handed them the gun
Kent Barbado
"Fine, where do I meet you...
Two?"
Down the hall came a shout
Felix Danabrus
"Martha? Are you here? Are you hurt?"
Kent Barbado
"That's huge.
Where in central park?"
Kent hissed in a whisper
Rossin
"South east corner."
Rossin replied, turning his head towards the footsteps outside the room
Kent made his way into a small utility closet
Rossin
"Later - tonight maybe, just be around there."
He nodded back at Martha
They switched back
Felix popped his head through the broken glass
Felix Danabrus
"Oh...
YOU shot him?"
He looked back toward the hallway
Felix Danabrus
"What happened?"
Martha didn't even have to lie.
Just omit the truth
Martha Crisp
"He ran at me on all fours...
There's a bunch of dead people in the other room."
Felix Danabrus
"Which room?"
She walked out and led him further down the hall
Martha Crisp
"I heard a scratching, and well..."
She opened the door
Felix's face froze
He backed away, and closed the door himself
Felix Danabrus
"We should leave, right the fuck now."
He made is way back toward the elevator,
Felix Danabrus
"Come on!"
Martha Crisp
"What's going on?"
Felix pressed the button on the elevator panel: down
At his feet was the person Kent shot
He turned him over, looking at his forehead
Felix Danabrus
"This is bad..."
Martha Crisp
"Felix - what's going on?"
He turned to her
Felix Danabrus
"This is death...
Not just a little death: this...
When we reconstructed your neighbor - he was still mostly whole.
One collection tightly nestled in the link...
This..."
He pointed at the scratched out and damaged symbol on the corpse's forehead
Felix Danabrus
"This is like a blender - everyone's memories of them: evaporated, like that!"
He snapped his fingers
Felix Danabrus
"Gone forever - completely mixed in the ocean...
You can't fix that."
The elevator door opened.
They stepped inside
After a moment's pause
Martha Crisp
"The undernet?"
Martha considered the word
Felix turned to her, then faced forward toward the elevator doors
Felix Danabrus
"People that think they're Awakened - a honeypot for those that..."
He glanced back at her
Felix Danabrus
"Develop this awareness on their own.
They meet on the internet - we keep track of them...
They don't actually know how to do anything, or can do anything...
Or recognize things...
But they think they do."
Rossin paced back and forth...
Rossin
'This is not good.
He is considering if you are with them, infiltrating.'
Rossin continued to pace and Martha fiddled around with the gun.
Locating and making sure the safety was on, she tucking it behind her pants
Martha Crisp
"So what now?"
She tucked her shirt over the gun into her pants
Felix studied her
Felix Danabrus
"We're going to Flanagan's home, to get some answers..."
There as an elevator ding, and they both felt the gravity suddenly shift
Felix Danabrus
"He's the one that made the undernet."
The elevator doors opened to the downstairs lobby and they walked out