A New Life In a New Body: Public announcement
#21 of NLNB
A New Life in a New Body
Public Announcement
A week after the meeting...
"And in other news there has been no sign of the changelings in the past few weeks. While the search continues it seems as though they have all just fell of the face of the Earth. This could be a ..."
The television went blank, the father tried to change it to another channel but all of the other channels were the same. Then an unfamiliar "please stand by" popped up on screen. The image was not usual either; it had furs standing on either side of the screen. There had been rumors that the furs were getting more and more hostile, but not any that said they were going to hack every television channel, and even the satellite channels. Then there was a fur standing in the middle of the screen.
"Has your nation's military been lying to you? They have been keeping secrets from even their own people. They as a whole have no idea why they are sent to kill us. They have been trying to cover it up. Sure, they show you an execution of a governmental official who has become a fur. They have not shown you the real footage. The military has been taking video records, of all occurrences that they have committed. I am Geraldo Truman, I used to be a correspondent on CNN but now I am a correspondent of the Furs United."
Meanwhile back at the mountain...
Mike
The talk with the council had gone over just a little better than I expected. Although, I was just upset about Sherri and how she acted. She was still being her hostile self when we went there. The fact that she came to the chambers over armed was also a factor. We can't afford to look like war mongers, in front of the council, it will make them dismiss us that much quicker.
"Really, you think all of that crap is necessary," I asked.
"I carry this around with me all of the time," she said.
"Right sorry, forgot I was talking to you," I said pushing my way along the security check point.
I had a weird headache, I think it's because of her insanity is causing me stress. As we arrived in the chambers it became more and more of a nuisance. I started to explain the situation and then it became unbearable, sight and sound became maddeningly irritating. I screamed at the top of my lungs for several seconds then I fell to the floor darkness creeping in on me.
What, felt like hours later, I awoke in a hall. There were no doors, except for the very end it was a dimly lit hallway and the door seemed to be miles away. Then a voice echoed through the hall, "Come forward!" I was startled by this at first but then seeing nowhere else to go I walked forward. It felt like hours to get to the door. I pushed the door...
Lisa
I rushed to the medical clinic as soon as I heard. Mike just collapsed onto the floor with no warning. He was then immediately rushed here to find out what was going on. The doctor had said he went into a coma. The reason is still unknown, he seems perfectly fine. It may have been caused due to stressful circumstances.
"We have no idea if he'll wake up," the doctor said.
"Thank you doctor, please let me know if there is any change," I said the door opened and closed then it opened yet again I didn't look up though.
Looking over I saw Sherri leaning against the wall next to the door. "How is he?"
"Well, physically he's fine, they don't know exactly how it started," I said on the verge of tears.
As she stood there I saw her open and close her mouth several times before pulling me into a hug, putting my head on top of hers she said "Don't cry, that stubborn fool lived through having me as a girlfriend and a car crash, he won't die yet."
"They don't know if he'll wake up ever again. We need him, he is the reason we've moved so far. They found a foreign object in the back of his head, they're afraid to operate on it due to how close it is to the brain," I sobbed burying my face further in her shoulder.
Hearing a thud behind me I saw one of her sheaths empty before she said "Those bastards, they must have done something to him after the crash."
"Well there's nothing we can do about it without putting him in any kind of danger," I sobbed fearing what she was going to do next.
Extricating herself from me she looked me in the eyes and said "We can kill the people responsible, and find out what they did while we do that." From the controlled rage and restrained glee in her voice I knew nothing would stop her from this course of action except a better idea. She needed to kill something and we both need to save him.
"There might be another way, it's a long shot but it might work, there's a machine that might get us inside of his dreams if he is dreaming of course," I said trying to be logical about this.
Getting her blade back out of the other wall and sheathing it in one movement I only saw the start of she turned and said "Then why are we still standing here." She still smelled like the predator I knew her to be but she seems willing to listen to reason still. Of course she still put a guy through a few floor tiles for merely touching her as I led the way.
We entered into a huge room it was brightly lit and standing in the middle of the floor was Cerebellum Translator or C.B. for short. The device is supposed to hook up into the cerebral cortex. So I had the technicians hook Sherri, Mike and I up to C.B. Here goes nothing I though.
'Okay, this is weird' I heard in my head in what resembled Sherri's voice. 'I feel like I'm floating, kinda like when they sky dropped us for missions.'
'Yeah were going to have to get used to it,' I said, "Where are we anyway it looks really strange. It's a hallway but only one door.'
Looking around Sherri said ' this looks like one of the old bunker offices.''
'Well, it seems as there is only one place to go and that's forward,' I said.
Appearing before me Sherri said 'That was weird, I just thought about opening the door and here I am with it open.'
'Well, it appears the laws of physics don't apply to us, but they will apply to Mike,' I said. Moving forward I saw there were four different pathways this time all of the halls had lots of doors. 'I guess we'll have to check them all one by one. By the way some of the stuff may be shocking.'
Appearing down one of the pathways Sherri said 'Can't be worse than my own childhood.' before she disappeared from view.
'Not so sure but, just make sure you mark the door that way we know that it isn't it,' I said.
As I saw that one of her blades appeared by my head and she yelled "It works the same for those too!" Coming next to Sherri I saw we were in a large room before she said "This is his greatest fear?" Looking at it I saw that Sherri was standing there covered from head to toe in blood, others around her had their guts, throats etc slashed open. Looking at the people I saw everyone at the base that I knew by name. I saw others who could have been family to him and I saw my parents as they had been in the picture I showed him. The only ones not dead were Sherri and Mike; between them on the floor was a small black box with a ring I didn't recognize in it.
"Kinda messed up huh, it doesn't make much sense to me but to him it must mean something gut retching," I said.
'It means he's terrified that I'll become what I was. I still have a taste for blood but I'm not as out of control as when he knew me last' actually stepping forward she cut the image of herself in half and moved forward.
"Well, we have to check the rest of these doors," I said opening another door and in it was a sight of awe inspiring paradise it looked like it was on a tropical beach somewhere with the sun setting He and a darkened figure were resting together in a hammock, "check this out Sherri."
Appearing next to me she said 'I wonder why we can't see that figure.'
'Well this is his idea of the perfect paradise. It's sort of like what he wants to do far into the future he must not know who will be with him,' I said a little pissed due to the fact that I wasn't in there.
Pointing at the hammock Sherri said 'why is it a guy then.'
'Are you blind, that is clearly a woman's figure," I said.
As I watched her I saw her look at it closer and then move up before she said "Oh, it's hard to tell when nothing in this infernal place has heat and that is a darkened figure."
'Well don't worry we all have our faults, let's check another door," I said. I went over to the next door and pulled it open. He was standing in front of a brick wall, blindfolded with a cigarette in his mouth facing a firing squad. 'Now that's just morbid,' I said.
Looking at it Sherri said 'Probably most traumatic experience after he got put in the squad, I remember saving him from this.'
'So this is what resembles hope for him,' I said, closing it and moving on to the next one, I pulled it open and there was mostly dark with a single light shining in the center of it and strapped to a chair was someone else not him but right behind the figure was him, I could tell because of the ring on his finger.
Walking around Sherri points to his other hand and says 'He has a gun; I suppose he is ready to kill this person. Strange, he never killed anyone he didn't have to when I knew him'
'Must be some sort of anger, possibly rage," I said as I closed it and opened another door. This time he was in a Buddhist monks robes and was sitting cross legged.
'Nothing vague here, peace. We've spent most of our lives at war with something or another, he wishes it could end,' she said.
'I dunno, it seems more like his patience. He always says that the monks are very patient," I said.
Walking out I heard her mutter 'he also knows they die before fighting back.'
'Yeah, well let's not fight we are her to save him,' I said diplomatically.
We continued on seeing many different sides of him. Then we came to a door which led to a room. It looked mostly empty and made of steel., until we stepped into it then it became cold and snowy and a bright white. We could see across the other side of the room and there was a door.
'This must be the room before we reach him. I think we may have to make a run for that door,' Sherri said.
'Well then let's do it,' I said.
We started to run, and as we did so the ground started exploding all around us. We then started to sprint as fast as we could. We got to the other side and opened the door just as a round hit were we just were. Black, there was no light, there was nothing. Then I felt some sort of force tugging on me and all of a sudden my eyes were blinded.
Sherri
Holy shit it's bright, why is there such a bright light. Sitting up I looked around and shouted 'Hello! Lisa, are you there?' Standing up I saw bleached white walls and floors, all down the hall were doors with tiny slots in the doors for looking in on the occupants of the cell.
Walking up to one of the doors I remembered being behind a much dirtier one of these doors, when I looked in I saw a young girl sitting there. Her position suggested she was tense and waiting for something to happen.
Hearing a noise behind me I turned around and saw three large men in something like nurse's outfits. As one opened the door the other two walked in and grabbed her by the shoulders. Barely even struggling they simply hauled her away; she didn't even try to walk so they just carried her with her feet off the ground. Following behind them I decided to catch up and figure out where I was. Popping in front of them I looked at the girl closer. She looked familiar, something so very similar about her, maybe Lisa; she was one of the few women I didn't know what she looked like when she was younger. Continuing to float backwards, kinda disconcerting, I then went through a door and through a man before the group of big men stopped and put the girl in a chair across from what seemed like an old man. "Now then Lisa, do you understand and realize what you did?"
Lisa merely sat there. She didn't even look up, just had an empty stare directed towards the general area of the table. When the old man nodded one of the bigger men grabbed her head and forced her to look in the general direction of the old man.
"Lisa, you killed people indiscriminately with an extremely high amount of kinetic energy. Since then you have trapped yourself in your own mind."
For another half minute Lisa simply sat there, after a time her eyes cleared, but something was different, now they were the ice blue I remember. Her features started changing; the hands on her head suddenly fell to the side and the man who they belonged to started screaming before seeming to drown in his own blood. The other two fell down, their eyes bleeding profusely. The old man started yelling "Lisa! Stop this at once, you don't need to kill people!"
Standing up and looking directly at him she said "You call this place asylum, that word doesn't begin to describe how horrible this place is, and you let the nurses, and the doctors, and any others who want to treat the patients like this, I was a virgin before I came here, but you monsters didn't care. I was essentially catatonic but I felt everything you did." As she finished changing she picked up her hand and looked at it. "You're going to supply me with a way out of this place, or I'm going to walk out of here and kill everyone that tries to stop me."
Watching it all I decided that perhaps Lisa is worth showing some respect, so long as she shows me some as well. Maybe I'll ask her about what put her here, seems like a story worth hearing. As it all faded and the old man called for a black windowed car I wondered how high the body count was for her.
Lisa
My head hurts, almost like I was hit over the head. Sitting up I looked around and wondered where I was. It reminded me of something, I think I was in a place like this, bit cleaner. The doors looked a bit rusted, iron grey. Standing I saw that most of the doors were actually open with no one inside and there were guards everywhere. Walking down the hall I found a simple lunch room area. Looking around the thing that drew my attention was a girl sitting by herself. She ate her lunch with a casual ease while a number of others seemed guarded about their food. Looking on I saw a group of girls walking towards her.
The one with deep black hair stood there and glared at the girl before saying "You're new here, so you don't know to be scared. We rule this place, and I want your pudding."
Looking up the girl with the cropped red hair said "I'm Sherri, and no one rules me," before going back to her food and specifically picking up her pudding and eating it. Taking the last bit on her spoon she said "If you want it so bad then take it," putting it in her mouth she then spat it quickly at the girl before seeming to disappear. She had ducked down and broke the arm of the girl that punched over her head. Grabbing the next girls arm she hit it rapidly and I heard a series of snaps. The girl with the black hair had just started to react when her head was grabbed and slammed rapidly to the floor. Sitting to the side of her Sherri then said "I don't follow anyone's orders if I don't respect them, and you don't know a thing about fighting, I could kill you before you finished blinking." As a guard got near her she kicked out one of her legs lightning fast and took the cuffs off of him before locking the black haired girl to the table. Another guard approached and Sherri simply stood up and followed him to her cell.
Watching this scene I wondered why Sherri was there, and how old she was. She looked about 13 but then again she still only looks like she's 16 from lack of a figure. Maybe Mike knows, I'll ask him, knowing this shows that she is as dangerous as she acts. Perhaps I'll ask her about her past sometime. As everything started to fade I wondered what was next.