PHQ-Nickname:
Syndel
Halfquake:
Mania
Level:
74
Total kills:
19,884,443
Birthday:
00th 0000
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| Mood: | peaceful |
| Type: | Story |
| Added: | July 16th 2007, 00:35:44 |
| Visits: | 1314 |
| Series: | [ Victimisation ] |
| Rating: | Not rated yet. |
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Description:
The end, covering the end stories of the victim and Edward, the assassin. |
Sirens rang out around the institute. The victim had found his way to the central control room. This was the only room decorated in any other colour than black, what and green. However, the victim immediately regretted entering.
The walls of the control room were painted in human blood. The controls, fashioned crudely out of human skin and bone, giving the interface a leathery texture. The room was lit by human heads in small alcoves at the edges of the room. The victim stole himself before inspecting the monitor. Flooding from a broken window had now filled much of the complex, triggering sensors throughout the complex. Because of the internal damage caused by the invasion there graduwas no way he could see to contain the water. The rest would be filling slowly over the course of a few hours.
The sheer scale of the institute was impressive, with capacity for many different victims at once with special rooms for large-scale slaughter. The main part of the institute, however, was made of a complex series or rooms and puzzles - their design indicating disorientation and their content to induce madness in the victims.
Ignoring all this as irrelevant the victim proceeded to find a plan for the way out. After a few key presses the monitor displayed a complete map of the institute with exit path highlighted. He noticed with a sigh that it would lead straight through the soldier's main force. After his encounter with the slave he shook at the prospect of meeting them. A low creak from nearby as the metal buckled under the pressure shook him back to reality. He left quickly, following the path to the soldiers. Perhaps he could escape with them.
***
The soldiers were pulling out, their job was done. Their sensors indicated that the institute had suffered critical damage and was gradually scumming to the natural force of the water. The call had been given and all were retreating back to the ships. New's crackled through on the radio of the captains death as his team had been at the centre of the fault. The second in command now led the evacuation of the institute. "As your acting commander I want every single man on these transports within the next five minutes" He yelled to the soldiers still in the field. "The institute has become unstable and we cannot afford to be hit by any debris. You will be left behind." He slammed the radio back into it's holder and addressed the communications officer. "If any more units report in tell them to get back here pronto, I'm going to go see everyone gets on the right ship." With that he left.
Outside the seabed was a flurry of activity. It was slightly surreal to emerge into this failing, subterranean paradise. Among the crowd were the sergeants, each standing outside their respective ships calling for soldiers and shouting into their radios. He started towards the nearest for a status report but before he could take a step the communications officer emerged from the craft. "Sir, we've found a live one!"
"What? One of ours?"
"No, a victim - a real life victim. They're bringing him in now."
"Good... yes, good. Tell them I'll want to interrogate him as soon as we get sea born."
"Yes sir." said the communications officer with a short salute, then he disappeared into the craft.
"A real victim? This could prove to be more worthwhile then I had originally thought." The new commander muttered to himself.
***
Edward sat on an underwater cliff a short fly away from the institute. All the ghosts, freed finally from their torment in the institute had congregated at the highest point in view. From his vantage point he could see the departure of the ships. The ships looked almost like planes, with compressed air jets situated below the belly of the craft and large sheets of steel to provide stability in this hostile environment. The only difference was the inclusion of a panel with a rack of propellers fitted to propel the craft through the water and the slightly crumpled look of them after a journey into the deep.
As they departed they left trails, quickly disappearing into the dark. Soon the institute collapsed. At first it crumpled and buckled under the pressure, soon the majority of the institute was flooded and the stability generators malfunctioned causing the bubble to shift and dislodge from the surface. The bubble split as it left, leaving smaller bubbles in it's wake as it raced for the air above. The next thing to break was the air intake, huge pipes leading to underground reservoirs of air buckled as the water compressed the air making the pipes bulge and burst. Soon the entire institute was breaking under the extreme pressure. Huge chunks dislodged as they were deformed past their breaking points.
After a few minutes it was all over. All that remained were unidentifiable chunks of steel and girder. Edward closed his book with a sigh. It was over. They were free. What now? Around him were men and women, people and creatures - these strange genetic freaks but somehow still entangled in the same terror. Even if they knew what they had been before it was still obvious that their experiences had changed them. After a few minutes the dead dispersed, some returning to the world above and others inspecting the rubble. "It's beautiful isn't it?" Said a voice from behind him.
"No, there was something here. It may have been evil, it may have been wrong but... there has always been wrong in the world. This was different. This was special." Said Edward with some remorse. After a long pause Death sat down beside him.
"You know... I'm as old as time. I've seen empires fall, genocides run and cities nuked. This is small scale on the human life destruction scale."
"There were humans prepared to finance this though - just for entertainment. To see other humans die. Yet you, a pure manifestation of humanity, is glad to see this go? Don't you think there may have been something to it? Surely you can see the evil in the world?"
Death did not reply for quite some time. Eventually he rounded on Edward. "In any case there is now a choice before you - just as with everyone else here. Death is a complex thing and places like this only complicate things more. You've spent enough time dead to have earned this choice at least. There are those in the world who fear death, seek escape. People will give everything in this life for the promise of a good time in the next. I must confess you have earned no such respite, if indeed such place exists. I am only the gatekeeper here. You must take the steps, if you so choose.
"What is my alternative?"
"You have experienced this world in your current state enough to know what it provides. You must know that if you loose this opportunity now I cannot offer it again. I must ask you. Will you cross?"
Edward sat silently, looking over the serene ocean, light filtering through the water leaving folding patterns in it's wake. He imagined the wealth of knowledge now open to him, regardless of the torture that knowledge would provide. Perhaps humans would change eventually. He would like to have seen that. "No." He said simply.
"It is done. I shall leave you now." Death replied. He felt the presence fade from him. Picking up his paper Edward glanced at the sky before setting off towards the surface. He thought to himself for a moment which direction he should take, where he should go. Eventually he decided to leave it to fate.
***
The End.
***
Epilogue:
As for the victim, he eventually grew sick of human contact. After the initial publicity he became a reclusive hermit. Rumours emerged over a decade later that he became involved in the Sunrise syndicate but that is a story for another day. |
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