Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
He rubbed the back of her neck for a minute or so. Olivia felt something change, and experimentally tried to speak. “....Vivian?” The man smirked. “We still bitches, Liv. No way I’d let ‘em keep you. I’m so sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner, it’s a real war zone out there.”
It was a man’s voice. And face, and body. But nonetheless, Vivian was speaking to her with it. “Oh! You’re gonna love this. They figured out we show up ambient temp on thermal gogs. And that IR gogs disrupt the haze somewhat. So I got creative. Reattached the umbilical to the brain, added a set of eight improvised legs for getting about, and presto. Very vulnerable state, don’t get me wrong! But it’s worth the gamble. If you can get one of ‘em alone and burrow into the head, you’ve got yourself a disguise that shows up human on both thermal and IR. Because the body’s still alive! Do you see what I’ve done? Don’t gush too much. Now, the key is to dig in through the roof of the mouth. That way there’s no outwardly visible damage. The top of the skull also works but then you’ve got to wear a hat. And of course find someplace to dispose of the displaced grey matter, eyes and whatnot. You really want at least one uninterrupted hour with them, it’s gotta be someplace secluded. This is important! Leave the brainstem in there to control autonomic functions, or you’ll have to pick a new one and start fresh.”
Gushing wasn’t Olivia’s first inclination. Although, there was a certain sick brilliance to it. Like the evolutionary arms race between increasingly venomous snakes, and increasingly venom tolerant predators who eat them. Vivian had really found her calling.
“No time to fix you up. I’ll just disembody you. Brought everything I need in a cooler.” Olivia tried to argue but Vivian was having none of it. Being cautiously lifted out of her own open skull was, surprisingly, not the strangest thing she’d seen recently. A feeling of intense fatigue came over her when the umbilical was cut. Only seconds to live, under any other circumstances. Vivan deftly mended the umbilical end to the base of Olivia’s brain, and within seconds she felt restored.
The addition of slim, rickety insect-like legs Vivian explained were repurposed from fingers allowed her to crawl about with sustained effort. “The eyes were a special job. Night vision, thermal, full spectrum. To level the playing field. Although really, if they engage us in the dark we’ve already won.”
With some straining, Olivia found she could shift her vision into parts of the light spectrum normally reserved for a handful of exotic animals. Likewise if she focused on distant shadowed parts of the room, details began to emerge. Similar to how her eyes used to adapt to the dark, but an order of magnitude faster.
“Already prepared a doppleganger. Don’t remember her name. Hair, nose, cheekbones...all things considered, not bad given the limited pool of candidates.” There was nothing to say. Vivian just rambled on matter of factly about the most depraved things. But if ever there were a gift horse whose mouth should go unexamined, it was Vivian. Olivia shuddered to think what she’d be enduring now if not for her.
Vivian wheeled in a pretty young girl on a gurney, connected to life support. The top of her head lay beside her. Olivia could see into her open brain cavity, everything having already been scooped out and disposed of. There were pangs of guilt. Who had she been before? Did she die frightened? Olivia thought of Violet. It proved effective at justifying damn near anything.
Olivia crawled into the open braincase, the umbilical trailing out a notch cut for the purpose, hidden beneath long, flowing hair. Her eyes settled into the open sockets, Vivian did some unseen mending, and all at once Olivia found herself in control of the new body. “Not so fast, still gotta close you up Liv.”
It was a trip to stand up and walk around in a body not her own. Looking in a mirror was stranger still. “I’d still like you to fix up my old body. Call it vanity if you like but after this is all over I want it back”. Vivian smiled. “I understand. Mine’s in a fridge on level 20. But there’s a lot of work to do before we can go back to how things were.” Olivia nodded solemnly, and left Vivian to her work.
There were faint bloodstains on the floor of the corridor she remembered being wheeled down. Vivian had the good sense to stash the bodies someplace. To evade detection. Possibly also for parts. “One more thing!” Vivian called after her. “The body you’re in now can die. If you’re shot in the heart, or lungs, or whatever, you’ll have to ditch it. Not in plain sight. Wait till the coast is clear to climb out. You’re very fragile in that form. I left a scalpel and sidearm I took from one of the guards by the entrance, I suggest you take both with you in case you need ‘em.” She stood and thought for a moment. “Alright. But please, put on a different body by the next time I see you. I don’t ever want to see that face again.”
It was a strange feeling, to contemplate truly killing someone. Dr. Bizen didn’t count. He was still alive in a manner of speaking, and likely happier than he’d ever been. If anything, she’d done him a favor. Any other fabricant might’ve simply stripped him down for parts. But with a loaded pistol in her pocket, the reality that she might have to end a life hung heavily in her chest. The feeling was alleviated somewhat by the realization that if it troubled her at all, she was not so far gone as she’d believed.
She wondered in passing if that wasn’t something she told herself for the purpose of self-absolution. And really, hadn’t the wretched crew of the Belusarius given her ample reasons to kill them? Memories of the surgeon’s decidedly non-medical trespass surged to the forefront of her brain, this time refusing her efforts to suppress them.
What about Dietrich? He too was responsible. The occasional echoes of gunfire from elsewhere in Belusarius were his doing, as was her capture. Then, to top it all off, there was Doctor Bizen. The sample size was small, but if you bite into three apples and they’re all rotten, what else is there to do but toss the whole barrel?
It was an exhilarating direction to go in as the more she thought about her life from this perspective, the more sense it made. Like how the discovery of evolution at once made sense of the fossil layers, or how the understanding that the entirety of the universe is expanding made sense of the appearance that all other galaxies are receding from this one.
People are fundamentally cruel, sadistic monsters only barely persuaded to behave otherwise by civilization. Even then, not consistently as thousands of jam packed jails attest to. Fair weather philanthropists who revert to brutal, bloodthirsty ogres when frightened. The notion that all people are basically good being the naive refrain of the sheltered first world neophyte.
It certainly meshed seamlessly with her experiences in school. If any memories held the power to displace the surgeon and the operating bed, it was the old, familiar demons. Recollections of her eager, good natured bids for friendship and belonging, met every time with laughter, beatings, even the denial that these had taken place and the insistence that she’d thrown herself down the stairs, locked herself in her locker or given herself a black eye for attention.
It had pre-empted any sort of prejudice which might’ve otherwise developed in her. Whenever she met someone obsessed with what they felt were the uniquely terrible qualities of another race, she recognized at once that in fact he was describing the worst aspects of human nature. His only mistake was turning a blind eye to those same qualities in his own race.
Gender too. She’d long understood men and women misbehave in almost identical ways but that different terms existed for when a man does it versus when it’s a woman. No small number of each side believes that only the other behaves in those ways. Usually because they’ve never dated a same sex partner and so don’t have the firsthand experience that it really is all humans who are like that.
But she now found herself in an unprecedented position. She was part of something meaningfully distinct from humanity. No longer was her contempt softened by the reminder that she too was human, for now she wasn’t. And even understanding the true nature of what even now consumed the Belusarius and its crew, it was at least a kind of family. One which knew no internal strife, only cooperation towards a shared goal.
Stepping out into the deliberately cranked up lights was startling. But she did not feel weakened. The living body she’d assumed lacked that particular shortcoming. A voice called out from the far side of the atrium. “Find cover!” It was a soldier. Or as close as it came down here. One of several men clustered behind an upturned table, all wearing what looked like riot gear gestured for her to join them. Too delicious.
She made a show of ducking her head as she ran and worked up some crocodile tears by the time she arrived. Being able to cry again was oddly welcome. “Any more in there?” He gestured to the corridor she’d come from. “N..no, all dead inside. I’m the only one.” He looked aghast. “Motherfucker. First they took Hydroponics, now this. If we lose any more, there’s gonna be no place to fall back to.”
One of them popped up and traded fire with an unseen gunman. Olivia struggled not to laugh, but quickly regained composure. “You won’t be able to kill them that way.” He grunted and passed a full magazine to his comrade. “Don’t I fuckin’ know it. You can immobilize ‘em though if you shred their limbs. We had a guy in that stronghold you came out of, he was workin’ on figuring out their weak spot. If they have one. Guess that plan’s up in flames. Let’s see if we can’t get you back to the sub terminal. All personnel who can’t fight are being evacuated.”
This was it. A ticket out of here. But not without Violet. “I can’t leave without my daughter. I know she’s hiding someplace, she left me a message.” Following a rapid series of incomprehensible hand gestures, the men partially stood and hurried to the next serviceable cover, a fountain. “Lady it breaks my heart to tell you this, but if your daughter’s missing, odds are good she’s one of ‘em by now. But I know you won’t listen. And I can’t spare any of my men to escort you. You know what that means, right?”
She nodded, wiping away residual tears. He looked frustrated for a bit, then raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “Fuck it. If I was you I’d do the same. Listen, we’ll hold the sub docking terminal long as we can. If you make it, you make it. Good luck.” They were now close enough to a corridor that she could close the distance with little risk. She glanced back at the weary improvised platoon. They were human of course, but some part of her still pitied what she knew would soon become of them.
The path was clear now. At least, as clear as it had ever been since Tartarus. After wandering dark, dripping corridors she happened upon a flickering vertically aligned touchscreen displaying a 3D map of the Belusarius with a “you are here!” figure and various other indicators. Once she had her bearings and devised what she felt was the least risky route to level 20 given the ongoing battle, she set off.
The pipes were everywhere. In some places forming tangled clusters that blocked her path. Long stretches of floor were comprised of dusty concrete or wood which, in a state of the art deep sea facility, stuck out like a sore thumb. Had the soldiers noticed? Could they even see it? She reached out and cautiously touched one of the pipes. It seemed real enough to her.
Olivia rounded a corner and just barely avoided a volley of machinegun fire intended for a fabricant in front of her. It took off the top of his head. He stumbled about, motor control no longer working as it should. “Don’t shoot! I’m alive!” She again feigned fear and remarked to herself that she was quite good at it. One of two men in a crude machinegun nest built from layered bags of desiccant slipped a pair of thermal goggles down over his eyes.
“She’s warm.” He gestured for her to join them. “No, I have to find my daughter! I was with one of your units briefly, he let me go. Don’t try to stop me, I won’t leave this place without her!” The other man began pleading with her but the first one stopped him. “No, it’s alright. They took my boy, I understand. Do what you gotta do.” He handed her a pistol and extra clip. She almost turned it down, but did not want to arouse suspicion.
“Six one two eight. No. Six one four eight?” She recited the door code she’d overheard from memory as best she was able, narrowing it down to a few probable candidates. It was a gamble to take the elevator. Who knows what the extent of the collateral damage was by now. But the service hatch was bolted shut. The guns were no help and she simply didn’t have the tools. So the elevator it was.
It made a metallic grinding noise as it descended and here and there loud bangs or clanks quickened her heartbeat. She’d almost forgotten what it was like to have one. Finally the doors opened into the dark, damp chamber with the immense hatch inset in the wall. And the keypad.
Six four one eight was a bust. Six four eight one likewise came back with a flashing red LED and loud buzz. Six one four eight. The light turned green, a trio of quick beeps issued forth, and the hatch popped ajar with a resounding clang. She prepared herself.
Through the hatch was foul smelling humid darkness and a low, loud thrumming noise. The only light came from an immense round dome window at the other end of the chamber. The largest single window she’d yet seen in Belusarius. Flood lights adorning the exterior cast some of that light inside through the huge borosilicate dome, against which she could see a number of silhouettes. “Violet?”
“Olivia….” It came from ahead and her left. She called out again, and continue to follow the replies. “I can’t see a damned thing. Are you alright?” Violet whispered back, no more than a foot or two away. “I feel...weird. It doesn’t hurt anymore though.”
Olivia teared up, this time for real. “I promised I’d get you out of here. Now here I am. Did you think I’d leave you? I’ve been through so much. But I promised. You’ll see the light of day again. There’s a way, Vivian taught me. I’ll take you someplace far from all of this. It will never find us.”
Olivia remembered her new eyes, and strained to adapt them to the darkness. Sure enough, details began to emerge. But as more and more became visible, her confusion only grew. The chamber was a veritable nest of tangled rusty pipes.
Over and around them grew pale, sickly flesh riddled with black veins, slowly engulfing more of the piping as she watched. The flesh coated most of the walls and ceiling, throbbing gently. Long segmented tendrils dangled from the ceiling and snaked around the stationary parts of the frantic machinery.
Stay Tuned for Part 11!
They had absolutely no idea that she is one of the fabricants lol.
What a dumb losers, they will soon be used as new body parts.
“No time to fix you up. I’ll just disembody you."
You keep on writing quality content, I love your work. Thanks for sharing!
It is actually true. But this is also a rationalization. Made me think...
Ah, it was Vivian, I was thinking that, but was unsure. Now I know. I am thinking Olivia is not really going to like finding Violet. Sounds like her old dream school is where she is right now.
What a lovely reunion. They will have the best conversation of their life in the next part.
Oh, I'm also curious about those giant monsters from the dream. What the hell are they.
You can find that out in The Black Pool, another of my stories.
So there is some kind of connection between these stories? Good, good.
Pressure series is my sht. I love it.
When Vivian found Olivia on the operating table she immediately knew what to do.
“No time to fix you up. I’ll just disembody you. Brought everything I need in a cooler.”
Vivian did some unseen mending, and all at once Olivia found herself in control of the new body.
“One more thing!” Vivian called after her. “The body you’re in now can die. If you’re shot in the heart, or lungs, or whatever, you’ll have to ditch it.
Once Olivia being able to move her body she found a way out thanks to Vivian a ticket out of there. But not without Violet.
Suddenly she hears Violet. “Olivia….” It came from ahead and her left. She called out again, and continue to follow the replies. “I can’t see a damned thing. Are you alright?” Olivia teared up, this time for real. “I promised I’d get you out of here. Now here I am. Did you think I’d leave you? I’ve been through so much. But I promised. You’ll see the light of day again. There’s a way, Vivian taught me. I’ll take you someplace far from all of this. It will never find us.”....
@ alexbeyman..great writing books.. It came from ahead and her left. She called out again, and continue to follow the replies. “I can’t see a damned thing. Are you alright?” Violet whispered back, no more than a foot or two away. “I feel...weird. It doesn’t hurt anymore though.”
WOW! Dude, you are pretty awesome at this @alexbeyman. I cannot wait to read more!
nice your writing post
wow very nice alexbeyman
Thank you for sharing that I want to read more @alexbeyman
We need to have that type of story writers who put all basic ingredients in their story..Like above.I am highly inspired.@upvoted
How fiction could happen in your mind?
I found an interesting story horor.!! thank @alexbeyman
And the doctor outdid all my expectations. No comments. He probably will masturbate looking at necromorphs banging each other./Resteem###@alexbeyman That was very colourfully explained. What an interesting adventure she had.