You and
Klaus step out of the elevator and look around. Both ends of the
hallway curve off somewhere, and they both look about equal in terms
of possibilities. Your footsteps echo, and aside from the low sound
of fuel flowing somewhere, it's silent. As much as You doesn't want
to split up again, You gestures for Klaus to head right while You
heads left. He nods and does so, leaving You alone—once again. This
is starting to get monotonous.
As You
walks, You absorbs Your surroundings, like usual. This place looks
pretty ancient, which might tie in with its ridiculous depth. It
could date back to the 20th Century Cold War, though You
doesn't know much about that. It looks...military, but that's just a
guess. You never learned formally about such things. Surprisingly,
the knowledge You does have about the Cold War comes from the
only fulfilling conversation You had with Susie's stepdad. He was
happy to talk about it with You, actually, which was the only time
You's seen him genuinely happy. You doesn't remember too much about
the War itself, though. But that's not the issue.
You's
begun to consider with greater depth the circumstances of Your
family's disappearance in regards to Susie's stepdad. However, after
everything that You just...thought about, upstairs, You figure this
still isn't the time. This hallway isn't leading anywhere, and curves
off to the right up ahead. At the curve, You's starting to hear
something, but You can't tell what it is. You figures there's certainly no
time like the present to find out.
You
walks down around the corner almost as if You doesn't care. If it's a
Fennec, You'll just take him down and keep moving. But, this isn't a
Fennec. It's something else. It seems to be a man dressed in a
doctor's garb—probably a physician for the gang. All doctors have
sworn an oath of non-offense, though, so he won't harm You. Instead,
he just stares at You from beyond his metallic mask. You considers
asking him a question, but despite the oath, he may still have Fennec
loyalties. There's no point in pressing Your luck.
However,
this small area has no outlets. It seems to be some sort of medbay
for the town. Several (empty) medical beds are around, and some boxes
with red crosses on them are attached to the walls. Aside from that,
there's actually some pretty nice-looking equipment here. You doesn't
know the official names for most of it, aside from, say, a “heart
monitor”, and that's only because You was hooked up to one of those
in the hospital from that concussion. However, there's something else
in the room—it seems to be a large tank of sorts, full of fluid.
There's someone inside it—a nude man. The man is identical in every
way to the set of identical men that attacked You outside.
Okay.
This is getting to be even odder.
You
approaches the tank and is about to put Your hand on it. Suddenly,
however, You sees a flash as the doctor runs towards and grabs Your
arm. You begins to struggle with him, and he seems prepared to
actually fight You to defend this tank. His fingers bite into Your
wrist. You tries to remove his hand from Your arm when You pulls his
glove off. With a grunt of pain, You succeeds, briefly noting five
new bruises on Your wrist.
Underneath
the glove is some sort of mechanical appendage. Five long steel
fingers, much thinner than those of a normal human, were what had
formed the grip on Your arm.
A cyborg?
You
begins to look him over, then. During this entire time, he has said
nothing, and has barely moved. You starts to think he could be one of
those robots You's heard about—a robot doctor would be nothing new
(or so You's heard), but this one is garbed in the same sort of mask
and coat as the ordinary doctors who worked on You in the hospital.
They never took off those masks, which so resemble those eerie
pictures of gas masks Susie showed You. You pulls down the back of
his shirt.
Metal
plates have been fused with actual human skin. The tissue is red and
inflamed even though the surgery must have taken place years ago.
There's some sign of infection, as there are little green patches
mixed in with the angry-looking flesh.
However,
everything above the shoulder line is mechanical. The back of his
head doesn't have any indication of having any human tissue on it.
The “mask” reaches around the face to form a sort of helmet that
encases the man's head, but with the neck covered by plating and the
head totally encompassed, it's almost like his entire head is a
machine. This begins to creep You out, but then Your hand brushes
against a tiny catch on his face...
The
entire metallic casing of his head suddenly bursts open like a
jack-in-the-box along the seams in the steel, revealing several wires
and plates fused onto a raw human skull.
You
screams. Several nodes are branching off of a metal frame built about
the skull, drilling into the cranium...into his brain. This is a
cyborg, alright, but it's barely human. Fuel seems to be being pumped
directly into the brain, with some other fluid—one that You doesn't
recognize—being extracted. Whoever this man—or woman, You considers
with a chill—is or was, he or she's been heavily lobotomized. The
empty eye sockets have been refilled with clicking, buzzing sensors,
that twitch as they regard You. You slowly reaches for the catch to
replace the casing, when Klaus walks in. He doesn't seem to react to
the horrible sight, but he may be internalizing his response.
As the
case closes, You turns to him. Your voice, and thoughts, are suddenly
shaken by an idea that's entered Your mind. You remembers now, back
in time, to thirteen years ago, as the doctors' voices have a
mechanical filter to them. You remembers that they all looked the
same, a detail that's bypassed You until this moment.
“Are
all of the doctors...the ones employed by the government...these
things?”
Klaus
pauses, before he nods.
You
looks at the unmoving thing, and sees a tiny chip on the front
of its coat. The chip bears the three colors worn by the Imperial
soldiers from New Cenabum.
There's
no guarantee that what Klaus has affirmed is true, at least from Your
perspective, but if it's even partly the case, You feels ill. You tries
to choke back another sob, and looks away from the doctor. You
realizes that unless this thing was stolen by the Fennecs, it's
entirely possible that these...drones...are for sale. You can't jump
to conclusions, not know—this isn't the time for pondering at all.
But Klaus approaches You, handing You something. It's a notebook.
You
opens it up, keeping part of Your brain aware that You may not have
much time left. (Worsened by the fact that Klaus didn't seem to find
anything down his hallway, indicating that this isn't where they
might keep prisoners.) You can't read the entire book, but
fortunately, much of it seems to be in the form of sketches. You
peruse it slowly, intending to steal it anyway.
One page
depicts a giant mansion of some sort. You wonders if this is “The
House”.
Another
features a figure wearing some sort of armor. The armor is almost
obsessively colored, and this seems to be the only colored image in
the entire book. The armor is drawn to be a mystifying iridescent
green.
Text
page amounts seem to increase as the book goes on. On one, You sees a
sketch of a pod identical to the one in the room that You's in now.
You quickly scans the text, and has difficult reading the
handwriting, but makes out one obvious word, “clone”.
The
notebook ends abruptly with a last entry. However, there's something
attached to it. It's a photograph—and it's of Susie.
You
struggles to keep Yourself together as You reads.
“The
boys made contact with E today. He was traveling with special
delivery. One male (adult), two females (one adult, one child).
Allowed Him to take plane, of course. He's heading to Imperial
Central. Will keep in contact—photographed the child female on
order. Apparently she is of great interest to Him.” That's all
that's written.
“E”?
Who could he (or He, apparently) be? And he was escorting Susie
and Your parents...?
He must
be Susie's stepdad. He has to be. And he's working with the
Fennecs, who are...clones, for some reason. But if he works for the
government, as well as the Fennecs...are the Fennecs employed by the
Empire? And if so, for what purpose? Attacking people? Stealing
things? Perhaps they're eliminating undesirable people or looking for
items...
Items.
There's something about that eight-sided stone. Is he looking for
that, for some reason? Susie thought it was important—maybe he
revealed to her that he wanted it before they started moving, and she
knew where it was this whole time, and just never told him, thinking
it worthless. All just a theory, of course, with lots of holes
in it.
There
are a lot of holes in a lot of things here. Maybe the notebook
explains more. You still needs to know why the city is made of
body parts, what the whole deal is with the Brotherhood of Kletus
(if they even fit into this at all), the thing about the ghosts in
the prison, the foosball voodoo dolls...so many mysteries, and
probably very few solutions. And Your family and Susie, alive—but
being held hostage by the same people who produce lobotomized cyborgs
who serve as doctors. The Empire. You needs to get to “Imperial
Central”, whatever that is, and...
Just
then, there is an explosion overhead. The medbay is rocked and You is
knocked to Your feet.
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