Yume awakes gasping for air, but it’s not coming in or going out; something is blocking it. She’s still laying against the grate at the end of the run-off pipe, right where she lost consciousness. She can see that the reservoir is only a couple feet down from the pipe. Its beaches are lined with cancerous trees and jagged rocks. It’s heavily shaded here but the run-off has a slight glow to it, giving the whole area an ethereal appearance.
She uses her less-injured arm to prop herself up and begins uncontrollably heaving and coughing, desperate to get air into her lungs. Eventually, two hardened plugs fall out of her nostrils. Run-off had infiltrated her nostrils and coagulated into hard masses, blocking air. She is still unable to get enough air into her lungs as something is in her throat. No amount of coughing or wheezing is going to cut it. She reaches her arm into her mouth and down her throat as far as she can manage. Feeling a tough mass, she grabs onto it and pulls. It feels like pulling cling-wrap off leftovers. A thin film was coating the entirety of her mouth along with a ball lodged in her throat.
After that gut-wrenching scene, Yume is finally able to breathe. The endorphins of relief fade and she screams out in pain. Her left leg is completely shattered, and she is covered near head to toe in bruises. She crumbles back down onto the grate, laying her head against the top. She hasn’t the strength to even exit the pipe. Her head now facing the top of the tube, she allows her spirit to die again.
This is as far as I can make it. At the very least they won’t find my body, she thinks, in between bouts of agonized shrieks. Her weeping misery is nearly deafened by the rushing run-off. Its noise is all she can hear, that is, until a series of small splashes start to creep up from the reservoir.
It sounds like thousands of small rocks falling in a strange harmony, cascading towards her. They get closer and closer, but Yume has accepted death too many times today. If this is it, then so be it. She can no longer find the strength to even scream, but she sure wishes she could.
Two gigantic pincers float into frame above her head, rapidly clicking together in a sort-of triumphant exclamation. In complete horror, Yume leans her head back to see what these monstrous things are attached to. It’s quite clear now that the noise wasn’t that of falling rocks, but of hundreds of thin legs. Yume has seen something like this before, but much, much smaller. It is a humongous centipede.
Its length must be nearly twenty or twenty-five feet. Two huge eyes with bright red circles illuminate the top of its head. The eyes shine like beacons down on Yume’s face. She is in un-endurable pain and can barely keep her eyes open, but she looks straight into the eyes for a moment.
The creature locks into eye-contact and clicks its pincers again, this time vibrating its body. It sounds like it’s happy or that it just found a tasty treat. Surely a beast this size would love a snack like this, hand delivered from a sewer pipe.
“Ooh, look at you purr baby! You find somethin’ good?” Asks a man from somewhere in near the pipe.
The centipede trills in response and lowers its head, revealing a husky man, covered in a red cloak riding its back. There is a saddle strapped to an upper segment in its body that he is situated in.
“Whoa…Is she dead?”
The centipede clacks its pincers in a dismissing manner and shakes its head. It then points its eyes on Yume’s head and increases their brightness. She opens her eyes and stares up at him.
“HOLY SHIT SHE’S ALIVE?!”
The man jumps out of the saddle and falls into the liquid in a panic. He pushes Yume’s crusted hair back and checks to make sure that she is in fact alive. He presses his fingers onto her throat and sits for a few seconds in silence.
“Jesus…I can barely feel anything. That must have been quite the trip!”
He chuckles and looks towards the centipede, who chirps along with him. He cuts the laughter abruptly and starts moving quickly again.
“Let’s take a look at the damage, shall we?”
He lifts the hood of his cloak back to reveal a face half covered by some bizarre goggles. They appear to have been hand assembled with various components and lenses, none of which were from the same piece of hardware. He turns a mechanism behind the lenses, and they glow white, emitting beams of light from his eyes. He presses the node on Yume’s forehead and holds her face up to the light.
“That doesn’t make any sense. You’re from The Rung, right?” He asks her.
Yume nods her head in response.
“Your node here is saying you’re in perfect health…and pregnant. Almost five weeks too.”
Yume doesn’t have it in her to argue with another being about this issue. She shakes her head at the man, hoping he’ll understand that the node is faulty.
“Hmm…well I’m no doctor, but I’d say you’re not in perfect shape.” He gestures towards her gruesome body.
Yume raises her brows and rolls her eyes.
“I don’t know how you survived that pipe. This is where I take Rosie to eat.” He pats the centipede on its head.
“We’ve never seen something slide down here alive. Certainly gave me a fright seeing you wash up!” He looks off for a moment in thought, deliberating something in his head. “Well, that settles it, we’ll take you back to the house and get you straightened out. Nobody will believe me if I just let you die here!”
He leans down and scoops her off the grate. Her body comes out of the run-off and it’s even clearer now how dire her circumstances are. He notices her missing hand and broken bones, letting out a small gasp. Her body is coated in patches of hardened sludge. Yume yelps in pain.
“Shh…Everything is going to be okay! We can get you all patched up sweetheart.” He reaches up, lays her down on the saddle and climbs up behind her. “OK Rosie, nice and easy now!”
The centipede chirps and turns around out of the pipe. They are heading beyond the reservoir and into a dense forest. Yume stares forward watching her surroundings as they progress. Tall, mangled willows create a dense canopy above them, completely stamping out any light from beyond its reaches. The centipede follows a well-worn path through the trees, using its beacon eyes to light the way.
They emerge from the forest into an open plain of red grass lit by the full moon. There is a small collection of sturdy buildings and homes crafted out of hunks of metal and concrete. It’s not out of touch with technology as there are several vehicles, neon lighting, and cables littered about.
“We made it!” Says the man as Rosie coils up near one of the buildings. She lowers her body to the ground so that he can hop off. He runs off into the building telling Yume he’ll be right back.
Yume stares up into the night sky. It would be a magical moment for her if she wasn’t in so much pain. Stars poke tiny holes through the dark dome above her. She has never seen the night sky first-hand as The Rung is constantly shrouded in smog. She can actually see the details of the moon. Thousands of tiny craters scattered around the giant circular shadow in the top right. She remembers reading about the cause of that during her schooling but can’t recall exactly what happened. It is a sight to behold regardless, and she takes the moment in.
“I’m baaaaack!” The man sings as he skips towards Yume with a large tube in his hands. As he gets closer, she can see it’s a vial full of iridescent, blue liquid with a needle on the tip.
“Just hold still and we’ll get you sorted out. You’re lucky I’ve been hoarding these; most people take ‘em for the buzz.”
Without hesitation, he injects the vial into her chest. The strike is hard enough to knock the wind out of her and she coughs violently.
Then the substance starts to set in. It feels as though the liquid is an electric current coursing through her heart as he retracts the needle from her bosom. She convulses heavily and the sensation spreads through to her stomach and then out to each limb.
“Alright, alright, don’t let it get to your head. Everyone’s first time is a shock.” He says nonchalantly while picking her up off the saddle.
He carries her into the building, through several doors and lays her down on a metal table with a strange shape. It’s like a cut-out of someone doing a snow-angel, enough room for her limbs to move freely. He takes each leg and fastens them to the table, not to detain her, but to keep her from falling off. He begins to do the same to her arms but notices her bracelet.
“Whoa, what have we got here?” He says as he lifts her arm up towards his goggles.
He stares at them for a few moments, very carefully examining the first gem he grabs. It is the green gem that Yume’s father loved so much. He asks another question to Yume even though she is not in a mindset to hear his words.
“How in God’s name did you have this on you in The Rung, let alone leave with it? They haven’t allowed jewelry up there far before I was born.”
He moves on to another piece of the bracelet, one of the three identical opal gems. He begins to go on about how insane it is to still have this in her possession and then abruptly stops after feeling something with his fingers. He presses on the top of the gem he’s holding and hears a subtle click.
“Oh?” He uses one of his hands to click the mechanism on his goggles and moves his face closer to the gem.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The man shines his goggles onto the gem and attempts to scan it. He sits in complete stillness, aside from Yume’s spasming, and thoroughly inspects it. After a few more moments in palpable one-sided silence, he turns the mechanism off and sets her arm down. His body language has entirely shifted from a man who found an interesting prize, to that of someone re-living a nightmare. His eyes and face become deprived of joy and jokes.
“You are going to have some explaining to do when you’re done twitchin’. You’ve obviously got quite the story to share.”
The man gets up and leaves Yume alone in the room. The substance he administered has now eliminated all her pain, but she is still feeling quite weird. Her body has stopped convulsing but something under her skin is trembling. It feels like her muscles have been replaced with snakes or worms. She looks down at her legs and can see slithering movement beneath her bruises. Then comes a horrible noise.
The broken bones crunch against themselves and wriggle around. Then, suddenly, they melt into a sloshing liquid. Yume panics and attempts to move her leg. It’s not much use, as the muscle and bones beneath her skin have changed states. Only the broken bones have dissolved though, so she isn’t completely a molten-human blob.
The concoction swirling in her legs begins to boil. She has never been so thankful to be entirely numb in her life. Hard bits and pieces start to develop in the froth and begin collecting near the still in-tact bones.
Within minutes her shattered limbs are completely healed and healthy. Her bruises start to fade away and the hardened run-off cracks off her skin like a shedding reptile. The skin underneath her bandage has been healed entirely, but sadly her hand has not returned. The treatment she received seems to have its limits.
She lays on the bed, baren, in a new body. She slips her handless arm out of the restraint and uses it alongside her other hand to free each limb. She gets up and breathes deeply, shaking out her arms and legs. Her first un-labored breath in hours causes tears to stream down her face, tears of joy.
She wipes her tears away and looks up to see the man enter the room again. It’s her first time seeing him clearly and he’s quite an interesting character. He has a thick mustache beneath his goggles and two small stars tattooed on his face; one on each cheek below where you’d assume the center of his eyes are. His cloak covers much of his body, but it’s evident that he does some form of manual labor. A tall, rather bulky man concealed by his attire. Yume looks up at him and sees a rather grim expression on his face.
“You feeling good now? Let’s have a little chat about your personal items, huh, Yume?” Says the man, bursting through the door. He throws a blanket at Yume, allowing her to cover herself.
“How do you know who I am?” She asks, ignoring his question about her belongings and using the blanket to cover her still baren skin.
“Don’t act so surprised sweetie, I peeked at your node while you were trippin’ on fixer. You’re Yume Ripley, born year 3777 from Yua Ripley. I know all about you- well at least all about what your node claims. The data on here is full of faked info. Care to explain to me what you’re doing with a cracked node?” He grows increasingly stern.
“Cracked node…? This is the node I was given when I was born. I think it just wore out; I don’t know why everyone is freaking out about this!” She grows irritated at the questioning and uses her arms to express it.
“No, sugar, you don’t understand. Nodes don’t wear out. These things are marvels of bioengineering. They can last thousands of years. They can’t physically get broken with day-to-day life. How did a little thing like you break in and fix the numbers?”
Yume is shocked. How could this man accuse her of hacking her own node? She’s never even heard of such a thing before.
“I…I didn’t know it was altered.” She speaks.
“Yeah, I’m totally buying that!” He chuckles at her and leans against the wall with his arms crossed.
“I am not lying sir; I would never do that. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I didn’t even want to wake up today, but here I am being accused of ridiculous things again!” She crosses her arms and looks away.
“You’re gonna have to elaborate then, darlin’. Maybe tell me how it is you ended up down here? We haven’t seen a reject make it down here in years.”
Yume really ponders her options here, but ultimately doesn’t feel like making up a lie. She takes a deep breath in and begins to tell her story. She tells him how she didn’t make the cut on her final cycle, ordered the suicide bot, had the altercation, and woke up in a hospital afterwards. He waits for her to breathe, and chimes in before she starts back up again.
“You want to know why you didn’t pass your test? They don’t pass you if you’re pregnant.”
“But I’m not!” she emphasizes. “And even if I was, why did they want to send me down to the pit then? I thought they forced you to stay there to raise the child?”
“Yeah, well, I’m not entirely sure what caused the mix up there. Maybe they caught on? If I had to guess, the way your node is cracked plays off the chain of command within The Chamber. It’s been a while since I’ve heard about their hierarchy, but the flow of information through them isn’t a direct pipeline. It branches and becomes convoluted.”
Yume gets more and more confused. Has she been harboring a dangerous piece of equipment her whole life? She has had no ill intention with The Chamber up until recently, yet here she is with some treasonous node. The man sees her contemplating this and speaks up again, continuing his train of thought.
“Whoever altered that node knew some very dangerous information. That’s the sort of thing to get the sleekers called on you. “
“Sleekers…?”
“Oh, yeah, sleekers. Those are some highly specialized bots from The Chamber. You’d never see ‘em coming, very good at camouflage and stealth. Those are only used to get resistance leaders.”
“Huh, good thing I’m not a resistance leader” She tries to crack a joke, but the man is still in interrogation mode. “I don’t know how or why I have this node.”
The man kicks a stool from the side of the wall, and it slides closer to Yume. He takes a seat and asks her to tell the rest of the story. She tells him how she would have been forced to give birth to an impossible child after an induced coma and how she dove down a garbage chute to escape the bots.
“You’re fucking with me. You had SENTINEL bots on you?! They must really be cracking down up there now.” He says, while playing with the curl of his mustache.
Yume nods and looks around the room to avoid an awkward lull in the conversation. The man stops fiddling with his mustache and then comes back to his other worry, the bracelet.
“So basically, you have no idea what happened to your node? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess you don’t know what this bracelet is, do you?”
Yume shakes her head, and the man lifts his hands to his face and buries it inside them.
“You are carrying on your wrist a collection of cracked nodes. Creations similar to what’s in your forehead. They way I see it, you had two options of obtaining these. You either robbed someone or killed them and then robbed them. I am finding it very difficult to believe you just happen to have these.”
Yume takes a moment to process the new information and tries her best to internalize an anxiety attack. This bracelet was given to her by her father. She knew it was contraband, but not contraband made from death or theft. If what this man is saying is true, then Yume truly had no idea what her father was up to. How does one even acquire a second node, let alone ten? The man presses her further.
“You stole these didn’t ya? I outta rip that off your wrist and return it to its rightful owner.”
Her stomach churns beneath the blanket and she lets her lips slip a crucial detail.
“My father gave this bracelet to me.” She says and instinctively clasps her hands over her mouth.
“Huh? Your node had nothing about your father. Is he in The Chamber?”
Yume shakes her head.
“So…where is he then?”
She shrugs her shoulders and motions her hands up, trying to express her missing knowledge. The man sits up straight on the stool and looks as if he’s about to speak again, but Yume pipes up first.
“The last I saw him he was fleeing Chamber representatives.”
“Oh, yes! Now we’re getting somewhere juicy. Tell me more about this uh…what is his name?”
“His name is Adam. I didn’t really know him too well; he caused a lot of problems for my mother and I. Always on a crusade with his faction.” She notices he is now eagerly awaiting more details, so she indulges him with what little information she has.
“He would disappear from The Rung for months and only ever came back for a day or two. Got my mom locked up in a rehabilitation center once. Things changed after that, he came home less and less. The last time I heard from him he said his faction was being dissolved. He also told me to protect this bracelet.”
Yume lets in a deep breath and then gets worked up again as he loads another question.
“Your father…did he have any tattoos?” The man points towards the stars on his face.
“He had a crescent moon in the center of his forehead…I think. I only saw it once.”
She trails off for a moment after seeing the man snarl his lips and clench his teeth but takes the initiative to get the rest out in time before he reacts fully.
“He also had a hidden one that he had under his node around the scar. It was a North star.”
The man lets his breath deflate from his chest and gets up from his seat, pacing the room. He starts mumbling something to himself and then suddenly grabs the stool once more to sit down. He huffs and puffs until his breathing gets under control and then calmy speaks to Yume.
“Your father was one of three leaders of what was once called The Constellation. They attempted an insurrection against The Chamber.”
Yume’s face is completely blank, and she gives a nonchalant shrug. This deeply infuriates the man.
“He and the other two heads were the only people in history to successfully infiltrate the pinnacle.” he explains in proud retaliation. “Their attempted coup would have inspired a great uprising, had it not caused The Chamber to cull the heard.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“When they figured out who broke in, they sent a warm welcome to the pit. Thousands and thousands of bots. They killed off everyone they could find who were involved. Then they killed off about half of everyone else.”
Yume’s mouth rests agape in horror. Not only has she learned that her father has been killed, but that he had inadvertently killed half of all the people down here, just so he could sneak to the top of this ridiculous ladder. She can’t imagine doing such a selfish act, even if it did result in his death.
“My father’s selfishness caused so much suffering. I am so sorry you had to live through that”
“You think your father killed all of them?” He scoffs. “Let’s get one thing straight, sugar, The Chamber killed those people. All because we wanted to squirm out of their iron fist. Your father was anything but selfish. If it makes you feel any better, they took his life too.”
Yume looks down at her bracelet, consumed in her thoughts. Her chaotic childhood that was split between loving and hating her father is suddenly less confusing. His endless fight against The Chamber seemed like such a ridiculous concept to her, yet this man is telling her about a revolution he got so close to leading. Maybe it wasn’t such a pipe dream after all.
She’s caught between old wounds and new information. Had her mother been wrong for giving him up to The Chamber? If his cause had such a strong following, surely, he must have been fighting for justice. She can’t comprehend how someone can fall in love with someone and then turn their backs to them.
She had always suspected he was killed by The Chamber, but never really knew the full truth. Even though she resented the man for his absence in her life, she finds herself deeply saddened by the revelation. He was still her dad, after all.
The man gently grabs her wrist and pulls it away from her face. “I think we’ve dug up enough old bones for tonight, let’s get you some food.”
“You’re going to offer me food after accusing me of theft? I thought you were about to kick me out”
In a warm, inviting tone, the man responds. “I thought so too, ‘til I learned who you are. You’re more than welcome here, Yume.”
It is strange to her, to hear her name spoken out loud in such a nice tone. It has been so long since she’s been addressed by anyone outside of her job, she’s forgotten what it is like. Human interaction.
She smiles and follows the man through the house into the kitchen. She had missed how adorable it was the first time she came through, it’s quite cozy. A large fridge with notes and photographs stuck to it stands next to a four-burner gas stove. There’s a small booth and table for dining in front of a window that looks out onto the pasture around the house.
The dim morning sun piercing through the window gives the room a gentle, warm glow. Seeing the sunlight so clearly is going to take some getting used to. Yume can count on one hand the number of times she’s seen it this clear. It’s strangely nostalgic and comforting. She finds it itches a scratch that she can’t quite put her finger on.
The man tells her to grab a seat and get cozy. “How about some breakfast?”