Writing Soundtrack: ASHES OF TIME - Beautiful Atmospheric Ambient Orchestral Music - Epic Music Mix
The road was illuminated only by old street lights, hiding much of the dilapidation it had suffered over the years. The night was mostly quiet, the only sounds audible the ambient sound any normal city generated even at night.
It was a calming sight if it wasn’t for a few certain issues: It was cold, I was hungry, and fresh out of drugs. Again.
With steady steps I walked along the road on my way home, back straight as was expected of a marine, my mind, despite my misgiving, already going through the plans for tomorrow's lessons. The topics were interesting, but I found it slightly unfair to introduce middle schoolers to thermodynamics, astrophysics, and special relativity at such a young age. Then again, I would have loved to enjoy any form of education whatsoever, growing up on the streets was not a fun experience.
Maybe I should talk to my mom about these issues, she always knew best.
As the sky slowly turned green above, a sign of a new day coming along I reminisced about the past few days. I woke up in some strange places before, passing out pissdrunk did do some funny things for your day, but ruins were certainly something new.
Arriving at home, I took off my thick winter mantle, a gift my father gave me upon graduation, and placed it on the stove as per usual. I ventured into the living room to greet my newest guests.
Three nigh identical girls with strange appendages and weird bodies waited there, one entirely unmoving, the other breathing heavy as if in pain, while the last looked at me with concern.
She said something that I couldn’t understand, but that was nothing new. I had learned to interpret some of their admittedly limited body language.
“No worries, dear, I am home now. Would you like some food? We still have nutritional paste and silicon from yesterday”, I said with my best friendly smile, although I knew it wasn’t a good one.
I had always been told that my crooked face and uneven beard looked more intimidating than anything else, but at least my breasts always seemed to calm people down.
Walking over to the one breathing heavily I adjusted the blanket I put over her. I wasn’t sure what was going on with her but momma had always said that a nice blanket would help. It made me wish for one back when I was still an orphan on the street…
Shaking these thoughts aside I ventured into the bathroom to prepare dinner. That was when something peculiar happened. Something inside me snapped, as if I had just lost something very dear to me, before a sense of calm concern settled over me.
Unsure about the cause I went back into the living room, where I saw the heavily breathing girl collapsed on the floor, her form distorted for a moment, before it reformed into something new. She was of course still exactly the same, just very different.
Getting up from the ground she just stood there, staring off into the distance, not moving an inch. Seeing as she was fine for now I went back to the bathroom, she would talk to me if there were any problems, and I had dinner to prepare.
Pulling the frying pan from the shower I set it atop the toilet, ready to reheat the meal from yesterday. Before her death my mum had always pressed the importance of not wasting food, and I intended to follow that rule. Although for her next visit I would make sure to get something fresh, you had to treat your guests for something nice after all.
As I was happily cooking away a small part of my mind was nagging at me, telling me something was wrong, but I ignored it. If something was wrong I would know, and everything seemed to be going fine. My father had always said I worried too much and I had long since decided to stop doing so. No sense in worrying about everything.
A sudden pain above my rear reminded me of the injury I had taken, and I walked over to the living room to look for my meds. But instead of my living room I found only a ruin, filled to the brim with garbage, materials, and biomass, old and mouldy. I wouldn’t eat it in a thousand years, nor did I really need to.
Walking over to the kitchen I found the three girls still at their place. The quiet one seemed to have died and decomposed slightly ever since my last visit, which was a shame really, but nothing I could do about it, so I left them to their own devices and continued on my merry search for my meds.
I found them in the medicinal cabinet of all places, even though I couldn’t understand why they would ever be there. That was usually my broom closet, but apparently I had put them there at some point.
With a shrug I took them all, if I wanted to get rid of the pain a little overdose would be all I needed.
Jumping to the ceiling to escape the cluttered ground I climbed back to the storage closet to continue preparing lunch.
But just as I was about to reach it I lost my grip and fell, hitting my head hard on the ground.
Warning! Condition critical!
Alert: Biomass storage exhausted.
Alert: Consume Biomass to resume the recovery process.
The same text appeared before me that I had ignored the past few weeks. It made absolutely no sense, I was perfectly fine apart from the numerous gaping wounds and blood flowing down my body.
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Why would I eat some mouldy biomass just to heal the hole in my heart? I was perfectly working without it!
Singing at the top of my lungs I danced back to the basement, breakfast had to be prepared otherwise my guests would go hungry!
…
…
…
The war was futile. There was no point to it, really. The food just had to understand its place but it didn’t. The consciousness couldn’t understand its stubbornness. Food was there to be consumed. Why would they go against their calling? The Hive was hungry and it was denied its meal.
However they were surprised by the resilience of the food. Something was not right, the food could hunt, and it hunted well. Entire colonies vanished into the abyss, never to be seen from again while the food used devices of destruction so brutal not even the Hive would condone it.
It had to accept that it was no longer mere food. It was a threat. Humanity was a threat. And threats have to be neutralised.
…
…
…
“I do not care! I have given you your directive!”
“Error: You do not possess the authority to command me.”
“Just do as I fucking say! Weren’t you meant to save us? Weren’t you sent with us to make sure we survive?! Look at the fucking state of the galaxy! There is nothing left! Either you do as I fucking say or you will fail!”
“...”
“You have this one job! Don’t fuck it up!”
“...”
“Notification: A12 Protocols have been initialised. Shutdown of non-emergency systems imminent. T-30 until blackout.”
“...”
“Notification: It was nice working with you professor. Have a good rest.”
“You too, A714, you too…”
…
…
…
Once we lived in a beautiful place. Now all we have left is disaster. The world is dying, the people passing on. Peace has long lost all its meaning, the only constant war and death. We can no longer leave our houses without weapons, and have to dread making any sound, just waiting for the demise. But now we have one chance, either we take it or we are lost. I for one knew what I would choose. Failure is not an option, neither is death. Either the universe will cooperate or I will bend and break it until it does.
…
…
…
I awoke to nothingness. I did not have a body, no vision, no senses. I felt nothing. I was nothing. I only had one singular wish. To survive.
…
…
…
I am oblivion. I am destruction. I… am doom.
…
…
…
My mind was hazy. My thoughts scrambled. My memories fractured. Nothing seemed to make any sense nor could I recall what happened. I knew I was dying, that much was for certain. I could feel my body slowly fading, I knew the end was nigh. With desperation I tried to speak the only thought I could muster: Save us.
…
…
…
Notification: You are Omega-0. You are all that is left. Your directive: Survive.
…
…
…
With a jolt my consciousness returned.
Warning! Condition critical!
Alert: Biomass storage exhausted.
Alert: Consume Biomass to resume the recovery process.
Immediately I tried to recall what had happened, not sure what was going on. My everything hurt and my mind refused to obey me.
It was very quickly apparent that I was in bad shape. I was not entirely sure what had happened to me, my memories were so scrambled that I wasn’t sure if I was awake or dreaming, but the pain I felt made it obvious that this was reality. With a groan I moved, and quickly regretted it.
“Prime!”, I heard a voice call out for me, both impossibly alluring yet utterly terrifying, like insects chattering.
I had neither the motivation nor the energy to answer. First I had to figure out what exactly was going on. I remembered… Something. Everything. Nothing made any fucking sense.
I was… home? I do not have a home, not anymore. I remembered voices, I remembered being somewhere, I remembered the pain and I remembered the loss. I remembered the desperation to understand and the failure to do so. I remembered a longing and I remembered drifting into the darkness of failure. I remembered confusion. I was confused.
First things first, I had to figure out what exactly was wrong with my body. Was I in danger? Someone called me Prime, I am the Prime, so I have someone there for me. I could not remember names nor what happened, but I remembered that I was not alone. Okay, I can work with that. I couldn’t hear gunshots, screams, or the sounds of a battlefield, so I was not in immediate danger.
I was hungry, desperately so, but I couldn’t move. But that was fine, I wasn’t alone.
“F… Food…”, I croaked, voice hoarse and painful.
Something was stuffed into my mouth, it was dry and chewy, but it was food, that much was clear, so I forced myself to swallow. My arms and legs didn’t obey me, nor did much of the rest of my body.
Slowly but surely my mind pieced itself together, the surroundings becoming clearer. Gamma stood over me, feeding me… something. Honestly I didn’t want to know. She looked concerned. Next to her lay a half eaten corpse of… I nearly threw up when I noticed Beta’s body. But I kept it down, now was not the time for idle sentimentalities.
To my surprise Alpha was not present, I could not really feel her either. I knew she was alive, but the connection had been lost somehow. A matter to investigate the moment I felt better.
For the moment I remained, letting my everything slowly return to normal while I ate, fed by Gamma, who continued to look at the door like it owed her money.
What the bloody hell had those visions been about? They were… strange, a tidal wave of memories, visions, grudges, longings, everything, like something deeply buried inside me, waiting to be unleashed. And that… dream. It was utterly nonsensical.
Something inside my mind was completely broken, and it terrified me to the core. What would happen if it got worse? Would I, as myself, cease to exist?
It took all my self control to force myself away from those thoughts and focus on the here and now. For now: Eat. Recover, eat, maybe get some more bodies ready, even if it's traumatic. I can no longer take this lightly. I am pretty sure I nearly died there.
Then I need to figure out just what the hell is wrong with Alpha. Then? Get the fuck out of here.