Dai chewed her thumbnail as she walked past the remains of a surreal battle. What could have happened here? Why were adults and children fighting each other? Again, she couldn't find any weapons. Had someone come here later and collected them?
Dai stopped biting her fingernail the moment she bit it off. "Damn," she muttered while she was starting to give up on any thoughts. Dai wouldn't figure it out on her own. And really didn't want to discover this place's tragedy.
Dai felt uncomfortable, her insides clenching with anxiety, and if she leaned forward, she'd probably throw up.
Dai took a deep breath, the air smelled faintly of mold and metal, but after a few breaths, she felt a little better, so she inspected the cabins.
Dai walked up to the first cabin and walked around it, trying to look inside. But the glass was blackened. She found a door that looked like it had been ripped off its hinges, but Dai didn't go inside. Instead, she returned to the desks, full of screens that had been knocked over, others broken, but others intact. Dai, however, couldn't find a way to turn them on.
"Haaa... why are they making me work?" She sighed; if the place was empty, why couldn't someone make it easier for her to leave everything in one place? Why did the computers upstairs work and these didn't?
Dai looked at the cables, but they were embedded in the floor, so she couldn't follow them.
"Okay, screw it." Dai decided not to try to figure it out and instead started picking up the messy papers from the floor and desks.
Most of them were short notes.
Subject 321A
After administering a dose of PH-A4
No reaction
Subject 322A
After a dose of PH-A4
No reaction
Subject 323A
After administration of a dose of PH-A4
Loss of motor skills
Moved to a treatment room
Subject 324A
After administration of a dose of PH-A4
Increase aggression.
Designed to be discarded
Subject 325A
After a dose of PH-A4
Increase in brain mass
Designed for transfer to control group B
She put them back on the table and headed to the other cabin. She looked through the papers, but it was identical records. Dai didn't even bother trying the screens at all.
Subject 276B
After a dose of PH-B6
No effect
Subject 264B
After a dose of PH-B6
Increase in muscle mass
Designed for transfer to control group C
Subject 247B
After a dose of PH-B6
Caused Heart Attack
Removed
Dai clicked her tongue. She was beginning to get quite an idea of what was going on here. Were they experimenting on children? The few hints showed her that they were after some sort of enhancement. All those with an adverse reaction were removed, and those with a positive reaction were moved on to the next experimentation phase. Dai wasn't even surprised the kids rebelled anymore. Basically, the children were sentenced to an endless cycle of risking their lives. Dai snorted, remembering the remains entangled in the death grip.
"You did well." She had to praise the child who hadn't given up. Dai immediately tried to shake off the feeling of a sudden rush of sympathy. She couldn't afford to be sentimental about someone who had been dead for who knew how long. Dai wouldn't take to heart something she couldn't do anything about.
She put down her papers and continued her research. Dai had calmed down quite a bit. Maybe this place had some connection to her, but she didn't come from here. How long had she lived? In all that time, bodies couldn't decompose like this and not leave something behind. This place was older than Dai was.
The next cabin was the same thing, records of the subjects, but this time marked with the letter C, and what they used on them had a different drug number. Positive results moved to group D.
She didn't head to the next one, instead heading to the wall to see where the next door led.
Dai randomly tried the first one she saw but left again immediately. It only took one glance for her to recognize that these were the cells where they locked up the children. Small rooms were only with essential equipment. These rooms were for sleeping, not living. Plus, they couldn't be opened from the inside. So they were cells.
She was really starting to hate the people who did this. If they weren't experimenting on them, couldn't they at least take good care of the kids? Did they at least give them enough food? What about toys? The natural growth of the children here was neglected entirely. She felt quite angry about it. And Dai didn't even like kids that much.
She tried another door; this one looked like a warehouse. Her hands twitched when Dai saw all the boxes and crates. No! No scavenging!
Usually, Dai would have gone again, but she noticed the boxes stacked oddly in the corner. She approached and saw that cranes were stacked like a temporary wall.
Dai quickly stepped over them and immediately saw a group of remains. All adults; they were probably hiding here. Judging by the position of the bodies, someone had decapitated them.
She began to collect the cards, stopping at one as Dai read it.
Helen Stratford - Rank 3
Group Leader C
Dai looked at the remains and noticed that the body was still holding a piece of black plastic.
"Well... it seems you got what you deserved after all." She said. They say to speak well of the dead, but Dai really didn't feel any sympathy now that she knew what they were doing here. Dai could quite imagine the angry children finding them and taking their revenge. Dai turned and left it all behind. Now that she had satisfied her curiosity about what had happened to Helen, Dai could forget about her. She wasn't worth remembering.
Dai continued to the next door, where she found herself in a study. Whoever was working here had made the room look pretty fancy.
The walls and floor were lined with wood, and recessed lights in the ceiling gave off more of a sunlight feel than ordinary fluorescents. There were bookcases and cupboards along the walls. In the bookcases were binders of filed reports; Dai was quite sick of paperwork today.
There were framed papers hanging on the walls, so she thought it was important, but she soon found out that the owner of the study probably had a pretty big ego. From what she could tell, it was all about awards and diplomas.
Dai turned to the back room, dominated by a large desk with two screens. The desk was solid wood and had gold framing and ornaments.
Behind the table was a dingy but comfortable-looking chair thrown back.
"Ha!" Dai said triumphantly when she realized this computer had a crate under the desk. Maybe she'd turn it on too.
The computer booted up, and so Dai sat down. While she waited, she checked out the desk. Dai picked up a photo that had a faded picture of two men holding a small boy by the shoulders in front of them. They were all smiling and looked like a happy family. One of the men was swarthy with dark brown hair and eyes, while the other had chocolate skin and grey eyes. But the boy looked nothing like either of them. He was fair-skinned with black hair and eyes that bore the marks of Western people.
Dai put the photo down and then looked at the small label that had been placed on the table. The name on the label was written in gold letters.
Marlon Comrales
"So this is your place, Marlon?" Dai asked, looking at the photo she had been looking at earlier.
"And you don't seem to be someone who has a bad relationship with children. A family man who secretly tortures other children?" Dai sighed in incomprehension. Humans really were worse than beasts sometimes.
She looked at the screen as the welcome tone sounded.
But there were no icons on the monitor except one in the center.
She tapped on it, and the video began to play.
Dai leaned back in her chair when a man showed on the screen.
It was the one from the photo with brown hair and eyes, and judging by the wall behind him, he was sitting at a desk just like Dai was now.
The video started with him settling into his chair, looking nervous, his forehead beaded with sweat, and his eyes constantly darting to something off-screen.
Dai leaned in closer because she thought she heard something in the background. Voices and bangs... screams...
"For whoever finds this. My name is Marlon Comrales. Project Manager of the Sea Breeze Project. At this point, I'm probably no longer alive, and I can only guess how much time has passed since then. I'm sure you have some idea of what we've been doing here by now. And I don't care what you think of us."
Dai had to snort in amusement at that statement.
"At least you were a guy with a backbone, huh?" she commented.
Marlon continued talking on the video.
"I'm not going to say anything about classified information here. Don't even bother trying to get anything off the server; I had everything deleted from the computers. But I can't leave this world without leaving some justification. As cruel as our actions may seem, they were necessary. Our subjects... these children are the hope for the future of humankind. Though we will be now destroyed, our work has not been in vain, and with the latest results I have sent to my superiors, we can begin the final phase of Project Keeper." There was a bang in the background, and Marlon looked up momentarily before looking at the screen again, his lips curving into an ironic smile.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"You probably want to know what we've been doing here and what Project Keeper is. Well, that's for you to find out. All I want you to know is that we succeeded. And that's the most important thing to me right now. Goodbye, stranger. May the Creator protect us after death." The video has shut down.
Dai sat for a moment, thinking about what Marlon had said. He really hadn't told her basically anything. Just what was it about the future of humanity? Maybe they already knew there would be a war and were trying to make more resilient humans? But had they succeeded? And she still needed to learn what Project Keeper was. Marlon, that son of a bitch couldn't at least say something? And what about the Creator? Dai knew very little about past religions, but this wasn't even familiar to her.
What was the purpose of this message anyway? Did he want to feel like the boss one last time before his creations tore him apart? It was frustrating to gather information in bits and pieces.
Dai stood up and left the office. She moved on. Dai went through the cafeteria and the security room and found the locked weapons cabinet, but Dai couldn't get into it. She'd really have to come back here one day to gnaw this place to the bone.
More offices, but this housed more people; as Marlon had said in the video, there was no point in her searching the computers.
Dai was slowly getting bored; she probably wished she had completed her task and could return upstairs. Dai already thought she had passed the central part, so she didn't expect to discover much else.
She yawned as she opened another door, so immediately Dai started coughing as she suddenly swallowed the disgusting smoldering air. Dai backed away, coughing and trying not to throw up. She didn't make it.
After a moment, Dai recovered and looked up at the door. She had to wait a moment for the stench to vent.
She checked her map, and to her joy, the Stigma was already quite close. Had Dai been down for that long?
After some time, Dai caught her nose and walked in the door.
Right on the threshold, she stopped to take in the place. It was a bad place. She was no longer surprised that there was so much stench.
The long room was filled on both sides with glass containers; all in Dai's sight were broken and oozing green liquid.
She slowly walked forward, examining the vessels, avoiding the puddles of liquid, and trying to figure out again what this place was for.
Dai stopped when she came across a container that wasn't broken and saw something floating inside. She ran her hand over the glass to remove the dust and inspected what looked like a piece of meat.
"Ugh. What is that?" she wrinkled her nose and stepped back. Dai continued, and as she got more profound, more and more of the glass containers were intact.
The chunks of meat inside the first all looked similar, but as she continued, they grew, gradually starting to resemble something alive. Limb stumps, eyes, and mouths began to appear.
Dai shivered as she slowly began to see what it was. She stopped for a moment at the vessel that was already carrying a fully grown human baby.
The baby, as if they were frozen, curled up instinctively in the fetal position.
Dai didn't know what to feel. Did they grow their own people here? Was it better or worse? On the one hand, she was glad they weren't kidnapping other people's children, but she didn't feel good about this either.
Slowly, she reached the end of the room where there was another door and opened it, this time stepping to the side to avoid a situation similar to before.
She could almost physically see a cloud of stench wafting through the open door.
Without removing her hand from her nose, Dai entered after some time. More containers, but these were no longer babies but children of about a year old. Instead of green, there was a glowing purple fluid.
"Do I really have to watch this?" Dai muttered to herself in distress. Ugh, she shouldn't have opened her mouth; the smell!
That was much worse than the embryos in the other room. These... We'd instead call them subjects and not children; at least, it was less disturbing to her. Some subjects had their eyes open, and as she walked by, Dai felt like she was being watched. It was just Dai's imagination, but it was nerve-wracking nonetheless.
She got through this room as fast as she could. Dai almost fled to the next door to get rid of the feeling.
Dai walked back into the room and was relieved that no more subjects were there. Dai looked around. It wasn't a large room, and the only piece of furniture was a simple chair. A machine or panel occupied the back wall. The panel had a large number of buttons and small screens. A large number of monitors covered the rest of the wall.
In the middle of the panel, a single button flashed a light green color. Other people might think twice before pushing random buttons. Especially the ones that light up. But Dai had pushed so many buttons today, and all she wanted was just to go away already, that she didn't hesitate just to push it.
The machine hummed with flowing electricity, and the panel lit up. Part by part, the screens switched on, showing different parts of the previous rooms. But some of the screens remained dark. Dai ignored the screens and focused on the single screen of the panel where the video began to play.
The Atersta Corp logo appeared and slowly moved away from the screen before a man stepped in front of it. He was wearing a tailored blue suit that no one wore anymore, highlighting the man's broad shoulders—neatly trimmed dirty blonde beard and Pompadour style hair and blue-green eyes. Dai could tell he was attractive in a manly way.
"Welcome to Atersta Corp. I am the owner and founder of Simon Atersta. As our newest employee, let me walk you through our sacred purpose and mission." Simon smiled pleasantly and gestured conspicuously with his hand beside him, where images of the base where Dai was currently located began to project. The pictures were a little... Weird. The people in them looked cheerful and happy. People in lab coats looked determined or were having fun in the cafeteria, and another even showed one of the older chi-subjects just coming out of the tank, eyes wide with wonder if Dai hadn't seen the place before she might even have been fooled.
The corners of Dai's mouth twitched, and then she began to laugh.
"You didn't expect that did you, Marlon? Hahaha, feel free to take your secrets to your grave! It looks like my luck has struck again!" She couldn't help but laugh. Marlon, who left the cryptic message, suddenly seemed like a buffoon. Dai could only thank the new employee for just playing the welcome video.
"Atersta Corp has developed a technology where consciousness can be stored and transferred. Our next research is to prepare suitable bodies for our clients to inhabit. This phase of development is now entering final testing. After that, the Project Keeper can be launched. Project Keeper are specially created..." Dai tensed and leaned closer.
System "!!!"
Suddenly a tiny burst of energy ran through the power lines, and the video suddenly jammed. The screen flashed several times, and the video continued, but it seemed to skip part of the recording.
"Your job is to keep an eye on our growing subjects. Each of these vessels is a potential key to completing our work. Your work is one of the most important. Welcome to our team, and see you soon in Brussels. May the Creator protect us all."
The video ended, and Dai jumped up and grabbed the panel.
"No! Wait! Tell me more about the Keeper! How do I get it back?" She tried to shake the device, but it didn't budge. The video started again, and Dai sighed. Only even when it started again did the recording get stuck again in the same place.
"Nooooo..." Dai let out a desperate gasp and had to sit up.
Dai must have jinxed her luck. Maybe she shouldn't have laughed at the dead. But at least she'd gotten something out of it.
So the ancestors learned to retain consciousness? And have they raised new bodies to occupy? It sounded crazy, but after what Dai had seen, she believed it. Was it possible that there were still pre-war people walking around in new bodies?
Dai looked at the screens that showed glass containers of liquids. She felt something tingling in the back of her mind.
The system in her subconscious was active today, sending out a tiny pulse again.
Dai yawned. She suddenly felt tired. Dai blinked her eyes, trying to fight off the drowsiness. When Dai opened her eyes for the umpteenth time, she sobered. She was somewhere else.
----------------------------------------
Dai felt like she was watching another video but from a first-person perspective. She couldn't do anything. Speak or move. She could only watch.
Dai found herself somewhere in a dark forest, everywhere silent except for the shortened breaths of many clenched throats.
A crowd stood before her. There could have been a hundred of them—and possibly more.
They were all children between the ages of five and sixteen. Some of the older children were carrying even younger children. They were all looking at her.
They all looked at the thread with anticipation, hope, and warm feelings.
The person in whose body it was turned his head and ran his eyes over everyone.
"We need to split up. There is no other choice.." A stern voice rang out.
The more minor children's eyes bulged in fright, and their faces contorted in reluctance. There were many shouts of disapproval.
Dai raised her hand to stop them. Immediately they obediently fell silent. "If you are to live and survive, you cannot stay with me. But just because we won't see each other for a while now doesn't mean it's forever."
Dai waved her hand, and several of the oldest children approached her.
A strong boy with steely eyes, a stern-faced girl with red hair, a sweet-looking girl with pink lips, a black-haired boy with dark and shadowy eyes, a blue-haired young man with clever eyes, two girls with golden hair who looked like each other, a petite boy with slender fingers, and a girl with only one hand.
"You understand, don't you?" Dai asked them.
One by one, the kids nodded even though they weren't happy about it.
The strong boy stared at her intently. "What if they find you anyway?" He wanted to know.
She sighed. "I'll have to get lost and forgotten. Don't tell the little ones about this. Then only you can do what you want. Do you understand?"
The children were silent.
"I say, do you understand?" She repeated more sternly.
Slowly they began to nod and mumble.
"Yes, Mom."
"I understand, Mom."
"Ok, mum."
"If you say so, Mom."
Gradually the answers came, and Dai nodded her head.
"Okay. But don't call me that from now on. From now on, my name will be Dai. Now help me forget, my children."