It was surprising how relatively easy it was this time to transverse the tunnels. It was like Billy’s sudden way-finding intuition, became Genna’s. She arrived at a locked entrance to the same research facility they sought to get far away from, but this time the answer to escape seemed to be beckoning Genna back. She approached the door wondering how to open the security lock, right before the door unlocked and opened itself. She hesitated to go through at first, but that silent voice in her mind reassured her that it was only there to help. When she passed the entrance’s threshold, the door closed behind her.

Genna followed the invisible compass throughout the hallways and security doors of the installation, until she finally reached an entryway on the other side of a containment room. She could feel the key to escape was on the other side of the doors as they unlocked and slowly opened. Stepping through, she entered a large operating room that had what looked like an observation level on the second story. That was not what she first took notice of right then. Floating at the center of the area, was a brain the size of nearly half the entire room. Genna wanted to run away at the sight of it, but she found herself feeling unusual. It was like the thing was producing an attractive and calming effect over her. Approaching with curious apprehension, she then noticed something hanging off the brain’s underside. Seemingly attached by the shoulders was a normal-sized, mummified, nude, human body. It was strange that Genna felt the entity could see her despite it having no eyes.

The thing turned to face her direction. Its body flinched for a moment before then slowly raising a shriveled index finger, pointing it at Genna. The same noises she heard back on the helicopter filled her skull, causing her to become paralyzed and her eyes to roll into the back of her head. She floated off the ground and glided upward towards the giant brain. She sensed that it knew she was looking for a way out, but it wanted something in return.

While this was going on, Tom walked in through the entrance carrying a shoulder-fired missile. Aiming at where the base of the giant brain was connected to the body, he pulled the trigger, firing off a missile that flew straight towards its intended target. Hitting the space between, its entire body and a large section of the brain were blown apart, bringing Genna out of her trance. She and the giant brain dropped from the air. Genna fell on the operating table before tumbling off and to the floor, while the mass of grey matter crashed onto some old oxygen cylinders, causing an explosion that destroyed the rest of the strange entity.

Dropping the spent launcher, Tom readied his machete as he approached Genna, who was recuperating from what she had just gone through. She gained enough of her senses in time to move out of the path of the machete’s swing, then made a mad dash around Tom to head for the exit. He tossed his weapon to cut her down. She raised her hands and closed her eyes to hopefully stop the blade from killing her, yet not watch as it would inevitably cut into her flesh. Genna didn’t feel a thing. Slowly opening one of her eyes to see which finger was sliced off, she saw all her fingers were intact. For a split second she thought the machete missed her, but she saw the blade of the weapon and realized it was floating inches away in midair. Tom stood there with his hand out, still trying to control the weapon. Genna wanted to try something at the risk of getting killed. She thrust her hands away in a tossing motion, causing the machete to fly off and embed itself into a wall.

Genna and Tom were facing off one another, armed with nothing but the arsenal they had mentally. Tom made a fast-shoving gesture, pushing Genna to the ground. Sliding to a stop, she directed her hands over the operating table and sent it hurtling towards her opponent, who motioned a slice with his hand to break it in half. The two halves missed Tom, and he proceeded to slice at Genna, who dodged as gouges formed where she once was. While running, she reached up and wrenched her hands down, causing the pipes above to break and partially collapse from the ceiling. Water and steam obscured Tom’s vision, causing him to momentarily cease his attacks. Spotting her reaching the exit, Tom motioned as if tossing a baseball, causing some loose cables to spring towards Genna and wrap themselves around her legs. She fell to the ground and Tom used the cables to fling her through the ceiling to the upper level. By the time she finished tumbling across the floor, she was well enough to still move thanks to a protective force field subconsciously formed seconds before impact but was disoriented and hurt enough to make movements difficult. Tom floated up to the level as she tried getting up. Reaching out to her, he seized and lifted her up into the air, before slamming her against all the surfaces around them, sending debris everywhere she hit. The force field could only protect her so much, as she got bruised and cut up.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Finally suspending her in one place by a constricting hold, Tom raised his hand to join with the other. Genna spotted some broken rebar behind him and, using a couple of her fingers to direct it, began to discreetly pull. Even as she did so, it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe. Tom brought both his hands together in fists, placing one on top of another and started to twist them. She could feel the pain in her bones and muscles as they squeezed, contorted, and began to fracture. Applying all the will she had into force, Genna screamed as she sent the rebar flying towards Tom. He noticed the object too late, and it skewered him, pinning him to the furthest wall, causing Genna to drop to the floor.

Managing to catch her breath through the tenderness in her ribs, she picked herself up and looked at Tom. He was moving but very weakly as blood gushed out from his injuries, until he stopped and hung limp and motionless from the rebar. With an aching sigh of relief, Genna limped herself out of the room. Later, she finally made it back to the same gap that blocked her escape out of the mine. She looked down to the darkness of the abyss, then looked to the other side. She closed her eyes, turned her hands on her sides upwards, and floated across the gorge to the safety of the other side. Opening her eyes, she turned around to look back momentarily, before turning back with tears and hobbled her way toward the daylight at the end of the tunnel.

……………………………………………………………………………………

The gentle waters of the underground lake, which flooded a portion of the mine long ago, echoed about the chamber walls. A hand exploded out from the waters and grasped a nearby ledge, pulling Billy out and onto solid ground, where he gasped for air and coughed his airways clear of any residual moisture. The migraines were starting to come back worse than before.

He made his way back to the research complex, searching for something that could help him. With each pounding he felt in his head, any functional lighting and electrical equipment around him pulsed with energy. He soon came across Tom hanging from the rebar. He had put two and two together when his migraines returned the first time after being forced to breathe in the gas. He rushed over and snatched off the mask, before placing it on his own face, breathing heavily until the migraines subsided.

With the immediate problem out of the way, he finally got a good look at the hanging man.

“You’re not Tom. Who the hell are you?” Billy wondered out aloud.

The man quickly woke up and grabbed Billy. Billy quickly stopped struggling when the stranger stared into his eyes. Words didn’t come out of his bleeding mouth, but they entered Billy’s mind just as easily. ‘Ascendit…Project Ascendit.’

With those last thoughts, the man who was once believed to have been Tom as far as anyone was concerned, let go of Billy and exhaled his final breath.