by Vincent Vale
MOBIUS is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events are divined from the author’s imagination or are being used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2015 by Vincent Vale.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9851655-3-6
3rd Edition
Cover Art by Adam Burn
Other works by Vincent Vale:
THE VESTIGIAL MAN
Website: www.vincentvale.com
Email: [email protected]
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/VincentVale
Twitter: @VincentValeNews
REVIEWS ON AMAZON AND
GOODREADS ARE GREATLY
APPRECIATED
To Sharon and John, my loving parents. Karen, my sister, who was first to read it. And David, whose editorial skills and friendship were lifesavers.
Quantum Threshold
—— 2969 ——
I wasn’t alone—I heard a beating heart behind me. Not the soothing sound of mother’s blood, but a deep and ominous thudding. Doom-damn... Doom-damn... It continued with the cadence of hellish clockwork. Doom-damn... Doom-damn... My skin crawled, my stomach clenched.
What was behind me? A man? A monster? I didn’t dare open my eyes, didn’t dare look back. It couldn’t be human. No man’s chest could contain such a heart. It grew louder and louder, becoming thunder in my head.
Doom-damn! Doom-damn!
My breathing quickened, forcing me to suck in more of the foul air around me.
What’s that stench? I wondered.
I at last opened my eyes—slowly, fearfully. Holo-monitors illuminated the room, displaying ever-changing graphs and numerical data. It meant nothing to me. I looked down and found myself naked, floating in an anti-gravity field above a metal slab.
Where the fuck am I? I thought. Why am I naked?
The beating heart continued. Doom-damn! Doom-damn!
“Stop! Please stop!” I screamed.
It felt like my skull was cracking. What was behind me? I had to see. The truth would release me.
I tilted my head back. Disbelief! Horror! My small hairs rose. It was a complex beast—half machine, half monster. A great blob of bio-mechanical flesh. Metallic nano-fibers interlaced the pale skin, causing electrostatic discharges that buzzed and sparked.
The beast loomed above me, the height of the ceiling, like a giant animal—but not an animal, an abomination of flesh. It had no appendages and no head, only a great, moist sphincter that puckered mere inches from where I lay.
“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!”
Escape! Fight! Run! I wanted to do all these things, but my body proved too heavy, too weak. My perceptions distorted. Was the beast growing larger or was I becoming smaller? My stomach heaved and my head spun. My thoughts clouded over and my brief journey into the conscious world ended.
I again awoke, my head pierced by pain, my vision a jumble of blurred shapes and drab colors. My eyes focused. A face. A hideous face hovered above me. Two bulging eyes, stained the color of piss, inspected me.
Who is this ugly fuck? I wondered.
I felt the urge to fight. I lashed out, but the man pinned me down with surprising strength. I thrashed, kicked, screamed.
“Let go of me, you bastard!”
The man held my neck with one hand and produced a hypo-injector with the other. “This will calm you.”
I felt the sting of the injection. My face went numb and my anxiety soothed. I looked around and discovered I was in a different place, no longer near that enormous beast. I was lying on a small cot. It felt soft and clumpy beneath me.
I sat up on elbows. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the sanitarium, where you belong,” replied the painfully close man.
What’s he talking about? I thought. What sanitarium? Why do I belong here?
From what I could see, I was in a room no more than two lengths of my body from wall to wall. It was lit by a dim node overhead. A single door with a magnetic lock gave passage to the room. It hung open. I heard the whisper of distant voices.
I grabbed the man above me. “Who am I?”
“You’re Theron Mobius.”
“Theron Mobius?” The name was unfamiliar. “Who are you?”
“I’m an orderly, here to take care of you. I attend to your hygiene, nutrition, and overall comfort.”
“You’re an ugly fucker,” I said.
“That’s not very nice, but I know you’re confused. Now, let me look you over.”
The orderly began poking and pulling at me. I tried to fight him off.
With two greasy fingers, the orderly spread my eyelids apart and peered inward. “Some people think the eyes are the path to the soul, and they’re mistaken, for it’s the brain itself that gives way to that mysterious entity lurking within each of us.”
He spoke a command word and a glowing orb floating near his shoulder descended just above my forehead. It started scanning me with beams of energy. I could feel a searing heat on my face and then in my head as if it was melting my brain. I tried to bat it away, but my arms became heavy as the orb increased the gravity around my body. I felt like I weighed a thousand pounds.
The orb spoke in a female voice, “There are no deviations across the quantum threshold. Atomic neural stability is holding. The fusion is optimal. The specimen is unique.”
A wave of energy shot through my body. I flailed my arms and kicked my legs with an unnatural strength that defied the increased gravity. A lucky swing sent the orb crashing into the wall. It flashed and fizzled as it hit the ground and rolled under my cot. I kicked the orderly, sending him through the room’s doorway and onto his ass.
“Something’s in my head!” I cried. “It claws at my skull! It wants out! It’s too great! My head’s too small!”
The orderly stood up and signaled down the hall. He was soon joined by a man whose face was a gnarled mask of large features and pale, splotchy skin. He wore a fine black suit, perfectly tailored for his body.
“Doctor,” said the orderly, “it appears Theron’s undergoing a more difficult acclimation than the others.”
Something about the doctor caused a terrifying sensation within me. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt it in my stomach, my brain, and my heart. It was unbearable. I gazed into his eyes. They glowed with an unnatural green color as they looked down the length of a long bulbous-tipped nose.
“My brain,” I whimpered. “Does it spill from my head?”
The doctor worked my head between his palms. “This is fantastic. He’s more affected by the treatment than the others.”
“He is,” agreed the orderly.
“Take Theron back to the rehabilitation vesicle,” said the doctor. “He shows promise deserving of another treatment. I’ll be there momentarily.”
“Release me!” I cried. “Please!”
“You’re in need of another treatment,” replied the orderly. He clamped a silver ring around my chest and I floated up, limp and weightless.
I was helpless as the orderly pushed me down a hallway of many doors. At that moment, my mind filled with strange words. I was compelled to speak them aloud, over and over: “A thread of thought, I forge in flesh, I cast it out into the light and await its return to cure the blight...”
The orderly didn’t respond to my utterance and soon brought me to the end of the hallway where stood a large metal door protected by a force field. He performed an odd hand motion, causing the force field to dissipate and the door to open.
We entered the chamber of the bio-mechanical creature I had previously encountered. The orderly placed me back in the anti-gravity field above the metal slab, near the beast’s great sphincter.
Robotic insects crawled on the creature’s terrible flesh, repairing damaged
nano-fibers and cauterizing open sores.
“Lie still until the doctor arrives.”
I could only repeat those words that filled my head: “A thread of thought, I forge in flesh, I cast it out into the light and await its return to cure the blight...”
When the doctor finally entered the room, my mental fit subsided. “Who are you? What are you doing to me? Why are you torturing me?”
The doctor placed his hand on my chest, at my heart. “We’re going to help you rise from the depths of insanity, Theron. You must trust us.”
“I’m scared.”
“You shouldn’t be,” replied the doctor.
“What is that thing?” I tilted my head back and recoiled from the sphincter trembling behind me. “Take me away from this abomination! Please!”
“I cannot, my son.” The doctor turned to the orderly. “Hold him in place for insertion.”
“Insertion?” My jaw dropped. “What do you mean ‘insertion’?”
The doctor closed his eyes and remained still as a tendril of glowing nano-fibers emerged from just above the sphincter of the bizarre creature. It stretched out toward the doctor’s forehead, where it broke the flesh and pushed inward, joining the doctor to the creature.
“What the fuck!” I screamed.
The great sphincter above me puckered and swelled. Ten of the robotic insects gathered at the perimeter of the sphincter and deployed tiny tractor beams on my body, pulling me in.
“Stop! Please, stop! Fucking hell! No!”
My resistance was useless. My entire body was ingested by the beast.
An unlikely calmness ran through me.
My God, where am I?
Instead of finding myself in the vile innards of the creature, I found myself floating in an expanse of pure light. The bio-mechanical skin of the creature encased another realm. The light surrounding me rippled and stirred in such a way that it seemed alive, or at the very least was something more than just light.
I was mesmerized as a sparkling silver-white wisp caressed my cheek. It was soon joined by another, and then another, until a multitude of glowing wisps constricted down upon me. I felt the wisps of light penetrating my body, creeping into the core of my being.
I opened my eyes. I was slumped in a comfortable chair in a large room. A dozen unkempt and sickly-looking people sat around me. They wore identical green outfits. I suspected they too were patients of the sanitarium. Some sat unconscious, while others spoke in low, weary voices.
Four white orbs hovered at the ceiling. I watched as one descended upon a male patient and scanned him against his will. He tried to resist, but another descended and placed him in a gravity restraint.
This place is a nightmare, I thought.
Then I saw her. She was beautiful. She returned my gaze, smiled, and then approached. She had blonde hair, a spare frame, and large blue eyes. I didn’t know what to say.
“Hi... I mean... hello.”
“I’m glad you’re awake, Theron.” Her voice was soft and soothing.
I paused awkwardly. “Who are you?”
“I’m Mage. I kept you company while you slept and stimulated your mind with conversation, though it was I who did all the talking.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Are you an orderly?”
She laughed. “I’m like you, Theron.”
“You’re a patient?” I said in surprise.
“I am.”
“You’re too pretty to be—” I winced.
“To be what? Crazy?” Mage smiled, and then touched my face in a caring gesture. “Are you feeling better?”
Her touch comforted me. “I am now. How long have I been asleep?”
“Many days.”
Before I could ask more questions, a young man with darting eyes and a thin face approached. “She’s been fawning over your catatonic body the entire time.”
“Ridiculous, Sensimion,” said Mage. “I merely kept Theron comfortable since the orderlies neglected him. They’re only concerned with changing his soiled clothes and forcing food down his throat with a tube.”
Sensimion pointed to other individuals slumped around the room. “There are many needy invalids in this shit-hole. Why was Theron the only one deserving of your special treatment?”
Mage raised her nose. “Enough of your jealousy, Sensimion.”
I grabbed Mage’s hand in an attempt to capture her full attention. I looked around the room neurotically. “I’ve been molested in horrible ways!”
Sensimion laughed. “He’s talking about the sphincter beast.”
“Must you call it that? It’s such a disgusting name.”
“A disgusting name for a disgusting beast,” replied Sensimion.
Mage brushed my hair from my forehead. “Theron, don’t worry about the rehabilitation vesicle. It’s merely a device to help us become well.”
Sensimion leaned forward secretively. “This is what the doctor and orderlies tell us, but I believe its true purpose to be something much more malevolent.”
Mage shook her head. “Don’t listen to Sensimion. He’s a paranoid mess.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why can’t I remember my life before this place?”
“It’s the nature of the process,” said Mage. “We’re all here to be treated for mental illness, and by erasing our memories when we arrive, we start fresh. There are no past experiences left to corrupt our sanity. The rehabilitation vesicle is then used to reshape our minds, removing any predisposition for deviant thought. After a treatment, the mind is overwhelmed and the patient goes into a catatonic state.”
“Am I now cured?” I asked. “Will I be allowed to leave soon?”
“Not a chance,” said Sensimion. “Like all of us, you’ll continue your treatments in the sphincter beast, unless you can find a way past the main portal of this madhouse and escape.” Sensimion indicated a large archway at the other side of the room. “As you can see, the archway generates a force field. It can discriminate the DNA of a person and allow only authorized people to pass through.”
“And what lies beyond the threshold of the archway?”
“The doctor has told us the sanitarium’s hidden within the vacant sublevels of a MegaCity, away from any people who may find such a facility compromising to their communities.”
I felt a chill when Sensimion mentioned the doctor. “There’s something unnatural about the doctor. I don’t know what it is, but an unsettling aura surrounds him. His presence is oppressive on the mind. Do you sense this also?”
Sensimion tapped at his temple. “He’s an overbearing man forcing his strange medicine on us. As far as sensing some kind of oppressive aura from his person, I don’t. Nonetheless, your conviction seems genuine. I’ll pay more attention the next time he carries his ugly fucking head into my presence.”
“I’ve had no such feelings,” said Mage. “It’s probably just your weakened mind playing tricks on you, Theron.”
“Maybe,” I said. I heard a loud computer tone. “What’s that?”
“That’s the signal for us to return to our sleeping quarters,” said Sensimion.
Mage kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.”
I’ll never sleep well in this place, I thought.
Weeks passed. I became sluggish from a routine of eating and sleeping. My only pleasure came from conversations with Sensimion and Mage in the congregation room. At night, I pushed my thoughts inward, desperately searching for any surviving memories of my life before the sanitarium. It’s a scary thing not knowing who you are, or where you’re from. What did I do to belong here? Was I a criminal? A lunatic? Who was Theron Mobius?
One late night in bed, I felt a neuron ignite and a memory was found.
I was awake all night, overwhelmed by the memories that began crowding my mind. I sat on the floor, huddled in a corner, facing the wall. Slowly, I rocked, back and forth while repeating, “One atop another, they pile upon each other...” I laughed hysterical
ly as my mind spun and my senses flared. The void was filling. I felt elation from the genesis unfolding in my mind.
I heard Mage’s voice: “What’s the matter, Theron? I heard you screaming.”
“Ha! You’re mistaken. I was laughing.”
“At what? Why do you sit in the corner? What are you looking at?”
“The lies and the lives... and the lives and the lies.”
“What lies?”
“The lives! I cradle them all. Some are big and some are small. Do you wish to see them?”
“Yes,” said Mage. “Show me what you have.”
“I have them all—one, two, three, four... six... twelve... twenty-four.”
“You’re scaring me, Theron. Turn around. What are you cradling?”
“The blood of them all.” I turned, allowing Mage to see the truth that I held. My left forearm was covered in a layer of blood.
“What have you done, Theron?”
“Forgive me, it’s not the blood. It’s what lies beneath.” With my right hand, I rubbed away as much blood as possible, revealing a series of symbols I had gouged into my arm with a shard of the broken orb. “Don’t you see? It all makes sense now.”
“Let me help you, Theron.” Mage tore off a piece of her shirt and knelt beside me, trying to tend to the series of bleeding symbols.
“No!” I cried. I began pointing from one symbol to the next, explaining each in turn. “This one’s the horrors of war, and this one’s the gift of life. Here love was found... and there it was lost. In this one... beautiful faces... but here death erases. I’m a healer in this one... but a monster in that one. So many experiences, so many places. I’m every man, from every land.”
Stuttering sounds heaved up from my stomach. I no longer knew if I was laughing or crying. A brightness filled my vision and I frantically looked to Mage, trying to hang on to her image.
I woke up on my cot. Mage was gone. She had wrapped my arm in a strip of her shirt. I turned an ear to the door. Silence. Stillness.