by Amy Cross
"Can you hear me?" I ask, stepping closer but making sure to keep a little distance between us.
Her eyes flicker and she looks directly at me. I glance up at the brains, sitting in a series of jars on one side of the room. Jerry was always macabre, keeping these specimens alive. He wanted to one day link his mother's brain to a living human body, so he could talk to her. I encouraged him in this endeavor, because it was linked to the rest of the research work we're undertaking at Lakehurst. But I never thought he'd go so far as to actually attempt a transplant.
"Who am I speaking to?" I ask the body. I have no idea if it's Nurse Perry's brain in her own skull, or if perhaps Jerry has switched it for his mother's.
"It's me," she says suddenly, her voice sounding weak.
"And who might that be?" I ask.
"He used my body for his mother's brain," she continues, "but when he was done, he put my brain back in".
I stare at her. It's hard to believe that she could survive something like this, but Nurse Perry has remarkable regenerative powers thanks to the work of Dr. Langheim. In the past, she's sustained a number of horrific injuries and managed to recover. Perhaps that's why Jerry chose her for this operation in the first place.
"Who killed him?" I ask.
She stares at me. "Is he dead?" There's a pause. "I heard him talking to Morris a while ago, and then... I'm still too weak to get up. Is Jerry dead?"
I nod. "Why would Morris do such a thing?" I ask. "It makes no sense".
"Can you help me?" she replies. "I need you to help me. I have to get my strength back. The top of my skull came loose after Jerry left. Can you put it back on for me before the pain medication wears off?"
"I'm not a surgeon," I say, dismissively.
"Everything I've done for you," she says slowly, "must mean something. If you help me, I can be back up and functioning again in a few days. I can get back to work, but you have to help me. I can't do it alone".
"Something's going wrong," I reply. "Why would Morris want to kill Jerry? Morris is just a janitor".
Slowly, Nurse Perry reaches out a hand and tries to touch my arm. I move away. "Help me," she pleads.
I grab a white sheet and use it to cover her torso. The last thing I want to be looking at right now is her naked body. "Everything in due course," I say, trying to work out what to do next. Jerry's dead, Nurse Perry is out of action, Eddie's missing... It's as if all my allies are slowly being taken out of the game. In the past, I always knew I could count on their support, but now I feel completely exposed. Taking a deep breath, I force myself not to panic. Since I arrived at Lakehurst all those years ago, I've been slowly gaining more and more power. I will not allow all that work to be undone.
"Help me," Nurse Perry begs me again.
"Will you shut up?" I snap at her. "I'm trying to think". I turn and walk back through to the next room, where the elevator stands waiting for me. I have to choose my next move carefully, because it could all go horribly wrong. Someone or something is conspiring against me, and I have to choose my fight very carefully. The only conclusion is that Dr. Langheim himself must be behind all of this. I've long suspected that he would one day turn on me, perhaps due to some misguided belief that he no longer needs my help. Although I've worked to be prepared for such a day, I'm not ready yet. I thought I had more time. If Langheim really is behind all this, there's only one option. He's an old man, and I can kill him fairly easily. Then again, he's probably expecting me to attack him, which means he'll have some sort of defense system in place. A man like Langheim is too smart to be caught off guard.
"Help me," Nurse Perry whispers, her voice starting to sound increasingly weak.
"You help me first," I say, calling back to her. I'm sick of people constantly expecting me to fix their problems. "You go up to the attic, kill Langheim, and find out what's wrong with Morris. Then, maybe, I'll help you". I step over to the door and smile as I look at her pathetic face. "You think I owe you something? I've already given you more than you ever deserved. Right now, I've got bigger things to worry about. Maybe when everything's back to normal I'll give you a hand, but you're certainly not my highest priority". I take a deep breath. "Do you understand, or should I come up with a more painful way to demonstrate the truth to you?"
She stares at me, a terrified look on her face.
"Good answer," I say, turning and walking away. Sure, I'll come back and give her some help later, if I survive my encounter with Langheim. But my priority at the moment has to be dealing with the problem in the attic, and then I have to find Kieran and Annie Radford. The longer I leave this, the stronger Langheim will become. If he's really launching a take-over attempt, he must be very confident. Stepping into the elevator, I hit the button to go up to the attic. The doors close and the chamber starts to rise. One way or another, this ends tonight.
Annie Radford
The old man stares at me. His voice is silent for a moment, as if he finds it a struggle to keep communicating. He looks ancient, as if he's a hundred years old or more, and I doubt he even has the strength to maneuver his wheelchair. It's tempting to think that he's harmless, that his mind is gone, but I can see that he's staring at me with a rare kind of intensity. Whatever's going on in his mind, he clearly knows who I am, and I now know who he is: he's the man whose voice told me to kill my brother.
"Langheim," says Kieran, standing over by a desk near the window. He's holding some old papers. "Annie, do you realize who this man is?" He turns to me. "This is Dr. Rudolf Langheim, possibly the last surviving fugitive Nazi scientist from the Second World War".
"I'm still known," the voice says. The old man's lips don't move, but I can hear him deep in my head. "Don't be surprised," he continues. "My work has been ground-breaking. Do you have any idea how I'm talking to you at the moment? Radio waves. I'm transmitting my thoughts into your body, as if they were your own. Achieving such a feat over short distances is no great achievement, but do you remember the night you first heard me, Annie? The night I dared turn the machine up to full power, and my mind was broadcast across hundreds of miles?"
"Why me?" I ask.
Kieran turns to me. "Why you what?" he asks. He can hear my voice, but he can't hear Langheim.
"I have no idea," the voice continues. "I broadcast my mind, and eventually someone heard me. That someone was you. Obviously you had some pre-existing sensitivity that gave you an edge. Perhaps, in some way, our minds are similar. Once contact was made, I explored your thoughts and tested my boundaries. I was even able to manifest, briefly, and speak to both you and your brother. I tried animating dead bodies, like the burned man in the morgue and the girl who cut out her heart. Did you realize at the time, Annie, that you were part of history?"
"We should get out of here," Kieran says. "We need to tell someone about this. Langheim has to answer for his crimes".
"Ignore him," the voice says, as the old man continues to stare at me. "He doesn't understand. But you, Annie... you understand. You know how powerful I can be. I made you kill Taylor. Now I'm going to tell you to do something else. There's a gun in the top drawer of the desk over by the window. It's loaded. Take it out and use it to kill this idiot".
I look over at the desk.
"Annie?" Kieran asks.
"I can't," I say.
"Can't what?" Kieran says. I can see from the look on his face that he knows something's wrong.
"I'm in your mind, Annie," the voice says. "You can't resist me".
Without even wanting to do it, I start walking over to the desk. I pull open the drawer and see the gun waiting for me. Although I'm determined not to pick it up, there seems to be another consciousness inside my body, and my hand reaches into the drawer and grabs the gun. I hold it, feeling the cold metal against my palm. Is this really going to happen again? I killed Taylor, and now I'm supposed to kill Kieran?
"Annie," Kieran says, "we need to -"
I turn and hold the gun up, aiming it straight at him. He steps back,
clearly shocked.
"You don't want to kill him," the voice says. "I can feel that, but you must do it anyway. I shall count to three, and then you'll pull the trigger. Do you understand?" There's a pause. "One," he says.
"Annie," Kieran says, "you have to put that thing down".
"Two," the voice continues.
"Annie," Kieran says again. I can see the fear in his eyes.
"Three," says Nurse Winter.
I hold the gun up for a moment longer, aiming straight at Kieran's face, before I slowly lower it and turn to see Nurse Winter standing in the doorway.
"No matter," the voice says. "I've made other arrangements. Even now, the janitor's work is complete. I reached into his mind and told him what to do. Can't you feel the building starting to shake?" Above us, the heating pipes groan.
"This looks cosy," Nurse Winter says, walking into the room. "Dr. Langheim, it seems you've been a busy man. Would I be right in thinking that you've got a plan cooking?" She looks up at the pipes as they groan again. "Something to do with the boiler, perhaps?"
"It's too late," the voice says. "I know you hate this woman, Annie, but you're really very similar. I reached out to her once, too. I manipulated her life so that she would come to Lakehurst. I molded her so that she'd help me, and then I ensured that she replaced Dr. Campbell. I did something similar with you. Once I realized you were receptive to my mind, I ensured you would end up at Lakehurst".
"But what are you doing now?" Nurse Winter asks. Clearly, she can also hear his voice. "What would you gain from killing us all?"
"My great achievements are ready to be shared with the world," the voice continues. "The results of my experiments have been written up and sent for publication. As a result, my presence here will become known. I refuse to be captured by these idiots, so I prefer to let my physical form die. I have no doubt that in death, I will be recognized as the great genius that I have always been".
"But you won't be around to enjoy it," Nurse Winter says.
"That's where you're wrong," he replies. "My body will be destroyed in the inferno, but my mind is already out there, floating through the world as radio waves. I will be everywhere at once. I will see and hear everything. Of course, my peers will condemn my past even as they recognize my brilliance, but I'll be able to hear their private thoughts. I'll be in all their minds, and I'll see that they truly respect me. I won't need my own body. I'll be everywhere".
The pipes creak again. It's as if the whole building is struggling to stay together.
"Annie," Kieran whispers, holding out his hand, "come with me".
"You changed me," Nurse Winter says to Langheim. "You manipulated me and made me who I am today".
"Of course I did," the voice says. "It was necessary, and..." He pauses. "It's too late for you," he continues. "Morris did his job well. It's time for Lakehurst to go up in flames".
I turn to Kieran and reach out, grabbing his hand. At the same time, there's a huge boom and the whole building shakes. Flames rip through the floor and the walls start to collapse. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. The ceiling comes crashing down, crushing Langheim and killing him instantly. Nurse Winter turns to run, but the floor beneath her collapses and I watch as she falls into the ball of fire that bursts up from the basement, ripping the entire building apart. I keep hold of Kieran's hand as the floor beneath us disintegrates and we start to fall. All around us, flames blossom and flare as Lakehurst's entire structure falls apart due to the force of the explosion. Kieran and I fall and fall and fall, an unbearable brightness enveloping us as an ear-splitting roar engulfs everything. I look up and see Langheim's burning wheelchair falling, his body still strapped to the seat. Looking down, I see the whole of Lakehurst falling apart as the flames continue to spread. I turn to Kieran. He shouts something, but I can't hear his voice. All I can hear is the voice, Langheim's voice... I can't tell for certain whether he's laughing or screaming.
Nurse Winter
The secret to surviving a fall from a great height is simple: just divide it up into a series of smaller falls...
As I fall through the attic floor, I smash into the beds in the room below, which break my fall for a moment before they, too, begin to drop through the burning building. I reach out and manage to grab part of the broken floor, which holds my fall for just a moment before it, too, gives way and I crash down onto yet another surface. I feel several bones shatter throughout my body before this floor, too, collapses and I smash down through a ball of flames. For a moment, I fear that the end might have come, but finally I hit yet another floor, which collapses and leaves me to slam hard into the basement.
When one faces death, one should embrace the darkness and accept that life is over. The difficulty, however, comes in letting go of hope. No matter how bad things seem, one can always believe that there might be some chance. Even as I land in the basement, I find myself refusing to accept that I'm going to die. No matter how badly hurt I am, I refuse to let that old bastard win. I've been through too much to be killed so easily. With the roar of the fire all around me, I stand up and look around. My bones are broken, my skin is torn, I'm bleeding badly and my body is clearly dying, but I'm still alive. At least for a few more moments, I'm still here, but time is running out.
The basement is burning fast, and in places the upper floors have collapsed all the way down. Despite the fact that my legs are broken, I'm able to stumble through to the next room, pushing through the pain. Eventually, I find what I've been looking for. I refuse to die. I refuse to give up just yet.
"Me again," I say with a smile.
Still on the operating table, Nurse Perry looks at me. "What's happening?" she asks.
"Nothing you need to worry about," I reply, hobbling over to the tray of surgical tools. As I walk, I can feel and hear the broken bones rattling in my body like rocks in a bag.
"Tell me," she pleads.
"No time," I tell her as I double-check all the tools. It takes me a moment to find the final piece of the puzzle, but after a moment I discover a spare cortex extender. I can feel my body starting to close down and die. The fall might not have killed me instantly, but I've got massive internal injuries and I'm bleeding from several wounds. There's no way to patch myself up. It's a miracle I'm still conscious, and I'll die within minutes if I don't do something to save myself. This body, my old body, is ruined. I need a new one.
"Save me," Nurse Perry whispers.
"Not a chance," I say, staring at her for a moment. "Well, not entirely". I reach down and take hold of the top of her exposed brain. For a moment, I stare into her eyes, and then I pull her brain out and let it fall to the floor. Her eyes blink a couple of times, and then she's gone forever. I kick the brain out of the way as I reach into her skull and put the cortex extender in place. This is a long-shot, but it's my only chance and it might just work. I just have to trust that, between them, Jerry and Dr. Langheim made this possible. Taking a deep breath, I go to the supply cupboard and look for some kind of pain-killer, but there's nothing except a box of morphine patches. I can't afford to take anything that might dull my senses, so I take a deep breath and accept that I'll have to do this without anesthetics.
Taking a surgical power-saw from the table, I switch it on and stare at the blade as it whirs. This is going to hurt, but eternal pain is better than eternal death. I hold the saw up to my face and gently ease it into the side of my skull. Although the pain is intense, I'm able to block it out as I grind away the left side of my jaw, which eventually drops to the ground. Then, I move the saw up and cut a line around a large section of the skull itself. Once I'm done, I drop the saw and then I reach up and carefully remove the section of bone. Looking over at the mirror next to the sink, I see my horrifically mangled face, with my brain fully exposed on one side. At the base of the brain, I can see my brain stem. So far, so good. Blood pours from my wounds, and I realize I only have a few more seconds before I pass out.
I reach into Nurse Perry's skull
and grab the open end of the cortex extender. I pull it up to the side of my neck and, without wasting another second, I ram it as hard as I can into my own brain stem. Everything goes black for a second, and then everything comes back to me. I feel a tremendous pain shoot through my entire body, and my vision flashes and flares a kind of brilliant white. A wave of nausea hits me, and for a moment it feels as if everything is going wrong, but finally I feel my brain starting to adapt to the cortex extender. For a strange moment, I can feel both bodies coming under my control: one brain connected to two entirely separate bodies. Slowly, and a little unsteadily, I use Nurse Perry's arms to reach up and hold my head, while I use my own arms to pick up the saw. With one quick movement, I slice straight through the neck of my 'old' body, severing the head and causing the body itself to drop to the ground. I then use Nurse Perry's hands to gently ease my brain out of my skull. As my 'old' head falls away, I use Nurse Perry's hands to carefully ease my brain into 'her' skull. Once I'm sure that it's correctly positioned, I take my hands away and I force myself to sit up. I grab the section of skull that was cut from her head earlier by Jerry, and I place it over my exposed brain. Already, I can feel her body's regenerative qualities starting to heal the wounds. The pain is intense, but I can tell that my new body is regenerating its injuries.
Langheim, you old fool. You were a genius after all.
I walk over to the mirror. I see Nurse Perry's naked body standing and staring back at me. Looking down, I see my old body on the floor. My body is a mangled, damaged, bleeding mess, and my severed head is by my feet. I pick it up and look at my own dead face. Thanks to the work pioneered by Dr. Langheim and then continued by Jerry, I've managed to complete my own brain transplant, moving it from my old, dying body into Nurse Perry's body. The latter, of course, is able to heal remarkably quickly. Within a few days, I should be almost back to full strength. Taking a deep breath, I feel her lungs fill with air, as her heart beats blood around her body and up to my brain.