by Davi Cao
“No, she’s a Creator. That’s one class of creatures we didn’t know that existed back on our world.”
“And I am OOOO! I’m a Creator too, am I not?” it said, walking towards her with a raised head.
She squirmed and kicked the air, doing her best to keep it away. Colin patted her thigh to calm her down, putting a hand over OOOO’s face to hide its hideous teeth.
“This one here is only curious. It cares about interesting things, and you’re a very interesting person,” Colin said.
“Very interesting, isn’t she?” OOOO said.
“The thing is: the world is gone and we’re trying to survive after the apocalypse. I think we can do it, we all think we can do it now. Do you want to help us?” Oliver said, admiring the perfection of her human complexion, a human like him, although crafted and materialized from nothingness.
“I don’t know ... I’m new here, I’m just Colin’s friend. I’ll do what he does.” Angeline hid her cheek on Colin’s shoulder.
“You are here to live a good life. If you miss anything, just tell us and we’ll give it to you.” Dalana touched Angeline’s arm.
Angeline saw the shadow hand over her arm and shook it off, scared of the touch. “What is this person? Is she human? She’s just a silhouette!” she said, scared of the darkness that spoke to her.
Dalana receded in silence, torn in two. For one side, her heart grew happy to see people being cheerful in that terrible world, opened to having an Utopia of their own. For the other side, with Colin in there, how could she help and mean something to others? Who would need her?
∙ 12 ∙ By the pool
For a newcomer from Terra, the lab’s environment gave the impression of a dungeon. Dark walls of corrugated material, dim light, windowless rooms, and corridors digging through the ground. A prison for those who had survived, and they had survived due to their humility in accepting their place in the cosmos. They now lived in a universe in which the sun existed only in memory, along with Earth and the blue sky.
Angeline, however, lacked the others’ contentment, oppressed by the dungeon. Her heart pumped real blood to a brain that felt real anguish, locked in an ugly cage, hearing an insistent whisper.
“Find me ... Help me be with you, I want to know who you are ... Why don’t you come to me? I hear you, yes, don’t stop ...”
The World Voice searched for the noise’s origin, it tried to understand who did that, it spoke of some company that had arrived at last. Instead of depressing everything, it contaminated the universe with expectation. Angeline, not risking melt down, risked agony just the same.
“Is this all there is to see? Don’t we have any place to go? It’s creepy in here.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“We have some rooms back there, and a few quite long corridors,” Oliver said, pointing to the door.
“Sometimes we walk around, but we can’t go far, and the upper world would kill us in a second. It’s better if we stay together, here, like a family,” Amanda said.
“Hey, can’t you create something new for her?” Oliver said.
“If I do, it won’t last long en—” Colin began to say.
“Maybe not,” Dalana said, standing up, swinging her arms widely. “The Voice changed, can’t you feel it? Why don’t we try to create some new environment?”
“Yes, please, Colin, let’s see the world! This place here is depressing,” Angeline said.
“Wonderful, isn’t it, to be a Creator?” OOOO hopped in front of the humans with its face fixed on Colin.
“Oh, I guess you’re right. Dalana, do you mind if I think of something for Angeline and the others? No? Nice, I think I know a place where we can go.” He closed his eyes to imagine a new area to be created from scratch, where he and the humans could relax.
He then stood up, taking Angeline’s hand to help her raise from the dark floor. The others followed him, crossing the entrance to the corridor, leaving Ai.iA behind.
“Hey, Ai.iA, we’re going for a walk. Why don’t you join us? Drop the objects, give yourself a break, it’ll be fun,” Dalana said, getting no answer. Ai.iA danced and kept the World Voice occupied.
Colin took them to a new door inside the first corridor’s room. They crossed a wide entrance to descend a flight of stairs under the light of candelabra. Angeline smiled, marveled at the mystery.
“We’re not in our city, are we? I can’t remember any place like this,” she whispered to Colin.
“No, cities don’t exist anymore. Our home is lost forever.” Colin pressed his lips.
They walked into a big subway platform. In the tunnel, lights announced an incoming train. Amanda looked from side to side, Oliver touched the columns to check its solidity, Laura put a hand on her mouth.
When the train decelerated in front of them, its carcass shook with the wheels’ spin. It stood above the trails, its floor a fragile metal sheet covering a tough frame, its windows trembling in place even after stop. Colin stepped on it first, to give the others courage, offering a hand to Angeline, who joined him with the tip of her foot.
OOOO made a tour of the wagons while they traveled. It found empty chairs painted the same color, made from the same model over and over again, no variation between carts.
“I see no interesting things to—” it began to say, distracted by points of light passing through the windows. The lights went by at high speed and at different colors, at random patterns. OOOO smiled and watched them go.
Dalana hugged Amanda to help her breathing, for she hyperventilated from the strangeness of their ride.
“A subway, a working train ... If we can have that, we can have it all back,” Amanda said, panting.
“Breathe, calm down, breathe slowly, don’t overthink anything, just enjoy your time here with us, we’re going to have fun, aren’t we?” Dalana put a hand on Amanda’s shoulder, turning her eyes to Colin.
“We are, trust me. I guess we all need to relax a little in a wide space, now that we can.” He smiled at Angeline.
Colin chose to make their travel last for half an hour, to give them a taste of their old lives and its constraints. It matched the mood of the Voice they still heard inside their heads, the Voice of expectation, waiting for great news, optimistic and hopeful.
Mat waited on his sit much like he did in his old life, with both hands closed over his lap, his head leaned on the window, his gaze turned to the top. He loosened his face muscles, serene, a meditating monk, enjoying the path.
The train stopped at another station. Faint whispers asked where they were, when they would meet, but silence found its way on the area, decorated by the echo of their soft steps on rigid marble. Without indication of their destination, and with Colin leading them with secrecy, they entered the mood and made no questions.
“It’s a humblamont’s cave, isn’t it? A parasolar expanse? I know it’s something big, isn’t it?” OOOO tried to guess.
“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about, so how could I create that? It’s a place to relax, just wait and see.” Colin grinned at OOOO.
After a few steps, they made a turn and found a big portal. It stretched to gigantic heights, tall as all of them combined, one on top of the other, closed by a heavy door. It opened at their approach, revealing small parts of a wide interior. Strong lights shone from the sides, a white mist covered the most distant wall.
Angeline entered the place and detached from Colin, walking at the tip of her feet. The ceiling stood higher than the entrance, the room spread through a colossal warehouse, a big abandoned factory.
The world’s weight evaporated from her shoulders, allowing her to fly and dance and run and jump and be happy. The artificial rays coming from the windows tinted the mist and tricked her perception. If she wanted to bathe in the sun, she could do so.
In the middle of the gigantic room, a swimming pool waited for swimmers with a mirror-like surface. It needed something or someone to make ripples in its undisturbed, virgin water. T
ransparent, dark water, lacking blue because lacking sky. Zach screamed with excitement, a loud “yeowl!” that echoed and cheered them all. They all looked at Colin. He nodded.
Zach jumped first, splashing with his belly down. The impact’s burn disturbed all with a collective “ouch,” the water drops fell on their bodies with the freshness of a summer day, enticing them to enjoy life.
“Hey, folks, it’s super! What are you waiting for? First on the other side wins a kiss!” Zach said, diving deep, his ponytail becoming a long fin.
One after another, they entered the waters, laughing, and playing like children in a playground. Angeline placed her hand on Colin’s back and pushed him.
“You can’t escape today!” she said, struggling to throw him in the pool.
He laughed, resisting her, “Ah, no, I’m not a good swimmer you know that, hey, wait, no, don’t do that.” He giggled at her insistence, his feet unable to compete with her strength.
Dalana followed their play at a distance, moving towards someone and then receding, moving and stopping, undecided. She stood too close to action, however, as Colin grabbed her and threw her into the water at the same time that Angeline did the same to him.
They fell down and laughed at their moment together, enjoying every second of their minds freed from sad thoughts. Oliver splashed water at Angeline, and she replied by accepting the match, punching the water to spill fast drops on his face, and then diving to escape retribution. He pursued her until she had to reach the surface again to get air, at which point they floated farther away than Colin did from Dalana.
“Colin, we’re going to play catch!” Angeline said, widening her eyes. “You catch and we run, aren’t you the powerful one?”
“Hm, I don’t like this sort of game that much, sorry ...” He gave her an awkward smile.
“I’ll do it, I’ll catch you, I’ll catch you all,” Oliver said by her side, diving in Angeline’s direction.
She laughed out loud and fled in desperation, spilling water high, while Charlotte came behind Oliver and pinched his butt, making him turn and change target.
“Oh, he’ll never catch me, thanks, Charlotte!” Angeline laughed at the scene, stopping to watch Oliver’s new pursuit.
Colin floated away from action, seeing OOOO dive and explore the pool, swimming with its legs, a giant squid. Laura swam fast away from it, scared at the creature’s presence, but it simply enjoyed itself and showed no interest in inflicting harm upon others.
Dalana sank to the bottom and then jumped to the surface, sinking and jumping, enjoying water unlike Colin and the other humans preferred to do. He waited for her to come up again and held her by the waist, so that she could keep her nose above water for longer.
“Just move your arms and legs. Didn’t you have water in your world?” he said.
“We did. We just didn’t enter it.” She rubbed a hand on her wet face.
“Oh ... Is this your first time, then?”
“No, I did it in other worlds. The thing is, I like sinking.” She moved her hands to float by herself.
Colin laughed, “Yes, I understand it, it really is fun.” He was amazed at the highlights shining on her black pupils.
“Won’t you play with them? We’re drifting away, and I’m sure they’d love to have you nearer.”
“That’s ok, let them have their fun. I’m not an amusing person, I’m aware of that. I’ll be the one who’ll say it’s already late and we all have to go back, ashamed to take my shirt off and be free like the other guys.” Colin released his hold on Dalana.
“I’ll be glad to make you company, then. I’m not very amusing as well.” She replicated his swimming style, becoming his pair.
Dalana and Colin left the water to arrange a banquet. Analyzing the space around the pool, he created a big round table filled with food, and Dalana prepared a side area with drinks and candies from her original world.
The humans showed no will to stop and eat something, laughing, and talking far from the walls, thus she grabbed a piece of cheesecake and took it closer to them, leaving it on a small stool by the pool’s border, so that—
Bang!
“I want you!”
The World Voice screamed, disrupting all matter. People sank to the bottom as the water became Jell-O and trapped them in its frozen midst. Unable to breathe, they squirmed in their half-solid cage, their legs and arms arrested by a viscous substance that swallowed them and didn’t let go of their bodies.
“I want you ... Stop playing with me and show yourself ... Come now, enough of this torture ... I want you!”
Dalana saw it first. Corpses immersed in transparent matter, something that wasn’t water anymore, and neither melted stuff. The floor moved under her feet, it tried to grab her and the tables, the stool preyed on the cheesecake.
Fearing for the humans, she imagined a crew of rescuing diggers and threw then in the pool. They tried to dig, but before they could do anything useful, Colin turned around and made the transparent gel disappear.
Oliver fell on his feet, helping Amanda and Mat, who hurt their arms on the fall. OOOO hopped at great speed and picked them up, one by one, to take them where Colin and Dalana awaited. The swimming pool’s floor enveloped Zach’s feet with a slimy membrane, making it harder for him to leave his place. OOOO went to his rescue, nearly ripping his limbs off with the strength of its push, stopped by Colin.
“Give it something else so it drops him!” he shouted, thinking of the floor as a living organism.
“It is hungry, isn’t it? I’ll give it something, then.” OOOO created a piece of rock which glistened with the colors of the rainbow for human eyes.
Dalana created a platform under the banquet table with pellets of self-sufficient molecule conglomerates, matter who had no interest in interacting with other things. She served Amanda a big plate with salad, while the woman recovered from shock. The others served themselves, scared about the world’s new fate and the anguishing voice taking over their minds.
“I need and I want and I wish and I take! You ... The noise ... you are there, don’t hide! Come to me, give me more ... Speak what I can understand!”
Angeline, soaked in gel, ripped the bits of Jell-O water climbing on her neck. A voice spoke to her, in the back of her mind, the voice that had been there ever since she remembered life. She watched the others eat and realized that they trembled when the voice rose its tone.
“I feel weird ... I want to talk, and I have nothing to say. I want to hug everybody, but I can’t get close to them. Do you hear the voice too? Hm, Colin? Do you hear it? It’s scary. I’m not the only one, right?” She touched Colin’s shoulder.
Mat threw up, dropping his dish on the floor. Falling down, he began to have spasms, losing his breath at every gush coming out of his throat. Colin jumped on him to check on his senses, pushing Angeline aside for one brief moment.
Laura took the lead in caring for Mat, making him calm down and checking his pupils and heartbeats. Oliver watched at a distance, noticing Angeline spinning around herself mumbling inaudible words. He got to her side and listened to her anguish with care.
“I don’t know why I feel like ... like entering things, everything ...” she said.
Zach held a plate in his hand and considered not eating, as his body trembled under the words penetrating his mind. The Voice spoke of urgency, sparing no mercy to weaklings, collecting its price on those who dared to torture the universe itself. Dalana read his low cast eyes, his twitching mouth, and moved her hand to his face to make him look up again. He dropped his sad countenance, answering her gesture with a quick bite on a morsel of salmon meat.
“We can live through this together. If you let me help you, you’ll help me in return,” she said, staring at his eyes.
“I’ll do it, I’m helping, here, I’m helping.” He ate more, nervous and pushed his bad thoughts away.
“It’s better to leave this place, don’t you think? We’re more protected in the lab, unde
r your walls.” Colin got by her side after Mat’s recovery.
“Yes, we have to go. Ai.iA might be in danger,” Dalana said.
They finished their meals and headed back to the subway station. Each entered the wagon with heavy shoulders, joining the train of lost souls under a Voice that called them. The vehicle’s thin metal walls rippled and threatened to grab whatever came near, mingling with the seats and the glass.
Dalana created special pellets on the floor and they all lay down on them, waiting for the station’s arrival. The train decelerated, it bounced, its heavy frame blended with the tracks, with the ground and walls. Its constituent materials interchanged particles, meeting others, becoming one with the world.
Colin recreated the whole train from time to time, cleaning up its mess. They rode in silence, all having to resist the urge to merge with each other and with everything, feeling their blood about to burst through their veins.
Bangs had stopped since they left the train. Colin thought about Ai.iA, he believed something had happened to her. OOOO hopped ahead, infected by the World Voice’s desperate calls, wanting to be the first to meet her, the new presence.
The humans walked in a tight group, each touching the other’s backs or arms, obeying the urge to find company in the world. They climbed the stairs, they crossed the corridor and entered the lab.
Ai.iA jumped on OOOO, striking him like a spider looking out for its prey. She extended her rods to caress OOOO, to mingle with its legs, calling for it.
“You’re here, you’re here, I’m so glad, oh, I want you, I want all of you,” Ai.iA said, fitting in with OOOO, bending her will to make of her enemy a new presence.
Once the others arrived, she let go of OOOO and struck Dalana’s chest to get a hug.
“If I bang, the Voice wants more, and if I stop, it wants even more! It’s wrong, it’s so wrong, and it will destroy us, destroy us all!” Ai.iA pushed against Dalana’s skin so hard that their cells risked swapping bodies.
“It’s a great world, isn’t it? I did it! I’m the Creator, you see?” OOOO stared at Angeline, its face joyful and scary.