Ascension

by Christopher De Sousa

  “Sir, I’m ready to do my part for the organisation,” said Anzu. “We’ve little choice with both Blake and Kulullu requiring treatment. And officers’ Harkin and Spears will need an Indigo’s support.”

  He frowned back at them. “You are wrong to think that I readily grant permission to those who make requests…, especially to those who’ve yet to prove themselves. But as you say, and given your worthy convictions, I may not have much of a choice…”

  “Thank you sir, we won’t let you down,” Katherine replied. Immediately she and Anzu immediately tore off toward the school block.

  As she carefully parted its front doors, she dashed along the corridor until she reached the first set of classrooms. She searched inside each room for any semblance of Monica, operative, or Corrupted’s whereabouts.

  “Katherine, you must stay away…,” she heard Monica’s voice echo up and about the walls.

  “Stay away?” She questioned. “We’re here to save you.”

  The further she progressed along the corridor, the more abundantly clear it became that she should have heeded Monica’s most recent warning. For many a fallen operative now lay unconscious before them on the cold tiled floor.

  “Anzu, we’ll have to come back for them once we’ve freed Monica,” she told the guardian, as he was frantically trying to awaken each operative.

  “Who is it you intend to free?” Monica murmured, as she now stood before the perplexed pair unscathed.

  Katherine gulped, wondering if she was being deceived by the Corrupted’s spell. “Monica…?”

  “I managed to escape the masked Corrupted,” said Monica. “But Principal Heathgate is still their captive. We need to rescue him before it’s too late.”

  “Katherine, I don’t believe this is Monica…,” Anzu mumbled, sharing in her concern that this would prove to be yet another illusion.

  Sure enough, their suspicions were quickly confirmed. Justin casually glided towards them, calling to the Corrupted. “Alu, you keep underestimating her abilities. She can see through your little ruse.”

  He extended his arm and took hold of her in a loving embrace. But Katherine wasn’t going to ignore everything that had transpired in his name, and she promptly pushed him away before assuming an aggressive stance.

  “I suppose that it’s still too soon, and there are more than a few things I must confess if I’m ever to regain your trust,” he said, trying to take hold of her hand. “Kat, I promise you, not everything is as it seems…Or for that matter as it should be …, which is why I need your help to make it so.”

  She balked, rejecting his advances. “You ask for my help? You have sided with these Corrupted; the very same pair who killed my father. How could it not be any clearer than that?”

  “Because this organisation you’ve recently become a part of, and of which your father regrettably was also a member, has yet to tell you the whole truth,” he proclaimed, with a sincere tone of voice…or so she believed. “Am I also right to assume they have not yet to told you about what befell your mother?”

  Anzu advanced toward the young man, ready to pounce. “Katherine, you must not listen to him. He’s let himself become one of them. He only intends to deceive you through his malicious lies and cause us to question our resolve.”

  He smiled back at her. “I needn’t say another word. For that is all they are; words. But what I can do is show you the truth.”

  He gestured toward Alu to proceed, and the masked Corrupted planted his gloved palms up against the corridor’s walls. Before Katherine could blink, or look to counter what the Corrupted was doing, she found herself alone and inside the ‘Projects’ underground basement.

  Why am I back in the facility? And where is Anzu? She pondered, before she wandered along the corridor and toward the organisation’s vehicle bay.

  Inside, the clicking of a ratchet rang through the air and she could smell the vapours of diesel rising up from the floor. She could hear the sound of footsteps coming up behind her, accompanied by a rather blunt, and yet somehow familiar voice. A young woman then appeared to phase through her and approach the vehicle. This woman was of a slender build, with long strands of charcoal black hair and bright blue eyes.

  “Duncan, I have a new recruit with me,” the familiar voice called out. “One that Robert has requested must be trained at once.”

  A young man stood up from beneath one of the organisation’s utilities. Covered with oil and dressed in stained overalls, he removed a pair of googles and dropped his ratchet.

  “Monica, I still have all these vehicles to finish detailing. I’m not really sure when I’ll find the time…,” he paused, his eyes fixed upon this new recruit as if he were caught under a spell. “Hello, Miss…”

  “Hawthorne. But you can call me Elizabeth,” the young woman smiled, as she proceeded to shake his hand. “I’m Monica’s little sister. I’m looking forward to working with you, Officer…”

  “Munroe,” the young man replied, wrestling to remove a pair of grimy gloves.

  Sisters…? How is this possible? Katherine wondered, baffled by what had developed. Is this a dream? Or a memory? And who’s the one dreaming? Whose memory am I seeing? This can’t possibly be my own…

  As a younger version of Monica also stepped forward, she stared back and forth between the two women, absorbed with what was playing out before her eyes. Memories quickly flooded her mind, moments when Duncan had commented on how much she and Monica were alike. Then there were the times classmates had teased and taunted her over perceived similarities; riddling her with their questions over whether she was Monica’s daughter - or even a younger sister. She remembered how swiftly she’d rejected their comments, thinking that the very notion was utterly out of left field.

  But there was little time to further digest what she’d learned, as her surroundings once again changed, seamlessly evolving from one brief moment in history to the next. She now found herself standing at Monica’s side while a wedding procession was performed inside the ‘Project’s’ training facility. Before her, and at centre stage, both her mother and father were taking their vows.

  Throughout the years, she’d re-enacted such an event over and over in her mind; how the occasion must have looked or felt to all those involved. Yet here she now stood a first-hand witness to this important event in her parent’s lives. She peered up at Monica, where all other wedding participants seemed overjoyed and to revel in the occasion, this younger version of her teacher had barely cracked a smile, nor once showed approval during the ceremony.

  Once more, leaving her no time to absorb what she’d seen, her surroundings blurred again and she found herself teleported from the wedding procession to the organisation’s library.

  Toward the library’s depths, she watched as her young father peered closely at a worn tome. As she moved closer, she read its title: Anubis. When her father reached the book’s middle pages, she saw the bookshelf suddenly give way and an underground passage appeared in its place. She followed after her father, scampering down a winding staircase until she reached the bottom. She crept along a narrow corridor and came to an abrupt end before an ancient looking doorway of solid bronze.

  Forged at its centre and carved in the surface metal, she recognized an archaic depiction of Anubis: the god of the afterlife in ancient Egyptian mythology, with a head of a jackal, dressed in a golden laced kilt and carrying a flail. But what caught her eye most about this peculiar engraving was that Anubis glared out at her through bloodstone eyes.

  A most unsettling sight, she thought. The depiction eloquently captured and showed both the deity’s majesty, and its condemnation.

  His narrow and fierce eyes stared down upon those who approached the door with malice.

  At this point, the younger Monica had also descended the staircase. She passed Katherine and placed an open palm directly against the carving, activating it with her touch. A heavy grinding noise ensued and the bronze doors slid open to unveil an underground labor
atory. Inside, she could hear her father’s voice booming, echoing about the walls, expressing contempt to a pair of operatives as to the ‘Project’s’ supposed purpose.

  “I’m here to free my wife,” he said. “I refuse to simply stand aside and let you pursue this end.”

  “We must look toward the future. There will come a time when this current generation of the ‘Project’ will struggle to endure,” replied one of the two operatives; a man with short dark hair and light stubble on his chin. “Vast numbers of the Corrupted continue to surface and wreak havoc. We must find a way to replenish of our own stock.”

  This operative adjusted his spectacles and intently gazed through a glass chamber pod. Carefully she picked her way over endless cables that covered the floor leading up to this pod. Brimming with curiosity about what had drawn his attention, Katherine went to get a closer look. But she soon wished she hadn’t, as what she saw left her aghast and reeling backward. Behind the glass, encased in a plasma-like substance lay her mother: dormant, and with a plethora of surgical tubes protruding out her body.

  Katherine could tell her father was furious. His cold glare danced back and forth between the operatives. “And you think cloning is the way we should try to achieve this end? Well Walter? Answer me, damn you.”

  But Walter continued to stare through the glass and ignore her father’s obvious wrath.

  “To date, we’ve had limited success from recruiting potential students from the pool that is Anabasis High,” she heard Monica tell him, as her teacher skipped over the wiring and pressed her hand against the chamber’s glass. “When she decided to join the ‘Project,’ my sister volunteered to become a surrogate. She believed it was the only way she could truly assist us in our cause. And even though she met you, her sense of priority never once wavered. You knew this, and yet you persisted and married her anyway.”

  Duncan clawed at his hair and ground his teeth. “I can’t believe you’d let your own sister, your own flesh and blood…, become a part of this twisted experiment.”

  “You didn’t seem to have a problem with this concept during the earlier phases of the process,” a third operative reminded him. He was a muscular figure with a thick beard of black hair. “You didn’t speak out when we tried this with those others – with whom you haven’t had the same vested interest. You know very well that if there was an alternative, I’d be more than happy to consider it.”

  “I bit my tongue, as it wasn’t my place,” Duncan replied coldly, his face bitter with resentment. “You made the choice to undergo the cloning process. You sought to create a son who could succeed you in this organisation. But what does that mean for your real son, Robert? How will he cope when he inevitably learns his brother is his father’s clone…? A being created solely because he, the natural born son, failed to live up to the organisation’s expectation?”

  Robert snarled back. “You should have reined in your views and kept biting your tongue. Our duty is to the greater good. When each of us signed up and became a working part of this organisation, we knew there was a chance we’d have to forgo the family pleasantries afforded and a normal life. Elizabeth too made that choice.”

  Frustrated, before what she’d heard and seen could sink in, the room around Katherine was spinning and she found herself once more back in the organisation’s vehicle bay.

  “You can see for yourself Ms Munroe, trust is a most curious thing,” said the masked Corrupted, now materializing before her. “This organisation demands your loyalty, yet it refuses to treat you with respect. To this organisation you are nothing more than a weapon. One with which it will use to its own end.”

  She stared back at him, her eyes stinging. “And what makes you any different? These are nothing more than illusions…”

  “Because whether you reciprocate or not, I still care for you deeply,” Justin proclaimed, as he walked toward her and offered her his hand. “I need you by my side when Atlantis reclaims its rightful place above the waves.”

  “Atlantis…? What has Atlantis got to do with anything?”

  “It has to do with everything,” he asserted. “It is where we, the chosen few, will ascend and finally rebuild this world anew.”

  Brow-beaten, light-headed, and emotionally spent; she gazed up at Justin through a blank expression. Her mind was tied in knots. She wasn’t sure how to comprehend his words or what it was she’d seen through Alu’s illusions. She found herself accepting Justin’s hand: the hand of one she now believed to be a depraved lunatic. As she looked deep into his eyes, she searched for those qualities in him that had initially won of her affection. But the deeper she delved and the more she thought about it, the faster she came to realize she had truly only had a schoolgirl crush. A crush now overshadowed by his repulsive and vile beliefs. Justin wanted to create an ideal world where only those he deemed deserving would live, and where any who fell short would be forfeit. Justin Ellis had chosen his side; and Katherine wanted to play no further part in it.

  Then there was this organisation. She still had so many questions about the history of this ‘Project’. But she had never anticipated that the answers would prove so perplexing and traumatic. In the short time since she’d become a part of the organisation, never had cloning or this kind of experimentation been mentioned by people she’d come to trust. The image of her mother encased in a chamber of glass and subjected to experiments, was easily the most distressing sight she’d ever witnessed. It was something that would leave indelible, emotional scarring. But with Monica still their captive, and with no one else she could trust with the information she had learned, she resolved not to dwell on the illusions for the time being. For it was crucial not to let herself stray from both hers and Anzu’s objective.

  “Katherine, we must find a way to escape,” she heard Anzu cry, as he seemed to fly through the vehicle bay’s basement wall.

  Of course we do, but we cannot leave without Monica, she thought, as she quietly contemplated the next course of action.

  “What would you have me do?” She asked, as she took comfort in Justin’s arms as if to signify an acceptance of his proposal.

  “Katherine…this has all been an illusion,” Anzu pleaded, confounded by this sudden act of affection toward the young man. “It’s all been a fabrication to trick us…”

  Alu appeared to hover before the guardian. “I assure you there has been no fabrication of any kind. Everything I’ve shown are the honest memories circulating in the mind of our prisoner. There hasn’t been the need for me to change a thing, as each memory speaks for itself.”

  Anzu, can you hear me? Please work…, she chanted over again in her mind, spurred to communicate with her guardian through their celestial bond.

  “Alu, was that how my mother died?” She asked, trying to ensure she did not arouse both Justin’s and the Corrupted’s suspicion.

  “I find it hard to accept…,” the Corrupted sighed, taken aback, snapping his fingers, and thus returning them all to the school’s corridor. “To once again hear my name so casually roll off the tongue of a babe…Do you not fear me child?”

  “Should I?” She asked. “It is your name, isn’t it?”

  He headed back toward the principal’s office. “As is the case with all my kindred, your kind has labelled us with many names over the years. But it is the name I go by the most. Come, I will show you the fate that befell your mother.”

  Anzu…, Anzu…, please answer me, she called out to him within her thoughts, concentrating her mind upon his energy.

  Katherine? She saw him respond in her mind’s eye.

  Anzu? She cried out to him, glowing with pride that she’d successfully broken down the communication barriers.

  For now, we need to play along with whatever they demand of us, she told him. At least until we find out what they’ve done with Monica.

  “Katherine! If you lay a hand on her…,” she heard Aleisha threaten, as she and Gavin emerged along the corridor.

  “Such insolence,
” Alu cried, as a series of groping palms crept from out the shadow-coated walls.

  Upon Alu’s orders, these arms woven from shadow slivered along the corridor and wrapped themselves around the beleaguered operatives. She looked on as Aleisha and Gavin vainly tried to fire at these arms, only to see them both pulled off their feet and sucked into the walls.

  Katherine rushed forward and grabbed hold of Aleisha’s outstretched fingertips. “No, you mustn’t.”

  I must help them, Anzu proclaimed from within the depths of her mind, as he dashed toward the wall and clawed away at the shadows.

  “Anzu, watch out,” she screamed, for a new pair of arms had materialized and bound the winged guardian.

  As her guardian too was sucked into the shadow-smeared walls, she began to plead with both Alu and Justin to let them go free. “If you free them, I promise to do whatever you ask of me.”

  “There is nothing you can do, nor offer. And I will not tolerate any further distractions,” Alu grumbled, pressing one of his gloved palms against the wall.

  “Katherine, have you not taken anything from what we’ve shown you?” Justin asked, aggrieved to learn that she still saw him as a villain. “You owe these people nothing. They are corrupted; and we must bring their corruption to an end.”

  She whimpered, gazing up at him and feigning tears. “I’m just so confused…, I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know who’s lying, or who’s telling me the truth.”

  “You need only believe in me,” he said, his hands resting firmly upon her shoulders. “I would never lie to you. And it is time you learned the truth.”

  He guided her along the corridor and into the principal’s office. With Alu already there, the masked Corrupted strolled over to Monica seated and bound in the centre of the room. Glassy-eyed and hunched over in the chair, Monica failed to respond, or even register acknowledgement of her entry.

  “What have you done to her?” She asked the masked Corrupted, trying to hide from her voice the disgust she felt.