The Plan: Part 1

by J. A. James

  He felt the ropes around him tighten as he was lifted roughly. A dizzying swing disoriented him as rough hands grabbed the ropes around his arms.

  "Don't try anything foolish," a voice snarled. “And you might see the light of day once again.”

  CHAPTER 18

  His head pounded as he tried to move. Voices echoed around him as he tried to move against the ropes that seemed only to tighten when he did.

  "Griesen." A hollow voice sounded louder than the other murmurs around him. "We're going to find out if you are who you say you really are." An underlying threat lay beneath the gravelley tone of the voice.

  The bag over his head was suddenly loosened and unceremoniously ripped away.

  His vision cleared slightly, and he could see two men in green scrubs in front of him. They were wearing masks, and he saw one of them holding up a glass cup. Was it what he thought it was? Oh no.

  "Stay awake for the ride, Griesen," the voice holding the canister growled.

  Griesen began to shake. It was the Rileta worm. The flurorescent green worm that would crawl inside his mind and funnel his thoughts and memories into its body. It was a biological weapon developed by the Acruvae; it was not only deadly but also used as an instrument of torture. The extraction process was incredibly painful.

  Depending on what they were searching for, the worm could stay for minutes, or days. The level of pain was contingent on how deep the extraction would be.

  Griesen had never prayed before in his life, but he prayed now. He prayed the worm wouldn't leave him immobile; or worse, wipe his memories clean, which he had heard was also possible.

  The lid was removed and a thin pair of tweezers picked up the writhing object inside. Griesen automatically began to shudder in horrible anticipation. He used every last ounce of his strength to begin dissimilating from his body. There was no point in trying to hold on to the fear that he would be eaten alive…

  The tweezers moved towards him. Griesen could see the worm, with its centipede-like legs and dark body, wriggling and thrashing about. It was feisty… and hungry.

  Griesen watched, immobile, as the worm came closer to him. It was dropped onto his chest, and it writhed around for a minute in a frenetic fashion. It was a snake in heat. He felt the tiny suckers on its feet press on his body, sticky and leaving a slight trail of slime in its wake. Then it seemed to find itself again, and began crawling towards his face.

  He closed his eyes, his skin already crawling, despite his thoughts, his conscience, attempting to dissassimilate.

  A voice hissed at him: "Have you ever experienced anything like this, Griesen?"

  He didn't answer. He didn't see a point.

  "We'll find out who you say you are," the voice continued in a slow, sombre manner. "If what you say is untrue…well, I will make sure that we send a message to your superiors, that you can't just come down here. Like this. And think that we wouldn't discover it," the voice hissed.

  In Griesen's mind, he was already well on his way to removing himself from his body. And suddenly, he was there - he found his third eye looking down on himself and the three bodies that surrounded him, in the stark white room. He would feel hardly anything - hardly any of the pain which he presumed would be inflicted - now that he had removed himself from his human-adapted body.

  He couldn't see the faces of the figures that surrounded him. He only saw their figures, standing as they watched him.

  He saw his body contract, and began to jerk about spasmodically. It continued on for a few minutes, and then his body went limp. Was it over? Perhaps so.

  He closed his eyes and willed himself to get back into his body again. Willed himself… he almost didn't want to. Go back, that was. Part of him was so tired of it all… so tired of not knowing. So tired of not having a solution to it all…

  He opened his eyes, blinking away the dirt, coughing and doubling up into a fetal position in the process.

  Eventually, his coughing ceased, and he strained again to see...anything. This time, he could only surmise that he was in a locked room somewhere, where there was no natural light or moonlight. He closed his eyes. He needed to muster up the little strength he had left in him for what was to come.

  What was to come…

  Hours later, the clambering at the door woke him. He opened his eyes to a trio of large men who grabbed him by the arms, dragging him out of the door with them. His hands and legs were tied with rope; he could do little but let them take him.

  They dragged him for long minutes down a long, dank corridor that reeked of mildew and wetness. Their footsteps marked a steady staccato sliding briskly against the ground.

  They came to a stop. The sound of keys jangled. A door unlocked; and they unceremoniously dumped him into a chair in a cold, blindingly white room. By this time, Griesen's right eye had nearly swollen shut. He was clammy from the entire ordeal. His body was exhausted, aching.

  There was nothing in the room, save the floor was now cement, and the cavernous walls were white.

  "What is your name?"

  Griesen nearly jumped out of his skin at the words. The voice came from behind him, in a steady tone with a lilt to it that had been undetectable the first time round. The footsteps behind slowly walked their way in front of him.

  It was him - the leader, who now stood in front of him, looking Griesen squarely in the eye. The men had bound Griesen's hands to the chair behind him, so there was little chance of escape or ability to inflict any damage.

  “Griesen,” he said in a raspy voice.

  The man began slowly striding in front of him. He wore an ash-grey tunic with a blood red pattern inset in asymmetrical waves. He took a wooden chair from somewhere behind Griesen, and placed it two feet in front of him. He swept his tunic slightly beneath him before slowly sitting down.

  "I could have had you killed immediately. This would have been in line with our standard operating procedures, when we find intruders near our lair."

  Griesen continued to sit in silence.

  "Aren't you interested in knowing why I didn't?" the leader asked him then, in a surly tone.

  "I am sure you will be telling me whether I want to hear it or not," Griesen uttered. Alas, he spoke.

  The man laughed for a moment, his mouth twisting as his eyes bored into Griesen.

  "You," he then hissed. "You certainly are from...above."

  Griesen's heart stopped.

  The man suddenly lunged at Griesen, his hands thrusting to grab him at the neck. "You chose to dissimilate from your body. The worm hardly knew where to look.”

  He threw Griesen on the ground, and he gasped at the impact of his body hitting the cold cement, as the shock reverberated through him. Griesen knew immediately what he was saying – that his level of dissimilation prevented the worm from doing its job.

  "You are indeed a fool to come here," the man hissed at him, his eyes surging with a hate Griesen had only seen in a few Human cases previously. Those who were filled with venom for others. It was a death sentence for those who were the victims.

  The door behind him opened. A man came in, and whispered a few words into his ears. There was a minute's silence, for which Griesen strained to hear the words, but could only make out a few.

  Vessel... strobe... men...

  The man then turned to leave, and once again, they were alone.

  The leader stood again in front of him.

  "My men have conducted a thorough sweep of our land and surrounding regions. They turned up nothing... except for you. No shuttle, no team with you. No technology. How on Earth did you get here? In this wretched human form?”

  Griesen let out a laugh through his cracked lips. “I told you - the truth…” he coughed out.

  The man leaned towards him, crouching now. Griesen could now see a glimpse of a medallion he wore at eye level. Strangely enough, it looked oddly familiar. From where...?

  "But one thing. I found this on you." The man opened his palm, and dropped something in
front of Griesen’s feet. It fell with a clatter.

  Griesen’s eyes widened. It was the Orb.

  The man laughed again, bitterness creeping into his next words. "You recognize it. Good. Now... tell me something. What in the hell are you doing here, and why? Answer me... before I force it from you."

  Griesen looked at him now, his mind whirring. “I told you everything already.”

  A moment passed. Then, a hiss: "You're a terrible liar."

  Griesen felt a swift kick to his gut, and a correspondingly wrenching pain.

  "Do not forget your body is no longer impervious to the human conditions here on Earth. You have no suit for protection. You are very human, and you are certainly growing weak," he hissed at Griesen. "You'd better start talking or I'll gladly let you die here at the hands of my men."

  Griesen froze at his words, knowing that he was right. At this rate, he would grow weaker and weaker... He relented, bowing to the needs of his body.

  “I need your help,”" he uttered finally.

  Griesen could see the cheshire-cat smile even from the ground, his right ear feeling the dampness of the floor.

  The man grabbed the chair that Griesen was tied down to and jerked him violently upright again.

  Griesen groaned with the force of the sudden movement. His neck spasmed from a shooting pain coming from his shoulder through to his head.

  "What is the nature of your business here?" The man demanded. "You came alone. No knowing Acruvae would have done such a foolish thing... especially in this neck of the woods."

  "I told you. This was my last option." Griesen said. “I pursued a breadcrumb trail based on what a friend found. It took a lot of digging on her part. There wasn’t much to go on...it was a wild guess. But I didn’t have anything else. Or anyone else.”

  The man looked at him then, and emitted a high-pitched laugh.

  "She had the audacity to send you here…! I’d question her friendship if I were you. You're in Heilog, lad. Others who’ve found us have never left." He hissed the last words at him, throwing them at him like shooting darts.

  Heilog... His mind whirred. So, it was true. Heilog was another myth - the land of the lost souls. And he was now right in the center of it all.

  “Heilog," he whispered. Heilog was a legend amongst the Acruvae, one of the stories their mums and dads would tell while casting a spell of protection over them and their families in nightly rituals.

  Heilog was a place of horror, a bastion of sin and decrepitude for the soulless devils who chose to roam the Earth at night. Hell on Gaia was not imagined... it was here.

  The leader caught his look of terror and smiled a crooked half-smile. "Yes. You’re in Heilog proper now, and don't forget that I love to pick apart my enemies, piece by piece as I ask them my questions."

  "And yet you haven't done it with me," Griesen said, suddenly feeling a rising tide of anger, looking at him now through his eyes, one of which was so swollen it hardly could open. If this leader wanted to kill him, he would have already, without uncertainty, done so. He wanted answers. But what did this man want?

  “I’ll help you,” Griesen said. “You’ve seen my Orb. Let me prove to you I can be useful.”

  The leader paused, gazing at him silently at length before speaking.

  "My name is Mathias. Heilog is my land and I am proud to call this a very special place in hell." He spat out the last word, as if forcing out phlegm.

  “If what you are saying is true...that we can do a little trade,” Mathias continued. “I am familiar with your kind. Although it’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with one. Your self-righteous savior complex is beyond belief. Don't believe everything they tell you, though...but you seem a bit young. A bit naive. You seem like a believer.”

  At those words, the hairs on Griesen's neck stood up.

  “Our purpose is to help the Humans,” Griesen whispered.

  “Do you really think your people were so benevolent? Do you think your people designed Human destiny to help them or to feed off them like the cockroaches you truly are?”

  Griesen looked at him now with confusion and shock written on his face. The words were a cold slap to him.

  "Who are you?" Griesen whispered. ”And weren’t you one of us at one point?”

  Matthias laughed, and leaned forward. “We share a similarity, you and I. We are both traitors to the Acruvae.”

  Traitors. There was an odd resonance to his voice when he said those words as well, and despite Griesen's own exhaustion, he mentally tried to tap his mind into Matthias' thoughts as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

  He needed to know...

  Instantly, he was transported into a dark cell where the screams of men rang in his ears. There was only the spirit of defeated men here; trapped, angry and seething. Then, he saw Matthias being thrown against the cell wall as if by an invisible force. He was dressed differently - in the green robes similar to what he had seen on Ana-

  STOP!

  It was a cement wall that slammed through the vision. Griesen jerked, as a sudden pain wrenched through his body as he cried out. The shock jolted him from his chair to the floor in quivering spasms.

  Matthias was suddenly standing above him, his voice bellowing. "You do not get to use your dirty thought magic on me, do you understand?" he screamed, as he kicked Griesen again in the abdomen.

  Griesen had no time to scream; the air left his lungs in an instant, and he spat out blood instead. He rolled over once from the impact, his limbs growing numb from the tightness of being bound to the chair and being immovable. He gasped, lying still on his side, exhausted.

  Matthias came to kneel down, his face coming inches away from Griesen's.

  Griesen tried to control his breathing, but could not stop his heart from pounding. He was so weak.

  The shock of what he saw stayed with him. Matthias had been tortured by the Acruvae. But why?

  "We are going to work together, and you will choose to cooperate," Matthias said bitingly, his eyes digging into Griesen. "But first, here are a few ground rules.”

  Griesen felt a sharpness digging into his torso. Matthias was grinding his heel into his ribs. He winced at the radiating pain as Matthias continued. “Never pry into my mind and my memories. Do you understand?”

  Griesen managed to nod in response.

  “And secondly, you will only be kept alive for the duration you are useful to me.”

  “If you want revenge on them… I can help you,” Griesen rasped out.

  He felt Matthias listening as the pressure lifted off his body. He had to lay all his cards on the table. He had nothing to lose at this point. “Ana the High Priestess… I studied directly under her. She taught me many things about the Institute. I know their systems and how they operate. And I still have a loyal friend up there who can help me. She will. She helped me find you, after all.”

  Matthias was still silent. Griesen continued, undeterred. “She found you digging after breaking into the archives. She is talented... and loyal to me.”

  He paused for a moment. Somehow, he felt that loyalty was important to Matthias. They shared something now, he realized. They had both been betrayed by their own kind. They were both traitors.

  “For myself… I have a case down here. I need to protect her from them. From the very beginning, somebody didn’t want me pursuing it. To the point that she is in as much danger as I am.”

  Matthias stood up, brushing off his sleeves in the process.

  Griesen felt something wet drip down his face, and continue down his cheek. He could smell it. Blood.

  “Why though?” Matthias asked him, eyeing him sharply. “Why didn’t you just give up the case? There would be another.”

  Griesen shook his head. “I lost my parents down here on Gaia many Friels ago. The Institute could not give me any answers. I looked everywhere. I was so close to helping my case bridge - it was the only way I could find the answers to what happened to them, by coming down here to G
aia. I couldn’t wait for another Friel for a new case. It would have taken too long.”