Down in the Underworld

Chapter 25 - A message from beyond

In the movies from decades ago, when someone died the scene would fade seamlessly into the next and the characters would move on. Real life is very different. Eventually you have to admit that you’re now all standing around in a room with a dead body, and something has to happen. It takes a number of awkward minutes for that to sink in though, as the shock of a life exiting the world weighs on everyone’s hearts.

Eventually, Fury moved over to Hera and gently moved Cal out of her arms and away from her lap, laying him out on the ground. Then reaching out towards a nearby painting he pulled the white sheet covering it away with a whip of his hand, before flicking it out with ease. All eyes were now on him as the material floated down slowly and covered Cal’s lifeless body. As the sheet came to rest, Fury sighed sadly, and picking Hera up by her underarms pulled her into a hug. Responding immediately, she placed her head on his shoulder and burst into fresh tears. Around them, the rest of the group hung their heads and in their own way dealt with the situation.

‘What just happened?’ mumbled quietly Fizz, as she frowned at the floor, before walking off to a corner of the room so the other wouldn’t see her crying too.

‘I’ll send someone down to retrieve Cal’s body,’ said Deadeye solemnly as Lady wiped the tears from her eyes.

‘OK, OK, we’ve got to focus up here,’ Lady said suddenly, shaking her head, ‘we can mourn later, we’ve got a message from a creepy motherfucker to get to and a girl to go save.’

At the sound of her voice, everyone looked up at her sharply, but no one had the sense to argue.

‘Where are we going to watch to it? I don’t want to do it down here with Cal, it feels wrong,’ said Cato.

‘Let’s go back up, we can watch it in the hallway,’ offered Lady, turning towards the door they had originally come through and ascending back up the stairs.  

The other soon followed, and found Lady waiting for them in the hall, with the small metal hollovid stick in front of her on the ground.

‘Are you ready?’ she asked, and in response they all nodded or quietly murmured their assent, ‘OK, let’s see what we’re up against,’ she added as she bent down and clicked a little blue button on the tiny machine.

Instantly a screen appeared to float in front of them. It was slightly transparent, and filled with an image of the storage space downstairs, but there was something not quite right with the image. It shimmered in the middle like a mirage. As they all waited for something to happen, a voice broke the silence.

‘I can only assume that the girl Hera has delivered this message, and that you will watch it,’ it began, before stopping for a moment.

During the pause, though they couldn’t see it, on the screen the Ghost pushed a small button on its jumpsuit and suddenly was visible for all to see. The form before them was human in shape and appeared to be female, but at the moment its face was covered by a helmet. The suit itself was standard white, but with black lines here and there at the seams where the limbs joined the torso. A strange badge sat over the left breast and though it was off screen, down by the left wrist was a small control panel that consisted of a screen and a series of odd buttons that only someone familiar with the Mellion language would understand.

‘You have been an admirable challenge, Lady,’ the voice continued as the Ghost lifted its arms towards the suits helmet and with a sharp movement upwards it was removed.

There was an immediate intake of breath, and Lady quickly indicated she wanted the hollovid to pause. They all needed a minute to take this in. The creature standing in front of them was clearly humanoid but there were obvious differences. For a start her skin was a pale purple in colour, and she had gills on the side of her neck. Her eyes were a deep golden yellow, but the dark, black pupil was diamond in shape rather than the usual round dot and a light smattering of violet freckles dotted her cheeks. Other than that she was for all appearances human. Her dark hair, though ruffled from the removal of her helmet, hung over her shoulders and down her back. She was clearly a Mellion descendant, but Mellion with a large dash of human.

‘Wow,’ said Fury, taking a step backwards.

‘Is she Mellion?’ asked Cato staring wide-eyed at the screen.

‘I’ve never seen one before, I don’t know, she could just be …. from the Barrens maybe?’ said Hera slowly, weakly trying to use her medical training to explain what she saw.

‘The Barrens never turned anyone purple!’ exclaimed Deadeye, looking at Hera incredulously.

‘I guess not,’ Hera conceded.

‘I don’t think she’s Mellion,’ Lady said slowly, ‘I’ve seen them, or I’ve seen a picture somewhere, I remember them looking …. I mean they’re skin is usually a darker purple, and slightly scaly, this one is way too soft looking, and slimmer … they were a bulky people, right? This chick is way too skinny.’

‘So, what do you think then? Is she some kind of Mellion mutant?’ asked Fury, taking in every detail of the face on the screen.

‘Is that even possible?’ asked Deadeye.

‘I don’t know, and to be honest I don’t really care because whatever she is, she has our friend, I’ll turn it back on and we’ll see what she has to say,’ said Lady, leaning back towards the hollovid and motioning for it to play.

‘By now I assume you’ve figured out I’m neither human nor Mellion, but rather an unfortunate amalgamation of both races. Essentially a science experiment, a splicing together of two peoples, bound together through war and hatred, and DNA … reviled by all except my own kind,’ the Ghost continued, ‘I was not born, I was bred, created in a lab to become what we were ironically told is a “super soldier”. Involuntary volunteers to level the playing field and fight the Mellion on closer to our own terms. They wanted those who had lost everything and everyone and had nowhere else to go. They rounded us up. They wanted people without love or hope. People like me, who thought they deserved pain. Trying to escape our endless nightmares, our heads all full of guilt and shame.’

Here, the Ghost paused for a moment to look down, a single pale blue tear ran down its cheek and left a small mark on the pure, white suit it was wearing.  Angrily she reached up and brushed the stain away before wiping her left cheek and continuing with her story.

‘We’re very good at what we were created to do. We’re designed to be killers, ruthless and efficient. Total destruction is our calling card. Get in and get out and leave nothing behind. Our REVK suits make us almost perfectly invisible to the naked eye. I’m sure you’re wondering how it works. Clever people like you always want to know everything. We move softly, but with great speed, we are neither empathetic nor sympathetic.  Anything close to emotion has been beaten out of us. We were made to win the Battle sooner for Humankind, prevent more needless deaths, and we did that, but no one would fight alongside us, relentless, fighting machines that we are – we were always sent in alone or in small groups. We were necessary, but not acceptable. And then, after the war was won no one wanted us around anymore … because we were mutants, deviants and unnatural. No one was thankful for the sacrifices we’d made, they didn’t welcome us home and pin medals to our chests … NO! Now they wanted us dead! To forget about us, put us to sleep before we could breed or Bowie knows what else they thought we were going to do in their small-minded, paranoid imaginations. Many of us were murdered, just straight up slaughtered … they tricked us – into gas chambers, shooting galleries … and any other methods the Snipers could find to get rid of us because they knew we could become dangerous. But that wasn’t even the worst part, and they enjoyed it! Word soon got out that we were being hunted down, and whichever of us could escaped. Now, all across this pock-marked planet we live, taking refuge in the catacombs under the cities, or out in the Barrens with the other rejects, even in the Dead West we survive. It’s a miserable life as I have no doubt you know yourself Lady, but don’t feel sorry for us, because justice is coming for us, and we’re going to have our revenge on Humankind. It’s coming for all of you – Over or Underworld it matters not. We will wipe you out, ungrateful creepy-crawlies that you are!’

Finally the Ghost paused, letting the manic look that had slowly come over her face during the course of her rant melt away. She looked calm again.

‘But that is yet to come …. Yes, all in due time,’ the Ghost smiled as it took a satisfied breath, ‘for now there is the matter of the machine, the tech you have that you know we want. By the time you finish listening to this I will have told Demise that you are here in Royale, of course I recognised you when you came looking for Cal,’ the Ghost smirked as Lady found herself inadvertently looking over the Ghost to the place where she’d been injured, ‘but rather than bringing him back here I’ve made sure you’ll come to us.’

The Ghost moved the hollovid camera to the left slightly so they could all see Phoenix bound and gagged behind her. Phoenix’s face was a mask of pure anger as she tried to scream in frustration. Mercilessly, the Ghost turned on her and with one solid punch, knocked her out cold. Suddenly everything seemed very, very quiet.

‘See, she is perfectly fine and will remain so if you bring us the tech within a week, otherwise I won’t be responsible for what happens next … or maybe I will, we haven’t decided that yet,’ the Ghost fairly beamed with pride at her own joke, ‘we’ll be waiting for you in the Old Bridge tunnels … I’m sure you’ll be able to find us, after all you wouldn’t want to lose your friend,’ the Ghost laughed out loud, and suddenly the screen went blank and the hollovid fizzed out, turning itself off.

‘What in the name of Bowie is going on here,’ Fury whispered to himself.

‘We’re being blackmailed,’ Lady said simply.