Victernus - Chapter 16
Namara trod on the sidewalk of the
street to the left, opposite from Athius. The dark, sterile metal felt cold
under his paws. Because he couldn't feel any wind, his tail felt very out of
place - even though he was moving. In order to keep his balance, he clenched his
remaining hand and dug lightly into his skin with a claw, focusing on the pain.
The awkward feeling did not go away, but it lessened just enough so that he wouldn't
trip over himself.
The street was mostly closed off to the outside,
except for a couple sections where the bland grey buildings didn't quite meet
and he could see out into the cavern. There was usually a railing there, as the
city was raised several feet off of the ground. Any children who went near it
would probably have fallen to their deaths without it.
A few feet in from the edge, lines of flying lights
rested above both sides of the road and followed it wherever it went. He
pondered about how they could float there without a power source or any sort of
visible propulsion. Perhaps they were holographic projections or they were held
up by some sort of magnet. However, because Namara could not see any projectors
and he felt no resistance with his implants, he abandoned the theories.
The road seemed to curve around the
center of the city and meet back with the other one on the opposite end. Other
streets branched off to the side, but he ignored them. He had one goal in mind,
and he either had to search some sort of database or talk to the leader to find
it. He was somewhat afraid of what he would find, and the thoughts that accompanied
this were weighing down on him. The idea that his friends may have died long
before, unwelcome to the new world, was looming behind him like a monstrous
phantom.
In relative silence, Namara
continued to think about his situation. He still hadn't encountered anyone, so
it made sense that they either had some sort of curfew or they knew he was
coming. Hoping that the former was true, he refrained from knocking on any
doors or calling the townspeople out. Although Athius had told him that the
people were receptive to new science, he still felt like he might be treated like
an animal.
When he reached the part where the
roads joined into one, the road continued forward and led to a great palace.
Lit up by the same floating lights, a bridge constructed purely of gold marked
the way in. The entrance to the building was announced by an enormous wooden
vaulted door, and arches of a similar shape covered the path to it. The walls
of the main building were made of white marble, and the spires on both sides
were capped with rubies. Annoyance filled Namara when he witnessed its twisted beauty.
Once again, it seemed to him as if the people were being led by some kind of
dictator or a class of elites.
He was ready to step forward and
find out what was there for him, but a sound echoed from somewhere behind him.
Because of the lack of wind, he could not determine exactly what. Not wanting a
confrontation, he kept himself from making any sudden movements. He called out,
"Are you a friend, or are you here to cause trouble?"
A deep, ghost-like voice entered his
mind. Follow us.
In the street, he saw a shadow on
the ground that moved back towards one of the houses that he had passed. He
tried to ascertain if he was being watched before following the shadow across.
When it reached the house, it slipped through the door as if there was nothing
there.
Namara stepped past the two-foot grassy
yard in front of the house and then knocked on the door. There came no response
for several minutes, but when he knocked again, a woman's voice came through.
She asked, "Who's there? You know you aren't supposed to be out right now!"
He crossed his arms and tested,
"Namara. A sort of shadow thing told me to come here..."
She gasped and then opened the door,
looking up at him. "Namara?!" she whispered.
His eyes widened as he returned
quietly, "Mahalia? What are you doing here? You're... still young."
Mahalia seemed a bit surprised - not
only because her friend was standing before her, but because he was wearing
implants. She responded, "I've been waiting... What happened to you?"
Namara resumed his normal speaking
voice and said, "Oh, I got into a bit of an accident... It's kind of blurry now,
but some people helped me get back on my feet."
Mahalia acknowledged this and then
shushed him gently. She took his arm and pulled him inside before shutting the
door. "You need to stay quiet; you're out past the curfew."
He nodded and then glanced around
the empty grey living room. It connected to their dining room and kitchen,
which only had counters, a refrigerator, and a stove. He tilted his head, "So,
where is everything? And where are the others?"
She paused and then pointed to the
center of the living room, "Stand there. We need to make sure that you really
are Namara first."
Namara stepped into the middle of
the room and then spoke humbly, "Whatever you need, I guess."
Mahalia whispered something into the
collar on her black jacket and then Namara felt a tingling sensation traveling
down his back. He shivered as the fur around his spine stood on end. When the feeling reached his toes, his eyes
were opened. A scanning device stood around him, connected to several computers
that had many wires. Theo was sitting down before one of them, wearing his old
black jacket. Even though it had been a long time, there were still no signs of
aging in his face or his hair.
Namara rested his hands against the
machine around him and then asked, "Is everyone here?"
Mahalia sighed, "Kyon is sleeping,
as usual. He's been very depressed lately. We've all been through it. Josh..."
He watched her, anticipating, and
then asked, "What?" Because she seemed to drift off, he looked back at Theo.
Theo fumbled with his hands and
reflected, "Just before things started to collapse in the old world, Dr. Lynn
managed to become president. Don't ask me how he did it, but he did. He
increased the searches for us in an attempt to find you - he wanted your
research pretty badly. They nearly got us a couple times, and at one point, Josh just gave up. He wouldn't leave, and he wouldn't let us take him. We had
to leave him there. A few days later, he was executed on national TV. His face
was beaten up... It looked like he was already dead inside. And then Lynn said
that what they showed there was all your philosophy could give humanity."
Namara avoided making eye contact
with them as he felt both grief and anger building up within him. He growled
and asked, "Lynn knew about it?"
He nodded and continued, "Yes... When
you were in stasis, I ran some scans on you for the week that we could stay
there. It took me several years to decode the information I had found, but we
were able to make sense of some of it. I published some of it anonymously at
first, but people seemed to like it. I named you as the creator and said that
you were going to return soon to show them all of it. Lynn did not hesitate to
ban even speaking of it."
"But I never came..."
Mahalia sat down on a black wooden chair
outside of the scanning device and encouraged them, "Not then, but now. And now
is the best time. The collapse was coming whether people held your philosophy
or not. Now that there's so few people left, we can show them much more easily and
finally break the hold that's on them."
Namara stepped out of the scanner and
paced around the tile flooring in the kitchen. He pondered their story for a
few moments and then rested his hands on a counter, facing away from them. His
tail drooped as he heaved a great sigh. "Did I do this?"
Mahalia's voice sounded from the
living room, "What do you mean?"
He closed his eyes when one of his
ears twitched. He continued, "What if when this is over, it's not what we had
hoped for? Will Chomp... or anyone else... have died for nothing? Would you hold me
to that?"
He heard her sigh behind him,
"Namara..."
The sound in the room disappeared as
they were all lost for words. An uncertain fear settled within Namara, tugging
at something in the back of his mind. It had always been there, but he had
always managed to stop it from manifesting. Now that it presented itself, he
felt like he might have made a mistake. Its crushing power was finally unleashed.
Theo broke the silence, "Well, if we
all stop now, he will have died for
nothing. We all made sacrifices - and not because we were being led blindly by
you, but because we made an effort to be your friends. Besides... what I found
from my scans on you was actually pretty interesting."
Namara turned to him and then leaned
on the edge of the counter. He questioned curiously, "What exactly did you
find? I can barely begin to describe the Koanthanatus..."
When Namara's gaze fell to the
floor, Theo responded, "It's quite simple actually." He left his station and
then stood by his friend, looking at the floor as well. "And from what we saw,
it's something that a lot of people want."
Namara stared at Theo and mumbled,
"Go on."
He continued, trying not to get
mesmerized by Namara's bright blue eyes, "Think of it as beginning with a state
of being where you can let anything roll off your back. Where you can forgive a
person instantly but still maintain a boundary between yourself and them so
that they can't trample all over you. If you get used to it, you'll practically
radiate happiness! Of course, not all the time - life still has its ups and
downs... But you can live so much more freely. It is both a human concept, and
not..."
Namara clutched the edge of the
counter and tightened his grip. His muscles hardened and his body grew rigid.
The air in his lungs thinned. Tension rose up his chest, approaching his neck.
Staring down the floor again, his voice shook, "Yes. I s...see it now... How can it
be that simple?"
Theo shrugged, "I'm not sure... Are
you okay?"
He struggled further and shook as Theo's
words shot the choking feeling up his neck, "All this t...time... I j...just w...wanted..."
He gulped down some air, "...wanted someone to... t...t..." His body weakened and fell
slowly, and when he reached the floor, he hyperventilated sporadically. He put
his prosthesis up against his chest and tried to calm himself, but to no avail.
He blinked. Mahalia was crouched
down beside him. Her voice barely registered, "Hey, what's this about? You'll
be okay."
He shook and curled up into a ball
on the cold floor beneath him. The notion that what he was looking for was so
close to him, and yet nobody would stop to offer it to him, was overwhelming.
Tears streamed out of his eyes, staining the light fur on his face a darker
color. When he felt Mahalia's hand on his shoulder, he mustered, "I just wanted
a friend... Someone to really love me and not go away..."
Mahalia hugged his shaking frame and reassured
him, "I love you, Namara. I'll always be here for you. You don't need to
worry."
Namara trembled and asked, "Can
anybody promise that?"
She reassured him softly, "Sure they
can."
When he thought about it further, his
fear transformed into anger. He growled and tried to stop his shaking, pushing
himself slowly off the floor with his hands. "So many 'friends' have promised
this to me... and even before you put me into stasis, they were all gone."
Mahalia sighed and sat against the
refrigerator, "They weren't close to you, Namara. We are, and we can't really
go anywhere else anyway."
Namara grabbed the top edge of the stove
and pulled himself up. He spoke quietly, wiping his face dry with his hand, "How
can you still be attached to me, after all this time? I lose any sort of
connection towards people within days... For you, it has been many years."
She disagreed, "We took turns going
into stasis, and sometimes had a computer running the whole thing. It really
hasn't been that long - only a few years. There wasn't much else to do anyway
though, with how the world just decided to crash..."
He watched her reflectively, "Oh..."
Mahalia stood up and held his hand
and his prosthesis intimately, "We're here because we didn't want to abandon
you, Namara. And now, you can find what you are looking for."
A smile spread across his muzzle
slowly. He bent his knees and his back to get on her level before pulling her
into a hug. With his free hand, he rubbed the back of her shoulder softly. "I
will. I know how to now." A few seconds after he felt Mahalia's arms around
him, he pulled away and asked, "What are your
plans now?"
She smiled, "We were planning to
leave this place once you came back. Theo said that he's been working on
something, though I'm not sure what it is yet..." She glanced off to the side in
thought, "I should probably ask him about that."
Namara looked to where Theo had been
standing, but he wasn't there or in the living room. He furled his brow in
confusion, "Where did he go? I didn't see him leave..."
Mahalia covered, "I told him to
leave after you started to... you know. I guess you were really out of it."
He nodded softly, "I see."
She took a more prominent stance and
asked him, "Now, do you still want to tell people about that thing, or...?"
Namara took a long sigh before
reciprocating, "I have to. I'm sure you know already, but something seems very off
with this place. I also met someone on the way here who seemed to be
interested. I can't just let him go that easily."
She agreed, "I understand. Why don't
you get some rest? It's getting late, and we have a lot to talk about in the
morning."
He rested his hand on his forehead, "Yeah,
I guess you're right. Would you show me where I can sleep?"
Mahalia took his hand when he rested
it and then smiled, "Sure... come on."