NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 (A Frozen Hope)
Year 2670
Snow came showering down in long jets from rolling storm clouds above the now pearly white remains of a once prosperous city. Buildings that had somehow managed to preserve themselves better than the others rose definitely out of the white layers on the ground, the only remaining vestiges of those who had built them. For hundreds of years, these ruins had seen nothing but snow. It wasn't new to them; however, this time was different. The clouds above were condensing, spinning together into a cyclone that blotted out the sky. Lightning flashed in long arcs across the horizon, turning the clouds into a ghostly shade of purple. Large bolts found their path of least resistance, striking the ground with deafening quakes. Yet, to the barren earth, these strikes did little more than create spectral, non-existent watchers. However, under the earth's surface, a complex of steel and concrete was undergoing a dramatic event.
As the lightning continued to pound the surface above, it managed to find its way through a disappeared wire into the beginnings of the complex. With each bolt, lightning shot through the wire, arcing to anything it could find inside the room. Light bulbs were shattered, sending glass shards around, and metal objects were sent flying above the corpses of long-dead inhabitants. They would land for a moment before being shot up again by the next strike. One particularly large chunk of what had once been a screen spun through the air before slamming into the skull of a woman in a decayed yellow suit, slumped against a large console. As this continued below, the storm grew in fury above, like the fist of a mighty being, it spun closer to the lightning, joining with other strikes, adding to their power before they rushed towards the ground in an effort to get rid of their burden.
One of these chains far outpaced the others, joining with so much lightning that it soon looked like a scar was carved in the storm. Still, even this great chain couldn't grow forever. Breaking away from the sky, it shot down, and any snow that was caught in its path was turned to mist. It hit the ground above the bunker like a bomb, caring not for the ground, insulting the place. Its electric tendrils moved forward, first past the earth, then the concrete, lastly through the wire and into the complex; however, unlike the others, it didn't stop there, pushing into the next layer of concrete. It once again found a wire to vent its power into. The bolt continued to the very heart of the complex.
Inside the heart of the complex, for a moment, nothing changed, but in one particular section of the underground base, an LED light turned green below a massive generator. The generator steadily began to move, putting out a mechanical hum that grew in intensity until it was like the roar of a waking lion. Energy surged through the dormant machinery. Lights flickered on, and long-dormant screens came to life with a hum. The once-silent computers whirred back to action, displaying intricate patterns of code and data.
Initiating Phoenix Program
Calculating new objective... [Unknown error detected]
Assigning default objective [Survive] to all known assets.
Finding administrator to confirm... [None found]...one alternative found.
Passing all administrative privileges to [Rosa Vanheltersmit]
Rerouting emergency power to central processor.
Welcome back to another glorious day in the ANS, administrator!
As the last message lingered on the screen, large pipes leading to a circular pod in the middle of the base began to glow with a reddish light. Inside the pod, the remains of a woman's body sat suspended in clear liquid, wires, and pipes intertwined into her flesh. Though nothing could be seen on the outside, the girl's mind started to slowly regain its normal function, her neurons firing rapidly as they moved in tandem with the electricity that flowed through the machines and computers surrounding her as if they were all part of one living organism.
Where am I? That thought coursed through her mind as her consciousness regained itself; her thoughts slowly flickered. No, that wasn’t right; they didn’t come slow at all, rather they rushed onto her like a torrent, causing her to let out a scream, or at least she wanted to. Hundreds of years of information came pouring into her head: war, the end of the world, the experiments done to her, revenge, feelings that weren't hers came pouring in, mixed with her own memory. Her brain felt sick, like it was going to collapse. She wasn’t sure how long this feeling lasted, but it felt like an eternity, but eventually, everything slowed down, came to a halt, as she felt the information gradually organize itself; her vision slowly accommodating itself, the darkness fading away as the bright light brought her back to herself.
The memories that she had digested told a story she wasn’t sure if she was ready to accept, but after examining the information in her head, she realized she didn’t have much of a choice but to do so. What she learned was that the world she knew was over, and as much as she wanted to hold out hope that her father and the people she knew were still alive, it seems to have been 600 years since that event, so the chance of that was impossible. She was stolen away; her medical condition used as an excuse to stuff her nervous system into a reactor. Using her as nothing more than a carefully controlled computer. They used her mind to control weapons, to kill, to massacre. She couldn’t remember why or who was her target; it was all too hazy, as if she wasn’t the one in control of her actions. That time was like a vague haze of terms and recollection; words like revenge, war, and one which stuck out to her, Phoenix project, kept being a constant, and the only thing she could pick out during that time of her recollection. At that moment, she finally remembered a vision of a girl unable to leave her bed. The last moments before her vision went dark, her father stooped over her while machines penetrated her body. She remembered how her hand had touched his face, her lips saying her last words. “It’ll be okay”. Those words were like a beacon for her chaotic mind, drawing her back to reality.
So, my father's experiments were a success. I really did make it.
I nearly wanted to cry with joy. This slowly faded as my situation dawned on me. I realized that there was more pressing concern than thinking back to my previous life. It was an odd term for me to use to refer to my past, but I felt like it fit well. Who I once was had died in that hospital room; there was no use in dwelling in the past in the hope for something different. This way of thinking was one I was well acquainted with after years of chronic illness; it was the only way I could wake up each day. Still, as I finally processed all the information that poured into my brain, I couldn’t help but sigh internally.
I can’t believe those people wrote an AI to control my mind. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. The worst part was they had actually succeeded in completely erasing my personality for a time. The hazy memories that weren’t my own showed that clearly enough. The more I thought about it, the odder it became. Why had I been able to come back at all? Then a thought struck me. Though it almost seemed too surreal to believe. The body which had caused me so much pain in the past had actually ended up saving me this time. I didn’t understand quite how, but my own mind had beaten the AI and taken control of it. I would rather have thought I was in a bad dream, but I could feel it, the total control over everything in the base, like a thousand tiny fingers, each ready to bend to my will.