Chimera (The Weaver Series Book 1)

by Vaun Murphrey

  Someone had sectioned the large space into different workout stations to the left and right. On my right was a whole series of weight equipment, everything from free weights with benches to complicated machines with pulleys and padded seats. On my left, there were elliptical machines, treadmills, and stationary bikes all lined up ready for use. People milled randomly about using the facilities and chatting.

  A slightly musty damp smell layered the air, and I wondered if it was because we were underground or if it was the humidity from everyone’s sweat. Malcolm continued down the middle aisle, and I saw another set of doors with only one side propped open. I glimpsed what looked like a raised arena or boxing ring ropes. It was hard to tell from this distance with Malcolm’s broad shoulders blocking my line of sight.

  When we drew even with the open door, Malcolm turned. “Men’s to the left and women’s to the right. Claim a locker. Stay in sock feet for the mats and meet me right here. Leave your coats.” Malcolm reached over, spun Kara in an about-face, and took back his big coat. “See you in five minutes.”

  James gave me a quick smile then sauntered off behind Malcolm after he handed me my bag. Kara and I were left standing in a narrow hallway that separated the room we’d come through from another large room that had punching bags and various sparring equipment against the far wall. I could indeed see a boxing ring along with an area covered in thick mats.

  I turned in the indicated direction of the women’s locker room and realized I needed to use the bathroom. My stomach was flipping and flopping with urgency.

  Kara saw my panic as my insides gave a loud, embarrassing gurgle. She hustled me by the upper arm down the hall. I concentrated inward trying not to poop my pants like a two-year-old. There was a row of bathroom stalls. The door had a lock, but I was out of time. I’d never been as glad for elastic-waisted pants as I was at that moment. I hoped Kara was the only one out there, but I knew I wasn’t that lucky.

  Silver said in a soft voice quite unlike her, “I’m sorry, Sister. It’s a physical reaction to all the sugars forced into your system so quickly, plus our body metabolizes fuel fast. What we consume goes through our intestines at light speed. I’ll try to make some adjustments without causing more problems. This is my fault for fiddling so much lately and experimenting. We’re worn out. I promise to be more careful and not take chances. I also promise not to hit Maggie in the nose…again. I know you care about her.”

  Silver's sudden change of attitude thoroughly aroused my suspicion. “You aren’t a god, Silver. You know so much it’s frightening, but have you ever considered in the broad scheme of things, it’s just enough knowledge to be dangerous? Because you know how to do something doesn’t always mean you should. That said, if you feel like turning over a new leaf of cooperation and goodwill, I’m amenable. We didn’t use to be this way, Sister. I want what I remember.”

  Silver sent a sound through my mind reminiscent of a sigh. “We could have died today if we hadn’t been in the infirmary. I don’t want to lose this life we have together, even if it’s only part of a life for me in the physical world.”

  Empathy reared its head as I imagined how it must feel for Silver to be trapped in the Web most of the time. No wonder she knew so much about it—it was her only escape. She had protected me and kept me sane during our incarceration. I thought at Silver as my stomach seized, “Can you feel my pain when I hurt?” I tried not to gasp out loud as the intestinal cramping reached a peak.

  “It depends. Right now, yes I can, and I’m sorry, Sister. If I’m in the Web, I only feel an awareness.”

  Kara’s fingers gripped the top of the door, and I saw her feet shift position on the concrete floor. After that last round of cramps, it seemed like my innards had stopped trying to rebel. I got myself together and flushed. I stood there a moment taking stock of my body and all of its various aches and complaints.

  I thought to Silver, “I’ll live, Sister, and so will you. I promise to work on us if you do. There has to be a better way. If I teach you about living in the world and give you more access to piloting our body, can you teach me what you know about the Web?”

  Silver’s spirits soared. “Done and done, Sister.”

  I knocked on the stall door since I couldn’t get it open with Kara holding it closed. Her fingers disappeared, and I pulled it inward. A row of sinks with mirrors appeared. I saw my reflection, and I looked terrible. My skin was pale. My eyes were sunken in with dark circles and my lips were bloodless and dry looking…awesome.

  “You alright?”

  Kara’s face held concern, not disgust, and I was grateful. She was turning out to be someone I wanted to know. I gestured toward the sinks. As I started to take off my coat, she helped me without making a fuss. The cold water felt good when I washed my hands, so I leaned down and splashed it on my face several times getting my hairline all wet. My hair was sticking out when I looked up.

  Blonde hair caught my attention in the mirror as someone passed behind us. The profile looked vaguely familiar, and sure enough, it was the girl from outside the school yesterday who had made the comments about the Council and my impending execution. Now that I could see her more clearly she reminded me of Harris; with a small build and freckles, she could have been his fraternal twin.

  She offered a look of repugnance and said just loud enough for me to hear, “What died in here?”

  Kara’s straightened, and she looked like she might launch herself in the girl’s direction like a leggy attack dog. I put a hand on her arm and shook my head. Malcolm and James were waiting. Plus Gerome’s words of warning had stuck. No fights. Especially with someone who was likely a Harris.

  We walked into another area with lockers, benches, and half a dozen shower stalls toward the back. At least, the stalls had curtains. I wasn’t up to shedding all of my clothes with an audience today. We found a locker with an orange key to indicate its emptiness, shoved all of our belongings in it then locked it with a metallic click.

  Neither one of us had pockets or was wearing a bra, so Kara ended up stuffing the key in the top of her sock. She led the way out to the hall. When we got to the training room doors, it was only James waiting.

  “The class was getting restless, so Malcolm went in. He said you girls should sit on the pile of extra mats to observe.” James smiled briefly and then went through the open door.

  The room had a lot more people in it than I had seen earlier. At first, there was a quiet hum of conversation, and then some silence, and more whispering as Kara and I passed. Malcolm stood by the mats James had mentioned. The age range of the crowd seemed to be anywhere from thirteen to eighteen if I was an accurate judge.

  Not all of them were interested in me, some of them stared at Kara. I could tell it made her uncomfortable. I nudged her with my whole body, and when she looked down, I said, “You know you can stand by James and follow the class. I’ll be okay on my own.”

  Her smile was tight but real since it made the corners of her eyes crinkle. I thought it was incredible Silver had healed the scratches on her face I had doctored only yesterday.

  “I’m with you. There are always the gawkers.”

  “James said you guys moved around a lot.”

  We were about even with the pile of mats when Malcolm glanced our way to make sure we were settled then raised his hands to the class. Without any yelling for quiet, that one gesture caused the hum of voices to cease. Everyone spread out evenly. As Kara and I sat, I spotted James at the back. He was easy to see since his dark hair stood a head taller than almost everyone else.

  Malcolm leaned down and turned on some classical music on a small black jam box. The sound of it carried to the whole room and muted the rustling of those gathered.

  When the music had played a few notes, Silver said, “Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals.”

  I settled more comfortably next to Kara, pulling my knees to my chest then letting myself lean on her side. Cracks lined the edges of the mats from wear and tear; th
e bright blue plastic shine was worn away by use. You could see the white canvas breaking through and fraying. I watched the class with unfocused eyes and Silver interpreted their slow, graceful movements as Tai Chi.

  I set my forehead on my knees and pretended to sleep as I thought, “I need to know more about our parents. How can I access their memories in the Web?”

  Silver chuckled. “That’s a fundamental skill I can teach you anytime. If you want to know about our parents, I’ll just send you everything I’ve got.”

  With that as my only warning, images and sounds began to flash behind my closed eyelids like the fastest movie on record but not. I was in some of the scenes, and in others, I could tell they were from one or the other of my parents’ point of view.

  The torrent of information was exhilarating but also disorienting. It almost felt like I was living the memories that weren’t my own, which was confusing until Silver nudged me to feel the difference. The flow was less natural for memories that weren’t mine. They felt rough like a piece of sand paper in my mental ‘fingers’ that could only be held briefly, not permanently stored.

  I saw an image of me through Mother’s eyes when I was about three or so, sitting at a table drawing and writing my name on a piece of construction paper with crayons. In messy scrawl next to a picture of a rainbow, I had written proudly, Cassandra Rainbow.

  In a rush, some of my suppressed memories came to the fore, and I could feel my father Declan’s hand on my hair as he read me a book on some evening in the past, his deep voice a soothing comfort against my ear.

  It still made me angry and sad they were gone.

  Unsuccessfully, I tried not to see the images of my parents’ deaths, but they rolled on in my mind’s eye. We’d been in bed asleep when I heard a loud boom on the front door. Mother screamed, and Father yelled. The men who broke down the door in our tiny apartment never spoke. Their gear was similar to something a police tactical team would wear, possibly to seem official if there happened to be any witnesses. Single file, they had moved past my room on the way to my parents’ bedroom. I heard a sound of compressed air with a small pop. Mother screamed again. It was cut short by another pop.

  I remembered my fear and how I had clutched the sheets in my fist. When the men came for me, I couldn’t let them go. They had to pry my fingers apart in the hall before they could leave. As they worked, I had glimpsed into my parents’ dim room. Father sprawled face up on their bed, eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling. His arms and legs flung out. The only thing I could see of Mother was her small feet at the edge of the doorway on the floor. The anger and the grief never faded for me. Not enough to let me view what had happened with any sense of objectivity.

  I asked Silver, “Why did they take us? Why kill Mother and Father? I asked Maggie and Gerome, but they’ve put me off every time. It couldn’t have been just for me to be a host body for the Soul Eater, could it? Some of the things they’ve alluded to make me think it’s dangerous for any Weaver to be outside a compound. Why?”

  An immense weight of knowledge and regret pressed behind the words Silver shared.

  “There is a war that stretches back hundreds of years. I doubt anyone could tell you the exact start. A civil war between opposing Weaver factions. Gerome told you the story of the Soul Eater, but he didn’t say most Weavers think the story is a fairy tale told to frighten youngsters regardless of what evidence their ancestors’ memories hold.”

  Silver paused either for effect or to gather her words.

  “Things get lost with the passage of time, either due to denial or disuse. For one thing, did you know the Web used to be called the Collective? In recent years, Weavers took to calling it the Web, so when they were speaking in public, no one would get suspicious. If you ask most of the kids our age if they have ever heard of the Collective, they would say no. Even some of their parents have forgotten. If I search for the term Collective and reach as far back as I can, eventually I run into a religion based on it.”

  I was intrigued. “And?”

  “Sometime after the Soul Eater’s appearance in history and at the start of the spread of Christianity in Europe, a sect of Weavers sprang up. They believed God had created man in his image, but not all humankind; solely Weavers. They sought out any spontaneously occurring Weavers in the population and indoctrinated them into their way of life. Any other Weaver clans who failed to convert were sought out and destroyed as heretics until almost everyone who could, had gone into hiding. The surviving non-sect Weavers were scattered and powerless.

  “Bloated on power and arrogance, this sect of zealot Weavers forgot to mind the humans and were almost wiped out in a political conflict that raged for years in Europe. What rose from the ashes on both sides of the Weaver lines is roughly what exists today.

  “For Weaver compounds like this one, the whole purpose used to be to provide a haven for spontaneous Weavers to learn about what they are and for families to feel safe when they weren’t out in the regular human population searching for more of us.”

  I could feel Silver’s growing anger.

  “What compounds like this have become is a hole to hide our heads in the ground as the opposition gains strength and numbers. As Gerome said, we’re coming to a breaking point. It’s so bad the Council is leaning toward classifying any new Weavers found in the general population as ‘contaminated’ in a flimsy excuse to end the search for new members and hide themselves away. Fear makes people do terrible things.”

  Determination consumed me suddenly. I realized it was Silver’s emotions bleeding into mine as she informed me of yet more.

  “The opposition, however, has changed into a militant force taking what it wants when it wants. The current generation calls them the ‘Warp Faction’ or ‘Warps’ for short. Warps have taken to calling us rebels and declaring us traitors against our race.

  “I believe, as does Gerome and a few others that side with him, that the Soul Eater is the leader of the Warp Faction. It seems they’ve learned to be more circumspect throughout the years to avoid any unwanted attention from Outsiders as they honed their techniques for searching out Weavers, spontaneous and not, out in the world.”

  Fury filled Silver’s tone at this point. I found I could understand and match with my own.

  “We were a victim of a Warp raid. I would imagine it’s the best of both worlds for Laser Eyes. He gets to add to his numbers and collect possible hosts all at the same time. Very few, if any, of his followers, would even have to be aware of what he does to extend his ‘life’. If they know, maybe they worship him as a prophet of God or something? Anything is possible. I haven’t come in direct contact with Warps in the Web, but if I do, I intend to find out what I can. If I run into the Soul Eater…well, we’ll just see. ”

  I rubbed my forehead against my knees and thought to Silver, “Can we beat Laser Eyes? We know almost nothing about him. What if he can do everything we can do but ten times better?”

  Admiring the graceful movements of various arms and legs moving almost in unison, I waited for Silver to answer. Kara shifted and scooted her bottom sideways on the mat so she could rest her head more comfortably on my shoulder.

  “When Laser Eyes touched us and tried to force the attachment, it gave me some insight into what he does and how he does it. I would say his skills versus ours are indeed stronger, but in my mind, he felt like brute force. Whereas what you and I do together has finesse. I don’t know if I can describe it any better than that. I promise not to take any chances without including you in the decision. I also know Gerome is right, and our people need to stop running and start fighting, or we’ll go extinct.”

  “Agreed, so why are you fighting me telling Maggie because Gerome would find out about ‘us’? It sounds like you agree with our uncle’s strategy, Silver, so what’s the hang-up?”

  A wavering of thought and a loss for coherent rationale had surfaced before she answered.

  “I don’t trust the ‘friend’ that helped Gerome r
escue us from our cell. What I felt from his mind while it occupied Gerome’s was pure anger, bright and focused. This ‘person’ must have proved his worth and trust in some way to our uncle, but he hasn’t to me. There’s another motive afoot here besides establishing communication between galaxies. I just don’t know what it is yet. I did learn how to copy the transport trick he used, though. It’s so simple I’m surprised no one has thought of it on Earth yet.”

  I tucked my head back into my knees and tried not to sigh out loud. My nose wrinkled in vexation.

  “Silver, did you learn nothing today? I don’t want to end up shredded into tiny molecular chunks in the Web because you want to try a new trick. Besides, it hurt like hell, and we passed out for a whole day last time.” I thought for a second and added, “So we’re going to try and kill the Soul Eater? Can you find him in the Web since he touched us?”

  “Absolutely we are going to kill the Soul Eater. I think we should be in better shape to do it, and we need to be away from this compound. It isn’t as secure as the Council seems to think it is.”

  Silver paused to let her suspicions sink in.

  “In answer to your question about finding him in the Web…I’ve tried and I haven’t found him. Laser Eyes either knows how to hide, or I’m not as good at finding people as I think I am. We should also do something to pull our people together fast, or they’ll all end up dying out. Any ideas, Sister?”

  She said the last without her usual sarcasm which gave me hope we could do this if we worked together. I drew out a logical plan. “First we observe, recruit, and then we plan, and then the attack. While we’re in observation mode, getting our strength back, I need us to perfect our roles. I want to know more about the Web, and you need to know more about the physical world. If you’re ever in trouble, I should be able to help you and vice versa.”

  Silver’s presence hummed with satisfaction and the excitement of having a purpose together. “Agreed. I’ll show you some things tonight after we go to bed. Nighttime is the best time for us to train in the Web. I know our body needs sleep today to recover so we can keep it short.”