by Davi Cao
Dalana sided with Colin, probing his lips with her shadow. He felt a pang in his heart, saddened by a mix of loss and hope, sure that resisting the World Voice required a big sense of self-pity. To tell his story again, to others who could understand him, he would risk getting too hopeful. He avoided Dalana’s proximity, talking to Oliver to ensure he left no opening to her insistence.
“You’ve been doing this work since the end?” he said.
“No, it’s recent. At first, they say there were lots of ruins from our world out there. Everything was melting and it seemed like that would be it.” Oliver shrugged.
“Yes, I thought so too. I even went to New York to see what was left.” Colin scratched a piece of wool.
“And what’s left there?” Oliver's voice failed. The other humans looked at him with expectation.
“It’s like a new mountain range. Instead of clusters of skyscrapers, we now have round gray mounds, pretty ugly to see. Anyway, when did you start collecting stuff?”
“When Ai.iA arrived. She found Dalana outside, when they were fleeing the World Voice, and she wanted to help her too. As you can see, we have nothing to do in here, so we came up with a few ideas, and then they noticed that some things refused to melt down completely and we asked them to bring it here so that we can see what’s different about them.”
“We have microscopes, chemical labs and lasers in the rooms back there,” Charlotte said. “We just ask and they do it for us. Hard to be more efficient than this, huh? I wish I had them with me back on Earth! I could make an empire with these powers.” She raised her arms up, looking at the ceiling.
“It sucks that we’re the dumbest crew you can find,” Zach said, swinging his ponytail. “Can you believe it, we even had to ask for a scientist.” He laughed. “Dalana here helped us out with that, the poor guy, oh, he sure helped us out, and we did take care of him, yes, we did, right, but he wasn’t sad, no, Dalana here can only make happy folks, so the Voice snapped him like a bug, ain’t that so?”
“Oh, the poor guy, he got crazy soon,” Charlotte said. “Back on Earth, I could make a genius out of him. People like him would earn good money.” She got her hands back to the table, picking up a mesh of disheveled hair.
“He got crazy, and then melted down ...” Colin said, blinking three times in a row.
“That’s right, we had to make this sacrifice,” Oliver said, scowling. “He gave us this idea of testing out whatever resists the World Voice, he was a good man. If things aren’t melting, they’ve got something that we must use.”
“It’s like a new ecology, a wasteland revealing its secrets, new colors and palettes to unravel.” Mat picked up two chunks of strange matter and hit one against the other.
A strong flash of light came out from the bang, blinding them all for a second. Mat stared at the others in terror, looking at his fingers in a rush. He dropped both pieces on the table to rub his fingertips. Dalana ran to him to take care of his wounds, relieved to see nothing bad. Ai.iA, on the other hand, nudged the fallen objects to hit them again, marveling at the flashes.
“New thing, new thing! Humans are great, I love humans, I do.” Ai.iA hopped in place, flashing the stones once again. “Good research, only the beginning. We are going to destroy you, destroy you!” She turned to OOOO, swinging her thicker rods.
“I think we should save these two in one of the rooms. It might be bad to risk losing them.” Oliver grabbed her by her thicker limb.
“No! put them in a separate bucket, but let’s take them to the test. These flashes are useless for us. Who knows what transformations might happen with more exposure.” Amanda grabbed Ai.iA’s other limb.
Ai.iA, an illiterate in science, born from a race that advanced by digging the ground and finding incredible artifacts, tried to replicate the flashing phenomenon with new material. She threw objects over piles of other stuff, hoping to catch anything unusual. Amanda watched her with impatience.
“Careful, my dear.” She patted Ai.iA’s upper head. “Study needs calm, you must keep calm. Let’s keep things in the buckets, ok? That’s our deal. Later we’ll test them to see more results.” Amanda forced a smile, checking on others.
“That will take too long! What if we can find other interactions with this stuff now? Where are the flashy ones? Give them to me, I want to see it again.” Ai.iA punched the table with her lower rod, bouncing.
She hopped over the scattered material to get to Oliver’s bucket, using her thick rods between heads to tap one piece on the other. The humans turned their heads in anticipation of the incessant flashes which, for all they knew, could be as dangerous to their bodies as to their eyes.
“Please, my dear, let’s not do this again here, ok?” Amanda said, her voice failing her with a squawk.
“We’re not gods, alright?” Charlotte squinted her eyes.
“You see this, huh? I’m going to kill the World Voice!” Ai.iA jumped in front of OOOO, who watched the scene with intense curiosity. “This is just the first step, be aware of that. We’re going to find powerful things, things that don’t fear sadness, that don’t melt down, and one of them will affect your depressing and boring creature and doom it forever!”
“Boring? My world is not boring, is it?” OOOO left its state of contemplation in reply to Ai.iA’s provocation.
“Yes, it is, a very boring place, boring, boring, nothing happens here, just the same Voice over and over and over and over, blah, blah, it’s a terrible world and mine will be much more impressive, much, much more.” Ai.iA punched the table hard to fly high up to OOOO’s eyes.
“Fine, go on! I’m intrigued about your discovery too, am I not? Yes, that’s interesting to me. And I want to laugh when you fail and give up. You will give up, won’t you? And your world will be insipid like all first worlds, so calm yourself down, you see? Get ready for lots of failures.”
An earthquake struck the laboratory, shaking its walls and the objects on the table.
“I am the worst ... Nobody loves me ... Nobody exists but me, it isn’t right ... How did I learn to think? Somebody exists ... Somebody abandoned me ...”
The Voice invaded Colin’s mind, bringing him down from the fire of Ai.iA’s discussion. His feet slipped and pushed him out of balance, he could hardly stand on the floor.
“It’s right above us! Run!” Ai.iA said, darting towards the corridor’s door.
“What, where? Take me out of this!” OOOO said, scared at the violence wreaking havoc in its mind.
“Come with us, we can flee in the tunnels!” Dalana grabbed one of its legs to pull its body along.
They raced through the corridor’s portal, aimed at the most distant door ahead, the one that would take them to the longest hole. Dalana stopped, peering at Colin, hushing OOOO with wavy hands to follow Ai.iA.
“Won’t you go with them?” Oliver glanced at Colin, his eyes glistening.
“I don’t have to. I know I am worthless, and I am not alone in this.” Colin nodded at Dalana, setting her free from doubt.
He sat down to avoid falling, accepting the floor’s trembling. Flashes of light exploded in the air as the stones collided against each other in the special bucket. The others joined him, waiting for the quake’s end, meditating about their insignificance in the universe and their upcoming deaths.
They were useless, they were alone in a dead world, they had no redeeming quality. And yet, they resisted, ready to die fighting for a different world, one in which they wouldn’t have to worry about those sad concepts.
“She likes us,” Laura said, her voice clearer now that the World Voice faded and the walls stopped shaking.
“Who? Ai.iA?” Colin said.
“Dalana. She’s a good person, a true angel sent by God, so don’t be mad at her. She was just curious about you.”
“Hm ... It’s common among them, I guess, this curiosity.”
“Among them? No, it’s among you. You’re a Creator too, right? Not a human anymore. She has more to do
with you than you do with us.” Oliver spoke in a harsh tone, scrutinizing Colin’s innocent face.
“That’s not right. We come from the same world, we speak of the same things.” Colin frowned at the man’s accusation.
“Yeah, but you’re never going to die, and we will. Think of the things you’ll see in the ages ahead. We’ll be long gone and she’ll be there with you. We die, you don’t.” Oliver curled on himself, leaning his chest against his knees.
“If you want to make friends, don’t lose this chance. She’s a friend for life, she’ll take care of you.” Amanda bent her mouth in a motherly smile.
Colin shook his head, displeased at his own stubbornness. Amanda spoke reason, although she couldn’t see the whole picture yet. “If that’s true, then I don’t need to rush, do I? I like her too, don’t worry. She helped getting me here, she wants to destroy this world too.”
“So why are you so cold with her, man?” Mat said, caressing his bald head with his index finger.
“I’m not cold with her.” Colin looked down, embarrassed. “It’s just that ... That, well ... She’s not human like us. Her ideas are too strange, too out of our world. I’m still not used to it, you know? I want our Terra back, our planet Earth. And I’m afraid she doesn’t understand me, and doesn’t want to.”
“What do you mean? She’s helping us, and we want to get back to our world. Why would she care for us it if she didn’t want Earth back?” Charlotte said.
“She wants it to be a different place, a ‘better’ place, on her own words. But better could mean many things to these people! I want the same, just the same. We have to do it together, we, real humans from old Earth, not these other Creators.”
“You’re not our God.” Laura tightened her broad jaw. “I’ll follow only God’s will, not yours. You’re an angel, like her, and I’ll listen to you, but I will trust Dalana too.”
They waited for the last trembling to subside, digesting Laura’s words.
“I know what you’re talking about.” Zach smoothed the tunic on his thighs, glancing at Colin. “You want to meet the ones you love again. That’s good, I’d like that too. Just ... Just don’t forget about Dalana. She’s good.”
Deep in the back of their minds, Colin and the humans meditated on the World Voice’s cries, hearing a distressed baby. They waited in silence for those who fled.
“The puniest of beings ... The most despicable of all ... I hate myself, oh, I just want to end my life ... It’s not worth living, it’s not ...”
Amanda’s belly roared, and as she sat by Colin’s side, he looked at her. She stared at the dark wall, sitting on the warm floor, holding her hunger. He wished for roasted potatoes, and it materialized in front of her.
Amanda lifted her eyebrows, surprised at that appearance, meeting his gaze. He then proceeded to create food for all, with glasses of water. They nodded to thank him, preserving quietness while they ate in a hurry.
Through the corridor’s door came the bustling sounds of the incoming Creators. The three of them yelled, either laughing or threatening, and human minds struggled to make sense of the true argument’s nature. One moment they heard amusement, the other they heard murder threats.
”—enough time to watch it ripe and die, you’ve had it all, because it sucks, face it!” Ai.iA burst through the door with violence, jumping on her rod and turning back to face OOOO.
“She’s right, and you should tell her the secret to defeat this place. Help her, ok? I know you want it,” Dalana said, siding with Ai.iA.
“No way! What’s the fun of giving up like this? Time is relative, isn’t it? This is eternity, but not to us, and I deserve my time. You don’t respect my vision, do you? Then why would I respect yours?” OOOO said.
Dalana turned around, nodding at those words. “Thinking about it, OOOO’s right, and you should learn to wait for your turn in easier moments, if you can’t defeat it now. Just calm down.” Dalana switched sides.
“Who else wants this awful place? It’s dangerous even to us, and we’re living on scraps to find any interesting thing to do here. It must end now,” Ai.iA said.
Dalana turned around again, nodding at Ai.iA’s rebuke. “She’s right, and you must understand how hard it is for us to accept this ...” Dalana drew her eyebrows together.
Colin watched as they stormed the room with their heated discussion, puzzled at Dalana’s switching sides. She caressed one and then the other, pleading, hoping to help both and unable to do so, since they came from two different sets of expectations. Ai.iA wanted her first attempt at a new world, OOOO had had so many chances that it could only find comfort in hard places.
“We have a research to do, you three. Hey, Ai.iA, don’t you want to destroy this world? Tell me what to do now, because I want to help.” Colin stood up and walked to the table.
The humans finished eating their food and OOOO went closer to watch, curious at their frailty. They could die if they didn’t eat, even though they resisted the World Voice’s intensity! They looked down to escape those goggled, hungry eyes, worried about their distance from the three other Creators. Oliver stood up to follow Colin at the table, taking the others with him. Only Mat, the painter, dared staring at OOOO face to face, marveled at the creature’s originality.
“I wish I could paint you, pal. Just think of what realists could’ve made with a creature like you back in the days ...” Mat grinned.
“I am interesting, am I not?” OOOO fit in with the man, under his armpit.
At the table, the group entered position, resetting their research.
“We sorted out most of the new stuff we got,” Oliver said.
“So now we can only move further with more testing. We need to take them to the chamber,” Amanda said.
“Fine, do it now, let’s hurry, I can’t stand this place anymore.” Ai.iA spun on the table to check on all the buckets. “Go on, Dalana, take it there and bring the other stuff we left earlier.”
A hovering cart materialized in front of the corridor’s door, produced by Dalana. She and the humans loaded it up with the objects, getting back to the table to search for other intact things in the melted slime’s midst. Ai.iA opened the door to Dalana’s entrance, hopping with more intensity than usual.
“Where are you going?” Colin shouted at her.
“We have an unprotected room far from here, where we made a Voice intensifier to test melting. I’ll just put it there and get back,” Dalana said.
“Wait, I’ll go with you!” Colin ran towards her.
The lab’s great corridors stretched in all directions. They formed underground escape routes for Ai.iA and Dalana, for when the World Voice’s pillar struck right above them and they had no time to flee to the upper world.
Paths interconnected in a web pattern, holding untold amounts of empty rooms where even the humans could wander in safety. The walls resisted the imperious sadness due to their connection to the house’s core, the holy place they all needed to protect.
In the first room on their path, an x-ray machine occupied a central area in the middle of melted clutter. The equipment itself showed signs of dissolution, its table dripping in gray ooze, showing that despite the protective walls, the Voice penetrated everything and destroyed what failed at dealing with it. Dalana stared at the room and wished for a restoration, cleaning up the area with the force of her mind. The x-ray machine got ready for use again.
“Is now a good time to tell me about your last day on Terra?” she said, breaking the silence between them.
Colin analyzed her face with difficulty. Her dark and opaque skin hid her wrinkles, eyebrows, and lips. Only when she opened her mouth could he see the white of her teeth. He preferred when she smiled or spoke, as only thus he stepped on solid ground, and to have that more often, he’d have to cooperate.
“It was a bad day, ok? No wonder I don’t like talking much about it,” Colin said.
“I want to help you, that’s why I ask. Nothing is ever so bad t
hat we can’t fix it somehow.”
“Aren’t you already helping Ai.iA?”
“I am ... But that’s because I’m alone. As soon as she gets her world, she’ll forget about me.” Dalana twisted her chest from side to side, pushing the cart with her hands. “Why was your last day so bad?” She hypnotized him with the blackness of her pupil.
“I loved one person and thought that she didn’t want anything special with me. But she did, and she only said so minutes before disappearing. If only I knew that earlier, maybe we could be together in that last day and, well ... Who knows, maybe I could have protected her, like you did with Oliver and the others.”
“Why don’t you recreate her in the house? Bring her to us. We can have a little Utopia of our own, what do you say? Do you think it can heal you?”
“I tried that already, and it didn’t work well. She’ll melt again and again. This world is too hostile for any kind of human life.” Colin stopped to peek into an empty room.
“We won’t be able to kill the World Voice. You know that, right?”
“So why are we doing this research?”
“To use our creativity somehow. That’s what we have to do, even in the face of impossibilities. My guess is that this world can only end if OOOO sacrifices itself.”
“Is there no way out then?” Colin walked in front, having no clue of their path.
“There’s always a way out. Even giving up is a way out. Right now, though, we could have our own little Utopia in the house. You, me, the humans, your beloved one, anybody else who wants to be a part of it. We can create our better place if we want to.” She put a hand on his shoulder to guide him on the next turn.
How many times he fantasized about human touch, about a friendly palm offering warmth, comforting his skin and his anguish. He always watched from a distance, always his friends and colleagues interacting with others, happy, confident, loved. His only romance happened so long ago that he didn’t even remember the feeling, and the time spent with the new Angeline required so much care and patience as to render it nearly inhuman. Dalana was one of his kind, powerful like him, and she pleaded for union.
