The Arliss

by Ann Bakshis

  “Grimm. I ran into him in the rec room after I drilled a dart almost completely through the dartboard.”

  Cody’s eyes widen, then he clears his throat to regain his composure. “Don’t listen to Grimm. He’s had his nose out of joint the moment he got here.” Cody leans forward. “You say you almost put a dart completely through the board?”

  I nod.

  “Those things are super thick. I wonder how you did it,” he responds, leaning back.

  “I got frustrated and just started throwing them harder each time.”

  He looks puzzled by my response, which makes me think no one has ever done that before. Is that also how I’ve changed? Am I stronger and have a quicker temper? I knew talking to Cody wasn’t going to get me far. I can’t even think of the right questions to ask that he would possibly know the answers to, so I decide to change tactics. Cody mentioned he’s known me for only a few months, so if he can tell me a little bit about his past perhaps it might trigger some memories of my own.

  “How old were you when Wavern drafted you into Rinku?”

  “Oh, I wasn’t drafted by him. I was originally sent to the Virtus compound about eight years ago.”

  “Why did you decide to join at such a young age?”

  He lets out a little laugh, but quickly regrets it. “I keep forgetting that you don’t remember. None of us came voluntarily, Sara. Each of us was orphaned by the war that devastated the planet. Trust me, if I could be doing something else I would. Being a soldier isn’t my first choice.”

  “When was the war?”

  “Well over sixty years ago.”

  “Then how could we possibly be orphans from it? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  He leans across the table and places his palms on the metallic surface. “Depending upon where you were when the nukes fell determined how much radiation your family line absorbed. My family was close to the fallout, so it took several generations before a completely healthy person was born, which is me. The leaders all felt that it would be best if those who can better deal with the poisonous air be placed in the compounds and turned into soldiers. We can tolerate the toxicity better than anyone in Demos, so we make great soldiers if war breaks out again.”

  “What happened to those who weren’t affected by the radiation?”

  “They were moved to Demos, which is protected by the Occlyn Ring. It’s embedded in the rock that makes up the Nove Mountain range, and generates a force field around the city, preventing anything from entering its atmosphere. Demos was little more than a few houses and shops when the war began, but now the city fills the entire valley.”

  “How’d you wind up in Rinku if you weren’t originally sent here?”

  Cody’s face darkens as he slips down into his seat. He rubs his arms, and that’s when I notice he’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt. I think back to the other night. He had the same type of shirt on then, too. Everyone else I’ve seen has either worn a short-sleeved or sleeveless shirt. I take a hold of one of his hands and pull it towards me. He doesn’t fight me being so forward, nor does he stop me when I push up his sleeve. Just like his face, his arm is covered with scars, only they’re deep gouges with chunks of flesh missing. I study the markings and remember that Wavern and Grimm have similar scars on their bodies.

  “What happened?” I ask, rolling his arm over until it’s palm up.

  “I was down in the kitchen in Virtus preparing lunch when an explosion ripped through the compound,” he answers, his voice sounding distant. “It took almost two days for me to be rescued—and I was one of the lucky ones.”

  “How many were lost?”

  “One-hundred-and-ninety-seven died. There were only thirty survivors, split between the two remaining compounds.”

  “Grimm is one of them, isn’t he?”

  “Yes,” Cody answers, tears slowly trickling down his face.

  “Was Wavern there?”

  Cody finally looks up. “His vehicle had just entered the garage for Virtus when it happened, so he was able to escape almost unscathed.”

  “Does anyone know how it happened? What caused the explosion?”

  Cody pulls his arm from my hand and rolls down the sleeve to cover his wounds. “The preliminary investigation suggested that it came from the hydroponics bay, across from the kitchen that’s one level below the mess hall. That was the area with the most damage… so they say.”

  “You sound skeptical. Why is that?” I ask.

  “Because I was in the kitchen when the blast occurred and the kitchen feeds right into the hydroponics bay so I would’ve known. It came from the control center, or at least one of its levels. I want to say it was Level Three, which houses the life support systems, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Was Virtus set up the same way as Rinku?”

  “Yes. All the compounds have the same layout, with one exception. Rinku is the only one buried in a mountain range, with dual exits onto the surface from the garage. The other two have an above-ground entrance, which leads to a tightly winding stairwell providing access to the decon chamber.”

  “Why do you think they’re not telling the truth about where the blast possibly originated?”

  “Because they don’t want us to know that it wasn’t an accident,” Cody answers, his voice heavy with excitement as he practically jumps up and down in his seat. “Someone deliberately destroyed the compound.”

  “Do you know why someone would do that? What would be their motive?” I ask in a calming manner, hoping to get him to settle down.

  “I don’t know. Maybe to take out the compounds, so they can gain access to Demos?”

  “You can only enter the city through the compounds?” I ask, puzzled by his statement.

  “Yes. Each has a connecting transport tunnel from the garage to a parking pad just outside the entrance to the city. You have to get inside one of the compounds in order to gain access to these tunnels.”

  “But in order to get into the compound, you have to be programmed into the biometrics for the imagers at the entrances,” I counter.

  I think I’m starting to remember mow. That answer came out too easily and quickly. Or maybe I just picked up on it because of how we entered Rinku.

  Cody stares at me for a few seconds before answering. “Yes, you do.”

  “Well, we’re all stationed in here to protect the city and its citizens. If we wanted to harm them, we wouldn’t need to destroy a compound to do it. We could just go right into the city.”

  “I suppose,” he replies, sounding as if his balloon has been popped.

  I let silence settle between us as I try to gather my thoughts as to what to talk about next. I’m happy that Cody is very forthcoming with his information, but I still feel like I’m not asking the right questions. I recall the commercial from earlier, so that’s the new tack I take.

  “Cody,” I begin, shaking his arm since he’s drifted off. His head lolls for a moment before his eyes flutter open. “What’s the Factory?”

  “Huh? Oh, the Factory? It’s where everyone gets their supplies such as clothing, housewares, linens, and foodstuffs. Basically anything you could ask for, they’ll have it or make it. The complex takes up about seventy percent of Zone C in Demos. Why?”

  “I saw an ad for it earlier. The woman in the commercial was trying to sell decorations for an upcoming memorial.”

  “Oh, yeah. That.” Cody seems to drift off again, but it only lasts a split second. “You’d think after a while they’d want to stop remembering the war that almost ended everything and move on. I know I do.”

  “The one that scarred the planet?”

  He scowls at me. “Is there any other?”

  Well, that was a stupid question to ask on my part. Of course it would be that one. God, Sara, get your head out of your ass.

  “Look, I need to get back to my post. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  As Cody stands to leave I’m about to throw out another question, when footsteps to our right
catch my attention. Several people emerge from a staircase across the room. They’re wearing aprons over their regulation clothing. A few move over to a dumbwaiter behind a long counter. Hot food is slowly removed from the small lift and transferred to the counter, filling the dishware with food for the diners. A couple of others check a cart which houses plates, cups, and utensils.

  “Breakfast is now being served,” a young woman says over the paging system.

  Lines quickly form into the mess hall from the rec room and barracks. I know I should get up and grab something, but I’m too mesmerized by the craziness around me. The workers can’t seem to dish out the food fast enough for those in line. Voices rise over the clanking of dishes, and the tables around me quickly fill up, so I’m forced to get up and join the parade. I try not to notice when eyes follow me through the whole process. Once my dish is full I go back to my section of table, only this time I sit with my back against the wall. I don’t want anyone being able to sneak up behind me and I want to see who all is staring at me because I know it’s quite a few of them. The room fills to capacity, but no one dares to sit anywhere close to me. If there isn’t another spot available, they retreat into the rec room or say they’re going to eat in the barracks.

  They know something is off with me. No one believes the shit lie Andra told, so I wonder if they’ll ever look at me or treat me the same ever again. This is going to make life down here unbearable.

  I can’t take the staring any longer so I throw my half-eaten food into the trash, place my dishes on a conveyor in the wall by the utensil cart, and go back to my quarters. I can’t stand being in the compound any longer. My insides are screaming for me to get out, to run outside. I don’t know how I tolerated living in such a confined space for so long before I lost my memory. I know I’ve only been back here a little over a day, but I feel like I’m going mad. It’s probably more from the not knowing than the actual isolation. I need to get myself to calm down.

  “Sara.”

  My name is hissed across the living room as I stand there with my hands on my hips, but when I turn, no one is there.

  “Sara.”

  This time the voice is louder, deeper, and echoes in my head.

  “Sara, find the others.”

  I close my eyes and will the disjointed voice to silence, but it roars back with ferocity.

  “You will never be rid of me, Sara. I’m part of you and you’re part of me. We are intertwined for eternity.”

  “Where are you?” I practically shout as I open my eyes.

  “Close as I’ve always been.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “You already have that answer. Find the others before you’re discovered.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  A piercing scream fills my mind, forcing me to grip my head in an attempt to get it to stop. I buckle to my knees from the pain the sound is inflicting on me.

  “Stop, please!” I beg. It feels like my head is about to explode.

  Silence ensues, but the pain is still intense. I slowly lower my hands, but I stay on my knees. “Who are you?”

  “I’m your master, your creator, and your destroyer. I am the Arliss.”

  With that, all light extinguishes behind my eyes as I collapse to the floor and slip from reality.

  Four

  I sense I’m in a tunnel, but can’t see anything around me. Flashes of light spark in the corners of my eyes, which only gives me snippets of Keegan’s face intermingled with something much darker. I don’t know why I’m seeing him, since he’s back in Rinku and not anywhere near the hell I’m currently in. The images merge into the man in the black cloak from my dream, but his true face and form are still hidden. Cold creeps into my veins when I remember the tattoo on the wrist of the woman from the Factory commercial.

  Find the others.

  Is that what he’s referencing? If so, how many others are there, and what was meant by his comment ‘before you’re discovered’? Cody’s story about the destruction of Virtus plays out in front of me like a movie, but how? I wasn’t even there, yet I feel like I’m living it through someone’s eyes. I just don’t know whose. I feel myself being pulled from the dream as a pair of dark-skinned hands grip a metal pipe, bending it with ease. As the person’s left wrist turns with the motion, I catch a glimpse of a spider tattoo. I try to call out, but the air in my lungs is violently pushed out as I’m ripped into pieces.

  The tunnel opens into a small cavern with a low ceiling. Wet stones make up the walls around me as hard, cold metal bites into my bare back. My limbs ache from strain being applied by ropes as they try to stretch my body to its maximum. The only light is being cast down from a chiseled hole above me, creating a makeshift skylight. The ropes burn into my flesh as I try to move. Tiny pinpricks appear and then disappear on my fully exposed body, as if being blown across by an invisible wind. The pain is excruciating and unrelenting. Every time I open my mouth to scream from the agony, I lose all ability to breathe.

  “Give in,” a voice whispers into my ear.

  “No,” I squeak out.

  My answer is met with sharp pain, which causes my voice to catch in my throat.

  “Submit, Sara,” the voice whispers.

  “Never,” I try to reply.

  The pinpricks blow across me once again, only this time they draw blood. Small streams flow down my sides. Again, when I go to scream, no air.

  “You will eventually. Everyone else who has come here does,” the voice says, only this time it’s coming from the foot end of the metal slab I’m strapped to.

  “Everyone else is weak,” I croak and then prepare for the pain, though it doesn’t come.

  “Interesting,” the voice replies, getting closer. “What makes you think that?”

  “They became your slaves, willing to do anything to prevent their deaths.”

  “And you wouldn’t do the same for immortality?”

  “I’m already dead. There’s no going back to who I was.”

  A burst of hot, moist air envelops my shoulders. The rustling of a rough material next to me causes my body to go rigid. He’s so close that I can taste his salty breath. Warm fingers gently run the length of my arm for several minutes, causing my heart to quicken and my pulse to race with both excitement and fear.

  “What if I told you I could return you to the exact place where you died, but you’d awaken completely unharmed?”

  “Impossible.”

  “Nothing is impossible for me, Sara,” he says with a wide smile, exposing his sharp teeth.

  I pause and let his words sink in. I’d be able to see Keegan again and explain my actions to him and the others, but it would be at a cost. There’s no way this thing can return me to the living world if my body was obliterated. The question rolling around in my mind now is: why is he willing to send me back, and what does he get out it?

  I shouldn’t be contemplating his offer, but I am.

  “You lie,” I blurt out with all the force I can muster. “Just let me die.”

  “Sorry, Sara, but that’s not an option. You were pulled away from the ether where all dead souls first travel to by me, and for a purpose. The world you came from was once mine. I want it back, and you’re going to help me get it.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because it’s why you were sent here, Sara.” His voice travels slowly around the slab as he moves, but he never comes into view. I only catch glimpses of his cloak when it swings into the sunlight, which lets me know he’s right next to me.

  “You’re a special person who I needed to find, and you proved to be the most challenging. If you hadn’t escaped from the compound and run into Lymont, I may never have located you. How fortuitous.”

  “I’m not going to help you,” I say forcefully. “You’re the reason our world is in its current condition.”

  “Oh, what lies your leaders tell you,” he hisses. “They wanted the world to change, to evolve into something only madmen
would want, and they succeeded. Look closer at your world, Sara—it’s not what you think. I know you’ve discovered some of the haunting things kept under lock and key. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have fled, only to die soon after. You knew the bomb would be launched the moment you stepped outside that door, yet you ran anyway, right into my arms. It’s almost like you were begging me to come for you… to save you, which I have.”

  “You’re crazy. I don’t want to go back. Please just let me die,” I say, pleading, yet I don’t remember why I don’t want to return.

  Why is that? Did the blast erase that from my mind or am I in too much pain and anguish to think straight?

  “Not even to see your loving husband again? You’re his whole world, Sara. What will he do if you’re not in it? Keegan is searching for you right now, desperate to find you alive.”

  “That’s not possible. I’ve been here for weeks. There’s no way he’s still looking for me.”

  “Time is irrelevant here. A day in my nest is a minute for your world. The dust from the blast has just finally settled down, allowing your friends to go looking for you. What should we let them find: pieces of your remains, or you alive and perfectly fine?”

  “What do you want from me?” I cry as the thought of Keegan only finding bits and pieces of me horrific.

  “You do whatever I ask when I request it. Everyone else in your position has been so willing, some practically begging for what I’m offering you. Your resistance makes me want you even more. Submit, Sara, and we’ll live in happiness for all eternity.”

  I thrash around, trying to free myself from the restraints, but I only manage to dig them deeper into my skin. He laughs at my efforts, a vicious chortle that doesn’t seem to stop. My arms become slick from blood seeping from my fresh wounds, but if I’m dead how can I be bleeding?

  Oh, God, is this real?

  “What did you do to me?” I yell.

  “The same thing I do to all I bring here,” he answers, his cloak fully coming into my view. His hood remains up, preventing me from seeing his face as he steps closer, leaning over me. “You’re whole again, Sara. You became mine the moment you accepted Haron’s hand at the lake.”