Dreamfasting: Beneath the Mythril Mines

It was darkness at first. Just that, and nothing more. The silence, the darkness, the lack of feeling… it was safe, almost comforting. The little girl took up the darkness like a cloak and wrapped it around her, burying herself in its black swathes.

But the stillness couldn’t last forever.

It was sensation that returned to her first. There was a tingling in her hands and feet as though she’d been sitting on them in her cell, and the blood was only just beginning to return. She shifted, flexed her chubby digits, and then the agony poured in…

…there are needles, needles everywhere. They’re sticking into her skin, her hands, her feet – God – there’s even one in her cheek! She scrambles to her feet and her knees look like pincushions. She reaches down, takes swipe after swipe of hypodermics out of her legs but there’s more and more and more…

No. The little girl shook her head. It wasn’t real. He said things like that might happen. The nightmare slips away from her eyes, and sight returns to join its partner sensation. The cage is the same, but the laboratory beyond it is dim. The walls cut into the stone glow eerily, their light making new pains awaken in her head. By the dull glow of the mythril she can see the workbenches silhouetted in black. Organ baths, sharp bins, paper towel dispensers, the place is as familiar to her as her own home. No… wait…

“This is your home now.” The man sneers, using his full height to tower over the child. “Better get used to it.” She tries to shrink away from him, but something is strapping her down to the gurney. She opens her mouth and wails and wails and wails, and the man swears – not angrily, not fearfully – but in mild annoyance. He clicks his fingers, and someone appears at her side, and slips a needle in her arm, and the world is fading, fading…

“NO!”

She had spoken the word aloud this time, and it rung in her ears. No, that wasn’t happening. He wasn’t here. She was safe.

She sat in silence for a moment or two, listening to the sounds of the underground room. A centrifuge hummed gently to itself, spinning her bloods out. Another machine on the floor rocked from side to side gently. Water was dripping far off in the distance, and there was the occasional rumble deep within the earth – echoes of the mined. But that was it, there was nothing else. He wasn’t here. Nobody was.

“Okay. Get up.”

She told her limbs what to do, and they slowly obeyed her. The muscles of her arms and legs were thin, long having wasted away. Her knees wobbled, and she swayed on her legs, but she didn’t fall over. There was just enough room in the cage for her to stand up. An adult wouldn’t have fitted in there.

She stumbled over to the door at the front of the pen, her hands grasping at the stone for support. She looked out into the lab. The dull light emitted by the walls was caught by tiny crystals set in the smooth floor, and reflected back to her as a thousand tiny stars. A stale mop and bucket was by her cage; someone had been cleaning the floor. The filthy rags of the mop head smelt disgusting, but she was suddenly aware that she was thirsty, so thirsty, and no one had fed her in a while.

She reached a bony arm through the metal bars of the cage, and made to grab the bucket. It was too far away. She cried, and reached further, managing to fit her shoulder blade through the bars, although it hurt her to do so.

The door moved forward, giving out a short sharp groan.

The girl froze.

Nothing happened.

Slowly she retracted her arm, and grabbed the bars instead, leaning all of her meagre weight against the door. Slowly, but surely, the metal bars swung out on their hinges, grating and protesting every step of the way. The girl pushed only until there was enough room for her to slip out of the cage. There didn’t seem to be anyone around to hear the door opening, but she didn’t like to take any chances.

She crawled over to the mop and bucket, and looked inside. No water left… but what was this in the bottom? A bottle!

She took it out of the bucket, suspiciously. A bottle made of blue glass. It appeared to contain clean water, but she had long since learnt that nothing was to be trusted. Still, someone had left the cage unlocked, and she knew it couldn’t have been the technician. The cleaner had always seemed nice, so maybe he had left the water for her. She opened the bottle. She sniffed at it. It smelt bad from being in the bucket, but that was all. She put it to her lips, and let the cool liquid flow down her throat. It tingled. It had a slight spicy taste. Sparks spun before her eyes.

‘What is it?’ the girl asks. ‘Shut up and drink it’ the man replies. ‘You won’t get anything else until you do.’ The liquid is thick and brown, and tastes bad but she drinks it anyway. It makes her feel sick ‘How long until the tracer crosses the blood brain barrier?’ the technician asks. ‘A little while’ the man replies. ‘Just get her into the scanner, I’ll call you when I’m ready’.

But no. This liquid didn’t taste bad, it tasted good, and she felt stronger already. She finished the bottle, wishing there was more. She let it drop to the floor, thought for a moment, then put it back into the bucket. She crawled back to the door, and pushed it closed again with her legs. It was easier to move this time. She sat up on her heels.

“Now what?”

But she already knew what she was going to do. It would be foolish to pass up on a chance like this. Slowly she got to her feet again. She was steadier this time. She looked about the room, but she wasn’t tall enough to see if there was anything set out on the benches. She had no idea how much time she had.

‘What do you mean you’re staying in Midgar?’ the technician is on the phone, and she’s strapped into a chair beneath him, electrodes sticky with saline on her skin. He ignores her. ‘Professor, you are crucial to this project, I don’t care if Shin-Ra finds out you come here…’ But the line goes dead and the technicians swears. He slams the phone down onto the workbench. He gives her a long look, before going over to the computer screen. ‘I guess it’s just you and me from now on, honey.’

She had to get out of here before he got back. She ran across the room, and slammed into the door. It remained shut, stinging her outstretched hands. She looked around her, before grabbing the mop, and using the long handle to hit the door release button. There was a click, and the door unlocked. She needed no further convincing.

The corridor outside was even colder than the lab had been. She shivered in the thin covering of her shift, hesitating. There was no clue which way to go, no hint at all. The corridors were lit with lanterns set into the walls, which supplemented the ethereal glow of the stone, and a couple of these lanterns highlighted a sign. But it was of no use to her. She couldn’t read.

Instinct took over. She turned to the left, and began to run along a corridor that was on a slight incline. Her feet were bare and made little noise skidding and pattering over the bare rock, but the stone pounded the bones in the soles of her feet, and small rocks tore at her skin. It wasn’t long before she was winded, and developing a limp. She paused, and disappeared into a dark alcove to catch her breath. She could feel one of her headaches coming on.

…from out of the darkness in front of her, something starts to take shape. It looks like a shadow, but it’s something more than that. This shadow has sustenance. Slowly it gathers in size and strength, moving closer and closer. It clutches a green glowing syringe in its hand…

The girl came round with her head in a puddle to the sound of an alarm, sounding within the earth beneath her.

Discovered!

Dizzily, she got to her feet. She felt into the crook of her left arm, feeling the slight sting of plastic tubing biting into her skin. She winced, and ripped off the tape, and drew the cannula out. It bled a bit, but she didn’t have time to worry about that now. She threw it down onto the stone, and began to jog onwards again. Voices were beginning to call out behind her.

…. tired, she is so tired. But the technician wants to know how long she can stay awake for…

How much further did she have to run? The shouts were getting louder now.

… her head aches so much. The Professor is back on a flying visit. He wants to graft some kind of cells into her, but the technician protests…

It was becoming difficult to breath. She was gasping so loud, she was sure her captors would hear her.

… the pain feels like inhaling broken glass, but the technician simply nods. He is proud of her. The Professor shakes his head, he disagrees, he’s pulling his funding…

“Hey! Where you going in such a hurry now?”

There was a man in front of her. She hadn’t seen him through the images clouding her vision. He reached down, and grabbed her. Now he was holding her tightly around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, but couldn’t break free. Behind her, the alarm was quieter, but she could still hear the desperate shouts of her captors. She aimed a pathetic kick at the man holding her.

“Oi! There’s no need to be like that. If I ain’t of caught ya, you woulda run right into the water.”

The little girl turns, and looks past the man. He was right. She had run right out of the corridor, and into an underground cavern. A slow river ran beside them, and tied up to a dock was a small cargo punt.

The man dropped to his knees, and hugged her. The hair on his chin tickled. She gave him a grave look. He didn’t look like a scientist. He was grubby, and he smelt of mythril dust. A wave of relief washed over her, and her legs gave out. A grown-up. A real live, not a technician grown-up. She was safe.

He picked her up, and bundled her into the punt, pulling some blankets down over her head to disguise her. One bare foot stuck out under the pile, and her pulled the covers down over it as he got on board.

“Hello – what’s this?”

He took a penknife out of the sheath on his belt, and cut through the tag tied around her foot. He looked at the logo on it.

“Huh. Biohazardrous material are we?” He dropped the tag into the water, picked up a pole, and pushed them out into the main stream of the water.

“Well, you don’t worry about that. The missus loves kids. We’ve already got two y’know! And she won’t care where you comes from. Don’t you worry. You gonna be just fine.”

A/N: Yes. It’s been ages. But I am working on this again, I promise! Sorry for the crypticness of this chapter, hahaha…

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