//------------------------------// // 4 // Story: Mindwipe // by Rostok //------------------------------// If you want some atmospheric music for this, then try these out: 1. 2. _ She saw herself rise out of a vat of swirling orange and yellow liquid and grey smoke, choking on the noxious fumes, vomiting foul water out of her throat. Looking around, walls of metal and glass surrounded her, contoured around the pipes leading to her tank. More lead to a tank to her left, containing another like her, also reacting badly to the strange fluids. As she looked around fearfully, part of the ceiling moved, revealing a long metallic rod, attached by a bracket to some unknown location above. It rotated slowly to the other, hissing as a small dart embedded itself in his side. He writhed, flailing his limbs uncontrollably, mewling in terror and pain. Slowly, his convulsions began to halt and his unconscious body floated serenely at the surface. The mechanical rod swiveled towards her, and before she could react, she felt a prick in her chest, and burning pain spreading through her body. She passed out. When she awoke, she was on a pristine white table, almost blinded by the bright lights shining on her in the overwhelming whiteness of the room. Parts of her body ached where small transparent tubes poked out of the skin, either drawing blood or dripping in some clear fluid. She tried to move her appendages, in vain, as clamps held her in place forcing her to lie flat on the white operating slab. Averting her eyes from the disgusting sight of the violation of her body, she gazed onto a glass screen with her blurred vision, watching strangely shaped silhouettes come and go, some bearing items, others interacting with the other silhouettes, gesticulating or working on other strange machines that were visible behind the screen. After some time, the light in both rooms dimmed, and activity reduced, with one solitary figure gazing at her abused form. Sleep took her, and when she woke, nothing had changed. The lights were bright again, the figures behind the screen continued to watch, and when the lights grew dim, the same silhouette was left on its own staring at her, apparently sitting on some box or chair. As the cycles of light and dark passed by, she began to be able move her head more and more stretching it from side to side in order to try to see through the screen. Eventually, her eyes adapted to the harsh white light of the room, and she could start to pick out details. Strange knobs and lights adorned the furniture of the room behind the screen, and the figures had inequine faces, some with confused or puzzled expressions as best she could make out, others fraught with anger or stress. As always, the same one remained on his own during the dark times, sitting with his head in his hands. He was the only one who seemed to her to be sad. As time passed, fewer and fewer of the figures appeared each light time. Eventually, it remained dark, even when her body told her it should be light time. Two different figures, their bodies and faces obscured by strange masks. They marched into the room, pushing a tube into her mouth. She writhed and screamed, resisting their assault. Soon, they held it in her mouth, spraying some gas into her throat, choking her. Again, she blacked out. She was jerked awake by a sudden movement. She was tied up, lying on a stretcher, carried by the two monstrous figures who had drugged her. She wriggled and squirmed, yet her bonds held her still. She was parched and hungry, her lips were cracked and her stomach aching. Trying to forget her pain, she looked to her surroundings. She was being carried along through metallic corridors, passing doors on either side, with strange symbols above them in various colours. Some were open. One had a huge hall of strange, green, thin and rodlike things under bright lights. Some time later, looking inside another, she saw a group of the creatures poring over pictures of one like her, dissected, with its organs carefully arranged in groups. After a seemingly endless amount of time, she was jerked to a halt. Craning her neck over, she saw the one of the huge monsters carrying her press a button, and the walls parted in front of her, as light filled her eyes. Through the door, the corridor opened out, revealing a window. A window to the outside. She was dumbstruck. Derelict and ruined spires dominated her vision, dusty and grey, as far as the eye could see. Some flying machine with a spinning disc above it flew across the skyline, briefly obscuring the weak glow in the roiling clouds, casting shadow on them. As soon as this vision appeared, it vanished, as she was turned round and brought into a small opening, yet another dull metal box. Suddenly, the ground dropped from beneath her, as she felt a falling sensation for a moment. Tired from malnourishment, she drifted off to sleep in the descending lift. _ For the first time, she dreamed. She saw open fields, white with snow, with little islands of happiness and light, with others like her playing and working. She turned, and her attention was drawn to a tall white castle, regal and majestic, sitting on the side of a mountain. A small group was leaving the castle, heading for a circle in the snow, inside the circle- She woke with a start, and an alien sensation overtook her. She was unbound, in a large hall of machines. Stretching and looking around, she saw the figure from her nights, the concerned one, helping the other like her to drink. Crying out, the figure rushed to her, checking her for injuries, and dribbled some water into her mouth, quenching her thirst. It fussed over both of them, giving them more water, getting them to sit up. For the first time, she felt safe. The figure wheeled each of them over onto a cold platform, covered in a thin layer of ice. Turning to them both, the figure looked dolefully at them, wiping a tear from its eye. It slowly walked away, looking on the verge of crying. She was confused, she was happy, why wasn’t it happy? As she sat there pondering, a dark object began to descend, staring to close them in. Out of instinct, she tried to shy away from it, only to be shocked by the subzero plate they were placed on. The last vestiges of the room disappeared, only to reveal a slightly curved tunnel extend into the distance on either side. Small lights began to glow on each side, and the low hum in the background from the machines began to rise and rise. The piercing tone was earsplitting, until she felt a strange sensation, almost an electric shock, and her world went silent, white and cold. _ Celestia woke sweating and cold, now realizing the truth about the origin of the aliens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author's Notes This kind of concludes this part, which is why I marked the story "complete". However, I may come back in the future to continue the story. Unashamedly, I had almost no plan for this, and based the way the story went over people's reactions in the comments! Not too bad for a borderline dyslexic teenager who doesn't even study English anymore.