The Inadequate Experiments: 1. White Noise [Rough Draft]

Part 3; Immunity - 19. David and Calliope

My legs burned, and my lungs felt as if I had just bathed in Satan’s own swimming pool, but I kept running. Calliope’s hand gripped onto mine as if she was holding onto me for dear life, and we surged through the Compound, barely an arm’s length from the corrupt Androids behind us. It felt like we had been running for hours; and even though the Compound was a big place, I knew it wasn’t that big.

Out of nowhere, Calliope dragged me around a corner I didn’t even see, screaming “Now!” as we passed the line of the wall. The air from one wall of the corridor to the other shimmered an odd, translucent purple colour, before rippling like a puddle on a rainy day, and returning to normal. Not a second after the air had stopped rippling and shimmering, the Androids slammed into the invisible wall Calliope had seemingly just manifested. One by one, the Androids stuttered before sparking and losing their abiotic minds. Despite the invisible wall, the corridor was filled with screams of a message I hadn’t heard or seen since the day of the dress rehearsal for the school play.

The Watch Liaise.

“It’s always that same message…” Calliope mused.

I blinked; usually I was the only one who could see or hear the message. “You can hear that?”

The younger girl winked at me. “Only Untouchables can.”

It took my brain a little longer than usual to process her words, even with the adrenaline pumping through my veins like liquid gold. “Wait, what?”

She sighed in exasperation. “Surely you know what Untouchables are, Sera! I mean, you’re one of us.”

My eyes flicked over to the malfunctioning androids and back to Calliope’s eyes. “Things invented by the Scientists that they may need for future reference to build from?”

“You got it.” She confirmed. “You’re like me. Like Matt. Your mother, even.”

I flinched.

“They can’t touch us.” Calliope went on. “We’re Immune.”

“They killed my mother.” I pointed out.

“Indirectly.” She countered. “Look, I’m sorry, Sera, but they wouldn’t have done that unless she gave them some sort of consent.”

I looked at the ground. “She gave them consent, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s gone.”

Calliope’s hand suddenly rested on my shoulder affectionately, and she leant her face close to mine. “We’ll get her back, Sera. I swear to god, we’ll get her back.” Then she spun on her heel and ran over to David, who had been standing in the corridor the whole time without me noticing.

“We did it!” David announced happily. “It finally worked!”

“You did it.” Calliope corrected, throwing her arms around him happily before pulling back. “I was really hoping it would work, man; we would have been so screwed if it didn’t. But there’s still the thing with the message… always the same message…”

David blinked. “The message?”

“The one you can’t see. Or hear.” Calliope explained.

He raised his eyebrows. “That doesn’t really convince me that the message is real, you know.”

“I can see it.” I interjected, before Calliope could even open her mouth. “I can hear it too. It’s real.”

A smirk spread across Calliope’s face that clearly said, I told you so, and she made her way over to where Mark-67 – Matt – sat on the floor. “You okay?” She asked carefully, placing her hand on his lower arm.