Creature of Creation

Part 3 - Chapter Five - Memories

The maternity ward was still once again. The air in the room had grown stale. Dust hung, and lingered like mist. Clay waited amongst the slumbering mechanisms until she heard the guards pass. She finally bolted from the room and couldn't leave it behind fast enough. Eventually, she turned a corner and found herself in a hall lined with cell doors. Hope leaped in her chest and spurned her forward. She got on her hands and knees, crawling through the dirt and grime, and opened every delivery slot.

"Anpiel?" she called, "are you in there?" Each door met her with silence so loud it rang in her ears. The flesh on her hands and knees chaffed from the concrete floor. She crawled from door to door. She checked and rechecked each mail slot. "Anpiel!" her voice broke with frustration.

They killed her as soon as they knew they had me.

Heavy pressure formed a solid ball in the centre of her chest. She struggled to hold it in and catch her breath. Her whole body shook. Clay couldn't keep it in any longer.

She's dead. We never stood a chance. I couldn't protect her.

A shriek emerged and lessened the weight of the ball in her chest, if only a little. She had been holding it for so long. Since the day Rachael died, the ball had formed slowly piece by piece, and she kept it for Anpiel's sake. As if it would shield her somehow.

The lab had kept them apart immediately following Rachael's death. It had been days since she had last seen Anpiel when Clay first heard the small whimpers come from the wall. In the dead of night, in the complete darkness of her cell, she followed the sound to the vent.

"Anpiel is that you?"

The sobs stopped.

"Clay?"

"It's me."

"What happened to Rachael? Where is she? Why hasn't she come to get me?"

"She's gone, Annie."

"Where? When is she coming back?"

"I don't know."

"I'm scared."

"I know. It'll be ok, I promise. I'll find a way to get us out of here."

I failed you. And for what? I got us out, we were so close and I let you down.

She heard the group of agents approach her, but couldn't bring herself to get up.

"On your feet E1," commanded the agent. He stood above her with the tranquilliser gun aimed at her chest.

She looked up at the small squadron of ERS agents that circled her. All were dressed in black riot gear. The group on the perimeter kept their shields up, and watched her through the hard plastic.

Clay pulled herself to her feet. She didn't struggle against them, or try to maintain any semblance of pride. The agent that had spoken to her grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back. He clasped a pair of shackles on her wrists.

When the squadron brought her back to her cell, she curled up on the mattress. Her shoulders ached, and her hands began to tingle and grow numb from the restraints. She hardly noticed. With the cell door closed, the darkness in the room was complete, and she allowed it to consume her.

*****

Gabriel peeled back the curtain from the spare room window. Sam peered out over his shoulder.

"Still nothing?"

Gabriel shook his head. "Not yet."

To distract themselves, they had begun to organise the spare room. When Sam had moved in with Gabriel, he had both upstairs rooms put to use to store his camping, hunting and paranormal investigation gear. After one room was turned into her craft room, all of Gabriel's gear was sequestered into the one remaining room. He now used it as his office where he managed all of their research and evidence gathered on their investigations.