The Rise of the Cyborgs

Chapter 60/Edepus

I reached the door of the storeroom and looked back before slamming it. The wolf wasn't to be seen. I heard not barking but whining.

"No.! NO ... such devils torment." The voice said again. I grabbed a fire extinguisher, breathed deeply and slowly moved back in.

The way was more familiar now and I was able to move back to the cages. The wolf looked up. "The angel returns to torment me." The wifi voice said.

"HELLO," I said silently "I'm not here to hurt you OK?"

Looking back the wolf was out of its cage but had a leash keeping it tied to the wall. The wolf looked at me face on. Its face was so grotesque on one side you almost felt sick looking at it.

"If you're not here to hurt me, then tell me maiden, why are you here?" The voice said silently.

"Who did this to you?" I asked.

"Why mock my deformity? You did," the Wolf replied.

"Was it the professor?" I asked. It was obvious that it was true. The wolf tilted its head. I noticed a bowl nearby was empty.
"Are you hungry. Thirsty?" I asked. Looking around I saw a large box of dried dog food. I moved slowly into the Wolf's space. It was now standing in a dangerously prone position. I put the fire extinguisher down. I held my open hands up. Slowly reaching over I picked the bowl up. Then moved out of the wolf's leash reach to get to the dog food. I filled the bowl. Then carefully placed it back.

"See I'm not dangerous," I said, "I think we scared each other pretty good right?"

I noticed the dog didn't eat. It just watched my every move alertly.

"My name is Meta," I said.

"And my words are not lost on your ears like the seas crashing on the rocks," the wolf said silently.

I looked back to the wolf's cage. In it was a book propped up. There was a mirror to another book in the corner, mostly there was straw as bedding and a chew toy.

"and you can read" I added nodding at the book.

The wolf said nothing. I looked above the cage. On it was a whiteboard with the letters "K17" on it.

"Your K17?" I said, "what happened to K9?"

"She died," the wolf said "screaming If I remember. Screaming and pleading. Pleading for her life. Pleading for her puppies. Pleading for the pain to stop. Pleading for an angel be sent from above to come down and smite this eighth ring of hell. God it seems is not a master of lesser beasts. I watched as the darkness began at her ...paws slowly growing up her legs and tail. Day by day we watched it creep over her body. She was brave at first. Then when the trials failed she asked to help. When she lost the power of speech I could see the terror in her eyes. Then she slowly choked to death. All that time I never tried to touch her through the cage bars. An action I will regret to the end of my days."

That hadn't been the reaction I was expecting. I felt shame coursing through me. 

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Sorry for calling me K17 or sorry for this cave of tears?"

"Both," I admitted.

The wolf moved. "You too have seen this happen, haven't you. You watched this happen to another?" His tone was kind, almost sympathetic. His peeled face moved.

I spoke without certainty, "Yes.. I have a friend...."

The wolf waited.

"He was my friend and I was the one responsible for infecting him." I began " wait how did you know?"

The wolf leaned forward "I see it every day in my companion's face." He nodded at the mirror. "Mr mirror is my only companion these days."

"I'm sorry for what has been done to you K17," I said.

"Then do not use that name again. Call me Edipus." The Wolf said. "Maiden Meta."

I noticed my shivering reduce "Who gave you that name?" I asked.
The wolf looked at me "There is only one with the right to give me a name. I did."

"You're a cybrog?" I said the words evaporated from my mouth.

"No pain maiden. You're the cyborg. I'm just an experiment." The voice came back.

I could seen the network signals running through the computer into his mind. There was an external computer he was plugged into. It was hard to be sure where his mind was. Language was partly in the machine. The root of it in his mind. Looking on the screen attached to the computer I could see streams of information. I drew the the code into the air about me. There was a signal on high deep in his mind. Surely that would hurt? The wolf watched as I reassembled the parameters.

"How does this feel?" I send setting up a new interface.

"Feel?" said the wolf.

"Better, worse or same." I said pulling code around.

The wolf-machine looked at me then twitched. "oh better. better. Worse..same. same better. Oh yeah that's better."

As I changed parameters the wolf gave me a running commentary on its subjective experience.

"oh that's good." The wolf said.

I looked around. "I'm sorry about this." It made sense that the Professor was experimenting on animals. The logic didn't make it feel any less unpleasant. I was now apart of this. " I promise I will do what I can to help you." I told the wolf.

"Solitude sometimes is best society." The wolf said back.

"This experimenting on animals... I'm sorry." I said. The cybernetic implants had raised it to sentience the way it had made me smarter. The wolf was limited by how much it could move. The cables were plugged into a desktop PC. It made for simpler interfacing but meant the animal was trapped in a small cage. If I unplugged it then the cybernetic support would be lost and it would be like having a bad lobotomy. I began to wonder if I could make a smaller machine. Something portable.

"Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep..." the wolf said back. "you wonder about the animals. Then check the far chests."

I looked to where the animal was looking. There was a large chest freezer. I went over and lifted the lid. It was cold and was stuck. It took some force to lift it up. In the mists, there was a large white crystal landscape below my hands. I reached in noticed some kind of lump. Pushing the ice away I discovered a bag. I lifted the bag up, it wasn't big, not much bigger than a foot ball or a large lump of meat.

"What is dark within me, illumine." The Wolf said.

Clearing what Ice I could away. I looked into the clear plastic bag. My heart froze. This was a baby, a human baby frozen. It's eyes shut. I looked closely the back had a large complex birthmark it was kind of like mine. The tiny arms and hands had black lines running down them. Brushing more ice away I found the chubby legs curled up under him. The legs were covered in black scales.

"Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Dig deeper." The wolf added.

Putting the frozen baby aside I pushed more ice away. This time I found a nearly adult sized body. Most of the flesh had been cut away. Inside I could see a network of what looked like fine wires spread through out the frozen flesh. It looked like this was some kind of autopsey.

The wolf spoke again "This one was new. The Satan comes to look at the child on occasion. The other companion is not four weeks old. He arrived dead. I watched god unmake his limp body my self."

"Oh God." I said. This body was burnt. Parts of the coloured boiler suit stuck to the flesh. When I noticed the wrist band I nearly screamed. It was an impaired. This was Lee or Hannah Dissected.

"Shit shit shit" I said running out of the store room and pushing the door behind me.

"Meta?" Said a voice as I came out. It was the proffessor.