--Vocal recording 66406--Cell 84--21:40pm
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[pause 29.5s]
"I can hear rain again. On the roof. It's so loud, it's... strange. You wouldn't think you could hear it, in Eden 28, but..."
[pause 15s]
"Eden 28... I've said it before, but it's all underground. Most of it. Except this part of it, I guess. Feels weird, being so close to the surface, and not being able to..."
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"I always have trouble knowing where to start. I..."
[pause 17s, voices]
"OK... I remember that, after Eight had told me his "story", he said to me,
"you should probably get some sleep, you know. God knows what's going to happen tomorrow. There's no way they're going to let us get away with that. With what happened at the old factory, I mean."
At that point, I realised he was right. It had been hours since I'd properly slept."
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"Actually, most of... us... had seperate rooms. The house, or whatever it had been, was fairly big. There were a lot of rooms to it. That night, I remember I slept in a little room off from one of the corridors. It actually took me a while to get to sleep, even though I was tired. I remember the view from that room... I could just about see that ruined building... the one I mentioned last time. It had - it has - four huge, tall white chimneys at each corner."
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"It was... such a beautiful building, really. The Manuductive never really puts much effort into design or architecture. Except for the Bureau buildings, and obviously New 10 Downing Street."
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I know I said that. The thing is..."
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"... Ow..."
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"That... that was weird."
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"I... I just got... a really strange feeling. Like stomach cramps, only... just really briefly. Like... like something..."
[pause 11s]
"Stopped now. How strange."
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"...Anyway... the next morning, I remember waking up...
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"And I heard... straight away, I heard... Sounds... voices, coming from downstairs, from the other rooms. I wasn't sure what to do, so... I just headed towards where the voices were coming from."
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"It's weird. I suppose I... I could have run, then. Escaped. When none of them were looking. I mean, I was still a little scared of them... they had tried to kill me, no matter what reason Eight gave for it. But... I suppose... well..."
[pause 11s]
"I probably wouldn't have gotten far, anyway. The Mapmen or the M.C.P. would have caught me. But the thing is... I thought about runnning away. But I didn't. I didn't want to. I could imagine Two's expression if I did. I could imagine Eight's... contempt."
[pause 15.5s]
"And... I think, even then, there was... something else. I remember thinking about the way Alecto had had Zero shot. And... the way Tyburn had... had laughed at Twelve. When she was crying over Zero."
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"I think that... I think that... I think that I thought... Err..."
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"I can't think straight. I... I'm tired again..."
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***
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"I think that... I think that my sentence must have been indefinitely postponed, or something. Something's happened, either way. They wouldn't keep me here this long without some reason."
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"You do know, don't you? You know why... I'm being held back here. There's a reason. You know."
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"You do, though. It was a statement, not a question. You won't tell me, obviously."
[pause 9s, voices]
"Fine, OK. Err... OK, I remember going downstairs, and seeing... most of the D.E.M. All in that same room. Eight was in the middle, smoking a cigarrette... he was always smoking... and talking to Two. The two of them were both looking down at a map of London."
[pause 27s]
"No-one looked up when I came in. They were all just talking at the same time, about diffrent things, but... all to do with the Manuductive or the D.E.M."
[pause 18.5s, voices]
"There were... OK, you have to remember that this is only one Chapter of the D.E.M. They have Chapters all over Britain, and in the U.S.M.A. All over the world. Anyway, this one chapter had about... Thirty members, I think. Thirty was the highest number I remember any of them having, anyway. But it changed all the time. It had certainly changed... after what had happened the day before."
[pause 23s]
"I remember... I was just... I hated being in that room, then. I hated all the noise, and being ignored. I know that last part sounds childish, but..."
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"Anyway... I just headed for the first door I could see. I mean, I wanted to stay in the building, but I really wanted to get out of that room. So I..."
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"In the next room along... there were... beds. Narrow, wooden beds. I couldn't work out what they were for, until I saw that most of them were... occupied. Had people in them... but the room... it was... a... a medical room. The closest the D.E.M. could get to a hospital. Six, the one who acted as the doctor, the older man... he was walking around the room, checking on the people in the beds."
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"He looked up at me when he heard me coming. He said,
"oh, it's you. Is your head any better?"
I'd actually forgotten about where the brick had hit me. It was still in the bandage, but it had stopped hurting. I said so."
[pause 13s]
"Six said,
"Oh, good. Well, as long as you're here, then you might as well help out. Come with me."
For the next couple of hours, I just helped to make sure that... that the people in the beds were comfortable, and that they were... breathing properly, things like that. It felt good just to do something other than run and be scared and confused."
[pause 16.5s]
"I didn't say much, but... Six just talked to me. He told me that he'd come to be with the D.E.M. He'd been... a medical officer during the New Civil War. Actually, he'd been working for the Manuductive forces, healing the wounded Mapmen and soldiers."
[pause 21s]
"And and then... the Manuductive... they tried to kill him. Simple as that. Because he'd also been healing people from... from the enemy's side. They didn't manage it, but..."
[pause 16s]
"He was... like Two, really. He was a really early member of the D.E.M., one of the founders. He worked as a healer because it was all he could really do. He couldn't fight, he hated causing other people pain. He hated to see people in pain. I suppose that's why he helped the people... that he was supposed to be against."
[pause 34s]
"Anyway... after a while, the two of us came to one of the beds. There..."
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"There was... a girl... no older than me... and... she was... so... badly hurt... stabbed... shot... so many kreiglights had been shone into her eyes that she'd gone blind. There were... awful black cataracts on her eyes. And... the blood... I think that... before attacking her, they'd..."
[pause 73s]
"Anyway... Six... he looked at her, and sighed. He said,
"It's amazing she's still alive. She must have been strong. But... it'd be cruel to keep her here."
He took a gun from inside his jacket. And then he said,
"We do what we can here, Three. I do what I can do. I heal people as best I can. I try to make them well again."
[pause 50s]
"He... he put his hand over the girl's eyes... put the gun to her forehead... and whispered something to her... something I didn't hear... I don't know if she heard or not, but..."
[pause 100s]
"Then... Six looked straight up at me. Straight at me. And he said,
"But sometimes there's only one thing we can do."
[pause 30.5s]
"And he pulled the trigger."
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"I really don't want to say any more..."
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So guys, whadda ya think? Just to let u know, I'm gonna b posting a new chapter like every day over the next week... Hope u liked this one anywho.
Thanx just as usual to all fans, new fans, long time fans, voters... You keep me writing this you know.
I won't remind you to comment, 'cos I know u will.