Life &Death Awaits (8.2)

Rivi woke to Daniel's moaning. She got up and stepped over to the bench he was laying on.

"Is it your head again, Dan?"

Dan gave a slight nod as he wrapped an arm over his head. Rivi shook her head in dismay. Suddenly, the cell door was thrown open.

"PS3-36-9G11, you will come with me now," a guard commanded.

Rivi turned her head and looked up at the guard.

"Can you bring a healer? Can't you see he's not feeling well?" Rivi asked.

The guard came into the cell, frowning, and forced Rivi to her feet. He pushed her out of the room and harshly into the arms of two other guards, who frog-marched her down the hall, struggling all the way. It wasn't until she saw the fate that awaited her that she froze until she was shoved into the dark chamber.

Rivi had been here before as a little girl. If everything was the same, Rivi knew she would not find any object in the whole room, and just like the cells, there wouldn't be any way for her to escape either. This room was the reason she would only sleep with a light on for the first few years after she was rescued.

The Aruk shut the door behind her, and Rivi heard the lock click into the mechanism. She sat on the floor in the middle of the dark room. She stayed there, sitting still, for what seemed like an eternity.

Hours, days, I can't tell anymore, Rivi thought to herself with an almost insane laugh.

Sometime later, Rivi began to hear noises—noises like someone screaming, far away. There were other noises too, like explosions and hissing sounds. At first, Rivi was thinking it was all in her imagination.

No ... These noises are real, aren't they?

Suddenly, there was the sound of something falling close by, something big. Rivi backed away from it, only to hear something else fall on her other side. Things were falling everywhere. Rivi backed into a corner and, seeing no alternative plan, she hid her head under her arms and brought her forehead close to the floor.

Would it ever stop? Are the Aruk under attack? If this keeps up much longer, I'll be killed! Rivi thought to herself. What about Dan?

The sounds of falling objects and explosions kept getting worse and worse, until at last a beam of light shone through the now open door. Rivi looked up at her rescuers, thinking that perhaps it was Dan who had gotten free or an Aunantet who had come to rescue them.

She looked and saw only the Aruk guards sneering down at her. Rivi got up, feeling quite distraught. The guards led her roughly back to the cell, where Dan was sitting on the left-hand bench. He had a cut above his brow that hadn't been there when Rivi left.

The guards pushed her into the cell. Another Aruk came behind her and dropped two bowls on the floor, then left the cell. The guards shut and locked the door behind them. Rivi picked up the bowls and walked over to sit beside Dan. She passed him a bowl.

"You okay?" Dan asked, worried.

"Physically, I think so. Mentally, I'm not so sure," Rivi said, shakily as she wiped leftover tears from her face with the back of her sleeve.

"What happened?" Daniel asked as he tentatively sipped at the white mush in his bowl.

"They put me in this dark room. There were noises. I thought at any moment I was going to be killed by any number of things," Rivi said with a single sniffle and a sigh.

"YUCK! What is this stuff?" Dan exclaimed.

"It is a protein compound meant to be just barely nutritionally adequate to keep you alive," Rivi answered. "What happened to your head?"

"They left me here the whole time. I was pacing the room, and my head hurt so badly. A dizzy spell hit me and I must have smacked my head on the edge of the bench when I tripped. But you know, my head doesn't hurt so badly anymore." Dan replied with a sarcastic smile.

Rivi closed her eyes and shook her head in wonder. She quickly drank down the rest of the mush in her bowl and waved her hand at Dan to encourage him to do the same. Only a few minutes passed when another guard came in and called for PS3-36-9G11 again.

"You just brought her back here a few minutes ago!" Dan exclaimed, jumping up in defiance.

A guard came in and smacked Dan hard across the face, sending him spinning into the wall behind him and onto the floor. His bowl went clattering across the cell. Rivi wanted to reach out and soften his fall, but she knew her mind was already too weak. The guard shoved her out of the room and down the hall.

Dan sat there, holding his eyes closed for a few seconds. He felt his jaw and winced. When he opened his eyes, another guard came and announced Dan's own personal identification number, then forced Dan out the door.

#

Rivi wondered where she would be taken this time.

She was led into a small lab room and forced down into a chair, into which she was then strapped. An Aruk dressed in white garments came over and tried to insert a needle into Rivi's right arm. There was no escape. She struggled as hard as she could, sucking in her breath and trying to will her arm away from the needle. It was no use. She yelped in pain as the needle pierced her skin and entered her vein.

Connected to the needle was a long, clear tube. At the end of it was a bag filled with something green. The Aruk didn't bother giving her an explanation before they released the green liquid. Rivi watched as it inched down the tube. She took a steadying breath as the liquid neared her arm. She reached out with her mind to stop the liquid, but she had to stop as she was zapped by an electrical charge from behind.

"Just thought I'd try," Rivi said, wryly. "Anyone going to tell me what that stuff is?"

The Aruk sneered, twisting their smooth faces. A few seconds later, as the liquid slid into Rivi's arm, she realized what the liquid was.

Poison!

Rivi's eyes opened in shock, she felt like her blood was on fire. She struggled against her bonds only to find that she was now shaking uncontrollably. Her fingers and toes became numb, and soon, the shaking stopped. Her whole body was paralyzed. Rivi felt her body temperature rising slowly, and pain riddled her body. The few Aruk in the room watched a screen on the wall displaying her vital signs. The numbers turned red, and warning alarms sounded as the stats climbed to precarious levels.

If there was an antidote, and she got it in time—Rivi saw none of the Aruk reach for anything that might represent an antidote, though. Perhaps—perhaps they had finally, after all these years, decided to go ahead and dispose of her, apparently in the most excruciating and slowest way possible.

Rivi closed her eyes to try to shut out the pain, but it was no use. Her mind began to slow down, and it soon became impossible for her to string a complete, coherent thought together. Then, suddenly, it was as if a cold gust of wind smacked her in the chest. Rivi opened her eyes to see an Aruk disengaging the now empty bag of green poison and putting another bag holding a yellow liquid in its place.

I don't know ... if I can take much more ... Rivi thought incoherently.

Slowly, she realized that her mind was becoming clearer. The pain slowly dwindled to a level that was at least tolerable. She began regaining the feeling in her body and soon could move her fingers. The burning in her body slowly subsided and her breathing returned to a regular rate, though she was still shaking uncontrollably. Rivi looked at the clear bag to see that all of the yellow liquid was now gone.

The Aruk unbound her and pushed her roughly out the door and back to the cell. The guard pushed her in, and Rivi found that, because of her shaking, she couldn't regain her balance. She let herself fall to the floor, where she lay flat, enjoying its coolness as the guard slammed the door.

Moments later, the door opened again and Dan was pushed into the room, where he fell to his knees beside Rivi, who was still laying on her stomach. Both of them were shaking hard.

"P-p-poison?" Rivi stuttered.

"Poison," Dan replied, sweeping a shaking hand over his forehead, where his cut was no longer to be found.

Rivi didn't even notice, though. She closed her eyes, trying to calm the shaking that was now giving her muscle cramps.

"It seems like the poison had a worse effect on you, though," Dan replied, as he helped Rivi to her feet.

He led her to a bench, and Rivi lay down on it. Dan went to the other bench and sat, resting his head on the wall behind him. It wasn't long before he fell asleep, his mind wandering into a dream ...

#

Far out in space, a small nursery of stars was surrounded by thick gases that were almost impossible to see through. The small, brilliant stars danced elegantly. Their many different temperatures would form a kaleidoscope of color if a passerby were to examine them on an infrared scale.

There were no passersby, though. This was space—a sterile environment that just 'happened' (or perhaps it wasn't just some coincidence) to contain the materials vital to the creation and birth of stars and planets.

This sterile mixing pot simmered and simmered, portions of life bobbing around here and there. Huge balls of burning energy—stars—formed the main ingredients in the stew. Every now and then, you might spot a planet floating in this medley like a potato. The potato, every now and then, would 'happen' to have a peppercorn stuck to it. Life.

It was time to take the peppercorns off the potatoes, but who would do it? Everyone knows that peppercorns are very hard just to pluck out. The potatoes often have a good grip on them. The job would have to be done in a special way.

There happened to be someone stirring the mixing pot, the Creator ... I think he knows who will do this special job. He keeps talking about a plan he has. He happened to be keeping an eye on two small 'ingredients' (or stars) in particular.

Meanwhile, some big chunks of fatty meat were disrupting the flow of the stew as it all went round and round. These pieces of meat were big black holes seeking to suck up and destroy anything (or smash any potato, or any other ingredients for that matter) if they got in the way.

The stars in the small nursery could tell all this was going on, but they were still young and could do very little about it. They danced and played, seemingly safe in their little nursery, thinking that the rolling clouds of gas that surrounded them would keep them protected from the confusion, destruction, and chaos going on outside their nursery. The Creator watched sadly as the two stars he had been observing started to dim.

Looking into the future, one would know that a group of stars in this nursery would inevitably explode, jarring the hopes and dreams of the rest. If the nursery of stars could not keep up hope, there would be no hope that the peppercorns would ever get off the potatoes. The hopes and dreams of many in that stew seemed to rest on the shoulders of just a few particular ingredients, as the stew was stirred round and round, the meat desiring to turn everything to mush.

The stars, seeing all this happening, would be called to put a stop to the meat's madness.

#