Earth Heart - Part 8

Earth Heart

Disbelief and surprise coursed through my mind. She was supposed to be dead. Thirteen years ago they told me she had died. They lied. The thought hit me like a slap across my face. Tears ran down my temples as anger replaced my shock. I renewed my efforts to get loose. I had to reach her. I had to. The man, Lucius, stepped back to allow her to reach for me. My mother laid a hand on my shoulder, still smiling and suddenly something akin to an electric shock ran up my spine. I screamed in pain as the white hot agony raced along my veins. She removed her hand and stepped back. This wasn’t my mother. I panted and moaned as my body spasmed involuntarily in the aftermath of the electricity overload on my feedskin system. I watched her warily, she was still smiling. How could she…? The browned hand at the edge of my vision twitched. Leo was awake. Even through the haze of pain I could still think about him. I would remember this as a stupid detail later but to me, his survival was now as important as mine. I almost couldn’t believe it. What a time for a revelation to dawn upon me. I loved him. I loved Leo. Lucius was standing at my feet, his face impassive as he held a clipboard. Watching me. Watching him. I couldn’t get free…maybe, maybe there was some other way. I closed my eyes, red spots dancing across my closed eyelids. I heard Leo groan softly. This had to work. I reached out with my feedskin’s signals and felt Lucius’ and the woman who looked like my mother. I felt their signals. I sent out enough energy to blackout the entire cyber city through my own body into the air at them. My throat was raw from screaming. The pain was unbearable, like being fried alive by my own feedskin, burned on every part of my body that it covered. I screamed and screamed this I was hoarse. Slowly I opened my eyes, they felt hot and dry…so dry… two bodies lay on the floor, occasionally spasming and writhing. Their eyes were open but unseeing. I saw wires sticking out from the body closest to mine, the sizzling ends protruding from her chest where a large hole was burned. The familiar eyes were glassy and now that I had a closer look, I realized the truth. She wasn’t alive, she never was. The woman who resembled my mother was a robot. Her skin was silicon and her eyes were probably glass set with cameras. She wasn’t my mother. My mother was still dead. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes for a moment. I took one last look at the body and decided that I had to move on. I looked around the room, my heart cold at the deception. Why was I targeted for this experiment? I wondered. I shook the cuffs around my ankles and wrists off and swung my legs to the floor. My head throbbed. It was a miracle I wasn’t dead. Leo was stretched across the other table, his arms and legs strapped down. I stepped over the two bodies on the floor and made my way towards him. A harsh gasp escaped from my throat. What had they done to him? My mind whimpered. I reached out a hand and touched the hand that had only a few hours ago been clasped around mine. Leo moaned and opened his eyes at my touch, light as it was. “Alexa,” it came out a husky whisper. I had to strain to hear him. “Leo, what did they do to you?” his chest rose and fell slowly, almost too slowly to be normal. Tubes, wires, a whole assortment of machines were connected to his feedskin and his eyes were glazed over, with pain, I thought. I reached to pull a wire out but he stopped me, his hand trembling with the effort. “Don’t. I’ll die if you do that, Alexa.” I froze. “How…?” I whispered. He smiled then coughed wildly. I felt tears prick my eyes. I couldn’t let this happen to him. “Switch off the main power. They’re draining us for our ability.” He whispered, his voice unnaturally rough. Our ability…alarm bells went off in my head. I stepped back and jumped into the air. The metal plates beneath my feet slid out with a click as I hovered in midair. They hadn’t taken mine. “Leo…what was your ability?” I leaned close to him. His eyes looked into mine. “I can bring life back to earth. I can make things…that flower grow again. They call it the earth heart.”

~Rei Shiori