“Why don’t you tell me where this woman is? You know, you could save yourself a lot of unnecessary suffering.” The man scrutinized the woman’s face. He could not understand why she refused to relinquish the information. His brow furrowed and his voice was full of frustration. “Why do you protect her? And where did she hide the Indian’s body who shared her power?”
The woman glared at the man. Her eyes filled with contempt and a hatred, which lurked just below her skin. Her clasped hands fought against the mounting tension that brought about the tingling in her arms and hands, and she cast her dim focus toward him.
As their eyes converged, he turned his own attention to her hands, feeling the sudden surge going through him and directly to his brain. This was not the first time he had experienced this odd sensation. He waited for it to dissipate, then turned his attention back on her. Unfortunately, a mouth that remained shut met him.
“I don’t think they have you so drugged you don’t realize why you’re here. You do remember why you are here don’t you?” An exasperated sigh passed over his lip and still there was still no response. “If you aren’t going to speak to me…If you give me the information they want, then they might let you go.” Fumbling in his jacket pocket, he pulled a pack of anti-acid out, swallowed two, rubbed his stomach and belched. The smell of his dinner filled his nostrils and he scowled. It was time for him to retire. All the years of stress were beginning to take its toll and he wanted a chance to enjoy himself before death called. Maybe after he closed this case, he thought, and returned his attention to the woman sitting across from him. “If you don’t talk to me, the doctor has ways of loosening that tongue of yours.” He stood and let out a sigh before adding, “Very well, have it your way. Just remember,” he said standing casting a discontented glance toward her. “I’ve tried. Your life is in their hands now.”
Looking at her, he found it hard to believe she had not been broken yet—Not looking strong enough to withstand the punishment, which she had been put through. Yet, day after day, she remained constant staring at nothing. Obviously, her mind was more resilient, he thought, while his eyes traveled to the swollen, bruised, lips, which remained clamped shut. Methodically, as if taking inventory, his observation turned to the raised redden whelps around her wrist left from the straps used to restrain her. His head shook with the knowledge it would be only a matter of time before he would not be questioning her any longer.
Still, she sat there indifferent and he wondered if the drugs were clouding her mind. As his eyes traveled from her wrist to her hands, which had remained clasped during this interview, he noticed the slight tremor in them. If she were being over medicated, he would never get anything out of her. He would have to remember to speak to the doctor about it and made a notation in her folder. The sooner this case was solved, the better. He did not like the feel of this one.
With hesitating reluctance, he knocked twice on the door, signaling the guard on the other side. Without her cooperation, he was powerless, and he knew when Army Intelligence was through with her, she would be no more than a vegetable. They would get the answers they wanted and turn it over to The Jason Group. They were the ones, ultimately, searching out the woman, who possessed power beyond imagination. When found, she would be turned into the Secret Government’s latest covert weapon.
The heavy door opened, and the guard approached the woman, leaving the room, guiding her back to the solitary space, which served as her personal box to madness. Her eyes focused on the floor as they walked, and she wondered what the poor souls, behind the other doors, had done. What cause did The Secret Government have to hide them away in this underground instillation?
As they walked, she closed her ears to the screams coming from behind the doors. Screams that haunted her dreams. Screams that reminded her why she was here. All the while knowing, her silence kept her prisoner. Or was it the only thing keeping her alive until the appointed time?
The powers holding her here thought they could gain knowledge of a woman that could be used as a weapon. A woman that held the special gene, which would allow them to create more, like her. They thought she knew who the woman was and they were right. She knew the woman very well, but her identity would remain hidden. They would witness the power they desired to possess and, when they saw it, their lives would be silenced forever. She let them think they had the upper hand for now. A brief smile lingered on her lips with this knowledge.
Her life, though guarded now, would be free again. She walked with eyes closed remembering the day the lost tribes had been sent back safely—before she had been captured. The people were no longer a worry and peace of mind was her payment. The Grays had been eradicated from the land and no longer a threat. Her eyes shone with the knowledge of the last surviving tribes being returned to the Guardians. They would live in peace and safety. The Secret Government and Grays no longer a threat in their world.
The only other item that remained on the Secret Government’s agenda was the body of the Indian man. They would never own it, just as they would never really have her. They would never be able to perform the genetic research and gene splicing in order to manufacture more creatures like themselves.
Another smile brushed her lips knowing her captors were clueless as to what they were up against. All of her secrets would be kept until the time was right. Then, she would rejoin the man they thought was dead. But until the designated hour, before she witnessed their mortality, she would remain silent, allowing them to believe what they wanted.
Inside her cement prison once more, she accepted the pills from the guard with a hand as limp as her short bleached hair. She lay down repeating her daily routine and waited for the screams to become her own. If she was lucky and the guard did not come back for her, she would relive the few good days in her dreams before the battle. They would ward off the dawn of the nemesis that had pursued her.
The dark encompassed her…Her eyes glaring at nothing…Her mind thoughtfully silent and waiting for sleep to come.
She would welcome the slumber that would allow her to remember the light, which had entered her world. One that was snatched away with suddenness, which had left her temporarily powerless, but she could feel her strength building again. This corruption, from a government that should have protected her, had shredded her existence into a blurred obscurity that would remain so, until she chose to make it otherwise. They could rob her body of the strength it needed to survive but they could not get to the power that lay within her core.
She closed her eyes against the remembered chaos—The outcry for mercy and the madness—The invasion that had accosted her people’s world.
At first, she trusted the branch of the government, which had approached the tribes. They had placed them away from the public’s eye vowing to care for them. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency had quickly betrayed that trust, placing her people in what mounted to nothing more than a concentration camp. Then the Secret Government had descended upon them, like a thief in the night, raping the tribe’s innocence with their ambiguity. Whose fault was it? Who knows? Maybe hers for placing trust in a government that held so many secrets from its citizens. But to practice atrocities upon the tribes was unconscionable.
She had once been a government employee and, she was familiar with how deals were cut under the table, even before official meetings were held. She knew that this constituted how many classified objectives were settled, without the knowledge of the public. She sighed and rolled over wondering how she could have been so gullible and trusting. She should have read into the motives of the offer for safety. The never-ending world of politics was a zoo filled with the most dangerous creatures on earth, man, and many of the elected animals were only interested in authority. But what good was power if there would be no one left to force it upon?
There had been so many innocent victims? The experiments performed on them, out of greed and ignorance. Her ignorance had killed the purity of her people, and what these governmental interlopers searched for, was something that would remain as elusive as the Loch Ness Monster. Now she knew how important it was to keep her secret. If it were to be exposed the world could be the next victim. They would be placed in the concentration camps and used for experiments, while the precious alien DNA was introduced into their bodies. And with time, a new race would begin, but not the one the Secret Government desired. Her power in the wrong hands could cause humanities downfall.
The only thing left for her was to try to think back to the very beginning and make some sense of this, before her capture and before the doctor’s came for her again.
Placing her trembling hands under her pillow, she desired to hide her weakness, which had once welded power beyond imagination—A power that could heal her. But for now, she allowed her body to experience the analgesic effect of the pills. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.
When she was wrenched up roughly, her eyes remained shut while someone drug her to the all too familiar room. She was vaguely aware of the pressure from the straps as they bit into her tender skin while her head remained drooped onto her chest. She was numb, non-responsive—Lost somewhere within the drugs.
The Doctor approached her and grabbed her hair, jerking her head backward examining her eyes, and said, “She is no good to me like this. I thought I told you no more pills?” He questioned the Commander standing behind her. The Doctor slapped her face, trying to arouse her, but she remained unresponsive. “Strap her ankles, we’ll leave her until she comes out of it.”
Sitting, strapped in, she was left to relive her recent adventures. Her time was growing short and she needed a gauge to measure the past and the present.
Want to review or comment on this short story?
Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Reviewed by Claywoman
7/15/2002
This was great! It made me want to read more! gimme...gimme...gimme!
Reviewed by chander keswani
4/14/2002
This community desperatly deserve your appreciation.you have truly come upon the SOS call of the community.
The drug called "The Shari" has been used for vision quests over many years. But, when all the rivers start drying up, the tribe must send a young hunter named Tomás on a much more important trip through the Amazon.
The drug called "The Shari" has been used for vision quests over many years. But, when all the rivers start drying up, the tribe must send a young hunter named Tomás on a much more important trip through the Amazon.
The drug called "The Shari" has been used for vision quests over many years. But, when all the rivers start drying up, the tribe must send a young hunter named Tomás on a much more important trip through the Amazon.
