Techno

Chapter 11

C.I.N.A. Nevada Medical Station B

     The delicate instrument scratched into the concrete walls of the cell. It created a sound that made the scientists observing cringe, but it did nothing to Gabriel. Like an artist creating his greatest masterpiece, he was engrossed in every arc, every line, and every detail.

     Like a canvas, the wall was littered with drawings. Fantastical images of people, creatures, and events littered the concrete. Gabriel's hands bled from the tightness of which he gripped the piece of jagged metal that had been torn out from under his bed. He giggled with each stroke, muttering incomprehensible words under his breath.

     "The Prophet will reveal all," he hissed, sweat dripping from his brow. "The Prophet is the creator of it all."

     He dropped the metal instrument and stood back from his latest creation. A circle, with several indications of light emitting from it, was etched into the concrete.

     "The stone," Gabriel whispered to himself, "will ascend unto us a great revelation."

     Gabriel reached out and touched the wall with his hands. Blood was stained and encrusted into the crevices of his palm as he felt the grooves underneath his flesh. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes, letting another wave of images cascade within his skull.

     A hooded figure stood against a wave of flames.

     Gabriel rolled his head, listening to the screams of another time resonate inside his head.

     "I see...everything," he giggled to himself. "It's all connected!"

     He began to laugh uncontrollably, leaning against the wall as he did so. The laughing increased in intensity until tears swam down Gabriel's face. The laugh lessened in its psychotic tone, instead dwindling into a moan of a man in pain. He began to shake, sobs blending out of the laughing.

**

Ellie

     Screams enveloped her senses as Ellie came back to consciousness. She was face down, planted on the cushion of a seat, and breathing in toxic fumes from a fire nearby. People clamored all around her, trying to escape the burning wreckage.

     "Help!" a woman screamed, trying to pull herself out from under a piece of debris.

     Ellie's eyes opened and she was introduced to a scene of utter horror. Twisted metal, flames licking the train compartment walls, and dozens of injured people made up her surroundings. She coughed, pushing herself up and dusting off the bits of metal that clung to her coat.

     "Please, help!" another man pleaded.

     The world slowed down, everything sinking into Ellie's mind. People crawled along the ground like wounded soldiers, and children clung to their parent's helpless bodies as the train compartment collapsed in upon itself. A loose cable was spraying lethal sparks all over the place, and a locked emergency exit door was the only thing keeping people from escaping. Momentarily, fear clouded Ellie's judgement...

     ....but then she remembered, again, that she was the hero.

     "Everyone, stay clear!" Ellie ordered, raising up her hand.

     Immediately, she ordered her consciousness to extend itself from her fingertips. It, like the fire, rippled through the air and wrapped itself around the loose cable. Sparks sprang from it like a forest fire, but Ellie's powers traveled through the intricate systems of wires and diverted the power away from the open cable. Within seconds, the cable ceased spraying sparks and people were safe.

     Then, Ellie turned her attention to the jammed emergency exit and thought through the problem. Dust curled in the air as she closed her eyes and felt the electricity surging around her like a sizzling storm. Ellie redirected the power towards one of the doors allowing entrance into the cabin, and her mind pushed the strangled doors open. As the metal doors creaked, a fresh burst of cool air extinguished the burning smell of the surrounding fire.

     A little girl, who had watched Ellie do everything, gaped in awe while the woman sprang forth and pulled up an injured old man.

     "Everyone, get out through the cabin doors!" she ordered, helping people out.

     Back and forth, Ellie went, until everyone had safely evacuated the smoldering wreckage of the train. She pried people out from under fallen debris, rescued little children from the prevailing fire, and ultimately saved every single life from the burning train wreckage. The bodies of the C.I.N.A. agents had vanished, if they were still alive at least.

     Police cars showed up on the scene within minutes and ambulances shortly followed. Ellie, however, was long gone. She fled the wreckage, not wanting to direct any more attention to herself than she needed. Ellie was on a mission, and she was a hero.

     Reports would later indicate that a young woman had saved the passengers from the wreckage. She was a woman of great strength, agility, and courage. Somehow, she had done the impossible and stopped a constant surge of electricity from killing families, children, and others. One person described her as communicating with the technology of the train, and how she worked in a cohesive team-like process to quell the energy within the compartment.

     She was half technology, half human.

     She was Techno.