Piece Simul ✔

Chapter 38- Russ-More Bad Dreams

The light hurt her eyes.

Russ couldn't understand why everything was so goddamn bright all the time. Sprawling white floors, white walls, white ceilings. They were mostly a pain in the ass because of how easily they were scuffed.

She rested for a minute, wiping her brow.

"Keep at it," Genly Ai advised. His side of the floor shone noticeably cleaner, but it wasn't exactly fair given his mechanical advantage. "Don't let them see you falter."

The words should have been funny, but they held weight. They meant something.

With a renewed vigor, Russ bent to scrub at the gray and black lines skating across the white abyss. She never looked too far ahead, because the breadth of what was in front of her would have been too much.

A dirty boot stepped into sight. Dirt from the heel marred the pristine floor.

"Now me," the owner of the boot demanded.

Glancing up, Russ wished she hadn't. The Captain loomed before her, far from the man she revered. Blood smeared his face, and dirt caked his uniform.

Emeralds glittered where his eyes should've been.

"Captain?" Russ thought the statement stupid, but complex words escaped her.

He dropped to his knees, green spheres level with her eyes. "Fix. Me," he pleaded.

Russ scrambled away from him. Captain merely followed, hovering near. It's as though he wanted, needed her to see his transformation.

So close to his face, she assessed his infection. The irises and lenses had filmed over with a shade of startling green. She wondered how he could see anything, because the film appeared thick.

Redness tinged the lids, swelling and spilling over. Crimson lines zig-zagged across his grimy cheeks.

He's crying blood.

Russ shuddered.

"Help," he rasped.

He grabbed for her. Russ tried rolling out of his reach, but he caught hold of her coveralls, dragging her back.

"How do I help you?" she yelled.

Squirming did nothing to quell the Captain's claw clamped on her coveralls.

His hands grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him. Mouth yawning wide, he spewed blood into her face. Russ cried out. The blood erupted in a thin, hot line, first across the bridge of her nose, then some got in her mouth.

"Jesus!" she shouted.

She sputtered, squeezing her eyes shut so that none of the blood got in her eyes. The thought of an infection terrified her, more than the Captain's transformation.

Her scream was drowned out by liquid flooding into her mouth. Russ was choking.

When she next opened her eyes, fluid from the dura-chamber clouded her vision.

A dream. It had all been a dream.

Through the din of the chamber, Russ made out the surrounding room. The other chambers hung, empty husks waiting to be filled. Waiting to visit nightmares on unsuspecting sleepers.

Something was wrong. She shouldn't have been allowed to wake, not even from a nightmare. This time round, she had upped the sleep suppressant to ensure just that.

Alarms rang out. Suddenly, the chamber began to depressurize. Russ, panicked, watched as the fluid drained, running to the metal slats below.

Gears were grinding, then a click resounded, signaling Russ to what would happen next. The chamber released her, dumping her unceremoniously to the floor. She managed to catch herself on the one hand she had left, saving her face from smacking the metal slats. The rest of her wasn't so lucky. She landed awkwardly on her armless side, slamming onto the dura-chamber floor.

Everything hurt. Russ worried she had cracked a rib.

Drawing in ragged breaths, she settled onto the floor, shivering in the blanket of dura-chamber fluid drying on her bare skin.

Clomp. Clomp.

The sound echoed, reverberating across the walls.

Russ's teeth clicked together. Her body curled into a ball, with her crying out against the pain in her side.

The air around her changed. Someone breathed heavily above her.

"Fix. Me," came the growled command.

Russ forced herself to look up at what she already knew would be waiting for her.

The Captain. Bloodied and caked in dirt.

She exhaled, partly in relief and partly in grief.

His presence confirmed that she was still dreaming, and that meant she was still safe, in the dura-chamber.

However, his presence also meant that she was trapped in a very bad dream.