The room.
Again.
We start to eat and I remember. The pocket. The brains.
The brains that were in there are useless. I quickly get rid of them on the floor and scrape up some fresh ones. I must remember.
We return to the machine. I must remember. This time I separate from the group and pass through an arch. The arch is part of a security system. I don't know how I know. Beyond the arch is a chamber, it looks rough, unfinished. There are boxes. A storeroom. I'm here for a box. My body knows which one. I'm hungry. I remember. I eat from my pocket. It's not enough. It will never be enough.
I hear a voice and I stop.
"I don't have any more. I'm sorry."
I can't see anyone. Then something shifts in front of me and I see a woman's face. She's crying. I eat the last of the brains in my pocket.
"You need more. I'm so, so sorry."
She looks at me. I wait. I eat. My body wants to take the crate, but I don't let it. She sobs and puts her hand to her head. There's something small and black in her hand. It makes a soft buzzing noise and she falls down. There's a smell. A delicious smell. Brains.
I stumble over to her and kneel. There's a hole in her head and I can't stop myself. I start to pull at the broken edges. Inside there are brains. I'm hungry. I eat. It's different.
I start to remember why I'm here. I know the woman. She's in my team, the only other one of us who made it this far. She's lying dead, wrapped in her heavily modified Grumman NG27 Meta Cloak. She's... She's my lover. I've eaten her brains. They were delicious.
I'm starting to remember. Why I'm here. What I need to do. I kneel a while longer and stare at her. I should hide her body, but there's something I need to do first. I don't want to, but I must. I crack her head open fully and scoop out what's left. I put it in the pocket of my black worksuit. The synthetic goop they give us must be missing something vital that I need to think clearly. It must be deliberate, we don't need to think to build. Her brain, Lara's brain, has everything. Lara's brain. I've eaten Lara's brain. I can't process that right now, there's no time. I force myself to continue.
I know why I'm here. I don't know how much longer I'll be conscious, so I need to hurry. I check Lara's body. All the booster is gone. How long have we been here? I don't remember being given any. Should I? I thought I would. Maybe there's something, a voice, but I'm not sure. Have I tried already? I don't know. I'm still alive, if that's what you call it, if was able to try before and failed I obviously didn't get caught.
I wrap Lara back up in her cloak and she disappears from view. There's a little blood on the floor, but I can't do anything about it. The Sig cauterised the wound, but I made a mess digging through her skull. I try not to think about that. I want to bring the weapon, but I leave it with her. I can't take it back in there, much as I'd like to. That was one of the first things we learned. I put her body behind some other crates, then pick up my own. They'll find her. They always do. They found the others.
I head back to the arch with my crate. There's no outward sign of the security system embedded within, but I know it's there. We were the elite, the brightest and the best. It should have been impossible to keep us out. We lost almost the whole team finding out just how wrong we were about that. None of our supposedly state of the art penetration tech was any use at all. I realise with a jolt that I can't remember their names. I can't remember my own. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters any more except stopping them.
A small part of me knows I'm obviously not even close to being normal, even after eating Lara's brain, if I was I'd be lying on the floor screaming instead of heading back in there. For that at least, I'm almost grateful for what they did to me. Almost.
We were desperate at the end, Lara and I, desperate enough to try this. How long did she wait for me alone in that room before deciding she had to take it even further? Did she get some intel from outside that pushed her to the point where she'd do anything? It's possible, it was bad enough out there before and it's hardly going to have got better. Did she even know that her brain would give me what I needed, or was she just hoping?
I'll never know what she was thinking, what drove her to this point, all I can do is try and finish what we started.
I walk through.
Again.
We start to eat and I remember. The pocket. The brains.
The brains that were in there are useless. I quickly get rid of them on the floor and scrape up some fresh ones. I must remember.
We return to the machine. I must remember. This time I separate from the group and pass through an arch. The arch is part of a security system. I don't know how I know. Beyond the arch is a chamber, it looks rough, unfinished. There are boxes. A storeroom. I'm here for a box. My body knows which one. I'm hungry. I remember. I eat from my pocket. It's not enough. It will never be enough.
I hear a voice and I stop.
"I don't have any more. I'm sorry."
I can't see anyone. Then something shifts in front of me and I see a woman's face. She's crying. I eat the last of the brains in my pocket.
"You need more. I'm so, so sorry."
She looks at me. I wait. I eat. My body wants to take the crate, but I don't let it. She sobs and puts her hand to her head. There's something small and black in her hand. It makes a soft buzzing noise and she falls down. There's a smell. A delicious smell. Brains.
I stumble over to her and kneel. There's a hole in her head and I can't stop myself. I start to pull at the broken edges. Inside there are brains. I'm hungry. I eat. It's different.
I start to remember why I'm here. I know the woman. She's in my team, the only other one of us who made it this far. She's lying dead, wrapped in her heavily modified Grumman NG27 Meta Cloak. She's... She's my lover. I've eaten her brains. They were delicious.
I'm starting to remember. Why I'm here. What I need to do. I kneel a while longer and stare at her. I should hide her body, but there's something I need to do first. I don't want to, but I must. I crack her head open fully and scoop out what's left. I put it in the pocket of my black worksuit. The synthetic goop they give us must be missing something vital that I need to think clearly. It must be deliberate, we don't need to think to build. Her brain, Lara's brain, has everything. Lara's brain. I've eaten Lara's brain. I can't process that right now, there's no time. I force myself to continue.
I know why I'm here. I don't know how much longer I'll be conscious, so I need to hurry. I check Lara's body. All the booster is gone. How long have we been here? I don't remember being given any. Should I? I thought I would. Maybe there's something, a voice, but I'm not sure. Have I tried already? I don't know. I'm still alive, if that's what you call it, if was able to try before and failed I obviously didn't get caught.
I wrap Lara back up in her cloak and she disappears from view. There's a little blood on the floor, but I can't do anything about it. The Sig cauterised the wound, but I made a mess digging through her skull. I try not to think about that. I want to bring the weapon, but I leave it with her. I can't take it back in there, much as I'd like to. That was one of the first things we learned. I put her body behind some other crates, then pick up my own. They'll find her. They always do. They found the others.
I head back to the arch with my crate. There's no outward sign of the security system embedded within, but I know it's there. We were the elite, the brightest and the best. It should have been impossible to keep us out. We lost almost the whole team finding out just how wrong we were about that. None of our supposedly state of the art penetration tech was any use at all. I realise with a jolt that I can't remember their names. I can't remember my own. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters any more except stopping them.
A small part of me knows I'm obviously not even close to being normal, even after eating Lara's brain, if I was I'd be lying on the floor screaming instead of heading back in there. For that at least, I'm almost grateful for what they did to me. Almost.
We were desperate at the end, Lara and I, desperate enough to try this. How long did she wait for me alone in that room before deciding she had to take it even further? Did she get some intel from outside that pushed her to the point where she'd do anything? It's possible, it was bad enough out there before and it's hardly going to have got better. Did she even know that her brain would give me what I needed, or was she just hoping?
I'll never know what she was thinking, what drove her to this point, all I can do is try and finish what we started.
I walk through.
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