Countd0wn

Chapter 26: The Path to Enlightenment

The door didn't seem all that impressive, yet I could still feel a sense of strength and weight to it as me and Joshua stepped out of the elevator. I looked at him and walked towards it. As I did, I became aware of a small pulsing sensation in my brain, that I could hear ever so faintly. It almost sounded like a heartbeat.

I reached out and touched the door handle. Almost immediately, I felt a warmth from it, like it was somehow alive. Suddenly, a primal fear unlocked in the back of my mind. I now very much didn't want to see what was behind this door. I wanted to turn around back to the elevator and forget any of this ever happened.

But I knew I couldn't turn back now. Every single thing that had led me and Ivy to becoming trapped here inside this facility was behind this door. Every answer to every question I could ask, at least according to Joshua. I noticed he was still standing by the door to the elevator, unmoving.

I slowly breathed out, and gripped the door handle with a newfound sense of fervour and determination. I pushed down on it, and felt the lock on the door release, and it begin to swing open. As it flew open, a bright light shone in front of my face, blinding me as I stepped forwards.

As I raised my hands, the lights began to dim, and only then I realized I was inside the room, and the door had somehow managed to close behind me. As the spots began to fade from my eyes, I managed to finally adjust to the new area I was in. Then, the object in front of me began to slowly appear, and it made me step back in a mixture of surprise and horror.

It was a cylindrical tank, similar to the ones that Reservoir put me and the other test subjects in to heal us from our injuries. It was tinted with blue glass, and filled with clear water, with bubbles occasionally floating upwards. There was leather padding on the back of the wall, almost like a chair to sit in. Strapped into the padding, his arms floating in the water, was an old man, with his eyes wide open, staring at me.

He looked to be about in his late 80's, early 90's, and had a frail, slightly large body, kind of like the people I had seen in retirement homes when I used to go visit my grandma. The remnants of his silver hair were floating wispily in the water, like a ghost. I reached behind me to try and find the door handle so I could leave, when a voice echoed through my head. Wait, Wren Sawyer. I do not wish to harm you.

I froze. I recognized the voice. It was the voice I had heard when I had been told that I could go into this room, the voice that told me to trust Joshua. I thought it had been my mind...but it was his. I looked up slowly as I realized that the person I was looking at was the telepath.

The old man stared at me, and his head raised and lowered in the water in a motion that could have been a nod. You are correct, Wren Sawyer. I am the one who has been seeing your thoughts, and leading you down the path towards me. I am the one who found you and your sister in your first place. I am the reason you are here. 

I stood up against the wall as I managed to fully take in the fact that not only could he read my mind, he could communicate with it as well. It was then that I first noticed that he wasn't wearing any kind of breathing apparatus. I, along with the other test subjects, needed oxygen to stay in the tanks, but he just floated there silently, his mouth frozen in a neutral line. 

I walked forwards gingerly, as if I was approaching a large bonfire, and spoke out loud. "Ok then...so you're the person who's working for Reservoir? The person who finds people like me and brings them here? Why? Why follow people who torture and capture people like us?"

The old man looked down at me, and I saw that his eyes were a light blue, and appeared to be soft and kind. I felt safe when I looked into them. Almost immediately my worries about Ivy and Sparrow seemed to fade away when I did. Wren Sawyer...you misunderstand...I do not work for these people. They work for me.

My eyes widened, and confusion ran through my mind. The man no doubt saw this, and I thought I saw the hint of a smile go across his face. You see, there is much to this that you do not understand. I know you have many questions. I will answer them all if you wish.

I walked right up to the glass, and looked up at his floating form. I had no idea how he could be running everything at Reservoir, but all I knew was, I needed some answers. So, I sighed, and nodded. "Alright. Start at the beginning. What was the Singularity? What caused all this to happen?"

The man appeared to look upwards, then back to me. This world has always been watched over by two forces. The emissary of light, and the emissary of darkness. Humanity has caught glimpses of these beings, and thus, many of your religions and history books have interpreted them differently. The emissary of light is me. The emissary of darkness is the one you know as Gerrard.

My eyes widened and my heart stopped. Suddenly, all of his powers and actions made sense. But it still didn't explain anything. My brain was still processing how there could be two forces of good and evil, when he spoke again. He and I have been at war long before humanity was conceived. But, recently, our war took a decisive turn. He mortally wounded me, in a battle that caused a large event that affected your world, and allowed him to change humanity in any way he wished. You know this event as the Singularity.

I tried to comprehend what he had said. "So...you two have been fighting...like God and the Devil...and your war managed to cause the Singularity?" As I said this, I noticed several scars across the man's body, like he had been injured in some kind of accident. Or a fight.

The man nodded and continued. He took my weakness as an opportunity to set in motion his plan to rule your world. He used his powers to warp reality and turn most of humanity into the creatures you call hypermorphs. Minions of darkness, meant to extinguish humanity so he can rule. But before he could do this, I intervened, and used my powers to give some members of humanity my powers, so they could one day unite and fight against the forces of evil. These are the metahumans. That is what you are.

My heart appeared to stop, and my breath caught in my throat. This man...this thing...whatever it was, gave me and everyone else powers? Why? Immediately after I thought it, he answered my question.

I knew that whatever my foe did, humanity would need help in order to survive. So, I gave certain members of your race abilities unlike anything they'd ever known before, in the hopes of them one day learning to master them and take back your world. But, I knew they couldn't do it alone. So, I came to your world in human form, and created Reservoir. Every single person here is under my control. They think that they were created by the government, when in reality it never existed in the first place.

My mind reeled with this new information. Reservoir had acted like this, all sadistic, simply because they hadn't known. They just thought that they were doing this under their own free will. But I still had one last question. "What about Gerrard? Where does he and I and my sister fall into all of this?"

The man looked at me with his soft eyes. I have plans for you and your sister. You are the ones I have chosen to lead humanity to victory against the forces of darkness and save the world. But Gerrard knows this as well. He came to your world in human form, and is now attempting to kill you before that can happen. But, since he is human now, he has your weaknesses. You can defeat him. With my help, you can. But you need to trust me, Wren Sawyer. Trust Reservoir as well.

My heart was racing. Everything I thought I had known about Reservoir, life, and everything else had come tumbling down. I had been thrust into a new world where I was the leader of a battle between good and evil. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Then, I saw Ivy's face in my mind, her smile and eyes burning into my thoughts.

I looked up at the man, and down back at my hands. I was one of his servants now. A warrior chosen by him to save humanity and the world. I was about to take the largest responsibility any human had ever been given. My eyes wandered to his. "What do you want me to do?"