expectation.
“We were able to isolate a nice picture of
Hailey Dawn, right as she stepped out into the light. Her beauty
was…” she halted in search of the proper adjective.
“Remarkable.”
“Can I…” my question trailed off as my heart
continued to pound.
Mother lifted her hand and expanded her
fingers, causing a new window to appear on the screen. Within the
new window was a picture of my lost treasure.
I gasped and my eyes filled with tears. I
wiped them furiously and then stepped forward. Hailey was turning
back to look at me after just passing from the shadow of the
facility’s entrance. Her red hair was aglow in the sunlight, giving
it a fiery life it had never known under the buzzing halogen bulbs
that lit our existence. Her emerald eyes were wide with fear, and
her lips had parted as if she were about to call out my name.
Then, as suddenly as her beauty had come back
into my life, she was gone. The window closed and disappeared into
my mother’s clenched fist.
“Bring her back,” I said.
“Perhaps,” said my mother through that wicked
interpretation of myself. “But you have to do a better job of
working with me.”
“Please let me see her again.” I was
disgusted by the desperation in my own voice.
“Then do as we ask,” she paused before
exemplifying her point with my old name, “Cobra.”
It stung.
The only success I’d enjoyed since being
locked up back in this hell was forcing them to start using my new
name. Now she was exerting her dominance, and I was complacent. As
much as I hated her for it, she’d beaten me.
I nodded.
“Good,” she said.
“Can you show me the picture again?” I asked.
“Could I watch the video of when we…”
“Not now,” said my mother sharply. “You do as
you’re told, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
“But I…”
“Don’t get greedy,” she said before the
screen went black.
I was left alone again, and the silence
caused my own heartbeat to drum in my ear. I placed my hand on the
screen where Hailey’s picture had been, and closed my eyes. It was
hard to believe that she was prettier than my memories of her, but
she was. I concentrated on the fading image in my mind, determined
to memorize as many details as possible.
I thought of her lips, and how they’d just
started to part in the picture mother had shown me. I tried to
recall that moment. What had she said to me? Had she called out my
name?
“Celeste.”
No. That couldn’t have been what she said.
Hailey never knew me by that name. She knew me as Cobra.
That realization is what I needed to snap
myself free of the despair mother had manipulated in me. She’d used
my love of Hailey to beat me down. Just the promise of the sight of
Hailey had been enough to cause me to curtail any rebellion I’d
hoped to start.
I wouldn’t be cowed so easily.
Mother would learn that.
8 – The Snake
Jerald Scott
“I don’t think that was a good idea,” I said
to the stuffy old bitch. When we’d first brought her to the
facility, I assumed it was as a prisoner, but things change
quickly, especially when the world’s gone to shit. And our world
had most definitely fallen straight into the porcelain throne, even
more so than it had been before. Now that the Tempest Strain was
out, all bets were off. Any plan we’d been cooking up had been
tossed aside. Now we were all just trying to figure out a way to
survive.
We were on the Administrator’s level, beside
where the Dawns were kept. I didn’t come down here often, or at
least I didn’t used to. Nowadays it felt like I was stuck in this
damn cube-hell, like one of the worker drones that died off when we
hit the restart button on society.
This was where the women managed the Dawns.
They monitored everything, and communicated with the girls during
their exercises and occasionally in their rooms. The majority of
contact between the Dawns and their digital reflections in the
morning was done via a link with The
“We were able to isolate a nice picture of
Hailey Dawn, right as she stepped out into the light. Her beauty
was…” she halted in search of the proper adjective.
“Remarkable.”
“Can I…” my question trailed off as my heart
continued to pound.
Mother lifted her hand and expanded her
fingers, causing a new window to appear on the screen. Within the
new window was a picture of my lost treasure.
I gasped and my eyes filled with tears. I
wiped them furiously and then stepped forward. Hailey was turning
back to look at me after just passing from the shadow of the
facility’s entrance. Her red hair was aglow in the sunlight, giving
it a fiery life it had never known under the buzzing halogen bulbs
that lit our existence. Her emerald eyes were wide with fear, and
her lips had parted as if she were about to call out my name.
Then, as suddenly as her beauty had come back
into my life, she was gone. The window closed and disappeared into
my mother’s clenched fist.
“Bring her back,” I said.
“Perhaps,” said my mother through that wicked
interpretation of myself. “But you have to do a better job of
working with me.”
“Please let me see her again.” I was
disgusted by the desperation in my own voice.
“Then do as we ask,” she paused before
exemplifying her point with my old name, “Cobra.”
It stung.
The only success I’d enjoyed since being
locked up back in this hell was forcing them to start using my new
name. Now she was exerting her dominance, and I was complacent. As
much as I hated her for it, she’d beaten me.
I nodded.
“Good,” she said.
“Can you show me the picture again?” I asked.
“Could I watch the video of when we…”
“Not now,” said my mother sharply. “You do as
you’re told, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
“But I…”
“Don’t get greedy,” she said before the
screen went black.
I was left alone again, and the silence
caused my own heartbeat to drum in my ear. I placed my hand on the
screen where Hailey’s picture had been, and closed my eyes. It was
hard to believe that she was prettier than my memories of her, but
she was. I concentrated on the fading image in my mind, determined
to memorize as many details as possible.
I thought of her lips, and how they’d just
started to part in the picture mother had shown me. I tried to
recall that moment. What had she said to me? Had she called out my
name?
“Celeste.”
No. That couldn’t have been what she said.
Hailey never knew me by that name. She knew me as Cobra.
That realization is what I needed to snap
myself free of the despair mother had manipulated in me. She’d used
my love of Hailey to beat me down. Just the promise of the sight of
Hailey had been enough to cause me to curtail any rebellion I’d
hoped to start.
I wouldn’t be cowed so easily.
Mother would learn that.
8 – The Snake
Jerald Scott
“I don’t think that was a good idea,” I said
to the stuffy old bitch. When we’d first brought her to the
facility, I assumed it was as a prisoner, but things change
quickly, especially when the world’s gone to shit. And our world
had most definitely fallen straight into the porcelain throne, even
more so than it had been before. Now that the Tempest Strain was
out, all bets were off. Any plan we’d been cooking up had been
tossed aside. Now we were all just trying to figure out a way to
survive.
We were on the Administrator’s level, beside
where the Dawns were kept. I didn’t come down here often, or at
least I didn’t used to. Nowadays it felt like I was stuck in this
damn cube-hell, like one of the worker drones that died off when we
hit the restart button on society.
This was where the women managed the Dawns.
They monitored everything, and communicated with the girls during
their exercises and occasionally in their rooms. The majority of
contact between the Dawns and their digital reflections in the
morning was done via a link with The
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