Right, here's the next part. Sorry for the delay. I chose a really bad time to start writing again. I had exams to study for. >>
Anyway, I plan on updating as much as I can now, seeing as i'm on vacation. These chapters have been kind of strange for me to write, because I wasn't sure how cities in Oddworld worked. Do they drive cars? Do they have districts and neighborhoods? I had to make an assumption that they do.
Anyway, here you go. ^^ New characters YAY!
Nedd’s breathing was slow and shallow. He lie in a crumpled-up heap in one corner of his cage, twitching occasionally either from the drug, or from pain. He opened his eye hesitantly, his breathing becoming sharper as the pain increased. The fire under his skin was gone, replaced by obvious physical damage to the outside of his body.
Grunting as he cradled his good arm against his chest, Nedd propped himself up against a wall and inspected the damage. His already dark skin was muddled with forming bruises. His fingers felt as though one or two of them had been broken, and a number of wounds from living in the wild had managed to re-open. Looking at his bad arm, Nedd noticed that some of the stitches had been torn free.
Distantly he realized that all of the damage dealt had been caused by himself.
What the hell was in that drug? He wondered, letting his head fall back against the cement wall. It crumbled slightly. Surprised, Nedd turned to see what was going on.
A large crack had been formed in the wall, splitting in multiple areas to form smaller cracks. Looking around, Nedd noticed that the ground was flecked with rubble. Multiple smaller cracks were scattered all around the inside of his cage. The fenced wire separating him from the exit was also badly damaged; two of the layers of fencing had been torn through completely, and it looked as if somebody had hastily added a few extra layers of wire to compensate.
It was like a monument to devastation. For a brief moment Nedd wondered what had happened while he’d been out cold; but then he realized that he hadn’t been out cold at all. Somehow, he had caused the destruction that lay all around him; though he didn’t remember any of it, he somehow knew that the damage around him was his fault.
Nedd moved slightly, painfully, and wondered when Vhern would show up.
{ COAL.PINES }
A few days after their last meeting, Vhern returned to Helix’s building and informed him that Nedd had been captured. He told him this because Helix had decided in the end that he was going to have to accept Vhern’s offer, partially due to the moolah they would collect if they were successful, and partially because he didn’t trust Vhern to keep Nedd in his cage.
Vhern had semi-graciously offered to give Helix and Brux (Helix had no idea why he was tagging along) a lift to the compound where Nedd was being held.
“So why is he coming with us?” Helix loudly whispered to Vhern as Brux jogged to catch up. They were waiting in the foyer for Vhern’s bodyguards to pick them up.
“You’ll need an assistant.” Vhern said.
“That’s what interns are for.”
Vhern gave Helix a sideways glance. “We won’t be using interns for this project.” He said simply. Helix frowned.
“Why not?” He asked, a little louder than he’d intended.
“Because I’m not certain we could trust them to complete the tasks required. I’ll explain in due time.”
At that moment a half-escort-half-armored black car pulled up to the entrance of the building. It was sleek and efficient-looking, with heavily shaded windows and tires just the right size for running over fuzzles. Helix didn’t have to guess who it belonged to.
The ride wasn’t very scenic, not that they cared about scenery. Most of their views were of concrete and metal buildings, impressive, but not exactly works of industrial genius. One of Vhern’s bodyguards drove while the other rode in the passenger seat, cleaning his sunglasses with a cloth.
“Where are we going, exactly?” Helix asked with suspicion as they drove closer to the city limits. The only thing separating the city from the forest outside was an electric, chain-link fence, about twenty feet tall with barbed wire at the top. At about every half-mile point around the fence a guard tower appeared, just slightly taller than the fence.
Vhern twiddled his claws. “Before I show you where you‘ll be working, I would like to introduce you to an associate of mine.” He glanced out the window as the passing buildings seemed to grow more and more dilapidated. “He agreed to help us find a way to extend the lives of cylonite victims.”
“Who’s this guy anyway? Is he anyone I’ve heard of?” Helix asked tiredly, resting his chin on a stick-like arm as he stared out the opposite window. Vhern shrugged.
“Not likely.”
Their escort car swerved to the side, parking immediately in front of a building that didn’t look particularly special. Vhern’s guards were psychotic drivers, and Helix was almost thrown out the window when the car stopped.
“We’re here,” Vhern said happily, opening the passenger door and climbing out. Helix and Brux followed behind unsurely, with Brux sticking close to Helix as though he’d somehow protect him if something went wrong. After a brief examination of their surroundings Helix decided that the building was in desperate need of a bulldozer. The windows were boarded up, and a miniature mountain of newspapers were piled up against the wall, never opened.
Helix glared up at the building’s sign, wondering if they were in the right place. The sign was old and rusted, with white neon lights that (partially) read
‘DOWN’S HOME FOR VICTIMS OF SOCIETY’
“Are you serious?” Helix asked bluntly, giving Vhern an irritated look.
Vhern nodded, pressing a button by the building‘s single metal door. “Quite.”
The button seemed to activate some sort of security intercom, because after a few seconds two small plates of metal above the button shifted, revealing a small camera. Moments afterwards a muffled, distinctly feminine voice was heard from a pair of old speakers that came with the camera.
Who is it?
Vhern grinned his oral-hygienic grin at the camera. A small hiss was heard from the speakers, like a sigh.
Oh, its you again. Right. Come in, the voice said,
but leave your thugs outside. The camera switched off abruptly and ducked back behind its metal plating.
Helix looked at Vhern, his expression sardonic. “Was that your
‘business associate?’”
“Nope.” Vhern said sternly as the door to the building slid open. The three vykkers filed inside quickly, not enjoying the feeling of being out in the open air. The door had led them to a hallway of sorts, the end of which had a staircase. The hallway was shrouded in dust and the paint was peeling. Multiple doors lined the walls, most of which looked as if they hadn’t been open in years. Vhern ushered Helix and Brux to follow as he took the stairs to the second level of the building, which appeared to be, at first glance, a chaotic junkyard of machinery.
Strange mechanical devices, some of them huge, lined the walls. There were multiple rows of desks behind where the staircase led, all of which were covered in bits of metal parts and rolled-up blueprints. There were two or three chalkboards lined against one wall that were absolutely covered in notes, as well as shelves packed to the brim with every conceivable sort of part, from gears to screws to jumper cables.
Helix was just starting to examine the ceiling (which was made of stained brownish-yellow glass, but looked as if it wasn’t
meant to be stained) when a voice as mechanical as the room itself called out
”Over here.”
The voice appeared to becoming from some huge device on the opposite side of the room; or, rather, somebody behind it. The three vykkers gingerly followed the voice around the mechanical combination it was hiding behind.
It was an armored vykker. The vykker was reasonably tall (taller than Vhern, anyway) and was tinkering with the aforementioned mechanical device. He held a blueprint in two of his claws while his second pair rearranged wires and bolted loose screws. Vhern waited politely for the vykker to begin speaking, but it didn’t seem inclined to.
“Hello, Down.” Vhern said, adjusting his glasses. He leaned closer to the device the vykker known as ‘Down’ was working on. “What are you working on?”
“
Stay away from my machines.” Down said in a distinctly electronic voice, not looking up from what he was doing. It appeared that he was speaking VIA some sort of electronic apparatus, and not by actual speech.
Vhern leaned back, a little flustered. “It was just a question.” He said in his defense.
“
And I’m not going to answer it. Its is abundantly obvious that what I am working on does not concern you.”
“It does concern me when I have a very specific appointment and you choose to work on some machine instead of pay attention!” Vhern snapped.
Down paused from what he was doing. He turned his head ever so slightly, apparently looking at the trio through the single red lens in the middle of his helmet. It was impossible to see his face through the glass. “
Who’s the surplus?” He asked, jerking his head to indicate Helix and Brux.
Vhern didn’t even look at them. “They’re surgeons, with extensive knowledge of Cylonite. They’re going to help us develop the prototypes.”
“If I may ask,” Helix butt in, “why does your sign say that this building is a ‘Home for Victims of Society?’”
Down made a small purring noise, turning completely from his work. He outstretched an arm towards the piles of machinery lying around. “
This place was once a rehabilitation center from victims of severe physical abuse; so severe, in fact, that many of them needed artificial organs or limbs to compensate for what they had lost. I invented hundreds of devices to do so, each one tailored to fit the specific needs of the patient.” Down seemed to deflate slightly. “
That was many, many years ago. I’m afraid that I’m almost entirely alone now. After companies like Aviol began mass-producing replacement body parts, I was rarely needed any more.”
“How sad,” Brux said, looking around in fascination. Vhern hummed something under his breath that sounded like opposition.
“
But all of this is beyond the point,” Down said, turning on his heel and marching swiftly towards the back of the room. Helix, Vhern, and Brux followed, with Brux stopping half the time to examine some strange machinery or gizmo along the way. What Helix found interesting was that Down hated when Vhern got near his machinery, but didn’t seem to care what Brux -who was obviously not very bright- did. Helix allowed himself a slight smirk. It appeared that Down was very much aware of Vhern’s vindictive nature.
Down stopped at a draped table at the end of the room. Helix glanced around, just to take in his surroundings. The end of the room was shaped like a ‘t’, with two side-rooms built in at either side. To Helix’s right, the room was packed with more machinery, most of which looked unused. To his left was less machinery and more shelves with blueprints, as well as an intern. The intern sat in a chair with its back towards them, listening to its headphones. This wasn’t very surprising, as all vykkers had at least one or two interns under their command.
Down pulled the tarp off the table, revealing a mechanical device that had been disassembled into hundreds of pieces. There was no blueprint or label to identify what it was. “
This is a variation of a device used as an artificial heart of sorts. It keeps the heart intact and running, opposed to completely replacing it. With a little tweaking, I believe I can create a version of the device that would act as a filter for the arteries, cleaning out excess of the cylonite disease and disposing of it in the stomach, where the victim’s stomach acid will take care of it.” Down turned his head towards the intern. “
Dot? Dot!”
The intern ripped off its headphones and swung around, eyes wide and irritated.
What? It snapped. Having worked with interns most of his life, Helix found that he could understand what they were saying if he didn’t think too hard about it. Still, the high-pitched aggression in its muffled voice was surprising.
Calmly, Down asked “
Could you go downstairs and fetch me a size 42 B extension bolt for an artery device? Its vital that I use it to secure the filter mechanism.”
The intern stared down at its headphones in remorse.
But this is the best part of the song… it glanced back up at Down, then scoffed and put its headphones back on.
Fine. But don’t expect me to come running back up with it, because I don’t even know what I’m looking for.
It (and that’s when Helix realized that it was actually a
she,) stood and made her way to the staircase. Female interns could be difficult to recognize from males, but once you learned all the subtle differences, they weren’t too difficult to single out. They were slightly shorter than males, with smaller horns and larger eyes. Their hips were slightly wider and their chests more defined, but not to a great extent.
This particular intern was different than others Helix had ever seen before. For one thing, she wore a dress and not a bikini; an intern’s appalling fashion sense towards swimwear was mutual for both genders. The fact that she chose to wear a dress could easily be an ignorable attribute; it wasn’t like Helix was complaining. However, the one thing that had him really curious, were her arms. It appeared that both her arms had been amputated below the elbow and replaced with artificial ones. These arms were roughly cylinder-shaped, with two small hooks at the end of each, probably for grasping things.
Down waited until the female, supposedly named Dot, had left, before he continued.
“
By creating this filter for the heart, the subject would have a much longer life span than that of an average cylonite victim. It would just be a matter of waiting for the effects of cylonite to settle in, then removing as much of the cylonite as possible. In this way, we can keep the positive attributes of the victim, such as increased stamina and strength, while potentially eliminating the bad ones, like shortened life span and aggressive temperament.”
“But how will we do this?” Helix asked, arms crossed. “Isn’t this a serious operation we’re talking about?”
Down appeared to be pleased with the question, as if he’d been waiting to answer it all day. “
Originally, yes. This sort of surgery would be very dangerous for the patient, especially under the normal conditions that such an operation would occur. Usually, with this sort of transplant, the operation would have to be an emergency. The replacement device for the arteries is usually reserved only for patients who have been severely injured and have no other option. However, I believe that with controlled conditions and proper administration of the cylonite disease before the operation, the success rate could be greatly increased.” Down looked at his machinery. “
I have created twenty-four of these devices so far. I believe that we may have a chance at taming the disease this way. Now all we need is volunteers to be prototypes for the cylonite tests.”
Helix huffed. “But how do we know this is going to work? Has this been previously tested or anything?”
“No.” Vhern said happily, glancing over at Down. “But we’ve worked out arrangements to see how cylonite affects a patient with the filter installed.”
“
I haven’t agreed to anything.” Down said bitterly, turning towards the staircase where the female intern had left.
Helix looked at the staircase, then at Down, eyebrows raised. “You don’t mean…?”
“’Dot’ was the only intern to have survived the operation. She had the filter installed a few years ago.” Vhern explained smugly, a smile tugging at his lips. “Despite her obvious loss of limb, she’s in perfect health. She would make an excellent subject for our preliminary tests.”
“
But I haven’t accepted the---” Down began, just to be interrupted.
“Its not about whether or not you accept our offer,” Vhern snarled harshly, seeming to enjoy having complete control over his former associate. “I have been given complete authority by Ross to ‘borrow’ any workers needed for this project. She fits the bill. She’ll be coming with us whether you like it or not, and if you try to interfere I’ll have you arrested for refusing to hand over one of Ross’ employees. Have I made myself
clear to you, Down?”
There was a tense pause. Down stood shock still, as though he were afraid to move. Vhern had just made a powerful threat; he had the capabilities to have Down arrested, and seeing as they were working on an important project that even Ross was involved in, he knew that the charges would not be light.
At that very moment Dot skipped happily up the stairs, something small clamped between both her hook-like hands.
I found the 42 bolt thingy, man, this thing is tiny… the small metal bolt slipped easily between her metal hooks and skittered across the floor. With a surprised
Oop! she dove after it, nearly flipping over a desk in the process.
“Its almost as if I would be doing you a favor, Down.” Vhern felt the need to say, watching with little amusement as Dot balanced the bolt precariously between her hooks, looking satisfied. He glanced back at Helix and Brux. “Its time to go; we have an appointment with a psychopath back at our working quarters.” He acknowledged Down with a slight nod. “Thank you, Down, for introducing us to your brilliant device. Come on, lets go.”
Vhern marched smartly over to the staircase and descended without even looking back. Brux and Helix followed at a distance, stopping to spare a glance at Dot, who was struggling to place the tiny bolt in the correct position on whatever Down was working on. Helix turned away, and as he walked down the stairs he could have sworn he felt Down glaring at him banefully behind his armor.
COAL PINES: sequel to Epidemic
