The Hollow

“Atlas... come...” The whisper slithered through the oppressive dark. A sound like dry leaves skittering across unseen pavement in a place just beyond memory’s reach. Familiar, yes, but stripped of all warmth, leaving only a chilling void where comfort should have been. 

“Come on, Atlas. Now.” The voice solidified, sharpening with an icy impatience that prickled my skin. “We don’t have time for this.” The voice said. I recoiled... taking a couple steps back when a hand materialized around my wrist, gripping me tight. I didn’t like what I was hearing and the feeling of dread began to grow.

I tried to shake free from the grip on the verge of panic when my heartbeat began to pick up, rapidly thumping out from its cage. There was silent scream telling me to run, building deep into my chest when the hand began to pull. I broke from its grip, if only for a moment, and ran the other direction.

For what felt like a lifetime running, I thought I was finally safe. I paused to take a breathe and looked behind me where the white light illuminates in the darkness. It was merely a speck now and I was trying my hardest to calm down. I took a breath of relief when an invisible force seized my body. ‘Oh no...’ I thought when it started dragging me away from the abyss and back to the bright white light; A darkness I almost preferred being in at this point. But I knew, if i went towards that light...?

Only pain awaited.

“No! Stop it! Please!” I said in a thin whimper as the woman’s grip tightened bruisingly. She began to pull, hauling me from the comfort of my darkness towards a blinding white light and just as this light began to expand, consuming my vision, a voice threaded with a menacing silk arose;

“We have things to do...”

-

My eyes slowly opened, a relentless throbbing ensuing all throughout my body as my brain pulsed in tandem with my heartbeat. It was that beat alone that forced the colors of my surroundings to bleed red with each pump, causing my vision to blur. I could feel the air ghosting in and out of my lungs but my body seemed almost... alien. I couldn’t move and could only hear my thoughts; merely a phantom, like a soul trapped within a cage without the key.

It was agonizing.

I tried to remember where I was, what I was doing prior to this. But all I could remember was the cheering from to locals of the city here in Kairos. They were yelling our names as we walked across the stage to accept our titles, our new duty.To save humanity. The memory fractured from there, dissolving into the sterile corridors of the Human Genome-Modification Program’s headquarters with General Beckett and his son, Grey. It was then I....

“Nngh!” I gritted under my teeth as I felt a jolt of electricity convulse throughout my body and ripple through my veins down to my fingertips. It was then my vision cleared just a enough to see a spider-limbed surgical robot cling to me. Its cold touch was like liquid fire, sending jolts of pure agony through my every nerve. So much hurt, so much pain; I wanted nothing more than for it to stop as a single hot tear escaped, tracing a path down my cheek when the world dissolved again... swallowing me back into the darkness;

Here everything was black until a flicker appeared. Not the lab, not the robot. A memory; sharp and cold as once lived. I was in a ghostly form, no more than 9. Standing behind my parents while they overlooked the data from the treatment with their backs turned to me. I was small but I knew this was a memory. It was their private lab at the peak of HGMP headquarters right in the middle of the city.

They had just finished injecting me with their first treatment to see if it was safe for the other children. I was weak, shivering, cold... I just wanted to be held or comforted by someone... anyone. I felt my heart rapidly beat again as I remembered the pain I had gone through that day; My body twisted and churned as the liquids of my parents experiment rapidly took over my cells. My body was burning and my mind melting, but it did not matter to my parents- no.

I was my their first test subject after all.

My small hand reached for them, seeking solace and safety. But they deliberately recoiled, shooting cold gazes towards me as if I were something... spoiled and rotten. I was scared. I was alone. I was forgotten.

Forgotten, until it really mattered... as my body convulsed again pulling me out of the abyss. I rapidly inhaled and coughed, “Whats... happening...to... me-” I mumbled. My vision was doubled. I couldn’t tell if I was in a dream or in reality at this point and all I could see above me were robotic arms and blinding lights.

My body began to shake, when I heard someone speak up, “She’s flatlining again ma’am, the sequence is overloading.” The voice echoed as I felt my vision begin to drift again. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on when I heard a familiar mumble in response. This voice... it was achingly familiar as I turned my head just slightly enough to catch a glimpse... Was that my, “Mother?” I murmured under my breath, feeling my arms drop as I the sirens of darkness beckoned me back, dragging me into oblivion;

It was here in the velvet abyss spawned a new memory. One filled with all the kids who were apart of HGMP, including General Beckets son, Grey. But we didn’t use our names, not really. We were designations. Me, #001. Grey, #002 and so on. A hundred of us were living cogs in the grand design to forge super humans. All to terraform our former planet,Earth.

It was here, amidst the buzz of advanced scientific ambition, where I found my first friend at the age of 12. “Atlas!” The little girl said to me giggling as she clutched my hand. She wore a white uniform same as mine with the designation #004, her short blonde hair shimmering against the mess hall lights as she began to jump excitedly in place, “Saturn is about to be in view! Lets go watch it by the Great Oak!” She exclaimed.

I nodded and went along with the memory, “Okay, Nova.” I said warmly and with our hands clasped, we darted through the cold corridors of our gilded cage and out into Eden, the facilities park. The area was impossibly green with synthetic grass that stretched for some kilometers. All encased by a large metal wall; meant to keep things in.

Just beyond the playground and in the center of the field grew a large oak. One of the few surviving botanical relics from the planet Earth, nearly 1000 years old. It was mine and Nova sanctuary for many years as we sprawl beneath it, month after month, waiting for Saturn to dance with Titan.

We watched as the cream colored orb, drifted into view with its rings hanging delicately in the balance, unleashing its a monthly meteor shower in a cascade of glittering sparks against the inky black sky. It was this day that our hands intertwined and a promise was made: “We’ll make it through. Together.” We said as 3 others spawned behind.

“Don’t forget about us-” The boy said behind with two others. I knew these faces- Grey, Tommy, and Emmett. Designations #002, #003, and #005 in that order, as the wind capture our hair- all five survivors peering up to the mystical sky. It was our first memory of being together as I took one final look at Nova before she disappeared, dissolving into the blackness.

I finally knew what was happening, I was dying and the most likely culprit... would be my parents as my eyes opened yet again in a dizzying spell. “Stop...pl-” I mumbled seeing someone stand next to me with a needle in hand. I was shivering reaching up to grab the persons lab coat but was too weak to execute the acton.

This person scoffed and stepped away, setting the needle down on the hover cart next to them. “We didn’t raise you to be this weak, Atlas.” The woman’s voice said. “Now quit making things difficult.” And it was there I confirmed, it was my mothers as I gave up and closed my eyes hoping death would take me swiftly.

But no such wish was granted for this weary soul as my mind drifted away and my body felt light. I was exhausted and now... Just wanted to sleep and it wasn’t until the next day that I had woken up to a world both familiar and utterlyalien.