The final door, green, as some memory in her mind told she once had eyes the same color but as she tried to remember more her head started to pound. Her heart ached knowing, this was the end and she knew it, there was no doubt that she would never wake from the dream she had fallen into. Forever drifting endlessly, never seeing their once familiar faces every again.
Reaching out her fingers grasped the doorknob, the same cold feeling from the previous doors as the feeling of pain in her head erupted. Memories flooded her; days of sitting in the sun, her house, her father, sister, friends she made in school, the parties, the regrettable grades all of it flooded her mind as if reliving each day. Then there was day zero, the day when everything seemingly fell apart, the virus, the infected, she remembered the bandits, the odd voice on the radio talking about the vines, the thought of losing Corey at the casino, Gillian criticizing her in the fog, all of it she could remember and yet she knew. At the very moment the glass had shattered on the window she had been infected. It had only been a matter of time for it to sink in, to grasp hold of her.
Dying would only take moments.
Heaviness, as something stirred, thoughts, no that wasn’t it. She was dying there was no reason to think anymore. It was something else awakening, a small stirring, one large conscious thought, a part of a whole thinking all at once. It was a different sensation, strange but at the same comforting in some way that she couldn’t describe it.
Legacy. Creation. Knowledge.It was like feeling of being home, something warm where she belonged her mind falling in as more and more memories were gathered. Voices, people, places, some happy some sad and others terrifying in some way. More images flashing in her mind as other spoke, no not her mind their minds they were all now connected to one.
Where they hers? No? Who was she anyways? Had she ever been someone? The questions drifted, like noise being unheard among the chaos of the others speaking in their memories. More and more they seemed to flow in as others joined, they were all to be collected all to become one with something. That was the purpose, the reason that they had become the virus, it was so necessary, why had they resisted so long.
This was wrong.It was a gift, it had to be spread, to invite, and to collect others needed it. They shouldn’t have fear of it; it was welcoming a new home a place to exist.
You have this so wrong.Gathering all, bringing more, they needed more they would always remember.
No, this was not you…Vessel, they would keep them all safe, they would always remember never forgetting. They were needed to help this world, the memories fueling their legacy.
No you are not creation, there is so much…It snapped, the voices ripping apart as a sense from floating met with heaviness, she was free from it. No longer a part of something large, but no longer human either the thought was rather frightening. There was a wonder of what she would be, who she was, the thought of returning was no longer an option. Even if she wanted she couldn’t there was no longer a her anymore that her was gone lost somewhere in vessel of memories. It was becoming maddening, she tried to grasp out to something, a shape, not the one she had something new, something to replace what she had lost. Her memories tried to dig up something, even someone or something a creature maybe, her arms, no something reaching out looking for something to grasp. The vines, they reached out slowly obeying, as she grew closer, more and more started to move, shift as she her emotions grew stronger. They curled around giving some sort of impression of a creature; it wasn’t human, no that wouldn’t have worked anyways it would never be her body. It was something different something with legs that could walk, to continue down the hallway as she tried to search. It was hard at first keeping the form but something else was there, something in the vines that seemed familiar. She drew closer extending the vines out watching the tendrils unfurl forwards towards the wall of vines. A face, human, it was like hers, but not hers it was someone else deep in sleep as the vines slowly closed in around him. There was feeling of disappointment, she wanted her, she wanted her body but there was the sense that it was gone. Gone.
A dream, she looked at it longer, she had seen him somewhere in a dream a face that she screamed at. It was like her but not her, but he was important. Rescue, yes he had tried to rescue her to bring her somewhere safe. Too late, he had obviously been too late to do it as the form slumped threatening to unravel itself. It was already too late for her, but he, guilt sunk in as she remembered.
She had to save him.
Holding out the tendrils like hands she brushed the vines aside, they moved away slowly in a begrudgingly manner. When they curled back he started to crumple to the floor, the soft black pooling around the vines that were like arms. This form was stronger; it would be stronger, as she pulled more vines around her carrying him slowly down the chamber. The hallways were simple allowing moving freely, but little by little she could sense it. The center was fading, and so was she, she was still bond to it, unable to exist without it.
She still had to save him.
Heading down the stairs, it was slower, taking a step at a time as the vines slowly started to crawl back up leaving her alone. Soon she would be no more, but there at the very bottom she could see it. The exit, she stretched out what was ever left of the vines, the rest still pulling back trying to return to the center. She had to return soon, as she could see more figures through the glass. There they were, the shadows they were not like her, not the undying or the infected but human. Like him, they were his, comrades? Yes they would help as she stretched him forward, giving him to them.
The moved, some with look on their faces of fear while others ran to his side, concern yes. She had done what she needed.
A favour for a favour.Up the stairs, she had to return she had done what she needed as she gathered the rest of her, picking up the pieces that needed to return to Creation. Never again would she be able to leave, but there were others, they were like her; she was still home waiting to be completed.
