With no other visible option, she reached for the doorknob and it obligingly opened at her touch. Every piece of Shard ached as she WHOOSHED through the door, realizing that things were happening to her sleeping body and she couldn't wake up until she was through this journey.
Everything in her life was leading up to this... somehow she knew this and... the dream she was in would not end until she successfully finishes it...
“Unless,” she thought “I'm already dead and this is the virus getting my last bits of consciousness...”
Either way... Shard was through the door and...
“Now your life begins...” came a thought into her brain... it was the voice of the Virus. “Once you had a name, but that is irrelevant now. You are now all of our memories. You are a collection of memories.”
“No” Shard whispered against the hurricane.
“Your legacy is a gift. You infect those remaining.” persisted the Virus.
“No, this is not what...” She could not form the remainder of the thought: “I am.”
“You harvest. You feed. You gather.” continued the Virus.
“This is not what you are. Sh- Shar-” she thought furiously. “You were once...” Thought fought meaning: “... a human named 'Shard'.”
“This world is your vessel. The memories fuel your legacy.” Somehow, the Virus seemed fainter now.
Furiously, Shard's mind fought to reclaim herself.. her life... her “MEMORIES...” she shouted in her head “are INCOMPLETE!”
… and that's when things changed... things tore... things bent out of shape in her mind... her fractured mind tore apart from the Virus's voice and she was freed from its mental poking and prodding. It was a terrible feeling at first, but then Shard began to revel in a consciousness free of manipulation.
Shard looked around, putting her hands in front of her eyes she realized with a shock that she had neither. However, her mind was – for the moment – still hers.
Staring hard at her surroundings, Shard realized that while she could not see herself, she could see that she was in a long hallway or corridor that was pulsing and throbbing with the vines that had been entwined in the hospital's fences. “Maybe I have enough of the Virus still in myself to control the vines.” Shard thought wildly. She then reached out with her mental 'hands' and began to beckon them towards her body.
The vines didn't need much encouragement... they slithered towards her and wrapped around her 'self' and quickly the 'void' that was Shard was covered in vines. Summoning up her willpower, she began 'walking' down the corridor with her 'vine-legs' moving as if she were human.
She had no doubt that she looked more like a diseased Ent from the Lord of the Rings than a human, but at least she was moving under her own willpower.
As she approached the end of the hallway, Shard saw the vines on the wall to her left move. She looked at them and saw a face. Slowly the vines on the wall were consuming someone, but the face was not hers... but it was someone she had seen before in – or through – or because of – this dream.
Staring intently, Shard suddenly realized that this face was the face of the creature from her earlier nightmare... the one where (whatever this being was) picked her up and dragged her from the hospital's garden to... somewhere in the city... she half-remembered a colored disk floating near the ground... then nothing.
“This... being tried to save me.” Shard thought. “I... must help them.” Her hand-vines obliged and soon the tall figure in red, white and blue was in her 'arms'. Shard was then moving away, down the hall, through rooms and stairs choked with other vines which, obligingly, parted for her and her burden.
Down, down, down the stairs she continued. It became harder and harder to hold herself together as she descended. “Perhaps the further away from the center of...” language failed Shard: “Creation, the harder it is to keep the vines under control.”
As she stepped out the last staircase she saw the exit to the building and it wasn't a moment too soon. Shard took 'stock' of 'herself' and discovered she was down to one last twist of vines carrying the pale figure and containing herself. She knew she couldn't go much further or she would … what? Vaporize? Die? Fly apart on the wind? She wasn't sure.
Fog rolled in the exit and through the large, unbroken main story windows Shard could see figures in the fog. Some final link with the Virus told her that these figures were uncontaminated by her... no, damn it... it... the Virus...
Shard had an idea. She grasped her 'Rescuer' and stretched her 'vine-hands' out to an impossible length – all the way out the front door. The shadows behind the windows moved and clustered around her burden. Suddenly, his weight was gone from her 'hands' and she withdrew the vines back into herself.
Shard wished her 'Rescuer' well: “A favour for a favour” she thought and would have smiled had the vines been able to show fine motor control on her 'face'.
A quick look around the bottom floor assured her that nothing remained for her here, so Shard began moving back up through the building. Here and there she encountered other 'conglomerations' of vines in many different configurations. She almost recognized some of them. All seemed preoccupied, though some tried to communicate via hand signals or twisting vines into odd shapes. All seemed to be looking for something. Shard slowly realized that they were looking for the memories that had been stolen or torn from them.
Shard 'sighed' and moved along not really sure what she was looking for... or even if it was here. She had the terrible feeling that if she left the building, she'd become a tool of the Virus again. Here, at least, she had some semblance of 'self.'
Charlotte Dee “Shard” Williams shambled on down the hall looking for the future... and she finally knew she was ready to meet it when it showed up.
OOC
Character's name: Charlotte Dee "Shard" Williams
Character's faction: Mall
Character's journal link: Shard's Journal
Character's survival stats: Charlotte Dee Williams View HERE
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER "Shard" is a very physically fit 5' 10" woman who is only three months out of the Army due to a medical discharge. She has blue eyes and dark-ish blonde hair that seems messy and matted no matter how she tries to style it. She tends to dress in baggy pants (with lots of pockets) and light jackets over plain shirts... and this was *before* joining the military! She was given a medical discharge when an accident dealing with a live grenade cost her her left pinkie finger and most of the feeling in that hand.
