Immortal

09. Witness

I stepped into a sterile room, there was a three steps leading up to a platform off to the side and a glass panel. Three pairs of eyes looked up at me from behind the panel. The machines settings could be seen from the doorway. The other witness who was also summoned was already here. She was standing out of the way up against an unoccupied wall. Her short hair was a dirty blonde color and cut in a butch style that fell in a layered way and cupped under her chin. She was wearing neutral colored clothing while staring at her feet like her toes had the ability to talk to her. She didn't want to be here anymore than I did, and I slowly walked up the steps to join her on the opposite side of that same wall.

The exactors in the room today looked ordinary almost like anyone else. The woman on the job wore a skirt, her purple button down blouse was tucked in a sloppy manner. She had glasses on, her face had a spew of freckles over her nose and cheeks. Her hair was put up in an informal bun and she was barefoot. Her black heels discarded off to one side, as if this was natural. Along side her were two other guys. One was focused on the panels in front of him, the other was telling him he was doing the wrong thing. The woman seemed to take charge and correct them both. Pretty soon the screen against the wall came to life. The honeycomb pattern moved in waves that matched the rhythm of a heart beat. The chair at the bottom of the stairs was still empty. There was another room inside this one, it was a small confined dark grey colored space. It was about the size of a closet, and there was only one strip of lighting to illuminate the room and a chair. This is the room where the victim of the extraction waited until it was time to begin.

I watched the woman walk to the door and unlock it. The victim today was guy. They didn't say his name, he didn't make eye contact with us. We didn't know the reason for his extraction today. None of this information would be shared with either of us. The woman lead him to the chair at the base of the stairwell and made him sit down. She checked vitals and scribbled in notes on her device. Pretty soon she began placing stickies on his head. The woman's eyes expressed no emotion or sympathy for the man in the chair.

She cued one of the guys, and there were two long tones played before the screen rippled again and an image was shown against the wall. The woman stood back and focused on it. It was blurry at first but began to clear up after a few seconds. She walked back to the panel and began playing this man's memories. The other witness next to me now looked up and watched the screen as I did. We watched this man's life broadcasted in front of us. There was no way you couldn't develop some kind of sympathy while doing this. They would pause in certain moments and rewind. They would skip over other moments, we saw the women he fancied. The faces of people he knew, the knowledge he had. So many things spilled out across that wall and every so often it rippled in small waves.

"Delete that." The woman said the cursed words.

One of the guys froze on a specific moment. We didn't know why it needed to be deleted. We heard an uncomfortable shift from the chair. There wasn't a sound, and the guy she commanded did as told. He selected that specific segment and pressed delete. We watched it burn and turn into a blank white on screen and began to hear muffled and strangled cries from the chair. For that moment I was relieved we couldn't see his face from where we stood. The witness next to me wanted to turn away and wince but she knew it was better she didn't react. Our expressions where being monitored too, we couldn't react. Not here.

I didn't know logic for what they were deleting but it seemed like something necessary that only they knew. The memory reflected a moment with someone who seemed special to this guy. The way she smiled at him it had to be someone meaningful.
His sudden scream caught both of us off guard as the memory began to burn away into the nothing. It was a strangled choked cry. The woman and the two guys didn't seem phased they just kept moving forward looking for new things. The session felt like an eternity, as they deleted more pieces from his memory. He kept screaming "No!" pleading with the extractors to stop. He resisted at which point the woman gave him a warning about the dangers of resisting the system.

He didn't seem to care. The machine made a sound of warning to the extractors and they overrode it. In the end he still lost whatever he was fighting to keep hold of. Eventually it got to the point to where he stopped making noises. He no longer begged, he didn't plead, there was nothing left. The woman ended the session and turned to us.

It wasn't until the very end that she gave us information I could have lived without. "Due to acts of disobedience, and treason this man was sentenced here to have the memories of four loved ones deleted as punishment for his crimes against our sector, and for standing in violation of breaking the rules." Her hands where in her pockets as she said these words. She spoke in a monotone manner. "You two stand here as witnesses for this trial of punishment, do you audibly agree that justice was carried out properly today?" She asked us.

"I do." The woman spoke first and I followed her statement with my own "I do." She nodded.
"Consider this case and session closed." She turned back to the screen that was shutting off and going back to its default setting. I swallowed hard, what kind of rules could he have broken to deserve a punishment like this? I didn't want to know, but part of me was curious.

Another part of me wondered is this what I would be looking forward too if these people found out about Alaric. I shuddered, and tried not to think about it too much.