The Ascent

Chapter 48

Shivering coldness spreading relentlessly, consuming everything in its way. Feeling a thousand times worse in its unfairness, in its oddness. Like a strange feeling of something being off giving you goosebumps without you being able to point out what exactly makes you feel that way.

The air feels heavy and moist like the humidity has gone over one hundred percent. It is how Jasmine imagines breathing in the water would feel.

Looking around, Jasmine sees an empty shell of a world she knows was once thriving.

How does she know that?

In the same way that one knows things in a dream, with absolute certainty, without any explanation.

The nothingness makes her feel miserable and scared at the same time. Is this the future her own world is heading for?

Her eyes lift up looking into the jagged mountains that aren't mountains but some strange structures made not natural. They are about the layer of fog-like thickness that the humidity seems to create and appears to point toward the sun, her human mind only managing to compare them with rusty rockets.

The immense dark brown planet hovering closer than the sun makes the scene look even more surreal. Yet, she knows she is looking at a real place. A place far, far away.

"Hello! Is anyone there?" she shouts into the creepy emptiness.

"No one lives on the west side of the Chuthovis. Nature has turned against us. It has turned into nothingness," a low voice says, echoing over the vast expense.

It is followed by an eerie low sound making Jasmine's ears pop and feel like they are vibrating with the intensity of the unfamiliar frequency.

Yet, after a moment, she realizes that the voice is actually not out there but, on the inside, inside Jasmine's head. She is just projecting it onto a place where it truly belongs.

"Are you one of those bald men?" Jasmine asks, her lips shaking as she tries to articulate her thoughts clearly in the rising coldness. "Is this where you are created? Or are you all just parasites taking over human bodies, like some gruesome puppets?"

"You're such a human," the voice says, laughing contemptuously. "You're always overthinking everything and at the same time not thinking properly at all. That's one of the reasons it was so easy for them to manipulate you. All it took was introducing a worm of doubt in your heads, and you were done for."

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asks, screaming in frustration.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for her to keep a clear head, especially when parts of her body no longer feel like her own. No matter how frequently she thinks of moving her legs, of running away, the thought never translates into action.

It's as if the connection between her mind and the other parts of her body is cut off, like control is rerouted somewhere else, to something else. And the mere idea of that being the case is chillier than the air of the strange planet.

"I'm just a figment of your imagination, a parasite in possession of all the information about our nation programmed to take over any biological form. How can I be anything more than that?" the parasite hisses in Jasmine's ear.

The realization of the ridiculousness of her situation hits Jasmine hard at that moment. She is slowly losing herself to a stupid parasite. And, instead of fighting it tooth and nail, she is making small talk with it while it's gradually taking over part by part of her body. Having already lost so much in life, Jasmine refuses to lose everything, especially to an ugly worm inside her head.

"That's enough!" Jasmine yells out, her voice bellowing over the empty landscape. "I will not surrender."

Then, she focuses all her attention on fighting. She imagines her immune system attacking the intruder slowly and thoroughly, leaving it no place to latch onto. It's like she is fighting an epic battle in her own head.

"Jasmine! Jasmine, wake up!" Asher said, more panic in his voice than Jasmine liked to hear.

Since Jasmine had no strength to speak, to answer his frantic calls, she just squeezed his hand holding hers, reassuring him that she was there, she was okay. Even though her head was still spinning from the crazy nightmare that she was pretty sure wasn't really a nightmare.

"You should have told me what was going on!" Asher scolded her, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. "I could have stood by your side through it all! You should have trusted me!"

"Careful, we can't even be sure that she is still herself," Melissa murmured warningly. "It would be best if you took a step back now, just in case."

"No," Asher said, sounding awfully like a child throwing a tantrum. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here by her side no matter what."

Jasmine was surprised by so many emotions that underlined his statement. He was the one who doubted her not half an hour ago, and yet, at that moment, he sounded hurt that she didn't trust him, even though it wasn't really about trust. She was trying to protect him from a potential danger that was her controlled by the parasite that she had envisioned as a possibility before undergoing the procedure.

Most of the time, Jasmine felt that Asher was a nice enough guy. But she never thought he cared about her. Not on a deeper level, at least.

It always felt like they were just two people caught up in the same bad situation, banding together to survive. At least, that was what her pessimistic mind had assumed.

Everything seemed like more of a convenience than anything else. Although Jasmine had already developed strong emotional connections with all of them, she was convinced it was a one-way street.

"I'm fine," Jasmine said carefully, her voice feeling hoarse as if she had been actually yelling. "I think I'm okay now that it's out. It feels like the pressure I have been feeling for days is gone."

"We'll do some more tests to make sure," Melissa said, the objective voice of reason in a room full of subjective minds who wanted to get their way.

However, Asher seemed relieved. He believed Jasmine when she said she was herself again, and she both loved and hated that. She loved it because it showed how much Asher trusted her. She hated it because it showed Asher wasn't careful enough, that he needed to be more suspicious of everyone and everything if they were to survive.

After all, in every form of dystopian or apocalyptic fiction Jasmine had seen, those who survived the longest were the ones who questioned everything, who were suspicious of everyone. Or those who were cruel, but Jasmine didn't want Asher to be one of those people.

It was odd how different reality was from fiction. There Jasmine was, worrying about being betrayed, when, all along, she was the enemy, or at least she had a part of the enemy inside her own body.

No matter how many mystery novels she had read in the past, Jasmine didn't see that twist coming. She couldn't even imagine it.

"The blood looks better now, but we'll still need some time to check everything out," Melissa said, having already finished drawing Jasmine's blood as she was busy contemplating the crazy jokes life sometimes played on people.

"Do you need anything? How are you feeling?" Asher asked hurriedly.

"I'm actually much better than I have been in a while," Jasmine said, moving her leg subtly, confirming the strange truth of her new painless reality. "But a glass of water would be nice."

As he moved to get her water, Jasmine's view opened up, and she could see all the children piled up on the bed playing some new game that Jasmine couldn't figure out.

It was a relief to be once again in the same room together.

"Here you go," Asher said, offering her the cup.

"Thanks," Jasmine said, drinking greedily.

The warmth was back.

She would never again leave this sun behind.