"Heather."
That was the first thing she said, with a brief scratch in her voice. Then she paused, looking straight ahead, with piercing eyes that seemed like a lance of intentions going through us. Heather stood frozen, rigid, her eyes wide and her skin taut; she looked almost as if she'd stopped breathing.
"I'm so sorry." That was the second thing she said.
Michael shifted his gaze from the hologram to Heather with worried yet hopeful eyes. This message could be a wound but also a healing and he knew it. My heart was racing. My hands slightly sweaty, and I felt a pressure at the front of my head as if the hologram were merging the past with the present and the future in a swift journey that was hard for me to assimilate.
"It's me." She said. "Mom."
A thin but swift hologram tear traced down her cheek, only to be quickly wiped away.
"You'll have to be brave, honey. But I know you already are." She continued.
Her lips, her eyes, the shape of her jaw... she was a reflection of Heather, except for a few more lines of age.
"This might seem confusing, but I don't have much time. I've discovered something, and they're going to kill me for it." She glanced around as if checking for intruders. After a pause, she lowered her voice. "The memory wipe function... The reset... We created it with good intentions, I swear. I had no idea things would escalate like this."
The hum of the projector invaded the silences and pauses Heather's mother made and it was in that instant that I could hear Heather's breathing. Now agitated but making a hard effort to control it.
"Heather." She looked directly at us. "We need to stop this. A massive reset is coming. No one will be safe, not even those on the other side of the wall. Our data system shows that humanity is doomed, and in a few years, we will face mass extinction." She took a deep breath.
"That's why The Orb, is planning to erase all human memories and start over from scratch, treating us as if we were empty vessels or mere puppets." She sighed.
"And once I'm gone... they'll probably start with you."
Her eyes filled with tears, this time they were not thin and she had to make a long pause before resuming the talk.
"The code that freed The Orb has a flaw. No one knows about it. In this flaw, you need to insert a line of code, that will be like a bomb. It will destroy the whole system. You have the key in you; I know you're smart enough to figure it out."
A glitch interrupted her words. Her mother turned around again, her nerves increasing at every moment.
"Time is running. Listen to me: the code has a trigger. Once you're with The Orb, it will activate. You'll have to trust me. Just find The Orb, and everything will be over."
More glitches disrupted the transmission. "I love you so much." She turned around again, stressed, and then repeated "I love you so much, always...remember."
And the hologram faded.
Silence.
Remember. A significative word to end on.
Heather stood up. Anika turned on the lights. We all stared at her, waiting for some sign of what she was feeling. Her eyes were damp, and her pants were wrinkled, probably because she had been twisting them during the projection.
"The Orb is planning a massive reset." Heather stated. It was more an affirmation to her than to us.
"They've already started." Anika added.
YOU ARE READING
SILVER EYES (GXG)
Romance[2024 WATTYS SHORTLIST] Grace had no idea what she would find on the other side of the wall when the gates opened. Even less so that they wouldn't let her brother cross. Why? A blue-eyed and fierce commander, named Heather, holds the answer. She clo...
