Synthesia - A Mind for Violence

1 - An Unnamed Flower

Early in the morning, a young woman grabbed her left side, hoping to strangle the source of a shooting pain. It was not unbearable, but she had to devote precious attention to breathing in the icy fog with short gasps. Surrounded in mist, she hardly noticed a few shifting shadows in the distance.

A diffuse ray of harsh light shined in front of her, perhaps through a great hole in the ceiling. She was disoriented for sure, but she noticed that the echoes of her slappy wet footsteps betrayed a giant and looming structure. The ice rain crackled as she stepped into the clearing, though the fog was just as bad, concealing a pile of various trunks and containers until she was right next to one.

A disconnected cable languished in a pool of partly frozen ice water, which she avoided, tiptoeing through the drier areas of the concrete floor. She brushed off other wires, a partly plundered pack of energy bars, and some scrap metal, which all clattered to the ground.

On top of the pile sat a black box filled with some kind of glowing magenta liquid.

Grabbing the thick metal frame, she tipped the box and lifted it up almost to her nose, costing her a breath or two. A dark mass floated in the center, and when she saw its shape, she clutched her left side again.

"Taking the opportunity to have one last look at your charitable donation?" boomed a voice from the shadows surrounding the clearing. The flooded cable sparked as she searched for the source of the voice.

How could she have let herself be noticed, running foolishly out into the open light like that? She was supposed to be escaping this infernal place, wherever it was. She even managed to wake herself up early, giving her the perfect chance.

"We used the best second-generation sedative and systemic maintenance medication available and yet you were able to wake up hours before you were scheduled to leave?" the voice complained to itself. "I'll have to talk to our resident anesthesiologist after this mission is complete. Anyway, you were still able to contribute to the cause."

"Show yourself you coward!" spat the young woman.

She didn't expect anything in particular to happen, but she was surprised when a large, well-built middle aged man emerged from the mist. With a neatly trimmed lawn of gray hair, sunken jaws, and a clean shave, she thought that he might be somewhere in his late nineties. Though halfhearted, his slight smile revealed two rows of pristine white teeth, which didn't quite match the rest of his face. He wasn't armed.

"My gracious Lord – my superior – believes that you might be special, valuable enough to warrant a kidney extraction."

She stared back at him, her light blue eyes lit by the luminescent bio-preservative matte.

"It's true we found you in an...interesting situation. But if I had any say, you would still be sleeping with the other contraband in the chamber below us."

She couldn't piece together what he was saying, but it was obvious she spooked this man with her awakening and attempted escape.

"Maybe your boss is right," she jabbed back quickly, unable to keep herself from smiling a little. Unfortunately, it didn't have the intended effect: the man didn't move a muscle and he held the same slight smile from before.

"If you are really special, then you ought to know your own name at the very least."

"Of course I know my name, it's...it's..." her eyes widened and she placed a cold hand on her forehead as she sat down on one of the trunks. Both were silent as she inspected the icy rain land in her palm. She searched and searched, but her mind was just as foggy as the mist, and as disturbed as something that lurked in the back of her head.