A Cold Heart

Synchronisation 1 - Walkthrough.

Dec 8 8327
03:47:78

The human brain normally remains alive for about 7 minutes. In this case, Sam's was alive for more than 30 minutes. It was not supposed to happen. Something was wrong. His brain was remembering moments of his life at random. He began opening his eyes and saw the sky. He looked down and saw a cornfield. He didn't know how it happened, but he found the place familiar. He saw a boy with blonde hair running around in the cornfield with a toy robot. It was himself as a little boy, in the past.

Little Sam: Whoosh. Wooooooo. It's flying!! Mom come look! [The boy's mother came out of the house]
Sam's Mom: Wow, Sammie! You are incredible at flying! Lunch is ready! It's good if it's hot!
Little Sam: In a minute!

He was then switched to another memory. The time changed to evening and fast forwarded a few years. A car pulled over and a man steps out, walking towards the house. Sam looked from above as his father walked into the house and kissed his mother. Sam's eyes started tearing up. This was the day when his father... "Sam! Come down here, buddy. I have a present for you!" It was Sam's birthday. Sam ran down the stairs and hugged his dad. He went over to the present and opened it. It was a hollo projector.

"Oh my God! Thank you so much!" "This is for you, kiddo but let's have dinner first." All of them sat around the table and held hands to pray. After saying amen, Sam's mother, Mrs. Sylvie Riverton brought three plates and began serving them food. A full English breakfast. Mr. Riverton took a bite out of the eggs and began choking. "Dad! What's wrong! Dad!?" "Honey?! Hold on, I'm calling an ambulance." His face hit the table. A disease had gotten him. "I wish he'd have lived longer. Maybe if Mom hadn't made eggs, maybe, he would...." <sighs>

He was pulled forward into another memory sequence. Younger Sam was coming home with his girlfriend. "Mia? Why am I seeing all this? Is there not another good memory?" Sam gasped from above. He flew down in front of her and tried to hold her cheek. She immediately started walking towards the porch. She walked through him. Sam was in a memory and couldn't interact with it. She was interested in architecture. She admired Sam's house, walking around it with full enthusiasm. She met Mrs. Sylvie in the kitchen washing the dishes. She introduced herself and decided to help Sam's mother to wash the dishes.

Mia spoke with Sam's mom for an hour or so. Her mother was impressed, and she told Sam she was a pretty good and kindhearted person. She would be the right person for Sam too live with until the end. Not for long. The lights started flickering and completely died. Sam thought there was something wrong with the power generating station behind his house. Mia decided to check on it. Sam(dead) was watching with tears in his eyes from above. He knew what would happen next but hadn't seen it with his own eyes yet. Sam asked her to wait but she assured him she would be fine.

Mia walked towards the pulse box and kneeled down to put the pulse back in place. She grabbed the pulse emitter with her prosthetic arm and looked closely to find out what was wrong. It had bounced out of the connecting circuit and the circuit was no longer drawing power from it. She suddenly heard a shot in the woods. The birds flew out of the trees into the pitch-dark night sky. She heard something move swiftly in the woods. woooshhh. rustle. Sam knew from above that her search would lead to disaster. He flew down again and tried to stop her. Again, she moved through him. They couldn't see him, sense him or feel his presence.

He could see a timer inked on his hand, slowly reducing like someone was making him see all this. Maybe he was still alive. Mia moved through the woods with caution. She found a blood trail and sadly decided to follow it thinking someone was injured. She found blood on the white snow on the ground and some on the trees. She followed a broken a tree with claw marks on some others. "These claw marks are huge." A fire suddenly erupted from nearby and the forest engulfed in fire. Mia tried running back but escape was blocked by a tree falling down. It fell down on a man with a rifle, crushing him. Sam eventually arrived on the other side and tried going under the tree but ends up burning his hand. Arrrrggghhhhhh. He stepped back.

Sam: Mia, I can't get through. Can you find a way around?
Mia: I don't know, Sam. I think I'm trapped. Help me! <cries>
Sam: Hold on. I'll try getting around.
Mia: No, no, Sam, honey, don't leave me here.
Sam: <reaches out and holds her hand from behind the tree> Don't worry. I won't. I'll be back.
Mia: I'm scared.
Sam: Wait here. I going to try to come around.

Sam ran laps around the area engulfed in fire, trying to get to Mia but he saw a shadow behind her. A black figure. The memory began to glitch. Zooming in on the creature, Sam flew down to take a look at what it was. He saw his past self-trying to break a branch to get through. Mia grabbed a random branch laying on the ground and looked around.

A Night Crawler. It was standing upright, like the one he'd seen in Gracium, in that house, except this time it seemed to be red in color. It had strange markings in its body. It just stood there. Waiting. Sam managed to clear an escape route and called out to Mia. She saw the opportunity and tried to make a run for it. The Night Crawler summoned a wall of fire and curved it around Mia, turning everything in its path into ash. Mia lost balance and fell to the ground.

Mia: No! Stay back. [Throws the stick at the Night Crawler and it scratches it slightly.]
Night Crawler: Sticks and stones, human! <Laughs at Mia's attack attempt>
Mia: Stay away from me. Sam! Help me.
Sam: Oh no. I need to get help. Oh God no.

Sam ran away back towards the house. He was a coward. From his point of view, nothing could be done. He fled the scene and called the Syndicate for help. Meanwhile, back at the forest fire, Mia had no way out. She trembled before the Night Crawler. She made the decision to attack the creature. A bad move. She picked up the stick and ran at it.

The creature snapped its fingers, and a tornado of fire emerged from under her. Her skin started melting away, blood dripping to the ground. "arrghhhhhhhh. Sammmmm." She could see her flesh getting cooked. Her vocal cords got fried and she could no longer scream. She fell to her knees. The Night Crawler pulled off its attack and walked towards her. It began tearing her apart limb from limb, organ from organ. It began eating her. chomp. chomp. chomp. Sam(dead) watched with tears in his eyes as it ate Mia alive.

Sam ran back and stopped in his tracks. He could see the mutilated body of Mia lying on the ground and her heart being eaten. The Night Crawler was eating her like it had never eaten for days. It heard Sam step on a branch. Sam couldn't look at it. He couldn't cry or call for help. He threw up on the ground. Now he was seen by the Night Crawler. The creature threw away Mia's body and pointed its hand towards Sam. Sam realized it could manipulate fire up to a certain level. The atmosphere around him got hotter and Sam began sweating. He knew if he'd move, he'd share the same fate as that of Mia's.

"Die." The creature fired a beam of fire at Sam. 1200⁰C. Another beam came from above. It was a cryo sentry. The ice beam hit the fire beam and produced a mist everywhere. The sentry dropped down and began fighting the Night Crawler. Sam couldn't see anything. He just stood there without moving. Sam(dead) could see what had happened from above. Both of them were dealing blows to each other. The creature cloaked and got behind the sentry. The sentry switched on its thermal sensors, but it was too late. The creature charged up and punched a hole through the sentry's chest and infected it with its blood.

The sentry was corrupted. It started making mechanical animalistic noises. Its eyes changed from blue to red. Spikes grew out of its body. Due to bad luck, the Night Crawlers plan backfired. The sentry grew a mouth and turned around and slammed both its hands together, crushing the creatures head. The sentry went Sub Zero and the atmosphere got colder and colder by the second. Branches started freezing up. The creature fell to the ground, dead and the machine could see Sam running away with its thermal vision. It activated its jets and flew up and saw a house. It saw a woman inside.

It ignored Sam and flew over to the house. Sam(dead) closed his eyes. It dropped down next to Mrs. Riverton and froze her. Sam made it back and saw the sentry holding his mother's frozen head in its hand. He saw it being crushed. The bones fell to the ground and blood was spewing out of her severed neck. Sam looked away and began crying. "Oh god! Mom!". The sentry turned around and fired its ice beam. Sam fell back, dodging it and scurried outside. He found the pulse generator and threw it at the machine, hoping that it would fire at it. The machine ended up punching it and the pulse generator exploded. It destroyed the sentry along with the house. Sam got on his bike and drove away from the explosion.

Tears had consumed his eyes. Sam's(dead) timer runs out. He hears a voice, "No, no, don't do this. Stop!". Another voice erupts. "The pleasure is all spine!!" Right then, a machine pulls him backwards into darkness.

END OF THE CHAPTER