The Land of Marvels and Mysteries

Flashback part 3

Things have been crazy and they've just escalated steeply. Doctor Amrita has been grown increasingly busy with her experiments over the past few months, we're more desperate than ever. Conditions outside the vault have reached an all time worst and we have completely lost communication with the other labs. Amber and Zest, that's what we are, the irony makes my stomach churn! The oracular gust has finally arrived and we are not being spared.

This morning I peered in through the window in the metal door and watched her experiment, today it was on the one who makes fire. These four were incredibly hard to capture, we have not made another attempt to capture more since then. Doctor Amrita has been making great progress, I believe that I am no longer her boss. One of the four gem creatures was so greatly damaged that they were unable to regenerate for more than a few seconds at a time, it's proven to be a great help, that's the one she's used to help my Helena. My Helena had fallen extremely ill since the very start and her health had declined so severely that I had no choice other than to comply to the doctor's procedure. The fusion of a gem to a human being aided by the use of extensive artificial body re-modification.

The creatures were in a weakened state when we initially captured them but they have been rapidly regaining vitality- their use of power has become more violent and they are now harder to handle. Attempts to constrain them have failed since they are able to degenerate and regenerate with increased ease. I took a step back from the door, my breaths condensing on the glass were obscuring the view. I heard an explosion outside, it was closer than the last, the lights swung from side to side and the doors trembled in their frames.

Doctor Amrita had reached the conclusion that the creatures would benefit us more if we could damage them enough so that we can easily handle them than if we poked at them with sticks standing far away. The experiment has proven to be successful yesterday with the cold one, the doctor's fingers on her left hand had turned purple from frostbite as she struggled to control the creature but after a few hours of struggle, its gem had successfully been cracked. Temperatures in the shelter dropped sharply at first but had stabilized at twenty three degrees by today morning. The cold one has been much calmer since then, the straight jacket has also been helpful. I'm glad each shelter was required to have at least one straight jacket, the dire conditions are not healthy for the soul. After all three creatures have been put under control, she plans on beginning a new set of experiments that I have not been provided with full details about. The plasma ion drill inched closer to its red gem. The creature was strapped to a metal panel and the humidity of the room had been turned up to maximum. His screams of rage fuelled pleas were muffled behind the glass.

"You're making a mistake! You must set us free! We'll help you, I can save you! We came here with only the best of intentions, I beg of you to reconsider your delusions of suspicion!"

"Shut up" Replied the doctor, "You're just a spider who got caught in his own web."

"YOU THINK WE STARTED THIS? Gnarled back the creature.

My attention was rapidly captured by the sound of shattering glass in the control room, I ran into the green chamber just as the alarm had begun to sound and slid down the stairs. She was awake. The glass tank was now no more than sharp broken shards drowning in green puddles on the floor. It was obvious that she was no longer the little girl that had spent warm summer nights in my arms swinging back and forth in the creaky rocking chair. The chemicals had bleached the pink warmth out of her, her brown hair was now a ghastly white, perfectly matching her skin- so pale that it was unclear wear she ended and the white neoprene suit began. Helena's blue irises had also faded away- she peered around, her vision obviously impaired, black circles radiated out from her eyes.

"Sweetie?" I asked her, "How do you feel sweetheart?"

She raised a hand towards me and instantly, an inexplicable force swept me off of my feet and plastered me to the wall. I scuttled up the stairs, not daring to look back, I was met by the doctor holding a space suit.

"It's the only one we have." She whispered with tears in her eyes, "You must escape! You have to! I've calibrated the escape pod, there's nothing that you can do here anymore."

I refused at first and insisted that I must stay back and help her, after all, we both made an agreement at the start to stay back and research as much as we could to help. She researched, I kept her company and helped her. We decided that we would stay in the lab and only go to the safe base when all hope was lost. Afterall, it was my company. Amber and Zest, to preserve and bring life.

"Go!" She pleaded once more, "I want you to be safe, I can handle this on my own and if I can't then at least one of us would have survived!" The buzzing alarms seemed to grow impatient.

"My Helena though!" I asked her as I slid into the white suit, "I need to see her one last time!"

"No!" She replied sharply. I pushed her aside and climbed back down the ladder. The blinking lights around the room melted together in the puddles. Helena was looking at her reflection in a large piece of jagged glass still attached to the tank base, blood was pooling into the palms of her hands, she had injured them cutting her hair using a piece of glass. With tears slithering down her neck, she poured the sky blue contents of an erlenmeyer flask into her right hand and brushed it through her hair, staining it instantly. She picked up a second flask and poured it straight onto her hair and ran both hands through it. Where the pink and blue dyes met, a deep purple was born. Her hair was now a mesocosm of starry nebulae, It was beautiful. I took a few steps closer to her and raised my hand to put it on her shoulder, she spun around with an animalistic instinct and struck me with a fury that I had never previously seen her express. I was swept off of my feet once more and landed onto the ground. I cushioned my fall with my arm, it landed in the puddle of dyes. I got up and ran to the ladder while she was distracted by her own reflection once more. I knew that my sweetheart had leached into the chemicals and was now in the green puddles, none of it left in that girl I've just seen. I grabbed onto the metal bars and began my ascent, I felt the mysterious force prying me me off of the ladder, however I managed to make my way out.

"Over here!" Shouted doctor Amrita from the dark end of the corridor past our room. I sprinted towards her. She stood inside the escape pod, she had gathered most of my few belongings surprisingly fast and shoved them into one of the cabinets. A couple of days worth of food was pre-packaged in a food supply box, Amber and Zest's own ingenious product, fills you up three times as fast and never spoils... I'm showing off, I'm sorry- it's just that I feel as though this may be the last recording I'll be making for a while, I don't suppose I would have much free time once I reach the safe base.

Doctor Amrita held my hands and pressed her lips against my own, I could feel my blood warm up and thicken, slowly flowing through every vein and artery, and then melt into my heart.

"You know what to do." She told me as she shut the pod's door. I must admit, I am not fully certain whether she was referring to blast off or to a rescue plan that I'm expected to devise, coming back to take her. I've been in flight for a couple of hours now, the autopilot has been functioning smoothly. My heart is heavily burdened, have I lost my daughter forever?