Cascade

5 - Destination

5 - Destination

“Where the impoverished have faded, we shall redeem. Where the outcast have fallen, we shall resurrect. Where the guilty have hidden, we shall bring Reckoning.”

The thought reverberated through Claire’s mind.

“There are may diseases in this world.” Dr. Luray had said. Out of the shadows of the dark room, a man in a motorized wheelchair came forward. The light spread across his distorted features. He was completely bald with surgical scars covering most of his scalp, reaching down to the back of his neck. His skin was loose and spotted, and his eyebrows were so thin, they seemed almost spectral. One half of the man’s face was perpetually relaxed, giving him half the look of a pit bull. His blue eyes were a dim grey in the low light. Machines, strapped to the chair that bore him, whizzed and cranked, performing all manner of tasks on the fluids which fed in and out of the man from an array of connections along his spine. This man was broken, the epitome of the shamed, trodden upon, and rejected. But above all, he was brilliant.

Foremost leading expert in genetics, visionary in the field of biotechnical reconstruction, and holder of nearly half of humanity’s patents on nanite technology, he was the greatest mind in multiple fields, trapped in a body doomed to a state of continual failure. Yet he persevered.

The mind which conceived nano-synthesis, neural harmonics, and passive automated regeneration, had suffered terribly at the hands of the many who feared his greatness. The affluent cast him out. So to the outcast he sojourned, and to the outcast, he became king.

“Fear is a disease.” He said. “Fear is what drives those in power. Fear of loosing their imagined comfort. Fear of loosing their position. Fear of something which is above themselves. It is what enslaves every action, every word, every choice they make. It is fear which they choose to serve. It is only fitting they see their master in truest form.”

Around Claire, there had been seven others, intently listening to the man before them. They were young. The oldest couldn’t have been more than eight.

His name was Marcus. He was the largest amongst them all. He sat still, holding his buzzed head high with straight posture. He was clearly trying to put himself above the rest. He wore grey sweats identical to all the others, but he was already outgrowing them.

Beside him sat Adam. He was a lean boy with a long face and dark hair which curled in every direction. He too, sat upright, trying to match the height of Marcus.

To the left was Amelia. Her short brown hair came only past her chin. She was thin, bony, and twitched her head as if she was sporadically saying, “no.” Unable to keep her hands still, she was fiddling with a scrunchy between her fingers, though her eyes never left the man before her.

Next to her was Kayden. Heavy set for his age, Kayden was almost as large as Marcus. His round face and blond hair made him look younger than he was, as if the rest of his body had over matured, while his face had not.

Kayden was to Claire’s right, and to her left sat Melissa. An average looking girl with dark brown hair waving past her shoulders, Melissa sat wide eyed. She blinked far too rapidly. Though perhaps the most quaint looking amongst the group with her rounded nose and small chin, her eyes held a fierce intelligence.

After her, sat Alice. Small and unassuming, Alice sat criss-cross style with straight posture, though little else about her appeared tidy. Her dirty blond hair hung before part of her face, and grease smudges could be seen around her wrist and elbows.

Beside her, last in line, sat Harper. He had a predominant brow, a sharp nose, and narrow set eyes. His dark features contrasted with his pale skin, and freckles dotted his face and neck. He had a birthmark shaped similar to a hook by his collar. All of the children looked as if they were holding their breath, waiting for the Doctor to bestow upon them the most meaningful words that ears could ever hear.