Elements of Earth: The Element Trials

Synchronous 1; An exploration of subcutaneous memories: How Elements are Born

"What do you think they want from us?" Dak asked. This happened sometimes when reviewing the memories. I had come in well over halfway through. This time she had missed the introductions. That was better. It was closer to the internal memory I wanted to access. It also helped her take less notice of those elements she already knew to be dead. Her eyes kept drawing closer to Dak, known to Kira only as 8 at this time.

"Who knows." Kira didn't bother lifting her face from between her knees. I didn't have time to take in my surroundings before I felt Kira accessing a memory. I quickly shoved twenty of my remaining fifty percent mental capacity into Kira's mind.

A mental image was born into existence in a dark corridor. She was in line with other children in a hall that was silent save for whimpers and sniffles. She couldn't see the beginning of the hall behind her. Far ahead it turned to the left. The only light in the hall came from around that corner. It was a yellow glow shining off heads of messy hair. Every so often children in front her would turn to look behind. The light glared off their eyes, reflecting a vision of scared animals in the dark.

"Five steps forward."

The girl did not remember who she was. But right now she was who she was supposed to be. She didn't remember why that was true, but she felt it in her bones.

"Two steps forward."

Distantly she heard a scream... it faded. She felt the tension of everyone in the hall as her own. Hair stood straight on her neck. Muscles tight and expected use. Another voice rose over the echoes of the scream.

"No! No, no, no!" Now the echoes held the pitter patter of little feet running away. The echo begged the rest of the children to flee, flee for their lives... But it was wrong.

"Erschieß ihn." When the voice that shouted reached her it was barely a whisper. Then there were two small sounds. First, the releasing of pressurized air like opening a soda all at once, followed by the finality of someone falling motionless to the ground.

"Eight steps forward."

It had been a day since they started walking in this line. They had not slept or eaten. But that was not long enough for most of them to forget the example made of those that ran. Maybe it would be long enough to forget when the girl turned the corner. What horrors awaited her there?

"Three steps forward."

The light was almost upon her now. One more step and she would be at the corner of the long corridor. The boy in front of her turned to look at the girl. Unlike the others, she had never heard him cry or whimper. He also hadn't looked behind, not the whole day they'd been in line. Now, with the light so close, she could see his face. He hailed from somewhere in the east though his complexion was darker than her father's. His plain hair was black and short. His eyes were simple and brown, but they held a hardness, not of his age. He forced the corner of his mouth up in a smirk. Without opening his mouth he spoke to her. Thousands of words passed between them in his gaze. They told her so many things, but the most important was, 'If I do not survive and you do, remember me.' The girl gulped and nodded.

"Two steps forward."

Two large men in uniforms flanked them as they rounded the corner just in time to see three shapeless forms shoved into a dark pit. The room was large. Taller than the hallway leading to it. Above there was a balcony for observers. Then she and the boy were strapped into metal chairs, the last two in a row of ten. Two men in white coats and surgical masks approached. They jabbed needles into the youths' arms, drawing blood from one arm, then mixed with a foggy colorless liquid, and pumped back into the other arm. The liquid coming in was warm. A man in a green lab coat looked up to the balcony, his expression asking permission to proceed. He spoke in a language that while foreign to her, somehow, she knew. "Permission to implement trial twenty-one and twenty-two."