ATLAS

Is this Hell?

I stood upon the tower seeing my life destroyed, burning away by all the chaos, and the fire raining down. My hands scarred and bruised, my lungs filled with ash and sulfur. But perhaps, it would be best that I start from the beginning.

My name is Atlas Ghost, I have lived my whole life with my mother Maria Ghost deep withing the Uis countryside. My mother and I lived on a small farm raising Xacs. Xacs are large animals with two small horns coming out of their forehead, with brown hair and long legs with hooves similar to deer. We raise them so we can milk them and sell their milk in the market which is near our home. It takes a day to travel to the market, but I am never allowed to go. She always says "It's too dangerous for you". Even though I am 17, making my way to adulthood, I do not understand why she thought that way.

4/5/2079

I just finished milking one of our Xacs, pouring the milk into a processing machine to clean and filter the milk. "Master Atlas, your mother is calling for you to go inside the house," said Wasp. Wasp was a robotic servant that I built years ago. I made him out of old piping, gears, and any scrap metal I could find laying around on the farm. He always helped with the work on the farm, as well as taking care of things inside the house. I called him wasp because the colors of the scrap metal were a mix of yellow and black, well they were many years ago. Now they are but faded and now he has the colors of rust and dirt. 

I went inside as Wasp took over the milk processing. I walked into the living room. The room had a grand piano, a fireplace, and a large chair that mother used to sit in. I stood before her, holding my arms behind my back. She looked up from the book she was reading and stared at me for a moment with a look of slight anger. "I had been calling for you for quite some time, why didn't you come?" she said as she stood up and placed her cold hand on my shoulder. Mother always had such a dark aura to her, always so stern and serious, I do not believe I ever saw her smile, even when I was very young, I do not recall her ever being happy. and she always wore a long black dress, which was perfectly fitting for her personality. "I'm sorry mother, I could not her because of the processing machine running," I said staring at the ground, I could never look her in the eyes, they were either full of fire or full of absolute hate. Her emotionless stare felt like it was piercing through my spirit, damning me. "Tch, try not to make the same mistake this time, anyways I called you here to tell you that I am going to be gone, I shall return within a fortnight," she said sitting back down in her chair. I sat on the floor in front of her and asked: "Where are you going?". "I will be going to Metropolis, and visiting my mother, she has become ill and I do not believe she will survive," mother said her eyes seemed to have shown a little emotion for once, sadness and genuine worry. She lifted a cup of tea to her lips and sipped it, she looked over to the window and saw that the sun was setting. "And now I must go, it is a long travel to Metropolis" she stood up and picked up a large dark grey carpetbag and headed out the door as I followed her. "Now then, I must be off," mother said as she got into an old rugged automobile and started it. "And remember Atlas, no going into the basement,"  she said once again staring at me with those eyes of pure fire. "I won't, mother," I said quickly to look away and not stare into her eyes. She drove off down the road and out of sight. Now that she was gone it felt like a weight had been lifted. 

Later that evening I sat outside staring off at the flat land of a field that was behind our house. "Is something wrong Master Atlas?" Wasp asked as he stood beside me, you see he did not have the ability to sit or lay down, only stand. "I just really wonder something, what if I'm not supposed to be here.." I said staring up at him. "What do you mean Master Atlas? aren't you happy being here?" Wasp asked, his voice had static in it similar to an old radio. I shook my head and pointed to two birds flying overhead: "I wish to be like them, free, flying away from this damn house, and this damned farm". "I understand, Master, and perhaps one day you will," Wasp said walking back over to the shed where the processing machine was. "Yeah... maybe," I said standing up, as I did so a strange black bug similar to a bee, on my hand. I swatted at it, it flew around and bit me on the neck. I yelled in anger and eventually smashed it. After that, I went inside to go to bed

I didn't bother to eat dinner I went straight to bed. My room was small, only a window, a small bed, and a table. I laid in my uncomfortable bed and buried my face into my pillow as tears started to form in my eyes. 

I eventually fell asleep and awoke to the sounds of someone or something walking up the stairs to where my room was. Then I saw my door open. But no one was there. I walked and saw glowing black and purple shoe pints, that went down the stair to a door. I opened it and saw more stairs that went down to the basement. "But no, I'm not allowed down there.." I say to myself. But I do so anyway, walking down the old wooden stairs. Downstairs was a large work table. Filled with machine parts, large power generators in the corners of the room. I looked over the table and saw a strange pistol. It had some strange attachment on the side of it that looked like it held some sort of blue liquid. It was strange because my mother never really seemed like the person who'd work with these kinds of things. I also saw some kind of large machine with a gate around it and had some sort of archway over it, like some kind of weird doorway. I had seen enough, I walked towards the stairs but then I saw the glowing footprints again. They lead me to a cardboard box filled with tapes and a tape player. I looked at the tapes. They had labels on them, each saying something like "Session 1" or "Session 6A". I decided to take them up to my room to have a listen. 

Tape 1: "Session 1, with patient 517"

Doctor Vitch: "This is Doctor Nos Vitch of Alpha Advancements, AA Facility: Ceaser left sector. Today we are having a session with patient 517, gender: male, race: light grey, homeland: Outlands, age: 8. Hello there, how are you doing today?" 

Pt 517: "W-where am I? is.. is this hell?!" 

Doctor Vitch: "Don't worry, you are safe, I have brought you here to ask some questions, how are your headaches, have they gone away?"

Pt 517: "Oh... yes.. yes they have"

Doctor Vitch: "Wonderful, now tell me, do you remember where you come from?"

Pt 517: "N-no... I don't, I don't remember anything"

Doctor Vitch: "Hm, very well, so you don't remember your powers?"

Pt 517: "I have powers? like a superhero?"

Doctor Vitch: "Somewhat yes, but since you don't know how to control them they were getting out of control and destroying things, now tell me, do you know your name?" 

Pt 517: "Well I think its Corky isn't it?" 

Doctor Vitch: "No, your name is Atlas, Atlas Ghost"