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Ravagerrr
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 Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:11 pm Post subject: Chapter 6: Dreams of Dragon's Fire |
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:biggrin: Pillbox - Chapter 6
Dreams of Dragon's Fire
Mack's head was spinning. "Sydney, I think I've heard, and seen, enough for one day. The anesthetics on my legs are wearing off, and I'm having a hard time concentrating. I can appreciate everthing you've shown me and all the explanations you've given, but I think for now, I need to rest."
"I thought you might.", Sydney answered.
"I have half a mind to go and get healed immediately, but I think I want to be at my best for that."
"Understandable. Alright then Mack, we'll pick this back up tomorrow. Would you like me to show you to your room?"
"That'd help."
"Alright then, follow me." Sydney replied with a smile. Motioning towards a door leading out to the right hand side of the break room, he noted,"That way leads to the hangar control room by the way."
Mack nodded. He felt curious to see it all, but his weariness was taking a toll he'd rather stop paying.
"And this way," motioning to a door at the rear, "is the route to the Barracks. C'mon, then." Sydney floated towards the end of the break room. Again, the door slid silently upwards, revealing yet another aluminum hallway.
As they traversed the new passage, Sydney explained that the first door on the left led to the Kitchen and the Mess hall, where he would be meeting Mack in the morning, and that the door just after, engraved with 4 stars, was the General's office. Continuing down the passage, doorways lined the hall, each, according to Sydney, being a domicile for those living in the compound. Sydney pointed out his own room entrance, just 2 doors down opposing the door at which he stopped to will open.
"This humble residence, Mack, will be your home from this day forward.", gliding forward Sydney stretched out his arms in a presentation style,"Not much to it really, but we'll let you style it up as you please."
Mack's room was indeed humble. Not more than 15 feet wide by 20 feet long, the room sported a simple, bare desk and a simple bed, draped with standard Army issue fabrics. White lights, shining with a hint of blue tint, glowed softly through portals affixed into the stark white, empty walls. In the corner of the room was a small television mounted on the wall in a hospital fashion. In fact, the room reminded Mack of a hospital ward, complete with the faintly lingering scent of eucaliptic disinfectant spray.
"It'll do. I will need to personalize it a bit, but for now I just need to use it for its primary function, sleep." If I don't put some posters up soon this place'll drive me insane, Mack thought.
"Good, good. If there's anything we can do to facilitate your stay here, I'm definitely the guy to talk to Mack. Ok, so as I explained earlier, first thing after you wake, meet me in the Mess Hall.", Sydney stretched forward to offer Mack something he held in his hand.
Taking what appeared to be an underwater stopwatch, Mack asked, "What's this?"
"Thats not only a watch, Mack, it's also your communication device. It acts as something similar to a radio transmitter, but the signal isn't interceptable. Unfortunately, there's still a limited range on it but that was a matter of limitations we had in power supplies on a device that size. We're working on improvements.
Still, you can use this to contact me when you wake. Just let me know once you're waiting for me, and by all means, in the mean time, eat a full healthy breakfast. You're body is going to need all the nutrition it can get."
"Thanks Syd... how does it work?"
Sydney showed Mack how to operate the watch, a fiddling of this button and that. He displayed the watch's capabilities as a laser sight, a homing beacon, a tracking mechanism, a GPS locator, a secure radio link, of course, a stopwatch, and even, in desperate need, an explosive device. "The Seals can't even get this puppy, Mack! Take care of it now."
Following his explanation, Sydney graciously bowed out of the room to allow Mack the first moments of privacy he had gotten since their meeting that morning in Iraq.
Sitting in silence gave Mack some time to think and digest all that he had witnessed. Most of it was twirling about in his head like a cyclone, but as he pondered his situation, he began to calm the turgid seas of his mind. This was something he learned how to do back in Basic, organize his thoughts to calm himself. He would need to do this every night before sleeping, lest he keep himself wired during the few precious hours they gave to rest.
As he pieced together all the data he had received, a thought, ignored throughout all of the activity, began to rise again to the surface of his mind. His family, his friends, his whole life, gone forever now. He suddenly felt terribly alone, and a touch guilty, as if he had chosen to abandon the people he loved. The guilt spurred him to action, designed to distract his thoughts a bit more.
Lifting himself out of his chair, he pulled his shattered body onto the bed. The chair remained just next to the bed, hovering patiently. He assumed it would do so until he next wished to mount his beast, and in reply, his mount continued to hover unwaveringly. With tired arms and sore shoulders, he pulled himself upwards to lay flat on his back, his head propped over the thinning pillow. Staring upwards, he marveled at how the texture of the ceiling reflected the wall lights, just right, to appear almost like a sky full of stars.
He reminded himself that he couldn't serve his family without being healed, and that he would have been a burden instead. His ordeal getting into bed was a poigniant statement on just how much of a burden he would indeed have been. Lolling his gaze over towards his chair, he also mused how such marvelous devices weren't so common on the outside. No, this was where he needed to be, on the road to capability and further responsibility.
Responsibility. Just how much responsibility will I have, he wondered. Am I going to be fighting on the truest front of the most real war the world has ever "not" known? He had always imagined such kinds of super high secret conflicts taking place and had always desired to become a part of it all. But the reality of the underlying truths about what this place was all about began to worry him that he was being entrusted to more than he could handle. Though he had always been a soldier at heart, he was, in truth, just a country boy... not much more than that really.
His Father, Ronald, had been a farmer until the machines put him out of business. The sale of the farm had been a big event in his teen years. Dad retired but remained a busy body. They had moved, purchasing a wooded acreage, and his Dad was always out working on the property, selectively logging, clearing brush, building a shop. That mule, he'll die soon after he loses his ability to work, Mack mused.
Still, the work he did helping his Dad made him grow strong, which he had come to appreciate, despite all the complaining he did about it growing up. The girls certainly took notice.
Unfortunately, Mack reminisced, he wasn't so gifted intellectually. Mack had originally wanted to join the special forces, to be a Green Beret, but his entry testing scores weren't high enough to be considered for the training.
How am I supposed to handle all of this, he wondered, if I can't even read all that well? The chemistry stuff had gone way over Mack's head, but he felt he understood well enough that they were dealing with a technology that would revolutionize the world, and change the face of war forever. He understood that he was going to be protecting the most powerful secrets the US government held. In light of the weight of this mission, he couldn't help but doubt himself some.
Mack wasn't sure exactly where in his thoughts he drifted off to sleep.
The 'stars' he stared at eventually blurred and swirled and soon he was immersed in an outer space atmosphere of his own mind. Looking around, he could see the moon nearby and a sparkle out of the corner of his eye alerting him to the presence of the sun peaking up from behind the immense orb beneath him.
Gazing at the sphere below him, his breath caught in awe of the beauty of the Earth from this vantage point. Sparkles of light dotted the planet, indicating human habitations. Clouds swirled, obscuring vision of some of the landforms, but enhancing the beauty of the overall scene.
Strangely, he was unaware of himself having a body in this cosmic realm, but just as strangely, he didn't seem to find that to be at all out of place.
As the sun crested the horizon, shooting rays of light across the land beneath him, Mack began to make out the shapes of the continents. Aware now of his position over the planet, he curiously overlooked the dawning of the northern hemisphere of Asia.
Remembering how he had heard somewhere that the Great Wall of China could be seen from space, he searched for it, noting that the clouds were permitting of such visibility. He found it, as the sun gleamed along it's sinewy path through the Red Nation. As he visually traced the Wall, however, he began to note that something about it appeared to be... unusual.
At first, it looked in all ways to be a wall, seen from a great distance, but upon closer investigation, the Wall began to appear more and more like a spine, a ridge of spears lining the back of a giant beast. Glancing towards Japan, he noted that the island chain was beginning to resemble a clawed hand, blackened and scarred, rising from beneath the ocean deep.
His eyes began darting around, not sure if they were playing tricks on him or not, as before him, the national regions of the Orient began to morph, or perhaps reveal, or even more accurately, sprout, giant batlike, crimson hued, leathery wings!
As he watched in awe and wonder, Mack noticed a bright gleaming light just beneath the surfacing wings, which were now stretching and flapping a bit to dust off. While gazing upon the wings, noticing they were covered with vermillion scales, a shiver of terror sent a jolt down his spine. However, flicking his gaze back to the light to the creature's south, its radiance filled him with a warm comfort, similar in nature to the tanning sensation the sun was coating him with, but welling from within.
Suddenly, without warning, the mountains surrounding the jewel of brilliance began to reveal themselves as clawed digits! Wiggling to life menacingly, they rapidly clasped down on the beautiful light, winking it out of existance in an instant. As the clawed hand slowly opened, releasing its grip, a wisp of smoke wafted up from where the light had once been.
The great Red Beast melded back into the Earth and the planet rotated the scene out of view, revealing the Americas. Mack wasn't sure but he thought he saw a tiny luminescent light, reminiscent of the light he had recently seen vanquished, moving about on the surface of the land here, like an ant in his travels.
Tracing its motions, he became distracted by the shifting North American landscape, rising from the center upwards, gradually taking the shape of a gigantic pyramid. At the peak of the pyramid, the light came to rest, and, in a burst, revealed an engraved eye. The eye began to open to look deeply into Mack's soul...
The faint hiss of an opening door jolted Mack to life. The scent of flowers and honey launched a pleasing assault on his senses, overwhelming the eucaliptis scent that had been an underlying constant. Breezing in through the doorway, the feminine glow of raven hair and delightful curves of Natalia graced his vision. Clothed now in garments more besuited to a nurse, she whispered, "No need for alarm, my sweet."
Noting the glistening syrenge she held forth, his eyebrow cocked upwards. "Here for an insertion?", he asked.
Giggling softly, she purred, "Just something to take the edge off the procedure tomorrow. I figured a bit of foreplay would help you to grow... stonger."
"Hmph... being stuck with a needle wasn't what I had in mind, but if you insist, you can poke me first...", Mack replied with a devious smile, offering forward his arm.
"Honestly, you really should behave Sergeant. I don't think you're up for the task quite yet, but I must admit," her voice dropped down to a whisper again as she leaned over to breath hotly into his ear, "I can't wait."
Pain lanced through his arm, piercing the warming sensation snaking through his body, replacing it with a burning feeling which wormed throughout his veins.
"I'll see you," her gaze aluding to regions of his body which remained covered at the moment, "tomorrow, until then... Pleasant dreams Sergeant."
Mack wanted to reply with something witty, but the burning sensation filling him was causing him to tense and tighten, greatly distracting his mind as she flicked him a devilish smile and strode out of the room, leaving the heavenly scents behind her.
It took Mack several minutes to adjust to the creeping fire in his system as he focused on relaxation. Cramps attacked him intermittently, but after a while they calmed down, leaving him to feel an energetic sensation. He wasn't quite sure if it was the drug or the memory of her breath on his ear that had his skin quivering with life. His legs weren't piecing themselves together, but then, she had indicated this was just a prepping for the full blown procedure. He'd hoped the actual healing wouldn't hurt, but he was beginning to fear otherwise.
A few more minutes passed, and he suprised himself by gently passing back into sleep, floating now on a fuzzy cloud of comfort. In his mind's eye, he was indeed floating on a cloud. The sun was above him, playing peek a boo through the clouds, warming his skin one moment, then denying him and leaving him with a chill the next.
He finally felt a relaxation he hadn't felt since before the war, perhaps even before his enlistment. It reminded him of the lazy afternoon breaks on the farm, taking naps under the old walnut tree.
Peace was suddenly shattered by an ominous shadow blotting out the sunlight. Emerging from behind a cloud, the silhouette of a massive, winged beast flew at him with alarming speed!
In a panic, he thrashed about, sweating stressfully as a horrible scream, a high pitched wail overlapping a deep throated booming roar, thundered across the sky! Tucking its wings close to its side, the beast dove towards Mack with outstretched claws, jutting forth on powerful arms emerging from the torso of the beast.
Realizing his mobility was limited, Mack tried to roll over to escape the cloudy deathtrap upon which he lay, but too late, the scaly hide of the beast's talons closed about his neck...
The dream suddenly shattered like broken glass! Snapping awake, Mack realized all too quickly, that the dream was not so unreal as he had hoped! Gripping him by the throat was a demonic creature from his worst nightmares! Not so Draconic in nature as the dream image, the gremlin like creature cackled in malicious glee, revealing a row of sharp, needle like teeth on its disturbingly human visage.
Appearing to be a child in stature, the creature's batlike wings, sprouting from its shoulders, flapped about wildly as its suprisingly mighty grip squeezed tighter, choking off Mack's air supply! Clawing at Mack with its feet, the Imp pulled at Mack's hair with its remaining hand, green, viscous spittle salivating down from its maw.
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!!", it gleefully cackled! Mack took in the sight of this creature, an abhorration which appeared to be formed from a pool of solid black ink, the lights of the room glinting off its jet black hide. In revulsion, his evaluation of the wretched beast ended as quickly as it began.
More rapidly, his mind raced as to how to deal with this intruder before his life was vanquished!
Last edited by Ravagerrr on Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:58 pm; edited 3 times in total
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