章 11: Disenchantment
"Did you bring cake with you?" Rosa says as she brings out a blade and begins slices vines in our path.
"W-what?"
She stops and faces me.
"From the party."
"Oh...yeah, I did. It's outside." She nods and continues.
"What flavor?"
"Chocolate." I respond and notice her rub her belly. I shake my head.
We break through the vines. The stream that runs through the forest is crimson - a mixture from the blood of unrecognizable dead animal's that litter the bank of the river. Their fatalities ranging from slashed necks and bellies. I grimace.
We find a malfunctioning jaguar not too far from the scene at the trunk of a tree. It lays with a dead impala lodged in its teeth and sporadically twitches. Rosa gestures me to stay behind and heads over to it. It lets out a weak distorted growl as she approaches it. She connects her monitor to its head. It growls rearing its teeth. Her monitor lets out a chime and she disconnects and shoots it in the head. She sticks a marker into the ground next to it and it begins beeping.
I glance at the dead animal, sparks fly from the sizzling hole from the bullet, before following her through the thick ferns to the next one. She stops and stares at the tracker. She turns her head left, then right before letting out a curse.
"Problem?"
She shakes her head.
"No, just a feeling-" A jaguar pounces from the ferns in front of Rosa knocking her onto the ground. I stumble on the ground and watch the jaguar. Its guts hang out from its belly with it eye missing. I stare in disbelief as it circles us growling. Rosa gets to her feet and cocks her pistol. She sends shots at it as it comes barreling towards her. I scramble back on the ground as it pounces and pins her down. She stabs her blade into its head. It stumbles back before lunging at her with its mouth open. She then swiftly takes out a staff from her utility belt and holds it across. The jaguar violently bites down on it violently. She grits her teeth as her arms begin to buckle.
I stare at the pistol on the ground. I scramble towards it and send two clean shots through its neck, crippling it. It goes limp before collapsing on her. I rush over to Rosa and pry the animal off her and help her up.
"Are you hurt? Bleeding?" I ask as I stare at her frantically.
"I'm ok." She says and lets out a curse and stares at her broken monitor and the dead animal, "all the data's lost."
I put my arm on her shoulder and we both stare at the lifeless robotic animal.
***
Bronze rays of dusk seep into the room, I lean on the wall and stare outside the hospital room before staring at Rosa and the half-eaten cake next to her. Her left shoulder is wrapped in a bandage and with her face hidden by her braids, she hums and continues stitching a cut on her thigh at a medical station. I make a mental note to send a letter to the Chancellor about doubling down on the safety of the simulation rooms. At that moment Rosa becomes two. My head pangs and I begin to see double. I grip my head gently breathe in and out.
"Sovreign, are you ok?"
Grimacing I open one eye and meet Rosa's worried expression. My vision soon goes back to normal and the pain soon resides. I shake it off nod.
"Don't make me have to treat you too." She speaks.
I wave her off and playfully shake my head. "It's been a long day."
I walk towards the corridor window. We're one of many rooms that circle a massive white Union statue in the hospital wing of the Health and Safety Ministry. The complex is infused with gardens and greenery with the words HOSPITAL BAY-3 lining the walls.
Science and Technology Ministry personnel arrive at the entrance of the wing, offsetting the green of the hospital bay with their blue, and provide HSM personal crates. Which they begin delivering to certain hospital rooms.
"The STM Ministry's here too?" I ask more to myself than anyone else.
"They deliver the reliever cannisters for certain terminally ill synthetic patients." Rosa speaks from behind me. My face twists to a look of concern as I watch them unload the cannisters.
"Hey,"
I turn around to meet her.
"Today, was pretty crazy. I mean, I'm use to this, but I have to admit today was crazier than normal."
"I just saved your life." I say as I sit across from her.
"I owe you."
I nod and she continues carefully stitching her leg.
"What song is that?" I ask trying to remember the familiar tune.
"It's called 'the song of the soil'," She says not looking up from her work,
"Song of the soil?" I stare at her and frown.
"It's the song about a group of people trapped in a bunker with a bomb…or something."
The pain slowly builds up and I can barely hear her go on tangent about where her father got the song from. I grip my temples and try to focus on breathing.
"Quite bleak now that I say it aloud. We're the ones with a nuclear warhead as a power source." She jokes.
"How does a song like that even exist. It's against Praxis." I say through gritted teeth.
"Of course, the song ends with them dying, so?"
"Why are we even talking about this?"
"You brought it up, Sovreign."
Silence encompasses us and my headache soon subsides.
"I-I'm sorry."
"You should go to Citadel and get some rest."
I take a deep breath and nod.
***
Citadel.
The wind gently weaves through the trees above us as Calihan and I sit in their shade on pillows. We lie in front of the statues of the earlier Supreme Leaders. Servants display colorful fruits on gold platters and hold them up before us.
"You know, Reyes was very much like you." Calihan speaks from besides me as he takes a grape from a servant. I stare at the third recent ivory-white statue of a female with strong features.
"Sovreign Reyes?" I ask. He nods.
"My sister too was very ambitious," the statue looks longingly into the distant, "but she was also too serious." The statues face twists into a focused frown.
"I always saw more of Noble Renan in me. I share more traits with him." I say as I look towards the first statue in the line.
"My daughter, Etta, is serious too. But she'll never be Supreme Leader." He pulls off another grape from the platter and passes it to me, "Just like this grape, one day you will be forced to break off from the stem and forge your own destiny."
I hold the grape in my hand lost in thought.
"Destiny."
***
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