The V.I.C.I. Diaries: Valley of the Damned (Part 9)

[DukeNukem 2417]

“No, slow down---slow down, man, I can barely understand you! What---what d'you mean, it 'gave out'?! I'm having a hard time---SLOW DOWN! I'm having a hard time figuring out what the hell you mean when you say it just gave out, okay? Try to slow down and explain it again.....what? What?! You're saying---WHAT?! How many were in there?! No, listen to me---LISTEN TO ME! How many people were in the room---I SAID HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN THE ROOM WHEN IT COLLAPSED?!”

Major Tom blew out an agitated breath as he watched Oberon deal with the latest news from HQ. “Backup should've been here fifteen minutes ago,” he muttered. “Something about this sucks....”

“That's your nerves talking,” Alicia informed him. “You're just worked up over what's-her-name nearly pulling a Michael Phelps out of the window over there....just give it time, and you'll get over it.” She grinned; “I mean, I was able to get over dying,” she added, “so–-”

“Don't.”

The blonde House gynoid's grin faded. “Don't....what?”

“Don't try to trivialize it. For you, dying isn't even permanent.” The Major stared at the floor, refusing to even look at Alicia. “For me...ever since '99, I've still had flashbacks. I've had weeks where I can sleep just fine, and then all of a sudden I go for three or four-day stretches where I'm awake until 4 in the morning because I just can't fucking stop thinking about what happened. That kind of shit eats away at you----it makes you feel like a bastard even when everyone keeps saying 'you did the best you could', and 'anyone in your position would feel the same way', and all that stale old shit.....none of it ever does a damn bit of good anyways.”

Despite her initial shock at Tom's sudden anger, Alicia managed to stay calm. “Well...maybe someone needed to tell you something that wasn't just a typical repackaged line,” she admitted. “Maybe someone should've done something more....” She gave a comforting smile. “Maybe---”

“We have to go,” Oberon snapped, cutting off the conversation before it could truly go anywhere. “Part of the damned HQ has collapsed, and surveilance footage indicates that Vicki, Elena Vlatko and two others were in the room when the floor went....” He bit his lip, as if even mentioning the incident hurt. “Nobody can get to that part of the building yet,” he added. “They're still trying to go over the footage, see what exactly happened to weaken the floor.....”

“Okay, first thing's first,” Alicia declared. “Why the HELL is Elena Vlatko at ALPA HQ?!”

Oberon gave her a look that screamed “Did you actually just ask that question?”, though his annoyance didn't taint his words. “She applied for asylum with the ALPA after her husband repaired her. Apparently, they were both tired of the abuse heaped on them by their previous employers.”

“Good enough for me. Now what about the two others?”

“We don't know the specifics yet,” Oberon admitted, “but if the sound picked up from the security cameras is any indication, one of them is with Björn Aaberg----a hired gun by the name of Billy Jean. As for the other...we don't know. All we're hoping for right now is that they didn't die in the collapse---”

“Then let's get off our asses and get back to HQ pronto,” Major Tom insisted. “I'm sick of sitting here!”

Even in her agreement with the Major, Alicia hesitated to speak out on his behalf---or on that of Oberon, given the fact that she didn't want to aggravate the situation further. The House had given its orders on the situation, and despite her friendship with the ALPA, the blonde gynoid knew all too well where her loyalties lay. If she tried to sway the situation in a manner that ran counter to the House's instructions, the decision---even without a Matriarch---would be swift, and final.....

After what felt like an eternity, Oberon spoke: “Who thinks we should stay here another hour?”

Elena and the Major stayed silent----though for the Major, it was less about actual silence and more about choosing his words. “If I stay here for even five more seconds,” he growled, “I am going to go utterly and completely insane. Watching these idiots has made me question everything I know about not wanting to rip my own eyeballs out and puncture my own eardrums---one of them just sits there and...I can't even say that she stares, because she doesn't have eyes! And the other one.....if I have to hear that damned whistling one more time.....”

“I think we should get another backup team out here,” Alicia interjected. “The first one still hasn't shown up, and for all we know they may never show up. If we don't get someone out here to keep track of them, they may try to escape as soon as we're out of visual range. I also think,” she added, “that we really do need to get back to HQ and see if we can figure out what caused that part of the building to collapse.”

The ALPA Chairman nodded his approval. “Agreed. And as for the backup team, we might not even need them, to be honest---we've got a lot of capable House and ALPA Field Agents out here; they can handle it themselves. I'll go break the news to Reaver....hopefully, he won't mind hanging 'round here for a bit longer to make sure the plonks don't try anything...”

Once Oberon was out of earshot, Major Tom sighed. “So...you said you remember being dead. How's it feel?”

“Well, aren't you just a ray of positive thinking,” Alicia teased, only to realize that the Major wasn't smiling. “To be brutally honest with you, Major,” she continued, her voice a few tinges above a whisper, “I'm not really all that fond of it. There was this brief moment---really brief, but it was still there---when I couldn't feel, or hear, or see anything...and with every second that ticked by, I thought 'Is this it? Is this all that I'm going to get out of this...just a void of silence and darkness, forever?' And I'll be the first to admit....it scared me.” She shuddered a bit; “Until the next part came,” she whispered, “I was terrified. Even thinking made me nervous---I thought I'd just....fade out, mid-thought, and that'd be the end of me.”

“So what was 'the next part'?” Major Tom asked.

Alicia gave a quiet chuckle. “It's funny,” she mused, “how so many people say that 'go towards the light' thing is a bunch of bullshit, and everyone keeps trying to tell you there's nothing after the end...” Her sentence ended in a quiet sob. “I remember the exact moment I saw it,” she murmured. “It....it was beautiful.....”

“Doesn't sound like the kind of thing a person decides to 'not be fond of'.”

“Oh, I would've stayed in that light forever if I'd been able to, believe me...but then I felt this pull. Not like a tug on the arm, or the dipshit in the desk behind you grabbing your hair and yanking it for shits and giggles, or anything like that...it felt like someone tied a chain around me and tried to pull me out of a hole in a wall with an 18-wheeler, except I was part of the wall----and it hurt.” She shuddered again. “They say the sense of touch is the first one to go---trust me, it's not. Every time I felt that pull, I felt it.”

The Major nodded quietly. “So, silence and darkness, then a light...then a pull.”

“If you're lucky, you won't feel the pull,” Alicia muttered, her voice tinged with bitterness. “The worst part of it was that I wanted to reach that light...to get to all the voices I heard coming from just beyond it....” She turned away. “...instead, I woke up---no, I was activated.” Her gaze turned to the floor; “It's funny how I never thought about it when I lost my backup bodies before now,” she admitted. “Every time, I'd just think 'oh, well, lost another one!' and keep going on my merry little way....but now, after the way Alicia 5 got destroyed....I can't stop thinking about it. I mean, I can---it's not like it's all I ever think about every day of the week, or anything, but....it's like someone, somewhere, knows what I went through, and they don't want me to forget.”

“I can see why you'd start feeling a bit apathetic towards it after a while, then,” Tom mused.

Again, Alicia chuckled---this time, without any humor. “You don't get it, Major...when they first activated me, I felt like I'd been robbed. Cheated, even. They....they had no idea...”

“And that pain returned after Alicia 5 let herself get blown to hell so that Vicki could escape,” the Major finished.

“Damn straight it did.” Alicia was in tears by now. “It's why Celeste never wanted me to have more than one backup body active at once, apart from Alicia 2....if they all remembered that pain, that suffering, it could drive them insane. And when they all felt me---when they all felt Alicia 5 die......”

“I get it.”

Alicia shook her head. “I don't think you do---not at the level I do, at least. It's...complicated.”

“Then let's try to keep things here as uncomplicated as possible,” Oberon suggested, approaching the pair without missing a step. “The backup team is on their way; if traffic doesn't completely suck, they should be arriving within the hour; in the meantime, we have to keep this lot---” He nodded at Aaberg's flunkies. “---from doing anything stupid. If you two have anything you need to grab before we leave, now's the time to get it.”

By the time the backup team arrived, ten minutes later, Major Tom and Alicia VI had gathered everything they needed (and any evidence left behind by Aaberg's idiots that would serve to get them more jail time) before leaving the area. “The situation at HQ has stabilized,” Oberon informed the two as he approached his borrowed steed, “and unless someone there chose to be an absolute pillock and lie to me, the building's stopped falling in on itself. Of course, there's the small matter of certain areas being rendered inaccessible by the debris....”

“Can they tell if anyone survived the collapse yet?” Alicia inquired. “I mean...you did say people were in that part of the building when it, ah, fell....”

“They're looking into it right now. The debris is still blocking most routes into that part of the building...”

Major Tom managed to get his wounded leg up and over the side of his horse without screaming. “Then let's get back to base and help them clear a path, shall we? I'm sick of all this sitting around and talking anyways.”

“I honestly thought you'd prefer sitting around and talking to running around and getting attacked,” Alicia VI teased. “I mean, you were doing a great job with that sword of yours, earlier---yeah, you looked like a futuristic He-Man, or something....maybe not as muscular, or anything---”

“ANYway,” Oberon interjected, “you'll both be happy to know that the defeated fembots have been cleared out, and we should be on our way back to base in no time. Hopefully, we can sort through their programming, maybe salvage them if at all possible---and our presence there should also ensure that nothing goes utterly pear-shaped if the fembots aren't as dead as we thought they were.” He glanced back at the building, where Blue-Eye and Whistler were both still trussed up; “I only hope our, ah, 'guests' don't cause any trouble for the next team,” he added. Before Major Tom could reply, he noticed Alicia returning to the “borrowed” bus. “Ah, you do intend to return that to where you got it, right?”

“I might,” the blonde gynoid teased. “What, you'd rather ride in this than on a horse?” Her remark prompted a scowl from the Major. “I've gotten used to the horse, thank you very much....and that bus is SJSU property. Either you return it or they'll send someone to come get it---”

“Relax, Major!” Alicia laughed. “The driver of this particular bus is a friend of mine, and he loned it to me for the weekend, so as long as I return it with all the parts still attached, it's no problem.” She turned her attention to the House Agents; “LADIES!” she called out. “Anyone who wants a free ride back to ALPA HQ, get on da bus!” She flashed one last grin at the Major and gave an overly-exaggerated wink before skipping back to her vehicle of choice.

“Well, Major,” Oberon beamed, “I think our work here is done....shall we follow her back to base?”

“You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to say that,” the Major muttered.
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[Uhoh]

interesting account of her own death, deep stuff, keep it up!

[LongTimeLurker]

Glad to see you continuing the saga, Duke!

Still waiting on that VICI-pedia

[DukeNukem 2417]

LTL, the VICIPedia is an ongoing project. I'll let you know as soon as I get it into a presentable format.

As for everyone else, thanks for the comments----and be prepared for the longest part of the story thus far this afternoon.

[DollSpace]

That was such a beautiful description of being reactivated...and the suspense of the rest keeps getting better!