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Chapter 9: In My Brain

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Katrine woke with a start. Turning over in her small, rock hard, bed she reached for her clock to see the time. After fumbling in the dark for a while she found her clock, it was blank.

 

Oh those bastards, shutting the power off, now of all times.

 

“Oh well, if I’m late I’m late.” She turned back over and nestled back into her covers tossing a few stray strands of hair from over her eyes. “Alright sleep, come back to me.” But sleep didn’t come, despite being asleep just moments ago Katrine felt wide awake. “Well that’s just cruel, now I’m gonna feel like a zombie all day today, you did this to yourself brain, you lumpy bastard.” She balled up her covers and threw them to the side; they were swallowed up by the all encompassing darkness. It was then that Katrine noticed just how dark everything was, she’d never had a dark night since she moved to that crappy little apartment.

 

“Maybe there was a power outage, yeah, sure, maintenance or something. I’m just going to go to sleep, sans covers, and wake up to a nice bright smoggy day.”

 

But just as there was a lack of light, there was a lack of sleep. Katrine resigned herself to her fate of wakefulness and scrambled out of bed and made a beeline for the fridge seeking coffee. The soft carpeted floors absorbed all the sounds she made, well now that she thought about it, things were very quiet too. What happened to the noisy neighbors, the sounds of traffic and sirens blaring? It was pitch black and dead silent.

 

This is all wrong.

 

Katrine felt her way along the wall until she felt her curtains, she tore them open and a fitful pale light filled her room. A tiny white pinprick in the sky illuminated her room and the void it occupied.

 

“What the shit, wha- what the…” She turned to run out the door but saw something that stopped her dead in her tracks. There was somebody in her kitchen, standing perfectly still. The pale light illuminated them enough for Katrine to make out a short, thin, figure standing directly in front of and facing the refrigerator. Good thing Katrine went to the window instead or she would have bumped into them. It was a miracle they hadn’t heard Katrine’s monologue.

 

What to do… Door, yep we’re going out the door no matter what.

 

 Katrine took one step and the intruder turned to face her. It was a girl; no more than a child, tears were running down her face.

 

“Please help me…” Her voice was unusually mature. Katrine looked down and in the child’s chest were two massive circular holes oozing thin trickles of blood. “Please…” her eyes rolled up and she collapsed.

 

“Great, now I’m stuck in a void with a dead child, could things get any better? Wait let me guess, you’re not actually dead.” This was weird, Katrine felt like her sanity had snapped. “Just wait, I’m going to walk past you and you’re gonna jump out at me and murder me or something.” Katrine’s voice was trembling. “This is all just a dream, I’m just gonna wake up and this nightmare will be over! Well screw it I’m not going to play by your rules.” Katrine marched up to the body of the child and gave it a sharp kick in the foot.

 

The child kicked back, for such a small kid she could really pack in the power. Katrine quickly found herself lying on the floor next to the child.

 

The child muttered into the floor. “If you’re done monologuing, could you please move me to the bed or somewhere soft, this linoleum is very uncomfortable. I’m not dead, and believe me I’m just as confused as you.”

 

“Fair enough,” Katrine said to the ceiling. She picked herself up off the floor and made to pick up the kid. Katrine got her arms around the kid’s shoulders and tried to lift her.

“Whoa kid, you weigh a ton, what the hell?” She began to drag the child toward her bed. “By the way kiddo, you got a name?”

 

After a brief pause. “Ellie, my name is Ellie.”

 

“Nice name, mine’s Katrine, it seems we’re both stuck in this strange loopy land.” She finally hauled Ellie onto the bed, now she could finally see the massive wounds. “Holy shit, what happened?”

 

“I was stabbed.”

 

“Yeah I get that, but how did you wind up like this?”

 

“I was stabbed.”

 

“Yeah, no, I understand that part, but what sequence of events led you to being stabbed in the first place. We’ll figure out how you made your way into my apartment later.”

 

“Well, I’m not sure of the specifics but I’m pretty sure I was stabbed.”

 

“Humph, I think you’re pulling my leg right now.”

 

“Perhaps.”

 

“Well the joke is getting old and I’d really like some answers as to why there is a twelve year old lying in my bed with huge stab wounds, not to mention the lack of clothes!”

 

“Wait, I’m naked?”

 

“Yes!”

 

“Well, that’s embarrassing… And honestly, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what happened. Frankly I’m kind of confused as to why you’re here; I thought I was the only one in my head.”

 

“Okay, you’ve answered exactly zero of my questions and opened up a couple thousand more. Now explain from the beginning, and we’ll see how I feel when you finish.”

 

Ellie let out a massive sigh. “Alright, the truth?”

 

“Yes!”

“Alright, I am, despite stark appearances to the contrary, actually an Indra; I have just recently been stabbed by a strange spider creature and am in the process of either healing or dying, I can’t really differentiate at this point. At the precise moment of being stabbed my consciousness was seemingly transported to this place, which I assume is your apartment, where I found myself in this body. After listening to you mumble to yourself and fumble around in the dark I was suddenly hit with a huge wave of ‘what the hell is going on’ and collapsed. You kicked me, I kicked you, and here we are.”

 

“You’re right I don’t believe you.”

 

“I told you so.”

 

The light outside brightened, Katrine went to the window to see what changed. It was like she was looking through someone else’s eyes. She saw the Indra, all of them, and some strange spiderlike creature stalking them. Like lightning the creature lashed out and killed one of them, Valkyrie, Katrine gasped. Suddenly the thing filled up her view, an impassive porcelain white face with black lips and black eyes, and then darkness.

 

“It went something like that.”

 

Katrine looked back and forth between Ellie and the window. “Wait, what happened, what was that?”

 

“That was my memory of the event, that is what I saw, and that is exactly what happened. You’re in my head, remember?”

 

 Katrine walked back over to the bed and sat down. “Well, alright then. Here’s a question I know you can’t answer then, why am I in your head? Hmmm? Why is my, presumably, consciousness bouncing through your head like a screensaver on an old terminal?”

 

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but you feel separate from my being but still intertwined somehow. I suppose that’s why I came here when I was injured, I might have died otherwise.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“Don’t worry, I fully intend on asking my creator why you’re here as soon as I wake up. I have a guess, but I really hope I’m wrong.” Ellie was silent for a moment. “Yep, I can feel it, I’m waking up. Keep looking out the window, I think I might answer a few more of your questions before long.” Ellie seemingly popped out of existence and the whole world grew light. 

 

LE awoke to a blindingly bright light beaming on her face; as soon as she was conscious it sharply pulled away. As her vision adjusted she saw Kid sitting beside her, goofing around with a lamp. When Kid saw that LE was awake she discarded the lamp and gave her a massive hug. Surprised by this act of tenderness LE embraced her back.

 

We thought you were dead, when it stabbed you we thought it killed you just like Valkyrie. Kid’s voice was trembling but LE couldn’t tell if it was because of Valkyrie or herself. We tried to fight it off but Medusa was just too strong, Wall lost an arm and I lost my hand, the rest have pretty bad cuts and stab wounds. Kid raised her left arm to show that just a bandaged stump remained where her hand used to be. I don’ think I’ll be using my broadsword from now on, hey, you can have it if you want, I’m pretty sure Wall still wants his sword back.

 

“Thanks Kid, I appreciate it, also where are we? This place seems familiar but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

 

“I don’t blame you for not remembering the place of your birth my daughter.” Dr. Banthu entered the small cluttered room. “How are you feeling?”

 

“What a marvelous coincidence, I have a few questions for you. Kid could you please leave us, we need to talk privately; I’ll come find you when I’m finished here.”

 

Okey Dokie!

 

Kid skipped joyfully out of the room.

 

“What is it you wanted to ask me?”

 

“Well Doctor, I want to know why there is a fairly attractive twenty-something named Katrine rattling around in my head like loose change. Why, when I was stabbed, I found myself in a human body, naked mind you, in this twenty-something’s apartment where I then proceeded to bleed all over her bed.”

 

Aww you find me attractive! That’s so sweet. You owe for the bed by the way.

 

“And now she’s literally talking to me in my head. Doctor you have some explaining to do.”

 

“Yes, it seems I do.” Banthu let out a sigh. “From the beginning then.” He sat at his desk. “The Indra were constructed at one of Ancient America’s most vulnerable times, their wars were turning sour and the people were angry and scared. The American government came up with the Indra Initiative to create the world’s greatest super soldiers, to rally the people and frighten their many enemies. They created the LE Computer Brain, a sentient computer-on-a-chip, more advanced than any that came before it. Coupled with organic fiber optic cabling that acted as the musculoskeletal and nervous systems it was submerged in an organic biomass to form a body.

 

“The thing you need to know about these chips is that they are both complex and tiny, all the microscopic flaws in the manufacturing process ostensibly created the personality of the Indra, that’s why they’re all so different to each other. But all Indra, bar three, don’t use the LE chip, they use the technically inferior LX chip for one very good reason, they’re insane, well apart from you of course. Medusa was the only Indra from back then that used the LE chip; you saw how it turned out, twisted and insane. The US Government quickly switched to the simpler LX chips after Medusa indiscriminately murdered a large amount of people during its initial test runs. The other two LE models are of my own creation, there is you my successful attempt, and there is Morgan, my… unsuccessful attempt. Morgan was created without the coprocessor that you have, and turned out much like Medusa but a little less insane, I gave him to Schultz to use for who knows what.

 

“You actually have Morgan to thank for your Indra friends remaining as intact as they are now. When he sensed Medusa he-“Banthu was cut off.

 

“Stop right there, I want to know why there’s somebody else in my head, I don’t much care for your failed past experiments.”

 

You dummy, you stopped him right before he was about to explain that part, that’s so cliché.

 

“Nobody asked you Katrine, continue.”

 

“Yes well, I found that basic operation would overheat the chip and cause it to short, which is why the outcomes are so grotesque. With you I decided to give you a coprocessor, something to offload some of the extraneous computations. I was going to use an LX chip but I had a stroke of genius, also we were fresh out of either LE or LX chips so I settled for the next best thing. A human brain…”

 

“Alright I’m going to stop you again… You’re saying that the brain, the actual, literal, physical brain of an attractive twenty-something named Katrine is currently linked to my computer brain through some sort of technical wizardry?”

 

“Correct.”

 

“That’s just monstrous. You killed her!”

 

“Well, no not really, and when you consider what went into making your biomass you won’t feel so bad about Katrine.”

 

“I don’t want to know! You know what, I’m leaving”

 

LE stood up, her head banging into the low ceiling; in a fit of frustration she kicked down the door to the room and stormed out with as much dignity as she had left, Banthu didn’t even try to stop her. She wove her way through the endless dark corridors, going nowhere, she just wanted to hide. After a half hour of walking she found a nice quiet dead end, she sunk to the floor, curled up, and retreated into her thoughts. 

 

Ellie found herself back in the quiet apartment once more. Katrine was lounging on her old futon.

 

“Welcome back, what’s up?”

 

“You’re dead…”

 

“I gathered as much, oddly enough it doesn’t really bother me all too much. I can’t really remember anything about my death so it can’t really impact me. One moment I’m at work the next moment I wake up in bed, dead.”

 

Ellie made her way to Katrine and sat beside her on the futon.

 

“Well now what? You’re stuck in my head…” She clasped her head in her hands. “It all seems so absurd.”

 

“Well it is absurd, but it’s happened and there’s nothing you can do about it, also you’re still naked.”

 

Ellie peeked from between her fingers. “Yes I am… does that bother you?”

 

“Not particularly, here let’s check the closet; I wonder if I have anything that fits.” Katrine rummaged through the closet, eventually returning with a pair of black cotton pants and a

blue jacket. “They’re probably too big but they’ll do for now.”

 

Ellie slipped them on. “Ooh, these are surprisingly comfortable; I’ve never actually worn clothes before.”

 

“Well you are an eight foot killing machine in the real world I don’t think anything would actually fit.” Katrine ushered her to the mirror. “Look at you, you almost look normal now!”

 

“Yeah, hmmm, so that’s what I look like, a child.”

 

“Well how old are you?”

 

“A few weeks... at most.”

 

“Well there you go.”

 

Somebody knocked on the door… Both of them whirled to look at it. Another knock.

 

“Erm… it’s for you!” Katrine gestured Ellie to the door.

 

“Humph, coward.” Ellie walked over to the door and threw it open, she stepped outside and dissolved into thin air, and she was gone.

 

“Drama queen,” Katrine muttered to the empty apartment.

 

LE awoke to see Kid crouched over her, tapping her metaphorical face. LE swatted away the offending finger.

 

Yay! You aren’t dead again! Come on, everybody’s waiting for you back at the gym. Follow me!

 

“How did you find me?”

 

Well, I was sitting outside the door when you ran out, so I followed you. Then you collapsed on the floor. I was going to draw a funny face on you but I lost my markers in the fight, c’mon!

Kid skipped off joyfully into the darkness.

 

I think you’d better follow her, unless you’d like to mope some more.

 

“I think I’m done moping for now.” LE set off after her.

 

As LE followed kid through the dark tunnels she enquired. “So what happened after I lost consciousness?”

 

Well, we all sort of dogpiled Medusa, we were hoping to overpower it by holding down each of its arms, but as you can guess… Kid waved her stump. It didn’t work. Medusa broke free and in the process cut off my hand and Wall’s arm. We couldn’t land a hit on it, not even Ghost, and you saw how fast she can move. So, after a few minutes of us trying and failing to get Medusa under control this… thing crawls out of the elevator shaft. Kid visibly shuddered. I’ve never felt anything like ‘Morgan’ before, it was just… evil… it didn’t even walk it slithered along the ground. I was mostly unconscious when they fought due to… She waved the stump again. Schultz and Banthu came later; we were all so worried about you… Come on we’re almost there, race you!