READING_MODE

Mira was sitting defeated on her desk, recalling what happened that morning, the awful news she received was hard to digest and the meeting with her boss Ash worsened the situation.
She dropped her head on the desk, recalling every single word that her boss said, rewinding like a cassette what happened earlier.

 That morning, all the operators were called by Ash in the meeting hall to discuss the recent mission against the invasion of the Archæans on the scientific base by the coastline, a successful one since everyone was rescued, she was cheerfully announcing. She was reading out loud a report, but something caught Mira’s attention.
‘...They might be operators missing’ she said while analyzing the report. ‘but all the scientists have been saved from the Archæans , so it’s a win for us.’
The teammates all around Mira started to cheer, conquering the coast base was a successful operation alongside saving lives, but what about the operators left behind?
Mira stood up and said ‘What about Nam? She was the leader of the operation, why wasn't she on the rescue helicopter?’
The silence fell upon the room, and she took the opportunity to speak up once more:
‘Where is Dalnim?’ she said again, looking Ash in the eyes ‘why was she left behind?’
‘There is no shown report of Dalnim Nam here. Our mission is to rescue our scientists, Marìa, not operators.’

Everyone was silent, those quarrels between the chief and his most troublesome pupil were the only thing that moved those dead moments between missions. Mira was now standing to get closer to Ash, but Orion stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder.
‘Wasn't Dalnim one of your best soldiers? Why was she left behind? Why didn’t anybody ring her watch to locate her?’ She shouted from across the room, spitting from rage.
‘Because’ Ash clenched her teeth, looking at Mira dead in the eyes, ‘she didn't ring the signal back. She must be dead somewhere on the base. We rang the bells three times as per protocol, if she was alive she must have heard us.” she got closer, not breaking eye contact  “No ring on the watch, no more scouting. Our mission is to save our scientists and find a cure for the Archæan disease, a dead soldier is one of the many that came and will come. The meeting is now over.’
Ash left the room leaving Mira doleful, her hands squeezed into fists as her mouth twitched in rage. Orion was standing behind her, trying to calm her down by patting her head. ‘I’ll escort you to your room, I know it's a hard pill to swallow, some sleep will help you.’ He held out his arms to block her from going towards Ash, and she gave him a dirty look;.

 

Mira was now in her room, her mind was wondering and thinking about Dalnim’s last moments. She prayed for her to have a fast and painless death. Maybe she didn't die from the disease, but something must have killed her very quickly. She must have blown her guts out with her rifle, but she must not have suffered for any moment. But her pessimistic side imagined a poor and scared Dalnim, suffering and screaming because of the virus damage in her heart, clenching her chest as the humanoid monster approached her to kill. Mira brought her head to the knees, wondering if Dalnim was somewhat still alive. Curled up in a ball of soft brown hair, she remembered all the missions together, like that time when they were sent to the Prado museum in Madrid to terminate an Archæan that was wandering there, but Dalnim was using the torch on her rifle to look at the paintings. Careless of the danger she was analyzing the artworks, asking her silly questions about art: ‘Hey Mira, do you know what a sniper and an artist have in common?’ Was that a joke? She couldn't remember.

She was still alive, she knew it. She was too strong to be eaten alive.
Mira then got up quickly, she had to ring the watch herself. She rushed to the cabinet, bringing out the watch she used in her missions and selected Dalnim’s icon. The watch was one of the gadgets she received when she joined the team, it was used by the other operators to reveal your positions and your vital parameters and to communicate basic needs: where are you, coming to your position, we have to get back…
Dalnim’s icon was a scope with a blue half moon, but now it was gray, meaning that the watch was unreachable. Mira pressed on the icon, but nothing happened. Then again, and again, she furiously pressed that button hoping for a response. Tears filled her eyes as the loud, deaf beeps filled the silence of her room. ‘Where are you, Dalnim?” she cried.
Not a sound from the watch anymore, Mira was about to go to bed defeated when she received something on the watch. A loud beep, while the screen turned red, it read ‘Help’. Was the technology playing some sad trick to her? Was Dalnim still alive? They had to go back to the coastline base to find out.
She picked up her watch and selected her friends’ icons: a purple eye for her friend Orion, the dog icon for Janna, the clock for Sam and the shield for her. All three rushed in her room within minutes.
‘Dalnim is still alive’ she stated ‘she rang my watch!’ Then she began to swish it onto the friend’s faces.

‘Mira’ replied yawning Janna ‘It’s two in the morning. I know this has been a stressful day…’
But she didn’t finish when the watch rang again. That loud, loud sound that only meant that someone was in danger. ‘I’m sorry, Marìa’ it stated in a bright red light.

Silence fell upon the room and all four looked at the bright watch. Embarrassed, Janna tried to apologize, but Orion stopped her.
‘We need to move’ said ‘you’ll be sorry later. I want all of us ready in ten minutes at the helicopter base.’ then rushed outside the room. Janna also left in a hurry while muttering some apologies, leaving Sam behind. Mira sat on her bed, wondering what to do.
‘Are you coming?’ he asked. Mira snapped back to reality, she never actually saw an apex in real life. Was it the fear of the apex that was paralyzing her, or the fear to find Dalnim dead?
‘Yes’ she finally spoke. ‘give me ten minutes.’

In ten minutes, all four were on a helicopter heading towards the coastline base. It was difficult to persuade Ash to let them go, but the other chief, Miles, gave them a special permit. Mira was still shocked how fast that night changed, first she was crying on her desk and now she was on mission. ‘That's the operator’s life, I guess’ she thought while admiring the city from above. Not a light, just a sea of silent, dead cement. She remembered when they evacuated her city and home, Madrid. One day she was patrolling the streets on her motorcycle, and the other she was called to respond to the Archæan threat. 

In no time, the group was landing on the base. Mira was looking outside the windshield, it was pitch black and the moon was the only light source.
The first to exit was Janna with her dog Max then Orion jumped off with the night visors. She was left alone on the helicopter, as she watched her friends gearing up, Sam noticed something was off.
‘You don’t have to go’ he whispered in her headset ‘I’m watching everything from above…ring the watch and you’ll be rescued in no time…’

‘I’m fine.’ she uttered, but both knew that she was lying. Orion extended his hand and she reached him
‘Don’t be a victim of your own mind, Marìa.’ said Sam, then took off leaving his friends down.

‘The mission starts now’ announced Orion. 'Operators, are you ready?’

They both nodded, Janna took out of a bag a pair of jeans, Max sniffed them and loudly barked. The three of them wore the visors and proceeded to follow the dog in that pitch dark hell.

It was not an ordinary base, it was some sort of big house with expensive furniture and a nice wooden floor. But now everything was covered in lousy black slime, that gooey matter stuck under the group’s boots leaving an awful smell, but Max seemed to not bother at all, leading the group in that filthy maze with ease. Room after room, they started to scout in search of evidences.
‘Before the outbreak, this must have been a nice house.’ noticed Mira while looking at the paintings on the wall, or what was remaining of them

‘The coastline base was originally Ash’s vacation mansion, but with the outbreak, she gave it to the scientists.’ said Orion trying to move in that black mud. Max barked loudly and when they got closer, they found him standing at the door of a big room. Orion turned on the light and to everyone's surprise It was not covered in the black alien slime, it was perfectly clean. What was ahead of them was just a nice office with a large desk, a pc still turned on, a bed and a lot of paintings, some unfinished, some that required some final touches. A sniper rifle was assembled and carefully placed on the desk. It was certainly Dalnim’s room.

Mira walked around in search of something, a clue, a hint that led where she was, but she couldn't stop admiring the paintings on the wall. So while Janna and Orion searched on the computer, Mira took the time to analyze better the subject of the paintings: she didn't understand art that much, but sure she knew that the man on the cross was Jesus and the painting of the woman with a blue scarf and angels was Mary, but the biggest painting of them catched her eye, a little princess was standing at the center, surrounded by her maidens and a dog. The painting was however unfinished, but Mira swore that she saw that girl somewhere else.
‘Mira!’ Orion shouted ‘come and read this!’ As Mira rushed towards them, Janna was scrolling through the emails on the pc. Hidden in the various reports and mails sent to Ash, some mails were left unsent. Janna started to read some quotes from each.
‘I crave help, but I refuse to humiliate myself by asking for it… the pain won't stop. An apex attacked me but I refuse to go back to my team and as the corruption takes my heart, painting is my only remedy…’ Janna stopped reading as the tears filled her eyes.
‘Mira, Orion… is there a cure for the apex bite?’
Mira bit her lip, and as her eyes started to get wet too, she shook her head. Loud sobbings filled the room and again, Mira felt devastated as her worst fear materialized and took her friend away. A slow, painful and consuming death.

Mira took the rifle from the table and called Max on Dalnim’s bed.
‘What are you doing?’ said Janna.
‘You two stay here, I’m going to search for Dalnim.’
‘Marìa… are you crazy? Did the spore of the Archæan matter intoxicate your brain?’ Jackal stood up and got closer to her trying to grab the rifle.
‘Death by Archæans disease is one of the most painful we know in human history’ Mira looked at Orion right in his eyes ‘If Dalnim is still out here, she is suffering. I’m going to end this’.
She could see Orion under his mask tearing up, and the two guys didn’t have a choice to follow the girl and the dog.

 

The black mud was getting more and more thick as the group approached what was the center of the mansion. In the immense living room, there was a throbbing blossom of red mud: it was so clear and disgusting that you could distinguish what was inside, a girl sleeping peacefully in that gross and foul womb. 

All three looked in awe at that view, at least she wasn’t in any pain.
‘I… I don’t remember studying any of this in class.’ said Janna while scowling.

The silence was so loud that they could hear each other's heartbeat, shoulders tensed and eyes locked on that thing at the center of the room, thinking frantically what to do.
Mira was the first to move, but Orion stopped her with his hand on her shoulder.
‘What’s the plan?’ he muttered. Mira shook his hand off and took another step towards Dalnim.
‘To save her.’ She responded while dragging herself and the rifle. She was now ten centimeters from the womb and the smell was so atrocious that she started to tear up again. But she toughened up and scrutinized better that monstrosity: the womb was filled with red liquid that was flowing from vein-like tubes. She followed them with a glance and noticed that they were connected at 4 nests, that like hearts pumped fresh blood in the blossom.
Mira pointed at the nests and her friends silently approached in front of Dalnim.
‘Nam…Dalnim… can you hear us? Janna started to shout.
Then suddenly, Dalnim opened her eyes and started screaming. After that, that room became hell on earth.
Three apexes approached the group of friends and rushed towards them.
‘We need to protect Dalnim!’ Shouted Orion while shooting at the apexes. Janna also was shooting and inciting Max to bite them. Mira was observing in shock those human-like creatures, she was stiff and unable to move, the gunfire lit up her horrified face and whatever that thing was: it resembled a man but was covered with spikes and that black goo that she was stepping on a minute ago. She quickly turned to Dalnim and even if her hands were shaky, with a knife she tried to cut the base of the womb as fast as she could. But as she was doing this, Dalnim began to scream again and more apexes filled the room. Mira then had no choice but to follow her companions and shoot em up too.

‘They’re generating from the nests!’ screamed Janna ‘We need to destroy the nests! The nests!’
But as Orion filled a nest with various bullets, it regenerated as nothing happened and three more apexes ran towards them.
The three friends and the dog took cover under a table, now cornered they had to think fast about what to do next.
‘Damaging the nests once at a time doesn’t work’ grunted Orion steadying his breath ‘we need Dalnim to help us.’
‘But when I tried to free her, she generated more apexes!’ sobbed Mira ‘We can’t free her! We can’t! We can’t!’ she started to tremble and Skinny got closer to comfort her. 

‘Mira… Mira…’ Jackal shook her ‘Crying doesn’t lead us anywhere!’ But Mira could hear the shaking in his voice, he almost didn’t believe himself.

‘Dalnim’s rifle is powerful enough to destroy two nests at once.. maybe if I shoot at them…’

She didn't even believe the words she was saying, but Jackal and Janna looked at her as if she was their savior. ‘We could try.'' said Janna. "Do you know how the rifle works?’

Mira shook her head, even picking the rifle was too hard for her.
‘Let me help’ Jackal held the rifle on his shoulder and Janna followed up, holding the tip of the rifle and aiming it towards the two nests.

She shouldered the rifle helped by Jackal and Janna and looked in the scope, but for a second she didn’t see the apex nests.
For a second, she was in the Prado museum with Dalnim, like years ago. It was as dark as that night, but the rifle’s torch illuminated fairly enough to see the paintings hanging on the wall. Dalnim was right behind her, holding the rifle towards a painting of a little girl surrounded by her maidens, a dog and strange looking people.
‘I don’t understand Dalnim…’ said Mira while looking in the scope. ‘Among all the paintings, why did you choose this?’

Dalnim chuckled ‘Don’t you see, they’re looking at us! It’s like Velázquez is painting us!’ She squealed with joy. Mira looked at her puzzled. ‘It’s actually very creepy…’

‘Mira’ said the girl as she readjusted the rifle. ‘Do you know what an artist and a sniper have in common? Take a better look now.’
Mira looked again in the scope and she saw a couple in a little frame ‘A painting… in a painting?’
‘Velázquez is painting the royal couple, but we can only see them in the reflection at his back…’
Mira looked at her friend once again, ‘What do an artist and a sniper have in common then?’
‘Details’ her eyes glistened ‘like when a shadow clashes with its surroundings, you have seconds to think about your next move.’ 

 

Mira looked again in the scope and she took two seconds to analyze the nest: a small, red pulsing dot was at the base of the nest from which vein-like tubes spread towards it.

‘It’s not about how many we shoot’ said Mira looking at her friends ‘it’s about the core of the nest!’ She pressed the trigger and the nest exploded without reforming again. Jackal and Janna cheered and moved the scope to the next nest, until all of them were destroyed. Then silence fell upon that dark hell and everything seemed at its peace, the apexes on the floor looked like they were sleeping, as well as Dalnim in her womb-bed.

Mira and Janna carefully got closer to her while Jackal called Sam on his watch. Mira cut the base of the womb and this time there was no screaming, she placed her hand on the inside of that thing, trying not to scream in horror as it felt touching an animal’s guts.
‘Marìa…’ Dalnim whispered ‘leave… me… leave me here…’ she reached out the friend’s hand and put it on her face. Mira started to caress her and asked ‘Why?’
‘I’ve failed all of you’ she started to sob as Janna and Mira started to pull her out, finally letting her free. She was covered in blood like goo, trembling and shivering.
‘I don't want to come’ she said, ‘I'm embarrassed, what will everyone think?’

‘That you’re finally with us’ said Jackal, covering her with his jacket ‘We were so worried about you…’
‘But… I’ve tried to… it was not the apex that tried to kill me… it was me…’
Mira shushed her ‘You’re so much loved, Dalnim.’ She put Dalnim’s arm on her shoulder and Janna did the same. Both started walking together with their friend, Skinny ahead of them wiggling and barking happily.

‘You know, Dalnim’ said Mira ‘life it’s not always beautiful. It’s not heroic like the paintings you paint. Sometimes it’s tears, loneliness, it's the blood of those that have fallen…Life is fear and feeling numb at the same time.’ She was carefully placing her feet on the ground as she was carefully choosing the words to use. ‘It’s difficult to grow alone in this world, but whatever happens, you’ll have my shoulder.’

The group finally reached the exit of that black labyrinth and at the end there was not only Sam waiting, but also the sunrise of that cold Thursday. The sun rays gently caressed the group’s faces, lighting up their tired eyes. They all took off the military gear and strapped Dalnim on the helicopter, ready to go home.

That morning Mira was endlessly pacing in her room biting her lips and fingers until they bled, she wasn’t feeling tired even after that night. She was constantly fidgeting with her watch waiting for Jackal’s update on Dalnim. After they landed on the main base, she had a heart attack and was rushed in the E.R. by Jackal and Mira was not allowed to escort her. She then had a cold shower and with her long hair still wet, she was tackled by Ash on her way to her dorm.
‘Álvarez!’ she shouted from across the hallway, rushing towards her and putting her arm around her waist to block her ‘Who gave you the permission to use one of our helicopters, bring with you three operators and venture onto the coast base? This gives me the permission to flag you as a terrorist…’

‘It was me who gave Álvarez the permission’ luckily chief Termite was right behind the corner. ‘She did a great job finding her lost teammate, worthy of respect…’

‘The first rule for the team is to not waste resources and I think ‘finding a lost teammate’ that is almost dead is truly a waste.’ She was furious, Mira could hear her breath on her shoulder and feel her muscles contract under her chest.

‘Dalnim Nam isn’t dead as we thought, her blood synthesized with the parasite and didn’t damage her organ as it usually does… the virus has mutated again, Ash.’ Termite pointed at some papers he was holding ‘However, a vaccine is near.’ He whispered quietly. 

She let go of Mira and reached for the papers, completely forgetting about her. As they got away, Termite gave Mira a thumbs up before disappearing in the hall.

After all day of waiting, Mira was finally allowed to meet Dalnim. She was on the infermery’s bed doodling something on a sketchbook. Her eyes lightened when she saw Mira entering the room.
‘Maria! I was waiting all day for you!’ she was squealing with joy, almost dropping the sketchbook from her hand

‘How are you feeling?’ Mira asked while sitting on a chair ‘I mean… after all those troubles…’

‘Marìa, I’m being totally honest with you… you’ve been my best friend since I joined the team. I was afraid, far away from Korea and I left university to answer the call…but you were always there for me…’ she started tearing up and as well Mira’s eyes started filling up with tears. ‘But It's time I retire from the team… I acknowledged it was no good…’

‘Dalnim, you’re the best sniper this team had! You are the first human to survive an attack from an apex, they could synthesize a vaccine from your blood, thanks to you, you could save a lot of lives…’ She stood up and sat on the bed. ‘But besides that, beside Soldier Nam you were always cherished by us as you are, Dalnim.’

After a moment of silence, Mira noticed that Dalnim was sobbing, then she let out a cry of relief, her face got red and she started to let all her tears up. Mira hugged her for a good twenty minutes, in silence she was supporting her friend. Not a word was needed, as all the bottled up tears started to fall on the bed, Mira thought that some time had passed since Dalnim had a good cry and she just needed some silence and a hug. 

After she stopped, she smiled a little and whispered ‘Could just a drop of my blood save hundreds of people?’
‘Yes.’ Mira gently caressed her head. 'chances are good that this time, a vaccine is truly possible.’

‘Saving lives by dropping only my blood, but not others… This makes me so happy Maria! After all these years of violence…’ but then she stopped smiling. 

Her face turned dark and her eyes stopped lightning. ‘...I’ve already resigned from the team. I was so scared to tell you early but the decision was already made. I want to go to university again!’

Mira’s throat clogged after that phrase. She didn’t want to let Dalnim go, she wanted to patrol areas with her and bother Ash at the weekly meeting…

She opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped. She was being selfish.

She needed to take a break home, but her real home.

‘That’s alright… If you feel like it…’ Mira turned up her nose and looked away ‘you’ll always have my support from here.’

She shed a single tear that from her eye, slid down her cheek. She wanted only Dalnim’s happiness after all, even if meant to sacrifice a bit of hers.

 

‘Mooom! Move please!! I want to see what’s there!’ A little girl was running and jumping in the museum towards a big crowd, excited to see what was under a dark red cloth pinned on a wall.

‘Don’t run, Grace! I can’t keep up…’ a woman with a big belly was just behind her, holding her hand with her husband.
The museum was full of people, Maria however had a different view of that place, now the sun shone from the big windows and hit everything in his path, making the colorful paintings and statues a lot better, it was not a dark and scary place. 

‘There you are little rascal!’ Jackal picked up Grace on his shoulders and she started to laugh and clap her hands ‘Doggie! Doggie!’
Maria then saw Janna in the crowd and she and Jackal got closer to her. Also Sam was there and of course, Skinny was with them.

‘I’m so excited,’ commented Sam to Maria,'did she tell you what was painting recently?’

‘She was so quiet about her work…’ she sighed. ‘We’ll have to wait, I guess.’

But the painter didn't take long to show up and Dalnim appeared in front of that crowd, excited everyone started to cheer and applaud.

‘Thank you… thank you all.’ announced Dalnim on the microphone. ‘My next project wasn’t intended to be hung up in this prestigious museum, but I have to thank everyone because this painting means a lot to me. Ten years ago this museum was manned by the terrible apex threat in which I almost lost my life. Thanks to my friends, I can still see the light today.’

She uncovered the painting, revealing the most heartbreaking yet beautiful moment of their life. A girl trapped in an apex womb surrounded in darkness, the only light source was the torch pointed to her by another girl, a surreal art piece in which the figures were not recognizable.

The crowd was thrilled and started to cheer and exsult even more. Many people rushed towards Dalnim to congratulate, hold her hand or get an autograph, Maria was the last in line followed by her friends.

‘This is beautiful…’ She hugged the artist. Everyone started to compliment her and remember the dark times of the apex period. 

It said ‘Mira’