Lylith's Sleeper

[Luna Silverthorne]

The sky was ebony black, rain pouring down as Lylith stood in the doorway of the old barn. The storm had chased her across the fields on her way in, soaking the ground and keeping the sky alight with the fire of lightning. As she stood there watching the rain come down she wondered when it would be letting up or if she would be making a run for the main house through the freezing rain. Just as she had decided that it would be better to just make a run for it and deal with getting wet, the rain began to slow enough that she felt she could make it. Running through the lighter rain her heart raced until her feet landed on the worn wood of the front steps. “Damn it. This storm is going to destroy the south field.” She snapped slamming the door behind her.

 

“Personally, I would say you are going to loose the east one too.” Came a husky male voice from the darkened room.

 

“Kane, what the hell are you doing here?” she demanded flipping on the lights. She didn’t wait for a response, only headed for the cabinet where she kept her emergency supplies. Pulling out a package of candles Lylith turned to face him, “Well?”

 

“Father sent me.” The words were tight and clipped. She had always hated that tone of voice from him.

 

“Why?” this was one visit she planned to get over as quickly as she could, “What does he want from me now?” she asked.

 

“He wants an update on the place it’s not going to look good if you loose both the south and east fields. That’s a lot of your crops gone, which means a big piece of your profits will be gone.” He went on to explain.

 

Lylith stomped closer, the anger in her eyes rivaling the storm raging outside. “What does it matter to him? He doesn’t have a say in Chaos Farms. I bought this place with my own money. Father’s never even been here.” She was about to continue when her voice was overpowered by the storm as it raged.

 

There was a nearly deafening boom as something smashed into the side of the house. A moment later the lights went out. When they didn’t flash back on she heard Kane swear, “Why hasn’t the generator come on?” he asked.

 

Lylith smiled to herself, “Because it only runs the medical buildings around here. I’m just fine with candle light until the power comes back on.” She knew that wouldn’t impress him. He was the type of person who could or would not go without modern conveniences. She began to light the candles and place the around the room. She glanced at Kane, “You might as well get comfortable. You’re in for a…” her voice was cut short by a strange sound coming from outside the window. As she looked up her heart caught in her throat. Where a few moments before she had been able to see the storm raging through the window it was now black as pitch and nearly silent. Fear raced through her, but she refused to let it show. Taking a deep breath she made her way to the window. Lylith carefully reached up and placed her hand on the darkened glass. It was warm to the touch, where it should have been cold from the storm. “What the hell?” she asked trying to pull her hand away from the window. It didn’t seem like she had the strength to do it. Her hand was stuck to what her mind was rapidly realizing was no longer glass.

 

Kane stood up, and with the calm authority of his monetary position in life promptly fainted. Lylith turned her attention back to the window. It began to cool, letting her hand go in the progress. “Something really strange is going on here.” She mumbled to herself. The moment she lifted her hand from the glass she could both hear and see the storm again. A shadow moved across the window making her heart again go cold. Without a second thought she ran to Kane’s side intent on waking him and getting him out of the room.

 

“What happened?” he asked shaking his head as he fought to stand up.

 

“You failed, let’s get you upstairs. I have crops and stock I have to check on.” She told him knowing her time was running short. The shadow she had seen outside shouldn’t have been there. She lead him into the back room and smiled, “why don’t you lay down and rest. I will come check on you when I get back.” She was walking back towards the door before she even finished talking. Her feet quickly took her downstairs and to the mudroom. Grabbing her coat she headed out to the barns. “Johnny you got everything under control out here?” she called pushing the heavy door shut behind her as she went into the main barn.

 

“No, not even close.” He yelled from the other side of a mostly closed door.

 

She ran to the door and tried to push it open. It wouldn’t budge. “What happened out here?” she asked putting a bit more force against the door.

 

“When the power went out, everything out here went a little crazy. The generator didn’t kick in and everything started to go down. We lost containment on about half of the units. We will be months rebuilding the data.” He paused as he heard the door scrape open.

 

“How are the sleeper units?” Lylith asked stepping on into the room.

 

“We only have the one occupied. As far as I know we didn’t loose containment on it.” He explained looking at the display. “Yep containments fine in sector four.”

 

Lylith stepped up and glanced at the monitor, “Damn if the sleeper is still contained we have bigger problems.” She was typing codes into the console and bringing up stats on the unit. Nothing had opened the door to it in over twenty-four hours.

 

“Why do you say that? I would have thought you would be as happy as I am that we didn’t breach containment.” He continued to check other displays and make notes.

 

“Because I saw something when I was in the house, when the windows shifted back there was a shadow out there. It looked like a sleeper.” She explained.

 

The man in the lab coat standing beside Johnny spun around and stared at her. “It looked like a sleeper?” he repeated quietly.

 

“That’s what I saw. So if he’s still here we need to find out what is going on. My brother is up at the main house, and I won’t have him seeing anything from down here.” She knew the anger could be heard in her voice, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

 

“Shit, tonight is not a night for Kane to be here.” Johnny snapped as he resumed typing rapidly at the terminal.

 

“Yeah, do we have any idea how the animals are dealing with the storm?” Lylith asked walking toward the back of the room and the doors leading to the sleeper units. She needed to see for herself that he was there and unharmed.

 

“They are the only thing getting through without and problems. Go look in on the sleeper, then we will start taking inventory on what happened.” He watched her slip through the door. It didn’t take long for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the hallway.

 

“Why in the world did this happen tonight?” she asked the darkness. Her only answer was the hum of the generator. She stopped under the blue light marking the elevator and pushed the button. A moment later the door slid open to the steel box. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. Even though she designed the lower levels of the complex Lylith still hated going down the elevator to get to it. The ride itself was over in less than a minute, but she had to stay inside the box until the scan was complete at the bottom. “Hey Mark.” She called when the red security light came on to let her know they were starting the scan.

 

“Good evening, Lyl. We will do our best to make this as quick as we can.” The voice came through the speaker above her head.

 

“I know. I’ll live, you know, I hate this part, but I know that it is needed. I can’t risk bringing anything down here.” She replied as she watched the light blink.

 

“Very true. You have put a lot into this place.” He told her through the speaker.

 

“You can say that again. I made this place my life for the last five years. You finished that and scan yet? My brothers at the house and I don’t have much time tonight.” She always hated the scanning part of going underground. They scanned everyone that went down to make sure that nothing could harm the sleepers.

 

There was a collection of beeps as the light went off. “All done.” His voice came through the opening in front of her as well as the speakers.

 

“Thanks. I shouldn’t be long.” She told him grabbing a white lab coat from the hook on the wall next to the elevator door; she slipped it over her shoulders and headed down the hall towards the containment rooms. She still had a bad feeling. The first three sleeper rooms were empty as they should be, but when she got to the fourth it was also empty. “Damn. I knew I was right.” She slammed her hand against the panic button next to the door just as she saw movement further down the hall. She knew the System would bring people from all over to the empty sleeper room. So she headed off after the movement, taking only a moment to reach into the pocket of her lab coat and switch on the locator there.

 

And she made her way down the hall she could hear people getting to the room. However her attention was on the slight movement she could still see further down the dimly lit section of hallway. Lylith wanted to call out, but she thought it might spook whoever was there. The last thing she wanted to do was scare a sleeper. Her feet took her silently down the hall closing the distance between her and whoever was moving. Suddenly there was a flash of light in front of her, “Damn.” The word was out before she could think about it. Her feet wet out from under her as something or someone crashed into her. She lay on the floor of the hallway shaking her head as she could hear the tussle down by the sleepers room.

 

“Lylith, you alright down there?” a voice called from back by the room.

 

“Yeah, you catch that?” she called standing up and leaning against the wall for a moment.

 

“Catch what? I was about to ask you what happened. I heard the siren and went to calm down the sleeper. I saw you fall a few moments later.” He told her as he walked up to her.

 

Lylith stood there staring at him, “You have to be joking. I know there wasn’t anyone in that room when I went past, and someone just knocked me down running back that way. You had to have seen them. I heard the commotion as they got near you guys.” She explained.

 

The guard stood there shaking his head, “There wasn’t a commotion Lyl. The sleeper was slightly upset that we interrupted his meditations, but other than that everything was fine.” His voice was clam, but seemed calculated to Lylith’s ears. Something was really wrong here. She smiled and began to walk back towards the unit. She wasn’t saying anything until she knew more. There was another guard standing at the unit door when she got there.

 

“Hey Lylith, you have everything under control?” William smiled. She had known him for years, and hoped she could trust him. She stopped at the door to look through the window. Her eyes could just make out the form of the sleeper sitting in the darkened corner.

 

“Unlock it, I want to check on him personally.” She commented looking at William.

 

To his credit William only hesitated a moment before stepping up and using his keycard to unlock the door. “Be careful, he is still a little agitated.” His voice was steady, even as his eyes darted around.

 

Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open and stepped inside. “Hello Jason. How are you today?” she asked the still figure in the corner of the room. Her only response was a low growl. “Sorry about the interruption, but I haven’t been able to get down here lately. Have things been going well?” she tried again.

 

This time the response was different, “It’s different now.” His voice came from the corner.

 

The information got her attention. Nothing in the place was ever different. They were very careful to make sure of that. “What’s different Jason?” she asked carefully.

 

He turned from the darkness to face her, “Everything.” The single word chilled her to the bone. He went on, “The sights, the sounds, the abilities, everything has changed.” He dropped his head. “I have spoiled all your work.” It was finished on a quiet sigh.

 

Lylith took a step closer to him, “You haven’t done anything Jason, but I have to ask were you out in the hall a few minutes ago?”

 

A sad fear filled his eyes, “I’m sorry I knocked you down Lyl. I can’t control the new abilities yet.” He faded to a shadow for a moment. “I’m really scared.” He whispered as he solidified once again. Lylith reached toward him only to have him pull back out of her reach. “Don’t touch me. I don’t know what will happen if you do.” He told her.

 

Lylith was about to try to comfort him when the speaker overhead crackled to life. “Doc, we have a situation.” Came Marc’s voice full of panic.

 

She glanced from Jason to the door and back, not knowing what to do. He solved the problem for her, “Go. I will be fine, I couldn’t get any further away than the end of the hall. I promise I will do my best to stay here.” He told her with a silly smile she loved most about him.

 

“If there are any problems, you will have them find me right?” she asked.

 

He nodded, “Yes now go. If they are bothering you in here it has to be important.” His words did nothing to calm her.

 

Lylith stood up and took the few steps to the door. “Ok, open it.” She told the guard stationed there. He opened it and let her out of the unit. She turned to look back at Jason, “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

 

Lylith walked quickly towards the main desk down there. Marc was standing at his desk looking at a display screen, his face as white as a ghost. “What’s wrong?” she asked unable to see the display.

 

He looked up at her, “Your brother,” he paused, “Brown hair, tacky business suit?” he asked, his eyes dropping back to the display.

 

Lylith’s heart sank. There was only one way Marc could know that by looking at the display. Her loving brother had found the elevator and was in it. “Oh shit.” Was all she could think to say.

 

Marc looked at her, “It’s at the bottom, scan complete. I turned off the communications and was waiting on your thoughts.”

 

“Crap, crap, crap. There is no way out of this there?” she asked knowing her own programming wouldn’t let the elevator go back up without opening to either the complex or the quarantine side. Neither of which did she really want to explain to him. Lylith took a deep breath and walked toward the elevator door. “Let him out on that side. I don’t want to have to explain quarantine to him. This will be hard enough.” She stopped in front of the doors.

 

As the doors slid open and she held her breath. He stood there for a moment. “Lylith, what in the hell is going on here?” His voice was strangely calm.

 

“Well that is going to take more than a little explaining. If you want to come with me I will do my best to help you understand.” She stepped back and motioned for him to follow.

 

Up his eyes were taking in everything and he followed her down a brightly lit hallway from the main halls. “Lylith, where are we?” He asked.

 

Lylith smiled to herself and pushed open her office door. “Come in, sit down, and we can talk.” She said stepping back. She walked over and set down at her desk.

 

Kane followed her into the office. “This is not any stock crop farm is it?” He asked sitting down in the south leather chair across the desk from his sister.

 

“In a word, no. It’s a lot more than that, but we do raise horses and crops here. It’s just not all we do.” She started to explain. “How much do you want to know and how much of that will you be passing on to our father?” she had never wanted to tell anyone what was going on within the walls of the complex.

 

“From what I have seen already I’m not telling dad at damn thing. I want to know more about what’s going on around here because the place looks cool.” He told her watching fear play across her face. “So why don’t you start with the basics and we’ll see what happens.”

 

Lylith looked at him and for the first time let the fear around her heart loosen. “This place is a research lab.” She began, “we are trying to find cures for things that are killing people around here as well is trying to understand why new things are developing in this world. I won’t go into detail on any of it, but I can say things are progressing nicely.” Her eyes never left his face and she was happy to see belief shining in his eyes.

 

“Okay, but there is another question I have, why is all of this built under a ranch in the middle of nowhere?” He asked looking around the room.

 

“That one is simple. We didn’t want just anyone to find us. You are the first person who doesn’t work here that has come down the elevator.” She explained reaching out and grabbing a notebook off the desk.

 

“So how many people know about this place?” Kean asked his eyes noting the security camera hanging quietly in the corner.

 

“Other than the people that work here, about half a dozen.” She followed his gaze, “the only rooms not monitored here are the restrooms and employee sleeping quarters. Outside of this place the people that know about us have all given either time or support to us.” Her hands were sorting through the files from the folder. “Do you want to explain any why you are down here instead of tucked into bed up at the house where I left you?” She asked slowly.

 

“Because there was a problem, the house was hit by lightning.” He told her.

 

Her eyes snapped up. “What!”

 

“I said the house got hit by lightning. The back porch was hit, lights are melted but other than that there wasn’t much damage. I came out to the barn to let you know and found the elevator.” His eyes sparkled with mischief.

 

“That figures. It would be tonight of all nights someone would find this place.” she told him on a sigh.