The Soulless and the Damned

She heard footsteps behind her. She continued to lie back on her hands, taking in the surrounding smells of the meadow. Her eyes were closed, but she could see him in the corner of her eyes as clearly as if they were opened. Jonah stopped walking and she felt his feet gently nudge her head, ruffling her long, brown hair.1

She finally opened her eyes, and gave him a broad smile. “I didn’t think you were coming.”2

“I knew you’d be here. I could just feel it.” He said gently, as he knelt right next to her.3

Jessica sat upright, and looking into his brown, thoughtful eyes. He looked into her blue eyes, and a silent moment passed between the two of them. She looked deeper into his eyes, and saw the pain and torment deep within his soul.4

“Where are the others?” She asked.5

His head hung low, he looked at the ground in front of him. “I think Sara is still alive, but as for the others…” He trailed off and turned away from her, attempting to hide the tears, so he could be strong for her.6

She held her emotions back, a single crack in her voice the only sign of her pain, “So, everybody else? Kelly?” She looked at him and he nodded, “Jason?” she asked him, and he nodded again. “Brian? Mark? Leah?” He nodded to her for all of them. “Not… Isaac?” She looked at him, pleading to him, hoping it couldn’t be true, her hope died inside of her as he gave a final nod.7

“Him and Leah and Mark are dead. I saw it myself. The rest… have been captured. They have been damned to a fate worse than death.” His head hung low.8

Jessica’s mouth hung open in silent shock, and out of nowhere, she heard a distant animal howl. Jonah grabbed her gently, and put a hand over her mouth, silencing her. It had been her scream.9

All the stress of the last week finally spilled out of her, and she cried on his shoulder. Jonah and Sara were all she had left. Her entire family was dead, all her other friends were dead, or worse than dead. Made into unwitting tools for a weapon of mass destruction. Jessica had seen it for herself. She was going to be inserted into it, she had only barely escaped, but not unscarred. Isaac had saved her, and now he was gone.10

The result of the close call, had left her with strange telekinetic abilities, which she had only begun to maintain limited control over this new, unlocked portion of her mind. She didn’t understand half of it. Nobody knew what she had now, she didn’t know if she could tell anybody. She simply shivered, and released from her hold on Jonah. He quickly drew back, and wiped his own tears quickly away from his face. She knew that he wanted to be strong. She knew she wanted the same.11

“We have to find Sara.” She told him, “She’s all we have left now.”12

He looked like she’d slapped him, but he realized she was right, got up and offered Jessica a hand before he realized she was already standing.13

Jessica could not avoid looking at the sky to the east, because that was where she was headed. The smoke rose in pillars from the burning wreckage of the city, and a black shadow of a ship hung in the dark sky, thick with alien fleets. Jessica knew that the war was already lost. All she could do was survive.14

“I don’t know if I can find the strength to go back there.” She told him nervously.15

“We have to. You just admitted it yourself. If we’re going to find Sara anywhere, it’ll be in the ruins.” He said simply, “We have to go now.”16

Jessica nodded and set off. The fields ended abruptly into woodlands. The journey to the city that was once her home was silent. The smell of smoke grew more intense as they neared the city.17

They emerged from the woods, and saw the extent of the damage. She looked at the sky, which was so thick with ships that it looked almost gray. The city was a mass of metal supports and broken structures. She didn’t see one building still standing amongst the endless rubble. She groaned loudly.18

“Don’t worry. I know where we can find her, if she’s still alive.” Jonah told her with such cool indifference she found her anger grow.19

She glared at him, but stopped after he failed to notice. “Something just doesn’t feel right.”20

He looked at her like she was insane and she remembered that she never told him about her new abilities.21

Jessica tried not to look at the ground, bodies strewn about from the destruction. So she almost missed it when one of them moved. The small hand weakly moved and tried to grab hold of her pant leg. Nearly screaming, Jessica jumped back, and saw a little girl. A little bit of blonde was still visible in her blood soaked hair. Her face was scratched up and burned, and her legs were red with dried blood. Jessica thought it was amazing there was any blood left in the girl at all.22

Jessica knelt to her side and tried to comfort the poor soul. She knew that she’d heard that it was unwise to move somebody before a medical team arrived, but she looked along the fields of the dead, the stench of decay growing rank, and nauseating. Jonah looked at her, he was standing alongside her, awaiting a response. Jessica ignored him and whispered to the girl.23

“I’m going to take you somewhere safe. I’m not going to hurt you, understand?” Jessica tried to sound soothing, and confident, but her voice betrayed her hidden tears.24

The girl looked at Jessica with bloodshot eyes, and she nodded weakly. Jessica could see quite plainly that the girl was afraid. Jessica reached over to her, and she gently picked her up.25

Jonah hadn’t tried to stop her, but he gave her a look that plainly said she was wasting time. Jessica chose not to ignore it.26

“We just can’t leave the survivors to die.” She told him, holding the girl horizontally in her arms.27

“We don’t have time to worry about other people, we came to save Sara, and see if she is okay.” He looked irritated.28

“Fine by me, if you can still sleep after abandoning people to certain death, you do that. I wont leave somebody behind, and if I find more survivors, I will come back for them.” She didn’t bother to hide her anger, even as the little girl reached up to hold onto Jessica’s neck, and she had to help her, so she wouldn’t hurt herself more.29

The silence continued awkwardly for a while. He seemed to disagree with her, and that they should ignore everybody else in search for a companion that may already be dead. The little girl slept silently, her soft breathing tickling the back of Jessica’s neck. They had made it halfway, and she felt somebody following behind her. She could see him, even though he was out of sight, in the back of her mind. She waited until she knew he could see and hear them, and she turned around. He was a middle aged man, wrinkles creased his forehead, and his hair was showing signs of gray patches. Jonah sensed her sudden movement, and turned around to see what she was looking at.30

The man also noticed them, and he gave them a warm look. Not a smile, but Jessica felt she could trust him.31

He spoke loudly to cover the distance, “Where yous kids off to?”32

“To a safe place we know of in the city. We can show you the way.” Jonah called to him, he then muttered to Jessica, “He can walk, so he shouldn’t be too much of a burden.”33

She rolled her eyes, and looked back at the man, after a routine check to see that the girls scab hadn’t broken open again.34

“Good. Good. I’ve been lookin’ for some place to stay, but I’ve found nuthin’.” He said, “How yous git there?”35

“I just found it, and I was showing Jessica here,” he gestured towards her, “Where it is. I’m Jonah.”36

The man laughed for a moment, Jessica wondered how anybody could laugh in this place, “Jonah? Ya mean like Jonah and the whale?” he chuckled again, they were only about 5 feet apart now. “I’m Giovanni.” He said with a grand flourish, “Yous can call me whatever you like.”37

“Good, I think we should go while we still have light.” She pointed to the setting sun, “We don’t have much left.” She was trying to be polite on the outside, though she didn’t care much for his accent. He was obviously Italian… even before she knew his name.38

Giovanni nodded, “We best get goin’ then.” He said and Jessica felt a surge of nausea at his speech. She hoped he wouldn’t talk much. Her wishes were ignored however.39

Jonah had taken a liking to the man for some reason. He had already dubbed him “Gio” and they were talking incessantly. She felt her stomach clench with every mention of “Yous” and “You best” or “Friggin Lawn” Or “all the stupid bastids”. She was actually relieved when the girl stirred in her arms. She tried to speak, but it came out in a barely audible whisper. “Where is my mommy?” she asked her weakly.40

Jessica whispered back to her, “I don’t know where your mommy is. We’re going somewhere safe, we can see if she’s there.”41

“Where is it safe?” She asked her, the girls voice was weak.42

“It’s under the ground. The…” She decided to put it in easy terms to understand, “…Monsters wont be able to get us there.”43

“No monsters?” She asked her, the girls voice was getting a little stronger.44

“No monsters.” Jessica confirmed, “What is your name?”45

The girl looked at her, bright green eyes flashed back at her. “Kayla.” She said finally. “What’s yours?”46

She gave the girl a warm smile, still holding her in her arms. “I’m Jessica.” She told her levelly.47

“Jessica?” The girl began, “Will you take care of me until you find my mommy?” There was a look of please in her eyes.48

Jessica knew she didn’t have time to be looking after this little girl, not the way things have been happening. She seriously doubted that the girl would ever see her mother again. She knew she couldn’t trust some other stranger to watch over her.49

“We’ll see.” She said simply, making a silent promise to herself to take care of this girl.50

Giovanni’s rants were becoming louder. “So I was all ‘Yous guys better get da hell away from my property!’ and they listened, ‘cause I was in the mob once upon a time.” He told Jonah proudly.51

“How much farther Jonah?” she asked him, the city was only yards away now.52

Jonah seemed surprised at her presence, like he’d forgotten her. “Oh… about um… a couple blocks away, I guess I’ll take lead, you guys just follow me.” He seemed nervous.53

“Ya know, I could take the little kid off yer hands?” Giovanni offered.54

“No thanks, we’re fine.” She told him firmly, holding the girl tight, whom had just gone back to sleep. Her head tucked into Jessica’s shoulder.55

“Aight,” he sounded disgruntled at the refusal, “No sweat off my sac.” He stormed off next to Jonah.56

She sighed, what was that mans problem?57

They had certainly found some place that they would be safe, and there were hundreds of survivors gathered in this area. There was plenty of space in this underground chamber, what seemed to be the remains of a subway station. It was generally untouched. There were a few knocked pillars, fire scorches, but it was generally well kept. The railway served as a way to get from one station to another, and as a place to sleep. Apparently, about ninety percent of the underground network survived. The electrical subways didn’t work anymore, obviously, but the trains themselves proved to be excellent places to host temporary infirmaries, though there were no more first aid kits left to heal the wounded. The only problem Jessica didn’t understand, was food and water, and where it was all coming from.58

There were a lot of survivors, perhaps the girls mother had survived and come here? She hoped she could reunite the pair, though her hopes were dashed in the first hour of her presence. The unnamed woman saw the child, “Is that Kayla?” she asked.59

“Yes, why?” Jessica.60

“I know her mother,” Jessica’s spirits rose “Have you seen her? Is she here?” Jessica sighed, just a concerned friend.61

“No” she said, disappointment apparent in her voice. “But if you see her, tell her I’m at station 9 and I 62

have her daughter.”63

Kayla waved goodbye to the woman as she walked away. “That’s my mommies friend. She lives next door.”64

The girl had certainly built up a lot of strength since her visit to the infirmary. The surgeon, or surgeon in training… there were no fully trained surgeons in the complex. The surgeon had done what he could to her leg, but told her to visit frequently to check to see if the stitching had developed an infection.65

More days passed uneventfully, food had found it’s way into the complex, apparently from another underground area in which they had large stores of foods and beverages. Jessica was afraid to think about what would happen when thy ran out.66

A familiar face emerged from the crowd, a very familiar face. Sara saw Jessica and raced over to her and they embraced in a quick but tight hug.67

“Jonah told me you were here! I couldn’t find you!” Sara’s exited screams were heard by many.68

“I was being kept busy.” She gestured to Kayla, sleeping on the floor next to her. “I don’t think her mother survived, so I’m going to take care of her. I’ve grown attached to her in the last few days.” She sighed and looked at the small girl. Her leg was still hurting her, but should be better in a matter of weeks.69

Jessica and Sara spoke for some time, and stayed together in the subway complex, or “The Utopia” as it had come to be called. Sara was very good company to have, and it was good to have an extra set of eyes to watch over Kayla.70

“How old is she?” Sara asked her.71

“I don’t know,” Jessica said, shrugging, “About three or four I guess, I never thought to ask.”72

It had taken Sara three days with her to even think of asking, and she saw Giovanni in the crowd again. He was still avoiding her after their encounter 5 days past, when he had asked once again to watch over Kayla. Jessica had threatened him that time and he had been about to hit her too, since there was nobody else present, except Kayla. Something Jessica had done had sent him flying backwards about ten feet. This time however, he walked straight over to her.73

“So, Jessica? Yous got the kid all to yaself? Don’t try nuttin funny, you wouldn’t want all these people to die for your sake would you?” he told her piercing her with his eyes.74

Jessica felt something was wrong, seriously wrong. “What are you saying?”75

“I can’t believe I didn’t sense it the first time I met yous, but yous are both here. I was sent to find yous, and yous can come peacefully, or a squad will come down and take you personally. The second option isn’t the one I would choose, personally.” He said, completely murdering the English language.76

“You’re working for them?” Jessica gaped, shocked.77

“Not just working for them, I am one of them. Yous humans were a subspeicies, a hybrid between us and another race, after a few million years of evolution, yous are ready for the harvest our ancestors set up so many millennia ago.” He was smiling now, Sara looked afraid.78

Jessica was afraid as well, but refused to reveal it. “Why do you want me?” she asked.79

“You and the kid. Both of yous. Two humans that were unlocked, escaped. Yous are those two. We’re here to plug yous in, and when yer plugged in, we will leave your planet. If yous hadn’t resisted, there would still be cities, many more survivors and yous would probably have been left behind. Yous are the last of the telekinetically capable humans, and we need every last scrap of power we need.” He now looked genuinely evil.80

“What power? What are you talking about?”81

“The time for questions has passed. You make your choice now, whether you go quietly, or take as many of your fellow humans with you as possible.” The word "humans" was said with a sneer.82

Surrounded in an inescapable situation. She nodded. She couldn’t sell out her people. “Can you just spare the girl? She’s just a child!”83

“And at 17 where does that leave you? You’re an adult now? We don’t care about children, we are just going to use your minds to power the ultimate weapon. Now come, take her with you. No goodbyes either. We wouldn’t want to get messy right?” he chuckled.84

Jessica couldn’t think of a way out, though her mind fought for something. Her intense though surfaced nothing as she was gently herded towards where the ship lay hidden. It would be her final resting place. Kayla walked alongside her now, nearly fully healed, and smiling. Jessica felt a deep shame at not keeping this girl safe. She saw the immense ship, felt a strong despair well up inside of her.85

The corridors of the ship were entirely white, blindingly so. Things didn’t make any sense, all the occupants of the ship looked human, she couldn’t see the difference between humans and them. What were the hybrids second half? Humans are hybrids? She was still questioning herself, when they took her into the familiar examination room. They were going to see if she was still in top health… she hadn’t been last time and she shuddered at the memory of the last rehabilitation techniques. The examinations were fine enough, it was much like receiving a physical examination. As Giovanni left the room, leaving her alone (though she knew she was still being watched,) with Kayla, he turned around to say something. Jessica never knew what he was going to say, because she spoke first.86

“Just turn around and go you deceptive bastard.” Anger emanated from her voice.87

She was surprised when he smiled, and left the room, the door shut automatically behind him, and they were left alone.88

Kayla had finally begun to realize the seriousness of their situation, she was no longer smiling, and she looked ready to cry. Jessica felt the same way. To be used as a weapon of mass destruction, how? What did she do to power this machine? The doctor came in, dressed entirely in white, matching the bright interior of the room. He directed her to sit on the bench, Kayla was told to go into another room, and Jessica felt a sense of loss as she left her sight for the first time in weeks.89

“Well, your earth name… Jessica Smith? It was quite a task tracking a name like that down. Your new name, will be 004. You were the 4th most powerful component to the ship, you shouldn’t have scared us like that. It’s quite a miracle you had the child. She was 001. We must commend you on bringing our power back.” His smile didn’t reach to his eyes. “Now, lets see what the damage is shall we?”90

The examination was too much like a visit to the doctors, the similarities frightened her. How much more did they have in common? He scanned her head with what looked like a metal detector, the kind seen at airports.91

“Your brain seems to have unlocked itself even further on its own. Your brainwaves are off the charts. Very good.” He smiled again, his eyes devoid of all emotion.92

His eyes… she looked into his eyes, and saw an empty shell concealed behind black eyes. The entire eye seemed to be a giant pupil. She saw through his eyes, and realized that it looked like he was dead inside. All of them looked like that, every one of these creatures looked dead inside. Giovanni himself looked dead in the eyes. She hadn’t noticed it before.93

“What is the difference between us and you?” She asked the doctor.94

He looked at her, she avoided looking at his eyes. “Since you’ll be unconscious soon… I suppose it’s all right.” He smiled again. “Your brains. It’s all your brains. You have a much more complex brain, it’s all the separate lobes and hemispheres. It’s almost like humans have more than one brain crammed inside a single entity. We managed to come across a large brained race, but they lacked the physical strength necessary for our project.” He paused, and Jessica asked him a question.95

“A million year project?”96

“Cloning is remarkably simple, but to create an entire race for our own purposes of galactic domination was very difficult to perfect. Australopithecus, did you call it? To frail, and not nearly intelligent enough. They went extinct about 1000 years after we introduced more human experimentations. It took almost 4 million years, but now, it is ready. We knew we had a long time to finish this machine, after we’d found a way to conquer death itself. I’m young, I didn’t start until a century ago. I got to see the end of the project. Those who started it, are still alive today.” He laughed now, again his empty eyes revealed no sign of his feeling. “How? You want to know how? We cut away a part of ourselves. A soul in essence, would be what you call it. However, cutting off your soul, that is the part of you that dies, and kills your body with it. Without a soul, I don’t feel pain, I don’t feel anger. I am at perfect harmony.”97

Jessica was speechless, so that was what they were doing to the subjects placed in the weapon. So that they wouldn’t die in 60 or 70 years, they cut off the soul. Did Jonah know? He called it a “fate worse than death”, she didn’t know what he meant. She escaped before they had a chance to tell her last time.98

“Don’t worry, soon, you’ll be free of your pain and worry. You wont even be aware after you’re put under.” He could see it in her eyes.99

“Can your physical body still die?” She asked him.100

“Of course, but only through destruction of the body. But my soul is preserved, I will never die.” He looked at her more firmly. “Now come into the next room. You will be freed of your pain now.”101

He grabbed her by the arm, and practically dragged her to the room. Kayla was waiting there already. This room was different, it was dark, it had darker colors, and there was a machine, it looked like a pod. There was an ape-like creature sleeping suspended in a tube of green liquid.102

“Well,” he said, clapping his hands together once, “this is the extraction room. Now, both of you, remove your clothes.” He waited for compliance.103

Kayla had started to remove her clothes, as commanded, when Jessica said softly, “Leave Your clothes on Kayla.”104

The doctor looked at her, and would have looked amused had he been able to feel emotion, “Do you think you can walk off on me? What are you going to do? You can’t kill me.” He didn’t laugh, instead he showed her a cool deference.105

“No, I can’t kill you. You’re right.” She told him, as he clamped his hands around his throat, “But what is your broken physical body going to do to me when I destroy it?”106

He growled between chokes, “You… can’t win you fool. Surrender.”107

“Well I’m going to take as many of you bastards with me as possible. You know, I’ve been practicing ever since I escaped. What can they do to stop me?” his feet lifted off the ground as she spoke, and she simply stood with her arms folded.108

She concentrated on him, his entire body, contracting around his neck, and lifted him. She simply willed it to happen, and it did. She stopped forestalling, and his body flew into the control panel, and she willed the wires to come into contact with his skin. She let the electricity pulse through his body, and she released the power she held with her thoughts.109

Kayla! Oh god! She had forgotten about Kayla! The girl was looking at the torn man, frightened. She appeared to be in shock.110

Cursing under her breath, she knelt beside the girl and tried to calm her, so that she could come along and get off with Jessica, and the millions of others contained inside this same ship.111

She was still trying to comfort her when Giovanni walked in. “Hey Ern? Ya get the kids ready yet? What’s…” he stopped talking as the smell of burnt flesh reached his nose. Before Jessica could grab at him, he turned and ran.112

“Crap!” she muttered, “Kayla? We have to go now. Right now!” she was raising her voice, and losing her patience. She reached over and grabbed Kayla to hold her close. Maybe they could escape like this. It didn’t take her long to find the first of the backup that Giovanni, or whatever his real name was, had arrived.113

They were stopped by a sheer wall of energy that Jessica had made somehow. She was learning more about her powers every day. She made another energy wall against the ceiling, and sent it crashing down on the dozen men that were sent to take her now.114

She was back in the angelic white corridors. The floors in back of her were crimson with blood. She was trying to find a way to the command, to free everybody. There had to be a way to get their souls back. She would figure it all out. She knew she was getting close… she could feel it.115

A blast of something came close to hitting her head. She quickly made the shield around her, and saw what it was. There were two groups of people fighting. They were wearing the ships crew uniforms, and she looked at it curiously, and realized, it was a human infiltration. They were taking them down from the inside. Apparently she sparked the fuse that ignited a huge battle. The battle only raged for a few seconds, and all of one side was down. She gave them a quick check, human. She could feel it, and see it in their eyes.116

“Jessica!” said a familiar voice as she let herself come into full view. “You’re all right! We aren’t too late.” Jonah was breathing heavily and was cut down one cheek. “The insurrections started as soon as we learned you were captured.”117

She looked at him funny, but with warmth. “How long were you here?”118

“Four days.” He told her. “Somebody by the name of Reese was recruiting. He told us the fact that their soulless means it’ll be easier to go in undetected, as long as we have a uniform.” He told her in a rush.119

“Can you take Kayla?” She asked him.120

“What!?” Jonah squeaked.121

“Take Kayla please? I need to do something before I go.” She placed Kayla next to him, where she obediently stood.122

Jonah was confused and enraged, “What? No! You can’t just leave her with me!” But she had already started running down the corridor to a lift that would, if her senses were correct, lead her to the control room.123

The ride upward was long and uneventful, the ship was bigger than anything she’d ever seen. The speed of her ascent was adding about one and a half G’s. How fast was she moving?124

The lift came to a halt after considerable slowing, and she emerged in another completely white room. It was overlooking the core of the ship, where she saw the captives, suspended in a green liquid. All of them were unconscious, tubing connected them all to a central power. They were completely nude, all of them, and they were practically stacked on top of one another. She found where she wanted to be, now she needed to release them all.125

“If yer planning to release them now, they’d all drown the moment you disconnected their external life support.” Giovanni said from behind.126

She turned to face him, he was alone.127

“How did you get here so fast?” she asked him.128

His smile was just like the doctors, lifeless. “I was already here. I can’t believe you didn’t sense my presence.”129

She shook her head, “The aura of the core is too strong, I can’t sense anything else.”130

He nodded, as though interested.131

“So, you’re here to stop me then?” She asked.132

“I might. There is no reason for me to stop you, because yeh’ll screw it all up yerself.” He smiled again. It was inhumanly empty. How could she have not seen it in him before? “Of course, we wouldn’t want ya ter kill all that we’ve worked so hard to build, all these years. I dun understand, you would choose a soul over eternal life? What goods is it?”133

Jessica couldn’t think of anything to do, other than stall him. “You just don’t understand, you have lost all feeling haven’t you?”134

He looked amused, though she knew that couldn’t be true. “We don’t know pain, and we don’t know the misery that plagued us in our mortal days.”135

“What about happiness? Joy? Love for gods sake? Have you forsaken everything good about yourself for a science experiment?” She wanted answers before she killed him.136

“I have forsaken my soul because I was unhappy. I didn’t experience love or joy, it was no sacrifice for me. There are many of my race that chose to keep their souls. It may surprise you that we are exiles from our world, but that’s why we made you. We will get revenge on the mortals of our kind.” He laughed, “Not only that but if you do kill me, I will still live, eventually I would be able to reanimate what’s left of my soul.”137

Jessica wasn’t intimidated, “So does that mean I can’t kill you?” She never gave him time to answer, “Then I wont feel guilty about this than.”138

At that moment he fell to the ground, she looked at him, and saw where she had broken his neck. She turned to the panels and tried to figure out how to release them. There were pictures next to the buttons… would she have to eject them one at a time? She could drain the core, but then they would crush each other under their own weight.139

The problem of how to do this weighed her down. If she made one mistake… she bit her lip and got herself ready. She needed to figure out how to operate the machine, they had to have equipped it with some kind of tool to quickly remove the bodies for… whatever purpose. Not that they had to hurry very much. They did live for eternity after all. She looked at Giovanni’s broken corpse laying not far off. Shame I didn’t leave him alive so that he could provide some kind of information. She thought.140

They did speak English though, which she figured was probably taught to humans by the soulless while they introduced them to technology to speed the growth of their crops. She looked around for some kind of manual, and managed to find a thick book, about half a foot thick. She couldn’t believe that they actually still used books. The manual was bigger than any book she’d ever seen in her life, and it didn’t seem to have an index. How could they read this? She supposed it had something to do with having an eternity to find anything of importance, it seemed they forgot how useful haste can prove to be.141

She wasn’t sure how long she was searching through the huge tomb, but she thought she found something that would be useful. She didn’t even seem to notice that nobody else had found her, but paid it no mind. It was called the “Emergency Release System.” It read that if for any reason the humans needed to be extracted from the chrysalis at a fast rate. She had known that common sense would have equipped the ship with such a device. It was a long process, and had to be activated by a precise button combination of no less than 45 characters. She entered in the code, and slowly (at least it seemed slow, though one must consider the number of people in the core,) the tank emptied the humans in a live, maintained state. The would be under the influence of sleeping drugs for the next 4 hours, but they would recover soon. Jessica turned around, and let the lift take her back to the doors where friends awaited to tell her that the battle was won, and that the soulless are being tracked down and killed one by one.142

She showed them a manual, which told of a process for giving back the souls to the living. After some time, all would be set right. Though Jessica was not so sure.143

Entry from Jessica’s diary dated August 14, 2068. Two weeks after she freed the core.144

“It has been a while since I last recorded my thoughts, but the last two weeks were an onslaught of parades and questions. Everybody sees me as some kind of hero, though I just feel as if I did what had to be done. I don’t know what seems to be wrong, if there were any soulless left, they would be recognized, right? Kayla seems to have forgotten about what I did to the doctor on the ship, though I don’t feel a repressed memory is a healthy thing I do hope that she will never remember me doing that.145

“Soon after the last soul was restored to a fellow human, the soul removing machine was destroyed, it was the same machine used to restore the souls. All the telekinetically active humans are making people nervous, but they should get used to it soon.146

“We have already begun to rebuild the cities, and using supplies that we found in their ship, we managed to get some farms running. Things look like they are going to get better eventually. The lawlessness has been halted by the freed humans, using telekinetic abilities to serve justice quickly.147

“I don’t know what it is, but I feel that we couldn’t have destroyed all the soulless. I think they have always been among us, undetected, and completely identical to their human creations. I think they are biding their time, waiting for an opportune moment to attack, to seek out their revenge. There are probably more of them out there, waiting to come. Things are getting frighteningly quiet around here. I can feel their presence everywhere, but I wont be able to point them out until it’s too late. I can see the ships in the distance. The angelic ships that were inhabited by the soulless, and the damned.” 148