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The world is ending, not with a blast, but a silent decay.
“Our carriage arrived! Its a day of celebration!”
The team of researchers resided inside a spherical room, the circuit appearing on the walls slithered across and disappeared inside the pure black wall of this soul container
One door opened, gliding seamlessly across the floor, opening on a dark and wet rocky alley. The carriage, arrived, pushed by graviton pulser.
The dark cage drifted across the floor, lifted by the very same graviton pulser.
The scientists watched it stop in the middle of the vast circular room, immobile, silent.
“Quick, close the door!”
The door leading outside closed promptly, leaving the scientists encased with their “package”.
One scientist already had his confetti prepared, this was a day for celebration indeed.
“According to my calculation, this is the last package we’ll need to activate the quantum gate. We’ll finally be freed of this nightmare!”
This specific scientist was actually a mathematician, he had been calculating day after day the complex algorithm behind the use of the gate, the use of the curse…
He was already busy effecting more computation to make sure his calculation was actually correct.
When everyone was ready, every verification made, every thing done, they gathered behind a heavy glass panel sealing the interior of the spherical room shut. Their equipment firmly on the correct side of the glass, they could finally proceed with the experiment that will save the world.
“Oxygen level, 40%.”
“Pulse stable.”
“Brain functions active.”
One young man looked, behind his gas mask, just before pressing the big black button.
“Your sacrifice will not be in vein…”
Pressing the button, flashes of energy assaulted the big dark cage, reducing it to ashes in a brilliant display of technology. The soul container had just stolen every person’s life force in its effective area, cursing the very metal used to cage them.
The withered corpses, adorning the characteristic cursed marks, were unmoving, the very water composing their body drained, the energy animating them, gone.
The scientists started questioning themselves, because if their calculations were correct, why is it the quantum gate wouldn’t activate? “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUCCCCKKK!”
It seems even the mathematician could be wrong sometimes.
“It’s not your fault, we’re all in this together, to the end of the line.”
The scientists group were looking for a remedy to the world’s curse, a way to transport their body away from here, because it was hell in here.
At the surface, anywhere they looked, a dark miasma oozed from the very ground beneath their feet. No mountains, no valleys, just a uniform mess of cursed soil oozing with the evil intents of humanity.
“Just… how many more do we need? How many more people do we need to sacrifice for this plan?”
The core of the planet was the last hotspot in this cold dead world, the energy to heat themselves came from there, because there sure wasn’t any more atmosphere to protect them from the vacuum of space.
“As many as we need, that’s the kind of situation we’re in, but the rest of us will live freely, and we won’t commit the same mistakes.”
“Are you sure we can’t use the core for that? That’ll be easier.”
The old man leading the group of scientist watched the mathematician from behind his mask, fury within his eyes. “Had we listened to you, our core would already be cold, you’re the kind of person who should never have had access to this technology! The worst kind of person to ever grace this earth!”
The mathematician, despite his years of mathematical study, found himself wrong way more often than right, a talent in of itself. While the old scientist berated him, some people could be seen walking the desolate wasteland, laboriously lifting each foot from the cursed sludge lifting their weight, looking desperately for a little oasis in this ignoble desert.
Soon, they found themselves inside another cage, prey to the soul container absorbing their very essence whole.
“We won’t need anymore of your ‘math.’”
That’s the kind of situation they were in, time was of the essence.
“Oxygen level, 35%”
Still not enough, it’s like they were swinging their hands in front of them, unable to peer through the darkness beyond, looking desperately for the wall in front of them.
“That’s our saving grace! We can’t stop now, because there’s many more people who needs us to succeed!”
So many people were left on this planet, but the curse cast upon this world was slowly choking the life out of every single one of them.
“I volunteer, for a better world for my children!”
Every single person who wouldn’t breathe more than they had to was secretly a boon for everyone else, a blessing in disguise.
Sacrifice after sacrifice, still not enough, the spherical room they were trapped in was slowly driving them to the deepest fringe of insanity.
“Screw this world, we’ll burn out the core and be rid of this hellish world!”
“Sir, I just got a notice that the excavation team were burrowed alive, all communications ceased this morning.”
The ground surely gave out underneath them, a particularity of cursed soil, even stones became too brittle to stand upon.
Without the foraging equipment, they had no more choices, they were slowly running out of them.
“I volunteer…”
The old man retorted, “Shut your mouth! You’re too weak to have any essence worth consuming! You’re only there to push buttons, is that clear!”
The small man made himself even smaller, he was indeed very febrile, never removing his gas mask under any circumstances.
The team shrank a lot from the beginning, when their salvation was supposed to come. Another carriage would soon come, but how soon was the question.
“Oxygen level, 28%.”
The oxygen level was now too low to breathe normally, even lower than the peak of the tallest mountain, fortunately, their breathing apparatus was advanced enough to pressurize the atmosphere within their oxygen tanks, but the vacuum was starting to affect them.
The leader, an old man who used the soul containers all his life, never imagined what would results of his reckless actions more than 60 years ago.
Without a tree left in sight, without anything else than a monochromatic backdrop of darkness, the creepy results of these soul containers contained within his hands, the leader snapped and siphoned the energy of the last scientists in his crew with the aforementioned container. “I’m sorry, but we cannot afford to wait.”
If only the excavation outpost didn’t collapse, they could have used their essence to power the gate, cowards all of them, they probably did it consciously.
Connecting the small soul container to the gate, he transferred its energy, but it was still not enough…
“HOW MANY MORE DO WE NEED!!! DAMN YOU!!!”
This gate, their only saving grace in this hellish world.
The leader shifted his sight towards the last remaining person with him, the small man with his gas mask now suctioned onto his face. “You… How long were you there!?”
“From the beginning, sir!”
He was finally ready to sacrifice himself, he only ever knew hell, so departing this hell was a novel surprise.
The old man looked through his mask, into his eyes and saw. “I remember you, you’re the most loyal servant I ever had.”
The small man had a secret, he was already cursed, from the beginning.
This small man was so paranoid of the outside world he cursed himself, without any faith in humanity, he surrendered himself to the curse and injected the serum.
The old scientist knew, all along. They ran out of appetite suppressor quite a while back, with only a couple vial left, he shoved them all in his hand. “They’ll suit you better.”
Before the small man could react, the glass panel was shoved in his face, separating him from the inside of the gate. “Sir! What are you doing!? I should be the one…”
“Shut your mouth, you useless pawn.”
The glass pannel sealed, there remained only one option left for both of them. “You are already cursed, your meager life essence will never satisfy the soul container…”
“But sir!”
“Listen well, boy. I have more drive than you, more faith than you, more willpower than you.”
The old man survived this long, seeing the planet’s decay in all its form, he was tired of it.
“This world I crafted, I deserve it. You deserve to explore a new world, you’re still young and inexperienced.”
This young man, not even 30 years of age and already ready to die, so useless, with people like him, the world would have ceased to exist even before the advent of the soul containers.
“When I first met you, you were a paranoid mess, you had already cursed yourself to prevent anyone from doing so, what a moron.”
The young man looked at his mentor, a single tear pouring out from his dried eyes.
The old man had some final words for him. “Seek the beauty of life, young man, you still have most of it to live, all of it to experience. I already lived mine, I am master of my own destiny. Do it, become master of your own destiny as well as I did.”
The young man shook his head negatively, for as paranoid as he was, he was the most loyal servant this old man ever had.
“Shut your mouth, stupid. I kept you around for a single reason, and you will push this damn button, to the end of the line!”
The young man was shook, he didn’t know how to react, so he simply slammed his hand onto the black button of doom. The old scientist could finally be of some use, he could be the saving grace of this poor young man born in this hellish world, born of a terrible mistake, no humans should ever experience such trauma, because it sucks the life out of their irises. The old man, as he was getting sucked dry of any energy in his body, he had a fleeting thought for this poor young man left alone to shoulder the burden of humanity. “Live on, Bastz.”
The young man watched his mentor’s body collapse on the ground, but he also saw, on the corner of his eye, a big yellow button reading “Activation ready”.
He pressed it and the machine got to work.