Post by Yinko on Dec 1, 2013 15:21:04 GMT -5
The nightmares had woken him up nearly two days before. It was always the same, the lines to the incinerators, the checkpoints, the cramped, squalid living conditions, and the mud. Most of all, it was the mud, the rotting, liquid soil under his bare feet that stuck out in his mind. The dark place... the chair, the overhead spotlight baking his scalp, all of those things were far worse, but he had found a vengeful pleasure out of reliving those things. At least, in those flashbacks, he could better access his powers.
The mundane, almost exhausting conditions of the camps, though, those did not offer the same level of comfort.
He needed to do something, anything to get those memories out in the open, to get them out of his nightmares. It had started as an afterthought, sketching his memories of the devastated land, the razor wire fences, and the huddled, emaciated people as a form of release. Of course, he had stupidly drawn those images at the shrine, and when the priestess saw them... well... that was an awkward conversation to say the least.
She had given him a few days to get his head clear, to figure it all out. She couldn't train him if his mind was so clouded, and there was no other way he could get the thoughts out of his head.
Or so he thought.
The farmhouse, he noted on a long, tiring walk, was still there, still untouched by the Covenant. Sophia had mentioned to him this was there little get-together site, their "No Youma Allowed" clubhouse. Didn't one of them say something about a barrier being in place? The Nihil wouldn't be able to touch it. It seemed the perfect place to clear his head.
He didn't know how it started. Perhaps finding a strip of barbed wire left over from decades of corrosion had triggered it, or the desolate field. However, the mud from the recent snow melting into the soil looked almost the same. Cautiously, nervously, David knelt into it, plunging his hand in and scooping up the slimy, spongy Earth. The screams echoed in his mind, the smell of burnt flesh, and he knew, instantly, what he had to do.
He still had money left over from his operations in California, at least enough to sustain him a while longer. The project wouldn't cost too much, just the necessary lumber, fasteners, cinder blocks, masonry supplies, razor wire, a gas generator, and high pressure sodium outdoor lamps to complete the illusion. Sketching the idea on paper, it wasn't exactly identical. If anything, David found some inspiration in the Berlin Wall, and secretly hoped the Covenant didn't pick up on his design cues for enhanced security.
By the time he had the first supplies delivered to the farmhouse and the others started to arrive, he had already dug a third of the anti-personnel trench along the perimeter of the farmhouse.
The mundane, almost exhausting conditions of the camps, though, those did not offer the same level of comfort.
He needed to do something, anything to get those memories out in the open, to get them out of his nightmares. It had started as an afterthought, sketching his memories of the devastated land, the razor wire fences, and the huddled, emaciated people as a form of release. Of course, he had stupidly drawn those images at the shrine, and when the priestess saw them... well... that was an awkward conversation to say the least.
She had given him a few days to get his head clear, to figure it all out. She couldn't train him if his mind was so clouded, and there was no other way he could get the thoughts out of his head.
Or so he thought.
The farmhouse, he noted on a long, tiring walk, was still there, still untouched by the Covenant. Sophia had mentioned to him this was there little get-together site, their "No Youma Allowed" clubhouse. Didn't one of them say something about a barrier being in place? The Nihil wouldn't be able to touch it. It seemed the perfect place to clear his head.
He didn't know how it started. Perhaps finding a strip of barbed wire left over from decades of corrosion had triggered it, or the desolate field. However, the mud from the recent snow melting into the soil looked almost the same. Cautiously, nervously, David knelt into it, plunging his hand in and scooping up the slimy, spongy Earth. The screams echoed in his mind, the smell of burnt flesh, and he knew, instantly, what he had to do.
He still had money left over from his operations in California, at least enough to sustain him a while longer. The project wouldn't cost too much, just the necessary lumber, fasteners, cinder blocks, masonry supplies, razor wire, a gas generator, and high pressure sodium outdoor lamps to complete the illusion. Sketching the idea on paper, it wasn't exactly identical. If anything, David found some inspiration in the Berlin Wall, and secretly hoped the Covenant didn't pick up on his design cues for enhanced security.
By the time he had the first supplies delivered to the farmhouse and the others started to arrive, he had already dug a third of the anti-personnel trench along the perimeter of the farmhouse.
