Vestige Chapter 8 - The Decision

I stood in a damp cell. Musky air flowed through the room. The quietness and atmosphere of defeat highlighted how bad of a scenario I was in. I was locked away somewhere underground. Aurelia and Gray were locked in the cells next to me, and Jax had been separated from us.

Escaping this won’t be easy if it’s even possible. The bars aren’t going to budge anytime soon. Furthermore, my arms and legs have been chained. I can still walk around just fine, but I couldn’t fight anything like this. That was if I still had any of my things to fight with.

Soon a door opened somewhere outside and Seymor came walking out. He approached my cell and pulled over a wooden stool.

“We need to talk.” He said.

I replied to him with a glare.

"You're the leader of your little group right?"

I nodded. He promptly stood up pulled out a chain of keys.

“You know what? Let’s go for a little walk.” He unlocked the cell. “Just me and you.”

I begrudgingly walked out of the cell. Whatever trick he’s trying to play, I’m not gonna fall for it. I am going to continue with attitude.

He led me out a door and into a hallway similar to that of what we found within the inner walls.

“How’s your wound doing?” He asked me as we walked.

I shrugged. In all honesty, it had already closed but still felt quite sore. It was a really bad cut yet I survived just fine.

“I'll take that as it's already healed. Judging by the fact you're walking you're just fine. The serum sure does wonders doesn’t it, Lulu?”

“How do you know my name?” I finally decided to speak to me.

He stopped. “I took a look through the file database and found yours. We keep extensive information on every orphanage child.”

“That’s actually the reason I brought you out here, Lulu. Your file contained some strange occurrences if you will..”

He continued walking down the dull hallway. “You’ve already passed the serum as well as the memory procedures. This makes you applicable for enlistment. Yet, there is no record of that and granted you're here you must have broken out after the memory procedure. I reckon that defeats the purpose of the operation, but nonetheless, your offenses of breaking out of the orphanage and into Cadet are punishable by death.”

He paused at a large dark room in the middle of the hallway and peered inside. “I can overlook that though. With my position, I can easily excuse your offenses if you, in turn, enlist in the military. That being said, it's your only option other than death.”

“The military?” I asked. Never have I heard of the military even existing.

"Yeah, you'll join the war against Dionis. They're an empire hellbent on genocide and total conquest. We've been fighting a war against them for the past sixty years. Simply put it's been a losing battle and the serum has been the only thing keeping us holding on."

"So I have the choice of joining the war or dying? Why even offer me a choice then." I replied.

Disrespondent, he stared into the dark room before us. Nothing but an eerie chill greeted us back. Seymor flicked the light switch to the room. Lying inside was three nooses hanging from the ceiling.

“Let me tell you a story Lulu.” He turned to face me. “I was an orphanage child just like you once. I grew up and lived my life believing I was to be adopted somewhere outside the walls. It was an infectious fallacy that absorbed my life. One day a friend of mine, her name was Yamilet, came to me. She spoke to me about another girl in the orphanage, named Carole, who had just graduated at the time.”

“She described to me the horror of what had happened to her. How the actress we called mother had lied to us. How the serum had mutated Carole’s body and deformed her.. When I first heard of it I was so consumed by rage. The image of the serum 's effects had me angered beyond relief. Therefore, I devised a plan with Yamilet and a couple of others to break out of the orphanage. We stormed the inner walls after our mother had gone away, killing many guards and workers inside.”

“It was, in fact, the same inner walls that you had gone through. Granted, many of the workers since then have been moved to the war effort. We assumed this system of graduation was designed to torture us. That we were cattle or playthings if you will. Like you, we were so blind to the truth. We thought that killing our mother and other innocent people was just. That couldn't be further from the truth. Simply put, Dionis is closing in on the city of Vestige. Our nation is on the verge of extinction and the Overlord created this system of orphanages to protect us.”

“Without the serum, we would all be dead by now. But at the time, I didn’t know that and so I fought against the system until eventually we were caught by the guards. I was then brought to this same prison. That’s when I was offered a decision that would change my life. It was an enigmatic man who at the time was working as human mayor of Cadet who offered me this.”

“He gave me a second chance. He told me about Dionis and losing war we fought outside the walls. So he gave me a choice and I accepted. I willingly took the serum and joined the military. He went to the others with and also offered then salvation, yet their rage blinded them. They denied him and continued to try and fight against him."

"At the time I felt torn and powerless. I couldn't want to go against my family and their decision. In turn, Yamilet and the others couldn’t accept the reality before them and denied the offer. I willingly let them do this. I argued to myself that this was their decision alone. And look at what has come of them.” He gestured to the nooses hanging in the room and the rotting corpses they hold.

He turned to me and looked me in the eyes. “So I offer you the same decision. Do you value your family's lives? Would you risk putting them through the serum and onto the battlefield just so they could continue to live?”

"If you accept this offer, your two friends will undergo the serum and the memory procedures. I can't guarantee that they will survive it, but I can guarantee if they do, they will be allowed to continue to live.

I stood there in a moment of shock and pondering for what I had just heard. Was what I heard really the truth? Was their really such a threat outside the walls.

“Is this war against Dionis really that serious?” I replied.

Seymor lifted up his shirt to reveal a scar on his chest. The scar was large and gory. Its shape suggested that his entire body might have been cut in half. It was such that put the wound I had to shame. “It's living hell.”

Currently, I was struck with a decision that would ultimately change the course of everything. After all I heard, my answer soon became clear to me. It was a moment where all the puzzle pieces fit into the place. It was obvious from the start. Our whole lives had been spent doing military training. This serum gives us regenerative powers, beyond that imaginable. We’ve been bred to be powerful soldiers from the very start. Nevertheless, that's not what I wanted. I sought out peace and happiness for those I love. I wanted to find somewhere we could rest and be safe for once.

I don’t know if there really is a paradise like that out there. It’s what I desire to find, but I ultimately fail short of knowing where to start. Nonetheless, though I know what is important to me. Protecting my family at all costs. Therefore my answer was absolute.

“I accept.”