"It's really a historical moment in my life, this game; I feel strongly that it has altered the course of my intelligence flow for good. Brooke, who is the aforementioned village idiot, took her first turn with pride. She placed down three letters - A, W, T, following an N, which spells 'NAWT.'"
-Mattzarella
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| Dream Control Section:D - Death of a Soul | | | Author: | | | IP: | slip-32-XXXX | | Date: | 05/07/00 12:05 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for ScreamStalker: 7.5385 |  | Welcome again to Section D of Dream Control. This is the fourth chapter in a series, and if you have missed any other section, simply click the search author icon above this post. Then type: Scream in the search box, this should produce all my works. Also, got some html in here for you. Not much, because I am still learning, but some. I am having some problems with bg color and stuff. Anyway, enjoy!
Dream Control - Section D: The Death of a Soul
Everything began to go into slow motion. Calvin saw the Zealots, saw the hunger in their eyes, and knew nothing was going to stand in the way of them clawing into his flesh and blood. Swiveling his head, he peered at the Archons, their mighty presence seeming to reflect off everything, even the ground itself. Calvin quickly observed the area around them. Open land tattered with the remains of the destroyed base lay directly in front of him. To his left, the ramp, which was now nearly blocked by the energy balls. To his right, a small ledge, which if Calvin remembered correctly, led almost directly into a molten lava pit.
Deep in the back of his brain, Calvin knew nothing was going to save him, or anyone else of his company. So he decided on the only rational action he could think of, he ran. Calvin vaulted the entire Siege Tank in a single leap, darting straight for the cliff edge. His sudden movement set the Protoss units into action. The Zealots sprinted directly for the tank, and reached it in seconds, stabbing and beating it into submission, until it eventually exploded. Boyer didn't feel anything as his entire cockpit erupted in flames and his body blew up into a dozen pieces. Ralston, however, did not have such a comfort. After unsuccessfully trying to repair the Tank in its hour of need, Ralston was slowly murdered, each blade swipe cutting off more and more of his protective suit, until finally his skin became part of the fillet.
Calvin hit the cliff edge and slid down it, doing his best to protect Skinner, who still remained cradled in his gigantic metallic forearms. His calculations had been correct. A lava pit lay directly in front of him, and even though his suit was thermally insulated, Calvin could still feel the steam rising from its surface. With no where else to go, Calvin looked directly into Skinner's eyes. He saw in them a quality he had never seen before and knew instinctively that she was ready to die. After holding her close, and imagining that her could actually feel her body warmth…even though her actual body was separated from his by layers of vinyl, metal and chrome, Calvin made the hardest decision he had ever made in his life, and threw Skinner into the lava pit.
Tears rolling down his face, Calvin turned to face his adversaries. Skinner had made no noises as she died, had not screamed or yelled, or cried for a savior of some sort. Calvin only hoped he could do the same. The seven zealots peered down at him, and for a second, Calvin thought the compassion in their souls might catch up with them, and he would be spared. He thoughts proved false though, as four of the Zealots hurled their bodies off the cliff directly at him.
The brunt of their bodies caught Calvin by surprise, and he stumbled backward toward the pit. Trying his best to rid himself of the vicious pests, Calvin tossed and turned every which direction in hopes of flinging them into a fiery death. Once again, his hopes were squashed. While trying to shake off a Zealot that had attached itself to Calvin's helmet, one giant foot failed to place itself securely on the stable ground. With all his might Calvin tried to delay his failing, but the momentum was too great, and with the four Zealots still attached to his bulk, Calvin smacked into the huge pool of inferno.
The hard ground was enough to jolt Calvin back to his senses. It took him a minute to gather his surroundings, and for a brief moment, he actually believed he was in Heaven. After smacking his flailing hand into the side of his bureau, Calvin knew this not true. Propping himself on his elbow, Calvin squinted against the harsh light and realized that he was once again in his familiar bedroom. He was however, lying on the floor, the bed sheets wrapped around his torso, doing an impressive impersonation of a python.
Slowly rising from his ground position, Calvin untangled himself from his sheets, and shucked off his soaked pajamas. Stumbling into his closet, he withdrew a pair of boxers and khaki shorts. After putting those on, Calvin grabbed a white t shirt from the bureau, his hand still aching from its initial blow. As Calvin's mind began to rise from the subconscious world more and more, he remembered something. It was Friday, he had school.
Sprinting into the kitchen, Calvin gaped at the green digital clock located on the microwave. 1:36 it read. "1:36, how in the hell can it be 1:36" Calvin said to himself. He had never slept past 10 in his entire life, and that had only been when he had pneumonia. Besides that, his alarm clock was set for 5:45 am just so that this sort of incident would never happen. His mind racing with unexplained questions, Calvin made yet another remarkable discovery; he had to pee, badly.
After bolting into the bathroom, and nearly colliding with the porcelain tub as his socked feet slipped on the linoleum, Calvin found the note. It was a small piece of loose leaf paper that had been ripped into nearly a fourth of its original size. It was attached to the mirror via a piece of scotch tape, and the message sparked more questions in Calvin's mind. It read:
Calvin, I didn't have the heart to wake you for school this morning. You were tossing and rolling around in your bed all night, screaming about weird creatures I have never heard of. I want you to take it easy this entire weekend. Don't worry, I already called the school and told them you would be out today, I also informed the theatre you were too ill to work. NO STARCRAFT!
Love, Mom.
Calvin crumpled up the note and threw it into the waste basket. He finished his business and returned to the kitchen, still grumbling to himself about the time. After pulling open the refrigerator and discovering the absence of all soda, Calvin instead settled on s'mores pop tarts and orange juice. While chewing his food thoroughly, Calvin once again began to reflect upon the dream, which seemed much more like a memory then a figment of his imagination. While pondering, Calvin nearly broke into tears as he remembered Skinner. Even though he didn't know her, even though she was probably some sort figure that had been created inside his mind, he still had loved her in a weird way, and remembering the events that had transcribed between them brought back a bitter wave of sadness and guilt.
Regaining his composure, Calvin finished the pop tarts and drank off the last of the juice. Stretching his body, he discovered that not only did his hand ache, but both his shoulder and his abdominal muscles were extremely sore. Reaching into the medicine cabinet, Calvin produced three Advil tablets. Dry swallowing them, he returned to his bedroom, to add to the list of dream details. By the time he was done, Calvin had over a page filled with small notes about his, what he now considered, nightmares. He had also decided to go against his mother's wishes. He had decided to play StarCraft.
After booting up his computer, Calvin went through the every day routine of loading the CD into the drive, and firing up the system. He didn't even bother to switch aliases before logging into Battle.net. Once in, Calvin messaged a friend of his who seemed to never leave his computer. Sure enough, his friend was available and willing to play a 2v2. Creating a public game on Dark Temple, Calvin soon found himself allied with his long time pal, and together they were facing two enigmatic opponents. As much as Calvin hated what he was about to do, he realized that it was the only choice. And even though he absolutely dreaded having any sort of close encounter with any members of it, Calvin replaced the Random in his choice box with Zerg.
The countdown went by fast, and Calvin found his newly formed hatchery in the bottom left position, his favorite position for this map as Zerg. After quickly ordering his drones to mine and allying with his partner, Calvin began to debate on what unit to use as the base of his attack force. He decided on the Mutalisk, and even though Calvin was hoping his dreams had no connection with whatever unit he had specifically used the night before, he though it would be nice to be able to fly for a change.
The game was a close one. Both opponents were Protoss, and with Calvin's partner being Terran, the odds were against them. But with Calvin's supreme air dominance, and the Terran's overwhelming ground force, the game eventually ended up victorious in Calvin's favor.
Once the game had ended, Calvin shut down his Internet connection, as well as his entire computer main frame. He knew this would make him look less conspicuous in his mother's eyes. Returning once again to the kitchen, Calvin drowned two more Advil pills and decided that a cool shower might do wonders to ease his aching body.
He was right, the shower did help some, and as soon as Calvin stepped into it, he felt better. Letting the cold water flow down his arms and legs Calvin began to ponder once again about his dreams, and his head filled with many questions. Would he be Zerg? Would he be a Mutalisk? Would Skinner be there? Would he die? Would he have another dream, period? All these questions, and no answers. Calvin was still deep in thought when he stepped out of the shower, and realized that his mom was home.
His mother went into instant nurse mode. She made Calvin put on his pajamas and lie down, even though it was only 4:30 in the afternoon. She constantly kept tabs on Calvin throughout the evening, supplying him constant fluids, and the occasional medicine tablet. At 7:00, Calvin was allowed out of bed, but not onto the computer. Calvin was slightly relieved, he really didn't want to play any more StarCraft that day. Retiring to the living room, he was content to simply relax on the couch filling his brain with mindless reruns of the Simpsons and Friends, instead of dwelling on the approaching night.
His mother made him retire at 9:30, and even though Calvin made as many arguments against her command as possible, he ended up crawling under the covers 15 minutes later. Sleep did not come easily, and for a while, Calvin thought he might not get any sleep that night at all. His mind was too busy concentrating on other subjects to succumb to the subconscious. Eventually, sleep won over though, and Calvin once again drifted into unknown lands.
This time Calvin did not awake. He was simply a presence. He had no eyes, ears, mouth, limbs, or features of any kind. He was a being, a small being, compacted in a compartment of some sort. He was not breathing air, but was instead surrounded by a thick mucus membrane from which he absorbed all his nutrients. For a while, Calvin remained there, his human mind quickly racking its memory as to where or what he could be.
Several minutes past, and Calvin began to change. It was slow at first, a bulge here, a concave there, but it soon began to develop at a rapid place. Appendages and teeth started to form from Calvin's bulk, and he soon felt his skin pushing against the sides of his prison. He got bigger and bigger until finally the womb split open, allowing Calvin to rise into the world, and view his new body.
Dun dun daaaaa. Hoped you all liked Section D. The next chapter will be the last chapter of Dream Control so I hope you're all looking forward too it. I also have an idea for a new story which will probably be started in the summer when I have more free time. Until then, post post post, lemme see your thoughts.
ScreamStalker |
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