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It begins as a pinprick of consciousness as Elise becomes acutely aware of
the passage of time, even though there are no external stimuli. She isn’t
truly thinking about anything. She is only mindful of her own ability to
think. At first, she believes there might be a tiny light before her, but it
may simply be her imagination...but does she even have an imagination
anymore? She tries to come up with other things to occupy her mind, but
nothing comes. She can’t even articulate in her head an idea of what ideas
she should be able to come up with. No categories of thoughts, no things, no
things to do or have done. She is nothing more than a thinking thing. A
thinking thing called Elise. So that’s something at least. She is someone.
She is a someone with a name, and if she has a name it must mean there are
other someones with their own names. But who?
Elise quietly screams at her own brain. Wake up. Think. Think about something,
anything. It doesn’t have to be important, it doesn’t have to be major. Don’t just
sit here in the silence like a moth in the dark. A moth? What is a moth? It
must be something, or she wouldn’t have a word for it. What is a word? What are
things? What is anything? Go back to the moth. A moth is...a moth is something
that is. It’s something that...flies. It has wings. Flying wings. And hair and
eyes. Elise should have eyes. She has seen things before. She has seen moths.
She has smelled the hot and cold nights as the weather transitions from summer
to autumn. There she goes thinking about more things again. This time, it’s the
seasons. There are two others: winter and spring. Spring is her favorite. Tofu
is her favorite food. She eats. She is a person. She has a mouth.
She is Elise Perkins and she is in a race. No, an expedition. A quest? No.
It’s a hunt. It’s a treasure hunt. She is a treasure hunter. Her name
is Elise Perkins, Treasure Hunter. She has a mouth, a nose, and lucky her,
two eyes. Also two ears. She’s hearing something. She’s hearing something
with her ears. It’s...it’s talking. Other people. Other people with names.
She can hear them. She can hear, but she can’t see. Why? Eyelids. She opens.
Still dark, but less dark. A hint of light. Light behind...a visor. Her
mouth, it doesn’t only eat. It also speaks. It screams. “Help!”
The visor slides away.
“Elise?” someone asks. “Elise, can you hear me? Are you there? Elise!”
“She opens her mouth but the words won’t come. Who said that? It sounded
like the way Elise sounded like when she could sound like something. But she
doesn’t sound like anything because when she opens her mouth, the words
won’t come out.”
“You can’t use your mouth,” a different person claims. “You don’t have an
airway anymore. But the helmet can convert your thoughts into sounds. Just
think what you want to say, and it will come out. Go ahead and try again,”
they encourage.
“Rubber baby buggy bumpers,” the helmet says. “Gina Linetti Spaghetti
Confetti.” A face. Elise’s famous two eyes have adjusted to the light and
can see when there is something that isn’t light. “That is definitely a
face. It’s a very pretty face. She used to know what to call it. Whatever
the face’s name, Elise may be falling in love with it.”
The face smiles. “Thank you. My name is Rage. You are Elise Perkins.”
“I know that,” Elise replies. “I am Elise. I have a face. I have a head. Do
I have anything else?” She tries to tilt her chin down, but it won’t move.
She can’t move at all.
Another person sighs. “You don’t have anything else. You only have a head.”
“Mino? A little more tact?” someone says to the person who has no tact.
“It’s okay,” Elise insists. “I am Elise Perkins, Treasure Hunter, a.k.a
Ladymoth. I don’t need anything more than a head, because my head is where I
do all my thinking.”
“Do you remember what happened?” the Rage face asks.
“I remember...” Elise begins. “I remember ice.”
“There was ice on the track during the race,” Rage confirms. “You sacrificed
yourself so that your friend, Jolanda could make it across the finish line.
You managed to defeat the last automated racecar, so she didn’t have to get
there quickly. She had time to get out of her car, find your head, and carry
it across with her. Now we’re in the winner’s lounge. Only six of us could
win. I’m not sure what that means for you yet.”
“We’re not sure what this means for any of us,” Zelda adds. Yes, that’s
Zelda.
Elise’s memories are starting to come back to her now. She feels like she’s
becoming herself again. They lounge there for about an hour. The normal
humans eat while Elise focuses on her recovery. The Custodians are not
letting them out of this room, or they would seek medical attention for her.
For now, she’s sitting on a snack table. Watching her friends talk is
helping a lot. After they’re done eating, she finds that she’s pretty much
back to her old self. She is centuries old, so there are a ton of memories
that have not yet resurfaced, but they’re not paramount to her core.
While they’re just sitting around doing nothing, the lights begin to
flicker. It’s not like a lightbulb is burnt out, though. It’s clearly
intentional, like the theatre warning the audience that intermission is
over. Out of the corner of her eye, Elise can see the door open, though
she’s not at the right angle to see who. She needs her legs back.
“Hello,” comes the voice of a man. She recognizes it, but can’t place it.
“Hello,” Colley says, intentionally positioning himself directly in front of
Elise.
“Please, Mister Rochelle.” Hrockas, the owner of the planet. That’s who this
is. “Do you honestly believe that I am not cognizant of the severed head
you’re keeping on the table? If I didn’t want death survival to be an
option, I would not have commissioned those helmets in the first place. The
plan was to keep any heads in their comas while the winners moved on, then
transfer their consciousnesses to their respective backups so they could
recall as much of the hunt as they were here for.”
Colley steps off so Elise can see. “We can’t trust you. You’re not taking
her.”
Hrockas nods. “Now that you have reinitialized her, taking her is no longer
a decent option. The reason we left you in here for so long is the producers
and I needed to figure out how to move forward. The truth is, not anywhere
near this many was expected to survive. Some of the bots were easy, but some
were hard. You destroyed them all, and through a loophole, managed to keep
your entire group together on the other side. It’s impressive, I admit. But
the challenge we had planned will no longer work. Funnily enough, however,
the challenge reward is now more relevant than ever.”
“Whatever the reward,” Jolanda says, “it’s not worth it if Elise can’t
compete.”
Hrockas smiles. “That’s the irony. The sudden death challenge is quite
literal. Whoever wins, dies...and will be given a superior substrate. It
would be cruel to force you to compete if the one person who
genuinely needed it stood no chance. That’s what we had to change. Now it is
no longer physical, but a contest of wits. Elise has a shot.”
“I forfeit the challenge,” Colley volunteers immediately.
“That’s fine,” Hrockas says, “but it comes with a penalty for the
next challenge.”
The others forfeit too. Elise is getting a new body.
