Project: Yggdrasil (Excerpt)

Sequence 1: Dreamwalker

They were coming for me.

Again.

I had to get out somehow. I stood in the middle of Helix Labs, in my old room. As I touched the doorknob, the whop-whop-whop of helicopters thundered overhead.

They're here.

Earsplitting whistling pierced the air and the ground rumbled with impacts. The walls shook and concrete pebbles showered down around me. The roof shields had failed.

How many times had this dream been rammed into my head? Dread gnawed at my stomach—but was that real? I swallowed, tasting the bitter tang of burning metal. Or was it all planted, designed to make my subconscious more malleable? More accessible?

Hell if I knew. Either way, you don't get used to someone breaking into your head.

Flames burst from the crumbling walls as I ran through the hallway. You'd think if he was going to implant dreams, he'd at least have the courtesy to make things a bit less dismal. Throw in a disco ball. Dress in a pink tutu. As a Dreamwalker, he could theoretically change any aspect of our surroundings, but no. Seriously, minus points for creativity there.

Then again, this dream had never been a good representation of what had really happened.

Upon reaching the end of the hall, I rounded the corner and there he was. Brother dearest stood, the tall stick figure he was. Though I knew he'd be there, the bottom of my stomach dropped out all the same. Funny, when we were growing up, I never once feared him. Of course, I never actually expected to face his Dreamwalker skills head-on.

"Oh my, Thanatos, to what do I owe this honor?"

"Hello, Mori," he replied, calmly scuffing his boots against the white honeycomb-tiled floors of Helix's hallways.

"That's Morrighan to you, thank you very much."

"I don't know why you're so adamant about that. I used to call you Mori all the time."

I gave him my sweetest, diabetes-inducing smile. "That was before you betrayed us. You lost that privilege when Helix was reduced to a pile of rubble and twisted metal. But, of course, you don't care about that, seeing as how you're snugly tucked away in...wherever you are."

"Tsk." He eyed me. "Despite what you might think, I do actually care about all of you." His face softened. "It's making me sick, wondering where you are."

"Yes, I'm sure you've literally vomited from worry. Why didn't you warn us about M.I.C.A, then? Must've just slipped your mind," I said with forced airiness. With herculean effort, I managed to keep my hand from shaking as I waved it at the steel reinforcement bars exposed in the blown-out walls. "Hey, Than, know what you should be more worried about? Me, sending a giant metal rod through your self-righteous face."

"Have you not learned your lesson yet? The subconscious mind can't control metal." Thanatos heaved an exasperated sigh, but kept a wary eye on the wall next to him.

"You sure? It'd make your intrusion so much more pleasant," I said.

"Look, let's get to the poi—"

"Yeah, yeah. You ask the same question every time. For a spy, you sure suck at listening." I made a great show of patting down my pockets. "Shame, I'm fresh out of crayons. Guess I can't draw you that map after all." I glared at him, hating that beating him senseless wasn't an option. Well, technically it was, but like Thanatos said, he'd still wake up with his nose intact.

"All I want is your location. You can keep your crayons and your map." Thanatos narrowed his eyes at me. "Why do you always assume I'm the traitor? Or did you forget there's another Dreamwalker?"

"Another Dreamwalker? Is that what you call Somnus now?" I snorted. "I'm not a moron. Your job was to spy on the target and warn us about their plans, and we didn't hear from you for months. Are you telling me your new buddies somehow magicked their way past the biometrics for Helix's roof shields? You sold us out. The people that attacked us were the ones you were supposed to be spying on!"

Thanatos looked away, fixating on a burning hole in the wall next to him. "Oh really? Pray tell, where did you find that information?"

"Pft. I was there, in case you forgot. These hallways might be empty now, but I remember what really happened. Those soldiers ran through the labs and slaughtered us like we were nothing more than vermin," I spat. "Every time I blink, I see those block M.I.C.A letters stamped across their armor."

"So?"

"So, I've seen your mission dossier. You were supposed to be a mole in M.I.C.A's combat division and report back. Why didn't you?" My shoulders stiffened and I clenched my fists.

"Right. You're not exactly a saint either." Thanatos tilted his head, a sneer on his lips. His image fizzled slightly. "If you cared so much about our parents, maybe you should have fought harder to save them."

"I—I didn't—" I stammered, my heart frozen.

He ignored my stuttering and continued. "So, you've seen the dossiers. Well, bully for you. That's all you got?" He stared at me with predatory eyes. "You have nothing. Anyone can write anything on a piece of paper, but that doesn't make it true. Helix kept a lot of secrets. I could open your eyes, the way M.I.C.A opened mine, if you'd just let me."

He took a step toward me, hand outstretched. I backpedaled into the wall. A lighting fixture came crashing down between us and shattered across the tile. I flinched away and shielded my face with my arm. In that instant, Thanatos had crossed the distance between us and planted his fists on the wall on either side of my shoulders.

My muscles seized up and I let out an involuntary gasp. Don't give yourself away. I turned away and squeezed my eyes shut. Resist.

Thanatos' whisper was audible even over the crackling flames. "You and Nemain are running out of time."

I cracked an eyelid open and shot him a withering glare. "Oh yeah? And whose clock are we on—yours? Or whoever's pulling your puppet strings?"

"I am my own, but I can't say the same for you and Nemain. Unless you come. Now." He towered over me and I felt my lip curl in defiance.

Two more fluorescent lights smashed into the floor, their fixtures swinging haphazardly on sparking wires. This isn't real. Don't let him sway you. I clenched my jaw and pressed my lips together.

"I don't want to hurt you, Morrighan."

Don't listen to him. Nemain's all you have left. If anything happens to her because you let him in...

I glanced down at his fist. "Huh. It's really too bad I can't say the same." I drove my knee toward his groin. In a flash, he'd retreated to his usual hangout spot in the middle of the hallway. The momentum of my swing-and-a-miss nearly swept my other foot out from under me. One bumbling pirouette later, I stood to face him again.

He glared at me over the sea of glass and wires and let his hand fall back to his side. "You're fools, all of you. Letting Helix use you like this. You think they trust you. But with M.I.C.A, I see how trust really works. Please..." his expression turned pleading now. Placating. What a bastard. "Please, come with me. Bring Nemain. You'll see, you don't know the whole story. Let me show you."

"We run this scenario at least once a week, and nothing's changed. What on earth makes you think I would trust you or tell you anything? Because you've violated my mind? Barged into my head again?"

Thanatos sighed. "Because, sister," he used the word carefully, "I know you. We grew up together. This is a mystery that you can't solve, and you care too much to let it go." He shook his head with meticulously practiced sympathy. "I can give you what you want. A new family."

"Don't you dare pretend to know what I want. M.I.C.A. stormed our campus and killed everyone. Do you even know what I had to do to survive?" I growled at him with my fists clenched, any shred of a cool front completely evaporated. "I don't want your new family. You know what I want? I want the last two months undone!"

My voice shook, rising now. "I want us all back together again. I want our parents back, to trust that you didn't get everyone killed. I want to be back home, at the labs, sleeping in my own bed. Not here at—" I stopped short. Thanatos' eyes glinted.

"Do, please, go on." Thanatos' smile didn't reach his eyes.

"Hah. Good one, Than, but I'd rather eat my own earlobes. Almost had me, but almost doesn't count, does it?" I waggled a taunting finger at him. "How about this? I tell you where I am, and you tell me what you're up to? Tit for tat. C'mon, sharing is caring."

With overwhelming satisfaction, I watched the smile slide off Thanatos' face. He drew back into the shadows, eyes narrowed and a snarl on his lips. I tried to arrange my face into a neutral, haughty guise to hide the fact that my heart was about to jackhammer its way out of my rib cage. Yep, I'm about as smooth as a pine cone.

The few remaining lights shattered then, with an oddly metallic crash, pitching me into darkness.

Title - Project: Yggdrasil

Genre - Science Fiction

Age Range - Young Adult/New Adult

Word Count - 109,000

Name - Rachel Brick

Age - 29

Project: Yggdrasil follows the story of a genetically engineered soldier who survives a massive assault on her home that kills most of her friends and family. She takes it upon herself to investigate the brutality, armed only with her a defunct plasma gun, "metal breathing" talents, and a smart lip. Little does she know, the shady organization have considerably more planned than simply razing Helix Labs to the ground. As she digs deeper, Morrighan realizes that the attack on her home is a linchpin in a larger conspiracy. For Morrighan to preserve what's left of her world, she'll need to sort fact from fiction, figure out who to trust, and bring her A-game before the clock ticks to zero.

I am a biomedical scientist by training, so writing a science fiction novel as my debut project felt like a natural fit for me. I began writing this story because I wanted to see a story where the scientists were the good guys (without a super-plague threatening to wipe out humanity.) It eventually grew into a trilogy (just began working on book 3), along with a collection of side stories. This story is unpublished, though I do have some readership on Wattpad. 

Thank you for your consideration.