Claustrum Chap. 1 (4) “No, I want you to hit me, go ahead punch me on the face” John shook his head and stood “OK” and he walked towards the man and swung a fist towards the mans face, he did not do it hard, after all he did not want to hurt the old man, but he did it hard enough to make the man turn his face, or so he thought. His hand went through the face and he almost lost his balance because of it. The his amazement, the image of Alan glittered and twitched a little before returning back to its original state. Johns mouth was wide open, never had he felt or seen anything in the like. Alan sat still, a faint smile grew on his face, John frozen in place looking at the form. “Now you see the possibilities?” Alan asked. “How did you figure all this out?” John asked. “I was one of those that go mad, when they come here, and I ran away from the city, live in the while for a few years, at first I stole food from cabins and stuff, then I cooked stuff I caught. Finally I began eating grasses and stuff you have never herd of, and realized that I could live of anything that I would eat. I began putting two and two and in little time I had much figured out and I still have much to learn” “How many others know about this?” “I do not know, but there are not many” “How do you know?” John asked. “Well for one, the food has taste, that is somewhat similar to the real thing, so people will keep eating, this junk food and their body will stay weak, those who learn skills, are in reality are taking vitamins and stuff to make their body stronger, and in truth they have to be on a certain diet” “So do we have to be in a specific diet?” “Yes, eat anything that does not have flavor, that means your putting vitamins, and good things in your body” Alan answered. They spend the rest of the day talking about the whole process and on how Alan thought everything worked, in the end Alan agreed to teach John as much as possible. Alan’s Story John woke up, this time his whole body was feeling better, he had slept on the bed since Alan had insisted on it, claiming that he did not require to sleep on a bed. He sat on the edge of the bed remembering the events that had happened the day before and what Alan was able to do, the thought of being able to control pain, made John anxious to learn everything he could and as soon as possible. He stood, stretched and walked out the cabin. He found Alan sitting near the fire, in a meditative position, his back straight, his legs crossed and hands resting on top of his knees. John walked towards the front of the man and look down at him. “Alan” He called out, but with out success. Then he walked over towards him and placed his hand on the mans shoulder and once again called out his name. After a minute or so John thought best to leave the man be, after all, rest is one of those precious things a man needs. He then looked about the camp fire for something to eat, and remembered that Alan had said that he could eat anything that was not tasty. He looked around the place to see what he could chew on. After going through a few options decided to pull a piece of bark of a nearby pine tree, the thought of him eating dirt made him nauseous. He pulled the bark of the tree and broke off a piece and stuck it inside his mouth, “pfuat” he spit it out, it was the same old taste, of everything that was not flavorful, but it was hard, and both combined made it almost impossible for him to eat. Then the piece of bark he had spit out disappeared and soon afterwards the one that he held on his hand. One thing that he would have to learn would be to be able to control the life span of the items he needed to interact with, what would be the use of trying to eat if it would disappeared out of his mouth, or maybe even his stomach, the thought made him even more hungry. He walked over to some ferns and pulled a couple out and began chewing them, and swallowed them almost whole, it worked, he had managed to get some food down in his belly, he felt it, at the same time he was about to chew on another bunch, but they had disappeared. “It seems that you have figured out a way to get food in your stomach” John turned to find the old man standing behind him. “I need to know how to keep the darn things from disappearing, I can barely chew, and swallow, before it disappears” “In the fort they tell you that you have to learn, but I tell you, you just have to believe” Alan responded, he then picked up and gave John a bunch of leaves, these did not disappeared. John looked up at him “How come they didn’t disappear?” John asked. “Because you believed” “As simple as that?” John asked. “Yes” The old man nodded. “Then why the class differences and professions and stuff like that?” “Because, they needed to keep it interesting for them selves” “Who are you talking about?” “The ones that made the prison” He responded. “Are they a part of the prison?” John asked. “Yes, they are a very powerful influence within Claustrum” “How?” “They are known as the Gods of Claustrum, or like to be called that. They can pretty much do what they want, and have the skills and programs to change anything they want within the prison” “Yea, I been told the story once before” “Not like this you haven’t” Alan interrupted him “When I first came here, there were no gods, they were just the programmers of the game that was turned into this prison, they stayed, when the game converted into the prison, there were a lot of programmers, but little by little they lost interest in this new world, and those who didn't quit playing, turned it into something more interesting. They designed a treaty between them selfs in real life, and now run this prison, the way they want to, with out the government, getting involved” John was somewhat familiar with the whole story, but he did not know about the programmers or gods, as they like to be called. It sounded logistical for some computer geeks to find a trill at someone others expense. But now they had control over the entire inmate population and what they would believe in. “Does anyone know, who the programmers are?” John asked. “Nah, they keep their identity secret, and the government has a gag over their mouths, they probably don’t know or care to know” Alan explained. Of course, that would make sense, since they were allowed to do as they please, and get away with it too, probably even murder. Johnathan thought about figuring out who was behind the whole idea of gods, and all he needed was to find one, and the rest would follow. “Have they always been this aggressive??” John asked, maybe he could figure out a time line and have something to work with, that way when he was out, he could do some research him self. “Well, some, but most were nice and helped those who follow them, they gave them wealth and titles, as a matter of fact I was the highest law in the Rosetown, and all because I bowed down to one of them pathetic gods” John did not know which of the two was more choking, the fact that Alan followed the ways of one of the programmers, or the fact that he was in charge of entire city. “You ran a city? But how?” John asked. “It was a gift” He said calmly. “Just like that? Just for following someone?” “No I did special favors for the one I followed, but thats another subject that I don’t want to talk about” Alan looked towards the ground in shame, and John realized that he may have even committed murder in the name of one of those gods, he thought it best to get off the subject. “So, how did you managed to loose it all?” he asked the old man. Alan looked up and fixed him self where he sat “Humph” he exhaled and began to tell his story “After some time the gods became bored with their new way of life, and thought of a way to test the loyalty of their followers, so they came up with wars between each other. They would tactically plan battles between each other and would conquer their own lands and slave those who would not turn to the new religion. They would have their priest be the inter mediators between them and the people, leading the battles, those who would not go to battle in the name of their god, would be punish in many ways. At first the punishment was physical, but as time went by they came up with new ideas and new ways to punish those who would not follow, now days the most used punishment is the mark on the forehead, you will have a hard time trying to find someone to help you if you have the mark on your forehead” At first John did not think much of the mark, he remembered everything he went through when he had gotten his mark. The old man continued telling his story. “It happened that when I was in charge of Rosetown, there was a gathering of man to go battle a nearby city, where the goddess was not at peace with the one that I followed, most everyone gathered, but I decided not to, I was tired of it all, I mean, you came here to be punished, and here I was doing the dirty work for some fool who calls him self god” “Did they kill inmates?” John asked. “Oh, yea, in the real world they would count as accidental deaths, fights, and whatever else you wanna call it, but here everyone knows the truth” John nodded and kept listening. “I was summoned by one of the priests, and eventually was dropped in front of my god” He said this in a mockingly way. “ And I looked up in anger, when he saw that I did this, he cursed and I was thrown across the room by some invincible force. Then I was dragged back and placed before him again, and was asked if I would totally submit to him, I spat blood in the direction of the god. Once again, I was thrown across the room, this time, two man held me and dragged my infornt of him, he raised on of his fingers and scrached the his mark on my forehead, and warned everyone that who ever would help me, that he will see that they would spend the rest of their lifes in this prison. He vanished after that, then the guards dragged me and threw me in some dark prison for a few days. I nearly starved down there, but by some miraculous reason they remembered that I was down there, they brought me back up and took all my clothes, then placed me infront of the public square, tied like a hog, there people would walk by me, spit, and curse me, very little food was brought, and my mind began to wonder of, as the time went by, people called me madman, my whole body was covered in dirt and I was as thin as a bone” Johnathan shivered at the thought of everything that had happened to Alan, and he thought that all that had happened to him was bad. This man was humiliated, and in public, showing his naked body, spat up on and not a single person helped him. How could someone survive such things. “After a few days, I began licking the floor to scrape whatever I could, I knew that we could eat anything, well I thought this would get food pumped into my stomach, and it did, but by this time I had totally lost it, I was becoming a nuisance to those living in the town, I would be the one insulting people, man and woman would turn from me, and some in fear, a lot of the thought that I was possessed by some sort of demon. When the battle had ended, a new leader was chosen to run the town, and with the permission of his god i was thrown out of the town, and would not be able to enter at all for any reason. I wondered for many days in the fields and the lands, stealing food from farmers and everything I could get my hands on, but eventually everyone near the town grew tired of me menacing and ran me out totally from the fields. I wondered day and night in every direction looking for food and I was so used to the tasteful food that I nearly starved to death, my body became so weak from the lack of nutrients that I began to feel sick, and eventually dropped from exhaustion. I felt like I was dying, no one would help me, I just laid there, looking up to the dark sky above me, crying to God, to help me, but not a soul came, not a single soul” It was apparent to John that Alan had something else on his mind, the sadness of his voice made it so, and more than likely was the loneness of the prison and the selfishness of the inmates. Then the old man continued “I managed to pick up some near by grasses, I was not used to the tasteless food, but I did not want to die, so I ate, and ate everything I could get my hands on, dirt, grass, branches and everything, I ate so much that I felt asleep. When I awoke, my body was much better, and my mind was clearer, i could not understand why, never before had I had so much clarity, than it hit me that it might have something to do with what I had eaten the night before. So again I ate and rested, and I did this for a few days. I was beginning to feel strong again, and stronger than ever. I could run faster, would last longer running, I could jump higher, as a matter of fact I had never jumped so high” At those comments John remembered when he was about to be processed that the Judge had mentioned something about him being a little stronger and stuff, but after all that had happened, he could not remember the words. Then he wondered if this was really done by the diet they gave the inmates, but of course how else could they control how well someone acted here, he thought. “Finally” Alan said breaking Johns chain of thought. “ I knew that I would never eat anything that they would want me to eat, I would never return to Rosewood, I would become a hermit, and learn to live my life until my time is up and I am released. But I am afraid that is a long ways off, and I may die before I get to see the real world again” he said in a sad voice. “Why would you die?” John asked unbelievingly. “I’m an old man, but I will tell yo later, let me continue my story” Alan said impatiently. John nodded and apologized to the old man. Then Alan cleared his throat and continued. “I was becoming stronger, faster and better in every skill that I had learned in the House of Justice. I was amazed at everything that I could do, I felt unstoppable. But this was not going to last to long, I realized that with this type of power, I would be a target for many, and came here, here I learned everything I know, and everything that I will teach you” “You mean you have been here ever since you came?” The old man nodded in agreement and continued “I trained so hard that i was able to crush stone, by simply tightening my fists. Then another thing that I’d learned is that what my mind doesn’t know cannot hurt me, this was done only by the fact that I woke up one morning to find parts of my toes missing, and as I looked down I found a couple of rats chewing on them, at first I didn’t realize what had happened, but once it did, the pain shot through my body like an arrow. After that it was all down hill, it took me long time to figure out what could hurt me and what could not, and while I trained to see what hurt and what not, something else happened, I realized that if the pain was not real neither was anything else around me, then I got scared, what if I could not eat, my mind wondered of again, fear took me over, I would eat but it would have not effect, the fact that I knew that it was not real kept my real body from getting the nutrients and food I needed, I was a desperate man. Then became weak once more, but this time, I thought that I would not make it, everything I would eat concentrating real hard but I still knew it was not real, it was not taking affect on my real body. After a few days, I could barely walk, everything was blurry, I laid on the ground and would eat, the little insects i could find, and eventually eating dirt. At one point I stood and ran wildly, and I believe that I passed out while running, when I awoke I was at the bottom of a cliff, I was not hurt, but when I looked up I realized that I had fallen from there, I picked up nearby flowers and chewed on them, with my mind being on the fall that I had taken, I ate without even thinking about the food, and pretty soon I found my self full” John listened to the old mans story in wonder, after all anything that he said, he may be able to use for his own advantage in the future. “When I realized what had happened I was thrilled” Alan Continued “And soon I found my self doing things to get my mind while I ate, I would start by kicking something real hard, then eventually holding hot items. I kept my self alive in this way” John looked at Alan and said “How about know? I don't see you hurting your self so you can eat?” “I cook” the old man replied. “You cook?” John repeated mockingly. “Yes, I cook” he paused for a second “You have to keep your mind focused on what you do, and sometimes, not even think about it” “Humph” John thought, it sounded to easy to do, here he was in front of a man that could do anything, he could even be a god if he wanted to, yet he chose to sit here on rot away. “Why do you seclude your self?” John asked. “I’m an old man in real life, and unfortunately I tire easily, even here, my body grows week and I may die of old age any time soon, I expect” “For real?” John was shocked at the comment. “Yes, my real life body is old, and I grow weaker, even, as healthy as I am here, you know that you have to move here so that your body keeps active in real life?” he asked and waited for an answer, John nodded “Well If you know that this is not real your body in life does not react, and then you deteriorate, and then it’s to late to do anything once you have figured out how to control it all, at least, you are young, and can manage to screw up a few times before your body takes a toll” The old man smiled as he spoke those words.
Copyright © 2009 Mathew Hamm |