Author's Note

I apologize for the long hiatus, but I hope this chapter will make up for everything. I will be putting more effort into this story, making sure that I don't rush anything.

Chapter 9: Is This A Dream...?

Tap

Tap

Tap

The echoing of something tapping along the pitch black room was all Isaac could hear. Besides that, everything in the room was nothing but pure silence and a whole lotta' nothing. He had no idea how long he'd been in this place, as he somehow couldn't seem to keep track of time. Sometimes, the darkness would form vague images, while other times he had full-on hallucinations. He had control of his body, or... at least he thought he did. The longer he stared into the dark abyss, the more he got the feeling that this was all some sort of strange nightmare. The tapping had been there for a long time now, or at least he thought it had been a long time. His mind didn't seem able to comprehend the difference between a day and second in this world. Whenever he walked towards the noise, he was filled with a fear and a nagging feeling that he shouldn't try to approach the noise. He always succumbed to his instincts and, at this point, it was getting rather annoying. Eventually, he'd need to grow a pair and find out just what this noise was, where it originated, and who or what was creating it.

He was sitting down, back to the surprisingly warm and soft wall. It moved and squirmed under his weight, indicating that it was indeed alive and maybe even conscious of the man propped up against it. Though, it didn't seem to be doing anything to him, and though he didn't have the concept of time fully understood in this illogical plane of existence, he knew it'd at least been a while since he'd first sat down. Sometimes, when he was still sitting down, something, be it a bright light or a person he once knew, appeared in front of him and the hallucinations began. Though, it's been a while since anything at all other than the constant tapping happened. Still, he preferred maddening silence to necromorphs and insanity-inducing markers any day of the week. He thought of Nicole sometimes, but his thoughts drifted towards Ellie the most nowadays. Nicole was a distant chapter in his life, not forgotten, but he'd at least come to terms with what had happened. The markers had killed her, and there was nothing he could do about it. But he had no idea what had happened to Ellie... was she even alive?

Tap

Tap

Tap

He looked up, tilting his head a bit in confusion at the tapping noise. Normally, he couldn't give two shits about what happened in this place, but for some reason, the tapping was getting softer and quieter. In his entire time here, it had always kept the same tempo and volume, but it was now slowly getting quieter and less frequent. He wondered if maybe this was the cause of his sanity slowly depleting and becoming nonexistent. But since when did he have any shred of sanity anymore...? He'd lost himself that fateful day aboard the Ishimura and had become an entirely different person. He didn't know why he was the one who always survived the necromorph infestations, but he was glad that he finally was away from it all. Thankfully, his hallucinations were never anything that had to do with the markers and the things that followed in their wake. It was always about his past and what he assumed could have been his future if he hadn't convince Nicole to work aboard the Ishimura. Sometimes, he'd look up at his young mother's face, held against her bosom while obviously an infant.

Casting useless thoughts away and glaring in the general direction of the noise, he got up and started to make his way across the soft and squishy room. He had just about enough of everything in this world. If he was ever going to get out of here, he needed to go against his instincts every once in a while. This place was probably relying on his need for instinctual advice, so he needed to do something stupid. As he got closer and closer to the ominous tapping, he was filled with the same primal fear as before. But he kept on walking, this time a little angry at his foolishness. He had let this place get to him, giving in to his humanity and letting the darkness control him. He stopped in his tracks, surprised to hear nothing at all now... the tapping had completely ceased in its existence. He glared a bit at the world's new little scheme to turn him away. He then continued to walk towards where the sound had once been with renewed determination.

A new noise altogether started to form in the same direction, which caused the same fear, but stronger than before, to form within him. It was a faint moaning, much like a man would moan if he was in horrible pain and was exhausted, unable to do anything else at all. Still, he walked forwards, knowing that waiting will do absolutely nothing for him, but prolong his time here. He looked down in surprise at the floor, but was still unable to see anything at all. The floor no longer felt alive, but it now felt metallic... but not like a metal he'd ever felt before. He didn't have any clothing or armor on, so he could feel the floor with his feet. When he had first arrived in this place, he'd been disgusted by the way everything felt on his feet. Now, he was feeling an unknown metal... it didn't feel manufactured, but it felt more natural. He had no idea how that made any sense to him in any way, shape, or form, but in this world, nothing made sense.

He stopped when the noise seemed to jump in its position, now right in front of him. He could just barely see the outline of a figure, curled up in a fetal position. Isaac bent down and scooped up a flashlight he knew nothing about, as he had now control over his actions now. His face contorted in confusion as his body was now longer in his control, wondering what this place was going to throw at him now. He moved his hands along the shaft of the flashlight, delighting in the feeling of something new and man-made... it felt like forever since he'd felt anything that reminded him of home. It's not like he had much of a home to go back to, but at least he had something... it was a lot better than nothing at all. He turned the flashlight on, exerting a little more force than he expected when pressing the button. A ray of light shot out from the lens, illuminating the metallic surface. Indeed, it looked more natural than anything man-made... which would explain what he was feeling below his naked feet. He looked back up at the outline of the figure, wondering if he really wanted to do this anymore. But he no longer had control of his body... the best thing he could do at this point was just go with it and hope for the best, though he expected the worst.

His eyes widened in both horror and extreme confusion at the sight before him. The figure was as naked as Isaac was, nothing covering its body at all. The face had the same features as Isaac's... it was a fuckin' clone! The not-Isaac shook violently, as if he was suffering from extreme hypothermia, though the room felt really warm, hot even. The clone was a lot skinnier, as if he hadn't eaten in a good week or two. The ribs were sickeningly pronounced against the pale skin, adding to the already disgusting image. He averted his gaze away from a certain part of his clone, not wanting to look at anything that would dub Isaac as a perverted freak. The veins were extremely visible, the color of black... they were covering the man as if they were some type of fleshy spiderweb. The eyes were gone, bottomless holes that were blacker than even the shadows that enveloped the two. A trail of blood trickled down from the two eye sockets, brighter than blood actually was against the light of the flashlight.

The figure, who had been moaning in pain and obvious misery, stopped and looked up at Isaac, expressionless and indifferent. There was absolutely no emotion at all on the clone's face... it was rather disturbing. Something flickered within the eye sockets... an image of a first-person view of a small officer's medical bay... at least, that's what it looked like at this point. Isaac crouched down, now having the choice to move, and looked further into the eyes... the clone didn't seem to mind, smiling an emotionless and creepy smile. The lips on the smile were cracked and parched, drops of blood forming from how dry they were... and the smile broke the seams of the damaged lip, making the little amount of blood start to trickle down the man's chin. Isaac ignored this all, too focused on trying to figure out what he was seeing in the clone's eyes. There were three people within the room, one a male doctor, another a female doctor, and another a female soldier. He couldn't make out their facial features from here, except for the male doctor, who was right against the glass... glass? Yes, the first-person view indicated that the person was inside of a tube, bubbles sometimes floating past the face, which indicated that the person was surrounded by water or some other kind of liquid.

The male doctor had a snow-white beard, though it was a lot like Isaac's, except more clean and pleasant-looking. The doctor's face was aged, wrinkles lining across the skin... the eyes showed wisdom and a raw and indisputable intelligence. The doctor was smiling at the person inside of the tube, saying something. Isaac could hear what was said, and he immediately wished that he hadn't been able to...

The doctor said this in a voice that sounded so very distant and quiet, "Stay alive, Isaac... you still have a part to play in this universe. Wake up soon, Isaac... wake up soon..."

Isaac backed away with horror at this new revelation, the clone's face contorting in perverted joy at his reaction. He always had the distinct feeling that this world was fake, but his mind had continuously denied this possibility. Was he really asleep... in a coma? Was he really inside of a medical bay, being kept under constant supervision? Were they experiencing a necromorph infestation...? No, they had killed off the marker homeworld, that was impossible! The clone got up on shaky legs, the face still showing some sick happiness at Isaac's situation. It opened its mouth and a light much different than the one the flashlight was creating shot out a couple of inches, but not really hitting anything. What truly terrified Isaac was the familiarity of it... the same light that had came out of Nicole's mouth when Isaac was being tested on in that damn station. No... it wasn't over! No, god damnit, NO! This couldn't be happening all over again!

Isaac let loose a roar of anger and lunged towards his clone with murderous intentions. He lashed out with his hands, intent on tearing the clone's skull apart by the eye sockets. The clone backed off a bit, but Isaac was able to stick three fingers in each hole and pull in opposite directions. The figure grabbed at his arms, its facial features now resembling Ellie, a look of fear and betrayal on her face. No, it was a lie created by the marker! Or was he really attacking someone he knew? He was beyond any rational thought at this point, adrenaline coursing through his veins. The flashlight was suspended in mid-air, pointing directly at the fake Eliie's face.

The terrifying creature before him opened its jaws and let loose hell itself, screaming a solitary, yet horrifyingly familiar, sentence, one that validated Isaac's fears, "MAKE... US... WHOLE!"

Almost in an instant, Isaac was alone... the figure had just vanished! It was as if none of that had ever happened, but was merely a figment of Isaac's already insane mind. Thankfully, the flashlight was still near him, but was now in front of him, on the floor as if it had never been floating in the air. He picked it up and spun it around the gigantic room. There was no end... only two walls going in perpendicular directions. He sat against the closest part of the wall and cried softly into his arms, screaming the question in his mind of why it always had to be him. Why did he have to relive this hell over and over?! It wasn't fair! Please... just make it stop! Please!

But all the while he wondered if this was even real... if he was truly even alive. Was this what it was like to be dead, your subconscious forced to relive everything in your life? But if that was the case, why was the creature that had been here only a few moments ago the only thing inside of this hellish nightmare that was related to the markers? Is this really a dream, or had the marker finally gotten to his mind? If he was dreaming, he needed to find a way to wake up... his life might depend on it.

But the real question was... did he even want to be alive anymore?