Chapter 63
Chapter 63: Reality Check
There was deafening quiet following the terrifying warning from the xenomind. What Philip had just seen caused him to stand still and lose all voice.
A graphic depiction of the uncertainty clouding his mind, the displays showing scenes of transformation and anarchy just a few moments before now showed nothing but motionlessness. “Mr., Waller?” Amanda’s words sliced across the fog and brought Philip back to the present. “Suddenly what do we do?” In the control room, he proceeded to face the survivors; their eyes were full of a mix of fear and wild expectation.
Their presumptions pulled down on him, trying to smother his will. “We… need to confirm what we have observed,” Philip remarked in a voice that seemed more consistent than it truly was. “We cannot just accept this as given.” Doctor. Reeves spoke up when he started once more trying to steady the reactor. “With all due respect, sir, we watched the footage.
The entity contacted us personally. What more proof is needed? Philip shook his head trying not to let hopelessness win. “We have been handling innovative holographic technologies and mind-altering drugs. For all we know, this may be a mass hallucination or a huge fake.
Philip knew even as he stated the words sounded improbable. But it was too terrible to just accept Amelia being absorbed by an extraterrestrial intelligence meant to transform humanity. Amanda responded, “Okay,” her analytical mind racing.
“Let us go one step at a time. What can we absolutely state and what can we confirm? Philip nodded in thanks for her cool head. “We know the institution had a terrible event. We are surrounded with damage.
Past these boundaries, though, we lack clear evidence of what is happening in the city or past. Dr. Reeves pointed out “the crisis broadcast we got before recommends that something is to be sure happening outside.” “Valid,” Philip responded.
Still, the kind of threat was not clear-cut. More data is what we seek for. As though on signal, the old radio configuration emitted a great snap.
The voice of a twisted but yet identifiable news reporter emerged: “This is not a drill, repeat. Strange occurrences have been noted in Philadelphia and the neighboring counties.
Residents are urged to steer away from any unusual designs or features and stay indoors. The military and emergency services are assembling to handle the circumstances…”
Once more the communication stopped suddenly to be replaced by stillness. The survivors cast concerned stares at one another. “That confirms something is going on outside there,” Amanda replied gently. “But it does not show that what we watched on the screens was real.” Philip nodded; his ideas flew. “We want to walk outside and observe personally what is happening. But first…NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.
He paused after a long inhaled “First I have to find Amelia. Alternatively, on the other hand, anything left of her. The other occupants of the room moved uneasily remembering Amelia’s warped speech. ” Mr. Dr. Waller,” “If what we saw was real, then Amelia might not…,” Reeves started lightly.
Philip cut him off with a quick “I know.” I still have to try, though. I cannot simply leave her. Philip headed out the door without waiting for a reply. “Dr. Reeves, keep trying to engage the outer world. With you, Amanda is. Please stay among the remaining members and help wherever you can.”
As Philip and Amanda travelled the shattered hallways of the institution, the weight of what they were confronting started to sink in. Although this was all complex deception, the peril was quite real. “Where is our destination?” Amanda asked as they negotiated a dropped support beam. “The projection chamber,” Philip said, teeth set firmly. ” amylis occured in that spot.
Here is where we will search for any possible signs of her still present. The room, which had been so wild earlier, was now shockingly silent as they arrived. Philip waited at the brink, getting ready for what he could perceive inside. The room was covered in broken holographic transmitters and trash was all about. Still, what caught Philip’s eye was a feeble, pulsating light emanating from the room’s central point.
They proceeded deliberately toward the source of the light. As they approached Philip, his throat seized his air. Few inches above the ground, a whirl of fractals and geometric patterns reminiscent of what they had seen on the screens was hovering. “Is that…?” asked Amanda mumbled since she cannot finish the inquiry. Philip shivered with his hand and pointed toward the pulsating light.
As his fingertips neared the unusual shape, he felt a more strong tingling feeling like to static electricity. Suddenly Philip’s hand was surrounded by the sea of forms.
Though he tried to back off, he couldn’t get away. Panic started to fill his chest as the unusual energy started to ascend his arm. Mr. Waller!” Amanda gripped his shoulder and yelled as she tried to shove him away. As soon as she touched their surrounds seemed to vanish. An unintelligible whirl of colors and patterns replaced the wrecked projection chamber.
Philip felt as though he was surfing an endless sea of sensations and knowledge. He experienced flashes of recollections, both his own and those he couldn identify. Then he sliced through the anarchy and heard a voice. Amelia’s voice, but not as it had been the point of contact for the xenomind to speak through.
As he remembered Amelia, she was warm and vivid. “Philips?” Her shouts felt to be everywhere and nowhere at once. “Are you here, Philip?” He screamed back, or tried to, “Amelia!” He doubted whether he still had a bodily shape in this other planet. “Where now are you? What’s happening? Her voice spoke, laced with fear and confusion, “I don’t have the foggiest idea.” “Philip, I’m lost.” Everything is special. From what I can see, my way back.
Her dire voice brought Philip’s heart agony. Amelia, I’ll look for you. Hold on close! Direction had no meaning for him in this formless emptiness, hence he sought for her voice’s source.
He focused in trying to reach her. Not Amelia but rather a xenomind, Philip, a guy, suddenly senses a great and outsider presence. Though Philip is unaware of it, the xenomind praises his tenacity and loyalty but cautions him since Amelia is now a member of them. As the psychedelic scene fades, Philip urges Amanda to let him hear her. He blinked and felt lost in the unexpected reawakening with reality.
Amanda, dubious, finds it reasonable that Philip’s eyes were moving quickly, since he was dreaming. Philip shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts of the awaiting fog. He also accepts Amelia is alive, in some form, and the xenomind is real as well.
Philip realizes he should find out how to get in touch with her and bring her back since the consequences of his experience sink in and he feels direction restored. Still, doubt arises over whether the experience was merely a performance by his agitated mind or the alien knowledge itself.
The building shook violently, and the roof imploded over Philip and Amanda, therefore limiting their search for cover. Amanda cried, “We need to get out of here,” above the cacophony of the falling construction. “The whole framework could fall at any moment!” Philip waved, but as they left something caught his eye. Half-covered under a mound of garbage, was an identifiable object there. Amelia’s notepad of sketches He dove for it without thinking, just escaping a falling beam.
Amanda pressed the book to his chest as she drew him toward the exit. Once they emerged, they discovered a corridor lined with horrified people who had abandoned the collapsing building.
Running toward the main admission, Philip and Amanda joined the enormous throng. Philip stopped as they exploded through the doors into the rest of the planet, his eyes wide with uncertainty.
Amanda heaved next to him, her hand going to her mouth. Once a familiar sight, Philadelphia’s skyline looked alien and terrible now. Mathematical designs with a similar ethereal light Philip had discovered in the projection chamber floated in the air, monstrously beautiful.
Underneath were disorganised roadways filled with fleeing average residents and confused crisis responders. “It’s real,” Amanda murmured, hardly heard above the far-off shouts and sirens. “It’s all really true.” As Philip’s darkest anxieties were validated, Amelia’s sketchbook grew more securely in his hands.
From their perspective, the world was shifting and being altered by insight outside their grasp. But as he stood there watching the city he knew change into something he could not identify, a flutter of hope emerged in his chest. Still out there, Amelia was torn between two realities. Philip also understood he couldn’t stop as long he could save her. Where, in this brand-new and horrible world, did he even start?