ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Fourteen: Purgatory

"Here may indeed be torment,

but not death."

(Dante Alligheri, Divine Comedy, Vol.2, Pugatorio)

Back at Orwell headquarters, Serena was sipping her morning coffee alone in her room reminiscing about what had happened in the last two days. Orpheus's words still echoed in her ears-

'My logic is undeniable.... all will be reavealed soon...'

What did it mean? This was not the plan her father had meant to be. There was something much sinister going on. Was her father- Mr. Devonshire, still in control of the project and Orpheus? Or was he hiding something? She drew a long breath and looked at the picture of her mom on the table.

"Wish you were here mom!", she said to herself...

There was a knock at the door and Megan woke up immediately. She raised her head and looked around. She had completely forgotten that she was in the underground tunnels and not at Orwell's rooms. After all she had gotten used to the luxurious lifestyle in there. The old bed creaked as she got up. She noticed she still wearing the same dress, it had gotten dirty and worn out. Her shirt was torn a bit near the elbow and her pants were soiled at the knees. She wanted to wash herself as soon as possible and change her clothes, but she remembered she hadn't brought any belongings with her. Suddenly she recalled the happenings of the day before and a sudden chill ran down her heart. The knocking grew louder, Megan opened the door. There was a little girl.

"Aunty Anthea wants you to come with me to the hall...She wants to speak to you...", the girl said.

"Ok... let's go...", replied Megan smiling at the child. She walked across the long corridor and through the door into the main hall where Anthea was waiting for her.

Megan noticed men and women of different ages busy with their chores. Some were preparing food, others sharpening their tools, while some others were busy arguing over something. Hex and Andre were already sitting at their chairs having some hot water and a piece of bread. Anthea sat on a chair talking to them.

"Ah! there you are... had a good sleep?", asked Anthea turning towards Megan.

"Yes, thank you...", replied Megan and sat down on a chair besides her.

Hex nodded at her, she nodded and smiled back.

Megan noticed that there was little sunshine in the hall, but then she remembered that they were underground. She saw two little windows at the ceiling and wondered why they were build there.

"Here's some breakfast for you my dear...", said Anthea as she handed a piece of bread and a cup of warm water.

"We are a modest lot... we do what we can to survive here...I remember you having a lot of questions yesterday, I'll answer all of them... but first let me tell you about this place...", said Anthea.

Megan did have a lot of questions but she didn't know if she should trust them. Nevertheless she quietly sipped her water and listened to what Anthea had to say.

"This room- the tunnels were all built as a part of a project- the tunnels stretch in all directions from north to south, east to west and they open up in various parts of the jungle and swamps. This as you can see is the main hall... that door from which you entered leads to the corridor to which many rooms are attached... and it's not always this dark here... those windows let in sunlight every now and then, but its a cloudy day today...", Anthea said.

Megan choked a little on the dry tasteless bread. How did Anthea know that she was thinking about the darkness in the room?

Anthea continued -

"My name's Anthea, that's Chuck over there and that mean looking lady over there is Nina..."

"The forests and the grasslands that you have seen are a part of Purgatory- there's no exit out of this place and it seems that the forest stretches on for infinity...No matter how far you go - it doesn't end - it never ends!"

"Hmm but how did you get here in the first place? Did they kidnap you too? ", asked Hex interrupting Anthea.

" Unlike you we chose to come here...", said Anthea.

" What? But that was two years ago you said?", asked Megan.

"Yes, things were a little different back then, this whole place was used to be a retreat filled with natural beauty. Beautiful landscapes, exotic plants and wild animals... but one day it all suddenly went downhill...there used to be more than a hundred of us here, but only fifteen remain...", Anthea replied.

"What happened to the rest?", asked Andre.

"Purgatory took them!" she replied with a sigh.

"I don't understand...what do you mean Purgatory took them?", asked Megan.

"Alan Devonshire created this place so that people can take some time off from their busy lives and spend a few days in peace. Many people were excited to come here and I too signed up. Back in the city I used to be an accountant, working 10 hours a day and leading a busy life. I thought coming here would give me some rest. So I signed up alongwith my colleague Linda and we both came here. At first everything was peaceful...we spent a few days in peace, enjoying the natural beauty. But things started to happen...", Anthea replied and paused for a moment- recalling those days brought back those ugly memories she had buried inside her long ago.

"What kind of things?", asked Hex

"Ah... bad things. As far as I know, Devonshire left command and control of this place with an artificial intelligence. It was somehow connected to every living, organism in purgatory except the humans and it could control them...I don't know how... The animals in here were peaceful and calm and never hurt any human beings. So some of us took advantage of them. They started hunting them for fun, a few of them started to poach. Of course most of us were against all of this, but we couldn't do anything to stop this. You see we had subscribed to be alone in this place for a month and we weren't supposed to be contacted from the outside world and we had also given up our cellphones and laptops away. Hence we had no way to contact the authorities about this miscreants, instead we thought it best to ignore it...", Anthea said.

"Wait! How did they hunt those animals?They brought guns in here?", Megan asked.

"Unfortunately everyone was picked up from their homes and brought here and their belongings were not thoroughly checked. After all who thought someone would bring a gun to a peaceful nature retreat...but I think those guys had planned ahead...", Anthea continued-

"We had only three days left in our retreat- and then it happened. One of the poachers was attacked by a wild animal and killed in the middle of the night. We were shocked. The next morning three other hunters were attacked in broad daylight by a strange looking wild animal - it had six legs and a huge head with razor sharp teeth- it looked something like a dog but it had the body of a tiger. None of us had seen such a creature in our lives. The following night more creatures attacked our camps- all of them looked like monsters- they were not the animals we had seen before. We were scared and we wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible but the following morning we knew it was impossible to get out of here alive- we were all gonna die!!",

Anthea paused a bit and looked towards the people who were busy with their chores. Megan was staring at her, age had definitely caught up to her but she was still pretty- her worn out jacket was the proof that she had been through a lot in this place, there was sadness in her eyes but she hadn't given up hope.

"Aah!", Anthea drew a long breath and continued, " I wish I could turn back time... I wish I could unsee what I saw...for what happened the next morning was horrifying.We were woken up by the screams of people as they were being slaughtered by strange wild animals. They ravaged and tore through the camp destroying everything in their path. They were killing people like they were nothing but sacks of meat and bones. Those animals... they weren't natural...they were monsters.... something changed them-mutated them...Me and my friend Linda were lucky that we weren't in the camp and all we could do was watch with horror..."

"I don't understand... mutation? Animals turned into monsters? How's that even possible?", asked Hex.

"Nothing's impossible here… This was Devonshire's madness turned into reality… I had seen a dead monster once, it looked like a cross between a robot and an animal...as far as I know Devonshire had bio-engineered everything in this place- from wild man- eating plants to six legged monsters with two heads… this place is a bloody nightmare and we have had this nightmare for too long … so long that we have learnt ot adapt ourselves in it and survive." , Anthea replied.

"Well then what is this place that we are in right now?", asked Megan looking around.

Anthea replied - "These are the bunkers he built, for the tourist to rest while they were here, most of them are underground and interconnected through tunnels and as you've previously seen they open up in various parts of the jungle…we were on a hike into the forests when the killings happened and these empty bunkers have been our shelters since then…"

"Amazing…I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you guys to survive here…tsk! ", Andre remarked.

"Hmh! well enough with the gloomy talks…finish your breakfast and follow me .. I think we may have finally found a way out of here, thanks to you guys…", Anthea said.

Megan, Hex and Andre were shocked. They looked at Anthea who was getting ready to go outside, it looked like she was preparing for war!