Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

Where are the twelve survivors?"
    "This way," Ramirez said reluctantly. He led them through more corridors, still talking. He sounded increasingly nervous. "The twelve survivors are kept in a holding area attached to the Maze. It appeared quite literally out of nowhere, an outgrowth of the Maze, because it was needed."
    "There are those who have suggested the Madness Maze is alive," said Dr. Happy. "And quite possibly
    aware."
    "It's alien," Ramirez said shortly. "It could be anything."
    Dr. Happy clapped his bony hands together. "Oh, the possibilities…"
    "All twelve are imprisoned behind force screens," said Ramirez, deliberately not looking at Dr. Happy.
    "The shields allow nothing in or out. We haven't been able to come up with anything that can affect these screens."
    "Then how do you feed the survivors?" said Finn.
    "We don't. They haven't eaten or drunk anything in two hundred years. And that's just the beginning of how… altered they are. I should warn you; you'll find just being this close to the Maze disturbing. You'll experience a constant feeling of being watched, and studied, or weighed in judgement. And not by the survivors. In this, as in everything else we do here, the Maze watches us all."
    "Yes," said the Shub robot. "We feel it too. It is disturbing."
    Finn shot a quick glance at the robot, and then decided not to pursue the matter. "Can we communicate with the twelve?"
    "We can talk with them, but I don't know that what we get is actually communication." Ramirez shuddered suddenly. "We're almost there, Sir Durandal. Soon you'll know why we've kept these…
    abominations secret for so long. The force shields the Maze provides are a blessing, and a protection for all Humanity. It is my fervent hope that they will never be lowered. Or at least not until the rest of Humanity has evolved to a point where we have some hope of dealing with these creatures." He gave Finn a hard look. "I have to ask, Sir Durandal; what are your intentions towards the twelve?"
    "I haven't decided yet," said Finn. "That's why I came all this way, to see them in person. But, they could be weapons we can use against the Terror. Or other enemies."
    "Like Donal Corcoran," said Dr. Happy, unexpectedly. "He'd make an excellent weapon."
    "Mouth is open, Doctor, should be shut," said Finn.
    And then they rounded a final corner, and there the twelve were, imprisoned behind shimmering fields of energy. Ramirez started to say something, but Finn gestured imperiously for him to be silent. He walked slowly forwards, alone. He had no intention of sharing this moment with anyone. He walked slowly down the aisle, peering into each cell, drinking in the terrible miracles the Maze had wrought in their merely mortal flesh. They were everything he had hoped for, and worse.
    Twelve men and women, kept alive and suffering and crazy for two hundred years. Not eating or drinking, because they had risen above such human needs. He looked at them, and some of them looked back. They were glorious and awful, magnificent and appalling; sick dreams given shape and form and thrust unwillingly into the waking world. Finn decided he didn't feel disturbed. He felt… invigorated. He slowly retraced his steps, stopped in front of the first cell, and gestured for the others to come forward and join him.
    "I have to thank you, Dr. Ramirez," he said calmly. "In all my years, I have never seen anything like this.
    A truly unique experience. I could watch them for hours, and never grow tired. Tell me, have they always
    been like this? Have they changed at all, in, two hundred years?"
    "Not according to the files left by my predecessors," said Ramirez. He preferred to look at Finn rather than what was in the cell. "This is how they emerged from the Madness Maze. Each one entirely singular, and horribly self-sufficient. Apart from one, they haven't slept at all in two centuries. No normal mind could survive under such conditions. But then, these creatures aren't in any way normal."
    He turned and looked, almost unwillingly, into the first cell, and the others followed his gaze.
    The cell contained two survivors. A man and a woman, joined together into one body. A large horribly white creature, with four arms and four legs, and one oversized head with too many eyes, it crawled slowly round its featureless enclosure like a giant insect. The single mouth spoke a language that made no sense, and all the eyes moved in different directions.
    "Not much of a weapon, is