I’m a guard at a facility that contains the unnatural, or at least what society would consider to be unnatural. The way the world works is pretty set in stone, right? physics, chemistry, biology, what is possible and what is impossible, but what if I told you there was a fine line between the two? between order and complete chaos.
We contain whatever falls out of the norm, whether it be inanimate objects, places or even people, dangerous to themselves and others or completely harmless, we seek them and keep them away from the publics ever prying eyes.
We are called Sentinels and as far as I know, most of us are recruited from the existing pool of special forces and government agents worldwide, but our memories are mostly wiped in the process, you see there is a force at work in the universe that we don’t quite understand, and for lack of a better term we refer to it as “Entropy” an unpredictable imbalance or disorder in the way of things.
As Sentinels, we have what’s referred to as a low entropy, meaning we are the polar opposite of anomalies which retain a high entropy, things that fall into the norm have the baseline level of entropy, which is what we work to protect. As far as we’ve been told, a high entropy can be caused through traumatic experiences which living beings have suffered, it affects objects and people as well as the space in which it occurred. Our job as Sentinels is to combat and contain these anomalies using our low entropy levels.
Not every Sentinel is recruited though, there are those which we refer to as Imits, because they were born and raised to be Sentinels, mostly emotionless and stoic, their nickname is a result of them looking as if they’re merely imitating a human being. A theory amongst us is that our minds are wiped because trauma leads to higher entropy, no memories equals no trauma, and the imits are trained from birth for the same reason, no trauma or contact with the horrors of this world, and they’re trained to be particularly resilient, hence why they’re typically on the first line of defence or in command spots.
Anyways on to the anomalies, the first example of many that I will tell you about is Subject-84762 “Barney”, Originally brought to us as a corpse which was still showing signs of life despite having a sizeable bullet hole in his head, Barney had shot up a school two days prior to us finding out about him. Inexplicably though, Barney’s eyes appeared as if he was in REM sleep and he would frequently make vocalisations that were becoming more common by the hour. We’d measured his entropy levels, which appeared to be 4x the baseline landing him the designation of a Category-4 anomaly.
He was brought in on my 2nd week as a Sentinel apprentice, I was tasked with guarding in the viewing room, watching as the coroner examined his body. “It would appear that the subject is covered in scarring, some seem to be quite faded whilst others are fairly recent” said the coroner, turning him on his back. “There seems to be a warmth emanating from these scars, assistant, scalpel ple-“ The coroner was startled by the subject suddenly jolting awake, materialising what appeared to be a limb with a bladed tip made of bone from his back, he slashed the coroners throat.
The assistant screamed as blood sprayed over her, the two Sentinels stationed inside the room jumped to action, one closing his eyes as if going into a trance like state, this seemed to visibly weaken the subject. The 2nd Sentinel opened fire with his firearm, seemingly gaining the upper hand before there was an audible swish, the first Sentinel fell to the floor clutching his stomach as blood spilled over his boots. This seemed to be enough for my mentor, who was in the room with me, while I stood there mouth agape, he’d jumped to action activating the entropy dampeners and locking the room. “You fucking idiot, you forgotten your training or what?” he said staring angrily at me, all I could do was state hopelessly at the carnage taking place in the room ahead of us before feeling a firm slap across my face snapping me out of it.
I felt my mentors grip on my collar, pulling me close until I was face to face with him “Look boy, you’re as green as they come, but risk a containment breach again and I will shoot you myself, is that clear?” he growled, “Yes sir” I murmured. My mentor was killed just two weeks later, Grayson was the only name I knew for him, whether it was his first or last name I couldn’t tell you, we didn’t have a funeral, but then again none of us do. Subject-84762 was appropriately nicknamed wolverine due to his bone blades and healing ability, and ever since he has been involved in over twenty containment breaches/attempts.
Three years later I had climbed the ranks, I was tasked with guarding the more dangerous anomalies, every day bleeding into the next in this cold grey prison filled with monsters. The only entertainment were either the same ten movies we could only work on the decade old television, a small assortment of books, and conversation with other dead eyed Sentinels with no memories just like myself. Even reading about new anomalies had eventually became dull, that was until I was assigned to a new anomaly.
“Diaz is to report to sector two for a new assignment” crackled the speakers, upon arriving I was greeted by a man I had never seen before, tall, smartly dressed in a black suit, his hair slicked back, as far back as I could remember id never seen anybody here dressed like this. “Sentinel Diaz I take it?” the man said in a gruff but firm voice, I nodded in response, “We have a job of utmost importance, and I’m told you’re the man for the job” he said. I have to admit, this peaked my curiosity, “But first, you’ll have to sign a few documents confirming that you wont disclose any of what you learn to your colleagues, understood sentinel?” “Understood, sir” I said in response.
The documents were a mess of technical mumbo jumbo, but they did tell me a bit about the subject I would be guarding, no name, but she was a woman in her late 20s, supposedly she had been living in another facility since age 14, and an incident had occurred which required a transfer that landed her here. No name, no list of her abilities, no reason as to why she is contained here, nothing, “Just another poor soul who stands out too much to be left alone, huh?” I whispered to myself. “Oh far from it!” the man said startling me. “This woman is highly important to us, which is why we require the best of the best to watch over her for us. Your job will be watching her and noting any changes to her behaviour as well as making sure she is well provided for” the man instructed “I can’t tell you what her abilities are or anything else about her really, except this, under no circumstances should you ever hear her voice, believe me.”
I was given a small device with a button I should press which would alert them of an emergency, and led to the woman’s room by the man. Upon arriving, I was given a few extra instructions from the man, I could only communicate with the woman via a notepad we could place in an airlock of which only one side opened at once, also soundproofed. “Don’t screw this up, I can’t express the importance of this assignment” were the mans parting words to me as I entered the viewing room.
As I entered, it would seem as if the woman was just waking up, brushing her teeth while staring directly at me, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was her dark brown eyes and tanned skin, beautiful black hair gently resting over her shoulders, even if she had just woken up she was still mesmerising. My first time experiencing excitement, I sat in the seat opposite the window just watching her. How could something normal exist in a place like this? as she bent over to spit, I realised how creepy I was being, pointing my eyes in the direction of the control panel instead, I noticed that the audio button had clearly been removed, makes sense, the man did warn me about her voice.
This first 12 hours guarding her went by in a flash, I felt as if for the first time I was experiencing what it was like to be a human, an actual human, not a husk of one as most of us are in here. I’d watched her eat meals, read books, nap, and use her typewriter, although I couldn’t make out any of the words whatsoever, the look on her face spun enough of a tale for me. That night, I lay in my cot wondering what she could have possibly done, where she came from. I dreamt of swirling colours like that of the paintings on her walls.
The next day was the first time we used the notepad, as I entered the room she seemed to have just woken up as well, but the light on the airlock was green which meant she had opened it from her side. Opening it up and grabbing the notepad, I saw her glance up from her book out of the corner of my eye. She stood up and begun walking towards the airlock, noticing that the colour of the light on her end had changed to green, she stared at me, looking in my eyes as if she could see me. As I opened up the notepad, there, written on the first page were the first words she would communicate to me. “Hi, I’m Alanie, who are you?” the words read.
Even her handwriting was beautiful, and Alanie, “Hello Alanie” I whispered as I returned her gaze “I’m Diaz, nice to meet you” I wrote in the notepad before gently placing it back in the airlock for her to retrieve. “Are you my new jailer?” I read upon receiving the notepad back, to that I couldn’t reply, placing the notepad back in the airlock, I settled down to watch her for the rest of the day, admiring her as she went about her routine, giving her meals every now and then. It wouldn’t be a week until we would converse again, “Okay, I’m getting lonely in here, you mind telling me about yourself?” she wrote, a warm feeling filled my stomach as I read these words. “I don’t know much about myself really, they take our memories after we’re recruited, and we don’t leave” the confusion on her face evident as read my words.
The following months consisted of her teaching me about the outside world telling me what cars were, what the internet was, how sunlight felt. Even when we weren’t conversing, she would sometimes pull up a chair and read her book with her back to the mirror, allowing me to read along with her. I considered her to be the first friend id made in this place, she made my days a little less dark and claustrophobic, my nights a little less filled with horror. Some days she would look solemn and talk less, others id notice bruising across her skin, Id assumed her to be self harming, try to make her feel a little less alone as she had done me. Eventually it had occurred to me she didn’t know what I looked like, so for weeks id struggled to teach myself to draw, I must have went through thousands of sheets of paper before I finally drew something that looked vaguely like me.
The next day, I would slip my portrait in with the notebook with the letters “This is me” written below it, however, I began to worry when she wouldn’t get out of bed until afternoon, and when she did I noticed bruising and cuts across her face. That day she didn’t open up the airlock, she didn’t write to me, she only spared a glance in my direction along with a faint smile. I didn’t sleep that night, couldn’t sleep, I knew something terrible was happening to her, I wanted to help but didn’t know how. Thoughts plagued my mind, thoughts about the man, about breaking into her cell and rescuing her, about seeing this world she spoke so fondly of. She had me smitten, not only her beauty, not only what she had done for me, the life she had given me, but her soul, her beautiful soul that was so evident, that shone so brightly I would forget we were in a dungeon of beasts, I loved her.
Days went by, she seemingly deteriorated, she would lay in her bed for longer and longer hours, wouldn’t eat meals, never checked the notepad despite me continuously writing in it. It was tearing me up inside, what was happening during the hours I wasn’t there? the day shift would all be in their cots sleeping, prohibited to leave their barracks under consequence of death or being put on the front lines along with the imits which would surely mean the same thing, yet I had to do something. I had to think of a plan to at least find out what was happening to her while I was away.
That night, before heading back to my barracks, I began my walk to sector 7 where the less dangerous anomalies were housed. A lot of the time, these cells are unguarded by Sentinels and instead just patrolled. I hid in the observation room until the patrol had just passed, and once they had, I began looking over which anomaly I would release until eventually I landed on one. Subject-2276 “Johan” nicknamed “Red glass” the boy could crystalise his skin into an unknown material tougher than even diamond, he could also fire projectile shards of this material from his hands at will, but was relatively tame, I didn’t want anybody hurt after all. Opening his cell door and running as fast as I could back to sector two, it wasn’t one minute until I heard the alarms around the facility blare.
Running faster than I ever thought possible towards Alanie’s cell, stumbling as I went, I was forced to stop and hide around a corner as I noticed people in the hallway ahead of me. Looking over at them, I could see the man along with two Sentinels leading her down the hallway, she had her hands bound and her mouth gagged. As she walked they would shock her if she slowed at any point, a hot rage filled my chest as I gripped my firearm, ready to charge over there and execute all three of them, but before I could act, I felt a pain in the back of my head before darkness.
Waking up, the back of my neck feeling wet and my head still aching, I stared around me only to see Alanie directly in front of me, gazing at me while tied to a chair. I tried to reach out to her, but found my hands were tied too, “Alanie, its me, Diaz, are you okay? did they hurt you?” thats when a sick laugh came down the speakers, and then a voice, that same gruff voice which could only belong to the man. “Thought you’d play the hero, huh? thought you would kill us and save the girl? How pathetic of you” the mans harsh words bit like a snake “Though I suppose you have aided us somewhat, I find your attempt at rescue quite insulting” “Aided you in what?” I yelled, staring at the camera in the corner of the room.
The man chuckled, “Ah, let me tell you a little something about our girl, you see, she’s not just a prisoner, she’s a tool. Quite possibly the most valuable tool we have ever possessed, you see, the reason it isn’t advised to hear her voice is because things she states while people can hear her become reality” he said. I was lost for words, I knew this was a dangerous ability to have, but surely there was a way to get rid of it, before I could utter a word he continued “Obviously there’s a limit to this ability, for now. She cannot make the moon crash to the Earth, nor make the sun explode, no, but she can blow a hole in the side of a building, she can make heads explode all with just her words. We however believe this to be valuable, an asset, so we are trying to enhance her ability. Trauma, it increases entropy, take a look around, who’s cell are you in right now?” I take a look around before it finally clicks.
I was in subject 5673’s cell, I didn’t have clearance to access the file for this specific subject, but we had all heard the stories, it was a chair which belonged to a therapist in a maximum security prison, imbued with the memories of the evil these men had committed and fallen victim to, this chair would penetrate the minds of whoever was sat in the chair long enough. Laughing more sadistically this time “We were using this chair on our girl for a time, she has made progress but not much, not as much as she would with her own trauma. That’s when we stationed you with her along with a means of communication that wasn’t verbal, pushed you both together so to say, two lonely hard done by souls”. The first of the visions from the chair began, a man being beaten bloody, I felt every blow land on my face, every attempt to stop it failing before I hear the mans voice again “She cares for you, and you her, she will sit here and watch you slowly be driven insane by this endless torture, but even then we won’t give you the satisfaction of death”.
This went on for hours, the pain of hundreds being etched into my brain, I could taste blood from biting my own tongue and lips, my wrists sore and bleeding from struggling against my bindings, it all felt hopeless when finally I heard an explosion, a big one, feeling my bindings undo themselves, I fell into her arms exhausted. I finally heard her voice whisper “It’s ok honey, I’m here” regaining my senses, I see her beautiful brown eyes looking down at me, and a wave of calmness washes over me. I’m finally with her, she wraps me in her warm embrace as I collapse into her arms, before the sound of a gunshot rings in my ears and I feel numb. The last thing I hear before I die, is her scream, a final word from the man, and an audible pop.
Suddenly I see light as I awaken, I feel different, like I’m not me, memories begin flooding my head, memories that feel familiar but aren’t mine. The mans voice jolts me up, as I feel myself bound again under a bright light, “I’m sure you must be very confused” says the man, “I’ll give you a moment”.