The First Little Bit of Control
My heart beats like a trapped bird. The red
light of the flying machine disappeared fast,
but I was still shaking in the dark. Had I just
imagined it? No. The bad feeling was too real.
I had to get back to my secret hiding place.
Lyra's words about the old ways gave me a
little hope in my big fear.
My hiding place smelled like wet dirt and the
metal thing in my arm.
Days and nights went by as I did what Lyra
told me. The secret place, lit by the thin moon,
felt old and strong. Picking the strange
glowing plants there made me shiver. Every
part of the old way felt wrong but needed. The
air felt strange as I crushed the plants. They
smelled sharp and new.
Finally, the night came. My paws shook as I
mixed the liquid. It glowed strangely. Lyra's
warning about seeing the scary truth stayed in
my mind. I took a deep breath and drank the
bitter liquid.
It happened right away and felt weird. I felt
sick, then a buzzing went through my bones.
The metal taste in my mouth got stronger. For
a moment, I thought I had done something
bad.
The world around me seemed
clearer. The smells of the forest now had a
faint, fake hum.
Then, it started. Not something big, but a
small change in how I saw things. The dull
feeling in my head went away. My thoughts
became clear again, like waking up after a
long sleep.
And then, I saw it. Not with my eyes, but with a
new feeling, a layer under the normal world. It
was a faint web of energy coming from the
chips in all the werewolves. We were all
connected to it.
Fear, cold and sharp, went through my clear
mind. This wasn't just watching us. It was
something else. Something much worse.
The forest, which used to mean
freedom, now felt like a cage made of
invisible threads.
I had to understand. I went back to my hiding
place. For weeks, I had been collecting broken
human things. I hoped I could find a way to
stop the chip. Now, I wanted to know what
this web was, what it was doing to us.
Working in the dim light, I looked at a small
broken screen I had found. It was damaged,
but a small part of its memory looked okay.
Carefully, using sharp stones and metal
pieces, I tried to get the data.
Days went by as I tried hard. The words were
strange, the signs confusing. I felt frustrated
and scared of what I didn't know. Sleep didn't
help. I dreamed of glowing webs and empty
eyes.
Every time I failed, it felt like
another door closing on the truth.
Just when I felt like giving up, I connected
some wires to the chip. A weak light appeared
on the cracked screen. I held my breath. It
was just strange letters and numbers.
But I didn't stop. I needed to protect my group.
I copied the data onto pieces of tree bark,
drawing each sign carefully. I knew Lyra knew
some old human writing. Maybe she could
help me understand this.
The walk back to Lyra's house felt different. I
was still scared, but now I had a little bit of
hope. I had seen something, felt something.
The invisible control was real.
The unknown data felt heavy in my paws.
Lyra looked at the blinking screen and the
bark pieces with worry and interest. She
frowned at the strange signs. "This… this isn't
a language I know well," she said softly, her
fingers touching the drawings. "It's…
technical. From their machines."
Days and nights went by again as Lyra looked
at the data. She read old books. Her
knowledge of forgotten human languages
was more helpful than I thought. Slowly, she
started to understand some parts.
The first thing she understood made me feel
cold. Lyra read a short part: "Change
frequency." Her eyes got big with worry. "They
are changing… signals," she whispered. "Like
sending messages… but not with words."
The idea of hidden messages
controlling our minds was terrifying.
Then came another part: "Change behavior."
The words felt heavy and scary. My blood felt
cold. The tiredness, the doing what they said…
it wasn't normal. They were making it happen.
"They're not just watching us, Lyra," I said, my
voice shaking with fear and anger. "They're
controlling us."
Lyra's face looked serious. "The quietness…
the stillness… it all makes sense now. But
how? And why?"
The parts we understood were small, but they
showed something horrible. Changing
frequency. Changing behavior. The chips
weren't just to see where we were; they were
to control us. Our thoughts, our feelings, our
choices – all might be controlled by the
government.
This realization hit me hard like I
couldn't breathe.
This was terrible. The safety we thought the
government gave us was a lie, a pretty cage
built to stop us from being ourselves. The fear
I felt before got stronger, mixed with anger.
They were taking our group, our history, and
who we were.
"We have to show the others," I said, my voice
urgent. "They need to know what's
happening."
Lyra shook her head, her eyes careful. "We
have to be careful, Elara. If they think we
know…"
"But we can't wait!" I argued. "Every day, they
control us more. We have to wake them up!"
I wanted to act fast, but I knew
we had to be careful. It was hard to choose.
Just then, a low growl came from outside
Lyra's house. It wasn't one of our group. It was
deeper, more like a machine. The spinning
sound was back, closer now.
Lyra's eyes got wide with fear. "They know,"
she whispered, her voice scared. "Someone
saw you. They're coming."
Before we could move, the door broke open.
Two figures in dark armor stood there. We
couldn't see their faces. They held weapons
that hummed strangely.
"Elara," one of them said, their voice sounding
fake. "You are not where you should be."
My heart jumped. Not where I should be? We
weren't just being watched; we were being
kept in a place.
The air felt tight, and I smelled
something like metal.
Lyra stepped in front of me, her old body
trying to protect me. "Leave her alone," she
growled, her eyes angry.
The figures didn't even move. One of them
raised their weapon. A blue light glowed at the
end.
"Old Lyra," the figure said coldly. "Stay back.
You can't win."
But Lyra didn't stay back. She jumped at the
figure fast, her claws out.
A sharp sound broke the air. Lyra fell back, a
red mark on her chest. She fell to the ground,
her eyes surprised and hurt.
"Lyra!" I yelled, my own fear gone for a
moment because I was so sad and angry.
The figures looked back at me, their weapons
pointing. I couldn't run. They knew. They knew
what I had found out. And they were here to
stop me.
The blue light got brighter, and
the weapons hummed louder. Then, one of
the armored figures spoke again, their voice
calm but scary. "Elara, we have something to
show you. Something that will change
everything you thought you knew." Then, a
third figure came out of the shadows, and my
blood ran cold. It was one of our own groups.
His eyes were empty, and a small red light
blinked on his head, like the flying machine in
the forest. And he was smiling.