An alarm was ringing and Cosette slowly opened her eyes, yawning.

“Were you able to sleep at all?” Faelin asked, slowly disentangling her arms from around Cosette’s naked torso.

“Feeling you wrapped around me finally calmed me down a little,” Cosette said, gently kissing Faelin’s forearm.

Faelin gave Cosette a towel and pointed her to the shower cube across the room. Later they sat at the small table barely big enough for two, eating bowls of instant oatmeal.

“Infested,” Cosette said.

“What?” Faelin said, quickly looking toward the shelf where her perishables were stored.

“Oh! Sorry! Not here. I’m thinking about the simulation,” Cosette said, giggling. “That’s just a strange word for Kite to use, you know?”

“Remind me what you are talking about,” Faelin said.

“So, in the simulation, the angry woman, Kite, said that one of the women of the tribe had been infested.” Cosette used air quotes to emphasize the word. “And Summer knew exactly what Kite was talking about. I’d think that the correct word would be ‘infected’. But no, Summer thought the word ‘infested’.”

“I don’t get it,” Faelin said.

“Well, when I think of the word infested, I’m thinking of some place being overrun by rats or cockroaches or ants. Like, some collection of living organisms have moved in. Kite said that Jaye was infested,” Cosette shivered a little. “I’m kind of afraid of what I will see if I ever get to meet this Jaye person. Is she full of parasites? Arrrgh! Nasty!”

Faelin grimaced. “Thank god we live in modern times with vaccines and good medical science! I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have a worm eat part of your brain… Or to get some eradicated disease like the measles! Can you imagine that?”

<>--+-

Later in the morning, Faelin and Dr. Markov were waiting for Cosette when she arrived in the lab for another trip into the simulation.

“Here’s the agent list that you asked for,” Cosette said, handing a tablet to Dr. Markov.

The doctor had wanted a summary of all the agents that Summer encountered so that they would be able to keep track of the various personalities. These were the notes that Cosette wrote up:

Summer - the POV

Woodlark - Summer’s lover, a gatherer, communicates through song

Firecrest - apparently small of stature, yet very nimble

Kite - angry warrior, seems intent on killing Summer, resorts to violence to get her way

Gannet - has wings and can fly. It seems that the wings apparently replaced her arms and she no longer has hands

Gyr - tall, strong warrior

Peregrine - tall, strong warrior

Supreme Aderyn - elderly, chieftess?

The Wanderer - awkward, oddly tall, scary loner

Tawny - Only speaks in some “magical, bird language”, yet respected and revered.

Sora - the only one who understands Tawny, and maybe not so well

Jaye - “infested”, gravely sick?

Rosy - deceased

It felt like there were a number of other agents in the tribe… 20? More?

Other strange concepts:

Dur - metal

Homestone

Shell ceremony - coming of age ceremony perhaps?

Grieving Tree and Goddess Tears - tree with particularly sticky sap where perishable goods are preserved

Faelin bound Cosette in the chair and made the appropriate connections. Within fifteen minutes Cosette was ready to return the simulation.

     <>--+-     <>--+-     <>--+-

My cage was lowered to the ground as Firecrest was prepared. I smelled the scent of fish oil. Firecrest was covering herself in the oil and working it into her hair in order to more easily be able to clean any Tears that accumulated on her flesh.

"Do not touch her, Woodlark!" Kite growled. "Do not waste the oil on the demon!"

"Her hair, at least!" Woodlark pleaded with quavering notes. My cage shook and I heard thumping across the ground nearby. I heard Woodlark's moans of pain. 

"Stay away from it!" Kite growled again.

"I am ready," Firecrest murmured, her voice high and nervous. She knew the danger we were facing, especially at this time of the year, especially if the rains had been good.

I heard a number of sisters saying prayers to the Goddesses. I heard Tawny's whistles and clucks. Even they sounded nervous.

My cage shifted. The sickly sweet scent of Tears became overwhelming. All sounds became muted. I had been moved inside the hollow of the tree. My cage settled to the floor with a squishing sound. I prayed to the Goddesses that I would be able to leave again. I heard the hatch slide into place. Firecrest?! I couldn't hear her - only the frantic rattling of dur chimes around me.

"Okay," she whispered finally and I exhaled a heavy breath of relief. "There are about twenty keys here."

I felt a Tear land on the side of my head, thick and sticky - no doubt sinking into my hair. 

"Fuck!" Firecrest's hands ran over my head pushing fish oil into my hair. She had obviously defied Kite and smuggled a bit inside. Bless Firecrest, but I began to shake my head back and forth. I didn't care if my hair got ruined. I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible.

"I'll try to get the cage door open first," Firecrest said and I heard the gentle clinking of dur. I shook my head furiously. Why wouldn't she start with my eyes?

"Why are you shaking your head, Summer? Is it dangerous to unlock you?" she asked pensively.

Oh, Goddess! I shook my head even more vigorously.

"I'm sorry, Summer. I don't understand what you want. Let me just try to get you out as fast as possible before we drown in here."

I felt another tear drop on my shoulder. It oozed down a bit before it began to harden.

I heard the repeated sound of dur scraping across dur. Every once in a while Firecrest would curse for some reason. I sat as still as I could, but my chest was heaving as I gasped at the heavy air. Finally, I heard a clicking sound and Firecrest whispered, "That's it! Okay! Now what?"

I tried to lean towards the sound of her voice with my face. My lack of senses was suffocating me. If I could speak or if I could see, perhaps we could work as a team.

"I'll try to free your hands," she said. I sat back on my haunches again, disappointed, but I didn't want to scare her off. I had felt a couple more tears drop on my shoulder and back. I had heard them smack with a heavy wet sound on the dur cage. I knew that Firecrest must also feel the drops. She had to move fast. If we were unlucky the door out of the tree could be sealed forever in ten breaths’ time. If we DID have luck, it would only be a fleeting gift of the Goddesses. A Grieving Tree like this could fill and harden in less than a day during the Spring.

I felt Firecrest systematically trying each of the keys behind my back. I decided that there must have been two locks by the rhythm of her movements. Finally, I heard a click and after a moment of shuffling, my left arm drooped down to my side. I suppose that I grimaced as best as one can through one's nose as a pain shot through my shoulders. 

My heart was hammering for a moment as my arm ignored my commands to move. Slowly though, I began to be able to make my hand into a fist and move my fingers.

"I guess that I'll just hang this right here, so we don't lose it," Firecrest said and I felt some tap lightly into the small of my back where my wrist had been restrained. She continued trying keys to free my right arm.

I pulled my numb, free hand up so it rested on my left thigh. My palm was facing up as I flexed the muscles in my forearm. I felt the skin of my thigh on the back of my hand. I still felt human. That was good. As I flexed my hand a large Tear dropped into my palm. By either reflex or sheer stupidity I folded my fist around the Tear. Quickly, I reopened my palm, but already my pinky and its companion remained pressed into the tackiness of the Tear's resin. I did not have the strength to pull them out.

I began to slide my hand up my body, my bicep trembling as I did. Quickly, though I felt my arm become tangled in some kind of cold, dur vine.

"Quit moving around so much!" Firecrest complained behind me.

I tried to calm myself and leaned so as to shield my free hand from any more falling Tears. I could feel my arm gaining strength again. Prickles raced up and down the length of my arm. It felt like I had slept on it too long and the blood was finally returning to it. 

Behind me Firecrest finally found the key to my right hand and I grunted silently as it fell limply by my side.

My left arm was feeling stronger so I started to lift it towards my face to figure out how many locks sealed my mouth and eyes. 

I felt Firecrest rise up behind me. She placed a greasy hand on my shoulder briefly, then she seemed to focus on something over my head. 

My left hand finally reached my neck. I began to use my thumb and forefinger to explore my cheek and determine the nature of my gag. I felt hard straight edges - some kind of plate pressed firmly against my cheek, maybe two finger widths from where my mouth would start. I began to slide my finger horizontally across the surface, but quickly encountered one of the dur vines. As my finger pulled at the vine I felt a tugging high up inside my nose. The motion tickled and caused me to sneeze. Well, it would have been a sneeze, but was more like a dry heave and my body jerked around a bit causing the cage to shift.

"Fuck!" Firecrest cursed. I felt a key bounce off my shoulder and clatter down below me. "Quit fucking moving!" The tension in her voice was becoming greater. She must have lots of Tears falling on her as well.

By now, my right arm had gained some strength so I brought it up to continue to figure out how my mouth was gagged. Apparently two small dur vines were fastened to my nose. The small strings of circular links angled away from one another as they descended past the sides of my chin. I slipped my clumsy hands between the vines and my face and felt along the length of the rectangular plate that covered my lips.

Air whistled through my nose and my head dropped forward a bit as fear racked through my body. Tears squeezed out from underneath my blindfold and slipped their way down my cheeks. 

The surface of the plate over my mouth was completely smooth and featureless. I frantically grasped blindly around the edges of the plate searching for a strap of some kind holding the plate in place, but there was none. I began to try to slide a fingernail underneath the edge of the plate but only succeeded in painfully pinching my skin.

Firecrest had succeeded in releasing the lock over my head. I felt a dur vine drape down behind my shoulder and rest lightly against the skin of my back.

I had to calm myself down. I told myself that I would figure out how to release the gag plate when I could see what I was doing. I had to get my blindfold off first. But even as I assured myself, I had a sinking fear that the plate was not made to be removed. I had an even worse fear that made me pause completely. Would an exploration of my blindfold yield the same results?

Firecrest crouched behind me. She pushed me forward suddenly and forcefully and despite my kneeling position, I almost tumbled over. I threw my hands out from where they were exploring the smooth plate over my mouth and quickly became tangled in the vines emerging from my nose. My actions caused a painful jerk high in my nose, but also, I felt a pull on both breasts. My dur chimes rang out.

"Sorry!" Firecrest whispered as she fumbled around with something behind me. "I guess I don't know my own strength. I need to unlock this one that attaches you to the floor of the cage, we'll figure out your legs, and then we'll get the fuck out of here."

My arms were not tingling so badly now. I tentatively pressed my fingers to my cheeks and began to slide them up to the blindfold. 

My greatest fears seemed to be coming true. I felt the lower reaches of a smoothe plate of dur. This plate had a rounded edge and as I drew my fingers across the cool surface I could feel how its topography mimicked that of the contours of my eyes and the bridge of my nose. I traced the edges on each side upwards, praying to find a band of some sort pulling the plate firmly to my face. There was none.

I began trembling and felt myself listing forward slightly. Firecrest grabbed my left bicep and pulled me back upright. "Hold on there, Summer. I've got this lock open. I just want to shield this lock from Tears, then I'll move on to your legs."

I felt along the plate of dur which covered my eyes with the palm of my right hand. On the sides of my temples on the edge of the plate I felt a projection of dur on each side of my head. The projections were smooth and cold and as I explored them with my fingers I realized that they were sturdy eyelets, not quite big enough to insert the tip of my pinky. I grasped the eyelet on my right side between my thumb and forefinger and attempted to pull at it. It seemed to be solidly attached, perhaps even embedded somehow into my skull. I reflexively moved my hands away from my face again, too afraid to explore any more, too afraid to consider what had been done to me.

Firecrest was pushing me gently to the side. This time she was countering the pressure she was applying so that I wouldn't fall over. My hips rolled slightly to my right and I felt Firecrest pulling at my left ankle until there was a tugging sensation on the back of my left thigh not far down from the bend of my buttocks.

"Can you hold yourself up?" Firecrest asked. She grabbed my right wrist and pulled it away from me until I felt a smooth thick vertical dur bar. No doubt it was one of many that made up the extent of my cage. It was not very far away from my body.

I grasped the bar firmly and used it to balance as Firecrest occasionally pulled and yanked at my left ankle. I felt a dollup of Tear slowly slide down the dur and pool at the top of my fist.

"That's it!" Firecrest said and I heard the sound of a lock rattling. "One more. Shift over to the other side."

I lifted my left hand blindly searching for the side of the cage and grasped it tightly between my three remaining useful fingers. When I tried to release the dur bar with my right hand, I found that the Tears had already begun to seal my hand in place. I opened my hand wide and pulled with all my strength. The skin of my palm stretched and stung where the Tears sealed it to the dur. Finally, with a sickening snap, my hand came loose and I was able to rotate my hips to give Firecrest the access she needed to work on another lock.

Firecrest found the key pretty quickly and when the lock came undone she began to push me forward. "Let's get out of here! You're free enough, I think."

I waved my right hand around in front of me searching for a way out of the cage. Firecrest grabbed my arm and pulled me through a small metal door. I tried to put weight on my numb leg and immediately sank to my knees landing with a sucking sound in a fresh layer of Tears.

I began to flail a little. I didn't want to use my hands to try to get up, but if I didn't move fast I was going to be embedded in the Tears too deeply to retrieve.

Firecrest had let me go. I heard her pounding on the inner surface of the tree. "Open the door! It's me! Firecrest! Open the fucking door!"

I was nervous. Firecrest is small. She is expendable. She is a mouth to feed. What if they decided to leave us in the tree? Firecrest's death would be considered a noble death.

I struggled again to stand and help her pound on the door. More Tears seemed to drop on us, shaken from above as we struggled to get out. 

"Open the fucking door! Summer's not a demon!"

I leaned too far forward and began to lose my balance. If I fell on my face, I would be finished.

I felt my face hit Firecrest's thigh. She reached out and grabbed my right arm and pulled me back into a sitting position.

There was a series of popping sounds - a few snaps. Suddenly fresh air rushed around me. The door was open. Firecrest yanked on my arm. I thought she was going to dislocate my shoulder for a second before the Tears sucking on my knees let go and I shot through the opening in the tree, tumbling through dirt and evergreen needles.

Every time I touched the ground, I could feel layers of dirt adhere to my skin. I struggled to get up so I wouldn't have to touch the ground at all.

"Stay down!" Someone yelled angrily near me. I heard a loud cracking sound which I realized was something hitting my head as I flew through the air, landing and tumbling onto my back. The pain of the strike quickly settled in as I struggled on my back.

"Goshawk!" Woodlark screamed. "You're going to kill her!"

Other voices arose in protest. I even heard Tawny's angry whistling over the noise.

"I barely touched her," Goshawk said angrily.

Someone was slowly gathering me into their arms, throwing dirt on me to cover the places where the Tears had fallen on my skin. "My Summer! My love!" Woodlark cried. "You are a mess!"

Suddenly, I sensed that the entire camp began to swarm around me trying to touch me to see if I was real, pulling on me or one of my cold foreign attachments. There were shouts by some attempting to give me space, but, too, there were other shouts suggesting that I should not be alive.

With a rattle of dur, someone grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me off the ground up into the air. I heard a shout of disgust, and felt myself suddenly thrust forcefully into the dirt again. 

"She doesn't weigh anything!" a terrified voice shouted.

Next it seemed that everyone needed to pick me up to see how light I was. Various hands were grasping my hair and arms repeatedly lifting me into the air.

Voices were ringing out all around me. "It's unnatural!" "Demon!"

Meanwhile, Woodlark continued to wail, "Let her go! Give her space!"

My arms were jerked around so much, I had no opportunity to even determine what had become with me. I even began blindly swinging my fists around desperately trying to get an opportunity to pull the plate from my eyes somehow, if at all possible.

Strong hands grabbed my wrists and held them together in front of me. I felt a number of fingers poking, pushing, and pulling all over me. My nose and breasts seem to receive the bulk of the abuse.

"What does that lock do? Get the keys!" someone said.

I was lifted into the air and my legs were pulled open. I kicked uselessly and helplessly. There were too many hands restraining me to be able to move in any way. I felt like I was being pulled apart.

I heard a clacking sound between my legs and felt a tapping sensation over my place of health. I shuddered as I now first realized that the plates of dur pressing over my skin were not isolated to my mouth and eyes. Apparently, one covered my health as well. There was some attachment dangling from the plate between my legs. Soon, I heard the sound of keys being slipped into the sheath of a lock. I struggled again not so much against the hands that restrained me, but rather, against the disturbing concept of my sealed health.

I heard the click of a lock being opened. "That's the one! Take it off!" someone said.

Suddenly, my body was wracked with a white hot arc of pain that shot from my head and nose, sparking at my breasts, and down deep within my health. I thought I had been skewered with a rough branch deeply through my body.

Despite the hands holding me, my muscles contracted forcefully with the pain. Even my feet seemed to attempt to ball into fists to beat away whatever was causing this pain. Somehow I pulled my right arm from my captors' grip and pressed it to the face plate over my health where the apex of pain seemed to radiate. As I moved my hand down, my thumb became entangled in a dur vine that was rattling around from all my jerking and seizing. My hand pressed against the cold face plate and the moment that the chain wrapped around my thumb made contact with an eyelet from which the last lock had been removed, the pain dissipated completely.

Unfortunately, in my relief, I relaxed too much and my hand fell away from the cold plate. As soon as the dur vine around my thumb was no longer in contact with the eyelet, the intense pain sparked through my body again. My painful writhing alerted those holding my limbs to grab on more tightly. I had only returned the chain into contact with the eyelet, before my arm was forcefully yanked away and the pain swept through me for a third time.

I tried to scream, but my voice, if it still existed, remained locked far away. All I could hear was the wheezing through my nose, the rattle of chains, and the screams and struggles of those trying to keep me under control.

"She's in pain!" Woodlark's voice sang out above the chaos. Someone moved the chain back into contact with the eyelet on my crotch faceplate and my struggles stopped, my muscles exhausted from the contractions.

"Is she dead?" someone asked and all was quiet for a moment.

"Reattach the lock!" Woodlark screamed. 

I think that I must have blacked out from exhaustion for a while.

I heard Tawny whistling directly beside me. My head was pulled to the side. She must have grabbed the eyelet attached to the plate covering my eyes. I heard a squeaking sound and felt a sickening scraping sensation deep in my skull. Suddenly, there was a pop on the side of my head and I felt a little less pressure against my eyelids.

"Stand back! Give Tawny room! She knows how to open Summer!" someone yelled.

Tawny was whistling thoughtfully as I felt my head pulled on the other side. My heart was beating ferociously. Tawny had figured out how to free me! Thank the goddesses!

I felt a second scraping sensation and suddenly the plate covering my eyes popped away, clattering on the ground.

I opened my eyes for the first time. It was too bright to see. Light swarmed around the bodies of women in front of me stabbing me painfully until I was forced to close my eyelids. 

"It's Summer," Woodlark sang softly, as if my eyes proved my existence more than any other part of my transformed body.

     <>--+-     <>--+-     <>--+-

“No! No! No!” Cosette whined as soon as the mouthpiece was pulled from between her lips. “I was just about to be able to see the world for the first time!”

“Sorry, babe,” Faelin said. “I need to go intern Deepa.”

“Internadeepa?” Cosette asked, confused.

“Yes,” Faelin said as she quickly cleaned up Cosette’s equipment. “I am the lead hardware tech on Dr. Han’s second generation of simulation full immersion tanks. And Deepa is going to be our first guinea pig. Do you want to see? Walk with me.”

Faelin led Cosette briskly through the labyrinth of halls, down into some of the lower levels of the facility. As they walked, she quickly explained the immersion technologies.

Basically, when Cosette experienced the simulation she was only able to observe events that had already occurred in the past. The immersion tank technology allowed a human to insert themselves directly into the simulation and interact as an agent there in real time. 

“Think of the movie, Avatar,” Faelin said as they arrived at the Immersion Lab. “Um… I’m going into the lab. But, you’ll need to watch from the observation room.” Faelin said, pointing at a door.

Cosette entered the door and walked up a flight of stairs. Dr. Markov was standing by a wall of windows that allowed them to see into a sterile looking lab below. 

“Hello,” Cosette said as she walked up to the windows. Down below, a number of women were scurrying about, checking equipment. Cosette found Faelin. She was kneeling before a naked woman of Indian descent, her skin, dark and her hair - glorious, long, rich and black. Faelin was adjusting something that fed directly into the woman’s vagina.

“Jealous?” Dr. Markov asked. 

“Huh?” Cosette asked, startled. 

“Deepa is actually going to go into a simulation,” Dr. Markov explained. “She will interact with the agents.”

“Oh, god,” Cosette said. “That would be so cool. So, yes! I’m jealous!”

“Well, don’t be too jealous,” Dr. Markov said, smiling. “This is just a month-long test run. And she’s going into a very small simulation. Just between you and me, poor Deepa is probably going to be bored shitless.” Dr. Markov laughed a little.

“Yeah,” Cosette said. She wanted to sound agreeable, but enthusiastic too. “She’s opening a whole new future, though, right?”

“Of course,” Dr. Markov said. “Maybe you will have a turn too soon.”

Cosette smiled. “I’d love that.”

Deepa had tubes emerging from all her orifices. A clear mask which had been pressed over her mouth, nose, and eyes, was sealed to her skin. Two lab assistants led her up a couple of steps to a tank-like object with transparent walls. Large pipes were connected to the tank. Deepa stepped into the tank and an assistant helped her sit down. Others were attaching the tubes from Deepa into connection ports on the internal wall of the tank. Some kind of fluid began to pour into the tank. Cosette saw Deepa smile, perhaps nervously, as she settled into the rising fluid. Maybe she was sharing a joke with an assistant.

Slowly Deepa lay back into the fluid, floating gently on the surface, slowly sinking. Her hair fanned out around her in the clear liquid.

“Is one of the people down there Dr. Han?” Cosette asked.

“No,” Dr. Markov said.

An assistant squeezed Deepa’s hand one last time. A transparent lid was pressed down on the tank and clamps were tightened around the periphery to form a complete seal. The liquid continued rising until Deepa was completely submerged and the last pockets of air bled from the tank.

“Dr. Han is watching remotely today,” Dr. Markov said. “She’s busy elsewhere.”

Cosette noticed that Deepa’s eyes were shifting from side to side. She looked a little panicked perhaps.

“They are going to put her under now, and she’ll wake up in her simulation,” Dr. Markov explained.

Sure enough, Deepa’s eyes seemed to grow heavy and, eventually, close.

Cosette noticed a collection of monitoring equipment reporting Deepa’s heart rate and breathing. The rates were dropping quickly.

“Once she is down to 10 heart beats per minute,” Dr. Markov explained, “they’ll add the stasis catalyst.”

“10 beats per minute?” Cosette asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I know, right? Her body will barely age while she is in the immersion tank. Oh, look! They are adding the catalyst now.”

The color inside the tank took on an amber tint. Cosette noticed that Deepa’s hair was no longer shifting around gently.

“Is she frozen?” Cosette asked. 

“Well… Not yet. Her entire brain must be scanned first.”