The Rise Of The Consortium

Rio was looking at the local court for a while before moving on towards the garden square of the city. She had been roaming on the streets searching for her mother for about an hour but there was no sign of her. She checked into the hospital but there was also no one who saw her there. She had no knowledge of places to find her and she wondered whether it was a good idea to take help from the court. There was no discussion at the home about the workplace where her mother worked, so she never knew what and where she worked.

The court never had time for stray orders, so she wanted to check the whole city before placing a complaint. Just when she was about to reach the garden, a car crossed in front of her, almost knocking her off on it. She didn't fall, neither got any injuries. So she straightened herself and checked herself whether she got any scratches. But the driver understood what had happened and got out of his seat.

Rio was shocked to find out the driver to be Kner. He looked at her teary face and her messy appearance. To Rio, he looked as if he was sleepy. She didn't know whether to ask him for the help she wanted.

"What are you doing here now?" asked Kner in a cooled down voice.

"Strolling like this," Rio answered, focusing on her arm, checking for bruises where there wasn't any.

Knee rolled his eyes. "Searching your mother, right?" he crossed his arms on his c.h.e.s.t.

She looked up at him. How did he know about it? She didn't want to confront him anymore, she moved away from him and continued walking towards the street of the local markets.

"Don't you want to know where she is?" she stopped in her tracks on hearing that.

"Do you know where she is?" she questioned back without looking at him.

"Come with me. I'll take you there." and he walked to the driver seat of his car. Rio stood there blinking hard what she should do. She didn't plan to talk or meet him but that was what she wanted to do to avoid fueling the news. She came to her senses when she heard the car beeping the horn. If he really knew what was going on, maybe she should just take a look. She really doesn't have to talk much.

She walked to the driver's side seat and opened the door. She felt a cold wave hit her skin. Shivering, she sat and closed the door. When Kner felt everything was ok, he started his car and drove away quickly.

"Where are we going?" Rio asked, looking at the rearview mirror.

"The Silver Swirl." his eyes were focused on the road.

"How are you so sure about it?" she asked, now scanning the dashboard, where there was nothing on it.

"I don't know." that answer made Rio stop questioning anymore. When no one knows anything it is better for the reason to unfold itself. They both focused on the road silently. He was rather driving faster into the street where she was there. The market was always open, even if that was the middle of the night. She couldn't believe when he drove into a narrow lane on the right-hand side of a closed shop. She might have been in the street before but she never got time to explore the inner lanes of the market. Always being a sceptic of potential dangers, she didn't realise there might be some clean and peaceful environment she could really enjoy. He was rather driving too fast as she started seeing a plain empty ground surrounded by dead dry trees.

After some moments, and his accelerated driving, which would have caused a charge against him, she started seeing a light source ahead. It started growing big as the car drove faster. Looking carefully at it, it seemed like a floating sparkling light ring. The car slowed down gradually as they reached the place. The ring was as big as it could fit two manors. She gasped as she saw the people surrounding it.

Suddenly the car stopped at a distance from the gathering in front of them. "We have to stay here." spoke Kner, his eyes searching the crowd.

"Why?" Rio's eyes furrowed hearing such a condition. It was unfair to drive this far only to stay in their car not to see things properly. People stood in a circle, their arms raised as her mother fled with her arms raised in front of them. Her eyes searched for her mother. The light from the silver swirl illuminated everyone's faces. There were many different people of different ages. Seeing clearly, there were no children among the crowd.

Focusing hard, she found her mother towards the left of the circle. She attempted to get out of the car, only to be stopped by Kner. "Don't you understand? We don't want to die in the dust." his voice was sounding in the same acidic way she heard in the diner earlier in the night. She gave up and sat motionless to see things happen. Her heart was a mess as it was running with many different thoughts. She never saw anything like that in her life. And never ever thought her strong-willed mother could get caught in such cult practice. The scene wasn't less than any cult practice, everyone doing the exact same thing as if programmed earlier. She couldn't see anyone else who looked like being able to control the whole crowd.

Suddenly, people started moving along the swirl. The swirl was overhead and people moved that looked as if they were taking rotations but slowly, their arms still raised. Her eyes started to well up to see such a frightening scene. Would she continue sitting in the car like that and see things happening?

"See it? This is what I was talking about," spoke Kner, with a look of disgust on his face.

"Why don't we go stop them? Why can't I stop my mother?" spat Rio, half crying, half shaking.

"We become like them the moment we step out of here." his voice was emotionless. "That's the reason I want you to give me the password of that file. You don't want to see your mother like this, do you?"

It was utterly ridiculous. Would the password solve this suddenly? Her mother was facing a real danger now. What the password would do right now? Surely he was losing his mind. As they completed one rotation, they stopped moving. Rio's mind couldn't decide whether to stay like that or get out to do something. Her eyes went wide as the people raised their arms above their head.

"We can't stay here anymore," Kner spoke as he started his car. So he was going to do whatever he wished. Rio got out of the car. When he attempted to stop her forcefully, she pushed him in the car and closed the door. She saw the people take off slowly from the ground, their arms and their head up towards the silver lighted swirl. She ran as fast as she could, loudly calling her mother, hoping she would hear her. Kner was at a loss as he saw her run towards the circular crowd. He was scared to get out of the car. He decided to be seated because he didn't want to leave Rio like that there. He had to get the file from her at any cost.

People were mid-air with their arms above their heads, and their heads looking at the swirl which was continuously moving. Rio stumbled on a small rock as she ran towards the floating crowd. The light emanating from the swirl was too bright to see, but it wasn't enough to drive the darkness away. The crowd was just a few inches away to be unreachable and Rio was tired too soon before she reached the crowd. She paused for a moment and after taking a deep breath, she continued running. When she reached the perimeter of the crowd, she hopped to catch her mother by her legs, but her height wasn't helping her at all. The crowd had missed her head and was slowly rising upwards. After a few tries, she felt anxious, and gathered all her energy and jumped one last time. She caught her mother's legs and felt herself standing on the ground on her toes. She balanced herself while shaking her mother's body as it was refusing to come down. She didn't want to shake too violently, but she had no other option to bring her mother's unconscious body down.

Kner was witnessing the scene with wide eyes. He was scared of the possibility of Rio being one of the crowds, floating in the air like everyone else. All the creepy scenes of roaming with arms raised forward came up in his mind. He was too scared to do anything, let alone think of ways to rescue Rio out of the place. He suddenly regretted helping Rio on the way. She would have found her mother anyway. He wondered how she was still normal even after touching her mother's legs. From whatever he has heard before, either people lose consciousness or they float and join others. But she was rather looking determined to bring the body down.

He shrieked a bit as he saw a ray of light from the swirl passing through Rio's body. He was still expecting some dramatic changes in Rio's body but he suddenly had to cover his ears as a loud piercing cry from the crowd hit his ears. He forcefully kept his eyes open to witness everything going on in front of him. He gritted his teeth in pain as the scream continued to go on for a minute until the swirl went dark and then lighted up, followed by a loud bang. He couldn't see a body slightly down than the others, neither a figure that clutched to it on the ground. He panicked thinking whether Rio went unconscious there. His heart almost stopped beating until he saw a figure dragging another. Was that Rio or her mother, he couldn't determine. From his logic, he thought there was no possibility her mother could wake up so early. It usually takes a few hours to many days to gain consciousness. But then felt uneasy as the figure became clear that it was Rio. what if she had contracted the illness? She already didn't know anything about the file, what if she forgets everything about herself and him?

He saw people reaching almost towards the swirl, and some light vibration audible amongst the anxious feelings. He jumped when he heard a knock on his car door. It was Rio, supporting her mother's body, who was knocking on the backseat door of the car. She was saying something which took some moments to realize that she wanted him to open the door. Coming back to his senses, he opened the backseat door. She struggled to make her mother sit inside the car. Kner was frozen to see things happening in front of his eyes. His eyes were on her mother's face, which was looking pale under the car's interior light. He jumped again when Rio nudged him lightly on his arm, signaling him to drive out of the place.

"Please, take us to the hospital." he saw her pleading face covered with sweat and dust. He looked away from her and focused on his steering wheels instead. After taking a deep breath, he decided to help her for the last time, in hopes of getting the file successfully. He drove quickly to get out of the place and crossed through the same way he had come. Occasionally his eyes went towards Rio through his shoulder only to see her silent teary face looking at her mother.

After half an hour, the car stopped in front of the city hospital, he remembered how he came there to meet Rio a few days before, only to be humiliated by her mother. What would be the reaction if she got to know she got help from someone she didn't want to? His eyes shone brightly as her shame-filled face popped up in his head.

Rio expected him to help her and her mother to safely reach the hospital gates, but she saw him sitting there motionlessly. Without saying anything, she prepared to move out of the car when she heard him saying something, "This is where the limit of my help ends. I'm sorry, but now I want yours." and she opened the door of the car, took a few moments to get out her mother's body out of the car. Just when both got out the car, she heard the door of the car shut and sped off quickly out of the place. She stood there, carrying her mother's shoulder and looked at the car slowly fade away until it wasn't visible anymore. She turned away to do what was in front of her, even if the cold emotionless voice kept ringing in her ears.