I am finding it easier to focus after walking a bit inside Rorschach. I felt dizzy coming in at first, but I didn’t want it to stop me from the task at hand. Everything looked good so far. No warning signals on the HUD or from the grunts. As long as the team stayed focused, we can get this mission over with as quickly as possible. I did not like the looks of this place. It seemed that the farther we went through the tunnel, the more it seemed as if the walls were moving. It must have been an illusion from our head-lamps. I saw Keeton to the left of me, turning in all directions as if something was going to pounce on him. Sheesh.
I decided to ignore him. As long as we all just stayed focused and disregarded the strange surroundings, we can– I saw the warnings on my HUD flash! “There’s a spike”, I told the others, “hang on”. I looked behind me and saw Keeton setting up the tent. Good. When he’s done, we can all go inside to protect ourselves from this spike. I then heard a low roaring noise in my ears. I also thought I heard James say something, but I didn’t catch it. I knew something bad was about happen…. I stood my ground. I heard James say she saw something. I turn in every direction, but I didn’t see anything. The roaring began to get louder.
I thought James was acting crazy or something, but then Szpindel started to act crazy, saying he’s blind. The radiation must have affected them. I had to get them to the tent. “Everyone get into the tent!” I said. I grab Szpindel and hand him to Keeton. I find James struggling with her leg, saying there was something on her. I told her there was nothing there, but she barks back saying that I’m blind. Sheesh. I ignored her and called Keeton to help me carry her to the tent. The roaring in my ears became so loud, I couldn’t hear myself think. I began to feel dizzy again and everything was turning white. I pushed James into the tent and Keeton followed after her, and then…
And then, all the sudden, the roaring stopped. I looked around and everything is white. I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing. There was no one else with me. As strange as it sounds, I did not react to my new surroundings. I didn’t feel alive, or dead…. I was just there, and I felt ok with it. I think I felt, for the first in a long time, free…. I felt free.
Then, all at once, I felt dizzy and I heard the roaring in my ears again. The whiteness faded to dark, and I realized I was in the tunnels of Rorschach, outside the tent. I had no clue what just happened. It’s as if nothing happened at all. Was it an illusion? Well, illusion or not, I felt fine. The roaring in my ears subsided. The spike levels were down. I thought it was time to go back on the mission. I opened the tent to tell everyone its time to go and they look at me as if they just seen a ghost, asking me if I’m “ok” and if I “existed”. What stupid questions! The radiation must have hit them harder than I thought. I then decided that it would be best to head back to Theseus to recuperate. Maybe afterwards we can finish what we started so we can go back to Earth.
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For this blog post, I am in the mind of Bates as she and her teammates explore the insides of Rorschach for the first time. I also write about when the team is hit by and magnetic/radiation spike inside Rorschach and when Bates “drifts off” outside the tent. This scene takes place on pages 158-162 and 168-172. I chose this scene because I found it to be one of most exciting scenes in the book. I also found it easy to put this scene in different perspectives, as most of the characters are present and each have a role in the scene. I pretty much follow the book for this scene, except that I put it in her perspective. I did make it important to make it her personal feelings the opposite of the other characters. For example, when she describes Rorschach’s walls upon entering, it’s the opposite of Siri’s “scaredy-cat” description. I also made sure Bates was more focused on the mission than the well-being of her teammates (i.e. Szpindel and James during the spike hit). Lastly, there was nothing in the book that described what happened to her as she “drifted off” (besides talking to Szpindel/Keeton), so I made up what was going on in her mind. I got the idea from my own experiences of fainting (once in high school and almost fainted about 2 months ago).