The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
Inajda is one of the few people who has been granted access to Anesidor Sumian’s Transient Laboratory. She and Alexand materialise inside the laboratory, hoping to find Anesidor Sumian.
Inajda takes Alexand with her to visit Professor Sumian, but Sumian’s transient laboratory is notoriously difficult to locate.
Lord Filius Anderson watches another of his Floating Asylum ships arrive at the docks of his castle in Krestovaya by the East Siberian Sea. His agents have abducted many deviants and enemy operatives, who had been cured by Katherine’s Bullet. The National Guard have chained the captives, who are forced to wait in a line, to board the ship.
After Sister Ancille confirmed that Alexand’s grandparents were the suspects in her father’s murder, Alexand retreated from the city, frightened that her father’s legacy did indeed suggest that she and Heyem were in danger from the Amanojuko, because of what could potentially be in their blood. (Special thanks to David Gittlin. You can read David’s blog here.)
The Guild Master’s General takes Katherine with him to a place she’s visited once before. To a future cloned earth, where the people of the original earth have fled or are taken after they die.
The Guild Master’s General and Katherine have been phased between matter and energy, and followed Eric Mehmed through the convent cloisters, to where Sister Ancille showed him to his room. (This story is dedicated to David Prosser, who has supported these stories for almost a decade. You can visit David’s blog The Buthidars here)
The strange couple continued to talk with Eric as he drank his tea and ate his croissant, but as he turned his head towards a commotion down the road, he saw an angry woman marching towards the café, along with a national guard.
Eric emerges from the café, glad to see that the couple he has helped are still waiting for him outside by their table.
The Guild Master’s General had transported Katherine from the cart, and both of them watch from a distance, phased between matter and energy, so that Xan and Edith, and the unsuspecting Eric cannot see they are witnesses to Eric’s poisoning.
Eric made his way to a café as soon as he arrived in Kolkata and sat on a table with a cup of tea, watching the people walk past.
The cart starts and Katherine and the Guild Master’s General watch Alexand’s father walk towards the convent where he will soon die.
The Guild Master’s General and Katherine arrive in Kolkata, along with Eric Mehmed. It has taken them four days, and in that time, Katherine got to know Alexand’s father much better than she had with the stories Alexand had told about him.
Alexand has managed to get more information from Sister Ancille about her father’s potential murderers.
Generals Edith MehXian and Xan Medani have travelled back in time to complete a mission to uphold time’s continuity, and to prevent their own world from unravelling.
Alexand has been attempting to find out more about her father’s killers, from Sister Ancille.
The Guild Master’s General has had the audacity to take Katherine with him on the very same cart ride that Alexand’s father is on. Neither of them is phased out of focus and are corporeal. The Guild Masters General has replaced his balaclava with a Stetson hat, and his sunglasses have clear lenses, so they look like ordinary glasses. They are both a few seats behind Eric Mehmed. Thankfully Eric doesn’t recognise Katherine as they had never met, although Alexand told her father a lot about the woman she fell in love with, so Katherine has insisted that the Guild Master’s General call her by her middle name, Anastasia.
The Guild Masters General takes Katherine to Alexand’s father’s house, before his death, where Eric Mehmed has just finished reading a letter, informing him that his daughter has sustained life altering injuries to her fingers. (3987)
The Guild Master’s General is still attempting to show Katherine how flimsy the fabric of time’s continuity can be, and before he returns her to the Kyuunansen (after educating her about the dangers of meeting Alexand) he has a few final events to show her. (India 3987) This story marks the 10th anniversary of Unbound Boxes Limping Gods on WordPress. Thank you to everyone who has read these stories over the past decade.
Georges De Somme is aware that it won’t be long before Filius Anderson realises it is he who is funding the Katherine’s Bullet program. Georges has stopped attending functions and has barricaded himself into his mansion. There is a forcefield around the perimeter which prevents Amanojuko being able to teleport in. He is now trapped, along with his wife Kavita.
Helga Ritter returns to the Floating Asylum to give news to Lord Anderson about the death of Eric Mehmed.
Alexand finds the Ocular Cyber-technology ward, where there are patients being assessed, and other patients recovering from operations. Sister Ancille sits reading to a man with bandages around his eyes but stops when she sees Alexand.
Alexand, as the orchestrator of the Katherine’s Bullet Care Centres, has security clearance to enter the medical dome, which Georges De Somme’s money has privately funded. She goes in search of Sister Ancille, with the intention of questioning her about her father’s death.
Alexand has travelled to Kolkata and materialised outside the convent of the Handmaids of Mary, to visit her friend, sister Ancille. It is eight o’clock at night and there are few people around to witness her arrival.
Filius Anderson has placed a bug into Colonel Merek’s mechanical index finger and has been monitoring her conversations. He is pleasantly surprised to learn that her prodigal mother, Inajda Rekaya has re appeared, and is in fact an undercover enemy agent.
Heyem has stopped going out at night and rarely socialises. She has thrown herself into her work, and every night, after her lectures have finished, she studies the list of Amanojuko agents given to her by Alexand. Helga Ritter is the only one on the list she has recognised, but she is becoming increasingly paranoid and suspects practically everyone.
With the disturbing news that Lord Filius Anderson is interested in the genetics of her late husband’s family, Inajda’s thoughts immediately settled on the safety of her daughters, Heyem and Alexand. She left the Prison of Souls, reached the base of the mountain in Antarctica and transported herself to Saskatoon, to meet Alexand, to speak with and warn her daughter about the Amanojuko threat.
Inajda watched Grace O’Malley’s interrogation of the Amanojuko agent from behind a spy mirror.
Grace O’Malley takes the Amanojuko agent back in time to Ireland, March 1574.
Helga Ritter is introduced to Sister Ancille, who was present at the time of Eric Mehmed’s death. (Stay safe everyone. Keep inside if you can. This story is dedicated to all the key workers across the world, who are in the front line.)
Grace O’Malley interrogates the prisoner captured by Antun Rekaya and brought to her by Inajda Rekaya, who waits in the observation bay, desperate to find out why her husband, Eric’s body was stolen by this man and his cronies. (Stay safe everyone, look after each other.)
Helga Ritter travelled to Kolkata, to the convent Eric Mehmed was reported to have died, to gather further information about who killed him. She knocks on the convent door, of the order of Handmaids of Mary, feeling an overwhelming repulsion.
Helga Ritter has conducted various tests on the body of Eric Mehmed, Alexand and Heyem Merek’s father, and has found something else.
Alexand brought Heyem back to her apartment in Hong Kong, along with a doctored writer, in case Helga Ritter returned. Heyem sits alone, watching herself in her bedside mirror, unable to feel safe in her own home. She has bolted her door and hasn’t been outside since Alex left.
Inajda walks the corridors of Atlantis alongside Grace O’Malley, an ancient Irish warrior Queen, who Inajda knows little about, besides her legend, even though they have been colleagues for decades.
The submarine docks somewhere at the base of the arctic ocean. They have reached the Prison of Souls. Inajda hears a hatch opening.
Once on board the submarine, Inajda was taken down into the black waters of Antarctica, the only passenger on board an ancient craft salvaged from the Third World War.
Inajda descends a spiral staircase carved deep into the base of Mount Tyree, to where a lower level leads out into a submarine base, guarded by ancient Kyo-Ashita warriors.
Field Marshal Panak took the container holding the Amanojuko agent, with him all the way to Antarctica, where there is another, more secret rebel outpost. It is the gateway to an underground prison city, called the Prison of Souls. Only a few undercover agents know it exists, including Inajda Rekaya.
Two of the three agents returned to the Floating Asylum ship, scraping Eric Mehmed’s coffin across the deck, as it was too heavy for them to carry. Helga Ritter had two more agents help them place it on a slab in her laboratory.
Alexand returned from the barn alone, and Heyem and Antun saw that the grave robber had disappeared along with the mysterious Field Marshal Panak. Alexand turns off the light so it is dark enough for them to see a projection on the wall. (Happy New Year everyone.)
Abouna Panak has used his writer to travel to Alexand’s village in Yunnan and materialises inside her uncle’s house.
Antun was relieved when Alexand walked with him to the barn, and he was able to show her the grave robber, he captured stealing her father’s body.
Antun has tied up the grave robber, gagged him and locked him in his outbuilding. He has sent his wife and children to her mother’s house, ten miles away. He hasn’t called the National Guard, as he thinks they may have ties to the Amanojuko, and has locked all the doors and windows, waiting for Alexand to arrive, after he requested she come to him, in the letter he wrote.
Alexand, on her way to see her uncle Antun, dropped by Heyem’s apartment in Hong Kong, as she wanted her sister to be present when she shares intelligence with her uncle. She has been given the profiles of all known Amanojuko agents, has memorised the faces and the names of the Chinese and Indian agents, and mapped them inside her head, like musical notes attached to songs. She realises that this may not be possible for Heyem or Antun to do, but she needs them both to tell her if they recognise any of the agents. She and Heyem materialise outside their uncle’s village.
Antun Rekaya has been quite shaken up by his niece Alexand’s recent high-profile announcement, against an invisible enemy, that she believes responsible for infecting her with that virus. Antun remembers being taken from his own home as a boy, in Russia, and seeing his parents murdered. He has a very bad feeling that history is about to repeat itself, as it is rumoured that the people responsible for annexing Russia are these Amanojuko fundamentalists. Antun has been guarding his children obsessively, to the point of madness.
Alexand turns to the one man she thinks can help her protect her family from the Amanojuko threat. She knocks on the door of Field Marshal Panak’s office, not expecting him to answer, as she has not been given an appointment.
Lord Filius Anderson has intensified the Amanojuko agenda, creating more positions of power for sleeper agents, and rich socialites funding his secret regime, guaranteeing them immortality leading up to his takeover in 4006.
Alexand has been receiving letters from her family, concerned about her exposing the Amanojuko, and the latest letter arrives from her Uncle Antun. She opens it, feeling responsible and accountable, but she is now three months pregnant, and suffering severe morning sickness, her career is demanding, and she is bickering with Jarad again. She feels very alone as she opens up her uncle’s letter, and wishes that Katherine was here.
Helga had crept out of bed, and extracted a blood sample from Heyem. With a horrible feeling inside her, she retreated back to her Floating Asylum and to her laboratory to test whether Heyem, like Alexand, has a hereditary immunity to ageing.
Helga Ritter, disguised as a Swedish tourist called Elsa, and a former one night stand of Heyem’s, waits as the last of Heyem’s students leaves the lecture theatre.
Heyem has been back lecturing for two months and has grown increasingly tired of people recognising her as the identical twin sister of the semi-famous Colonel Merek. Heyem has just about finished a two-hour lecture on women’s empowerment through media, and has been unable to avoid questions being hurled at her about her sister.
Lord Anderson has instructed that in order to compensate for Katherine’s Bullet, and the failure of the virus to eradicate degenerates and rebels, more asylum ships have been commissioned, and set to sea. They are being filled with those previously infected by the virus, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the disabled and military rebels. He materialises on board his maiden ship, to consort with Helga Ritter.
Lord Filius Anderson has personally followed Alexand around, ever since she exposed the Amanojuko live in front of the world. He has camped out in the woods near Alexand’s house, and is currently observing her and her husband as they sit on a flat roof having dinner. He has planted bugs all over their cabin, and is listening into their conversation. He is waiting for the perfect opportunity to make Colonel Merek ‘disappear’, as she has caused great damage to the safety of his vision for a new world order.
Alex has been rather secretive since she returned back from Georges De Somme’s mansion, but Jarad is pleasantly surprised as she has invited him up onto the flat roof of their house. There is a table and a candlelit dinner, (which he believes she has had delivered from a nearby takeaway as she is an appalling cook.)
Alexand has a plethora of questions she wants to ask Katherine’s father, but due to their pact, she continues to walk with him in his gardens.
Georges De Somme was so impressed by Alexand’s commitment to his daughter’s legacy, he felt compelled to meet with her. He walks down his marble staircase and without the aid of his guards, waits for her to knock at his mansion door.
Alexand used her writer to transport herself to the gates of Georges De Somme’s mansion. The last time she was here she attempted to plead with him to help save Katherine’s life, and was beaten up and sent back to Saskatoon by his guards. With mixed emotions, she approaches the gates and talks into the intercom.
Alexand and Jarad returned home, back to Jarad’s house, which is in the middle of the woods. There are no other houses for miles, which was ideal for Alexand, as she sees it as a retreat from her stressful military life. She can be part of two worlds, whist remaining blissfully outside of both. She and Jarad have spent the night making love, as they have done every night, since they returned from Hong Kong. (Please be warned this issue contains some scenes, some readers may find offensive. If so then you may prefer to read issue # 344: Jay and Ali where Katherine gets her cloned cat back.)
From the safety of his castle, behind the walls entombing Russia, Lord Filius Anderson watches another live press report, from the Katherine’s Bullet news story. (This issue is dedicated to the truly brilliant Toni Morrison 1931-2019.)
Alexand, to make a point, has arranged to donate one of her mechanical eyes to a fifteen-year-old girl, who has lost her sight, and has no access to proper after care. As Katherine’s Bullet is still one of the top stories in the news, Alex has arranged for the press to schedule live reports of the operation, keeping the fifteen-year-old girl’s identity secret, out of respect. One very rich man, Georges De Somme, looks on from his study, as a familiar name is mentioned.
Alexand hasn’t the resources left to deal with Jarad’s emotional demands. She is beginning to suspect he is more damaged than she can cope with. He has been needy and possessive and has tried to encroach in her private thoughts. She has to deal with a very demanding role as colonel, and in order to do her duty, she has shut Jarad off, and wishes he wasn’t so insufferably needy.
Jarad spent the morning looking for Alexand, as they had argued the night before and he knew that she had hidden from him. He found her in the military camp, administering the vaccine. It has only been a day since their honeymoon, but desperate to keep her, and frightened of rejection he sits next to her, to help administer the antidote to the infected.
The Guild Master’s General did not return Katherine to the Kyuunansen after her encounter with Alexand. He didn’t reprimand her, or anything remotely like it, but simply walked beside her, towards a little hut in the deserts of Sudan. (3939)
Gianti Dincrind transports herself back to the Floating Asylum Ship, where she presents the sample of Alexand Merek’s blood to Helga Ritter.
Gianti Dincrind has sneaked into the queue for the women’s toilets, and is three people behind Colonel Merek. She has assessed with the aid of her writer, that Colonel Merek is menstruating, and therefore acquiring her blood to test for antibodies, will be easier than first thought.
Alexand returns to the army vehicle she arrived in, sits in the driver’s seat, watching people walk past, from behind the safety of the glass, after her very short honeymoon ended. She and Jarad had argued over why she wouldn’t talk to him about crying on the banks of the river. Jarad stormed off, leaving Alexand to become Colonel Merek again.
Gianti has waited all day and into the evening for any trace of Colonel Merek. The military has packed up their relief mission for the night, and the queues of people have been turned away until the morning. Finally, Colonel Merek appeared from the same doorway her sister emerged from that morning. Gianti followed her towards some army tents attempting to keep a low profile.
Katherine ignored the Guild Master’s General’s warning and could not resist touching Alexand, whilst phased between energy and corporeality.
After leaving her own grave behind, Katherine walked alongside the Guild Master’s General, without saying anything for a while. When she finally spoke, she asked him one simple thing.
Heyem has spent two hours working with the military relief team, injecting victims of the Amanojuko’s secret project, with the antidote. She has been assigned to a tent which deals with the more obviously infected patients. It was arranged that patients be split into groups depending on the severity of their symptoms. This group of patients are symptomatic, some almost as sick as Alexand had been, before she was cured. Heyem is having a tough time dealing with all the suffering.
Gianti Dincrind has travelled to Hong Kong University, to locate and monitor Colonel Merek, so that she can take a blood sample back to the Floating asylum ship for Helga Ritter to analyse.
The Guild Master’s General wants to show Katherine something important, as he knows she will try to contact Alexand now she has her writer back. He takes her to Saskatoon, just before dawn, to the military graveyard, where Katherine’s fake corpse is buried.
It has been a long time since the Guild Master’s General checked up on Katherine. He has been ordered to return her writer to her, so that she is no longer confined to the Kyuunansen.
Heyem wakes up, hearing Alexand calling for her from the bathroom. (Thank you to everyone who has supported these stories over the years. As a gift to you, Unbound Boxes Limping Gods has been upgraded and is now an advert free home, with limitless space for my fictional family to grow! Happy reading everyone. The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive…)
Gianti Dincrind left the group of surviving inmates in darkness overnight, and returned in the morning to continue the experiment.
After their new year’s celebrations, and an impromptu marriage, Heyem, Alexand and Jarad ended up sleeping in Heyem’s apartment. Heyem is slumped still sleeping in her chair, with Alex and Jarad unconscious in her bed. Alex is the first to wake up, disorientated and hung over.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and after being deployed in Hong Kong for a week, Alexand and Jarad are celebrating the coming of the New Year, along with Heyem. They are taking a break from their relief mission for an evening, and are out in Hong Kong, enjoying the city. They have been to many bars and clubs, and all three are quite drunk. Alex has been overly affectionate towards Jarad, as the three of them parade around the outside night market.
Gianti Dincrind, a research scientist on board one of the many Floating Asylum ships, observes the behaviour of the captive rebels inside the holding cells. She and her colleagues have just been informed about the failure of ‘Project Ghost Ship,’ on the mainland, and so have been instructed to accelerate their research on board the Floating Asylum ships.
Heyem has been back on her university campus for the past three weeks. She has arrived between terms, and arranged to begin teaching in the New Year. The army have set up camp inside the grounds, and have recruited members of the faculty to help administer Katherine’s Bullet. The trails of potential infected stretch out onto the streets outside the university, and she decided to take a five-minute break for herself, to recover.
It’s nearly New Year’s Eve, and Jarad has attempted to make Alex feel at home. She has re materialised her piano, which is now positioned in the centre of his living room. Her clothes are in his wardrobe, alongside his and he helps her place her books next to his in his very large bookcase.
After three more weeks on Christmas Island, recovering, Alexand is now fit for duty, and has returned to her army base in Saskatoon, India.
Helga Ritter is developing new biological weapons, on board the Floating Asylum ship. She receives a distress call from Lord Anderson.
Heyem is furious with Alex, that she hasn’t listened to her warning about sleeping with Jarad. She is more upset about Alex’s rejection of her. She has decided to pack her possessions and intends to ask Inajda to take her off the Island back to Hong Kong.
The news of a cure came a day before Alexand and Heyem’s twenty-fifth birthday. As Heyem is soon to leave the island to go back to her career, and Alex is almost recovered enough to return to the army, Heyem is looking for her twin, outside on the beach, as she wishes to celebrate a day she thought they’d never share.
Abouna Panak holds up the antidote, and passes it to a very happy Colonel Merek.
Katherine, and Ajeeta Kothari have spent a month attempting to isolate the antibodies responsible for immunity in their three blood samples.
Alex presses her hands against the exit door, anxious to get outside onto the beach.
Alexand was left with her promotion to Colonel, and to wander alone along the corridors, not feeling very soldierly.
