The bullet I fired bounced off of what seemed to be an invisible shield, forming a hexagonal pattern around his body.
“Tch!” I grunted, placing the gun back onto the white-haired girl’s head. “Drop the shield, or I kill her.”
“Do you honestly believe I value her life over mine? If so, then your great decision-making thus far may have only been a fluke. And to be honest, I am starting to grow tired of these pointless games.” He said with a sigh, moving some of his messy hair out of the way.
“You still think I’m playing around? Try me. You'd better take this seriously.”
“The only reason you’re not a bloody mess on the floor right now is because of how serious I am about this. You’re surrounded by all sides, by both trained soldiers and gift-users, and you still deigned to do this. All to get a better grasp of the overall situation you’re in. And I’m not talking about the present one.”
“.....”
“I gave the order to watch your actions and to use lethal force if you had killed two more, but it seems you got lucky. You have your hands on a type of….. VIP here, so I’m going to have to ask you to let her go. If you do, I’ll only let you off with a light punishment.”
“Two more?!” No.8 yelled in shock. “But we’re—!”
“If you want me to coddle all of you like babies, then you should be advancing your abilities instead of twiddling your thumbs! I am here to invoke evolution! Not to play damn babysitter! And I’m saying this to all of you! You’re all afraid of a powerless child with a gun, with your abilities?! The fact that none of you could do anything about this situation is appalling! ” He snapped, causing No.8 to shrink back into his seat.
He straightened his jacket and continued with a chilling smile on his face. “Regardless, I am in a good mood at the moment. So you would be wise to listen to me. Unbeknownst to you, your actions today have been quite helpful, which is part of the reason why I’ve let this continue on for so long.”
“If I have my hands on such an important person, all the more reason to not let go. Escort me out of here, and she’ll live.”
“Yes, but what is the guarantee that you’ll live after that? You get out of here and leave her, or bring her with you, and you’ll still die. You either lose your hostage, and we kill you, or you let your guard down for a moment, and she kills you. What’s more important is that you’re not accounting for the fact that this feeble girl you think you’re holding is far stronger than you. Even if you were to threaten us with her, if she truly wanted to escape you, she would have already done it. She’s just being difficult as per usual.” He shrugged, putting on his goggles.
I quickly glanced at the girl I was holding, and she winked at me with a goofy grin.
Ugh…..
I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing or not. The only reason I had started this whole thing was, as he suspected, to gain more information. Figure out who was a priority target, figure out what abilities some single-digits have, figure out how far the researcher would go for his ‘data’. It had plenty of risk, but I was able to ascertain some parts of his personality based on my test from a couple of days before. There was nothing more I could gain from this.
“How do I know you won’t just kill me the moment I let her go?”
“You’ve caused enough of a scene and showcased enough of your abilities to pique my interest. I won’t guarantee you anything, but I have found some potential uses for you. For more reasons than one, you are one of a kind.” He said with a grin.
For more reasons than one?
“What do you mean by—?”
“I will not indulge anymore questions, I have already let you get away with quite enough. I can have uses for your corpse as well.” He said coldly, putting on plastic gloves.
I let her go, but she did not run away in a panic or look shocked. She only put her arms behind her head and marched a couple of feet away from me, giving me a look of disappointment.
Turning back to the Head Researcher, I dropped the gun and kicked it over to the facilitators. “I apologize for my actions, Doctor.”
“Attaboy. Now, come with me. And… you, you, you, you, and you. Assist me in escorting him.” He said, pointing to five random facilitators.
“Yes, sir!” They said in unison, one of them grabbing me and dragging me towards him. I showed no resistance and willingly let them pull me along.
They dragged me through the doorway, and their expressions were no longer visible. I expected to be taken back to my room, but we went the opposite direction.
“May I ask where I’m being taken?”
“To your punishment.” The Head Researcher said.
After about two minutes of walking, we arrived at a rather large metal door. It had an air of authority to it, and anyone could tell that it was an important place in the facility.
The men, who were carrying me, dropped me to the floor and took a step back. I glanced back at them, then jerked forward as I heard the door open. Roaring steam flooded out, revealing a figure behind it.
?
“We’re here. Could you come inside for a moment?”
He worded it as a request, but it was quite apparent that it was an order. I nodded my head and walked inside, on guard with every step I took. I became acutely aware of my surroundings and the people around me. I was willing to comply, but if I were to be knocked out here, my survival wouldn’t be guaranteed.
“That will be all. You five may leave us.” He said, putting on a gas mask.
To my surprise, he had ordered the others away. I watched as they nodded their heads and left in unison. He then went to the door and pressed a couple of buttons to make it close.
“Come 963. Follow me.”
He walked ahead of me in this strange place. There was an eerie, thick red fog permeating this area. I couldn’t see more than a couple of feet in front of me.
“Seems familiar?” He said expressionless under his mask.
“I don’t know what you mean.” I responded, eyeing the eerie fog all around me.
“I suppose it wasn’t as concentrated back then, was it?” He chuckled.
I wordlessly followed the man into a small room. There was a reclining chair and a large light shining down at the center. Next to the chair was a table of surgical tools, with papers scattered around them. At the far corner of the room was another chair next to a desk. The room held the same aesthetic as the rest of the facility, endless gray walls nullifying any signs of creativity. But the fog remained throughout this area.
“No reaction?” The man mumbled to himself as he walked and sat down on the chair next to the desk.
I stared at him as he wrote some notes down on a spare sheet of paper.
“Now, despite the useful data I obtained and a new pathway for a theory I’m working on, you disrupted the hierarchy and blatantly caused a scene. This might influence the other triple-digits to retaliate, and we can’t have that, now can we?”
He got up from his chair and softly put his hand over the table with the surgical tools.
“I’ll need to make an example out of you to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Sit on the chair for me, and we’ll get started. I suggest you cooperate; it will only get worse if you run or try something incompetent.”
“I have no intention of running.” I said as I hoisted myself onto the chair.
He pressed a button, and a light at the edge of the room shone on me. He then took out an item that looked similar to pliers.
“What is that light?” I asked, not looking up at it.
“Nothing you need to worry about. Anyways, we have high-tech healing stations here. So any damage you endure will be healed by the end of the day. So don’t move, or you’ll die.
He put the pliers over my left thumb and clamped down.
“Tch!”
He clamped down harder and harder until an excruciating snap resonated throughout the room, and immense pain flowed through the top part of my thumb.
“GAAAH!”
He then began pressing where he had just snapped it, which only exacerbated the pain to a higher degree. I felt a surge of pressure on my thumb, and it soon felt numb. Pricks and needles danced around the tip, with each step bringing back the pain faster and faster.
He then moved the pliers lower down my thumb, and instantly clamped down on the bottom, breaking it instantly.
“HAAAAAAA-GAAAH!”
The pain at the top of my thumb had spread to the bottom, and it felt like the pain resonated and burst with each other. Pain swirled around inside like a raging maelstrom that would never cease, as tears began unconsciously streaming from my eyes.
“There are two bones in the thumb. And three bones in every other finger. Totaling up to 28 bones on the fingers, if we count both hands. Save your breath for later, we have nine more fingers to go through after all.”
As he said that, he tightened the pliers around my thumb and jerked it to the right.
“URRGRAHHHH!”
I could feel the broken shards of my bone cutting into my tendons as he twisted it. I could feel myself losing consciousness from the pain, but it seemed he noticed it as well, as he let go of the pliers and grabbed a syringe from a drawer. Leaning in close, he rammed the green fluid into my neck, and I suddenly felt wide awake.
“I can’t have you sleeping through this. Then you wouldn’t learn your lesson now, would you? This acts as a fluid to keep your body awake, while also doubling as a muscle relaxant. It’s not that strong, though. If it relaxed you to a point where you couldn’t feel pain, what would be the point?”
And so the process continued. He began breaking every bone in each of my fingers while forcing me to stay awake and watch. I tried to grab his pliers and wrench my hand free, but I couldn’t exert enough force to push him away, and it didn’t deter him in the slightest.
The pain.
*CRACK*
Throbbing.
*SNAP*
It hurts.
*CRACK*
It hurts.
*CRACK*
It…
*SNAP*
Mom…..
*CRACK*
Dad…….
*CRACK*
As I was on the brink of insanity, a memory flashed through my head of a time with my father.
………………………………………………………………………………………….
“Father, I’m unable to fight in this state. It got my arm.”
I looked down at my arm that was drenched in blood. The beast that had done this was a four-legged monster that was three times the size of me, and resembled a wolf.
“If an injury like that puts you down, then you’ll die in a second once you leave here.”
It lunged at me, and I quickly dodged and jumped to the left. However, I stumbled as I landed, as the world began to spin.
“Gah…”
I’ve lost too much blood, I can’t think straight.
The beast looked at me and licked its lips. It had just confirmed that I was too weakened to counterattack as it lunged at me once more. However, right before it reached me, my father stepped in front of me and crushed its skull in the span of a second.
“Let me teach you a lesson if you’re ever in too much pain. Harm yourself.”
“What….?”
“The brain can’t do anything about an opponent fatally hurting you, but the brain can stop you from harming yourself to preserve itself. Breaking that condition and harming yourself will hurt, but the brain will take priority on that injury and give you a rush of adrenaline. I recommend stimulating a smaller area of your body, like a finger. Then you would minimize the blood loss, while gaining the adrenaline boost to fight through the pain.”
……………………………………………………………………………………….
“We’re finally on to the other hand. Only 14 more to—”
*CRUNCH*
My teeth ripped through my right thumb like a razor. I could taste the blood in my mouth, and in that moment the pain that arose from my right thumb far surpassed the pain in my other fingers.
I’m able to focus again.
The pain is still nigh-unbearable, but at least I wasn’t delirious. I still had my senses. I could see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. The blood dripped from my mouth like a waterfall as I dug deeper and deeper into my thumb.
I’m alive.
“I’m bleeding.”
Blood.
“Gushing.”
It hurts.
“It hurts.”
I need a distraction.
“Distraction?”
Distraction.
“Focus on the distraction.”
Think of a question.
“What should be the question?”
Anything. Something simple that anybody could answer.
“What is it?”
What is it?
“I know a simple question.”
Do tell.
“What color is the sky?”
What color…is the sky?
“I don’t know what the color was.”
It was obviously blue.
“No…it was red.”
Blue.
“Red.”
Blue.
“Red. Blue skies are for people with futures.”
I have a future.
“Residents of hell have no future.”
?
I released my thumb from my mouth and looked over at the man with the pliers. He looked taken aback for a moment before closing his eyes and smiling. After that, he calmly put the pliers over my fingers again.
*CRACK*
This is worth it.
*CRACK*
I’ll do anything to survive.
*SNAP*
An opportunity will present itself.
*SNAP*
And when it does…..
*CRACK*
And when it does…..I’ll–
*SNAP*
He suddenly stopped and put down the pliers. There were still two fingers he hadn’t broken, yet he had stopped.
“There’s no point in continuing any further.” He said, unstrapping me.
As he helped me off the bed, he looked directly into my eyes, and I saw a strange entity reflected in his mask. What should have been myself through its reflection was instead a creature with a contorted smile. I quickly turned my head around, but saw nothing there.
“Let’s take you to a healing pod. Make sure to never start a scene like that again, or you’ll be back here.”
I couldn’t respond even if I wanted to. I had no energy to even muster a voice. I looked up at the never-ending gray walls of the facility, as I slowly lost consciousness in the arms of the man who tortured me. With only one thought enduring in my mind.
And when it does, I’ll take it. Leaving everything else behind, even myself.