Manipulation

Chapter 1 - Awakening

Two voices.

"What is that, Daddy?"

Two voices speak through the cloudy static.

"A specimen, son. One of the creatures from Project 21."

Project 21?

"What's Project 21?"

What is Project 21?

"Each of the creatures we're studying has a project number."

I am Project 21.

"Will it wake?"

Am I awake?

"Not likely. See that liquid he's floating in? That's called suspended animation."

So that's why my body feels as heavy as lead.

"Oh."

A third voice that is among the mumble of background noise speaks up. I can't tell what it says.

"That's fine, dose it again," the older voice says.

Yet another needle stabs me, this time in my back. They're injecting yet another drug into my body. I feel it entering my veins. It hurts. My back arches in pain, and a muzzle prevents me from crying out. That's all it takes. That's all I can take. I start to move, pulling the restraints enough to get my hands around the metal mouth guard and tear it away. I still can't breathe, and I still can barely move. I open my eyes, but the fluid clouds my vision. I move slowly to place my hands on the sides of the container confining me, to test it. I can break this.

I muster whatever strength I have to pull my leg back and then slam it into the glass. I am lucky I'm so strong. Thin cracks splay out from where I made impact. So I do it again. And again. On the third try, the glass crackles, the entire cylinder of it crisscrossed with cracks and tiny fragments ready to fall. It stays still for a moment, and I wonder if I should kick it once more. Then the pieces fall away, at first one by one, then all at once. They shower to the floor, larger pieces shattering when they fall and adding to the mess. The fluid goes with it, coating the floor in a slippery, transparent liquid film. Now free from the dense substance that limited my movements, I snap the chains binding my wrists with a simple tug of my arms. How dumb of the scientists. They didn't shackle my legs.

I fall to the ground, intending to land on my feet, but I'm too weak from all that they've done to me. I lose my balance and fall forward, cutting my arms and legs on the broken glass. Unfazed, I scramble to my feet and start to run toward the door.

SLAM! The door closes and I'm stopped short. A white-haired scientist stands by a panel, his hand on the scan pad. A little boy stands behind him, sheltering himself, looking scared.

My brain screams at me. Humans! These are the humans that have captured you and your people! They are hurting you! Don't leave them in peace!

Involuntarily, my hands curl into fists and I lunge at the scientist by the door. He's too slow to stop me. I grab the man that closed the door, his head in my arms. Other scientists try to stop me, but I glare at them and snarl, my fangs bared. They stop short, knowing I will attack them too. They watch me. They want a show? That's what they'll get.

With a swift jerk of my arm, the man's neck is broken. He goes limp. I grab his wrist and slam his hand on the panel so hard I hear the bones crack. The door opens. Vaguely, I hear the boy's screaming and the bustle of the scientists as I run out the door.

Bang! Bang! Ba-bang! Gunshots follow me down the hall. Some get lucky and hit me in the arm, in the back, in the leg. But they don't stop me. I hardly feel the pain. I'm already impaired by sedative and unknown drugs. They dull the pain to almost nil. My whole body, in fact, is numb and heavy. But I can't stop. I must escape. I must escape my prison.

Red lights flash and alarms sound, but I barely pay attention to them. I can only keep moving forward, letting my feet and my instinct guide me. The labs are very poorly protected. Guards with guns try to get in my way, but I run past them, over them, through them, away. I know my body is taking a beating. But my mind remains mostly unscathed. My eyes dart around, looking for an exit. I don't even know where I'm going. I turn corner after corner, run straight, detour, backtrack, move forward. I do anything to throw off the ones chasing me and to find a way out. I will find a way out.

My mind is now going foggy and my vision is going black. I start seeing things, not unlike the nightmares I've faced while in this facility. I see flashes of images of a black room with a single, dim light. I see computer screens. I see humans talking. They talk about me. I see my friends in the same state I'm in. I push these images away. I know I'm on the verge of blacking out. I can't black out now. I'm almost out. I'm almost there.

Light. Doors. A way out. But it's closing. I push myself to the very limit, accelerate, crouch, and roll underneath just in time. The doors slam shut behind me. I'm out.

My body is bloodied, weak, and heavy. I am shacked but no longer chained. I'm free. I run outside a city, the new invigorating reality of freedom filling my brain with a new kind of bliss, and I speed up. Faster. Faster. Run faster. I have somewhere to be. With the bliss comes uncertainty, confusion, and worry. Sleep continuously tugs at my brain, and I struggle to stay awake. I don't know how long it's been. When was I last with my friends? When had the humans come? When was this city built? Time was lost to me now.

I don't know how long I've been running, but at some point the buildings shifted to trees, trees, and more trees. My eyelids droop, and I can't run anymore. My footsteps slow and I collapse, rolling to the base of a hill. My brain has already sunk into a deep sleep before I reach the bottom.

((Hey guys! This is SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd here with another story. This story has been in existence for a while now, actually, and is going through many changes. I got the idea for the first chapter, the scene in the lab up until Sonic ran out of the suspended animation room, from my friend Rocket913, who I'm friends with on Instagram. She's an amazing writer, you should check her out! Just thought I'd point that out, since it's pretty important.

If you are very confused and wondering why this is so similar to one of my other stories (entitled Where the Wind Won't Blow), it's because I changed the name and completely revised the first chapter to this. This is a story I started over a year ago. I'm finally interested in writing this again after forgetting about it, because I re-read what I had already written and I realized how good it was! The story has been written in various notebooks up until now, and I have a good portion of the story planned out. In January I posted the original first chapter (with a bit of editing) under the name of Where the Wind Won't Blow, and recently I rewrote it and shortened it to post on Instagram as the caption to a photo. Everyone loved it and wondered if it was a fanfic. I realized that the version I wrote on Instagram was better than the original, so now I've decided that the style I wrote it in is better than the style, if there was one, which I wrote the original story in. The chapter you just read is a lengthened version of the caption I posted on Instagram. I've decided I'm going to rewrite the story from scratch instead of typing it up while looking off of the notebook. I have to share it!

Follow, favorite, and review! I really hope you like this story; it's one of my favorites to write. Love you all! :D))

~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd