Shadow Of Oblivion
Chapter 1: Lost Boys
A sudden clanking of the solid-iron jail door caused his eyes to open. It proved him little good as he knew the room was pitch black; no windows, no light, no hope. A tiny slit of dimmed light crawled along the dampened floor and slithered its way onto his feet. Three green lights shown in the dark as the guards came in with their night-vision active. Within, they saw the three prisoners, each chained by their arms, laid completely flat against the wall behind them, and their legs which also laid flat against the wall. Like posters they hung, their heads down and body strapped to the wall only to stay in one statuesque position in humiliation. Suddenly, their shackles moved and lowered there arms around their bodies and bound their legs together. They felt themselves peel from the walls as air flushed into their clothing for the first time in months. No words, no sounds, just movement as the guards hustled them out into the open air forcing the sudden light to contract their completely dilated pupils. There was no more wincing after this much time, only a gradually surge of pain; that was the only thing they felt outside of that cold, unforgiving hell.
They reached a glass door and three small cups lay on a tray protruding from it. Inside were little black pills and each of the inmates took it into their mouths a swallowed. Each let out a exasperated sigh as they felt the cold rush of black solution in their veins which could be seen branching from one artery and capillary to the next. One of them looked out into the distance feeling the solution enter the veins in his eyes and saw the facility in full view. There was nothing solid within the facility, every wall, hall, and door was invisible slates of glass. He looked down as he stood fifteen stories above the ground floor but could see everyone's face beneath him clear as day. Behind him was the only solid part of the complex, his cell. Looking at it still made him tremble with anxiety as he remembered the horrors of isolation within the cold, black pitch. Pulled away from his thoughts, he and his fellow inmates were guided through door after door until they reached a white-washed room with sheets and plastic curtains hung around three tables. This room was spotless and yet the stench of blood and sweat and tears could not be removed no matter how much they sterilized and cleaned it. A voice rang out over the loud-speaker, a voice that sent a hot of malice and anger into each of the inmates bodies.
"Load the specimens onto the operating tables for Experiment 58-SR-12."
A man with a headset in his ear nodded, "Understood, load the specimens."
Each inmate climbed onto the tables without question and laid motionless as they were strapped in and attached with wires and monitors. When each one was complete, the head guard with the headset pressed the button along the wall initializing the experiment. A table rolled in with a variety of different tools, each was pure white and clean. A man in a long, white coat came and took one into his hand; it was small, thin, about the size of a jackknife. He gently squeezed it and instantly a bubbling black pitch rose from it and became a solid shape. It gently hummed as black spots ran along its edges. Without hesitation, he plunged the tool into one of the inmate's stomach making him scream out madly. The other two closed their eyes and stayed silent as the man began to move the tool up splitting the skin and the bone of his sternum. The tool cut effortlessly and continued up until the inmate's chest was an open cavity. The man in the coat looked within to see that no blood was flowing and only the epidermis and bone had been cut; not veins, not tendons, not muscles. The inmate laid eyes widened beyond any amount of horror and choked out only croaks as the operation went underway. After twenty more minutes of the inmate's body being literally hacked into pieces and pulled into sections for examination, the man in the coat nodded to his companions to administer the shot.
One man handed the man in the coat a syringe full of a clear liquid and the needle was plunged into the inmate's neck. The plunger depressed slowly as the liquid changed color within his body to violet and could be seen coursing through his veins. Suddenly, the inmate took in a breath as he quietly gurgled in pain. The man in the coat grinned beneath his face mask as a darkened purple smoke began to emit itself from the inmate's body. It curled and slithered as it began to line the edges of the inmate's wounds and pull them together. His arm, which had been sliced into three parts, began attaching to each other, the smoke acting like a needle and thread to stitch them back. His torso, other arm, legs, and head all began to reattach as the smoke seamlessly bonded the flesh and bone. The inmate's eyes rolled back into his skull as his body turned from a massacred corpse to a undisturbed cadaver. After the final wisp of smoke seal his throat it dissipated and the inmate's breathing returned. The man in the coat chuckled as he took out a tape recorder from his pocket.
"Dr. Raynard's Log: March 8th, 2027, inside the Frudrick Research Facility. Today's experiment code: number fifty-eight dash SR dash twelve; experiment trial fifty-eight of Shadow Regeneration scenario twelve. Subject today was Subject "Violet". The experiment was a success, "Violet" showed excellent recuperative abilities when administered damaged by prototype weapon codenamed "Alice". When set to proper channel, the weapon effectively detached only skin and bone of subject without causing harm to any internal organs or arteries. This left results that the prototype may be, in fact, used to puncture the target's defense and debilitate without causing death. "Violet", after being administered the solution "SC-17" was able to immediately begin healing using phantosynthesis even while the mind was unconscious. The results for the experiment show great promise in the areas of suppression, isolation, and control over the phyto gene. Maybe a cure is not so impossible now and so the will of Lord Jericho too can be fully realized! End Log." he turned the tape recorder off and left the room.
The guards hoisted the inmate "Violet" off his table and dragged him back to the cell. The other two, who had laid motionless with their trying to shut out the screams and horrors of today's experiment, were lifted as well and guided back to the cell along with inmate "Violet". Once they had been secured to the walls again, they saw the light become narrower until the sliver evaporated leaving the sound of the lock echoing in the dark. Hours passed when suddenly they heard frantic panting in the dark, it was "Violet".
"Please stop, no! It hurts, it hurts! Please make it stop!!" he screamed as they heard him trying to rip himself from the walls.
"Violet, calm down. Violet?. Violet!!" one of the other inmates pleaded trying to silence their companion.
"Markus, calm down. It's over, the experiment is over. Your safe now." this voice made Violet stop thrashing and his breathing slowly returned to normal.
"Why? Why is it always me? For the past three weeks it has been me they've used! Why not you?! Why not you?!" the others could tell he was looking at their directions as he spoke.
"No one ever accused them of being fair. This a prison Violet, and we're prisoners. We have nothing here. No rights, no nothing." the inmate across from him said.
"Stop calling me Violet! That's what they call me, that is the name I hear before they start tearing me apart! My name is Markus, Markus, MARKUS!!" his shrill screams echoed as he voice began to break into a silent sob. Hearing him like this made both of them shudder.
"It's okay Markus. There is no more pain now. Just silence, and cold. No one can harm you in here." said the inmate on the wall adjacent to both the others.
With his voice still shaking, he spoke to him, "Why, why do they treat us like rats, brother? We did nothing but protect them and this is how they thank us? We're freaking rats in a cage because of them!" he snapped out before he went silent again.
"It's true. It's been three years since we've seen anything outside these walls and who do we have to blame? The people who sent us here! The very same people we wanted to protect!" shouted the inmate across from Markus.
"Darcia, you needn't be so spiteful. We did what we had to and now here we are, still alive." said the inmate adjacent to them.
"It's just Darc, alright? Not like it matters anymore."
"But it does. If we let them take away our identities then we will become no better than lab rats!"
"Al, face it. We will probably never leave here, at least not alive anyway. We will stay here as lab rats to be experimented on so that they can learn how to kill us faster and more efficiently. Even if we escaped, no one, not even our own kind would take us, not after all this." Markus sighed as he spoke.
Al looked down, "I can't accept that. I know that it is up to us to defeat all this. To end the prejudice and win back the world and restore peace."
"Get your head out of your ass, it ain't happening." Darc said bitterly.
As time passed, their eyes adjusted to the dark and they could see each other almost as clear as within a dim light. No one wanted to see each other though for fear of seeing the despair that only showed itself in the pitch black, the kind of fear, hopelessness, and despair that buries itself in one's soul after one's will is broken. This is why they never weep, why they never smile, why they never scream. It only reminds them of how broken their spirits really are and brings nothing but sadness.
A few days later, on a day like the others, something felt different to Al. His eyes fluttered in the dark as he looked around in his cell. Past his inmates, he thought, past the floor, something was different. His eyes then wandered upwards for the first time in those three years and he saw it. In his sight was a black box, no larger than a shoe box, one far darker than the rest of the cell. Never even when all their eyes were adjusted could they tell a difference in darkness as great as the one with the box. He thought of how this was and noticed another thing, the box was indented into the wall. It had a pane, just like a window. All at once, it hit him. He felt a surge of energy as he felt his face tighten into a smile. His chains felt looser as his body fell limp inside them. He felt the warm stream of tears along his cheeks that he had never felt since before he became a prisoner. He looked to his companions who were still asleep or just lost in their own depression and knew he could not tell them yet, not until it was time.
Over the course of a week, he looked at that one spot and just thought. He had to figure out a way out of his shackles in order to investigate the black box. He decided to try and starve himself in order to slip through. The guards took little interest in a prisoner not eating so it was simple for Al to slowly dwindle. His companions thought that what little spirit he had left was gone and they too continued to ignore his not eating. This continued for days and Al felt the repercussions but they were nothing compared to his resolve to escape. On the twelve day of his fasting, he noticed that he could not last long if he were to escape if he waited any longer so he took a chance. When the guards locked them in once again, after another experiment only this time, it was Darc, Al immediately began to pull his hand in the shackles. His hands had shrank considerably but it wasn't enough. He pulled harder, still nothing. He took in a deep breath, he knew what was going to be done now. He tore down with as much force as he could making his hand become crushed against itself until. Snap. His index and pinky knuckle had become dislocated as his hand slid out of its shackle. Not so much as a gasp when it happened, the pain endured here was far greater. He placed his hand against the wall and pressed hard forcing his knuckles back into place. He spread his fingers and made sure everything was back in place with his other hand. The warm trickle of blood flowed down and dropped coldly to the floor. The sound awoke the others instantly as Markus spoke out to his brother.
"Al? Al! Are you okay? What is going on? Why is there that dripping noise?"
Darc spoke out as well, "That dripping isn't water Al. We all know the difference, even in this black pitch. Why are you bleeding?"
Al chuckled as he finally worked his other hand through with the same results. The cracking echoed as he placed those knuckles into place. He took a hold of a shackle and began thrashing it against the stone wall. Sparks flew and eyes began to shut until the sounds of falling pebbles stilled everything. Al wandered the floor with his hands until he gripped a rock to his choosing. His eyes met the black box as he locked onto his target. His comrades looked at him confused as he grinned with his face aglow.
"Get ready, we're about to get out of here." his hand left the rock as it crashed through the window. The light spilled in and struck Al.
The rays warmed him and pierced into his soul, it was the divine light that freed him from the darkness, the truth that sprung him from the cave of solitude. Never in his whole life had the freedom to gaze into the pure oblivion been this satisfying. His eyes became opened as he reeled back with his right hand. As soon as that rock crashed and the glass could be heard shattering, he thrust his palm forward making a blackened hand purge from his skin and against the broken window. Guards came rushing and saw the rock outside the cell. Their eyes looked up to the window to see that it was unscathed. They immediately went for the door and began to unlock it to see if their prisoners had been compromised. The door swung open and the guards peered in only to gasp as the blood faded from their faces. What they saw was nothing but it was this nothing that was truly terrifying. The light that poured in could not penetrate the darkness within the cell. They saw no walls, no shackles, no bodies, just black; it was a contorted and twisted smoke, outlined in a crimson red, but possessed the appearance of a thick, sickening sludge. From within the black, a low growl could be heard followed by a wicked chuckle. A low voice whispered within the black pitch.
"What's the matter? Afraid of the dark?"
The guards raised their guns to fire but it was too late. A monstrous black, demonic hand leapt from the doorway and crushed the guards against the glass wall behind them. The crunching sound of their bones followed by their gasps of despair made the smoking hand grind harder against the glass. When it released the pulped bodies of the guards it dissipated in black spots that flared and shrank until it became a wisp of air. Since the facility was made of glass, the color of blood could be seen by everyone which alerted the others that their lab rats had been compromised. Before they could arrive, Al dismissed the black smoke from around him and looked to his brother and companion. Their eyes were wide and tearful as he engrossed his arm in the black smoke. It turned it into a disgusting amalgam of armor and claws allowing him to tear the shackles from the walls and free his comrades. They too felt the rays reinvigorate them as they too began to summon the smoke from within them. Markus sighed as he danced a darkened purple wisp within his palm.
"Oh yes, how I've missed being able to see you."
Darc, with his arms crossed, chuckled as a silver smoke began to emanate from his elbows, "You should have told us you were planning a break-out."
Al looked back at them, his arm relinquished of the black-red smoke, "Sorry, I didn't want to get your hopes up if I had failed."
"Well, from the looks of it, we are about to." Darc replied. "The facility is glass which means no way out."
Al chuckled, "But from one large source of shade, we are able to project a little outside of its range, no?"
Markus looked to his brother, "What are you saying? We make a stronghold and kill everyone?"
"No Markus, we're taking them down. All the way down." Al walked out where the blood pooled from the guards. He summoned the black and red smoke to his arm again but it took a different shape, that of a cannon.
Darc looked at him, "No, you don't mean we're..."
Al grinned, "Lets get ready to fly, boys." he slammed the barrel of the cannon against the wall making the smoke branch and web into the glass.
It infected the wall, the hall, and quickly the entire floor. People began running for the platforms as the sound of cracking glass could be heard. With a forceful yell, Al unleashed a ball of compressed energy into the wall that spread into the entire infrastructure of infection and collapsed the entire floor. Them and the cell fell the entire fifteen stories with shattered glass surrounding them. Al made his way into the cell and forced another hole into the bottom of the cell. He could see the floor growing closer and smiled as a shadow began to form beneath the cell. He reeled back once more just as they were falling the final five stories and thrust it down making another black, demonic hand explode from the hole on the cell and bury its fingers into the ground floor. The impact sent dust and debris everywhere as the glass caught up to them from before. The hand disappeared into spots of black oscillating until it became another wisp and let the cell slam into the floor. Amongst all the commotion, the three inmates sprung from the cell door and frantically ran for the main door. As they did, the glass panes began to fall down and thwart their escape. Al, who was ahead of his other two comrades, saw this and would not be stopped. He looked at the ground to see the shards of glass still falling. He closed his eyes and concentrated as he raised his hand at the barricade. Suddenly, all the shadows of the glass started coming together into the smoke on his arm. This was enough to attempt it.
"Markus, Darc! Get close I'm going to try snapping!" he yelled.
"What?! Are you crazy?! There isn't enough shadow, we could get killed!" Darc yelled back.
"We'd die anyway if we get caught!" Markus said and grabbed a hold of Darc's hand and Al's. "Go for it, Brother!"
Al yelled as the black-red smoke covered him and his comrades. Suddenly, the amassing black-red smoke began to shrink into a point and dart sporadically between the shards of glass until the last shard that was only a few moments from touching the ground allowed the darting mass to shoot underneath the falling barricade of glass panes and into the outside. Local police and special officers were outside but it was no use. The mass leapt beneath a cops car and flattened itself into nothing. The three inmates had disappeared without a trace.
As the police and officers began to disperse, a man with long white hair and an eye patch on his left eye wearing a black and gold trench coat approached the man in the white coat who had been standing in front of the door. The man was fairly old but his appearance had been that of a seasoned soldier.
"Doctor, my subjects have escaped. They know too much. If their knowledge gets out to their kind, everything will fall apart." his voice was desolate, cold, and sinister.
"I understand, Lord Jericho. We will send out as many agents as we can to find them. Even with their abilities, they can't far in the condition their in." Dr. Raynard replied.
"Send them out with the prototype "Guise" and "Hyssop". Make sure their weapons are equipped with the most current prototype "Alice" adaptations."
"Of course, my Lord. Anything else you wish to use?"
He smiled wickedly, "Yes. Send out Subject "Azure" and place him on the tracking squad."
Dr. Raynard looked to him worriedly, "Subject "Azure"? But the tests with solution "SM-8" aren't complete. We'd have to administer it weekly for Subject "Azure" to be field applicable and we still don't know what that will do if prolonged."
"Then you'd best catch them before the month is out then won't you?"
"You mean the week, my Lord?"
"No, the month. Remember this Dr. Raynard: They weren't our test subjects because they were easy to capture, it was because they were the best of their kind. You don't kill a snake by chopping its body, you take the head."
"I understand , my Lord."
"Good." The man turned and walked back into the facility. His voice lowered as he walked into the elevator, "You may have gotten away this time, but when I catch you again, I'll tear your limbs off and finally bring an end to your pitiful kind once and for all."