I woke up in an elevator, a crappy one at that. The metal grate underneath me was rusted and gritty against my hand as I pushed myself into a sitting position. There was nothing but darkness surrounding me, and if it weren't for the endless rattle of chains hauling the box up, I could guess that it would be completely silent as well.
"Wicked is good," someone said. Fear made me jump out of my skin, as I'd thought I was alone.
Those words echoed throughout the hollowed cave that was my mind. I remembered nothing, or rather, no one from my past life. But I knew what it felt like to swim under the summer sun and what it felt like to run through an open field without shoes on. But when I scoured my brain for any hint of a human face, even a name, there was nothing.
"Who's there?" I called out instead, knowing all too well that I was alone. The space around me was nearly empty, save for a large box that lay in the corner, reaching the ceiling. Once in a blue moon, the box would pass a set of flickering lights as it carried me upward. But, once the box rolled passed them, I was thrown back into a darkness that enclosed everything around me, but for some reason, I didn't mind the abyss.
In fact, I felt a strange sense of familiarity.
A figure flashed over my memory, but was gone too quickly to recognize. I squinted my eyes, drawing my brows together, trying to summon the image back from the seething depths of my mind. But I lost it just as the box halted suddenly.
Then I was blinded by a coursing white light from above as the roof opened up to reveal the sky. There was a dull, wet thump above me, but it was too bright to even look at what had made the sound. My eyes were closed and I held my arm above my head until they'd adjusted enough to allow me to see. And what I saw wasn't pleasant.
There was a body lying on top of the crate, blood spewing from open wounds. The smell of copper nauseated me as I stared on at the bloody bloated face of the dead boy. Horror crept to my stomach and I collapsed to my knees, retching onto the floor of the box.
I could hear screaming and panicked cries from the world above me as I lay there on my knees. My mind immediately flashed to the box in the corner. I pulled it out, somehow getting it to tip onto its side before wrenching the side of it open.
Inside was a sleek weapon, and I knew it well, despite the fact that I thought I knew nothing. Picking the weapon up out of the box, I aimed it at the corpse above me. And fired.
A bright white light erupted from the end of the transvice, heaven only knew how I remembered its name, and just like that, the boy was gone, along with parts and pieces of the grated roof. I peeked my head through the opening, only to see more carnage.
Monstrous creatures with disfigured, gelatinous bodies and metal legs towered over boys with only sticks and stones to defend themselves.
Instinct told me what to do.
I used the hidden cavity of the box as my hiding place as I readied my sniper-like weapon. Aim, pull the trigger and recharge. Aim, pull the trigger and recharge. I took the beasts down one at a time until the two or three that were left scurried back through a large opening in an even larger wall.
What was this place?
As I scanned my surroundings, finding slight amusement at the bewildered faces of the boys I'd rescued, I found my sight drawn to a shack-like building, which was the only real building that appeared to be in this place, aside from tents, lean-to's and poles sticking out of the ground with roofs.
What a strange place.
Just then, an odd sight caught my eye, three boys and, to my surprise, a girl scuttled out of the building. They joined in the confusion and their heads jolted around before a single, blaring alarm flared through the entirety of this walled-in place.
Every head turned to me.
I ducked down, fear striking threw me. And then it started. The weapon that I'd masterfully taken my enemy down with only moments ago started melting away. Into my skin. Within moments it had dissolved into my arm and was gone, leaving a strange six-letter mark in it's place.
WICKED.
WICKED is good.
Then, the darkness engulfed me as shadows began to appear overhead.