CHAPTER 2
"What am I?"
My head hurts and I'm stiff. I rub my eyes and try to get a grasp on my surroundings. Behind me, there is a stone wall. The ground is stone. The ceiling is stone. There are metal bars to my right, left, and in front of me. I'm in prison. I stumble to my feet. Where is my jacket? Wait… I don't even have my own clothes on anymore. The comm device is gone. There is silence all around me. And I begin to recall my past in detail, as well as begin accessing my current situation.
"This is the seventh test subject Kael; you said this one would be different!" Says a voice. Kael? Kael is the commander of the Krimson Guard. I take a few steps to the entrance of my cell.
"Barren, I merely need the right person for the procedure, if you could give me just a little more time and a few more people." I hear a second man speak. It must be Kael. He is with the Barren. Praxis is here. I hear footsteps. They are coming this way.
"I'm done with these petty experiments Kael, they cost me way too much Dark Eco, and the results have only killed the subject for the past seven trials! Or it just didn't do anything. We are done with this, you hear me? Throw that thing in a cell next to the other one until we are sure it's dead." The booming voice of Praxis echoes within the walls.
"Of course sir, right away… sir" The way Kael responds to Praxis is enlightening. They don't sound like they get along. I can see them now. They are approaching from down the hallway. Praxis is much bigger then Kael, and Kael is carrying something big – a person.
"Well, Well, Well, the rat from the Underground is awake," Praxis looks me in the eyes with great interest. There is something very mysterious about him. His muscles make him look inhuman. Kael opens the cell next to mine and throws the man on the floor of the cell. He doesn't look much older than me, maybe twenty or twenty one; he looks average size with jet black hair. He is very pale though, if his life is not already come to an end. It looks like it will very soon. The man lays there motionless. Kael pulls out his revolver and points it at me but Praxis seizes his forearm.
"No!" Praxis stops him. "He will die eventually, just like the rest of his friends – If he can survive, then he's useful," Praxis spoke in riddles.
"As you wish," Kael grins and sheaths his pistol. They take their leave. Four, Nine, Eight, Three… that is the code to the door. Not that it will help me as long as I stay stuck in this cell. Four, Nine, Eight, Three. I keep repeating the numbers in my head until I have them undoubtedly memorized. Now what can I do? Try to eat my way through these metal bars. Time passes, an hour, two hours; four hours. I sit in the corner of my cell.
"I'm hungry," I say out loud. My voice echoes. I look over at the man lying in the cell next to me. He looks like he is sleeping. All the color has returned to his face. He looks okay but he isn't moving. I pick up a small pebble in my cell and throw it at him. But the man does not move an inch. I start to lose track of time. What must Dallas think happened to me? I failed him… I failed all of the Underground. Our very purpose is to stop the barren, to kill the barren, dethrone him at least. But here I am, sitting in his cell, starving to death in his prison… then something happens that startles me. The man in the cell next to me is gagging, almost like he is in pain. Then he's on his knees clasping his hands around his throat. What the hell did they do to him? Then I see. Slowly a dark purple liquid streams from his mouth into a puddle on the floor, where is quickly vaporizes into a hovering purple gas cloud around him. That small amount of Dark Eco on the floor is enough to kill a man. How much Eco did they put into him? Just as that thought runs through my mind the man hurls; and it is all Dark Eco. The man hurls up at least a half-gallon of Dark Eco, and then gasps for air; but there is none to be had. The Eco is vaporizing nearly as quickly as it came out of the man. The dark purple gas cloud is growing and there is a shooting pain in my throat. I hold my breath. I don't want to die like this. This can't be the end. It's hard to see now, through all of the Dark Eco gas in the air. It's burning my skin up. But I could make out something through the fog. The man is standing… or maybe floating. The Dark Eco gas is retreating into the man. Slipping inside him, right through his skin. I let myself take another breath. The man opens his eyes and they are black as night. This man did not look the same anymore. The man fell to the ground, his deep breathing was contorted and his hands were equipped with long sharp claws, his skin was very pale. He looked me right in the eyes, and took a few steps towards me. With each step miniature bolts of purple lightning would reach out from his gruesome body to anything that would conduct its electricity. He got close, one of the bolts snapped at me and stung my right arm. The pain was excruciating, at first. But the pain was replaced with energy; cold, angry, energy. Just then the man growled, and reached with his hand into my cell. Little bolts of electricity spiking out towards me. Then he fell to his knees, and I could see his claws reseeding. His skin was morphing back into its normal colors, and the anger inside me faded. The man kneeled with his face down, and his arms on either side of him with his palms facing up.
"Hey, can you hear me?" I spoke jagged.
"What am I?" his voice was calm. He looked up at me, and for the first time I saw his real eyes. They were green; he looked well, and healthy.
"Praxis put a lot of Dark Eco into you for some reason." I spoke to him.
"If I make it out of here alive, I will dedicate my life to killing him." When he spoke his last two words, I did not hear the voice of a man, I heard the voice of a monster. "My name is Kesh," he spoke to me. Finally getting off his knees and placing his hands around two of the metal bars imprisoning him. There was a sense of emotionlessness and lifelessness within him.
"Well it is good to have some company finally, I'm Roy; you have been passed out for many hours."
"Have I? Well… I am just glad I'm not dead. Why are you here Roy?"
"I'm from the Underground; I had a mission… a very important one. But I've failed."
"You are one of the Freedom Fighters," he was pleased, interestingly. "We don't have any of you in my Sector. Sector two." There was a long silence after he spoke. "You seem to be injured."
"My leg was shot in the firefight before I was thrown into this cell," I had nearly forgotten. The pain was not bad at all. Still, I hate this place and I am undoubtedly going to die here soon, if I cannot escape.
"I will make us an exit." Kesh said.
"What do you mean?" My question was answered with action. He gripped two bars with his hands and pulled them apart from each other, bending them slowly until there was enough space to squeeze through. As he did this, all of the terrifying features he had returned. Long claws, eyes of the void, and vicious electrified bolts. The bar was bending slowly. But then he let out an unreal burst of energy, and the two bars were as far away from each other as the width of his arm span. He stumbled forward through the gap he made, the features of his alternate being begun to fade quickly; he fell to the floor.
Now I am impressed. I thought to myself. And then I thought – can he get up again? – that's what matters.
"I know the code to the door." I spoke at his motionless body. He looked at me. His face was pale. Then looked at the steel door with the combination lock. In another second he was back on his feet, and with pure strength he punched one of the bars in two; then ripped the two pieces right out of the ceiling and floor. It was just enough room for me to escape. But Kesh was gasping for air and seemed to be losing sense of reality. "Are you okay Kesh?" I asked him.
"Yea I'm okay, I think it will wear off." He told me as I helped him make his way over to the door.
"I don't know what will be on the other side of this door Kesh, but my mission was to get a comm device to the Underground leader in this Sector. I need to find were they put all my things and I need to get that communication device back." I tell Kesh all these things before putting the code into the keypad.
"I will help you Roy, if the underground are combating the Barren, I want to join you." I paused for moment thinking about what to say. A monster aiding the underground? I threw the thought aside. I need this man to escape and complete my mission.
"Alright Kesh, We have to get my communication device, escape, and find the waterfront in this sector; it holds the key to completion of my mission." I put the code into the door, and it swung open. We moved forward through the door cautiously. I was in the lead. They must keep prisoners gear somewhere close to the prison. So we made our way through the prison maze. There were a few Guards around, but nothing I couldn't handle; especially with the element of surprise in my favor. Stealth is a friend to one such as I. Things got a lot easier after we found some weapons on the Guards. After a few short minutes of searching the prison halls, I found the room labeled Prisoner Belongings.
"Alright, the Comm device should be in this room," I told Kesh. "But I don't think it will be easy to get, it looks like there is a lot of Guards in there," I could see through the windowpane of the door.
"See that door on the other side? We will come in from both sides at the same time." As he said this, he ran off around the corner. I eyed the door through the small window, hoping not to be seen; and, I saw him on the other side. He pushed through the door and started firing. It was two against at least ten guards. Five or Six went down in the first few seconds, the last of them were dispatched just as well. They had no chance. Quickly I ran inside and looked through each chest one by one, trying to find one with my Jacket. Kesh watched silently. The gunshots will surely not go unnoticed. I scrambled from chest to chest, emptying each one; hope fading after each fail. Ah, here it is. Here is my jacket. I held it up, and inspected it. It was in fact my jacket, and the comm device is still in the pocket! Quickly I threw my leather jacket and cargo pants back on. I felt whole again; now reunited with my assets. Once I had completed my transformation, I looked back at Kesh.
"Someone is sure to have heard that." Kesh told me.
"I know, let's move."
We were on our toes now. Each sector's prison is in a tower. So all we have to do is find stairs and keep going down; and they were found – just before the alarm started to sound. We had gone unseen so far but our clock is ticking. Kesh and I share a glace. We pass 3 floors, 4 floors, 5 floors, and on the sixth floor down, the stairs ends. I grab the exit door and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"The alarm has all the doors locked!" We were trapped in the stairwell.
"HEY! ESCAPED PRISONERS!" I heard someone shouting. Once again Kesh and I share a glance. The message, unspoken, to me from him was 'We must escape, and we must escape now.' And then, in the split of a second, he was demon again. Whatever had once stood as a man named Kesh, was now a beast of power unlike that I have ever seen. The sight of him and the smell of the dark eco, struck fear and desperation into even me; who he had been passive to yet. Though, he did not turn his strength on me; rather, the door: and the steel bent as if it were a sheet of cardboard. The monster stumbled through the gaping hole were the door once stood, and inspected his hands a feet for bruises – there were none. Even to the monster, himself was impressive.
"ESCAPE TEST SUBJECT!" Someone on the other side of the door bellowed. Kesh silenced their nearby mouths swiftly with his dagger claws. He did not return to a normal state. And the men who had sighted us at first were now close on my tail. Therefore, I joined my protector in the hall outside of the stairwell. He was wheezing with every breath. To the right was the exit, it was quite simple now. Steel doors no longer bar my way, only distance; and I can cover distance just as well as Kesh. I hope.
"C'mon Kesh!" I screamed at the monster. Bullets pass by my head from behind, and I ran for the exit. The wound I had forgotten, the wound in my leg, was now bleeding again. I still need to remove the bullet. The monster was in the lead soon enough. And when he got to the Swinging glass door, he didn't open it. He dived through it, shattering it to pieces. I was only a few milliseconds behind him and freedom was nearly in my clutches. But the guards were hot on our tail. Kesh, now somewhat normal looking and back on his feet again, ran up to a passing hovercraft and punched the man driving it in the face, instantly knocking him out cold. Kesh laid the body down on the ground quickly.
"You are bleeding all over. Get in," Kesh ordered. I looked down at my red cargo pants. Red from blood that is. Why wouldn't it would be. I fell into the passenger's seat. Kesh slammed on the gas and we were off. If any guards were after us, they were too slow. The gunfire stopped and alarms faded quickly. Kesh flew as if he was just a civilian now, blending in with all the other people driving around.
"I've got to contact HQ and tell them what happened." I told Kesh. He nodded. I pulled the Comm Device out of my pocket and put it down on the dash board. I pushed the red button in. "Dallas, Its Roy, come in Dallas." I waited for a response.
"Roy! What the hell happened to you?" Alice's head appeared in a hologram above the device. Alice was part of the Underground too. She was like me, someone who did the fieldwork for people like Dallas, or Oliver. She had a dark shade of red hair that gave off a unique gleam. It was wavy and passed just below her shoulders. Although in the hologram there was no color, I could remember.
"The Krimson Guard found me in that pub I was in," I told her.
"Are you okay? How is everything? Where are you? Do you need help! Are you hurt!?" Alice asked questions so fast I couldn't even answer.
"Kesh helped me break out of prison," I said nodding to Kesh beside me. The hologram of us would show his presence now that I addressed him. Alice was surprised to see someone she had no recollection of. She did not trust him, I could tell. But she was still courteous in posture.
"You got thrown into the sector four prison! Oh my god, you're okay!? I thought you were dead!" Dallas stop sending Roy on missions were I might never see him again!" Alice screamed in a different direction. Just then Carn, and Dallas's faces appeared to the left of Alice's.
"I see we have the whole crew back at HQ today," I noticed allowed. That isn't a good sign. That means that we don't have as many people out in the field. Carn is our go to guy. Hes massive and the best in battle I've ever seen. He's the one that makes a difference on the front lines. But he is back at HQ today. Even Alice isn't in her garage making weapons and fixing vehicles.
"Roy," I hear Dallas's voice ring as the hologram zooms in on only him now. "The more time we waste the worse things get, the Krimson Guard are on to us, they cut off our supply to weapons and ammo and they are constantly patrolling the slums. It's hard to even lift a finger around here without being killed. We lost four men in the past week and… we have run out of options. We can only hide until you get in contact with Oliver, Roy."
"Dallas, I'll find Oliver, I promise. I have someone on my side now. His name is Kesh." I gave the Comm Device I moment to expand its view once again to show Kesh's face.
"I am Kesh, I wish to join your ranks," Kesh spoke out loud.
"Kesh, hmm. I look forward to meeting you." Dallas's gaze turned back to me. "Have you time to figure out your location now?" Dallas asked me.
"Yes, we have time. We are by two large towers, and there is a big plaza to our right." I told him, taking in my surroundings.
"I know where you are Roy! I used to play in that plaza when I was a child!" the hologram now shows Alice's face. Alice grew up in Sector 4. "The waterfront is straight ahead, once you reach the end of the plaza there will be an opening to an area that is all build over water on docks. That's the waterfront," she told me as a smirk crossed her face. Then suddenly it erased and a look of desperation replaced it. "Roy are you hurt?"
"I was shot; I don't even know how long it's been. I still need to remove the bullet, without Kesh, I would not have been able to get this far." I said to her.
"Oh thank you Kesh, without you we would have lost a good friend to us. Get to Oliver! She will be able to help you Roy, please be okay." Alice looked at Kesh as she addressed him and she looked at me when she addressed me.
"I'll be okay Alice, Next time you see me I'll be with Oliver. Goodbye." I pulled my finger off the red button and Alice's face disappeared.
"Alice Fancy's you Roy, She looks like a very nice girl," Kesh looked at me as he spoke.
"Yea, it's good to have her with me. I've known her for several years, we were friends before the Underground." I told Kesh.
"This must be it Roy," I sat up and took a look around. We were entering an odd part of the city. It was all over water, and all the buildings and pathways were floating on docks.
"Oliver most likely would not set up her operation at the entrance, let's move farther in." and we did. I see no signs of Oliver or her crew here. Then it was made obvious, one of the houses had a marking on the door, the same marking that is tattooed on my hand.
"That house, right there, I think that's their hideout." I told Kesh. He pulled up next to the house and turned the hovercraft off. "Help me out Kesh," I asked for his aid and he gave it, supporting me just as I supported him in the prison. We made our way to the front door. "let me handle this," I said, and I knocked on the door.
"State your name," I heard a voice come from the other side.
"Roy Obonni," I said loud and clear. "I carry important information from Dallas, I'm here to speak with Oliver." At that, the door swung open and a brunette Girl waved us inside.
"You are injured badly Roy, first we will tend to your wounds," the girl said to me. "Put him down on that bed will you?" she motioned to a bed on the wall to the right. Kesh put me down in it. It was so unbelievably nice to lie in a bed again. It's been a long time sense I've been somewhere comfortable. The girl had left and she was just returning now, with a few things in her hand. "I am Oliver," she spoke to me. This was surprising; I did not expect the leader of our operations here in sector 4 to be so young. She couldn't be more than eighteen years old. Although she was young, she had a mature look to her. Her hair was cut just above her shoulders. She was short. But she looked very healthy.
"It is good to finally find you," I told her. My tone of voice was almost desperate. I had been through so much to get to this girl. Her brown eyes showed many emotions, first was pity. Pity for all the pain I had went through to get to her. Then happiness, for I had actually succeeded. Her face relaxed then as she began to focus on my wound.
"Hold still please, this will sting a little." Then she began to operate on my wound, it did not take her long. A few times I made her stop from the pain. But she managed to remove the bullet.
"Feel better now?" she said as she put the tools down in the sink behind her desk.
"Yes, thank you Oliver. I have something very important for you." I reached into my jacket and pulled out the Comm Device. "It is a communication device, the other one is at sector 5's Head Quarters."
"Ahhh, of course, I should have thought of this myself. Dallas never fails me. This will make things much easier. We will be able to work as a team instead of two individual parties." She took the device from my hand. "Let us waste no time," she said as she put the device down on the table and pushed the red button in. "Sector 5 Underground, Come in, this is Oliver." We all waited for a moment.
"Oliver, it is good to finally see you again," Dallas's voice came from the Device just as his image appeared above it.
