CHAPTER EIGHT
Twenty armed men take me to my cell, and I can almost sense the twenty guns pointed at my head.
It's a strange feeling, being at the mercy of someone who thinks you are a dangerous alien. Of someone, who is so damn scared that he will pull the trigger at your slightest move. Who is so damn nervous that he flinches every time you take a breath.
I'm still not sure what upset them so much. Well, the part about being a dangerous alien may be true, but still, that's no reason to treat me like that. I mean, what have I ever done wrong?
Okay, so I knocked out about fifty soldiers in the last couple of hours, but, hey, who could blame me? After all, everyone has days like this sometimes.
One of those days, when you get shot down and captured, thrown into a secret military underground prison, escape your cell, get shot down and captured again, wake up in the same damn cell, escape it for a second time, get tasered and drugged, black out, wake up in a different cell, escape it again, get captured for the fourth time in one day and then get dragged down endless stairs and corridors.
I'm sure everyone can relate.
Each time I escape there's more guards, more guns aimed at me. It's ridiculous, but I get the feeling they have an endless supply of soldiers down here. You'd think the US government has more important things to send them to, but no, leave it to the military to station hundreds of men down in a secret, hidden underground base.
The funny thing is how it doesn't actally matter how many men they send. Once I unleash my legacies, it will take way more than some humans to keep me under control.
The fact that I don't just break those shackles around my wrists and ankles, throw the men that push me forward against the tunnel walls and bolt back up all the way has three reasons:
Firstly, all my guards are human. They may have fired at me multiple times, but after all they're just following orders. Maybe I'll have a word with whoever gave those orders, talk some sense into them, show them I'm not the real enemy, but nothing more. It's not the humans I want, it's the Mogadorians.
Secondly, if I used my powers right here, in this narrow tunnel about a mile under the surface, the whole structure would probably collapse on top of me and I'm not sure if I would survive the impact, not to mention I have no idea how to get out of here.
And thirdly, I mustn't compromise my secret. Under no circumstances. The time hasn't come yet.
Time… I wonder how long it has been since I got captured. It could be just a few hours, it could be a day, it could even be a week. In the pervasive darkness that has been surrounding me ever since those soldiers dragged me down here, it's impossible to tell. Especially since I was unconscious for half of the time.
Now I'm wide awake, though. The drugs they gave me a while ago to keep me dizzy have worn off, and I try to take in every detail I come across. It will make finding my way back easier.
Two turns to the right, one to the left, then about fifty feet down a stone staircase. It's the sixty-eighth staircase up until now, as far as I counted right. Which doesn't have to actually be true, since those drugs earlier made me hallucinate some weird stuff. Seriously weird stuff.
Something about my old Cêpan, telling me to never try the Winston hook, whatever that is, but to rather do the Winston double. If I remember correctly – which probably isn't the case– he turned into a blue horse and handed me the most recent copy of the New York times. 'King Kong newly elected Miss America,' the headlines read and I remember being really jealous.
Who knows if I've made up some stairs or not in all this crap.
Not that it would matter, anyway. If I was alone, I'd be hopelessly lost in this confusing maze of tunnels and endless corridors, even if I knew how many staircases there were.
Guess there is a bright side to the guards dragging me all the way. At least they know where we're going.
We turn around a corner into a particularly long corridor. Dimmed light from rusted neon tubes slightly brightens up a group of five big, muscular soldiers standing guard in front of a heavy, circular iron door.
The soldiers stand tall, stiff as a poker, and salute when they see the guards and me coming. Each of them must be tall enough to play in the NBA, and strong enough to rip people my size to pieces with just one hand. They are all armed to the teeth, holding up weapons I've only seen in movies before. Knives, grenades and other deadly toys, some of which I don't even know, stick out of their black leather belts.
When they spot me, their faces grimace to evil, cruel smiles. The one to the left has at least five crooked teeth, the guy next to him has no teeth at all. The soldier in the middle misses one eye, the two to his right both have a similar long scar on their foreheads. All of them are covered in tattoos that show images of guns, death and explosions.
I gulp.
"Listen, guys," I say to the men surrounding me. "I've changed my mind. I want to stay with you instead of those folks here. Don't you have some other dungeon you want to pull me to? Think about the great times we had, you dragging me along, me cursing at you. It was so much fun."
The five soldiers just laugh. The guards that have been accompanying me before seem to be just as intimidated by them as I am.
"Got a new delivery for you guys," one of the guards says and motions the two men who are dragging me to bring me forward. I struggle with my arms and legs, and it almost looks as if I can free myself, but two more come to their aid and I don't stand a chance.
They pull me forward, towards the five hoarse soldiers, and the closer I get, the more I actually realize the seriousness of the situation. I've literally been dragged into a deep hole of shit.
"Number Five," A guard behind me says. "I want you to meet the 'Alpha squad'. They're the cruellest, most brutal, most barbaric men the military has."
He makes a dramatic pause before pointing at the two guys with the scars on their foreheads.
"I don't want to scare you, but the Caine-brothers here, they have been doing front line secret operations in every single war in the last thirty years."
The Caine-brothers grin at me and I immediately look away.
"Those two gentlemen right here, they know more than a hundred ways to kill you with just their small fingers, so I recommend staying away from them," he says nodding at the two soldiers to the left.
"And you might know this young man's face. He's a wanted criminal in more than fifteen different countries. He did things parents tell their kids to scare them. Seriously, you won't sleep without nightmares if I tell you."
As if to confirm this, the soldier in the middle grunts, spits out on the floor and starts heading towards me.
"Charmed," I say, trying to sound tough, but my voice cracks and the last part of the word comes out as a shrill squeek.
These guys really start scaring the hell out of me, and I wonder if I shouldn't use my legacies anyway. At least a little bit of my powers, after all this is an emergency.
But no, I promised, and nothing in the world will make me break it before it's time.
The soldier in the middle – the wanted criminal – reaches me and the other guards reverently take a step back from us. Once they let go off me, I see my opportunity and immediately grab it.
The shackles around me ankles make it hard, but I still manage to close the gap between me and the big soldier in a split-second. He towers at least three heads above me, but by the grit of my teeth I jump to his level and give him a clout that would knock out any other human.
This one, though, doesn't even stumble backwards. He just snatches me out of the air as if nothing happened, and throws me over his shoulder before I even set a foot on the floor.
"Well, Number Five, you're grounded," he says in a deep, intimidating voice and carries me to the heavy circular door. The four other soldiers snicker, or whatever you want to call it, as they sound more like grunting walruses while doing so.
One of the guys who can kill me with their small fingers types a code into a hidden keyboard beside the door and it opens with a loud rumble.
Before I can do anything, the soldiers shove me through the door inside a dark, musty prison cell with so much power, I hit the wall at the other side of the room. Again, the guards laugh.
My heart beats in my throat, as I turn around to watch the door slowly close again. Desperation hits me and I try to get up and get through the remaining crack, but I forgot my legs are tied. I trip and fall headfirst to the ground.
I taste blood in my mouth and feel it running down my chin. Helplessly, with nothing left to do but watch as the small door closes and leaves me in complete darkness. The last thing I see is the crooked smile of the soldiers, laughing at my hopeless struggle.
The mechanism in the door snaps shut and locks me inside the cell with a deafening rattle.
The sound of destiny. And, oh, what an unfortunate destiny.
Broken and defeated I lay on my back, trying to keep myself from hyperventilating. The frustration is just too much.
One of the last of my kind, I have to spend the rest of my miserable life in a prison cell on a planet so far away from home.
Surviving for this long, training with my Cêpan, it's all in vain now.
My whole life I've been prepared for this moment, and now that it's here, I don't know what to do. The promise to keep my secret nags at me and for the millionth time I wish I had never made it. If I could just use one of my powers, just for a second, I could bust myself out of here in no time at all. I shake my head about my own stupidity. Why would anyone, especially me, swear such a promise?
But there still is one last thing my captors don't know, one last advantage I have left.
Despite all this, despite all the despair and pressure that threatens to crush me, I can't help but grin.
They still don't know who I really am. They may have been smart enough to take me as prisoner, but they don't have a clue who they really are dealing with. They still believe I'm number Five.
I just hope Marina and the others don't think I'm dead.
Hello everyone!
Hope you had a good time reading this chapter, as I tried to actually get some character and humour into it.
Thanks for your comments, it's been really interesting to know what you think.
As the majority of you asked me to write whose POV the chapter is written from, I will begin with that next chapter. I didn't put it in this one, though, as the whole point of the chapter was to not exactly know whose perspective it is until the very end :)
Sorry about that, Hope you don't have to re-read the whole thing now XD
Next chapter will be up at the latest on saturday, probably earlier.
Let me know what you think in the commentsection! Right now ;)
See you all next chapter, have a wonderful day, and above all, thanks for reading my story =)
