Hey, guys! Wow, it's already been two weeks since I lasted posted a chapter of this, but hopefully everyone is doing great! As a sorry for never getting this chapter up before I left for Tokyo, this one is extra extra long (for me anyway, it's like 2,600 words!). I had an amazing time, I went to loads of different places and ate all kinds of food. I definitely would love to go back there, but, you know, holidays cost money and I'm definitely poor at the moment :P
Also, sorry for not getting back to anyone with review replies yet. I will get around to it, I've just been so hectic since I came back. My cousin had a baby, I started back in work. I literally didn't start writing this till about 3 hours ago, so if there are lots of mistakes, or something doesn't make sense, then please let me know! I haven't actually read it over properly, so there's bound to be some sentences in there that don't make any sense whatsoever. But, it's an exciting chapter, things are starting to move for sure!
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, and thanks for reading/reviewing/favouriting/alerting!
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Chapter 14
'Because they mean so much to you, don't they, Hiro?' Hiro could feel the panic rising. This was the worst thing that could have happened. He knew it would happen, there was no way it wouldn't happen after Blake's little talk with him, but the illogical part of his brain hoped that they would never make it here. Hoped that they would never see what was really going on here. He never wanted anyone to know what was going on behind the scenes, what this camp was really trying to accomplish, and he knew it was only going to get worse from here on out.
'So, shall we bring them out?' Blake asked tauntingly, looking Hiro directly in the eye. If there was any certainty to the other prisoners, is that they were certain that these people were being brought here more for Hiro than for their own torment. They weren't certain if this would be a good thing for the camp, or worse. They all knew Hiro in some form or another, some had spoken to him, but none knew him enough to consider a friend. Hiro had always been the kind to keep to himself, always trying to find the right in the situation, and for those that had been there long enough, knew of his many plans and outspoken attitude towards their captivity. But, those people had also seen him fall, had watched from the sidelines as the guards had broken him down.
'My friends,' Blake started, 'these are your new wardens.'
Hiro watched with fear in his eyes as Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred appeared in front of them, all looking uncomfortable in their new grey prison uniforms.
'These are officers, Gogo, Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Fred.' Introduced Blake, 'and you shall treat them with the same amount of respect that you show me. Any less and they do have the power to punish you and detain your food rights.'
All prisoners stood to attention, all taking the time to quickly scan the faces of the new wardens that they would have to bow down too.
'Remember, we don't have to feed you. It is only through kindness that we do.' Blake threatened before walking over to the new wardens and leaving the prisoners standing in their lines.
Unknowing of what they were expected to do now, the prisoners continued to stand in their rows. Hiro felt his back slouching involuntarily, his head was pounding, and he was sure that the wounds on his back were becoming infected. He had not been able to clean them properly, and it felt like each day new injuries were adding themselves to his body. He could not keep up with the treatment, and this was his body's way of saying it could not take it anymore. He was sure that if they didn't get out of here soon, he was certain to die. He could not keep up this game physically or mentally no longer, and the sad thing was, at that current moment in time, he couldn't find it in himself to care whether he lived or died.
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'Welcome, dear friends!' Blake exclaimed as he walked over to them, 'I hope you are ready for dealing with this bunch of scum.'
'Couldn't be more ready, my friend.' Fred answered, looking at the long line of prisoners and catching his first glance at Hiro in what felt like a lifetime.
'Great, so they don't know what to do yet because they haven't had their inspections and they have not been given their daily duties.' Blake started, 'so, Fred and Gogo, you will be doing that with me. Honey Lemon, you are to go to the kitchen and help the women in there prepare meals. Wasabi, as agreed in our terms, you shall be helping out in hut 47.'
'Right.' They all answered.
'I hope you'll all do well, and Wasabi, hut 47 is where all the fun happens, so don't dawdle.' Blake ordered, nodding his head and walking away. Gogo and Fred took this as their cue and started following him to the start of the line of prisoners.
'Well, good luck.' Honey Lemon offered slowly, before walking off to try and find the kitchen to help out.
Wasabi stood in his place and stared out at the lines of prisoners. In one sense he felt accomplished, they were finally in, they had gotten to Hiro. The next step would be the hardest, they didn't have a real plan on how to get Hiro out of this place. Their meeting with the head of SFIT was complicated, the president of the school didn't taken random meetings with students and they couldn't really convey their idea so easily. They couldn't trust anyone truly in the institute in case they were not one of them.
Hesitantly, Wasabi began to walk away from the lines of prisoners after catching a quick glance at Hiro in the distance.
'Don't worry, Tadashi. We'll get him out soon.' Wasabi whispered into the air as he continued on to look for hut 47.
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'So, what are we expected to do?' Gogo ventured as they caught up to Blake.
'You are to decide whether which of these prisoners are fit for work. They know what to do, it's fine. Just take a quick look at them all and if they look fit, then say "fit" or "unfit", I'll follow you so they don't try sneaking into the wrong line of people.' Blake explained.
Gogo couldn't help but feel that there was something more to this whole job than he was letting on, that there was something that he wasn't explaining to them, but she didn't know how to raise it with him.
'So, lets start here. Take a look at him, if he seems fit, say so and so on.' Blake said as they stood in front of the first prisoner.
Gogo looked at the first man, a frail and old Japanese man, his clothes were dirty and hung off his body limply. There didn't appear to be anything of him, but there also didn't seem to be anything wrong with him that she could see.
'Fit,' Gogo said, and could have sworn she saw the man sigh from relief. Confused, Gogo carried on, as Blake found another warden to take Fred to another line of prisoners.
By the tenth prisoner in the line, Gogo had began to get the hang of what was expected, declaring them either fit or unfit, but one thing that didn't escape her notice was the way they seized up and acted when they were declared unfit. Gogo had assumed they would be pleased, thinking they would get less work and perhaps even have a nicer time, but judging from the prisoners attitudes, the opposite happened.
Picking up speed, Gogo looked up to her next prisoner and halted, noticing it was Hiro who stood before her. She noticed how he stood tall, but the exhaustion in his eyes made her believe that there was more to what was going on with him. His clothes were torn, and his cheekbones were prominent. If Gogo could describe it in any sort of way, she would say he almost looked like the walking dead. Looking into his eyes properly for the first time in months, Gogo noticed that they had lost the light that made them so Hiro, they had lost their life. His eyes had matured; they were more weary and hesitant.
'Fit,' Gogo declared on a rash decision, and noticed the beginnings of a grin on his face. Deciding that she had probably done the right thing, Gogo moved to the next person.
Throughout the inspection, Gogo could feel the hard gaze of Blake behind her. It wasn't a feeling she particularly liked; it felt cold and calculating, almost as if he was deciding what to do with her. Almost as if he was waiting for her to mess up and do something wrong. Gogo didn't like it, but she couldn't say anything about it. She needed to be here, she needed to do right.
Gogo reached the end of her line, and looked up to Blake not knowing what to do next.
'Great, so let's go start our next job.' Blake said to her with a strange grin on his face as he led Gogo back to the beginning of the line where the prisoners had moved off to their new lines.
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Honey Lemon nervously entered the kitchen and looked around.
'Hello?' She started, walking towards another door at the back of the room and knocked.
'Ah, you must be the new warden.' An old lady said as she opened the door. Honey Lemon was surprised to see such an old lady working on the camp, she had thought that it was younger people who worked here. 'Don't worry, we'll show you the ropes.'
Honey Lemon smiled, but she was sure she wasn't going to enjoy working here.
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Wasabi reached hut 47, and walked into the room. There were three other wardens in the room, but that was not what caught Wasabi's attention. It was the room. It was the same room they brought him and the gang to when they had met Hiro last time. A sinking feeling of dread rose within Wasabi, and it was finally beginning to click for Wasabi. Whatever they were doing here, they wanted to keep it secret, and now Wasabi was going to be a part of it.
'You must be the new helper,' One of the officers said to Wasabi. Wasabi turned to look at the other warden, and smiled at him.
'Yes, I'm Wasabi, Blake sent me here.' Wasabi answered.
'Well, Wasabi, you must be quite special. Blake doesn't just send normal people here.' The officer explained. 'What have you done outside of here then? It must have been quite impressive to get sent straight here.'
'Uh, I studied at SFIT,' Wasabi offered hesitantly, not sure that was the answering they were looking for.
'That's great. We're always looking for some smart SFIT rebels. I was one, too. Isn't it so freeing to be away from that place?' Wasabi didn't have the heart to tell him that his sentence didn't really make any sense, and he didn't want to tell him that he thought SFIT was the best place he had ever been to. 'I'm Henry, by the way.'
'Henry?' Wasabi asked him, not sure on whether to believe him.
'Yeah, my parents were old fashioned.' Henry replied, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 'Blake will be here soon, so luckily you won't have to wait long. This is so exciting; we've been needing a pair of fresh eyes in here. We need to see where we've been going wrong with everything.'
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'Now, now, Hiro. I told you not to cross me, and this is my answer. You disobey me in there, and there'll be some repercussions with your little friends.' Blake threatened as he led Hiro to the room he always dreaded. These days it almost felt as if he never got to see any kind of sunlight. He would spend his life in this room, waiting, refusing. He would never give them what they want, but they changed everything.
It wasn't just him he had to think about now, and that complicated things.
Opening the door, Blake grabbed the rope attached to Hiro's wrists and began to drag him inside the bright room.
Inside, Hiro's heart dropped to the floor, and stood completely still. Inside the room, stood Wasabi. No, no, no, no repeated through Hiro's head like a mantra. He couldn't believe this was happening, his head felt light, his vision hazy. This could not be happening. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't put them in danger. He couldn't give them what they wanted. He couldn't do anything. He was terrified. He was panicking. He felt the sweat begin to gather at the nape of his neck. He felt Blake's glee. He felt Wasabi's stare.
Hiro looked to Wasabi and quickly tried to regain his composure, but he knew that he had slipped up, and he knew that Blake had caught the slip.
'I see you found the room well, Wasabi?' Blake asked innocently as he dragged Hiro to the chair.
'Yes, it wasn't too bad.' Wasabi answered slowly as he watched Hiro be strapped to the chair. Wasabi had so many questions brewing through his mind, and ones he knew he would never receive an answer to. He was scared. He was scared for himself. He was scared for Hiro. He was scared for his friends that he had brought here under the pretense of doing right.
'Welcome to the underground of the prison camp, Mr Wasabi.' Blake started. 'This is our lovely prisoner number 11281931. He also goes by Hiro. He's strangely uncooperative, even after all this time here. But, sometimes, a new pair of eyes and hands can get people to really cooperate.'
'Right, so what do you want me to do?' Wasabi asked, trying to regain control of his mind. He looked to Hiro and saw him try to do the same thing. He tried to convey the message to him to continue as normal, Wasabi could handle the repercussions of what was going to happen, but he knew what Hiro was like, he knew he would never listen to him.
'For now, I would just like you to watch. Tomorrow, you can give feedback on where we could improve.' Blake said. 'Bring the first one.'
Wasabi watched as one of the wardens brought a large needle towards Hiro. Things were beginning to click for Wasabi, and he was horrified. He couldn't even process it properly. He looked over to Hiro's calm face, this wasn't the part he was worried about.
'This one will just help him relax.' Blake informed Wasabi, but Wasabi was more curious to what was inside it to make Hiro relax, and what exactly it was relaxing. Wasabi watched the needle being inserted into Hiro's thin arm, and the liquid injected into his arm. 'Bring the fun one.'
'What does the fun one do?' Wasabi asked.
'You'll see.' Blake answered cryptically. 'Now, Hiro, are you going to show us what we want?'
This was where Wasabi notice Hiro begins to panic, Hiro began to attempt to get his arms out of the restraints that held him, but it was useless. His arms were tied tightly, and there was no way for him to get out.
'No.' Hiro answered eventually.
'Well, that's an interesting answer.' Blake answered smiling as the warden injected the second needle into Hiro's arm.
Hiro's reaction was instant. His back arched off the chair, his nails tried to dig their way through the chair, his eyes scrunched together tightly.
'Can you do it now?' Blake asked lightly.
'No.' Hiro answered after a pause, and Wasabi noticed things on the floor begin to shake.
'Surely, it's more painful for you to keep this all, Hiro.' Blake taunted, and Wasabi looked terrified at Blake and then at Hiro.
'What're you doing to him?' He asked, horrified. Wasabi didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to see it. He was scared, he felt guilty, he felt dirty. He didn't want to be a part of it.
'We're just trying something out.' Blake told him, 'pay attention now. Henry, up the dosage.'
And Wasabi could only look on in horror as the screaming began.