Jak's POV
The cold hard ground embraced me as the guards threw me into the cell, my body throbbing and burning from the inside out. How long has it been? Everyday it was the same thing-
Thump
A green eco box bounced next to my hand, that one guard has been sneaking them over to me when no one was around, he also would talk to whoever it was on the other side of the radio. My hand had barely lifted before the little box would break, releasing the eco and only slightly soothing the burning sensation.
Shivering from a cold draft, it had only been hours before the injection that they had come in with knives and gotten rid of all the hair on my head. They were not too gentle,
Weakly getting onto my elbows I had almost collapsed back onto the floor, I looked over to the guard standing off outside at the corner of the cell. Why couldn't he get me out of here, it's not like he had anything better to do. He straightened up all of a sudden,
"There hasn't been any changes of late,
"I'm pretty sure your doing something wrong, you did the las-
"Shut up, at least you didn't get killed- because I would've fed your sorry carcass to the metal heads!
Errol and the voice of Annette argued. The guard seemed wary of the scene,
"At least I don't go screwing around with a doe eyed mechanic's assistant all day!"
Slap- ka thud
Errol must have hit her, something big had fallen to the floor.
"Better to hold that tongue before I cut it out!
"I'm pretty sure her rejection's enough, you don't have to hear about it time and time again right commander?" the scientist spat venomously.
"You just don't know when to shut up do you?"
"Well if I did, you wouldn't get any work done now would you?
"How I wish you were killed that day,"
Their voices faded out as they continued to bicker. The guard relaxed, and glanced at me- his shoulders shrugging before he went back to probably staring into nothing.
"How long you been in the slammer buddy?" Staring at the unmoving guard, I just shook my head, not like I was able to answer but it made me think... how long have I been here? It was silent for a good few minutes,
"Name's Max, have a brother over in the resistance haven't heard from him yet... I do my rebelling else where," the guard- now named Max cut the silence. Resistance?
"The boss wanted a sweep of the barons fortress, shipped here instead- found you- don't know if your what we're looking for," my head had painfully lifted up more, why would they be looking for me?
'He said he didn't know if you were what they were looking for,' a part of me thought, squishing down most of the hope I had quickly gotten. I desperately hoped I was what they were looking for...
The burning died down to a numbing sensation, getting onto my knees I knelt there for a few seconds then stood up. Muscles ached and joints popped, everything hurt.
"Heads up, head honcho's comin' in..." Max whispered quickly, head honcho?
"What is going on around here? Why have you ceased the experiments?" a thunderous voice raged. A glare grew onto my face... that head honcho.
"The people are beginning to take notice of their fellow missing civilians, missing posters are being posted and the people are questioning you-
"I don't care what they say or think I am the one protecting this city- they are indebted to ME!" Praxis' voice interrupted a frail sounding Annette.
"Where is that worthless KG commander?!" Even max and I had flinch at the severe anger not really hidden in that tone. Errol wasn't here?
That was a first, it seemed like he lived amongst the horrible torture equipment.
"He has been called off into the city... something about... a small protest movement-
"What? Those ungrateful maggots! Here I am finding a solution and they have the gal to stop me?"
"the fools," the scientist agreed quietly, I had a bad feeling about what she had said.
"Well then, make sure that water supply stays off.. Crack down on law enforcement!"
"Yes sir," her sweet tone was sickening, Max had tensed up at the mention of the water supply being cut off. This guy was the leader of this place? This was the solution to saving the city, by killing off the people?
'Wonderful plan kill them all off,' I hung onto a bar of the cell. This place was just... wrong.
"There you are! How large of a rebel party was it this time?" The barons voice inquired as someone came in.
"Rebel-" The question in his tone was quickly cut off as I'm pretty sure that mad scientist had signaled him to play along.
"Only a few numbers, not much of a fight. The lot of them died according to their, treasonous actions." It was such a smooth lie, it was very believable. I would have, yet I knew better...
"Good, Annette can relay my orders I have a city to correct," Praxis left quickly, it was quiet for a good while.
Smack
"Moron, again? Your very lucky that I had been present for it wouldn't have been a good outcome for you if the baron had come and no one was present." Annette hissed, after that hard smack reverberated throughout the whole building.
"Be quiet at least I came,"
Smack
"AT LEAST? Your ego will get you killed one day,"
"Stop manhandling me woman and go back to whatever it is you do... why are you here?" at that question I was beginning to wonder why she was too... how long had she- Max had tensed up as soon his thoughts became the same, how long was she here?
"Long enough, it seems as if we have a rat amongst us," her voice just resonated with glee. Max began to slightly shudder, grabbing at a hidden pocket he pulled out the small radio device. He must have been panicking as he looked for somewhere to hide it.
"Hmm, is that so?" Errol drawled out thoughtfully almost as giddy as the scientist.
Thwump
"Hide it, please!" he had chucked it into the cell at my feet, now I was panicking. I looked at him and he shrugged still shaking nervously, watching me. The approaching footsteps pushing me into action, quickly grabbing it, Max was my only way out. I did the one thing that first came to mind.
"Soldier, report," Max had turned swiftly around and stood stock still with a lazy salute,
"Nothing to report sir, just keeping an eye on the prison scum," he sounded so calm so steady it was like he never panicked a few seconds ago. Errol nodded, then looked towards Annette, as soon as I had seen her my mouth had almost fallen open. Her face was twisted and scarred on one side, a permanent frown on that half while the other smiled sweetly. It was gut wrenching.
"Word is- Annette here heard something rather interesting, care to share?" Errol now paced in front of him,
"Not that I know of sir... heh only that KG number nine believes his work load to be lacking." Erol paused in his steps,
"Number nine you say-
"That was not the information I had heard, you are committing treason to your city! Admit!" Annette screeched, Max stood his ground. It was silent for a split second before he spoke, mulling something over in his head.
"Not to my knowledge professor Annette." Annette's whole demeanor changed, her twisted face blushed slightly.
"Now, now I have yet to acquire such a title-
"Enough! carry on. Come Annette." Errol waved off Max while he shoved Annette out. As soon as they left the room,
"Does that wound leave you with hallucinations? The medication? That was a waste of time!" Errol growled out,
"Well if you were here monitoring your charge you maybe can keep better track of the subject and the kind gentleman you leave it with-
"You women are infuriating! Leave!" Errol almost yelled,
"Fine, fine, next time I won't be here to save your ass." with that she was gone, Errol glanced back to the room suspiciously then left as well. He knew his men well, and he knew a rat when he saw one.
Max had turned around hastily, waiting for the device to be given.
"That was a close one eh? Where's the-
I had spit it out, the first thing that had come to mind was to swallow it. Holding it out gingerly, he recoiled slightly.
"Eh, no you can keep it... at least til it dries..." setting it on the floor we stared at it as some static crackled,
Psssht
a lot more static went off then it cut off into silence, I stared at him as he looked up to stare at me. Arching a brow,
'You gonna get that?'
[Time skip]
A good while had passed and Max had gotten his radio back, he had left a while ago since his shift was over and a more meaner real guard stood at the front of the cell. A glaring contest ensued, I don't know how long I had glared into the strange helmet of the armor but my eyes had gone dry, and were screaming for relief.
Looking away to the floor I blinked, the guards laughter grating on my nerves. I wanted so bad to rip out his voice box and see if he could laugh then...
Blinking rapidly at that disturbing thought, I rubbed my eyes. It was getting worse, like a voice in my head telling me these things- imagining them. Huddling up in the corner it seemed familiar, I had seen it before someone had done it before. Red and green was all I could sum up. It felt important but I couldn't recall all that I could remember was the immense pain the machine had given me the first time and still gives me every cycle. The nightmares would worsen.
There were times when I did dream, with no nightmares. I'd hear the calming waves, and crying seagulls- waterfalls and sometimes rain I always wanted to stay there- but reality harshly ripped me out when my eyes would open unwillingly. It was always too good to be true, were they just imagination or had I been there? Was I still dreaming or was this real, many times I wished I'd wake up in that safe peaceful place I've only seen and heard in my dreams... but now it only seemed to good to be true and was.
The corner seemed to have gotten darker, the shadows felt... welcoming, keeping a watchful eye on the guard. Until every blink became sluggish.
Screaming, people were screaming and running. Dark creatures chased them around, many of the villagers caught and harmed... eventually dying. I found myself in the middle of the chaos, a brilliant white glow above the small huts caught my attention.
The rift! It hadn't closed, it had been left opened and many of the monsters poured out of it and into the once peaceful settlement he grew up in. The bird lady's shrill shriek of terror, the young flut flut running threw him with one of the beasts firmly clinging onto its side.
The farmers yakow being slaughtered but the farmer was no where to be seen. The explorer- his uncle- cowered in his home. A few lurkers also ran rampant in the village- but like the villagers were also run down. Fear clenched at my insides, I had to do something- needed to do something!
The blood, the screaming and fires. Falling onto my knees I watched as it all burned, a slight off whispering noise softly blew past my face. Pulling me to Samos' hut.
By passing the horrible scene, it was like I was in a trance. The bridge was barely intact, crumbling after its use. The whispering grew more as the hut approached. A small part of me told me to fight it, to get away or wake up. The whispering soon drowned it out.
Cre- cre- creak
The floor boards creaked as I went up the ramp, and into the dusty hut. Nothing out of miss, only unused and untouched. The whispering was starting to become a crescendo of silenced voices as I walked further into the hut. Standing before the rift gate that Samos had here, instead of its normal blue and white it glowed a bright purple... a darker hue of purple mist swirling in front of it.
The screaming whispers were now a constant high pitched ringing- standing in front of the rift a shadowy figure formed inside the purple glow. The ringing stopped as a viscous snarl, and two pale grey hands with elongated black fingernails clawed their way out of the circular object.
Before I could do anything they painfully dug into my forearms, gripping extra hard- causing blood to spill. I was roughly jerked towards the small rift gate, struggling in vain it just made the claws dig deeper. Fear clawing its way up my throat I was pulled completely into-
I was being roughly shaken, a yell emitted from my throat as I fought against whatever was holding my shoulders.
"Hey, buddy you okay?" Ma- Max? Peeking an eye open fearfully- expecting a helmet the guy had it off-
He was young, maybe in his early twenties. Had short platinum hair spiked up, and had pale green eyes with a splash of brown. He shook me some more-
"You okay?" he asked in a non muffled voice. I was shivering as the visions of my dream danced around inside my head.
"Come on man, get it together! That's how they all started and I'm not gonna let it happen to you, just a bit longer than we can-
I felt sick, and fell onto the floor. Max's blurry form had been yelling something at me, then nothing.
'I'm gonna die here,'