"Is it… safe to go in?"
Cassie idled by the cell door, one hand brushing over the other as the cold that laid the darkness beyond seeped out into the open hall, bringing a chill that cut right through her skin.
"I should be able to unlock the cells from the controls here, but… like I said, it's been modified. I can't say for certain," Clay replied as he stepped up next to her, that xenophobic human creeping into the corner of her vision. And with a deep breath, Cass stepped forward into the room, extending a hand against the next set of metal doors within.
"No way to open them from within there… unless…" The Sectoid mirrored her curiosity for a brief moment before stepping back to give the control panel another glance over, typing away on the screen with a certain efficiency that she couldn't help but admire.
Maybe she can learn to do something like that. Something working with terminals and datapads. Something to occupy her hands and mind alike—that is, if they ever even get out of here to begin with.
Her left hand began to twitch, and the Hybrid quickly grabbed hold with her right, a shiver running the length of her body as a trembling breath escaped her mouth. But a gentle whirr echoing from somewhere within the walls caught her attention before her mind could sink too far, the thought of stepping from the room barely getting the chance to cross her mind before the door behind her slammed shut with a bang that sent her jumping back against the metal wall.
The shock passed in a mere second, and in its place the fear set in ten-fold as she let out a scream that rebounded from the steel walls that swallowed her whole. She threw her hands against the door now sealed shut, desperately pounding against the metal surface as she called out for help that seemed to reach no one but herself.
She could hear whispers from the outside, drowned out only by her heavy breaths as she slid back against the door, hugging her trembling body close.
"Cassie, can you hear me?"
The voice barely managed to breach the walls, but it provided her a much needed sense of relief, nevertheless.
"Kara, is that you?" she called back, settling her breaths as she pressed an ear to the cell door.
"Yes, it's Kara," she replied, a sense of relief in the snake's words mirroring the Hybrid's own. "Cassie, what's going on in there?"
"I don't know, I'm still trapped between the doors." She turned her attention back to the tiny room she was in, glancing around every square inch in a matter of seconds. In an instant, something from within the walls clunked to life, eliciting a flinch from the Hybrid as the far doors began to move, parting to reveal the darkness that laid beyond like a curtain on a stage. "Wait, the cell door's opening."
"Alright, Cass, listen—nothing's happening right now, alright? We'll find a way to get you out of there."
"Please, just make it quick," she replied, taking a cautious glance forward into the void. "It's dark in here."
For a moment she stood there, staring off into the cell with nothing but the sound of her own breath to keep her company. And with no other option, she took a hesitant step inside, a single bulb flickering to life as though to pay her welcome. It shone a spotlight down over a metal chain hanging from the darkness above, a metal collar suspended on the end.
The floor beneath her feet felt hollow, a gentle echo overtaking the dead silence with every step she took.
"Hello?" Her voice echoed off the walls, reverberating for a few seconds before fading away into the silence. Hesitation dotted her movements as she took another step towards the chain, running a hand over the plastic tubes before finding her way down to the metal collar itself, studying the mechanical workings under what little light she had.
A red light pulsed from somewhere on the collar, the sensation enough to make her flinch, before another pulsed from above the door behind her, a silent second passing her by as she mentally put two and two together.
She gave the chain above a trying yank before moving back over to the door, pulling the collar along behind her until she could pull it no further.
"Cass, can you hear me?" a voice whispered over the silence.
"Kara? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. What's going on in there?"
"I… I'm not sure," she replied, holding the machine to the air before the lights pulsed once more, one echoing after the other. "There's a collar here. I think I have to put it on to unlock the door."
"Alright, just… just give us a moment. Don't touch that thing yet."
She took a step back, studying the contraption in the dark through touch alone. "If I open the door, then maybe Vince could come in and break the chain off."
Her fingers found their way into a little latch, and with a gentle pop, the collar split open. She returned her attention to the door behind her, slipping the metal contraption around her neck before clicking it back into place, a sharp pain briefly coming and going as something small and sharp pricked each side of her neck.
For a moment she had second thoughts, gently prying at the machine before the lights above the door flashed green. She stepped forward, and much to her relief, the first of the two doors slid open with a beep that lingered in the still air.
"Kara, can you hear me?" she called out. "The door opened. It worked."
"Will it open the second door too?" she called back.
"I'll give it a—"
The air was ripped from her lungs in an instant as the chain tugged back hard, throwing her to the cold metal ground below. She barely had time to react before the chain began to slide, pulling her thrashing and kicking back along the cell floor.
A bang echoed from the void, and what felt like the entire room shook as she was hoisted up into the air, the chain above clanking to a stop to grant her a mere inch of footing against the ground below.
Any scream she could have mustered fell out as nothing more than a gargled mess of huffs and grunts, fingers wrapped tight around the metal collar digging into her neck as her toes thrashed the air in search of stable ground that wasn't going to come.
And in a burst of static, the speakers hissed to life, cutting through the sound of her own heartbeat thumping in her ears. "Hello Cassandra," a modulated voice called out from the void around her. "I want to play a game."
The lights above clanked to life, bathing the room in white and turning her vision blind for the few brief seconds she needed to adjust. Her thrashing slowed, her body gently swaying left and right from the remaining momentum as the speakers above crackled on.
"Two years ago, during the height of civil unrest within City 31, countless Hybrid civilians were reported missing from the slums in and around the city. Mere weeks later, an experimental drug took to the streets, tearing apart the poorer communities of this city and ravaging an untold number of lives for the few months preceding the law enforcement crackdown."
Her stifled breaths grew faster, her fingers digging deeper into the metal contraption as though she still had any chance of getting out.
"The city officials chalked these missing civilians up as victims of now defunct Progeny group, but you are among the few that know what really happened—they were both kidnapped and purchased from underground trafficking rings to be melted down, their entire life essence reduced to nothing but the chemical base found only in Hybrids to produce the drug you made and sold, and later indulged in yourself."
Her eyes grew wider as her mind began to race, her struggles slowing as she tried and failed to pinpoint the source of the voice ringing out from all around her. It can't be… all these years of hiding… all that time spent covering her tracks…
"For two years following the fall of your gang, you remained hidden while the effects of these drugs lived on, bringing an air of anxiety and fear still felt throughout the poorer communities to this day—but rest assured, for today is your chance to start anew, should you choose to accept it."
The inner working of the facility whirred to life, the sounds of old machinery echoing from every corner of the room, and Cass couldn't help but tug at the collar once more in a desperate bid to escape. But her toes quickly slipped, and for a moment too long her lungs struggled to suck in even a slither of air before she found her footing once more.
"Three needles are currently embedded in your neck, and upon the commencement of the timer, they will begin extracting your blood at a rate of eleven milliliters a second, draining the equivalent of a single blood donation every forty-two seconds. In three minutes, you will be dead."
The room began to shake once more, the floor beneath her feet ever so slowly parting to reveal a pit of rusted needles below. Her legs stretched out both left and right as she struggled to keep her footing on the parting platform, before her legs slipped and the Hybrid dropped, her feet thrashing the open air below as her lungs struggled to draw any breath whatsoever.
"The pit below holds three syringes containing the key to disconnect the tubes extracting your blood. It is up to you to find them before you expire." A timer flickered to life on the far wall, the analog numbers trickling up to the three minute mark before halting with a flash, the speakers all around her buzzing to life with one final message: "Live or die, Cassandra. Make your choice."
The chain above finally fell loose, propelling her into a freefall towards the pit below. She came down on her back hard, her ensuing deep breath falling out as nothing more than a pained whimper as rusty syringes dug up through her clothes and into the flesh beneath.
She could already feel the machine suckling away at her blood like a leech, sending a tingle down her spine as she rolled to her side, swiping at the needles hanging freely from her back. The first syringe found its way into her hands, and through tear-specked eyes she turned it left and right, searching for any possible indicator as to what could be inside. But nothing presented itself; nothing at all visible that could differentiate it from the hundreds she was sitting atop of, and with another grunt she crushed the glass tube against the pit wall, watching the shards trickle away into the pit below before striking one down from the thousands still sitting around her.
And it was only then that the situation properly began to set in, her pained whimpers growing heavy as she rose to her knees with a scream that echoed out over the room, fading away into the silence as she brought her hands to her face to hold back the coming tears.
This had to be a nightmare. It was all so unreal. Nothing made sense.
But her nightmares were never this vivid—the sensations never this strong. This had to be real. This had to be.
Her eyes found their way to the timer, and her next breath caught at the back of her throat, a sinking feeling in her stomach as she watched the numbers click down past the two-minute forty mark. The tingling in her neck grew stronger, her head growing lighter as she took a desperate swipe through the metal and glass, her arms all but void to the feeling of needles in her skin. She shattered another, then another, a prick to the skin briefly stopping her as a trickle of blood ran down her finger and trailed the creases in her palms.
She paused, and only then did she begin to feel the tug at her neck, her hands snapping back to the collar as the chain ever so slowly hoisted her up off the ground once more.
Her hands wrapped around the chain, and with a single solid tug, the mechanism fell lax once more, sending her crashing back down into the pit with another pained scream.
She could feel her arms shaking; her fingers struggling to hold still, and with a deep breath she pulled the sleeves of her shirt back to reveal her scabby arms, a few drops of orange blood disappearing into the pit below. With trembling hands, she hugged her body close, crying out a futile call for help that was met with nothing but the sound of her own voice reverberating off the metal walls around her.
For a moment she dared to look at the timer, catching it just in time to watch the two minute marker fall down into one, eliciting yet another whimper as her eyes fell to the needles below.
Three minutes… that's how long her victims were put under for; drained alive without any anaesthetics to numb the pain… God, what have I done…
A lingering chill seeped into her veins as she smashed another handful of syringes, the broken glass slicing her hands as the chain above bucked to life once more, pulling her high up above before falling slack with another tug.
But it all felt useless—with every broken needle, another hundred fell into its place, and it didn't take long before her relatively methodical method of elimination delved into nothing more than desperate thrashing, the pain taking a back seat in her mind as the will to survive grabbed hold and refused to let go.
Her fist came down on a glass tube, a harsh hiss ringing out as another piece of glass ripped her frail skin—but from within the blood-tipped shards of glass, a flash of silver caught the white lights above, before promptly slipping into the jagged void below.
She dived for it without much thought, digging her hands deep down through the needles piercing and ripping her skin, tearing open old wounds and coating the rusted tips with orange blood. Her hand reached the bottom, and for a moment she padded around, tears streaming her face as the needles dug under her fingernails and into the palms of her hands.
But her fingers finally latched around the key, and she pulled her hand out without a second thought, a handful of old needles still clinging to the skin as she padded about the machine still wrapped tight around her neck. Still refusing to rest, the chain clunked to life once more, slowly pulling her to the air as she followed a single tube to the base of the collar, thumbing the keyhole before pulling her other hand around to blindly fumble the key inside it.
It slipped in on the third try, and on the fourth it fell loose with a heavy clunk, the now dangling tube spraying her in a shower of her own blood as she finally tugged the chain back down. She landed hard on her knees, and for a moment she buckled over, her breaths ringing out short and fast as she hugged her body once more. And with another stress-ridden scream, she turned her hands to the syringes still dangling from her skin, ripping them out one by one before crushing the tubes against the pit wall.
And from behind the wall of darkness hugging the corner of the cell—the timer; ticking past the half-way point and all but indifferent to her growing struggles.
Her legs were beginning to fall weak, her fingers turning pale and her heart on the edge of exploding; the sounds of her thumping chest overpowering any would-be silence.
Her neck had long since fallen numb, the contraption still sucking her dry without a single thing she could possibly do—it was like a plunger that won't stop extracting, like a leech she couldn't grab hold of—and with another desperate cry, she sunk her hands back into the pit, smashing and breaking with no real sense of direction.
The chain rose once more, her first tug too weak to slow its ascent, before she kicked her legs up and brought herself crashing back down under the weight of her own body, a stifled sob ringing out as the needles pierced her clothes and dug into the flesh beneath.
It was useless—she was going to die here, curled up into a ball with needles littering her flesh just like she always knew she would.
Her head felt heavy; darkness creeping into the edge of her vision as the world around her began to swirl, her hand blindly swiping through the pit before she retracted it with a pained hiss, pulling her arm back out to find a needle pierced right under the nail of her pointer finger
She raised her trembling hand, another stress-ridden scream ringing out as the orange blood that drenched her body began to streak down over her face, collecting by her chin before she wiped it clean with her one free hand. And with her now blood-drenched palm, she crushed the tube of the hanging syringe with a single squeeze, turning her hand over to find another single key sitting in amongst the broken glass.
Her eyes widened, and with trembling hands she blindly turned it to the back of the contraption, slipping it into the next tube across as the collar began to hoist her up once again. The lock clanked, and the contraption whirred, another tube breaking loose before showering the room in a bucket's worth of her own blood.
It dripped down into her mouth, the metallic taste making her gag before she broke down into a coughing fit only amplified by the collar tugging at her neck. She pulled back as hard as she could, her bloodied hands slipping from the chain as her legs gave out from under her. But the chain continued to pull her into the void above before she could muster the strength to try again, the all too familiar feeling of choking at a rope's end grasping her body once more.
She thrashed her legs, kicking up a pile of needles before she found solid ground on the edge of the hollowed out pit, pushing herself back up into the air before pulling the chain down under the weight of her body once again, sending herself into a freefall towards the needles below.
She was so close… just one last key… just one last key…
Her fingers wrapped around the needle tip still piercing her fingernail, and with gritted teeth and a deep breath, her bloodied fingers slid it free with a single tug, blindly throwing it back over her shoulder before she dug into the pit below with ghostly, pale hands.
But her vision was still narrowing, the colours around her all swelling into one, and the more needles she crushed the harder she found it to actually see if she had found that one last key. The timer on the wall clicked into the final thirty seconds, and ever so slowly, her head fell under its own weight, the suckling machine latched into the back of her neck not slowing once.
Her hands were sliced and throbbing, the gore from her wounds all but faded into the blood bath still dripping down her body and drenching her clothes orange. The chain above clunked into action, and with one last swipe at the pit below, she took a single needle to the palms of her hand—a single, rusted syringe no different than all the rest, its glass fogged and its tip rusted.
Her legs thrashed the higher she climbed, her heartbeat slowing and her vision ever so slowly creeping to a close. And with trembling hands she crushed the tube in a single squeeze, only adding to the broken shards that littered the palm of her hand.
The tube shattered, and down fell the pieces into the bloodied pit below, her fingers grasping nothing but air as the timer on the wall flashed zero, the red of the numbers lingering in her eye as the world around her faded into the cold embrace of the void.
She always knew she'd end up here, dangling from the ceiling with nothing but the air beneath her feet. All she could wish for now was so much as a single breath to scream.
Logan watched on in silence as the chain continued its ascent into the ceiling above, the Hybrid's struggles growing slower and slower with every second her fading body rose. Her fingers twitched, the blood that drenched her clothes streaming down to the tips of her sneakers before forming a rhythmic, almost hypnotic drip that fed into the pit below.
Her eyes twitched left and right, what was visible of her scabby skin turned ghostly pale, and before long what little energy remained was all but expended too as her body settled into a gentle sway, her glass eyes devoid of any life.
A buzzer sounded, and Logan's eyes followed the echo through the hall, landing on the door at the far end as one of five lights turned green, the corresponding lock on the steel blast doors clunking loose.
His eyes found their way back to the hybrid, and for a moment he stood there, racking his head as he stared the scene up and down.
"How the fuck can you just stand there?" Vince huffed, briefly diverting the human's attention.
"What?" he scoffed. "Would you rather I break down crying or something?" He turned himself around to face the pacing Muton square on, taking a step forward before Kara promptly tugged him back by the shirt. "Please, Vince, tell me how the fuck that would help us right now."
"We do not need this right now," the Viper scolded, her eyes briefly returning to the scene in the cell before a stressful hiss fell from her maw, her face sinking into her hands as she snapped herself away.
But the strange sense of deja-vu interlaced throughout the whole situation was still hot on Logan's mind as he returned his gaze to the cell window, taking a few steps forward as he racked his clouded head for whatever information it would give him. A second ticked away, then a second more; a moment of realisation finally lighting up his face as all the puzzle pieces hidden away in his mental fog finally fell into one.
"Saw!" he thought out loud, leaning a hand up against the window. "It's fucking Saw, that's where I know it from."
He couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the sheer absurdity of the whole situation, garnering the attention of the Sectoid hunching over against the console as he silently turned back to face him.
"What?" Kara was the first to speak, a look of confusion cracking beneath her stress-ridden face.
"That movie, Saw," he replied, shooting a thumb to the cell he was leaning against. "The second one, specifically, where the bitch gets thrown into that pit of needles."
The Sectoid hunched down over the panel buckled to his knees, and Logan took a half-step back, watching as Clay threw up last night's dinner over the rusted metal floor below. Vince was no better—his hands on his head and an unstable fidgeting in his legs as he huffed and muttered before snapping around and sending a fist into the nearest wall, failing to leave nothing but an echo in his wake.
"Logan, what are you on about?" Kara hissed.
"Old-world movies," he replied, eyes narrowing towards the Viper as she brought her hands to a rest on her would-be waist. "You know, shit before your time, snake—shit from back when the earth was ours."
"So what are you suggesting? That this is all some stupid movie?"
"What I'm suggesting is that I'm going nowhere near that fucking cell," he replied, shooting a finger to his own room sitting two doors down. "I've seen the movies. You all saw what happened to that Hybrid. Fuck. That."
"Did you forget what that tape said?" she hissed. "You'll die otherwise. We'll all die."
"Good," he shot back. "I gave up on this planet a long fucking time ago. If you all want to go kill yourself like she did, then fine, be my guest. I'm not going to stop you."
"Now is not the time to give up," she hissed.
"I'm not. I'm simply accepting it," he replied, shooting a finger to the big red timer still ticking away at the far end of the hall. "You should be fucking grateful. Not everyone gets the comfort of knowing exactly when they'll die."
"And you call yourself a leader," Kara scoffed, slithering up to comfort the Sectoid still hunched down against the wall. "You're nothing but a coward, Logan."
He paid the Viper a side-long glare, his fists tensing by his side as he took a trying step towards her. "Why don't you say that to my fucking—"
She snapped around in the blink of an eye, her razor-sharp talons wrapped tight around his neck as she propelled him back against the metal wall with a bang that echoed through the hall, his feet kicking the air as her eyes fell level with his.
"You're a fucking coward, Logan, and not a single thing you've done thus far has proved to me otherwise." She pressed his chin to the air, her talons cutting down on his airway. A reaction like this was completely out of left field, and Logan would be lying if he said he could have expected anything like it. "You call yourself a soldier, huh? What'd you really hunt? Because I find it hard to believe you would fight anything willing to shoot back."
He brought a knee up into her side, but the Viper didn't even so much as flinch, the slits in her eyes narrowing as her claws dug in deeper. But as quickly as it began, it was over, and Logan found himself dropped to the ground below with a loud thud, his hands pressed to his throat as Kara stood over him in silence.
"Fuck you," was all he could manage, the words only barley ringing out from beneath his rasp breaths.
"Just sit the fuck down before your bullshit gets us killed, Logan."
Her shadow faded, and ever so slowly Logan sat himself up against the metal wall, garnering yet another look at the remaining participants scattered throughout the hall.
"This isn't real… This can't be real..." Clay croaked from his spot on the floor, the Viper's hand returning to a rest on his back. "I can't die here…"
"And we're not going to, alright?" she replied, coiling down beside him. "We'll make it out of this. I promise."
"How the fuck will we!" Vince huffed, every footstep echoing through the building as he stomped across the hall. "You saw what happened to her. This is it, we're fucked, Kara. This is how we die."
"No, we can do this, Vince," she replied, a hint of worry seeping into her voice as her eyes crept towards her own cell. "We can do this..."
"Then be our fucking guest," Logan replied, the snake's eyes snapping to his with a look of irritation on her face that he couldn't take seriously no matter how hard he tried.
But her look didn't fade; her gaze unfaltering, before she banked her head down to the Sectoid laying beside her. "Clay—get my cell door open."
He simply shook his head, arms embraced around his stomach. "I can't... I don't want to get anyone else hurt, I just... I can't..."
"Clay," she hissed. "If we want any chance at getting out of here alive, I need you at your best—I need you all at your best. Which... might be a lot to ask right now, I know, but that timer up there isn't going to slow, so neither should we."
The Sectoid began to show some semblance of movement, his head rising to meet the snake's eye before he pointed a finger to her cell, letting out a deep sigh. "Just hit the red button on the screen. The doors should open right up."
"Show me." Kara rose, extending a hand that was hesitantly taken following a moment of hesitation. The Sectoid rose to his feet, bracing himself against the wall as he wiped the remaining spittle from his lower jaw, the two others watching on in silence as he trailed the Viper across the room.
He pressed a hand to the holo-glass on her cell, and for a brief moment his gaze moved past the holograms, lingering on the unknown sitting just beyond. "Kara, are you sure..."
"I'm sure," she replied. "We'll make it out of here alive. I know it. Open the cell, I'm going next."
Clay's gaze lingered for a moment more, hesitation dotting his movements before he ever so slowly pushed a hand against the holographic display projected over the cell window. The door snapped open with a bang, and both Kara and Clay flinched in unison, their attention slowly drifting to the cell window as they searched for any indicator as to what could be in there.
"Kara, we can find another way," Clay spoke up, stepping between the snake and the door. "We don't have to play into this bastard's sick games, we can find another way out of here."
"You said it yourself," she replied. "The only way out is through those blast doors… and even if I don't come back out… you'll all be one step closer to getting out of here."
She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, meeting his dejection with a look of confidence that didn't falter. And with one last glance at the Hybrid's cell across the way, he stepped aside, eyes falling to the ground below.
"Then… good luck, Kara."