"After the Sleeper Woke Up" - Chapter Four Chapter Four

The first sensation was pain. This wasn't just ordinary pain. It was the pain that seared and melted flesh from bone, the kind of pain that either paralyzes or twists and writhes. It was torture.
It seemed it had started in her belly and spread outward in scalding ripples, spreading through and over her flesh. It snapped her to sudden startling awareness, and even the act of opening her eyes and drawing that first, gasping breath was a torment. There was something over her nose and mouth, and that hurt too. It pressed against her burning skin and clung to her face when she thrashed her head. Her arms were outstretched to either side of her, and her hands were restrained, but all it took was a few hard pulls to get them free, and likewise with her feet. She tore the thing on her face off and started to thrash around, then realized that she was in liquid of some kind. It was so hot, and felt like it was burning her skin off. She was submerged in it. With that realization, she started to thrash and beat on the torture chamber she was in, trying to beat her way out.
Finally, through the bubbles that hissed from the monstrous thing that had clung to her face, she saw a clear panel in front of her, and set her sights on that. Of course it would be reinforced somehow, but she intended on getting out of here one way or another. Her lungs burned worse for lack of air, her limbs felt weak and shook terribly, but she still managed a small energy blast directly to the window. It cracked, then exploded outward, spilling the burning fluid and the Saiya-jin inside out onto the floor.
She gasped and lifted her head to look around, then climbed shakily to her feet. There wasn't anyone in the room right now. A second to catch her breath then, and take stock of her injuries. Surely she must have been missing the top layer of her skin. She blinked dazedly at the skin of her hands and arms, damp from the liquid and stained red from numerous cuts and scratches. It was eating my skin away, she thought wildly. She had to get out before they tried something worse.
The door swung open, and there stood one of the guards, framed in the doorway. It was one of the guards, but he was different. He wasn't wearing the reddish brown armor that all the others had worn. He wasn't controlled by the parasites. . . or was he? He blinked at her and took a step toward her, hands held up and out a little, as if to show he was unarmed. She knew better, though, and she wasn't going to give him a chance to get his hands on her.
She ran straight for him, surprisingly nimble. He shouted something and ducked low at the last moment, which was what she was hoping for. She dove over him and into the hallway beyond, but there wasn't enough room for her to tuck and roll. She tucked her legs and arms in, but hit the wall outside hard. It knocked the breath out of her, but she growled and skittered away on her hands and knees, and stumbled eventually back to her feet. The guard was yelling for reinforcements all the time, and saying something in a language she couldn't comprehend. She figured he was lying to her, telling her that he wouldn't hurt her, nonsense like that.
She wouldn't have believed a word of it even if she'd understood it.
She half ran, half stumbled further down the hall, and wondered what the floor was made out of. It was too spongy for her to stand right on. She bumped into the wall with her shoulder as she rounded a corner, then seemed to get her feet on firmer ground. She broke into a run then, racing through the ranks of other guards. They even parted to let her through.
The shouting of the first guard continued, and she could swear she could hear him behind her.
Then she was on the floor again, pinned below a greater weight.
"Let me go, you bastard!" she screamed, lashing out with kicks and trying to twist around to be able to use her hands to direct a blast at him. He said something else she couldn't understand, a shout, then she heard him gasp as she landed a good hit to his stomach. She struggled out from under him and tried to get to her feet, but he grabbed her by the ankle and jerked hard, dragging her down to the floor.
He was smarter this time. Apparently the creatures could learn, because he pinned her face down with his shin hard on the back of her knees to keep her from kicking, and her hands behind her back with one hand, his other on her neck to keep her from lifting her head. She still wiggled and cursed and swore at him, spitting threats of what she'd do when she got loose. Then something pricked the bend of her arm, and her body started to feel heavy. It grew worse, everything growing still heavier and heavier, until she couldn't even open her mouth to speak. At least it put out the fire roaring through her, she thought faintly as her heavy eyelids drifted shut.