So this is where Rocky dives into his history, and believe me, it is very dark. Not as dark as some other stories I have read, but still dark nonetheless. I appreciate the help so far, and will try to implement them here in attempt number two. Most likely I won't post very frequently, and this is just to get out any ideas I have currently and since the first part doesn't get into the story very much. Anyways, here is Chapter 2!
Everything around me was gray, the walls were gray, the bars were gray, heck, even I was gray. The only things that wasn't gray was the other pups eyes, and they were extremely sad. I hadn't gotten to know them, nor did they try to know me because we all knew our fates the moment we were put into these cages. I was named subject 03, no proper name given.
Right as Rocky was born, he was taken away from his mom and dad before he could open my eyes, never got to know who they were. Many of the scientists there said that they died from some natural cause, but Rocky didn't believe them, he never believed any of them. How could he?
Everyday, These researchers would come in and take pups out. Sometimes they would return, other times they wouldn't. On the rare occasion they did return, the pups always kept to themselves, never questioned what was beyond. The place they were held was most commonly known as the kennel room. This was a closet sized room with 5 kennels inside, each holding 1 dog with a total of 5. Each dog was labeled with a subject number. Kennel one was held a gray pup, 2 had a German Shepard, 3 was Rocky, 4 held a Dachshund, and 5 was a Terrier. Each wall had relatively 539 bricks per wall Rocky counted and there was one light hanging down in the middle of the room. Other than these qualities, it was baron like the desert, more even because at least deserts have cacti. Despite there being 5 dogs in the room, no one barked or talked. They were given slop to eat, usually leftovers from whatever the scientists had left or was expired. Some days they would give the dogs a bone or a few pieces of meat, other days they wouldn't even feed them, leaving them hungry.
One time, Rocky ended up getting curious about the outside, and tried to start a conversation with the gray pup like him that was just put back into a cage after taken out of the room.
"Hey uh, how are you doing?" Rocky asked unconfidently.
The other pup didn't answer and pretended to sleep to avoid answering Rocky's question. Rocky tried to push him a bit harder.
"So um, how was it out there, bright? Dim? Was it anything like the outdoors, or was it just like a cage?" Rocky persisted.
"It was fine," the other pup growled, "Now why don't you keep out of other people's business and shut up like everyone else here, nobody likes a talker, especially one that is as young as you."
Rocky held his tongue after he said that, but after a while, got restless and spoke again.
"So do you have a name, like a actual proper name?" Rocky questioned.
"No, I don't have a name, just like everyone else here dummy. Now buzz off and go to sleep you stupid puppy." the other pup retaliated.
"You seem old, did you have a life-" Rocky started but was cut off.
"Would you shut up?! If I could go over there, I would muzzle you, then kill you right on the spot just to stop your yammering. Like I said before, no one like a talker, and nobody cares, we all are going to die, so just deal with it, don't make friends, don't strike up conversations, and don't care." the other pup growled.
Rocky, after hearing the other pup's response, decided to shut up for the day, plus, he finally gotten to use his voice so he was satisfied. A few minutes later, a scientist came to the kennel room to take another dog out. This time was the pup right next to Rocky, a German Shepard, Subject 02.
Right after he left, I hoped he would be back, partially so I could ask him as well about the outside, but this time after waiting hours and hours, the German Shepard never came back, and Rocky assumed that he was dead. He was the first one to go, and Rocky hoped that it was a quick and painless death, and that he would have a better life in the afterlife if it existed.
This cycle repeated for a few weeks, scientists walking in and taking dogs out and putting them back, none of them spoke about what happened outside, and eventually, Rocky was the one taken out of the room. Rocky tried to struggle and kicked and nipped at the scientist, which only earned him a muzzle around his mouth and bound paws, and was carted off to somewhere inside the facility. Rocky looked around the hallway, seeing only more gray, and a few signs on the room doors, one of which caught his attention that said Suffocation room. They turned Rocky into a room that was labeled examination, which Rocky didn't understand what it meant, and was placed on a table with a light shining of him. Rocky looked around and took in what he saw. Around him were dark gray walls, and a lot more scientists in full gray. It was just like the cell, just more open. Next to him were pencils, pens, erasers, basic office supplies. Above him was a movable light, one that shone right on him. Rocky found this to be interesting on how the light moved, and decided if he got back, he would think about how it worked.
The scientists bound Rocky to the table and started to poke at Rocky, and Rocky tried to retaliate, but because of the restrictions on him, he couldn't. After a while, Rocky gave up and started to whimper loudly. The scientists most definitely heard, but didn't care about it. They examined Rocky from head to toe, noting down descriptions about Rocky, poking Rocky in every inch of fur he had, opening his mouth to check his teeth and tongue, then finally putting back onto a cart and carted him off back to the kennel room.
Once he was put back into his kennel and the scientists left, he started to cry. Rocky had never cried before, but he felt violated, and even though he didn't die, he would rather die than to endure that torment again. The other pup that rejected him saw Rocky in a broken down state and started to talk.
"Look, I'm sorry I acted up the way I did last time. I just didn't want you to know what happened out there. It wasn't a good story to tell a barely one year old pup. Let's start over, hello, my name is Subject 01." The gray pup started.
"Hi, my name is Subject 03" Rocky started as well, " I can see why you never told me about it, it wasn't the most pleasant experience." Rocky said between sniffles.
"You finally got to go out, was it anything like you hoped it was?" 01 asked.
"It was terrible, I hope I never have to endure that again." Rocky replied. At this point, Rocky had stopped crying, but was still slightly sniffling. "So, tell me, what's the outside like?"
After that day, Rocky and 01 started to talk more and more, discussing past events and creating theories about what would happen after death. Occasionally they laughed, sometimes so hard that the scientists came in to check what was going on. Rocky and 01 could tell the other dogs were listening, but they didn't care, they discussed whatever came to mind, sometimes about the scientists, other times it was about the outside. They loved to tell stories of the outside world, considering Rocky had never been outside, and the descriptions 01 told him made the outside world seem like heaven. It gave Rocky hope and what to look for in the future and it motivated him to stay alive. Then one day, scientists took 01 away, and he never returned. Rocky finally knew why it wasn't a good idea to make friends there, it hurt, hurt more than anything else, to see his friend get taken away and presumably killed, never got to say goodbye. At one point when Rocky thought it was night, howled for the death of his newly made friend and the other dogs joined him. Eventually the scientists got annoyed and muzzled all the dogs, and resumed their research. Guess it wasn't night after all.
Soon, Rocky started to notice all the pups around him were diminishing, slowly taken away and killed off. Rocky never knew why the scientists killed them off, they never did anything bad, nor were they misfits of the world. First the German Shepard, then 01, next the Terrier, and finally the Dachshund. Eventually Rocky was the only pup left in the room. It was completely quiet and not a sound was made. Rocky would just lay there, repeating what 01 said about the world, about the conversations they had, and one in a while cried a bit that he was actually gone. After being in the kennel room for a few days it seemed, Rocky could hear the scientist discussing what they would do, considering all their trials were failures and that how this time it would be different. It sounded a lot like bickering, one screaming over the other, and one scientist suggested that they ditch the experiment and let Rocky go. Rocky felt a twinge of relieve when he heard that.
Eventually the scientists came into the doorway, opened the kennel Rocky was in, grabbed him by the scruff, and took him away. Rocky hoped that he was going to be taken to an animal shelter where he could be adopted and cared for in a family, but part of him felt that he was going to his death, though he prayed that he would live to see another day.
They took him to the same room, started to poke at him, this time less pokes than the last, and carted him back towards the kennel room. Rocky have a sigh of relief, but soon realized that they had passed the kennel room and continued to walk straight. Right before they went into a room, Rocky saw a window next to him and took a long gaze at the outside world. It was colorful, sun in the blue sky, red and yellow flowers up against the window, but mostly Rocky saw the green trees and grass. He realized that the outside was exactly what 01 described it to be, and so much more. 01 never said anything about color, and the greenery outside looked mesmerizing to Rocky. Once the scientists turned Rocky into the room, Rocky again started to observe his surroundings. This room was nothing like the kennel room, it had a high ceiling, a glass box, some tubing connected to the box, and many, many chairs around the box with a lever next to one.
Rocky couldn't figure out what the box was for, thinking that it was a giant fish tank to watch fishies swim around, but soon realized that he himself was put in there. Rocky watched in horror as the scientists locked the box, and sit down to watch him suffer. Rocky thought of all the possible ways he would die here, suffocation, poison gas, and realized that the torment had started. He looked in terror as the scientists watched him struggle. Water was flowing in from the pipes attached above. They were going to drown him.
Rocky flailed around desperately to find a way out, he pushed up on the glass, tried pounding the walls, tried digging out the floor, but his attempts were all futile, and Rocky ran out of energy quickly. The water slowly rose as Rocky watched it. Soon the water rose above his head. Rocky thought about swimming up, but he figured the glass roof kept him from swimming too high and he was out of energy to even try. Rocky looked panicked, and the researchers outside were laughing at him trying to get out. Rocky thought to himself if he ever got out of the tank alive, he would never trust a single human again, he would run away and live out in the wild like wolves. Rocky hoped that the water would soon drain, but it never did, he would never get to see the outside 01 had described, never get a loving family (not that he cared anymore at this point), never get to live a full and happy life out in the lush green grass. Soon Rocky couldn't hold his breath any longer and let go. He gave a last thought about the outside world, the beautiful colors he saw, and took a big deep gulp of water in, and just like that, Rocky drowned.
This Chapter was slightly dark, I know, but it leads up to a lot. It sets up what happens after, so this is all planned out. It would also explain why he hates water so much. Anyways, like before, please leave suggestions on how I can improve and if there is any spelling or grammar issues, in the meantime, thanks for reading!