Ok so how I have this story set up right now is to like do flashbacks to reveal stuff as it goes on but I don't really like that now (bc I thought it'd be cool you know, revelations and stuff but honestly it might be above my current level), but it's too late to change. So, I'm just gonna go with it and (I know I'm barely in) and maybe do a rewrite later so I can get criticism and get y'alls opinions so the final will actually be better? I don't know, I had a clear train of thought with I started writing this into I swear. It's gone now. Anyway…
Thank you UnitedLuck for reviewing! Language was something I was gonna address first chapter but tbh I didn't wanna deal with it. You're right and I realize now it kinda is important...yeah duh. I don't really want to plug in all the dialogue to google translate for half the story and then just put the original dialogue in parenthesis. But please tell my if you think that would improve the story. The OC being taught English will be revealed in another flashback. Thanks again for the awesome feedback.
Thanks also to fairy blue for reviewing again and The-Dark-Love-Writer, vixen122, and sheepinafield14 for following/favoriting.
Again...don't really like this chapter but here it's is. Thanks again for whatever feedback you all have I need to go learn chemical nomenclature or some shit. Byeee
Chapter SEVEN
November, 1936
"What's the total number at now, Kaufmann?" Abraham Erskine asked.
"Four hundred and six,-" Kaufmann replied.
"You've used my experimental serums on four hundred and six children," The man breathed, horrified. "I gave you the prototypes two months ago. That many in two months?"
"It's for the cause, for Hydra."
"But most will not survive. I did not understand you would be using it so soon. I thought-I thought," He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I was under the impression it was to be researched further before human trials. It's simply not ready."
"Are you backing out, Erskine? Do not give us a reason to doubt your loyalty. We are at war, and because of that we must accept that we must do these terrible things."
"Of course, sir. I didn't mean it like that. You're right, we don't have the time."
Kaufmann raised his eyebrows, and gave the other man a guarded smile. "Well, would you like to to continue? There were survivors."
"How many?" He asks, half horrified and half curious.
"Four." The director answered with a smile.
"And the results?" The words came out automatically, but deep down Abraham Erskine didn't want to know the answer. He'd been forced to give them the serum. It wasn't his fault, was it?
I don't remember waking up, just waves of conscious pain and warped delirium. My head hurts and, sure enough, the needle is still in my arm, a full bag of the Doctor's serum hanging above my head. There's a cold sweat covering my body and my teeth chatter uncontrollably. I groan.
"Hey," The mean looking girl next to me whispers. I awkwardly turn over to look at her. It's the same girl from the truck. One of her hazel eyes is lined with purple, a fresh bruise, contrasting with her porcelain skin. Her light brown hair is short, resting even with her shoulders. She looks close to Jon's age, around twelve.
"I'm Annaliese."
I don't say anything.
"It's okay." I tried not to think about the last time someone told me it was okay. "Your name's Lillian right? That's what you told the doctor two days ago," she continues talking.
"T-two days?"
"Yeah, you were were also out for the numbers."
"What?" My head is still swimming. It feels like I'm still half asleep.
"Look at your arm," Annaliese sighed. "Other arm. You're lucky you were still sleeping. It hurt."
Horizontally across my inner wrist is a number, 0298, and below that a small seal. It looks like an octopus in a circle. The skin around the black ink is pink and swollen.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Where are we? What's going on?" I ask desperately.
"I don't know. Be quieter, okay? They don't like us talking to each other." She said, turning the bruised side of her face for emphasis. I nod slowly. My stomach rumbles loudly.
"Yesterday they let us up for food around this time." Annaliese reassures me, looking around to make sure no one is nearby.
"My head hurts too bad to eat. Do you know what this stuff is?" I try to point to the tube again
"Shh," she cut herself off before breathing her next words. "She's coming."
The red-lipped doctor walks in, heel clicks echoing through the room. As she leans over Annalise, I look around the room for the first time since waking up.
It's different than last time. There are only three other beds with kids in them, counting Annaliese. All the rest are empty, neatly made as if no one had ever been there. On one is the boy who was trying to help the old man. His head is wrapped in a thick cap of bandages, skin deathly pale. For a second it doesn't even look like he's breathing. Next to him is another boy, this one awake. He's straining against his bonds, face worrying shade of red and the veins bulging in his neck. Purple bruising travels up his arms, peeking out from the thick, leather straps. There's something else... off about the room, but I can't tell exactly what it is.
I jump a little as Doctor Lane appears in front of me. She takes blood from my arm and checks my temperature. I want to tell her about everything that hurts, but Annaliese scowls putting a finger to her lips.
"I'm glad you're awake, Lily." I don't answer her. She talks on, as if used to carrying on one, sided conversations. "How do you feel? Anything strange?"
I shake my head. The Doctor runs a few more tests, scribbling on her clipboard. I look down as she finishes and moves to the red faced boy a few rows over, and Annaliese gives me a small nod of approval.
"Annaliese," I whisper as quiet as I can. "Where happened to everyone else?"
She doesn't answer me, instead looking down at her lap. "You don't want to know."
A few minutes later, Doctor Lane leaves the room, the guards unlock the straps on our beds and lead me, Analiese, and the boy down a long hallway to a larger room with food. The second boy we leave in the bed room. The smell is intoxicating and repulsive at the same time. The last I've eaten was breakfast at the orphanage two days ago and my stomach is screaming in hunger, but I feel like the very blood in my veins is poison. A man hands me a piece of bread, and I reluctantly nibble at it under his scrutiny. Annaliese eats hers quickly and I slip her the rest of mine.
"If we were stronger, we could get out." The other boy mutters to us. His dark brown hair is unkempt, curling over his oversized ears. A square jaw juts out, permanently clenched in anger.
"Oh shut up, Karl. I've been listening to you about this since we got here. You're not strong. You're a skinny, shrimpy little boy." Annaliese whispers back. He scowls at her before directing his mad gaze to the guards, hands turning to fists.
On the way back to the room, the Karl's guard sticks out his foot and he trips, falling hard on his bony elbows. Karl, screaming, whirls around and punches the man in the stomach. The full grown man flies back, hitting the cement wall, a spider web of cracks spreading from where he makes contact. Karl steps forward and wretches the man's arm upward, causing him to scream out now too, their roles reversed. His arm is bent at odd angle where there is no joint. Karl pauses, frozen, staring at his hands, at the muscles twisting under his skin.
"Code, yellow!" My guard shouts into his walkie talkie, holding even tighter to my arm. "Subject 0363 has manifested. Backup requested."
A girl's voice cries out behind me, and Annalise breaks free of her distracted guard, who swears, stumbling after her. Adrenaline fuels her escapade and she's almost to the end of the hallway when a group of soldiers turn the corner, trapping her. Annaliese stops, bare feet skidding across the ground, and instinctively raises her hands in front of herself as if they could stand a chance against the armed men running toward her.
Unbelievably, it does. The group of guards part like the Red Sea, pushed inexplicably to the sides of the hall. Annaliese's arms are now stretched open and shaking, like she's holding the men in place.
"Run!" I scream at her, kicking futilely against the hands holding me. "Why aren't you running?"
She takes a few awkward, uncoordinated steps forward before collapsing, blood pouring from her nose. The men fall to the ground released.
"-update? This is Director Kaufmann. Status update?" A cruel voice mechanically questions.
"Subject 0297 as well," Another answers into a small radio, between heavy breaths. "Has manifested. Subject 0363 has been apprehended, and 0297 is unconscious-,"
"What about her?" The man holding me asks. All the people now crowding the hall pause and stare at me like I'm a ticking time bomb. I don't understand why. I'm half their height and blubbering, snot running down my face.
"She can go in one of the cells. We didn't anticipate this to happen so soon." Doctor Lane says, seemingly materializing behind me.
There's a sharp pain in my neck, and then all I feel is calm. I'm not sad, and I don't care when they carry me through another hallway, away from Karl and Annaliese. It's the most at peace I've felt my whole life. My limbs are numb and heavy. They lay me down in a small, boxlike room. It's clean and white and bare, save for a single bed and toilet. As they leave, I stare at the new room. Something is missing. I lounge there motionless for what feels like hours before it hits me.
In every single room and hall I've been in, there hasn't been a single window
THXX for so much for reading and please review.