Pale light blinded him as Gareth's eyes flickered open. He found himself lying on a cold, steel floor wearing his Brotherhood jumpsuit. Gareth sat up, wincing, his body stiff and bruised. He was surrounded by rusted steel walls, a windowless room with a single door and not even a bed. He looked up to see a single fluorescent light illuminating the metal cell. Gareth attempted to stand but immediately fell back to his knees when a sharp pain shot through his right leg. His calf had been wrapped in bandages that were now coated with dried blood. Hesitantly, he unwrapped the bandage but quickly wrapped it back up when he saw his injury and it began bleeding again. Gareth coughed lightly and cursed. He couldn't remember being shot.
Gareth's heart stopped as the door slid open vertically with a loud hiss, a faint, musty light passing over a large silhouette. He shuffled backwards as the figure stepped into the light. The man was completely clad in some form of heavy armour; white plating similar in style to that of a T-60 suit of power armour but smaller, more advanced and streamlined. Cleaner. The only sound was the man's breathing through a helmet with blue eye sockets and his footsteps. This was no power armour that he had ever seen.
"Eat up." he said, placing a small bowl with a spoon on the cold floor, keep his eyes on Gareth at all times. The white soldier turned and left the room, the door sliding shut behind but not without Gareth catching a glimpse of something peculiar. Peaking out just under the plating of the man's armour were thin, dark red cables neatly lined on top of eachother. Why would a suit that clearly wasn't an exo-suit like the rest need so much electronics? Surely it would be light enough to move with a man's own strength?
Gareth slowly scrambled forward and looked at the bowl. A simple brown soup with several pieces of meat peaking out through the surface. He ate the soup with hesitation, wary of even why he was still alive. He grimaced with distaste at the revelation of it being almost freezing cold and gloopy, but carried on anyway. He would need to eat, especially as he was wounded. After a short while, Gareth put the bowl back onto the floor and gripped his stomach as he felt his body churn with the food.
"Perhaps rations aren't so bad…" he said to himself as he slowly got up, taking the weight off his leg as he leant against the wall left of the door. Feeling some measure of his strength returning, Gareth hobbled around the perimeter of the room to check for anything he could possibly use to help escape. There were two ventilation shafts at the back of the room, but they were far too narrow for a man to climb through. Dismayed, he slumped down against the wall opposite the door and sighed.
"I hope the others are alright, they're probably in similar cells to this." he thought.
Gareth smirked at the realisation that Yuliya had left before their capture, then shook his head.
"Damned lucky I guess."
Gareth sat for what seemed like an eternity, blankly staring at the door on the other end, almost as if he were willing it to open. The matter was simple. He didn't know what he was being kept for, he didn't know why he was still alive, but he didn't intend to find out the way that they wanted. Escape was the only goal. Gareth narrowed his eyes and looked down in thought. There was no alternative other than the door ahead of him, but the lock was on the other side. Gareth stood up, gritting his teeth with the pain, and approached the door. He looked back and bit his lip. He knew he'd have to wait for the soldier to return, but then how could a wounded man with no weapons take down or get past a soldier like that? Gareth decided to bide his time and sat back down against the wall until sleep eventually took him.
Gareth awoke again just before the soldier reappeared with another bowl of soup, picking up the previous bowl. Gareth observed the soldier intently, analysing his movements and his armour. As the soldier turned to leave, he saw the red cables peaking out under the armour again, as well as several more lining his neck and travelling under the back of the helmet. Gareth stumbled to the door and picked up the bowl, bringing it back to the wall and began eating slowly. He didn't quite know what those red cables were for, but he felt that they were important.
The process of the soldier bringing soup carried on for what Gareth felt was several days. After the first day, each bowl of soup was also acompanied by a small clean bandage so that he could continue to mend his leg. Today however, whatever day that was, Gareth was going to make his move. Any longer and he would risk finally finding out why he was still alive.
The soldier opened the door and entered with another bowl of soup, bending down to place it on the floor. He stopped when he noticed that the bowl was untouched. Taking his opportunity, Gareth leapt at the soldier from behind and stabbed at the red cables along his neck with his spoon. He clambered onto his back after the first strike did not go through, rapidly stabbing into his neck with the spoon. The soldier screamed in horror when finally the cables split, spewing out a red liquid across Gareth and all over the floor. The soldier stumbled forward, desperately holding the back of his neck while Gareth backed away, unable to remove his gaze. The soldier dropped to the floor, still crying out as his body seemed to grow weaker. Finally the soldier stopped moving, his white armour coated in a layer of the red liquid. The smell of blood was overpowering and quickly forced Gareth to come to his senses and leave the room.
Gareth quietly exited into a corridor, giving him the option of either left or right. Quickly glancing in both directions, he trusted his gut and staggered down the right side. He tried his best to move quickly, keeping a hand against the wall to balance himself while keeping all of his senses on high alert. Nearing the end of the corridor, Gareth's mind suddenly become a buzz when he remembered his friends. He halted for a moment in quick contemplation, then hurried along. He was in no decent position to rescue them. He was wounded, defenseless and only armed with his insincts for any sense of direction. He didn't even know if he would be able to escape.
"If I make it out of here, I'll be back with help. I promise both of you that."
Gareth reached the end of the corridor and started up a set of stairs. He peaked his head up to the floor above and saw two soldiers, armoured like the first walking away from him down the corridor. Gareth glanced up and then back to the soldiers as he carried on to the next floor. The knight continued up, cautiously sneaking from floor to floor until the stairs ended. As Gareth had only travelled upward, he knew he had to be in one of either two places; the top floor, or the ground floor, depending on what sort of complex or facility he was inside. As of yet, he had seen no windows and only seen steel walls, soldiers, fluorescent lights and piping, so his guess was as good as anyone's. Gareth slowly edged forward, noticing that the passage he was moving down split off in different directions at certain points, either to more corridors or other rooms. All he needed was a way out.
Gareth's heart was pounding like a drum as he turned right again on the first split, still keeping his hand against the wall. Reaching the end of this corridor, he immediately turned left then right again. Gareth stopped when he stepped into a corridor that was wider than the rest, with a large sliding double door on one side. He looked opposite him and met the gaze of a patrolling soldier.
"Hold it!" he called out, raising a white plated rifle. Gareth quickly turned into the corridor and through the nearest door as a spray of bullets flew past him. He found himself in what looked like a mix between a control room and a small armoury, with monitors and shelves with various weapons laid out across them. A woman who was clad in a white protective suit and a small rebreather was staring at a collection of screens when Gareth burst through.
"Sorry but you can't just-" she shreaked in pain as Gareth repeatedly stabbed her in the neck with his spoon, leaving her gargling on blood before retreating into a different room. This one was similar to the last but held several lockers as well. Gareth quickly hid inside one of the lockers and tried to control his breathing, else it would betray his position if the soldier came through here. Gareth remained motionless for a while. The sudden lack of commotion was unnerving. The door opened and he could hear the woman still choking on her own fluids. Gradually the choking stopped and he heard faint footsteps against the steel floor, each several seconds apart.
"C'mon...I know you're in here…" whispered the soldier as he slowly moved past the locker. Gareth swallowed and braced himself, gripping the spoon once more. He rushed out of the locker and towards the soldier who span around immediately. Gareth dashed around the right side of the armoured man and hooked the spoon under the cables at the back of the neck, twisted and pulled back, arching the soldiers head untill the cables broke. Once more, Gareth watched as another of these white soldiers seemed to bleed to death from the tubes at the back of their necks. Rather than watch the entire ordeal, Gareth picked up the screaming man's rifle and went back into the control room, stepping over the lifeless figure of the woman and towards the collection of screens. He quickly glanced over the controls on the console below the screens and decided to push the largest button there. Almost immediately, he heard a loud hiss and then a grinding of metal. Gareth entered the large corridor again to find the double doors opening, pale light pouring through.
Hope filled Gareth's heart as he staggered towards the exit, a grin escaping his blood-stained visage. After passing through, he kept going as best as he could. He glanced behind him to see that he had just emerged from what appeared to be an underground bunker built into the base of a cliffside. It looked more like a ruin than anything else, a clever ruse for whatever sort of base it was supposed to be. Gareth continued on into the desolate wasteland, a vast expanse of dusty brown and dead trees lay before him. Wherever he was, he couldn't be far from the Capital Wasteland. Now several hundred metres away from the bunker, Gareth took one last look back at the ruin.
He would be back for them.
His friend's lives depended on it.