Hey guys! This gets sorta graphic. There's no riddle for this chapter, though.

Torture

Max's P.O.V.

The Whitecoat set up the TV like thing. Jeb, Bridget, and Chu paraded in the room, again.

"Well, since you all are obviously planning on not telling us where the Epic is then I guess we're going to have to give you a preview of what happens when you deny us information," Jeb sneered, adding in, "I really hate to do this to one of my son-in-law's sisters."

Oh god no.

An image of Gwen popped up, sending gasps throughout the room. My teeth gritted and I winced at the picture.

The scene would haunt me for the rest of my days. Kale growled deep in his throat, along with Ryan and Ice, but the girls mostly gasped as they ordered the little ones to shield their eyes.

There, on the screen, hung Gwen. Our Gwen. She was strung up by her arms. I tried to look up at her face, but it hurt to bad. Dark rings circled her eyes and her cheeks were slit. Gwen's nose had bled. The whole left side of her face was covered in a shade of maroon. Her neck had red prints of hands from where they had apparently tried to choke her. Gwen's collar bone appeared to be literally cut straight across; it was stained in crimson. Her shirt was torn, her right sleeve cut entirely off. It left the fabric only loosely draped, so that you could barely make out some sort of writing going across the top of her bra line to that side. Her arms were shredded at some areas, like they had raked a cheese grader across them. Blood dripped in little rivulets; carving its way down the freshly bruised skin. Her legs had little patches of burn marks on them. It ended with her feet pointing down as if she were a limp rag doll. She was chained up like she was a prisoner. They had tortured her.

Tears pricked in my eyes again.

"You monsters!" thundered Kale's voice.

"She refused to break," Bridget scowled, her nose crinkling, "and she kept up her will power. I think we might have started to tear down the walls, though."

The picture switched to a grainy video clip. It started off with shouting voices and screaming. That's all that I could pay attention to. Blood curdling cries echoed into my ears. As the footage focused I could see Gwen strapped down to a chair, her hands cuffed apart on the table, and Chu hailing over her.

"I'm going to ask you one more time," he hissed, "Where are they?"

"Safe," Came Gwen's terse reply. Her eyes stayed locked on his as they battled with glares.

"I will shock you if you don't bear a hand," Chu warned.

"Try me," Gwen said quietly.

That's when they put what looked like a metal collar around Gwen's thigh. Ox came behind Chu, griping tight to a small remote. Chu mumbled something that sounded like "first level".

Gwen jumped, biting her lip and writhing in her chair. Her fingers curled into her palms and she pulled back on her cuffs. This lasted for a good minuet or two before Chu ordered the cattle mutant to stop.

Gwen's shoulders relaxed and she sucked in a deep breath.

"It gets worse, so tell me," Chu sneered, sitting down in a chair and leaning back like he had already won.

"You aren't special. You're just older than dirt, but still above it. Not for long..." Gwen threatened.

"Level five!" Jeb barked. The Dark Angel hurried to turn a dial and hit the button again, sending Gwen to whimpers. She eventually got it under control, but her body was still jolting from the shock. Chu made it stop.

"How about now?"

"Go to h***!"

"Level seven!"

This time Gwen bit into her lip harder, bringing blood. Other than that, she didn't move.

Chu looked over her and flicked his wrist. Ox cut it off, happiness filling his expression. Ox loved this, along with Chu. We, however, we're almost to tears.

This time Chu only looked at her. She shot him the bird.

"LEVEL TEN!" Chu cried, exasperated.

"No! That will kill her!" came Jeb's pleading voice. He ran to Chu, shaking his shoulders.

"Ox!" Chu snapped. Ox hit the button, grinning maliciously.

"Her body can't handle that much electricity!" Jeb explained.

It was to late. Gwen made no movement. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she slumped in the chair.

"Cut it off!" Chu shouted, but Ox made no attempt to listen.

"OFF!" Jeb tried again. This time Ox listened with an expression of boredom on his features.

"We need to take her under, stat," Chu's voice was cut off as Jeb shook his head.

"She's gone..." Jeb shook his head.

"Her brain may not be permanently fried. If we can get her heart started..."

"No. The only thing we could do is replace it..."

Then Bridget lunged to grab the remote, like we weren't supposed to hear that much. She hastily pressed buttons. The video swapped over to Gwen laying flat on her back in a cot. Her eyes were open and she was taking steady breaths.

"Experiment 73, report. Where is the children of Fang and Maximum Ride?" Chu asked, his voice gruff as he stood and looked down at her. She gave a shaky laugh and idly looked over at him.

"Wouldn't you like to know..." She said, her voice light and her words slurred.

"I will kill your brother if you don't speak," Chu tested.

"Carl?" Gwen's voice rose a pitch. She was obviously drugged.

Chu nodded.

"He's already gone. That's not Carl..." She shook her head

"I will not hesitate to kill a member of your beloved Migration," Chu was getting frustrated.

"You're just a scrawny human, thing. I'll rip your throat out...and..."

"Put her under again," Chu sighed.

Bridget looked over at our disgusted expressions. The rest of the footage was of Gwen awake and being tortured. It's surprising how much they can do to a person in 23 hours. There was one film of Gwen chirping. Yes, she was just sitting there chirping. Kale acted like he got something out of it, but before he could tell us an alarm went off and a voice came over the intercom.

"CODE 9-13! EXPERIMENT 73 HAS ESCAPED!"

Sorry it's so short, but I feel as if not many of you are reading anymore. My updates are going to start coming even slower! Ugh! I know! But school is where happiness came to die and all the homework they're giving me is impossible. And my social life comes first over FF, sorry guys. I have decided to not make a sequel. If I do make one it will not come out until next summer, unless you all have something to say about it. :) have a great Saturday and please review! I'm really sorry!