Chapter Six
Two weeks had passed. Seven had slept poorly for the first week, plagued both by the darkness of her bedroom and her inability to sustain illusions in her sleep. Her gaze darted to and fro, hunting for cameras, and she flinched every time she saw one. Each night, she dreamed of surgery rooms shrouded in darkness and woke, breathing hard and strangling her own throat.
Once Subject Twelve was sold and Subject Three started accepting food without attacking its handlers, Admin Celeste had asked what improvement to her room she wanted. She asked for a night light. Now, while she still had to sleep under the covers, the light filtering through the blanket chased away dreams of scalpels and surgical saws.
She noticed other improvements to her life through the second week. The cooks no longer chided her for taking extra sausage and bacon at breakfast, and they always had an extra helping of beef stew set aside for her during lunch. She also received respectful nods from fellow pawns as she passed them in the halls. The cameras still loomed over her, but she found herself ignoring them for hours at a time.
On the fifteenth day, she gave a demonstration of Subject Fourteen's ability to mirror any person's appearance. As she was walking out of its pen, Seamus slipped something into her pocket. She reached for it and felt her hand brush against paper. He gave her a hard, long stare until she took her hand away.
Later that night, after she secured the covers over herself, she took the note out and read it.
I'm escaping tonight. I'm done with being watched all the time. If you feel the same way, meet me at midnight by the Dodrio pens. Make sure no one else knows.
The promise of freedom nearly made her throw the covers off. She caught herself with the edges of the blanket just lifting off of the mattress. She fastened it back down and lifted the edges just enough to see the digital clock on the nightstand. It was one hour to the appointed time.
Seven spent that hour going through the escape plan. Not the one getting her out of the Rocket base, but everything after, finding someone to replace, taking their life and filling their role in society. She debated who to replace – someone with status, or someone on the fringe, someone for whom odd behavior wouldn't be noticed. It was an old daydream, but revitalized by the sudden prospect of freedom.
She almost waited right up until midnight, but with a start, she realized it would take her five minutes to reach the Dodrio pens, ten without the assistance of the trolleys. The clock read eight minutes to midnight. In a panic, she threw the sheet aside, bolted out the door, and sprinted down hallways, careening off corners, and skidded to a stop at the labyrinth doors. The whole facility had its lights off, but she could still hear the mechanical whir of cameras panning around.
She pushed against the doors. They opened easily. The room was dimly lit, casting long shadows over the trolley tracks. An occasional grunt and growl punctured the silence looming over the room as she followed the tracks to the Dodrio pens. Unlike the other pens, this one was fully lit, and two Dodrio were sitting out in front of it, saddled up. Seamus was already sitting on one, holding a pair of goggles and a helmet in his hand.
"Take these and hop on," he said. "We're leaving."
She thought it odd that there was no trace of anxiety in his face. For that matter, when she started to think about it, she had no idea why he was leaving.
"Didn't you say you liked it here?"
"Hah!" He nodded in the direction of a nearby camera. "You got to watch what you say around here. Now get on, we don't have much time before someone figures out what's going on."
Seven strapped on the helmet and goggles and walked over to the Dodrio. Judging by the chipped beak, hers had to be Goliath.
"We're taking the fastest ones. Try not to fall off."
With that, he hopped on his Dodrio and darted off towards the north side of the room. Seven chased after him, and they quickly approached a service corridor at the end of the room. The sweet, meaty odor of blood filled her nose as they passed a butchery, followed by an absolutely rancid stench that flowed out from under a barred metal door.
They raced onward, into a hallway filled with metal pipes and reams of wires. Machines spread across the hallway monitored pressures and voltages, and had buttons, switches, and dials in perplexing arrays.
After a few minutes ride, they came to a metal door at the end of a hallway. Seamus flicked his Dodrio's neck and ground to a halt. Seven did the same, and flew off the front of Bruno.
"Here we are," he said, gesturing at the door. "Freedom."
Next to the door's handle was a security panel, with ten numbers on buttons. Seamus called out his Magneton and ordered it to zap the panel. It smoked and gave off green light, and the lock on the door snapped open.
The arc of electricity flowing into the panel, which briefly illuminated the room, reminded her of the night light in her bedroom. She had asked for one, back in Harmonia labs, and Ghetsis had ignored her. But here, she earned one.
That didn't matter, she told herself. Out there, she could get all the night lights she wanted, and anything else. Not to mention, she wouldn't be watched all the time.
No, she would be watched. She could never lower her guard, never dispel the illusion keeping her secret. The moment they realized what she was, they'd lock her up again. For all that they pretended to be friendly and accepting, the moment they had to decide between helping themselves or a pokemon, they'd always make the same choice.
That didn't change the fact she'd have to do the same here. There were cameras everywhere, heck, there was probably a camera watching them right now.
But there would be cameras out there too. They walked around on two legs.
She could have whatever life she wanted out there.
She could earn whatever she wanted in here. All she had to do was work hard.
But why work hard when she could just have it?
Seamus opened the door. The tunnel ahead was pitch dark, but a gust of fresh air blew down it, bringing with it the smell of dew and dirt. Just ahead, the sky waited for her, a brilliant blue pool overhead that formed the ceiling of the world. That image alone drew her a step forward, but she stopped short of the darkness ahead. She could earn that view. If she made herself valuable enough, they'd grant that request. Why wouldn't they? They did give her that night light. They gave her better rations too. So why couldn't she earn more?
Earning it. That is what Seamus said was the best part about the Rockets, right? Maybe she could even earn herself a place here regardless of what she was.
More to the point, however, was that lingering chance that this was all some kind of trap. She imagined a harsh blue glow snapping to life overhead and slamming her to the floor.
She took a step back. "Seamus," she said, "I'm not going."
He turned towards her, half-hidden in the shadow beyond the doorway. "What?"
"I think it's safer to stay here, so that's what I'm going to do. I'll bring back the Dodrio for you. Good luck."
As Seven turned Bruno around, Seamus walked back through the door. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. Magneton, thunder wave."
As electricity gathered in the pokemon's magnets, Seven shoved off of the Dodrio. Electricity shot through the air, zapping Goliath. The bird collapsed to the ground, its legs jerking and two of its heads shrieking as it struggled to stand.
"Hey, can anyone hear me?" Seamus shouted. "The new guy's getting away! Stop him!"
Seven sprinted down the hall, but she was stopped within seconds by a wall of Grunts. She looked back, and saw that Seamus was already in the grip of a huge, muscular Grunt, and six more black-clad Rockets dragged away an unconscious Magneton in a rubber net.
A short, thin, black-haired man walked out from in between the Grunts. He had hazel eyes perched behind a thin nose, and pursed, thin lips. He wore the pristine white uniform of an admin, but it held layer after layer of thin, springy wires. Buttons and displays coated his sleeves, and the inside of his hood, which was left down behind his back, had dozens of tiny panels, all displaying camera footage.
"I – I was chasing after him!" Seamus shouted. "I almost caught him too!"
"Silence!" the Admin shouted. "I know exactly what you tried to pull." He took off his glasses and wiped them clean with a cloth from his pocket. "Giovanni would like to see you both."
Two Grunts grabbed Seven by the arm. She bowed her head and allowed them to drag her through the service corridor, onto a trolley in the labyrinth, and down a winding series of corridors. A locked door barred the way. With a swipe of the Admin's keycard, they were in.
This stretch of hallway had a palpably different atmosphere. It tasted of power. Stark white walls with a glossy finish, gray carpet that massaged her feet with each step, and a muted glow of concealed LEDs surrounded her. Four doors flanked the hall, three with names etched into slate placards, and a fourth left bare. But it was the end that drew her gaze.
Giovanni's door was open. Through the doorway, passed the rigid carvings in the doors, she could see a man sitting in the heart of a foliage-lined room. His cold, piercing gaze, from so far away she couldn't make out his eye color, made her muscles lock up.
She and Seamus were dragged across the plush brown carpet and thrown before Giovanni's desk. Seamus quickly got to his feet and saluted the Rocket leader, and in a panic, Seven followed suit.
Giovanni, without looking away from them, reached for a corner of his desk. Sanitizer squirted from a hidden nozzle, and the harsh scent of alcohol filled the air.
"I didn't say you could get up."
Like a puppet with its strings cut, Seamus fell back to the floor, followed a second behind by Seven.
"Now, Seamus," Giovanni said as he meticulously rubbed his hands together, lathering alcohol between his fingers, coating every bit of skin down to his wrists, "You've been a loyal servant all these years. I'm really disappointed in you."
"I – I was just testing the new recruit. I wanted to make sure he wouldn't escape."
"I gave you no such orders."
"B-but"
"Did Celeste give you such an order?"
"I-"
Giovanni held up a tablet. "Should I wake her up and ask if she ordered you to test him?"
"No, sir, I – I mean she didn't ask me to."
"Get the tarp."
Two Grunts left the room and returned with a clear plastic tarp. They laid it out behind Seven and Seamus, covering every inch of the carpet, and draped it over the desk. Then they pushed Seamus and Seven back, laying out the plastic where they had knelt. Two more draped the tarp over the walls, and stapled it together to form an arch protecting the ceiling.
Giovanni took a gun out of a drawer. Seven recognized it as the same firearm she threw down the chute. He checked the safety, flipped it off, and held it loosely in his hand, pointing it towards the waterfall.
"Now, Seamus, I really don't want to have to use this gun in my hand, so tell me why you did it."
Sweat trickled down the man's forehead as he stared at the gun. He glanced at the plastic beneath his knees and at the blank stares from the Grunts lining the room.
"You're not going to kill me, are you?"
Giovanni cocked the hammer and moved it a few degrees closer to Seamus. "That depends on your answer."
"But – but you promised…"
Giovanni, in one swift, clean motion, pointed the gun at Seamus and pulled the trigger. Blood erupted from a hole in the neuroscientist's head, and bits of brain mixed with bone flew across the room. The Grunts didn't even flinch as blood spattered their faces and uniforms.
The blood had missed Seven entirely, but she felt absolutely filthy, as though her fur were drenched in Seamus' blood and gore. His blood pooled over the top, and a thick river wound its way through the creases towards her legs. Though she wanted to crawl away from it, she couldn't make her legs move, and so, the blood seeped into her lab coat, leaving a long red stain along the contour of her right leg.
The cocking of the pistol's hammer snapped her gaze away from Seamus. The gun was pointed at her.
"Steven," Giovanni said, "Same question."
"Wh – what?"
"Why did you try to escape?"
Seven swallowed, but her throat was so dry that she coughed. She saw blood on her hands, and for a split second, she thought that she was already shot and coughing up blood, but then she realized the blood came from the growing pool at her knees.
"I – I don't know. I got a note and left without thinking about it."
"And why did you turn back?"
Seven took a deep breath and stared into Giovanni's eyes. She couldn't glean a flicker of emotion from those chilling green pools.
"I – I want to earn it."
The gun rose slightly. "It?"
"Freedom."
Giovanni's eyes narrowed. "I don't understand what you mean."
Seven rose to her feet, slowly, keeping a vigilant eye on the pistol. Then she asked, "Why was I allowed to have a night light?"
"Because I reward good behavior. It's only natural." He stroked his chin. "However, I also punish bad behavior, and I cannot tolerate anyone trying to escape."
Seven tensed up as Giovanni aimed at her chest and pulled the trigger. However, the gun only made an empty clicking sound.
"I'll let you live," he said, setting the gun on the table, "But you'll have to earn back your life."
Seven's legs failed her. She sank to her knees again, grimacing as more blood soaked into her coat. "What are your orders?"
"Steal ten pokemon by the end of the week. Succeed, and I'll promote you to a Grunt. Fail, and you're dead. How painful that death will be depends on if you try to run or not. Now, go back to your room and get some sleep. You'll have a big day tomorrow."
Two Grunts escorted her back to her room. The moment she was inside, she threw all her bloodied clothes into a corner and shoved her head under the blankets. She tried to sleep, but the smell of Seamus' blood kept her awake through the night.
"Are you really sure this is a good idea, sir?" Admin Colson asked as Seamus' corpse was wrapped in the tarp and dragged out of the room. Once the other Grunts left, the Admin leaned forward and whispered, "If it attempts an escape out there, we may never find it."
Giovanni handed him an envelope. Inside were two tiny metal chips embedded with blue crystals. "I've thought that through. Make sure these are put in the sleeves of its new uniform."
Colson stared at the chips for a moment before dropping the envelope in his pocket. "But still, why go through the trouble? Didn't you get what you wanted?"
Giovanni leaned forward and frowned at a tiny speck of blood on his desk. Reaching into a desk drawer, he took out a spray bottle filled with bleach and a white rag. He removed every paper on his desk, sprayed its entire surface, and scrubbed until every trace of blood was washed away, and the harsh scent of bleach wafted from the wooden surface.
"Damn it, he almost ruined everything. Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut like he was told?"
Admin Colson cleared his throat. Giovanni looked over at him.
"Oh, right. And no, there's still a lot to learn."
"What do you mean? We already know its secret. That's all we need."
"Men are moved by more than just secrets, Colson. They're moved by desire. And I don't know what it wants yet." He chuckled. "I don't even think it knows, and that makes it difficult."
"It isn't human," Colson answered.
"I thought you had a less rigid definition of the word human than that."
Colson pulled his hood over his head for a moment, scanning the screens on the inside. "What are your orders, sir?"
"Help it as little as possible," Giovanni said. He set the papers back into neat stacks on his desk. "I'd like to see if it'll be of any use to me or not."
Changelog:
6/30/2018 - a few minor cleanups, including fixing grammar mistakes, removing Colson's first name, and a few other touches to bring it in line with future chapters.