A/N: If this looks familair it's because I've been having tech issues, so it's been reuploaded again. Won't happen again.
The girl sat in the giant maw of a monster made of stone, with teeth of iron. She was alone and scared. The sound of footsteps like large claws clicking on the tile made her shudder and cry.
Yelena crouched on a small stone outcrop and gazed down at the village in the valley below. It seemed so familiar, yet foreign, like the memory of a dream. Her memories were flashes, still images in her mind of cages and operating rooms. Her dreams took those memories and filled them with demons and pain.
She rubbed her temples and turned back to pack up the small camp she set the night before. The plug of hard dirt was placed back into the fire pit and her hammock was packed back into her framed backpack. She crouched down and rustled the grass to make it stand up more. It looked as vacant as when she arrived. With a nod, she turned to head down the winding mountain path, the sound of a horse "whinny" froze her. There was nothing in the trees, but a heavy fog filled the trees despite it being summer.
Yelena spent several minutes scanning the forest, looking for movement. When nothing appeared, she quickly moved on.
The old deer path was little more than a small track of dirt overgrown with short grasses. Dead leaves were scattered over the ground, despite the trees having their full foliage. Even with the close trees and the fog, it felt empty, but Yelena could swear she felt eyes on the back of her head, watching her every move.
Gooseflesh broke out along her back and up her right arm, it was unseasonably cold. She'd worn a long coat, lined with fleece, with the left arm ripped off to fit her steel prosthesis. Her prosthesis had spindly fingers, and gears that allowed her to flex it like her right hand, she cased it in plates resembling armor.
Yelena could hardly remember when she lost her arm, leaving a hand's width of bone and skin below her shoulder. A Soviet scientist with only a twisted smile felt the need to take it off her, among other things. He probably would have taken more if she hadn't escaped. It was one of her earliest memories, but she had more than scars to serve as reminders of that hell decades ago.
Yelena was given an uncanny ability. Like an invisible cloud, she permeated an electromagnetic field. It allowed her to act like a living magnet, pulling ferrous metals to her, or pulling herself towards larger metal objects. She could move said objects at will if they were inside her field. Yelena had no idea why or how it happened, but she intended to find out.
That's why she had come to this forsaken place. She'd have distorted memories of the village, never clear enough to know where, but she could feel it. In her years spent in Eastern Russia, it was a strong desire to travel southeast. As she neared the area, the desire grew stronger and made it harder to resist, a sense of dread and fear also grew with it. Yelena couldn't fight it anymore, she needed to come here, this place had to have some clue as to why she had these abilities.
Perhaps the Soviet base that held her was here, Romania was a part of the U.S.S.R. during her time there. She had to find something, the nightmares, and gaps in her memory, even a scrap of a moldy file would be enough.
It was almost nightfall when Yelena finally reached the Village, there wasn't a soul in sight. Lights could be seen peaking through shutters on the ramshackle homes and buildings. Near what she assumed was the village entrance was parked a vardo-style wagon. Only it was massive, larger than any she had seen before.
She neared it to get a closer look when the back of it opened quickly and the largest man Yelena had ever seen all but rolled out of the door. His hands alone her larger than Yelena's entire head.
"My my," he said with a smile. "Are you lost?" he rubbed his hands together as he asked.
Yelena shook her head, "I'm just passing through," she lied.
"Of course, my dear, taking in the fresh mountain air does wonders for the mind, hmm?" He seemed to smirk at a private joke, Yelena felt she was the butt of it.
"Who are you?" she asked him suspiciously.
"Why, I am but a humble trader and merchant." he said, "I am known as the Duke, and this," he waved his large hands around the carriage, "the Duke's Emporium." He sat back a little and adjusted the blanket on his lap.
"It's unfortunate, you got here so late," He had maintained a pleasant demeanor but his words took on a sinister air.
"What do you mean?" Yelena asked, she took a step back.
"There is a curfew, you see." He pointed to the village, "You won't find a door open to you."
"That's not a problem," Yelena replied hefting her backpack.
"I wouldn't recommend it," he said lacing his fingers together.
"Then what do you recommend?" she was growing tired of this, "You want something, what is it?"
He laughed throatily, "I've been watching you." Yelena opened her mouth to say something, but the Duke cut her off. "You aren't like the regular strays that find their way here. That trick with metal you do is fascinating."
Yelena pulled on a handful of horseshoe nails she kept in a pouch at her side. They began to orbit her. They weren't long enough to do anything more than make him bleed, but a well-placed shot to his eye should take him down. "Would you like a demonstration?"
"Oh, no, I've seen it before." He cleared his throat and waved a hand over some of the goods on the doors to his carriage.
This conversation was exhausting. She sighed and pulled off her pack. In one of the pockets was a gold chain, she'd pilfered from a hostel. Yelena threw it to the Duke.
He examined it closely. "You'll find some answers at the factory on the Northern side of the village, but I would hurry, the sun is already down." With a laugh, he leaned back into his wagon and shut the doors with a click.
"Fucking waste of time." She muttered. A figure ran out of the trees as if on cue.
It has long shaggy hair and ripped clothing, it made a rough sound in its throat like a growl. After a pause, it ran at her. She flung a nail at it, orbiting the nail around her slingshotting towards it, akin to a rocket using the planet's gravity for a thrust. It was unfazed, and more figures began emerging from the forest.
"Shit" Yelena threw her pack at the wagon, it just slowed her down, and took off at a dead run through the village. The sound of snarls nipped her heels like a sheepdog, she was ripe for slaughter.
By the time she reached the factory gate, her throat burned and her air was coming in gasps. She laced her fingers behind her head and stretched backward to allow her lungs to take in more oxygen. The sounds of pursuit were gone, but she could see figures milling around on the other side of the bridge she had just crossed, like a wall of glass prevented them from coming closer.
Floodlights illuminated the gate and the yard beyond. It looked abandoned, but there was smoke coming from the stacks, and lights coming through the frosted glass said otherwise.
The buzzer at the gate yielded nothing, and she didn't trust that the wolves would be held at bay much longer. She started to pull at the fence, the galvanized steel wire squealing as it bent and twisted away from her hands. Soon there was a hole large enough for her to squeeze through. A loud grating froze her in her tracks. A large barn door had opened up on the other side of the yard and a figure stumbled into the light. It swiveled its head towards her, and a bright red-orange light was strapped to the figure's head. It raised a pipe and began shambling down the path. Two more emerged from inside and followed the first.
Yelena dropped her pack and reached into her pouch for a handful of horseshoe nails. She threw them into the air and flung them at the creatures. They ripped through their torsos but didn't slow down. She ran to the left and along the fence, jumping over half-buried railroad ties and piles of scrap. She continued to fling nails at them until she ran out. They had been useless. She launched a piece of rebar at the light on the creature's head. It shattered the small grate and impaled it, causing it to fall finally. She tried to pull it again, but it was stuck. Frantically she searched for more things to throw. A railroad spike took down the second one.
Yelena spotted an old tank, half buried by time, and pulled on it. She jumped and flew towards it, her motocross boots hitting it first and sending a jarring shock through her legs. Pulling all around her, as hard as she could, she started flinging everything she could at the remaining creature. A saw blade took its head off.
With a heavy sigh, Yelena sank to her knees. Sweat had broken out on the crown of her head and she gasped for breath. The sound of a drill snapped her head up. Another monster stepped into the yard. She recoiled at the sight, its yellowed bulging eyes stared at her over a mask fixed to its face. Its skin seemed to be held together with crude staples. Its arms were replaced with massive drill bits.
Yelena shook her head and began her barrage of any scrap she could pull from the surrounding heaps. It didn't miss a step as it ran at her.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck" she chanted as she jumped off the tank and launched herself onto the of the barn by pulling on its metal roof. She tried to run, but the corrugated panels were rusted and collapsed under the force of her landing. The creature changed course into the barn and she was in a worse spot than before. She pulled a sheet of the roof to her and pushed it against the creature. It caught it with its drill. She struggled to keep it up against the monster. The pressure was causing her vision to go black around the edges.
Her field faltered for a fraction of a second. There was a pulling in her being from deeper into the barn. It made it harder to concentrate on the monster before her. Her left arm failed and hung limp at her side. Was something else coming?
She dropped to the ground and the sheet of metal went flying towards her. The creature walked over to her heaving form on the concrete floor. Her energy was spent.
"Stop," a deep voice said behind her. The creature stopped, but Yelena didn't have the energy to roll over. Her head exploded in pain as something knocked her to oblivion.
Karl Heisenberg had to shout at the Soldat Zwei to get it to stop. It stepped back and stared blankly at him. He grumbled and fished his cigar out of his breast pocket. The acrid smoke scratched an itch on the back of his throat.
"Now, what do we have here?" He asked. "She seemed to be giving you trouble." He chuckled and looked up at the Soldat. It continued to stare through him. He laughed and turned his attention to the woman on the ground.
She had brown hair, with streaks of gray, held back with a loose braid. The left sleeve of her coat was torn off revealing an arm made of metal. She wore old fatigues tucked into rigid boots with metal plates under the heel
His attention turned to the injury on the back of her head. He hit her with a pipe while she was distracted by the Soldat. The flesh was starting to knit back together, and a familiar black slime was filling the gaps. "Interesting," he mused. Heisenberg looked at the Soldat "Fuck off somewhere," he said with a wave of his hand.
He then threw the woman over his shoulder and carried her like a sack down into the depths of his home sweet home. "Let's see what this bitch is made of." He started to laugh and took another draw off his cigar.