Chapter 2: Anya

A halogen lamp fizzled between on and off, the street beneath it flicking from light to dark. It was a run down street, with cracks spidering along the pavement, and some rolled up papers laying alongside the edge of the sidewalk, which lead themselves to more cracks in the walkway concrete. There were no benches, no covers, and the only sign post was one that said "Grey Line: 18 END". There was a low smoke that hung over the street, and the distinct smell of chemical production wafted in the background. And in the background, one could hear the horns of trains. But not the whistle of passenger vehicles, but the loud thunder of mighty freight engines.

The light, continuing to blink on and off, showed much of nothing besides the sign, the street, and the small steel door that was the lone blemish along the blocks long concrete wall on that side of the street with the lamp. It was solid, band far too heavy. There was no name above the door, no identification for what this was. However, one could see the massive square of concrete behind the sturdy wall, not to mention the barbed wire covering the top of the barrier, and if one had come earlier in the day, when men had come into work, they would have seen a mix of white long coats and blue military uniforms enter. And most days, had they come later, they would have seen those same uniforms come out, but that had not happened today. Had one actually been listening closely, one might have actually heard screams earlier this day.

This is the Fifth Laboratory.

No one really knew what it's purpose was, compared to the open secrets such as mechanized vehicles at the Second. There were rumors, some claiming that it was where the darkest Alchemic experiments the government would approve would occur. But when most of those who said those rumors didn't actually disappear, they were laughed at. People weren't actually missing, and these supposed lunatics weren't being dragged away like protestors during the Ishvalan conflict were, so it must be false.

That these thoughts never considered the close proximity of the largest penitentiary in the country to the lab was perhaps why investigation had never been more thorough into the lab itself.

But now, there was nothing but silence around the lab. It was nearing nine o'clock, and the sun had already been down for hours. Everyone should have already gone home. There weren't even any guards at the front door this night. It was unusual, as usually one would be stationed there, but there wasn't this night.

The light from the lamp continued to flicker on and off, continuing to illuminate the door in the wall. But the gaps in the light continued to grow longer and longer, as the old lamp light struggled to keep running. Soon, the light would flick off for a full second before turning itself back on.

Then after a minute, it would turn off for two seconds.

Then a minute after that, three seconds.

Four Seconds.

Then five.

And so it continued to deteriorate, and the time between bursts of light continued to grow longer and longer. If anyone were around, they would be having a harder and harder time seeing anything around this piece of the street. And the buzz of the lamp as it strained to remain alight would also overwhelm the normal sounds of the city life, the slight rustle of the wind picking up the litter and spreading it about.

But as the interval reached ten seconds between lights, a new sound emerged above the background.

CLANG

Something had hit the door. Not from the streetside, but from the inside. It was not too loud, but it was clear that something had reached the door, and slammed into it. As the darkness returned, one could hear smaller hits on the door itself, as well as the small pitters after each hit. And then, just as the light came on again, there was no follow up pitter to the clang, but a new sound.

SHIRRK

Metal was being moved. The door's front handle, once stiff parallel to the ground, was slowly beginning to angle downward. Only at around a thirty degree angle, but it had noticeably moved. The sound continued in a low whine, as the darkness returned. It was a slow sound, as the gears within the door continued to be moved by the handle, but it was low, and could only be heard by someone very close. Which as established, no one was.

POUGHGH

When the light next came on, for but a split second, it was clear that not only was the handle now perpendicular to the sidewalk, but the door itself was slightly ajar. But the light almost immediately went out once again.

WHOOSH

The final light that came on that night, some twenty seconds later, the door was shown completely open. Someone, or perhaps some thing, had opened the door to the Fifth Laboratory. Anyone who looked inside would see a fairly standard concrete courtyard, nothing too out of the ordinary. And soon, a gust of wind would hit the free standing door and shut it back, which automatically shut itself into a closed position. For only a brief moment, a minute at most, would anyone have realized that the door had been opened, and something had left the Lab.

That morning, the newly assigned day guard would arrive, and take his post as the sentry for the newly derelict Fifth Laboratory. He would notice that the door had not been locked, but thinking that the entire building had been cleaned out the night previously of anything too important, he would lock it himself, and move on, not realizing that something that would help bring about the end of the reign of Fuhrer Bradley had just left the lab itself.

Her name was Experiment 007, but she liked to call herself Anya.

She pushed her small legs forward as as she rounded another corner. Everything was so dark, she couldn't tell what she was running by, and a few times already she had tripped over weird stuff that had been lying on the ground. She had never experienced long metal tubes just lying around on the floor, rather than being held up near the ceiling. Nor could she remember the weird, softer material that felt different from all the other floors and walls around her when she was in the place.

She felt herself shiver, and only slightly from the cold. She stopped, looked around again for the dark people, and then ran. She couldn't hear the dark people at all, so she was probably safe for a minute, and even when they had passed by before, they hadn't seemed to notice her.

The Place. That was all she could remember about the hard cold room she had stayed before. It had always been so cold, so gray. Not like what she knew other people saw when the left the place. She had never seen an open sky, even though she sort of knew what it was. Lots of the people she had met had thought about the sky, some missing it when they were down there in the place with her. She had, on her initial exposure, been disappointed to see it black instead of blue, but then she had remembered that this was night, and everything was dark out.

How did she know this?

Why, she could read minds.

She didn't remember when she had learned she could do it. In fact, she didn't remember a time where she didn't know what people around her were thinking. She could remember hearing the Doctors and the Soldier all thinking about her. Most of them weren't very nice, but they weren't really mean either. A lot of them seemed sad when they saw her. Some thought of other girls who they considered daughters, and other thought about maybe having daughters themselves with grown up girls that were much taller. Most thought she was weird, but almost all of them tried to say nice things to her, even if they didn't think them.

Originally, she would respond sometimes to what they were thinking rather than what they were saying, but she had stopped doing that when she had met Dr. Gold Tooth. For some reason, , that one never thought about his name, and no one else seemed to know it either, most calling him Gold Tooth or even meaner names. But she had listened to his thoughts, and how he wondered if he should cut her up to look at her brain.

She didn't know how she had been able to overcome her fear in that moment, but she had kept herself from gaining his interest. He had moved on, and she spent the next bit not dealing with anyone too bad.

But then the Dark People had come. Maybe a week ago, from what she had picked up about time from the Doctors. A tall grown-up girl with a big chest called Lust, a round little man with a large nose and mouth, named Gluttony, and a thing girly boy, named Envy. She didn't get close enough to read their minds on the first day, the doctors didn't even introduce her, but she had seen them from her cell meet with the head doctor and the head soldier. When she had asked the doctor who they were she had learned they were called Homnoclos from reading his mind, but she just called them dark people because that was easier.

He revealed that they were going to have an experiment, and reading the Doctor and Soldier's minds, none of them seemed happy about it. Some of them thought about leaving, some of them thought about shooting the dark people, but most of them accepted it wouldn't work, and they were going to make a Phosphorus Stone. She had wanted to ask what that was, but she remembered one of the doctor's thinking about Phosphorus as this Science Chemical, so she just assumed it was that.

But it wasn't until about three days ago she got close enough to read the mind of one of the Dark People. Lust, the large chested lady, and come by and talked to a doctor only a few feet away from her cell. She didn't even notice Anya at all, but listening to Lust's mind was scary. She heard not just one person, but a full room of people. Though it was in one voice, and it had looked at the doctor, it had thought.

'You don't need to worry about that. Afterall, in three days you and everyone here will be dead.'

Anya wasn't sure what being dead meant, but it seemed bad. So, she decided she would leave the Place as soon as she could. She listened to everyone's thought, and used her memory, had managed to remember where they would be leaving their keys. When everyone else had been called away for a bit, she snuck out of her cell, which usually wasn't locked, and then found the keys.

As she was going up the way she knew to escape, she ran by a massive room.

Anya stopped, and stared at the ground. She pulled her hand up to her mouth, all to hold everything in.

She heard what happened when people were Dead. She heard the minds of the doctors and soldiers as they were twisted by that weird magic, all killed in a horrible way. She then remembered a specific order from Lust, who had been there, to search everything, and kill anyone else.

She had used what she remembered from the minds of the doctors to get out, and now she would run as fast as she could away from the place, and away from Lust and the other Dark People.

...but she really wasn't that good at running. She looked around, and listened carefully for any thoughts. For a second, her breath hitched, but ultimately, she was sure she was alone. She sighed, and took in her surroundings. She had run so far, she had ended up near these weird metal beams along the ground. There were big boxes that were on the tracks, and and there were large metal structures around the boxes, with smaller boxes being held up by long metal chains.

"This really weird," she said aloud, to no one in particular. She began to look around, and then noticed that one of the boxes was open. She stared at it, and then looked at how high the box was off the ground. But she also noticed that there was a set of steps that lead up to the opening to the box. She pushed herself up the steps, and then looked inside the box.

Sitting in the box were a large number of packages piled all around the box. A few of them were spread all around the bottom of the box, and she went over, and felt them. She smiled when she realized they were soft beneath the outer brown paper. She grabbed at the brown paper of one of these packages, and saw it was a long dress folded up. She felt herself shiver again, and then looked back at the big door to the outside. She walked over to the door, and then pulled it, so it shut the box from the world. She then grabbed the dress and another package. She placed the package down, and covered herself in the long dress, making sure that she was not directly visible from the door itself.

'I can hide here,' she thought, suddenly feeling very tired. It had been a long time since she had slept in her room, 'I can go somewhere else when I wake up.'

Making sure she was behind a stack of packages, she arranged her makeshift bed, and went to sleep.

FWWEEEEEEEPPPP

Anya felt herself jog awake. She let out a groan, before twisting her head, trying to get comfortable. 'Sleeping out of a bed wasn't as comfortable,' she thought, pushing the dress off. Just as she was about to stand up, she felt the box around her move.

"AH!" she nearly fell over, and then felt the box moving to her right. She reached out with her mind reading, but felt nothing. After a minute, the box around her began to shake and rumble, as though it was rumbling all the way along. Anya stopped, and, pushed herself into a seated position. She grabbed the dress, and covered herself, wanting to hide incase anyone was looking for her.

Anya kept this position for several minutes, all the while waiting for the trip to end. Finally, still not hearing anyone else, and having gotten used to the movement of the box, she went over to the door. Carefully, just to make sure no one was outside, she inched it open, and peaked out with one eye.

All she saw from that was a blur of movement, of brown and green and blue shooting by. At first, she was not sure what to do, but then, she felt a massive bump, and lost control of the door. The door flung open, and suddenly Anya could see everything. In front of her was a large green low place, with lots of plants, trees if she had to guess, flowing up the sides of the bowlish area. That all lead up to the pretty blue ceiling of the outside, what Anya guessed was the sky she had read in those memories. Everything was so...

Open.

"I'm glad I left the place," she said aloud, before looking down to where she felt the motion from. There was a long line of the boxes, lead by a long black box in the front, with white dust coming out of the top. Anya remembered the term "train", and guessed that was what she was on. She then looked out and admired the view.

At the very least, where ever she was, she was going far away from those Dark People.