Chapter 2
A/N: Here is Chapter 2 of Tortured Souls. This story will follow the games, though would also veer off course at points. I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter. Let's continue and see where this chapter would lead Kara and Alexia.
The ship that the kids and Alexia was moved onto wasn't big; as a matter of fact it was more of a shuttle. As they left the atmosphere of Mindoir, Alexia could see not too far in the distance a silhouette of a far larger ship. The size of the monstrosity was akin to a small city. The craft could fit thousands of families; however Alexia was not stupid, even for a 5 year old. She knew there was no way she would be afforded the same luxuries as these barbarians.
As the shuttle coasted closer and closer to the massive dreadnaught, it flew along the side of the monstrosity before it made a sharp turn into the opened docking bay. The shuttle then proceeded to gently land on the deck. The commotion outside was completely opposite to what was happening inside the shuttle. It seemed like every batarian that was outside the shuttle was scrambling around haphazardly moving items, connecting and disconnecting tubes, loading and unloading packages. Everything looked so disorganized that Alexia and the others were overwhelmed.
"Take them to the cells! We'll decide what to do with these vermin later." A batarian that was on the shuttle shouted at another that was standing right by the open hatch. Somewhere between landing and Alexia marveling at the commotion on the deck, the door opened to reveal another one of those grotesque creatures.
It wasn't just Alexia and her companions that were harshly dragged out of the shuttle, all the other shuttles that arrived from Mindoir that carried now enslaved children were also harshly dragged off the shuttle into single files and escorted through a bulkhead. Alexia had no other choice but to follow, they were all chained together, even if she had stopped and refused to move. She would have been dragged forward by the one in front of her.
The only thing that could be heard was the cling and clanging of the chains attached to their ankles and wrists, one by one they walked into designated cell, locked away from all others. The group remained alone in a dark, cold room, left to their own thoughts.
In the meantime Kara had scavenged through the remnants of the colony. She had found copious amounts of food in the homes of the other inhabitants. The few fields that weren't destroyed, she was able to quite a fair lot of vegetables. She took all she could back to her home, placing everything she could in the fridge and the rest away.
Now left with nothing to do, Kara walked through her destroyed home. Completely avoiding the back room where her dead parents lie, going as far as closing the door and locking it. She gingerly walked into her own bedroom, found a few valuables; she walked into her sister's room, collecting the few valuables she could find. Lastly she walked into her parent's room, knowing their room would bring about the most pain. As she stopped in front of her mother's vanity Kara saw a locket necklace, a necklace that her mother would typically never taken off, placed neatly on the table. She picked it up and hung the jewelry around her neck, it felt heavy with the magnitude of what happened just moments ago. There is one thing that Kara knew for a certain fact; she would never be taking off this necklace much like her mother kept it close to her heart.
Day turned into night which turned into day, the days passed by in a blur for Kara. Each day was spent as far away from the back room as possible while staying within the pre-fab. As the days passed, the food that she managed to scrounge was also dwindling. She had long since switched her clothes and cleaned out as much blood off her as possible, but it didn't eliminate the fact that the amount of blood in the home was apparent.
Sometime in the afternoon days after the batarian raid, Kara was outside, she saw more than heard a ship arriving. From her last experience of a ship arriving, everyone she knew either was slaughtered or abducted. Kara, without any hesitation ran back inside the home to a closet in her bedroom, hid behind clothes that were hanging while staying as silent as possible. She didn't bother waiting to see whether it was the batarians returning to collect their last prize, or actual help having arrived to rescue the remaining colonists.
As the ship landed, when the soldiers exited their shuttle, all they were met with was complete silence and emptiness; they were met with the sight of bloodshed. At this point the Alliance personnel still couldn't see the worse of the whole massacre, but from what little they were able to see they knew it was going to be a horror show. As they steadily cleared home after home they were becoming increasingly more pessimistic on seeing any survivors.
There was only one final home to clear. As the small group of Alliance personnel first entered, it was the same sight as all the other homes. They were standing in the front entryway, and all they were able to see was blood along the ways, there was complete silence, none of them knew that in a far room within the home was a small child hiding away scared of the new visitors.
The leader of the small group of marines was Lieutenant Commander David Anderson, as he stepped into the last room in the home, at first there were silence. As he walked closer towards the closet, he was able to hear soft sniffling, like a little child crying. He ordered his team to quiet down and to lower their weapons. Standing alone right in front of the closet he gently knocked on the door.
"My name is David. What's yours?"
The child at first did not respond, as a matter of fact Kara immediately froze up with wide eyes and tried to be as silent as possible. She did not move nor made a sound, she was afraid that whoever this person was, they were not a good person.
"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you, and I'm with the Alliance."
Anderson removed his military tag from around his neck, and slid it under the crack of the closet door. The chain end of the necklace was still peeking out on his side of the room, at first there was no movement, Kara didn't dare touch the item. She looked downwards at the pendant and saw the Alliance logo; she then placed her tiny hand around the tag and brought it up to her face.
In a very soft and hesitant voice Kara said, "Kara."
One simple word, just a name was uttered by Kara. Just that single word gave David the confirmation and confidence to slowly open the closet door. At first he didn't see anyone, as he knelt down onto his knees he saw small feet peeking out while the rest of Kara's body was covered by clothing. David moved the clothes that were hanging aside to see a young girl with long jet black hair sitting in the corner with her legs curled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs. Her head sunken into the space between her legs and chest, as the clothes moved to the side and David's face was revealed, Kara raised her head up looking directly at David with red rimmed eyes.
It took a little more coaxing and convincing but eventually Kara snaked her tiny arms around David's neck. As he rose up from a kneeling position, he walked out of the home surrounded by his team towards the shuttle that was awaiting them.
"Esperanza, this is Anderson. We are heading back now, ETA 30mins."
"Copy, Anderson. Esperanza, out."
As the team entered the shuttle, there was complete silence. The whole team understood that Kara must have seen or at the very least experienced some horrible tragedy. It was painted everywhere they looked on Mindoir. Kara never once dared to let go of David. He was the only safety she felt in days. As David sat down in the shuttle, he tried to gently place Kara on the seat next to him, however she just held on even tighter not want David to release her. In the end Kara sat on David's legs the whole way back to the Esperanza, her head resting on his shoulder, her eyes slowly closing and her breathing relaxing into deep shallow breaths. For the first time in days Kara felt safe enough to fall asleep.
The giant dreadnaught Esperanza floated above the once lively and tranquil planet of Mindoir. As the shuttle exited the atmosphere, the Esperanza immediately picked up on the signal of the shuttle. Once the shuttle reached close enough to the giant dreadnaught, it opened its docking bay like a giant mystical beast opening its mouth. As the shuttle landed within the safety of the Esperanza the shuttle door slowly hissed opened, the first person to step out onto the deck were the other marines that accompanied David planet side. The last person to step out was David himself, still carrying Kara in his arms. The little girl held onto him like her life depended on him.
The small movement from just exiting the shuttle and the loud noises around the shuttle bay from all the people around awoken Kara to an unfamiliar environment. At first she was alert with fear by surrounding by an unfamiliar environment and people, until she felt a reassuring hand on her back. She immediately relaxed and hid her face in Anderson's chest from all the gawking individuals.
At this point it had been days of the same old routine. It was all about breaking one's character, being locked up in a dark room away from all senses, deprived of food and water, having to beg for even the smallest of scraps. The days were all blending together, Alexia completely lost track of time, weakened by the lack of food and water, Alexia felt completely defeated.
It had been days, but it may have only been a single day. None of the captured had any idea where they would be transferred, none of them knew where the batarians were taking them, and all they knew was that it wouldn't be comfortable nor would it be home.
Hours before arriving at their destination, one of the batarians that was stationed on the dreadnaught, he looked no more than a child himself, though from the looks in his eyes, there were pure hatred and arrogance. As he opened the cell door, a ray of light from the hallway entered, all the imprisoned humans were blinded by said light. All of the humans raised their arm, shielding their eyes from the light, while blinded the young batarian stepped inside and ensured they were all still tightly chained up, that none of the locks loosened during travel.
Before long a group of batarians entered, all roughly handling the children, and dragging them up from a sitting position, huddling them all together. Alexia had no idea where they were being taken. For all she knew they arrived somewhere to slaughter them one by one. As they were lead through the ship, back towards the docking bay, the massive bay doors were already wide open into what seemed like another massive structure.
"Get a move on!"
The one leading all the humans shouted at the defenseless children, ushering them through the facility.
"What are you staring at vermin?"
"Lookie here, we got new toys."
"I don't understand we let these humans live."
"I wonder what their jobs would be."
"Perhaps we can spike their heads on a pole."
"Wouldn't it be great to show them whose boss?"
As the children were lead through the facility dozens of batarians shouted at them, multiple curses or trying to intimidate the older children. The taunting didn't just end with one batarian; it reverberated all throughout the halls, there were loud cheering, and shouts of death threats. Every corner that the children were lead through, at least one batarian would boldly spit in their faces. There was no lack of abuse by the batarians.
For now the children were lead into another cell, this one however were significantly bigger than the one that they were placed in on the dreadnaught, it was also brighter and had a few luxuries. For one it had a bathroom, while on the dreadnaught they were forced to piss and shit themselves. The stench of feces and ammonia seemed to have permeated all through their pores, like a tattoo permanently etched to their skin. The larger cell may have provided some basic amenities, but a shower for hygiene was not one of those luxuries, let alone a change of clean clothes, the children was once again forced to stew in their own filth another day.
The first thing that greeted the children when they entered was a giant trough filled to the brim with a mushy content, if it was food, Alexia would hardly call it as such. It was dark drown in color with an unpleasant smell and appearance. The idea that anyone would eat such an atrocity is honestly depressing; however at this point beggars can't be choosers. All the children practically hadn't eaten for days, and this was the slop that they were given.
Like rabid animals all the children ran past Alexia, some even knocking her harshly, one actually knocked her down to her knees, ran directly towards the trough, sticking their grimy, dirty, filthy hands into the abomination that the batarians pass off as food, shoving the food down their throats. By the time Alexia made her way to the center of the cell, most of the food was gone, demolished by the other children, most of them were already starting to disperse from the center, leaving Alexia alone starign at only tiny leftovers. She reached her hands in cleaning off the last bit of food that remained stuck to the sides and on the bottom of the trough, there was nowhere enough food to satisfy her hunger. She walked away back to her corner of the cell with a stomach still rumbling and screaming for sustenance. Her lips were cracked from dehydration, and her energy was low from lack of food and adequate sleep.
Although the cell may be more comfortable than the one provided on the dreadnaught, the conditions was nowhere improved, the children that night went to bed covered in their dinner and their own filth with greasy hair, none of them fully satisfied from their hunger.
A/N: Please don't hesitate to leave a review; as a matter of fact I would very much love your feedback. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and more will be on its way.