In Utter Darkness: Chapter 3: New Developments
#4 of New Beginnings
Never comment that life can't get any worse, fate likes to prove people wrong.
In Utter Darkness: Chapter 3: New Developments
Date: (Unknown)
Location: (Unknown)
The first thing I pleasantly noted as I came to was that I was still alive. Where I was, who was shaking me, and why I had a massive headache on the other hand were questions that would be answered in time. As I sat up, and my head swayed, I noticed that I was in a small room with about 15-20 other people and the lady who had just shaken me awake had a worried expression on her face. "Where are we," I rasped, "How long has it been?" "None of us know," responded a another man in the "cage," "but you have been out since we were all brought here." I smiled gratefully as the women helped me to my feet but nearly embarrassed myself by collapsing as my head had resumed spinning. "Nice head wound," she commented, "I tried blotting up the blood but it still looks like hell." I grinned ruefully at that, hell would be the least of our worries right now.
The room was small and definitely looked human in origin. The doorway however was a different story. There was a blue barrier covering it and judging by several burn marks in the hands and arms of some of my burlier companions, I made the brilliant deduction that they energy field was what was keeping us here. "Is there any way around it?" I asked. "You try hotshot," retorted one of the burned, "I ain't tried clawing at the concrete and steel yet, but you are welcome to try." I stumbled towards the barrier and looked through it, noticing with some small surprise that is was clear enough to see through. What I saw made me gulp however. We weren't the only survivors. Across the hall there was a line of rooms with the same setup ours was and I was assuming there was a line to my immediate left and right, I just couldn't see them. There had to be thousands of us here and, whatever the aliens were doing, it couldn't be good for any of us.
Speaking of the aliens there were those avian like ones but then there was a different subset of them. These were clear, almost hollow, with long limbs and it looked to be incredibly sharp fingers. I shuddered as my mind was filled with what those things could do to a person. Unlike the soldier variety of alien whose physical appearance was absolutely terrifying these almost looked as though a sharp gust of wind would blow them away. I was one to know that looks could be deceiving as people had constantly underestimated my own strength, so I didn't want to hazard a guess at anything these things could do. I sighed, closing my eyes as my head throbbed insistently and slumped to the floor, resigned to see what fate had in store for us.
It didn't look like that fate was going to be good. Entire roomfuls of people were being escorted every 10 minutes or so down the corridor and while some of my fellow prisoners thought this was a good thing, I myself knew it probably wasn't. Not a single person was returning and it was almost if you could listen hard enough you could hear their screams abruptly cut off. I wasn't the only one who imagined this as about 4 other people looked extremely uneasy whenever a group was taken. I could only speculate at how long it would be before our group was on the chopping block. I was slightly disappointed that I hadn't died in the subway station. At least that would have been better than whatever my vivid imagination had concocted was in store for us.
40 minute later I heard the trod of misshapen feet moving towards our cell and knew that our respite was over. About four of the massive avian aliens in full battle regalia and one of the hollow creatures waited outside as our energy barrier was deactivated and we were ushered with raised energy weapons to exit the room. I complied instantly, I knew what those things could do to a soft flesh target but it appeared that some of my fellow prisoners did not. About three of them immediately lunged for one of the 9 foot tall monsters and while one was quickly shot, the other two started wrestling with it trying to get its weapon away. Before I could even move to assist, one of them was speared by a massive blade that extended from the aliens armor and the second met an unfortunate fate from the new type of creature. My eyes bugged out as it just rammed its arm right through the man's chest and blood started flowing up the creature's arm before disappearing. I heard retching from some of those with weaker stomachs in our group, and I honestly felt the same way. The soldier aliens just chirped something and ushered us forwards. I glanced away from the fresh corpses and started walking.
It almost appeared the human structure the aliens had taken over was a large stadium or something. I came to this conclusion as we seemed to be constantly walking in a arc, that and the fact that one of the signs we passed welcomed us to the "Davidson Civic Center." It seemed we were on our way to the arena and my mind went into overdrive giving me all sorts of visions of our diminished group fighting off wave after wave of aliens. Gladiatorial aspirations aside I was somewhat relieved when we walked in to notice that it looked more like a science lab with very few of the avian aliens and more of the hollow ones. That relief didn't last long though as the few avian ones there were dragging out corpses that had mouths making the shape of screams. I felt a prominent sense of dread creep up my spine as I realized I hadn't imagined those anguish cries. And we were the next victims.
I always knew I wasn't a hero. I always played by the rules and although I tried to stand up for those that were wronged, I never managed to make a difference. I fully expected to die from old age, or from rage at what crazy thing my country decided to do next. I never thought I would end up killed in an obviously horrible way by something I hadn't even believed existed. Yet here I was, pushed towards one of the hollow monsters whose arm was glowing blue. With what, God only knew but I wanted to get the hell away from it. I looked at the glowing screens around the room in an attempt to find something, anything useful to help me but all I saw were incomprehensible screens filled with alien symbols. I heard screaming before I saw what was to be my fate. The women who had helped revive me in the room had the aliens fingers inside her abdomen and the creature's arm appeared to be injecting it into her. I stared in abject horror as she started screaming like she was being eaten from the inside and for all I knew she might have been. I didn't even notice my own fate approaching until I felt fire slam into my own chest and looked down to see the blue fluid being pumped into me.
I couldn't scream, not because I didn't want to but because my muscles weren't cooperating too much with me right now. After the hellish liquid had been administered we were all thrown into a large clear chamber and ignored. It was obvious we weren't going to be putting up much of a fight as there weren't even any guards posted around it. The screaming was horrendous, about half of us were already dead and it appeared the rest of us were almost there. I couldn't stop retching and puking but I was faring far better than everyone else. It seemed to affect us all in different ways I thought detachedly. An elderly gentlemen seemed to get eaten from the inside out by it while the women who had helped me was already gone, with a glazed look in her eyes. For myself, it was hard to describe what I felt. Fire was in every vein and getting hotter but I hadn't died yet. One of the hollow aliens, came by at some point and seemed surprised when he saw me, as close to surprise as I thought they could express. It glided out and as I slipped into unconsciousness I thought to myself, "Maybe being special isn't such a good thing."
I awoke back in my cell with a foul taste in my mouth and I knew why. My entire clothing consisting of a t-shirt and jeans was covered in blood and vomit. I thought I looked like something out of a horror movie before I decided I was in something far, far worse. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that bad, heck I even felt pretty good. That feeling evaporated when I looked out the barrier and saw that all the rooms were empty. Not a soul was left in them, alive or dead. I shuddered knowing in my heart that thousands of us had been butchered in that chamber with that blue liquid. I had no clue why they did it but it seemed like more of a sick experiment to me than anything. That led to the inevitable question, "Why were they experimenting on us?" They had clearly showed they could easily kill us with their weapons and we didn't really manage to take many of them out. My only conclusion was that it had something to do with why I was still alive, I just wasn't quite sure whether that was a good or bad thing, both for humanity and myself.
I wasn't kept waiting long, this time it was only a single "hollow" that visited me in my cell. I wasn't directed to go anywhere but as it approached me I readied myself for attack. It, however, was faster than my weakened self and jammed a "finger" of its arm into my shoulder. I saw my blood flow slightly up its arm before stopping and it quietly left my cell, reengaging the barrier and leaving me with a hole in my shoulder. If that wasn't bad enough it appeared to have injected me with a sedative as I couldn't regain consciousness and slipped to the ground. I was beginning the get the feeling that fate was laughing her ass off at me.
I awoke next to hear excited whispering coming from near my cell. I was awake instantly as it wasn't the hissing/chirping of the aliens but a distinctly human voice with an unmistakable British accent. "About time we found another survivor," he muttered, "3 damn cell blocks and nothing but dust and echoes." His companion grunted and replied with a thick Russian accent, "You better hope this one is a soldier, else just leave him, he will slow us down." "Ah hush, anything is better than listening to a damn Russian for several hours," replied the Brit. "Ah, but who was it that saved your ass getting you out of the cell?" came the mocking reply. "Fuck you I would have figured it out eventually," retorted the Brit, "Now pass me that pipe." I hadn't said a word yet and I was just staring at the odd duo that stealthily approached my cell. The Brit was dressed in combat fatigues that looked similar to my clothes in that they were blood and vomit stained but he still made a formidable sight. About 6'8" this guy was massive and was now wielding a sharpened piece of pipe that looked quite menacing. His companion, the Russian, was a different story. About 5'8" and extremely thin he possessed an athletic aura about him that made him look just as dangerous as his compatriot. "Good to see you're up," hailed the giant, "We are just about to bust your ass out of here. Do you happen to be a soldier at all?" "Not really," I replied, surprised to hear that my voice sounded deeper, "I helped with evacuation in New York before I was captured though." "Ah well," replied the giant, "I suppose that will have to do." "What do you intend to do with that thing?" I asked. "Haha, funny you should mention that, it was Janko's idea really," replied the giant and he moved closer to the generator, "He reasoned that just like electrical devices it probably wouldn't take a metal object being jammed into it real well. What we didn't expect was it to blow inwards." I started as he jammed the metal piping nearly all the way through the barrier generator and the thing started sparking. "Ah, that should do the trick, " he commented, "You might want to get to the back of your cell however or you may get burned." I noticed the burns on his forearms and decided to heed his advice and moved just as the generator blew inwards and the barrier collapsed.
I rushed out of there, thrilled to be out of the cell, and turned towards my two saviors. "All right," I said, "What do you need me to do?" The Russian looked slightly pleased that I was trying to be a help when the giant broke in. "I believe introductions are in order," he started, "My name is Arlen Peters, I am a Sergeant in her Majesty's SAS. Over there is the Ruskie who needs not further introduction other than that." His companion glared daggers at him before responding, "I am Janko Petrov, who I work for is no concern, suffice to say it was not the Sergeant over there who managed to break out." I started softly chuckling as they sounded like an old married couple. "I am Ryan Thompson," I said, "college student at RPI, no military experience I am afraid." Janko just muttered under his breath while Arlen clapped me on the back and welcomed me to the "team." "All right, I think our first order of business is to examine the last cell block for survivors. Then we can see about getting the hell out of here and blowing this place sky high." "And how do you think we will manage to do that," retorted Janko, "We have a piece of metal pipe and they have energy weapons and armor." "I'll think of something," grunted Arlen, "Just give me a minute."
I grinned; just happy I was alive for a few more minutes at least. I popped my knuckles thinking it was odd how good I felt. I felt as if I could take on the world right then. I examined this feeling of mine and noticed how out of place it was. Usually I was a timid wreck who flinched at the first sign of danger, this new me was disturbingly comfortable with the whole situation. While I was busy with the self examination I glanced at my shoulder where the hole should be...there was nothing, it had healed in just a few minutes. While I was reeling in shock over this I noticed that I was a tad taller compared to the cell than I had been when I had awoken in them. For that matter how had I managed to hear Arlen and Janko while they were so far away? Whatever was going on I knew we had to get out so I just responded, "Ready when you are sir, let's get out of here." Arlen beamed that someone was agreeing with him but Janko just looked at me as though he could see right through me to my inner turmoil. I turned away and followed them as we snuck back out of the containment area.
My name is Ryan Thompson and I will not be chained again.
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Well I was going to write more but my wrists are being a pain. Next chapter should go up in the next few