Human Nature

by Finlay Borthwick

  Vincent’s pickup truck was refilled by the agents. On the back, the entire group including Reed had been piled on. “Alright make your choice then Whisky. There’s only enough space for three of them on the chopper,” Foxtrot waved his hand over the prisoners. “Him,” He pointed at Andy, “Her,” He pointed at Erica, “And… Her,” His last choice was Annabelle. “Alright, we’ll swing by the chopper, drop you and your choices off, then Sierra and I will drive back to the ferry.” Foxtrot planned, as the other two agreed.

  Chapter 7

  After finally having a proper sleep, Elliot gently woke up. He found himself in what appeared to be a bunker judging by the semi-circular shape of the roof and the fact it was made from metal. The room was empty except for a lone wooden table with a lamp on it, and the sleeping bag which he had been laying on. At an instance, he hopped to his feet, noticing two windows either side of the door. He tried to open the door, but it was locked from the other side, as were both of the windows. As he looked outside, it appeared as though he was in an airfield. There was a large runway going around the area, with several planes parked in a perpendicular terminal. There was also a helipad, but oddly the helicopter was not there. The strangest sight of all however was Vincent’s pickup truck outside of the opposite bunker.

  In a different bunker, Gwen was already awake, she seemed bored to death. Her bunker was the same as Elliot’s: a wooden table and a sleeping bag. Many thoughts were running through her mind, mostly concerned about her daughter. She could hear the door clanking, as it eventually opened. A female agent with two armoured soldiers entered the bunker. “You’re Gwen, right? I mean I’m just going by what Ethan told us.” She wasn’t even surprised by his betrayal, “Oh and I’m Tango by the way. You might mistake me for my sister Sierra quite a lot. It’s alright, I won’t take it personally.” Gwen continued to stare faithlessly at her. “They’re our codenames,” Tango acted like she knew what Gwen wanted to ask, “Anyway, your friends are all here. Everyone’s safe, everyone’s alive. Once our scientists are ready, you’ll be put into several different tests. In fact, one of your friends is going to be lucky enough to fight a certain apex predator! How exciting is that?” She maniacally informed her.

  While trying to escape the town, Vincent too had been captured by the agents. Except he wasn’t in a bunker, instead he was in a rectangular room. There were three giant grates on the wall, which appeared to be placed over pipes. In one of the corners, there was a camera also. “Test Subject: One-Eight-Five ready for testing,” a powerful voice broadcast over the intercom. Vincent looked into the camera, as though he was staring at the person behind it. He was startled by the sound of a liquid rushing down one of the pipes behind the grate. Confused, he remained still. Then suddenly, water came gushing out through the gate, filling up the room. It was so quickly flooding in that Vincent was knocked over by it. “You call this a test?” He shouted out, “This is outright murder!” He felt hopeless as the intercom voice didn’t respond. Taking a deep breath, he tried to think of another way out of the situation. He rushed over to the second grate on the wall, pulling at it desperately. He could feel it coming off, so continued to pull at it. The water was now up to his knees.

  Still watching the window, Elliot waited for any signs of activity – yet still there was nothing. As he prepared to go back to sleep, his eye was caught by a movement on the far side of the runway – it was Gwen. She was being secured and guided along by two soldiers and one of the agents. Banging on the window, Elliot desperately tried to get their attention. Although Gwen looked up at him, Tango stood in front of her to block their view of each other. She pulled up her radio and spoke into it. Judging by Gwen’s distressed look, he knew it was something bad. At that moment, his door was opened by a soldier – maybe he was being guarded the whole time. Approaching him, the soldier injected Elliot with a syringe, as Elliot looked at him ungratefully. Seconds later, he began to pass out. In his mind he thought to himself ‘Again? Really?’

  The helicopter still had not arrived. Whisky and another agent were piloting it, while the prisoners Andy, Annabelle and Erica were still knocked out in the back. Starting to come around, Annabelle panicked in her mind, but was not physically strong enough to act out. She turned either side of her, noticing her two friends. Nudging Andy as hard as she could – which was still as lightly as a feather – she tried to wake him. Upon that plan failing, she noticed the handle on one of the doors. She loosened herself to try and stretch out and reach it, but she couldn’t quite get it. Grasping it with her hand at last, she pulled it, which slid the door open. Instantly, the helicopter tilted massively to one side. The pilots turned around amidst panic, trying to maintain the chopper. All three prisoners were still strapped in, Annabelle pretended to still be asleep. As the co-pilot leant over the back to try and reach the door, she reflexively bit down onto his arm toughly, causing him to retract and clench it. Leaning forward, Annabelle tried to cause even more damage throwing her fists at whatever she could – the controls, the pilots even. Whisky pressed the tranquiliser pistol against her arm and shot a dart at it. Still leant forward, she passed out again. He pushed her back against the seat.

  Giving it one last pull, Vincent used all his strength to pull the grate off. Noticing how tight the pipe was, he debated whether he should still use it as an escape route. Looking down at the water, which was now up to his waist, he hoisted himself up into the pipe with his arms, wriggling up it. He stopped momentarily to catch his breath, before he heard another liquid sound rushing down from ahead of him. “Oh you have got to be kidding me.” This time, it wasn’t plain water. In this pipe, murky-foamy sea water was being pumped down. The wave of it hit him, knocking him all the way back down the pipe and splashing into the room full of water again. He trudged over to the final grate in a hurry, desperately pulling at it – again, this one was lose, but tighter than the other still. The combination of sterilised and sea water had caused it to rise faster. It was now only a few inches from the last pipe, Vincent knew he had to hurry up.

  For what felt like the millionth time today, Elliot had come around again. When he awoke, he found himself in a large cage, almost like an animal enclosure. There were plants everywhere, as well as several wooden structures. “Elliot!” A distressed voice called to him from beyond the cage. Turning to the direction of the voice, Elliot noticed Olivia tied against the grated fence of the cage. Her back was turned towards it, with a metal hatch behind her lower back. “Olivia! You’re ok. Oh thank goodness.” He tried to run over to her, but his leg was chained to another fence. “What is this place? What are they doing to us?” She sounded afraid. Looking out past the cage, Elliot could still see the runway. “We haven’t been taken that far. That means Gwen is still here, good. I trust that woman; she won’t let these people bash her about.” Olivia on the other hand was pessimistic, “How is this even possible? Living in London for two years, and suddenly I’m in an airfield owned by an evil government!” She began to cry, “I wish Steven was here… so much…” Elliot got as close to her as his chain would allow him to, “Olivia, turn your head as much as you can. Look at me, ok. Look at me,” She tried to do so, but couldn’t turn that far, “I’ll get you out of this. I’ll get all of us out of this. For once, I’ll make sure everyone lives. Do you trust me?” Whatever happened next was dependent on the answer to that question. “I… I do, Elliot. I trust you.” She breathed a sigh of relief, as did he. “Now, why exactly am I in an animal cage I wonder…”

  Vincent turned around, noticing that the camera was still beadily pointed at him. The water level was now just beneath his heart area. He let out an enormous cry of strength as he ripped the grate off the pipe. Catching his breath for several seconds, he realised it was now or never as the water became millimetres from the pipe. Hoisting himself up again, he crawled through the last pipe at a high rate. The water seeped in, he could feel it lapping between his fingers and underneath his palms. He couldn’t tell if the pipe was slowly elev
ating or if it was at a continuously flat level. Once he had crawled in far enough, the water level was half way up the pipe. The situation only became more desperate upon reaching a dead end in the pipe. Against the wall, there was a hammer. Taking it, he examined it, but still felt hopeless. He tried to keep his head as high up as possible as the water level rose. If he wanted even a slim chance of living, he had to double back to the room. Taking a deep breath, he dived under the water and swam back down the pipe.

  Pushing debris off of her, Annabelle lifted herself out of the wrecked helicopter. It had crashed just on the edge of a river bank. She rolled onto her back on the muddy grass, breathing in rapidly while covered in sunshine. “Andy!” Remembering her friend, she got up again and leant over the wreckage. The closest person to her was Erica, blood gushing down the side of her face, still sedated. Intuitively, she grabbed her by the arm, and unbuckled the seatbelt. As her lower half dropped, Annabelle gripped Erica’s arm with both of her own. Using all her strength, she raised her up out of the wreckage. They both fell back as she pulled her all the way out. She rolled her out and checked her pulse – fortunately, she was alive. Turning back to the wreckage, she tried to come up with a way to pull Andy out from the bottom.

  Swimming back into the chamber, Vincent swam up to the top of the room. With barely any seconds to spare, he caught his breath in the minute gap at the top of the room. Looking down at the pipes again, he noticed bubbles in front of the first one, but not the second or the third. Therefore, he deduced from the lack of bubbles over the second pipe that the sea water had stopped spewing out. Taking one last deep breath, he went back under the water again, swimming into the middle pipe.

  As Elliot and Olivia waited for something to transpire, they were in the middle of a nostalgic moment. “All those things we did in the old days. Our entire group. You were right in what you said at my execution. The teenage boy I once was is not the man I am now. Nowhere near,” he gazed into nothingness. The moment was broken by the arrival of the sisters Sierra and Tango, “A touching moment indeed. I’m glad you could have a heart-to-heart before your certain demise.” Elliot rose to his feet, “I don’t care what your ‘tests’ are, do them to me only. I beg you. Let the woman go.” The agents looked at each other and laughed, “You fool! She’s a part of your test. I wonder how far you will go to protect her from shall we say… a wild cat?” Tango smirked, heading over to a lever on the wall next to the cage. “Solar energy you see. Harvesting it allowed us to continue the use of electricity. A neat little trick that also allowed us to wire up a lever to a door. More specifically, this door.” She pulled it down, as a metal door on the other side of the enclosure slid open. Sierra reached into the cage, and slid open the hatch behind Olivia’s back. This part of her shirt had been cut off. Elliot looked on in terror, as a rather large tiger stepped out of the secret room. “If you don’t fight, then you will die. And if you die, then the tiger will rip her to shreds from behind.” Tango and Sierra laughed sadistically. “There’s a wooden spear in front of you. Good luck.” Tango pulled up a radio, “Test Subject: One-Eight-Six. Test commencing now. Agents Tango and Sierra present as witnesses.” Elliot dashed over to the spear and armed himself. The tiger first noticed Olivia against the cage wall, lowly roaring at her. Elliot could see the fright on her face, and also thought she may be suffering a panic attack. Turning back towards the tiger, Elliot’s eyes turned from concern & compassion into the look of a predator, “We’re all animals in the end anyway…”

  Having come around at last, Erica was not given any time to properly wake up. Instantly, Annabelle had demanded that she help with lifting Andy out of the wreckage. Understanding the vehicle could blow at any moment, she obeyed. “Right on three,” Erica leant down from the land, lowering Annabelle into the wreckage to connect with Andy. “One… two… three!” Annabelle pulled Andy with both her arms, as Erica had the difficult job of bringing both of them up. As the two women grunted and sweated, they refused to give up. “Keep going!” Erica gritted, “Almost there!” She had pulled Annabelle back onto the land, as Andy was lifted closer to it. When eventually they did, they stretched their arms back, “Heavy-lifting much?” Erica jokingly remarked.

  Running out of breath, Vincent struggled to keep swimming through the pipe. He believed he could see the end of it, however he was unsure if maybe this was his oxygen-deprivation playing tricks on him. His face became redder and redder, his eyes bulged even more. In his mind, all his anger was replaying, mainly thoughts of how much he hated Elliot. Luckily for him, the end of the pipe was no trick of the mind. As he reached the end, he dropped into a large water tank, however the foamy sea water was at a low level in here. Again, he took long deep breaths to calm himself down. The door to the tank opened, as a scientist entered. “Congratulations One-Eight-Five. You’ve passed your test.”

  The scientist offered him her hand. As he went to reach for it, he noticed a second scientist at the door and recognised her, “Tina?” It was the nurse from London, she had a look of guilt and sorrow on her face, “It’s not what it looks like… They were going to kill me…” She tried to explain herself, but the other scientist turned around, “Hush my assistant. You do not need to explain yourself to one of our tools.” Tina nodded to obey, parting Vincent with an even bigger look of sorrow.

  Elliot scowled at the tiger. It appeared to be ready to pounce at Olivia. Wasting no more time, he whacked the stick against the cage perimeter. While he was partially tempted to make a quip, he was also too scared to do so. The tiger had turned towards him and purred aggressively. At first it strolled towards him, then it began to trot, then finally it launched itself at him. Rolling out of the way, the tiger slammed straight into the grate. With his stick, Elliot raised it up preparing to plunge it through the tiger. Before he could so, it threw out its’ paw, leaving three claw marks on Elliot’s shin. As he backed away from the tiger on the ground, it brought itself back up, roaring again. Taking this chance, Elliot threw himself forward with the stick, stabbing the tiger above the leg. “Oh crap…” Having now enraged the tiger even more, he started to accept that he may die in that very spot.

  Vincent still grasped the hammer tightly, watching the Scientist writing several things down on clipboards. “Mind telling me who you are? And what this all is about?” She was so fixated on writing things down she didn’t hear his request. He coughed to get her attention. She looked up and finally acknowledged what he was saying, “Oh yes of course. My name is Professor Jane Anderson, just call me Jane. I take it you’ve met my assistant Tina already. She wouldn’t give a surname, how unprofessional,” she remarked to herself. Vincent nodded, “We met her back in the London camp.” Vincent was surprised that Jane didn’t react to the news of another camp. “Did you not hear me? There’s a whole other camp in the capital city of this country.” She nodded dismissingly, “Yes, yes, we know all that. Why do you think we reinforced the Bandits in taking it down?” Although she didn’t really care about how big of a bombshell that was, Vincent was extremely surprised, “What? You mean…” She slammed her clipboard down, “Yes! I do mean that. You wiped out around ninety percent of the Bandits during their attack on London, there simply weren’t enough left to steal your food. That job was done by our lot. Without any resources, we anticipated the departure of many residents. We just had to wait for a group to get nearer to the ocean. Once that was done, well we could successfully move in on you thanks to Ethan. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get on with my work thank you. Just remain silent for a few minutes.” He followed this command, but still had many things to ask.

  Dashing and tripping around the enclosure, Elliot used his chain to trip the tiger up. When it finally gained leverage over him, it pounced and knocked him to the ground. Elliot closed his eyes as he prepared to die brutally… But seconds later, he was still unharmed. Opening his eyes slowly, he noticed the tiger had frozen. Its’ sharp teeth and bad breath were just inches from his face. Looking down, he noticed as
he instinctively pulled the spear up to protect himself, it had gone straight through the tiger. Entering through the underside, and out over the top of it. Blood dripped down it. From behind him, he heard a slow applause begin, before speeding up. “Wow…” Tango began, “That was just… I’m speechless!” She gestured for Sierra to cut Olivia’s ties loose. Upon doing so, Elliot got as close to the edge of the cage as he could. “What are you doing with her?” Both agents smiled, but this time not evilly, “You saved her. Therefore, there is no need to put her in danger again,” Tango answered. “We’re taking her to her luxurious accommodation,” Sierra answered. “Hold on,” Elliot tried to recall them, but they continued taking Olivia away, “Come back here! Get back here now! Please!” He kicked the grate, and then looked down at the tiger he had just killed, “I’m sorry. I had to…”