by Alex Fall
"Burn!! Take cover!" The female said in a panic. She dashed out of sight and the man behind me tried to knock me out. I ducked and watched with renewed interest when his bare fist broke through the brick wall and a piece of rebar. How did he do that? That's not possible without tech! There's no apparent strength augments. I spun acrobatically to avoid another hit which also broke a stone wall. That's not normal. He tried once more, but a gap let me land a good three hit combo that left him sputtering on the ground.
I looked up to see another man come in view. I pulled an SMG and fired at him. He was certainly wearing no tech, he had no weapons, and I was not seeing things. Somehow he closed the distance inhumanly fast and dodged all of my fire. He somehow moved at unknown speeds, those not attainable even with augments, but I saw it happen.
A solid punch landed in my stomach, then before I could register what happened, another on my jaw. Before I had time to even move, my head was grabbed and forced into a wall. My vision filled with color and swirls, then I hit the ground lying on my stomach. The speedster began to say something but darkness consumed everything.
All the pain, all the noise, all the frustration transformed into involuntary sleep.
Part 3
At long last, they believed me. They were finally letting me out of my cage, the tiny, burnt cell that I came to view as 'home.' The latch squealed and the thick door slowly opened. It had been so long since I had seen full light from the time of my ocular adjustment, I had to turn my head away for my eyes to adjust. I heard guns cock and ready. And then I looked up and saw them. THEY were watching, as always, but this time I could see the fear on their faces. I wanted to take my vengeance on them all right then and there, but another part of me masked my rage and carried out my plan. I had to earn their trust. I already heard that a couple of the other Programs managed to. Only then could I take my revenge, and maybe even escape. I locked gazes with the soldier opening the door, making him uncomfortable. The fools began to fall for my trap. I rose and the pain from my wounds flared up when I moved.
My senses returned slowly, and I realized the pain of my dreams was actually real. My head ached terribly, and my body was severely sore. My hand burns ached, and there were large bruises to remind me where my armor blocked the bullets. On top of everything, it was freezing in this room.
I opened my eyes gently and my mind struggled to assess what was going on, but my head was foggy. I was sitting against a wall with arms wide open and cuffed to the wall. Minimal clothing had left me shivering from the cold. Everything had been stripped off of me except my half shorts and sport bra, the underclothes I had made of the fireproof material designed for me, but the way they were fitting suggested that whoever stripped me went ahead and took a peek at all of me. It would cost them their life.
Movement in my peripheral vision alerted me that someone else was in the room. I kept my head down, pretending to still be unconscious, but looked around with my eyes. I saw the shoes of a guy sitting in a chair next to me in the small empty room, tapping to a beat. I soon realized that the noise I was hearing was music coming from his ear buds. He must have been here a while because he had his simple rifle resting on the ground between his legs. I closed my eyes as hard as I could trying to get my mind back to full capacity. The concussion I had suffered was clouding my head.
Voices. There were voices outside, talking about girls it seemed. Must be male guards, two of them outside the door. The door apparently wasn't sound proof so I'd have to make this quick. My thick, long hair served as a curtain to hide my eyes behind as I glanced up slightly to check his equipment. This man did not seem to be the most competent guard, as he was wearing baggy jeans and an oversize hoodie, a less than ideal uniform of any kind, on top of listening to loud music. Despite that however, I noticed that he had a pistol tucked at his side. I readied myself mentally, and I also felt at my cuffs to see how much power I'd need to summon to melt them. The cuffs were heavy, probably tungsten, but the chain between each cuff was still small. That's where I'd have to break it.
I tensed up in preparation and slowly wrapped my fingers around the chains. I gently raised my head until I could see the black man's eyes. For a few seconds, he sat absorbed in his music, but then he lackadaisically looked over to check me. He had to take a second, more surprised, look when my blue eyes caught his attention. Now...
I channeled the power to my fingers and superheated the chains in a quick burst of flame, leaving my fingers scalded and in fresh pain. I yanked on the cuffs which snapped the glowing hot chain links, and at the same moment pulled my legs underneath me and lunged at the man. He grabbed at his rifle in fright, but I swung my arms in and grabbed his head with both of my heated hands. A distinct scalding noise sounded out and he squealed in pain, clawing at my arms to make it stop. In a split second, I shoved him back and shot him with his own pistol. Kicking the rifle up to my hands, I had to struggle to keep the pain at bay and not let the concussion blur my vision.
The door swung open, but my rifle fired first and one guard dropped to the ground gasping. The other met his end when I shot a burst of concentrated flame. My self inflicted burns were building up quickly, and the pain was always there to remind me and slow me down.
I looted one of my guards for money, weapons, and his jacket. First I readjusted my underclothes, then dashed out of the room, making sure to check corners for hostiles and not make so sudden of movements that I passed out. I was in some office building, and not on the ground floor. I had to find my gear...
I could hear voices that were alerted to the disturbance. People, good. That's most likely where my things were. I turned around in the hallway I was in and silently ran toward the voices. Before they came around the corner, I ducked into a dark room. The building was mostly barren, but I still knew where to hide, and being barefoot helped me stay silent. A couple of footmen ran past the door I hid behind, and as soon as the last one passed, I slipped out in the opposite direction. No sooner than I did that, I ducked down to avoid running into one last guy that was walking, instead of hustling, to investigate.
"What the? Here! She's here!" He shouted once he spotted me.
I weaved around to his back side, hooked an arm across his back and shoved him into the wall corner. It didn't knock him out, but he fell down holding his head. My kill mode was telling me I could destroy all of them, but a more rational part of my mind won out. I've got only about three and half seconds. I broke out in a sprint through the building. No, no, no! I can't stay to find my gear!
I could hear people before I saw them, so I was able to adjust my route so as to never run into them. I found a stairwell, so I stopped myself by grabbing the doorway. The jarring movement made my world spin and I almost blacked out, but the clear voice of someone around the corner forced my legs to keep moving. This particular route would throw them off, so up the stairs I went.
The building was only five stories tall, but the stairs did not lead to the roof. I burst out of the door, shot at another guard before he could sound alarm, and ran down the hallway looking for a utility room. I rounded the corner and someone big grabbed me.
"Hold it right there, bright eyes," the large man said. He pulled me to him and held me with strength I could never match, and there was no doubt more where that came from. Like others that I've seen, it wasn't normal.
I heated my chest and abdomen where his arms were, and he growled and shoved me away in pain. A snap kick to the head left him crouched on the ground, caressing his burnt arms and bludgeoned nose. I took off to run again, feeling my vision blur and the fresh burns on my body scream in agony. Who are these people and what do they want with me?
'Utility Closet.'
I superheated one finger and shoved it into the lock of the door handle, melting both the handle and the lock off of the door. Fresh burns...
I ran in, found the ladder to the roof, and climbed as fast as my battered body could climb. It was afternoon outside, with the setting sun in the distance. T
he clouds had eased up, but still reflected brilliant oranges and pinks. This is no time to sightsee. I ran to the edge of the building looking for power lines.
"She went to the roof!" I heard from within the building.
There, a power line. It was linked to the wall lower down, so I'd have to jump. I pulled the shoulder strap off of the rifle, put on my hoodie, and put the pistol in my hoodie pocket. Squaring myself beforehand, I wrapped the strap around the line and jumped over the edge of the building right as the men chasing me popped onto the roof. The strap jarred me when I caught. I slid down the wire, and inadvertently across the street, towards the ground with the strap. When I was close enough, I let go and landed hard in an alley right off the main road. The world went dark and I felt my body slam the ground when I landed.
Consciousness returned several seconds later, but everything was still spinning, my head still pounding, my wounds still screeching in pain. Mustering my willpower, I forced myself to stand, using the wall for support. Several bystanders in worn out looking clothing were staring at me wide eyed from within the surrounding structures. A bullet pierced into the cinder blocks above me, though I heard them remind the shooter that I was to remain alive. Time to move.
I stumbled down the alley, looking for somewhere to run. Behind me, I swore one of the men took to flight, so I quickened my pace. Turning several corners, I found a sewer grate. I heated my leg up and kicked through the grate, causing it to melt enough to fall in. The burns it left were on my lower leg, since that's where I channeled the heat out of. An idea popped into my head. Despite my handicapped condition, and rather than go down into the sewers for escape, I turned and jumped into the window of an abandoned building. While I covertly made my way through the structure, I heard my hunters fall for the trap.
"Here, she took to the sewers! You, take him and him. Make sure she doesn't come back out. Everyone else, follow me!"
Another voice popped up, though quieter than the first. "Here use these. She's a Burn, so it'll be easy to trace her heat signature." Perfect, they're tracking my heat source. It made me wonder if my cold blooded nature was more by design instead of a byproduct. Doubtful...
As I ran far away from my captors, night fell and fatigue coupled with pain seized me. I slowed to a limping walk, and all I could think to do was look for a place to sleep. I checked what I thought were abandoned buildings, but the first two were inhabited by vagrants, all of whom were shocked and terrified by my presence. I need to avoid people. I need to hide alone.
Tired as I was however, I felt a familiar anxiety stalking my conscience, forbidding me to sleep.
I was being hunted. Constantly, I was watching the sky and dark recesses of the city. It felt as if my adrenalin would never leave. As the pain set in, I felt more and more vulnerable. They would find me. And these people were like the Directorates of old. There's no telling what horrors they would unleash on me if they caught me. Memories of being held captive by the Directorates began to trickle into my mind. Haunting imagined sounds began to mix with the real world. It gave everything an element of panic. How would I ever sleep in this condition?
I trotted through the city searching for a drugstore or hospital. I ended up finding a drugstore that seemed very new against the old abandoned city. But what if they were looking for me? Before I entered, I would need a disguise of some sort. The first vehicle I saw that had pair of sunglasses, I burned out a window and took them plus any medical supplies I could find. Next, I found a wooden stake that I broke off to the appropriate size, scorching the top and end of it to a nice round nub at the expense of my own body. Now for shoes. The only easy access ones I could find were some flip flops left outside someone's front door. Now with any luck, I will become a simple blind girl...with terrible burns. At least it will hide my eyes (which were a major identifying mark if these people were looking for me.)
There were two people at the front, one at the desk, and perhaps several more in the back. Everyone fell dead silent when I entered.
"Dang..." one uttered under his breath. His voice sounded like he was stifling shock at my appearance.
"Sir, could I get some help?" I asked in a pitiful voice.
"Dang!" he repeated. The other one by the door piped up. "Miss, you need to leave. This establishment is for Benevolents only," she said.
Benevolents? "Why is it that everyone assumes that because I'm blind, I'm not a Benevolent? Can't the disabled get any help anymore?" I asked pitifully.
The two whispered to each other, and the one behind the desk cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, here let me help you," the girl finally said. The others whispered strong doubts over my story to one another.
We walked down some aisles, but I could tell the guy by the door was watching me. "Miss, you really need medical attention." The girl sounded a tad concerned.
"I'm fine, it's already being taken care of. All I need is some sleep pills."
The girl led me to an area and handed me a bottle. "Here, but you can't just leave. I need to call the med."
"I'm fine, really. They are letting it heal on its own. Now where's the checkout?" I was lead to the man in the front, who sounded disturbed by my appearance. He should be...
"Is this all?" He asked slowly.
"I need a bottle of water, and maybe a protein bar too please. Here." I reached into the wallet and pulled out three random bills. He took two, and handed the other back.
"Sorry, we can't break anything over twenty." He rang everything up then handed me my change. "Aren't you cold?" He asked.
I was freezing, but he wasn't allowed to know that. "No I'm fine. Thank you." I smiled real big, then left the store. I heard them whispering about me for a long time. The words "freaky," "dweller," and "unsettling" bounced around between them.
There was nowhere to go. I wandered around as if I had somewhere to be, but ended up in yet another alley. I noticed a vent that was blowing warm air, so I curled up next to it, out of sight. I was shivering from the cold so badly that when I tried to pour pills into my hand, I dropped a couple. I took the max dosage and drank them down with water. The next fifteen minutes I spent trying to absorb the warmth of the vent. Every noise was greatly exaggerated, and I involuntarily checked to see if it was someone looking for me. Night terrors, ancient haunting memories, waited at the edge of my mind to tear into me if ever I should stop being alert. I realized the pills were having no effect.
Botches! My body was resistant to sleep drugs, since I was addicted to anesthetic and sedatives until not so long ago. It was the only way I could ever sleep, much like tonight. I tripled the dosage of pills, then laid against the only source of warmth. The vent shut off suddenly for the moment, leaving me shivering in the night air, clinging to my hoodie.
I was so alone. This place was foreign and unfamiliar. Not only do the people here ignore me, they hate me. I look hideous. I'm in so much pain, and I'm so unbearably cold. To top it off, my only source of heat just left, and I may not get to sleep for a few weeks. One of the few human fragments still left in me woke up, and I was flooded with emotion about my pathetic situation. 'No one cares who you are Erin,' it said. 'You saw those people, they had powers too. Now there is truly nothing unique about you.' I did something I haven't done in a very, very long time.
I spent the rest of the night crying.
Part 4
Tears. I cried and cried. I had been doing that so long that I thought my body stopped producing tears, but every time the waves of grief and raw sadness hit me, more tears soaked the strange material of my sleeves and fell to the ground. I pulled myself tighter into the furthest corner of my tiny cell, wanting to have the mercy of death. So many bad things keep happening to me. THEY say I'm ideal, that I'm perfect, but they keep hurting me. I was their favorite toy. Every day was a new wave of tortures, abuses, mind games, pushing my limits. The only comfort I had was occasionally seeing other Programs (victims is what we should be called) whenever they let me out of my cell. Talking to them was
my only good human contact anymore, but today was different. It wasn't enough that they tortured me for their own enjoyment anymore. Now THEY had killed my friend. The experiment went wrong, and just to further my pain, they left the body in my cell as a joke. I cried for hours, perhaps days. Even after they removed the remains of my friend and the soldiers who conjured up the idea were chastised, I vomited several times a day. The pain wouldn't ever go away. Please make it stop. Please, I want to die...
The sound of an old door opening nearby in real life dragged me out of my night terror. I still had teary eyes, but whether it was from the cold, the pain, or the dream was uncertain. I jumped to my feet in panic, breathing rapidly already. The pain greeted me like a sledgehammer, and I fell on all fours before scrambling back to standing position.
"Hello? Is someone out here?" A middle aged man asked.
I couldn't stand straight, as the sleep drugs left me extremely groggy. The pain burned through my thoughts, keeping my mind from working at full capacity. I tried to look for somewhere to run. A man, in his fifties it seemed, leaned around the corner to see. His clothes looked beat up, used longer than they were intended. He wore a hat, and had graying hair and mustache that complemented his gentle natured features.
"Oh! Oh, Miss what happened?"
I held a hand out. "No, stay back. I need to leave."
"You can't go anywhere like that!" He said approaching while he took off a light coat. "Are you lost? And doesn't this hurt? No, you ran into a Burn didn't you?"
My concussion started making the world spin and I lost balance trying to step onto a curb. The concrete scraped and bit me, hurting everything that was already hurting. After I fell to the ground, I saw a window I could escape to.
"Please calm down. Who's going to take care of you, the Greaters?"
I replied while still struggling to get away. "Greaters?"
"Yeah, you know, the baddies," he explained. This man thought that those other people did this to me? "Aren't you cold?" He asked.
