Arachnid
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Chapter 2
A Failed Escape
My name is Experiment 003, and I am a murderer.
It didn't want to be. I don't like killing. Red thinks that is wan't really me who killed them all, but we all know it was. I'm sorry, i'm getting ahead of myself. We need to start at the prison.
First, a little about me. I am a third generation Krieger. Our family is known by all as guardian knights, daring adventurers, and savior heroes. We are know as the kindest, most noble, and most giving family in all of Arcenell. I was training to be a knight; what better way to help protect people than defending our cities from the monsters outside the walls?
But then, one day, a group of... I don't know, mercenaries? Knights from another kingdom? I don't know. Either way, they called themselves the "Silver Axe". They came into the city, offering peace and protection to very few people. It was suspicious behavior, but not anything we could act on. So they're offering some extra protection to the richer? Who's gonna stop 'em? But they didn't protect the richest, they were protecting civilians in all I could tell as a random fashion. Then three of them came to me, while I was training. They said I had excellent reflexes, and offered to give me some protection.
Me? A knight? Extra protection? Was I really that scrawny? Yes, it seemed that's what they thought. Later, I went to the tavern with my "protectors"; why not share a drink and hope to make friends? That's when everything went wrong. After a few drinks, they started talking about their order, and about something called "magic". The situation happened something like this.
I slammed the now empty mug down, seconds before Gregor slammed his down. He stared at me in disbelief as his friends burst into raucous cheers.
"YOU GOT BEAT BY THIS LIL FELLA!" the largest, I think his name was Feldon, yelled.
"Shaddup you big buffoon. You know what we've been goin' the past few days, yeh can't make fun o' me fer not drink in' it away fast enough," Gregor mumbled.
"Oh?" I questioned, "And what have you fellows been doing that would keep you from winning this fair game?"
"Been huntin' fer some disease or somethin', I think," the third one, Shaldum, said, finishing off his own mug, "The higher ups seem to think you've been infected. S'posed to take yeh in for some tests."
"Shally, that ain't right an' you know it. Look sonny," Gregor said, motioning for another drink, "There's this new thing people have been gettin'. The top fella's are callin' it "magic". S'posed to be humans with the power o' gods. Apparently, more people have been gettin' it, so we've had to start roundin' up folks for some easy test, make sure it ain't too dangerous, y'see?"
"I think I follow. This "magic" think sounds dangerous if the wrong people have it. If there's a cure, I'd be happy to help you boys out to try and keep it from the more dangerous people around here."
"Haha! Now that's a good lad! Tell ye' what. We'll take you to the place tomorrow. But tonight, we play until I win, boy! Eh! Barkeep! Another mug fer us!"
I was a fool.
Fast forward to the prison, about two weeks after. Chained to a wall, drained of so much blood that I could barely even see, much less stay conscious for more than two minutes. It wasn't a cell, per say, just a room. One door, dirt floor, walls made of stacked rocks with what appeared to be mud sticking them together, and a ceiling made from the same mud like material. About twenty feet cubed for space, with the only light coming from the door. No bed. A small hole near me for waste, though with all of the blood taken, I couldn't even crawl to it if I tried. Outside the room, two guards, and a long corridor that only went straight. Every other day, one man would come in, take some blood, and leave. Five minutes at the most. I never tried to fight. Why would I? I'd never hurt anyone. If they chained me to the wall, it must've been because this "magic" is uncontrollable and dangerous. I didn't want to hurt anyone, and certainly didn't want to impede their efforts to find a cure. So I just waited, every day, hoping they'd find a cure and let me go.
They didn't have time.
During the night of the fifteenth day, something happened. I had been drained of blood not but twenty minutes before; I was nauseous, and my vision was blurry. I could hear my own heart, beating in my chest with slow, irregular breaths. Then a noise from outside the door.
*Thump* *Thump*
The door opened, and a woman, dressed in prisoner's rags, was dragging the bodies of the two guards into my cell.
Are they still alive? Are they breathing? I thought to myself. I looked to their chests. Yes, still alive.
The woman placed the bodies about four feet from me. She bent down to pick up one of their swords, and I saw strange marking on her neck. Two small dots. Or holes. She looked marked by a prisoner's tattoo. She was bad news. She picked up the blade, and walked over to me,staring at the wall.
Is she going to kill me? Why? What have I done to her? Why would she...
*CLANG*
The chains broke, and I fell to the ground, too weak to stand. The woman looked at me in pity, then ran from the room.
So that's it? Does she think i'm too weak to handle myself? She's probably right. I'm to weak to walk, and I don't need to escape. I don't want to.
And then, a surge of power. Energy coming back, my vision sharpening, my queasiness stopping.
What? What's happening? What did she..."
I looked up, towards the bodies. Blood was dripping from their mouths, their noses, their ears, even their eyes. Draining into a river, and flowing towards me. I looked down, and saw a puddle of blood on my hands. I din't move. I just stared.
The blood... It's nourishing me. Is this magic? Is this why I was chained? Is this what I can do? Am I...evil? No, I have to stop this. I need to find whoever is in charge, and tell them what's happened.
I stood myself up, wiping the blood onto my tattered shirt. I walked over the bodies, and through the door. Alright. Forward. I ran through the corridor, passing door after door of rooms like mine. They smelled of blood and decay. Failed tests. I hope I can make their sacrifice worth something. I continued running, more rooms, more smells of blood and death, until I finally reached a stone door at the end of the corridor. I pushed it open, and walked out into the night. A huge expanse of space lay before me, with more buildings barely within shouting distance. Guards wandered about, others were standing by a central platform, with what looked to be a small gathering of official looking soldiers. I began to walk towards them.
"Halt, prisoner!" a voice to my left announced. "What are you doing out of your cell?"
I stopped walking and turned towards the voice, confused. "Prisoner? Cell? I'm here for testing, to help find a..."
"That's enough, now," another voice, this one from behind. "Please, private, leave our friend alone. He is here by choice."
I turned towards the new voice. He was a skinny man, without armor, only wearing alchemist robes. He had short, uncombed black hair, with piercing green eyes.
"Hello," he said, smiling. "And just who you might be?"
"I...Um... My name is..."
"No, no. Not your name. What number are you?"
"Oh." They had assigned us numbers that we were to remember when we got here. "I am 003. I came here to..."
He held up a hand to silence me. "To find a cure for magic, yes. I was told that you were one of four who were still alive from the blood trials. Yet, you appear filled with blood, and not phased in the least by your stay here. What are you doing here?"
"That's why I came looking for you. Or, someone like you anyway. I was in my room, I had just given blood. This...woman appeared, knocking out the guards and breaking my chains. Then something happened...with the bodies. I..."
"GODS ABOVE, THIRD! DO YOU EVER SHUT UP?!" The woman ran towards us, throwing a knife into a guard's shoulder before being tackled to the ground. "Agh! Third! Don't tell him anything! He's the enemy!"
Third? The enemy? What is this woman talking about?
*thump, thump*
My heartbeat...
"I assume that this is the woman you were speaking of?" the green eyed man asked. "And why was she... Private, please. Don't pull the knife out it'll only make it..."
*thump, thump*
The soldier yanked the blade out of his shoulder, blood spilling from the wound.
"Worse." The green eyed man sighed. "Honestly, if they expect me to care for the idiot soldiers and the subject at the same time, they ought to pay me more. Follow me, private. I can't have you dying on me." The green eyed man walked away with the soldier.
*thump, thump*
I looked to the pile of blood, and watched it flow towards me.
"Guards, this is what I was meaning to tell that man. Look at the blood. It's flowing towards me, see?"
*thump, thump*
The guards stared at the blood as it made it's path towards me.
"NO! STOP THE BLOOD! KEEP IT AWAY FROM HIM!" the woman yelled, struggling against her captors.
"What are you on about, woman? What's he going to do with it? Throw it at us? Fredericks, take her to her cell. And this time, make it a double lock."
*thump, thump*
"Yes, sir," the soldier said, tying the woman's hands together. "And what about him?"
The blood was only a few inches away now.
"We'll take him to the doc in a few minutes. He's not dangerous, just look at him."
The blood touched my foot.
*THUMP*
...
My heart... it stopped beating.
"Oh, sh..." the woman hissed.
Everything hurt. My body was growing, too much, too fast. Bones cracking, flesh ripping, blood oozing from my body. Everything went black.
*SSSSSKKKKKRRRREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAA*
< Message edited by Arachnid -- 7/1/2015 0:05:56 >
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