by Alex Fall
I clenched my teeth as they heaped anger and wrath on me. The only reason I didn't come out and massacre those stupid *cusses* is because I was underneath a grate. I was stuck under the electrical box while my fury boiled, despite the sheer pain I was in. If I wasn't stuck, it would already be too late for them.
"I wouldn't want to be close enough to find out. I prefer being alive."
"Just knock her out or something. You can do whatever you want while she's out. That's kinda what Manny did."
"No way dude. You're insane. Don't take chances like that, not on a Burn. Hey, this lock is broken."
"Nah, there's no one inside that. You couldn't get in and THEN put the lock back on, think about it. No one's here man."
The two of them left, taking their pointless, demeaning conversations with them. They didn't even bother checking around or underneath everything, but it's good they didn't. I continued to lie in the same spot, fuming and maybe even a touch embarrassed by their conversation. I didn't move until I made sure they were far away enough that I couldn't hear them anymore. Then, I scrambled out until I could stand. Dragging myself along the ground aggravated my burns, and soon I was dropping tears yet again, my mind dulled by pain and rage. It was all I could do to remove the lock and try opening the box. Sharon had to finish opening it. She had a terrified look on her face, but it relaxed a tad when she saw my blue eyes. She even let a breath out.
Soon, I had draped another coat over myself for a blanket, rolled up some shirts for a pillow, and readied a batch of sedative. Me and Sharon ate a light lunch (or dinner if it was late enough for that) and I took more medicine with my food. I instructed Sharon to shut the door as soon as there was no one in sight, and to do it silently.
I laid back down, but realized that my craving for sleep drugs was slowly awakening, possibly due to the overload of anger I just came out of. That dependence began to worry me, but I knew there was no way I could sleep, and thus heal, without the drugs. I considered trying to sleep naturally, but I hurt and ached so much that it was like a form of punishment to be awake at all. I went ahead and gave myself the knockout drugs, and soon the world fell dark, quiet, and pain free.
Part 7
Laying on the ground in my tiny cell was painful. I had tried to attack one of the guards earlier with this sickness, this disease that they forced into my body. I burnt him pretty bad, but THEY punished me severely for it. They beat me and forced me to make burns on myself. Now I found myself bleeding and in pain on the ground. The ground hurt, so I took a chance and moved, curling myself into the furthest corner from the door. In this spot, less of my body touched any surface, so it didn't hurt as bad. Also in this spot, I could hear better what was going on outside my cell. It wouldn't be long before they would take me, strap me down, and torture me in the name of 'adjusting my power.' Why do I have the curse of being alive? Why couldn't I die like all the other programs? Why do I have to bear all this pain? I didn't do anything to deserve it! Tears collected in my eyes as I began to pity myself, crying yet again...
The real world greeted me with aches and pain before my eyes even opened. Again, the pain wasn't as bad as the last time I was awake, but now my back was sore from sleeping on hard concrete, plus my mind was fuzzy from the knockout drugs. It was dark again, and a fully clothed Sharon was awake, seemingly staring in my direction. I reached for a bottle of water and she detected that I was now awake.
"Sapphire?"
"Hm?..."
"You were making noises in your sleep," she said timidly.
I sighed, irritated because of pain and being stuck in one place. "What kind of noises?"
"Moaning.....maybe crying."
My dreams are too much. I let out another exasperated sigh, and I saw Sharon drop her gaze to floor. Perhaps she imagined that I was upset that she spoke. Whatever...
When I tilted my head to examine the room, I heard the deep and extremely faint thumping again. What was that? The more I tried to figure it out, the more questions came to my head. What was the high pitch noise that I heard in the warehouse? What can I do if I ever run across another Burn? Where are the greaters getting their weapons from? What ever happened to the leftovers? I would never get answers stuck down here, but I needed to heal. Oh, how I miss a real bed. Things would be so much simpler if I had my ship...
I sat up and leaned against the wall. The coat that served as my blanket fell off, revealing that my skin has healed up enough to detect cold again. Wonderful...
My mind began to awaken, and along with it I remembered the name Manny. I reminded myself to personally hunt him down and annihilate him, viciously. No one takes a peek at me while I'm unconscious and gets away with it. Pervert... While I stored his name in my memory vault, I reviewed several other things that were necessary, like food, a place I can heal, and clothes for Sharon. Her smell was starting to permeate the room. Bathing wasn't a bad idea either. However, the most realistic thing I could do at this point was find a comfortable shelter. It wouldn't be hard to find a dweller building I suppose...
Gently rising, I stumbled over to the metal panel and opened it enough to see out. It was dark outside, chilly, with faint clouds in the distance, and a sliver of moon out, providing very low light, but certainly enough for me to get by. No one was in sight and the sounds of my surroundings were nothing contrary.
"Sharon....gather everything up."
She moved slowly, feeling in the dark. I went ahead and opened the door, then grabbed everything Sharon missed. To make room, I had to have Sharon carry my medicine bag and some clothes, and I carried my shotgun. Then, we left the small room to limp through the streets. It was dark and chilly, yet the late hour was exactly what we needed so as not to be seen. My pace was very slow and at the rate we were going, it didn't seem like we would ever find a building with dwellers in it. Most around this area were simply abandoned. We checked two empty buildings, an old convenience store, and even the husk of a broken down freight airvessel. No one was here. Was it because of being too near to the Greater hub? All this limping was making me ache worse.
I spotted another derelict building, one that seemed suitable to live in. It looked like a small school, but was still locked up pretty well. Me and Sharon approached the dark building, but it was awfully quiet. We tried the doors, which were all locked, and I peeked through all the front windows, but I saw nothing. Most of the windows were covered anyway.
"Sapphire eyes?...I don't like this place..." Sharon whispered.
"You said that about the store. We're sleeping wherever we can find dwellers, end of story." I grabbed her hand and led her, to the best of my injured ability, around back to check the back doors.
"But there's no one here. This place is scary," she whined.
I stopped walking to glare at her. Sharon just looked down at the ground and whispered, "I'm sorry..."
A noise on the roof bid me to look up about the same time that someone peeked over. The head pulled back, most likely in hopes of me not seeing them.
"I know you're up there," I said out loud. Ugh, it was still uncomfortable to speak with volume.
The head slowly poked back out, and I heard the person groan to himself. "What's your name?" The boy said down to us.
"That's of no concern."
"Your eyes say otherwise..." He replied. Botches, my eyes?
"Sapphire eyes. Why?"
"What do you want here?"
It was causing discomfort to speak and I was quickly growing irritated. "My turn to ask the questions. Are you a dweller?"
"Um...what do you want here?" he insisted.
I pointed the shotgun up at him. "Boy...I will come up there and rip your ears off if you don't answer my question."
The teenage boy tensed upon seeing a gun. "Yes, I am. Why?"
"I'm asking the questions. Is this building a dweller building?"
"Er...You're not going to hurt us are you?"
"No. We need a place to eat and sleep for several days. Can we do suc
h here?"
"I can't let you in," he said.
I flicked the safety off on my shotgun. "Wrong answer."
The boy groaned again and disappeared from view. Half a minute later, he came around the side of the building. Still unnerved by my weapon, he led us to a side door and we all entered. I put my shotgun away and held Sharon's hand to make sure she didn't run off and do something stupid. The boy led us down two halls then stopped at a room labelled "Lab." He entered by himself, and woke someone up inside. I heard him tell whoever it was that "the Sapphire Eyes is here." Moments later, an older woman with gray hair came out in worn sleep clothes with a soft white light to see us. She stepped out and closed the door behind her.
"Oh um...that's quite the applicable name," she said, eyeing my patchy skin intently.
"Excuse me?" I said in a monotone voice.
"Your name...sapphire eyes." She must be switching the subject, trying not to make this awkward.
"You know of me?"
"Yes," she replied, rubbing her face to help her tiredness. "From other dwellers. What are you doing here?"
"We're staying here."
She blinked a couple times as she stared off into space. "You are?"
"We are now," I said, approaching the door directly across from the lab to settle in.
"No no no! Don't go in there!" She frantically whispered. "Everyone's asleep, we don't want to disturb anyone."
Out the corner of my eye, I saw Sharon examining the building with uneasiness. "Fine. Show us to our own room."
The lady scratched her head as she thought. "Almost all the rooms are taken-"
"Then give us one that's not!" I interrupted.
"Shhh! Keep your whispers down!" She glanced down the hall, then back into the door she was originally in, beckoning 'Buster' to get back on the roof. She turned back to us and rubbed her face again. "There's a small classroom down the-"
"Is it carpeted?"
"What? No."
"Does it have chairs or cushions?"
"No why do you ask?"
Stepping forward to get in the ladies face, I explained. "If you know who I am, then you'd know I'm a burn, and that I fight Greaters. That being said, I have a lot of injuries from what I do, and I am SICK of sleeping on concrete and tile."
The woman stared wide eyed at me, her back against the wall. "Um...uh we might have a mattress....somewhere."
"Find it. You won't get any sleep until I do, got it?"
"Right...OK." The woman sidled along the wall until she was out from in front of me then briskly walked down the hall and out of view. I sighed and leaned against the wall, cold, fatigued, and in pain, and noticed Sharon was doing that thing where she stared at me but looked down when she would see me glance at her.
Eventually the woman came back and led us to the front office. Right in front of the main desk, there was a queen sized mattress that had been drug into the room. It even had a clean pair of some crappy looking sheets and a flattened pillow.
"There. Now don't get any ideas about taking stuff. And don't wake anyone up!" The woman said.
"Thanks," I replied, with a hint of sarcasm. The woman gave herself a satisfied nod then returned to her room. I squared my stuff away into the desk, removing any papers or things that were obsolete out of the desk first. I retrieved my medicine bag, downed a small handful of sleeping pills, medicinal pills, and a little food, then laid down, waiting for rest to come. The mattress was so much better than concrete, even if it was a beat up mattress.
The soft sound of Sharon weeping entered my ears after several minutes. What's wrong now?! I rolled over to see her curled in the corner, teary eyed and watching me.
"What Sharon?" I asked, unsuccessfully trying to downplay my irritation.
She shook her head and hid her crying face in her arms.
"Sharon!" I demanded in a sort of shouting whisper.
She reluctantly lifted her head back up. Her mouth tried to form words but she said nothing for a few seconds. Then, "I don't have anywhere to sleep."
"What?!" I whispered in disbelief. "What about the cushion right there?"
She scanned the leather bench that was roughly body length for a moment, but then more tears began to squirt from her eyes and her soft weeping noises picked up again. My god! Why can't this child take care of herself?
I put my hands on my face out of irritation, but struggled to keep myself from letting out a huge exasperated sigh. I gently scooted over to make room on the mattress. "Sharon....you can sleep next to me, but you have to make your own pillow."
Even though she moved slow, almost immediately Sharon got up and dug around for some shirts to roll. She wiped her tears and tried to stop herself from crying as she crawled into bed. Turns out, that must have been what she wanted in the first place.
I draped a coat over myself, but was still chilled. Soon enough though, the warmth from Sharon crept over to me and I was asleep only a few minutes later.
* * *
Everything felt like such a blur. Mindless hours and days of training. So much exercise, so much fighting, so much instruction. They wanted to make me perfect. And through it all, THEY still would force me down and shove who knows how many surgical tools into my body when it came time for 'adjustments,' even though there was a level of trust built up by now. The pain and indefinite training wore on me hard, and the only thing that kept me going, was raw unfiltered rage. How foolish of them to gift me with combat knowledge. One day, one sweet day, I will get out of this cell and take my vengeance.
My head jerked slightly when I woke back up. My breathing was escalated, as if the things I was dreaming actually tired me out. As my mind was working to reboot, I began to notice small things. Sharon was awfully close to me, snuggled against my back and still asleep. It was aggravating my injuries when either of us would move too much, yet I decided that it was ok. We were leaching off of each other's body heat, and there was a comfortable warm spot being generated by Sharon. I did however, roll over so that Sharon would be against my side instead of my back, and that's when I noticed the huge comforter that had been draped across us both. Where did this come from? It didn't have the faint scent of the old lady that brought us into this room. Again, I decided not to question it on account of the warmth. Considering that my mind was still excessively groggy, I just pulled the collar of the coat that I used as a blanket over my eyes and went back to sleep. There must have been enough residual sleep medication in my system to allow me to slip to unconsciousness, but surreal voices and images tried to haunt at my mind and senses as I slipped away.
The next time I awoke, it was because there was movement on the mattress. I peeked out of one eye to see Sharon dashing off further into the office somewhere. The air was still very chilled, and it became apparent that a cold front moved in when I heard the gentle rain falling. I moaned, slightly annoyed that today was cold. The cold also made my injuries uncomfortable. I suppose it doesn't matter too much. It's not like I'm planning on doing hardly anything.
A minute or two later and Sharon came back to get in bed, nestling to find the warm spot she left behind. In the process, she bumped a burn, and I drew a quick breath in. If that's how it's going to be, then it's time to get up. Sharon watched with a touch of fear as I rose and gathered clothes to change into. She knew the reason I got up was because of her fidgeting, but I didn't address it.
After changing, I wandered the halls to build a mental map of my surroundings. There was more noise from within the rooms, and a couple of people moving up and down the halls. One of them was the old lady and she stopped me to talk.
"About time you got up. Oh...wow, your scars are...fresh."
"They're better than they used to be." It was now comfortable for me to talk at normal level.
"I hope you're taking care of it. We don't have anyone here with that level of medical practice. I need to talk to you anyway, what are you doing here?"
"I thought I had established this. I need a place to s
leep and eat for a few days."
The lady eyed me cautiously. "And you're not being followed?" Ah, that's what she's worried about.
"No. They don't know where I am."
"Who is 'they?'"
"The greaters."
"Which greaters?"
I cocked an eyebrow at her question. "Are you insinuating there's more than one kind?"
"Of course there is!" She gave me a look that suggested I should know better. "Resisters, gangsters, Usurpers..what kind?"
I stared at her for a second as a couple children ran past us and down the hall. "This is new to me. I was under the impression that all greaters were in one group, and that there were no resisters left."
"There's ALWAYS resisters somewhere. And of course the greaters aren't all the same. I suppose if you mean that they're all greedy, then yes. But that's exactly what divides them."
"The ones that found me originally had red bracelets on."
She knitted her eyebrows at the thought. "Those are the worst ones. Certainly the biggest group." She inhaled deeply and sighed slowly.
"Do they have a name?" I asked.
"Not particularly. That's the group that coined the term 'benevolent' so that's what we refer to them as, but they hold the most power and can keep splinter groups of greaters in check."
Hm. Power struggles, I can use that against them somehow. The woman held up a finger and walked past me to chastise a young child that started making a racket.
"What are you?" I asked. "Some kind of leader here?"
The lady shrugged. "I was here when we first came to live in this building so most everyone knows me. Now I'm a sort of grounds keeper."
"What's your name?"
"Bella. And what's yours? Surely not sapphire eyes..."
I glanced down the hall. "I don't remember my real name. And I'd rather keep my adoptive one secret...for safety reasons."
The woman stared at me seriously, before sputtering out a laugh. "You forgot your own name?"
"Yes. The reason involves more pain than your boring life would know..."