by Thomas Shaw
Sentry
Part 2
Influence of a Drowsy God
By Thomas Shaw
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© 2017 Thomas Shaw
Terms and Conditions:
The purchaser of this book is subject to the condition that he/she shall in no way resell it, nor any part of it, nor make copies of it to distribute freely.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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1
Cold. Feeling cold was the first thing I remembered. Then the sensation of being submerged in water. It was difficult to open my eyes, and once I did, I had to try focus hard to see through the water. My mouth was covered by a breathing device, but my nose was covered up to stop me inhaling the water. I looked down. My neck was stiff and ached. My arms were covered in tubes and wires that were plugged into my flesh. My skin was pale, much closer to white than the usual peachy colour. Around my waist was a belt, attached to a metal bar that was holding me in place in this tube I was seemingly stuck inside. I focused more, through the clear water and to the other side of the glass. I was in a large dimly lit room. To my left were more large tubes containing more people, presumably like myself. None of them were awake, as far as I could tell anyway. The rest of the room was quite sparse, the only furnishings was a laptop sat on a small metal table in the middle of the room.
I could hear banging from far away, like metal upon metal. Then the faint echoes of footsteps until finally the doors at the left of the room opened and in walked three men. Two of them were wearing suits and looked very sharply dressed. The other was wearing a typical white lab coat. They walked across the room and the one in the white coat started typing on the laptop. He glanced up across the room and looked back down, then quickly looked up again with a shocked expression across his face. He said something inaudible to the other two, one of them left and the other drew a small pistol from his belt. He aimed it towards, I thought me, but I closed my eyes hard. I opened them and realised he was aiming at the tank furthest from mine. He didn't fire, just kept aiming. The scientist pressed a few more keys on the console and the tank juddered foreword. The glass front started to slide upwards and water (or whatever liquid it was) drained out of the tank. It emptied out onto the floor, but the metal walkway was grated so it was gone immediately. After the glass casing had risen, a man, large, muscular and quite pale, slowly stomped onto the metal ground below his containment tank. He ripped the wires from his arms and I flinched in a sort of vicarious pain as he did so.
He was breathing heavily and towered over the scientist who had approached him.
“Subject Seven. You shouldn't be awake; do you remember who woke you?” The scientist barked. Subject Seven didn't reply. Just stood, staring. He looked around the room and then back at the scientist.
This question made me think: Where was I? Or even more worryingly: Who was I? I knew I hadn’t been here all my life, I remembered a city, working at a computer, playing football with people and I remembered being human. I didn’t have much time to figure anything else out as the scientist started talking again,
“Not talking. Shame” he huffed and walked away back to the laptop, “You still don't understand why we're doing this, do you? Never mind, let's just go back to sleep and we can discuss this when we've finally managed to work out the problem”
Problem? What problem? I looked down at my arms. My skin was changing, becoming darker. As it did, I noticed a sort of texture appearing, like I had gained scales. I looked over at Subject Seven. The same was happening to him. He had stood back in the tank and the glass casing was lowering again. I tried to get out of my restraints, but I couldn’t break them. The casing was nearly in place but suddenly Subject Seven seemed to change his mind. He grabbed the bottom rim of the tube and stopped it from lowering any further. He managed to raise it upwards until the mechanics that was trying to lower it down started to groan and creak. He broke it off its hinge and threw it to one side. He stood, watching the scientist, who had pulled out his own pistol, and the guard. Both took aim with their weapons. He seemed to calculate his move and with a huge amount of force, pounced at the scientist! He must have been at least three meters from him! His guard started shooting whilst he was airborne, but missed with every shot. The scientist was knocked to the ground and Subject Seven started tearing into his chest. It was then I noticed the claws. Long talons sticking out of his, and also my, fingers. He was ripping apart this mans stomach with his bare hands! A bullet hit him in the collar. He stopped with the tearing and stood up. He looked down at the guard. In that moment I think the guard wished he was dead. Subject Seven grabbed a hold of the gun and threw it behind him, it clattered on the metal flooring and slipped underneath one of the containment tanks. Subject Seven grabbed the guards neck, squeezing hard. Seven granted the guards wish and broke the skin of the guards neck, unleashing litres of blood which covered the metal floor and Subject Seven. He dropped the guard and his lifeless body slumped to the floor, blood still spurting out.
He turned now and looked at the others in their tanks, finally resting his eyes on me. He walked over to the console the scientist had been using and started pressing a few buttons and the six stasis tanks, including mine, began to rise and move forward towards the centre of the room. Just like his, the glass casings started to rise, and the liquid poured out. The belt that was holding me back disconnected from the tank and I was able to step down. Whilst coming out I pulled the breathing tube out of my mouth and throat.
Subject Seven walked over to me and helped me down out of my tank. I ripped the tubes and needles out of my body and he helped me over to where the attack had just taken place. I rested against the metal table the laptop was resting on and watched as the others started to stir. Subject Seven looked at the door across the room and headed over towards it. He pressed a button on the side and the door opened up and Subject Seven left! I was too weak to chase after him, so I just stayed, slumped on the floor looking at the either. I seemed to be the only one awake. The others all seemed to be in the same way, pale, muscular and bald. I felt my own head and sighed at the lack of hair. The people inside all awoke and stumbled out of their tanks, pulling out all the tubes from their bodies. They looked around in confusion. One of them saw me and came over. The others did so, and I go to my feet. The first one looked at me worryingly. I looked down at my body. I was covered in blood. I looked back at the dead scientist and guard and turned back to the others. We were stood in a circle. “Where are we?” One of them growled.
“Do not know, can't remember” Another said.
“I can't remember anything” said another, “Not even my name”
I looked above our containment tanks. They all had different numbers, mine was 001C, the one next to me was 002M. They went up in numbers up to 7 and each had a different letter, “I think they’re a clue. We can use the numbers for now. So I’m One” My voice sounded and felt rough. It was like a voice if never heard before, so it wasn’t my normal voice.
“Then I must be Six” someone said. The rest nodded in agreement with my idea.
The door behind me opened and Seven walked out. He called over to us, “I’ve found the exit”
The others seemed to ignore him, so I headed towards the door, “Come on, let’s go”
We all headed towards the door, I slowed down, letting the others take over. I watched as their skin was also changing, becoming more of an oily green colour like mine. We were all pretty muscular as well, with very prominent veins popping out across our bodies. The only different feature was the shape of our faces and was really the only way I could tell us all apart.
I ran my hand over my head again, I couldn’t tell if my hair had fallen out or if it had been shaven by someone. I used to have hair, I remember running my fingers through it.
We walked through the corridors, turning right then right again. A long corridor was in front of us. At the far end, at least ten yards away was a door and stood in front of it was another guard. He looked like the one that had run out once he had noticed Seven was awake. He noticed us immediately and he pulled out a phone and started talking into it. Six barged in front of us and started running towards the guard, who in turn, raised a gun and started shouting at him to stand still. Six did not. He instead leaped in to the air and smashed the guard against the door! Breaking it down, and surely killing the guard in the process! We all ran after and looked down at the crumpled mess of a guard. He twitched slightly as blood poured out of the huge wound across his face. And then he was still. I didn’t know how to feel about it and stood over him, staring down until an alarm started ringing all around us, snapping me out of my trance. In the distance we could hear footsteps marching towards us. We agreed to get out, as quick as we could. We headed off down more corridors, avoiding gun fire from more guards. The guards had started covering their suits with some armour, similar in design to bullet proof vests. And the further we went, the bigger the guns we becoming. The first ones had used simple handguns, now we were dodging gullets fired from assault rifles. Four was shot in the leg, but he just pulled the bullet out of the wound and just kept running. We found a staircase and closed the door behind us. Two ripped off a metal pipe that formed the banister for the stairs and bent it around the handle and the other bannister. He twisted the metal like it was made of foam, with no effort at all. Me and Seven ascended the stairs and came to another door. We dug our claws into the edges and pried it from the wall. I placed it to one side and joined Seven in the other room.
The room was more like a storage cupboard. It was small and impossible to fit all seven of us inside, Two and Four stood at the top of the stairs. Shelves were stocked with books and files and various bits of stationary. Three pulled a file from the shelf. Instead of a file with paper, it was an electronic screen inside. He looked at the spine of the file, it simply read 'Subject Notes'. I looked towards the only other door and I tentatively turned the door handle, pushing the door open. There was no one in the other room so I opened the door fully and we walked inside one by one. The room was large, with a large circular table in the middle with black and blue chairs all around. The lights were off and there were no windows. The only light was coming through a glass door at the other side of the room. There was the faint sound of the alarm downstairs, but it wasn't ringing up here. Five closed the door behind us and after that we couldn’t hear it anymore.
We wandered around the room, catching our breath and making sure that, apart from Four, we weren't wounded. But then, out of nowhere, another alarm started blaring though the room. This one was different, more formal based, unlike the industrial one downstairs. We could hear a commotion coming from outside the room, shouting and the stomping of hard footsteps. The glass door smashed, and a small canister landed between me and Two.
“Grenade!” He shouted. We all dived to the edge of the room and curled up in an attempt to shield ourselves from the blast. The grenade went off with a flash of light and my ears felt like they were going to burst! I sat up and tried looking around and I could see blurred images of what looked like more people entering the room. They looked bulky and heavily armoured, with large black guns. They stepped in quickly and quietly, guns raised. My vision returned quickly, and I saw Five standing up, towering over the men. He grabbed one of their guns and ripped it out of his hands and chucked it to one side. The soldier ducked back, and the other soldiers started firing at Five. The bullets hit him and were knocking him back, but we noticed that the bullets weren't actually penetrating his skin. We all stood now and started grabbing the soldiers and throwing them around, swatting them away from us like they were insects inconveniencing us.
They managed to escape out of the room. We all looked at each other and followed them out. I went out first, walking over the smashed glass in the doorway. I could feel the glass, cutting into the skin on my bare feet, but it was more uncomfortable than it was painful. We went left down a long corridor, the way the soldiers had ran off. I stepped out to turn left down another corridor when I quickly took a step back. I peered around the corner and stood at the end of the hallway were eight men in suits, hand guns raised and in front of them stood a soldier with a mounted machine gun. It had a large long barrel which began to spin. Slowly but surely the bullets started to fly. I ducked back around the corner whilst the bullets flicked past. We were pinned down. I turned to the others, “We need a plan. If we can…where's Six?”
My question was answered when we heard a growl and a crash, like a car hitting a wall. The bullets had stopped so I looked around the corner again. The soldiers were looking at the wall to their right with concern. Out of nowhere, the wall next to them burst open and Six dived onto the man holding the mounted gun. He had him on the ground and was clawing at his face. He tore the machine gun from its tripod and turned to the guards in suits. He easily mowed them down. Throwing the gun to the floor he looked at us and beckoned us over with a jerk of the head. We joined him and continued on.
Just after the hallway was the lobby for the building. Chairs lined the edge of the room, large windows looked out to the night outside. A few plants were dotted around the room. A single desk stood in front of a large plaque on the wall with the word DarkWatch written in big black writing with some strange symbol, a pentagon with an odd flower or star symbol in the middle. The reception seemed to be deserted but the alarm continued to ring. We didn’t stick around and quickly left the building through the rotating door at the front.
Outside was quiet, the alarm was so faint that if you don’t know it was ringing, you probably wouldn’t have noticed it. We were stood in a car park but there weren't that many cars.
The moon was high in the sky and there was a very hard chill in the wind. We left the car park and ascended a large hill by the side of the building. As we walked we noted how quite it was, the only sound coming from the crashing waves against the cliff face We was now looking down at.
I turned back to the building. It didn’t look very big, only three floors tall. It seemed inconspicuous, and if we hadn't been a part of what had happened in there, then I would've probably not payed it any attention at all. All the lights seemed to be out, except for a few on the ground floor. It was the only building in this area, isolated from the nearby city. We stood on a grassy hill to the buildings side, and looked on towards the city.
The road away from the building and heading towards the city, winded in between fields, until reaching a large building which looked similar to a small shopping centre. As the buildings got further inland, they became taller until the tallest tower in the centre looked to be at least thirty stories high. I was trying to think of the city name but couldn't remember at all. I closed my eyes and thought hard, but I had no memory of ever being here.
“What now?” Two asked, startling me to open my eyes, “We need to move”
“Let's just find somewhere to hide” Suggested Five.
“They'll be looking for us, we should split up” I voiced.
The others seemed to agree. We said nothing more, just looked at one another and started marching towards the city. As we got closer we started separating till eventually I was by myself. I stuck to alleyways and quiet streets, trying to keep out of the eye from people. I climbed up to the roof of a small building and surveyed
the area. I could make out what looked like a tower currently under construction. I headed that way, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. I could jump quite far, at one point leaping from one roof to another that was at least a street wide! I stumbled as I landed, mainly due the shock of the feat I had just pulled. It was something I would have to get used to I thought.
I finally arrived at the building site and climbed over the metal fence that went around the perimeter and started scaling the metal girders of the partly built tower. I came to the eighth floor and wandered around. On the ground was a large sheet of grey tarpaulin. I picked it up and wrapped it around myself. There were coils of rope hung over a stack of bricks, so I used these to form a belt, in order to keep my makeshift cloak in place. I stood on the edge of the building, looking towards the city centre.
Across the road was a petrol station with the date and time on its sign: Tuesday 22nd of December 2111, 23:52 am. I had no memories at all, my mind was blank, but deep down, there was something calling to me, something I felt was important. My head was hurting, it felt like my brains was inside a tornado, like it was flying around in my head, yet I was stood completely still. I rubbed my face, pushing my thumbs into my eyes to try to block out the pain. I was tired, and I turned around to look for something to sleep on. In another partly constructed room, I found large boards of wood and laid them down creating a stack of nine. I got down on them and tried to cover my body with the tarpaulin. I took a breath in and closed my eyes in hopes of sleep.
2
I did not sleep that night. Instead, I sat on the edge of the bed I had made, looking out over the cityscape, trying to remember who I was. I was awake, even though I felt exhausted. I couldn't remember my name, only that it started with a ‘Ch’. The name in my memories always cut off after the initial Ch.