Feathers of Life Chapter 6
The sound of words fueled by anger and hate pulled me awake and once more I could feel that familiar pain again. My eyes dared not open while trying to adjust and gather information about my current situation. Nothing felt broken as each limb slowly moved trying to regain control over my body's functionality.
"You know something clearly. So what the hell is going on, Kacy."
The angry words continued but now I could hear them more clearly as my body was starting to adjust and I could move through the pain a little more freely.
"This was a contract job for my brother but it wasn't supposed to be dangerous. This place was abandoned and it was clearly supposed to be cleared out, Kris told me it was safe. I swear I'm not sure what happened."
With the pain coursing through me it was hard to suppress a few grunts and groans as my body moved to a more comfortable position. Erin noticed me moving and rushed over to me but I noticed she had a slight limp which worried me.
"Thank god nothing happened to you, Hannah… Are you okay, is anything broken?"
"All good… This flat piece of the floor must have broken our fall. but how did it even happen in the first place."
"Kacy seems to not know anything, but I don't believe her. She has to know something."
Erin was angry for many valid reasons and even I felt that sting of betrayal from her actions, but what if she didn't know. Then that would mean she was betrayed by her brother and when I look at her the guilt is clear on her face. She feels responsible and doesn't even seem to understand how things became like this.
"Erin, there's some first aid boxes over here let's get your leg fixed up."
After making sure I was fine Erin made her way over to Kacy slowly but at least her injuries weren't serious enough. When I realized the gun wasn't near me I started to search the area around me hoping to find it before we had to move.
"Erin, do you know what happened with Hannah back there?"
hushed whispers reached my ears but only because this place was so silent almost like a graveyard. It was expected to have her curious after seeing what happened and how easily I pulled a trigger.
"I don't know… that was different from the last time it happened. She had a violent rage but this was like a calm storm. Felicia told me it could have been a number of things but she didn't have enough information. We learned that her stress makes her change drastically though but that's all we know."
"Are you not worried that she just killed someone without hesitation, with precision gun aim?"
"She is still Hannah…That is all I care about."
I don't understand it so how could anyone else even come close to knowing what happens to me when my stress is too high. My eyes catch the sight of the gun so I quickly reach for it and tuck it away in my bag once more, hoping I won't need to use it again.
"Hey, Hannah. Erin is good to go so we should start moving and find a way out. maybe find my brother as well."
The one person who probably had the answers we needed but would he even tell us since he didn't even tell his sister. We move through a flickering hallway with me supporting Erin's weight keeping her off the bad foot. One of the rooms we passed had these huge tanks and strange metal containers. I could see the words cryo labeled on the things connected to the tanks with tubes which was strange and made no sense to me at all. We turned a corner and found a room labeled chief researcher A, another strange thing that did not make sense to me. Kacy decided to poke her head into the office space and soon enough we started searching for any information that could be left behind. The computer was smashed up so even with electricity and wifi we couldn't access its contents, while most documents had been shredded.
"Hey, look at this paper. It's the only one not destroyed fully. They must have been in a rush to clean up."
"Subjects are being placed inside cryogenic slumber. Experiments postponed till later, Will need to recover the surviving subjects later."
She read the words eligible to be read which made me worry even more since this place was becoming something from a horror film. I didn't want to be here any longer than necessary but we couldn't leave so easily either which sucked. Since we could not find anything else we decided to move on and keep looking for a way back up to the floor above us. We had to take breaks every so often and even switch Erin to Kacy so I wasn't the only one carrying her weight. When we turned a corner another person like that guy from earlier was standing at the far side leaning against a wall while the body was shaking visibly. She seemed to be from one of those cryogenic slumbers mentioned in that paper but she didn't seem to notice us so we decided to take a chance. We carefully walked along the far wall away from her creeping past her without trying to disturb which worked perfectly, just like last time I could hear the mumbling of numbers as we passed.
At the end of the hallway the lighting was much worse and soon we entered a room with operating equipment with lots of medical supplies. Erin decided to take a rest while me and Kacy tried looking for anything useful or even more information on what happened here. Then I heard a voice from something Kacy picked up.
"Subjects are experiencing violent tendencies when the sequence imprinted is broken. a side effect we did not foresee but the higher ups seem to have a use for it… this is becoming more inhumane-"
The sound of an alarm rings out through the rest of what the woman tried to say but we had a little more information, which explains what happened last time. This place was imprinting humans to act a certain way but what reason could they have for such a terrible thing. This is beyond inhumane so how could anyone willingly participate.
"This is some sick shit."
"This was your idea, don't forget Kacy."
"Okay, Erin, we need to work together and escape. We can't be fighting right now."
I know how Erin feels right now and I can feel the similar feelings towards Kacy but we still needed her to get out of here. With silence between everyone we set off once more trying to find some way back upstairs. Then the sound of gunshots and a scream that sounded like Martha, which was strange. Kacy pushed Erin to me and started rushing towards the sounds of gunfire but we couldn't stop her with our words even though we tried.
"You may wanna get that gun back out Hannah."
Words spoken i didnt wanna hear said but she was not wrong either since we still don't know what else is down here waiting in the darkness for us. After setting her down against the wall I pull out the gun once more checking to make sure it still has ammo. Then in a quick glimpse I see Kacy and Kris running from something but no Martha. Then something a little taller with a much bigger body frame enters my sight line. It seems so much more different and the sounds it makes are cries or groans even, unlike the others that speak number sequences. Leaving me to wonder what experiments were used on this one.
"Jesus christ we need to get out of here…Hannah help me up, i'll walk."
"But you're still injured, let me carry you. Everything will be fine."
My mental state was shattered and my body was rattled with fear but I tried my best to seem fine because Erin would worry about me more. I don't wanna be a burden but if we dont leave soon I may lose control again. Once that person left we headed down the hall where they came from hoping to find Martha or something that could help us get out of here. With me carrying Erin's weight things became slower over time since I was alone with this now, yet I still hope they are okay.
We reached a room destroyed in many ways and spotted Martha on the floor with a nasty wound on her head which was alarming. Erin insisted on heading back to the medical room for medicine and bandages which I didn't agree with but I knew she had to do it. I did my best to raise her head slowly hoping I wouldn't make things worse and with a shirt from my bag I tried to clean the wound of her blood. She is still breathing but I'm still worried about her safety and how she even got down here, but the same could be said for Kristopher as well.
'Here, this should help clean and disinfect the wound"
I saw the pain in her face but knew I couldn't say anything since it wouldn't change anything given our current situation. After a few minutes of doing the most basic first aid i hoped it was enough till we could get her actual medical treatment. I left Erin to watch over her while I decided to look around our surrounding area and hope nothing dangerous would come till she woke up and could move again. I wasn't sure if Erin ever used a gun but I left it with her just in case something happened which made her more worried but it was safer this way. In truth my mind was slipping quickly and I could feel myself breaking down from forcing myself for so long. A few rooms had been adjacent to this one but they had nothing of value and the information was less helpful. Something in here has to explain what this place was used for and why though because this is not a movie, this kind of shit shouldn't happen.
After searching turned up nothing I decided to sit down and collect myself going through every exercise I could recall hoping to regain control of my mental state. All i wanted was to go home and forget this nightmare but will i even survive this place. Every negative thought and possibility became hard to ignore making it difficult to continue the exercises. Then I heard a short scream sending my heart racing as panic quickly consumed me. I raced back to where I left Erin hoping nothing happened while I was away. Luckily it was Martha waking up afraid of whatever happened to her before.
"Is everything okay here?"
"I think so. she just shot up with a scream. Martha, you are safe now. Calm Down."
The fear was real and her body was shaking in pure fear, so whatever happened to her must have something to do with that person we saw earlier. After some time passed she calmed down enough to speak and regained her composure.
"I was with Kristopher… He snuck away first and I saw where he went so I followed when everyone was occupied in that other room. Everything was fine but he was worried that Kacy turned on the generators and rebooted the system. We were heading to the main control room or something… Then that thing came out of nowhere and Kristopher didn't hesitate. He just started shooting. But then more showed up and eventually we got overwhelmed, the last one was way different from the others though. It took the bullets like they were made of rubber."
They are human but whatever experiments they ran had changed something inside of them and ultimately this seems more like weaponized human experiments. I even saw the blood dripping from that one person pursuing Kris and Kacy, but it just made that crying sound and continued moving like it wasn't affected. Before I could ask more questions we heard another sound but this wasn't human, it was the sound of a bear and it was getting closer. How much did they lock up down here and how deep do these experiments go.