[Warning]
[This chapter contains scenes of imprisonment, strangulation, and attempted homicide.]
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|| Chapter 5: Seeking Salvation ||
"Get in the damn cryonic already...!" A loud voice echoed in his ears as an older man tried to shove his young body into a cryonic. "I'll get you out of it soon!" The voice reassured the young ravenette, who was resisting and fighting against the older man. "I promise!" The older man lied straight through his teeth, scowling at the struggling boy in front of him. "No! I don't want to!" The teen shouted with tears running down his face, his eyes swollen from how he was crying. His throat was burning from all the screaming and begging he did. "No!" He shrieked when he got forced into the cryonic, his back pressed into soft pillows.
The glass door closed in front of him and he didn't hesitate to slam his fist against it, attempting to escape. Alas, his pleas were ignored by the older man peering down at him. He was dressed in a black suit and white lab coat; his short pitch black hair was gelled back, revealing his sharp scowling charcoal eyes. "This is for your own good," He said to the teen inside the cryonic and placed his calloused hand against the glass, "Rest well."
"Father...! Please!" The young teen begged, coughing when a sweet-scented gas filled the cryonic. His vision grew blurry, watching how his father's hand left the glass as he walked away. "Father..." He whispered before falling into a dreamless slumber. He was left in complete darkness for how long until he felt something press against his forehead. A soft groan left his lips, furrowing his brows in annoyance when the object pressed harder against him.
Steadily, he opened his eyes into a glare, showing displeasure. However, that displeasure turned into confusion when he spotted the familiar face hovering over him - it was Uzi. She had a blank expression, staring intently at him as she pulled her finger away from his bandaged forehead. "Good, you're finally awake," Her lips were in a thin line, and she leaned away from him to sit in the chair next to the bed. Quietly, his gaze flickered around, observing the interior of the bedroom.
The room was filled with strange sketches, sticky notes, purple lights, and some dark furniture. "Where... am I?" He asked, carefully pushing himself up into a sitting position with a clenched jaw. "Urgh," He groaned when a shock of pain erupted in his skull. Immediately, he held his throbbing forehead, oblivious to how Uzi's eyes darkened. "You're in my room," She answered, tossing him a water bottle that she found inside his trenchcoat. "You passed out because you got a concussion," She explained with her head tilted, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked to the side, frowning, "That's at least what that old dude said..."
She glimpsed at him from the corner of her eye, observing how he desperately gulped all the water from the bottle. "I see..." He mumbled, completely unbothered by her words as he sighed heavily. Gently, his cold fingertips touched his forehead and felt a loose bandage around it. "I'm not good with bandages," She scowled, huffing with an irked look in her eyes. A crooked smile appeared on his lips, catching her off guard.
"...You at least tried to do it," He quietly reassured her, rubbing his sore nape with his gaze lowered to his lap, "So it's fine." Ignoring her wide-eyed reaction, he unwrapped the bandages and felt that nothing was bruised or fractured. He had a hunch that Ellipse had activated 'Emergency Recovery' when he fell unconscious. "For how long was I out?" He asked, pulling the bedcovers off him.
Goosebumps appeared on his skin from how cold the air in the room felt. "Five hours," She bluntly answered him, drilling holes into his head from how intense her gaze was. 'That means it's night right now,' He realized with a deep frown and held his chin with his fingers. It was quiet for a few seconds as neither of them said a word. "Hey," She called out to him, catching his attention, "I want to ask you something."
"Sure," He permitted her to ask him a question, raising a curious brow at her, "Go for it." A look of hesitation appeared on her face, mentally preparing herself. "Why..." She paused in the beginning before revealing her question, grabbing a handful of her skirt, "Why is your oil a different colour than mine...?" Immediately, his face grew pale and dark; it was as if he just received the worst news of his life.
A strange silence surrounded him when he didn't answer her. She was getting impatient with his silent behaviour. "Fixer-" She was interrupted by him. "Tell me," His voice was low and icy as his soulless eyes placed their gaze onto her, "What do you think about humans, Uzi?"
Her shoulders flinched at the sound of her name leaving his lips - it was the first time he said her name. "...I hate them," She told him with a deep venomous frown, glancing to the side, "They're the reason why those damn murder drones are here." He didn't say anything after that for a few minutes. Silently, he brought his knees up to his chest and buried his head in them.
"I see," He mumbled in a dry tone, running his fingers through his tangled hair. "Then if I told you that I was one of them," He added, gripping his hair with white knuckles, "What would you do?" It felt like something flared inside her heart and she unconsciously spat out the words that came to her mind, "I would kill you." Shocked by herself, she covered her mouth with her hand.
A dry yet helpless laugh escaped him, filling the dark bedroom in a low manner. Suddenly, his right arm lunged at her and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling him towards him. As she fell forward, he fell backwards with a strained smile. A soft thud was heard when his back made contact with the mattress, his head hanging off the bedside.
Uzi straddled his stomach with wide eyes, trying to steady herself with her free hand. Her breath hitched when he forced her cold fingers to hold his scorching hot throat. "There you go," He dryly mused with a tilt of his head, holding her wrist in place so that her fingers wouldn't leave his throat, "The stage is set for you, Uzi."
"What the hell are-" She was about to yell at him from how embarrassed she was, however, those emotions vanished when he interrupted her, "I'm human." It felt like her heart dropped to her stomach and she couldn't believe her ears. "I'm human - the last human survivor on this planet," He revealed to her, staring at her with calm yet dull eyes.
He didn't even flinch when her grip around his throat tightened greatly - it felt like he was getting strangled by a piano cord. Her other hand joined her occupied hand and started to strangle him in pure fury. Her chest heaved as all the resentment from the past years poured out. He choked and coughed with a crooked smile on his face, feeling how his lungs burnt from the lack of air.
It wasn't long before he broke out in cold sweat with a thin trail of blood dripping down his nostrils from the pressure of getting strangled. He could feel how his eyes burnt and grew strained as it felt like they were about to pop out of his skull. "You're... urgh... doing a good... agh... job..." He praised her with a strained voice, his vision flickering with small black and white spots. Just as his grip on her wrists started to loosen, her fingers froze.
Shakily, she pulled her hands away from his throat - dark finger-shaped bruises littered his skin. His head hung off the bedside in a limping manner before he started coughing and gasping. Instinctively, he touched his bruised throat when he felt the cold toxic air enter his lungs, causing his heart rate to pick up. "Why...?" He asked through a cough, glaring at Uzi from his position. She didn't answer him, but, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and tugged his torso up. Now, their faces were a few centimetres away from each other.
'Woah...' He thought with half-lidded eyes as he stared at her bright neon purple irises that were burning with fury, 'Her eye colour is pretty...' She gritted her teeth in anger, trembling from adrenaline. "You look angry..." He whispered, tilting his head and feeling how blood dripped from his nostrils, causing him to smirk, "Don't tell me you're pissed off by how I'm willing to die by your hands?" His taunts triggered her - she harshly slapped him in the face, causing his head to turn to the side. He didn't move for a few seconds before a low chuckle left him.
Leisurely, he turned his head to face her with a smirk again. Her slap split open the corner of his lip. Almost tauntingly, his tongue flicked over the fresh wound on his lip, tasting the bitter iron flavour of blood. "Are all humans like this?" She sneered with a venomous tone, glaring at his smirking face. "Nope," He blurted out, chuckling in amusement, "Only those who don't have the will to live like me." She tensed up at his words before loosening her grip on his shirt, dropping her hands to her sides.
"...Why do you want to die?" She whispered with narrowed eyes, frowning. "It's a long story," He admitted with a sigh and calmly wiped the blood away from his nostrils, "I doubt that you want to hear it." Stubbornly, she stared at him with a face that clearly said 'I want to hear it.' With a sweatdrop on his cheek, he carefully placed his hands on her waist and pushed her off his stomach. Once she was sitting cross-legged on the bed, he lowered his torso back onto the mattress and hung his head off the bedside with his hands folded over his stomach.
"...My father was a scientist obsessed with how AI programming and the human brain worked," He slowly started the story, closing his eyes, "My mother was an ex-military commander and my little sister was a baby back then." She leaned her chin on her hand as she plopped her elbow onto her knee, glancing at him. "My mother was always paranoid about apocalypses happening," He told her with a small chuckle, recalling all the things his mother did, "So, she taught me and my sister everything about survival back on Earth." A memory of his mother frantically teaching him how to make shelters and fire filled his head.
"She even taught me how to hunt animals, self-defence, and use weapons," He added with a gentle nostalgic expression. However, his expression turned dark and annoyed. "But, my father and I got sent to Copper9 by Jenson Company," He scowled at recalling hearing the news of him being chosen to immigrate to Copper9, "He was chosen to create the worker drones and I had no choice but to go with him."
Uzi flinched at what he said and grabbed a handful of her skirt, trying to hide her reaction from him. "It only got worse when my father started to experiment with AI on humans," He grimaced at the memory of test subjects screaming their lungs out as he had to watch from the sidelines. "He wanted to combine AI and humans to create a new species," He ruffled his hair with a frown, sighing, "He just wanted to see how could AI evolve humanity."
For a few minutes, they stayed silent. Uzi took that as an opportunity to let everything sink in. "That bastard even used me for one of his experiments," The ravenette snapped, breaking the silence as he clutched his shirt over his stomach, "He shoved me into a damn cryonic, forcing me to sleep for a decade." Slowly, Uzi started to piece the puzzle together and her eyes widened in realization. "That means you..." She turned to him with trembling lips.
"Yeah," He bluntly confirmed, staring at the ceiling, "I slept through the core explosion. I only woke up a few months ago." With a small groan, he rubbed his face with his hands and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "The only thing that he left me was his destroyed shelter and AI assistant," He mumbled with his eyes closed, "I can't even go back to Earth if I wanted to - I don't have the parts for it."
A frown appeared on her lips when she figured out that was the reason why he wanted to die - he didn't want this to continue. "So, I would appreciate it if you add me to the 'kill all humanity' list," He mused with a chuckle, peeking at her with a grin, "Just do it quick, kid." At his words, she rolled her eyes with a scoff, "Yeah, yeah, whatever, you psycho..." She raised a brow when he sluggishly got up from the mattress and sat down on the chair next to the bed.
"What are you doing?" She asked with narrowed eyes, confused and suspicious. "I'm going to sleep for a few hours," He told her with a deadpanned expression and picked up his trenchcoat that he gave to her, "So don't mind me." Irked, she mumbled something under her breath before covering her head with her bedsheets. Quietly, he covered himself with his coat and got comfortable in the chair - slowly falling asleep once again.