The guard shifted, trying to rise, one hand still pressed to his ribs. Kai watched him calmly, almost amused. As the man finally staggered upright, Kai plucked the baton from his grasp with ease.
"Do you know what's funny?" Kai said, his voice low but carrying an edge. He turned the baton over in his hands, his red eyes fixed on the guard. "I barely remember anything before this hellhole. My mind's been scrambled by whatever Nyx has done to me."
The words felt unusual to speak aloud, but they were true. His memories were a mess - fragments that didn't quite fit together.
Kai stepped closer, the guard flinching and retreating instinctively.
"But you," Kai continued, voice steady, "I remember you. You're one of Nyx's errand boys, aren't you? Dragging me around like a sack of meat. Enjoyed it, didn't you?"
The guard couldn't meet his gaze, his hands trembling as he held them up defensively.
Kai tilted his head, smirking as he studied the baton. "You also like this thing - always so quick to use it." He ran his fingers over the buttons. "So let's see how it works."
Without warning, Kai pressed one of the buttons, and the baton crackled to life. Electricity arced from its tip, and with a flick of his wrist, he sent a jolt into the guard.
The man cried out, stumbling back against the cell wall before collapsing to his knees. Kai watched impassively as he started to crawl toward the door, desperation etched into every movement.
Kai followed slowly, his footsteps measured, the baton crackling in his hand. He glanced down the corridor. It was empty. The prisoners in the other cells were silent, their hollow eyes peering out from the shadows. They were too broken to act, too far gone to care.
"Wait - Subject 357 - please, we can talk about this-" the guard stammered, his voice rising in panic.
Kai didn't let him finish. Another jolt sent the man sprawling, his limbs twitching as he let out a strangled gasp.
"Talk about what?" Kai asked, his tone almost conversational. He took another step forward, the baton's hum filling the air. "Why isn't this place swarming with your buddies by now? What's going on here?"
The guard's lips trembled as he tried to answer, but Kai zapped him again before he could get a word out.
"Try again," Kai said, his voice soft but laced with menace.
"I-I was ordered to retrieve your body," the guard stammered, his words spilling out in a rush. "But you - you weren't supposed to be-"
"Alive?" Kai finished for him. "I'm not sure how either. But what's the rush? What's happening?"
"There are intruders-" the guard began, but he stopped abruptly, his face twisting with fear.
"And?" Kai pressed, narrowing his eyes.
The guard didn't answer. He stopped backing away, his body going still. Kai could see the resignation settling in his expression.
'He won't let me live, and even if he does, I'll suffer a fate worse than death if I return to the boss empty-handed.' With that in mind, the guard clenched his jaw, and then his body began to convulse.
Foam bubbled at his lips, and within seconds, he was twitching violently on the floor.
'He's made up his mind.' Kai sighed, watching the man die in front of him with detached indifference. "Poison. What did I expect from that bastard Nyx?"
To be certain, Kai jabbed the baton into the lifeless body, sending one last shock through it. The corpse twitched, but it didn't move again.
"Could've at least told me something useful before offing yourself," Kai muttered, crouching to search the guard's pockets. He pulled out a ring of keys, unlocking his shackles with a satisfying clink.
Stripping off the guard's uniform, Kai donned it over his ragged clothing. The fit was a little loose, but it would do. He then put on his shoes, which felt like a luxury, before pocketing the pistol and baton.
His mind raced.
'The siren, the lack of guards, intruders... Whatever's going on, this is my best chance.'
He glanced at the other cells, his red eyes narrowing. The broken figures inside stared back at him, some curious, others empty.
Kai smirked. 'Might as well cause a little chaos.'
He moved swiftly from cell to cell, unlocking each door with the stolen keys. The subjects shuffled out hesitantly - some stumbling like the broken shells of people they had become, while others fixed Kai with wild, unhinged stares.
"Go on," Kai said, his voice calm yet commanding. "Get out of here."
For a brief moment, they hesitated, their empty eyes darting between him and the open corridor.
Bang!
Then, a gunshot pierced the air and chaos erupted as pent-up rage boiled over. Some prisoners turned on each other in frenzied violence, while others bolted toward the nearest exit.
Many were grotesquely deformed, their sanity long eroded by Nyx's experiments. Most didn't survive more than a few days under his torment. Those who did could barely be called human anymore, their twisted forms swarming toward the stairs leading out of the cells.
Weirdly, none dared to approach Kai.
'Must be the uniform I'm wearing,' he assumed, donning the clothes of the guard he had fought.
But in reality, it was the menacing look in his red eyes that silently cautioned all the hollow test subjects as he stood back, watching the pandemonium unfold with a satisfied smirk.
'The perfect cover.'
Then, without hesitation, he slipped into the shadows, weaving through the chaos as the sounds of screaming and destruction echoed around him.
"This is going to be fun," he murmured, a faint grin curling his lips.