Chapter 3
For the past few days, Four felt horrible... Every day he'd wake up in the same cold sweat, remembering the same dream over and over... By this point they had stopped asking the questions in the beginning and skipped straight to cutting Four with the scalpel... Every day there were more cuts, deeper cuts, didn't matter... There was always pain... Only 5 days had passed since that first encounter... And since then two more people were gone... Presumed dead. Seven was one of them, but Four still had Two and Ten, but he was getting worse... Everyone was getting worse... Two had stopped crying all together two days ago, as she's bloodied her hands too much as it is... Four despised the people who hurt Two, as well as everyone else here. But Four could not think of anything to do...
Four woke up from his nightmare just to stand and realize he still has to live another... He unenthusiastically grabbed his meal bar, which once held a great positive hold on his system, now just taste like filling poison and ash within his mouth... Once finished he trudged back into the testing room, two men already standing there waiting for him. Though unlike last time, there was no chair, but a long table. The men in the room asked Four to lay down, and get comfortable as they get prepared.
In Four's mind, he honestly wanted nothing more then to kick the men's ass and kill them for what they've done to everyone, but no... Four just laid down as he was told... Before Four could react, the larger of the two men quickly had him strapped down with large leather straps, leaving only his left arm hanging out.
Four started to panic. He knew that he'd thrashed around before, but that was in pain, and he hadn't hurt anyone. Why would they strap him down now. Four soon realized why...
As the man was strapping Four down the other man was preparing a strange machine... It had a hand held part that fit his hand perfectly, but attached to it was a looped wire that Four missed at first because it was incredibly thin. When the man was satisfied he walked over to Four and grabbed his arm, slipping the device on all the way to the joint in his shoulder. He pressed a few keys as the wire tightened around his arm. Four heart was racing as many thoughts popped into his head about what would happen... But of all of them he hoped that the one that scared Four the most would not happen...
The man sat there with the machine, fiddling with it as the other man tied down his arm. When they were both finished they stepped back, the man messing with the machine pulling out a small remote as he just looked at Four, a neutral mood upon his face. Then, he pushed the button on the remote. It was minor at first, but then Four realized that the wire was getting tighter, and tighter. Four began to panic immensely as he realized what they were doing.
They were cutting off his arm.
Four was yelling at the top of his lungs in pain as the wires slowly bit through flesh, muscle, and bone... But when the wire started cutting through his nerves Four could no longer take it, and passed out in sheer pain.
Within moments he woke back up, a strong pressure at the front of Four's skull.
"You must stay awake during the process or we will not get proper data." The man working the machine replied as he pocketed a needle and went back to the other man. Four was feeling throbbing pain, but could no longer feel his arm... He tried his best not to look, but finally he did... His arm was already on the ground, a very clean cut going through his arm. Four merely cried at first in both pain, and the loss of his arm that he felt would not come back. But finally he felt a sharp pain in his joint as he felt the usual strong pain... Though this time was worse... This time though Four did not cry out as he he grit his teeth and watched every detail through tear filled eyes. Four watched as his bone and marrow were the first to come back, with the muscles growing in close behind, catching his finger joints as they grew nicely in place. By the time the muscle and ligaments regrew, the muscle quickly wrapped itself taught around the bones, Four's nerves activating as well, sending prickly pains running up and down his arm as if he'd slept on it. As his skin grew back Four felt sick though, as it grew in small layers at a time before it completely covered his arm. Last thing that came back was his fingernails, which didn't hurt nearly as much as everything else... Four had completely regrown his arm, and now had a hairless arm that looked completely new... As well as a throbbing pain as he moved it for the first time...
As Four blinked tears from his eyes he noticed the two men shaking hands, obviously pleased with Four's accomplishment. Four just felt hatred for the men... As they had no idea the pain Four just went through... But then they just unstrapped him and left, like nothing at all had happened. Hell, they took the arm they cut off with them! Four simply sighed, his body shaking as he felt his new arm... It still hurt, but the pain was starting to dull as his body got used to it...
As Four went out into the Rec room however, he noticed that everyone was already there, with Two running up to him and wrapping her arms around him, giving him a painful hug as she replied,"Four! You're still here! Ten and I were worried you would never come out!"
"Yeah... I didn't think I would either Two..." Four replied the best he could, still flexing his new arm to make sure it still worked. When he was satisfied he led Two back to the table with Ten as they all just sat there silently... Ten was obviously getting worse, as it looked like the energy he was had was just being drained from him every day, with some days he just lays his head on the table. As he is right now. There were only 2 more people aside from them; One, and Eight, who was sitting my himself at his usual table, crying.
Four just sighed as they were told to go to bed now. He gave Two a goodbye hug as he watched Ten trudge away slowly, the same for the others as well... Four just shook his head as he went to his room. He felt terrible as out of all of them, he seemed to have lost nothing... Anything they did to Four healed up just fine, no matter how painful it was...
Four got undressed as he laid in his bed once more, staring upward before shaking his head and closing his eyes. Four was completely powerless here... There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say, and he was just going to rot in this place... Not even his dreams could comfort him now as he slowly fell into a deep slumber.
There was darkness, everywhere... Nothing to be seen... Then, he saw a short silhouette standing in front of a large... Window? How did he remember that... No matter, once again he heard that scream, as the window shattered toward Four, the silhouette disappearing soon after as the dark area quickly turned red, a loud buzz throbbing in his head.
Four woke up quickly to a new alarm going off, his room bathed in a dark red light as he scanned the room. Nothing else was different, but something was... Four quickly hopped out of bed and got dressed as he went into the Rec Room and quickly scanned the room. It too, was bathed in red light, but then his eye caught something. There was an opening in the wall that Four had never seen before! He rushed over there as he stopped and gasped as what he saw.
The door was open, leading to a 2 way hallway going left and right, but what kept the door open was One, whose torso was wedged in the door at the bottom, the door constantly trying to close in on him. One carefully lifted his head as he nudged it toward his arm. As Four looked he noticed that his hand held up two fingers.
Two.
Four instantly understood as he rushed towards Two's room, throwing open the door to see Two on the bed, backing away from one of the men, needle in hand. Rage filled Four as he ran over and threw a punch directly into the mans face, knocking him onto the ground.
Four quickly turned to Two as he said,"Come on Two, we're getting out of he- Argh!" He was interrupted by a very sharp pain in his side as Four fell towards the door. The man had a taser stuck in Four's side as electricity poured through him.
The man stepped up to Four and applied more power, Four writhing in pain,"You think you can just escape? This is OUR facility! And no one leaves our facility unless it's in a body bag!" The man was yelling at Four as he applied more energy, just to stop and fall over with a thud.
Four shook his head in pain as he pulled out the taser pins, the holes closing themselves as he saw Two standing over the man, one of her metal gloves bearing a blood stain on it.
"He was hurting you... I had to stop him from hurting my friend." Two said shakily, looking at the man in fear.
Four went up to Two and hugged her, putting her on his back as he went back out, telling them they had to go. Thankfully no more of the men were out here as he ran and jumped over One into the hallway. Four then quickly put Two down as he went to pick up One, but stopped... He was already dead as he stayed wedged in the door... Four held back tears and looked away, picking up Two as he ran down the left hallway.
Thank you One... You wont be forgotten for what you've done here today... Thought Four as he ran down the hallway.
The entire hallway was empty and bathed in the same red light as in the rec room, with no doors or end in sight.
Finally when Four thought he'd just about pass out he came to the end of the hallway, an elevator in sight. He carefully put Two down, gasping for breath as he pushed the button. Once he did so he heard the ding of the elevator, and the click of... A gun? Four turned around in fear, and sure enough, from the floor rose four machine guns. Four quickly grabbed Two and covered her, facing his back towards the guns as they began to fire. Round after round flew into Four's back, the pain increasing every second as lead filled his back. Finally the guns stopped shooting, and went back into the floor. Four carefully and slowly rose, looking down with pained eyes at Two. She was alright, just scared... Four was glad she was safe... The elevator doors slid open at this time, but Four didn't notice as he passed out, falling into the elevator. A distant scream was heard as Four felt himself being dragged... Then motion going upward... Four woke up once more with Two crying at his side, but she was happy once Four opened his eyes as she went to hug him, but stopped as he cried out in pain... One by one bullets dropped out of Four's back, with tears streaming down his face every second. But with Two there he felt so much happier... Knowing he saved her, the pain was worth it...
When he was finally healed he realized that the elevator had stopped, the doors sliding open as a new light, and new idea hit them both.
Freedom.
Word Count: 2063
Subject: Chapter 3 
