《The Grey.》Part IX: A Stranger
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Using my thumb and ring finger, I'm able to pull the zip ties around my throbbing wrists even tighter, until I can't take the pressure anymore. I have 33 seconds left until the next round of interrogations begin. I wait.
There is a click at the door, and like clockwork, I hear two men enter. So predictable. I can tell by the weight of their steps, they aren't very large, and calculate my next moves. The door clicks closed, and we are alone. Now's my chance.
Using the added tension to my advantage, I snap the plastic ties around my wrists using the back of the chair as leverage.
SNAP!
The sound cracks through the small room and I know I have to act fast. I kick the chair from under me, and I hear it snap as it cracks into both their legs. I rip off the cloth covering my face. The two masked men are stunned, and as one starts to limp to me, leg injured and bleeding from the steel chair leg, I watch the other crawl to the door.
I can't have them alert their friends, so I turn to the rat on the ground, jumping on his back. I wrap the cloth mask around my wrists and pull back around his neck, tight. The other guard takes my hair in handfuls, trying to pull me off, and I kick back with my left leg, aiming at the fresh injury where the chair had hit.
He screams and lets go, giving me enough time to finish my task, and the rat underneath me stops moving. Go to sleep. I jump up and turn my attention to his friend. He is sitting in the corner of the room, cradling his injured leg. He fumbles with what looks to be a lens, but he drops it, clumsy with fear. I lunge forward, cracking the lens against the concrete under my bare foot. Pain begins to shoot through my leg as the glass shards slide into my heel, but I keep the scream in my throat. The rat starts to scream as I crouch next to him, and pull off his mask.
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He is young - too young for this, and I place my finger over his lips. Shh.
I can't hurt someone in this state, someone so fresh with terror. I just need him to go to sleep.
I don't have my medicine, so I have to think quickly. I pull the chair off the floor and take aim at the back of his head. With a sharp TWACK he is out cold.
Not perfect, but I have no choice.
I take his rat mask off the floor and put it over my face. I pull the dark grey tunic off his friend on the floor, and pull it over my head, keeping my long hair tucked in. I pull the two unconscious bodies out of view and I wait for the door to unlock.
2 Minutes...
1 Minute...
5, 4, 3, 2....
Click.
The door opens and I am met with two new rats. I notice that the one in the rear is holding a buzzing baton that I assume to be the cause of the electric torture. My quick disguise seems to work as I squeeze past them easily.
As they pass through into the room, I'm able to quickly grab the baton out of the unsuspecting rat's hand. He turns back to me in confusion, and I kick his stomach, hard, pushing them both inside. I grab the door handle and slam it shut, quickly locking the deadbolt. No electronic doorways here, no. Can't have the Faceless watching.
I start my walk through the halls. I can tell it's an older building by the yellowed laminate, and I'm careful not to leave a mark with my bleeding heel by tiptoeing through the corridors. The hallway is lined with uniform doors and it feels very familiar. A school maybe?
A pair of tall rats is coming down the hall towards me, and I slip into one of the side rooms.
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It's empty.
The room is dark and full of old running machinery. There is a huge tank next to an old fashioned boiler providing heat to the building. My fingers dance around the nozzles of the gas valve. What a perfect find. No more screams, no more blood this way.
I can make them all sleep.
I can almost taste the sickly sweet smell as it swirls through the vents behind me and a choir of coughs start to echo through the rooms at my sides. I flick the deadbolts closed as I make my way through, weaving on tiptoes. I spin left and right. My head is rushing. Click, Click. They will all be asleep soon.
After a few flights of stairs, I find the exit doors, flanked by only a few distracted guards down a windowed hall. I slip through them in my mask, easily.
The sun is only just now setting somewhere behind the heavy poison grey air of Downtown, and I think I'll let Sabrina sleep just a little longer.
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