The Elementists- Part 4

Chapter One

Ok y'all this is the FOURTH section in this little series I've got going on so please read the others first, IN ORDER. Thanks for reading.

There is a girl who lives in a cage.

Literally.

She spends her days drifting in and out of consciousness, hearing distant voices using words she can't understand. There's occasional pain, always in a different place, always startling back to reality. There are no feelings, emotions, in her existence. Only one thing can awaken her senses and make her aware of her terrible existence: The water.

She's thrown in and wakes up in a whirlpool of bubbles. When she's settled she opens her eyes. She breathes. The coolness fills her lungs. She becomes aware of what's around her. She becomes aware that her life is... wrong.

It's all wrong! What's her name? She can't remember! What about her family, her history?Where is she?

She swims around in the strange water tank, feeling an awful lot like a fish, with questions spiraling in her head. Still she breathes. She thinks for herself.She wonders.

But then it ends.

The water drains slowly.The water level drops, until it drains completely and the girl lays on the bottom of the empty tank. Ladders descend and people in long white coats come down and surround her. She screams, tries to get to her feet and run away. Her muscles fail to respond. There's a sharp pain in her arm. Someone holds her still in a firm grip. Her head grows foggy and the room spins.

NO! I don't want to go back! I want out! She thinks madly. But she can't do anything.

She forgets.

A shrill, repetitive alarm pierces the girl's ears. A moan escapes her mouth. Then she freezes as her mind realizes something's changed.

She's awake.

Her eyes fly open.Bright lights blind her and she shields her eyes. Her vision clears.

The first thing she sees are metal bars of a cage.

She swallows. Her throat is terribly dry.

Why is she in a cage?How long has she been here? It feels like her brain is climbing out of a deep hole and seeing sunlight for the first time. It's wonderful and terrible and painful and thrilling.

She tries to stretch her legs out but walls around her restrict her movement. She leans forward and grips the bars. She rattles them a little, but they're pretty sturdy.

She looks past the bars and gasps. The pieces come together.

It's a lab! I'm some kind of lab rat, she realizes in disgust. But that's not what makes her gasp. It's the chaos.

Cages line the walls.Most of their door are open. The experiments they held are wandering freely. There are no scientists around. There are some animals swimming in the water on the ground and some teenagers in long white dresses standing in the ankle-deep water. Their expressions match how the girl feels.

Confused.

Determination surges through the girl. This is a perfect chance to escape from... whatever this is.

Survival instincts kick in, now that her brain is finally allowed to function. She pushes against the cage door. Nothing.

She clenches her fistsand swings her legs around. Her back presses against the back of the cage. As she moves she catches a glimpse of her long straight blonde hair. She's never seen her reflection. She pushes with all her strength with her feet against the cage door. Snap! The girl grins as the door swings open, its lock broken.

This is her moment of freedom. Her heart pounds in anticipation. She pokes her head through, cautiously, and looks around. She tries to locate a door and make an escape plan before leaving the cage.

There! A pair of double doors, made of glass, right across the room. They're perhaps thirty feet away. She lowers her feet.They slip under the water's surface and rest on the ground. The water's halfway to her knees. Is the level rising? She Frowns and looks around. Sure enough, it seems to be.

She takes a few wobbly steps forward. Her legs are terribly stiff and she can't move too fast. She takes careful steps towards the door, careful not to slip along the way.

She takes a few steps,then pauses. She turns and looks back at the cage she came from.There's a small plaque under it. Her name. She peers closer and reads her name: Jillian; Specimen 5067214.

A dark rage bubbles up inside her. What kind of place puts kids and animals in cages and labels them with a number?

All of a sudden there's a gurgling, rumbling sound. It rattles the floor and ceiling lights. Someone screams and ducks down in a cowering position.

The lab grows eerily quiet.

"I can feel something," the girl cowering cries. "We're going to die!"

A murmur moves through the lab as teenagers glance at each other in uncertainty.

Everything seems to explode and fall apart and shatter in a single moment. The whole ceiling collapses and water pours in. Jill watches in horror as a huge piece of plaster falls upon the crouching girl, crushing her.

The water's at her waist. The air is full of screaming.

She wades as fast as she can, which isn't all that fast. The space between her and the door closes as she somehow avoids things falling from the ceiling. She's just about to yank the door open when she sees something on the other side of the door. Scientists are floating around, their bodies limp and their lab coats drifting. There's one figure coming towards the door, wearing a mask for breathing.

Jill gasps. She pounds on the door. They come closer and she stops.

It's a man in a white coat. He comes towards the door, but not to save them. His eyes betray is unfounded hatred. Perhaps it's hatred that most of them are still alive. Either way, he'll die. His air will run out.

Jill watches helplessly as he draws a key from his coat's pocket and inserts it in the door. His expression turns almost mocking as they turns the doorknob at a painfully slow pace.

Everything seems to move in slow motion.

A wall of water slams into Jill, countless gallons that the door had been holding back. Fora few terrible moments, or maybe it was hours, Jill's world is nothing but the sound of air and water and screaming. There are no boundaries, no walls, nothing to hang on to.

Her lungs burn.

Can't... hold...breath...

She inhales sharply and coughs instinctively. But then she breathes again... and again...

The memories come rushing back as she tumbles over and over with the currents. The scientists, the experiments. They'd put her in a water tank and she'd swim and breath. She clings to that memory. She clings to the truth that will keep her alive.

She's the only survivor of the flood.