Blood of My Death

Blood of My Death: The Ancient Earthscrapper - Chapter Twenty-Seven

I coughed up blood and summoned my will to move forward. The explosion had sapped all the energy out of me, but I knew I couldn't lie here doing anything. Pulling myself off the ground, I slammed my fist on the floor. The ringing in my ears persisted, and I could barely feel the pressure pads squeezing the life out of my legs.

"Get up, Kristen!" a female voice shouted in my head, sending me to my feet. "Run now!"

I turned back, looking towards the waterfall wall, now in pieces. The explosion must have come from inside the wall itself, and if I had been on that wall climbing, I would have been dead.

'This was a war zone!'

I ran through the debris and under the wall that once stood, destroyed pipes with water shooting out of them, raining down all around me.

My goal was to avoid as much as possible while jumping over what I could not avoid. I scrambled as fast as I could through the final one hundred yards off the track. With seconds to spare, I made it to the finish line. When I reached zero, I felt exhausted and wiped out, but fifteen minutes later, I began the last lap. The bruises on my body and the pain in my legs were excruciating. Blood was coming out of my nose, and I knew I had internal injuries, but I had to keep going.

The power that had been fueling me was dissipating. As I started running, something grazed my back, and another grazed my stomach. 'Bullets?' As I moved forward, a sharp burning pain hit my right leg, and the bullet went clean through my calf. Instead of falling to the ground, I felt the telltale signs of shifting and uneven movement beneath my feet. 'Dr. King is in control again!' My speed increased along with the tremendous pain. A bullet hit my left elbow, shattering the bone. I cried out in pain as my body kept moving as if nothing had happened. Explosions went off beside me as he controlled my body to run the course at full speed. 'Had they used Kristonia's test as a base?' I hadn't run like this since before my accident. No, I had never run like this with these conditions. It was an unfamiliar experience, but I didn't want to repeat it.

Hope shot through my heart as I passed the finish line with time to spare, but even with the pain and condition of my body, I was still running the course. Eventually, the hope drained out of me as my body took me to another course I hadn't seen earlier. A track I was now running at full speed. A man's voice echoed through the gym as an announcement came over a loudspeaker, and the voice belonged to Dr. Ashland.

"Because of your spectacular performance during tonight's test. I've added an endurance test for all test subjects. Test subject Kristen Howel will complete an eight-hundred-meter run," Dr. Ashland announced.

I ground my teeth in pain at this recent development as all hope drained from my body. Dr. Ashland extended tonight's torture, prolonging it with an additional test. A run that long in this exoskeleton suit would kill me if I didn't run it on my own, and I would have to deal with the strain on my legs later. That energy I had manifested was my only option. 'Did I have enough in me? Whatever that energy was, did I have enough for one last push?'

"I can run on my own!" I yelled as loud as I could.

There was no response from Dr. King, but I felt the pain subside as I took over. I focused all that energy through my legs, which were burning hot, and every step was brutal. There were mirrors along the track's edge throughout the course, allowing me to see what looked like green flames shooting out from my legs as I ran. As I walked, several green flames trailed my footsteps, and I could see my eyes in the mirror's reflection burning like miniature twin suns. They were glowing bright lime green, but there was something else too. When I looked at my reflection, I noticed I had ears and a tail like an animal. They looked like the ears or tail of a wolf, and the fur was jet black, like my hair with snow-white tips. They appeared like flames of the same green energy that manifested around my body. The green flames burned as if they were an intense fire.

'Was this for real? Did they do this to me? What did this mean? Had they been doing something to me genetically? The governments of the world banned human experiments worldwide, as I knew. So what they were doing to me was illegal.'

"Splendid! The moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived! That display of otherworldly power," Dr. King exclaims over the intercom.

"This is what they have been waiting for?" I whispered.

'What was this energy that flowed through my body? Where was it coming from, and how was this possible? So many questions were unanswered.' My mind ran through the alternative path they had provided me.

Finishing that eight-hundred-meter run took a heavy toll on my body. When I finally reached the finish line, I clasped to my knees, falling forward on my face. As a result, I could not even brace myself with my hands in front of me. My face hit the track with a hard thud, which was going to leave that side of my face bruised.

The two male nurses were waiting by the finish line, and they immediately rushed over to me to help me out of the exoskeleton as the full extent of the damage to my body set in. Every inch of my body screamed with pain, and I could barely hold my head up. They moved slower this time, ensuring they didn't cause me any pain. They laid me on the track after getting me out of the exoskeleton. One nurse rushed over to my wheelchair and brought back my clothing. The male nurse that had taken my panties removed them from his pocket, gently putting them back on me. Both of them took their time putting my clothes back on, making sure they gently handled me. It was a sharp contrast to how they behaved when they undressed me. The blonde man made sure my hair was out of my eyes and used a comb from his pocket to comb my hair. As the other nurse washed my face with alcohol, he even combed my hair while holding my head in his lap.

I got a good look at the second nurse for the first time. He must have been a fraternal twin to the blonde nurse because his features were similar. He had brown hair with blue eyes, but everything else was almost the same. His face was angular, with the same square jawline, but his cheeks were a little rounder. After they finished caring for me, they sat me in the waiting wheelchair. My upper body slumped over in the chair as the pain was too much for me to take.

A woman's voice caught my attention. I couldn't mistake her voice for anyone else. It was Bastienne Belychild. I barely saw her in my weakened state, standing at the entrance to the testing facility. The woman had such an intense hate for my sister and me. She also hated Rachel and Diane, but I didn't know why. I knew she had been waiting for my sister and me to give her a reason so she could finally finish us, though I wondered how she knew us.

Bastienne looked down at me with her piercing eyes.

"I can feel her inside you," Bastienne whispered. "When you remember what you are, I'll be waiting for you to fuck up. Then I can kill you."

I felt a slight increase in strength. I was already feeling more like myself, but I was still too weak to stand up. Looking at Bastienne, I could feel her energy flowing toward me. I pushed it back against her with my own energy.

"I am more than human. I am superior to you," the blonde woman spat, "It's only because of her you could exist. They are the ones who have carried you this far. Without them, your sister, the two Doctors, and you are nothing."

"I'll be fine. I'll get through this. You can't kill me," I whispered.

She laughed a short and cold bark, "If that were true, you wouldn't be here. You would have killed me when you had the chance."

She reached her hands towards my throat.

"I'll find out who is protecting you and kill them. Then I will end the four of you!" Bastienne said coldly.

Bastienne let go, backing away from me. So much anger radiated from her. I could see the flames engulfing her. 'Who is this woman?'

As my body ached with pain, I felt overwhelmed. The pain was sharp and stung my nerves. A scream of pain echoed through my body as my skin and blood burned. I closed my eyes as Bastienne walked out of view, and I passed out once we left the lab.