What Makes Us Human {on hold}

Chapter 13- Unlucky 14?

Chapter 13

Morning came and with it, the guard.

"Come now, little girl. Time for your extraction!" he said with a far too happy voice.

I didn't even bother to ask what an extraction was. No reason to make him any happier than he already was.

He pulled the key from out of his shirt and opened the cell. Once more I tried to run at him, hoping to slip past him, but he caught my arm. His fingers dug in hard and threatened to break my wrist.

"Okay okay! You don't have to be so harsh. I failed. Now can you release your death grip?"

He gave a final squeeze, but he let go of my wrist begrudgingly.

"Come," he said curtly, and turned around and began to walk off. I was, presumably, to follow.

I had to run to catch up with his long strides, and once again, we made our way through the labyrinth of passages. I lost sight of him once or twice, but quickly found him again.

Everything in my gut told me to panic, freak out, run. But my head told me to be smart. Stay calm and bide my time. But I was terrified. What if they succeeded? What if I became one of those emotionless things? No, I thought, shaking my head. No what ifs. I have to focus on escape. And only escape. But for now I must bide my time, waiting for the moment to pounce or run.

After walking through narrow passage after narrow passage, I saw a large door blocking our path. The guard walked up, knocked three times on the door in a pattern- bump...bump bump, and the large door slowly opened.

It seemed impossible in the small tunnel we were in, but it appeared to go into the ceiling, seamlessly fusing into the rock, yet it still managed to open.

He grabbed my arm and jerked me froward, my shoulder screaming as it was yanked out of its socket.

I began to look around me, taking in everything I saw. We were in a very large cavelike room, with no windows in sight. The room was dark, but in the center was a long bed, heavily illuminated. Well, it looked more like a table the closer I looked. There were simple leather straps near the top and bottom, and over the whole table was a large machine. It had the circular shape of a drill, but it glowed from within with an unnatural blueish light. At the end of the machine was a long needle. A very long and very pointy needle.

But the guard saw me looking around, and he was smarter than I took him for because he said, "Not now little girl. I can see the little gears whirring in your mind, but they will not help you. You will not escape until we are done with you."

He grabbed me by both my arms and pushed me towards the table. I tried to dig my heels in to slow myself down, but he had twice my weight, and it did little good.

Then he picked me up, squirming, in the air and set me down on the table. He took the innocent looking leather straps and began to tie down my feet and then my neck and arms, all while holding me down with just his left hand.

The strap tightened my ankles together and the strap on my neck poked into my throat, making breathing harder.

When he finished, he walked over to the machine, mumbling, "How am I supposed to turn this thing on? They don't pay me enough for this..."

I let out a breath of relief. If he didn't know how to work it, then that gave me some time. His back was to me, giving me the chance to try to escape. I took a deep breath to steel myself and prevent myself from panicking, and I pulled on my wrists, checking for slack. None.