Warped

Chapter 12: Lukas

The bed creaks as Axel gets up, but my attention snaps to the almost undetectable pulling of bowstrings. My rage and willing to fight wavering as a bubble of fear rises up.

Then all of it drains away when I actually stop to think about what I'm doing. These guys have us trapped starving in here. Whether I've lost the ability to feel it or not, I'm much weaker than the well fed men out there. My rage isn't going to exactly going to give me healthy muscles.

A man out there pounds on the door, his gruff voice making me wish my hearing wasn't so good to hear it. "If you attack us, we'll hurt Jesse."

Petra snarls and Olivia hisses. Axel suffers in silence while every fiber of my every being shakes with pure helpless rage at these monsters. My claws slip back into my hands as I stand up straight, my every thought fuming with curses at all of these people.

The door opens and it takes everything I have to not jump on this guy and claw out his throat. The sight of at least six men all aiming tipped arrows at us admittedly helps with that.

Clearing his throat, the despicable man continues in his ear grinding voice. "It's time you all learned the rules of this place-"

Neither Petra or I could refrain from snarling, my tail whipping furiously back and forth in the air. I have to keep reminding myself that I can't lower into a fighting crouch, I can't lower into a fighting crouch, I can't lower into a fighting crouch.

"If you perform well, you will be rewarded at the end of every day with food. Continue to perform well over a long period of time, and your chamber will be improved. You'll learn more about this system when we deem you are ready for a purpose."

Olivia scoffs, a hiss ending it. There was no stopping my claws from coming out on that one too. Chamber? This thing? This is a cage for animals. How are they going to make it better? Add a torch? That would be such a civil improvement.

"Misbehave and you will be punished, that is the order of things. Defying us is useless-"

A growl comes from both me and Petra at the same time. Despite everything this man has said, it is slowly becoming harder to resist the urge to slash his throat to at least the point where he can't talk anymore.

"-and nothing will be gained by it. Follow the rules, and you may actually get somewhere. As you can see with your improved chamber." He gestures at the obsidian walled cage with four hard beds and a drugged water tank I haven't bothered to drink from.

"So Subjects 812, 813, and 814 proceed out into the hall and behave yourself when you follow." None of us move. I'm pretty sure I'm the one person he didn't call, but I have not bothered to keep track of our numbers whatsoever. Not when we all have names to go by.

The man sighs and points to the others, I was right. Yippee. "That's you three. Take care never to forget your numbers, or you will be punished."

My heart sinks as all my friends shuffle out into the hallway. I don't want to be separated again, bad things happen when I'm separated from my friends. It's punishment enough to constantly be plagued by fears when I'm away from them, and I haven't even done anything yet.

"Subject 811, you'll be following me. Since you've already shown an eagerness for attacking us, one slip up and you'll simply be hurting your own friends."

My ears flatten but I manage to hold the hiss inside me. I tread into the hallway, all senses on high alert as my tail constant snaps back and forth. For a quick moment I allow myself to be irritated with the new limb. It's actually pretty easy to ignore when I'm laying or sitting down all the time.