<< How much longer will you continue to run? >>
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
"So, sheepdog. Have you decided?"
[Name] internally sighed, something she definitely knew the other two could hear. "Yes. Judging from your personality, you probably wouldn't let up if I didn't agree with you."
She heard a quiet sigh of relief. "So you do want to take everyone."
"Doesn't matter what I want," she replied, flipping through one of Henry's textbooks. For someone who wasn't interested in psychology, he knew more than he should've. "Depends on whether or not you could bring them."
"Of course," Norman agreed, amused.
"Though, I should add," [Name] said leisurely. "There are about 90 children here, including the ones that can't walk. Taking them out of the equation leaves 70."
"There are that much here?" Norman muttered to himself.
"That's convenient as well as inconvenient," Vincent noted. "On one hand, we outnumber the scientists greatly. On the other, getting the children out is going to be troublesome with more people."
"Indeed," Norman agreed. "Say, sheepdog. Do you have a number on the employees, demon or not, in Lambda?"
"Demon?" Vincent inquired.
"The things that eat us," Norman clarified.
"I have to be asleep to access the direct number," [Name] answered. "But from what I remember while scanning the files, there's about 40 at best. Surprisingly, two-thirds are demons. The other 13 or so are human."
"That's... a lot less than I expected," Vincent commented, Norman voicing his agreement.
[Name] leaned on her hand. "Well, it's not unusual. It wouldn't be a problem if the employees were all human, but that's not the case. We don't know much about demons, and whoever's uploading these files to me is keen on just giving me information on Lambda."
"I see," Norman sighed. "That is troublesome. But still, the fact remains that we outnumber them by plenty."
"There's a chance that the scientists could be armed though," [Name] said.
"What do you mean?" Norman asked.
"I have reason to believe that Smee was killed by my overseer," she clarified. "She told me one hour after his death, and she couldn't have gotten Smee out of Lambda, killed him, and gotten back to tell me this quickly. The fact that she knows the deed was done tells me she did it herself. Sidra doesn't like to assume things - if she wants something out of me, she wrings it out."
"Doctor Sidra Devas," Norman sighed. [Name] blinked.
"Devas?" she repeated.
"Her last name," Norman clarified. [Name] hummed.
"I've only heard her be referred as 'Doctor' or 'Sidra'," she admitted. "Perhaps she has either changed her name or has a disdain for that name."
"So she has family issues," Vincent sighed. "Fabulous."
"Don't we all?" [Name] agreed, earning a small snort from all ends of the line. "Still, it is strange. I haven't seen her ever since Smee died - well, a few days after he died."
"The fact that he died at all is strange," Norman said. "The only reason that he would be targeted is if he was in the way, or found out for being a supporter. But why would Devas kill him so soon?"
"You mean to say that she should've gotten information out of him?" [Name] suggested. "From my experience, Sidra acts on her own will and is impulsive - so is Peter Ratri. She wouldn't care about Jam- that is, Minerva's affairs. Not unless they got in the way of her own success."
"Is that so..." Vincent mused. "That is suspicious, but we have to focus on the escape. We don't know when the worst-case scenario could happen."
"Of course," Norman agreed. "So, I was thinking..."
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
<< Location: Lambda 7214 - Basement >>
Deep beneath the laboratory, two people stood. One was the aforementioned silverette, humming a sweet tune to herself as she typed.
Like much of the world in Lambda, the room was dark, so dark that the only sources of light were holographic screens. Sidra's grey eyes flicked through them, scanning every single word. She turned to the man hanging on the wall.
"Honestly, wouldn't it be easier to just give the information?" Sidra exhaled, crossing one leg over the other as she watched the man struggle in pain.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard without her looking at neither the board nor the computer itself. After only a few days, she'd managed to crack past all of the security and access all of Smee's information. Still, though, it was suspicious.
There wasn't as much as she was expecting. Nothing on Lambda itself, when Joseph had insisted that Smee had been keeping tabs on the employees. And yet, there was absolutely nothing - zero, blank.
Speaking of the supposedly dead man, he hung limp, gasping and coughing out crimson blood. If he weren't dead now, he certainly looked the part. All of his fingernails and toenails were ripped from his body, leaving bloodied, raw flesh in their place. Puncture wounds, twisting and gnarly, littered his arms, as if the flesh there had been dug out with a knife.
When he raised his head, his dull, tired eyes only stared blankly at the silverette woman as he wheezed, the air burning against his throat. Finally, it seemed as if he had enough breath to answer.
"Fuck you."
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
<< Two Days Earlier >>
"I don't care for the opinion of a corpse."
Sidra pulled the trigger.
Smee flinched, tensing up as he prepared for the feeling of a bullet piercing his skull. Only, it never came. He blinked, looking up as he heard the unmistakable sound of a gun on safety mode.
The silverette smiled. "Did you really think I'd let you go that easily?"
Before he could react, she drove her foot up into his family jewels.
"Urgh!" Smee coughed, a blow to his lower back sending him to the floor. Sidra hummed, leaning down as her foot kept him on the ground. The man hissed as her heels dug into his back, wincing at the sharp pain.
"What is wrong with you?" he gritted out. "Just kill me already."
Sidra tapped her chin with her finger. "Er... No, I don't think so."
"...Why?" he wheezed.
"None of your concern. For now, just go to sleep for me, hm?" she asked, before she slammed the butt of her pistol into the back of his head, effectively rendering him unconscious.
Taking her foot off of the now knocked out man, Sidra glanced back at the door. She froze at her reflection, nearly pointing her gun at her own image. But thankfully, she managed to recognize her own face and withheld herself. Pocketing her gun, the silverette exhaled, shaking her head.
"What a mess you've left behind, Henry."
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
<< Present Time >>
Sidra gasped mockingly, holding her hand against her chest. "Oh, you wound me. I've never heard such VULGAR words before!" She leaned onto her head, a sweet smile on her lips. "You don't talk to the cattle with that tongue, do you?"
Smee only rolled his eyes in response. Sidra raised a brow, turning back to the screens.
"Although, these are interesting notes," she hummed. "Researching them of all things, aren't you a bold one. Really, though, none of us want to be here right now. Just spit out whatever you have on James, and then we can all go back to our lives."
A hollow, dry chuckle escaped Smee's throat. "Don't lie, Devas. You're enjoying ."
"I would never," Sidra drawled out. "Ratri's been breathing down my back, and I can't go back to my hamster unless you spill the beans."
"Your hamster could be getting killed right this moment," Smee shot back.
"She's a premium one," Sidra said, unbothered. "The drugs haven't impacted her consciousness as it did with the other. She won't fall for something like what you did to my first."
"You don't know that."
"Mhm..." Sidra agreed absentmindedly. "Bold words for someone who's chained down like an animal."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours."
"...hamster, huh?" Smee said to himself. "Wasn't that your nickname for Henry?"
Sidra froze. "...Excuse me?"
"I remember now," Smee continued. "You were always taller than him, and adding onto the fact that he was technically James's research subject, you started calling him a hamster. Didn't you also call that girl - er, Arianna, that too?"
When the silverette remained silent, her hands curling into shaking fists, Smee only continued. He, to put it bluntly, didn't care what she would do to him.
"From what I saw," he said, "you were kind to that girl. [Name] is her younger sister, did you know that? And yet, you are cruel to her. Let me ask you a question, Devas. Why do you hate that girl so much?"
Wordlessly, Sidra sat up and marched up to him, picking up the bloodied knife beside her keyboard. Smee choked out a gurgled scream as she drove it hilt-deep into the lower quadrant of his abdomen, just managing to miss any vital organs.
"Last time I checked, I was the one asking the questions," she said lowly, twisting it so that more meat was caught in her blade. "Say something like that again, and maybe I'll cut off your genitals instead of kicking them. I hear that that isn't too pleasant."
She tilted her head innocently. "Or I could take a leaf out of Phú Quốc Prison's book. The punishments there were always creative. Wouldn't you like to try one?"
Smee glared at her, fighting back unwilling tears from the pain. Reluctantly, he shook his head.
"That's what I thought," Sidra clicked her tongue, letting go of the hilt. "Now I have to get a new knife," she sighed, flicking the handle, creating a deeper wound. "But for now, we'll settle for electrocuting you."
Apparently having enough, she turned back to the computer and flipped through the files once more. Her grey eyes widened once she caught sight of one particular file.
"Now, this is interesting," she mused. "What are these blueprints?"
Peeking open his eyes, Smee froze as he saw what had caught the woman's attention. There, on the cyan holograms, was a diagram of the earpieces he had given the three test-takers.
Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw.
Sidra stood up, a wicked smile on her face. "How peculiar," she giggled. "So this is why you weren't too bothered with getting out."
She glanced back, meeting Smee's glare. "Hang tight, Smee," she laughed. "I'll see you in a few."
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
<< Location: Lamnda 7214 - Void >>
"Alright, so we have to figure out how to escape."
"One moment. It's getting kind of late, so I can access the device now."
"You do that, then," Vincent agreed. "We'll wait."
"Thank you."
She logged off, keeping an eye on the door. There was always the underlying threat that the scientists could take away her communication devices at any time. [Name] had to get into her music box as soon as possible, and memorize the information. It wouldn't be too hard, she was just scared about the music box being taken.
Pulling on the covers, the (h/c) soon slipped into her personal void. Quickly, she opened up the files on the Lambda folder, tapping the Connect button. The same screen popped up.
"I'm back," she announced.
"Good, now onto the escape," Norman said passively. "Sheepdog, could you pull up the information?"
"Doing it right now, and..."[Name] tapped the number. "We've got 96 kids, including us and the ones that can't walk, and 42 employees. 29 are demons. 13 are human."
"96, that's a problem," Vincent sighed. "Could we get that many children out quickly?"
"Probably not," [Name] said reluctantly. "The elevator is tiny, the garage is somehow even more guarded than the elevator, and both require a worker's fingerprints. To get 96 children through those, while luring off guards and getting fingerprints, is going to take a lot. I'd say the garage is our best bet though."
"What information do you have on the guards?" asked Norman. [Name] narrowed her eyes, holding a screen and pulling it away.
"Er... Oh, this is interesting," she said to herself. "Those guards have guns. That's..." she hissed. "That'll be a problem."
"We shouldn't escape with wounds," Vincent commented. "Still, we could put the armory to use."
Norman hummed. "I think we're looking at this the wrong way," he realized. [Name] blinked.
"Got an idea?"
"Yes, I-" Norman sucked in a breath. "Why didn't I think of this sooner? We have the manpower and the numbers. The conditions are perfect! We're also spanned throughout the laboratory, so we can cover each floor. This is-"
"You want to take over Lambda?!" [Name] blanched. "That's reckless, but-" She inhaled sharply, holding her chin. "Actually, that makes sense. The only problem is we're holed up here."
"All of us except for you," Norman rebutted. "This whole plan hinges on your ability to rally the children in Lambda, sheepdog."
[Name] shook her head, a fond smile on her face. "Alright, what do you need?"
"I hate to do this, but I'm not in the position to make any decisions here," Norman spoke quickly. "You know the children the best. You know their abilities, and you know Lambda better than any of us. Those children also listen to you. I need you to
"-somehow break all of the children out, take out electricity, cause confusion, and get you two out of your rooms," [Name] finished. "Right?"
"You read my mind," Norman said happily. [Name] chuckled.
"What about the guards?" She asked, typing away.
"I can handle those," Vincent was quick to assure. "I know how the employees at Lambda think."
"Are you sure?" Norman questioned.
"Absolutely," Vincent replied. [Name] clicked her tongue.
"Convenient, this plan makes sure that we don't have to communicate," she observed. "Oh, and don't worry. Half of the kids are from premium farms, so they should be able to follow through with a plan without my supervision. The other half can understand and carry out simple orders, so they can follow the premium children."
"Are you sure?" Norman asked. "You didn't seem too trusting of them before."
"Well," [Name] closed her eyes. "I have considered that my treating them as children has gotten in the way before. After all, many of them are older than I am."
"How old are you?" Norman questioned, Vincent unintentionally piping up with a quiet 'that's right, you're tiny.'
"Vincent, I heard that," [Name] breathed out irritably, "and Owl Boy, for your information, I'm not that old nor that young."
She was only jesting, of course. The (h/c) opened her eyes, now focused on memorizing the files as quickly as possible. Deep down, though, she knew that the reason she had decided to trust Barbara and Cislo, was because of Norman.
He really is one of my greatest weaknesses.
Keeping the conversation going on between Vincent and Norman in the back of her mind, she began to flash-memorize the information that was contained in the music box. Compared to the tests back at Grace Field, this was child's play.
Alright, a bit ironic considering that she was a child, but whatever.
Her eyes narrowed. So there are three groups of children in the experiments. Ones that are trained for speed, others for strength, and then there's Vincent, Norman and I. Nurtured for intelligence, and intended for cloning - or breeding, in my case.
Unexpectedly, she came to the end of the files quickly. [Name] huffed in exasperation.
Can't complain, but still... no information on the demons whatsoever. Nothing on their biology, what traits they might have, just nothing. I'm guessing that if we collect the information from Lambda itself, it'd just be on us. There'd be no reason for them to have information on the demons.
Then the only way to get that information is either my dreams, or the rest of Smee's information. I seriously doubt that Lambda was the only thing he researched.
Just how am I going to work with this?
"Sheepdog?"
"Mm... yeah?" [Name] hummed absentmindedly.
"What do you want to do when this is over?" Norman asked. [Name] blinked.
"'When'?" she repeated. "Don't you think you're getting a bit cocky?"
"True," Norman admitted, "But if we manage to get out of here, we must have a goal of some sorts, right?"
"It'd be great if I could get a map of the outside," [Name] said, "but that's unavailable. Whoever sent this information out was in a rush, as I only have Lambda's info."
"Do you think that this person, whoever they are," Vincent interrogated, "would have information on the outside?"
"There's a good chance," [Name] replied. "I can see folders where those files are supposed to go."
"I see," Norman hummed. "Say, I never asked this, but are you sure you can trust them?"
"Shouldn't you have asked this earlier?" [Name] bit back a laugh.
"Well, you seemed so sure," Norman said sheepishly. Then in a quieter voice, "and you don't seem like the person who'd trust easily."
"I am sure, don't worry," [Name] responded. Before I saw Morpheus's insignia, so the person sending this must be sure that I have this music box, and what it is. The only people who would know that are Henry's closest friends or allies - he doesn't seem like the type to leave valuable information just lying there.
Also, why would they send me, a cattle child, information on the farm I'm in? They're almost asking me to escape.
Even if I can't trust the person, I can at least trust the information.
"Although, we should figure out a way to survive on the outside," she muttered.
"Don't worry, I have that covered," Norman assured. Both Vincent and [Name] made a small noise of confusion.
"What?" the (h/c) asked. "How-"
"WARNING: SHE'S COMING."
[Name] flinched as a sudden warning exploded on her screen. The text was a violent red, but wasn't done at that sentence.
"TURN OFF YOUR EARPIECES. DENY EVERYTHING. DON'T LET HER SUSPECT ANYTHING."
[Name]'s eyes widened as she registered the information. OH FUCK-
"Take off and turn off your earpieces!" she shouted abruptly. "Now!"
"What?!" Norman asked, startled. "What's wrong?!"
"My overseer- Sidra," [Name] spoke quickly, hoping that they could understand her. "She knows about the earpieces, and she's coming here! We need to go, now."
Two loud curses sounded before her allies logged off, [Name] right after them. Her eyes shot open. Trying to keep her calm, she rolled over in her bed, quickly ripping out the earpiece and turning them off. Discreetly as possible, she slipped them into the pocket of her cardigan, just before-
ZZZT!
A horrid scream ripped itself from her throat.
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
[Name] couldn't move, only screaming as lightning surged through her bracelet and into her body. Had the electrocution hurt this much before?
She only had the warning of clicking heels before a hand struck out and grabbed her by her necklace. Sidra hummed to herself, dark grey eyes staring deep into her soul.
"Hello, [Name]," she mused. "Care to show me what's in your pocket?"
The (h/c) could only make choking noises as the necklace pressed against her throat. Her hands instinctively clawed at Sidra's wrist through the pain. Her necklace was the only thing suspending her in the air. A high-pitched wheeze managed to escape her throat.
The silverette narrowed her eyes, ignoring the red scratch marks forming on her wrists.
"Can't breathe, can you?" she asked sweetly. "You'd better show me those earpieces, or you'll die."
[Name] glared at Sidra through narrowed eyes, fire raging on behind her (e/c) irises. Gurgling noises that somewhat sounded like growls escaped her throat. But the woman held through, continuing to keep [Name] where she was.
"Oh, that's right!" Sidra gasped mockingly. "You're being electrocuted, sorry about that."
She didn't sound sorry in the slightest.
Dropping [Name] into a coughing and hacking fit, Sidra pulled out her tablet, tapping a few times. Mucus dripped from the (h/c)'s mouth and onto her sheets as she coughed. Thankfully, the electricity subsided.
"Now, will you be a good hamster and hand those over," Sidra stowed away her tablet, "Or will I have to feed you to Her Majesty early?"
Black nails took [Name]'s chin and forced her to look at the so-called doctor. Sidra took out a handkerchief and wiped the child's mouth. "There you go. I'll get you new sheets, okay?"
[Name] remained silent, panting heavily. Reluctantly, she reached into her pocket, handing over the earpieces. Sidra took them, squinting at the pieces as she turned them over in her hands.
"Just as the blueprints stated," she mused. Turning to the coughing child, Sidra smiled. "Thank you for these, [Name]. Now all you have to do is take a shower, and- that's right!"
[Name] flinched back as Sidra reached behind her neck. Her eyes widened in horror as the chain unclasped, and immediately she protested, grabbing her precious locket.
"Wait- Please don't take it-"
Another electrocution sent her back to hacking out piles of mucus. Sidra sighed, tossing the music box in her hand.
"I do recall Henry making this," she murmured. [Name] froze at the name. "I wonder what you've been using it for." Sidra turned to look over her shoulder. "Take her to the baths."
The silverette left the room, leaving [Name] at the mercy of two more scientists.
And with her, was the last thing [Name] had of her first friend.
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
KJDSFONKJ I'M SORRY THIS IS LATE AND I DIDN'T UPDATE LAST WEEK - I DIDN'T HAVE A DECENT PLAN FOR THIS ONE I'M SO SO SORRY
BUT FANART IS GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT, I HAVE WAY TOO MUCH AT THE MOMENT AND IDK IF I COULD FIT ALL OF THEM ON HERE - ESPECIALLY ON WATTPAD :////
so yeah smee's barely alive because apparently i wasn't satisfied with just killing him so :D
also pacing? i don't know her what's that
thanks for reading everyone, see you next time!