Morning came to the Westlands. The clouds covered the sky as usual. The cold air simmered a bit. The marching sound of soldiers going to their duty roared. Whips crackled the air like an alarm. It was time to work.
In a room where no light came through, a man sat drinking something from a cup. The cup was written "I am an addict." He sat on a chair, enjoying his beverage. A soldier entered the room to deliver a message to the man drinking from the cup.
"Again?" the man drinking from the cup asked.
"Yes, sir," the soldier answered.
"No matter. There are new cattle that just arrived. You know what to do."
Back to the compound in the barn where the slaves were kept. They were alarmed by the roaring soldiers that whipped the ground and walls. The slaves woke up from the gruesome night. You could hear the groans echoing in the barn. The wood from the barn screeched in pain from the soldiers' whips hitting them.
"Get up, it's time to work!" soldiers screamed.
The slaves got up. Their eyes were red, tired. The night didn't offer the sleep they needed some barely slept.
"Ahh, my back is killing me," Yuto cried in pain.
"At least you slept," Roid replied.
"What do you mean? Didn't you sleep?"
Suddenly Roid had a flashback from yesterday. While he was trying to sleep on his hay on the cement floor, a woman started screaming in agony on the other side of the wall. Something was happening, it's like she was getting beaten up gruesomely. She kept screaming out her lungs.
"HELP!"
The word lingered in Roid's mind. He wanted to go and help her but fear stopped him. Terror in his eyes, but guilt that he couldn't do anything about the situation brewed inside him. Roid looked disturbed. He raged.
"Are you okay?" Yuto interrupted his flashback.
Roid suddenly snapped out of his flashback. His eyes were fizzling with anger and sadness. Yuto looked at him concerned, wondering what he might have heard last night.
"Okay, let's get it moving," a soldier roared.
The soldiers took the slaves outside the compound to go to the mines. Upon arrival, a long wall with equipment was there, with white soldiers or rather guards safeguarding them from something.
Mhh, that's weird. If they are only going to take us outside the headquarters to work, then what's with the giant wall? I honestly thought it was for security but since we are outside, we have better chances of escaping than inside… then why make it at all if we are going to be outside the walls? Yuto wondered internally.
Roid still seemed traumatised from last night's experience as he just froze there. Yuto looked at him worried again.
"You know, if we don't get the equipment we might as well just die here," he spoke, trying to break the ice.
Roid still stood there like a broken robot.
"Hello?" Yuto waved at him.
Roid then snapped out of his thoughts. He realized that Yuto was right they needed to keep working together in order to survive.
But what is the point of surviving if we're just going to die in this hell hole anyway? Roid asked himself in his thoughts.
Roid picked up his equipment and they headed towards the dark hole that swallowed them the deeper they went. They mined and ached the whole day till sunset arrived. It was time for the slaves to go back to the compound. The soldiers took them back to where they arrived to their new home. They took the horse carriage back to the compound. They entered the headquarters through the giant gate and they passed the giant walls' tunnelling section back to the compound where their barn was.
Yuto carefully analysed his surroundings while he was in the carriage as something was unusual.
They arrived at the compound and the slaves were dragged out by the soldiers' shouting demands in every whip they slashed out. Slaves walked in a line towards their barn. Roid and Yuto walked at the back of the line. They were tired. Their footsteps were heavy as they dragged them upon the bloody dirt. They arrived at their barn and they all sighed in relief as they were tired cattle.
"Ohh, my legs are aching," Yuto sighed.
"Yeah, same here," Roid replied as he took off his shirt again.
A little more mist came out of his body than yesterday night. It felt like he was hotter today somehow. It's like each scar was taking out its anger.
Is he hot again? Yuto wondered in his thoughts.
Next to them was an old woman. She had white and black hair. Her face looked pale and sponge-like, wrinkled from old age. Roid and Yuto looked at her as she kept repeating the same words, like a paranoid person.
"Help her!"
They even have old people like her to work? She's going to die soon at least let her die in peace, these bastards, Roid thought.
"Hey ma'am, are you okay?" Yuto asked her.
"Grootslag will protect us, he is the God," she kept saying simultaneously.
"God? Do you know what she is talking about?" Roid asked Yuto.
"No, this is news to me," Yuto replied. Mhh, I have never heard of a God named Grootslag before, he thought.
"I have no other memories besides those," she said.
"Do you at least remember your name?" Roid replied.
"Uhm… No," she replied, looking down as if she was disappointed of something.
"Please save ...." she muttered silently.
"Save who?" Roid got closer, worried the more she spoke.
"I-I-I don't remember…" her voice crackled as she confusingly answered.
She suddenly slept. Her old body could not take the stress she was enduring. The pain and work from today made her tired.
"I wonder who she was talking about?" Roid said to Yuto.
"I know she's old, but living for that long you would figure that she would at least know her name, right?" Yuto asked Roid.
"LIGHTS OUT!" a soldier screamed.
Roid and Yuto went towards their hay as they prepared to sleep. Soldiers turned the lights off and quiet went the barn. Silence lingered in the wooden room. Outside, the soldiers marched in silence guarding the headquarters. Their white uniforms shined bright over the dark night cloudy sky.
Inside the barn, Roid couldn't sleep. Yesterday night's terror of the woman screaming still loomed in his head. The guilt felt a little more than he could chew. It was too much for him. He wished he could have done something.
Suddenly, out of nowhere someone screamed. It felt like they were in huge agony and pain. Something was happening. Their scream was echoing through the barn and in Roid's head.
Roid rushed up and woke up Yuto.
"Let's go."
"Huh? Where are we going?"
"I can't. Not again. I am not letting someone else suffer while I know I can help them."
"What? Are you crazy?"
"YAAAAAAA!" someone kept screaming from the far side.
"HELP MEE!" They kept crying out.
"Fine, let's go," Yuto answered.
They both sneaked out the barn, towards the hallway. They tiptoed down the hallway following the scream. The scream kept getting louder and louder. Their heartbeats kept pounding and pounding as they got closer. As much as they wanted to save this person, they didn't know how they would do it especially since they were chained.
"PLEASE HELP ME!" the voice got louder.
"Something is off here," Yuto wondered as he surveyed the hallway.
Roid and Yuto got close to the room. It was the only room with a light in it, as it flickered with the pain of the scream. Even before they entered the room, they saw blood flooding outside the doorway.
"We could just turn back, and forget about this you know. Something is not right here," Yuto said.
"I can't leave with that guilt again. He needs our help. He's begging us, Yuto," his voice cracked, eyes trembling, tears falling out.
Yuto looked at him and sighed.
"Fine."
They walked towards the room and pushed the door open as it squealed. They both froze at the sight they saw. It was a room with a bed. It had operational equipment you would only see in surgery hospital labs. A dead man was on the bed, blood covering the once white bed sheets. The man's corpse sat there. Silence covered the lab room. Roid and Yuto stood their fear-frozen, not knowing what the hell was going on here.
"My-my…. what are my cattle doing out their barns?" a menacing voice echoed in the silence.
A dark silhouette appeared from the shadows behind Roid and Yuto. His smile was scary, almost like he could chew both of them. Roid and Yuto both just stood there, as nothing they could have done was going to save them from this.
"Lovely sight wouldn't you say?" the man said as he stood behind them looking at the corpse.
He seemed aroused from this the blood, the dead man. He's enjoying this. Too much.
"What is all this?" Roid said.
"It's where you two will be going next. You just saved us the time of having to go capture you."
"Huh?" both Roid and Yuto replied, scared.
"Capture them," the man said.
The soldiers appeared out of nowhere, whips out, hands ready and guns blazing. Their fate was about to be like the man that was on the bed.
"WAIT!!" Roid shouted.
"Mhh?" the man sighed, looking at Roid.
"Do it to me!... I dragged him here, so if you are going to do something do it to me." he roared.
"Ohh?"
"I will do anything, just don't involve him!"
"Interesting, these chains didn't just tie you together, it also chained a bond too," the man thought.
"Anything? Right?" He smirked.
"Y-Y-Yes," Roid replied, trembling.
"Unshackle them, bring the boy to the bed, let's retry it again."
"Yes sir."
They unchained Roid from his chains. The shackles left an imprint on his hands and feet. They took him and lifted him towards the bed.
I knew it, something was not right. I have seen so many soldiers ever since we entered this place, yet when we walked down the hallway it was empty. Did he want us to come here? If so, why? Yuto thought.
"Make sure he is tied and locked to the bed. I think this new one will be it," he smirked.
"Yes, sir."
The soldiers then tied Roid to the bed. Yuto was held by the other soldiers, making him the front row sitter to what was about to happen.
"Initiate the first test, make sure to put it in the right hand," the man said.
"What are you going to do to him?!" Yuto shouted, resisting his capture.
"Well, he will be my experiment of course," he smiled out of being aroused by this.
"HUH? WHAT? NO, NO, NO..." Roid kept shouting out of fear.
The man smiled.
A female soldier holding a syringe appeared. The syringe had a bubbly liquid to it, almost like a purple thick liquid. It kept pulsating through the syringe. It's like it was alive.
"Initiate test one," the man said.
The female walked towards Roid and inserted the syringe in his right arm. The liquid thumped in his veins, glowing purple and red with the blood as it went to his heart.
"AHHHH!"
"HELPP!"
"IYAAA!"
Roid cried, shaking terribly with the bed as it kept bouncing on each scream.
Yuto teared up as he could do nothing. His slave mate was being tortured in front of him.
The cries stopped. Roid huffed his lungs as he was in agonising pain, breathing heavily.
"Failed," the female said.
"Initiate test two."
"IYAAAAAA!"
Roid screamed!
Seconds felt like hours as Roid was coughing out blood. His mana levels were down. What they were doing didn't seem like it was working. His voice cracked. He could not cry for help anymore. All hope was lost. His eyes suddenly went numb. Some of his scars sprayed out blood. He looked like a walking corpse.
"Failed."
"Initiate test three."
"PLEASE! STOP! I CAN'T, I WILL DIE IF I KEEP DOING THIS!" Roid's voice cracked as he whispered in pain.
"ANYTHING BUT THIS!" he cried out.
The man squinted his eyes and sighed.
"Pshh."
"Initiate test thr…."
Suddenly, a soldier walked in. He went to the man who was in charge.
"What is it?"
"Sorry to interrupt but I have important news for you."
The soldier whispered something in his ear. His face changed. He looked a little happier and more excited. His eyes suddenly locked in with Roid.
"Really?" he smirked.
"Mwahahahaha," he laughed.
"Okay then you two, how about this?"
"Huh?" both Roid and Yuto looked at the man as he stood up.
He lifted his hands up in a T-pose, as he looked like a GOD.
"I will offer you a chance of freedom out of this place."
He smirked.