Chapter 20: Disturbing Secret
The walls of the cold underground will make anyone's spine shiver from fear. The hurtful luminosity of the lamps will burn the living daylights out of people. And the humidity that carried the chill of the coming winter struck their defenseless bodies.
Weak grunts of men echoed alongside the howls of the wind. Listening carefully will make anyone realize that there weren't just the pleas of suffering men. Mixed with them are the moans of people that died an awful way.
Wails that will drive people insane and will bring them into complete collapse. Depravity is the only choice left when they are trapped in this place.
Raging emotions of the people stuck inside this place have long materialized into droplets of water. One-touch and your whole arm will have the need for amputation because of how malignant the infection is.
A guard and an underling of a warden of this place didn't hesitate as he did something shocking. He is a bald man with beer-belly that punctured a helpless arm using a rusty nail that went deep and struck a cracked bone.
"Arrrggg, fuck, fuck, fuck!", the angry curse of a high pitched voice rang far and wide. In this place, no one would come to rescue this victim.
The pointed end struck an old wound which produced electrifying stimuli to her brain that made her numb. They are protesting that she must escape or else the whole arm will become forever limp.
"Why don't you tell us now how did you it?", the man icily asked. His patience is running thin for this prisoner. This was already the eight sessions to extract intel from this person for this day.
Alas, all efforts are in vain as she will not tell anything at all. Even when her bones were broken or her fingers clipped one by one, her mouth remained shut-tight.
A pair of radiant black eyes stared at this man. Even though her face is haggard, the dirty lilac hair tangled up, and the body in intense pain, the unyielding will still remain as she let out a wide, crazy smile that exposed her smashed teeth.
The gorgeous, perfect set resembles a broken piano because of all the teeth-plucking torture she endured until now.
Anger rushed to the man's head and another nail impaled her right arm.
"Ah, ah, ah! Fuck fuxk, fuck!", she could only cuss and gasp for air because of the pain inflicted to her. That's some serious harm yet she fiercely looked back at this guy.
Her screams didn't elevate the mood of the torturer as he shoved the third nail on her ruptured arm. All three nails were precisely poked her flesh that little to no blood came gushing out from the wounds created.
"Let's see how long can you last!", the man stomped his thick legs and prepared to walk out the room.
Kaboom!
A mini-explosion blasted away the heavy steel vault door which was the only entrance to this room. Unfortunately for the man, he was struck by the door, effectively killing him through smashing him to become a meat paste.
Blood splattered everywhere in one of the walls of the room as dust rose up, obscuring the vision of people.
Tik! Tak!
Heavy footsteps came from the leftover smoke and the first thing she saw is the metallic surface of an armor suit that reflected in her eyes.
There wasn't any insignia that represented which organization they came from but hope returned in her eyes as she is can be finally freed from this misery.
The first thing the man inside the suit almost made him puke.
A young resolute lady silently stared at him yet her body has become sickening.
Strapped on a long metal, chopping board with thick straps to secure her head, torso, and legs. A person that is going to be dissected for a science project.
Three long, rusty nails were struck on her right arm and caused mild bleeding. Various wounds adorned her once beautiful body. The lightest is a wide scratch and the gravest is a bone in her rib cage that protruded from her chest.
The previous thick legs have now become the breeding grounds for squirming worms as they solely festered on her bloody insides. Worse, the man knew they are a subspecies of an alien species called carrion blood worms that are aggressive and will eat any meat that comes close to them.
It is plainly obvious that her state is miserable yet she didn't lodge a complaint as the man began to roughly remove those thick ugly things.
Others might not know but Erik knew how dangerous those things are. An underworld employee like him has the minimum knowledge of how to conduct torture and the corresponding actions after you were saved. And these worms have the ability to reproduce and lay their tiny eggs in the bloodstream of a living person.
It was only a matter of time before something was gnawing at her brain if proper treatment isn't applied.
If not for the tube inserted on her left arm, that transported high-grade nutrients directly to her system, she would be an empty husk by now.
As he was removing those things, another man entered the wrecked opening. He saw the thing his partner was doing but he was more amazed at the beauty of the girl before him.
She perfectly matches the description of their target today. To confirm that, he strode forward and impolitely asked her.
"The sun has long set, the monsters roam the sea, the blight moon has set, and terrifying abominations that live in the land praise me. What am I?", he posed a simple riddle that is a mixture of what they're supposed to ask and a bit of his imagination in order to mislead anyone to the real answer.
This earned him an eerie side-glance from those ominous-looking eyes.
"The sun ain't setting, we're rotating, there are no monsters but only humans, idiots are racing to land in a chunk of regolith, and humans don't praise the nature, they execrate at it."
She finished it in one breath and a realization struck them. It was the specific answer to the question he said. Erik and his partner looked at each other before they nodded.
The man took out a piece of rectangular equipment inside his armor that verifies people if they are the real deal, an imposter, or a clone. While Erik unceremoniously cut out a piece of her flesh and some blood samples.
In this era, no one can guarantee them that the person in front of them is a trickster. An impostor to say the least.
There are just a ton of ways to hide your real identity or pretend to be another person. An identification besides the 'word riddle' must be conducted to make no mistakes.
Those two things were crudely placed inside two empty spaces. This is an expensive unit of advanced gene identification machinery for the poor but cheap for an organization like Kuroi Te.
Five short seconds later, their faces have this incredulous expression that couldn't help but look at her and output the machine displayed.
| DNA Match To Matilda Ulter 100% |
| Chances of Clone 0% |
| Variation 0% |
| Result: Perfect Match |
The two of them could only stare at the girl before them. It was more than five days ago that they received an order to search and raid hidden facilities belonging to the government and rival gangs.
All of that just to find a kidnapped girl. Some said that was an illogical edict of their boss but they still did their jobs as underlings faithfully. While reliable sources told that it was a favor to an old friend.
Whatever it is, it is not their business. But seeing their objective in such unfortunate condition, they couldn't help but be doubtful on what's happening.
Never would they have guessed the said victim would be enduring such inhuman torment and managed to survive until the end.
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