Iron Maiden

"Thwack" Miri was hit with the meaty side of a hand. She barely registered the pain anymore, but it did knock her head back. 'I'm going to need a chiropractor badly, if I survive,' she thought. The man hitting her currently was different than the one who snatched her off the street. This guy had a little less style, but looked much more like a black ops type. He had knife handles and pocket flaps all over his gear.

Marcus hit her again, in the side this time. Apparently the chair was bolted down, because it didn't move at all.

"We need all the safehouse locations. I'll keep asking until you aren't able to talk. Then I'll ask again when you've healed up enough for another conversation. This could take days or years, I don't care." He paused to look at her closely, she would have been beautiful if her face wasn't red, purple and blue around her eyes and nose. "No one is coming to save you. You're a fucking terrorist."

Miri didn't think 'terrorist' was a good description. The Fraternity of the Rising Phoenix was trying to help humanity rise from the ashes of their pettiness and transcend this limited universe. Did that mean they had to break some laws to uncover the lies of the global political elite? Of course. A few slaps in the face weren't going to make her give up the organization. They have already learned so much!

"We aren't terrorists. Also, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just a grad student," she said with a bloody smile.

"Ooouuff," escaped from deep in her gut, after he hit her again with a rising punch in her belly.

"Shut up you B#tch. This isn't the time to play games. I haven't even broken my tools out yet. My boss said he didn't care if I turn you into a four stumper to get the information he wants. Four stumps... no arms, no legs. Which would be a shame, for the legs at least," he said, a predatory leer on his face.

The next few hour was mostly a barrage of body blows, sharp jabs, and a few fingernails were removed. She alternated between yelling and whimpering towards the end, but, in the back of her mind, she knew that this was really just the warm up, and that pain wasn't the most effective torture. As much as possible, she tried to find her centre, to retreat into her mind and find a place of stillness.

FORP didn't just break into government facilities and run para-military operations of resistance, they were firmly created with a guiding principle that explored the meta-physical. FORP knew humanity, and the universe, were more than they appeared. She wasn't really that high in the organization, just running a small cell, but she was advanced in her studies on meditation and philosophy. The mind was distinct from the body, it was housed in, but beyond, the body. She just needed to ignore her body.

The blows kept coming, and her body kept making sounds and reacting, but Miri had achieved a remarkable detachment. If she had been in a normal frame of reference, she'd be impressed with this accomplishment. Right now though, it was as if she was a dispassionate observer of her own beating. She was able to start thinking about next steps.

'My body is badly damaged. Nothing permanent yet, he's a professional for sure. Soon though they will start using waterboarding, shock treatment, and then drugs. Maybe once I've healed a little. By then they expect me to be broken in body and soul, and unable to resist the drugs that will make me talk. Probaby true too.'

'Can I escape? What would need to happen to get out of here... where is here?' Miri's mind was spinning, she managed to distance herself from her body, but it wasn't helping her escape. She had never achieved a mind/body separation like this before though, it is true that necessity is the mother of all invention. She felt like her mind could reach out and touch her body, or the man's. When she touched herself, the pain immediatetly came back, and she pulled back. Touching the black ops guy was different... she didn't 'feel' anything, but there was almost a sense of pushing against a balloon... like, beyond his body there was a protective barrier protecting his real self.

'Is my body real, is the world real... are those shackles real?' Miri felt like she was on the verge of a breakthrough. FORP's metaphysical stance was somewhere between simulation theory, skepticism and anti-realism. They knew enough about the existence of the meta-verse to believe that the rules they perceived in our world were fundamental. Miri believed the rules of our universe were constrained somehow, like humans were trying to understand quantum physics with caveman knowledge still. Just running this process, this mantra, in her head was making her mental perception increase.

'Those shackles don't seem so solid...' she started to believe. As her mind strained, pulling further from her body, she felt... perceived, that this complex was built on top of ... an open space underground? She wasn't sure, a cave, a sewer, a tunnel maybe? It seemed separate space from this warehouse type place she was in.

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"Arrrrrgghhhh," escaped her body's lips.

Marcus could tell that she was reacting automatically, and her mind was in deep shock. It also helped protect her from the mental trauma of physical torture. This was just step one though. He grabbed his battle shirt off the floor where he'd tossed it earlier, and walked out of the room. Four other men waited beyond, each in full body armour and tactical gear. They were prepared in case the terrorists found this facility and they had to extract themselves under fire.

"Take her the cell. Have the medic apply first aid, we can't have her die anytime soon," he said while he walked down the hallway. The rest of the building seemed in much better shape than the dirty concrete space he'd been hitting Miri in.

The four armed men went into the warehouse. They moved like soldiers, but didn't seem to be on guard. This facility was well hidden, and guarded.

"What the hell!" The lead man said. Everyone stopped and stared at the empty chair.

"Fan out, search the room quickly," the man in the back said, the Corporal of this unit. They all drew their sidearms, and quickly assessed the room in quadrants. There was nowhere to hide though, it was empty except for the bolted chair and a table with a tool box on it. The Corporal approaced the chair, and noticed the restraints were still closed fast.

"Am I crazy? Who would escape the shackles and then close them again?", he looked at his team and said, "Sims, go inform the Sargent the prisoner has escaped, and sound the alarm.

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It was really dark. And wet. And painful. Ok, the space wasn't painful, but Miri couldn't see anything, and her body was on fire with pain. There wasn't a single spot that didn't hurt.

'Did I pass out? Where am I?', she thought to herself. Apparently she meditated right through being knocked unconscious, and now they had put her somewhere pitch black. It hurt to breathe, but she controlled her breaths, and that seemed to help. She wasn't restrained anymore, but that didn't matter if she was locked in a cell. She rolled onto her back, the least painful decision and just focused on breathing.

'Weird, this space seems way to big to be a cell,' she thought. Her breathing seemed to echo too much around her. The dark was oppressive, but she didnt' feel hemmed into a small space. In fact, the longer she layed there, the more she could almost see... was that a jagged ceiling above her head... way above her head? Where was she?

"Fuck this" she said out loud, and slowly, painfully, stood up. Her entire body felt like a bruise, her lungs felt half their normal size, and she wasn't opening her eyes so much as squinting through a pinhole. She started walking all the same.

The ground beneath her feet was uneven and rough, but flat overall, like a cave maybe. She walked with her hands in front of her, but didn't feel anything. Gradually she started to see a light source ahead, though it wasn't bright. She slowly trudged forward, excited but wary for what might be there.

..... "Statues?"

Miri could see lifesize statues in front of her, each subtly luminescent. When she looked closer, she recognized some of them, which confused her more. Buddha, Jesus, a few middle eastern looking men in robes (Jesus is sort of in that boat too), a few Asian men, women she didn't recognize (but dressed in clothes ranging from ancient to very modern), and, towards the end there were some Western looking people in normal clothes.

Miri looked at them closely too... she was drawing a blank, but... was that Einstein? 'Did they lock me up in some weird museum storage room? This is weird. There seemed to be writing on the plaques attached to the statues, but the light wasn't strong enough to read them. Just as she reached the end of the line of statues (there were a surprising number actually), she yelled out "F#ck me".

She couldn't help herself. The last statue, faintly glowing a little brighter than the others, was of Ethan.

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