A Life Worth Living - Chapter 8 - When Hell is Raining Down on You
#8 of A Life Worth Living
A Life Worth Living - Chapter 8 - When Hell is Raining Down on You
Chapter 8 of this series. There might be an epilogue uploaded, maybe not. All depends if people let me know they want to know truly what happens at the end.
"Ugggggggh." I woke up with my muscles stiff and mind clouded. From what my drugged nerves could tell, I was again, for the second time, bound and tied up. This time, however; I was strapped to a table. The air was damp and cold, and my nose was cringing.
"Wake up, my little one." A voice came from the dark.
My vision started to become less fuzzy as more of the tranquilizer chemicals lost their potency. The only thing I could really move was my neck. Looking around I saw I was in a lab room of some sort, with a few monitors on the wall and a control panel of some sort. I focused on two of the monitors and saw William and Kaynin strapped to separate tables in different rooms.
"Look at what we have here." The voice came out again from behind me. I turned my neck as far as I could to see who it was and saw that same female black panther.
"You again! What the hell have you done with William and Kaynin?" I shouted.
"Well I'm not going to lie it doesn't look too good for them right now. I'm going to assume you are very, in the dark, might I say, about this whole situation?" Too busy growling I only nodded my head. "Well I guess I owe you an explanation. I am Kreia, and I am in charge, one could say, of genetic and cell splicing research. We were part of the governmental sector, but they decided that it was too much trouble to cover up our, mishaps. Remember these?" She held up an envelope, the same type I had received whenever someone had died.
"You bastard!" I shouted. "So you've been doing live research and testing on my family? You're sick!"
"Nope, not just your family. A few others too, include you." She paused for a moment and crouched down by my ear and whispered "and Kaynin's"
"You mother fucker if you hurt her I swear to god I'll!"
"What, shake in you bonds?" She laughed sadistically. "They're so cute when they're angry. Anyways, what we are testing is genetic engineered chemical karyon overdrive, or GECKO. We change the composition of you DNA to basically create beyond normal capabilities to make super soldiers. So far the subjects haven't accepted the changes too well, the mind starts blocking certain things, and some even shut the mind down completely. On the upside the subjects have increased attributes that would help in combat. So all we have to do is isolate the negatives and eliminate them."
"You're sick, you know that. How can you live with yourself?"
"Mr. Alurx, I greatly enjoy what I study, and it's for the good of our nation. But also I love psychology. So I will offer you a choice. Here you have three lives that you can decide with. You have your life, your best friend's life, and the life of a girl you recently met. I will let two of you walk away from this. I can do without one or two subjects, and besides I'd really love to see how this will work out. So, who shall you sacrifice and who will you save?" Her mouth twisted into an evil, sadistic smile.
My mind raced as I tried desperately to think of something I could do, but little came.
"C'mon hun, I'd like an answer. And don't try to escape; you're a good seven floor underground with armed guards all over."
Then, it clicked. I had a plan, and I sure hoped by the gods it would work.
"A name now, will ya? I'm growing impatient"
"William." I said. Through the monitor I saw his eyes shoot open. Damn there must be a mic in here.
"Aww, how cute, kill you friend for the girl. I almost saw this coming. Maybe we'll test on him too." She said, moving to the control panel. Now was my time to act. I strained with all my might trying to break the bonds that held me, trying to suppress my grunts. Suddenly, the restraints began to rip. Bolting upright I tore the rest of the bonds and jumped off the table. I quietly snuck over to the rack where a tranquilizer gun was held and picked it up.
"Aww, are you trying to escape?" She said, her focus still on the monitors.
I aimed the gun at her neck and prepared to fire. "Well, look at this, the creation is stronger than the creator."
"What do you mean?" She said, turning around. "Ohh fuck." I pulled the trigger and she dropped immediately. Tossing the gun to the side I backed up against the wall.
"Shit this is going to hurt." I said. I gained as much speed a I could and lunged at the wall, slamming it with as much force possible. I was met with a crunching sound, but it wasn't any of my bones. A crack jutted across the section I hit. Again I tried to break through but it didn't go just yet. I prepared for a final charge and the wall broke.
The room I smashed into was William's. Thank the gods because I'd hate to have to try again on a different wall.
"What the hell?" Yelled a bull with a syringe prepped for injection and a 9mm on his hip. He tried to pull the gun on me but I was already charging at him. My shoulder crashed into his chest and he slammed into the wall. Quickly I sidestepped and grabbed his head, slamming it to the ground, knocking him out cold.
"Aww hell Alurx, you came back for me!" He said almost in disbelief.
"There was no way in hell I'd let a brick wall stand between us."
"Well lucky for you there isn't another brick wall between us and Kaynin, just a pane of glass. Now get me out of this I hate feeling constrained." He said, fidgeting around slightly. I quickly cut the straps before looking towards where Kaynin was bound. She was smiling but I could tell her nerves were freaking out.
"William, take his pistol, were gonna need it to work back through seven floors." I said, bringing my arm back.
"Were seven floors deep?" He shouted in disbelief.
My fist swung forward and shattered the final barrier between Kaynin and me.
"Yep, seven floors deep."
I could tell Kaynin was scared out of her mind because she could hardly stand on her own and she was shaking uncontrollably. She wrapped her arms around me extremely tight and whimpered softly.
"Kaynin, it's ok, I've got you. It'll be alright." I said, rubbing her back.
"Ok guys, I'm ready to go." William said, pistol in hands and bouncing slightly.
"Kaynin, stay right behind be, I don't want anything to happen to you, ok?" She nodded and grasped my arm, snugly hiding behind my body and we walked towards the door.
"Locked, damn it!" William said.
"Stand back." I said, lifting up and leg and kicking the door off the hinges.
"Ok, let's go." First William moved through the door and let off two shots while Kaynin and I moved into the hallway, finding a guard on the ground, lifeless.
"Alurx grab his gun."
I kneeled down and pried his gun from his still warm hands and stood back up. There was a dinging sound behind us which was then accompanied by a sliding sound. We turned around to see three bulls step out of the elevator, M16's in hand. William started popping off shots, quickly joined by my own. Two of them dropped before I felt a ripping sensation in my lower left arm and Kaynin screamed.
"Damn it I'm hit!" I shouted to Will, who just finished killing the last bull. He glanced back at me, then dropped down next to the closest bull, unsheathed its knife, and cut a strip of clothing from its shirt and tossed it to me.
"Kaynin, tie this around his wound ok?" Shuddering slightly Kaynin wrapped and tightened the makeshift bandage around my arm.
"Can you take an M16 or not?" Se asked, slinging one on his back and picking up another.
"Yea, sure. Toss it to me." He lobbed the gun to me before picking up the last one.
"Ok, let's get on the elevator. Hopefully we can get up to ground level and have less to deal with." William said, moving into the elevator and clicking a button. Kaynin and I got in and the doors closed. We slowly started ascending before it stopped abruptly at floor 4. A voice then came on the PA system.
"Your very resourceful, such a shame I can't let you leave! That was only a
lower potency tranqualizer, sadly for you! But not too worry, you'll be dead within four minutes, you'll all be! No one beats me NO ONE!!! I'm always one step ahead of you! Ah ha ha! See if you can outrun my bombs!" The PA then only relayed static.
"Damn that psychotic panther!" I shouted, kicking the elevator wall in frustration.
"Alurx, help me open this door!" William said, prying the doors apart slightly. Together we opened it and stepped out. I heard footsteps coming from around the corner.
" William, get ready!" I said, lifting my M16. Two horses and three tigers came around the corner, only to be met by our bullets. Thankfully they didn't have time to get a shot off, so we quickly moved forward, swapping our guns with the ones on the ground with a fuller clip. Looking around the corner, I saw a door with stairs behind them.
"Will, stairs!" I said, quickly moving towards them. When we got to them we saw there was a slot for a card to be swiped.
"Damn it it's locked!" William shouted.
"BULLSHIT!" I screamed, slamming my shoulder into and through the door. "Seems open to me."
The PA came back on. "Three minutes until detonation!"
"Let's go!" I shouted, heading up the first set of stairs, William right behind me. As we reached the third floor doors flew open, one a flight above us and one below us.
"Alurx, take out the bottom, I got us covered on top!" William shouted, letting off four shots, accompanied by a thud. I aimed my rifle down to the group of five that were heading up the stairs. I couldn't aim with the pain in my left arm, so I held the trigger in their direction and saw three of them go down, and a weasel cried out in pain and dropped his rifle, falling on the ground.
click, click, click
"Fuck, OUT OF AMMO!" I screamed. "Kaynin stay here." She released my arm and I leapt across the section between the stairs, slamming into the unsuspecting badger, the force of hitting the wall knocked the gun out of his hands. Capitalizing on his stuttering, I drove my fist into his abdominal, then bringing my knee to his face while he was hunched over. His body went limp as it rose into the air three feet; then sprawled out when it hit the ground. Grabbing his rifle I clambered up the stairs again.
"Ready to move?" I shouted.
"Alurx look out!" Kaynin yelled, pointing behind me. I turned around but it was too late, the injured weasel was on the ground with a pistol aimed at me with a shaky arm. I saw the barrel flash light up a few times and felt the same ripping sensation in my right thigh, upper right chest, and the left side of my muzzle before heard Williams gun fire a shot into the weasel's chest. Feeling my face, I found that the bullet had torn through the skin on my face, about 1/4 inch deep, blood oozing slowly from it.
"Alurx, are you ok?" He asked, concerned. I limped up the stairs next to him and patted his shoulder roughly.
"I'll be fine, let's get out of here." I said, clambering up the stairs with pain shooting through my leg every step.
"Two minutes until detonation"
"Ahhhhhhh shut up!" I shouted in a futile attempt to give us more time. The three of us tried desperately to pick up our pace. My leg gave out and I slammed into the wall in front of me, a large 2 painted onto it.
"Alurx damn it I won't leave you!" William shouted, taking his arm around my chest and pulling me up. I leaned heavily on him while we finally reached the first floor.
"One minute thirty seconds until detonation."
I threw my weight against the door and readied my rifle in case of resistance, and damn was that a good idea.
"Get down!" William shouted, firing his M16 and pushing Kaynin and I behind a large case of hardware, providing ample cover from the gunfire of what looked like twelve guards blocking the path out of here. He ducked behind a door that was across the hallway from us.
"Keep firing! We don't have much time!" He shouted, leaning out and firing a few more shots before concrete showered around him from ricocheting bullets. I leaned over the top of the crate and fired off blindly, hoping some of the bullets found their mark.
"One minute until detonation!"
"Alurx" Kaynin whispered, but wasn't heard over the gunfire. "Alurx!" She yelled.
"What?" I said, ducking close to her.
"Just in case we don't make it out of here alive, I want you to know..." Her
voice drifting off slightly.
"Know what?" I said, knowing time was short.
She hesitated for a moment, and then she grabbed the back of my head and brought it to hers, locking her muzzle with mine. My vision went fuzzy and my head swirled with ecstasy. Even with bullets flying over our heads and rubble showering us, I felt nothing but her soft fur and heard nothing but our hearts thumping in sync, perfect harmony between two furs, perfect for each other. She broke the kiss, both of us gasping for breath.
"I wanted you to know, no matter what happens that I love you." She said, tears forming in her eyes.
"I won't let us die right now." I said back, wiping the tears off her beautiful muzzle. "Because I love you too."
"Alurx, we got about twenty seconds!" He shouted. Turning back to him I saw a frag grenade roll between us.
"Shit GRENADE!" I shouted to William. He saw it and dove to it, sweeping it off the ground and chucking it back to the sender. We heard a round of obscenities from the enemy and the PA announcing ten seconds, and then the grenade exploded.
"RUN, FUCKING RUN!!!!!!" He shouted. Time seemed to slow as we dropped out M16's to lessen the weight. We were about 70 yards from the exit of the underground fortress.
"Five seconds!"
Blood was spurting from my leg wound from the sheer amount of force being put on my legs.
"Four seconds!"
William was screaming and howling in attempt to gain any speed.
"Three seconds!"
Kaynin was struggling to keep up, but gave it her all, staying right by my side.
"Two seconds!"
We were less than 18 yards from freedom, running harder than ever because our lives depended on it.
"One second!"
Summoning all my strength I took hold of both William and Kaynin and charged forward, running on pure adrenaline, hoping it would be enough. There was a loud boom and a rumbling coming from deep underground. Fire was hot on our tails as we tried desperately to escape. We fought soo hard to get this far, but would it end now, like this? Heat beat down on our backs as the flames quickly caught up with us, and the sonic boom soon after.