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Reunion: Chapter 18

“Is this what death feels like?" Reality came rushing back to Adrian like so many times before. He had been shot, knocked out, drugged, beaten, tortured, all in the past few weeks and now he was waking again. His arm hurt, but it was a dull throb, a mere reminder of what had happened.

He remembered it. He had been shot by that smug bastard, Andrew. Took a good portion of his upper arm with it, leaving only bone and ruin. He had fallen down and his body went into shock. Andrew stood over him, a smile on his face at his prize. He wasn't after Adrian, but what Adrian carried, Dog, who Adrian couldn't feel at the moment. He was all alone, but he wasn't dead.

Adrian opened his eyes slowly since there was a bright light overhead. It was't that yellow glow that the sun gave off, a soothing touch that he had always enjoyed to feel against his fur, it was a white, harsh light that stung his eyes.

As his eyes adjusted, Adrian saw that he was in a room. He couldn't get up, he was feeling weak as if there were weights strapped to every inch of his body. He twisted his neck, craning it to look around. There was nothing but white walls in every direction and smooth flat walls. There was no bulb for the light, it radiated from the walls leaving no shadow.

The Canis blinked his eyes, making sure he wasn't hallucinating. No, it was all real. A look down showed the only thing that wasn't white, the table that he was laying on. It was cold and hard against his back. He would have moved off of it if he could, but he was just too tired and really wanted to just close his eyes to go back to sleep. It felt right to go back to sleep and not worry about where he was or how he got there, but it wasn't. There was something about the room that made Adrian uneasy.

He looked around, scanning for some sort of discrepancy in the white wash walls, a camera, a hole, something. Adrian felt as if he was being watched. Something would have had to have brought him here. The last time he was awake, he was moments from death.

The angel.

He recalled the angel. It didn't seem likely that some celestial being had come from the heavens to save him, but he couldn't think of anything else that it could have been. The figure had risen up into the sky, drawing his would be killer's attention away. With all the blood loss and stress on his body, Adrian's vision or mind wasn't in the right place at that moment. It could have been anything, but it was responsible for saving him.

The feeling of being watched never went away and Adrian pushed his mental faculties by reaching out with his mind, trying to feel if anyone was out there beyond the walls.

Adrian squeezed his eyes shut. It was hard to use his powers at the time, his mind and body were already drained and it took all of his concentration to push past the walls.

Nothing, only emptiness met Adrian' taxed mind. He couldn't feel a single thinking mind out there, not even a rodent scurrying around whatever was beyond the walls.

With that attempted botched, Adrian decided that he should get up and try out his body to make sure that it still worked.

There was the dull throb of pain coming from his left arm along with numbness below that and a quick look showed that underneath the patch work of bandages, there was a definite lack of form there. He didn't try and move it. Instead, using his good right arm, Adrian lifted his arm up, sucking in a breath of air when the pain became a sharp stab, and set it across his bare lap.

He was naked, but that wasn't much of a shocker. If someone… Or something had saved and cared for his wounds, having his bloody clothes get in the way wouldn't help, but having that clothes to put on would have.

“On three." Adrain said to himself and gripped the edge of the table he was on, tensing his muscles, getting ready to pull himself up.

“One." He sucked in his gut.

“Two."

“Three." Three rapid breaths and a pull. Slowly with a groan and then a roar of defiant triumph, Adrian got himself up into a seated portion, his legs out in front of him with his bad arm still on his lap, covering his sheath.

A wave of dizziness wafted over the Canis and he had to hold onto the table to stop him from falling off the side. He waited for his head to clear before taking another quick look around. Who was watching him. There was no proof or indication of there being any surveillance on him, but that feeling was one that he couldn't dismiss.

Twitching his nose, Adrian looked back at the table he had been laying on. It reminded him of some sort of operating table. “At least there isn't a set of surgical tools next to me for them to cut me up." He snorted.

The air was warm, but not warm enough to be soothing. It almost felt disappointing against his fur. It wasn't just there air, the entire place felt wrong to him. There was just something that was prodding the back of his mind. It made him feel a little sick and wanting to get out as soon as he could.

There was no way out though. The walls were all just flat, white and featureless.

“Hello?" Adrian yelled out and slowly slid his legs off the side of the table to get into a more comfortable position. He wasn't going to try and stand yet. “Anyone there?"

Adrian frowned when there was no answer. “What did I expect?" He said and then concentrated inward to try and get a response from someone else.

“Dog." He thought and began to dig through the parts of his mind that he remembered Dog inhabiting. “Come on, buddy. I need you."

“Wha…" Dog's presence slowly became stronger, coming back from where ever he had gone. “Did I black out?" He slowly grew angry. “How did I black out? I don't think that should be possible?"

“Good to hear from you." Adrian felt relieved. Not having Dog was worrying him. He hadn't been with him for long, but his presence was always comforting and felt natural. It made sense that it did, he had been passed down his family tree for generations. Adrian didn't really know what he would do if he lost Dog.

“How nice of you to care for me." Dog nudged. “But, where are we?"

“I don't know." Adrian didn't speak out loud. He didn't want what ever was watching to hear him talk to himself like some mad man. “I just woke up here and I can't see a way out. Does any of this look familiar?"

“No." Dog replied. “None of this is familiar at all. I can't recall anything that looks remotely like this."

Adrian felt and saw as Dog flickered through his vast stores of memories. Faces of people and places flew by Adrian's eyes. Some he recognized from his own life, but mostly, the memories weren't his, but those of his ancestors. There was a mixture of Canis, humans. Many were happy, smiling at him, others were scowling or just faceless, people that Dog had deemed not worth remembering. There were so many, hinting at many long, and productive lives from the shear number of people. There were races of Canis that Adrian didn't even knew existed.

Short ones, tall ones, ones with massive muscles, short hair, long hair, there were so many with so many different shades of fur. Most Canis were just some shade of brown with slightly long hair. Not a lot of variation in the Canis population now, but then. He saw a smaller, very short Canis with an orangish-tan fur, laughing while toting a massive gun that was comically too large for him. Another one was a massive and fierce Canis with grey, long fur, a long muzzle and pointed ears that swiveled in place. He was also backed by several others, though with the memory focusing on the individual, the background was blurry.

“Nope." Dog ended his shuffling. “Nothing."

Adrian furrowed his brown and rubbed his chin with a claw. “Well, I guess we'll have to find a way out."

“You didn't just magically appear in here, so there must be some sort of door somewhere." Dog said and Adrian quickly agreed. “Can you stand up."

Adrian felt stronger now and he believed that he could if he used the table as a support for his weight. “I think so." He edged closer to the edge and looked down at the white floor. Here, there was a few speckles of blood, dark red splotches against the otherwise pristinely white floor. The contrast and size of the droplets made the floor seem so far away and Adrian got a bit of vertigo.

"Easy goes it." Dog's words encouraged Adrian to slide his body off fully, using his one good arm to keep himself upright and steady. His bad arm was hanging limply against his side, it hurt, but not as much as it should have been. Adrian had the suspicion that he was on some really powerful pain killers that was keeping him from screaming out in pain.

One toe touched the ground and then it was followed by the rest of the paw, the claws clacking as they hit the hard floor. The next foot made touch down and the legs began to support the body. They were weak and wobbled, but they did their job.

“Ok." Adrian said and let go of the table, testing his strength. He took one tentative step forward and found that he could walk slowly.

“Start looking for some way out." Dog eagerly pushed Adrain forward.

Adrian went forward until he reached a wall. With so much white, it was hard to even find the wall. He slid his hands up and down, feeling for anything that he could get his nails under and pry at. He slowly went up and down. Now that he blood was pumping, he was feeling stronger and more awake, but that also meant that whatever painkiller he was on was fading.

His arm was stiffening up and and the pain was becoming more that just a reminder at how messed up he was. He wouldn't be able to take much more.

It was half an hour before Adrian found a slight lip in the wall. From a distance, it was invisible, but right with his muzzle against the wall, Adrain could see it, a rise in the wall.

His claws were just big enough to get under it and it shifted a little, giving way when Adrian pulled at it.

A claw and then a finger. Soon Adrian got his entire set of fingers under the lip and began to pull. He could see grey on the other side, hinting that there was much more. He pulled as hard as he could, leaning back and using his weight to help as the wall came away with a hissing sound from somewhere from beyond the wall.

“There." Adrian coughed from his exertion when he had pulled the wall away enough for him to slip through. He admired his work for a bit, hesitant to move on. He was weak, tired and severely injured. If there was anything on the other side, Adrian doubted that he would be able to defend himself even with his powers since that put a tax on his mind.

“Don't worry." Dog said. “Just like the building earlier. Nothing but darkness." Adrain could feel a slight bit of uncertainty coming from dog, but he was still more confident, enough that it was a little contagious.

“Here we go." Adrian said and slipped though the crack in the wall he made. He never lost the feeling that he was still being watched.