nineteen ateez-four (ateez au)

one

1974

The room is dark. 

Of course it was dark. It was always dark in here.

Sunlight was beyond them, apparently. They could make it so you and the others in the scheme could set things alight with your bare hands, move cars with your minds and freeze people solid, but offering you a glimpse of sunlight was out of the question.

You look down at your left forearm, running your right thumb over where the tiny holes are, left from the plasmid injections. Your thumb feels over the raised bumps, something that always happens to your skin after they test a new plasmid on you. 

This time it was Insect Swarm, an injectible force that allowed you to summon a horde of angry bees and set them on whichever target you chose. 

Sure, it was cool.

But it was also painful. Exhausting. Mentally draining.

Yet you didn't have a choice. Of course, none of you did.

Enrolled into a programme you had no say in.

At least, enrolled was the term they liked to use. You preferred 'forced into'. 

As you're leaning against the cold wall opposite the door, the thudding of approaching footsteps causes your blood to freeze and heart to stop beating.

They never come twice a day.

Your door is angrily shoved open, and two burly men threateningly holding shotguns stand in the doorway. 

"I guess there's no need for this one anymore then." Left says to Right.

"Yeah." answers Right. "Shoot it."

Immediately, your left arm darts out and soon, the buzzing of agitated bees fills the room. They swarm the two guards, stinging their faces and obstructing their vision. Bewildered, the men drop their guns and bat their arms wildly at the bees.

You scuttle across the floor and grab one of the heavy shotguns, hoisting it up in your grip and aiming them directly at the men's heads.

Without hesitation, you pull the trigger. Somehow, you manage to withstand the recoil of the first shot, and before Left's body has even hit the ground, there's a bullet inbetween Right's eyes. 

Panting, you watch the bees disperse. The scene before you is horrifying; the crumpled corpses of Right and Left sprawled in oozing puddles of crimson blood. Spatters of red coat the snowy white wall behind them and it's only in the weirdly serene calm afterwards that you realise your knees are trembling. 

Peeking your head out of the room, you notice streams of blood flowing out of the other rooms down the hallway.

Something tells you that this blood doesn't belong to any of the guards in the institution. 

The hallway is plunged into a deep, red light, and an alarm that cuts right through you begins to blare. You hear more footsteps, heavier and belonging to way more people than before coming down the adjoining hallways.

You pull the shotgun tightly to your chest and take a deep exhale.

It's now or never.