The Breaking Wheel

Chapter 20: Springlocked

Dr. Collingwood didn't know how it could get any worse.

She'd had her limbs ripped off, been decapitated, flayed while conscious, had bones pulled from their sockets, burned alive, electrocuted, crushed under falling rocks, had her jaw broken multiple times, her innards torn out, and so many other torturous things that she'd lost count of but definitely hadn't forgotten. Some were things she couldn't even put names to, only describe.

But it did.

She found herself in a room, but not the darkness-filled, checkerboard-floor room. This one was made entirely from concrete. The walls were covered in mold and she could hear water dripping from above. There wasn't a door. And she was slumped against the wall in some kind of suit.

She got up and looked down at her hands and feet. It felt awkward with the heavy suit, but it was only a minor inconvenience. The hands of the suit were covered in golden-yellow fabric. The feet and legs were covered in brown cloth. The head of the suit blocked her from seeing the torso.

She tried to yank it off. It was stuck.

Something in the suit clicked.

Spikes stabbed into her flesh. Hooks were driven into her cheeks. A metal rod was shoved up her windpipe, while more metal bars forced her mouth open to the point where they almost ripped her jaw from her head. Her bones snapped like toothpicks while her organs were torn to shreds. Blood spurted from the suit's openings like a geyser.

Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she tried to scream. All that came out was a gurgle.

Bones splintered as her body was slowly crushed by the mechanisms in the suit. She thrashed around, trying to get it off of her. The spikes were only driven deeper by her struggling, ripping her body even further apart.