The New Dead World

Chapter 17: Let You Down

My eyes fluttered open, the vision slowly returning to my blurry eyes. My skull felt hot and throbbing. My eyes fully adjusted. I looked down at the light blue ocean above me. Feeling something wrapped around my ankles tightly to the point of losing circulation, I saw my feet. A metal chain wrapped around my ankles, and puffy white clouds in the sky slowly moved past under my feet.

I was also butt-naked...

"You finally awake?" A familiar voice said near me. I saw Alpha dangling with a metal chain bound around her wrists. Charlie was behind her a few feet. He was strung up by his wrists as well. Both of them clothed and upright.

"Why am I naked?" I asked. "And upside down?"

"That Doug guy thought it would be funny to string us up. And he thought it would be funnier if you were naked and upside down," Alpha said, her cheeks red. It looked like her eyes hadn't left my body this whole time.

"Great..." I sighed. "I have to pee..."

"You either drown in it or hold it, kid," Charlie said. "Nice ass, by the way."

"Thanks..."

I started to look around and noticed my wrists were bound by rope. They were burning, and a red rash began to form from the rope burn. I went to flick my wrist but noticed they had taken my wrist blade. I sighed.

"Let's see if I can do this again," I said.

"You've been in this situation before?" Alpha asked.

"Yeah, by those nazi cannibal people," I said.

"Ok..." Alpha exhaled.

I leaned up, swung my arms, and grabbed the chain at my feet. Then I started pulling myself up, slowly getting my body on the right side of vertical.

"Woah..." Alpha said.

"You are pretty lean, but man, you sure are strong," Charlie said.

"It also helps if you're superhuman," I said.

"And has the confidence to match," Alpha said.

"Huh? Oh yeah... confidence," I said, pulling myself up the chain to reach the pier's deck. I just reached the floor level, swung myself to the dock, and grabbed onto it, looking through a small gap between the floor and railing.

"Alpha, stop staring at him!" Charlie yelled.

"I'm sorry! He's just so...."

"Jesus..." Charlie sighed.

I saw a few patrols of guys dressed in black walk by carrying huge guns. They lined up some survivors, then shot them dead, dumping their bodies over the railings and into the ocean. I could hear the sharks having feeding frenzies on their dead bodies. I looked down at the water and saw a large fin breaking the water's surface. It was attached to an enormous gray shark. The ocean below started to turn red from all the blood. I turned back to look at the happenings on the pier, and a set of brown sandals with very pale feet stood in my way. I slowly looked up and saw Doug standing over me with a sly grin.

"Try again, and I'll drop you into the hungry sharks below," he said with an evil sneer.

"What are you, a Bond villain?" I asked.

He chuckled, then pulled out a yellow gun contraption. He pressed it to the chain holding me up, and as soon as it made contact, I knew what it was. Volts of electricity shot into the metal chain and into my feet, causing my body to stiffen. I unintentionally let go of the pier and fell down. The chain held onto my feet and whipped my body upside down as it reached its limit.