The Sky Without Starts

Chapter 4 | Midnight Rendezvous

Brandon had been told that giving birth was one of the most painful sensations a human could experience, but if he could guess, a broken rib was a close second. The mystery voice was not lying when it said that he would not last more than a week. At this rate, he would not last till midnight.

Brandon lay on the ground, huddled up in the fetal position as he tried to protect all of his vital spots from the endless barrage of kicks from the miners surrounding him. He had hoped that they would have forgotten what he sounded like, and for most of the day, it seemed like he was right. Most of the prisoners did not even bat an eye as he talked with the guard giving him a 'tour' of the mines. He did not need a tour, seeing that Brandon knew the mines like the back of his hand. Instead, the tour was mostly the two of them catching up. It had only been one day since they had last seen each other, but through that time Brandon went from a commanding officer to a high-level prisoner, so needless to say that his subordinates had questions. Unfortunately, now that those subordinates were gone, so was his protection.

It was only around 22:00, but if what the voice said was true, which so far was spot on, then he would only have to survive two more hours of this. Still, two hours is two hours, and he doubted that the prisoners would just let him walk when the time came. He had to get out of the kicking pit somehow.

Luckily, his exit came quicker than expected.

A large, meaty hand grabbed Brandon by the collar, yanked him out of the group, and threw him across the room. Brandon hit the wall with a loud thud as the sharp pain of the impact coursed through his body. He fell to the floor on his hands and knees as the thumping of the man's feet came closer. Brandon looked up to see that all of the other miners had stayed back while only the large man approached. It was not unusual for people to have their muscles genetically enhanced, everyone in the room except for Brandon had their strength improved. He was physically outmatched and outnumbered, but that did not mean that he was out of options.

Brandon forced himself to his feet as he stared down the hulk of a man in front of him. A right hook from the man broke their staring contest. Pain filled his head as it collided with the fist. For a second he thought that his head would collapse under the weight of the man's hand, but luckily his feet gave way before his skull, and Brandon once again fell to the floor, sliding across the room as he did. This time the man did not wait for Brandon to stand, as he stomped his large foot into Brandon's chest.

"Look at Mr. First Class Citizen," The man said as he twisted his foot into Brandon's chest, "your pure blood is helping you so much right now, isn't it?"

Brandon stopped listening at 'pure blood.' He could not remember how, but one way or another he ended up with the man in a choke hold. Brandon's mind was foggy, but so clear at the same time. He couldn't see the man's face, but he assumed it looked the same as the other miners: terrified. The man tried to swing for Brandon's face, but Brandon could not feel any of the impacts. Instead, Brandon squeezed harder on the man's neck. Within a few moments, the man stopped moving. He was not yet dead, but Brandon had no thoughts of letting go. the man did not deserve to live. he was nothing but living trash, human waste. Brandon would be doing him a favor by killing him. They would all be done a favor when Brandon was done with-

A loud continuous screech from the speakers broke Brandon's trance. He dropped the man's head to cover his ears. it was like nails against a chalkboard, if the chalkboard was connected to an amplifier and auto-tuned to a screaming child. he hoped that the sound would stop soon, but it only continued. However, another sound joined the fray.

"RUN" Brandon heard clearly. He opened his eyes that were clenched from the noise, just in time to see the card reader on the door switch from red to green. He was not the only one, as many of the other miners seemed to have noticed as well. They gave Brandon a glance before charging the door. Brandon rushed the door, making it there moments before the other prisoners. he quickly opened and slammed the door before they could reach the handle, and the moment the door closed the card reader went back to red.

Brandon took a sigh of relief as he looked around. He was in the hallway that connected the mines to the rest of the bunker. there were four doors in the dimly lit hallway, three on one wall and one on the other. The lone door led to the mines while two others, including the one he came from, led to the prisoner sleeping quarters. The farthest one, however, led to the guard lockers. Brandon stood in front of the locker door, but the card reader did not turn green. He tried the door, but no budge. Assuming that he would have to wait until 00:05 as the voice told him to, Brandon leaned against the wall close to the door and slumped to the floor. now that all the excitement was over, the pain from his broken rib was coming back. he could hear a soft thud from the prisoners trying to break out of their room, but the doors were thick enough that none of them had a chance. he watched as the clock above the lone door ticked onward: 22:23... 22:45... 23:10...

"HEY" a voice called out as a bright light filled Brandon's eyes. He looked up at the clock and, sure enough, it read 00:00, the midnight shift change. Brandon quickly jumped to his feet, and as he did so, the card reader in the lockers turned green. He jumped inside the room, but the guard followed suit. Soon enough all of the guards from the previous shift had flowed into the room and had him surrounded. This was worse than the prisoner fight, he was not just outnumbered and outmatched, he was outgunned. One wrong move and he would have more holes than he needed. He laughed to himself as he realized that the voice had set him up. He did not know why the voice would do that, but it did. Maybe it was bored and thought Brandon suffering would be good entertainment. Brandon cussed to himself again. It had been less than a day, yet so many people had screwed him over. Conner with his lies, the voice with its deceit, and the man behind the wall with... with everything.

Brandon laughed as one more guard, the one who gave him the tour, walked in through the door. How fitting that the one he was close with would be the last to arrive. However, everything changed when the door shut.

A loud buzzer rang out as the door latched, and the lights in the lockers dimmed from white to red. The buzzer stopped in time for the intercom to let out a message in a deep, robotic voice.

"Warning, radiation leak detected. This area is now under quarantine." There was silence before the intercom spoke again, "Oxygen purge authorized. Purging in Three, Two, One."

A loud hiss broke out as Brandon felt his chest get heavy. Panic seemed to pass through the guards as they tried to open the doors. Within moments the more active guards started to drop to the floor. Brandon's eyelids got heavy as the world started to fade to black, and all Brandon could do was hope that he would not end up in another confined room with a mysterious person.

||A/N: Here we go, chapter 4. I mainly want to put this note here to thank anyone who has read this far. Wattpad is not the most precise with counting reads, so I cant exactly tell how many people read this far. If you have got here, thank you, and I hope to see you in the next chapter.||