Imperium

Chapter 25 Part 2

Josh is suspended from the ceiling by a chain. A chain is wrapped around his hands, his shoulders hurt from from the pressure of lifting his whole body. He feels like his shoulders are going to get torn out of their sockets. His feet are also wrapped together with a chain, the chain pulling him down from below. His waist and shoulders suffer as the chain is retracted more into the ground. The force at which the chain is pulling him, leaves bruises on his feet.

Josh tries fighting the chains, he tries holding his body together. He pulls his legs up whilst pulling his arms down. The force of the chains keeps pulling, and soon he runs out of energy, and unwillingly lets go.

He hangs in the air, as the chains slowly pull in different directions. The torture makes his body feel like it's going to be torn into two halves. The chains stop retracting, and Josh breaths out, not knowing he had been holding his breath. His ribs have a hard time expanding as he breaths heavily but painfully. Atleast the torture was over, but he has a feeling the worst is yet to come.

A door swings open, the sound of shoes on the floor follows. Josh tries to turn to see then but his attempts are futile. The man walks into Josh's vision, the man is wearing a labcoat. He has long brown hair that he has tied into a nice ponytail. He looks very tired, the bags under his eyes, they prove that he hasn't been receiving some much deserved sleep. The man is in his early 30's, and he is handsome, but the cruelty in his turtle eyes, even with the square spectacles he wears.

"Hello Mr..." the man looks down to a file he is carrying, "...Brown."

"Who are you?" Josh asks, squirming around trying to break loose of his chains. The pain he feels whilst moving is unbearable, he stops moving and looks at the man. His body starts to quiver in fear of what is coming next. The man moves slowly around him, as if he wants to instill fear into Josh. It was a little too late for that part.

"I am Gerrard."

The man walks over to a table filled with accessories, the table is right infront of Josh. He looks attentively as Gerrard finger grimaces on the weapons whilst trying to peak. A thwack sound is made as Gerrard wears his white gloves. The sound startles Josh, he tries not to look so afraid as the man comes closer to him.

The man punches Josh right in the abdomen, Josh groans in pain. He now realizes that the wound from the icicle didn't completely heal. His jumpsuits turns red with blood, and sticks to his skin. Josh coughs out blood, just from this blow to his open wound. He rounds up blood in his mouth, and spits it directly at the man's face. The man takes of his spectacles, he takes a handkerchief and wipes the blood of his face. The man then wipes his spectacles until he is sure they are clean, before putting them back on. The man does all of this in silence, fury fills his eyes.

The man punches Josh's jaw, Josh can feel his jaw shift out of its place. A flurry of pain rushes around oral region, he can't speak because of this pain. The man then punches the opposite side, sending the jaw back into its rightful origin. Josh feels nauseous as he hangs from the chains, he would definitely vomit if there was anything in his stomach. Josh lets his head hang forward, right now there is nothing he can do but hope.

The same hope Mara promised he would break out of him. Does anyone really know about this place, is there even anyone searching for them? Have they all given up on them? Josh knows that he must keep strong, he must keep hoping. He was more than happy when they broke him out of his cell, little did he know that he was coming to a place like this. He actually thinks that the Controller's prison was better, but no, after a great deal of thought, no this is better.

The one thing he hated about the Controller's prison, was the Arena. Everyone was subjected to fight in the Arena, and in there, you fight for your life. The Controller never valued any of his soilders, they were just pawns, pawns he could easily replace.

Josh was in the Arena once, after that the Controller never put him in there again. He was fighting with a boy, the boy was just older than him by a few years. The rules in the Arena are, kill or be killed. Anything else is legal, it doesn't matter if you break every bone in a person's body, you still had to kill them.

The Arena was the one place you could freely use your abilities, if you would even try escaping your abilities would stop working, even without a collar.

The man could paralyze anyone just by a touch, if he touches you, your body stops moving. He decides whether to cure your paralysis or not. The boy had won many fights in the Arena, you could even swear he enjoyed the Arena. The wide smile on his face everytime he fought was the reason Josh was so scared.

The boy ran at Josh, his fighting abilities were unbelievable. He charged at Josh, Josh tried dodging all the attacks, but a touch on his shoulder sent him down on the sand below. The boy circled Shaun whilst laughing, he then bent down and started crushing Josh's trachea. Josh gasped for air as the boy continued strangling him. He couldn't even stop him, his body was paralyzed, and it couldn't heal with the boy still touching him.

Josh couldn't fully use his ability yet, but something happened that day. The boy started clutching his head, he pulled his hair like he wanted it to rip out of his skull. Josh was doing something to the boy's head. The boy screamed whilst rolling around in the sand.

Josh didn't fully know what he was doing, but he was doing it. Even when laying on the floor, he was winning the fight. His body started healing, whilst the boy was still screaming in agony. Josh stood up and walked to the boy, he looked down at him, then he looked to the stands. The Controller was there, he wore a smile on his face. He sat there with the Boulder, a man with a G on his chest, a woman with an S on her chest, and many more.

All of them didn't have a collar around their necks, on the other side there were the other experiments. They were watching in horror as the boy rolled on the ground clutching hus head. They were all praying that they never face Josh. Josh stopped the torture on the boy, and he looked at up at the Controller and nodded his head.

"I'm not going to do it," Josh said, his voice loud enough for the Controller to hear.

The Controller took out a remote with a green and red button. He clicked on the red button and Josh abilities faded, the Controller didn't wait for the boy to heal. The boy went crazy, literally crazy, something had happened to his brain.

The Controller never allowed him to heal, it served as a reminder of what he did. The boy even changed cells, he was placed in the cell right infront of him. Josh could see the boys crazy acts, his constant laughing, the boy even had conversations with himself. The boy reminded Josh of a character from Lord of the rings and The Hobbit. Guilt surged through him every time he saw him.

Changing his cell was a way of reminding Josh of what he did. Josh doesn't know what the Controller wanted to accomplish by that. Josh started having gaps in his memory, loss of time. He could remember some events like the fight he had with Shaun.

The Controller tried to wipe all of Josh's memory, but everything quickly came back. After that day he was the Controller's favourite puppet, he led every mission. Though he did it unwillingly, he was the leader now.

A wooden baton connecting with his stomach reminded Josh that he was still in the dreadful room. He didn't see the man pick up the baton, let alone swing it at him. The man continued swinging for Josh's ribs, he could feel his ribs breaking. The sound was deafening, but the man didn't stop his torture.

"This is one of my person favourites," Gerrard says, "but then again, I have many favourites."

The man showed no remorse for Josh, Josh wouldn't let them just kill him. They could have his nanobots, but no, they can't just kill him. He has been through a lot, for him to just give up now.