The Nemesis Syndrome

23. Eliza

              

They didn't take her back to any of the cells she had already seen. They didn't even take her through the never-ending white corridors; it turned out some of the doors were not secret labs or prisons. They were stairways down to hell.

'Where are you taking me?' She asked as they descended.

There was no reply, other than a slight tightening of their hands on her arms. As if she could escape them anyway.

Knowing when to run was survival, trying now was a death wish she didn't want to fulfil.

'Where's Leo?'

Another round of silence, but she twisted her head in time to catch the look that passed between them. And the smirk.

'Where is he?'

This time, she got a chuckle, and her heart dropped.

Trap

Trap

Trap

And she had taken the bait- while he had not.

They had known how the two would have reacted. Leo, wanting desperately to escape, not caring for her, but her...always looking out for everyone else. They had wanted this, to get them away from each other. To get her.

'Where are you taking me?' she asked again, and this time, there was fear in her voice.

'Somewhere you won't matter.'

She almost wished they had stayed silent.

There was another door at the end of the stairs, and one of the men reached in front of her to push it open.

This place was vastly different to upstairs. It was dark and empty and as silent as the grave, and it took Eliza's eyes minutes to adjust to the reddish lights.

And when she saw what was in the room; a giant, seemingly never ending room, she started to fight, struggle to get away.

But step by step the men pushed her forward, through the giant glass...coffins filled with thick blue liquid.

And people. Hundreds of people trapped and forgotten.

'Are they dead?' She asked the men; Eliza was losing the fight with them, and she could see their destination of an empty tube with the lid open. She would rather go to death knowing her fate than being oblivious.

One of the men chuckled again. 'No. Suspended animation, we call it. Asleep.'

'Why?'

'So they cannot run.'

They were at the empty tube, and Eliza stiffened.

'Go on.' One of the men said. 'Make it easy for yourself, kid. There's nothing else you can do.'

No. There wasn't. She had been left, abandoned by the only ally she had in here. She had nothing to run for, and no one to run to.

They closed the lid when she was in, and the liquid started appearing at her legs. It was warm, and had the consistently of custard, making her shudder as it rose.

Her eyes filled with tears, but she refused to let herself cry when the men were still watching.

Then the liquid covered her face, and stuck her eyelids down. Sometime later, and she forgot everything as she drifted into nothingness.