Killer Empire

Chapter 02

AN ENDLESS GLOOM and darkness was the first thing that greeted her when Devora first regained consciousness. Sadness seemed to seep into the cracks of her bones just by simply being in the room, drenching her with an inexplicable amount of sorrow and discomfort. It was as though she had weights tied to all her joints, yanking her down. Not only that, her head was still pounding, the pain coming in waves as she tried to remember what had happened to her last. She could remember running away before being slammed hard against someone's body, then, nothing.

Despite the suffocating sensation, Devora tried her best to force herself up into a sitting position, her hands placed flat on the cold and slimy floor. Ears perked in attention, she strained them as best as she could, listening for any signs of life in this deserted, god-forsaken room. She dared not breathe, eyes wide in caution and constantly scanning the area. It took a while for them to adjust to the lack of light but when they finally did, Devora didn't feel any safer nor calmer.

The room that she was kept in wasn't pathetically small but it certainly wasn't ideal. Devora could make out a few shivering figures a short distance away from her, all trembling in fright and cuddled together in the far corners of the room while she sat in the center.

"Who's there?" She asked, squinting hard to get a better look, trying her best to keep her voice steady.

The figures didn't offer any answers, simply cowering further back into the shadows, a result of the small sliver of light that filtered through the cracks of the aging brick walls that held them captive.

Noticing their obvious fear, Devora calmed down a little. If they were afraid of her, the least hostile person that could possibly grace the planet, then they shouldn't pose any form of threat. The cogs in her head turned. She could guess that these people were also captives, probably kidnapped and pulled from the streets just like she had been. However, in a room where there were more questions than answers, she couldn't afford to play the guessing game.

She needed solid replies.

Devora's voice softened this time, barely above a whisper in fear of the wrong people hearing her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she tried again. "Who are you?"

At first, it was another few seconds of silence that seemed to drag on much longer than it actually was. However, what soon followed was a faint shuffle, then Devora could hear skin slapping against skin harshly. Two figures moved, one beginning to sit up while the other scrambled to keep the former down.

"Don't, Travis," a harsh voice whispered from the corner. It sounded like a young girl, one that was barely even in her teens, an age too young to be in such a situation. The figure that had sat up taller slumped back down with an 'oof'. "We can't trust anyone here."

"Leah, they dragged her here. We all saw that. She's not one of them."

This time, it was a boy. His voice was much deeper than the previous one — though still a treble — but it spoke in a much softer tone than the girl's that had spoken before. If Devora had to guess, he would be her age or at least close. In spite of all that was happening, this boy sounded oddly fearless.

"Please," Devora begged, swiftly cutting into their hushed conversation. "I just want to know where we are. What is this place? You mentioned that I'm not one of them. Who's them?" Devora asked, growing more and more desperate by the second.

Just as she finished speaking, a set of footsteps echoed from the corridor outside. The shadowed figures immediately slumped closer against the walls, practically pressed into the brick and shrouded by the darkness. Even in the absence of light, three pairs of eyes shone like those of cats, fixated on the door until the footsteps continued down the hallway before disappearing altogether.