Road Runners

CHAPTER 3: April:Trapped and alone

I silently drifted through the crowd, the bodies of children- demons scurrying desperately towards the now closed gate, they were like spirits of life energy, bouncing and running past me, many people had started trying to climb the gate, the less intelligent ones were just hurling themselves at the gate with full force.

I walked over trampled bodies, crushed and mangled as they fell under the strength of the great stampede of children, I felt like a ghost, I felt completely numb and cold all over as I walked towards one grown up, dressed in white gear. I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned and looked at me, my red rimmed eyes bringing out the paleness of my skin.

“I want to go back to bed” I whispered in his ear, he picked me up and I fell asleep in his arms, knowing I may never see my friends again.

They woke us early the next morning, I was in a bed in the infirmary, a reinforced glass room with air holes and a single bed, like a glass cell.

We were summoned to the court yard, the events of last night were almost invisible except for the blood that splattered three out of four walls and the decreased number of children.

“Yes, yes, gather around children” a grown up voice boomed over a megaphone. We all crowded around a huge wooden stage and watched as the scientist introduced a new form of torture.

“This, children is an electro bracelet, and my good friend Tyler will help me show you how it works.” He smiled cynically at the boy next to him.

Tyler lifted his head and I was horrified to see how beaten up he was, silver shackles glistened around his neck and arms, his shirt was matted with blood and dirt, the skin underneath the shackles was raw. Werewolf. I thought instantly, Sebastian had told me that silver burned werewolves skin like acid, slowly and painfully, it could even erode to the bone. Tyler stepped forward slowly lifting his stiff arms.

The scientist unlocked Tyler’s cuffs and put an iron bracelet around Tyler’s right wrist and pulling it tightly, making Tyler wince in pain.

“This little bracelet is for all you sweet little dearies who think they can misbehave and not suffer the consequences, like sweet little Tyler who had to learn the hard way. You will all wear one, that will permanently be a part of you and you will all have a little tracking chip embedded into your left arm just drilled into the bone” he smiled sweetly as he watched the children gasp in astonishment.

“Oh come, come, children it doesn’t hurt, just ask our friend Tyler.”

 Tyler looked exhausted his cheek was lined with tiny streams that started from his eyes and ended at his chin, made visible only by the dirt that caked his face. Tyler’s eyes were dark as if hollow, his body just an empty shell, no soul, just the strange dark abyss that were his eyes. He lifted up his left sleeve to reveal the blood soaked skin underneath, he moaned as he pulled the sleeve higher, he had to peal the fabric to reveal the cut that lay beneath.

There were a few gasps and screams as the cut was revealed, where the blood pulsed to the surface, spewing like a volcano.

“Tyler, was awake during his operation and given no anaesthetic, as you will all be, it is the price you pay and a punishment you will all have to bear,” he announced. “Anaesthetic is a luxury” he shouted over the crowd.

Suddenly he produced a remote and turned a dial. Tyler spasmed and fell to the ground. “I will be obeyed!” he shouted. He turned the dial once more, Tyler began to spasm harder, foam dribbled from his mouth and Tyler urinated surrounding the area around him in a pool of yellow liquid.

The crowd fell silent and the dial was switched off, Tyler’s body went still, but he was breathing in low almost hesitant breaths, once in a while his body would shake violently as if a bucket of ice-cold water and been poured on him. “Defy me again, and you will pay with your lives” he said, his voice as cold as ice and as hard as steel.

We were escorted back to our rooms, waiting to be called for our operations.