Thread: Between Life & Death [Midnight x Fruit]

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cassandra Knight Female Status Nominal Autoimmune response Promising Cold... why was it always so fucking cold... Cass curled up on her cot in a vain attempt to warm her body, pulling her knees to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut trying to fall asleep. She couldn't remember the last time she slept... honestly she couldn't even remember how long it had been since she woken up in the tiny cell that had become her home whether she liked it or not. Slowly she sat upright in her little cot and examined her room. The Cells as far as she knew were all this tiny, one toilet, one meager little cot, no TV, no heater, not even a fucking pillow. The walls were made of grimy metal and the floor was concrete, with only a drain in the center of the cell to channel away any fluids should one of the captors commit suicide or... turn... The hallway outside was also lined with doors just like her own, a whole network of prisoners stuck in the exact same shitty situation as she was... well... or at least she assumed. She sat up fully and pressed her ear to the wall, listening carefully. She had two neighbors, one male and one female. The man in the room on the other side of the wall opposite to her bed was a fighter, and had gone quiet what she assumed to be days ago - more concerning however was her neighbor on the other side, a girl... she sounded like she couldn't have been older than eighteen by her screaming and crying, begging for her family. The crying had also stopped, maybe last night... Cassandra leaned on the wall and gently tapped her knuckles on it three times. No response... her heart began to sink into her stomach... she was gone too, more importantly that means it wouldn't be long before they came after her again. She had no idea why they had taken her in the first place, but either way it was all her fault. She had gotten foolish, desperate, and decided to trust people who claimed to want to protect and feed her. They seemed nice at first, and the food was better than the junk food she had looted from vending machines, but then came the ether and the sedatives and now because of that foolishness she had been locked in this cell for god knows how long. Maybe they were keeping her for when the shamblers outside all vanished, protecting her in this twisted way, or maybe she was just a prisoner of some cult. Ever since the outbreak people had all gone insane... there was no telling why. What she did know was that she was not alone. She figured she was somewhere underground, not once had she seen a window in this place in any of the times they had dragged her out of her cell, the rest of the building was almost like a creepy hospital, people with guns in black fatigues or dirty hazmat suits always dragging her through the hallway. In the first couple of days she had fought too, but even now she was running out of hope, of patience. Her time here had taken a toll on her, too, maybe that was their intent... 'as if living out there wasn't hard enough' her thoughts turned dark as she lifted her hands, looking at her naked arms, at the pockmarks from needles and the tiny scars from scalpel cuts. She lifted her hands and ran them through her hair - the only tell she had for long long she had been there was how long her hair had grown since they took her. She probably looked like a mess her captors considered hosing her off sufficient to keep her clean, so her hair was dirty and unkept and her clothing was in tatters. She had once been wearing a pair of relatively nice black jeans on her lower body, a halter top covering her upper body and of course a nice jacket and shoes. She had no idea where her jacket and shoes had gone, and her clothing was torn and had more holes than even she would like and she didn't even want to guess how much weight she had lost. She tried to lie down again, but was distracted by another sudden sound that made her heart leap from her gut to her throat, the telltale sound of her door being unlocked. The girl's eyes immediately went wide and she sat bolt-upright as the heavy door flew open, revealing a heavily-armored body on the other side. He looked like he was wearing gear meant for wrestling rabid dogs and of course had in his right hand the implement of torment that they had been using to shock her and her fellow prisoners into submission. The man took one step forward and time seemed to slow. Cassandra hardened herself and gathered her legs underneath her, when he took another step towards her she lunged. By this point even she wasn't certain if she was lunging at him or trying to get around him, both of them seemed hopeless, as sleep-deprived and weak as she was. Either way it was a useless gesture, only greeted by laughter from the person inside the suit as a strong arm wrapped around her neck, in one moment cutting off her wind supply before that way too familiar sensations of dual-pinpricks followed by surging pain as he stabbed her in the neck with his shock-stick. In that instant it was like her hole body turned to rubber, falling and hitting the floor hard while two others in white hazmat suits scurried into the cell, binding her arms in front of her crossed over her chest and lifting her onto the gurney. In this state she couldn't think clearly much less hear what they were saying, but she could hear the person in the suit laughing. You think they would learn to just stay still the first time and one of the people in the hazmat suits scolding him before the second brought in the needle and jabbed it into the sensitive flesh of her neck, injecting her with whatever they used to keep her from moving during their tests. What followed after was almost a montage, flickering in and out of consciousness and the voices of the people around her muted warbles of sound her brain could not understand, only as the sedatives begin to wear out could she hear talk about infection and the states of her and other prisoners. The faceless visage of one of the hazmats hovered over her and a light that was far-too bright hovered over that faceless visage, blinding the poor girl now strapped to the operating table. She came to just in time for him to pry her eyelids open and hold an even brighter light directly before hearing him call for some more sedatives while another went to go retrieve them. Still woozy and weak. Cassandra lifted her head to see two more men in black at the door, guards, and again in time for the second needle to near her. The second pinprick didn't come though, as everything went into chaos. The disturbance was as sudden as it could be, all four people in the room suddenly jerking their vision up and out as sharp cracks, almost like fireworks could be heard, then the floor rocked violently enough to send the tray of instruments sailing to the floor along with that syringe, her body jerking in time with the shockwave. Immediately the two men with guns were out the door, followed by one of the hazmats. The one who had been looking after her hesitated before running out, then all she could hear was the sound of distant gunshots and shouting from deeper in the facility as slowly pulled on her binds, left alone in a sterile room. The fuuck Her vision was still swimming and her body was still numb and cold, but she slowly sat up on the table... 'wait... what?' She looked down at her arms and then at the door. The door was sealed firmly shut but she was not tied down heavily at all and a couple of firm wriggles after she was free of the table and with a drugged cry her body hit the cold floor. Surrounding her were the instruments that they had been using to poke and prod at her, some still covered in her own blood and of course that large syringe lying where it had been dropped. Free of her bonds she reached out and grabbed it, struggling to her feet and reaching down when her eyes noticed another peculiarity. Where the first Hazmat had been standing was a card, a keycard. She did not second-guess her lucky and quickly snatched it up, wobbling to the door and slashing the card, watching the door open and slipping out, following the wall around from the sounds of battle further inside. The place did look like a creepy hospital, the walls were all clean and at least this area seemed totally abandoned. Still recovering from the sedatives, the young woman struggled her way down the hall, seeking anything that resembled an exit and only pausing to the nausea and dizziness.