Chapter Text
My bones felt like lead and my mouth was a desert when I groggily woke up. There was a strange sensation that felt like buzzing under my skin as my brain slowly started to wake up more and more. My body felt like crumpled newspaper as if I had been sleeping in a cramped position for hours on end. Everything just felt odd.
I wasn't wearing my pyjamas. That was the first thing that alerted me that something was off. I never went to bed in my day-to-day clothes. The annoying leathery feeling beneath my palms was the next alarm bell. It didn't feel like my mattress at all. If I wasn't in my bed, where was I? The last thing I could remember was that mandatory check-up I had with O.X.E. Something about checking how ex-participants were operating post-medical trials. What had I gotten myself into?
The distinct sound of a gunshot startled me out of my thoughts, forcing me to sit upwards. However, I didn't stay up for long when my head harshly hit the ceiling above me. That roof couldn't have been any more than a ruler's length away from me. My hands darted out from my sides, trying to ground myself and figure out where the hell I was. Fuck. Was I in a box?!
More gunshots fired, but this time they were accompanied by the sound of people grunting and metal upon metal. People were fighting right outside wherever I was trapped, and they didn't seem too friendly. I mean gunshots? Not good at all. My options were to stay inside my box tomb or brace the outside world and risk being shot at point-blank range. Was America always like this? I should have never left home.
From the muffled sounds, I could hear that it was a man and woman fighting. There were no more gunshots, I couldn't tell if that was a good thing. All I could grasp was that they were engaged in some sort of fistfight, though one of them had some sort of metal object that echoed whenever it landed a hit. Scratch that, there was another person in the fight. The man went flying into something hard enough that I could feel the box I was in shake from the impact. There was also a mumble from one of the female voices but it was so far away that I couldn't make out a single word. And now two of those reverberating metal things were hitting each other.
What on earth was going on?!
Were there more people now? It sounded like people were going flying left right and center. A cacophony of noises I had never heard before and definitely not able to tell what they were coming from were echoing around whatever room my box was in. It was a rather large room from what I could tell. The sound of an impact and the sound of the eventual crash of an individual had at least a second gap. Which was a terrifying thought. Someone was sending these people flying. And to make matters worse my box rumbled again after what sounded like a bomb echoed around me. Oh great, more gunshots.
I guess today is the day I die.
Then there was a grunt and the sound of another person going flying. And with my shitty luck, they went flying into my box. I went tumbling, my body feeling like a ball in a pinball machine. If there wasn't the strange leather lining inside the box, I would surely have a concussion. There was a final jolt of movement and a clang before the box and I stopped moving. My breathing was heavy but I tried to keep it steady lest I wanted to catch the attention of these maniacs. However, they did me one favour by knocking over my box. The sheer force that had sent this poor individual flying had managed to put a dent in my box, thus allowing me to move the roof.
With a soft grunt, I pushed against the lid of my box, now on my left and not above me. The first sight that greeted me with my newfound freedom was some sci-fi-looking lady putting a bullet into the skull of what looked like an android predator. Great. Behind the sci-fi lady was this blonde woman who had a knife held to her neck. Was that that corner store Captain America that literally murdered a dude on live television? Oh no. Fuck that. Fuck this.
Without a second of hesitation, I grabbed the lid of my box and held it up in front of me, shielding me from view. It was a stupid plan, but it was the only plan I could think of in my rattled brain. There was a large open door to my left, it was only a few meters away from me, I could make it. As the three others in the room scrambled to stand and point a gun at each other, I inched bit by bit behind my large metal slab towards the door. My mind was racing and my heart was pounding. How had I gone from a medical check-up to some sort of shit the Avengers would have dealt with. Hell, I didn't even have shoes on for God's sake.
The sound of someone coughing caused the room to still and some dude in medical scrubs stumbled out behind some boxes hacking his lungs out. That was good for me. Thank you random stranger for being a great distraction, I'd toast a drink to him when I got out of here and made my way back home.
"Is she actually dead?" Asked Mr Scrubs as he unsteadily got to his feet.
Of course, she was. There was a bullet hole in her helmet and you could see the blood trickling out. Someone would have to be inhuman to survive a bullet to the face at point-blank range. I inched closer and closer to the open door as I rolled my eyes at my own thoughts. But then my heart dropped into my stomach as I heard an alarm bell start to sound out. A metal barrier almost crushed Mr Scrubs as he tried to run, the prospects of my own freedom quickly escaping me. I threw my metal slab to the floor, discreteness be damned I wasn't going to be trapped here, and I ran.
And a metal barrier came crashing down in front of me as well.
Guns were pointed at both myself and Mr Scrubs. All of the gun-wielding maniacs weren't sure who was more of a threat, pivoting on their feet trying to keep an eye on both of us who were across the room from each other. Both the blonde lady and the corner store Captain America pointed their guns at Mr Scrubs. But of course, the only person who had actually killed someone so far had to point her gun at me. At least now I could see the face behind the mask and not just a hollow white thing from my nightmares.
"Woah, woah, no. Hi, hey" Mr Scrubs held his hands out in front of him, backing away slightly. It was a fair reaction. All I did was put my hands behind my head like I was getting arrested, no doubt my eyes were wide with shock, probably helping me to look unassuming. "I'm-I'm. I'm Bob."
"Who are you?" Asked the sci-fi lady, her head twisting over her shoulder as she addressed the man in scrubs.
"I'm-I'm." He stuttered. Damn, he was really shitting himself, even more than I was. "I'm Bob. I told you I'm, erm. Yeah, Bob."
"Jesus Christ," The corner store Captain America swore, "Stop saying, Bob!
Not even acknowledging corner store, the blonde lady probed Bob, "Who sent you Bob?"
"Nobody! Why would I be sent?" Asked Bob, his hands held out in front of him. "Were you all? You were all sent?"
"And what about you?" Said the sci-fi lady, not even taking an eye off of me, scrutinising my every move.
After Bob's shaky introduction, the attention was quickly moved to me. I startled backwards from the three separate guns that were being pointed directly at me. My hands were still firmly kept behind my head, not wanting to know if a single wrong move could cause me to end up the android predator lying dead on the floor.
None of this was good. I was trapped in a room with three highly qualified killers who were quite obviously sent here by O.X.E (I guess Bob was too). This wasn't good at all. Fuck. I should have never gotten involved with O.X.E, I knew it was dodgy but I needed the money. But now I was about to be executed to no doubt keep my silence on O.X.E's human experimentation.
"I'm Bea." I started, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible given the situation. "Bea Brigh. I wasn't sent here either, but I'm guessing it no doubt has something to do with O.X.E."
As I spoke there was a flicker of recognition the eyes of my potential executioners. They were definitely sent here by O.X.E. Okay, so I was here because of O.X.E. Was this because of all that impeachment stuff that was going on with their CEO or whatever? I didn't really understand all of that stuff, I mean it was petty American politics. It had nothing to do with me as a Brit. Well, I guess in the current situation it involved me. How I wish I knew just a little bit more about American politics, I couldn't even fully remember the name of O.X.E's CEO.
"I'm not sure what's happening here but you're all exhausting," Sci-fi lady started, her exasperated tone apparent in her voice, "And my job is done."
"Ah, but my job is to keep an eye on you." Said the blonde lady, who I could now tell had a distinctly Eastern European accent. Oh, great. Now they had gone back to pointing guns at each other. "So no. You are not gonna go anywhere anymore."
The moment those guns were off of me I scrambled towards the nearest shield. I darted behind a large stack of heavy metal boxes at what I could only assume was the east side of the room. If things were about to go south again and this time I was locked in the room I would much rather be behind cover than not. I wasn't risking anything.
"So you're keeping an eye on her, huh?" There was a tenseness to corner store as he spoke, pointing his gun at Blondie. "That's a halfway decent cover for somebody stealing assets from O.X.E."
Wait? So they weren't all working for O.X.E? What was really going on here? I kept a close eye on the trio as I slowly moved further behind the boxes, making sure my body was hidden at all times. I was not about to be caught by any stray bullets before I figured out what was going on.
Blondie scoffed, "I'm not stealing. She's stealing."
Fuck. Fuck that. This was actually going to be the day I died. I had no hope of leaving here, that was obvious now. This room was a trap for that trio and a tomb for me; I still hadn't figured out Bob quite yet. I mean three people who were definitely shadow operations for O.X.E and a failed human experimentation project? That was something they wanted to be scrubbed clean if the government was looking into them.
The gun in Blondie's hand was slowly lowered and she began to speak my inner monologue aloud, "Okay. It's clear we have all worked for Valentina in some sort of shadow ops capacity."
Fuck! That was the name of their CEO. Valentina, something something, De Fontaine. I knew there was something in the middle but why would I remotely remember that? It wasn't like I applied for the company or something, I was just another one of their guinea pigs. Another failed project to put in the incinerator.
"Yeah? So?" Said corner store, not contributing to the revelation one bit.
"All of this stuff is O.X.E's secrets." Stated Blondie, motioning to all of the boxes with her gun. "But so are we."
Sci-fi nodded her head in acknowledgement, the same thoughts entering her mind, "Which makes us liabilities that no one would miss."
"Well speak for yourself." Corner store cut in. God, I was really starting to hate the sound of his voice.
"We are the evidence and this is the shredder." Blondie put it so eloquently, "She wants us gone."
I looked at the ceiling above me as they continued to debate with each other. The same strange tingling underneath my skin from earlier was still present. At first, I thought it was from however O.X.E had knocked me out and delivered me here, but now I was developing another theory. The more I concentrated on it, the more it felt like energy thrumming in my veins. This had to do with whatever O.X.E had done to me a couple of months back, with how much static I accumulated these days.
"Er, hi?"
I nearly jumped out of my skin as I blinked and came face to face with Bob. His eyes were wide like a kicked puppy as he hunched down to make sure he was hidden from the trio who were now sussing each other out and figuring out who each other was. I slapped my hand over my mouth so as to not make a sound after Bob scared the life out of me. How could someone that tall in a room with metal flooring move so silently?
"Hi?" I whispered, looking at Bob in confusion, waiting for him to say something.
Bob hunched down further, trying to whisper to me from my crouched position, "Were you sent? Like them?"
As I shook my head a few chuckles sounded out from the two women in the room. Both Bob and I stood up to our full height to peer over the boxes, though he was far more successful than I, standing at six feet in comparison to my measly five feet and six inches. We popped our heads just over the top of the boxes to see both Sci-fi and Blondie laughing at corner store.
"That was funny. Thank you, we needed that."
My eyes widened with horror as Bob stood up to his full height and began to chuckle along with the duo. I grabbed his arm trying to drag him back into cover, needlessly drawing attention to myself as well. Only lord knows why I was helping him, maybe it was because he looked like a kicked puppy. Curse my soft spot for animals.
"It was getting so tense in here," Bob said awkwardly with a dumb smile on his face as he lightly swung his arms. "For a sec."
God, I wanted to facepalm. Bob's dumb smile was immediately wiped off of his face the moment he got a stern and serious stare from the corner store. Yet again I tried to yank the puppy back into my safe hiding space but now he formed a small audience. The tension that had diffused was now rapidly rising again just from a single look from a super soldier. Oh fuck. I was locked in an incinerator with a murderous super soldier.
"I'm not leaving here without completing my mission." The super soldier started, walking ominously towards Bob and me. The puppy lowered his head in submission and started to hide behind our boxes again. "Valentina gave me a clean slate guaranteed, and I'm not screwing that up. But these weirdos weren't part of the job. So I gotta know, how'd you get in?"
Oh, I wanted to rip that smug smile right off of his face. He looked just like John, with those blue eyes and a condescending stare. It was like I was staring my father right in the face after all these years. There was some primal instinct that took over me, something that told me to protect Bob, just like I had with my brother when we were younger.
With confidence I didn't know I had, I stood in front of the super soldier and spoke, "I woke up here, after an O.X.E medical trial. And I can assume from what he's wearing, the same thing happened to Bob here."
He cocked his head and looked at Bob expectantly, "I-I don't remember."
The room visibly deflated and relaxed at our answers. That was good, the trained soldiers had deemed us not a threat. We were not at the top of their kill list. Though it was a thin line I had to toe. I didn't want to come across as suspicious but I also didn't want to seem like some pushover that they could order around. That was something Bob was currently failing at.
That thrumming underneath my skin was getting more prominent by the second, it felt like my body was trying to tell me something. Actually, it felt like it was drawing me towards something. There were two feelings from above me that were clashing together. When I concentrated on it my skin felt like it was on fire. One felt like I was the engine of a steam train and the conductor was piling coal on top of me like I was going out. The other was stranger. It felt like someone had trapped a siren from the ocean, condensing them into a small box. No, it was more like a wire. What on earth was that?
"Terrific answer." Corner store's petulant reply snapped me out of my stupor. "Alright. Tie yourselves up." He said as he turned towards the duo behind him.
"Wow. No." Answered Sci-fi, who I now knew was actually called Ghost, as she turned away with an unimpressed look. "And goodbye."
Alarm bells went off in my head as she stormed off, switching her helmet back on. The closer she stomped towards the metal doors the thrumming underneath my skin got worse. My eyes widened as she seemed to echo out of existence, or faze? I didn't know the right term. But all I knew was that the moment she did that the thrumming in my veins turned to screaming.
"I wouldn't do that!" The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could catch them.
Ghost appeared again, at the very same time a loud ear-piercing sound echoed across the room. It bounced off the walls, getting louder and louder with each passing second. The whole thing was a sensory nightmare for me. I couldn't deal with loud noises, even balloons popping was too much for me. So this? Oh, this was hell.
My hands slapped over my ears as the sound climbed higher in pitch. It sounded like that feeling I had under my skin just seconds ago. Had I predicted this or something? It didn't matter anyway. My nerve endings felt like they were on fire as I collapsed to my knees, praying that the sound would stop. It felt like too much. Everything was too much. The feeling of my clothes, the room I was now trapped in, the constant arguing and that darn high-pitched screaming.
The sound finally stopped and I collapsed in on myself, rocking slightly to try to coax my body into doing something other than freak out. Everything still felt like it was on fire. I knew the sound had stopped but I could still hear it replaying in the back of my mind on a loop. It wouldn't stop. My clothes felt itchy. They weren't hospital scrubs like Bob's they were my own, the ones I had worn to my check-up. Those doctors at O.X.E didn't even try to hide it from me, that I was never there for medical reasons. It made me grind my teeth together.
"Oh, did you guys hear that?" Asked Bob, I could see him in his usual hunched position out of the corner of my eye. The rest of the group ignored him as they gathered their bearings. I gave him a noncommittal hum of acknowledgement but with how fried my brain was at the moment it more likely came out like a squeak.
There was a beat where nobody did anything for a second, all of us just trying to process what had just happened. Not only had O.X.E locked us in their shredder, but they had also created safety precautions ensuring that we couldn't escape. This whole thing was carefully planned and put together by Valentina -whatshername- De Fontaine. My brain was still recalibrating and reloading and that was another thing on my list of motivations to get out of here. To punch that woman in the goddamned face.
The ten-foot area where everyone was just standing close to each other and thinking was too stuffy. Everyone's thoughts were just too loud and it made the room seem even more claustrophobic. I scuttled over to the empty south side of the room, where I had started, just to get a second to breathe. Nobody even batted an eye at my movements, where else was I to go in a locked room? The only person who did something was Bob as he followed after me like a lost puppy. I guess I had earned his favour in some strange way?
Not even a second later corner store waltzed over to the north metal door and lowered himself into a deep squat. Don't tell me? Yup, he was going to try to lift the metal door. Did he swap out brains for muscles when he became a super soldier? This was a trap designed perfectly to keep all of us in here so O.X.E's secrets wouldn't get out. But I guess that didn't stop him from trying.
He grunted and grunted until he eventually stopped trying, "Okay. I can confirm that the door is unliftable." No shit, corner store.
"Wow," Blondie started, I hadn't yet thought of a creative name for her, "Thank you. We did not know."
Corner store no doubt said some annoying reply that he thought in his head was a good quip. I just decided to start tuning out his voice whenever he spoke. Instead, I opted to watch Bob struggle with a piece of paper he had gotten stuck to his foot. The man was strangely endearing somehow. Like those dogs you saw at adoption centres, he just made your heart squeeze a little. A small endearing chuckle left my lips as I watched him kick his foot to try and shake it off.
But then the grating sound of corner store entered my ears again, "Unlike patients zero over there."
"Oi!" I grumbled at him, trying to flash him the most intimidating stare I could muster.
Before I could think up a witty reply my attention was caught by Ghost who had now knelt over the dead body of the android predator. What on earth was she doing? Oh, she was looting the dead body. I didn't particularly see the use in doing it due to the fact we were going to end up dead one way or another. We were either going to starve in here or be killed by whatever idea Valentina -whatshername- De Fontaine had for her shredder.
"Hey!" Blondie called out, "Job or not, could you have some respect please?"
"Yeah, Jesus." Corner store reached down to pillage the body as well, earning an annoyed stare, "What? She would've wanted me to have it. I need it."
In a second the room was immediately plunged into darkness and a horn sounded off, luckily not as loud and high-pitched as the alarm from earlier. The lights turned red and caused the room to be ominously lit up. My steam engine feeling from earlier got worse and morphed into being under the midday sun in the Sahara Desert. If this was anything like the previous screaming feeling, this was bad news for us all.
"What the hell is that?" Boomed corner store, ignoring the obvious.
"It doesn't sound like a shredder." Replied Ghost looking up at the four giant vents above her. "It's an incinerator."
I was right. This was one of the few times I really wanted to not be right. I mean, four giant vents in a place where you wanted to trap three, wait no four, highly trained assassins? Not a good idea, unless the vents weren't for stuff coming out but rather something coming in. My gut feeling was right. That explained the heat building up underneath my skin, the feeling that something was coming. What was this? What had O.X.E done to me?
"Two minutes." The blunt certainty that Blondie spoke with didn't instil me with any hope that we were going to get out of here. "Then Valentina's slate is wiped clean.
"You don't know that for sure. Could be for anything." God could corner store just stop talking. "Could be for when they come to pick me up."
Everyone bar Bob gave him incredulous looks, bewildered on how his brain actually worked. I pushed myself off of the box I had been perched on, eager to move with how much buzzing energy was creeping up inside me. My brain was firing at max capacity trying to come to terms that I had definitely been experimented on by O.X.E and I was now going to die because my existence was one of their secrets. I wanted to put my head in my hands and scream; I was coming apart at the seams.
"Do you feel that?" Ghost faced corner store with a deep scowl on her face, "The temperature rising dramatically as if heat was involved?"
I paced back and forth trying to just have a single coherent thought and not just feel my brain cells were smashing themselves together. The room was getting warmer and I felt like I was sweating a river. I was far more affected than the rest of the group. Just the simple vest and shirt I was wearing were too much, and I needed to rip it off of me to cool off. But I glanced over at Bob to see him just looking a tad uncomfortable at the rising temperature. I was sweating like a bitch in heat.
"Okay, it's an incinerator." Stated corner store as he shifted uncomfortably.
"Oh boy, that is no way to go." I heard Bob say from somewhere within the vicinity of my pacing.
Corner store took a step closer, talking down at the man in scrubs, "How would you like to die today, Bob?"
His words and the pressure of our situation caused me to snap, lashing out at him, "Preferably not by my skin melting off my bones!"
There was a beat of silence before Blondie began to formulate a plan, "Okay, Ghost Lady."
"Ava." She cut in.
"Sure whatever. I don't care." Blondie replied waving her hand, "We need to get you through the walls so that you can open the door."
"She tried that already." Said corner store, yet again adding nothing to the conversation.
Blondie replied with exasperation, "I know she did but we haven't tried shutting down the sound barrier."
That was good. That was a plan, something to get us out of here before I melted into a puddle of my own sweat. My shirt had already come off, loosely stuffing it into one of the pockets of my oversized sweats. Each and every ich of my skin was drenched and I felt like a wet cat. As long as we got out of this hell hole inferno I would go along with just about any plan.
"If they built it just for her, there's gotta be an independent power source." Said corner store slowly, finally saying something of use.
"Come on, let's go." Said Ava, jumping us all into action.
Everyone flitted around the room like busy worker bees, desperately trying to find that power source. It was definitely going to be well hidden; there wasn't going to be a sign saying 'Here's the power source you're looking for!'. But if it had anything to do with that screaming in my veins earlier, maybe I could track it? Just like how my body was drawing me towards something when I concentrated earlier. The only issue was that my was body burning from the inside out and it was hard to really concentrate on anything.
"What?" Bob stood in the middle of the room, looking around aimlessly. "What exactly are we looking for?
"Perhaps don't ask stupid questions, Bob." Said corner store, walking past Bob like a man on a mission.
Bob was walking around, not even getting a few feet before turning and trying a different direction. He was overwhelmed just like me and had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Watching him helped me form some clarity about the situation. I wasn't here alone; there were other people stuck and they didn't seem to be ready to kill each other anymore. There was another civilian like me trapped down here, someone who was probably freaking out internally just as much as I was.
"Hey," I raised my hand to get Bob's attention. My hand was shaky, unable to stop the tremors beneath my skin and the anxiety that was spiking in me. "Let's look for this power thingy together."
He stopped in his tracks, looking at me with wide eyes and a slight pout, "Together? You want to look together?"
"Yeah." I nodded my head, a small smile on my face, trying to quell his own stress as much as my own, "You know what they say, strength in numbers."
I motioned him to follow me, to help him from wandering around and incurring the wrath of corner store again. With a deep breath, I tried to calm down, standing in the centre of the room. It was difficult with my heavy breathing and racing thoughts. But with a small clenching and unclenching of my hands, I managed to calm down enough to feel a slight pull. I could feel that siren calling out to me, luring me towards her lair. It wasn't a screaming this time, more like a soothing melody. I liked it.
Bob and I slowly walked towards it, the former keeping close behind me. From the direction we were heading it was by the west door of the incinerator. Of course, it would be by one of the doors, less time for the screeching to travel. As we got closer the humming turned into that same high-pitched frequency. My hands slapped themselves over my ears once I was close enough to the power source, though out of the corner of my eye I could see that Bob was completely unaffected.
"I think I found it!" I yelled out, wincing at the sound that was invading my ears.
"Move!" Ava yelled as she came sprinting over with a crowbar.
Where she had found that I wouldn't know. But at least it would get the thing open, it looked to be bolted shut. She pried it open so aggressively for a second, I thought she was the super soldier in the room. Blondie rushed over, fumbling with something in her hands. I immediately stepped far out of the way and just let the professionals do their job. I had no idea how to shut that thing off, knowing my affinity for static I would just electrocute myself and die before the flames got me.
"Okay, I can override this." Stated Blondie, flicking through a small tool in her hand.
"On your left!" Yelled corner store before he started to smash the whole power source to pieces.
I looked at the mess of wires and metal with my mouth agape in shock, "What the fuck did you just do?!"
Everyone started to rush towards the north entrance, hoping now the power source had been completely eradicated, Ava could faze through. If not, I was going to die being scorched to death as I kicked a super soldier in the dick. Smashing something didn't always mean shutting it down. By doing what he just did the idiot could have doomed us all thanks to his muscles for brains.
I stood between Blondie and Bob as I watched Ava faze through the wall without any screeching stopping her. Good, I wasn't going to be assaulting a super soldier today. But then my heart dropped as seconds passed and the door showed no signs of lifting. She'd left us, abandoned us. I mean, I should've expected that from the woman who shot another person in the head point-blank less than an hour ago. These people were all shadow operatives; their own safety came before others.
My eyelids went heavy as my face started to slip. The whole time in here I had been wide-eyed and hopeful, not like me at all. Maybe it was because I was surrounded by unfamiliar people that my mask had attached itself back onto my face after all these years. I could feel the twinkle leave my eyes as that scorching feeling made its way up my neck. This actually was it. I was going to die.
I wanted to go out on my own terms, for my life to have some meaning at least to myself. That's why I tried so hard to calm down, to look for that power source. I didn't want to be killed by people who had called me a failure, I already knew I was one. It was clarifying, those thirty seconds staring at that metal door. My life replaying behind my eyes. It was amazing, how I had amounted to absolutely nothing. Bea Brigh died in a raging inferno. No friends, no family that would miss them. Just one more deep breath and it would be over, my skin melting off my bones.
But then there was a beep and I could feel everyone around me running for their lives. My eyes blearily opened and I saw the open door with Ava leaning against the entrance. I watched as the others took their first running steps, but something planted me in place. There was a second of hesitation before I started to run. Maybe I was better off if I let those flames consume me. O.X.E didn't want me to see the light of day; I was a liability. There was nobody really for me to go back to, my brother was probably in the better hands of my aunt. A tool with no use should be thrown away.
I started to run. Something instinctual that wasn't going to let me stand there and embrace death. The flames licked at my feet and I could feel the scorching heat grab at me. I moved at a speed unfamiliar to me, like I was an Olympic sprinter. By no means was I a slow runner, I was a winger in my local rugby team back in school. But the speed at which I was moving? Almost inhuman.
My body went flying into a wall, unable to slow down or break. I was like a freight train with the speed at which I met the wall head-on. It was painful, the impact reverberating throughout my bones. There was barely even a second of consciousness before I blacked out, knocking myself out from the impact.