Akeldama

Chapter 5

I awake from a beam of sunlight that's snuck through the curtains shining on my face, so I get up. I walk to my bathroom and take a shower, thoroughly getting all the blood off of me. After my shower, I get dressed and go to open the door, when my vision starts to go dark. Azrail shows up again.
"Hello, Ashima, would you like to hear BPFR's history?" He asks.
"Why would I want to know that?" I ask him, and he shrugs.
"Since you're new to this whole thing, you might as well try to understand the virus that you've been infected with better," he reasons.
"Fine, I guess," I say, knowing that I'm not in a big rush.
"Long ago, when the earth didn't even exist yet, a meteor carried a substance known as Raun inside of it. It traveled around the cosmos, around the time until the earth started forming, where it landed with some other meteors. So a part of the ground got infected with Raun. When the bubonic plague was killing people in Europe, some of the Plague infected the soil where some Raun was, and little after that some of the Bubonic Raun, or BPR, got into a water supply, in which hundreds of people got infected. The people infected by BPR were killed by the military. Five hundred years later, the BPR floated down a water stream and landed where the Spanish flu was at. BPR infected a Spanish flu patient. Where he was tested on, the Children of Helheim HQ was formed. And... that's about it," He explains. Before I can even respond, my vision goes back to normal and he disappears. I walk out of my room and into the kitchen. I see Markus cooking breakfast in the kitchen and Blair at the dining table drawing in a picture book. I decide to go back upstairs so it's not suspicious when I refuse to eat. Then I get an idea. I start planning out an attack on the Children of Helheim building that I saw earlier so that I can maybe help some people. "Well first I'm going to have to make a team," I think to myself. "But, I mean, the guards are human, so I could take them on. I could also recruit the people being tested on."
I put on a black hoodie and wait until night when Markus is gone. I walk outside and go to a site where I saw one of the buildings earlier. I sneak over to the building. I see three guards guarding the door, so I grab a rock and throw it to get the guards' attention. When one guard gets close enough, and the other two aren't looking, I sneak behind him and knock him out. I drag his body to where I've been hiding and put on his Children of Helheim suit. I walk to the building and show the other two guards a Children of Helheim security badge. They let me in and I walk into the cell area.
I walk by the first cell and see a figure retreating from the cell door as I walk by. I look in and see that it was a young boy who looks about nine or ten, now sitting on his cell bed. I use the keycard and open the door.
"Hello?" I ask the kid. He looks up at me with fearful eyes. "S-stay away! Don't come near me!" He shouts at me, probably thinking that I'm about to test on him. I walk over to him and stand in front of him sitting on the bed. He looks down at his knees when I approach. "Hey, kid. I'm not here to hurt you, trust me. I just want to help get you out of here," I say to him. "That's what the last guy said! He escaped from the cell next to me and told me that he was going to look for another card to get me out with. But... he never came back..." The kid says quietly. "Well, I'm not him. What's your name?" I ask him. He gives me a surprised look, but it quickly changes back to a blank stare. "Jamie," he replies. "What's yours?" "I'm Haru. Well, come on, Jamie. I'm rescuing all of you guys being tested on, in this facility," I say with a smile. He finally looks up at me. "R-really?" He asks me. "So... I can finally talk to Miyra? A-and Avery?" He asks again. "Who are they?" I ask. "They're other people stuck here with me. They were able to talk to me for a second and I got their names. Th-they were nicer to me than the guards were..." He says. "Of course you can talk to them," I grin. "Here, Jamie, come with me," I say, and he stands up, ready to follow me. We leave the cell and start releasing some other captives.
After opening all the cells and getting almost everyone in the facility, I turn back to Jamie. "Jamie, do you know where your friends' cells are at?" I ask him, noticing that we haven't found them yet, and he nods. "The numbers were on their shirts, and I think their cells were right next to each other, but they're in a different section. They're special, so they got a different corridor that could hold them. A not very well guarded one, but still. The numbers were 162 and 163," he says. "I'll let you free them, then, if you think you can do it. Here, take the keycard and meet us back here with your friends, okay?" I ask him. "Okay!" He exclaims. I hand him the keycard and he runs down the hallway.
After a few minutes, he comes back with two other kids, a girl and a boy. I assume that the boy is Avery and the girl is Miyra. Miyra looks a few years younger than Jamie, but Avery looks older by about a year. "Are these your friends?" I ask Jamie. "Yeah!" He exclaims, smiling. "Great! I think we're ready to go now," I say.
I guide everyone to the front door that I came in at and tell them to stop. "Let me take out the guards. Can one of you come with me to help? " I ask. I get a volunteer and face the door with them, a girl who looks about fifteen. I open the door and sneak behind one of the guards as the girl sneaks behind the other one. We knock both of the guards out, signal everyone to come follow us, and start running. We're about half a mile away from the building when we are stopped by the figure I fought in the forest.
"Hello, Zero, seems like you've got yourself a cult now. How... cute," He says.
He leaps away and we decide to wait a little bit before running just so we know that we aren't going to be followed. We see that we aren't being followed and we run to the city, and when we get there we finally let out a sigh of relief that had been pent up inside of us. I tell them about my plan to help other people escape the other facilities and they join without hesitation. I let them run off to their homes and I do as well. When I get home I take the Children of Helheim suit off and instead put on my hoodie and sweatpants. I walk into the house and to my bedroom. I throw the suit into the trash bin and ragdoll into my bed, falling asleep.
I'm awakened from a hand grasping my neck, choking me. I try to kick them off, but their too strong, and I pass out.
I wake up in a place that looks like a warehouse, and notice that I'm tied to a chair with wires, and the man that choked me is walking towards me. He walks to a table next to me and grabs a dull hatchet. He slowly walks over in front of me and whacks his axe on my finger. The pain is unbearable, and my eyesight starts turning fuzzy and red. He ignores my screams of pain and agony and other curses and continues to hit at my finger. Each time he hits it a stream of blood flings everywhere. Onto my face, my clothes, and especially on the axe. He continues whacking until my finger flys off, and I pass out from the pain.
When I wake up my fingers hurt, so I look at them and see that they have fully grown back. How? I look closer at them, my eyesight still fuzzy from pain. I notice that my fingers are different. They've turned a shade of pure, jet black.
I start freaking out, as one would do if their fingers just re-grew on their hands after being cut off with a axe. I look around for a way to get out of my chair and see a bucket full of blood on the floor next to my chair, so I figure that the blood is probably mine. I look around the room some more, analyzing my surroundings. Then I notice that there are still wires on my wrists, holding me in place.
I try to break the wires but it won't budge. After a while of trying to break them, I start to get tired and give up. The man walks in with two people following him, and they walk over to me and collect the bucket full of my blood. After a little bit they come back with a clean bucket and set it by me. One of them hands me a piece of paper and walks out. I look down at the piece of paper on my lap. "We heard what you did, we want to help you. We will find a way to break you out, in the meantime just hang in there." I read. I hide the note in a pocket in my sleeve, so that the man doesn't see it. Speaking of which, there he is. The man walks in with the same axe as yesterday and walks towards me again. I get ready for the pain again as he raises his axe. He swings down, hacking at my fingers until they cut off, more blood getting everywhere. I guess I still haven't gotten used to the pain, because after a few fingers are chopped off again, I pass out.
"Haru..." a voice says. I look in the direction of the voice and see a person that looks like me.
"Hello?" I ask.
"You need to escape, Haru. Listen to me. I will give you my power," He says as he walks towards me. Before I can ask why or what's happening, he places his hand on my wrist, and I get a sudden wave of pain. My veins turn completely black for a second then, fade away. Everything goes blurry and I see that I'm back in the room. I hear the door open and the man walks in, dragging the two people who want to rescue me behind him. The man throws them on the floor in front of me, then takes a gun from his pocket and points it at them.
"Which one do you want me to kill first, Haru?" He asks in a manic-like voice. "It could be him," he points the gun at the first guy, "or him!" He points the gun at the second guy. "Make up your mind, Haru! Their time is running shorter and shorter..." he says with maniacal enthusiasm, giving off his psychopathic smile.
I start to panic because I don't want them to die. I look down at my hand and try to break the chains holding me in place, but they still won't budge. I hear a gunshot and look up to see that the man has killed one of them. The other one who's still alive gives me a horrified look, as if he were begging for his life through his eyes.
"Stop it!" I scream at the man.
"Oh Haru, what are you going to do to stop me?" He asks, still smiling. With a maniacal laugh, he shoots the other one. I hadn't noticed, but as his blood splatters everywhere, I see that my jeans are covered in both of the mens' blood.
I begin to feel movement pulsing through my arms and legs, and I see that my limbs are turning black. The chains begin to break, and a long spike protrudes from my chest and stabs the man as he screams. The spike disappears back into my chest and the chains break all the way. As he's falling back, blood exploding out of his chest, I jump towards him and bite at his flesh, hunger, and rage overcoming me. My limbs turn into thin feathery-like tentacles, my body gets encased with the black liquid.
He throws a knife at my newfound armor in an attempt to throw me off of him, but it bounces off and impales the ground next to him. I stab him through the chest with one of the tentacles, and blood starts streaming out from his mouth.
"P-please, I'll do anyth-" The tentacle stabs through his head, finally killing him. His body lays there, motionless. My body forms back to normal, and I kick the door open and start running. I run until I find the exit, I sort of know where it is since this place has a similar layout as the Children of Helheim HQ. I see the forest where I once stayed and run to Markus's house. When I finally get to the front door I knock on it. The door opens and Markus comes out.
"Where have you been?" Markus asks.
"At the park" I lie. I can tell that he knows that I'm lying, but he shrugs it off.
"Okay then, well, get inside. Blair's been worried about you. She said something about you doing something stupid," Markus says. I nod and make my way to her room.
I walk to Blair's room and see that she's sleeping. I pick her up and walk outside, though the walking starts turning into running as I make my way to my parent's house. After a few minutes, I get to the house and knock on the door. A sleepy Paige answers the door, and her eyes widen as she realizes who I am.
"You're back!" Paige exclaims.
"Yes, I am! Can we get inside?" I ask. She gives me a worried look but lets me inside. I walk past her and up to my room and set Blair on her makeshift bed. I don't know why, but I suspect Markus is working with Helheim. I shudder at the thought as I get in my bed and sleep.
I'm awakened by the smell of bacon and eggs. I miss that taste. I walk downstairs and sit down on a stool pushed next to the marble counter.
"Want some food?" Raelynn asks.
"No thanks," I respond.
She shrugs and walks over to give Paige and Blair. I grab a coat, walk outside, and breathe in the fresh air, i'm ready for a new day