More Than Human

Chapter 55: Light Turned Off

Soap was, in the simplest of terms, straight up not having a good time.

That first week, they performed no tests on him. But they had started coming into his cell to give him "obedience training". Where they would order him around like a dog, and if he didn't comply they would shock Roach next door.

He complied quickly after that.

Their orders weren't a good experience to take like Ghost's were. These just felt demeaning. Maybe it was the way they looked at him that was different. Afterall, Simon had called him perfect. And he looked at Soap like he really was. These people weren't like that at all.

The second week was when things really started to suck. Makarov apparently had the brilliant realization that with their steady supply of siren tears, they could do whatever the hell they wanted. That included giving the monsters things that would be deadly to them otherwise. In the end, they could just be healed. It would make no difference.

So, for Soap's testing, they came up with something particularly awful.

They had entered and ordered him to sit and stay. He followed the order with his head down. He had learned early on that they didn't like him to look them in the eye unless they specifically asked. It was one of the many minor offenses that would get both him and Gary shocked.

They approached him, and shocked him anyway. He wasn't sure what he had done wrong. He was sitting and staying the best he could. They simply laughed, like it was fun for them.

They slapped some metal cuffs on his wrists in front of him. They placed a tray of food down on one side of the room before stepping away from him. They had ordered him to crawl over and eat the food. He wasn't allowed to shift when they were in the room so he had to crawl forward embarrassingly in his human form. It was difficult with his wrists bound.

When he got to the food, he attempted to use his hands. That earned him another shock and multiple kicks to the ribs. They screamed at him to eat it like the dog he was.

He wanted to bite and snarl and snap, but he couldn't do that if he wanted Roach to remain unharmed. So he followed the order.

Something about the food had tasted wrong. It had a sharp metallic taste that hurt his tongue and teeth. It was a struggle to swallow it, his body was trying to reject it. When he tried to stop eating he was hit again. Told to eat all of it. He couldn't understand what the point of all this was.

He forced himself not to throw up what he had already eaten, sure that they were cruel enough to try and make him eat it again. He managed to choke down the rest of the food. His stomach was making strange noises in protest. Already hitting him with sharp pains.

He was shocked again. Why? He did what he was told. He was being good. Right?

Somebody strapped a muzzle over his mouth. It made him want to gag and throw up even more, but now it would have nowhere to go. Maybe that's what they wanted. To keep whatever they had just gotten in him inside.

They gave him a few more harsh kicks before discussing something with each other and leaving the room. He remained on his side, on the cold floor. Curled inwards as the pain in his stomach steadily increased. He could feel himself beginning to sweat despite the cold.

He forced his eyes open at the sound of Roach's distressed chirping and chittering.

"Soap?"

He could only grunt around the muzzle keeping his mouth shut.

"Make it to the bed?" Roach suggested from the other side of the grate, clearly concerned.

Soap took a few deep breaths through his nose before making an attempt. He couldn't get himself to stand, so he continued to crawl. He barely had the strength to drag himself across the room and roll himself onto the foam mat.

He faced the grate across from him. His vision was starting to swim, but he could see the face Roach was giving him. He must have not looked great based on the man's expression. Made sense, he felt like shit. Worse than shit. He felt like... like...

He had a vague and bleary memory from Las Almas. Ghost holding him and Rudy humming to help soothe. He didn't have them now, but he felt like he did then.

They had put silver in his food.

And forced him to eat it.

At some point he passed out. He was in and out for the rest of the day, nothing but pain and labored breathing through his nose. After a while he thought he heard the sound of Gary's scratchy voice calling for help. A slight banging as if he was pounding on his cell door to get someone's attention.

At some point someone must have come into his cell again, because he was roughly being stuck in the arm and hooked up to an IV drip. The pain slowly began to dissipate from there. It must have had some of Rudy's tears in the mixture. But he was still a weak and shivering mess. He felt a bit better after a nap, but he had only been awake for a few minutes when they were coming back in and removing his muzzle. Making him eat again. The cycle continued.

In his time awake he noticed that they hadn't taken Roach out for any testing since his started. Perhaps that was his reward for good behavior. It kept him even more complacent as he wanted to keep Roach safe.

He wasn't sure how many days passed like this. Just floating in and out, knowing nothing but pain and brief reprieve. He opened his eyes at a certain point and winced. There was a loud blaring from somewhere, some sort of alarm going off, and with his hands still bound he couldn't cover his ears.

The door to his cell creaked open and he figured that they were back to force him to eat another dose of the silver again. He flinched when a hand rested itself on his shoulder, but it was so gentle compared to the touches he had grown accustomed to in this place. Then there was a second hand parallel to the first. They jostled him gently.

"Soap? With me?"

Soap managed to get his eyes focused enough to find that Roach was the one touching and speaking to him.

"Gary?" He managed to respond, coming out muffled and choked by the muzzle.

"Hold still." Roach reached around the back of his neck and he let out a yelp as his metal clip was tugged out and tossed to the side.

"H-how...?"

"Light turned off." Roach told him.

Soap wasn't sure if he meant on the clip or in the room. Because he quickly noticed that the bulb that had remained on the whole time was in fact off. Maybe both. His sluggish brain suddenly caught up with the fact that Roach was in his cell... and the door was still open.

"Need to leave." Gary was telling him. He began to try and pull Soap up from where he lay. Soap did his best to push himself up and managed to get up on shaky legs. He leaned his weight against Roach, and fortunately the smaller man was quite strong. He wrapped his soft wings around him to keep them both covered and made their way out into the hall.