"You know, Ayla, you're quite heavier than you look." Said Emily.

  "Yeah, it's called having curves, you flat board." I motioned to my chest. I wanted to tick them both off. I felt at full power then. I knew I could take them on.

  "Wow, petty insults. How bloody original." She muttered indifferently.

  "So, what are you planning on doing with me here?" I asked.

  "We're going to make you ours." Said Vic, or whatever his name was; I didn't give a fuck.

  "I have a girlfriend, you fucking virgin," I answered.

  All I wanted to do then was piss them off as much as possible. Vic scowled at me.

  "Not like that, you perverted whore; we're going to make you see the truth," said Emily. Says the bitch who tricked her friends for weeks.

  "Really? And how do you plan on doing that? It's not like you could convince me of anything."

  "We don't need to." Emily pulled out a syringe. I was getting pretty tired of needles at that point. I then put up a protective force field around me. It acted as a solid wall, so Emily couldn't get to me regardless of what she tried.

  "How original, you're going to inject me with some weird drug, and that's going to magically make me side with you, right? "Well guess what, dipshit, I won't let you!" I said.

  Vic scoffed. "Of course not, you idiot. That would be bland and stupid. Instead, we have fifty soldiers locked up somewhere inside this facility. If you step out of line, Emily here will inject them all with a strand that will turn them into extremely fast mutes that breathe in gas and breathe out hydrogen cyanide, or in other words, they will target your precious community and hide in the shadows while pumping one of the strongest toxins on the planet into the atmosphere."

  I felt the color leave my skin at that moment. Ok, that was pretty original, I must admit, but also, what the fuck! Man, that's genius. They were going to have me under their spell with the threat of killing everyone I cared for, and that was one thing I couldn't do anything against. I didn't know where the soldiers were or anything about where I was. I had my reasons to believe I was in the same lab I had seen in my dream when I dreamt about my mom and dad, and if that was so, then I was royally screwed.

  "Ok, I get it. Now, what are you going to do with me now?"

  "We're going to see what you are capable of," said Vic.

  "Oh, and what does that entail?" I asked.

  "We're going to try you. "Follow us," said Emily. She opened the door for me, and I walked out. I couldn't risk doing anything. Not unless I could immobilize Emily somehow. But for now my best option was to obey like a good girl; God, I hate having to admit that. I was still dressed in military clothes, now stained with brown blood from having to wade through the sea of corpses left on the white wall. Truth be told, it reeked, like seriously reeked.

  The facility was different than I remembered, though it was to be expected since I saw the nineteen nineties version of it. Instead of white, plain walls, the hallways were intricately decorated with strange and odd geometric patterns. There were also colored lines along the floor that each led to a different research division. Having said that, it also wasn't a stretch to assume they had also expanded. Who knew how deep the facility ran? Who knew just what horrors were buried under lies and secrecy in that wretched place? But then again... my parents had worked here. I never really knew what they did or anything about them. They never talked to us about their work or anything related; hell, I didn't even know what they worked as. I got curious; I thought that maybe their research was still here. I had to find their old lab.

  But that would have to wait. For now I could only listen and obey.

  They were taking me deeper and deeper down an elevator. The floor number was now in the negative hundreds, and the air felt heavier down there. When the lift opened, the aesthetic was polarly different from what was above. Where on the upper levels everything looked like a sci-fi spaceship, down here it looked like a mineshaft. The walls were nothing more than sheet metal, and the floor was grated. The hall I saw in front of me was crudely set up at best. The lighting was dim, and the ventilation was lacking at best.

  "C'mon, just a little further," said Vic. I doubted his name was that; I guessed it was Victor or something. He and Emily made their way to the left. I saw on a sign on the ceiling that they were headed for a testing chamber. I followed suit.

  The chamber had an airlock, a small room that separated the chamber from the rest of the facility. It was lined with guns all around.

  "Now, you don't need any of these. Go on, get in." Emily shoved me into the chamber and locked the door behind me. The chamber itself was a cave; it was as simple as it got. All around me were doors of differing sizes. The chamber was the size of a football field; it was round and domed.

  I didn't know what was going to happen then.

  "Let's see how you handle something simple." Came Emily's voice over the speakers. Then, a buzzer rang a high pitch as one of the midsize doors opened. Behind said door was a hunter, but it wasn't like the ones that had stormed the city. This one had metal plates embedded into its body like armor, along with a steel mandible. The thing was acting like an animal; that's all that it had been reduced to at that point. It stepped into the chamber warily, almost distrusting its new surroundings. It didn't immediately attack me; it wasn't a normal mute.

  I kept my distance as the beast explored its surroundings; it paid no heed to me. Its quadrupedic stance gave it a lanky stride, its long arms holding up most of its weight. We circled each other for a bit until the beast was finally contempt with its surroundings, and it decided I was a more interesting pastime. It growled at me, its beady eyes fixed on me. Unlike normal zeds whose eyes were more of a suggestion, this thing had seemingly decent eyesight. It circled me, like a wolf bullying its prey before pouncing. Then it leapt into the air, barely ten meters between us. It soared surprisingly far, but I still just ripped its head from its body with my mind. I was going to hold back on what I could do; I wanted to keep my cards hidden for the right moment.

  "Alright. Now onto something a bit more threatening." Came Emily's voice again. Then another door opened, and one of the tank mutes appeared. It was the ten-tonne monster type, but this time covered in armor. I had a feeling that was going to be a recurring trend. This beast behaved more like a hippo and went straight for the charge as soon as it saw me. I was strong enough to simply hold it in place, but not enough to crush it yet. I couldn't rip its head off, and I couldn't pop its head; I had to be a little bit more creative this time around.

  I didn't have much at my disposal, not a single thing I could use to my favor. The only thing I had was the body of the hunter, and that wasn't really that useful. But I did notice the robotic implant it had on its arm. I'm guessing it was a prototype monster, because its behavior had been different from standard mutes and because of the fact that its left forearm was a solid piece of steel, and it was somehow connected to the elbow and hand, both of which were organic. But it was a piece of steel nonetheless. I was able to separate the shaft from the arm, and it measured in at about a meter and a half, which was just how big the forearms on hunters were. As a testament to how far I had come along in the three weeks I had spent with Plague, I was now restraining a ten-ton monster while manipulating a steel pole. This was a task I wouldn't have even dreamt of before, and now it felt as natural as breathing. I had done it; I reached my goal; I was able to will things into what I wanted.

  Now that I had a weapon, it was easy to dispose of the tank. I just thrust the shaft through its skull a couple of times, and the beast collapsed. I spun the shaft quickly in the air to clean off all the blood and prepared for the next test. I didn't know where they were observing me from, but I knew they were watching my every move.

  "Ok, that's all we wanted to see. Go to the exit now," said Emily. I listened and headed for the exit. I saw Vic was standing there already. He seemed displeased; he probably realized I was stronger than him. I was still hovering the shaft in the air, and I had the perfect idea to drive a point home. I pointed the shaft at the wall beside him and let the shart fly. With a deafening crash, the pole embedded itself halfway into the wall, scaring the shit out of him. He flinched so hard he jumped backwards, his face a couple shades lighter.

  I walked towards him and blew him a kiss as I passed him on the airlock. He knew I was stronger than him; he knew.

  I walked down the hallway to the lift where I saw Emily waiting for me; she was holding the syringe in her hand, a stark reminder that I should behave myself.

  "So, I take it you haven't figured it out yet," I said.

  "Figured out what?" She asked.

  "Hmmph, just as I thought." I answered meekly as I passed her to the lift. "Is your boyfriend coming, or did he shit his pants too hard? " I asked, cocky as ever. I wanted to trigger them.

  "He's not my boyfriend, and I think I need not remind you what I can do." She held the syringe up before putting it back in her pocket. Oh, you dumb whore, just how stupid can you be?

  Little known to her, they were the ones trapped with me. I was back on full thanks to the booster, but they didn't know that. I hadn't shown them the full extent of my power, but they didn't know that. And I already had a plan, but they didn't know that.

  After Viktor made his way to the lift, we returned to the floor we had been at before, the one where my room was.

  The ride was fun. Vic kept giving me the side eye, and I smirked at him every time he looked at me. Once we arrived, they led me to my room, threatening me again. I was going to wait; I was going to hold out until the perfect opportunity showed itself to me.

  Once locked in my room, they gave me a change of clothes, and I told them to fuck off as I changed. Then they fed me and left me alone. I had my watch with me. It was still the same day as when I came in. It was eight in the afternoon, and I was more than certain they were going to check up on me again. That was when I was going to make my move. I already had a game plan formed. I would first immobilize Emily by trapping her in a force field. At the same time, I would make a blue ring around Vic, which would close around him if he tried anything and painfully kill him. Then I would get rid of the syringe and leave them both unconscious, yeah, that would work. I waited and waited, but nothing happened. Eventually I gave up and just went to sleep. I didn't dare do anything when they weren't around; who knows how much they could see of me through cameras and such? I did feel a little bit exposed knowing I was getting twenty-four-seven surveillance. I could only act when I knew there was nobody behind the screens, or in other words, only when the two of them were in reach. But what if there was someone else too? I hadn't thought of that. Shit, that was a very good point. I didn't know how many people were there; maybe even Slone was there! He was probably watching me right then.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Damn, my options had just been drastically reduced.

  Sleep came with trouble. Not only did I feel really exposed and self-conscious, but the bed felt like cardboard, and the white padded walls were really bright. Eventually, after much tossing and turning, I managed to sleep. I dreamt that night. It was me through my father's eyes. I wasn't at the lab this time; I was home. It all felt oddly real; no, that's not it—it all felt oddly tense. I (my father) was sitting in the kitchen; I was thinking about what my research was bringing upon the world.

  "What are we doing?" I asked myself. I didn't know when this was happening, but I had the faint suspicion that it was later than the last memory. After my father checked his laptop, my past self came running along into the kitchen. I was kind of adorable back then; I wasn't as much of an asshole. I must have been five years old or younger.

  "Dadda!" I came up and hugged my father, which was just his leg at that point. Through the mind of my father, I felt worried, saddened, and concerned. I felt so many things at the same time I was overwhelmed.

  "Hey, Ley-ley." That was how my brother called me when I was born, and my parents copied him. "Good morning, are you feeling better than yesterday?" I asked her. I saw as my past self sniffled up some snot, and I also noticed how her nose was red; this must have been a day after I was sick, which was often. Before my past self could answer, my father's phone rang. I picked it up, and I heard someone new; I didn't know who, though.

  "Richard?" The voice asked.

  "Yes, I'm here."

  "We're moving live testing to tomorrow; we are going to need you at the lab." And then he hung up. My father's thoughts were filled with worry and doubt. He knew it was too early; he knew it was wrong; he knew a lot. I got up from the kitchen counter and went to the bedroom. It was our old house. I, as myself, remember that house really vaguely, and my perception of it had changed to something that was nothing remotely close to the real thing. It wasn't a big house; it wasn't a small house either. It was a flat in the middle of the city.

  It was nicely decorated. It didn't have much, not because we couldn't afford it but because there was a small child and a hyperactive toddler in the house with a vague notion for self-preservation. I watched intently as my father walked to his own room, a room he shared with my mother. They had a queen-size bed and integrated wall closets. He opened one of these closets, and after pulling all the coats to one side, he found a somewhat small safe. It was one of those you'd find in hotels for no fucking reason; only this one was much smaller and hidden. He introduced a seven-number combination. 1-1-2-3-5-8-13—that was a weird combination to use. When he opened it, I found three hard drives stacked on top of each other. The lower one was inherently older than the rest, but the topmost one was new even for now standards. He picked up the top one and brought it with him to the kitchen; he plugged it into the laptop and began transferring his work onto it. Of course, he was keeping all of it hidden away! But for what though? Could it be that he was working on something else? Was he going to sell his company's research to another company?

  "Find this, Ayla, find it all." He muttered. He was leaving it to me? For what, though? It's not like the world didn't already know what was going on there. But then again, my father didn't know this was going to happen.

  After watching my father pirate his own research, I woke up.

  It had been the combination of my discomfort on the bed and the obnoxious white padded walls that reflected all light that had caused me to wake up, and I immediately got to thinking about what I could have potentially missed in the dream. I had to find that research. It was a gut feeling, but I knew I was going to use it or need it.

  "Ayla, listen carefully." A voice rang inside my head. It was...oddly familiar. I knew I had heard this voice before, and I hadn't liked it. "We've found where you're at, but we can't get in until you disable security." Oh yeah! It was that spineless bitch boy Markus! The psyker! This was the only time ever in my life where I was happy to hear him. That meant that the gang was here! Somehow they had found me.

  "Ayla, you have to hurry up. We have a freight ship coming our way in two days, and we need you to disable all security, and I do mean all of it. There are mutts surrounding the island and isolating it, and we believe that somewhere in there with you is the way to control them. "I didn't know if he could hear me back, probably not. So I had to take care of the security? I could do that; I could most definitely do that. In fact, I was already going to do it before he told me.

  Ok, time to put my flawless plan into action. But I first had to wait until I had both Emily and Viktor in sight. I looked at my watch; it was quarter to nine. They would most probably come around at nine. And once I had taken care of them... I was lost. I then realized I didn't know squat about this place, and the floor map would probably be the size of a telephone book. But I couldn't let a little inconvenience push me back from my goal. I paced around nervously, waiting around for my chance to strike and put our plan in action. I had to be quick, though. If they were tipped off by everyone on the surface, then who knows what they would do? I had to hurry up and do it well, or else everyone's life was on the line.

  As my nerves got worse and worse, the faint sound of footsteps knocked me out of my trance. There were two pairs of steps, and neither of them was hurried. I wanted to think that they were oblivious to what was going on on the surface.

  I saw Emily and Viktor turn the corner to my cell, both looking as smug as can be. Oh sweet summer child, you had no idea of who I was.

  "Rise and shine, Ayla. We have a long day ahead of us. And don't forget! One bad move and everyone you know and love is dead!" She mocked me.

  Viktor opened my door, and I stepped out. I looked obedient and not at all as if I had a plan.

  "So what's first on the agenda?" I asked.

  "Well, I'm glad you asked. The first thing is always breakfast." She said. I hadn't actually taken into account that I hadn't really been fed that well since I arrived. All they had given me was some edible sludge, which was as tasty as it sounds.

  It was time to make my move. First, I made a force field that engulfed Emily but didn't touch her yet. She didn't notice yet, and I immediately made a ring of blue energy around Viktor.

  "What!?" he said.

  Emily tried moving with time frozen, but she ran straight into the force field.

  "Vic, make any move, and I will cut you completely in half, and Emily, well, you can't really move now. Thanks for your hospitality, but kindly fuck off," I said.

  I then levitated Emily, and she was completely helpless. She had the syringe in her hand, and all I did was take it out of her hand and smash it against the floor. My blood was pumping so fast, and I had won.

  "What is this? What are you!?" She asked as she flailed in the air like a turtle turned on its shell. She was frustrated, and I was loving it! Viktor, on the other hand, was simply petrified in fear at the blue ring around his torso.

  So I had won, yippee. Now all I had to do was knock them out and leave. So I decided on just slamming Emily against the ceiling and doing the same with Viktor. I didn't do it too hard. I was mad at them, and maybe I also hated them, but I was no monster. They were out unconscious, but they weren't hurt at all.

  I searched their bodies and found a radio, a remote, and a pen on them. I then had to bind them up in case they woke up. Emily was as simple as locking her up in my cell, but Viktor was a little more complicated. I couldn't tie him with a rope because he could probably untie the knot with his mind, so I had to think a little bit more solid. I knew he wasn't strong enough yet to bend things, so I looked around for a metal pole but found none. I then had an idea. I focused and made a small ball of energy inside the concrete of the wall. The heat of the ball caused the concrete to gasify, and the pressure built made part of the wall blow out. And when I looked there, I found what I wanted. A meter and a half long shaft of rebar. I knew I could bend it, but I also knew Vic couldn't!

  I first bent it around his neck and then wrapped his hands up in each of the ends of the bar, leaving him in an uncomfortable position and completely harmless.

  Ok, that was that threat taken care of; now for the bigger threat. Truth be told, I had no clue how to navigate the facility. It was big, like big enough to cause pressure sickness at the bottom. I had to simply start moving. I just ran as fast as I could through the hallways trying to find any maps for directions.

  Eventually, I found a floor plan in a sort of landing that communicated the four hallways that comprised the basic shape of the facility. The floor plan also included a list of what each floor was specialized in. The list was also longer than a Monday. I also had to think about what the security floor would be called, because after all, I doubted there was an entire floor just dedicated to vigilance and security and that it would be explicitly called 'security room.'

  So I looked through the list, and to my surprise, there was a security floor ten floors above me.

  Now with a goal in mind, I set off towards the lifts, which should have worked. The lifts were opposite of me on the weird landing. I darted there and pressed one of the buttons.

  Thankfully, it lit up, and a number appeared above the doors that read minus ten, which was about one hundred and forty-something floors above me. I honestly couldn't imagine what this place must have looked like in peak hours, like right about nine AM; it must have been a bloody warzone. The number slowly ticked down, clearing about ten floors every twenty seconds and taking about four minutes to reach me. Then, when the lift opened, I understood how the logistics worked. The lift was huge, being able to comfortably house a hundred people at a time. The floor select was a number pad instead of the traditional numbered buttons in rows, but then again this place had about two hundred floors, so you'd have to line the wall of the lift with buttons to feasibly do it. I punched in the floor number, and the elevator rose quickly.

  After a little bit, the doors opened, and I stepped out into the landing of the floor. It was quite different from the other one. Whereas in the previous floor there was a sort of friendly atmosphere, here it was grim. The floor was black marble, and the walls were just plain waxed wood. There was also blood, a lot of it. It looked like a genocide had taken place in there. But I didn't have the luxury to think about what had happened. I had to move it.

  The directions on that floor were more archaic, with simple yet ornate signs every few doors and halls with arrows that pointed to every department on the floor. The one I was after was... unknown to me. I had failed to consider that there would be multiple departments in there, shit. I looked around and read all the signs. 'ventilation oversight,' 'server integrity,' 'foreign affairs'... none of them rang a bell to me. There was, however, a general security department, and it was my best bet. I ran as fast as my toned, slim, and tanned legs would let me. Left, right, center, and a little backwards (I overshot it)—that was my journey through the halls until I reached the room I wanted.

  I pushed the door open, and I was immediately overwhelmed. There must have been over twenty screens, all manned by someone when this place actually worked. There was a central terminal though, and it was like a jumbotron in size. I frantically mashed keys on the keyboard, begging the heavens to let the computer still work. The screen woke up from its slumber, and I was at a loss. It wasn't Windows or Mac or anything similar; it was a cluster of words and consoles running all at the same time. In all my boundless knowledge, computers were not one of my specialties; my brother was good with them, though.

  "Think, think!" I told myself. I looked at the screen without being able to make much out. My eyes were darting from undecipherable sentence to illegible statement too fast for me to make any sense out of it. I then remembered my life philosophy. Knowing the problem is half the solution.

  I had to think about what I was tackling, what I could do, but most importantly, what the issue consisted of. I had to understand what I didn't have that would let me confront my problem, and this could be applied to anything in life... yeah, fuck that; I just asked it nicely to turn off, and it worked! I suppose that safety measures within the computer were unnecessary, as anyone who wanted to change anything on the computer would have to traverse the entire fucking complex and somehow make their way past hundreds of armed guards, at least on the physical input. Whether the computer had a complex firewall or antivirus, I'll never know.

  So yeah, all I did was write "turn off, please?" And it worked. Everything was turned off, and my problem was solved.