Wanderer

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Nova sat, staring at nothing, arms wrapped around her knees. She kept shivering even though the room was warm and stuffy. All she could see was the old man as he was ripped apart by three of his fellow prisoners.

She just couldn’t shake the image, couldn’t shake off the horror of what she had seen. Life as a slave had always been tough. At times it had been brutal. She’d seen many terrible things — slaves tortured and killed by the guards, slaves attacked by their fellow slaves. She’d picked up her own fair share of scars along the way.

The old man’s death went way beyond any of those. Not because of the brutality, it wasn’t that much worse than some of the things she had seen, but because of the complete lack of emotion on the attackers’ faces. They’d shown no trace of emotion, good or bad. That was what had Nova upset. That was what had her shivering where she sat.

Around her were the other nine slaves from her group. None were talking. All stood, sat or lay in silence, most still looking shocked at what had happened.

Karina, one of the oldest, levered herself up and started pacing, muttering under her breath. Every now and then she would stop and shake her head violently until she swayed where she stood. Then she would resume her pacing.

Nova watched for a few minutes, Karina’s antics helping to push the horrors of the old man’s death from her mind. Karina stumbled after a particularly heavy bout of head shaking. Nova jumped to her feet and rushed over, catching the swaying woman just before she fell to the floor.

“Thank you, dear,” Karina said, then pulled free and began her pacing once more.

“Karina, are you OK?” asked Nova, moving with her.

“Oh yes, dear. I’m fine. Absolutely fine. Couldn’t be better. How about you?”

The question caught Nova off guard and she answered without thinking.

“Not good. What they did to him… the blank looks… they killed him and it was like they were stacking rocks or something.”

Karina stopped, frowning distractedly for a moment.

“Oh! That! Yes.” She patted Nova’s hand. “Not good. No, not good at all. We should… oh… I nearly lost my place. Sorry my dear.”

She resumed her pacing, moving across the room in random lines. Now many of the head shakes were replaced by smaller nods, and even occasional smiles.

Nova ground her teeth, fighting the urge to go shake the old woman. She quickly threw it off. Karina had been in Nova’s group of slaves for a couple of months now. Nova had soon realised Karina’s grip on the world was shaky at times, though she had always coped well with the simplistic tasks the guards normally set. If not she would soon have been killed.

As the anger drained away Nova found herself actually envying the old woman. Whatever had her distracted it meant she wasn’t constantly remembering the horrific death of the old man, or worrying over what was going to happen next.

There was something about Karina’s movements, though, something that nagged at Nova. They seemed to be random yet there was the hint of a pattern to them. Now Nova watched more closely she saw that Karina was tilting her head to one side or the other most of the time she walked, as if she was listening for something.

Without Nova noticing it her dark thoughts were replaced by fascination with Karina’s activities. Several times Nova moved towards Karina, intending to ask her just what she was doing. Each time she stopped, worried she would interrupt the process.

Time passed. Now Karina was walking more slowly, almost never shaking her head. She had a perpetual smile upon her face. Whatever she was doing was clearly going well.

Nova was once more considering speaking with Karina when the door to the room clanged open. Nova’s heart hammered as Blade entered the room with three more of the slaves who had been in his group. All wore the glassy-eyed expression. What had she heard the officers call them? The Limited. It certainly fit.

Like Nova, everyone else in the room had frozen in place when the door crashed open, even Karina. What Nova hadn’t noticed was she was the closest to the door. Two of the Limited, a man and a woman, walked up and grabbed her by the arms. Fear replaced shock and she started to struggle, but once again it was useless. No matter how hard she struggled the two hardly seemed to notice.

Then they were moving back towards the door, dragging Nova with them. Fear turned to terror. What were they going to do to her? Would she be another example, like the old man had been? Was she going to be brutally killed just to demonstrate something?

Or were they going to make her like Blade and the other Limited? That thought was almost worse. She twisted, pulled, kicked and shoved but none of it made any difference.

She managed to twist enough to see behind her. Another slave was being dragged along by Blade. She looked shocked and was making no effort to fight. The fourth of the Limited slammed the door closed and locked it before following.

The two Limited dragged Nova along several corridors, then paused before a solid door. Blade stopped beside Nova and reached out, clamping one of his huge hands around her wrist. The other two let her go. Nova immediately wrenched at Blade’s grip but he didn’t even grunt. He’d been strong enough before he’d been changed. Now his grip was unbreakable.

One of the others opened the door. Blade stepped forward, dragging Nova and the other slave towards the small room beyond. Nova dropped to the floor, desperate to stay outside of the room.

It made no difference. Blade just dragged her across the floor. She tried to grab onto the door frame but her grip wasn’t strong enough. Then they were in the room. The door slammed shut and she heard it being secured.

Blade let go of both slaves. Nova rolled over and onto her feet, rubbing her wrist to restore feeling. She glanced around the room, hoping to find a way out or at least something to use as a weapon. She found neither. The small room was empty. Just bare metal walls, floor and ceiling. Only the small air grates broke up the metal.

Nova eyed Blade cautiously, waiting to see what he would do. The answer was nothing. He stood stock still, not even turning his head to look around. Nova shivered. It wasn’t natural.

As the minutes ticked past she started to get restless. Insane as it was, she found herself tempted to push Blade. To try and force a reaction from him. The thought terrified and excited her at the same time.

Nova had just about built up the courage to do it when something changed. A hissing came from the air vents and a dense greenish fog started to roll into the room. Almost immediately Nova felt dizzy. She fought it, trying to get as far from the fog as possible.

The other slave was less lucky. She’d taken a deep lungful as it first came in. Moments later she crashed down to the deck. Nova couldn’t tell if the slave was alive or dead. Her body had mostly disappeared below the layer of fog.

Blade seemed unconcerned by the turn of events. Nova was still fighting the effects but it was getting harder and harder. Her head felt as if it was stuffed with cotton wool.

Blade showed no awareness of what was happening. He remained standing, unmoving. Was he somehow immune to the gas? Without warning he succumbed, slumping down and disappearing in the fog which was now waist high on Nova.

She staggered to the door and started banging on it, yelling to be let out. No one answered and by yelling she was pulling more of the gas into her lungs. The room spun around her and she slumped against the wall, sliding down it and slipping into unconsciousness.