BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

I shot up in my bed, instinctively grabbing my pocket-knife from where it was hidden underneath my pillow. As a large set of bangs resound throughout my shelter, and I quickly went over to the first door before the blast door, unlocked the latch, and looked through. The banging has stopped and there was nothing there, the blast door was still intact and it didn't seem like anything was broken or dented from my side. Maybe it went away?

I did not want to be trapped here with a Ripper or a Long Tong on the other side of the blast door. I slowly unlatched the door and opened it. Nothing else was happening and I didn't hear the growling or scratching that a Ripper or Long Tongue usually sounded like. And nothing long or slimy was coming through any holes so maybe I was fine now and nothing was wrong. I walked back inside my room and opened the safe, grabbing my gun and putting it in my pocket.

I closed the door once again and secured the latches, leaving the eye level one open. I grabbed my bowl once again, washed it off again with fresher water, wiped it down with my shirt, and put grains of what's called Oatmeal in the bowl.

The thing said that it needed water, and to be heated up for some long, in some strange thing called a Micro....a Microwave. I couldn't stand that word, it just didn't make sense for a box the size of my head to be named something small. But Mom and dad insisted I call it that instead of heat box, so it stuck.I honestly didn't know how it hasn't already been taken out and broken down for other uses.

I heard the slight creak of my lid being opened as I waited and I was starting to get irritated. I quickly went over to my door and put an ear to it, purposefully avoiding the eye hole. Everything was suddenly as quiet as it had been before, so as quickly and as quietly as I could I opened my safe again and grabbed an extra bullet filled slot thing.

Then I went into my kitchen area and put my gun on the table listening intently and still wanting to eat at least a little. Then I heard a sizzling sound and guessed that a few Acidwellers had found my hideout and caught my scent. They usually gave up after a few minutes though, I grabbed one of the few metal spoons I had scavenged from other houses and stores. Suddenly just as I was about to scoop up some sludge a thin red line appeared through the eyehole of the doorway. I dropped my spoon out of shock; they couldn't have gotten in so fast. That was so much metal, and it was so heavy, how did I not hear anything?!

The sound caused the red line to shift in my direction and that caused me to grab the gun, extra bullets and drop to the ground. How was this happening!? Why me? Couldn't they have broken into someone else's home and invaded them!? Why didn't I just leave a few days ago when I had the chance?

I was hyperventilating, there was no way this was happening, not to me, not so soon. I was not dying here. My body moved of its own accord and it rose me to my feet, lifted my arms like my father had taught me, and waited. There was a slight shift in the darkness and a flash of light, along with the boom of my gun as it went off.

I suddenly couldn't see, or hear anything, I knew that something had happened but my dad never actually let me fire the gun before. It was too loud and without any way to silence it there was too much of a risk of drawing everything within five miles towards our location. I could vaguely hear the sound of my door hitting hard into the wall and I knew that I needed to get up. I needed to do something or I would die here, but my head hurt so much, and I couldn't see or hear anything.

I did however feel the bottom of my gun and was able to grab it correctly and turn over, but there was nothing there. There were no red lights, but I could hear some strange chattering in the background. I didn't know what it was but it didn't match any of the sounds that I've heard from any Changed as of yet.

It took a little while but I was eventually able to stand up and stagger my way over to the opposite kitchen hallway, the entry farthest from the door. Where I pressed one hand to my left ear and held the gun up with my right. I felt something sticky and wet covering my hand, but it was too dark to see what it could've been.

I peeked around the corner of the stove and saw just an empty hallway. What? Something was just there, so where had it gone so fast? Up? No, I would have heard scrambling up the ladder if that was the case, so they might still be there?

I moved back and stood up peeking around again to make sure nothing was there, and seeing that there was truly an empty hallway. I moved out of the kitchen into the main room, the only other room besides the kitchen, and stepped towards the door. Raising my gun up just in case.

Suddenly, a giant expanse of light engulfed the hallway, my room, and the entirety of my vision. Blinding me once again, and causing me to shoot out of instinct. The added sound didn't help my condition and the gun fell from my hands as I brought my hands up to cover my eyes.

The wall behind me was suddenly not there anymore as a bunch of strong hands grabbed me and wrestled me to the ground. This didn't feel like people that raided others, they usually just threw you around or beat you still. These people knew what they were doing and I was soon pinned to the floor. I struggled and strained, my vision slowly coming back, but my hearing was taking a hit longer this time.

I did not like what I saw; these people had rifles.

If these people had rifles and other powerful guns like that. I wouldn't stand a chance against them. I felt a strange material pressed against my back and realized that I might not have even been able to even hurt them. I could at least try to make a stand and defend my home though. I was able to eventually hit my oppressor in the stomach hard enough to make them let go, but I still couldn't see well and my ears weren't taking in much volume right now.

I went to attack the same person but they saw me coming and my unpracticed punch towards their dark helmet, of which I seriously doubted anyone would be able to see out of. They just stepped aside, grabbed my arm, and twisted me around in a way that my hand was locked out and there was something cold and thin pressed to my neck.

"Don't kill her," a voice suddenly said and I felt a slight pinch in the spot the knife was touching hardest but otherwise stayed dead still. The darkly dressed soldiers separated as a man walked down the center. I saw that two or three at the back were watching the entrance and the other three were aiming at me, not counting my captor of course. The person stopped in-front of me and smiled, if I hadn't been captured I might've mistaken it as kind.

You know what's strange about this? I had just thought about the what if scenarios of things like this happening just last week. I had spontaneously just looked at every hiding place and corner of my little bunker and I even slept in a tree for two days straight. Risking being eaten in my sleep, and all of it was in vain.

"What do you want?" I hissed careful of the knife to my throat, "you come to raid my home, and what? Expect no one to be down here with a locked door like that?" I was interrupted by the knife digging in a little deeper, a silent warning of some sort I guess. But I didn't care, they came into my home, they invaded my life, and these guys were powerful, trained in combat. They could've been helping somewhere else instead of with a...I don't actually know what he is.

"Yes actually. I didn't expect anyone to be down here, and I was going to come here alone and leave most of my men above, but then I saw that you had hidden this bunker under a sort of pulley system, very smart mechanics there actually, so naturally I just had to investigate."

They were giving me a complement, or was that approval? I just moved my hand further into my pocket for my knife, it was risky, but I'd rather go out dying than being ramen by this madman.

"You don't seem like the others," he said suddenly "you're stronger, more daring, and you have a much stronger mind than any of them had. You'll surely be the best candidate we've had," the man moved past us and started scanning the walls. He moved towards my hidden spot of treasures and moved past it, studying the wall for some reason.

"There you are" he said and then out right punched the wall. It caved in, an empty hole appeared where there should've been hard metal of wood. I was shocked, actually I was beyond shocked.

He just punched a hole through the wall of my home and he was completely ignoring me! I grabbed my knife and let it open in my pocket, hopefully muffling the noise enough for them not to notice, but as I was about to take it out and stab my captor a small silver disc attached itself to the center of my chest.

I stopped looking at it in confusion and just as  I was about to touch it. It lit up with sharp blue light and let out a a high pitched chirp and searing hot pain went through my entire body. I tensed up and fell to my knees, not even noticing that my captors had already moved away from me and was standing at the madman's side with their gun out and trained on me.

It felt like my body was on fire, on the inside and on the surface of my skin. All I could see was the blue glow of the silver pin through the teary haze in my vision. I grabbed my knife to try and cut off the circle when another hit my right shoulder. That also made a chirp and the pain increased two-fold, adding more searing pain coursing through my body. I fought to stand, the process was slow and painful, but I eventually rose to my feet and stepped forwards once, in the direction of the madman.

He was watching me with amusement. I cocked my arm to throw the knife and then another disc hit my temple. A third short chirp sounded, and I blacked out.

-----------------------------

I woke up with the cold feeling of metal on my wrists and ankles. I moved to sit, but something around my chest and neck kept me from moving further. It seemed that I was in a sort of laying position, except vertically.

I moved my head slightly but was only able to see metal glinting near my neck, chest, waist, and upper arms. They were all connected to a seemingly metal table as well. I looked to my side and saw that there was a thin band of brown that looked like leather, and it was also connected to the metal table. I wasn't feeling good about what might come next. Being strapped to a table, especially in a dark room was never a good sign. I couldn't move my arms, legs, waist, or head at all and I didn't like that no one had already come in yet.

I strained and tested the dexterity of the metal bars, I mean it was pretty much pointless...they were metal bars for goodness sake, but I tried anyways, and as expected, they prevailed. I sighed and lay still, hoping that no one noticed that I was awake. Then the door opened and the man from earlier walked in.

"Now I realize that you may be a little angry at us for shocking you unconscious and invading your home, but thanks to you we got the last ingredient for something special in a perfectly preserved state. If you ever wondered why there was still power there this is why."

"I do have one question though," he said but my glare did not falter, "What do you think is it we do? Or rather what do you think my organization does?" I didn't answer, I didn't want to know, but I'm pretty sure that that wasn't going to be a mystery for very long.

"Sir, it's ready," a person appeared at the doorway and the man nodded and dismissed the person.

"I guess it doesn't matter whether I tell you or not," he said. "You are by far the strongest candidate that I've gotten. If you aren't able to survive the change, then no one will be able to and our world is doomed to last as this hell for a few centuries."

My table was suddenly moved by some invisible force and I looked around for someone pushing me from behind, but no one was there...that I could see anyways.

"Stop worrying so much, you're being moved with a rail system, not a person. Though it would be easier and less electricity would be needed, it's a necessary cost, since as you know, you were quite the handful. As from our previous encounter yesterday." He said and I glared at him. I was interested in the fact that they had enough electricity here to keep the place lit up so brightly, and being some to move things here and there so easily.

The man suddenly turned right as I glided past him. Turning right not too soon after and into another metal room with a single door. I felt dizzy for looking around while I was turned and restated around. The man inside must've noticed because his mouth curled up into a small smirk.

"Where am I? What are you going to do to me?" I demanded but after a few minutes of silence my anger started transitioning into dread. The new  man turned to me with a smirk.

"Talkative one aren't ya" he said moving around. "We'll I guess it's better than the screaming ones. So I'll answer your questions."

"You are nowhere and I'm going to turn you into something much better than you are currently. I can't tell you how though because you'll start to strain and scream and I'll have no choice but to knock you out. I don't want to knock you out; I want to see how you deal with the pain during the first process of the surgery. Helps me gauge how long you'll last." I was horrified. He was going to perform a surgery on me, while I was awake no less.

"Oh stop worrying so much," he said when he saw my expression, "only twenty other people have died during this experiment." That doesn't calm me down!

"Out of how many" I asked hesitantly and he replied immediately.

"Twenty one," so one survived!?

"Where's the twenty first?" I asked dreading the answer and he smiled as he looked at me

"You are the twenty first," he said, "stop being so tense, it's only going to make it hurt more than it already will. And it's going to be very painful. Oh and don't fall asleep on me okay. I can't give you any numbing agents, and I just want to see how you can tolerate the pain." Then came the first part of this torture.