⚠ ⚠ ⚠ This chapter contains content that may be disturbing or triggering to viewers such as blood, murder, self-harm, suicide and death!! If things like this bother you and you proceed, please do so with caution!!⚠ ⚠ ⚠

"The most beautiful people I've known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths."- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

(4 months later) Percy's POV

"Страстное желание."

"Проржавевший."

"Печь."

"Рассвет."

"Семнадцать."

"Доброкачественный."

"Девять."

"Возвращение домой."

"Один."

"Грузовой автомобиль."

I woke up once again. There were around 100 girls in front of me, all between the ages of 3 to 14.

"Готовы соблюдать." I said. Always ready to comply.

When I opened my eyes, I saw a young girl flinch back. She immediately tried to hide it, but the man who had said my words saw.

"PAB-24, Show them why they should never show fear to others." Word-Man ordered. I nodded and shot toward the girl. She looked to be 11, and I could see the fear in her eyes.

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I grabbed her and moved her so that she was doing a sort of back bend in my arms, her head visible to me. I quickly bent down and very discretely whispered, "I'm sorry." And snapped her neck. It all happened in a matter of around 6 seconds but none of the girls moved when it happened.

End ⚠

I straightened, and turned to the Word-Man. He, unlike some of the girls, looked indifferent to what had just happened.

He addressed the girls, "That is what happens when you show fear. You end up dead." He paused and looked out in a certain direction of the gathered girls. "Because one of you unfortunately attempted to leave our caring facility, we'll be doing something different today. All of you, follow me."

Understanding that I was part of the 'all of you', I followed as well, keeping my walk as that of an experienced soldier. I was one after all. I think...

All of us, myself, the Word-Man, and the 100 girls(give or take) boarded a helicopter which was clearly designed to only fit roughly 50 people. It was very cramped. I faintly felt that I shouldn't be in the air, but I ignored it for the most part.

The Word-Man looked over the girls and a cruel smile spread across his lips.

"Don't worry about the space, there will be a lot more of it on the way back." His words hung in the air and settled thickly around all of the girls. We all knew what it meant. I knew that I would be on the return ride, but the others seemed to be thinking over the words with dread.

The helicopter flew farther and farther and I saw some girls trying to suppress shivers. It must have been cold. When we finally landed, I saw that we were at the base of a mountain.

All of us got out and the girls formed into a crowd, huddled together to share warmth. The Word-Man brought me to be next to him.

"You must be wondering why we are here, yes? That is simple. You girls must make it to the other side of the mountain. The first 50 to make it to our camp will be taken back to the facility. PAB-24 will be going as well, but you all have a 2 hour head start. If PAB-24 catches you, you will be killed. If she does not, that will have meant that you are among the 50 going back."

His words fell down on them all with the force of a nuke. The girls looked around and some of them eyed the girls that they thought to be the weakest. The ones that wouldn't make it back.

"Your time for getting there starts... Now."

Some of the girls turned and sprinted off to the mountain, trying their hardest not to be in the group that I kill. Stupid. Other girls just stood there in shock. Stupid. Only a few of them walked toward the mountain, most likely to conserve energy on the way up. Smart.

One of the walkers in particular caught my eye. It was a brunette. One of the only ones in the group. All the other girls had red hair. But not this one. She looked to be no older than 3 or 4, the youngest in the whole group, and from the way she walked, I could tell that there was something on her mind. She's definitely smart for her young age.

If she survives, I'll keep an eye on her. I quickly decided. I really do hope she survives...

And then I felt the wind of the helicopter lifting up. It flew and left to what I would assume to be the camp at the other side of the mountain. And my inner timer began.

Two hours later, all the girls had already headed to the mountain, and it was begining to get dark. It didn't matter. I walked toward the mountain searching for any stragglers.

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When I was almost at the top of the mountain, I found a sight that didn't really surprise me. At least 60 dead girls. Some had died from the cold, some from injuries they had gotten on the way up, and some from a mixture of the two. But I knew my orders.

I went around to every girl and felt for a pulse. A few of them still had one, and those girls were the ones that I plugged* through the head, each bullet making a popping sound.(1930-40s slang: Plugged= Shoot a gun(usually at someone))

Pop and out goes another light. But with consistency, every girl I found alive, I would apologise to before killing, even if I know it will never be forgivable to end the life of a person, let alone a child.

Then something happened. A girl hidden in the bodies that I was checking at the moment popped up with a rock held tightly in hand and swung it as hard as she could at my face. I didn't react fast enough, having been caught by surprise.

The rock connected with my nose and I was stunned for a bit. I could feel blood start to flow from my nose. When I caught my bearings, she was gone. Snazzy*. I didn't want more innocent blood on my hands than I had too.(1930-40s slang: Snazzy= Very good)

I looked down though, and saw that my heater* had gotten knocked out of my hand and was a few bodies away. A hand twitched to the hea-gun, it belonged to a girl around 13 years old. I didn't react other than moving onto the next body to check if she was still alive.(1930-40s slang: Heater= Gun)

But a pop went off, and I looked back to the girl to find that she had taken the out presented to her. She could have been killed by me, or ran if she still had the strength, but instead she had taken my gun just so she could end it all quicker.

I went over to that girl and took the gun back, but when I checked the clip, it was empty. I only had 3 clips and that was the last one. I didn't expect so many of the girls I found to still be alive.

I had other matters to worry about though. The girl I checked back there was alive still. Only doing as ordered, I went back to her, picked her up, took a knife out of a sheath in my boot, and plunged it into her heart. She squeaked once, twitched twice, and went still. Blood started to slowly leak out of the wound and soak into the snow around us.

My orders were to kill any survivors immediately, if the heater hadn't been empty, I would have used it. It was quicker than stabbing them.

After 8 more survivors were down, I was done with the girls up here, and continued on to the top, knife in hand and covered in the blood of children. There had been 72 girls there, 59 that I had to kill, many of them under the age of 10. Only 13 of them were actually dead.

A small tear slipped out of my eye, but I quickly wiped it away and continued on. I only found 4 girls on my way down, and one of them was already dead, the jaws of death had already claimed her by use of hypothermia. The others I really didn't want to kill. The brunette girl from earlier was with them.

End ⚠

"You!" They all startled awake and turned toward the sound of my voice. The brunettes pies* quickly dilated with fear, but other than that, she showed no signs of being afraid. They other girls seemed almost ready to accept their fate, and they were very similar. Sisters. My mind decided.(1930-40s slang: Pies= Eyes)

My face softened and I felt weird, like this is how I'm supposed to have reacted when finding a little girl on the side of a snowy mountain. It was a small tug in the back of my head. But I knew I had orders!

I took a breath and made up my mind. "Go. I do not want to kill you, but I will. You have 5 minutes to get away." I said sternly, but hoping they would understand.

I felt broken and lost because they reminded me of something. A memory I think, but it didn't look like it was truly mine. I could see a blonde boy with blue pies, a boy that looked suspiciously like a younger version of Winter Soldier, and in a mirror in the corner, I could see what looked like a younger version of me with them huddled near an old fashioned stove. They were cold and shivering, no words were said. But the only difference between this and now was that the blonde boy, Little-Winter and Little-Not-Me were happily smiling as they shared each others warmth in what must have been a cold winter night. These girls weren't.

The brunette had a slightly relieved look on her face as she nodded, and got up and started dragging the other two older girls behind her in a jog down the slopes of the mountain. But I could tell from her look as she left, that she saw just how broken and lost I felt. I swear, little children are perfect at detecting if something is bullhonky* or not.(Running family substitute for cuss words: Bullhonky= Bullsh!t)

I snapped out of my Not-Memory and waited in the cold for a few minutes before continuing my hike down the mountain. When I made it to the bottom without encountering any more girls, I smiled inwardly. That means the brunette and the other two made it. It was now nearing roughly 2 AM by the height of the moon chariot when I made it to a little glow at the base of the mountain.

There were 27 girls around a fire, including the brunette and other two, and each girl shared a blanket with two others. They had food and semi hot drinks. Pretty good for girls who had just gotten done climbing and descending a mountain in a little under 9 hours.

"Ah! I see that you've joined us PAB-24. So there are no other girls coming then?" The Word-Man asked.

I just shook my head and showed him the knife as way of proving it. The blood had dried, but it still coated almost the entire blade.

"Good. And it seems you have come in contact with one of them as well." He gestured to his nose and I understood that he was referring to my bloody one. Like the blade, this blood had dried, but I hadn't felt the need to wipe it away before that had happened.

I just nodded and he smirked.

"We will set out to the facility at dawn. All of you get as much rest as you can before then. We go to training immediately when we get back." Word-Man addressed the remaining girls.

Those that weren't eating went into light doses, and those that were enjoyed the food. Word-Man went back to the helicopter and didn't come back out. I just stood there in a ready position for should something go wrong.

But my Not-Memories started to try and flood my mind. Only in flashes though. I got a few words here and there, but none were any that I could understand. The blonde boy and Little-Winter showed up in those memories a lot. They were dressed really old fashioned, matching up with what I could see them wearing in the Cold Stove memory.

It cemented an idea that maybe these memories were of a different time.

But there was also flashes of a blonde girl, a tanned brunette girl, an African-American girl with cinnamon hair, an Asian boy, a white boy who was blonde but definitely not the other blonde boy, and a latino boy. They didn't look nearly as old fashioned as the other memories but something about the memory told me it was around the same time.

Confuse!!

I forced myself out of the memories and went back to standing guard. I could see that it was getting lighter though. Dawn was almost here. We would leave soon.

And so I waited until I saw the sun start to appear, before going around and nudging the girls awake. By the time that was done and they were all up, the helicopter door opened and Word-Man came out opening the door wider.

"Collect all of the blankets, cups and plates. Then get on the helicopter. Any who aren't on it in 15 minutes will be left behind." And he went back into the helicopter.

15 minutes later, all 27 girls were on the helicopter along with the blankets and dishes. I got on last and shut the door right as we lifted up into the air. True to Word-Man's words earlier, the helicopter had much more room than the trip going to the mountain.

The ride back would be a rather long one, so with my knife in hand, I fell into a light dose, thoughts flooding my mind. Things would definitely not get better or safer for these girls, I knew that much.