When you catch a glimpse of a bunch of people wearing dark colors, it means that either you saw some ninjas, which can’t be true because you never see ninjas, or that some nefarious group is after you for some reason or another. It was quickly apparent that these were not ninjas. Fear overrode my pangs of hunger, and my brain began working overtime.
“Hey, Jenny?” My voice had become dead serious.
“Yeah Adam?”
“I think we should hide somewhere.Those people at the door don’t seem too friendly.”
“I totally agree, I believe we can hide downstairs somewhere, maybe even leave the house and hide in the woods because it is still pretty dark.”
“I think that, if we do flee, that we should at least take some stuff with us for communication purposes. I’ll go back and gather my stuff, you fall downstairs and I’ll meet you there.” I didn’t wait for a response and just went to go get my electronics. The phone’s uses were obvious, the laptop would allow for more global communication, and the 3DS was just tossed in for fun. Once that was all gathered up, I ran back downstairs, then into the basement.
“Should we hide in this area or run?”
“I believe we should run because who knows if they are looking for us, but it’s up to you if you want to hide.”
“Running sounds good, even if it won’t get us too far. Whoever’s there is probably smart enough to have someone watching the back. Still, it beats being an easy target. Ready?” I walked over to the back door, latch in my magic grip, but not moving.
“Let’s just hope nothing bad happens.”
“You probably just tempted fate. Either way, let’s go.” I silently opened the door before the two of us made a run for the woods, backpack of important stuff floating nearby as well. Before we were even halfway there, I heard gunshots or something similar behind us as some ground exploded around us. Looking back for a moment, I managed to catch sight of a group of government agents and what looked like a S.W.A.T. team. I now had no reason to doubt that they had someone watching us, and hoped that the woods would provide us with shelter.
After a bit of running, we found ourselves relatively deep in the woods, our dark colors helping us blend in with the shade the canopy provided. Once we were in a place where we couldn’t see the roads or any houses, we silently agreed to stop for a breather.
“What do you think that was?” I was clearly exhausted. Running and telekinetically carrying a backpack of stuff was not easy for me.
“This might sound like a crazy idea, but what if they want to capture and experiment on us like they do when they capture an alien in those alien movies?” While she did sound exhausted, she seemed to be in better condition than me.
“That sounds like a very reasonable idea considering all that’s going on. But why would they use live rounds? The best reason I can think of would be to shoot a leg of ours to make us easy prey.” A quick look-over revealed that no bullet wounds were present on either of us, but there were a few scratches from the occasional stick, nothing too big.
“That is weird that they used live rounds, but I believe it’s better off not knowing why.”
“I’ll agree for now because I can’t think up a good counter argument. I do propose that we go south, though. I believe one of the local lakes is there, and we could probably use the hydration.”
Jenny’s response was just a nod, and we made a silent agreement to walk carefully from there on and keep the chat down to a minimum. I also took a bit of time to figure out how to put my backpack on my back in order to cut down on the glow from my magic.
By my estimates, it took about an hour for us to get to where we could confirm the lake’s presence, and about 15-20 minutes more to figure out the best way to get to the edge where we could get a drink. The plan took a detour though when we spotted a water fountain, which we silently agreed to being a better choice.
We each looked around the area, just in case there was someone watching, waiting to capture or kill us. After a few minutes of each of us looking around and seeing nobody, we made our way over to the fountain. The brief distance we covered was not done with a casual trot or walk, but we dashed like the madmares we were.
Water is my preferred drink at everywhere, but something about being shot at, hiding in and navigating a forest, and looking around for signs of danger made it taste even better. I don’t know what ran through Jenny’s mind (it was most likely electrical pulses), but an audible sigh of satisfaction told me that she too enjoyed the refreshment.
“So, what should we do now?” I had visibly relaxed, but I was still looking around.
“I believe that we should push forward because we don’t know if they are still on our tails.”
In a moment of sheer brilliance, I looked at my tail and saw nothing on it. “Alright, but in which direction should we go?” Most of the area was surrounded by trees, but there was one road in that led to a parking lot. It was strangely empty.
“We should probably stick to the trees, because we don’t know what people will do if they saw us.”
“A good idea.” I looked at the foliage cover again. It all looked the same, so I pointed to a random area. “How about that way?”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”
After another minute or two of resting, we made our way towards the trees I had pointed to. We had barely made it 10 meters in before I felt something pierce my flank, which I’m sure elicited a weird look on my face if Jenny’s reaction was anything to go by before she too took on a similar expression. It wasn’t long before drowsiness overtook me, and it was at that moment that I realized what was in those darts: Jarate a tranquilizer. I stayed awake just long enough after falling over to see black boots approaching us. I heard something about a lab or something like that, but I was too tired to make out what was said. The last thing I remember was being picked up.
~~~Some unknown amount of time later~~~
I felt cramped, like something was pressing against me from all sides. My back felt empty and my flank was sore. But I don’t remember setting my backpack down or crawling plot first into whatever I was in now. I couldn’t hear much, but what I could hear sounded like a vehicle on pavement. A constant sound. Unless there was a pavement treadmill nearby, that meant I was in a moving vehicle. And it sounded like it was going fast. It took a bit more time for my eyes to get to work, but once I had gotten the lids to open, I realized that it was very dark. I did not like that at all.
I suddenly got the brilliant idea to attempt an illumination spell, but all it revealed was that whatever I was in had no slots in it and looked like metal. I couldn’t see outside of whatever I was in, and that included Jenny. A feeling of foreboding managed to find its way into my mind and set up a hotel there, and it turned out to be a very successful one. I decided to close my eyes again, seeing as there was nothing I could do at the moment.
~~~Less time later~~~
You know what they said in Inception about just having to move someone’s head enough to wake them up? Turns out that that was somewhat true. I could feel myself being moved very roughly for a bit, set down somewhere, and moved again, but more smoothly. I neither heard or saw anything; I could only feel what few vibrations came through whatever was holding me and changes in momentum.
After some time, I was lifted ag
in and set down on something else, but I didn’t move anywhere this time.
There was a sound akin to a hissing of steam and my eyes were assaulted by a bright light. Due to my legs still being pinned, squinting was my only option to cut down the brightness. Fortunately, whatever had enclosed me was loosening its grip and more light began to spill in. I managed to move a forelimb in front of my eyes as the constrictions vanished.
Once my eyes had time to sufficiently adjust, I saw that I was in some kind of metal chamber and that Jenny was nearby. After she had adjusted, I ran over and gave her a big hug.
“I don’t know. I’m just glad to see that you’re ok. But I think we got abducted. Foalnapped. Something like that.”
“Well, what are we supposed to do now?”
“Well, judging by the room, I’d say a test chamber of some kind. I’d love to say Aperture, but they don’t use metal panels.”
One of the panels slid up a bit and a four bowls slid in. Two had water in them, and the other two had some kind of food in them.
I looked at the bowls for a bit and started thinking. Some kind of police force, a tranquilizer dart, high speed on the road, somewhat rough transportation afterwards and a fancy metal chamber. I came up with only one conclusion: the government had abducted us and would probably run tests on us or keep us borderline forever unless something happened, which was not likely to happen anytime soon. I suddenly lost any appetite I might have had and broke down in tears. How would we get out of this situation?