Honor the Dead

by BinaryTroll

38: Breakout.

Honor the Dead
by BinaryTroll
Pre-read/Edited by Honored Service
Chapter 38: “Breakout.”

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

“The next day, experimentation began.” I looked down and hugged myself. “I remember every millisecond with perfect clarity. Every iota of agony. My anger, my desperation for blood. When Kathrine told me that I had entered hell, she wasn't lying.” I punched the floor. “Every day was some new fresh torture. They experimented with how strong I became by dropping a car on me. They experimented with how much pain I could endure by sticking my body in a pool of acid. They experimented with how fast and deeply I could heal.” I lifted my arm and showed the group. “It was very deeply. If anyone else had been through even half of what I went through, they would be covered in scars, burns and general disfigurement. Me? No scars.” I sighed. “No physical ones at least.”
Shyv studied my arm, looking for any sign of previous abuse. She found none.“That's incredible.”

I grimaced. “Maybe. But here's the thing. The bloodrage tests increased a lot of my physical attributes. Including how sensitive I am.”

She thought for a second. “Wait, that means...”

I nodded. “Each and every single one of those tests were far more painful for me than anybody else. The other problem, my nerve endings don't dull after constant abuse. So it was consistently painful as well.”

Celestia shook her head slowly. “How could anyone of your captors live with themselves after causing that much pain?”

I grinned evilly. “None of them lived. None at all. It took me three years, but I hunted down and killed every single one of them.” At least, every one that they had on record.

---

The final experiment was placing me in complete isolation. I stayed in this state for close to a week.

I started to thirst for blood, but the only heartbeat I could hear was my own. Rage took me, I started screaming at the world. But my world was now tiny, just a little white cell. I turned the shank I had made on myself, and drank my own blood. It actually worked, and did not send me into a bloodrage. From that, I formed the hypothesis that certain types of blood would affect me in different ways. I was right. Sentient blood sends me into a bloodrage state. Non-sentient mammal blood has a reduced effect, but may make me highly thirsty or hungry. I'm not sure about reptile blood. Seafood just tastes disgusting.

Finally, three weeks since I had originally gone berserk, Kathrine entered the cell.

I looked up. “You took your damn time.”

“What?”

“I'm going crazy in here!” I showed her the scar on my arm. “I DRANK MY OWN FUCKING BLOOD!”

She shrank back slightly. “I saw that.”

I stood up. “I bet you fucking did! You cold bitch.” I said, venom dripping from my words.

“It's my job. I don't have a choice.”

“I miss my family.” I muttered pathetically. “At least they were there for me when I needed them.”

“What about when you ended up here in the first place?”

In an instant I had picked her up by the throat and choke-slammed her into the ground. “That was my fault! My mistake!” I stood up and placed a foot on her chest. “And now I'm going to fucking fix it!”

I took her card and keys before kicking her viciously in the head. My blood was boiling. I didn't even unlock the door, I just kicked it down with more force than should have been possible.

---

“How does that work?” Vi asked. “As far as I can tell, you don't usually have that much strength.”

“I don't.” I scratched my head. “It's a bit of a weird thing. My adrenal medulla was modified when they took out my brain, so the more angry I get, the more adrenaline I release. Thing is, My adrenaline is a bit different too, it makes the cells in my muscles take on far more oxygen than normal, as well as use more energy. That's normal, except my adrenaline allows far far far more energy and oxygen intake than other humans, and this is increased to an even greater degree during a bloodrage, at the expense of some of my higher cognitive processing."

My words were met with an entire room was full of confused faces.

I waved my hand. "Nevermind."

---

There were a pair of guards waiting for me outside. They took aim and fired.

The world stopped around me. The bullets hung in the air. I grinned and weaved my way around the frozen rounds. Everything returned to normal. The shots slammed into the wall behind me. I sprinted forward and kicked the first guard's gun out of his hands before following up with a spinning heel kick to his temple. He collapsed like a sack of potatoes, air escaping him for his final breath. I caught his body and lifted it, using it as a shield for the next volley. After the gunfire stopped, I threw the corpse forward into his friend, picked up the first guard's gun, which happened to be a M4, and fired a burst into the second.

I stood over the pair of corpses and my instincts took over. I stuck my hands in the blood and lifted it to my mouth.

Blood. Blood was what mattered. And there was plenty of it nearby. I let out an inhuman growl and sniffed. Two rooms across. Up stairs. Lots of blood. I ran towards the source, M4 by my side.

A door stood in my way. I lowered my shoulder and increased my speed. The door crumpled and sprang open. There was blood in this room. Not much, but it was there. Guards. With guns.

I snarled at them and pulled out the gun. Very useful, but not quite as satisfying as tearing off limbs. I squeezed the trigger and a burst fired, every shot hitting the first guard in the torso. Blood spattered the wall behind him and he fell, bleeding more of the wonderful redness. I aimed the gun at the other meatsack and pulled the trigger again. These shots cut through his head, spraying bits of gray matter and more lovely blood out across the offensively white wall.

But there was more, I could smell it. It was up. Out into the sun.

Stairs. I looked for the stairs. They were there, leading up. I ran up them, eager for more blood.

I paused. More guards. Familiar guards. AK-47 AK-74u. Familiar heartbeat. Familiar blood. I pulled out the M4 again. I must free the blood.

I charged into the room and clubbed the first guard with the M4. He went down with a huge dent in his head, but with a disappointingly small amount of blood. I wasn't going to use that sort of attack again. The second guard raised his gun to fire, but he was slow. I was not slow. I grabbed his AK-74u and turned it against him, poring an entire mag into his body and head.

That was far better. Blood sprayed out into the room, with much of it spraying out onto myself. It was beautifully warm.
I dropped the AK-74u and picked up the AK-47. It had more shots than the M4. More blood that could be spilled.

I rushed to the door, AK-47 in hand. This door was merely wooden. I kicked it, splintering the wood and making it crash open. A siren was going off in the hall behind me. I ignored it. There were more important things. Like the wealth of humans outside, each one carrying several pints of blood. There were other, smaller animals, but they were boring and hard to catch.

But first, I needed to get out of this garage. I tried the obvious way out, and started beating on the door. It was strong, too strong. I continued to wail on it, using the butt-stock of the AK-47 to prevent damage to my hands. Eventually, the stock cracked and splintered, leaving barely a dent in the door. I kicked it. Nothing happened.

My coherent mind was returning, slowly forcing back the bloodrage state. I clutched my head and moaned.

“Did I really just do that?” I looked up, confirming that I indeed was standing in front of the garage door, just centimeters away from freedom. I reached out and touched the dent. It was real. I looked down. There was the AK-47, complete with shattered stock. I picked it up again.

“What the hell am I going to do now?” I asked myself, looking around the room for a way out. Nothing except the garage door. Awkwardly holding the rather heavy assault rifle, I ran my hands along the walls, looking for a switch with which I could open the door with. After a minute I found a small key card reader, along with a keyhole much like one you would find in a door. I inserted the keys and tried turning them.

They keys sparked and gave me a light electric shock. I yelped in pain.“Fuck!” The keys were smoking a little, mirroring my fingers. I quickly stuck them in my mouth.

Then I remembered how Kathrine unlocked the cell. Card, then key. I'm an idiot. I swiped the card and inserted the key again. Thankfully I didn't get shocked again. I turned it in a full circle and it clicked quietly. I pulled out the key and the door slowly started to open. Way too slowly.

The alarm was still blaring in the background, now accompanied by a few faint shouts.

“Shit.” I swore, kneeling down and aiming the AK-47 at the doorway. The roller door continued it's slow progress behind me. The shouting was progressively getting louder. I tightened my grip and lined up the sights to the center of the door. No fancy headshots, shoot to kill.

“Subject is highly dangerous! Approach with caution! Weapons free, GO GO GO!” The sound of boots on metal rang up the staircase as the guards approached.

I gritted my teeth and closed my left eye, my entire world reduced to the ironsights and the doorway. No second thoughts now.

The first guard's head appeared, swiftly followed by his torso and legs. I squeezed the trigger and prayed to the universe that I would live.

---

“So then what?” Shyv asked, shifting slightly in anticipation.

“Then what?” I laughed. “I held down the trigger until the clip was empty and by then the door was open enough that I could leave.”
“That's it?”

I sighed. “That's it? Jesus Christ.” I threw my hands up in the air. “I know I'm a badass but come on! I was fifteen and still mostly human. And I'll tell you what, facing a gun is a lot scarier when you've seen firsthand what they can do.”

She looked a bit disheartened. “Maybe so, but I felt as though you were building up to something massive.”

I shrugged. “That's life. The craziest stuff happens with no warning.” I rolled my eyes. “What do you think this is? A tv show?”

“You're doing that again.”

“Doing what again.”

“Using words that I have no idea of what they mean.”

I sighed and conceded the point. “Fine, a book then. Although it'd make for a pretty shitty book.”

Luna shrugged. “Depends who's writing it.”

“Knowing my luck, it'd be some social reject with no talent in writing whatsoever.”

“Maybe not.” Shyvanna countered. “They might be a great writer, and make it all the more incredible.”

I blinked. “I guess, but still would probably be the first one.”

Vi groaned and slammed her hoof down. “Could you not get into a debate about some fictional possibility? There was a reason for you telling us this tale in the first place.”

Celestia and Luna raised their eyebrows but did not comment.

I held my hands up in defeat. “Alright, I'm sorry. I get off on tangents. Anyway, that's how I escaped. I don't really need to tell you the rest.”

“And why is that?” Luna asked.

I tried to shrug nonchalantly. “Not really important.”

“You are a really bad liar.” Celestia muttered after a short pause.

Fucksticks. “Either way, I'm not going to tell you, at least for now. This has brought back enough bad memories as it is.”

“I can appreciate that.” Celestia said, a bit more gently. “But you were the one who brought it up.”

I considered that. “True.”

Nobody spoke for the next few seconds.

Finally, Shyv got sick of the silence and piped up. “So you've told us that. Why? For what purpose? I didn't really learn much besides how you first reacted to the 'bloodrage' thing and that it increases adrenaline or something.”

I coughed. “Uh, yeah. Sorry.”

“What do you mean 'sorry'?” Shyv demanded.

“I kind of... got caught up in memory lane.”

“Then what was the point of telling us all that?” Vi muttered to herself.

“Filler.”

Celestia sighed. “Filler for what?”

“I dunno, time? Once again, sorry. I got a bit carried away. Point is, my bloodrage surgery has changed a lot about the way my body works, but at a price. Well, more than one price.” I sighed and placed my head in my hands. “I'm going to die soon.”

“What?”

“Remember how I said my body overclocks? It's to do with that. Every time I enter a bloodrage, it attacks the cells of my body. Well, attacks isn't the right word. More like burns out. A cell can only reproduce a certain number of times, and because everything in my body has to start moving so fast and conduct so much energy, it kills the cells. So they reproduce at roughly four times the normal rate.” I looked up at the group again. “That sticks after a bloodrage. My body is killing itself far faster than it should, meaning I have around ten years to live if I stay healthy and never enter another bloodrage.”

“Ten years is plenty of time.” Celestia said reassuringly.

I slammed my fist into the carpet, producing a less than satisfying thud. “Says you! You're immortal! You never have to worry about time running out! Watching the moments of your life tick away!” I slumped forward. “You don't know what it's like to know that you'll die and you can't stop it. You don't know what it's like to choose between a quick death knowing everyone you love will die, or a slow one with the chance that they'll live.” I stood up. “You haven't had to watch yourself slip in and out of madness.” I looked her directly in the eye. “You don't know what it's like to look at someone and see nothing but how their blood could be spilled.”

An arm wrapped around my back, a hand on my shoulder. “Dude, calm down. You know what happened last time you lost control in the middle of a city.”

I sighed and slumped again. “Yeah, sorry.” I looked back at the group, slowed my breathing and forced back the insanity.

“Try not to make me angry. Not good for my health. Literally. That probably lost me a month of my life.”

Shyv and Vi looked up at me in horror. Celestia showed less of a reaction and Luna's face was completely blank.

Joel let his hand slide of my shoulder and sighed. “Brand new world Wards, new universe even. We have a fresh start, so lets not waste time dwelling on the past, eh?”

I smiled a little. “You got a point.” I clapped and rubbed my hands together. “So, about those weapons.”

Comments

[Veo Skride]

Interesting... Now back to the main story line!

[Dubious]

Finally read this, and all I have to say is that the terrorists were copouts, don't know what that word means, and they didn't even genetically alter him to be physically stronger, or able to regenerate lost limbs, I also think negligible senescence would bypass the whole limited cellular replication thingie by having them able to replicate forever.

[BinaryTroll]

3939251
I'll get into why they are actually terrorists later, the whole genetic testing is a small part of a massive organization. When has he regenerated lost limbs? The accelerated healing, such as with the broken nose, is something else, once again I'll get into that later, and there was no negligible senescence to begin with. Humans age last I checked, not to mention that limited cellular reproduction isn't the only factor. Pushing muscles and bones past their limit can wear them out at incredible rates. Remember these are experiments and the scientists wouldn't even know all the answers, let alone Edward. The increase in strength is more tied to emotions, which, again, I'll get into later (hint: it's tied in with magic to a degree). The strength in anger/bloodrage is similar to hysterical strength as well, meaning (as mentioned earlier) it wears out the muscles much faster, decreasing time that the body can stay functional. If that isn't enough, the terrorist/scientists would have tried to keep Edward in captivity for quite some time, and over that time (since at the time he would have been going through puberty) they would have likely given protein supplements and similar medication to increase muscle mass and better take advantage of the bloodrage state.

Anything else?

[Dubious]

3943037 Noticing the fact that I said they DIDN'T modify him with those abilities? Also, Negligible senescence would fix the aging problem a fair bit, since senescence is what causes cells to age, hence negligible senescence allowing one to not age, or at least age remarkably slower than normal. Also I'm sure they could've made an artificial geneotype that would change the atomic make-up of a cell to include copper and gold for extra conductivity and energy handling. That is all, of course, provided that had any modicum of XCOM level funding.

[BinaryTroll]

3943071
Once again, experimenting. Edward was never going to be the final experiment, so they had hardly perfected the process. Negligible senescence is exactly a cakewalk to create in a human, but it probably would have been possible. But they didn't try to do it because, and I can't stress this enough, They had little to no idea what they were doing.That's why it turned out so badly for them. And no, they had nowhere near XCOM level funding.

[Dubious]

3943160 Very few organisations do. Me and my brother decided that one funding was equal to a million dollars, so if you get every country having satellite coverage, you can get upwards of two billion dollars a month funding in that game. Also, if they didn't know what they were doing, then why didn't they use wikipedia? Seriously, you can find some interesting things on there. Possibly how to make a completely obedient genetically modified super soldier.

[BinaryTroll]

3943207
They think Wikipedia is an unreliable source. Like every educational institution. Ever.

[Dubious]

3943265 But I found out about Wolf-Rayet stars on Wikipedia, how can it be unreliable?

[BinaryTroll]

3943269
Well, wikipedia is actually proven to be the most reliable and well written source of info on the net. I learned that from wikipedia.

[Dubious]

3943274 And Wikipedia is never wrong! *Sarcasm related explosion in the background*

[BinaryTroll]

3943277
Explosions can be related to sarcasm? Hey Wikipedia, hook me up!

Huh? Wikipedia doesn't have a page on that.

MY LIFE IS A LIE!

[Dubious]

3943316 It was my sarcas-o-meter exploding from a sarcasm overload.

[BinaryTroll]

3943324
I'd get one of those and use it as a grenade.

[Dubious]

3943330 There was only one in existence, and it just blew up.

[BinaryTroll]

3943332
Damn. I guess I'll just have to go back to boring old molotovs and sparkler bombs.

[Dubious]

3943345 You have run with those, I'll be using my magnesium phosphate and thermite bombs to melt cars and that.

[BinaryTroll]

3943411
Look, I live in Australia. Nobody knows what explosives are.

[marmou]

3943426
Yellow Highlighters, right?

[BinaryTroll]

3956995
Totally.

[Brother Uriel]

He's reminding me of the Blood Angels Chapter in Warhammer 40k, but they don't have the same thing as him, it's similar.
They have the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, the Red Thirst is basically what it implies... They drink the blood of they're enemies, but the Black Rage... It's bad... They literally go into what he has... The Bloodrage... But it never leaves them... And they turn insane... It's near impossible to control them, and all they crave is battle aand blood, they will mow through enemies with Bolters, Powerswords, Chainswords, and Bolt Pistols, if they lose they're weapons, they will start fighting with fists and teeth.
Orks... The beings who love battle more then anything... Ran in fear of them... Crawling over each other to just get away...
The ones who succumbed to the Black Rage are put into Death Company and sent into the most dangerous of missions... And if they survive... They're own Brothers have to kill them...

[BinaryTroll]

6099764
Trust me, I know quite a bit about Warhammer 40k. Used to actually play space marines myself. Did a bit with Blood Angels but mostly just the classic Ultramarines. Haven't touched it in years though. The bloodrage was somewhat inspired by the Blood Angels, but it's not exactly uncommon in other fiction as well.