Chapter 07 : Blue

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888

Two months later

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“Do you know why you are here, 888?"

Commander Joseph slowly swirled the whiskey in his glass. It was eight o’clock in the morning. I suppose it's always time for a drink. I kept my head lowered. My voice remained polite and steady. “No, sir.”

Commander Joseph lowered the glass and placed it on the desk. “You are leaving with the Blue Group. Your responsibility is to keep an eye on them. Take the necessary measures if need be.” I understood what necessary measures meant. If they become a problem, like if they try to escape.. eliminate them. Commander Joseph leaned back in his chair. “You have been training for over a month now, and surely, you have been showing considerable improvement. I take it you won't let the Reestablishment down?”

I looked up slightly. “Yes, sir.” I had trained for one month straight. Even when my body was sick to its core. Even when I could barely stand. Vomiting every night , I was still forced to train. The doctors kept me on heavy medication throughout that month. They said my body couldn't handle the pressure they were putting it under.

Every night, they gave me some sort of liquid injections. I remembered the sensation more than the medication itself.

The liquid would enter my veins, and within moments, it would feel as though they were swelling beneath my skin. As if they might burst. During the first two weeks, I blacked out constantly. One moment, I would be training. Next, I would wake up in the clinic.

Again.

And again.

And again.

During the following two weeks, my body slowly learned to tolerate the pain. Eventually, the worst of it disappeared.

The headaches didn't. Sometimes they became so severe that I felt myself slipping toward unconsciousness. But I learned to endure those too. Pain is temporary. Obedience is permanent. The training had changed me.

My strength.

My stamina.

My reflexes.

Everything seemed different. Sometimes I barely recognized what my body could do.

I had broken so many doorknobs that I genuinely wondered if they were eventually going to replace my bedroom door with a sliding one. They never did. They simply kept replacing the doorknobs. I looked toward Commander Joseph again, careful not to meet his eyes for too long. Eye contact could be interpreted as disrespect.

“Yes, sir,” I repeated, this time more confidently. Commander Joseph studied me. His eyes moved across my face as though he were searching for something.

A crack. A weakness. A memory. Anything.

But apparently, he found nothing. “Have you still been having those headaches?”

“Yes, sir.” The answer came honestly. Something shifted across his face. Concern. And relief. Almost as though he hadn't expected me to answer truthfully. He leaned forward slightly. “Any signs of dreams? Anything at all that might seem... unknown?” My thoughts immediately went somewhere I didn't want them to.

The dreams.

The strange places.

The enormous creature.

The feeling of being trapped.

And one name.

A name that appeared again and again.

A name that felt like it belonged to me. But I couldn't understand why. Ian.

I pushed the thought away.

“No, sir.” Commander Joseph stared at me.

He tried to intimidate me. It didn't work. At least, I didn't think it did. After a few seconds, he dismissed me. I turned and left the room. The moment the door closed behind me, my thoughts returned to the assignment. The Blue Group. They were the group of prisoners being sent to the punishment ground. If hell existed, surely this was it. Every time I went there, something inside me told me to leave.

Sometimes, I did. I simply couldn't endure what I saw. But eventually, I adjusted.

Commander Joseph had made sure of that. He once forced me to watch two girls have their fingers chopped off because they refused to go outside to go get the ration . I remembered standing there. Watching. Not looking away. I didn't know what any of them had done. But they must have done something. They must have deserved whatever happened to them.

Commander Joseph is never wrong.

I repeated it silently. Commander Joseph is never wrong. I continued walking.

Soon, I reached the penitentiary. The prisoners were kept here before being taken below. I pulled the identification card from my pocket and scanned it against the access panel. The door unlocked. I stepped inside. “Get out.” One by one, they obeyed. Their faces were pale. Their clothes were worn. Their bodies looked exhausted. They walked as though they had already accepted death. As though death itself would be kinder than spending another second inside this place.

I led them toward the lift. Nobody spoke.

The doors closed. I pressed the button.

The lift began descending. Down. Further down. The deeper we went, the quieter everything became. Then the lift stopped.

The doors opened. And the punishment ground revealed itself. The prisoners froze.

Some of them instinctively stepped backward. One looked toward the lift as though desperately considering running back inside. But there was nowhere to run.

I watched them. For a moment, I wondered what awaited them. Then the thought disappeared. The doors behind us closed.

The real nightmare was only the beginning. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxf8MsRIgSL

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