Chapter 2: Awakening
In a huge room containing hundreds of cultivation tanks several scientists used their tablets to check the condition of each cultivated child, separating the mature ones from the ones still growing and the ones still in need of adjustments.
The atmosphere was opressive and silent. No one talked, joked or made any sound aside from the sound of their own foot steps and fingers pressing of buttons.
This place was a factory of sin, a den of evil, a place where moral values had long been destroyed for the advancement of science and the birth of a solution.
Everyone inside knew what they were doing was wrong, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and because they knew what was coming later, they decided to sell their own souls and even their children's souls if this was the price necessary to keep humanity alive.
But while some people work in secrecy for a solution, others revolt due to their ignorance, destroying years of progress for their reckless views of justice.
Bang! Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang! Kaboom! Woo wee woo wee woo wee!
As the sounds of heavy weapons shooting are heard from distance, a sudden explosion turns on the security system making the entire room turn red by the alarm's red light.
The scientists look around not knowing what to do. Some decide to hide below their tables, others exit the room running toward the closest shelter while the security guards run to their defensive positions with rifles in their hands and worry in their eyes.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Other four loud explosions are heard from different directions, followed by the steps of people coming in and shots being fired.
The enemy arrives fast and the battle begins without a single word. The scientists who got out of the room are easily taken out, followed by many guards who were still on the move. The surviving guards retreat back to the room, positioning themselves behind the machines and tables while returning fire whenever they can. Bullets fly to all sides hitting everything between the two forces, and in a matter of seconds half the room had already been destroyed and hundreds of lives had been lost.
"...?"
Having fallen outside of the cultivation tank after it was broken broken, a 15 years old boy looks around with a confused face.
He doesn't recognize this place, these scientists nor these soldiers. His last memory was taking a beating from a drunk truck driver who had lost his job after running over a high-school student, then everything went black and he was suddenly here.
Ra ta ta ta ta ta ta! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hearing the sound of rifles and guns come from all sides, even an idiot could notice that place was a battlefield. Looking around, the boy noticed plenty of guards lying dead near him and, not wishing to be the next one to turn into a corpse, he kept his head down and waited instead of getting up for a better view of what was going on.
The situation was bad, the enemy was sealing the entrance and shooting nonstop on everything that moved. Most guards had been killed on the surprised attack and while there were still a few guards alive inside, it was just a matter of time before all of them ended up dead.
Obviously the boy didn't know all these by default, instead he had used his senses to read the situation. The multiple sources of shooting sounds comming from one direction, the lack of doors on the oposite direction, the sound of the soldiers shooting back and getting hit one by one and the cries of the scientists who seem to beg for their lives in an unknown language.
(What do I do? What do I do!?)
As the boy tried to make sense of the situation and think of a plan, the last guard was killed and the battle had ended. Noticing all resistence had been killed the enemy moved in to finish off any survivor.
(Should I surrender? Yeah, let's surrender! Even being treated as a prisoner is better than being dead, and who knows, maybe these are the good guys or if that's not the case, maybe I can still be ransomed later!)
The idea of surrendering entered him mind but just as he considered this option one scientist acted before him, screaming something in an unknown language and rising both arms in surrender, but as the enemy located him, ignoring his surrender, they took but a second to aim straight at his head and kill him in a single shot.
(Oh hell! They... They.... Killed him! Surrendering is not an option, I can only escape or fight back!)
Fight back? How could him to fight back? Mark was just a normal student, how could he fight back trained soldiers!? The simple thought was stupid, his chances of surviving would be close to zero, but the only exit door was being guarded by the enemy soldiers and all walls had no windows making escaping even more impossible, so his only the option left was to fight or just surrender his life.
(To surrender my life? No way! There is absolutely no way I will give up my life without at least try fighting back! You want my life? Fine, but let's see if you can pay the price first!)
After his experience with the drunk man the last thing he wanted to do to lose this life that he had somehow miraculously been able to steal from the jaws of death. So he clenched his fists and started to move.
Following his instinct, Mark crawled to one of the corpses and grabbed his gun while being careful to not expose himself outside the cover nor make any noise. Mark's heart started beating like crazy, while living in a peaceful society he played many shooting games but he had never touched a real gun before, much less shot at people.
(It's them or me, I got no other choice!)
With his hands trembling as he held the gun, Mark took a deep breath calming his nerves and waited for a chance hiding below one of the tables and using the dead guy's corpse as a shield.
Step step step step...
The enemy got closer and closer and the closer the enemy got the faster was Mark's heart beat.
On the moment the enemy passed by him he felt his heart stop, the World turned into slow motion as he rose up from the cover and aimed at back of the enemy soldiers head. Using all strength left on his hands while trying his best to not divert his aim he pulled the trigger!
Bang!
The trigger had been pulled, the first shot had been made. A direct hit in the back of the soldier head blew up his skull in a scene of gore and violence. One enemy had been eliminated but now all other four were aware of his presence and it took them just a second to react.
Scared and desperate, he's instincts felt the enemy aim, making him jump out of his cover that was a second later filled with bullets and then turning his body around he jumped again diagonaly to his right and back and shot the enemies while still plain flight.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four shots were made before he hit his back against the wall, making him drop the weapon and close his eyes in pain. Everything happened by instinct, it was his subconscious guiding his actions instead of his conscious mind, but even then he could remember each instant in slow motion, and as he opened his eyes he pissed himself upon seeing the end result, all four enemies had been shot in the head.
How did he do that? Was it a miracle? Was this all a dream? Was he a criminal now? Who were these guys?
A thousand questions bombarded his mind and his body trembled as he slowly got up from the floor. His back had been hurt, it was bleeding, but he felt no pain due to the crazy amount of adrenaline in his veins right now.
Mark didn't understand what was happening, it felt nostalgic but new at the same time. In his memories he was still a common high-school student but his body acted like he was a veteran soldier trained to kill in the blink of an eye.
He looked around scared while feeling his heart beats crazily pounding inside his chest and only at this time when everything was over he noticed his own body completely naked.
The feeling of shame arrived fast and he covered his body with his hands while looking for something to cover himself. Being unable to find any clothes lying around he conformed himself in putting on one of the clothes from the dead guards around him.
Taking out the clothes of the guard, the boy noticed the dead guard was just a young man, no older than 18. Shaking his head, he lamented for someone so young to die in this place. He put on the guard's clothes and covered the corpse with a scientist's robe.
"It's a bit dirty but this will have to do for now...Now, where am I?"
The boy looked around and saw the multiple cultivation tanks. Most of them were broken, but there were still plent of them intact, giving him an easy idea of what was going on, and as if this clues were not enough, the number of scientists corpses as well as the guards and soldiers were way more than he needed to tell the situation at a single glance.
"This seems like a research facility. They are growing....people? Maybe selling organs? Anyway, this must be highly illegal. Then these soldier arrived to clean the place... The police wouldn't act like this, and these guys also shouldnt be the army, but they look like soldiers so....Mercenaries? That much is obvious, and even if I'm a bit wrong I should be far from the truth but the real question is: What am I doing here?"
Taking a few steps toward one tank, some coughing sound attracted his attention, looking for he source of the sound he saw an injured scientist with his chest covered in blood.
"Hey, you! Who are you? Where is this place? Why am I here?"
The scientist looked at him with an odd look and talked in a language he didn't understand.
(Is he talking Chinese? No, maybe Russian? Damn, I have no idea what language he uses, and even if I knew I only know how to speak English! Fuck! This makes no sense at all. How the hell did I end up in a foreign country?)
The two kept speaking but both of them had no idea what each other wanted, they boy tried using gestures and mimic but nothing worked, as for the scientist, he seemed to want to give the boy instructions but the language barrier made all his effort be in vain, and before both could reach any understanding the last bits of strength from the scientist had been spent and his soul left his body.
"Damn! What do I do now?"
The sound of battle in the distance was urging him to get the hell out of there as fast as possible, but at the same time his mind denied doing this as going outside without any idea of what was going on was pretty dangerous.
"Maybe I can find someone else? This kind of place should have foreigners from all parts of the world, maybe I can find someone who can speak to me... No, this is quite risky, while those invaders are surely not my friends, the people on this base should not be friendly either, even more if they are trully dealing with organ traffic, in this case I would also end up dead!"
After reaching this conclusion the boy couldn't help but sigh.
"Whew....So, no to the invaders, no to the staff, all that's left are the victims like me, but will they even know anything at all?"
He looked at the cultivation talks where a teenager was floating in a half transparent green liquid. The air tube on his mouth let out little bubbles from time to time and his hair waved around as the bubbles passed by it.
"Are these kids even alive?"
All soldiers were dead. All scientists were dead. The naked kids lying around? Dead as well. The only people who could be alive were those kids on the cultivation tanks, so either he could try saving them or he could abandon them and try escaping by himself.
Step by step he approached the cultivation tank. He looked around and saw the computer linked to it. Unfortunately the computer's monitor had been shot, so he had no way to see anything.
(First let's find another monitor for this... Huh!?)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone