Chapter 5 : The Colossus

In 3109's mind, the closest thing to a solution to his current predicament was to get as far away from the bars of the cell as possible and hide in the shadow of one of the sleeping prisoners with the hope that getting out of the field of vision of the colossus would make the latter forget about his existence...

It wasn't a full-fledge plan, that much was certain, but it was better than nothing, therefore, something 3109 could hold on to...

Unfortunately, when he tried to execute that plan, his body didn't comply.

3109 still had a bit of strength in him, his physical ability to do what he wanted to do here wasn't questioned...

The actual reasons why he was staying motionless were something else; fear to begin with, and, at an unconscious level, not really caring about what would happen if he didn't move.

Eventually, 3109 reached the point where moving would be pointless since the colossus was barely 15 feet away from the cell, a distance close enough for the latter to clearly distinguish his movements despite the surrounding obscurity...

At this very moment, 3109 totally gave up on the idea of dying with panache and fear took over everything else; no more plans, no more calculations, he just closed his eyes and started waiting for his end.

Hearing that the steps of the colossus kept getting closer and closer to the cell and by extension to him, 3109's body stiffened, then when he heard nothing anymore, it stiffened further because he understood that the colossus had just stopped in front of the cell and thus that not more than 10 feet were separating them right now.

The colossus who had remained silent until then finally talked, "Those bastards have no shortage of rapists and serial killers to work to death and yet they can't think of anything better than enslave kids." He said slowly, at low volume and definitely not in the language that was familiar to 3109, which made the latter conclude that the colossus wasn't speaking to him but that he was monologuing.

*SHRIK*

*SHRIK*

3109 suddenly heard two brief and deafening shrill noises similar to metal being twisted, it was hard to believe but given the situation and the gasps of shock from the prisoners who had just woken up he couldn't come to any deduction other than that somehow the colossus had twisted two bars of the cell...

This realization further encouraged 3109 not to open his eyes and he stuck to this resolution until he felt huge fingers touch his collar...

When he reopened his eyes, the darkness only allowed him to distinguish the figure of a man with one knee on the ground who was in the process of doing something to his collar.

The movement of the fingers of the colossus stopped and his head straightened, "You finally realized that I'm not here to hurt you?" He asked in the language 3109 was familiar with, with a voice that was both deep and monotone.

3109 blinked in incomprehension; the colossus had a strong accent, the words he had just used weren't words that 3109 was hearing every day and the prisoners were getting noisy, so the meaning of the sentence eluded him.

The colossus sighed because of the lack of response, "My accent is crappier than I thought or is it that you don't understand russian because nobody thought it was worth teaching you?" He asked with a hint of scorn in his tone which didn't seem to be directed toward 3109, before releasing the collar and standing up on his two legs...

"Both options?" He joked in response to the prolonged silence of 3109.

3109 continued to stare at the colossus with an expression which was both fearful and confused...

As for the latter, he shook his head as if he was disappointed that 3109 didn't laugh at his joke, "Whatever, we will figure that out later." He said before extending his right hand towards 3109 with an unclear intent.

3109 had a movement of recoil, immediately assuming that the gesture of the colossus was bound to be hostile since he wasn't used to anything else and that until then he had understood nothing of what the colossus had said to him.

"There is no need to freak out." The colossus attempted to reassure 3109 with a flat tone as the red orb of the collar of the latter lit up briefly without notice.

In panic, 3109 hurriedly placed his hands on the orb and when he confirmed that it was lightly pulsating, he winced in anticipation of an intense pain, which was with instant death one of the two expected results following the activation of a collar.

A few seconds passed and 3109 still felt no pain, so he reached for his collar again to realize that the orb was no longer there.

It didn't take much thought for 3109 to come to the conclusion that it was the colossus who was behind this phenomenom and if there was still a shadow of a doubt, it was crushed when 3109 saw that the orb had somehow appeared in the right hand of the latter.

3109's eyes widened, the anxiety of the moment had prevented him from asking himself why the colossus was here and how the latter had managed to bend the bars of the cell, but now that he witnessed yet another example of how strange and out of place the colossus seemed to be, these two questions came to mind along with many others and among them, if there was one thing 3109 was especially curious about, it was why the colossus was acting like that with him...

The concepts of altruism and compassion were completely foreign to 3109 and he was certain that he didn't possess anything that the colossus could want so he simply couldn't understand the latter's motivations.

The colossus raised his head slightly and snorted with disdain, his behavior worried 3109 at first because he thought he was the object of his contempt, but he was relieved to understand by looking around him that it had nothing to do with him.