Hunter/Hunted

When I woke up, I look around and see that I am now in some kind of cell, "Shit, did they kidnap me?" I look down at myself and notice that I am in some kind of white uniform.

I walk over to the door and peer out of the bullet proof glass of the door, 'Am I in a prison?'

I see hundreds of cells just like mine, all filled with people. I turn around and lie down on the cushioned metal bench that is apparently a bed.

After sitting around for a few hours, I hear a buzzing sound outside my cell, which is followed by a click of the doors lock.

The door opens and two men enter the cell. I sit up and glare at them. One is dressed like a soldier and the other is dressed like a scientist.

"This is the subject?" The scientist asks the soldier, "Yes sir, she took down one of ours and almost killed another."

I suddenly remember something important, 'My scar!' I look at my arm and notice they removed the bandages, 'Shit!'

"Right then." The scientist grins, "Bring her to the lab, we start testing immediately."

The soldier nods and walks towards me reaching for my arm. I quickly stand up and punch them in the stomach, causing them to keel over. I grab their gun and immediately regret it as I feel an electric shock run through me.

I fall to the ground and writhe in pain as the electricity runs through my body.

"Silly girl. Don't you know all military firearms are genetically locked?" The scientist sneers, "Get up, and get her onto a stretcher."

The soldier gets back up slowly and glares at me before grabbing me under my arms and lifting me onto the stretcher outside my cell.

They tie me to the stretcher and cart me off towards what I'm going to assume is the lab.

We arrive at the lab and enter a confined room filled with all kinds of surgical equipment, and a table with multiple syringes of blood on it.

They move me to a metal table, with me struggling the whole time, and strap me to it, "Let's begin, shall we?" The scientist grabs a towel and stuffs it in my mouth, "Can't have you disturbing the test with your screaming, now, can we?"

I glare at the scientist as he grabs a syringe off of the table and walks over to me. He brings the needle to my scar and practically rams it in, "MMMF!"

He injects the blood into me and backs up, grabbing his notepad. After a few seconds I feel a familiar burning sensation, though instead of my whole body feeling like this, it's my eyes.

The sadist of a scientist is writing down everything as I sit here and suffer, I imagine.

Suddenly my vision starts to lose color, and the burning stops, "Interesting. The eyes changed color from yellow to grey."

I look over towards the scientist and see that he is glowing red. I look around the room and see other objects glowing red as well. The thing these objects have in common is that they emit heat.

"Let's move on!" The scientist starts before being interrupted by a panicked soldier, "Sir! The Bloody Rose are attacking!"

"Damnit! Just when I was getting to the good part." The scientist leaves the room hastily.

I look around the room and think to myself, 'How do I get out of here?'

I thrash about on the table, trying to free myself. I feel my breathing quicken and I enter that state I was in when I killed the cultist.

I try ripping my arm out of the strap and succeed. I use my newly freed arm to release the rest of my limbs.

I grab the towel out of my mouth and throw it to the floor, "Thats better." I look around for a way out and spot a vent, "Wish my vision would go back to normal." I go over to the vent and rip the vent off its hinges, "Do I have super strength or something?"

I dismiss that thought and crawl inside the vent. after what feels like hours of vent crawling like a creep, I find the armory. I kick open the vent hatch and climb out, "Luckily this place is empty, or I would be in serious trouble."

I look around and find a door leading to the storage room. Before I leave though I grab a pistol, which must be unclaimed because it didn't electrocute me, along with some ammo and a holster. I head into the storage room and look around for my stuff.

I eventually find it when suddenly my vision goes back to normal, "Weird, but not unwelcome." I grab my bag, knife, bow, and quiver full of arrows and look for a way out, I head back into the armory and grab a keycard.

I use the keycard to exit the armory, but not before checking my corners. I enter the walkway and slowly make my way to the garage. I duck behind a wall when a couple of guards run by. I guess I did something wrong, because my vision turned grey again and I can see peoples heat signatures.

'Does it go like this when I focus hard enough? And those burst of strength... What has happened to me, truly?' I walk by a cell and have to step back, "Opera?!" I whisper loudly, "Who are you?" Opera says quietly.

"It's me, Zara. Hold on a sec, I'll let you out." I take my keycard and swipe it through the scanner for the cell. A loud buzz sounds causing me to flinch a little as the door unlocks. I push open the door and see a surprised young woman in the cell wearing the same white uniform as me.

Opera has dark skin with curly, beige hair that is put up into two side afro puffs on both sides of her head. She has green eyes and is basically the opposite of me personality wise. She is incredibly smart for her young age though.

"Oh my god, it's you!" Opera squeals loudly, "Keep your voice down! I don't want the guards finding us." Opera quickly covers her mouth with both hands while smiling, "Always the quiet one, huh, Zara?"

I check the outside of the cell for any guards, "Not like I was the head scavenger and fighter for nothing." After making sure the coast was clear I take off my gun holster and give it to Opera, gun and all. She looks at me with surprise, "I was never any good with guns though. Thats more your thing."

I motion for her to follow me as she puts the holster on, "You didn't gene lock this?" Opera asks me while holding up the gun, "I didn't know how. Figured I'd take it in case I needed it." Opera puts her thumb on a button on the gun, "Scanning... New user detected, Opera Fox."

I look at Opera, then the gun, then back to Opera, "Of course you would know how to use it, why wouldn't you?" Opera giggles at that, "Alright, c'mon let's go."

I exit the cell with Opera and head down the walkway, "So, what happened to you? I know you didn't dye your hair or put colored contacts on." Opera asks me, "I'll explain when we get out of here."

"Alright..." Opera pouts, "Shhh! I hear someone up ahead." I take out my bow and nock an arrow before kneeling down." A guard turns a corner and sees us. Before he could yell out for help, he fell to the ground with and arrow sticking out of his head.

"Damn... Seeing you in action is awesome!" Opera comments, "I've had to deal with my fair share of bad people: Bandits and cultists." We continue after Opera unlocks the man's guns and takes them, along with the ammo, giving me the pistol and holster "Are you gonna do that with every guard I kill?"

"Probably." I sigh. I equip the holster and put my pistol in it, which I gene locked.

We go down the hall that the guard came down from. Suddenly the alarm goes off, "Escape alert! Escape alert!" I look at Opera, "I guess stealth is no longer an option, huh?" I put up my bow and grab my pistol, "Let's go!"

We run down the hall and look for anything that might tell us where an exit is. We turn a corner and see a large group of guards running towards us. Me and Opera take cover from the enemy fire and fire back.

After a while one of them throws a grenade which I grab and throw back, killing a few of the guards, "I think we found our exit!" Opera yells while firing, "Yeah, but we can't get past this many guards!"

Opera ducks and thinks for a moment, "Let's try the garage! I saw one while we were running!" Opera runs off and I follow her. After running for a few minutes, we reach the garage. I quickly swipe my keycard and run in with Opera running behind me.

"I don't know how to drive so you're taking the wheel." I say as grab the keys of off a nearby workbench. I turn towards Opera, who is practically drooling over the hover-jeep we're about to steal, "She's beautiful..." I grab Opera by the shoulders and shake her a bit, "Nows not the time to be admiring, now's the time to be driving!"

"R-right!" Opera snaps out of her stupor and grabs the keys from me. I get on the mounted gun while Opera gets in the driver's seat, "Let's go!" Opera squeals out.

We don't even open the shutter doors and just ram through them. I had to duck down to avoid getting hit, "Watch what you're doing! I almost got hit!" I yell to Opera, "Sorry, I'm having the time of my life!"

We barrel down the road, with me shooting anyone who came after us.

Just as we are about to reach the gate, a sniper shot rings out and I feel a sharp pain in my stomach, "FUCK!" I almost fall out of the gunner's seat due to the shock, "Zara! You, ok?!"

"I'll be fine! Just keep going!" I grit my teeth and pull out my pistol. I aim for the sniper that shot me and nail him in the head. I holster my gun as we reach the gates which must have been knocked down by the cultists earlier. I feel a warm liquid flow down my chin as we blitz by the entry post.

We enter the city and head towards the old settlement. By this point I'm starting to feel a little lightheaded. When we reach the old settlement Opera just drives right in, ignoring how abandoned it is. When we arrive, I collapse from the gunner's seat, my vision starting to turn black.

"Stay with me Zara! Stay with me!" I barely feel Opera pull me out of the vehicle and onto the ground, "You can't die on me yet, who else is supposed to help me get through all this?!"

I try talking, but all that comes out is blood as I cough it up. Damn... so this is how I go out, huh? At least I got Opera out of that shit hole.

With these thoughts I find myself blacking out.