Dog Food

Nothingness…

#0016 felt nothing

He could see nothing nor feel nothing.

Slowly, #0016 felt the cusp of his consciousness slowly regain itself. As he came to, he came to a realization.

Darkness

All he could see was a never-ending darkness that engulfed his entire body. While there was no light, he could still be aware of himself for some reason. It was as if his very soul's existence was actualized upon him, his very being resonating stronger than ever. This man floated in this vast Black Sea immobile, just floating on the surface, gazing upon the starless black void above him.

All he felt was an almost phantom pain around his body while he floated. His body felt heavy as if he was stuck in syrup, a syrup so thick he could not understand how he was floating and not just laying on a cold, syrupy floor.

He could not comprehend how long he had been floating or where he was. Time seemed to stretch to infinity as he was left to his thoughts. He recalled the events leading up to this and his life before all this…

He had no name, just a number.

#0016

This was the number given to him when they took him. #0016 did not know where he was nor who he was; his past was a blank, as if something had been stolen from him. All he knew was that he was taken, stuffed inside a white hospital gown, and put inside a cold, white room. The room was pure white, with a large, locked reinforced door and a rudimentary bed in the corner. Feeling the coarse fabric of the bed between his fingers, #0016 felt a brief shiver down his spine at the bleakness of his living situation.

Little did he know this would be his home for the foreseeable future. The room was dead silent, only accompanied by the sound of the fluorescent lights buzzing and #0016s breathing. 

Eventually, after an unknown amount of time, the reinforced doors gave a faint hissing noise, and creaking metal dominated the silent room. Suddenly, a group of masked individuals came in from the door like a flood. Each was dressed in lab coats and robes, making them look ambiguous and hard to distinguish. 

"Where am I?!" exclaimed #0016 as his breathing hitched. #0016 started to panic as his eyes darted across the large group of people wearing masks. He started backing up until he realized he couldn't anymore, as the small confines of the white room trapped him, sealing him to his fate.

"STAY AWAY!" He screamed as a group of larger individuals came from behind the scientist group and slowly approached him. They grabbed onto his limbs and restrained him while #0016 was kicking and screaming, pinning him to the ground. 

[POV: #0016]

'What is going on? What are they going to do to me?' These thoughts, among many others, ran through my head as I caught sight from the corner of my eye; one of those creepy masked bastards somehow pulled a giant syringe from who knows where and started to slowly walk towards me. His every step solidified my new reality like a nail getting hammered one step at a time.

"You get that away from me," I screamed as I tried to pry my limbs away from the vice-like grip they had on me. My eyes locked on the sheen of my captor's instrument, fearing the worst.

As the needle inched closer to my neck, the amount of dread I began to feel was ramping as my heart felt like it was gonna break out of my chest. 

I tried desperately to grab onto anything to prevent the approaching needle from reaching me and injecting me with chemicals from who knows where.

But in the end, it was futile as I felt the sharp pain in my neck begin to steal my consciousness away.

"You…" My eyes met where I thought their eyes were, covered by the apathetic mask threatening to burn a hole through his skull. "Ba-stards…"

Then, it all went black.

[POV: Third Person][After an unknown amount of time]

In a sterile white room sat a lone figure in an oversized chair that would not look out of place at a dentist's office. This figure was unmoving, almost like a corpse if it weren't for the faint breathing and the IV drip in his arm. The occasional beeping of equipment broke the silence that saturated the room.

#0016 drifted in and out of consciousness as his entire body felt like it was filled with lead. His body refused to listen to him as he struggled to lift his head. He realized he was sitting but could not see or move, no matter how much #0016 tried. He began to panic as his mind went into overdrive, his eyes darting around despite his shut eyelids, as the uncertainty of his situation dawned on him. His limbs were unresponsive, his eyes sealed shut; no matter how much he tried, he could not move a muscle. He tried to scream with all his might, but what came was nothing more than a slight sigh. He was a man trapped in his own body at the mercy of whatever the future had in store for him. 

This state stayed with him as time began to blur as if he were just a spectator in his own life. A life filled with a constant cycle of blood extractions and experiments that served to exhaust his already confused mind. During these "experiments," he felt a searing pain in his body as if he was losing a part of himself every time as if his very being was being severed constantly. Despite that, however, he felt surprisingly fine soon after, a miracle in his mind considering the pain he was feeling daily. As he was restrained, the hours started to blur and eventually became days; those days became weeks, and weeks became months. He only knew that a day had passed when they tossed his body onto the unfortunately familiar coarse fabric of that crappy bed. They kept him restrained and sedated for an uncountable number of days as the sands of time kept going without any regard for a single human suffering. The only thing keeping him sane was his own thoughts and the conversations between the masked men. 

"-ing well"

"-origin-"

"insufficient pr-"

"-the tower-"

"-forecasted-"

While he could not fully understand what they were saying, he tried to grasp any word he could to figure out his situation, focusing every ounce of his muddled senses on deciphering this predicament. This was incredibly difficult, as many of the words were blurry, leaving only a fraction of their true meaning revealed. This all changed one day when these conversations started to take on a more stressed tone. The atmosphere of his captors seemed chaotic compared to their ordinarily in-control nature.

"What are-"

"-of time"

"-calypse!"

"We ne-"

 In his daze, he could barely make out words but not make sense of the random word vomit bouncing around in his head. All he knew was that something big was happening and that these masked "bastards" were not having a good time. This was the only good bit of news he'd gotten in forever, and he could almost grin gleefully despite the impossibility due to the sedatives in his system.

Shortly after, #0016 felt the very ground start to shake. First, it was a slow, almost unnoticeable tremble that quickly started ramping up as he heard the panicked screaming of his captors, as well as hundreds of footsteps going in every direction. Then, as if time had stopped, an uneasy silence filled the air as a loud, ear-splitting deep roar caused the very earth to sunder as the surroundings of #0016 fell into chaos. Someone or something bumped into the stand holding the IV, keeping #0016 incapacitated, and with sharp pain, yanked the needle out of his arm, coating his arm with his blood. Despite the chaos and pain, #0016's mind was racing with possibilities as the smell of smoke started to permeate throughout the ransacked room.

Something was happening…

Something big

And this something was making #0016's captors have a 'very bad time.'

-

-

-

-

After what felt like an hour, the all-too-familiar dull sensation started to fade as #0016's body began to regain its movement as if he had just woken up from a long dream. 

Time, however, waited for no one as #0016 was slowly booting up like an ancient computer; the ground started to shake. A loud chime resonated throughout the land, accompanied by deafening booms, as if the earth was about to explode. The cold prison that #0016 became all too familiar with started to shatter as the restraining walls crumbled to reveal rays of moonlight. These large cement walls began to fall all around #0016, blanketing him in a cloud of his former prison.

~Unknown amount of time later~

What was once a beautiful vast city has been reduced to a pile of burning rubble. Signs of something massive had left irreparable scars across the land. Where there once stood a facility owned by a wealthy magus family, only a single figure stood. With his ashen, messy locks and ragged white gown, that figure stood silently and unmoving, his amber eyes still. Only the light of the full moon and the blazing ruins illuminated his figure. While he was crushed underneath a building's worth of rubble, you could not tell from looking at this lone figure. His skin, untouched as if he never stepped into the light of day, almost shone as it complimented the shining glow of the moon. That beautiful white moon, which held many mysteries, contrasted with the blood-red skies and the ruins surrounding #0016. This disaster made a particular grail war in Japan look like a mere campfire. As #0016 stood silently as the wind from the flames surrounding him ruffled his hair, a large clocktower standing tall in front of the full moon gave its final death throes before it suddenly collapsed, causing a blanket of dust to cover the land. #0016 was left gazing at where the tower once stood, dust coating his vision as the remains of the once mighty clock tower faded into the wind. #0016 felt his body lax as if a heavy burden was relieved, and the adrenaline from that chaotic escape faded. He just stood there under the starless sky, observing those mighty ruins as the dust settled until…

A spine-chilling presence hit #0016, and his entire body felt shocked as if his very being was screaming at him to run away. He was confused because he thought his captors were gone and the danger had passed until a bleak realization hit his eyes.

'What had caused this chaos anyway?' he thought about the origin behind his miraculous escape. 'Why were those masked men so scared?' dread slowly ramping.

Then, over in the distance, the dust began to fade, revealing a silhouette standing on top of the ruins of that once daunting clock tower. A majestic horned white beast with size rivaling a large oil tanker stood illuminated by that full white moon. Despite #0016's instincts screaming at him to run, hide, and do whatever he could to escape. He stood still, stunned at the raw beauty of the beast and the overwhelming presence that it demanded. Its white fur was caked in a blood red that almost seemed to glow in the almost serene night. Then, as the air shifted, it suddenly cranked its head and looked directly at where #0016 stood with hatred-filled eyes, letting out a bellowing roar that shook the heavens before it lunged across the barren city. #0016 only saw a white blur in the air before everything went silent.

-

-

-

After that…

Darkness, just plain darkness.

Eventually, he regained consciousness, but…

He was in that void, that infinite, incomprehensible void.

Accompanied only by the ominous sound of a clock ticking nonstop. 

Tick

Tick

Tick

As he was reflecting on the events that led to where he was, a sudden snap sound was heard. A sound like a grandfather clock had just lost its string reverberated throughout the black sea that #0016 was in. That constant sound of the clock ticking became erratic as if something had gone awry. #0016, in resignation, began to sink into the black sea, slowly descending to its depths. His thoughts started to slow as an encroaching darkness blanketed his consciousness.