The two continued down the narrow pole, Nyoka keeping her balance but having to take a break every now and then. They had been traveling for an estimated two hours, with no real way to tell time they simply had to guess. Nyoka was resting on the pole, legs wrapped around it to keep her from falling. She looked down at the prisoner dangling below her, a human male from the looks of it, and pondered “Wonder what he did to get sent here…” she then looked around herself at the countless prisoners dangling “What any of them did.”
“Murder, mostly.” Catherine spoke from within Nyoka’s head.
The cat’s ears perked up “How do you know?” she asked.
“Ah, never told you. When I kill someone and eat their brain, I can steal recent and strong memories from them, along with any skills I saw them use.”
“Oh, that’s uh… something.” Nyoka shivered “So what about the ones not here for murder?”
“Theft, fraud, and rape. Though some people are just…here? Been so long that they forgot or it’s the only thing they remember.”
All Nyoka could do was let a dry laugh out from her lips as she recalled why she was imprisoned in the first place “Just here? They can’t remember anything else?”
“Hrm, not quite.” Catherine spoke “It’s mainly the human males, they are just… blank? Barely any thoughts or identity. They have either been here so long they forgot everything else or, they never had anything to think about to begin with.”
Nyoka did find that strange, humans did take up a large chunk of the population, but they were not known for being thugs. She glanced at the presumably human male hanging below her, she couldn’t see their face to make sure but she glanced around. Now that Catherine pointed it out, there was a lot more human males then any other race hanging here, again, she was assuming because she couldn’t see their face to make sure there wasn’t a horn or beast ears. She stood up, and began walking down the pole.
“Still, with so many people here… I don’t remember seeing that many people in the prisoner log they gave me to pick from.” Catherine spoke, remembering the log of *fodder* she had to pick from for food, while big, had no where near as many names as there were people hanging here.
“Maybe not all of them are on death row?” Nyoka asked.
“Out of the 10 or so people I ate since we have been here, all of them remembered being sentenced to death row…ignoring the ones that don’t remember anything else…”
Nyoka stopped “You killed 10 people!?” She shouted
“Well, yeah. You were out for awhile and then there was the tests I had to do to see if I could even free you.”
“…Did you at least get any good skills out of it?” Nyoka sighed, putting too much thought into the lives of her fellow prisoners at this point would just give her a headache. This unreasonable slime… just be glad she decided to free her, for now.
“Were you listening to me earlier? I have to see them use the skill. People don’t think that hard about everything they do, they just do it naturally. However, if they used the skill recently, I can pick up on that when eating them, as I know what to look for.”
“But if all you need is the brain then, can’t you just take everything?”
“No, If they didn’t use it recently it’s like it isn’t even there once they are dead. It’s been very frustrating…thinking about all the skills and magic I missed.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Nyoka thought for a moment. It seemed very strange and arbitrary but how would she know, she wasn’t an expert on brains and memories. She certainly didn’t eat them. She glanced around at the countless prisoners again “It is weird that they didn’t care or notice you killing people in here, or our escape.”
“One thing I have noticed, and have been told, about the organization is that they like assumptions.”
“What do you mean?” Nyoka asked.
“Well, figure you somehow escaped your bindings and didn’t fall into the void…where would you go? We have been walking for awhile and haven’t seen an exit. Nor an end to this pole.”
Nyoka stopped, it was indeed strange. Surely after an hour or two of walking, even as slow as they have been, would of led to something. She looked to her left, seeing endless lines of poles with prisoners hanging, same on her right, behind, and above her, only below her did the endless poles stop but beyond that it was just a void. “Do you think…there is something below us?”
“There has to be, unless it just opens up to space…but all the machines fly off ahead of us when ever I emptied their containment.”
She carefully sat herself down on the pole, looking down the closest pole was a few meters down, and there were 3 rows to go down before they reached the void, “Think we should try heading down?” Nyoka asked, feeling something move up her throat she gagged, then found herself unable to breath for a moment as Catherine forced her way out of her body and moved to the top of her head.
“If you think that’s best” Catherine said, then enlarged herself, wrapping around the girl’s shoulders to form a pseudo backpack. “Aim for the nearest pole, I’ll catch it.”
Nyoka made a complicated face, unsure if she could trust her but shrugged. She lightly pushed herself off of the pole and let herself fall. After a few seconds of falling she felt herself be yanked up as Catherine had attached herself to the pole as she fell passed it. She looked down, 2 more poles to pass before the void.
“Ready for the next one?” Catherine asked
Nyoka nodded, feeling herself fall again and then be yanked up as Catherine caught the other pole. “Next.” She said, as they repeated the process and soon Nyoka found herself dangling over the void and her face paled, sweat running down her lower back “So uh, just realized… how are we going to land?” She asked, still unable to see the bottom.
“Eh, I’ll think of something.” Catherine said.
“Wait, that’s not reassuring at all! I changed my mind, pull me back up!” Nyoka yelled but was cruelly ignored as Catherine let go off the pole, sending her into free fall. Nyoka screamed, flailing around as she fell helplessly until she felt a slimy slap across her face.
“Calm down! It’s going to be harder to catch you if you are moving around so much, pay attention!”
Nyoka snapped back, shaking her head as she looked down, nothing but the black void stared back at her as she fell “I don’t see anything!” She screamed, but then a metal glint shined in the darkness “Wait, I see something.” She said, squinting her eyes she could make out they were approaching a giant metal ring. “wait…not just one…” Several giant rings circling floating next to each other that she only caught a glimpse of before her vision blurred, and she soon found herself rapidly approaching a familiar looking metal pole.
“Shit!” Catherine yelled, extending herself up in the air and fanning herself out, making an impromptu parachute and managing to slow their decent just enough for Nyoka to grab on to a pole.
Nyoka glanced down, the familiar sight of countless poles with prisoners hanging on them greeting her vision. “Well, now we know why we didn’t get anywhere in a few hours…” She breathed heavily, clutching the pole like her life depended on it.
“Cause there was nothing to get to, its just a giant circle.” Catherine said, reforming herself onto Nyoka’s back. “We need to rethink our strategy.”
Nyoka nodded, looking towards one of the containment cells holding a prisoner in place. “Maybe we catch a ride?”
“Only option now, Didn’t mention it because it probably leads to people and us getting caught but, its our only option now.” Catherine said.
Nyoka nodded again, looking to the nearest prisoner. “Guess that means you have to uh, free up some space.”
Catherine leaped off from Nyoka’s back, landing on the pole and slithering over to the nearest prisoner, before extending a slimy tentacle down. The prisoner struggled, screams could be heard from within their helmit before their body went limp. “If it makes you feel any better this one killed children.” She said, wrapping herself around the machine before it detached itself from the pole.
Nyoka watched the slime extend a tentacle around herself, and being pulled up into the air as the machine took off “Hope this works…” She mumbled, looking below to watch the pole get further and further away.