“Woof, woof!”

I was snapped awake from my memories by a loud barking sound. I turned around and noticed that there was a stray dog staring intensely at me and barking loudly. I seem to have entered the territory of the beast. It was barking wildly at me, as if as it was telling me to get lost.

Whoa chill there dog, I’m not here to invade your territory. I raised my hands and backed away slowly, signaling to the dog that I was not an enemy. The further I backed away, the softer the barks got.

“Good, good.” I muttered to myself.

I wasn’t afraid of the dog. In fact, even in my hypothermic state right now, I was confident I could defeat it. This is due to the fact that my body had been enhanced countless of times due to repeated enhancement surgeries and experimentations. I was more afraid of the commotion it was making. It could unintentionally alert my pursuers of my location and I will be hunted down and killed like a beast. The guards were armed with state of the art weaponry, designed to take down enhanced humans like me.

When I finally made my way out of the dog’s territory, I was no longer in the alleyway and was out in the open.

“Sir, We located No. 167. Initiating recovery of stolen memory crystal right now.”

I turned around and saw that there were a couple of guards approaching me. They must have been alerted by the commotion caused by the dog.

Dammit.

I immediately turned tail and began running. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, ignoring the searing pain on my thighs due to overexerting my muscles. Gunshots were occasionally heard but non of the bullets seem to hit me. Thank god for the snow for lowering the enemies’ visibility.

I ran and ran, not daring to look back. However, I was visibly slowing down. My limbs were numb due to frostbite and my body temperature was rapidly decreasing due to hypothermia. Furthermore, the falling snow now felt like icy needles piercing my body, further weakening my body. A normal human would have either collapsed or died by now.

I could hear my pursuers closing in on me.

Looking ahead, I could see that there was one last stretch of road. At the end of the road, it was a dead end. Anything further than that was just a vast, desolate sea.  I didn’t take me long to become cornered by my pursuers.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Shit.

“No. 167, this is the end of the line for you. Give us the crystal and we might just spare your life.”

Spare? Spare my life? I nearly laughed out loud. I highly doubt they would spare my life, especially after I killed most of their comrades.

 “I would rather die than give you the crystal, you shit-heads.” I sneered, spitting out my words.

Hearing my answer, the leader of the guards seethed with fury and aimed the gun right at my temple.

“I give you one last chance,” he snarled. “Give us the crystal and you might just live to see another day. Even if you don’t, we can just take it by force”

I looked at the gun, attempting to put on a false bravado, but was given away by my trembling legs. No, they we not trembling because I was cold, it was trembling because I was afraid. Even though I had been enhanced by numerous enhancement surgeries and experimentations during my time in the facility, deep down I was still a human - a human who could feel fear. I somehow managed to retain my humanity despite being altered to something more similar to a monster.The fear of dying creeped towards my throat as I eyed the gun barrel.

However, I was true when I said that I would rather die than give them the crystal. The reason why the facility was so desperate to retrieve the stolen crystal was because the crystal acted as a storage device, capable of storing much more information than a supercomputer. Even though there were multiple crystals in the facility, the loss of a crystal equates to the loss of a few years worth of information, something the facility cannot afford, since the loss of data halted the progress of their research.

I decided to take my life along with the crystal. Even if I gave them the crystal like they wanted, I will most likely be killed. At least this way I would be able to cause the facility some damage. Looking at the raging sea behind me, I jumped, taking the crystal with me.

I landed in the water, creating a loud splash. The swirling current tossed me like a rag doll. The icy cold water numbed my limbs, sapping away my remaining energy. At first, my body instinctively caused me to hold my breath. After a while, I began to inhale some water. I spluttered and coughed, causing me to inhale even more water. I was drowning. As the water entered my lungs, piercing pain shot though my body. The feeling of tearing and a burning sensation was felt as the water went down into the airway, causing me to writhe in agony. I desperately tried to swim up, my arms weakly grasping, as if trying to climb a non-existent ladder from the sea but soon lacked the energy to continue doing so. The lack of oxygen made me dizzy and caused my brain to slip out of consciousness. My vision blurred and the surroundings dimmed to almost black. The pain of drowning was much worse than the pain I experienced when I was experimented on.

Desperate for a way to escape my suffering, I raised the crystal which I somehow miraculously managed to hold onto. Using the miniscule amount of energy I had left, I plunged the crystal deep into my chest where the heart was located. The crystal easily cut through my flesh, piercing my heart.

Blood splurted out of the wound, causing the surrounding water to be dyed red. I let out one last cry of pain before my vision completely blacked out.

I died.