I shivered as Jacob cracked open the warehouse door, peeking out slightly, before deciding to slam it open. I took his bluntness as a sign for me to follow in his footsteps out of the door. As he left behind the darkness and safety that the warehouse had provided, lights illuminated the compound forcing me to squint slightly. Even tho I spent at least ten or so minutes clearing out the warehouse and searching the crates, my eyes acted as if I had been trapped in a mine for years, and I was just now breaching the surface. I hated the feeling of my eyes watering. Jacob on the other hand, was unaffected by the transition, instead he embraced his new surroundings. Eyes wide open and looking down the massive opening in front of us, he motioned for me to follow behind him. Together we dashed towards another warehouse, slowing our pace as we approached the surface of it. Pressing my ear to the door, I once again listened for the slightest bit of sound that would hint human presence. My heart raced as I heard a coughing fit break the initial silence that I had heard from the warehouse. I looked back at Jacob and watched as he glared at me slightly, "Someone is inside. Should we find a different warehouse to take refuge in." I asked feeling uncomfortable being out in the open. Jacob's glare remained as he spoke to me, "Our destination requires us to go through here. As soon as we can clear out this room quickly and effectively we can plant the device and find Pure." Before I could even voice my discomfort and concern, Jacob began pushing open the door slightly, sticking his head in he surveyed the room. The roar of car engines coming down the street brought both of our heartbeats to a stop. Shoving him into the warehouse, I quickly slipped inside after him and laid low. I was beginning to think that our methods of clearing out these rooms was way too risky. Jacob scowled at me for pushing him into the room before he could finish surveying. Let him be mad, I thought. What laid in front of us was rows and rows of shipping containers labeled as medical supplies. Me and Jacob glanced a one another before slowly making our way past some of the boxes. The warehouse had most of its shipping supplies in the back of the room with the entrance, giving us an advantage of not being seen right away. Jacob was the first of us to break the silence of the room, slamming the back of his elbow against a shipping container while he tried to pull out his bow. Now it was my turn to scowl him for his recklessness. Finally pulling his bow free from his back, Jacob took the lead, bringing us towards the middle of the warehouse. Looking to where a single light beamed down in the middle , I watched as a man began pushing a large cart filled with medical supplies over to a nearby bed. The doctor, I presumed, began surfing through the cart only stopping when he wrapped his hands around a large saw. "Jackson, you should have tried harder to survive against those recruits. Maybe if you would have trained you wouldn't be spending your final moments here." The man laying on the bed, Jackson, had several bags of ice pressed against his bloodied right side. Sweat was visible on the mans forehead, but none of his other features could be detected, since they were covered in layers of blood. Jackson leaned his head back and glanced up at the light above, "Gusten, don't... don't let me die in a place like this...I have...a family and a job just like you..." Jackson began to beg quietly, his voice sounding dried up and flaky. Gusten rested the blade of the saw against the cart and began sawing away at it, testing its strength and sharpness. "You need to die, for the benefit of you and me. I will feel ten times better killing you myself, and you... you will no longer be in pain. Now Mr.Jackson," Gusten said, pulling back the covers from the bed revealing Jackson's mutilated right leg, "Where should I begin cutting to apply my serum? Here?" He said digging his saw just above Jackson's right kneecap. Jackson screamed in pain as the doctor sawed away at his leg. I felt my stomach churn at the sight of all of the blood coming out of his knee. Moving my eyes away from the scene I waited until I heard a gleeful Gusten begin talking again, "Now that the leg is completely severed its time to test my serum." I looked up to see Gusten holding a large glass full of green liquid. Tapping the sides of the glass, Gusten swished around the liquid. I moved my eyes to where Jackson's leg was left laying on the floor below him. Then I noticed all of the other dried blood on the floor. I felt my stomach turn again as I glanced at where the leg used to be connect. The saw had done a remarkable job of completely cutting through his flesh and bone, leaving nothing but a large bloody stump at the end of it. Perhaps it was one of the new high tech laser saws? I took a glance at Jacob to see his reaction to how fucked up this whole situation was. Jacob watched with a small grin on his face. Fear rushed throughout my body as I realized he was getting some sort of sick pleasure from this. Maybe he had a gore fetish. I tried to push past the image of him smiling and instead I continued watching Gusten flick at the side of the glass. "Its almost time Jackson. Are you ready to find out if this little concoction works or fails?" Jackson grunted out an inaudible response. Gusten did his best to look offended, "Well that's not very nice now is it? You can just tell people who want to help you to 'fuck off'.Very well, it is time for your procedure." Gusten placed the glass down and strapped on a second layer of gloves. Uncapping the top of the glass a wave of stench greater than the smell of rotting flesh immediately filled the air. I fought back against the urge to gag and hold my breath. I looked over to Jacob again to see if he would make a move to stop the doctor. To my discomfort, he continued to watch, eager to see the next move. Gusten took a small brown spoon and dipped it in the glass, making his best effort of only getting half of the spoon full. Moving to where the leg had been severed, Gusten dripped the green liquid slowly into Jackson's wound. Jackson released a crazed scream so loud that I ended up being happy that we were in a warehouse where most of the sound was isolated from the outside world. Unless you truly made the effort of pressing your ear to one of the doors like I did. I watched closely as Jackson's leg began to turn a green color that spread throughout his body. He began to shake, green foam coming out of his mouth as he did. I watched horrified as his transformation began, slowly turning him into a green lizard looking beast. "What the fuck..." I whispered to myself as I watched the process. By the time the process was done, Jackson was no longer recognizable as a human, he was also no longer alive. "Curses! The serum backfired and killed the patient. Or maybe it needs to be tested on younger people. Maybe children will get the job done...Yes...Yes I like that, then the serum can spread throughout their entire body." The crazed doctor began rambling to himself as he inject a large needle into the lumpy neck of Jackson. Pressing down on the syringe, the body of Jackson slowly began to turn red and disintegrate, leaving behind ashes of the man. The method was sick, but it got the job done. And at the end of the day, I guess that was all that mattered to the doctor. Gusten made his way over to a large sink and began rinsing his gloves off, making sure he got rid of all specs of dirt and green goop. Satisfied with his cleaning, he removed the gloves and made his way out of the warehouse, flicking off the lights on his way out. I held my breath for several moments, listening carefully to make sure he actually left. Jacob was the first out of the two of us to hop to his feet and make his way towards the center of the room. He seemed fixated on the green glass of liquid that was now sitting open on the cart of supplies. I guess Gusten had no use for it now that it proved to be a failure. I looked at the small pile of ashes and cursed under my breath. These monsters had been doing human testing for a long time now, it just amazed me that they did it on their own men. It seemed rather unnatural to me that Jackson was speaking to Gusten on a personal level as he begged for mercy.Part of me felt bad for the mans death, but the other part of me suspected he deserved it. Very few people worked with the Pure long enough to know employees on a personal level like Jackson did. Which left me with one guess. Jackson had been a bodyguard to someone extremely important. These thoughts tugged at my interest and I looked towards Jackson who was now surveying the room, "Do you think Jackson was somebody important?" I asked wondering what his opinion on the scene may have been. "Jackson was a bodyguard to Pure himself. Seems odd pure would have him killed instead of doing his best to give him medical attention. But from what I understand, Jackson must have lost favor with Pure and he was put against recruits so he could attempt to redeem himself. When he lost the battle, Pure sentenced him to death." Breaking off from the conversation, he began examining a spare laser saw on the wall. If I had never known that Jacob used to be with the Pure at some point, I would have assumed he was a member of them, with as much information as he knew about Jackson and the doctor. Jacob clicked his tongue once and signaled for me to come close to the door that Gusten had exited out of. I waited until Jacob had made his way out before following him. No more warehouses were seen to give us cover. Replaced by warehouses were platoons of the Pure's gun men, and they were facing our direction. By the time Jacob had called out for me to run, I was already taking off, turning to go back into the medical bay. Machine gun fire bounced off parts of the warehouse, some making its way through the metal barrier between us and them. Jacob tackled me into the ground and looked me in the eyes. "Get to the middle where we saw Pure at, plant the device down and set it off. Don't worry about running, just stay with it and keep a hand over it."  Jacob spoke fast and brought me up to my feet as the machine gun fire ceased. "Get out your pipe and don't forget about your power. I will stay back and distract them, now GO!" Jacob shoved me through the backdoor and I took off running. Groups of troops began flooding down small spaces to get behind the warehouses. As I dashed past the small openings, gun fire was left behind in my wake. I had never felt something so exhilarating before in my life. My legs shook with fear but my heart nearly jumped out of my chest with glee. This is where I belonged, amidst the battle. My glee suddenly drained away and was replaced with confusion as I approached towards a new warehouse that me and Jacob had not entered into before. Slamming into the warehouse door, I quickly made my way in and closed it behind me to hide all signs of my entry. Guards near the front of the warehouse began trailing towards the back to investigate the cause of the sound. Ducking behind a small metal cage, I glanced up to see how many guards were coming towards me. Two. When the two guards came within rage of me I bounded out of my hiding spot and caught one of the men in the throat with my metal pipe, and the other in the eye. I quickly felt the pulse of the fallen men to make sure they were alive. The last thing I needed was to feel guilty over the deaths of two guardsmen. I quickly examined the room and I was shocked with what was stored in here. Men, women, and children sat shackled in large cages. All kinds of ethnic groups sat pinned to the ground, many whispering to one another about my presence. Searching one of the guards, I retrieved a small pouch of keys and made my way in front of the cages. "If I let you go, you have to help me in return. Fair?" I questioned, doing my best to make eye contact with every person in the cages. There had to be at least two hundred people changed up. I was answer with murmurs from various spots in the crowd. "Fine I will just leave the keys here and go on my way..." The crowd erupted with several cries of promises to assist me in any way possible. "Very good. We out number these men ten to one. If we want to get out of here cooperation will have to be used. We will stay as a group and push towards the middle. If enemies are in front of us we will spread out and rush them. They can't shoot every single one of us now can they?" This time I was met with a question, rather than an answer, "Why don't we just push towards the exit instead?"  An older blonde haired man questioned me. I began to pat the back of my book bag, "I have a device that needs to be planted down. Once it is planted we can just walk out of here. You have to trust me." The crowd once again broke into murmurs, but got quiet faster than they did the first time. I took this as a sign that they were willing to cooperate. I quickly moved to the cages and began unlocking them one by one. As the people emerged, some of them rubbed their necks and began to stretch, while others found family members or friends to talk to. I began to tap my pipe on one of the cages to gather their attention. "File out of that door right there." I said pointing to the door in the front of the room. "Push for the middle." The people ran towards the door and stayed in line as they waited to get out. Luckily for me I was one of the first people out, so I had the privilege of skipping the waiting line. I did not however, get the privilege of skipping out on watching people die. Upon exiting the warehouse, several of the people began breaking off from the group and started running into different directions, only to be stopped in their tracks as they were gunned down. I made my way towards the middle of the group in an attempt to use the bodies surrounding me as body shields. Bullets flew all around us, hitting people to the left and right of me Guilt tugged at my heart as I thought more about how I used the people for my own needs. The blonde haired man was the next person to get shot down beside me. Part of me was thankful knowing he couldn't potential mess up my plans anymore. But thinking of him as a problem instead of a person began to tear away at my humanity. I had led these people out here for my own use, to use as body shields for myself.  I felt like I deserved to be put in the blonde mans shoes, I deserved to be shot down. Instead I was still running in the mass, watching more and more people die beside me. By the time we had reached the halfway point of our destination, I had at least fifty men and women beside me. The children were one of the first people to be killed off, mostly by stray bullets that moved too close towards the ground. I began directing groups of five to disarm and overpower guards. At least fifteen out of my fifty were armed to the teeth. The others would have to continue serving as shields for me. Pure hadn't shown up yet to deal with out forces which left me a little confused. He had to be aware by now of the situation at hand, was he just testing to see how far we could make it before we all died?  I tried to brush away dark thoughts like that, but the thing was I couldn't just shake it out. Of course the thought was quickly taken away as a large flash of light slammed down in front of the group. A flash bang. "Keep going." I shouted knowing nobody would be able to hear me over the ringing erupting in their ears.As color slowly seeped back into my vision I looked around me to see at least twenty men still standing, and even that number was slowly getting lower as they were picked off. Gunmen had us surround from all sides. Reaching down to the body next to me I lifted one of the machine guns up and I broke off from the group that had been surrounding me. The gunmen turned their attentions towards me and began to fire. I smiled to myself, time to show them my power. Bullets that were flying directly towards me, bent out of the way and instead zoomed past my head, or instead were bent towards the ground. Sliding down, I allowed machine gun fire to fly out of my gun and into their chests. It no longer mattered to me if they lived or died. Too many had already died by my actions. The gunmen looked confused as all of their bullets either missed me or bent itself out of my way. For once in my life, I was thankful that I had this gift. My power allowed me to be untouchable by any sort of projectiles. It would force the projectile coming towards me to bend out of my way, or fly straight into the sky. I continued firing the gun until all of the gunmen were now laying on the ground, slowly bleeding out. Turning to look at the group of people I had left behind, I was upset to see that they had not survived. I looked towards the warehouse that we had emerged from and I covered my mouth in horror at the sight of bodies leading all the way up here. The roar of engines caused me to resume making my way towards the middle. I couldn't comprehend what I had just done. A sixteen year old high school kid just led several people to their deaths. And the scary part about it its, I barely regretted doing it. Making a sharp turn behind a large shack I laid eyes on what I assumed was the middle of the compound. Several helicopters and cars were parked in the middle from where Pure had arrived. I dashed towards the middle and quickly unzipped my book bag. Placing the device on the ground I began tapping away at the small console at the top. Please let this work Jacob. The screen of the device began to glow blue, I took this as a sign of success. Within an instant I felt thousands of volts of electricity flow through me and immobilize me to the ground. "Waha-" I screamed looking at the device. The device continued shooting electricity into me until I could no longer feel my legs and my arms. I leaned back and looked into the sky above me. The only thought running through my mind was how the sunrise would be coming very soon. My hand slipped off of the device and slapped into the ground, pulling me out of my thoughts on the sky. A familiar kind of laughter rang out into the air. I didn't bother turning my head to see who it was, not that I could even turn my head anyways. A strong hand gripped my chin and pulled me to face the source of the laughter. It was Jacob. Pure stood a few paces behind Jacob watching. Light didn't radiate of of his armor like it typically did when he was around, I assumed that he wanted me to be able to see him. Jacob stretched his hand out and a yellow spear materialized into his hand. Electricity of some sort seemed to dance on the spears head. "Foolish Bryan. Are you really so desperate to accept anyone as a friend? For months I dealt with your pathetic gibbering on personal affairs and your school life. Why did I do that you may wonder? The answer is simple. I wanted to see if you had the gift inside of you." Jacob spoke calmly, looking me dead in the eye. My head began to pound in pain as a headache was slowly starting to emerge. "The domino's I set up months again have finally stopped falling. Today my friend, will mark the end of your miserable life. And it will birth the start of my rule, and my power. Pure has always been serving under me, he never killed off my family with drugs. Everything I told you was a fucking lie, including my name." The words stung deep into me, cutting away every memory I had made with him. "So..." I managed to squeeze out, "All of this...For power?" Jacob continued smiling, "It wasn't just this for power, it was a lot more than you could even imagine. I have claimed others in the past, but Gusten was not under my services at the time. Now that he works with me, we can extract your abilities and give them to me." My mind felt hazy and my body began to shake slightly. "J-J-Jacob..." I whispered out towards the stranger. "I told you that is not my name, but speak anyways." I felt tears in my eyes. Ever since I was young, I had nobody by my side. Family was always busy, and friends was just a goal for me to one day get. I was alone in this world until I met Jacob. He gave me a second chance at social interactions, and I grew to crave his presence. "I befriended you...I talked to you, I walked with you, I hung out with you, I made promises with you, I vowed to protect you, I stood by you, I lied for you, and I trusted you. And in return, you killed me. How does it feel...To betray a friend?" Tears now fell down my face. Jacob's expression changed into a small frown, "Don't you get it already? I was never your friend. I tolerated you so in the end I could reach my own agenda. You were a tool to my rise of power. Now its time to finish what I started." The electric spear moved closer towards my chest. "Do it then," I screamed, "Destroy what humanity you have left and kill me. Show me what it truly takes to fall so far." And he did.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

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Sorry about the color of the text and the font, I will have it changed by chapter 3.