Cold metal tightly restrains my wrists. A bright light flicked on, blinding me. The air was cold against my bare skin. I struggled in vain against my bonds.

                I could hear movement, but my mind was in a dull state of mind. I couldn’t think right. There was something…off.

                A dull hum started up in my left ear.

                My eyes adjusted to the light slowly.

                The sound in my ear rose a pitch, and then another. Another, and another. It rose note by note, higher and higher.

                My mouth hung open as I sucked in air as quickly as I could. Why was I so exhausted?

                My body sent out an involuntary jerk when the pitch increased more. I cringed away from the now shrill noise.

                Sweat formed along my hair line. I could feel the cool lines trickle down my face and drip off onto the metal table I was strapped to. My breathing increased.

                The noise rose another note causing me to flinch away even more. My head started to jerk back and forth rapidly.

                The thought of fingernails scratching down a chalkboard entered my mind. It was the only comparison to the noise I could think of.

                It rose again.

                I gritted my teeth as my body began to twitch and shake. It took all my will to hold myself still and try to drown out the noise with my own thoughts.

                But with the next note, it seemed impossible.

                My face was twisted in pain, breathing coming in rasps now. The sweat that had once only decorated my face now seeped out of pores all along my body. I could feel it trickling along my skin as I jerked against the restraints. The metal braces pinched my skin, but I could feel myself losing control over my actions. I jerked my head from side to side to try to escape from the shrillness. My jaw hurt from clamping my mouth shut tightly.

                I could feel something slide over the top of my body. A weight pressed down on my chest, squeezing my ribcage tightly. It helped to lessen my jerks, but I had the feeling that wasn’t its only intention.

                The weight began to increase with the pitch of the noise.

                 What was going on?

                One more pitch and I let out a scream to match the shrill of the noise in my ear.

                “Stop! Stop! Make it stop!”

                I didn’t know who I was calling out to, but they weren’t stopping.

                “Please! I’m begging!”

                It hurt.

                It hurt so much.

                The noise forced me to lose control over all functions of my body. The pressure was preventing me from breathing correctly.            

                “Please! Make it stop!—”

“Get up.”

                Nothing but a low whisper in my ear, and I was awake. I struggled up in my bed, cautious of the low ceiling. My eyes took a few minutes to adjust.

                The terrors of the dream lingered on me for a few seconds. I took a moment to calm myself down. My heartbeat had sped up in my sleep to one that competed with what I had dreamt. I ran a hand through damp hair, surprised by my body’s response to the nightmare.

                All around me I could hear just the softest of footsteps, just the softest whispering, just the softest movement about. The line of moonlight falling in through the crack under the door was the only source of light. Eventually, I managed to make out the silhouettes of my friends.

                I slipped off the bed, landing on to the floor.

                The figure closest to me froze.

                “Keep it down.” Nat hissed at me.

                The three figures stopped whatever they were doing. The sound of metal shifting pierced through the silence. I cringed slightly at the nose, but no one around seemed to notice. At least no one that would respond negatively.

                Nat grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the door.

                The air was cool against my skin as we left. The empty row seemed intimidating standing in the middle of it, but the other three didn’t seem to care. They hurried along the rocky path with swiftness I would never achieve.

                Nat looked over his shoulder once at me. I was in the back, but not by far.

                As we hurried along, I heard other footsteps join us. A few dark bodies followed behind in our pace. I wasn’t sure how many were behind me. I managed to join back with the three roommates of mine in the lead.

                We passed the Mess Hall, which made me curious as to our destination.

                A small brown hut loomed into view to answer my question.

                Nat slowed the ground down to a walk. I took the opportunity to glance around at who had joined us. I didn’t recognize many faces, though the few that I did I realized had been a part of the clandestine meetings.

                Jacob met my eye next to me, shaking his head at my open mouth. I closed it, and decided to save my question for later.

                The hut wasn’t as small as I had originally thought. I realized it was much wider than it looked from the angle we had approached.

                As we encroached on the quiet building, I noticed that Nat had begun to distribute objects between those that joined us. All around me could hear others doing the same.

                He came up to me, slipping a fork into my hand.

                The fork was disfigured. The two end prongs were bent backwards so that the pointed away from me when held correctly. The middle two prongs were curled just slightly at the end. The odd shape must’ve taken time to create.

                I started at it with curiosity, but made no move to talk.

                I could feel the tension thick in the air.

                What was going on?

                Nat approached the front of the group, standing next to a vaguely familiar man. I didn’t waste time trying to remember why he was familiar.

                They both seemed to talk to the group with their eyes, delivering a message unbeknownst to me.

                And suddenly…

                Everyone sprang to life.

                The mob charged in to the small hut. All that was needed was O Fortuna playing in the background.

                I froze in my place, surprised by the randomness of that thought.

                Nat grabbed my wrist, pulling me back into reality.

                He gave me a sharp look and kept me in pace with the rest of the rebels as they silently stormed into the shack.

                It was too dark to make out much more than the people next to me. All around me, I could hear the clanging of silverware, voices rising up amidst the darkness. It disoriented me, but Nat’s grip on my wrist kept me focused.

                “Get rid of your fork.” He growled in my ear. “Now.”

                Instinctively, I ground my fork into the ground next to me. I hoped that he couldn’t see my actions to help me reframe from excessive embarrassment.

                In the little light, I could see Nat smashing the heel of hit foot into some work of machinery, letting out a loud grunt in the process.

                Someone shoved me from behind into a box. I felt the palm of my hand slide through one of the fragile facets.

                Nat squeezed my wrist, “That a girl.”

                ~*~

                “That was amazing.” I whispered softly as we walked back nearly two hours later. Nat stood next to me, thumbs hanging off the waistband of his pants. He started ahead, listening while I recounted every event that had taken place.

                Once I had discarded my silverware, all thoughts in my mind revolved around destruction of the institute we encroached. That seemed to be all anyone could think of. Metal was thrown into the air only to be beaten down by another. Lights sparked everywhere as various things were beaten with each other.

                Adrenaline pulsed through my every vein as I acted out in pure violence on the building which I still knew very little about.

                As we walked back slowly, I could feel the after effects of my activity settling in. Yet, I couldn’t believe what had taken place only minutes ago.

                “Did you organize that?” I asked, but like the inner child I was, I didn’t wait for an answer, “Can we do that again? That was amazing—why did we do that? Who was the guy next to you? Did you see when I broke my splint punching that thing?”

                He rolled his eyes, putting a finger to his lips, “Hush down.”

                “Sorry, sorry.” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, “That was just amazing.”

                He gave me a half smile.

                “Why did we do that?” Looking up at him, I felt as if I were nothing but a child asking her father the simplest of questions.

                “To show our rebellion.”

                “Won’t they catch us?”

                “Not that many. We had nearly four hundred join us this evening.”

                I raised an eyebrow skeptically, “Four hundred people couldn’t have fit in that building. It wasn’t that big.”

                “That’s the best part.” He grinned proudly, glancing over his shoulder at the empty road behind us. “We had four hundred people helping us on four different factories.”

                I gave a confused look.

                “We hit the Packaging Hole up tonight. Another hundred hit the Cutters, another hit the Stripping Shop, and one hit the Planters.”

                My ears perked up at the name of our work. “What’re we going to do tomorrow?”

                “We’ll find out.”

                “Wow…” I took a moment to appreciate the event. Four hundred people had come from their cabins in secrecy to vandalize four different factories. The organization required for such an event was amazing.

                “What was the fork for?”

                “It’s… uh…” He thought for a moment. “It’s kind of our symbol.”

                “It’s a weird symbol.”

                He scowled at me.

                I shrugged, looking back down at the ground.

                Lapsing back into a comfortable silence, Nat and I walked the rest of the way down the row of cabins. Without warning, he made a sharp right, crossing in front of me. I stumbled, but quickly turned to his direction, following.

                He rolled his eyes, but slowed his pace some for me to catch up.

                “Thanks for not leaving me.”

                “You wouldn’t know how to get to the cabin.”

                “I mean earlier.”

                “Oh.” He was silent for a moment, “Yeah.”

                “You’re really not so bad sometimes.” I gave a playful smile.

                He ignored it.

                I sighed, rubbing my eyes. An unwanted yawn escaped my lips, and I fruitlessly tried to conceal it. Nat rolled his eyes.

                His next choice of words surprised me.

                “You’ve been having a lot of nightmares lately.”

                “I… Yeah, I know.”

                “What’re they about?”

                I bit my lip, “Uh… Tests. Experiments.”

                “The ones you got when you came here?”

                I shrugged, “I guess so. I don’t really know.”

                He nodded, “They’ll pass eventually. Some of them can be really traumatizing.”

                “Especially the noise one.”  I shuddered at the memory.

                He gave me a curious look.

                “You know, they played a really high pitched sound that pretty much made you spazz and foam at the mouth?”

                My heartbeat quickened at his confusion.

                “I…”

                “That’s interesting.”

                “Do you know what I’m talking about?”

                He stopped, pausing to stare at me. I glanced around nervously, already expecting the negative answer he affirmed.

                I bit my lip, “I really don’t know how to explain it. They kept playing this annoying pitch in my ear, and I felt like I lost control over everything. It… It really scared me. I uh… I don’t know, I’m sorry, I’ll just shut up.”

                He didn’t stop my rambling. Nat continued to give me that quizzical look as he took in my words. After a few minutes I closed my mouth, waiting for a response.

                “Interesting.”

                Interesting?

                That was all?

                Nat turned on his heel and continued to walk. I stared after him incredulously for a few minutes before shaking my head and following behind him.

                “So that’s all that happened?” He asked as we fell into pace with each other.

                “What is?”

                “The noise.”

                “No, that’s just what my nightmares are about.”

                “Interesting.”

                I crossed my arms, giving him a look, “I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t like it. You brought this up; I’m only answering honestly. Please stop making fun of me.”

                “I’m not making fun of you.”

                “Yes you are!”

                “Enlighten me, Eva, how am I making fun of you?” He hissed his voice low in the quietness of the night.

                I felt goose bumps rise on the back of my neck at how he said my name, “You’re asking me these questions that apparently only happened to me. I know you’re thinking I’m such a freak now. I’m not. I don’t know much, but I do know I’m not a freak.”

                “I didn’t say you were!”

                “You thought it!”

                “Oh, you’re psychic now?”

                “It doesn’t take a psychic to read your expression.” I snapped, poking a finger at his chest, “You keep giving me weird looks because when I was tested, I heard an uncomfortable noise. Maybe every test is different!”

                “They’re not.” He said angrily, “They’re all the same, uniform tests distributed to every bag of bones forced here. You know why I ask? Because yours is different. And I don’t know why.”

                “Maybe they changed!” I threw a hand in the air to emphasize my point. “You’ve been here for years. You don’t have a damn clue what they do in there anymore!”

                “They haven’t changed. I would have known by now.”

                “How? You haven’t—”

                “Because you’re the last fucking ship!”

                He hadn’t intended his words to come out as loudly as they did. They bounced off of the cabins. Both of us froze, looking around. Silence tried to conceal us, but Nat’s screaming had been loud enough for that not to work.

                A minute passed.

                Last ship?

                And then another.

                Space ship? Or boat ship?

                And then another

                Last of what?

                And no other sounds entered the atmosphere.

                After a full ten minutes, Nat breathed a sigh of relief.

                He relaxed in his place, running a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled like that and risked us.”

                “What did you mean?” I ignored his apology, focused on the words that could have been the death of us.

                “They could’ve heard us and—”

                “About the ‘last ship’?”

                He blinked, recalling our previous conversation. “You came on the last ship from Earth. It was announced two days before you showed up that there would be no more new slaves. Any living creatures were to fend for their selves down there. I’d have to assume they screwed the planet up pretty badly.”

                “I… I’m one of the last humans to come from Earth?”

                “You didn’t know?”

                I shook my head slowly.

                Nat raised his eyebrows in disbelief, but kept his mouth shut.

                It was strange.

                No more humans would be kidnapped from Earth and sent to this awful place. I just barely missed my chance at freedom.

                But would it have been better to stay on Earth?

                I couldn’t remember what state the planet had been in before I was pulled away from it. I couldn’t remember much about Earth. Flashes would come and go quickly. But there weren’t many stable memories I had of Earth.

                The thought made my eyes water.

                Quickly, I rubbed the back of my hand against my eye. I wasn’t going to cry now. There was no reason.

                I was being foolish.

                Nat caught my hand as I went to wipe away the pools forming in my eyes. His fingers enclosed around my wrist, pulling it toward him and away from my face. With his free hand, he pressed his index finger under my chin, tilting my head up.

                “Are you ok?”

                “I—Yeah, I’m fine.”

                “Why are you crying?”

                “It’s no reason.” I gave a weak smile, feeling a single tear spill over the edge and slide down my cheek. “I’m just being stupid.”

                He looked uncomfortable. Obviously he wasn’t used to seeing the sensitive side of people. Nat cleared his throat, releasing my hand quickly.

                “I…” He was at a loss for words.

                I wiped away the water, pulling myself together.  I had my moment, and now I needed to move on from it.

                “Let’s go back to the cabin. Just forget you saw this. Please.” I added the last part quietly, leading the way down the row.

                “Wait—”

                “Nat, really, it’s fine. Let’s just go—”

                “We can’t go.” He grabbed my shirt and jerked me back.

                “Let go!” I struggled against him, “Nat!”

                He clamped a hand over my mouth and pulled us off of the main road. I tried to pry his hand off of my lips with little success.

                “Stop.” He whispered, “They’re at our cabin.”

*****

Merry Christmas!

As my Christmas present, I'm asking that you please forgive me for the slow updates. I promise you one day there will be a ton of quickies <3