Capítulo 7: Taste of Freedom
Sequence 1
Moise spends the entire day watching language guides and absorbing all the English words she can string together.
Food is continously brought to her which she tears through with each lesson.
After the end of one lesson Amina walks down to her cell in the middle of the night and asks, "Do you ever sleep?"
Moise replies in English, "I do when you are not around to disturb me".
Surprised Amina remarks, "Well at least you're using your time well" then continues, "But you need to rest up, I want to try something new"
A curious Moise sits up at the edge of her bed and asks "What do you have in mind?".
Amina smiles, and responds, "Just some light exercise that's all", while bringing out a chrome bracelet and a dish labeled "Amina's magic Balm" from her left labcoat pocket.
She sends the items into Moise's cell through a chute in the wall and says, "I got something for you, a little token of our friendship".
Moise picks it up and puts it on saying "It looks a bit plain, but acceptable, my thanks" then stares at the balm and asks "What it this for?".
Amina tells her, "It protects against dry skin, wrinkles and fire".
Shocked, Moise raises an eyebrow and asks, "Why would I be on fire!?" but Amina dodges the question saying, "Just put it on so when I return in the morning so we can start, goodnight".
Moise rolls her eyes and places the gifts on the drawer beside her bed. She goes through one more lesson before forcing herself to sleep.
The next morning, she's woken up by the Amina's increasingly troublesome voice saying, "Wakey Wakey sleepyhead, I got something for you".
Amina sends a bag into the cell through a chute and a drone places it on Moise's bed while she gets up to take her shower.
After a few minutes, Moise comes out, towel in hand and rips open the bag to see what looks like a copy of her clothes.
Moise runs her finger through the fabric and asks, "This isn't mine, why does it feel so strange?".
Amina replies, "I didn't want your clothes to tear or burn so we made several a copies, what do you think?".
"It's will take some getting used to", she says while putting them on.
Moise finally applies the balm throughly around her body and gets up to leave but Amina stops her saying, "You forgot the bracelet".
She looks back at it and replies, "We will be training so I have no use for it" but Amina insists, "The doors won't open without it so you don't have much of a choice".
Moise lets out a sigh and begrudgingly puts on the bracelet so the doors may open for her. Amina smiles and says, "After you princess".
They get to the training room in the upper levels and meet two young men in armoured suits waiting for them.
As they enter the young men aim their weapons at them and shout, "Amina get back, that thing is behind you!".
Amina turns to Moise and replies, "That's a very rude way to address your new team mate".
The confused boys shout, "Huh" as Amina continues, "Her name is..." but the Moise interrupts, saying her name in English to the surprise of everyone in the room.
One of the boys mocks her saying, "So it speaks" and an offended Moise angrily replies, "Yes 'it' does".
Amina gets between them and stops them from fighting saying, "People please, we do not behave like beasts in this organisation".
One of the boys retracts his visor and walks towards Moise to shake her hand saying, "Hi, I'm Oresegun" but she slaps it away, replying, "I didn't ask!".
Frustrated, Amina pulls Moise aside to have a little talk about her attitude saying, "What is your problem!?".
"They started it!", Moise replies in an attempt to plead her case but Amina presses her saying, "I don't care who started it, finish it so we can get on with the day".
After a few moments of talking, Amina and Moise turn to face them, with Moise reluctantly saying, "I... apologise".
Oresegun, replies, "We accept, the angry looking guy over there's called Michael" but Michael looks on unimpressed and growls, "Whatever, so why is she here?".
Amina excitedly says, "Moise is here because we need to train together, her skillset will be of great use to us going forward".
Oresegun asks, "So what do you need us to do?" and Amina responds, "Just attack like you usually do, whoever lands three hits out of the three of you wins, have fun" and hastily leaves the room.
A blunt pole rises from the floor near Moise and she thinks, "This will do just nicely, I better go for the insect first, he looks much more threatening".
In a split second, she runs towards him and takes aim at his chest but her strike is parried by Michael's sword.
Unfettered, she twists behind him and knocks him across the room with her pole before focusing her attention on Oresegun.
A voice in the wall says, "One hit" as Moise dashes towards Segun again but her attack is halted when she takes a direct hit from one of his guns and is sent crashing to the floor.
He apologises profusely, thinking he had killed her, but she simply gets up, takes a lick of the red paint and smiles thinking, "This is going to be fun".
Moise runs towards him again, dodging the array of paint balls being shot at her but is unable to land a clean hit because of the Segun's arms getting in the way.
Moise launches her pole at his chest but one of his arms blocks the attack. She tries to hit him again from above but that attempt is deflected as well.
Moise is so engrossed in attacking Segun, she doesn't notice Michael flying towards her and gets knocked down by his practice sword.
She quickly recovers, somersaulting and throwing her pole at Segun's back, knocking him to the floor then elbow tackles Michael to the ground.
Frustrated, Michael spreads his wings and flies upwards, releasing a concentrated burst of flames below. Thinking fast, Moise ducks behind a rising Segun which shields her from the blast then uses his head as a springboard to swipe at Michael.
Before she can reach him, Michael forms a translucent shield out of nowhere and uses it to block Moise attack.
Seizing the chance, he punches her square in the gut, and she responds with a bolt of lightning to his chest which sends them both crashing to the floor.
DIVA floods the room with purple light, saying, "It is a draw" but an unsatisfied Moise gets up to continue the fight.
Before she can reach her two opponents she feels a sharp pain in her wrist followed by a dark cloud of darkness enveloping her and collapses to the ground, unconscious.
Sequence 2
Moise wakes up two hours later with severe brain fog.
She looks around and finds herself lying down in her bed with Amina projecting herself onto the wall from a lab.
Quickly she gets up and asks, "What did you do to me!?".
Amina replies, "We just put you to sleep that's all, behave and we won't have to do it again" before shutting off the projection.
Moise angrily punches the wall of her room and lies down on her bed to sulk, rejecting food brought to her until it becomes dry.
Her brooding is interrupted by the sound of Michael's approaching footsteps. She briefly glances at him and turns away muttering, "I'll kill you".
He turns back asking, "Excuse me!?" and Moise stares him down replying, "Michael, one day I will kill you, I swear it".
The next morning Dele and two guards rudely barge into Moise's cell as she's eating her breakfast.
She asks, "What do you want?" and Dele replies "My name is Dele Bankole, we've met before. You have another training session, put on your bracelet and follow us".
Moise reluctantly does as she's told and follows them up to the shooting room where Prophet is waiting for her.
There Dele gives Moise a headset to put on then shows her a pistol and asks, "Do you know what this is?".
Moise replies, "I suppose it is a weapon of some kind, how does it work?".
Dele takes off the safety and aims at a target saying, "You point it and press the trigger like so".
He takes a few shots at the target on the wall, startling Moise a bit. She asks, "Is this really necessary?" and Dele replies, "If you want to live long in this organisation it is".
Prophet chips in saying, "Perhaps the girl needs more time to get used to this new world" but Dele replies, "This part of the process, the sooner she learns the less we have to babysit her".
Moise, softly ssys, "Let me try" and Dele guides her on how to use the weapon, she shoots twice but misses the target.
Prophet says, "A little bit to the left" as she tries to adjust her aim and smiles slightly as finally hits the target in the chest.
Just then an alarm goes off and DIVA shouts "Alert Alert, anomalous activity detected at coordinates 6°'33'33N 3°34'35 E".
Dele immediately takes the gun from Moise and puts it in his side holster, she tries to follow but he tells her, "You stay here".
After a few seconds the alarm goes off and a disappointed Moise heaves a heavy sigh.
Not wanting to let the opportunity go to waste, Moise makes a gun sign with her left hand and playfully aims at the targets.
Prophet, gets up from his seat and says, "You should focus more when you aim".
Moise replies, "What does does a blind man know of such?" but Prophet responds, "That is even more reason why you should heed my advice".
She blasts the target in the chest with lightning from her finger and replies, "I believe I am well prepared in any case".
Prophet simply shakes his head saying, "Your heart betrays your mouth, trust heart so the path may be opened for you" and leaves as several guards enter to escort Moise to another room.
There she finds Amina working on a heart monitor and three other researchers arranging exercise equipment.
She ignores the other researchers and walks straight to Amina asking, "What's that?".
Amina finishes her calibrations and replies, "This will help me see what's going on inside your heart".
She puts the monitor on Moise who asks, "Must you examine every fibre of my being?". Amina taps Moise's cheek replying, "You talk too much", then takes a long walk to the safety of an adjacent room with the researchers quickly trailing her.
Amina tells Moise to get on a grey stretch of the floor. As she steps gets on, it begins the move, causing Moise to jump off and dig her claws into the ceiling screaming, "The floor is moving!".
Amina laughs and replies, "Don't worry it won't hurt you, just get on and try to walk".
Moise reluctantly jumps down to examine the treadmill, running her claws over it rough surface and taking a few uneasy steps. After a few minutes of playing around with the treadmill accompanied with occasional dancing, she starts running, briefly reaching a speed of seventy six kilometres per hour.
Amina shuts down the treadmill to Moise's disappointment then directs her to try other exercises.
After a few moments of rest, Moise is told to place her hand in the wall and discharge a small amount of lighting three times. She does so and thankfully, nothing explodes.
With the exercises concluded, Amina comes out, disconnects the monitor and tells Moise she can go to her room. Before she leaves, Moise asks if she can go shooting again and Amina escorts her out saying, "I will think about it".
Sequence 3
Several hours later, Amina wakes Moise up from her nap saying "Wakey Wakey!"
Moise jumps out of bed, hitting her head against the bed frame saying, "Ah what is it!?".
Amina excitedly replies, "I just got approval to take you shooting, hurry up we only have 30 minutes".
Moise rubs her eyes and puts on her bracelet before heading out. She follows the highlighted path in the ceiling to meet Amina in the shooting room.
Confused she remarks "Where are the others?" and Amina responds, "Everyone is... busy right now, but that shouldn't bother us".
They get to work on basic target practice with Amina surprised at how quickly Moise learned to handle the gun.
Twenty minutes pass and Amina lets Moise know they will be leaving soon. Five minutes later a researcher waves at Amina and beckons her out. Amina puts her gun in her holster and walks out to meet him.
Sensing an opportunity, Moise thinks "I have only one chance to get out of here" and stops shooting, focusing intensely on the door.
As Amina opens the door to walk back in, Moise flings her gun at the wall behind her and runs out as fast as she can, smashing her bracelet against the door frame as she does so.
Amina doesn't even have time to react before she's held at gunpoint in Moise's clutches. When she finally sees what's going on, Amina calmly tells the scared researcher "Don't do or say anything, just leave".
He does as he's told and runs away just as several armed guards start trooping to the hallway.
A section of the floor rises, forming a shield for the guards who stare down Moise in a tense standoff.
Prophet, soon joins them and warns Moise "You are making a mistake young one" but she replies "I am trusting my heart, now open a path so I may leave!".
In the midst of the standoff Michael, Oresegun and Dele storm into the hallway accompanied by four guards.
Upon seeing more people enter the room Moise starts to get desperate and shouts, "Open the doors or I'll kill her!" but Dele defiantly replies, "Go ahead, you'll die too".
Amina struggles and protests screaming, "Please think about what you say next because I really really don't want to die!".
Moise watches as Dele and Prophet go back and forth arguing and after a few moments orders that the doors be opened for them to leave.
Inside the hallways, Amina tries to appeal to Moise's humanity, saying "You don't have to do this" but she responds "I did not intend to harm you but you left me no choice, what kind of person gives another tainted gifts?".
They get to the uppermost area of the facility where several armed guards are taking cover behind trucks and equipment waiting for them to arrive.
Moise slowly paces forward with Amina towards the door and shouts "Open the door". A side door opens but Dele and the previous squad come out through it, so Moise takes a shot at the roof and shouts, "I am not playing around!".
Dele steps forward with his hands in the air and pleads, "Come on, you won't survive out there on your own" but Moise shouts, "That is my problem, your problem is getting me out!".
Dele says, "Alright, just keep moving back and the doors will open for you".
Moise steps back inch by inch with Amina held tightly as the doors slowly open, making an unusually loud rumbling noise.
She loosens her grip on Amina's neck in preparation of her escape but before she can turn around, Segun dives down from a vent in the ceiling and stabs her in the shoulder, paralysing her left arm.
Amina siezes the opportunity to run as Segun wrestles with Moise and drags her to the ground, using every part of his suit to hold her down.
Sensing that the facility doors are starting to close, Moise summons all the strength of her spark to throw Segun off her body and dash at lighting speed into the lagoon before the door closes on her.
The End?
Estado de energía semanal
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