章節 2: Chapter 2 planning
Gear and Elliot weren't sure what to do or when to do it. Neither of them knew where the facility actually was. For all they knew it was on the side of a cliff.
But they were determined.
Gear more than he had ever been in his entire life. Taking one breath of the outside world had him hooked. There was an actual life to be had out there and he was taking it.
He knew the zone where he worked like the back of his hand. The new on on the other hand felt different. It seemed like it could house many more containers or vehicles. He kept his ears open and caught a glimpse of informations that shed light on many things that didn't make much sense.
They were understaffed.
And quite brutally so, in hindsight the more common ammount of transfers made it obvious. If it kept going the workers might have double shifts in the future, but why?
When he relayed the information to Elliot the night after he was deep in thought.
"I didn't get to see where we went when they kidnapped me. I just wanted a pegasi, but they didn't see it that way." He huffed throwing a rock against the bars of his cell.
"So we know it's pretty cold and it's snowing so-"
"What's snow?" Gear wondered hopefully, secretly beyond eager to learn more. Although he suddenly felt very stupid when Elliot sent him a flabbergasted look.
"Snow, it's like. Frozen water that falls from the sky like crystal flakes. They're all unique, there's not a single one that's the same."
Gear tilted his head genuinely comfused. "How?" Elliot shrugged "it's just the way they are."
"I wish I could see." Gear spoke longily.
"Hey don't sound so sad, you'll see it soon I promise."
Gear wanted to believe that, but even with his new taste at what he didn't even know was hope. It was hard to hold onto it.
"What's the first thing you'll do when you get out?" He wondered trying to change the subject.
Elliot huffed a small laugh "probably take a shower and eat enough pizza to kill a hippo."
"What's pizza?"
There was a long silence between them. Gear internally panicking, was pizza sacred? Did he insult it without knowing it?
"The more you ask questions the more I hate these Amazons." He sighed leaning his back against the bars keeping them apart.
"Pizza, it's the food of the gods." He added with a small smile.
"I thought it was nectar and ambrosia?"
"Well when you take a bite out of that you'll never want anything else."
"What does Ambrosia taste like?"
Elliot looked confused "like you're favorite food, don't you know that I thought you were a half-blood too?"
Now Gear was the bewildered.
Him? A demigod? He was quite literally a nameless slave what kind of hero would that be?
"I'm not." Bluntly informed Gear.
"How do you know?"
Gear merely gestured to himself with frustration.
"Yeah i'm stuck here in an orange jumpsuit and a shock collar too. Doesn't make me any less divine, or well at least half divine."
"Shock collar?" Gear raised an eyebrow. Those weren't the standard model used by the Amazons. "Yeah keeps me from using my powers. I think it targets the part of the brain that controls them. If I think about it too hard." He grunted as a sharp zap of electricity burned the air.
Gear didn't ask what his powers were. It clearly wasn't a pleasent subject.
"I can't wait to take it off." He nearly growled "but I can't complain, when is the last time yours came off?"
Gear thought about it.
"I-I- don't know." He answered honestly, I don't think it ever came off when I started working."
"When was that?" Elliot asked fearing the answer.
"Ten years ago."
"Damn" he breathed. "Nah you know what i'm going to do first when we get out, i'm taking that damn thing off your neck."
Gear wrapped his finger over the grey metal. "Really?" He tried not to sound like a hopeful child. The metal constantly burned and rubbed against his skin. He learned to tune it out after a few years, but it was a constant painful reminder of what he was.
Hopefully it would soon represent what he used to be.
"So we know that the doors lead outside, but we really need to know how to get past the guards."
"We could start a massive fight." Gear offered.
"You know how to fight?"
"A bit, the Amazons make us fight for more food when they're feeling generous."
"I hate it here." Elliot huffed after a short ammount of silence.
"Me too." Gear agreed, usually he'd try to see something good in his day and deny the inhuman ammount of hate burning within him. It was as to not go mad as he nearly did multiple times, but now. All he wanted was to see this entire place burn. Years upon years of righteous anger pent up like this made it hard for him to not be defiant in the following days, but each harsh days of work were always finished well.
Simply talking to Elliot made him feel better than he had in years.
That one day he might have gone a bit too far.
"Hey there, what are you doing tonight?" A slightly older girl mockingly flirted while tugging on his chain. Pulling him uncomfortably close. "What are you looking at like that?" She asked as Gear's face twisted with distain.
She pressed a kiss to his cheek. Gear wasn't sure why, but that single act left a feeling of disgust and shame settling in his stomach. Her lips feeling like a bed of neither too hot nor too cold needles were being pressed on every inch of skin touched on his cheek.
She pushed him back in rank with the others. Some of the Amazons chuckling about how shy he was. When in reality Gear was flushed with anger.
As he carried a crate nearly three time the size of his chest. Much to the shock of many, Gear noticed that the girl from earlier was still keeping her eyes on him.
He wasn't sure what she really wanted, but he didn't want anything to do with it. Of course no one would care about what 'he' wanted. It didn't matter, she could force him to do anything and no one would bat an eye.
So he needed a way to change her mind. As it turns out he was already carrying the answer.
He faked struggling to hold the crate and shackily made his way towards the Amazon. Who raised an eyebrow at the action, but didn't stop him.
"I-I'm so sorry ma'am." Gear began in a small timid voice "but I can, barely hold this up." He shifted his arm and made his legs tremble more to sell the deal. "C-could you help me, you have big arms right?"
The Amazon flexed her bicep while staring at it. Giving Gear enough time to roll his eyes.
"Yeah sure I can help, but you'll owe me pretty thing."
"Oh thank you so much, my savior." Gear said batting his eyes and getting closer.
He didn't like the Amazons, but he didn't think he would find it this easy to get one of them wrapped around his finger.
What Gear didn't know was that even after working years in a factory non stop, that by anyone's standards he looked pretty, not handsome. Pretty, even by male and female standards.
Ignoring his scarred hands, Gear actually managed to look delicate. His small stature and porcelaine white skin didn't help, the mop of long wild auburn hair nearly made him look feminine, but his eyes were what attracted the most attention.
They were hazel, but not the usual golden. They were brown and green like a forest, with a splash of yellow. Like a golden moon peeking throught the treelines on a dark night. The colors shifted from the darkness to the light, going from a forest to a bright steely bronze. It changed like an hypnotic dance, people would often shift around just to see what color they would take next.
Not that Gear knew the affect he often had on people. He actually believed himself average and on a bad day, even ugly.
So as the Amazon reached to grab the crate, Gear purposely let it slip passed his fingers. Dropping the heavy crate right on her toe. She screamed in pure agony as her toes were crushed.
She looked back and forth between Gear and her crushed foot. Screaming in pain and confusion.
Gear knew it was coming, but he didn't care. It might have been his most brutal beating to date, but as he was thrown back into his cell, bruised and bloody. He couldn't stop smiling.
"Gear, Gear!" Furiously whispered Elliot. The injured boy turned his head towards his friend. His left eye was swollen shut his nose bloody and his face was covered in blue bruise. He was certain that at least one or two of his ribs was cracked.
But despite all that his bloody smile widdened.
After ten long painful years. He defied those who enslaved him.
He was ready to leave, he was ready to fight for it, for his freedom.
"You're crazy." Elliot breathed his worried expression slowly turning amused, "but this is the funniest thing i've seen in a while." He chuckled Gear doing the same, barely registering the searing pain in his abdomen.
"Can you move?"
Gear gritted his teeth and gripped the side of his bed. Shackily he made his way back to his feet. His ribs were aching, but not so much anymore. He rolled his shoulder as an aching warmth spreading throught his body.
"Yeah, I guess I can?" Gear stated just as surprised as Elliot.
"Okay good, because in three days we're out of here."
Gear looked at his friend, surprised by the ammount of confidence in his voice.
"How so?"
"Well let's just say our next delivery can provide the best kind of distractions."
"What is it?" Gear asked eagerly. Elliot opened his mouth, but he was interrupted by the high pitched sound of the main door leading into the rowes of cell opening briskly.
The prisoners nervously waited as multiple sets of steps stomped throught the hallway.
Three Amazons stopped in front of his cell. "It's this one" the leading Amazon stated pointing at him. Gear nervously standing his ground as the door slid open.
The three of them manhandled him until they managed to clasp a chain to his metal collar.
Next thing he knew Gear was dragged throught the facility to another path he never had the chance to see until now.
He was shoved in a warm colored room that Gear would have described as cozy if he actually knew what that word meant.
Behind a large oak desk sat a large muscular woman who seemed to dwarf her own large chair with her frame.
General Polia was the leader of this facility. Many rumors stated that she was the child or the descendant of a troll. Seeing her large bulging eyes constant frown canines a bit too sharp to be natural, along with her bulging muscles and sheer size. Gear was forced to believe that these rumors might have been correct.
She glanced up at him with a bored expression and rose from her seat.
Gear was forced to look up at the seven foot tall mountain of muscles walked around her desk in front of him. His gaze piercing into hers like an arrow.
She huffed a laugh at Gear's defiant expression and unwilingness to look away.
"Feeling defiant? Isn't that right." She trailed off turning his collar to look at the numbers etched in it nearly faded with time.
"7A7HM77."
"Gear."
"What was that?" Asked the general in a cold lowly voice as he spoke up without being ordered too.
"They call me Gear."
The general chuckled "oh they came up with a little name for you? How cute, but i'm not here for that."
Suddenly a meaty hand shot up around his neck at blinding speed.
The small boy was effortlessly hefted in the air by the throat.
"You know what we do to defiant little things around here? Don't you 7A7HM77." Condescendingly said the amazon not aknowledging that he even had an identity. Which sent Gear in what he would be the first to admit was a foolish fit of rage.
"There's nothing you haven't done to me yet I haven't survived!" He snapped clutching the woman's wrist with all his strenght. His good eye glaring a hole in Polia's forehead.
She approached his face to hers "boy if I were actually allowed to kill you I would have done so long ago, but for reasons that only the gods might know, my Queen wants you alive!"
This shocked Gear into silence.
"Yes i'm afraid i'm quite as confused as you are. Luckily while i'm not allowed to end you, but I can break you. A night in the pit should fix that little bratty episode of yours."
Gear could barely hear the laughter coming from Polia. Fear invading every inch of his bones.
For no one ever came back from the pit.
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