Ewan and Natalia
They had been left alone since that first day. They'd been fed and given basic bathroom amenities and so forth. Natalia had rapidly descended back into her submissive behaviour, and it was tearing Ewan apart inside.
And then the door opened and five soldiers and Blakesley stepped in. Ewan stepped in front of Natalia and bunched his fists together as he glared at them.
"Get the girl," Blakesley said to them, and left. Ewan's mouth set.
"Come and try it, ye cowardly bastards."
Taylor
Taylor gulped a little, leaning against the wall to help himself stand up.
He didn't trust Blakesley enough not to drag him from the ground if he suddenly changed his mind and decided to take him as well.
His eyes shot to Ewan.
Ewan and Natalia
The soldiers stepped forward, and Ewan's chin went up a little bit higher as he settled into a battle ready stance. One of them, looking bored, gestured for Ewan to get out of the way.
"I dinna think so, laddie. Not sae easy with someone who fights back is it nae?" Ewan spat onto the floor in front of them contemptously. "Och, ye the braw, bonny lads indeed."
"Ewan?" Natalia said hesitantly, waking up to her surroundings.
"Dinna frett, lass. They were jist about to leave."
"Move," one of the soldiers ordered.
"Nay."
"Move, or it will be the worse for you."
"And her?"
"She's mutant."
"And that means so much. Fock off, lad." The soldier, tired of the game, stepped forward. Ewan decked him, and bounced on his feet lightly as the soldiers took a step back. The soldier spat blood onto the ground. "Och, who's next then?"
Taylor
Taylor was shaking his head.
"Ewan, no," he insisted, looking between him and the soldiers.
"Don't, don't make it worse. It'll only make it worse for her!"
Natalia and Ewan
Natalia scurried backwards along the wall, starting to cry in fear.
Ewan ignored Taylor, and waited for them to attack him again. "C'mon, lads..."
"Why do people insist on being heros?" One of them sighed, and then thye moved forward in a group. Ewan kicked one of them in the balls, suckerpunched another to the stomach and headbutted two of them. Then he got the one he had hit first in a headlock, slowly choking him.
Taylor
"NO! Ewan!"
Taylor darted forward, and squeezed Ewan's arm below the shoulder so he'd have to ease up, then pulled him off the guard.
"You're just gonna make things ten times worse!" he exclaimed, "don't you see that?!"
Ewan and Natalia
"At least I'm doing something!" Ewan snarled at Taylor. "I don't see ye doing o'ermuch." He tried to shake Taylor off. "Let go."
Natalia curled into a foetal ball, wailing softly.
"What's taking so long?" Blakesley's irritated voice drifted into the room.
Taylor
"In this case, nothing is better than something," Taylor hissed, before freezing as he registered Blakesley's voice.
He backed off a little.
Ewan
"Blaygird coward," Ewan spat at Taylor as he moved to stand in frot of Natalia again. "My family motto means Death before Dishonour. I stand by it."
The soldiers approached Ewan a lot more cautiously now.
Taylor
"You keep acting like this and you're gonna get it!" Taylor exclaimed, refusing to let tears well in his eyes.
"We've been here before. You haven't. Don't think everything's going to go your way."
Ewan and Natalia
"I don't. But if I do die, at least I know I've acted in a way that I won't be ashamed of," Ewan said to Taylor, even as he readied himself to fight again. No clean rules here. He was fighting dirty every inch of the way.
"Butterflies, butterflies, sparkling..." Natalia whimpered. "It's all broken! You'll be broken! Shattered into pieces like a mirror."
Taylor
"She's right," Taylor frowned.
"If you stir up trouble they're not gonna kill you. They're just going to make you wish you were dead."
Ewan
"Trouble's already been stirred up. C'mon, gurriers..." Ewan punched out, then stepped back, eyes wary.
"I want him taken down," the leader hissed at the soldiers under his command. One of the soldiers got out his tazer, and Ewan aacted quickly.
A quick snap of a broken wrist, and Ewan was holding the tazer to the soft part of skin near his ear.
"Now, what would this wee thing do this close to a mon's brain, ey?" Ewan asked. The soldiers took a step back.
Taylor
"DON'T!" Taylor yelled.
He darted forward and pulled the tazer from Ewan's hand, throwing it across the room.
"You don't see what you're doing!" Taylor exclaimed, "if you screw things up it's not only you who has to pay for it. We will too! You want them to be even harder on Natalia? They haven't even freaking started yet!"
Ewan and Natalia
"OW! Keeerist!" Ewan glared at Taylor. "Would ye perhaps stop doing that?!"
The soldier kicked out at him, and Ewan dodged it, befre sending the soldier face first into a wall. Natalia wailed in terror.
"Bad boy! Bad, wicked naughty boy! You can't be a knight here! The dragons are too fierce!"
Ewan punched Taylor in the mouth.
Taylor
Taylor recoiled, before deciding that was nothing compared to what Blakesley had done.
He rubbed his jaw, then glared at Ewan.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with. You never even knew mutants and aliens existed until days ago," he shook his head, "you don't know who you're up against, and how prepared they can be."
He grabbed Ewan by the shoulders and threw him backwards, not wanting to fight the Scot.
Ewan and Natalia
Ewan snarled, and dove for Taylor.
Natalia screamed, hands over her head and rocking back and forth. "No, oh no, no no no..."
The soldiers were watching in bewilderment now.
Taylor
"Oh, Christ."
Taylor ducked as best he could, but managed to twist Ewan's arm behind him and follow him to the ground.
Ewan and Natalia
This was something Ewan understood. Fighting. He'd been in enough pub brawls to know how to as well. He grunted as they fell to the ground, and moved to roll them so he was on top.
"What is going on here?" Blakesley inquired in an icy voice as he ntered the room. Natalia stopped crying out and huddled as far away from him as possible, shivering violently.
Taylor
"GET OFF me!" Taylor yelled.
He brought his legs up and kicked out at Ewan's stomach, sending him backward. Taylor scrambled to his feet and backed off, not taking his eyes off the Scot.
Ewan
Ewan glared at Taylor, rubbing his stomach from where the American had kicked him.
"What is going on here?" Blakesley repeated, taking in the comatose soldier and the bruises and blood the others were sporting. "I want answers..."
"They're acting up," the leader of the soldiers said. "Just the males."
"Ah."
"Yeah, and fock ye too, ye self righteous sadist," Ewan spat at Blakesley.
Taylor
"You're not learning a $#!+ing thing, are you?!" Taylor exclaimed, shaking his head.
"For Christ's sake..."
Ewan
"It's his personality," Blakesley said coolly, seething with rage. "Loyal, foolhardy, and doesn't take the consequences of his actions into account..."
"Neither do ye."
"But I don't have to. As the one without power here, you depend on the stronger for your survival. Now, how best to ensure this doesn't happen again..." Blakesley mused.
Taylor
Taylor's eyes darted to the doctor, as he stepped back further and hit the wall.
He was hoping this only included Ewan...
Ewan
Natalia put her hands over her ears. "Hear no evil..."
"Although they say, boys will be boys, such aggresive tendecies are not in your best interests to maintain. I've changed my mind. Leave the girl, take the two males to...cell 21."
"21?" The soldier said in disbelief.
"21. And get yourselves some back up."
"Come and try it, gurriers," Ewan spat as he got back to his feet.
Taylor
Taylor gulped, his eyes darting between the doctor and the soldiers.
"21?" his voice shook, his hands trying to hold him against the wall.
Ewan
They ignored him as new soldiers filed into the cell, holding restraining devices. The leader of the previous group approached Taylor with his men, and turned the alien to face the wall befoer handcuffing him and threading a collar around his neck.
The others concentrated on Ewan. The Scot put a few more of them out of commission, but he wound up with a collar around his neck and arms shoved into an arm binder. His eyes were already both swelling and his lips were cut and puffy. His glare and aggressive stance hadn't changed however.
"Bring them," Blakesley said in bored tones and left the room. The soldiers clipped leads to both of the men's collars and started to leave the room. Ewan dug his heels in, and only moved grudgingly even as he choked.
Taylor
Taylor's whole body started shaking again as he twisted his wrists. But he followed the men obediently.
He already seemed to be in trouble, and there was no need to make it worse. He kept his eyes to the ground, looking up every now and then at Blakesley or a soldier.
Ewan
Ewan growled profanities at the soldiers as they dragged him down the corridor.
Soon, they were in front of the cell Blakesley had wanted them to go to. They all entered. Ewan started fighting harder as he saw the two open pits and the two coffins laid out.
Blakesley yawned. "Gag them."
Taylor
Taylor's eyes widened as his eyes fell on them.
"Oh Jesus..." he shook his head, the words hardly leaving his mouth.
"No... no... no..."
Ewan
Ewan went to his knees as a soldier clubbed a gun butt on his head. He couldn't focus to resist as they forced a ball gag into his mouth, and strapped his ankles together. With a few quick movements, they unlaced his arms and lifted him to put him in the coffin. Ewan moved his head weakly, blood dripping onto the floor from where the skin of his scalp had split open. The lid went on and soon they heard the sound of Ewan pushing at the lid from the inside.
"Next," Blakesley said lightly.
A soldier saluted and advanced on Taylor with a gag in his hand. "Open your mouth," he ordered.
Ewan was sick and dizzy, and it was so dark...
Taylor
"Oh $#!+," Taylor's voice shook again as he watched what happened to Ewan.
He looked up at Blakesley.
"Please, don't, don't, I didn't... I didn't do anything, I swear," he pleaded, tears welling in his eyes again.
Blakesley
"Consider it another step along the path to being broken," Blakesley said cryptically. "Natalia has already gone down into the earth to be born again. Can you?"
The soldier forced the gag into Taylor's mouth and secured it around the back of his head. They unclipped the handcuffs, and then one of them knelt to strap Taylor's ankles together.
Taylor
Taylor closed his eyes as a few tears escaped, and his breathing became uneasy.
He tapped his forehead, chest, and two shoulders in succession, hoping against hope that this wouldn't last long.
Ewan
The soldiers lifted Taylor between them and laid him in the coffin. The lid went on and they made it secure.
Now that neither of the men for who this exercise was for could see anymore, Blakesley smiled. The first pictures from the videos installed in the lids of the coffins were showing on the screens.
They lifted Ewan's coffin and dropped it carefully into the hole. The Scot yelped in fear, then moaned in terror as he heard the first clods of earth strike the top of the coffin. He was being buried alive.
Taylor's coffin soon suffered the same treatment.
However, neither of the men knew about the air pipe to the surface that had been inserted, or the fact that if they showed too many physical problems, they would be back in the open air in minutes.
Taylor
Taylor knew the lid of the coffin was there, he didn't need to feel it.
He pulled on the restraints on his ankles, but knowing they wouldn't budge. Then he raised his hands to his head to feel the gag. Padlocked.
He laid his head back down and covered his eyes, once again not believing what was happening to him.