Erik walked into the cell. He didn't like what he was seeing.
As soon as the door opened, he slled blood, but there was sothing else: burned flesh. Inside the room, there was a figure. Without a shred of doubt, it was Richard Stone.
The man was held up against the wall by chains, and his body was a horrible ss of raw muscle and sinew.
Erik had to stop for a mont because of how horrible what he saw was: Richard had been skinned while still alive.
But not to the point of killing him. Aside from his bloodied face, Richard was almost completely without skin.
Erik's stomach churned, but he pushed the nausea down. Weakness had no ti to happen. He needed to get Richard out right away.
With quick steps, he crossed the room and kneeled next to the man.
"Richard! Richard, can you hear ?!"
Richard's eyes were wide open, and his head was leaning to the side. In theory, the man should have been able to see him, but his eyes were staring at the empty space.
For him, Erik could have been or not been there at all. His mind was a ss. Whatever thought he had was so strong as to pull him out of reality.
Whatever Volkov did to him, Richard was having trouble focusing on what happened in front of him, as if he wasn't there to begin with.
He croaked, "Erik," but his voice was barely audible. "You... you ca..."
"Of course I did. I promised Emily I would have saved you. There is no way I'm leaving you here."
"No... This... you must leave... this..."
But Erik was already looking at Richard's chains and made a note of the complicated locks. They were unbreakable, or at least they were built to give the impression they were.
For Erik, that wasn't a problem, because he simply grabbed the chains and snapped them in two, freeing Richard in a matter of seconds.
"Erik," Richard said. "It's a trap... Volkov, he's watching. You must leave!"
Before he could react, an alarm blared. The alarm was blaring throughout the whole prison judging by how strong the sound was,.
If, until now, no one found him as he entered the prison, now everyone was aware.
Without even the ti to blink, Erik felt a loud thud. The door from which he ca closed alone, most likely closed remotely.
The floor beneath them jolted violently. Erik's stomach lurched as the entire room plumted downward, like an elevator with its cables cut.
Erik could understand they were going fast, and a lot at that.
He braced himself and leaned against the wall, clutching Richard tightly to keep him from further injury, but each ti he touched him, the man jolted in pain.
There was no skin on him, after all.
"Hang on."
The feeling of freefall was nauseating. Erik couldn't stop thinking about how bad it was for Richard, if it was this bad even for him.
Erik tried to calculate their speed and the distance they were falling. But he also had to figure out what awaited him and Richard as soon as they reached it.
He doubted Volkov was going to crush him in the room. Most likely, the room was going to be stopped at a certain point, so that the blackguards could kill or apprehend him later.
He doubted the pricks wanted him dead. He was much more valuable alive, at least in theory.
What they didn't know was that as soon as he died, he would turn into a biological supercomputer himself, and the one he got would leave his body.
There were going to be two biological supercomputers at that point.
The room hurtled downward for what felt like an eternity. Erik's grip on Richard tightened. The older man's breathing beca weaker and weaker.
Seconds stretched into what felt like hours, the room's descent a harrowing plunge into the unknown.
After thirty agonizing seconds, the room slowed. The abrupt deceleration threw Erik off balance, but he kept on his feet.
With a final shudder, the room-free fall stopped.
Erik paused to think.
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