Link to the episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1231289/6229486-k-8-and-the-black-eyes
The three of us followed the train tracks until the sun began to set, and even then we continued on. I basically had limitless stamina in terms of walking, but Wolf and Jintao clearly didn’t. Jintao had started complaining three hours ago, then loudly complaining two hours ago. After that, Wolf gave him a piggyback ride. I had put my winter coat back on and zipped it up. Eventually, Wolf had to call it quits. I was impressed that he had made it this far in the most worn out pair of sneakers I had seen. The three of us set up camp near a large cliff face. The rails ran alongside it, and the cliff itself was absurdly tall and wide. I set up my sleeping bag near the side of the cliff, while Jintao and Wolf set up shop on the other side of the tracks. I dug into what little food I had, hiding my face as I did so. I hated it when people saw my wires. It was a dirty, silver badge of failure and weakness. 27 was the only person in years who had ever seen it, and I only showed him that because I knew that one of us would die. Otherwise, seeing that was akin to someone seeing me naked. So I ate away from Jintao and Wolf, simply listening in on their conversation.
“The only other Tengen survivor I get to meet, and they’re mute. Just my luck, huh?” Said Jintao.
“Yeah.” Said Wolf.
“Hey, what's up between the two of you? You acted like she was a long dead love and she barely seems to care about seeing you alive.” Asked Jintao.
“It's a long story. I don’t wanna talk about it.” Said Wolf.
“Well, maybe talk to her if she's going to be traveling with us. Kate doesn’t exactly seem to like you, and she barely knows me.” Said Jintao.
“I don’t think she's gonna forgive me. Honestly, I wouldn’t forgive myself.” Said Wolf.
“She's still here Wolf. Kate has no connection to these people as far as we know, she might hate you, and barely knows me, but she's still here. She could have walked away from this, but she didn’t. She doesn’t even look that beat up, how much could Tengen have done to her?” Asked Jintao.
“She didn’t use to be mute.” Said Wolf. He and Jintao were silent after that, so I decided to go to bed. I layed out my sleeping bag and pillow, climbed into it and drifted off to sleep. I dreamed about the last time I saw Wolf. We had managed to get out of the building, and were running through the town. Some of the others ahead of me managed to hide in buildings, some hid in alleyways, but we didn’t stay in town. Wolf and I ran into the woods, with guards trailing behind. I thought we did it. I thought we made it out. Then one of my legs locked up. I’m still not sure what happened, but it just stopped working. I fell to the ground, out of breath and badly hurt. Wolf locked eyes with me as I fell. The guards were a long way behind us, he could have stopped and grabbed me. He was strong enough to carry me out, or at least drag us both to a hiding spot. But he didn’t. Wolf ran away as fast as he could, and left me behind. The guards caught up to me and dragged me back to the lab. I screamed and cried the whole way back, begging for someone to help. I tried to fight the guards, but they beat me into submission with little effort. I was locked at the bottom level of the lab once I got back. I was kept awake for ten days straight, while they kept torturing me for trying to escape. When Tengen wasn’t torturing me, they locked me in a small metal room and blasted an air raid siren in it. On the first day, I was terrified. I thought they might finally kill me, that I might finally die in here, never seeing the outside world. On the second day I got mad. Wolf could have saved me, and he didn’t. He left me behind. On the third day, I began pounding on the walls, screaming for help from somebody, anybody. On the fourth day I started to lose it. I was hallucinating, seeing Wolf taunting me, other people down there with me, all disfigured in some way, and these little bugs crawling all over the place, trying to sting me. On the fifth day, when the siren screamed into my cell, I screamed back. I screamed and screamed and turned my knuckles to a bloody pulp trying to open the cell. I lost count of the days after that. The rest of the experience was a blur of pain and crying. But I do remember how it ended vividly. I was brought before a council of Tengen guys. Five men dressed in black robes with golden markings all over them. I was dumped unceremoniously in front of them by the guards. They left the room after that, and the men in black robes talked to me. I was laying on the floor in front of them, left there like a limp doll. I was so tired. I couldn’t stand up even if the devil himself was after me. Eventually, somebody grabbed me by the hair and looked at me. I didn’t recognize him at first, but then I realized who it was. Vincent Tengen himself had come down to see me. He didn’t look like the statue of himself that was up in the church, or any one of the paintings that dotted the laboratory. He always looked old, but he looked around sixty or seventy. When I saw him in person, he looked older. He looked like he should have died decades ago. His skin was sagging, and his face was incredibly pale. His eyes were what scared me the most. They were black from end to end. A pair of unending voids looked at me, and I was held there to just gaze into them. If I had seen them at a different time, I would have been scared. Now something about it seemed funny. It's like when you’ve been given an impossible task to complete, and then something else on top of that. The something else barely registers, because you’re fucked either way. I had been brought to the lowest point in my life, and when they tried to bring me down further, I laughed. I stared into those ugly, empty abyssal eyes and laughed like a madwoman. Vincent told the men in black robes to shut me up and get rid of me. Once the metal wire touches my lips, I wake up. I used to wake up screaming and crying, but now I just kind of get up. The wires are still in there. Never coming out. All because of him. Wolf is sitting at the edge of the cliff, legs dangling off. It's still dark out, I’d say it's about one. The stars were in full view, all shining brightly down. It looked beautiful out.
“Hey. You up?” Asked Wolf. I sat up in my sleeping bag and nodded.
“You wanna come sit with me?” He asked. I got out of my sleeping bag and took a seat next to him. Both our legs dangled off the cliff. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to fall off. Just one little push is all it would take, and I’d be falling for the rest of my life. I could do it. I could really do it. But it's not like I want to. Not yet. Not for a long time I think. “You still sleep with Billow over there?” Asked Wolf, gesturing to my stuffed rabbit. I nodded. “I remember when we got him for you. You were the youngest one of us, completely terrified when you first got there. I still remember you crying that first night. K-4 made Billow for you so you could have someone to sleep with.” Said Wolf. “God I hope he made it out okay.” K-4 was one of the two people I found nailed to the wall back at Tengen. K-3 was the other one.
“K-5 and K-6 are still alive, they’re a part of a traveling circus act now. K-1 I haven’t seen, same with K-4 and K-3. K-7 is also still alive, she's living in a settlement up in the mountains. K-10… I haven’t seen him around.” Said Wolf. K-5 and K-6 were nice. I’m glad they landed on their feet after all this. It's nice to hear that K-7 is still alive. She deserves it. She got her arms replaced with metal ones, which seems worse than legs. I don’t know about that though, both really suck. K-1 is definitely fucked. Being at the absolute bottom of the food chain will do that to you. K-10, I’m curious about. He might be able to make it on his own, he might not. His power is more or less suicide bombing and then regenerating, so I don’t know.
“Can we talk?” Asked Wolf. Well I couldn’t really give any kind of input, so sure.
“When we were running, and I left you behind… I saw the Tengen guards and I was just too scared. I knew what was going to happen to us if we got caught again, and I ran. There wasn’t a day after that where I didn’t regret what I did. I had so many nightmares where you were dead or-” I slapped him across the face in a fit of anger. He was acting like he was the victim when I was the one who got stuck in a fucking hell on earth for I don’t even know how long. You act like it's something that's going to keep you up at night, you weren’t there! You left me behind, you left me to rot like I was a worthless piece of trash! You're not the one who has to force food through their mouth and spill half of it all over the ground, you’re not the one who still can’t sleep without looking over their shoulder every five seconds, you’re not the one who can’t say a single word without ripping holes in their lips! I wanted to kick Wolf's head off at that moment. I swung my leg at him as hard as I could, but he got out of the way.
“Kate, calm down!” He shouted. I didn’t want to. Why did he get to have the happy ending with the cute boyfriend and nice home life!? What did I do wrong!? I swung my legs at him over and over again, with Wolf getting out of the way easily. “Kate, I don’t want to fight you!” He said, backing up steadily as I swung wildly at him. I finally managed to kick him in the face. Wolf's nose began to bleed as he stumbled back. “Fine, you wanna go? Lets go, bitch!” Shouted Wolf. He grabbed my leg in midair and threw me across the train tracks. He rushed forward, but I kicked him out of the way. I punched him as hard as I could, but he blocked it by holding up his forearms. It hit it over and over again, but it was like repeatedly hitting a brick wall. I kicked him over again, and was about to land another hit on him. (Loud Gunshot here) A gunshot rang out through the night, my leg shattered like glass. My right shin had been completely destroyed, and my foot had been separated from my body, wires and jagged metal coming out like organs. Jintao ran up and hit me with the back of his rifle, knocking me to the ground. He raised his rifle to do it again.
“Wait, stop!” Said Wolf.
“She's just like every other one of these wackjobs we’ve seen! She tried to kill you Wolf! Let's leave her to rot and get on with our lives.” Said Jintao.
“No, we can't just leave her out here, she’ll die! We are god knows how far from anywhere, and you just shot off her leg.” Said Wolf.
“That's the idea.”
“We’ll just take her to the nearest settlement we can find and leave her there. Okay?” Asked Wolf.
“Fine. But we have to tie her up for this.” Said Jintao.
“Okay, you go deal with her. I’ll get her stuff. Let's get going.”
“Wait, right now?” Asked Jintao.
“Yeah. Lets go, the sooner we find the Dreamscaper the better.” Said Wolf. Jintao grabbed a bunch of rope out of his backpack and tied my wrists together with it. Wolf tore up a board from the train tracks and tied me to that. He carried both my backpack and his own, while Jintao dragged me behind him like a sled. This whole thing was not my finest moment. I just got so pissed off at Wolf, I couldn’t help myself. I’m gonna have to get myself a peg leg or something. (Long sigh) I am such a dumbass.
The three of us followed the train tracks until the sun began to set, and even then we continued on. I basically had limitless stamina in terms of walking, but Wolf and Jintao clearly didn’t. Jintao had started complaining three hours ago, then loudly complaining two hours ago. After that, Wolf gave him a piggyback ride. I had put my winter coat back on and zipped it up. Eventually, Wolf had to call it quits. I was impressed that he had made it this far in the most worn out pair of sneakers I had seen. The three of us set up camp near a large cliff face. The rails ran alongside it, and the cliff itself was absurdly tall and wide. I set up my sleeping bag near the side of the cliff, while Jintao and Wolf set up shop on the other side of the tracks. I dug into what little food I had, hiding my face as I did so. I hated it when people saw my wires. It was a dirty, silver badge of failure and weakness. 27 was the only person in years who had ever seen it, and I only showed him that because I knew that one of us would die. Otherwise, seeing that was akin to someone seeing me naked. So I ate away from Jintao and Wolf, simply listening in on their conversation.
“The only other Tengen survivor I get to meet, and they’re mute. Just my luck, huh?” Said Jintao.
“Yeah.” Said Wolf.
“Hey, what's up between the two of you? You acted like she was a long dead love and she barely seems to care about seeing you alive.” Asked Jintao.
“It's a long story. I don’t wanna talk about it.” Said Wolf.
“Well, maybe talk to her if she's going to be traveling with us. Kate doesn’t exactly seem to like you, and she barely knows me.” Said Jintao.
“I don’t think she's gonna forgive me. Honestly, I wouldn’t forgive myself.” Said Wolf.
“She's still here Wolf. Kate has no connection to these people as far as we know, she might hate you, and barely knows me, but she's still here. She could have walked away from this, but she didn’t. She doesn’t even look that beat up, how much could Tengen have done to her?” Asked Jintao.
“She didn’t use to be mute.” Said Wolf. He and Jintao were silent after that, so I decided to go to bed. I layed out my sleeping bag and pillow, climbed into it and drifted off to sleep. I dreamed about the last time I saw Wolf. We had managed to get out of the building, and were running through the town. Some of the others ahead of me managed to hide in buildings, some hid in alleyways, but we didn’t stay in town. Wolf and I ran into the woods, with guards trailing behind. I thought we did it. I thought we made it out. Then one of my legs locked up. I’m still not sure what happened, but it just stopped working. I fell to the ground, out of breath and badly hurt. Wolf locked eyes with me as I fell. The guards were a long way behind us, he could have stopped and grabbed me. He was strong enough to carry me out, or at least drag us both to a hiding spot. But he didn’t. Wolf ran away as fast as he could, and left me behind. The guards caught up to me and dragged me back to the lab. I screamed and cried the whole way back, begging for someone to help. I tried to fight the guards, but they beat me into submission with little effort. I was locked at the bottom level of the lab once I got back. I was kept awake for ten days straight, while they kept torturing me for trying to escape. When Tengen wasn’t torturing me, they locked me in a small metal room and blasted an air raid siren in it. On the first day, I was terrified. I thought they might finally kill me, that I might finally die in here, never seeing the outside world. On the second day I got mad. Wolf could have saved me, and he didn’t. He left me behind. On the third day, I began pounding on the walls, screaming for help from somebody, anybody. On the fourth day I started to lose it. I was hallucinating, seeing Wolf taunting me, other people down there with me, all disfigured in some way, and these little bugs crawling all over the place, trying to sting me. On the fifth day, when the siren screamed into my cell, I screamed back. I screamed and screamed and turned my knuckles to a bloody pulp trying to open the cell. I lost count of the days after that. The rest of the experience was a blur of pain and crying. But I do remember how it ended vividly. I was brought before a council of Tengen guys. Five men dressed in black robes with golden markings all over them. I was dumped unceremoniously in front of them by the guards. They left the room after that, and the men in black robes talked to me. I was laying on the floor in front of them, left there like a limp doll. I was so tired. I couldn’t stand up even if the devil himself was after me. Eventually, somebody grabbed me by the hair and looked at me. I didn’t recognize him at first, but then I realized who it was. Vincent Tengen himself had come down to see me. He didn’t look like the statue of himself that was up in the church, or any one of the paintings that dotted the laboratory. He always looked old, but he looked around sixty or seventy. When I saw him in person, he looked older. He looked like he should have died decades ago. His skin was sagging, and his face was incredibly pale. His eyes were what scared me the most. They were black from end to end. A pair of unending voids looked at me, and I was held there to just gaze into them. If I had seen them at a different time, I would have been scared. Now something about it seemed funny. It's like when you’ve been given an impossible task to complete, and then something else on top of that. The something else barely registers, because you’re fucked either way. I had been brought to the lowest point in my life, and when they tried to bring me down further, I laughed. I stared into those ugly, empty abyssal eyes and laughed like a madwoman. Vincent told the men in black robes to shut me up and get rid of me. Once the metal wire touches my lips, I wake up. I used to wake up screaming and crying, but now I just kind of get up. The wires are still in there. Never coming out. All because of him. Wolf is sitting at the edge of the cliff, legs dangling off. It's still dark out, I’d say it's about one. The stars were in full view, all shining brightly down. It looked beautiful out.
“Hey. You up?” Asked Wolf. I sat up in my sleeping bag and nodded.
“You wanna come sit with me?” He asked. I got out of my sleeping bag and took a seat next to him. Both our legs dangled off the cliff. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to fall off. Just one little push is all it would take, and I’d be falling for the rest of my life. I could do it. I could really do it. But it's not like I want to. Not yet. Not for a long time I think. “You still sleep with Billow over there?” Asked Wolf, gesturing to my stuffed rabbit. I nodded. “I remember when we got him for you. You were the youngest one of us, completely terrified when you first got there. I still remember you crying that first night. K-4 made Billow for you so you could have someone to sleep with.” Said Wolf. “God I hope he made it out okay.” K-4 was one of the two people I found nailed to the wall back at Tengen. K-3 was the other one.
“K-5 and K-6 are still alive, they’re a part of a traveling circus act now. K-1 I haven’t seen, same with K-4 and K-3. K-7 is also still alive, she's living in a settlement up in the mountains. K-10… I haven’t seen him around.” Said Wolf. K-5 and K-6 were nice. I’m glad they landed on their feet after all this. It's nice to hear that K-7 is still alive. She deserves it. She got her arms replaced with metal ones, which seems worse than legs. I don’t know about that though, both really suck. K-1 is definitely fucked. Being at the absolute bottom of the food chain will do that to you. K-10, I’m curious about. He might be able to make it on his own, he might not. His power is more or less suicide bombing and then regenerating, so I don’t know.
“Can we talk?” Asked Wolf. Well I couldn’t really give any kind of input, so sure.
“When we were running, and I left you behind… I saw the Tengen guards and I was just too scared. I knew what was going to happen to us if we got caught again, and I ran. There wasn’t a day after that where I didn’t regret what I did. I had so many nightmares where you were dead or-” I slapped him across the face in a fit of anger. He was acting like he was the victim when I was the one who got stuck in a fucking hell on earth for I don’t even know how long. You act like it's something that's going to keep you up at night, you weren’t there! You left me behind, you left me to rot like I was a worthless piece of trash! You're not the one who has to force food through their mouth and spill half of it all over the ground, you’re not the one who still can’t sleep without looking over their shoulder every five seconds, you’re not the one who can’t say a single word without ripping holes in their lips! I wanted to kick Wolf's head off at that moment. I swung my leg at him as hard as I could, but he got out of the way.
“Kate, calm down!” He shouted. I didn’t want to. Why did he get to have the happy ending with the cute boyfriend and nice home life!? What did I do wrong!? I swung my legs at him over and over again, with Wolf getting out of the way easily. “Kate, I don’t want to fight you!” He said, backing up steadily as I swung wildly at him. I finally managed to kick him in the face. Wolf's nose began to bleed as he stumbled back. “Fine, you wanna go? Lets go, bitch!” Shouted Wolf. He grabbed my leg in midair and threw me across the train tracks. He rushed forward, but I kicked him out of the way. I punched him as hard as I could, but he blocked it by holding up his forearms. It hit it over and over again, but it was like repeatedly hitting a brick wall. I kicked him over again, and was about to land another hit on him. (Loud Gunshot here) A gunshot rang out through the night, my leg shattered like glass. My right shin had been completely destroyed, and my foot had been separated from my body, wires and jagged metal coming out like organs. Jintao ran up and hit me with the back of his rifle, knocking me to the ground. He raised his rifle to do it again.
“Wait, stop!” Said Wolf.
“She's just like every other one of these wackjobs we’ve seen! She tried to kill you Wolf! Let's leave her to rot and get on with our lives.” Said Jintao.
“No, we can't just leave her out here, she’ll die! We are god knows how far from anywhere, and you just shot off her leg.” Said Wolf.
“That's the idea.”
“We’ll just take her to the nearest settlement we can find and leave her there. Okay?” Asked Wolf.
“Fine. But we have to tie her up for this.” Said Jintao.
“Okay, you go deal with her. I’ll get her stuff. Let's get going.”
“Wait, right now?” Asked Jintao.
“Yeah. Lets go, the sooner we find the Dreamscaper the better.” Said Wolf. Jintao grabbed a bunch of rope out of his backpack and tied my wrists together with it. Wolf tore up a board from the train tracks and tied me to that. He carried both my backpack and his own, while Jintao dragged me behind him like a sled. This whole thing was not my finest moment. I just got so pissed off at Wolf, I couldn’t help myself. I’m gonna have to get myself a peg leg or something. (Long sigh) I am such a dumbass.
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