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Invidia FORTY
Guards were in tow behind them, screaming obscenities at them to make them stop. As if that would work. "Cameron, what's going on?" Madison questioned."Just trust me." The girl rounded a corner in the hallway under the arena, presumably thinking she was headed to a glorious prize. Madison didn't say anything, but she grabbed Cameron's hand and continued running after where they'd taken the girl. Their feet fell flat on stone floor, and each step pounded through Cameron's calves, shooting up his legs. If only he'd done more running on surfaces like this before, he would be all set and ready to go."Stop!" The guards yelled again at Cameron, gaining ground. Their feet thumped together. Cameron heard the jangle of the baton scrape out of the man's belt, and his necked twitched as he knew that the guard would use it on him."Not until you tell us where she's being taken," Madison ran backwards for a moment, her hair whipping into Cameron's face. "No!" The unarmed guard yelled. "Why sh
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"I think that's the cheesiest thing you've ever said to me, Cameron," Madison laughed. "Well, it's true." She put her hand on top of his and kissed it. "Let's get you looked at real quick. Lay back." She peeled his shirt up and inspected his torso. It was bloody, but it didn't look like anything serious, nothing more than bruises. She was mostly concerned about his teeth and how bloody they were. At least one was definitely gone. That guard did a number on him, but she was sad to say they didn't have the time to go fixing those right now. They had to keep going. Cameron argued after a moment, "Come on, Mads. Let's just go. I'm fine." "Well, nothing looks life-threatening, so we'll look at it later after we get out of here. Right now, yes, we need to go." ***** Carly was forced to push down the fears that she had killed all of them. If I'd just gotten here sooner, maybe they-- no, Carly. You can't think like that.
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"What the hell?" Cameron finally realized he was falling, and he was falling fast. He didn't know where he was or where Madison was or where this even was. All he knew was that he was falling. The air around him, blurred with the tumbling from the fall, was multicolored and the air stank. Bad. It smelled like a mixture of bleach, death, and shit. Like a hospital. "Cameron!" He heard Madison's voice in the distance, and she was clearly far away. "Mads! Where are you?" He yelled back. "I'm over here!" He still couldn't tell where here was, but he knew it was where he wanted to be. "Are you still falling!" "Yeah!" "Not much longer!" Her voice got louder, clearer, and the smell became evermore pungent. All at once, he crashed to the ground and instantly emptied his stomach at his feet. His vomit was mixed with blood, and he knew he would never be able to eat that food again. "Shit," he wiped off his cheek. "Where are we?" He looked around, and sure enough, it looked like a hospital
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"Madison! Please come back with me. They don't need Carly and Justin, which means we do." Cameron pointed out the obvious. "Clearly, them being here would mess up the project, otherwise they wouldn't have even bothered. Would they? They'd have just killed them and gotten it over with."Madison turned around, eyes wider than he'd ever seen them. "They're needed for something else.""Is there something bigger than Project Invidia?" Cameron pinched his nose. "Damn," he muttered."There has to be, otherwise like you said, they'd have just killed them off already.""Shit, you're right. We need to find them." Cameron started backtracking."Cam, we fell through the floor. How exactly do you expect us to find them?" Madison put her hands on her hips."Good point. Madison van Buren," he put his hands on her shoulders, steadying them both at the same time, "you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I want you to know that. I want you to know if it weren't for you, I probably woul
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"What the hell makes you say that?" Madison asked."God, that's so like him," he muttered to himself. He walked over to a man. The man was strapped to a table with tubes attached to his chest. He also had a mask over his face, one that looked like an older mask, the kind they used to put over asthmatic patients when they needed help breathing."Cameron," Madison yanked his arm. "Look at me." He turned around slowly. "Why do you say that he's stealing their oxygen?"He gestured at the man's feet. "Do you see that giant metal tank? I can tell that the masks on their face are collecting it. Those tanks used to give oxygen, so what makes you think they can't take it as well?""Except for the fact those people aren't breathing out oxygen. They're breathing out carbon dioxide.""They're not though. I think he's stealing it from their lungs.""How?""Do you see these tubes here?" He pointed to the tubes suctioned onto the man's chest. "I think those are filtering out the stuff Hendrickson do
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"Wait, wait, wait." Madison said. "Hold on. How does he steal all of their oxygen? And how does he know that what he's doing works?""I don't know, but I have an idea who might." Cameron said."Who would that be?""My professor at San Vanjay's, the one who was writing about biomolecular physics.""And how do we know we can trust him?" Madison asked.Cameron gulped, "We don't, but what other choice do we have?"*****"How exactly did they wipe themselves out?" Carly asked the little girl."They made themselves known too quickly.""In what way?"Adalia gave a smile, "Have you ever heard of the Beginning?"Justin worked hard to keep his face as straight as possible. "I think I might have heard it somewhere. Why?""They were the ones who put me here, gave me a chance at becoming a part of the Project."Carly piped up this time, "And was that your choice, to leave?"She smiled sadly at the ground, "Not at first, no. I did not want to leave my mother and my father, but they understood. The
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"Gross, Cameron," Madison jumped back."If you really believe that, does that mean you hate our government?" Cameron asked after wiping his mouth."I don't really feel comfortable answering that, considering who I'm speaking to," Dr. Jackson spoke carefully.Cameron stared, "Do you really think I'm a fan of my stepfather?" He chuckled. "The man beats me. I want to see him in the ground."Dr. Jackson's eyes widened. "Yes, I despise everything about them.""Good," Cameron's face sparkled. A new potential ally amongst all the other enemies in this wretched, fucked up world was exactly what they needed. "We may need your help.""How so?" Dr. Jackson asked hesitantly."I need you to befriend my stepfather," even Madison's head turned when Cameron said that."Why?" Dr. Jackson was infinitely more suspicious than he already was."Because we think he's up to something he shouldn't be, and we have reasonable evidence or whatever it is you say we need in class for a theory, but I can't tell you
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Rock, plaster, and dust covered everything in a thick layer of ick. Justin coughed and spit on the floor, and Carly snapped at him for being gross.During the ceiling falling, and their chests becoming engulfed in choking clouds of dust, neither of them noticed the giant man that fell with the ceiling. The man was gargantuan, with a hooked nose and a scruffy beard, no hair on his head, and his breath was the scent of spoiled milk. He landed softly on the ground, noiselessly, and stalked away down the corridor. The only thing he left behind were footprints settled on the sooty ground."God, what was up with that?" Justin finally finished coughing."I don't know, but look," Carly pointed to the footprints of what had to have been at least a size 14 foot."Geez, who is that? Bigfoot?" Justin followed them, walking carefully so his own footprints did not disturb them.It didn't take long for them to catch up with the beast. He was large, but what he made up for in size, he lacked in speed