Letter Bee
Fish of Oblivion
AndyC
Noctis
Bartimaeus
The metal walls of the container echoed in silence. Thobias sat in the corner, his hand resting on his knee, his back leaning against the steel. He eyed the near-invisible door on the other side of the container, sealed airtight and it's outlines barely distingushable from the rest of the walls. The small slit on the bottom of the door remained closed no matter how much he focused on it. He sighed, and turned his attention to one of the MREs next to him. He wasn't sure why they would give him pre-packaged food instead of using the slit on the door, but he had his guesses. The floor shook a for a second and the dim light on the roof flickered for a second. Then it all went back to normal, the silence enveloping the air. His own breathing and his heart beating were the only sounds audiable. He sighed an turned to one of the meals net to him, packed up in a neat order.
He opened the zipper on the top and the package started to heat up it's contents. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. He's been tying to run away for so long but the luxury always kept him home. Whoever abducted him will make sure that he doesn't have that need at least. They made one hell of a job at making him think so far. 2 days in this enclosed space and you start to go insane. First you lose your sense of time, and your sleep cycle goes out the window. Then you begin to feel the need of socialising, and you start to talk to yourself like some kind of a nutjob. Soon your thoughts are filled with ideas about your suicide, but the room offers little help with it. He tried bashing his head against the wall once, but he ended up passing out and woke up with a headache a few hours later. Or he tought.
Time wasn't exactly he could measure. They took everything from him after he was captured, apart from his clothes. Thobias looked down at his arm where his watch used to be, and sighed as gave up on trying to find any comfort in the cell. He started to dig in the MRE but he kept his eyes on the door. If only someone opened the slit on the bottom he could blink out. He refrained from using the ability in hopes of his captors releasing him, thinking he has no powers, but the plan hasn't yielded any results. Maybe if he kept doing this for a few more days...or hours. His head was filled with chaotic images and sounds in a cacophony and he wasn't sure how long he could endure this imprisonement for much longer. He has slept 4 times since he woke up intially, and he guessed that it was his fourth day in the cell. He did the quick math, but he didn't know where they could be taking him with a train insisde the States that would take over 4 days.
But whoever captured him had a good idea about his powers. He could only remember the initial impact on the back of his headm abd then hitting the ground. Then everything went black and he woke up here. Which means that him hiding his ability may not be the best course of action. He gulped down the last of the meal, and then cramped the plastic foil into a small ball. Maybe it was time to test his abilities and try to escape.
Tobias threw the ball towards the door, and then tried to blink forward to catch it. He expected to catch the ball on the other side of the room, but he found himself falling on his face in surprise. He blinked no more than 10 centimeters, a distance he could've bested by walking. The surprise of not being where he imagined it toom him off guard, and he lost his balance. As he lied on the floor, thinking about what his little experiment entails regarding his future, he began to laugh. It was just a small giggle to begin with, but as he pondered about what comes after he is released, it slowly turned into a maniac laughter. Thought the soundproof material didn't let any sound out, his own laughter echoed in the room for minutes after he passed out of exhaustion.
? minutes later
The container shook violently, and Thobias was awoken from his slumber. He looked the cell, his vision still blurry after the rest. The lamp that was supposed to be always turned on had stopped working and darkness encroached the room. At first he thought that he died, and a calm feeling filled his entire body and thobias closed his eyes. Then a second shake abruptly opened his eyes, and he found himself on the side on the surface that was the wall at one point. Then all things went to hell, and he was thrown around the room violently, his body hitting each and every metal surface multiple times. Thobias could feel his bones cracking under the forces that controlled him at the moment, and he prayed to them to stop. He started to count his broken ribs to pass these painful seconds until the container would eventually stop. "Don't give up on me now. I still need you after this."
Then it slowly stopped, and Thobias found himself hitting the floor of the cell one more time, and it seemed like this time it would stay the floor for a longer time.
24. He counted to 24 broken ribs, which meant that virtually every rib in his bode broke after this violent ride. A warm light eneterd the cell from somewhere, and Tobias had to cover his eyes with his hands and let his pupils adjust to the sudden luminosity. It is weird how your eyes adjust to dim lights so quickly inside dark rooms, but then fail to eliminate the brightness for so long. "Fuuuuck. My head hurts like hell....ugh!" He wasn't sure if he was dead or alive, but the pain opted in the favor of the later option. He looked around the metal container that once used to be a cell, but was nothing more than a heavely warped piece of steel after the crash. A warm orange light shone into the room from a hole on the side of the container.
As Tobias looked out, he had to reconsider his previous decision about pain and afterlife. Maybe you really feel like shit once you get to hell. Because the burning landscape, crashed train carts and burning people sured looked like what Tobias imagined as Hell. A few survivors were escaping the wreck towards a small valley of sorts, maybe a stream from what he could see. The smokescreen thinned by the second, and his lungs started to fill up with the sour substance. He coughed lightly, and covered his nose with his shirt as fast as he could to protect his lungs. Maybe it was jsut a cough now, but he'll surely suffocate if he stays here any longer.
He reached out with his hands to try and fit through the small hole, but he ended up cutting himself on the sharp steel without getting any closer to escaping. "Shit. Just my luck." He looked around the room to try and find anything, but he couldn't see anything apart from a few MRE packs that survived the crash. "These will come in handy." He rooled up the bottom of his shirt, and then ripped it off. He carefully packed the MREs into it, and then wrapped it up to make a basic package that he can carry around. He saw this trick whilst he was smuggling cocaine through a crowded place in a club. It wasn't temporary but it could do the job. Then he stopped the taught right there before progressing any further than the present. "Right. Focus. We need to get out of here, ASAP."
If he wasn't locked up for the last 2 days he might have never started talking to himself, but at the moment, it helped him focus on the situation. And escape was priority. He feeled around the edges of the container but he didn't feel any surface he could grab and peel the steel with. Not like he could, but the idea comforted him. But then it struck him: his power is literal fucking teleportation. "Try and stop me now motherfuckers!" He reached out of the hole as much as he could, and then focused on the thought of blinking as he closed his eyes.
A slight buzzing feel ran through his skin, and then he felt dirt below his boots. Tobias opened his eyes, and almost threw his rations away in his statisfaction with himself. "That's right, Thobias Thane is on the run again! Wohooo!"
He began running towards the direction he saw the other survivors heading when he looked out the hole. He was hoping to find more people like him, teens and adults with abilities who were locked up just like him. A few minutes ago he wasn't sure if he was alone or not, but the large amount of containers was a telltale sign of multiple prisoners. Thobias crossed his fingers, and hoped that he could find people with abilities helpful at escpaing and surviving rather than ones that serve utility purposes.
And indeed, the sight of the stream and about half a dozen of suriviors near its shore welcomed him after he passed an incline. He murmured a small thanks to god and then shortened his trip to the water with a blink. He fell to his knees the instant he arrived at the water, and started to drink from the ice cool water like a maniac. He didn't realize how parched he was before seeing the water, but he probably lost a lot of water back at the train from all that smoke and heat from the fires. As he drank, he felt his broken ribs torturing him from the inside as he gulped down the water.
After he quelled his thirst from the water of the stream, Thobias stood up and looked around. A few people scattered around the place, most of them drinking alone. He wanted to make friends with all those he could, and then get the hell outta here as fast as possible. Naturally he turned to the number one resource people need when they are stripped of all the luxuries that civilisation offers: sustenance. "Hey guys! I've saved a few MREs from the train! Come here if you need some food!" He shouted as loud as he could with his broken ribs and waved his hand for good measures, and hoped that he catched the attention of everyone. He was sure that once they come to get the meal, his addictive personality will do the rest.
