Chapter 3- Alchemists

                                              Chapter 3: The Alchemists

I felt something cold against my cheek. My head pounded. I opened my eyes and found my self in a plexiglass cage. It was about the size and height of a small bathroom with a clear spotless window where the bars should be. I rolled over and rose to my feet. I realized that I was dressed in a orange prison jumpsuit. My feet were bare. I peered out the window but the room my cage was in was dark. The only light was from a florescent light built into the ceiling in the cage. 

Nothing else was in there with me so after pacing the room a few times I sat down in the corner. Suddenly the light went out. I stumbled to my feet and pressed against the wall, waiting for what ever was coming. Lights flooded the room outside my cage. The plexiglass window slid down. Two men marched into view. They each wore black body armor helmets and gas masks. One had a metal staff with a cattle prod like attachment on the end. The other held a double barrel shotgun. 

"Come with us." the one with the cattle prod said, his voice muffled by his mask.

I cautiously came out of the corner and got out of the cage. I blinked in the harsh light flooding the room. Then I realized that I wasn't in a cage. It was a maximum security holding cell. The room was the size of a classroom with several other empty holding cells built into the walls around the room. The entire room smelled sterilized. The linoleum floor was cold on my feet. 

 The guard with the shotgun entered a combination on the keypad next to the steel door. He pushed it open with some difficulty and motioned to the other guard who pushed me out and into a long , well lit hallway. As they escorted me down the hall, I wondered where I was and why I was there. I was scared, but I figured these guys wouldn't show any sympathy so I didn't say anything.  We stopped at two steel double doors with a vault style lock on it at the end of the hall. The one with the prod entered a button sequence on a PDA. The doors hissed and swung inward. Icy vapor hit the floor and drifted into the air, chilling the air around us. 

One of the guards chuckled. "You think we should get the kid something for his feet?" he asked his partner. 

"Nah, he'll be fine. Besides, where he's going, he won't need shoes!" the other guard said laughing. The two of them kept laughing as they both pushed me into the room and locked the door behind me. 

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'Room' wasn't the correct term to describe it. Imagine the world's largest freezer and taxidermy museum combined. The entire place was immense. Every surface was covered in ice and frost.  Catwalks lined the walls, icicles hanging off the railing. As I looked around, I saw that there were cells like the one I was in on the ground floor and on the walls, like honeycomb. But something was odd about it. I approved one and wiped off the frost that covered the plexiglass. 

A snarling animal face greeted me. I shouted in surprise and jumped back but I slipped on a patch of ice. I fell on the ground and groaned. I got to my feet and looked at the cell again. It was a tiger. But it wasn't moving. It didn't even breath. Then I noticed it's whiskers were coated in a thick layer in frost. It was frozen. I went to the next cell and wiped it off. A large gorilla like creature with white fur and blue skin was lunging at the glass, it's face permanently frozen in a primal snarl. A placard next to the cell read, 'Yeti. Warning, subject extremely dangerous. Keep cryo frozen at ALL costs.'     I heard clapping behind me.

"Well Mr.Hall, you learn quickly." 

I turned and saw a tall man in a black parka and gloves. His face was framed by a fur trimmed hood.  

"I am Dr.Gideon. Welcome to the Cold storage room!" He snapped his fingers. The same doors that I had entered swung open. Alister, Lance and Matt were thrown into the room. They all wore the same orange jumpsuit that I wore. Dr.Gideon nodded and the doors hissed shut. 

"Now boys, why were you telepathically communicating with Paige?" he asked. 

"Look, she contacted us." Alister replied. 

"And why would she do that?" Dr.Gideon asked with a dangerous edge to his voice.

I shivered in the freezing air of the room. It had to be a cold as a commercial freezer. 

"Look, we don't know why she contacted us, but we had no previous contact with her!" I said. 

The doctor frowned. "Do I have to take drastic measures to get the information I want?" he asked. "I know you know." 

He clapped his hands and the doors behind us opened again. Two massive humanoid figures lumbered into the room, their heads barely clearing the doorway.  Their skin was brown and cracked, like clay. Instead of eyes they had a visor like slits that glowed red. Their hands were as big as me. The feet were roughly the same size and resembled bricks. They lumbered forward and stopped in front of us.

"Golems!" the doctor exclaimed. "Beautiful aren't they?" He cleared his throat and addressed them in a clear, strong voice. 

"Take these prisoners to the freezing room. One is a half werewolf, one is half elf and one is a vampire. The other is a normal human." 

I turned towards him. "What did you just say?" I asked.

"Don't play like that boy! You know as well as I do!"

"What that I'm apparently a werewolf? That's crazy!" I felt- strange. Like a veil was just lifted from my eyes. I was confused. I felt like I just woke up from a dream, only to find out it was real.   

"Yes, Paige messed with you head's didn't she? Mentally influencing you to help her escape. Now, your just realizing what happened. She forced you to help her. She made it seem normal, like waking up on a bus at 11:30 at night when you got on at 7:30 in the morning was normal, meeting up with three complete strangers in a diner was ok. You didn't even think about the situation did you?" he smiled cruelly. "And now you walked right into the Alchemist's clutches. Into my clutches." 

He clapped his hands again. The golems moved forward and grabbed my friends and I by the waist. They held us up in the air. I frantically hit my captor's hand but it was useless. It was solid clay. 

"Take them to the cryo-chamber." the doctor commanded. 

"Hey,you can't do this! We didn't do anything!" Matt screamed. He frantically kicked and punched at his golem's arm, but he might as well have been hitting a brick wall. 

"Ah but you did do something. You aren't human. And anything that isn't human must be eliminated. However, you get the privileged of being frozen instead of execution. The Alchemist's need some cadavers to study."

 He waved his hand dismissively. The golem's lumbered over to door on the opposite wall. It opened, revealing four tall tubes standing parallel to each other. They swung open. The golem put me in one and shut the opening before I could react. Matt was put in the one next to me. Lance was next and Alister was last. I pushed against the tube, hoping that it would give way or pop open. It didn't. The golems lumbered over to the doctor. 

He smiled and took out a remote with a red button in the middle. 

"Just so you know, the freezing process will not kill you. You'll just be put into a coma like state until you get thawed out."

 He smiled sadistically and pressed the button.

Reviews

[Daniel Rodriguez]

I think what you have so far is really interesting (and yes I read all three chapters.)! First off, I think perhaps the strongest scene so far is the opening, and its always smart to have a strong opening, with the nightmare and foreshadowing a villain or monster that cannot be defeated (it really keeps me invested knowing there is something out there in the realm of this world waiting to give the main character a fight for his life). I also think the whole Half-blood thing is a great plot twist! I had a feeling that Paige's explanation was a bit bunk, and your ability to describe a character with quasi unnatural features was good setup for that.

Some of my criticisms are that 3 chapters in, outside of the immediate, I dont really feel like I know this world, I know these characters, nor do I know the plot yet outside of Paige wants to escape and these characters are brought together (that could be intentional on your end and I wont lie, I am dying to know more and read more)

For instance, our hero, you have a great narrative voice in this work, I love the details and some of your word choice and set ups, but I dont yet feel like I know Tyler enough that I could picture a conversation with him.

Also outside of the Golems and in my opinion, the shooting of Alister in the chest (I totally was confused when I read that which is good on your end especially when we reveal he isnt just alive, but that there is a reason he is alive still) , The villains of this group just have a slight generic appeal. Again though, the story is young.

Please continue this story, you are onto something and this story doesn't just have the potential of being publishable, but also finding a mass audience given the proper chance and channels. My advice on continuing this would just be flesh out the personalities of the heroes, the antagonists, and the conflict. But as said, Please continue, I am very interested to see how this story progresses.