Chapter Two-Routine Alteration

Two new characters are introduced who take Riley away from her prison.

It started off like any other day.
     Riley was woken up and dragged away to Codas who was very quick at deciding on what to use.
     “Today you are eighteen," he told me after he did some touching a prodding of my body, his voice was so gentle it sent a chill down Riley’s spine, Codas liked to tell her about her birthday every year, there never seemed to be a reason behind why he did it and it almost seemed that he repeated ages sometimes but Riley had no other indication of how long she had been here and decided on basing it on that, for she knew she had been stolen away when she was eight, not that she remembered anything from before that age. After a moment of silence, Codas continued, “I thought that I could give you a little present. I’ve been formulating this concoction and I thought you could be my first human trial. I even made it a brilliant turquoise for you.”
     Riley spat a slur of curse words at him she’d learnt in Russian to try to cover the fear she felt, it just made Codas chuckle before she felt a pinch in her arm and a cool liquid seep into her.
     At first she felt nothing and she thought she was safe. Oh god was she wrong. The pain started up in her toes and fingers, beginning with only a tingle followed by an ice-cold sensation that seized her veins and made her limbs spasm against her restraints, as the feeling travelled up them, invading her head and inching closer and closer towards her heart, she was in so much pain she couldn’t scream, she wasn’t even breathing anymore.
     Riley’s skull felt like it was shattering, her brain imploding in on itself, her limbs shook aggressively and she could feel her lungs freezing inside of her and as the ice reached her heart it felt like a frozen hand was squeezing her heart, not allowing it to beat her frozen blood around her body. 
     At that point, Riley felt the pulls of death, tugging at the corners of her consciousness, and she happily embraced it.

***

“I thought that some crazy, evil organisation would wear some dorky uniform,” Cameron slight Scottish voice rung through the back of the van as he attached the forged security badge to his breast pocket, making the joke to cover how nervous he was about what they were about to do.
     Cameron’s brother, Max, grinned at him with excitement, “better that we don’t have to,” he pointed out jokingly before turning serious and lowering his voice so their driver couldn't hear them. “You need to calm down, Cam. You can do this, we’ll clear your name entirely, together.”
     “I know, but this is big, like really big. We don’t even know what we’re going to find, it could just be a really big f*****g gun for all we know, and we wouldn’t be able to move it. This could all be pointless!”
     “Intel said it was a person,” Max responded, “We’ve got the cuffs, whoever this ‘super weapon’ is they’ll be useless as long as we can get these on them.” All Cam could manage was a nod before staring silently out the window, he needed to do this, he needed to not be thought of as a criminal anymore. He got up to a lot of s**t, and definitely had some issues, but there is no way he could've done that to someone.
     The rest of the drive took all of ten minutes including getting through the gates, when the van stopped Cam and Max jumped out without a word, staring at the complex they had been surveying for weeks now, only from the inside of the electric fence now. With the cover of it being a high-security prison, the building definitely looked the part, towering concrete walls surrounded by tall barbed, electrical wire.
     Together Max and Cam walked into the building without receiving a second glance thanks to the glamour Max put around the two, making them look like two regular workers in the complex.
     This was all the easy part, all they had to do was manoeuvre the place in complete darkness and find the right cell. Thanks to the boys memorising the route and cell number this part of the plan came with no problems, they walked the halls silently coming across many spaced out, glowing numbers signifying the different cells, quickly the two boys found the one that read C03.
     Here came the tricky part. The security badges they had created would get them through any of the doors; however, with a door this highly secured they were unable to get their badges to get through the security without setting off an alarm; however they did have a thirty second window before it did begin. That was why this part of the plan had to be executed as quickly and humanely possible.
     Cam grabbed a hold of his security badge, took a deep breath before quietly counting to three and scanning the badge over the cell number. The cell door slid open and a bright light turned on inside the room revealing what Cam had least expected.
     There, curled up in a corner, was a malnourished girl, her greasy blonde hair hung short around her round face, she had her hands covering her eyes hiding from the harsh light and she sobbed for us to turn it off.
     Cam looked over at Max who looked just as shocked as he felt. “This can’t be their super weapon!” Cam exclaimed.
     Cam’s voice seemed to shock Max out of his stupor, “doesn’t matter,” he replied, panicked, “grab her, the alarm is about to go--” that was when the shrill sound decided to begin and the two boys shot into action.
     Max shot over to the girl and ripped her hands away from her eyes to cuff them and throwing a bag over her head, causing a slur of violent curses thrown at him in Russian as she feebly tried to pull away from him.
     Cam raced to the door and pulled out his gun, shooting the first people who seemed to have responded to the alarm, urging Max to hurry.
     The two boys quickly tore out of the cell, the girl hanging and screaming over Max's shoulder while they both continued to shoot at the people pursuing them in the new light which flooded the halls.
     They ripped out of the building before it could be properly secured and ran for the vehicle. They were almost there; the driver had opened the door and was waiting in the driver’s seat, the van already on.
     Max and Cam had ceased fire as they ran as fast as they could towards the van, and then they were right there, jumping in, when a strangled yell came from next to Cam.
     Max crumbled to the floor, letting go of the girl who went crashing to the the other side of the van, and held tightly to his shoulder as Cam watched blood seep through his fingers.
     Cam let out a string of curses, slamming the door shut behind them as the van raced away and rushed over to his brothers side who tried to push him away, claiming that he was fine.
     "Yeah, once I pull the damned bullet out of your shoulder you will be, move your hand."
     Max refused to budge despite Cam's harsh words, "go check on the girl, then you can take it out. Just check her first."
     With a nod, Cam rushed over to the girl and pulled the bag off of her head.

Riley yelped as light blasted her for the second time today, quickly closing her eyes. It wasn't as bad as the first time, in her cell the light was so bright she thought her eyes would explode, this time it was definitely much brighter than her eyes had been used to in years, but it was significantly more dull than her experience earlier.
     Riley continued to huddle in the corner away from the strange people who had taken her, with the bag off of her head her eyelids weren't keeping out much of the light so she buried her face into her knees, holding her legs to her chest.
     "Hey, um, are you okay?" The gentle voice sounded like it was questioning itself more than Riley, the voice had a strange sound, some sort of accent she figured, she hadn't had much experience with accents other than her teachers Russian so she couldn't place it. "Please stop crying..."
     She hadn't even realised that she had been, but when it was pointed out she hastily stopped, only letting out soft sniffling sounds occasionally.
     "Knock her out and help me, would you?" Another voice called out. That caused Riley to cry out in protest, shooting her head up and opening her eyes. The light stung her eyes and they began tearing up almost instantly, but she refused to close them. For once, she could see her surroundings, or most of it through the blur of tears, and she could know what was coming from her and when.
     Riley's eyes darted around, blinking back her tears so that she could take in her surroundings. She was in some sort of small, black room made of metal; it was completely empty save for the two boys and her. When he eyes settled on the boys she couldn't take them away, there was so much colour. Riley hadn't seen any colour since she had been taken in, years and years ago she thought she would have forgotten them by now, but she hadn't. Both of the people in front of her had shaggy, brown hair and light brown eyes, and they both had pale skin. Their clothes had colours, such bright colours for Riley's deprived eyes, once with a blue shirt and one with white, the white shirted person had a scarlet colour bleeding from the shoulder of his shirt. Neither of the boys had moved since she shouted out, both just continued to stare at her.
     "Where am I?" When neither of them responded she repeated her question in Irish and then again in Russian and in Welsh, hoping they would understand those. After another moment of silence the boy closest to her moved to a black box in the corner that she hadn't noticed and began shuffling around in it, when he turned back around he held a needle in his hand. Riley pushed herself against the wall, trying to get away from the person in front of her, but it was no use as the needle slid into her arm. It felt just like the start of her session with Codas that morning, and even more panic settled over her, but before she could feel any pain, she blacked out.