Chapter 40 – Reactor Core.
--/Day 13 18:08 Hours/--
--/Level 7-170 Rental Workspace Apartment/--
"You... you're a criminal." Yuni whispered. She stood up, horrified, aghast at the revelation. "You're a freak and a criminal and a monster!" She said, her eyes filled with tears. She clasped her hands together, almost defensively. Torn, his face fear-filled, held out his hands non-threateningly. He was terrified and emotionally hurt.
"No, no... no... no..." he stammered, half weeping. He tried to reach out and touch her, but she recoiled violently.
"Don't touch me! Don't you dare touch me!" She shrieked. Her eyes were filled with streams of tears. Then she turned away from him, her feet clacking on the steps of the apartment entrance. She sprinted from the room, out and down into the workspace and then she was gone. There was a moment of painful silence in the room.
"Yuni..." Torn whispered, not quite believing what had just happened. Then it hit him like a blow. He staggered back, crashing into the table and sending chairs skidding and bouncing across the room. He couldn't hold it in anymore and the grief escaped from him, the pain, the tears and the humiliation. He cried for a very long time.
--/+2 hours 58 minutes/--
--/Reactor Level C-5 Assembly Area/--
The inmates and workers had to push the chain around for the entire length of the Core Shaft and one extra level, to where the unwilling of C-5 were waiting to take over from them. Shore Bound watched dispassionately as the cellmates he'd been forced into with stepped away from the yoke. The huge Nethrek showed no real signs of exertion or fatigue. The Carene and the Tayan, however, both looked ready to keel over and die. Both were supporting each other as they stumbled after the annoyingly chatty Vincent.
Shore stopped and looked back. He was standing in the twin of the C-4 Assembly Area, the inmates of C-5, still groggy from having been woken less than half an hour ago, lined up to take his place. None of them looked at him. He needed to get out of here. He needed to escape this prison. Word would filter through that he had been caught soon, and that meant that they would know where he was. And in here, well... if they found him in here, he wouldn't stand a chance. He narrowed his eyes and continued to follow the other inmates.
--/Reactor Level C-4 Secondary Refectory/--
There was meat in the plate that had Davan's name on it. There was a pair of Etherbren in a glass next to Tenzanin's bowl of gruel. Tenzanin barely had the energy to eat, but he slumped down in the chair, ravenous hunger making him weak. As he tried to desperately scoop the spoon into his mouth, he saw that the Japlanian, Shore Bound, was looking at him. Tenzanin looked away, trying to ignore him. He felt humiliated enough as it was.
Tenzanin could win any fight through speed or skill, could stay cool under the most desperate of circumstances. But this... this prison. This hell. He required more food in his system than anyone else appreciated or would give him.