Artificial

Stuck

I faded into disoriented consciousness slowly. With very little light and sound in my immediate location, it was hard to tell at first. I eventually sat up and rubbed my head, which was coated in a bit of dried blood and some mud. I was a few inches deep in muddy water, making me even more uncomfortable.

As I slowly regained my vision, two black figures became apparent. The image of the two men from earlier flashed in my mind, and I crawled backwards into the curved stone brick wall in instinctual fear. The figures limped forward hesitantly, and as they became clearer, my fear turned into confusion. Two kids.

The first one I saw was the young boy. He didn't look any older than nine years old, and had a look of alertness and slight fear in his face. Behind him, gripping his shoulders and towering over him was a girl. She was older; around thirteen was my initial thought. She looked determined in a way, and clearly protective over the boy, pulling him back away from me. I didn't get much more time for observation before someone spoke.

"A-Are you okay?" It was the boy. His tone was part worried and part fearful.

I squinted at the boy, and looked back down. I put my hands into the shallow water, pressing against the muddy foundation in an attempt to push myself up. But as soon as I applied pressure to my legs, I fell back against the stone wall, sliding back down as the pain from my bruises lit back to life. The agonizing sensation squeezed out a pained yelp from my mouth and I ground my teeth together.

The pair flinched from the cry and took a step back. I grabbed onto the wall with one hand, pulling and pushed down on the ground again with the other. The pain returned when I tried standing again, but I bared through it, suppressing any sounds of weakness through clenched teeth.

I stood. And their reactions were curious.

I probably looked furious ignoring my muscles' screaming at me. More so when I let go of the wall and started taking steps towards them. The girl quickly nudged the boy back behind her, the stone-cold glare aimed at me not faltering. She looked like she was ready to fight. At first at least. As I inspected her more, I realized she was in an even worse condition than I was. She was covered in bruises like I was, but she was also very skinny and pale. Her trembling fists confirmed for me that she knew if this were to really happen, I would not lose.

The boy looked at me with begging eyes. "Please. Don't hurt us..."

I didn't intend to hurt them, nor to even scare or intimidate them. My words emerged from my dry throat.

"I ain't gonna hurt you, kid. Neither of you." My voice was low and decrepit.

The atmosphere relaxed, and I think they both let out sighs of relief. But that one minute of tension was all that my legs could take, and I plopped down into the mud, panting. "What did they do to you?" he asked, as he rushed over to me.

"'They'? You know about them too?" I replied, looking up at him weakly.

"Yeah, uh... they were the ones who threw us down here in the first place. A big man and a shorter man, right?" I nodded, and inspected the damp pit we resided in. Yes, that was right.  I had run away from home, only to be beat up and thrown in here by those two bastards. I squinted as I focused on the several empty chip bags and cans floating in the murky water and thought to myself, where's my backpack?

The boy must have caught my stare, because he then spoke softly. "I'm sorry... we were so hungry, and when they dropped that food in-"

"It's fine," I said, interrupting him. I was more mad over the fact that the bags and cans here were only half of what was in my backpack. Which they stole, apparently. "You guys needed it more than I do."

"Speaking of which," the boy started, turning around, "Samantha, you shouldn't be standing right now. You can't use your leg too much!"

The girl frowned at the boy, and looked back up at me. Then slowly set herself down, taking care not to use her right leg. "Samantha" was certainly on edge. He nodded and sat down as well, glancing back and forth between the two of us.

I rubbed the side of my head, wondering what was going to happen; if we'd survive in here until we were in the condition to escape and who exactly these kids were. But there was one thing I did know. Everything hurt.

Greetings, readers. This is my own little swing at an original story, and technically not fan fiction. This book will be a long term project from me, so you can expect updates being uploaded. At what rate, I'm not completely sure, but I've started us off with five chapters. And I hope these five chapters have been enough to interest some of you into throwing this heap of garbage I've strewn together into your libraries and staying updated with upcoming chapters. Thank you.