Underworld: Book 1
A tour of the Facility, and new discoveries.
Thank you everyone who commented:
Tnblossoms
Janemore
Taylor - (Is there some rivalry between demons and vampires?) -Kind of, but you'll find out soon enough. :)
Kiran
Roni Freeze
Page
Alex S. - Thank you! I'm glad you like it and yes, I do take a lot of time to think about what I have to say.
Jazzie
Nicki :P
It really means a lot that you guys take the time to comment and share your opinions. I really appreciate it!
(By the way, the link for the photo from the introduction is at the bottom of the page, for those of you who asked where it was from).
So here is Book 1 of Underworld, and please be patient with me, because there is no gushy romance yet. I'm trying to make this story book-like, which involves a hopefully good storyline that is still being built up. And as you're reading, if you see a bold dialog, that means it is important and you should remember it! :)
(And this is a picture of Demetrius. I usually don't like putting up pictures of characters because I want you guys to visualize what they look like yourselves, but I found this on google and I really thought it depicted what I think he looks like).
Enjoy!
Underworld: Book 1
"The room we are entering now is what we refer to as the inferior containment chamber. Here we keep level one and two offenders here." Anyliez droned in a semi-monotone voice. Until twenty minutes into the tour she had a genuine enthusiasm to show her new officer, Demetrius, around the facility. But due to his lack of interest in her, Anyliez's interest in the tour began to steadily decline. What annoyed her more than being unnoticed was the fact that Demetrius had such an intense desire to learn everything about the facility. He was constantly inquiring about officer chamber this, or prisoner regulations that.
The two walked down a long, closed in stainless steel hallway. On one side there was a wall of clear bulletproof glass that allowed the workers, officers, and scientists to safely view offenders that were imprisoned below. Of course none of this was really necessary: the hallway was suspended thirty feet off the main floor, however this gave Anyliez piece of mind, and she was glad she was in the air rather than on the ground, closer to the criminals.
"Now, ma'am..." Demetrius began. He had been calling her that ever since they first shook hands, and it was beginning to get on Anyliez's nerves.
"Please," she said coolly, "Call me Anyliez."
Demetrius hesitated. "I don't think that would be very appropriate for our working relationship," he replied quickly, his eyes flickering briefly from her face to the glass wall.
Anyliez gave a shallow sigh, and frowned. She wasn't much for formalities, but it wasn't everyday that a Pure vampire humbled himself in front of something so average like herself.
"What is it you were going to ask?"
"Oh yes. These offenders," he said, nodding to the containment chambers, "They obviously aren't vampires and... they don't resemble any demons I've ever seen. What are they?"
Anyliez returned his gaze with a confused look. "They are... mutants." she answered slowly. After a couple of seconds devoid of a response from Demetrius, she said, "You do not know what a mutant is?"
He shook his head.
"Never in your fifty years of training have you come across a mutant?"
Again he shook his head.
Anyliez blinked, quite taken aback from this. Mutants were anything but recent, and it was also slightly unnerving that Demetrius had never learned about them from where he was previously stationed.
"They are..." she began, finding the right words, "Human-made abominations. Disgusting putrid beings designed by the humans to drive us out of their homeland. Or what used to be their homeland. She snickered.
Demetrius nodded, his interest peaked, and waited for her to continue.
"They are not robots, but rather ex-humans that have died or been murdered by body reapers. They take the bodies and alter the DNA to their liking." she paused, scanned the lower holding chambers. "You can tell which ones are earlier-made. They have a poor design, weak abilities, and therefore have been easily captured by New Underworld law enforcement."
She pointed a manicured nail toward a single holding chamber. Inside was a thin, spindly man. He resembled what looked like a typical human, with the exception of the bone-like spines protruding from his back and down the sides of his arms. Sharp barbs dotted areas on the mutant's face and hands.
"Do you see the spines on that one?"
"Yes," Demetrius said, nodding slowly. He noticed how she referred to the man as 'that one,' as opposed to 'him.'
"It can shoot the tiny barbs from its face at an average speed of eighty-two miles per hour. Impressive... if you want to cut open a plastic bag, yes. However, it was completely useless against our skin, and it was evident that the humans had not anticipated our guns, which are three hundred years ahead of theirs. Pity... and it only took us thirty seconds to paralyze him."
Demetrius wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Why do the cowards send over their creations. Are they afraid to fight us themselves?"
"They do not fight us themselves..." she began, "Because they know they cannot kill us. They are weak. So they send their pathetic little minions. But, though some have failed, others that come are much more powerful and have been known to cause chaos." she corrected herself, "minor chaos."
He thought for a moment. "And why do you not kill them? Or perhaps harvest them for blood?" A slow, wicked grin darkened his beautiful face.
"We cannot drink their blood. It is completely toxic to our systems... another fun feature that the humans added," she said sarcastically. "But the thing is, their blood slowly takes on a pale indigo color as it comes into contact with oxygen. It helps prevent.... accidents. And why do we not kill them? Some of them, we do. But our scientists like to experiment with the ones we have in order to better protect ourselves against further attacks."
They continued talking about the subject, Demetrius never seeming to lose interest. Over a course of an hour, they had toured the remainder of the outer holding chambers. It was time to see the inner containment chamber, where the most dangerous offenders were held. For this they required armed guards to accompany them as they walked through the chamber. Unlike the outer holding cells, there was no suspended viewing hallway, so they had to walk on the ground level.
"Stay close," Anyliez said in a hushed tone as they passed through armored doors.
Inside, the chamber was massive. Demetrius was amazed at how such a building could remain discreet in New Underworld. He scanned the walls upward... fifty feet, two hundred feet, until the walls and ceiling disappeared into blackness. Large containment cells held an offender, and each cell was shaped like a cube. Glass cubes.
"Can the... prisoners see us?" Demetrius quietly questioned Anyliez.
"No. It acts like a two-way mirror. We can see them, but they cannot see us."
Demetrius would not admit it, but he was slightly relieved. It would have been uncomfortable to walk along the cells, only to have battle ravaged demons and visually disturbing mutants stare at you. None of the inhabitants of the cells were a sight for sore eyes.
He could tell the level of dangerousness of the criminal, simply by the way it was contained. Often, some cells would have a larger amount of guards surrounding the perimeter than others- and by the looks of the guards, he knew that the cell inhabitants had the ability to dish out some tough shit.
It was only until one of the guards announced that they were at the halfway point, did Demetrius notice one of the largest and most heavily guarded cells. As many as thirty armed vampire guards stood at the foot of the cell. Subtle purple light beams, organized in a grid pattern encased the glass exterior of the cube. Possibly a sort of alarm system.
What Demetrius found more peculiar, was the offender inside the cell.
She was a young woman, maybe twenty years of age, he presumed. She wore a black, floor length gown, that probably originated from the nineteenth century, some seven hundred years ago. By her facial features, she seemed to be of the-human-asian-descent. Her unearthly black hair was tied in a strange sort of pigtail style, and as she slowly stepped under the harsh overhead lighting, her hair glinted shades of deep purple. Bright, alien green eyes were surrounded by thick, coal-black eye makeup and framed by delicate eyebrows. Demetrius could not tear his eyes away from her. She was beautiful... in a supernatural, unsettling sort of way.
And what was also unsettling?
While Demetrius examined her, the woman slowly turned her head and stared at him.
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