He pulled Eleanor who was desperately trying to catch up to him, she knew she couldn't bother him anymore and needed to contribute in their survival but damn was he fast. She wondered if he ate something that made it seem like he was on steroids.
They made a clean turn at a bend at the last moment causing the footsteps behind them to be delayed for a moment probably to adjust to the turn, it was obvious that the relentless pursuer behind them was that mad woman Tracy.
No matter how much they ran she always kept a steady consistent pace, not too close and not too far. Every time he looked back and slowed down, she'd smile and slow down as well. She had no intention of just catching the easily, she was toying with them.
He gritted his teeth every time he heard her taunting snickers as she jogged casually after them like it was just another walk in the park for her, he would lie if he said it wasn't messing with his head and that was definitely what she wanted.
He cursed again and looked back at Eleanor, "You good Ellie?"
She nodded while swearing, "I'm good but the bitch is playing mind games right now, who the fuck is she acting all high and mighty while toying with a bunch of kids. You're a fucking bully bitch!", she spat at Tracy but didn't dare stop running.
Tracy just laughed at her swearing and picked up her pace a bit scaring the two shitless, Alrick had to lunge Eleanor forward before turning a bit and firing the gun at her while trying to keep his pace. She dodged most of them with ease before casually picking up her pace and running up the wall and flipping over him.
He swore he saw her blow him a kiss before she landed in front him, and sprinted ahead. By the time he realized what she was intending it was already too late. He stopped in his tracks and tried to catch his breath while wiping the sweat on his forehead.
He stood up straight, glaring as Tracy who currently had one arm wrapped around Eleanor's waist from behind and the other holding it's fingers to her neck, her nails had grown to resemble small blades.
She leaned her head closer to Eleanor's while staring directly at Alrick, the smile of pure joy giving him an unsettling feeling. His eyes narrowed as her nails lightly pressed against Eleanor's neck, blood trickled down after.
"Don't do that!", he raised his hand up and pulled it back, clenching his fist and gritting his teeth. As always, she just giggled in response.
"Are you kids done playing tag now? It was really fun, wanna go again?", her grip on Eleanor tightened as she asked the question like an excited kid causing Eleanor to groan in pain, Alrick ran his hand through his hair in frustration as he watched her.
"What the hell do you want?", it was obvious she took Eleanor as a hostage to get to him and oh boy was it working. She smiled and used her eyes to signal to the gun in his hand, he got the message and and threw it to the ground.
"Everything else in your pockets as well", she said. He scoffed and ended up emptying his pockets of the other gun, scalpels, access cards, pill tubes and more salt. He then patted himself down to show that he didn't have anything else in his pocket then raised his hand above his 'head.
"There, I've got nothing on me. Now let her go", If the anger in his eyes could kill, Tracy would be dead four times by now. Tracy laughed when she saw his look.
"Geez, kids these days are really scary. You wanna kill me or something? I'd love to see you try, now follow me", she turned her back to him while still holding to Eleanor. He gritted his teeth and was about to follow he saw Eleanor's fingers that were twitching weirdly.
He realized what she was planning to do and his hands reached behind his back where a tech gun was tucked at the waist band of his stolen pants. As soon as he did that, Eleanor bit down and sunk her teeth into Tracy's arm that still had its fingers against her neck.
Just as intended, Tracy jerked her arm away in pain. Good, she felt pain. Eleanor broke free from her grasp and quickly pulled out the gun in her pocket, the two aiming directly at her face firing in quick succession. By the time the guns ran out of ammo, Tracy's beautiful face was riddled with holes.
Alrick didn't wait to her heal up and immediately grabbed Eleanor's hand and began sprinting with her, but he felt she wasn't running fast enough and looked back to see what was wrong.
His eyes constricted as he saw Eleanor's headless body running with him, it seemed the body hadn't realized it had lost its head, yet. Alrick's mortified face looked back at Tracy to see she was holding Eleanor's head that had a confused expression on it.
He felt himself giving in to the horror as he screamed but didn't stop running with the body in tow, his heart rate spiked and his heartbeat was the only thing he could hear. Then the ringing sound came followed by darkness.
He opened his eyes to see himself standing in his previous spot, his hand behind his back reaching for the gun there. His breathing was ragged as he brought the gun out and stared at it, his hands shaky. Eleanor was frightened stiff as well, her legs giving out but Tracy didn't let her fall.
"You saw it right? A future where you try to go against me, it felt so real. That's what happens when you're being naughty, when you try to be smart", he words made the two flinch and break out a sweat. "Drop that toy and lets start going, take your pills back", she said to Alrick casually while emptying Eleanor's pockets but left the yellow pills in there.
Alrick tossed the gun to the floor and picked up the pills like he was told to, as soon as he did this she threw Eleanor back to him. He could tell she was frightened stiff because of that... vision they both saw and he didn't blame her, he would be lying if he said he wasn't scared at all.
"She's a monster", Eleanor whispered into his ear making him gulp, she wasn't wrong about Tracy. He had to careful from here on out and not try anything stupid, he hated to admit it but giving up was the best course of action. But it was still wise to have escaping at the back of his mind.
He supported her unsteady gait and began walking after Tracy down the never ending hallway, still clearly shaken by what happened. As they walked, he never stopped brainstorming a way to escape from here. Tracy could tell what he was thinking no matter how hard he tried to hide it but didn't say anything, she had something more interesting in mind.
"Do you have any clues as to why you possess such physical advantages", she asked without looking back at him or stopping, he couldn't see her face but he could she didn't have a smile on for once which scared him.
"None... I've always been that way", he answered truthfully since there was no big secret to hide, no ancient family secret or him finding an alien artifact that can grant him superpowers.
"I see... Your mother and father? Nothing special", she asked and she felt that he shook his head in response. They made another turn and kept on walking. "I see..."
"What do you want with us? Why not kill us immediately?", Alrick was just about to ask the same thing but it seemed Eleanor had beaten him to it, he was also confused as to why she hadn't killed them yet.
She smiled as she stopped walking in front of yet another empty wall, he wondered if it would kill this people to make normal doors. She put her hand over the DNA scanner, something Alrick realized he wouldn't have been able to get through even if given the chance to do so.
As the doors opened up and the room lit up to reveal what was inside, the two teenagers faces contorted in horror at the sight before them. Tracy smiled at their expressions as if it was the most wonderful thing to look at.
"Sweetest children, the reason why you haven't been killed yet is because you are invaluable to my research!", She spun and widened her arms facing the two stunned children as if showing off the masterpiece behind her.
The room was dark but bright enough to she clearly, it was large and circular with numerous glass cylinders lined up against the walls on different levels that almost reached the ceiling. The cylinders only left a small upper part to be shown to let anyone curious enough to see what was inside.
Alrick wouldn't stop shaking as he stared at the cylinders, he didn't know if it was out of anger or fear but something was wanting to make him scream at the to of his lungs. His gaze landed back on Tracy before him, his vision slightly blurry with tears. "What are you doing to them?"
"Isn't it obvious? Oh right, your time line is too regressed to understand", she laughed as if it was funny but was yanked back to reality when Alrick grabbed her by the collar and brought his face right next to her. They were basically the same height, not that he was short. She was just tall.
She widened her eyes in amusement and gave a taunting laugh, he gritted his teeth and almost punched that smile off her face but his rational side wouldn't let him do anything stupid. He could only glare at her with his arm up like he'd throw a punch at any moment.