HALF-BREED: CH. 6 - "HUNGER (GWEN)"

Summary: Autumn makes a new friend and Jimmy plays God with their lives.

Autumn opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness. Where am I? What is this place? Why can't I move? She tried to remember how she got here – wherever “here” was. Hunger and pain. Those were the last things she remembered. Slowly it all came back to her: food deprivation and rape. The Commander forced himself on her in the most vile and violent way possible, burning up her insides and causing her to black out from the pain. And yet he was the one who fed her the first food she'd tasted in several days. But he was also the one who starved her in the first place. Was he trying to be her savior or her tormentor? Her hero or her villain? She tried to wrap her head around the idea that it was possible he was trying to be both.

Whatever plans the Commander had, Erik was not going to save her from them. He was no longer on the ship. She was stuck there with that brute, the one they called "Jimmy." And now she was stuck in some kind of pod, isolated from everyone and everything. Suddenly, the plexiglass-like enclosure opened and she felt a rush of warm air wash over her. She was so numb that she didn't realize just how cold it was inside the pod and she fell forward. 

 

“I've got you! Don't be afraid!”

It was a young human female.

“I can't feel my arms or legs!” Autumn panicked. “I'm paralyzed!”

“You were just in a deep freeze,” the human female replied. “You're not paralyzed. You just need to thaw out.”

She dragged Autumn down the corridor and into a small dimly-lit room. Autumn looked around and noticed it was full of clothes – coats, pants, shirts, boots and lots of uniforms. It was the closet that the Commander made her change clothes in.

“I know this room,” Autumn affirmed.

“Yes, it's a storage closet,” the other female replied. “It's one of my hiding places.”

The room felt warm and slowly she started to regain the feeling in her arms and legs. The other girl looked about the same age as her, with long dark curly hair and brown eyes. She was barefoot and dressed in generic beige pants and a matching beige shirt with long sleeves. They were just like the one she had changed into, just a different color.

“I'm Autumn. Who are you?”

“My name is Gwen,” the girl replied.

“Are you a prisoner here too?” asked Autumn.

“Sort of. They call me a 'Runner'.”

“A runner? What's that?”

“Pretty much what it sounds like. I run and they chase me.” Gwen saw the puzzled look on Autumn's face. “It's this sick game they like to play with some of us, like hide and seek, only in their case it's more like seek and destroy,” she explained.

“So what happens if they catch you?”

“They torture us then set us free again to start the game all over. Mostly it's their soldier drones that chase us. The Commander says it's good training for them to get them ready for battle.”

“Are you in the middle of this game now?”

“Yes, but I try not to hide in one place for too long. It makes it easier for them to track my scent so I have to keep moving.”

“Speaking of moving, I can feel my fingers and toes again!”

“Well that's good because we can't stay here too much longer.”

“How many more of you are there?”

“About a dozen, mostly men and women - alive, I mean. The rest are in stasis, along with all the children. The kids are kept in special incubation pods. I overheard a few of the other adults saying they keep the kids like that because they're still not 'fully formed' and their life force is still too weak to feed on. I have learned not to ask questions about things I don't think I'll like the answers for.”

“Why are they doing this?” asked Autumn.

“They are WRAITH,” said Gwen. “They are hungry. And we are their food source.”

Once the feeling returned to her limbs, Autumn changed into another pair of pants and matching shirt, only they were dark brown. She couldn't find a pair of shoes that fit her so she just went barefoot, as she had done before. She followed Gwen out of the room and they tip-toed through the corridors trying to evade capture. As they turned a corner, they nearly collided with a huge soldier drone guard.

"Gotcha! I win!" he announced, then quickly stunned both of them and dragged them to a holding cell. “Watch them,” the drone said to another faceless drone standing guard by the entrance. “I'm going to find the Commander.”

The guard nodded in acknowledgment then turned to the two women in the cell.

“One of you is going to die,” he said with a hint of excitement in his voice. He was very familiar with this game being played.

A little while later, the Commander marched up to the cell and glared at them.

“How did you get out of that pod, Autumn?” he inquired.

Autumn did not want to answer for fear he would punish Gwen for setting her free. But the Commander reached into her mind with his and saw the mental images of her escape. He then looked at Gwen, staring into her eyes.

“Of course it would be you. You have been nothing but trouble since you got here and quite frankly, I have grown tired of it.” He looked at the drone and ordered him to open the door then stepped into the cell. “You both must be very hungry,” he noted as he circled around them.

“Go to hell, asshole!” exclaimed Gwen.

“Hunger is distasteful,” he remarked. “And so is impudence.” He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off her feet. He held her like this while she kicked her feet around until she started to gag and then put her down. “I could kill you right now and believe me, I want to. But I have something more...effective in mind.”

He looked over at the guard and telepathically told him to take Gwen to an adjoining cell. The guard grabbed Gwen by the arm and pulled her out, then shoved her into the cell next door. He turned his attention to Autumn.

“My race has survived for over 10,000 years by feeding upon yours. Tell me, human, are you a survivor?” Autumn looked at him and said nothing, not sure where he was going with this survival talk though she suspected it was probably something she wasn't going to like. “And you would be right.” He was listening to her thoughts again. “You must be hungry by now, my little supplicant. The rejuvenation pod replenished your life force and your energy, as well as your hunger. But once you emerge from it, the effects can only sustain you for a short time before you must acquire sustenance again. The hunger will return very soon. The question you need to ask yourself is: will I be able to do what it takes to survive? I will give you plenty of time to think about that.”

The Commander turned around, walked out of the cell and said to the guard, “If they escape, I will kill YOU.” Then he sauntered off down the corridor.

“Is he gone?” came the voice of Gwen from the adjacent cell.

“Yes,” Autumn replied. “What did he mean by all that talk of survival?”

“Well, since he brought up the subject of hunger, it means he is probably going to starve us into submission.”

The next day, the Commander returned and Gwen's educated guess about starvation proved to be correct. He stood outside the cell and taunted them.

“Do you know what happens to you as a human when you go without food for an indefinite amount of time? You lose fat and muscle mass as your body breaks those tissues down to keep crucial functions like your heart and nervous system operating. Your muscles atrophy and movement is painful. Your skin cracks. You become deficient in vitamins, eventually leading to uncomfortable things like loose bowels, rashes, lethargy, mental instability and heart failure. If you do not have water to drink, you will be too weak to sense your own thirst and die of dehydration first. Either way, it is very unpleasant.”

For the next two weeks, the Commander would stop by the cells every two days to give his captives water. Dehydration would kill them too soon and he wanted them to suffer. And just as he explained to them on the first day of the food deprivation, they became weak and irritable. He finally had them exactly where he wanted them. It was time for them to choose: life or death.

He noticed they'd formed an emotional bond, so on the 15th day of their captivity he ordered the drones to take them to a special room with a glass door that he'd prepared for their final test – the test of friendship. Only one of them would survive. Which one would it be?

In this room, there was another glass door which opened up to another room. In the other room was a large table on which food was arranged buffet-style. It was piled high with all kinds of fruits, nuts, breads, cheeses and plenty of water. He sat them down in the first room.

“On the other side of that door is your salvation. It's been a long time since either of you have even seen food and I imagine you must both be starving. But only one of you is allowed to enter because as soon as you step through that door, it will close and lock behind you, preventing the one on the other side from going into the room with the food. You will not be able to open the door on either side once you step in. Now, I see that you two have become quite chummy these last few weeks but which one of you will make the sacrifice for the other so that the other may live while one of you dies? It is certainly not a predicament I'd want to be in. Good luck.”

With that said, he left the room, locked the door and stood on the other side to watch them. The anticipation was killing him.

In the room, the girls just looked at each other and then at the food on the table in the other room. They sat there for ten minutes, each not wanting to deprive the other of life but both so crazy from the hunger that whatever bond they'd formed would become irrelevant as logic became twisted from the lack of nutrients required for normal brain function. In the end it was Gwen who made the dash for the door. “I'm sorry,” she said tearfully as she turned around and looked at Autumn before stepping through the door. Once on the other side, she began to gorge herself while Autumn had no choice but to watch helplessly from her side.

The Commander went into the room. Autumn was weeping.

“Human, I am really disappointed in you,” he said. “I thought you were stronger than this. You would sacrifice your own life to save the one of a girl you hardly even know? The Nox really brainwashed you, didn't they? Those dirty pacifists. It's a wonder your own race has managed to survive this long. You let your heart rule your head and make unwise decisions that lead to your downfall. This human part of you needs to be invalidated so that the Wraith in you can blossom.”

“Please, just kill me and get it over-with already!” she cried. “I don't want to live like this anymore. This is not living. This is dying!”

“And that is precisely why I am not going to let you die, at least not yet,” he replied. “No, you are going to live because that is a decision only I can make.” He turned his head towards the door separating the rooms. “Look at her. She must feel triumphant. Too bad it's not going to last long.” He pointed towards Autumn. “Drone, grab her so she can watch the horror show.”

The guard held Autumn in front of him, one hand across her chest holding her arms down and the other holding her head so that she could not look away. The Commander went into the other room.

“Well human, I admire your tenacity,” he declared. “If only the others of your kind possessed this survival mentality perhaps there would be more of them for us to feed on and we would not have to hibernate for centuries at a time.”

He suddenly raised his feeding hand and brought it down hard on her chest. She shrieked and howled as he drained her life, leaving her body desiccated. Autumn wanted to scream but didn't even have the energy to do that. All she could do was cry as she watched her new friend die while she was still stuck there with that mentally deranged monster who seemed determined to make her life a living hell.

As Gwen's lifeless husk fell to the floor, the Commander gestured for the guard to bring Autumn in.

“Enjoy the feast. You need to get your strength back. It's time for a new strategy.”

Autumn said nothing and sat down at the table. The Commander piled some food on a plate and put it in front of her, along with a carafe of water.

“You must eat slowly, one bite at a time,” he instructed. “If you eat too much too soon, it will make you sick and I want you to be well again. So please...take your time. I will be back soon. Do not bother trying to break the glass hoping for an escape. It is shatter-proof and you are being guarded anyway.”

She followed his order and began to pick at the food, not that he needed to force her as she was ravenously hungry. A plain and simple slice of bread never tasted so good to her than it did at that moment. But happy moments like this would become a rarity as the Commander began the slow painful process of her rebirth.

Disclaimer:  The Wraith & Stargate Atlantis are owned by MGM.  Autumn Noxx and “Gwen” are original characters that belong to me.