Tenuk opened his eyes, only to be assaulted by the colour pink. Not a nice, calming pink, the hard, grotesque pink of toxic flesh. The air stank of weird pheromones, and the first thing Tenuk could think of was that he was vaguely horny. However, that emotion was quickly replaced with a wave of terror as he remembered what had happened. He’d been attacked. Captured. And now he seemed to be strapped down to an operating table. With his chest flayed open.
There was more to it though than being stuck, mid-operation, unable to move. There was a cool air blowing through the room, and Tenuk could feel it on his internal organs. But there was also an even colder sensation, that of metal bars pressing against his insides, keeping the massive hole open.
Immediately, one thought entered his mind. He needed to get out of there.
Luckily, Tenuk had been strapped to an operating table before. Granted, it had been part of some drunken childish escapades, but still, it was better than no experience. Concentrating on his hands, Tenuk’s thumbs became disjointed and flat. Except they didn’t. They turned into rubbery noodles. This confirmed to Tenuk that he was definitely drugged in some way and unable to shapeshift properly. Didn’t matter, he didn’t need full control. Just enough wriggle room to pull his hands free. Thankfully, once his hands slipped out of the leather straps, they returned to their default forms. Two fingers, two thumbs.
Tenuk then made the mistake of trying to sit up. There weren’t any straps across his stomach or chest, but the metal bars had dug deeper into his flesh. He needed to remove them before he could do anything else, and that meant sticking his hands into his own chest cavity.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he felt across the bars, twisting each one to one side in turn. He assumed he must have been on some kind of anaesthetic, as the sensation wasn’t painful, just awkward. Squishy and sloppy. There was blood all over the place, and the sight of it was rather off-putting, but Tenuk needed to remove those bars before he could do anything else.
As the last bar snapped out of place, Tenuk fell backwards, breathing heavily. Already, he could feel and see the wound beginning to close up. It was definitely not something he enjoyed, but he was thankful that he had these weird healing powers.
Now able to sit up and look around, Tenuk was surprised to see that he was completely alone but, thankfully, not completely naked. He still had pants on, but his traditional Spast toga/sash was missing. There were no crazy doctors, no guards, no cameras and, best of all, no deranged Life Goddess. Clearly they must have gotten bored of chopping Tenuk open and moved on elsewhere. Although, to be fair, there didn’t seem to be any sort of… electricity in the room either. Tenuk noticed he was connected to some sort of digital health monitor, but it was completely silent. Did gods need electricity? He wasn’t sure.
After unstrapping his legs, Tenuk managed to climb off the table. There was a single exit, a metal door that stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the walls made of flesh. Even the floor was slightly springy and fleshy. Before Tenuk left, he grabbed a small scalpel, the only thing he could reasonably arm himself with. Since he couldn’t properly shape-shift, he needed some sort of protection.
The door was unlocked, and opened up into a long, dark corridor. There were plenty of other rooms, but most of them were just as dark and as silent as his own room. However, he could see a very bright light coming from the room opposite, as well as moaning.
With a little effort, the door to this new room clicked open. Tenuk covered his eyes at first, a brilliant heat blowing across his face. As he blinked though, he found his eyes were adapting to the hot light, coming from what looked like an imaginary star in the middle of the room. Below it was another operating table. That was when Tenuk noticed the smell of singed flesh.
Rather than wasting time untying the victim, Tenuk rushed to the operating table and tugged at it, pulling it backwards and out into the dark hallway. As soon as he had space to do so, he slammed the door shut, then turned to the poor being strapped to the bed.
“Kayel?”
The yellow plating was instantly recognizable. Despite the intense heat, Kayel’s plating had only burnt on the sharper edges, around his collar and arm plates. His skin however was ashy and flaking off in places, but had already began to heal up now that he was beginning to cool down.
“T-Tenuk?” Kayel gasped for air. “I-it’s s-s-so b-bright…”
“What happened to you?” Tenuk began to untie Kayel’s limbs. Once he was free though, the Skyan didn’t seem to move much. It occurred to Tenuk that the Allbirther had used the Skyavok’s elemental affinity against him. Most Skyans hated bright lights. Which was why many of them wore hoods. Kayel though seemed to be as naked as a Skyan could be, and it was weird seeing him without his brightly coloured stomach wrap and the fabric sash he normally wore around his waist to cover his lower regions.
Kayel twitched, then awkwardly sat up, shivering. “She knew I was a Phantasma. About my… shadowy abilities. Gods, I’ve never felt so helpless…”
“You’re not alone there, mate. Woke up in the middle of open chest surgery myself.”
The Skyan shuddered at the thought, then climbed out of bed. “Do you know where we are?”
“No clue.”
“Are the other rooms…”
“Again, no idea. I’m glad you were in the first room I checked.”
Kayel frowned, then approached a nearby door. As he opened it, he quickly wished he hadn’t, as the room stank of rotten flesh, the occupant inside long gone and no longer recognisable.
“Are we really going to check every room?” Tenuk hissed.
“Yes. If we’re escaping, we’re not leaving anyone behind…” Kayel opened another door. Inside was a dead Spast, flayed open the same way Tenuk had been. “Assuming anyone else here is even alive…”
As Kayel checked more rooms, becoming more sickened with each one, Tenuk decide to look for some sort of way to orientate himself. He headed down to the end of the hall and found a sign, and suddenly found himself feeling rather uneasy.
“Hey Kayel?”
“What?”
“We’re not going to find anyone alive here.”
“Why not?”
“This sign here says that this is the execution ward.”
Kayel blinked. “The Allbirther captured us… just to kill us?”
“Well, you and me maybe. I don’t think the Allbirther would flat out kill one of her own worshippers though.”
Kayel sighed, then checked the remaining rooms. Most of the victims were Skyavok, Ksithans or Banikans, species that were all supposedly aligned with the Thantophor. However, there were definitely a few too many Spasts among the dead.
“Good news at least…” Kayel sighed as he leaned against a wall, trying to regain his composure. “Retvik isn’t here. Neither is Nyssi.”
“Even if we find them though, how do we get out of here?” Tenuk asked.
“I have… an idea, a very risky one. But we need to find the others first…”