Blood Bourbon

I Am a Weapon

Daryl only half remembered the conversation he heard from before until he saw the Hunters, wearing gloves, scrubs and medical masks over their mouths as they guided him around. When it was clear he was awake enough to function, they snapped on the electrical collar and led him around with that. And most of them found every excuse they could to make him feel the electricity thrumming through it.

Time passed oddly.

There were no clocks and the lights were always on, leaving him to count out the moments between meals, between being shoved into testing or some other invasive procedure involving him being manhandled by scientists while his guards watched on. Any sign of resistance was met with pain so vicious his body and mind would shut down, leaving him unable to respond until well after they had finished what they wanted to do to him.

Twice more, they brought him down into the bowels of what he could only fathom was a ship, based on the subtle movements beneath his feet and the odd metal echoes he heard every so often. This time he was sitting in a room behind a window, watching the Sharur pacing around, snarling on the other side. It could see him and it could hear him through a speaker but if it recognized him, it gave no sign.

It attacked the window until the glass began to crack. Both times.

78B was there the second time, hand on the back of his neck, slamming him face first into the glass until his nose streamed with blood and his lip was split, demanding that he command it. But apparently that only worked when the creatures were in the same room with him. He tried. He really did. He was worried about what would happen if they grew frustrated and threw another child in there.

As if reading his mind, 78B pulled him away from the window and half tossed him out of the room, though jerking him to a stop with the leash, sending him sprawling back to the ground in a yelp of pain at the shock of electricity that went through him. "You better figure this out, six nine. We have a couple days before we're close enough for the team to bring us a shipment of fresh chattel. Unless you enjoy watching them die as much as I do."

"Yes sir." Daryl pulled himself to his feet carefully, forcing himself to stay calm, forcing the tension to leave his body and to present only a defeated, obedient stature. If they were on a ship, that meant that they'd be closest to land in a couple days.

"My division may overrule the scientists soon." 78B led him back up from the hallways and stairs. "Who the fuck cares about the rest of it. They have more than enough to study from you. The Sharur's have been a painful failure, but if you can command them, we can use you to accomplish our goals. I want to get you back in there with those bastards. You're going to train them to kill on command."

Daryl shuddered at that, not bothering to respond. He could only picture one person who he wanted to see killed by those creatures, and that thought would not help anything. Daryl felt an almost uncontrollable rage build up in him the longer he thought about it and welcomed the sudden lash of electricity that was precursor to 78B shoving him hard into the wall and pinning him there, forearm pressed to Dary's throat above the collar, cutting off his windpipe.

"You're going to kill on my command, Echo Six Nine. You're going to be a weapon. And you're going to love it."

"Yes sir." His words were painfully choked out.

The man grinned to him beneath that mask. "Your only use, is to wipe as many of those fuckers off the planet. Repeat that. Make me believe it."

Daryl forced his body to relax, forced the fight to leave his body hanging in 78B's grip. "I'm going to kill on your command. I am a weapon. My only use is to wipe as many of those fuckers off the planet."

He was pinned like that, choked and electrocuted and forced to repeat those words over and over until his vision swam before being roughly hauled back along the hallway and shoved into his bed. Only once he was strapped down and an IV hooked up to him, did the collar come off. They left one of his hands free enough that he could grab the bottle of the meal replacement shake they left for him to consume, but not by much.

Daryl felt the effects of the sedative they gave him when he wasn't in the collar begin to take effect, watching the Hunter leave the room. He waited for a moment, before he shifted his arm, reaching over and tugging the needle out of the catheter hub. He slipped the metal into the foam of his mattress, watching as the IV continued to drip before relaxing a bit more.

He had a couple days to figure this out, find a way to get off this damned boat, and hope that he picked the right direction to swim, or row or perhaps he would just try to sink the whole thing and go down in burning glory.

Dary shook his head. He wasn't a hero, he wasn't brave, he needed to run. At least now he knew there was no one else on this ship who he needed to consider. He felt bad for the Sharur's but he couldn't trust them not to eat him, nor did he trust what they'd do once released.

Daryl shifted to the side as a nurse walked into the room, sliding his hand under the blanket and letting out a breath when the man just glanced at the bottle. "You need to eat, Echo six nine."

"Those are all I eat?" He asked innocently, reaching with his free hand for the bottle. They seemed to like it when he listened.

"Yes. Four times a day. This is your last one for the day and I noticed you didn't finish your last one. It's carefully calculated for your activity and caloric needs." The nurse tapped his board, watching him until he started drinking the stuff.

It wasn't horrible but it definitely wasn't something Daryl enjoyed consuming four times a day. But he choked it down passively, finishing the bottle and putting it back on the table. "Sorry, Sir. No one really explained it to me."

"Once you become more cooperative, you'll be exercising, to keep in better condition. With all that comes a little more lee way. Less drugs, less bed restraints and collars. You understand." The nurse picked up the bottle, before giving him a thoughtful look.

"Yes sir."

"Have a good night, Echo Six Nine." The nurse turned and walked out of the room, though the lights didn't flicker off.

It didn't matter.

Daryl could do the math. He had eight meals until he needed to escape. If they stayed on schedule, he would be taken for a couple rounds of blood work and cognitive testing during that time and most likely not another session with the Sharurs.

Surely he could do this. Get to Charlie. His brother would know where he could go to be safe afterwards, surely.