:
|
I like the structure, though if I'm honest, it's not very canon with the game's Rupture Farms, cus the mudokons were happy with their work there.
|
It wasn't really happiness, but if you look at the Mudokons in AO, they just get on with their work despite dangerous conditions. I thought along the lines of a 'keep calm and carry on/enforced kinship/for the greater good' type thing: No-one's getting out, so they may as well try and make things easer for their fellow workers. I think canon was actually quite important in mine, since those sharp of eye may have noticed that Sub is attempting to escape on the same night as Abe. The story in chronological order for the benefit of the confused:
Attempted Escapee #224
By MeechMunchie
RuptureFarms was, by nature, a deathtrap. Sub was a fast thinker, and had so far avoided any serious accidents. Others, however... they were not so lucky. Some of the things he had seen brought him to tears when he thought of them. Mutilated Mudokon bodies, torn to pieces by meat blades. Brothers fleeing, looks of pure terror etched on their faces as they were mauled to death by bloodthirsty Slogs. Distended corpses sprawled across the factory floor, crushed by falling carcasses... He was determined not to let any more of these things happen. He and his friends had taken it upon themselves to teach new recruits to survive, to take care of the injured and keep up the morale of the bereaved. Together, they could dare to dream of better things to come.
***
‘No.’ Sub tried to run forwards as he stared in disbelief, but Jo pulled him back.
‘Don’t, Sub. There’s no point. He’s gone.’
‘He can’t be... He was the one... He was going to...’ A tear rolled down Sub’s face as he knelt down, looking blankly at the body of his closest friend. Bud had always been there. He was the one Sub turned to when everything seemed pointless. He was the one who had started teaching new Brothers to survive. It was going to be him who led them out of RuptureFarms.
‘He died bravely. He saved 4 workers from that explosion. A hero to the very end.’
***
‘I’m leaving.’
‘What?’
‘I said I’m leaving. I can’t live like this anymore, Jo. I can’t stare death in the face every single day. Even with working deaths down, more Brothers than ever are disappearing for Molluck’s weird experiments. I’m leaving and I want you to come with me.’
‘Sub, no. You’ll be killed. Every Mud who has ever tried to escape from this place has. I know what this is about.’
‘Bud was all I ever had apart from you. If he’s dead, we ought to do what he would have wanted.’
‘BUD LIED! You can’t escape from this place. Saying that we would leave someday was just another way to make life bearable. If you really want to carry out his dying wishes, stay here. Since he went, I need all the help I can get keeping workers safe.’
‘He showed me the route...’
‘It was a dream, Sub. ‘Nothing more.’
‘You’re wrong. If I have to go alone, I will. I will escape, and when I do...’
‘Then what? You’ll get help? There is no help. It’s just mud, smoke and more factories.’
‘You’re wrong...’
***
Running. That was all he had left. Sub tried to concentrate on getting as far away as possible, his heart pounding in his chest and his feet pounding into the rusting metal platform. He knew the route better than he knew himself; he just needed to avoid the bullets flying around his head. It was only a matter of time before one of the Sligs got lucky. Reaching the end of the walkway, he took a flying leap across the gap, clanking factory machinery stretching down into the void below.
***
The Sligs were beginning to catch up, but their ammo was running out. Sub put it down to luck that the most of the factory’s Slogs were currently on border patrol, but if he couldn’t shake security soon, he was dead meat. Grabbing on to a steel cable, he swung into a shortcut only 4 years worth of secret searching on long shifts could reveal. Sub scrambled into the dark corridor and took a second to catch his breath, carefully listening for the metallic whirr of Sligs running. There was silence. Peering around the edge of the door, he froze. The baleful red eye lenses of the Slig stared back.
***
Sub tried to brace himself as the Slig slammed him against the wall again.
‘Y’ doin’ a runner, are ya? Normally, we’d have to take you to the Boss, but he’s... busy. So yer ours now. Heheh.’ Dropping him onto the floor, the Slig beckoned his workmates forward. The looming figures raised their guns as they closed in. How long the beating went on he wasn’t sure, but he was determined to go out with some dignity. Bruised and broken, he finally burbled through blood-slicked lips:
‘I wasn’t the first to try and escape. I won’t be the last. And when we leave, every one of you will be punished for your cruelty.’ He got no response other than a rifle butt in the face.
***
Sub was dimly aware of the mud smearing over his face as he was dragged along the the lifeless ground. Roughly, he was heaved off the ground and turned to the sky. Even in his partial consciousness, Sub knew that his journey was over. He was just another corporate statistic. The rope now tied around his neck bit into his skin as he was gently lowered: Slow suffocation was the penalty he would pay for seeing the stars. He was dying, but this was as close to nature as he would ever be. He wasn’t sure if it was the bruises to his head or the rope around his neck, but he was certain he could see something in the moon... Something he recognised... Weakly he tried to raise his paw, failed and collapsed. Darkness swallowed his vision. A Slog barked in the distance as something slipped behind him, swift and silent as a shadow.
I just noticed Splat's judge comment, and I'd like to say
THANKS! I really appreciate it.