The cords tied to her handcuffs went taut for the first time in months and Feng Li felt herself pulled up from the concrete floor she had grown used to since her father left her to die on the battlefield. So much dust still clung to her hair, to her uniform, to the barely-stitched up holes in her body. She stumbled upright without the help of her hands and the steel door before her creaked open to reveal her warden standing there, anger written plainly across his expression.
"There's someone here to see you," he nearly growled out at her as she glanced his way in a silent question. "Someone with connections, you lucky bitch."
Her heart slid into her stomach, pounded hollowly in her gut as the warden yanked again on her lead. The hallway outside was unfamiliar, to be honest, as the last time she had been brought through had been at the hands of physicians, after the holes in her body had been stitched up. It had seemed like a dream at the time, hazy and dark and uncertain.
Now, everything was perfectly clear, too bright against her senses as fear ground them sharper. The hallway was damp somewhere, dank, and wet and voices echoed too easily around her. Some screamed, some begged, but none of them were entirely devoid of terror. These people that she had led into war, that she had led down into this hell, and she was the lucky one being pulled from the pit.
The warden ushered her down around a corner, looking over his shoulder the entire way. At the end of the hallway a steel door blocked their path, guarded by two soldiers looking about as pleased as a pair of hungry lions.
"Watch her," the warden ordered before he reached into his pocket for his key card and swiped it across the reader. Despite the short distraction, both guards stepped up close to her, the nose of one of their pistols pressing in against her ribs. Even as the door swung open and the warden's attention turned fully back to her, the threat remained tucked neatly against her body.
Beyond the door, Feng Li could see a metal table and three chairs, two occupied by men in black uniforms. One of the men was marginally shorter than the other, his dark hair contrasting from his fellow's.
"Bring her in," the dark-haired man ordered, rising to his feet as the warden did just that, tugging her along. One jerk of the cord pulled her away from the pistol and that was reason enough to breathe.
With another tug of her lead, the warden escorted her to the empty seat across the table from the two men. She sat smoothly, trying to watch all three men at once through her peripheral vision as she stared at the wall between them.
"Just holler if you need us," the warden offered as he tied her lead down to the hooks in the table in front of her. "We'll be right outside."
"Hopefully that won't be necessary," the dark-haired man replied with a grimace as he directed his gaze more fully toward Feng Li, evaluating her in a curious once-over.
As soon as the warden disappeared behind the steel door, neither man jumped at the silence and instead let it hang in the air for a few beats before one of them finally spoke.
"Feng Li Wei," he began without much confidence. "I'm Corporal Lee Downs and this is Sergeant Avias Shields. We're with an organization known as the Deacon Project."
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"Awake in a new day our fears have come to pass."
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