Chapter 357: Prisoner’s Rules
Laz was thrown into a room by himself. While it wasn’t exactly well furnished, it wasn’t a complete shit hole either. The bed and bedding were clean, the paint on the walls while faded wasn’t cracked and there were no weird smells or anything else of the sort.
Sitting there, Laz first decided to check out the collar around his neck that was drawing in his sense when he tried to investigate it. The collar was nothing special, just a smooth and hardened leather. Looking at the small mirror over the sink in the tiny alcove that could be called a bathroom, Laz could make out a small lock that bound it closed.
’Well fuck me... this is an actual bondage collar...’ Laz thought to himself, have... studied such things in the past.
’Bejeweled ones too... No... wait. Are these crystals? And... Ha. I knew it, Runes. Now let’s see... Isa... and Algiz eh? Frozen security? Well I guess it kind of makes sense in a way. Then these crystals must be like the power source that keeps the runes going? This is actually rather ingenious assuming one knows nothing of runes. If you did, then just like that old fairy tail, if I alter the runes ever so slightly, the original layout will lose its effect and I would be free. Especially using Isa as the base and making it a carving. With just two small little scratches, the frozen energy effect would turn into a defensive tool that’s powered by the crystals and would no longer hinder my strength. Hmm... that’s not a bad idea actually...’
Laz quickly got to work, carving the change to the run in his collar with a small piece of wire taken from the box spring on the bed. While he could choose to physically try to fight the collar and break out, altering the runes would lead to a much better outcome. First off, physically trying to break it would cause blow back. The energy in his body was being suppressed by the collar but also used to power the collar. As such, he would have to gather up enough strength to fight the restriction while also trying to blow out the crystals at the same time. Doable, painful and shit could explode, so instead, using his head was the better method.
Not that it was easy either. After inscribed, a rune would be like a tiny fortress. The energy to keep it going would also be used to maintain it’s shape, meaning that normally, the only way to alter it would be to do so when the power was turned off. As such, Laz had to be careful not to make a mistake, otherwise he would risk causing his own power to attack him while he had nothing to defend with.
It took almost two hours until the change was made. Now the collar would act as a defensive artifact, using Laz’s innate energy to do so, but to the outside it would simply appear to be cause by a backlash were he to be attacked. Of course physical attacks wouldn’t cause the collar to activate, but since his energy was free flowing again, his body was once again filled with strength.
Having that taken care of, Laz hesitated but then decided to play the happy captive. Were he to flee right now, it would make him an enemy of almost everyone in the camp and also shut them off from him for life.
’These could make good allies... and the base is promising too. I wonder at how they are allowed to occupy this area as it seems like it was once a military base? Better not to stick my neck out too far I guess,’ Laz finally decided before sitting back on the bed as though he was going to take a nap sitting up.
As soon as his eyes closed, or what felt like the moment his eyes closed, there came a knock on his door.
"Get up and assemble for food."
And that was it. Nothing else happened and no one came in. As such, Laz decided that he wasn’t hungry but was tired. He hadn’t slept in almost two days and he didn’t care what they had to say about it.
So Laz just closed his eyes, turned over and fell asleep without even bothering to change clothes or clean himself up.
It was almost three hours later that another knock came to his door, demanding he open it up. While Laz heard it and was able to sense several people outside his door, he didn’t bother doing anything about it and instead, just covered his head with his pillow.
Of course he also heard when the keys started unlocking the door as several people rushed inside, only to find him in bed, asleep as far as they knew and still covered in both layers of dirt and blood. In fact, the worst part about him at this point was the rather strong sort of earthy and copper like smell his body was giving off. It was enough to make the several guards almost back right out of the room.
"EWW. FUCK. Why was he just thrown in here and not cleaned up first? And is he still bleeding? Hell, looking at amounts of blood on his clothing, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was dead..."
"He should be fine, right?"
"So what if he dies? Just another useless piece shit that we will put out to feed the animals. I’m not sure why the hell the leader has to be so nice to them?"
"You know the rules. Once the collar is on them, they are one of our people, even if they are male. Now go, drag him to the shower and get him cleaned up. I’ll have a word with the scout team so that they don’t let this happen in the future," the mature woman said before directing some of the guards to carry Laz out.
Three of the guards stepped forward and tried to lift him by his arms while moving his legs, but once his full weight was being supported by only two of the guards, both women, they ended up falling back on to the bed.
"Holy shit this guy is heavy."
"How can someone so thin weigh so much?" The two women complained.
"Ugh. Go call up those two and get them in here. You four, stay and watch him. I’ve got other business to attend to, the mature woman said before making her escape. The smell from Laz’s body was almost impossible to bare.
"Uh. Fuck. Forget it. Since you won’t let me sleep, I’ll walk there myself," Laz finally said, understanding that he wasn’t going to be left alone to rest.
The four guards immediately jumped back, their cattle prods and stun guns at the ready. As opposed to using guns, they found these to be much more convenient. And besides which, with their strength sealed, an unarmed guard was as strong as any of the guys they had to watch over. Even the weakest of the girls was in the late stage of condensation. Add to that the strength of their weapons and it would be far more foolish for the prisoners to resist than to fight.
Despite that, the girls immediately jumped when they saw Laz get to his feet on his own and look at them through his blood and mud coated hair that hung limply down his face. Considering his clothing was in tatters, it just added to the crazy vibe he was putting out.
Seeing him stand there as though waiting for instructions, the girls soon regained their barring and escorted him to the door.
"If you play dead like that again, you will be punished from now on. Once your job position is decided upon, you will be given a schedule to follow. Any deviation from that schedule without permission will result in punishment. You strength will be evaluated by one of the elders and based on that, you will be given work to do. So when interviewed, I suggest you speak clearly about all of your strengths and abilities. Failure to do so could lead to a life worse than death. If you wish to kill yourself, just let your group master know so that they can provide you with appropriate poison that will be fast and painless," the guard leader explained.
"You’ll let me off myself just like that? And you’ll even give me poison to do it? Why the hell would you do that?" Laz asked, his voice low, muffled and a bit weak sounding. At least, it appeared that way to those escorting him. In truth, he was just tired and lacked energy.
"It’s much easier this way than having to clean up a blood drenched area or finding your stiff body one morning and having to cut it down off the ceiling," she responded back, stone faced.
"Ah. Makes sense. How nice..."
"Oi, you four. The boss just said you needed our help with some heavy lifting? Why are you now here then?" a somewhat rough voice asked the group of five.
Laz looked up and noticed two rather tall and buff women dressed like the four around him coming towards them. While they were buff, it wasn’t in a disgusting way. Instead, their rock hard abs and well tones arms and legs showed a dedication to working out and lifting that was somewhat rare in women. While they didn’t look like female body builders as they both still had rather plump asses and well developed chests, that was truly the only part of them with even an inkling of fat. Even their faces looked somewhat sharp and well defined. They both had a rather wild, Amazonian like look to them that was hard to describe without seeing it in person. Imagine a woman MMA fighter and just add more to their ass and chest and that about does it.
"Joan, Gia. Turns out he was playing dead. But since you’re both here, take him to the showers if you would and get him cleaned up and dressed up for his eval. I’ve already told him the rules so you both just need to keep him in line. I know how much you both love doing that," one of Laz’s guards said while greeting the two women respectfully.
While not every woman in the camp liked or even respected each other, they all respected Joan and Gia and lovingly referred to them as the titans of the camp. Both were over six feet tall, making them even taller than Laz and their strength was something no one had ever seen before. Besides both being foundation realm infected, they kept on training their bodies in the most intense ways ever. What’s more, during the fighting that led to the camp coming into being, these two had more blood on their hands than anyone else. They were both the physically strongest ones there, but also the most blood thirsty. The only reason they were both still only guards was that they didn’t care much about things other than working out and handling unruly prisoners. It was pretty well known that a lot of the captives who chose to off themselves did so after several run ins with these two.
The girls had thought that Laz was just being difficult by not responding to them earlier and figured that a bit of time with these two ball bashers would teach him better manners.
But what happened after Joan and Gia caught sight of Laz was enough to cause shivers down the guards spines.
They didn’t move forward to rough up Laz or even say anything to him. Instead they just stood there and stared at him, their muscles tensing while their hands reached for the special rods at their sides. The rods they carried had the same shock strength as the cattle prods, but were reinforced to not break when used to beat someone.
And right now, they both felt that being unarmed was a bad idea while observing this half dead male in front of them.
"Hey, what’s with you two?
"Who put his collar on? WHO?" Gia demanded, not taking her eyes off Laz.
"Madam Snow herself did, why?"
"PERSONALLY?" Joan asked now, half yelling and half growling.
"Yes. She was the only one here when we came in. Before that, he had a field collar on... What’s wrong?" The guards looked both scared and timid seeing these two act as if they had just met their worst enemy.
Thinking back, Laz remembered that when they had passed by the building that stood near the entrance, the woman behind the counter ended up changing out his rough, rope based collar for this leather one. Now he understood that the rope one must be a temporary one that’s easy to carry. He wondered why they had changed it out and if they had figured out how strong he was. But now, it was just procedure as being the reason.
"Because. This.. thing... is dangerous." Joan finally said, her hand drawing out the rod.
"Enough. I’m just here to bath so just show me the way," Laz said, walking forward to stand in front of the tall woman and look her in the eye. Gia had also pulled her rod out, but relaxed with Laz’s announcement, just like Joan. For whatever reason, they believed his words without hesitation as well as the look in his eyes.
"This way," Gia and Joan pointed, as though they were escorting a guest and not a prisoner.
The four guards could only look on dumbstruck at how accommodating the ’titans’ were now being.
