"Overdrive" - Chapter 4
"OverDrive"
(C) 2017 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 4.
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."
- William Arthur Ward
Jake was only dimly aware that the door to his bed chamber had opened. He had no idea how much time had passed, he'd spent most of it awake, tripping his balls off, sweating profusely. He was vaguely certain that he'd been drugged, and at times it felt like he could almost even control it, maybe suppress it, almost. Then the floor would slide out from under him, his eyes would roll back into his head, and he'd go back to chewing on the tube in his mouth, staring at brightly swirling colors that he only distantly knew weren't real.
The tube in his mouth turned out to be made of something nearly indestructible, and if it hadn't been there, he'd probably not have any front teeth left when all this was over.
Amusingly, it almost felt like a fair trade. What he'd been through, for these feelings. Something bad in exchange for something good.
Then the pain began.
At first, it had started out only like his shins had been cracked on a hard surface, leaving them bruised. Aches and pains sometimes showed up at a later point in time. Whatever method had been used to bring him here, he had awakened on the floor, he must have simply banged them both hard on something when he'd fallen onto his stomach.
The pain grew from that, though, slowly travelling up his legs, until all at once, every bone in his body felt like they were all being attacked by a dental drill, boring into them deeply with sharp, painful pinpricks. He expected to look down and see blood, but his eyes weren't working right anymore, he couldn't focus. He imagined wood screws steadily twisting into the holes in his bones, slowly but surely driving deep enough to reach his marrow.
The pleasure combated the pain, deadening it, but still, at times he'd cry out, even just lying there motionless, because the pain hurt far too much.
He dared not struggle against the straps which held him. Occasionally, the pain would intensify to the point where he couldn't hold still any longer, and he'd pull against them, only gently at first, just a twitch, but then he struggled with all of his might. That's how he knew the injuries were real, because the pain would flare even brighter, turning white hot, and his blurry vision of the dim, purple lighting above would shrink, an inky black tunnel moved in around him, his breathing turned hollow, nausea rose, and he finally blacked out.
Jake was awake, now, startled from the sudden loss of pressure on his limbs as the straps released him, they tucked themselves back into the couch, hidden once more.
By no means was he going to try to get up. He'd finally reached a quiet time from the pain, and he quickly shook his head back and forth upon seeing the giant feline staring down at him. The hose trailing from Jake's mouth shook like a cooked noodle. He wanted to beg to be left alone, for just a little while longer, the pain was only dim in the background, but when he moved, he knew that it would come back, screaming hello.
The big cat reached down between his legs, and unfastened what was latched around his dick, sliding it free. He wasn't erect in it anymore, the suction was only in the beginning, to hold him tightly while the cath was forced up into him. Now that cath remained deep in his bladder, throbbing with a powerful ache, and Jake wasn't at all surprised that it had been left inside him. That matched with everything else that had happened so far, and he knew it was no use to try to complain about it. He'd closely inspect it later, maybe try to figure out how to pull it out.
What was in his mouth loosened, and the creature pulled it free. The irritation in his throat from what had been installed in it remained a steady, unforgettable pressure, especially when he swallowed, but that was the furthest thing he cared about at that point. He knew what was coming next, and he groaned in despair.
Yellow eyes suddenly came close then, the cat crouched down and stared intensely at him, almost like he had a trace of compassion, or maybe it was just curiosity. Jake jokingly wondered how much of that it would take to kill him, as he smoothly rose back up to his full height and stepped back, extending a long arm out to wave his paw forward, the message was clear.
Get up. Move.
What? No giant paw to the back of his neck, lifting him up, and shoving him forward? Why the sudden change?
Jake did move, he climbed to his feet, or at least, tried to. His balance was off, and his left leg chose that exact moment to cramp up. As soon as he put his weight onto it, all of the muscles in it contracted, and the pain in them became agony, he grunted and couldn't stop the resulting backward motion, it was about to send him onto his ass, but the big cat simply grabbed his shoulder before he could fall to the floor, righting him.
Jake's weight rested mostly on that leg, until his calf and thigh muscles slowly relaxed. When he let go, Jake just stared at him and swallowed hard on the tube. He was standing, though, and that peaceful, pleasurable place he'd spent what felt like forever in, it beckoned strongly right then, all he had to do to get back to it was shut his eyes, but the reason he'd stood up to begin with was why he wouldn't try to go back.
He wanted to go home.
Maybe that's where the cat was taking him. Alice returned from the rabbit hole eventually, and so would Jake.
He started to walk forward, surprised by how effortlessly his legs carried him, gravity felt... normal, but... it was almost as if he could float on his tiptoes if he wanted to. There was still pain with each step, but it wasn't terrible. What had originally felt like every bone in his body having been broken, now just felt like bad arthritis, and this boosted his confidence. A temporary thing, then, and he could deal with temporary.
As he walked forward into the hallway, the direction indicated, he gained a little more awareness of his surroundings, noticing machine-like noises behind some sections of the walls, cyclical movements, humming, a slight rattle near an air duct. Here and there, on the floor, where it met the sides of the passage, were small tufts of black fur, even the occasional feather, giving the area a lived-in feel. Maybe, lived-in if you owned an eight hundred pound cat that walked on two legs, who's diet consisted of live umbrella cockatoo's.
Jake's steps faltered, but he caught himself this time, the black creature was keeping pace behind him, letting him walk at his own speed, but close enough to catch him if he fell, Jake was certain.
What startled him was a long, tall window on the right, and the view that it looked out on.
Space.
That's when he knew for sure he was on a ship; yet gravity felt completely normal, it remained a mystery, how was that possible?
He was actually in space!
The stars beyond looked so close, all bunched together and bright as the moon itself, they bathed his face in a soft glow, endless depths beside a white structure full of protrusions and antenna, possibly even... other windows, he could almost make them out!
It was breathtaking, and after a few moments he realized he'd stopped to stare. He turned to look back at the cat, and it almost seemed like he was grinning, though who could tell with those completely feline jaws. His irises were golden and round, not a hint of the oval slit one might expect.
He raised his muzzle, gesturing further up the hallway, and Jake complied, his barefoot steps on the warm floor were still ginger and sore. What was locked in his butt was absolutely real, and all-too-present, he wanted to pull it out badly, but... how could he reach it?
So, he wasn't on earth, and if the view from the window was any indication, the ship was docked with a very large structure. Unless that was the ship itself, but the two seemed to be made of completely different kinds of material. What they were in now appeared dark, yet the view outside showed a brightly lit material that was almost white.
A cavernous room waited around a corner just past the window, he had to step high over the edges of what looked to be a pressure bulkhead, Jake stepped through, realizing it was an airlock, the door at the end was open. He looked back and the cat set a paw onto his shoulder. Warm fingers, massive, helped to urge him forward, into what rapidly raised in volume, a terribly noisy din.
Movement, everywhere.
A giant robotic walker tramped across their path, carrying high a large white crate with red glyphs stenciled on the sides, while a loud voice spoke a foreign language from above, echoing off distant walls with a ceiling that was almost unbelievably high.
Creatures... of so many different species, all coming and going, yet there was a distinct familiarity to so many of them. Jake realized they were all two legged versions of animals found on earth, huge and towering.
Some wore clothing of a sort, but most did not.
A long-necked two legged camel eyed the pair of them from nearby, showing obvious distrust, and he paused from turning a wrench so that he could stare. It was large enough that Jake doubted he could even lift it. The fastener under it held a bracket that kept thick black cables in place, on what looked like a rocket engine, it was supported from above on a multi-armed hoist, and various parts and pieces lay in an orderly fashion just underneath. The air carried so many different smells, chemicals and exhaust, animal scents, cooking food, unique spices.
Once again, awareness of his nakedness bore down hard on him, and when he looked down, he saw the blue tip of the catheter poking out of his dick, but it vanished entirely within when a particularly hard step jostled his prostate, what was up in him felt heavy, and it kept making him slightly erect.
That... was not actually happening...
No fucking way.
Two giant white birds, only... without wings... they were interacting nearby. One held in one scaly, dry-skinned, mottled black hand what must have been a computer of some kind, he was pointing at it and they were squawking angrily at each other, the one with the computer raised its crest and repeatedly jabbed at the screen.
They both suddenly stopped to turn and look at Jake, falling silent.
Oh, shit.
This... was just like being at the zoo, except in reverse... and all the animals nearby were stopping to stare at him.
The reason for why seemed simple enough. No matter where he looked, he saw no other humans. The implications were stark and clear, his race was... somehow isolated from all this. Ignorant of what was truly happening, up in the stars.
This!
All this, was going on, right now, and no one on Earth had a fucking clue! And, and... look at all these creatures, they all look like they're from Earth!
No, he realized...
The creatures on Earth were... like from them, and Jake suddenly realized the truth, the sadness temporarily overwhelming the euphoria that the drugs kept bringing in steady supply.
Earth was nothing more than a... habitat. A zoo, with only its atmosphere for walls. A preserved sanctuary that kept ancient wildlife on display, humans were basically nothing more than cavemen, trapped on their planet. Sure, we'd sent a ship up to the moon. That was... nothing compared to all this. A big bottle rocket that stabbed a flag into the moon's stony dry soil, then returned to fall in the ocean.
What a joke!
Jake felt sure the cat walking behind him was smiling now, he was enjoying this, doing what all cats do, feeling smug and superior.
This one really was. They all were. Only... that was very bad.
Why was Jake here?
Oh, no. What if he was headed to some sort of local exhibit? A cage, with clear walls. All these animals stopping by to throw peanuts at him, oh god no, anything but that!
His fears were not long in the making.
Another big cat stood at the edge of the wide isle they were walking down, he had thick golden fur, just like a mountain lion, and he was clearly waiting for something... perhaps Jake. The pressure on his shoulder increased as the cat behind him took a few big steps, passing him up, Jake watched the two of them press their paws together, and they sniffed each other's necks. They talked, growling and grunting animatedly, the one with black fur pointing a wicked claw at Jake, and the golden one just turned and stared silently, eyeing Jake up and down. He shrugged with a very human-like expression, then pointed towards an open doorway behind him.
A peculiar doorway, here, for it was... only human in height, maybe seven feet tall.
The black cat Jake had started to think of as "his" pointed at it, too, when he looked to him for guidance.
Jake took a few steps toward the open doorway, and was about to step inside, when he turned around to look back one last time, at "his" cat. He was standing with an accomplished expression, maybe even satisfied. Jake wondered if he would ever see him again, this felt like goodbye. Maybe... this took him back to Earth.
Dreading he might see the bars of a cage, or an audience, or who the fuck knew... he turned around end entered.
Inside was a spacious room with only a lone, padded green chair in the center, it rode on a short track, there was a groove in the floor, with an articulated headrest and armrests. Somehow it appeared medical in function, almost like he expected disposable white paper to cover it.
Above it was what looked like the lens-measuring system optometrists used for fitting people with glasses. It wasn't the only one, there were five other units that hung from the ceiling in a circle, each a different shape, some with multiple black hoses connected to the sides of their brushed metal housings, trailing down from the ceiling. Light came from a large ring mounted above them all, soft and white. The air smelled fresh, warm and inviting, surprisingly devoid of all the smells he had been immersed in outside.
Jake's vision didn't need correction, maybe this was just to check? What on Earth could this... wait. That phrase no longer even applied, he wasn't on Earth anymore.
Jake climbed onto the chair, once again feeling very naked, the mass lodged in his colon complained loudly, blue was sticking out of his dick again.
He reached down and grabbed it, trying to pull it out, but the odd ache inside his bladder only turned into pain, and he shook his head, annoyed, leaving it alone for now.
This was just like at the eye doctor, he'd gone with a friend once, when he'd been fitted for glasses, the closest unit descended and pressed up against his face.
That's where the similarity ended.
A small nozzle inside coughed cool wetness into his right nostril, the liquid stung, and when Jake tried to jerk his head back out of the unit, he felt a curved arm that had silently descended behind him, pressing up against the back of his skull, keeping him in it.
The nozzle then twisted into his nose, though it didn't hurt much, but the cold pressure went deep, so deep, Jake could feel it behind his eyes, and the accompanying wet crackle made him start to freak out, but when he tried to bring his hands up to interfere, he found two metal bars that were in the way, and the armrests wouldn't let his elbows pull back far enough to clear them, his hands were trapped.
A dull grinding, gnashing sound ensued deep in his skull, then it turned high pitched, it was drilling! Jake's right eye began watering profusely, he gurgled and whimpered, yes, actually whimpered! In terror.
His hands flapped around and he struggled to find a way to free them. What sounded like a gunshot bounced off his head, and the nozzle quickly slid back out from his nostril, the arm behind him released his head and the unit rose up and away. Jake could see, very clearly now, that the nozzle inside it was dripping with blood, his blood, and the subsequent warmth that dripped down onto his upper lip and into his mouth said all that he needed to know.
It... just made a hole in his head. What the fuck did it do that for?
A flicker of static in his vision startled him, he saw bright colors joining together, along with a rapidly intensifying headache, like whatever it had numbed him with was wearing off too fast... but his ears popped, the pain vanished, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he heard the English language spoken to him.
"Welcome, human." A female contralto voice echoed almost too loudly in his mind, and razor sharp glyphs appeared in his field of vision, all in brilliant colors, square windows popped up, overlaying each other, information contained within, mostly in a language he couldn't understand, it scrolled down faster than he could track.
Mostly... he couldn't understand, but then he could , which was the strangest thing. Many of the words were loosely associated with concepts like "begin" and "startup sequence" and "initializing" ... but though he now understood, it was still passing by too quickly to read.
"Congratulations," she said. "You have been drafted for participation in the alliance's assault corps animated wolf assault soldier unit program, the AWASU." Jake suddenly envisioned an animated cartoon wolf, but this all seemed a little more serious than that.
Wait, did she just say drafted?
His thoughts were abruptly silenced when a dozen videos fought for the center of his vision, camera footage taken of, sure enough, wolves.
Participating in... combat.
But doing... things he had seen no wolf ever dream of doing.
A big gray wolf with yellow and orange markings abruptly turned and the air shimmered around it, focusing into a blinding silver bolt that shot into the sky, it struck some sort of futuristic fighter jet as it tried to fly overhead, the engine in back exploded in a shower of sparks and fire, then all forward movement seemed to halt as it exploded like a firework, pieces spinning away violently.
Another video showed a wolf running so fast that it was a blur, a huge rooster tail of dirt kicked up behind it for a hundred feet or more, and it ran headfirst into the center pylon of a bridge, it plowed right THROUGH it, the structure abruptly collapsed.
There was more, and the scale of it all seemed absurd, but it snapped quickly into place when he saw a guy grinning from ear to ear at the camera with his arm resting partly... around the neck of an enormous blue wolf covered in black tiger stripes, its long pink tongue hanging out as it panted, looking happy, the wolf was taller than he was standing! He wore a skintight black suit with gray inserts on the chest. It was open at the neck, but around his was... unmistakably a dog collar, made of black and brown leather... the same that the wolf clearly wore, too.
Jake didn't understand what role he'd have with a giant wolf, surely there were better people than he to train them, he could hardly convince Sparky to take a dump! Besides training, what else could he possibly do? Cheer them on? Fill their water bowls? You didn't have to draft a fucking human from a million miles away to pour food into a bowl...
"I will be your guide through the enlistment process." She sounded... so friendly and helpful, until what she said next.
"Participation is voluntary, but due to secops restriction policy, if you feel that at any point in time you no longer want to participate in this program, simply indicate to me that you want to exit, and your body will be painlessly terminated and destroyed. From this moment forward, under no circumstances will you be allowed to return to Earth. Your home is now with the Alliance."
The words sounded so simple, coming from her, and yet...
It took him a few moments to realize the full significance of what she had just said.
Join us, or die.
Not really too much of a choice there.
"Do you want to continue, Jacob Michaelson?"
Wait, how did she know his name?
What about... holy shit!
What about his life back in New York City? And... and... his job!
Who will take care of Sparky? Did any of that even matter anymore?
He sat there, thinking.
No... it... apparently did not. This was it. His life on Earth was... done?
He felt angry at that, confused, and bewildered. Maybe it was just the drugs, but, somewhere beneath it all, he was... curious.
He thought about it a little bit more.
Maybe he was even a little excited. This could be so much better than a Super Nintendo game.
"Y-yes..." he heard himself say, awkwardly around the tube resting on his tongue.