Chapter 7- Cambiar El Chip

Nathaniel:

I woke up with a start, probably an after-effect of getting zapped with a stun gun baton. I still remember the way my body convulsed as a bazillion volts of electricity hijacked my nervous system and paralysed me, rendering me immobile and utterly helpless.

Clearly, I had been the first to awaken as Vanessa and Azazel grappled with the ropes that held them down. Looking down, I realised our ankle cuffs had been removed; the holes the spikes had gouged into my ankle were worse than I thought, but a yellow ointment that had been applied to it helped with the pain.

"Nathaniel, you're closest to the tray with the scalpel, d'you think you could reach it", Azazel asked me with the most earnestness I'd seen the whole time I was here, wherever 'here' was.

I was reaching for the scalpel when a click followed by a screech from the door announced a man's arrival. I hadn't been able to reach the scalpel, but I had dropped a broken blade of sorts.

"Well, I see my guests have arisen from their deep slumber", he said theatrically to no one in particular. Then, he fixed his gaze on the three of us and said, "why don't you introduce yourselves?" followed by a maniacal chuckle. "Why don't you begin by example", Vanessa smirked brazenly.

"Well, that would not very smart of me, would it? After all, anonymity is one of my best advantages in this little situation of ours", he said matter-of-factly. "And what exactly is this 'little situation' of ours?", I was unable to contain myself any longer.

"You'll find out soon enough", he sang blithely. "Rest assured, none of you will be harmed as long as my plan is carried without any drawbacks".

With a spasmodic jerk, he sprung on us again- probably to pump us with more sedatives- but this time I was ready for it. 

Vanessa launched a blow to his stomach, then used her feet to drag him down to the floor. While I held him down, Vanessa interrogated him or tried to, before a new batch of guards leapt out of the shadows and tied us back with stronger ropes, ones that we couldn't slip out of. Our martial arts training only got us as far as enduring the pain of spiked ankle cuffs and being able to take down the masked man, but a batch of trained guards were too much to ask of our skills.

Alarmingly, the guards didn't stop there. They dragged us out and hauled us into a new cell, at least Vanessa and I weren't separated again though. Despite the bleakness of our situation, I couldn't help but smile at the prize I held in the centre of my palm- the broken blade I had dropped from when I had been trying to reach the scalpel. It reminded me of a Spanish phrase we had learnt in school- cambiar el chip, which is used to describe a change in mindset or way of thinking- in my case, a more optimistic outlook to our situation. I thought about it as I lay awake, but soon sleep came to my rescue and I was submersed into its palace of superficial comfort.