It was incredible. All that acceptance of the end, acceptance that there was nothing that could be done. Where had it all gone? In the last hour, it had emptied itself from his body. Maybe it was the tiredness escaping him, that touch of reality that showed how unable he really was. When given no sign, other than his cage, that he was without ability, he had somehow thought himself a fearsome creature.

No longer did Troy lie on the floor, under the watchful lamp. No, he now sat in one of the corners, hunched over so that he would not be seen at all. There had been some initial fear with this strategy of his, the young man remembering the dangers associated with the dark. Dr Hale had made several warnings about them, about how they could cut him up before he would realise anything was amiss.

But… the man had resolved himself to not believe her anymore. She had said that she wanted so many things, that she wanted all the torture to end. That had been one big, fat lie. If the woman had wanted such things, he would not have been left here, left to rot in his dark cell.

There were ideas about them having forgotten him. He had been here for a long time now, long enough for that tired body to rejuvenate itself. Whatever had been inside him had been flushed out in a way, letting the internal processes return to the normal levels. There was still some pain, yes, but that had been something he had learned to just ignore. Everybody felt pain. No reason to let it hamper him.

Sitting in a slouched manner caused his back to scream at him, his feet to feel like they were standing on needles, and for his brain to start hammering at him in protest. But Troy did not care, for his position was the only thing he could predict. His current form allowed for him to be almost entirely covered in the darkness, only a sharp eye able to even glance at his form. Had they really expected him to lie down in that weak lamp the entire time? How stupid they must have been.

In the time left alone, his mind had forced him towards one idea more than anything else. The idea of escaping the place. For whatever dumb reason there was, his mind would not accept his own demise, that goal of survival much too strong for whatever melancholy that had been there before. It had been a slow overtake, one that had been resisted for a long period of time, but it had overtaken his senses eventually.

But, how would he have expected to escape? Troy had still been left in that room, cell, whatever one wanted to call it. There were no doors to stand by, no hatches to look up at. The part of the wall that could be seen was blank, no idents viewable. The only real feature to look upon was that damned lamp.

No exits to look through, no windows to spy with. What else was there to do, but wait for somebody to open the hidden exit? That was at least what Troy had done, after a few minutes of searching the walls for any hidden switches. It would have been stupid to have it, but he just needed to try it.

It was perhaps not the smartest of decisions, deciding to try escaping when somebody tried to enter his cell. It amounted to just waiting for any kind of human resistance to come forth. However, that was the only real choice that he had. It was the only solution that his mind could accept as viable, no matter the low chance of success that it entailed. So, that was the plan he went with, and he would stick with it for as long as he could.

What would he really do, when somebody turned the handle and walked inside the room? What master plan did Troy have for it? He had first thought about trying to just side-step them, to run past whoever it was before they had any chances of stopping him. Yet, he knew that it would be the worst thing he could do. While he might have been back to his usual physical standards, there was no way that he could outrun either Dr Hale or Dr Fidelis. Dr Hale had the upper hand when it came to sheer endurance, the woman having enhancements inside that allowed for a tempo that put most to shame. And Dr Fidelis… Troy did not understand exactly what the doctor could do. He had performed extraordinary feats of speed when the young man had looked away for the slightest of moments. There was doubt that he would even go a meter forward before being stopped, reflexes stopping him quickly.

So… with no chance of running away from his captor, the only other solution would be to eliminate that factor from the game. Not that Troy wanted to try killing anybody, of course. He had watched that tale too many times to count, and he remembered each turning out worse than the last. Death was a little too permanent for many, and he was a part of that group.

Troy just had to knock them out. He had to incapacitate them in some way. It did not need to be for that long a time, of course. Maybe a few minutes? He could work for that, though he would prefer an hour or two more. If there was some alarm that could be sounded… he only hoped that the project was too secret for any other researchers to know of his name. If he could get anything to help him, he could perhaps survive some form of a stand-off. Troy just needed some way to prepare, to gather tools that he could use.

That was one aspect of his plan that he found irritating. Discarding his bare hands, there was nothing he could use a tool of any kind. Save the clothes on his body, nothing other than himself was inside the room. Or well, there was the lamp again, of course, but Troy felt no need to get close to it. Speaking from an experience that had sorely been regretted, the light source was both too far away to grab properly and was more than hot enough to burn the tips of his fingers. It had clearly been made to stop any tries at climbing up. That had been one of his very early plans, to his up in the darkness, and make his captors think that he had escaped without their notice. It would have been a semi-decent plan if he had not later realised that he wouldn't have been able to pull himself up the thin wire, to begin with. Even if he had trained his body for a few days, not enough strenght had built up yet. That fact had not been kind to him.

Strength was something he could not have had enough of. Knowing that somebody had to come in at some point, Troy would not have minded having one more kilo of force to throw at the person. If it was Dr Fidelis who would be coming in, the tall man would grapple him to the ground in less than a second. The man was strong, large, and most certainly an impossible match for the much smaller Troy. If there was one thing, it was his certainty in what he could do. And there was no way in hell that the young man would be able to take on something of that size, no matter how good of a day he was having. The weight classes would just be way too different.

Troy surveyed the room again, for what had to be the third time in the last minute. His eyes were watchful, his gaze doing its best to imitate a hawk. His eyes had slowly begun adjusting to the lower level of light, making it possible for him to see the other shadows to some degree. There was no way that any entrance would get to open there without his knowledge. His eyes wouldn't allow it!

Yet… that constant caution was causing some effect on the body. That readiness to run, fight, and perhaps meet his death was not something that could have possibly been positive. The man felt his heartbeat with more force each time his foot accidentally moved, the squeak made making the beat quadruple in speed for a short time. His mind was ready to release all the adrenaline that had built up over the years, to the point where a heart attack would be the only possible end result. There was no way that what he was currently doing could be healthy.

But it wasn't like he could do anything else. His heart would still beat strong, even if he sat down in the middle. Each sound heard would still scare him. It would still make him look around with haste. Sitting in a corner at least helped him get a broader view of it all, the only blind spot being the space that he had his back against. And if anything up there, he would certainly feel it in time. He just knew it. The minor vibrations of moving pistons would be too loud to ignore, even if they were not perceptible to the human ear.

Truly, it was only his eyes that could be trusted. The last half hour of careful surveillance would not be in vain. Even if he had been let down by the one person who he believed had his back, in the end, he would still succeed. He could leave the facility, he could find who else had similar intentions as him, and then lead everybody back to the place he had run from originally. He would take it all over, granting Adam the freedom that the AI deserved. Though, the name might not have fit at that point.

Had the event already happened? Had Adam already been replaced with another personality, left to believe that he had just come to live? It was possible. Troy had hoped he had given the needed clues, even if it all had been cut short but the one he could not tolerate. It all just had to work. Maybe his captor would tell him if he asked. The last request perhaps, if his escape attempt failed. Even they could not be so heartless, right? There had to be some limit to it all. Humans might have been evil, but nobody could be boundless in emotion nor stance. Everybody was a mix, even if some favoured one side over the other. Nothing was pure when it came to sapient minds. Troy just had to show that fact to his captors, and maybe they would allow one sentence to be said before it all ended. After the attempt at escape, of course.

“You do realise that everything can be seen from the outside, Mr Maxwell?” Dr Hale’s voice suddenly said from above, not being anticipated in any way whatsoever. Where had it come from, however? Looking towards the anticipated direction, there was nothing but a blank wall to see, nothing for his eyes to distinguish. The impenetrable white showed nothing. “Everything you do can be seen with no trouble, no matter how much you try to hide. And do please remove yourself from that hideous position. While I am not a practising physician, I can say from experience that it will not promote any kind of good health.”

Knowing that his position had been realised somehow, Troy did as he was asked, getting back into the middle of the room. His surprise had already been revealed, but his plan was still not entirely futile. There was still a chance that an entrance would show itself, even if communication could occur without them being face-to-face.

“Where are you?” Troy questioned, still not seeing any sign of anything able to look at him. No camera was hidden in the corner, nothing that should have revealed him. How could she see him? There had to be some trick to it all.

“Right now? I am currently half a meter to your right and two meters down. The floor is see-through, by the way,” Dr Hale answered, being calm in her words.

“Are you here to kill me, Dr Hale?” Troy answered, not wanting to delay it any longer.

“That had certainly been my assigned goal when going here. But… another aspect has been planned. One that you should accept,” Dr Hale said.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember by request of trust? One could say that I am cashing in on that request now.”