I thought it will be my last day to live. At that moment, I somewhat wanted it to end fast. I was tired of the suffering and pain. The abuse, the torture they did to us, it was too much, some of us already gave up before, taking their own lives. I wish this freedom would have arrived sooner, that would mean some of them would be still alive. I could still talk to them, see them, touch them. We had to move on eventually, but we will remember them.

I remember when they dragged me and my cage partner to the stage. We called it Death’s stage. My partner got tripped over the stone stairs, he broke his shin, but nobody cared apart from me, but I was in shackles. He was in pain, but I couldn’t say anything. They just dragged him along on the dirt. One of the rich found him noisy and annoying, so a guard came over. I already knew it would end badly, but who would not scream when they are in such pain. To my surprise, they only stuffed his mouth to silence him.

The stage got lit up, giving us our spotlight for the execution. The curtains slid to the sides, revealing the ‘rich’. They sat there, staring and eating, as if an entertaining play was about to happen. But it was just us, to them, it was the entertainment, to humiliate us before out deaths. I was shaking, the feel of inevitable death, the thought that you will die is horrifying. I started to wheeze, but it felt as if I was suffocating under water. I nearly choke on my own saliva. I broke down, and began to cry.

My vision was blurry, but I could hear them laugh at us, mocking us. They were having a feast, while we could barely stand on our legs from weakness, we were starving. All of us. They just gave us enough food, time to time, to keep us alive and to work for them. We were nothing but tools, walking tools. We were educated early, just so we could read instructions, if you didn’t learn and couldn’t read or write, your punishment came sooner. Being useless meant you are nothing but dog food for them.

Their preacher talked to us. We weren’t considered human to the rich, we were tools and animals to them, they never spoke to us. If they spoke to you, it meant they are not worthy to be in the circle. If you spoke to them directly, it was immediate death sentence. You were either killed on the spot or they tortured you to death slowly, to entertain them. The preacher stopped his little speech to us, to remind us how worthless we are. There was two choices to happen. They either executed us or let all the guards on us, while shackled, to beat us to death with any item, while the rest of my mates watch us die.

They chose the latter. The curtains at the back slid to the sides as well, with all the other people staring at us in misery. I’ve seen both type of execution before, and so did my mates. I gave up at that moment, I wanted to die already, I wished for quick death. Death came that day… but not to us.

The guards went silent before I could hear it as well, a faint scream becoming louder and louder, a raging scream. Then it crashed down, in front of us, onto the guards. The blast propelled me and my partner backward, I fell onto my back, while he fell on his face. I looked up in the chaos, blood spilled on my face. Time felt slow, nearly frozen at that moment, and there was… it? That woman? There was so much dust… but I was able to see enough. A huge woman, she wasn’t human, but… still very human-like. She was dark grey and black, I remember the long hair, the strange tail, similarly to some animal, and the ears all drooped like a sad dog’s ears.

But… those eyes. Those vivid red eyes, with those scarlet lips, her face with that expression of rage. For the moment I gazed directly into her eyes, I’ve seen death. I quickly backed away on the ground as fast as I could, but I was shaking so badly, I could barely move myself. But I managed to crawl to my partner, it made me sure he was still alive. I looked back up to see what is happening in this storm of chaos.

She took all the guards out, single-handedly. She smashed them into the ground, tore them apart, clawed them to death, squeezed them to death. I thought to myself that the guards could torture inhumanly, but this, this way beyond what I could have imagined one could do. She killed all of them with such rage, then she looked at us, at me. I froze in terror and burst out crying when I felt and seen death once again in her eyes. But her gaze turned away from us. We were… spared.

Her body, covered in blood, dripping off her. Her furious stance. Her snarling. All of that, turned to the rich, up on the podiums. She leaped at them, with force that shook the ground. She used nothing but her own claws and hands as the most deadly weapons I’ve ever seen. No mercy was shown. The blood, the guts, the limbs… I froze in shock, how a human could die like this. I even felt guilt toward them, I couldn’t wish such death on anyone.

As soon she was done, she turned around and with a near eardrum bursting, echoing, furious and raging scream, all the blood that covered her was simply blasted off of her as a shockwave. I couldn’t hear for a while after that, there was no sound but this annoying ringing and buzzing in my ears. It disoriented me.

The rest of the guards arrived… to their deaths, as she leaped off the podium up into the air. I couldn’t believe my eyes, that she grew bigger while in the air, just enough that she could stomp on all of the guards. She simply stomped on all of them, as if they were nothing but bugs on the ground. The one that ran for their lives was caught soon, with her bare hands, without any hesitation she picked them up, and squashed them in her hands and threw the remnants of the body away.

She looked at us one more time, her gaze quickly shifted through all of us. But nothing more happened. I believe she was done. Her size was slowly shrinking, then she took her way out of the facility. She walked somewhat calmly, and through the reinforced walls, as if it was… nothing to her, she was unstoppable. But it set us free, giving us a way out as well. No rich, no guards remaining, but us.

I quickly salvaged some of the clothing around to aid my partner, I quickly covered his broken leg as he slowly regained consciousness. I ran to the others, and used a couple of the debris remaining to open the cages to set them free as well. I believe the shock of the moment was fading from me as I started to feel myself slow and weak, my head felt heavy. I passed out that moment. But the others carried me away and helped my partner.

This happened about a year ago. We never knew how our world looks like outside. We were taught it is nothing but pestilence and death. But it is different. There is life out there if you seek it hard enough. After we salvaged all we could from the facility we’ve been enslaved at, we moved out, but seen that there are other similar place to where we are from. Some of them were already destroyed, and we successfully found another group of people not so long ago, who are with us now.

We now live in a warmer place, full of trees, grass, plants, and some animals we’ve never seen before. We have food and we managed to grow our own food. We can survive, and we try to help others who find us. I haven’t seen that strange woman since that event. Does she spare those who are innocent? Are we truly innocent? Why were we spared? Why were they all killed? I do not know what is right or wrong to her. She kills those who kill. What does that make her? Who is she?

I will never know the answer. But whoever finds this, please know the story, that there is always hope for surviving. Do not give up, wherever you are. Know, that there is a chaotic force that is strangely on our side.