Michael woke up in stunning, deafening silence. He pressed a hand against the cold, black floor. He didn't actually know what color it was, because there was no light at all and everything looked black, but he knew that it was cold. After waiting and listening for a few seconds, Michael realized something very disturbing. He didn't hear anything at all. It couldn't just be absolute silence, right? He had read about some experimental technology that detected and canceled out all sound waves that entered them via opposite waves, theoretically bringing a complete void of sound to a person if worn over the ears. Unfortunately, it was quite damaging to the individual's ears, so it wasn't a long time solution at all. After just a few minutes wearing them, they would already begin to deconstruct the detectors and force them to adapt strangely. After an hour or so, every sound just became monotone buzzing.
But if he were wearing something like that, then he would be able to feel it touching him. In fact, he felt nothing but the floor.
Well, one of the best ways to tell would be to make some noise. And that was probably the easiest, too.
Michael slowly peeled his hand off of the floor, listening intently for the sound of skin sticking. When two things stuck together, for instance, a piece of tape, or an oily, sweaty piece of flesh, also known as a human hand, and a piece of plastic, or a frozen stone, they made a sound when forced apart. After repeating it a few more times, Michael still heard nothing.
But that also left him in the same square as before. All it had eliminated was the very small possibility that they were just isolating him somewhere where no sound could reach him, which was impractical anyway for a prisoner.
The thing about prisoners is that they can hear all they want, but until they can get that info out, it's useless. So long as you kill them before they can be rescued, it doesn't matter whether they've memorized your secret evil plan or what-have-you.
Michael slapped the ground.
There was a faint echo in his ear. He frowned.
"Well, what else can I try?" Michael mused to himself, then he silently cursed his own stupidity.
You cracked skull idiot, he thought viciously. In your head, or you might as well tell the enemy our secret plans.
Michael grit his teeth and shut up, then continued trying to think through it.
He let out a low whistle, jarred slightly by the audio feedback, and then went higher. Still an annoying buzz whenever something loud happened, and he hadn't seen any physical change.
Then he shrieked. It wasn't very good, or very long, but it was the best that he could do, and he refused to do any more.
That said, afterwards, although he did suffer a furious headache, he finally heard something.
A voice, whisper-soft, in his ear. Well, not exactly whisper soft. Actually, it sounded more like a normal voice, just faint. Whisper quiet, then? Ah well, it didn't really matter.
"Stop that, human," the voice said. Well, that was getting somewhere.
As Michael prepared to shriek again (Screw his dignity, it was the cracked bone apocalypse. Besides, if you can annoy the enemy, always do it.) something was ripped off of his face. Michael gasped in air suddenly as feeling slowly returned to his face. The cold sensation faded as bright sunlight bombarded his eyes, harsh enough after the dark to be nearly painful, forcing him to squint. At the same time, the sun immediately set to warming his frozen skin.
Micahel looked around, dazed. In front of him was a very upset-looking person with caramel brown skin, springy, curly brown hair floofing out from their head like a miniature explosion or a halo of light, and wearing an over-engineered gas mask adjacent construction over her face. She was also holding something that vaguely resembled a ski mask, but made out of rubber, and with bulges instead of holes for the eyes. It also looked highly technological, exactly like the sort of thing someone would throw together with scraps after zombies took over the world.
Well, except for the fact that it wouldn't exactly work on a zombie.