Whatever It Takes To Survive

by Mike Staton

  “Prefer the real thing.” Kat pulled her gaze back to Simon.

  After Hall’d left her hanging with light to see her surroundings, she’d taken the time to study those surroundings.

  The room they’d dangled her in was once a mostly finished entertainment room. The storage shelves she’d been staring at sat across from a couch and loveseat. Before the furniture was a coffee table with the glass missing from its top and a large flat screen television was mounted to the cream colored wall.

  The television was suspended over a wide, black entertainment center that was decorated with plenty of trinkets as well as a couple of gaming consoles and various DVDs and video games. A drop ceiling hung, only partially intact at this point, above to keep sound from drifting far.

  As far as she could tell, the only way in and out was through the door that Hall guarded. Not that she could reach anything from her station, but it seemed to her that the only thing remotely useful in the room for her were the hefty snow globes.

  The prior owner had collected 43, each one from a different state. It was a collection that would likely go unfinished.

  “You’re drifting again, Miss Holter.” Simon snapped his fingers to catch her attention.

  “Easier to f-f-f—“

  “Fuck?” That addition came from Hall. It earned him a quick glare from Simon.

  “Focus when I… I’m not soaked to the bone and half frozen…” Kat shivered for effect. The chain above her made a delightful chiming music for her.

  “Then perhaps after one more question, I’ll leave you in Private Hall’s capable hands.” Simon tapped his pen against the clipboard in a swift staccato of clacks. “He’s quite adept at encouraging people on the brink.”

  “What… what is this?” Kat’s attention shifted between the two men. She didn’t like the thought of being left in Hall’s company. “Hmmmmm? Bad cop, worse cop?”

  “Hardly Miss H—“

  “Cadet Corporal Holter.”

  “Miss Holter.” Simon shoved extra emphasis onto the first word. “Where are you from?”

  “Ka-Katherine Holter. Cadet Corporal. Two-two-four, five-eight, three-eight-two-two.” She repeated her name, rank, and social for him like a prisoner of war.

  Simon scooped his hat from the floor and stood. “You’re not in a war, Miss Holter. Nor are you a soldier. Sooner or later you’ll come to that realization and it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to cooperate.”

  “Could’ve fooled me. You’ve been mighty warlike.” Kat danced on her tiptoes and watched Simon pull his cap on.

  He turned a sharp about-face and walked toward the door and Hall. He said something low enough that Kat couldn’t make out the words.

  Hall nodded. “Of course.”

  “Corporal Simon?” Kat called after him as he pulled the door open.

  He froze, but didn’t say anything to indicate further he’d heard her.

  “You’re not in the right here.” Kat took a deep breath.

  “You’re wrong there, Miss Holter.” Simon looked sideways at Hall. “Break her.”

  He didn’t wait for a reply from the lower ranked soldier and simply stepped through the door and pulled it closed behind him.

  “You’re n-not going to get anything more out of me.” Kat shook her head and fought not to shiver.

  Hall didn’t answer her. His head twisted to look at the bucket by his feet. It was empty still. His gaze came back to her, sweeping over her soaked body. He smirked.

  “What’d he tell you?” Kat didn’t like the silence from the big man.

  He started to stalk toward her. She’d seen big cats move in similar fashion and it unnerved her. She twisted in her restraints, dancing on her tiptoes to move a meager distance back.

  She hadn’t forgotten what he’d done earlier in the day. She’d dished it back to him, though. The bandage on his nose and the blood on his shirt were evidence enough of that.

  “Back o-o-off.” She wished her voice were stronger. The cold sapping her strength hardly helped the situation.

  “He told me to break you.” Hall’s sadistic smirk widened. “Something I’m well known for being able to do.”

  Kat growled at him.

  “Oh, don’t be like that. You enjoyed our little exercise earlier.” Hall stopped just outside of her kicking range. “No need to be nasty. This is just fair play. You got the drop on me, busted my nose up good.”

  “And I’ll do it again. Stay the fuck away from me.” Kat edged her toes back to the very edge of the stool.

  “Nah. I don’t think so. See, you caught me with my pants down, metaphorical like. This time, I’m ready for you. You get me, don’t you, Cadet Corporal?” Hall’s final two words dripped with sarcasm.

  “I also know of professional d-decency.” Kat felt certain it was something he didn’t possess. She also knew this was a tactic of Simon’s to get more information out of her. The asshole was probably on just the other side of the door, listening to everything that went on. He didn’t actually intend to let Hall break her.

  “Your words bite. But we both know your bark is worse than your bite.” Hall folded his arms over his chest, flexing biceps that looked to be the size of her thighs.

  Her gaze darted over the other contents of the room. Nothing jumped out at her as something she’d be able to change into. Several articles presented themselves as potential weapons, however. All she needed to do is get off the chain. “Cut me down and let’s test that theory.”

  Hall shook his head. One hand drifted down from being crossed on his chest to rest on the hilt of his knife. “Nope. Tha’d go against my direct orders.”

  Kat toed the edge of the stool. Her gaze locked to his hip and the knife that hung there. The blade seemed to grow with every passing moment. He intended to cut her.

  “Didn’t figure you to be a knife girl; given the hardware we found you with. Or were you staring at my package. That ship’s sailed, for now.” He drew the knife in one smooth motion. Its gleaming edge caught the light from the electric lantern.

  “You back off and don’t even think about touching me, asshole.” Kat resituated herself on the stool. She wished she could do more than dance on her toes. She did her best to shift to some position that she could strike him and do damage.

  “You’d best be still.” Hall’s tone held a lilting warning. “Wouldn’t want to ‘accidentally’ cut too deep. Simon did say not to kill you, but…”

  Kat froze. Her gaze followed the gleaming blade as he moved it through the air. “You fuck off.”

  “We’re gonna have some fun.” Hall slid forward, closing the gap between them.

  “You’ll regret this.” Kat shifted on the stool. At most she’d get a whip kick in.

  “I don’t think so.” He moved quicker than she’d expected and swept one booted foot against the stool she so precariously balanced atop.

  The stool skittered away from her feet. Kat dropped painfully to dangle from her wrists. A cry of anguish erupted from her lips as her tortured arms bore the full weight of her body. The cold of her soaked clothes and the knife in Hall’s hand momentarily left her mind.

  Hall’s meaty hand closed around a fistful of her hoodie and pulled it forward. His knife flicked out and across her. She didn’t feel the cut at first, just the hot trickle of blood. A burning sensation erupted on her cheek half a second later.

  Kat let out a shriek of pain and frustration. Soon as the knife swept away from her, she bucked her legs wildly. She drove the ball of her foot into Hall’s thick thigh.

  He grunted with the impact and drove the crown of his head into her chin. Kat fell limp for a moment, dazed by the blow.

  Hall’s palm cupped right over her breast, and steadied her from swinging. He squeezed her as he brought the knife back up.

  “Get your fucking hand off me,” Kat shrieked as she jerked her shoulder to no effect. She’d cut his offensive fingers off the first chance she got.

  Her motions froze on
ce more as the knife came up to under her chin.

  “You better settle down. This knife’s very sharp.” Hall smirked.

  “You aren’t going to do shit.” Kat, however, didn’t move despite her defiant words. She’d heard Simon tell him to break her.

  Breaking her could come in a large variety of ways. She stamped down on the icy ball of anxiety that threatened to force its way out of her gut. She stared Hall in the eye instead, envisioning the moment she’d get to gouge them out with her thumbs.

  He flicked the knife away, producing another small cut as he turned away. Hall’s hand left her breast and whipped quickly into her side, knocking the wind out of her.

  Kat gasped for breath, wanting to shout obscenities as he walked away.

  Hall twirled his knife a couple of times with his back to her before turning around. He studied her with that horrifically sadistic gaze as he twirled the knife in his hand. “So many ways to hurt you, but leave you intact for… Other things.”

  Kat ground her teeth together and caused the cut on her chin to dribble blood down her throat. While her swaying slowed to a stop from his blow to her ribs she studied him and caught her breath. His threats couldn’t touch her. She was stronger than he knew.

  Hall slid his knife back into its sheath at his hip and stepped toward her. “Time to show you what I can do with just my hands.”

  Kat snapped her leg out and drove the ball of her foot into his side. She sank the kick hard, but also set herself to spinning. She knew she’d not actually done any damage.

  Hall grunted with the impact and moved back out of the range of her kicks, however ineffective they were. “Keep on fighting.”

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” She spit at him and twisted herself hard in an attempt to stop her spinning early. She rotated a quarter turn before swinging back the opposite direction.

  “Oh how playful. Thank you for the show.” Hall smirked and watched her.

  Kat glared at him and shivered.

  Hall took a step closer and drew his knife.

  “Stay the fuck away,” Kat demanded. The raised knife was the sole thing that kept her from kicking at him the moment he stepped into range. “Keep your hands off me.”

  “Not part of our little agreement.” Hall smirked. “Not that we’ve got a formal agreement.”

  Kat’s eyes followed the dancing movement of the blade before her. “Aren’t you supposed to be further interrogating me?”

  “That’ll come.” Hall moved a couple steps closer and paused at the sound of something from the other room.

  In one motion, Kat whipped her legs up and drove both her heels into his chest. She thrust with all her strength, but her hanging state robbed her of any true power. It drove her back on the chain like the weight of a pendulum being pushed back.

  Hall clapped his empty hand against her ankles, knocking them painfully together, as he stepped to the side. He shoved hard enough that she didn’t just move backward from her own power, but also set to spiraling dizzily fast.

  The room blurred one direction and Kat clamped her eyes closed. The motion set her equilibrium on edge and dizziness almost immediately set in.

  She opened her eyes immediately as she slowed and started to spin back the opposite direction. After a few turns her world seemed to be wobbling on its own, despite her relative motion ceasing.

  It took her longer than she would have liked to realize she could see the door, but not Hall. He wasn’t precisely the stealthiest of people, and his disappearance bothered her. “Where the hell did you get off to?”

  The blow to her floating ribs knocked the wind out of her sails. Her side screamed in protest that her lungs couldn’t duplicate. Her eyes slammed closed as she gasped and rocked on her chain.

  The shock to her lower back, dangerously close to her kidney, produced a bark of pain. She could feel tears, hot and unwanted, squeeze through her tightly closed eyelids.

  Hall’s ham-sized fists rained blows, less precise than the first two, into her. She rocked with each impact. Pained outbursts ripped out of her mouth with nearly each blow.

  When they finally stopped, Kat let out a soft whimper. She waited for the next, solid blow to come. And after what seemed to be ages of nothing, she thought her brief stint as a human punching bag was through.

  She opened her eyes. Her tears blurred the room and her shuddering breaths kept everything vibrating. She could easily see the door and the snow globe collection, but no Hall.

  Kat twisted her aching and protesting body to look for him. He slithered into her vision from the left.

  “Are you feeling more talkative?” He brazenly asked from well within her kicking range.

  Kat sucked in a shuddering breath with lungs that didn’t want to stretch her ribs. Did that mean he’d broken one? She let it out just as evenly, calming herself.

  He’d beaten her. He’d wailed on her and, undoubtedly, left bruises aplenty on her body. He’d possibly done even worse damage. She certainly felt the ache of the saucer-sized fists and the lingering effect of having them smashed against her.

  But he’d not broken her. She opened her mouth, embracing the fire that he’d failed to smother. She murmured, near silently, “Fuck you.”

  Hall automatically dipped in closer. “What?”

  Kat yanked herself up on the chain. Despite a disparaging pop from one shoulder and protest from the rest of her body that drove her to see spots, she whipped out a fierce snap-kick into Hall’s face.

  The ball of her barefoot connected with his nose once more. He staggered backward so hard he lost his balance and toppled to his ass. Fresh, hot, red blood splattered across his front.

  “You will keep your filthy hands off me,” she growled at him.

  It took him several seconds, maybe even a minute, to get back up. His nose smeared bright scarlet down the front of his face. “You done made a mistake, little bitch.”

  Any amusement there’d been before in his demeanor had fled after her assault. His face twisted in a fit of anger as he stepped into her. Both hands rose into a boxer’s guard and he casually swept her kick away. In the same movement he twisted and drove one solid punch into the meat of her thigh.

  The impact drove a spike of pain right through her leg. In the outside of her thigh and out the inside and everything in between felt like it’d caught fire. For all of a moment before her entire leg went numb.

  Kat’s gaze snapped down to make sure her leg hadn’t simply fallen off and caught Hall’s hook across the edge of her chin. The basement zoomed away from her down a dark tunnel. She gasped and fought her way back down the tunnel to full consciousness.

  The world snapped back into focus with pain and the realization Hall’d moved from in front of her once more. She focused for a moment and heard his sputtering, wet breathing behind her a moment before his rough hands closed painfully on her hips.

  “Get off!” Her words held more strength than she felt with the beating she’d taken and the near trip into unconsciousness.

  Hall ignored her and pulled her hard against him. His bloody spittle speckled her neck as he breathed on her. One hand pinned her against his hips as the other brashly fumbled its way under her hoodie and shirt.

  She reacted without thinking and drove the back of her head into his face with a satisfying crunch. He staggered a step away from her with the impact.

  The back of her head throbbed from where she’d driven it into his face. She’d hurt him again. The sound of wet breaths sounded worse in her ears, and she guessed she’d crunched his nose further into his face. Maybe it’d been too much to hope to have done more.

  “Told you to get your fucking hands off me,” she snapped.

  “Oh, you and I ain’t done yet, God damned bitch.” Hall’s words sputtered wetly from behind her.

  She felt the spray of blood from whatever damage she’d done to him. She started to buck once more and froze at the feel of his knife at her throat. She carefully swallowed. “What the h
ell?”

  “I said, we ain’t done yet,” Hall growled. He looped his free hand around her, grabbed her breast roughly. He pulled her roughly back against him.

  His grip tightened hard enough to add to the bruises he’d already delivered to her. He pulled her tighter to him and she could feel the bulge in his pants through her jeans. Kat tensed under the threat of the knife and closed her eyes tight.

  She wasn’t ready to die. Not like this. A pained sob escaped her lips as more tears forced their way between her eyelids.

  “There are more ways than one to get your lips moving,” Hall growled into her ear as he massaged her tit through her clothes.

  She endured the brash gropes of his hand still as a statue with his knife pressed tight into her throat. She felt barely capable of breathing, but didn’t let that stop her from fueling the furnace of rage stoked in her core. She could endure anything. The moment he slipped, she’d find a way to rip that knife from his hands and embed it in his throat.

  Hall’s hand abandoned her breast, leaving it throbbing and raw, and descended. It trailed down her torso, leaving a hot, sick sensation as it passed along her body. His hand came to a stop at the line of her jeans and belt.

  “Don’t you dare.” Kat drove every ounce of steel she possessed into her voice.

  “Told you. There’s ways to get everyone to talk,” Hall dribbled into her ear as his nose dribbled onto her shoulder.

  Her home had been reduced to a shattered few people and broken streets because of him. Her rage boiled at the injustice of it all as her belt came loose under his fingers. It didn’t take him long to pop the button on her jeans.

  “Stop it.” Her voice had steel once more.

  “There ain’t nothin’ you can do.” Hall’s knife pressed harder against her throat for emphasis as her zipper went down.

  “I’m going to cut your fingers off and feed them to you. Beat the ever-loving shit out of you so hard your never-born grandchildren will tell their kids about it.” A cold certainty drifted over Kat. She didn’t know how, but she was going to rip Hall apart, piece by piece.