by P. S. Power
She smiled, her face still numb from the combination of a sonic blast and cold. They hadn't taken her blanket, or her sap. Not that it would help her much with her hands tied like they were. The man that walked up didn't go for his trousers front instantly, but that could mean he just wanted to hit her for a while first, to make sure she knew who was boss. Stomach blows probably, so her mouth wouldn't be too sore to suck him, probably. That's what people did.
"Hello Pran. I don't know if you remember me? I certainly recall you, however."
It was hard to focus still, which was probably thanks to the weapon that they'd used on her. The man looked a little different now, which also didn't help, having several bright red lines on his face. Cuts, or scratches. They were healing, but she nodded, working out who was behind them. He sounded different too. Smarter, for one thing.
"Hello, Dovish. I see they let you go? No hard feelings then, I take it?" She managed to sound wry, but not angry or scared. She was, of course. Frightened out of her mind. It wasn't the rape, or even torture she expected to come from these people that did it. Not totally. It was that Donal wasn't there. They'd been stealing him first, when she came up at random. It didn't make sense, did it? Why take an old street cleaner?
The man touched his face.
"Oh, some. Not so much against you, though you have gotten in the way of our plans several times now. I could let that go, personally, since what's a bit of torture between friends, but Tammy here... Well, she's not as forgiving as I am."
That was clear, since the woman pulled her face mask down, showing that she'd been beaten at the very least. Probably by either the Guardians or the spy service. Which Donal's partner, Riley, was the head of. Right. That explained a portion of things then. This wasn't about the man being removed from her, but the other way around. They'd brought her out to the middle of nowhere to simply die. On the good side, it might mean that Donal had a chance. A slim one, but maybe he could be found in time. Ransomed back? She didn't know, but Tammy didn't bother speaking first, just waving a bit, as if happy to see Pran.
Then she jogged to the self moving wagon and came back a moment later. With a rifle. Without doing more than smiling, she pointed it at Pran's middle and pulled the trigger, making a loud clapping sound. The bullet went through her blanket, and shirt, lodging painfully in the wall of her stomach, she was willing to bet.
"Ahgh." The word was bitten off, but before the woman could speak, Pran tried to recover, and gasped a few words out. "I knew... It couldn't hurt... that much. Crybaby."
Tammy glared at her, but looked at the red spot blossoming on the front of her gray blanket. It was soaking up a lot of the blood, but a large wet patch was forming. If she couldn't get the bleeding to stop, she'd probably die from the wound. It wouldn't take much though. Just a free hand or two and the blanket she had on would be enough. It had just been a low powered air rifle, after all.
Tammy kicked at her, which would have landed over the wound if Pran hadn't managed to twist a bit, out of the way. It stole her breath for a bit anyway. Enough that she wondered if she were going to die. Or would have, if not for the fact that she remembered being hurt worse in the past.
"So, if it isn't the little Apprentice Guardian. Or was it Apprentice Bard? I never was too clear on that one. They told me about how you defeated us. How one girl stopped all our plans. When they were letting us go. That was a mistake, don't you think? You can't torture someone, and then let them go later, can you?"
Pran couldn't respond yet, but had to agree in spirit, letting them go certainly seemed like a poor plan, given the current situation. She managed to nod a bit. It wasn't like they were going to make the same mistake with her. Letting her live like that.
Dovish smiled and shook his head.
"Too bad, Tammy, I was going to see if she'd put out. I doubt she will now that you shot her. I never got a chance on the ship." He let his eyes go dim and spoke slowly then, repeating the performance that he'd held for years for the crew of The Lament and her captain. "I'm soooo hungry. Look as the jam I smeared on my face lady. I'm like a big dumb puppy." He laughed then, a loud but not happy thing. "It made it hard to get much by way of female company."
Pran wondered if the man was just going to rape her after all, but he didn't bother going for his pants. She took the time to catch her breath, not bothering to try and get up yet. That was going to hurt and she'd be no better off that way. It was the last man, one that she didn't recognize, at first, that rolled her over and shook his head.
"Either kill her or get a bandage from the first aid kit in the car. We don't have time for petty revenge."
That voice was familiar too. Not that she could place it yet.
Dovish snorted then gasped, seeming to be in pain. It took a while for him to answer, but he shook his head.
"I don't care what you do to her. You pick Tammy. I agree we should get out of here. The Guardians won't be stopped by a little snow. Not forever."
The woman moved in front of her, and smiled, her face a hard and brutal mask. Then she turned the air rifle she had around, holding it like a club.
"Fine. This won't take long. Ten, twenty minutes, tops." The rifle came down, smashing her in the ribs on the right hand side. The bullet wound was on the other, but the pain distracted her for a bit. The second blow did too.
In desperation, she tried to roll out of the way, but her hands and the pain slowed her down too much.
Tammy screamed at her about it. Like that was going to stop her from trying to live?
"Hold still, you bitch!" She stepped in then, the wood stock aimed at Pran's head.
There was no choice but to move then, if she wanted to survive. She really did, of course. Even if it meant courting death, she had to try and live.
It was a thing that anyone would have done, wasn't it?
She kicked, and rolled, using Tammy's lead leg to push herself backward, away from the makeshift club. The woman screamed, but it was a thing of frustration, not pain. Unfortunately. Still, the next blow that tried to come in missed, and Pran reset, the blinding pain in her middle not enough to force her to die yet. Eventually, but she had time. Minutes even. Maybe hours.
It took work, but the next kick took Tammy down, and she half stood, Dovish walking over to her, laughing. He grabbed her face with both hands, which didn't hurt, but did let him lead her around, in pain or not.
"What do you think you're going to do? Beat us all in a fair fight and then run back to your Guardian friends? Don't you know, God is on our side. He always was. That's why he saved us, so we could come back and return the world to his word. Christ is your savior. You just have to accept him into your heart!" The man tossed her down, using her head as leverage, which hurt a lot.
So much so she didn't even realize that the high pitched thrumming whine she heard was real and not just because of the pain. When she cleared a bit, she saw the both Dovish and Tammy were lying on the ground, the man over them holding the sonic weapon that had been used on her before. When he turned, he pulled his face mask down.
Then she got who it was. Zeke. Ezekiel. She didn't know why it seemed shocking, but it was. The man frowned at her for a second.
"I hate hypocrites. They'll be out for a while. Let's get that bandaged up and then find someone that can remove the bullet for you. Do you think you can stand?" He shrugged, and put the weapon away. "Never mind. I've got this."
He worked quickly then, and got her hands free with a knife that looked totally wrong for the time they were in. The handle was a shiny green, which didn't seem to be wood and sure as heck wasn't a leather wrapping. The thing was sharp though, and she gasped when the ropes were cut off.
"Um, thanks?" It would have been nice if he could have acted a little sooner, but there was probably a reason that he hadn't. The one that came to mind was that he'd wanted to see what she could manage on her own.
The man nodded, but also ran to the vehicle, and came back with a red bag that had a white lowe
rcase "T" on it. That, or a design of some kind. It came to her that she'd seen one of them before. Being worn by the man in front of her, around his neck.
He saw her looking, but didn't bother explaining anything to her, just working, first stripping her bare to the waist, then wrapping the wound quickly, winding white material all the way around her middle. Then, without bothering to check the wound at all, he gave her shirt back, then the blanket, and helped her to stand.
"That deal Mike Morse came up with, it isn't too bad. About half of us are willing to give it a try, but some are holding grudges. The ones tortured for instance, and their friends. I can't say that I blame them, but..." He waved at Tammy. "What did you do to piss her off that much?"
Blinking, Pran realized that she'd never explained that very clearly to him, back when they'd been on the ship together. There just hadn't been time for things like that.
"I shot her. Like this... Pretty much. Except that she was about to kill people, if I didn't, and not tied up at the time. I think I..." She stopped and took several deep, if painful, breaths. "I think I have the moral high ground, really. Now at least. Dovish is right though. I never would have slept with him. His act was too good." It wasn't his looks, just the fact that he'd seemed so very slow.
She shook her head a bit, wondering what to do next. It was really up to Zeke, she knew.
"Can you get me back to the city? Or at least to help?" That would work for her, and the man nodded after a second.
"Yeah. I need to load these two up. They're dipshits, but on my side. After a fashion."
"Firmament?"
He shook his head, but smiled a bit.
"Are you sure you aren't one of us? You have way too much information for a local girl. We're part of a group called Remembrance. Christians, mainly, but we don't hate everyone else. We just want to have a chance at the life we should have in the first place. I can't really do it at the expense of everyone else, the real people, now. Not having met you." He paused, then picked up Dovish, who wasn't small, and carried him to the vehicle like he was a child. "I don't mean you, personally, but everyone out here. You're all just people. Not demons that stole our birthright."
That the man had ever thought that made her think a little bit less of him. Demons? That was insane.
She didn't mention that, since he was doing all the hard work and still had a good weapon. Making him angry would be a bad idea.
Instead she stood and limped toward the front of the vehicle.
"We need to go and get Donal. If those people hurt him..." If they did, say torture him in retaliation, that would probably undo everything pretty well. Given that violence and stupidity seemed to be the Firmament goal, as far as she could tell, that meant they had every reason to do it as fast as possible.
That got a head shake, but after a moment he started the large metal cart thing and it lurched forward.
"I know. We finally have a chance to make things right, and these clowns are going to destroy it, before it even has a chance to start."
If they hadn't already, Pran thought.
She didn't mention it though. First she had to figure out how to save Donal. If he wasn't already dead.
Chapter sixteen
The world wasn't dark yet, but it was starting in that general direction. The dark clouds and heavy snow made dimmer than it should have been. It was hard to see where the sun was behind the clouds, and Pran had never owned a watch. It was before five bells, at a guess, but it was hard to know.
Or should have been.
Almost instantly she heard the bell in the distance. There were five heavy chimes, meaning two things. First, she was right. Almost exactly, which didn't distract her from the bleeding mess that was her bandaged stomach. It really hurt, but she didn't let it show. Whining about it, or moaning, wouldn't get anything helpful done.
The second thing was one that shocked her. She'd thought that they'd be heading directly to the base, or house, where Donal was being held. For some reason they were headed back into the city. The road smoothed under them, as they hit a well paved road. It was bumpy, but better.
"How are you doing? Still with us?" The driver didn't glance over at her, but almost as if trying to hit a dramatic arc, the metal panel behind her suddenly opened, and a grasping arm poked through. It was getting a bit dark, but given how strong it was, it had to be Dovish. Tammy wouldn't have managed to choke her that well.
That didn't last long, however, since she pulled the tiny sap and started smacking his fingers with it. That meant clipping her own chin, but other than the brilliant and almost white pain, it worked pretty well. Dovish screamed, and pulled back, which let Zeke slow the cart and use both hands to push the sonic weapon through the hole, wiggling it around until there was no more noise from that direction.
"Oops. Sorry about that. I should have tied them up better." The driving resumed, and if anything he seemed embarrassed, rather than scared by the dangerous would be killers in the back seat.
Which was the appropriate thing for him to be feeling, she decided. Her throat hurt now too, along with the alternating sharp and dull stabbing sensation in her middle. She didn't know, but from the feeling of weakness it was pretty clear that the bleeding hadn't stopped much.
Lincoln wasn't big, not when you were hurtling along a road at nearly thirty kilometers per hour. Or faster. What she didn't know was where the man was planning to take her in particular. Some secret base that the downloads had hidden right in the center of power? A doctor's office? A nice flat stable where she could lay down, rather than fall over? It was interesting to think about, but they pulled up directly in front of High Bard Clarice's home.
Getting out, once the thing stopped, was harder than it might have been. The snow didn't help, since it was half melted on the ground still, making things slippery. The blood loss probably didn't help either.
"I..." She stood, pain or not, and started walking, going slow, because she didn't want to fall down on the front walk. "Feel sick."
It was an understatement. Little black and blue sparkles around her vision, leaving a little window in front of her that got smaller as she approached the fine wooden door of the Bard's home.
Zeke was yelling, but she didn't know what he was saying. Help was a big part of it, along with something that sounded like complaints. Those... She couldn't track it, but it was about her bleeding all over everything, she was willing to bet. Someone came to the door, but she didn't make out who it was, her little perceptual zone having gotten too clouded over for that.
Snow hit her still, she thought. It was cold and damp at least.
Right until she lost track of everything, except a strange sense of falling.
When her eyes opened, sometime later, a cool rag was mopping her brow. It hurt to make the face focus, but it was a bit shocking to find who was doing it.
"Um... Doctor Soros?" That kind of made sense, given that the man was staying with her hosts too, but she'd thought, for some reason, that Doctor Millis would be doing it. He was there, she saw, over to the left. Turning her head was a bad idea however, and she nearly threw up. Only the pain in her middle got her to stop that. It wasn't a thing she'd known could be controlled, being ill like that, but she managed it, on the fly.
That was interesting, but Pran needed to keep from moving to make it happen. Only by holding very still was her lunch going to stay in place.
Doctor Millis moved over to her then, his old face worried.
"Ezekiel told us about what happened. I'm so sorry, dear! We shouldn't have had to deal with this at all. You shouldn't, at any rate."
Pran didn't nod, guessing without knowing that it might be a poor plan to even try. That meant giving speech a chance.
Her voice was soft, but not weak. There was no breathy quality to it, just a lack of volume. She didn't try to sit up, even though in a play she would have.
It just hurt too much to even think about doing.
"Donal. They have him, and mean to... H
onestly I don't know. Torture him to take back their power or something silly like that. It won't work."
Doctor Millis sighed and shook his head.
"No, it won't. I believe the goal is actually to enrage the head of the intelligence service so much that he undoes the current treaty. That won't work either. The man is more than happy to have our help in hunting these people down. These zealots have lost already. I do hope that the Guardians can free that man alive however. Your friends have gone to see to it, along with Ezekiel. His changing positions on this matter is what really convinced Judge Clair. Now we can only wait. Are you in much pain?"
It took a while to understand what he meant, but she managed to smile. It wasn't a big thing, but enough to be noticed.
"I've felt worse. Not often, but it won't kill me. I don't think? If so, you should both be panicking more, trying to save me."
The other Doctor chuckled, "you'll do fine. We didn't even have to do a blood transfusion. You'll have a scar, but only a small one. I did the stitching, so you know it's done well."
"Ah? Good then. Well, I should... Do something useful." She grinned a bit more nicely then, and backtracked instantly. "As long as it means not moving. I think that being still for a while might be a pleasant way to spend the rest of the day."
She wasn't in a bed, she realized, but in the front sitting room of Clarice's home. On her nice sofa. Hopefully not bleeding anymore. Before anyone could answer her words, or suggest that she better stay still, or else, the woman herself came in, carrying a tray with cups on it. Tea or coffee. Probably.
"You're awake. I was so worried about you. I... I can't believe anyone would shoot you like that. Did that woman say why she did it?"
"Payback. I shot her once, not too long ago. Fair, I guess. We... Need to get with the High Council. Riley. Make sure this doesn't ruin it all." She was sleepy sounding, and didn't feel good, but it was important to her. Otherwise... Well, Clark would probably have to try and kill everyone in the System.
