ABC - Penance

Abandoned Factory, The Hole

January 13th V27 (2047AD)

Awareness returned with a slap, the sudden pain jolting me awake.

My shoulders were in agony, with my arms strung up over my head and my feet barely touching the cracked floor beneath bare toes. Instinctively I stood on tip-toes, taking some of the weight from my screaming joints.

“You won’t be able to do that for long” a sly, oily voice remarked. The tall, broad shape of Victor moved into my line of sight, wearing the same outfit I saw him in last night.

Thin streams of light shone through the broken walls of the factory warehouse I was suspended in, letting me know it was at least the following day. I had no idea how long I had been out but I doubted it was any later than Sunday afternoon.

I looked upwards, seeing my hands securely tied together and connected to a sturdy rope hanging from a metal roof truss about three meters overhead. My feet were tied together as well, a separate loop of nylon rope secured to a metal ring buried in the old concrete floor.

Someone knew how to secure a prisoner and I was pretty sure that had to be Victor. Last time Sam’s crew had captured me, they knew shit about holding a hostage. My jacket and outer clothes had been removed too, leaving me in my black boxers and sports bra.

“Victor, you want to let me go right now” I growled as he watched me with his dark eyes. “You know who I am and who I work for. This will only end badly for you and your crew if I am not released immediately”

He didn’t say a word, just stepped in real close and slapped me across the face. Like he had done already to wake me up, the sting in my cheek reminding me of that debt still waiting to be repaid.

His eyes bored into mine, as if willing me to do anything to stop him. I flexed and pulled against my bonds, but the fucker had secured me well. There was no leeway for me to apply my Kinetic Enhancer, no opportunity to use my Ability to break the ropes that held me.

“You are nothing” he said to me. “You only get to be something when I allow it” he sneered, bringing his face close to mine. I lunged my head forwards, channelling power into my forehead to try and bust his face open. Victor leaned back with contemptuous ease, letting me buck and twist in my bonds to no avail.

He laughed, the kind of laugh little boys make as they tie a brick to a cat’s tail or crush a puppy’s skull with a hammer. The sick kind of laughter that tells you they have no soul, just a yawning well of evil where their hearts should have been. Victor was the kind of shit stain that should have been drowned at birth and given a chance I was going to be the one holding his head under the water.

“Robbie, go get Minke” Victor called out, his eyes drifting to a spot behind me. I heard movement back there, shuffling footsteps and a clink of metal. A door opened, then more noise as two pairs of feet returned. Victor stood easily, like he was waiting for a coffee to be made at a café.

Robbie came into view, leading a cuffed and half stripped Minke in her bra and a torn pair of grey sweat pants. She had been beaten I could tell, new wounds marking her flesh over the older ones. Despite the pain from my own body, my heart ached to see her so brutally treated.

Victor smiled at the girl and she cowered under his gaze, her tall body trying to hunch herself down. The bastard snapped his fingers impatiently at Robbie, who handed a long bladed knife to his master. I hadn’t seen him carry it in but I recognised it straight away. It was one of the Bonded Ceramite knives that we had liberated from the Arena only yesterday.

My captor examined the knife, twisting it in his hand as he measured the heft and feel of the weapon. I had a sick feeling I knew where this little pantomime was headed.

“If you cut her, Victor, I’ll rip your fucking head off” I snarled, pulling at the ropes again.

He laughed at me, then summoned Minke forwards with the knife. I tensed, waiting for her precious blood to be spilled. Minke was in range now, her bound hands held forwards as if in supplication.

Victor turned the blade and pushed the hilt into her waiting hands.

“Do what I told you, Minke” he breathed and she spun towards me, the blade held outwards in a two handed grip. “If you cut her up nicely, I’ll let you come home”

For a wild moment I hoped Minke was under the Jacker’s power, her mind and body controlled by Victor. She raised her eyes to mine and stepped forward, plunging the blade deep into my hip.

“I’m sorry, Luisa” she whispered and I knew she had made her choice. She drew the knife smoothly from my flesh and it would be cool to say I didn’t utter a sound.

That would be a lie.

I screamed my fucking lungs out, calling her a whore and a bitch and every other expletive I could think of. Blood, hot and warm, flowed down over my boxers and ran in red streaks down my leg to the dusty floor.

Minke showed her back to me and knelt before Victor, offering him the blood smeared blade. He took it and ran his index finger in the crimson fluid, using it to daub tears of blood coming from Minke’s eyes.

“Good girl” he praised her, then nodded to Robbie. That asshole came over and took the knife and pulled Minke to her feet. She followed him as he led her away and for a moment she glanced at me. I saw her real tears mingling with my blood, running down her cheeks and the slender neck. Then she was gone, lost to my sight and hearing.

Victor tilted his head and regarded me speculatively, his black pits of eyes showing big pupils full of excitement. His tight jeans showed a bulge at his groin and he idly stroked himself through the denim, licking his pale lips like a man-sized lizard.

“I’m going to kill you Victor” I promised. He shook his head in denial and went to walk away, stopping for a moment at my side.

“I really want you dead, Alvarez” he said softly, his voice hoarse with sick lust. “But it can’t be me that kills you. I can’t even let it be Minke, my dear sweet child”

“So who are you going to use, Victor?” I replied, my own voice hoarse from agony. “Nobody in your crew got the balls to kill a woman?”

“It won’t be anyone from my crew” he answered smugly. He gestured to the dark corners of the ruined building, where the lengthening afternoon shadows started to skitter and scrabble.

“The rats are always hungry in the Hole” he said. With that he walked off and I heard that door close with finality behind me.

There was no noise at all for a while, except the creaking of the ropes that bound me. My eyes darted to the distant corners, then roamed the shadowed roof that lay overhead. Slowly and surely, the sky outside turned red and the darkness grew.

The spots of light that illuminated the broken floor faded one by one, leaving me in the centre of darkness. From around me came the soft rustle of fur and claw on floor and roof, the faint squeak of predators scenting their prey.

I had bled enough to soak my left leg and the nylon rope that bound me to the metal ring. It was my scent they were drawn to and soon enough I could hear them close by. Some sniffing and questing at my feet, others clambering across the roof truss and lowering themselves towards my arms.

My faith has never been anything real, no matter how many times Mama and Papa dragged me into a church. I spoke the words and made the gestures, yet none of it was truth. I have always been a liar, to my god as much as to those I loved.

It was only fitting a piece of filth like me ended her life gobbled up by rats.

There was only one regret I had right at that moment. I prayed to my god, the old testament one who said we should smite our enemies with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Please god, let me be the one to kill Victor!

Then the rats had crawled up my legs and down my arms, nibbling and biting at the juicy flesh they found. I screamed and bucked and flung them from me, but more swarmed over their fallen companions to join the bountiful feast.

One rat was trying to get at my eyes, his claws locked into my hair and his sharp teeth nipping at my eyelids.

I was sobbing and screaming and yelling in pain when I heard the gunshot. My arms were suddenly released from the overhead roof beam and I fell into the midst of the scrabbling rodents.

Booted feet were at my side, kicking the squealing vermin away and I heard a sharp blow that severed the ropes around my ankles. I tried to stand but my body had no strength so I was thrown over a shoulder, much like I had done with Minke.

Strong, nimble hands plucked the angry rodents from my flesh and more were kicked and trampled as I was carried to an exit. In no time at all we were outside, the scattered clouds letting a pale moon wash over us.

My rescuer carried me to a bike, an electric sports model like mine yet much newer. They propped me against the machine and drew something from a pannier on the bike. I braced myself to watch them return to the opening into the old factory. Even now some desperate rats, the size of small cats and dogs, were nosing about as they followed my scent.

A ping of a lever flying loose came from the figure, then they lobbed something small and dark into the interior. A hollow boom and brilliant flash was followed by blossoming flames. The figure seemed satisfied with their effort and stalked back in my direction, fire already licking at the walls and roof of the abandoned structure.

They got to where I was hanging half alive from the side of the bike, blood weeping from wounds all over my body. The figure pulled away the hood of their Chameleon cloak and pushed Smart Goggles up onto the short dark hair of their head.

A delicate, narrow woman’s face regarded me impassively in the light of the burning rats and building. It was the one from the Wonder Bar factory, I was certain of it.

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded hoarsely.

“The Angel who watches over you” she replied and then I fell unconscious.

=====

I had memories of riding on a bike, hanging grimly to the waist of the woman who had rescued me. The wind whipped past, chilling me to my core.

Consciousness came and went, yet each time I found myself still gripping my rescuer. Streetlights flashed by, other cars and bikes, then tall towers all brightly lit.

Once I caught part of a call, my head lying so close to hers as we rode I could hear her speak to someone.

“Hey, it’s me, September” she said. “I found the woman but she is badly injured. Do you want her at the facility?”

A pause as the other person spoke then she replied.

“Fine. Then I’ll drop her at the Central Hospital”

A final image was the Emergency Entrance to a gleaming white hospital. Orderlies rushed towards us with a stretcher, taking me gently but urgently from the back of the bike. My rescuer stayed seated, the electric engines still running as I was laid on my back.

My head had tilted to watch her, face half hidden by her Smart Goggles once more.

“Good luck, Alvarez” she had said, then twisted the throttle of her bike and zoomed out of sight.

Then I was wheeled into the hospital and I let myself surrender to the darkness.