Even with the A-Z Challenge underway, I made the time to write this next installment. I hope you enjoy it.
To read the entire story from the beginning, or to simply catch up on missed chapters, go to this PAGE.
Memoirs
From the End of the World
Entry
#30
RC’s captor tossed her a worn blanket to
wrap around herself and drug her to a car waiting outside. Even with the blanket, a lack of footwear and
pants made the short journey many times more miserable than it needed to be. The driver waved impatiently at them to
hurry. “They want us back as soon as
possible,” he called. “There’s some kind
of scuffle back at the breeding house.
It seems like some of the so-called revolutionaries are getting pretty
brave.”
The woman laughed. “Terrorists, you mean? They won’t be brave for very long. I’ll see to that.”
Revolutionaries? Do they stand a chance? RC wondered. Then another thought followed. Are
these friends of Tim and Jill? Do they have
enough people to make any kind of difference?
The woman shoved RC into the backseat and
sat beside her. “You’ll be much happier
sleeping in a real bed again. You may be
tempted to resent me for taking you away, but in the long run, I’m doing you a
favor. You’ll have regular meals,
medical care. I honestly can’t
understand why anyone would want to elude the breeding programs.”
RC couldn’t stand to look at the woman. Her mind was occupied by far more pressing
concerns. Alyx was gone, and she didn’t
even want to imagine what might happen to him.
She didn’t want to imagine what Leo had done to her while she was
unconscious, though her imagination provided plenty of unwanted speculative
images. And had they actually made Alyx
watch it all? Gas Can certainly had no
reason to lie about that. A monster he
may be, but that monstrous nature tended to at least be an honest one. He didn’t care who knew about his
monstrosity.
This line of thought only led her back to
Alyx as she wondered how badly it hurt him to see all that. The thought of him spitting in Leo’s face did
ignite a warm feeling inside her, but she couldn’t get past the reason he did
it. Alyx,
I know you can’t hear me, but I promise I’ll find out what happened to you. I’ll do whatever it takes to rescue you if I
can. Even as she made this silent
promise, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would deliver on it.
She simmered with her thoughts for
several long minutes, wishing above all else she could break free of this woman’s
clutches. If she could get away, she
might be able to get him back. Then they
could rejoin the others and pretend this nightmare never happened.
Then the world exploded.
The sound reverberated down to the bone,
the flash so bright she had to screw her eyes shut. The vehicle seemed to turn multiple times, and
bursts of pain accompanied each revolution.
It took a few moments for RC to make
sense of anything. Her eyes were open,
but her vision was blurred at first.
Everything seemed to be at an angle.
Her head throbbed. Her knee felt
too warm. When she looked down, she saw
that the skin had been torn loose, allowing the blood to run freely down her
leg. Her palms were punctured by shards
of glass. The car now lay on its top,
having dumped RC onto the broken sunroof.
A glance to her side showed that the despicable
woman who’d taken her now lay unconscious in a pool of blood. RC could have checked to see if she was even
alive, but she couldn’t afford to waste an opportunity. She scrambled to make it out of the window,
which had also shattered in the wreck.
Yes, RC knew this might not be safe. She couldn’t be sure that whatever caused the
car to crash wouldn’t also take her out, but in the absence of more appealing
options, she had to take the chance.
Her legs were shaking when she
straightened up in the street. The snow
beneath her bare feet sent a powerful chill up her entire body. Smoke filled the area, leaving RC with a limited
view of her surroundings.
When a powerful arm grabbed her from
behind, she screamed. A hand immediately
moved to cover her mouth. She considered
biting through the exposed fingers, but then she heard a familiar voice. “Hey, it’s me. Ollie.”
She stopped struggling, and he
immediately let her go. It didn’t even
occur to her to be horrified by her lack of clothes, or her bloodied
appearance. All she knew was that she
was overjoyed to see him. “How’d you . .
.” she started, but she didn’t know how to finish that sentence.
“Jill and I met up with her friends,”
Ollie replied. “They agreed to help free
you.”
“Alyx?
Do you know what happened to Alyx?” she asked, urgency filling her
words.
“Not for sure, no,” Ollie replied
reluctantly. “We intend to find him
though. In the meantime, we need to get
out of here.”
RC gladly followed him away from the
mangled wreck. Though her legs still
wobbled, she was fueled by a new sense of purpose. She might be able to keep her promise to Alyx
after all.
In the meantime, she had one more
question to ask. “That stunt you pulled
back there. You realize that could have
killed me, right?”
Ollie shrugged. “We knew there was a possibility of that, but
I figured you’d rather that than be stuck with them in the breeder.”
Hope they find Alyx!
ReplyDelete