After taking a week off to battle illness, I'm back with another installment of my flash fiction serial. For those who've missed previous entries, you can find the whole story on this PAGE.
Memoirs
From the End of the World
Entry
#29
The muted light that passed through RC’s
eyelids was unexpected, to say the least.
The sensation of steely hands clamped around her throat came back to her
like a punch to the stomach. Horrified
by the memory, she opened her eyes, hoping against hope that the image greeting
her would be better than the last.
First of all, she was no longer in the
same room. Light streamed in through a
couple of windows, making the world appear much brighter than before.
Frantic, she remembered her last view of
Alyx lying unconscious on the floor.
Though her vision was somewhat blurred for some reason she couldn’t
quite understand, she could see well enough to decide he wasn’t in the room
with her now. Tim, on the other hand,
was sitting crumpled up in the corner.
“It looks like she’s waking up.” A woman in a gray jumpsuit leaned over RC,
her bright green eyes intense as they scrutinized her. This woman’s breath smelled like mint as it
cascaded over her face. Though the smell
itself wasn’t at all unpleasant, the sensation sent chills down her spine.
“I told you I didn’t hurt her that bad.” Gas Can’s voice sounded abrasively
self-assured as usual.
The woman’s eyes flicked down toward RC’s
legs before she nodded. “Sure. She might disagree with you on that, but I
guess it won’t make any difference for our purposes.”
RC’s stomach knotted. What had he done to her while she was out
cold? Where was this woman looking, and
what did she see? Yet there wasn’t
really a question in her mind about what happened. Not really.
After hearing about Isabel’s experiences and what she went through, she
had no doubts about what Gas Can and the others were capable of doing.
“That was Leo’s handiwork,” Gas Can
replied. “He’s still upset about what
Isabel did to his brother. Since she
helped Isabel get away, it’s the closest thing to revenge he could get.”
When RC concentrated, she started to feel
more than the residual pain in her neck.
Her thighs ached, and she felt what had to be a deep gash that left her skin
caked with dried blood. That discovery
triggered a wave of nausea that forced her to look away from them both. The last thing she wanted was for them to
analyze her like an animal in a zoo.
“Well, I’ll leave that one for you.” The woman nodded at Tim. “I don’t care what you do with him. His self-inflicted vasectomy makes him
useless to us, and I don’t think you’re going to get him to talk at this point. I’ll take her.”
Where’s
Alyx? RC thought
frantically. If they’re discarding Tim, what would they do to Alyx? After all, they already declared him useless
every time the patrols ignored him.
“You’re going to live a much more
comfortable life where you’re going, sweetheart,” the woman said softly, though
she didn’t look RC in the eye when she said it.
“I don’t understand why people like you run for so long. The breeding facility isn’t nearly as bad as
you might imagine it to be.”
RC didn’t bother to refute these assertions
or to explain her position. That would
be futile. Only one thing mattered
enough to make her speak up. “Where’s
Alyx?”
The woman furrowed her eyebrow. “Which one was that?”
“That’s the one who spit on me,” a new
voice added. RC caught sight of a tuft
of blond hair.
“Yeah, he didn’t like Leo all that much,”
Gas Can replied. “It probably didn’t
help that you made him watch everything you did to her.”
“He was the one with the messed up keg,” Leo
added. “A souvenir I was more than happy
to provide.”
The woman nodded in recognition. “Oh, him.
Our medic already took him out of here.
He won’t be going to the same place as you, but the Constable requested
him for something. I have no idea what
they want with him, though.”
“He’s lucky,” Leo added bitterly. “If they’d left him to us, I would have
killed him and forced her to watch.”
Gas Can laughed. “You do like to have an audience, don’t you?”
“Can’t let good art go to waste,” Leo
replied.
“You can always finish him for her
entertainment.” Gas Can pointed to
Tim. “It won’t be the same since they
weren’t traveling together, but I bet you anything that it will still have an
impact on her.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Is this posturing really necessary?”
“Maybe we think it is,” Leo said
defensively. “Now be a doll and sit her
up for us.”
The woman sighed but did as they
demanded. RC’s head swam as her body
struggled to compensate for the sudden motion.
Though she knew it was a bad idea, she quickly glanced down to see the
damage firsthand. Her pants were gone,
though they’d at least let her keep her underwear. Bruises were popping up all over her skin.
RC forced her eyes away from the
injuries, biting her lower lip to keep the rage at bay. Exploding at them, justifiable though it
might be, would in no way help her position.
Tim stirred when Leo grabbed him by the
collar. “What do you want from me now?”
he demanded angrily.
“Your life.”
A look of undeniable relief came over Tim
moments before the knife tore through his carotid artery. The blood came fast, but RC didn’t focus on
that. She instead kept her eyes focused
on his. Even as despair threatened to
consume her, she focused on his relief, which remained firmly in place until
the end.
As the woman yanked RC to her feet, she
wondered if she should envy Tim. Would a
swift death be better than what awaited her, or was there still hope to be
found somewhere?
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