“Go,” Veronica called out but her voice was too weak to be heard. “Please...just...go.”
“So, I take it you know these two,” Jacob said to Jackson before he looked back at her and Travis. “You lied when you said you weren’t part of a larger group. I should have known. You looked too clean to have been out on the road.”
“Keep our weapons, keep everythin’ they brought with ‘em. Just let us leave with them alive,” Jackson said and Jacob laughed.
“We’re going to keep everything anyway so you are bargaining with a chip that isn’t yours,” Jacob said. “Besides, even if I wanted to let you all go, I can’t. She killed one of my men and he helped her. If I let murder slide, no one here will trust me in my leadership. We believe in fairness. If you take someone’s life, you forfeit yours.”
The crowd let up a cheer and Veronica curled her lip in disgust. They were all monsters. Raping, murdering, cowardly monsters. If there really was a god up there, he should do the world a favour and smite this entire place.
“Please,” Jackson called out, tears in his eyes as he stared up at her. “Please don’t do this!”
“Don’t worry, the pain won’t last long. As soon as we’re done with these two, we will let you take your turn on the gallows.” Jacob’s eyes sparked with glee. “You clearly can’t be a part of the Complex now and we can’t turn you out. We have no other choice.”
“No!” Veronica cried out, finally finding her voice. Jacob just laughed at her but Jackson met her eyes and mouthed the words I’m sorry.
No, this wasn’t fair. Not both of them.
“FIRE!”
Screams started to go up from the crowd but they weren’t the excited cheers anymore.
Thick black smoke was billowing out of one of the ground floor windows of one of the buildings.
“Get the extinguishers!” Jacob barked out. “Get it under contr--”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as a loud explosion went off inside the building. The windows shattered, red flames spurting out of them. She felt the blast of heat even across the courtyard and the crowd erupted into chaos, everyone scattering. She saw Jackson take advantage of the distraction and throw off the man who held him and he ran for the trailer.
“No! You won’t fucking win this,” Jacob said from behind her and then shoved her hard.
She wasn’t prepared and she couldn’t fight the momentum as she pitched over the edge of the trailer. The rope pulled tight and she came to a bone rattling stop, her toes dangling a foot off the ground. The rope dug into her already bruised throat, cutting off her air supply which was becoming a familiar and almost welcomed sensation.
Her body went into survival mode, her hands fighting the ties behind her and her feet kicking out to find a purchase but there was nothing but air. Her vision began to tunnel, the blackness pulling her under. The last thing she saw before she died was Jackson’s terrified face.
I’m sorry too.
Subject File #745
Administrator: You need to talk about that moment.
Subject: Ain’t nothin’ to talk ‘bout.
Administrator: Jackson, you can’t bottle it up like that.
Subject: It was the scariest moment of my life. Don’t want to relive it.
When he saw Veronica’s eyes close, Jackson’s heart stopped but somehow the rest of his body kept moving. It was like he was watching himself, one of those out of body experiences he’d read about.
He saw himself grab Veronica around the waist and vault up onto the trailer, pulling her with him. He watched as he knelt beside her, loosening the noose and then pinching her nose before breathing into her open mouth. He floated there, above it all, for what felt like eternity, waiting for her to breathe. She couldn’t die. She wouldn’t die.
When her eyes flew open and she gasped for breath, he was slammed back into his body, everything coming back into sharp focus. The screams and shouts that had been muted nearly made his ears bleed, even louder than his own racing heartbeat. Banks was beside him on the trailer, helping Travis out of his noose. Jacob was nowhere to be seen and the acrid stench of smoke filled the air.
Veronica coughed and he helped her sit up. God, what had they done to her? Her face was marred with bruises but the deep red welt around her neck looked the worst. She had been through hell and back.
She blinked up at him, confusion and fear in her eyes and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m gonna getcha outta here, promise.”
Though he wasn’t sure how the hell he was going to do that.
The courtyard looked like a warzone. Smoke was billowing out one of the buildings and the stench of burning diesel was choking the air. Men were screaming at each other as they ran towards the burning building, a couple of them carrying fire extinguishers. They’d need a hell of a lot more than those puny things to put out the fire that was raging inside.
“Get the water tanker over here!”
“We gotta stop it from spreading!”
“Get the fuck out of my way!”
It was pure chaos now and they weren’t going to get a better chance to make their escape.
Banks and Mendez had already gotten Travis down from his noose and he was standing steady on his feet.
“We gotta get movin’,” Jackson told them, picking Veronica up like a ragdoll and went to the ladder.
A pair of arms reached up to help him and he stared down at the face of a strange woman. Two other women flanked her, all of them skinny wisps with drawn, worried faces.
“Don’t touch her! Get the hell outta my way!” He pulled back a foot to kick out at the woman.
“Jackson, no,” Travis called out. “They’re prisoners too.”
“We can help,” the woman said. “Hurry, before they realize what’s happening.”
He let the women help him get Veronica down onto the ground. They couldn't make it smooth and the pain was enough to cause her to pass out but she was still breathing and that was all that mattered right now. He had her and he wasn’t about to lose her.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
Jackson had forgotten about Eddie. Apparently the fire wasn’t enough of a distraction for him. The way he rubbed the rapidly forming bruise Jackson had given him on his chin said he was all about vengeance.
Eddie had his Glock in his hand, aiming at Jackson but when Mendez made a move towards him, he switched over to her and then skimmed over the rest of the group. They were weaponless and while they might outnumber him, he had all the firepower.
“Did you even do time?” Eddie asked, “Or was it all bullshit to come save your bitch there? Man, you coulda had it good here but you had to fuck it all up. I’m gonna catch shit for bringing you in. Only way I get any leeway is if I bring your dead bodies to Jacob.”
He pointed the gun at Jackson but before he could pull the trigger a bullet tore through the side of his head, spraying blood and brain matter out the other side as he fell to the ground.
“Oh, thank you, sweet baby Jesus,” Banks cheered.
The smoke shifted direction and Jackson saw Malcolm and Nas standing there, both of them armed to the teeth. There was another man behind them, his face as bloody and bruised as Veronica’s, but he was at least on his feet.
“Sam!” one of the women cried out, running up to the man and throwing her arms around him. Sam winced, the hug painful for his worked over body but he still hugged the woman back.
“No time for hellos, sweetheart,” Sam said. “We’ve got to get the hell out of here. Come on, everyone follow me.”
“Good to see you, man,” Banks said to Malcolm as he handed him a gun. He armed Mendez and Claudia as well but Jackson waved away the offer as he hiked Veronica into his arms.
He did his best to hold her steady as they ran into the building and pounded down the stairs to the basement. Still, he knew it had to be bone jarring for her. He just hoped she stayed passed out.
It was a blind run
from there through the hallway, past doors and around corners until they reached the underground garage.
It was pitch black inside but someone clicked on a lantern and the light revealed the concrete support pillars of the garage. They followed Sam past the empty spaces to the far end where there was a narrow alcove. Sam disappeared into it and then Jackson heard the sound of metal grinding against concrete and then natural light filtered into the alcove.
“Come on,” Sam hissed, waving them ahead.
A weather worn set of concrete steps led up and Jackson realized that the wall behind the top of the stairs was the outer wall of the Complex. They were free.
He didn’t have time to savor the freedom as Sam urged them on, directing them through the trees that dotted the park behind the Complex. Smoke was hanging in the air, making it hard to breathe as they ran, but it offered them cover as they crossed the park.
When they reached the street, they didn’t stop, following Sam’s directions as he led them away from the Complex. Jackson lost track of the turns they were making, concentrating on keeping his feet moving and Veronica secure in his arms. His heart felt like it wanted to burst from his chest and his lungs were burning like he had been breathing acid but he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. They were out and he was going to keep it that way.
When they turned onto another street, Sam had them crossing the lawn of one of the houses and passing through the gate into the backyard.
“We’re good here. Let’s take a breather,” Sam gasped out, leaning against the fence as he tried to catch his breath.
Jackson scanned the yard, finding it completely empty aside from a single white plastic chair on the flat concrete patio, a red ashtray next to it. At least it seemed safe.
He set Veronica down on the ground as gently as he could but she still let out a pained moan. At least that meant she was still alive.
He brushed a hand over her forehead, pushing back the hair that had fallen in her face. She was covered in bruises, her eyebrow split and bloody. Her neck was a violent collage of bruises and rope burns and his stomach turned as he looked at them. He looked away and realized that his shirt was covered in fresh blood from her back.
Oh god, he hadn’t realized she had been hit. He pulled up her shirt to look for the wound and let out a string of curses. Her back was crisscrossed with deep slices that welled with blood, narrow trails of it dripping down to soak into the waistband of her jeans. What the hell had they done to her?
He turned to look at the others who had collapsed around him in the backyard, trying to get their breath. “Do we have any medical supplies?”
“Fuck,” Nas said when he saw Veronica’s back and then he was pulling off his pack. “I’ve got a first aid kit here. We need to stop the bleeding.”
“I tried to...” Travis gasped out from where he had collapsed next to Mendez, fresh blood dripping from his nose. “I tried to...help...her.”
He might have tried but he didn’t do anything to stop this. None of the men did. Veronica had taken the brunt of the brutality and what had any of them done to stop it? Jackson wanted to hit them, to scream at them, to blame them for all of this but then Veronica let out a pained whimper.
Her eyes were fluttering open and she stared up at him, eyes glassy with pain. “She needs pain meds. Morphine, fentanyl, give her something!”
“She needs water first,” Claudia said and dropped down beside him with a bottle of water. She looked down at her sister, tears glittering in her eyes. “Hey V, you’ve gotta drink some water but you have to take little sips first. Your throat is going to be really raw.”
Veronica opened her mouth and tried to make a sound, a harsh squeak but Claudia held a finger up to her lips. “Shh, don’t talk yet. Drink.”
Claudia patiently fed her small sips of water, Veronica wincing each time she had to swallow. “Are you hurt bad anywhere else? Are we missing something? A gunshot? Anything broken?”
Veronica tried to shake her head and bit out a moan.
“Okay, that’s good,” Claudia said. “You just rest now and I’ll clean up your back.”
Nas handed her an auto injector and Jackson helped turn Veronica over so Claudia could inject the morphine into her thigh. Veronica trembled in his arms, every muscle in her body tense from the pain but then she slowly relaxed, the drugs starting to work their magic.
Claudia began to clean Veronica’s back, Nas handing her clean gauze to replace the blood soaked pads. Jackson pressed his cheek to the top of her head and whispered words of reassurance as he stroked her cheek. Her tears dampened his fingers and he did his best to brush them away.
The rage that had been simmering inside him spiked up and he had the sudden urge to go back to the Complex and make sure the whole place and everyone in it burned. The only thing that kept him still was knowing Veronica needed him with her more than she needed revenge.
“We need to get her back to Quinton,” Claudia said. “Those wounds look nasty. The bleeding isn’t bad but I’m worried about infection or whether she needs stitches.”
“No stitches.”
The woman who had tried to help was standing next to Sam, the other two women huddled next to them. “Not until you’re sure the wounds are clean. If you have antibiotic ointment, put it on the gauze and pack it in the wounds and cover them. You’ll have to replace them with clean ones every couple hours. I can help.”
Claudia nodded and the woman crossed over to kneel next to her. “I’m Amber, by the way.”
She grabbed a tube of antibiotic ointment from the med pack and helped Claudia start to dress Veronica’s wounds properly.
“Are ya a doctor?” Jackson asked the woman.
“No, but she’s not the first to get the belt.”
She pulled at the collar of her shirt and revealed her bare shoulder. Jackson caught a glimpse of a thick pink scar marring her flesh. No, Veronica wasn’t the first.
“We can’t stay here too long,” Sam said. “We’re only a few blocks away from the Complex. If that fire gets bad and they flee, we’ll get caught by them. We need to get out of town.”
Malcolm had been on guard at the gate, watching the street while they caught their breath, but now he turned his attention back to the group.
“Our ride is still back at the hospital. Is it close?”
Sam shook his head. “Other side of town.”
“Shit. Alright, Mendez, what about yours?”
“We left it in a garage in town. Those guys picked us up on the street.”
“Where exactly did you leave it?” Sam asked.
“House on Sycamore Ave,” Mendez told him. "Behind the paint store."
“That’s west of here, fifteen, maybe twenty blocks,” Sam frowned. “You’d have to take the long way to circle around the Complex.”
“I don’t know if we can all make a run that far,” Malcolm said. He was right. Claudia had finished packing the gauze on Veronica’s back but she was still shaking from the pain of her wounds. Another sprint in his arms might end her.
“Good thing I didn’t randomly pick this house to stop at,” Sam said and then pushed himself off the fence to limp over to the ashtray. He pushed it aside and picked up the key that was hidden under it. “I stashed my truck in the garage. It’s got enough gas to get us back to our camp. We’ve got a van there you can use. We’ve also got a nurse there, she can look over your friend.”
“We’ve got to get home ASAP,” Malcolm said. “We’ve got to get the meds we picked up back there.”
“No worries on the meds,” Mendez said. “We handed over our score to Javier yesterday before we came looking for you.”
“Good, that’s good,” Malcolm said. “They know you came looking for us?”
Mendez nodded and then knocked Banks on the leg. “Show him.”
Banks reached into the front of his pants, biting his bottom lip as he pulled out the sat phone he’d taped to his thigh back when they had set the fire at the store. “Figu
red in a pat down, they’d just think I had a big dick. Might want to wash it off before you use it. Worked up a hell of a sweat.”
Malcolm let out a laugh, the sharp noise a surprise in the quiet. “You can call in our plans. Tell them you’ve found us and we’re heading out of town. We’ll call when we get to Sam’s camp.”
Jackson didn’t care where the hell they went, as long as they got as far away from those bastards as they could. He cradled Veronica against his chest and she blinked up at him, her eyes dull from the morphine. “Yer gonna be okay."
“Thank...you,” she mouthed, her voice still unable to get through her throat. She tightened her hand on his shirt and lifted her head so she could brush her cracked lips against his.
“I gotcha now and I ain’t lettin’ ya go.”
Subject File #749
Subject: I’m not going to say I was wrong because I wasn’t. We’ve just worked thing out, but I wasn’t wrong.
Administrator: I’m not saying a thing.
Janet was surprised to find her steps light as she arrived at the clinic. She’d even go so far as to say she had a skip in her step. She felt lighter than she had in days, the worry over her sick boys no longer weighing her down.
She had just come from tucking Ruthie into bed at Javier and Raquel’s cabin. They had volunteered to have her stay the night there as Kim was pulling an overnight watch shift.
With the boys feeling better, Janet had finally left the clinic before dinner, giving her long neglected daughter some quality time. Guilt had consumed her when Ruthie had thrown herself into her arms the second she walked into the lodge. She had immediately promised to spend the evening with her and to read her two stories at bedtime. Ruthie had counter offered with three stories and Janet’s guilt had made it an easy condition to accept. Though Ruthie seemed no worse for wear after her absence.
The Complex (The Omega Protocol Chronicles Book 3) Page 41