Until Time Stands Still

by Scott, Lona

  “Top. Someone saw me, and I think they may have called the cops.”

  “Where the hell are you?”

  “Back of the van.”

  “Well, get the hell off. We can’t risk that. That’s an order, soldier.”

  “They’re headed out of the city, still going west, on…Old Danver Road.” He jumped off at the next red light.

  “We’ll regroup. Are you sure you want this lady?”

  “I can’t just let her die, Top. I have to do something.”

  “Why? She doesn’t belong to you. You don’t even know her.” Capitan Winters, logical as always.

  “It’s the right thing to do.” Mykel growled.

  Chapter Three

  Isabelle struggled against the man who held her, but he only squeezed on her throat even harder. She gasped for air, tears burning in her eyes.

  “Be still, or you’ll live just long enough to regret it, before you die. Hard!” The man with sour whiskey breath growled in her ear. She stilled immediately. He tied her hands with something, jerking her arm back hard enough to pop out of joint. She screamed. Tears rolled down her face as pain radiated through her shoulder and back.

  “Shut up.” The man hissed. She was blindfolded, with a bandana. Another man tied her feet together.

  “Please, don’t do this. What do you want?” She cried.

  “I said shut up.” The man kicked her hard in the thigh, which only jarred her dislocated shoulder. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming.

  She kept still, and tried to control her breathing. The pain was searing through her arm, and she could feel the bruise forming on her leg. It felt kind of numb at the moment, but she knew she’d feel it tomorrow. If she lived that long. Don’t think like that! Be smart! Think! There were two guys in the back of the van with her, and one up front driving. Weren’t most kidnappings a solo act? What did it mean if there was more than one person? A team? She wasn’t sure. The van smelled bad, as if someone had been living in it for a long time. The man smelled worse, like he hadn’t showered in a week or more. Briefly, she wondered if he was homeless. But that didn’t make any sense.

  Where were they going? She remembered something about counting, if you’re ever kidnapped, but counting what? She couldn’t remember. Shit. What was she going to do? Had anyone seen what happened to her? Called the police? The police. Surely, when she didn’t come home, someone would call the police.

  “Why are you doing this?” She asked, as calmly as she could. One of the men backhanded her, hard. She fell back into the other man, screaming as her shoulder got wrenched some more. He shoved her to the floor.

  “Get the duct tape. Let’s tape that pretty mouth shut.” One of them said in a gruff voice.

  “No. Please. I have asthma.” She lied. “If you do that, I could have an attack, and I might die. I’m not good to you dead, right? I’ll be quiet, I promise. Just no duct tape. Please.”

  “One more word and you get the duct tape.” The man said, kicking her over, onto her stomach. She lay there, with her hands tied behind her back. The blindfold came a little loose when they roughed her up. She could see out of the very bottom of it. Very carefully, she let some bloody drool dribble from her mouth onto the dirty carpet of the van. Her lip was bleeding, from being hit, and her jaw ached. She tried to spit as quietly as she could. At least my DNA is all over this place. She tried not to puke at the smell of the van, the dirty carpet so close to her face. Her stomach rolled and pitched. She gagged. Don’t lose it. Don’t lose it. She breathed as thinly as she could, through her mouth. Trying to control her breathing. Her muscles were trembling and she knew it was from the adrenaline and fear. The pain in her shoulder made her want to scream every time they turned a corner, and she fought the urge to vomit as the pain spiked sharp each time. Her leg was starting to throb.

  The two men stayed totally silent. There wasn’t even any music on the radio. They drove faster. Were they on the highway? Where were they taking her? She could tell they weren’t in the city anymore, when they turned onto a road and it got really bumpy, like it hadn’t been paved. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, the van stopped. On one hand, she was almost relieved. The position she was in was killing her arm. On the other hand, they had stopped. What were they going to do to her now? She didn’t want to find out.

  *************

  Graham called them all back to their secondary extraction point, which was closer to the last known position of the van.

  “Johnny, take a look at that cut.”

  “How did you cut your hand, Mykey?” Jacob asked.

  “Well, the doctor can track us, when we are on missions right? Through the nanites?”

  “Yeah.” Graham said, “It comes in handy from time to time.”

  “I put my blood on the van, we can track it through the nanites.”

  “Smart.”

  “Ummm…what if someone tests the blood?” Jacob pointed out. “It’s not exactly normal.”

  “They believe in aliens in this time right? Someone will just be very confused.” Johnny said.

  “I was working on the fly.” Mykel shrugged, while the others chuckled.

  “So, let’s go gear up and get your woman. We’re going to need our weapons.” Graham said, motioning toward the spot where the portal would open. They stood in a circle, one by one, putting their darks on. “On my go. Three…two…one…GO!” In unison, they each pushed the button on the remote device on their wrists. There was a flash of light, and the pulling sensation. Mykel was starting to like the feeling, now that it didn’t come with the pain and the massive eye sensitivity issue. Their special dark glasses essentially kept them blind until they got through, which helped a lot.

  They all went back through the portal to their time. It was the middle of the night there. No one was expecting them to get back until morning. They came out of the Portal and took the glasses off. As usual, someone had placed their military fatigues in their cubbies. After the decontamination shower, they dressed and went to the gear room on the next level.

  “Hey Sam, can you let us in? Mykel here forgot something. We need to go back and fix a bit of a situation.”

  “Isn’t that against the rules?” Sam frowned.

  “Well, we can call the General and wake him up. He can come down here and you can ask him yourself.” Graham said. “I’m sure he will be real happy to explain…”

  “No!” He pushed the button to unlock the door. “That won’t be necessary.”

  “Thanks Sam.” Graham said.

  Twenty minutes later, they were back at their secondary extraction point in full gear, with a nanites tracking device. They had a faint signal deep in the country outside the city. They knew exactly where the woman was now, and help was on the way. Mykel just hoped she lived that long.

  “So Mykel, what’s so special about this woman?” Jacob asked. “Does she have beef flavoured boobs or something?”

  “Dude, you’re an ass.” Mykel said. “I watched her get snatched. I had to do something. No one else even saw anything. It’s the right thing to do.”

  “If I get shot all to hell and die before I get to sleep with a beautiful lady of my choosing, I’m so going to haunt your ass.” Johnny said.

  “Yeah, I’m sure you will, buddy.” Mykel said, laughing. The rest of them chuckled good naturedly as they hiked out to the country side. “Ok, boys, let’s double time it. We need to get in and out, and back to the base in less than six hours, so the General never has to know anything went sideways. Move it.”

  *****************

  When Isabelle woke up, she was handcuffed to a bed with no sheets on it. One of the men had jerked her shoulder back into place, and she had passed out from the shock and pain of it. It took her a few seconds to realize she was cold, and a few more seconds to realize she was naked, almost. Someone had stripped her down to her underwear. Frantically, she pulled at the restraints. The metal handcuffs clanked against the railing. They wer
e tight, nearly cutting off circulation.

  “Shit.” She whispered. She blinked away the tears gathered and tried to breathe normally. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic.” There was nothing else in the room but a small wooden chair. The window had boards over it, and the room was dark, except for the slight light coming through the gaps in the board. It was getting darker. She listened. There was no sound coming from anywhere. Where the hell was she? Were they going to kill her? What if they didn’t kill her? What if they did something worse? Like torture her? Why would anyone do that?

  “NO!” She said out loud. Don’t think like that!

  She pulled on the restraints again. Her arms and her legs were tied to the old wrought iron bed, so every movement made the bed creak. She didn’t care. She pulled harder, clanking the two metals together. The metal dug into her wrists, but she ignored the pain and pulled harder. Her ankles ached, and she thought her wrists would break. The skin was chaffed raw already.

  “HEY! SOMEONE! LET ME GO, DAMNIT!” She shrieked. She kept screaming, hollering insults and obscenities until she was hoarse. Then she just screamed and screamed, until finally, someone unlocked the door and barged in.

  “SHUT UP!” A very large man came in. He was dressed all in black, and looked like he could bench press a VW bug. She shrieked and clamped her mouth shut as he hovered over her. “Screaming will do you no good, lady. No one can hear you.”

  “Let me go!” Her throat ached.

  “You aren’t in a position to make any demands.” The man sneered.

  “I have to pee.” She said simply, staring at him, memorizing his face.

  “Hold it.”

  “It’s been hours since I last peed. In about two minutes, holding it won’t be possible.” She said.

  “That really sucks for you.” He said, turning to go.

  “Wait! Please! I won’t cause any trouble; just let me go to the bathroom. I’ll even let you watch. PLEASE.” She was desperate. The man paused and turned to the bed. He eyed her body up and down.

  “Ok…I’ll watch. If you try anything, anything at all. I’ll cut up that pretty face of yours.”

  She glared at him, but didn’t say anything. He took a key out of his pocket and unshackled her arms and legs. She stumbled a bit, standing up. Both her feet had gone to sleep. He grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room and down the hall to a small bathroom. He left the door open and stood there, watching her.

  “Do your business and let’s go.” He said, leering at her.

  “Can you at least turn around?” She asked hopefully.

  “Why would I do that?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “It’s not like I can escape. There isn’t even a window.” She pointed out. Logic. Yes, be logical. She made a circling motion with her index finger. He eyed her, and turned around, reluctantly. She really did have to pee. When she was done, she moved quickly, and punched the back of the man’s head, as hard as she could. He went down like a ton of bricks. She wasn’t sure if she hit him hard enough, but with any luck, he would be unconscious long enough for her to get away. Maybe. He didn’t move. She didn’t know where the other two guys were at, but no one else came running.

  She crept quietly, and as quickly as she could down the hall. The old farmhouse they were in was small, and the two men were in the living room, watching an old TV. Holding her breath, she sprinted across the entryway to the kitchen, and went right for the back door.

  “Hey!” The short haired man came into the kitchen. He must have heard her.

  She screamed and scrambled to open the doorknob, but it was locked. The man jerked her arm, and half picked her up and half dragged her back to the bedroom. The other man came running in and grabbed her feet. They carried her the rest of the way back into the bedroom and held her down as they shackled her back to the bed. She screamed and struggled, until one of them, the skinny one, put a knife to her throat. “Don’t you EVER do that again!” He hissed. “Where’s Raul?

  “Who?” The knife dug into her throat and she was sure that he would cut her anyway.

  “The big guy.”

  “Hallway.” She said. “I hit him.”

  “Stupid Bitch. He’s gonna hurt you good for that.” The man lifted the knife and motioned for the other man to go check on him.

  ‘Why are you doing this?” She demanded. She didn’t bother to struggle against the cuffs. It wouldn’t do any good, and her wrists were already bruised and bleeding.

  “You’re just a payday for us. Shut up.”

  “Someone paid you?” She lifted her head. “How much?”

  “Three million.”

  “I’ll double it, if you let me go.”

  “You don’t have that kind of money.”

  There was a loud crashing noise coming from the living room.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  Chapter Four

  The team approached the farmhouse from the North, and scouted it out. There was no movement indoors. With their heat seeking sonar, they counted four bodies.

  “Okay, Johnny, Jacob, Bryant, you go in the back, Mykel, you and I will take the front. Mykel, secure your package, the rest of you, take them out. This is a cakewalk boys. And no reason anything should go sideways. I want us in and out within ten.”

  “You got it Boss.”

  Graham and Mykel approached the front door and placed charges. When the door blew, they walked through the smoke into the room, immediately tracking the room for targets. Graham serviced the first target who came around the corner. The back of his head splattered against the back wall of the hallway.

  “Kitchen’s clear, Top, coming around to you.” Johnny called out.

  “Living room is clear.”

  Mykel stepped over the body in the hallway, and did his best not to upchuck at the sight of the now headless man. A man poked his head out of a room and Mykel took a shot. “Fuck!” He missed.

  Inside the room, the man had a knife to the girl’s throat. “Don’t come any closer!” The man shouted. “Or she’s dead!”

  “Have you ever played the military version of Rock, Paper, Scissors?” Mykel asked calmly, his weapon trained on the man’s forehead, right between the eyes. He didn’t even look at the woman.

  “What?” The man asked, dumbfounded.

  “Guns beat Knifes.” Mykel said, and pulled the trigger. The woman screamed as blood splattered all over her. She was naked, saved for her lacy pink under garments, now splattered with blood and other fluids.

  The rest of the team filed in behind him, guns drawn.

  “She’s nekkid, Boss.” Jacob said.

  “I see that.” Graham said. “Go find her a blanket or something, dumbass.”

  “Miss, we are here to help you.” Mykel said, going to her side.

  “Get me out of this!” She cried.

  “How many guys are there?” Mykel asked, doing his very best not to look below her neck. Seeing her naked and helpless like that was highly erotic to him. He was hot and hard almost instantly. He swallowed hard and tried to focus on something other than the party in his pants. “We shot two of them.”

  “The big guy has the keys in his left jean pocket.” She said. “I only ever saw the two men, and I think the big guy was the driver.”

  Johnny nodded. “I’ll go get it.”

  “Well get you out of this, real quick, Ma’am.” Graham said. Jacob came back with a black blanket from one of the other rooms, and laid it gently over her.

  “Thank you.” She said, trying not to blush. She felt really awkward being so exposed in a room full of fully clothed men.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Isabelle.”

  “I’m Mykel Riley.” He said, kneeling down beside her head. “The boss man here is Graham. The other one is Jacob. The dude standing next to him is Bryant.”

  Jacob saluted her with a grin. Bryant nodded at her. She got the feeling he didn’t smile often.

  “Are you hurt?” Mykel asked. “J
ohn Boy here is a medic.” The tall man sauntered back into the room, holding the key up triumphantly.

  “I’m okay.” She said. “A couple of bruises is all. Just get me out of these cuffs.”

  “Did they…you know…force you? If they did, you do need medical attention.” Johnny asked.