by Genevi Engle
“What now!” Babe asked, running up to the side of me. We kept our speed through the dark field, running like our lives depended on it...and it did.
“We keep moving until I can get us a ride out of here.”
Lights pulled out in front of us and 3 massive hover vehicles roared, blowing dirt into our eyes. I slid to the ground, guarding my face. I could feel the heat rising off of the vehicles as they surrounded us and as I open my eyes to look, Linda and her crew exited the vehicle, pointing their guns at us. Ellie and Babe quickly dropped their bags of equipment as Linda's crew roughed and tied them up.
I turned my head to see Linda walking fast to me and before I could realize that she was reeling her arm back, she sent a hard knuckled punch across my face, sending me to the ground. I tasted the warm blood in my mouth, and as I spat the ball of blood, a tooth followed. Linda stood over me with a grimace, her fists clenched. She went to a knee and sent another punch to my face, sending me rolling on the ground. I looked back to Linda to see her getting closer to me.
“End of the line bitch.!” She stood up and this last thing I saw and felt that evening was her size nine boot, stomping the fuck out my face.
CHAPTER 14 - BETRAYAL
Present
Blood trickled down my face and dripped on onto my lap. My arms were bent back behind the chair I was tied to. My legs were spread apart and tied to the legs of the chair. I sat inside a large empty room, constantly wondering where Ellie and Babe were being kept. I heard a door open and I heard boots hitting the floor. I was unable to see who was entering but my gut was telling me that after a guessed four hours, I believed Linda was finally ready to see me. She stepped in front of me, holding a badge in one hand and a pistol in the other.
“I'm gonna get straight to the point.” she said standing in front of me. “I want you back.”
“You lost me when told me to go.” I spat. “My loyalty lies elsewhere.”
“That's what everyone says until their loyalty is tested.” Linda gave a hand signal, and with that I heard the room door open and after a brief moment, the door shut. A couple of Linda's crew brought Ellie in front of us and she dropped to her knees.
“What the fuck is this?” my eyes widened at the sight of her appearance. She was heavily bruised and drenched in her own blood.
“What?” Linda laughed. “You don't recognize your own crew?”
“Leave them out of this. This is between me and you!”
“This has surpassed me and you. You have affected the lives of so many other people because of your betrayal.”
“Linda, listen to me. Ellie has nothing to do with this goddamn it! She is innocent. She is irrelevant to our history!”
“You have a knack for betrayal. Now you have a choice on who you get to betray next.” Linda pulled out a pistol and pointed it to Ellie's head.
“Linda. Don't fucking do this!”
“Join us. Come back with me so that we can use your access and sabotage the Territory establishment once and for all. They all trust you. Let's use that as leverage.”
“I'm not going to do that.”
“Or I put a bullet in her head.”
“The spirits in heaven now wrap their arms around me.” Ellie muttered. Her body quivered with fear.
“I won't.”
“You have until the count of five.” Linda threatened, placing her finger near the trigger guard.
“Linda don't.” I said, tears beginning to fall.
“One!” Linda was clenching hard on the gun.
Ellie began praying loudly.
“Two!”
“Linda, don't fucking do this!”
“Three!”
“Alright! Alright!” I cried.
Linda smiled and disappointed, I looked at the floor. Then a gunshot went off and as I looked up, I saw Ellie's body collapse onto the floor.
“NO!” I cried.
A pool of blood formed around Ellie's head.
“What the fuck.” I said, trying hard to breathe.
“I kinda know when you're lying. What can I say?” Linda laughed. “Or maybe I'm just not fully convinced.”
I refused to look at her. I kept my gaze at the ground.
“Round two!” Linda called out. My head shot up and her attention was behind me. I had a gut feeling on what was next and surely as I guessed, Babe was placed in front of me, blind folded and on her knees. She was heavily bruised as well. Her breathing was heavy and her anatomy was shaking with nervousness.
“Whatever they want you to do. Don't fucking do it!” Babe screamed.
“As stated with your previous partner, five seconds.” Linda placed the gun to Babe's head. “Convince me.”
“Alright Linda. I'll join you.” I said calmly, attempting to persuade her with my tone.
“That doesn't sound like you're even trying. FIVE!”
“What the fuck do I have to do! Don't fucking kill her!”
“That's why I'm not convinced! Four!” Linda shouted. “Don't do this for her life. Do this for the lives you effected when we created this and when you left us.”
“I am!”
“You're lying! Three!”
“Goddamn it Linda!”
“Two!”
I tucked my head down.
Babe began laughing. “Fuck you bitch.”
I heard someone spit and next a gunshot, followed by a body hitting the floor. I picked my head up and there, just a few feet away from Ellie's body was Babe's. I looked up at Linda, who wiped blood and saliva from her face.
“Time's up.”
Linda nudged Babe's body with her foot. “And here I am, still not convinced.”
Tears drenched my face. “If you're not convinced, then I don't know what to tell you. I'm done begging.”
Linda stomped up to me, clenching me by my chin. “You're done begging?”
“Yes you psychotic bitch!”
“I wouldn't say that just yet.” Linda raised her arm and signaled.
This time, I wanted to turn my head to see just what the fuck she was pulling. This time, on her knees in front of me with Linda standing over her, was my mother.
“Mom.” I said softly. I haven't called her mom in a very long time but emotion had took over. Fear made me do it.
“I'm sorry.” Lorraigne said, her voice cracking.
CHAPTER 15 – GET AWAY
My mother was shaking. I've never seen her in this state before. I wanted to burst out and cry like a startled four year old.
“Make me believe you.” Linda said. Her words started to change me and now I was starting to no longer shake with fear, but with anger instead.
“Don't fucking do it Linda. This takes things beyond far.” I said, my lips trembling.
“I love when you throw the blame entirely on me. You knew this was coming. You knew how we did things so don't act like this is a major surprise darling. She's here because of you.”
“Mom. Everything is going to be alright.” I said, not confident in that statement.
“Just do what they want Claire.” she cried.
“I'm doing everything they want me to do.” I squealed as Linda fired her pistol, shooting a round just a few inches from my foot.
“Don't be a fucking liar Claire, because if you were doing that, I would've been convinced already and your two pals would be alive.”
“No they wouldn't!” I shouted. “This is just your way of playing your sick fucking game!”
“Well you're about to lose. Five!”
“Claire. Whatever you have to do, please do it!” Lorraigne cried.
“Linda!”
“Four!”
I tried to wiggle free from the chair.
“Three!”
I knew what to say. I should have said it earlier but I could blow everything on two inmates who escaped with me. This however was different. This was my mother.
“Alright!” I screamed. “I'll take you to the underground facility. It holds all of the Terr
itories secrets. I have access. There you'll have access to a impenetrable facility, top secret information and a secret armory full of advance weaponry to build a defense against any military in the world; just don't fucking shoot her goddamn it.” I looked into Linda's eyes.
“There it is.” she said with a grin. “...and cut!”
Linda lowered the pistol and Lorraigne untied the blind fold on her face. She stood up and looked at me. “I'm sorry if I startled you honey, but I had a gut feeling that was the only way that was going to work.”
“Lorraigne. What the fuck are you doing?”
“Times were getting hard honey. Linda had the resources to take care of me. The story tells itself.”
I sat there, tears rolling down my face. I stared into my mother's unassuming face.
“I was set to die, and you join the very people who set out to sabotage me?”
“What was I supposed to do?!” Lorraigne snapped. “You were dead.”
“You could have done the right thing. If you did that long enough, I'd be back to take care of you.”
“Well here you are and here I am and it looks to me like I'm already taken care of.”
Annoyed and irritated by my mother's fuckery, I started blocking her out for a few seconds, glancing at Ellie's and Babe's bodies. I started to feel nauseous again. It wasn't the bodies that was doing that for me, though I couldn't explain the reasoning. I just knew that I was ready to vomit on this blood soaked floor.
Lorraigne looked at me strangely. “Are you okay.”
I was tired, malnourished and dehydrated and now this was happening. The excrement came up quick and I spilled it all out right in front of Lorraigne.
“I'm fine.” I grunted.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Linda snapped.
I watched Linda give a hand signal, and my guess was she was getting one of her guys to clean up my spew. The servant, all geared out in tactical gear, pulled a towel from her back pocket. She went down to a knee and scooped up a tiny, bleeping device from the puddle of vomit.
“It's my special way of saying you all are under arrest.” I said with a grin, as Linda's little servant held a vomit covered tracking chip.
“You fucking bitch.” Linda said whipping out a large blade. She cut the restraints and grabbed me by my neck, placing the gun to the side of my head. “You have five seconds to call them off.”
“I'm not in grade school, you don't need to count for me.” I said angrily.
“Shut your fucking mouth!” Linda's paranoia rose, as she stood in a panicked state, looking around the empty room. Linda then screamed, and pushed me away from her grip. I felt a spray of liquid hit my face and as I looked at my hand, I noticed it was blood; Linda's blood. Linda was screaming in agony, holding her bloody hand. I looked to the floor and saw that her gun was just laying there, and after I took another quick glance at Linda holding her blasted hand, I quickly dove for the gun, grabbing it and getting to my feet. As I attempted to sight in on Linda, she had already bolted out of the room, with her group of servants following. As I stepped forward, Lorraigne stood in front of me.
“You have one chance to move.” I said, pointing the gun at her chest.
“Or what?!” she snapped. “You're going to kill your own mother.”
“No.” I said, pistol whipping her across the jaw, sending her to the floor. “But if I wanted to. I would.”
“Enjoy your time in Sonne Graol.” I said pulling off the necklace that she had gave me and tossing it on the floor.
As I stepped out into the warehouse halls, I could see multiple squads filling area. They had numerous members of Linda's crew on the ground surrendering to apprehension, but there was no sign of Linda. I ran to an elevator within the halls and entered. In time I reached another massive underground garage, that housed more of Linda's stolen vehicles. I knew she had to be down here, attempting to scurry away from the mess she had created.
I heard a vehicle door slide open. I turned my attention to the direction of the sound to see Linda, climbing into what happened to be the largest vehicle in here. It looked like the motherfucker was built to go into space. I couldn't have been sure on that theory, but I didn't want to waste any time and let that bitch get away again.
I sprinted to the massive vehicle and tackled Linda from the step ladder of the vehicle. I rolled on top of her and delivered wild punches to her face. I felt her foot, nudge onto my stomach as she kicked me off of her but as quick as I was sent to the floor, I jumped right back up and once again, I was on top of her, clouting away on her pretty face.
She nailed a solid fist to my jaw, knocking me dizzy. She then pushed me off of her and stood over me, kicking me in the chest. Before I could catch my breath, she sent a harder kick to my gut, rolling me over onto my back. She then stood over me and pressed her boot onto my neck.
“I never thought we'd be trading blows.” she said, starting to press harder. “We started this together.”
I then whipped a knife from a inside sleeve in my boot and stabbed Linda in the leg. She fell back as I got to my feet, holding my neck.
I struggled to speak. “And I'm going to end this.” I pointed a pistol at Linda. “Stay where you are.”
Linda rose to her feet and raised her hands up. She started to limp forward towards me.
“You're going to cuff me officer?” she asked with a smile, holding her arms out.
“Just like old times.” I said, slapping one cuff on. Before I could slap the other one on, Linda slammed an elbow into my nose, possibly breaking it. Before I could recover, she gripped me by my head and ran the side of my skull into some cold steel. I was on my fours, bleeding heavily from my nose and head before I blacked out.
My eyes fluttered open and now I was staring up at a metallic ceiling. My body was tied up heavily and laid across a bedding inside of a moving, aerial vehicle of some sort.
“We're almost there.” Linda said, entering the small compartment that I was bounded in.
“Where are we?” I asked, struggling to free my arms.
“Half way around the world.” she smiled. “Doesn't look too bad over here.”
“You're better off killing me.”
“Well I thought that through. You see I know they'd come after you. With you being such a valuable asset and all, I'm sure they're are geared up to come after you.”
“Oh wow. You against the territory enforcement. Let me know how that goes.” I said sarcastically.
“Oh don't worry. We have time. Months. Maybe years to rebuild what we had. Then we take our empire back to the territories and correct the corrupt once again.”
Linda then walked out of the area. Probably back to take this aircraft off of auto-pilot.
Each time I thought I was one step ahead of her, somehow she always managed to remain in front of me. It was now time for something drastic to happen. My boots were off, so no chance at pulling the small razor I had hidden in the heel of the left one. I wiggled my hand out of the bound rope my body was tightly encased with and reached back through, digging into my pants and into my panties. There, encased in a heavily padded but small pouch was a tiny razor. I slowly pulled it from my pants and started to saw at the rope. Within only a few minutes, I was free and I slowly moved forward from the back area I was in and to the command deck, where Linda was controlling the air craft. I had to handle this debacle in the only method I saw fit to completely throw a monkey wrench into her clock work.
I ran forward and sucker punched Linda off of the controls. She fell out of the seat and I quickly smashed an array of buttons. With that input, the ship dropped, sending me and Linda's bodies flying to the roof of the ship. My heart felt like it was going to rip out of my chest.
“Are you fucking nuts!” Linda shouted, trying to overcome gravity.
I wasn't sure where we were going to crash but on this very day, I was ready to die. All of my mistakes, my wrong doing were finally going to catch up with me. That I was going to die w
ith the very person who made me the person I was today, based on the decisions that she made in the past.
The ship hit ground, and our bodies slammed onto the surface of the ship hard, sliding and slamming like a flesh pin-ball.
I heard movement, and that prompted me to get to my feet again. As I slowly stood up and looked around in a rushing effort, I couldn't spot Linda. A gunshot suddenly went off, and a round went through my knee, dropping me to the floor.
“You could have picked a much better place for us to crash land!” she snarled. She was panicked, peering through the windows. “We're in the middle of fucking nowhere!”
She slid down to me, punching me like a wild woman, cracking solid ones against my jaw. She then jabbed me against my already fucked up nose.
That shot set me off and I elbowed her in the face, sending her to the floor. The elbow was a solid knock, and she stayed planted on the floor. Linda spat a mouthful of blood.
She let out a laugh. “This. This is your fucking fault.”
I shook my head and began laughing along. “This is fucking stupid.”
“Why the fuck are you laughing?” Linda asked, looking at me. Her jaw seemed crooked and I was able to tell that I may have fucked up her jaw.
“Because if we're going to keeping taking each other out like this, we might as well just both commit suicide.”
“I've come too far for you to put that kind of bullshit in my head.”
“Then let's get up. Use what we have in this ship. Search the area for a way for me to call my team here.”
“Fuck you!” she snapped. “I'm not stupid! So you can stick me in a hole permanently? Not happening!”
“Then we'll both die.”
“Fuck!” Linda punched the steel wall.
“Get out of the ship and search for some kind of radio so I can make contact.”
“I'm not going to do that!”
“Then we'll die, and at this point, I'm done with life.”
“Then I'll help you on your way then.” she said, pointing her gun at me from where she sat.