Silence descended, and I focused past the gun to the gunner. He was an unassuming, stocky man dressed like a farm hand in jean overalls. I gathered my strength and
pushed
. “Um, sorry sir, but there is no need for that, we’re—”
Blam!
Pain shot through my leg, which promptly gave out. I hit the ground in agony and saw blood pouring out from my brand new leg hole.
“On the ground blondie, or you’re next. You too, little girl.”
Spring!
I’m working on it Finn. It looks like he grazed your femur, but didn’t sever your femoral artery. I’d suggest you don’t piss him off any more.
I wish you’d put that idea forward a little earlier.
How was I supposed to know he could sense your mental mojo?
I clenched my teeth, tried to relax into the pain, and get it a little bit under control.
The man, who from my new perspective looked a lot larger and meaner, stepped up to me and pointed the barrel of his gun right at my nose. “Try anything like that again, and I
will
shoot you in the head. Do you understand me, pretty boy?”
I nodded as submissively as I knew how. Pretty boy? Trigger-happy
and
insane—a bad combination.
“Alright,” I said. “You don’t need to shoot anybody else.” I looked at Dave and Jen, who were both face-down on the ground. Dave’s arm was tucked under his chest, and he was looking at me. It would only take him about thirty seconds to play the pipe and change. Unfortunately, it would only take our farm-boy here about two seconds to pop us all. I shook my head at Dave.
“None of that!” Farm-boy smacked me hard in the head with the butt of his rifle. Since both my hands were clenched around my wound, I fell over on my side and belatedly tried to protect my head with my arm. I struggled to shake off the pain and the dizziness while Spring yelled at me to stop getting hit.
A new voice shouted out, “Brian! You idiot! I told you not to hurt him!” I looked down the gravel drive to see Colette trotting around a bend a hundred feet away. She was dressed in a white shirt tied off above her waist and short shorts. Both of these showed off the smooth tan skin of her stomach and legs in a manner that helped distract me from the pain. Some day something would happen to me that would trump my obsession with pretty women’s bodies, but this wasn’t it.
Without taking his eyes off of us, Brian snapped back at her, “I had to do something, he was trying to coerce me! You wouldn’t believe how strong he is!”
Colette increased her pace, and her eyes grew bigger. “You shot him?”
“I told you, he...”
“Shut up,
cochon!
” Colette ran up to me and dropped by my side. She grimaced with concern and addressed me in a much gentler voice. “Put your leg down, Finn, let me check it.”
I shook my head and immediately regretted it. I fell onto my back and put my hand to the side of my head. I quickly discovered that hadn’t been a good idea either. I bit down a yelp and snatched my hand away.
I tried to focus on Colette’s light touch as she examined my leg. She was incredibly gentle.
“The bullet, she has gone completely through the leg. Your bleeding has already slowed down.”
There was only one thing I had to say to Colette, and I couldn’t keep the hurt from my voice. “Why did you stab me?”
She pursed her lips as she tore off her light cotton summer shirt. It left her wearing nothing but a lacy bra. That helped take my mind off the pain as she wrapped it around my leg. She glanced at me, then continued her impromptu bandaging. “I am sorry, Finn. Brian is an idiot, but he is correct. The power of your coercion is terrible. It took all my strength to break free, and when you grabbed me, I panicked.”
“But why—”
Dave interrupted me with his yell. “Damn it Jen, not so tight! That hurts!”
I looked over to see Jen crouching over Dave. Both his arms were behind his back and secured there with a zip tie.
Jen snapped at him. “He told me to make sure they were tight or he would shoot you. Would you rather be dead?”
Dave’s response was cut short by farm-boy Brian. “Okay girly, shut up and lay down next to blondie.”
Jen glared at him, but did as he said. As soon as she was down, Brian closed the ten feet he’d left between himself and my friends.
“Leave her alone!” I yelled. I pushed myself up on my elbows.
Brian didn’t even glance at me, but Colette said, “He will not hurt her. But, we cannot allow her to cause more mischief. Your friends will be tied up, but no more. I promise they will not be hurt.”
“But why—?” My question was again cut short when I heard the crack of a rifle and simultaneously a large fountain of blood sprang from the back of Brian’s head, and he went down hard. Over me, Colette dove away, but another shot rang out, blood splashed from her chest, and she landed face down in a heap on the ground.
I screamed, “Colette!” I scrambled on hands and knees to help her while my back itched in anticipation of the next bullet.
Finn, run away!
No, I wouldn’t get very far on this leg, and I have to help her.
She tried to kill you, you idiot!
She didn’t mean it.
What!?
I got to Colette, who was still awake and weakly trying to crawl away. I put my hands over the wound on her chest. “Lie still, Colette!” My panic gave my command power and she stopped moving.
What about Dave and Jen?
Oh, shit!
I whirled my head around and saw Dave still face down on the ground, trying to inch off the trail, but Jen was nowhere to be seen. No more shots seemed to be forthcoming, so I turned my attention back to Colette’s still, bloody form beneath me. I dove in with my sight to assess the damage. It was a mess.
Finn! Wake up!
Spring’s panicked cry woke me from one nightmare and dumped me into another. I sat up with a start, a shout, and a blinding headache. It was difficult to think through the pain, and it took me a moment to see past the monstrous remnants of my dream to the reality around me. It took another moment for what I was seeing to click into place. I was in a metal cage. It was about eight feet square with finger-sized steel bars spaced every few inches. The bottom of the cage was covered in a layer of rank straw. The cage sat in a white room with white tile flooring, stainless steel tables, and whitewashed cinder-block walls. The back side of the cage was part of the room’s wall. The room, which seemed to be some sort of lab, was mercilessly lit by long bare fluorescent lights hung from an acoustic tile ceiling. To my left sat another cage, which contained a large mountain of black fur. It looked like someone had piled a big black carpet in the cage’s far corner.
That was as far as my inspection got before the horror from my dream squirmed deep within me. The creature, which had been pounding on my bedroom closet door in my dream, was still here, and it was trying to escape from its prison in my mind. I immediately looked to the golden cage buried there. It was unraveling, and pseudopods of darkness were pushing through growing gaps and licking hungrily against my mind. I panicked and pulled on the Caduceus to shore up the disintegrating structure only to find nothing there. My Caduceus was gone. Its familiar and comforting beat was absent, leaving my brain filled with silence.
Spring!
She didn’t answer my call. She wasn’t there. My panic on top of the pain throbbing in my brain made it nearly impossible to think coherently. I looked around, grasping for anything that might help me. There were other, empty, cages around the perimeter of the room and a few plastic bins but nothing that would help me. I threw my own strength into the glowing cage within my mind but my reserves were severely depleted. It would not be long before the cage failed, and I had to deal with Wendigota again. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
I found Colette lying behind me wearing a long white lab coat. It lay open, exposing the bloody bandages wrapped around her torso. I scrambled to her side, brought up my Sight, and checked her health.
After a moment, I convinced myself that she was unconscious or asleep, but not dying. I pulled myself back. A weird shock ran through me when I realized she had no other clothes on. Her shaved nakedness demanded my attention, and it made me feel like a complete looser. Sheesh, maybe I needed psychiatric help. I wrapped the loose coat more tightly around her.
I told Spring,
Why would they strip her naked? Those bastards, whoever they are, will pay for this.
Then I remembered she wasn’t there. I was so going to kick someone’s ass when I got out of here.
I sat back and tried to breathe against my anger and the pain in my head. I found myself staring at the mound of carpeting in the other cage again. It opened up brown eyes and looked back at me. My perception lurched, and I was looking at a large mountain gorilla. Its fur was dull and unkempt. It sat passively in the far corner of its cage watching me without any indication of curiosity or interest.
My grasp on my shadowy prisoner kept slipping. It wouldn’t be long before it broke free. I had to move it somewhere. Somewhere it couldn’t do much damage. I looked back to Colette and discarded that idea. I wouldn’t wish this monster on anybody.
That left me with one choice, and I had no time to consider it. Working against the pain, I focused enough to create a golden shield around the cage and then pulled on the threads of power that comprised the cage. It unraveled and instantly, the shadow within exploded out and ran into my shield. Its cold hunger pierced me, and I almost lost my concentration. With everything I had, I pushed it out of me, into the adjoining cage, and onto the gorilla. I had no time to make sure the shadow attached itself to the orange aura that flared around the great ape before my shield gave out.
I gasped with relief and exhaustion when the shadow poured over the ape’s aura, eclipsing its glow with oily blackness. I flopped bonelessly against the bars of my cage. The gorilla reacted in the opposite way. It exploded into a fury of sound and motion. It started to throw itself against the bars of the cage and bellowed out howls of rage and fear. The cage shuddered with each impact, and I was sure it would break under the terrible onslaught.
I struggled against the sticky fingers of exhaustion pulling me down into a black sea. If the gorilla’s cage failed, the consequences would be dire. I kept a tenuous grasp on consciousness long enough to see the bloodied gorilla subside back into the corner. Guilt and remorse added their weight to the exhaustion, and the dark sea swallowed me.
***
A sudden crash and scream brought me awake again. I sat bolt upright and discovered that there was a young man in a white lab coat in the room with us. He cowered on the other side of the room from the gorilla, who pounded the bars of its cage with both hands and howled like the damned. I could see the young man shaking from ten feet away.
The gorilla stopped howling, seemed to collect itself, and looked down to the pile of fruits and vegetables, which was spilled half in and half out of its cage. It abandoned its anger, sat down, and devoured the food with single-minded concentration. The sight of it eating alerted me to my own raging hunger, which had replaced my headache as the bane of my existence.
I ignored it for a minute and looked around my cage. Colette was still lying in the corner and was awake, but only just. There was a bucket sitting in the opposite corner. Our bathroom facilities, no doubt. I turned my attention back to Colette. She looked at me listlessly and I scooted over to check on her. She didn’t seem to have a fever, but she remained unresponsive.
I looked back for the man in the room. He was just leaving. “Hey! She’s not doing well! We need a doctor in here. She should be in a hospital!”
All I saw was the back of the lab coat fluttering behind the man as he disappeared into the corridor. That was when I noticed that two white bags were sitting just inside our cages. I went over to check them and found two McDinners from Micky D’s. Each bag had a large order of fries and a Big Mac. Behind the bags, I found two large sodas. I looked over at the pile of fruit and vegetables the gorilla was devouring and then grimaced down at our own meal. I guess that showed where our health ranked in the scheme of importance. But, gourmet or not, it was food.
I gave the door to the cage a cursory inspection, and the size of the lock there convinced me I wouldn’t be able to break my way out. I sucked back a mouthful of saliva, grabbed a box of fries, and inhaled them. They were quickly followed by the sandwich and the soda. I was still hungry but not feeling like I would die of starvation. I grabbed the second bag and scooted back to Colette.
I grabbed her hand and stroked the back of it. “Colette?” She turned her head towards me. “Hey there. How are you feeling? Are you okay?”
She didn’t say anything, just sat and stared at me. The blankness of her gaze scared me.
“Hey, are you hungry? Thirsty? Here, I’ve got a Coke for you. You should drink some of it...”
She opened her mouth, and I put the straw into it. She began to suck on it, and I continued to coax her. I eventually got her to eat some of the fries, but she fell asleep quickly. I thought through what I knew about concussions. If she was suffering from a concussion, I needed to keep her awake, but nothing I did roused her. In the end, I gave up, sat next to her, and drew her head into my lap. From the smell and the color of the straw around her, it was clear that she had voided her bladder sometime while she was unconscious. The rest of the straw didn’t seem to be in any better condition. I struggled against the despair and useless rage chewing at me. There had to be something I could do. I locked gazes with the gorilla sitting as far away from me as possible. His fierce display of teeth and stuttering growl made me believe that it knew who I was. The smell, which seemed to come from the gorilla, was intense and pungent. I leaned back against the bars and ran my hand through the loose curls of Colette’s disheveled and greasy brown hair.
I took some time to search for Spring, and I bathed in the warm wave of relief when I found her slumbering deep within me. She was okay, for now at least.