The Company

Eden

My heart is heavy as I exit the vent, out into the sunlight of the afternoon. I don't want to leave Viktor behind, I don't want him to be hurt and alone whenever whatever he was terrified of comes to him. That woman.

But I am out in the open still, in the harsh blare of the sun, so I slink around close to the building and then bolt for the trees.

As I dash to the thicket, I try to locate where that girl went. She will have answers, hopefully.

Once I make it to the trees, I immediately hear a series of groans and whimpers.

Leaning against a tree, the girl is hunched over, holding her stomach, face bunched up in pain.

"Hey," I say gently, not wanting to scare her.

She jumps anyway, spinning around to secure me in her glare. Her face is shiny with sweat and is flushed red, strands of her short blonde hair falling into her face as she pants in pain.

I remove my leather jacket and offer it to her slowly. "You probably don't want to run around in that hospital gown, eh?"

She looks down, as if just realizing, and her cheeks deepen to a darker red. Not much is covered in the thin material, and the back is blowing open revealing her naked backside.

She grabs the jacket from me with a rough, "thank you..."

"You're welcome," I say simply, studying her as calmly as I can. She is clearly in pain and disoriented, but I want to question her so that I can help Viktor, or at the very least understand why he must do all of this, and for who.

She is studying me too, hazle eyes scanning over me. "Your hands are shaking," she observes. "Are you afraid?"

"No, just in desparate need of a drink," I mutter, wiping cold sweat from my own brow. The chills have started up. "But first, I need to know what your deal is. Why were you there? Are you with--"

I stop myself, remembering what my questioning of the guy back there resulted in. I don't want them to blow up her brain if she is with them, and I'm not confident she even knows what is going on either.

Suddenly, she lets out a strained cry, crumpling to the ground into the fetal position.

"Hey," I gasp, dropping down to her side, "hey, what's wrong? What's happening?"

"Sasha!" comes Terry's obnoxious call through the trees.

"Here!" I call, and then add, "Shut up and get over here!" He's gonna alert the whole damn building like that.

He comes stumbling through the bush, pausing when he sees the girl on the ground. "Who is that?"

"I don't know, but we can't leave her here, they were going to kill her."

Viktor was going to kill her.

I shudder, unable to see Viktor that way. I've witnessed him kill before... but only to protect me. Never someone innocent, someone unrelated to the madness that is The Company. To me, Viktor is a safe haven, a pillar to lean on, but seeing what I just saw... the image is crumbling.

It isn't his fault. He's a tool, what did you expect? It isn't his fault.

Dismissing these distressing thoughts for now, I take the girl by the shoulders and haul her up. She moans in pain as I do, her legs shaking.

"What's wrong with her?" Terry asks.

"Good question. Come on, let's get back to the car."

"How will we get her over the fence?"

"I can go through it," the girl whispers out.

I remember her going through her restraints, as if she were a ghost walking through walls.

"What?" Terry says, brows shooting up in confusion.

"It's true, I saw it," I say, then begin dragging the girl along with me. "We can talk in the car, we have to go."

"Okay, okay," Terry says, trailing after with the grace of a rhinoceros.

As I drag her, I hear the girl whisper once more "...Eden."

"Huh?"

"My name... it's Eden."