Chapter 46
Haley
It’s hard to tell how long exactly I have been asleep when I start to finally open up my eyes. From years of sleeping between attacks though where sometimes I only get a few hours I know I have been out most if not all of the night. It takes me a minute to regain myself and remember my mission to get the medicine. I feel a pain in my head and when I open my eyes everything goes dizzy. I was probably hit in the head with a brick or something and have a concussion. Waking up means I’m alive at least and I try to move, that’s when I realize that I am in much bigger trouble than I could think possible.
I can’t move and I see that my legs are tied together while my arms are being hung from a chain above my head. This is clearly not work done by revenants and only humans could be capable of an act like this. I don’t hear anybody around though, so I close my eyes and try to focus my ears to work harder and get a longer range. I can hear rummaging and the voices of the drunk bandits from last night. I think back and wish that I had killed them last night when I had the chance and advantage.
“Can you believe she had an M16 on her?”
“We are going to get some use out of that. Plus, she had a whole sack filled with goodies.” Another one states.
They were clearly going through my belongings, and I start to get angry at the fact that I am being looted. I try to wiggle and hopefully get my hands down off of the chain so I can free the rest of myself. Then I will get my gun and kill every last one of those no good bandits. People like that don’t want to think about anyone except for themselves and it makes me sick. Even when they travel in a group they loot together and take from people even if it means they will die from lack of resources. And if one of them ends up being more trouble then they are worth the rest will just go on without them like they are nothing. All my wiggling seemed to catch their attention and soon all five men were in the room with me.
“Look who’s finally awake.” One of them says from the back.
“Now listen here girl. We don’t want to hurt you, but we will if you don’t tell us exactly what we want to know.”
The one talking to me now was the biggest and honestly smelliest of the bunch. He was clearly acting as the leader, and I could tell the knife he was pointing at me was my own. This just got me angrier that he was going to have the nerve to loot me and threaten me with my own weapons. I have no idea what this guy wanted to know, but I knew that I needed to get my stuff and go get the medicine. It had already been a day and Amy was probably in more pain then ever right now. Victoria was going to wait as long as she could on the C-section, but they couldn’t wait indefinitely. I have to deal with these guys and fast or she and her baby are going to be in serious trouble.
“Are you slow girl are do you do not understand how to respond when your superiors are talking to you.” He said and I wanted to spit in his face for thinking he was a superior.
“I didn’t hear you ask anything.” I smugly said to him before he slapped me in the face.
He probably expected some kind of reaction or wince, but I just stayed there with the cold look on my face I have perfected throughout the years. These low life bandits probably haven’t seen a fraction of the horror that I have in my life.
“We know you aren’t from here. And we can tell from your weapon and clean clothing that you were coming from somewhere else. So, you are going to tell us where that somewhere is, or we are going to have to force it out of you.” He threatens and I suppress a laugh that he thinks I am going to tell them where my town is so they could loot it.
Sure, we take in people when we can who have nowhere else to go, but I know exactly what these guys will do if I tell them where my town is and how to get there. They will go home to home taking everything they can carry including all the guns they can find. Sure, we could probably fight them off, but bandits have a way of getting in and out quickly. They will slowly steal all of our resources for themselves greedily until nothing is left. I know that I can’t let them destroy a town that I have a job to protect.
“I’m not telling you anything.” I say and he slaps me again.
“We aren’t playing games with you here. I think I need to show you just how serious we are about wanting to get those directions.”
I wasn’t only slapped this time but also punched and kicked with no way to defend myself. This wasn’t something I could mask and grunted out with pain as the blows kept coming. Then I felt my blade cutting against my skin and gritted my teeth as I felt it digging in. He was making small shallow cuts all over my body and it was torturous. The entire time him telling me that they could stop as soon as I told them how to get to my town. I wasn’t going to give in though and knew that they weren’t going to kill me yet because of their greed, but even if they were going to try and kill me I would die to save my town from suffering at their hands.
I didn’t know what else they could do until I felt the chain being move and my arms being stretched even more. Then they would pull down on my legs to the point that I felt my shoulders were going to pop right out of their sockets. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to move them well and the pain was getting unbearable. Meanwhile the punching and cutting was still going on and I started to feel cold like my body might not be able to take much more of this. The last thing I hear is the man demanding again to tell me where I came from before I once again pass out, not knowing if I am going to wake up or die from this kind of pain.
I am getting kind of tired from waking up from being passed out. It isn’t really restful like sleep which I haven’t gotten in a couple of days now. At least I can tell from where I am that the sun it high in the sky and it is probably the middle of the day. I wasted about half a day already dealing with these guys and I know I can’t take much more of it. I use my hearing and can tell that none of the bandits are anywhere near here. I have no idea where the slinked off to, but I knew that it was now or never when it came to trying to escape. I didn’t know when they would be back, and I still had to get the medicine or Amy might still die after all of this.
My feet can kind of touch the ground again, so they didn’t leave me as stretched out. I think back to what they were doing, and I suddenly get an idea on my head about how I can escape. It isn’t pleasant though and I know that it will leave me exposed in a way, but I have to try. While I can’t move my hands or feet I can move my shoulders. Based on how they chained up my hands they aren’t locked, just tied up. I take a deep breath and bite hard on the inside of my cheek because I want to try and make as little noise as possible incase they are close by.
I shift my body and I hear the shoulder crunch as a dislocate my own shoulder. I am in searing pain and trying hard not to scream. Eventually I hear the snap and let out a small yell that I can only hope is unheard by the bandits. With my arm now bending the wrong way I am able to get one hand free and use it to get the rest out of the ties. My wrists have deep marks from the chains and my body is still covered in cuts and bruises. Even walking hurts, but I manage to go to the other room in the half broken down building and see that some of the supplies are still there. My gun is missing but my knife and bag of goods are still there, so I fasten the bag over my bag shoulder trying to use it as a sort of sling.
I take a careful step outside and once I am there I use the sun to figure out my direction before taking off towards the hospital. I get there pretty quickly despite my slower speed, and I realize that the bandits base was closer to the hospital than I was the night prior. Still, it was a winding path to get there so there was hope they hadn’t stolen it clean. I get in and go to the area that was once a pharmacy to see that it still has some medicine. I find a bottle labeled Oxytocin and open it to find that there is still some left. It’s not a lot, but it should be enough for what we need. I don’t take anything else because it would just make me feel like a no good looter. I would rather leave in incase it is needed for someone else.
I pocket the meds instead of putting them in the bag just incase something happens. As soon as I make my way back to the streets though I hear shouting and I know that the bandits see that I have escaped. Even though I am hurt my legs can run and I am smaller and faster than any of them. I duck and weave through the buildings, knowing that I have to get back to my boat. I might not get there until dark though so I can’t just keep running for hours on end. I am going to have to find a place to hide at least for a little while. I get enough distance on them that I am able to stop and catch my breath.
Normally I could run for a few hours without needing to stop for anything, but I was not in any kind of normal condition. I have cuts on my legs as well and while they weren’t bleeding when I woke up I can feel them starting to open and cover my pants in blood. I am thinking of taking one of the pills for myself to help with the pain and give me enough strength to get back. I know that she needs them for her C-section more though and that I will need to find the strength within myself if I am going to get back. I only was sitting for maybe 15 minutes before I start hearing their voices and a gunshot rings out in my direction. They clearly found me, and I need to start moving again if I want to actually stay alive.
I don’t know how I am managing to evade them and stay far enough ahead that they can’t get a good shot. I see the road that is broken in half and jump over it, hoping that maybe they will be stupid. It turns out that I’m right and I hear one man fall into it and yell for the others to help it. Like I said before though bandits only care about themselves, so I doubt their friend is going to get much help. They are too focused on me though and I can finally see the riverbank again. Have I really been running all day? I look at the sun and see it is starting to set again.
I’m glad I made sure that my boat was secure because it’s still right where I left it and I can jump in and then I will be safe. I start to push it out into the river and get one leg in before I hear another gunshot ring out. I turn and it almost feels like slow motion as the bullet enters my chest. I know I am going to pass out and if I can only just get into my boat I will be fine. My body doesn’t listen to me though and instead I fall backwards the other way into the water. I feel myself floating on it and going down with the current as it takes me downstream. I know that I need to try and stay conscious because if I don’t then I might drown and die. I am able to see that the boat is floating down the river too and the bandits have no way of following me and seeing where I live. Despite all the horrible pain I breathe out in happiness that at least I saved my town from bandits. Now I only need to help save my sister in law and the whole journey and all the pain will have been worth it.
...if I can just hold on a little longer.
