Naught and the Circle

Chapter 16 - Lockdown

I

"Name."

"Huh?"

Shelby scanned the room they had placed him in. The walls had green paint flaking off. Behind it, he noticed reinforced metal panels. A broken water cooler stood in the corner. He hadn't seen one of those in forever. Back when he worked sales down at La Brea. He'd come in late. Put the coffee on. Throw his meatball sub with extra cheese in the fridge. God, how he wanted a meatball sub.

"Your full name." The voice said.

On the table in front lay a pair of large wire cutters. The soldier talking to him was a new face—The intimidation. The muscles. Behind him stood the cigarette-smoking General: Field Marshal Daniel Price. The de facto dictator of this shit hole.

"Where is she!?" Shelby barked. His shackles clattering against the chair.

Price took a drag from his smoke.

"This is an interrogation, not your stage." He wandered around the table. "The man in front of you is Major Oberst. He tortures people. Efficiently. He's going to break your nose, in such a fashion that it will never, ever set properly."

A searing pain burned through Shelby's face as he gradually regained consciousness. His eyes were swollen shut, his nose a volcano. Blood spewing down his mouth.

"-Hlp..." He couldn't process anything. A screaming fire alarm in his brain. Images of gore flashed through his mind.

The Field Marshal took another drag. The smoke filling the small room.

"I'm not the villain," he said. "We're not the Gestapo. This city has survived riots, famines, Hell... And it'll survive you."

He bent down to get a better look at Shelby.
"We're both old men. I've seen what you've seen, so I know... But you don't need that nose, you can get on without it. The swelling should be reduced by tomorrow. Enough for you to see. But after this little conversation, you'll be marched past your friends, to say your goodbyes."

The air was dead. Silence hung over them like a ghost. He was going into shock. Every chess move fleeting, every clever retort dissolved into vapor. All replaced by the throbbing agony the size of the moon.

"Here's what's going to happen." Price said.

Oberst stood up and forcibly unbuckled Shelby's pants. Pulling them down around his ankles, leaving the dazed Shelby naked.
Price, unfazed by this, took another drag.

"The kid is okay," He said. "She went through surgery, and her wounds are healing. She won't be able to walk, but she's not fully paraplegic."

Shelby's knees buckled.

"She's... Strawberries is alive?" He stammered, surprised by his own slurred speech. "I need... I need to see her.."

Price smiled. "You're as stubborn as she is."

Oberst grabbed the wire cutters.

"Now," Price said. "I'm going to have Major Oberst here cut off your dick. With those pliers. It will come straight off, we'll cauterize the wound. Then we'll feed little Johnny to the dogs. You'll walk the earth even less of a man. Or, right now, and I fucking stress the words; RIGHT NOW, you tell me everything. Starting with your name."

"My name is Mark Edward Shelby."

II