Rehash

Twenty

Even as Zed forced me to my feet, my hands still tied firmly behind my back, they pretended like I didn't exist. 

Zed and Ava didn't talk anymore, at least not out loud, as Zed ushered me out of the lab, back into the tunnel network. I didn't know where we were going. With no points of recognition anywhere, my sense of orientation was completely gone. I didn't even remember what side we came from yesterday. 

Zed and Ava seemed to know where we were going just fine, however. They both took an abrupt right. The point of Zed's laser gun poked me in the back as a constant reminder he could shoot me any second as we walked. While the constant threat was distracting, I did my best to focus on the path we were taking. Left, right, into the broader tunnel network for a while, before slipping into another narrow alley that no longer allowed us to fit next to each other. 

Zed made me go first, jutting the gun into my back to make me walk when I hesitated. But a few feet in, Zed grabbed my shoulder and made me halt.

"Up ahead," he told Ava cryptically.

"I noticed," she replied. "Tie him up. We'll deal with it."

Zed's hand on my shoulder promptly pushed me onto me knees and some fiddling with the constraints later, I was tied to some sort of pipeline running across the side of the wall. Solid metal. Of course, I tried tugging with a muffled groan but like the cabinets in the lab, it didn't give away. I only managed to produce a clanging noise with the chains around my wrists against the pipe. 

The sound echoed through the tunnel network and I flinched. Zed looked into the distance with artificially lit up blue eyes.

"They heard that," he stated emotionlessly.

"Take them out," Ava ordered. "Soundlessly, if possible." 

Zed took his survival knife out of its sheathe, which was attached to the belt on his middle, and he snuck forwards and out of my sight. 

"Mmm!" I groaned again, clanging the chain against the pipe. 

"Shh, quiet now," Ava hushed me. "It'll be over soon. After you fulfilled your part as a hostage, I promise you a swift, painless death. If you behave."

I glared at her, until soft, muffled sounds in the distance distracted me. The shuffling of feet, groans that sounded like mine with the spray covering my mouth, and finally, dead silence. 

Zed returned to us, his face impassive as ever. But I noticed the blood smears on the knife and the darkish red drops on his grey shirt, and the colour drained from my face. He also held a communication device. Military grade, probably stolen from whoever the blood on Zed's shirt and knife also belonged to. My stomach turned at the thought of having to see a dead body up ahead. 

"I extracted their com. As expected, the goods are no longer at Lenora's," Zed informed Ava. "We must revise our strategy." 

"I see," Ava replied, taking the com device from Zed's open hand. "Are we detected?"

"No. There's an exact hour interval between patrol switches. Approximately twenty minutes more before the next."

"What's our new destination?" 

What Zed said next, I couldn't entirely follow. He recited a series of numbers with dots between them quickly. A few numbers in, I realised he was calling out coordinates, but obviously I didn't know what they meant without a map. 

Ava, did, however. She'd been human before having her memory waking up in a gyndroid body, and it showed. A small, wry smile appeared on her face. 

"Of course, there," she said. "That location means we no longer need a hostage." 

"There are a few scenarios in which we do," Zed replied. "Depending on what approach will prove best on site."

"No, he will slow us down. We must move swiftly."

Both Zed and Ava now looked at me. We no longer need a hostage. I knew what that meant. My heart nearly pounded a million miles an hour. Sweat dripped down my forehead, but I kept my eyes on Zed. 

I wanted to tell him I wasn't just his hostage. That he had to remember me. That he had to look up more information on my life, and decide he wasn't going to help Ava.  

"Mmm!" was the only sound I could make through the spray.

"I see your scenarios. In over eighty percent he is a burden rather than an asset. We no longer need him. He is more trouble than he's worth," Ava said. "Shoot him. That's an order."

Zed aimed the laser pistol at me and removed the safety mechanism. 

I didn't get time to make a sound, or even give Zed a pleading look. He pulled the trigger immediately and without hesitation.  

I'd accidentally been shot in the arm before by my brother, when we played with dad's airgun. The searing pain was similar, but more intense. A hot, burning sensation radiating through my chest, where the laser had hit me.

When I glanced down, blood already soaked my shirt. 

Zed didn't even look back. He turned and clicked the laser pistol back into its holster. Ava followed without a second glance as well. 

There wouldn't be anyone here for another twenty minutes. Correction: the military wouldn't notice their men were missing for another twenty minutes. Before they sent someone over here, it could be even longer.

 The stain in my shirt grew rapidly. I couldn't do anything to stop the bleeding, my hands chained to the steel pipe. 

I'd bleed out in minutes. The blood loss was already affecting me, making my skin feel cold and clammy. I couldn't think. Like my orientation, I lost track of time. 

I was close to passing out, when suddenly the sound of voices and hurried footsteps sounded in the tunnel. I didn't have the energy to react to them, but a bright light shone into my eyes. 

"Fuck!" a gruff male voice swore. "This one's alive. Where's the medkit?" 

"Here." 

More scuffling. Someone bended down next to me. 

"Hang on," another vaguely familiar male voice ordered me gruffly, putting pressure on the wound. "We're gonna need you alive, kid. So don't you dare die on me now." 

I blinked rapidly, forcing my bleary vision to focus on the grim face hovering next to mine. 

Agent Denn. Fucking Agent Denn.

I never thought I'd be happy to see him.