"Soul's Bonds", Chapter 4
Now you'll finally get to find out what's happening to Bridge somewhat. *g* Chapter 5 may go live later today or tomorrow, as I'm finished with 22 and am starting on 23.
Chapter 4 (Bridge)
The night before...
As I slowly began to regain consciousness, all I was aware of at first was throbbing pain at the back of my head. I kept my eyes closed, fearing my captor was nearby, and waited, listening. There was no sound at all, so I cautiously opened one eye, finding nobody- and nothing else- with me. Opening the other eye, I took stock of my situation. I was in a sitting position against a wall, my arms bound firmly above my head and attached to it behind me, and I was fastened to the wall by another chain around my waist. My ankles were also bound together, and there was a gag around my mouth. I tried moving, strugging to free myself, but to no avail. Lifting my head from the wall, I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, finding that there were a few grates letting some light in, but saw through one near my head that it was nighttime, meaning I'd been out cold for several hours. I did not recognize where I was at all. Little artificial light and no moonlight shone into my prison. There weren't any of the usual nearby noises of hustle and bustle, vehicle and pedestrian traffic, voices, people. I was alone... I started attempting to free myself again when I was startled by the gravelly voice of my captor from the shadows to my right.
"Struggle all you want," he sneered. "You're not going to free yourself from those chains, squirt. It's about time you woke up... I've been waiting for hours." I squinted, trying to get a good look at him, but he was completely bathed in darkness, all except for his right arm, which appeared to be made of plate armor and clutched a long and sharp-looking sword. "It's time to send a little package to your friends at SPD and give them my demands." I glared at him, unable to make much sound through the gag, then found his sword pressed to my throat. My eyes widened with surprise and fear as a camera flashed. "That should be enough to get them worried. Then, when they inevitably come looking for you, I'll take them ALL down. It should be easy if they're even half as pathetic as you are." I just resumed glaring, and he pressed the sword tighter against my neck. "Now, I want you to tell me some things." He bent down and removed the gag.
"You're an idiot if you think I'm telling you ANYTHING," I spat. "I'm not as stupid as I look, and I'm much more loyal to my friends than that- AGGGGGGH!" I yelled as he swung the sword around, sticking the point of it deep into my arm and twisting.
"If I were you, I'd watch the attitude, squirt," my captor replied. "That was a pinprick compared to the amount of pain I could make you feel, but I don't really have to. Humans are almost painfully easy to manipulate, and even easier to kill. All I have to do is cut you in the right place and you die. Catch my drift, kid? I'll leave you here on your own for a while, bleeding and alone... see if it softens you up a bit. I WILL get the information I want, and if you don't cooperate, I'll make your life a living hell until you decide to obey." He snorted. "You might even end up dead, though I'll try not to let it come to that. Makes no difference to me whether you live or die, but I doubt all of your comrades are as careless as you are, so I really don't want to have to kill you and snatch another one." He gagged me again, then with a whooshing sound, he was gone. Breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pain in my arm, I let my head droop. He was right. I was pathetic. First I'd taken down half the vital systems back at the base. Then I'd stupidly left any way to defend myself behind and gone wandering around by myself... then blurted that I was an SPD officer, not a normal civilian, meaning my captor could easily cause my friends grief or milk SPD for a large ransom. This wasn't the first time I'd been captured due to my own carelessness, either- it had happened just a few months ago. A criminal named Bork had overwhelmed me when I'd gone to attack him on my own instead of waiting for backup.
Pathetic. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.
No. Stop thinking like that, I told myself. Pitying yourself isn't going to free you, and it's not going to make anybody find you any faster. You can't change what happened, so stop beating yourself up and think about what you can do now. My hands were spread apart, but still I tried for several minutes to remove one of my gloves in order to activate my powers so I could perhaps at least see where I was, or who had abducted me. However, I soon realized it was fruitless and slumped down, defeated. All I could do now was wait. I slept fitfully for the rest of the night, my sleep punctuated with a clear and rather disturbing dream.
"One more thing. You never said he had to be alive when I gave him back!" my captor said, pulling me back upright from where I lay on the ground, prone.
"NO!" screamed a male voice. Sky. I saw him running toward me, starting to generate a force field, but it was too late, and I was too weak to break free. The monster used his sword to slit my throat, and I gave a gurgling cry of pain before passing out- or dying, I didn't know which, and then-
I stood briefly before a strange wrought-iron gate which was gone in the blink of an eye. A bright white light filled my eyes for a while before I could see some fuzzy images and hear voices.
"Clear!" A buzzing sound, a body bucking forward. "Clear!" The body bucked forward again, then beeping, slow at first, then growing faster and more steady filled the air. "Thank God." The bright white light vanished, and I could see the scene clearly. Doctors and nurses, both alien and human, swarmed around a body, which was dressed in torn bluejeans and a long-sleeved blue shirt, covered in blood...
It was me.
I was dying. That had to be the only explanation as to why I was floating here, watching myself... The beeping stopped again, and I closed my eyes, barely having time to wonder how dying would feel, strangely not anxious or saddened but very peaceful, before I felt compelled to open them again. I was now standing amidst my friends. They were in what appeared to be a waiting room and were all asleep except for Sky, who looked like a nervous wreck and was forcing himself to stay awake. I watched them for a while, wanting nothing more than to hug them and tell them what they meant to me, before I went through a set swinging doors into a hospital ward. There was still a group of people clustered around my body, but this time my mother was amongst them. Wondering what she was doing there, I drifted up beside her; she was sobbing, looking down at my lifeless body, holding one of my hands.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Carson, but we've done the best we can," a voice from behind me said. "We don't think he's going to make it."
"No... no... he WILL make it," Mama cried. "Please wake up, Bridgey... be strong. Wake up, my baby boy. I need you... don't leave me... your friends are waiting for you, too..."
I awoke with a muffled grunt, my face wet from the tears streaming down it, and began to shiver uncontrollably.
* * *
Somehow, I managed to fall back asleep, and when I woke up again, it was daytime. My wounded arm and the back of my head still throbbed with pain, and my stomach growled in protest, as I hadn't eaten anything in about a day. A little bit of sunlight brightened up my prison, so I shifted as best I could to try and ease the cramping in my arms and looked around again. There was no discernable entrance or exit, no furnishings, just blank concrete and the few grates allowing the sparse light in. My heart sank. How were my friends supposed to find me in such a place? And how on Earth did my kidnapper get in and out? Again, there was no sign of any other living thing, not so much as a mouse scurrying across the floor.
I closed my eyes, my mind turning to the dream I'd had. My captor slitting my throat... watching myself from above as my heart was restarted... and my mother begging me to wake up, to not leave her. Despite the fact that it was quite warm in my prison, I began to shiver again. Though it occurred very rarely, in the past my powers had allowed me to dream of future events before they happened. The last time I'd had such a clear dream- that time, it was about us being attacked by multiple robots, and losing- it had come true.
Had I seen my own death?
I then jumped as I heard a dog barking nearby and- my heart leapt into my throat- two familiar female voices through the tiny grate above my head.
"Looks like he's found something," said Z, and the barking sounded again, now very close to me. I tried making noise to get their attention, but it was difficult through the gag. I could hear something scratching at the wall. "What's the matter with you, R.I.C.?" Z asked. "We've been by before, there's nothing there but an empty old factory. I hope you're not on the fritz again."
"I hope so, too," said Syd. "Man, what a time for this to happen. Come on, boy, that's just a wall. We're looking for Bridge, we don't have any time to waste." But R.I.C. was insistent, and I heard him fire a laser at the wall several times, then begin to dig. "Stop that, R.I.C.! Bad dog!" Syd yelled. She and Z struggled to try and drag him away, but R.I.C. growled at them and resumed his digging.
"Who knew a robotic dog could be as stubborn as a real one? I guess we'll have to see what he's going after," sighed Z, then she said, "Huh. Looks like there IS something under there after all. What's going on?"
"I don't know," said Syd. "Good boy, R.I.C., maybe our luck is finally turning." I nearly fainted with relief as R.I.C.'s head poked through the wall over me. He barked happily, widening the hole enough for Z to push her head and shoulders in.
"BRIDGE!" she cried, her face lighting up. "I can't believe we've found you! Are you OK?" I nodded, and she retreated back through the hole. "He's fine," I heard her telling Syd. "He's still tied up, but he's alone and looks unharmed. We have to get back to the base and report to Sky and the Commander." She poked her head back in, and I looked at her pleadingly, my heart sinking again. "I'm sorry we can't free you, buddy," she said. "Out-of-base communications are still down, and Cruger's orders were to come right back to the base if we found you. For all we- and you- know, this could be a trap, and we can't risk losing you on a gamble like that. You understand, don't you?" I nodded, realizing the wisdom of the Commander's orders, but I still felt uneasy about their leaving. "We'll leave R.I.C. here to guard you just in case, and we'll be back soon, I promise. Hang tight, Bridge. R.I.C., stay." She vanished again, and soon she and Syd's running footsteps retreated. R.I.C. appeared in the hole again, staring at me and whining. I couldn't say anything to him, but his presence was a little reassuring. I leaned my head back against the wall, closing my eyes once more. Now, all there was to do was wait and trust in my friends.
Unfortunately, a few minutes after Z and Syd had left, there was a whooshing noise and my captor reappeared. Now that he was in the daylight, I could get a good look at him- a massive armored alien, with a helmet shaped like a dragon's head. He was still carrying his sword. R.I.C. jumped through the hole and stood protectively in front of me, snarling.
"What- what's all this? How did they find you?" the alien demanded as he took a step forward, and R.I.C. snapped at him. "Oh... it's a little SPD pet puppydog. You're in the way," he said calmly, kicking R.I.C., who dodged and latched his jaws onto the alien's leg. "How annoying." I gave a stifled cry as he sliced R.I.C. right through the middle; R.I.C. yelped before he fell over, twitching and sparking. I found the sword's point pressed against my throat again. "This isn't good- once they come back here, they'll free you and my plan will be ruined," my captor snarled. "Now... what do you think I should do with you, then, squirt? I could gut you right here." I started trembling with fear, whimpering as the blade dug in, drawing a little blood. "God, you're so pitiful and weak it makes me sick. But I won't kill you. No. I'll just leave a souvenir for your little friends." He reached into a pouch at his side, pulled out a camera, and took another picture, the sword still leveled over my windpipe. "Hah. They'll piss themselves when they come back and find you gone." Before I could react, his free hand smacked into my head hard, and I blacked out once more.
Chapter 4 (Bridge)
The night before...
As I slowly began to regain consciousness, all I was aware of at first was throbbing pain at the back of my head. I kept my eyes closed, fearing my captor was nearby, and waited, listening. There was no sound at all, so I cautiously opened one eye, finding nobody- and nothing else- with me. Opening the other eye, I took stock of my situation. I was in a sitting position against a wall, my arms bound firmly above my head and attached to it behind me, and I was fastened to the wall by another chain around my waist. My ankles were also bound together, and there was a gag around my mouth. I tried moving, strugging to free myself, but to no avail. Lifting my head from the wall, I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, finding that there were a few grates letting some light in, but saw through one near my head that it was nighttime, meaning I'd been out cold for several hours. I did not recognize where I was at all. Little artificial light and no moonlight shone into my prison. There weren't any of the usual nearby noises of hustle and bustle, vehicle and pedestrian traffic, voices, people. I was alone... I started attempting to free myself again when I was startled by the gravelly voice of my captor from the shadows to my right.
"Struggle all you want," he sneered. "You're not going to free yourself from those chains, squirt. It's about time you woke up... I've been waiting for hours." I squinted, trying to get a good look at him, but he was completely bathed in darkness, all except for his right arm, which appeared to be made of plate armor and clutched a long and sharp-looking sword. "It's time to send a little package to your friends at SPD and give them my demands." I glared at him, unable to make much sound through the gag, then found his sword pressed to my throat. My eyes widened with surprise and fear as a camera flashed. "That should be enough to get them worried. Then, when they inevitably come looking for you, I'll take them ALL down. It should be easy if they're even half as pathetic as you are." I just resumed glaring, and he pressed the sword tighter against my neck. "Now, I want you to tell me some things." He bent down and removed the gag.
"You're an idiot if you think I'm telling you ANYTHING," I spat. "I'm not as stupid as I look, and I'm much more loyal to my friends than that- AGGGGGGH!" I yelled as he swung the sword around, sticking the point of it deep into my arm and twisting.
"If I were you, I'd watch the attitude, squirt," my captor replied. "That was a pinprick compared to the amount of pain I could make you feel, but I don't really have to. Humans are almost painfully easy to manipulate, and even easier to kill. All I have to do is cut you in the right place and you die. Catch my drift, kid? I'll leave you here on your own for a while, bleeding and alone... see if it softens you up a bit. I WILL get the information I want, and if you don't cooperate, I'll make your life a living hell until you decide to obey." He snorted. "You might even end up dead, though I'll try not to let it come to that. Makes no difference to me whether you live or die, but I doubt all of your comrades are as careless as you are, so I really don't want to have to kill you and snatch another one." He gagged me again, then with a whooshing sound, he was gone. Breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pain in my arm, I let my head droop. He was right. I was pathetic. First I'd taken down half the vital systems back at the base. Then I'd stupidly left any way to defend myself behind and gone wandering around by myself... then blurted that I was an SPD officer, not a normal civilian, meaning my captor could easily cause my friends grief or milk SPD for a large ransom. This wasn't the first time I'd been captured due to my own carelessness, either- it had happened just a few months ago. A criminal named Bork had overwhelmed me when I'd gone to attack him on my own instead of waiting for backup.
Pathetic. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.
No. Stop thinking like that, I told myself. Pitying yourself isn't going to free you, and it's not going to make anybody find you any faster. You can't change what happened, so stop beating yourself up and think about what you can do now. My hands were spread apart, but still I tried for several minutes to remove one of my gloves in order to activate my powers so I could perhaps at least see where I was, or who had abducted me. However, I soon realized it was fruitless and slumped down, defeated. All I could do now was wait. I slept fitfully for the rest of the night, my sleep punctuated with a clear and rather disturbing dream.
"One more thing. You never said he had to be alive when I gave him back!" my captor said, pulling me back upright from where I lay on the ground, prone.
"NO!" screamed a male voice. Sky. I saw him running toward me, starting to generate a force field, but it was too late, and I was too weak to break free. The monster used his sword to slit my throat, and I gave a gurgling cry of pain before passing out- or dying, I didn't know which, and then-
I stood briefly before a strange wrought-iron gate which was gone in the blink of an eye. A bright white light filled my eyes for a while before I could see some fuzzy images and hear voices.
"Clear!" A buzzing sound, a body bucking forward. "Clear!" The body bucked forward again, then beeping, slow at first, then growing faster and more steady filled the air. "Thank God." The bright white light vanished, and I could see the scene clearly. Doctors and nurses, both alien and human, swarmed around a body, which was dressed in torn bluejeans and a long-sleeved blue shirt, covered in blood...
It was me.
I was dying. That had to be the only explanation as to why I was floating here, watching myself... The beeping stopped again, and I closed my eyes, barely having time to wonder how dying would feel, strangely not anxious or saddened but very peaceful, before I felt compelled to open them again. I was now standing amidst my friends. They were in what appeared to be a waiting room and were all asleep except for Sky, who looked like a nervous wreck and was forcing himself to stay awake. I watched them for a while, wanting nothing more than to hug them and tell them what they meant to me, before I went through a set swinging doors into a hospital ward. There was still a group of people clustered around my body, but this time my mother was amongst them. Wondering what she was doing there, I drifted up beside her; she was sobbing, looking down at my lifeless body, holding one of my hands.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Carson, but we've done the best we can," a voice from behind me said. "We don't think he's going to make it."
"No... no... he WILL make it," Mama cried. "Please wake up, Bridgey... be strong. Wake up, my baby boy. I need you... don't leave me... your friends are waiting for you, too..."
I awoke with a muffled grunt, my face wet from the tears streaming down it, and began to shiver uncontrollably.
* * *
Somehow, I managed to fall back asleep, and when I woke up again, it was daytime. My wounded arm and the back of my head still throbbed with pain, and my stomach growled in protest, as I hadn't eaten anything in about a day. A little bit of sunlight brightened up my prison, so I shifted as best I could to try and ease the cramping in my arms and looked around again. There was no discernable entrance or exit, no furnishings, just blank concrete and the few grates allowing the sparse light in. My heart sank. How were my friends supposed to find me in such a place? And how on Earth did my kidnapper get in and out? Again, there was no sign of any other living thing, not so much as a mouse scurrying across the floor.
I closed my eyes, my mind turning to the dream I'd had. My captor slitting my throat... watching myself from above as my heart was restarted... and my mother begging me to wake up, to not leave her. Despite the fact that it was quite warm in my prison, I began to shiver again. Though it occurred very rarely, in the past my powers had allowed me to dream of future events before they happened. The last time I'd had such a clear dream- that time, it was about us being attacked by multiple robots, and losing- it had come true.
Had I seen my own death?
I then jumped as I heard a dog barking nearby and- my heart leapt into my throat- two familiar female voices through the tiny grate above my head.
"Looks like he's found something," said Z, and the barking sounded again, now very close to me. I tried making noise to get their attention, but it was difficult through the gag. I could hear something scratching at the wall. "What's the matter with you, R.I.C.?" Z asked. "We've been by before, there's nothing there but an empty old factory. I hope you're not on the fritz again."
"I hope so, too," said Syd. "Man, what a time for this to happen. Come on, boy, that's just a wall. We're looking for Bridge, we don't have any time to waste." But R.I.C. was insistent, and I heard him fire a laser at the wall several times, then begin to dig. "Stop that, R.I.C.! Bad dog!" Syd yelled. She and Z struggled to try and drag him away, but R.I.C. growled at them and resumed his digging.
"Who knew a robotic dog could be as stubborn as a real one? I guess we'll have to see what he's going after," sighed Z, then she said, "Huh. Looks like there IS something under there after all. What's going on?"
"I don't know," said Syd. "Good boy, R.I.C., maybe our luck is finally turning." I nearly fainted with relief as R.I.C.'s head poked through the wall over me. He barked happily, widening the hole enough for Z to push her head and shoulders in.
"BRIDGE!" she cried, her face lighting up. "I can't believe we've found you! Are you OK?" I nodded, and she retreated back through the hole. "He's fine," I heard her telling Syd. "He's still tied up, but he's alone and looks unharmed. We have to get back to the base and report to Sky and the Commander." She poked her head back in, and I looked at her pleadingly, my heart sinking again. "I'm sorry we can't free you, buddy," she said. "Out-of-base communications are still down, and Cruger's orders were to come right back to the base if we found you. For all we- and you- know, this could be a trap, and we can't risk losing you on a gamble like that. You understand, don't you?" I nodded, realizing the wisdom of the Commander's orders, but I still felt uneasy about their leaving. "We'll leave R.I.C. here to guard you just in case, and we'll be back soon, I promise. Hang tight, Bridge. R.I.C., stay." She vanished again, and soon she and Syd's running footsteps retreated. R.I.C. appeared in the hole again, staring at me and whining. I couldn't say anything to him, but his presence was a little reassuring. I leaned my head back against the wall, closing my eyes once more. Now, all there was to do was wait and trust in my friends.
Unfortunately, a few minutes after Z and Syd had left, there was a whooshing noise and my captor reappeared. Now that he was in the daylight, I could get a good look at him- a massive armored alien, with a helmet shaped like a dragon's head. He was still carrying his sword. R.I.C. jumped through the hole and stood protectively in front of me, snarling.
"What- what's all this? How did they find you?" the alien demanded as he took a step forward, and R.I.C. snapped at him. "Oh... it's a little SPD pet puppydog. You're in the way," he said calmly, kicking R.I.C., who dodged and latched his jaws onto the alien's leg. "How annoying." I gave a stifled cry as he sliced R.I.C. right through the middle; R.I.C. yelped before he fell over, twitching and sparking. I found the sword's point pressed against my throat again. "This isn't good- once they come back here, they'll free you and my plan will be ruined," my captor snarled. "Now... what do you think I should do with you, then, squirt? I could gut you right here." I started trembling with fear, whimpering as the blade dug in, drawing a little blood. "God, you're so pitiful and weak it makes me sick. But I won't kill you. No. I'll just leave a souvenir for your little friends." He reached into a pouch at his side, pulled out a camera, and took another picture, the sword still leveled over my windpipe. "Hah. They'll piss themselves when they come back and find you gone." Before I could react, his free hand smacked into my head hard, and I blacked out once more.