No Surrender | Eddie Munson

Chapter Eleven: Fathers and Daughters

CHAPTER ELEVEN: FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS

PARANOID — BLACK SABBATH

I need someone to show me
The things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make
True happiness, I must be blind

TW// Gun

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We drive for some time. If I had enough energy to speak, I would, but I can't. Whatever drug they gave me has me heavily sedated, barely awake.

I hate how gentle Brenner is when he helps me out of the car. Part of me wishes that he would try to hurt me, as if it could somehow prove my terror rational. It's ridiculous, I know. I just can't trust my mind anymore. Too much has happened.

With what little energy I have to think, I remember the deal that Hopper made. He probably didn't hear me and he probably won't make it out alive. Brenner knows something that we don't. Something big.

"Don't you worry, my child," he whispers, hot breath burning my ear and sending me further in on myself in an attempt to retreat. "Just stay with me. I need you to get through to your sister so we can be a family again. Doesn't that sound good?"

I only manage to make sense of my surroundings when we enter a large building. A pawprint marks the bricks above the door. The middle school.

Again, my attempts to get free only serve to further drain my energy. My feet drag along the floor. A flashlight beam lands on the abandoned kiddie pool.

"Sir," a man speaks from beside us, "we've searched everywhere. There's no sign of them."

With a flick of his hand, the armed men all disappear, rushing off in groups to scour the building again. Finally, only Brenner and I remain with a small detail at the back of the hall. He pushes me closer to the pool. "What did Eleven see? Tell me, Five, what did she see?"

I don't reply. I can't.

Growing impatient, he coaxes me to my knees so that I can get a better look at it. "Five, I need you to tell me."

My fingers slip over the edge, dipping into the very surface of the water. A sharp heat travels throughout my body until every nerve tingles with electricity. I gain just enough strength to turn, a taunting smile pulling at my lips as I grab for his throat. "My name is not Five. My name is Elizabeth Smith. Might as well kill me, 'cause I'm not giving you shit."

The agents start towards us but he waves them back. "You don't know who you are. You don't know anything. But I do, and I can help you."

I try to tighten my grip but my hand doesn't respond. It starts to shake as the lights flicker. Brenner is up and dragging me along with him before I can even process the sudden, repeated wave of exhaustion.

Voices carry down the corridors, voices that only worsen my panic. Mike gasps, "She's barely breathing."

"We gotta go."

Rounding the corner with his hand still firmly holding me against him, Brenner fixes his gaze on the three boys crouched around Eleven's unconscious form. "Leave her," he warns. My foot catches on something. I look down, even more sickened by the sight of the dead agents. Their heads are strangely shrivelled, coated in blood. "Step away from the child."

"No! You want her, you have to kill us first."

"That's right!"

"Eat shit!" Lucas agrees, although I catch the faltering of his confidence when he sees me in my dazed but terrified state.