"Can we stop in here for a minute?"
Leon turns to me abruptly when we reach the top of the stairs, like he was caught in his thoughts and my voice startled him. He sees I'm referring to the backroom, "Something you need?"
"Water," I tell him with a dry mouth, heading for the door without waiting to see if he'll follow or not. "Might change my shirt too. I don't know what that thing got on me when it grabbed me but... it's uncomfortable," I tell him as I step through the door with my gun raised. The light is off, but I flick it on quietly, not hearing anything further inside.
He's behind me when I step inside the room, I head straight for the sink in the back. Bending over and turning the faucet on to pitifully grab whatever water I can into my mouth. Parched beyond belief after being cut off from it besides the water I rationed myself on all of yesterday and today. "How long have you been without food or water?" Leon asks from somewhere behind me. It sounds like he hung back in the other room, maybe in case I choose to change my shirt unexpectedly.
I shut the water off and eye myself in the mirror, not finding him in view of the reflection and concluding he remained in the other room. "Besides here or there. I haven't had a full meal in three days," I answer, wiping the water from my chin. "I'm... changing now," I anxiously warn, stepping to the side in between the bunk beds. There's no answer in response as I take off the jean jacket and whip the shirt up and over my head with ease.
The cool air hits my wet skin, and goosebumps instantly form as I drop the soiled shirt onto the floor. I'm running out of clothes at this rate as I unzip the bag and grab a different black tee. This one has a v-neckline.
It's quiet. In a way that feels too quiet. I was never the one to start a conversation, always preferring to stick to myself. I'm sure I was always considered the quiet one by the others in this station. Racking my brain for something to say... Anything, I can't think of comment to make. Torn in a want to have conversation with the one person I've been around in two whole days, against a need to not learn more. The more I learn, the more I become attached in a way. And though I know how I feel towards the idea of him dying now...
Stepping over to the mirror with the clean shirt in one hand pressed to my chest to hide my bare breasts. The jean jackets in the other, and is promptly thrown into the sink. I stare at the disheveled reflection of myself, my eyes moving up where my stomach is hidden by the shirt to my blackened ribs. His hands... I can still feel their warmth and pressure. It hurt when he pressed, but it felt good in a way I've never experienced before.
And then slowly I break the spell of the thought of his hands by rotating my body to look at my bare back in the mirror for the first time in a long time.
There, clear as day, are fifteen lash scars in my skin. "One last punishment, 0714." Plays in my head again and I clench the shirt in my hand tightly as another memory triggers in my head.
. . .
They dragged me from my bed to the same spot I'd shot Ryan at. The rain is pouring again like that night, but this time is different. Instead of finding it empty there, there's two pikes hammered into the ground, and drilled into both are chains that lead to cuffs. "Kneel," the guard who transferred me here orders, and on shaking legs I abide. Kneeling into the water-logged dirt obediently, unsure of what it is they're planning—
The doors to our section of the island are opened and in pours as many soldiers to line the back walls as possible. When no more can fit they just stay by the door. "I hear 0714 has had a habit of being disobedient. Not only here, but at the academy she attended too," the same commanding officer who ordered my prison sentence last week announces loudly. "In fact, I have heard it's not just her, but many of you have been disobedient since coming here," he chastises, but chuckles quietly beside me. "But since your fellow soldier is determined to continuously get into trouble... Well... We must punish."
YOU ARE READING
The 0714 Files: File #1 Inferno (Remake 2)
Horror"I think you're going to learn a lot of things about this city and the people that you won't want to." Madeleine Sówka has spent the last twelve years of her life believing she knows what monsters look like. They are the people who hide in the backg...
