The hunt

4. Interrogation

"Looks like you're not so good either," he says leaving me on the floor of a cell.

I examine him, tall, strong, and with a bandage covering his side where I hurt him.

"I survived," he exclaims throwing his hands up in the air and making fun of it.

I won't talk.

I try to stabilize myself as there are very bright lights here that make it even harder to focus.

"Are you drunk?" he asks getting close to my face, he leans down just a little to look into my eyes. I hiss and turn my face away from him.

He snickers. The man crosses his arms and I feel him examine me, I still don't look his way, after a moment he goes out of the cell and I take a deep breath.

I have to take in my surroundings to find a way out of here.

There's barely anything here and one of the walls reflects my image. I'm startled by the sound of the door opening again and this time the man is not alone.

There's a human with him.

I begin to hiss and take a defensive stance, I show my fangs in a sign of challenge. If my hands weren't tied I would take my knife out.

"She's unhinged," the woman says and they both laugh.

"I found her running around in the forest, I think she's drunk or something. She probably escaped from their camp," he says.

My tail slashes furiously as I hold my stance.

"Does she talk?" she asks.

"Probably," he says side smiling.

"Well find out then, if not, then we can use the machine. If she's really drunk I don't think it will take us long to get an image," she says.

The man or whatever he is looks me up and down again.

"Did you get that? Better start talking or you won't like what comes next," he says in very poor Na'vi.

"Your Na'vi sucks," I reply.

"What did she say?" the woman asks.

"She'll take the machine, general," the man says and she smiles.

"Bring her then," she goes out and we're left alone in the room.

"You know, if you just knew some English then you'll save yourself a lot of trouble," he says walking towards me.

I hiss again and try to hit him when he takes my arms but he saw it coming and only grips tighter on me, I cry out in pain and he shakes his head.

"Come on, they're waiting for us," he chants and walks me out of the cell.

I do know English, I'm not as good as Neytiri or some other kids that went to Grace's school but I can understand it and speak it. I just won't talk to them.

When we go out he takes me to a different hall than the one we came in from and I notice many more men like him and women too. Puppets that look like us but are nothing alike.

The kid is here too and some people from the sky. I hate them all, their uniforms remind me of the few of them I saw the day my mother died, and this place is so closed and full of machines that it makes my head hurt.

We barely have any of these things, they're not needed.

The kid raises his eyebrows when he sees me and then looks at the man guiding me. I think is weird that there seems to be some disapproval in his eyes and he looks like he's expecting the man to behave another way or give an explanation.

He conducts me to a chair and straps me there, the kid comes forward but the female puppet stops him.

"Wait, I can talk to her. She doesn't speak English?" he yells.

"Too late kid, let's see what we get out of her," the man replies.

"Ready Colonel?" the soldier asks.

"Ready General," he replies and puts some type of mask or thing over my face.

I hate this, I hate them.

I hear a noise and something starts to circle around my head, this is making me too dizzy and it hurts.

"You'll have to translate to her what we want," I hear the woman say.

"Very simple, think about your camp, we will see it and you're free to go," the man says.

The camp...

"Yeah, just like that," The man says and some of them cheer.

I see it, somehow they were able to see the brief memory I have of the camp. I close my eyes and scream, I try to think about something else.

"No, no, no. Go back!" They yell.

I think of the forest, the image of the camp sometimes slips into my mind and I have to change it fast. God, if I wasn't a little drunk this would be easier.

"Just keep going," I hear the General say.

I scream in pain and I think I feel something dripping from my nose.

"Stop, please!" The kid yells.

The image of the kid playing around with Jake's kids flashes in my mind.

"They're the people we're looking for, you're close," the man speaks.

I think I should be blank, just think about nothing.

They want Jake? well, bad news. He's not even here anymore.

My mind slips and I think about home, back at the old tree, the images of war flash in my mind and I don't want them to see that either. They stay silent and try to pick up on the few things I let them see.

I feel like my head is going to explode and it gets harder to breathe.

"Look at her! You're killing her!" The kid yells.

I think they say something but at this point, all I see is a blur and nothing comes to mind, I can't hear well, and I can't breathe well.

I don't notice the machine stopping until the man touches me and takes the mask off my face.

"Can she actually die on this? she looks out of it," he says. I'm fighting to open my eyes.

"Are you okay? hey! hey!" I hear the kid yelling near me.

Only now I realize that the air is weird, I really can't breath, it's not just something I imagined.

"Do something!" The kid yells.

"General...?"

"She speaks, we give her a mask," she replies.

"You heard her, where is Sully?" the man asks. I try to look at him but all I can do is hiss.

"Give her the mask, she probably can't even talk!" the kid complains.

"Where's Sully? Last chance," he chants.

"Please!" The kid.... Spider, I remember his name now. I don't know who the hell called him that, but he's Spider.

I mumble his name and hear some discussion.

"Where is he?" the man asks taking my face in his hand, forcing me to look at him. I start hyperventilating but don't beg for anything.

"Just give it to her!" Spider complains and hands the man something.

"I think you have about twenty seconds to talk or choke, you choose," he says showing me something in his hand.

"Just tell him. Please, or you'll die," Spider begs.

"Gone," I choke out.

The man places the thing on my face and after a moment I am able to take a breath again.

I feel like I may pass out.

"What did she say?" The general asks.

"She says he's gone,"

Spider swallows.

"Where?" he asks but thankfully I pass out.