Sign of the Times (Arthur Morgan x Reader)

Chapter Thirty Two

A hard blow to the face caused me to jolt awake.

They were shouting something in Spanish, but I had no way of knowing what it meant. The screaming and the hitting continued one after the other until my vision cleared and the fog that had seemed to be consuming me was lifted. A hard blow to my stomach knocked the air from my lungs.

"Who are you?! Where are you from?!" He finally spoke in plain english.

"What are you doing here?!" He demanded, striking me across the face once more.

"I'm an American...!" I groaned, spitting out a bit of blood from my busted lip.

"My name is Elizabeth Carlson..." I groaned, feeling the pain radiate throughout my body.

He seemed satisfied with the lie for the moment, moving to turn his back away from me as he approached the man tied to the wall across from us whom I quickly recognized to be Leon. He pointed back at me, asking questions in Spanish once more, and when Leon didn't provide an acceptable answer, our interrogator punched him hard in the jaw.

I took a breath and began rocking the chair whilst keeping a close eye on the attacker as he continued to throw punches. I finally managed to rock the chair far enough to where it toppled over, and caused the back of the chair to splinter, releasing my arms.

The man immediately took notice and spun around, brandishing his knife and rushing towards me. I did the same, aiming for the lower half of his body, and knocking him off balance to bring him down. I bent his arm, using his own weight against him, and ultimately shoving his own knife through his chest. When he stopped moving, I took a breath, and retrieved the knife for myself before cutting the ropes that still loosely bound my hands together.

"You okay?" I asked, getting to my feet, and hurrying over to cut the men free from their restraints.

"There may still be time to get to the other workers." Leon said after I had cut him free as well.

"I think I hear voices coming from the other ruins down there. Let's sneak down and take a look." He said, and I nodded in agreement.

"Which way?" Iasked, my mind suddenly flooded with thoughts of Arthur. I wanted nothing more than to see him, and know he was okay.

"I'll show you." Leon said, turning towards one of his comrades.

"Baptiste, you don't look good." Leon imputed, and I turned to see the wounded man on a set of broken stairs.

"You should rest here." I insisted, my eyes scanning over his injuries. They didn't seem life threatening. He only took a solid beating.

"You'll need this." Baptiste said, stretching his arm out to me, a rifle tight in his grip. I took it gratefully, nodding my appreciation to him.

"Come, follow me and stay close. I know a way we can sneak around." Leon insisted.

I kept my body low, walking slowly with long strides to keep from making too much noise. It reminded me a lot of the time that Charles and I had gone hunting for boar out near Bluewater Marsh. My mind went to the memory of him distracting the police for us back in Saint Denis, and I silently prayed that he was safe.

"They'll murder the workers if they hear us coming." Leon warned, and again I nodded.

We approached a large stone arch overgrown with vines, and Leon instructed me to hide as two of Fussar's men came into view. They stood talking to each other in Spanish as I watched for Leon to give any sort of signal to move.