Just Cargo (TLOU Series)

𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕖 | 𝕛𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕟

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Irately, Maeve glanced at the pipe protruding from the ceilings in the kitchen space. A small puddle of sewage damaged the linoleum floor. The smell of mold, mildew, and piss stains the stuffy air. It was both disgusting and annoying, in more ways than one. It drove her to the brink of insanity. Nearly every five to seven seconds, three — exactly three — droplets of water dribbled from the broken pipe and plundered to the floor.

Drip. She counted the seconds again. Drip. Drip.

She rotated her neck, groaning as her bones popped, releasing the stiffness that was there. She did a little stretch, causing some of her vertebrae to pop too. It was nice, having some that tension release. But it didn't help her situation.

She felt incredibly idiotic for falling for a stupid tactic such as that. Being lured by that one Firefly — Bobby — and practically ambushed by other Fireflies, which resulted in her being taken right into the heart of the Firefly nest. She wouldn't call it a 'nest', there were barely any people here. She assumed this was a hideout, however, she heard the leader, Marlene, was lurking around her somewhere. If there were any more Fireflies, they stayed far away from where she was. And where she was, was in an empty apartment. It'd been stripped of all furniture a while ago — probably years ago. The place was as bare as any place could be. The walls were half-striped, half wooden. The floors had the faint lines of where small rugs and pieces of furniture had been. Oh, and an old radiator. They chained her to that. She thought herself lucky it wasn't turned on. The room was nearly sweltering enough, and she was in the direct path of the sun glaring through the window.

She glanced at the nearly empty water bottle next to her. Twice or thrice since her imprisonment, a Firefly or two came in, and gave her a small meal that consisted of bread, cheese, and a piece of ham. They gave her water too. It annoyed her that they felt the need to chain her up. She almost laughed. Oh, yeah. It was for their quote-unquote safety.

Safety, her ass. While she was locked in this asphyxiating room, they had an explosive war with the military. She didn't need to be in the line of fire to hear all the bombs going off.

Maeve licked her lips and glared at the rag-wrapped handcuff on her left wrist. She couldn't get out of it, and she tried. At least they wrapped the metal parts so that she didn't accidentally hurt herself trying to get out of it.

She had been far too eager for help that she followed a stranger into an alley. Subconsciously, she shook her head and chided herself. It was that one guy, and more people. She didn't have a choice but to do what they told her to do, or they would've killed her. They didn't say that, but Bobby was ready to. That Laura lady took her bag. Everything that wasn't clothing, they took. Any seemingly sharp, or remotely dangerous item, they took. It was almost an insult, but then they trapped her inside a red-tagged building. She knew she was in one of twelve rooms on the third or fourth floor. What got her the most was that they somehow knew she was a lefty, and that was the hand they slapped the cuff on. She felt weak with her dominant hand restrained. They knew that much about her, and she had an inkling who told them about it. But at least the cuff was padded. That told her they didn't want to hurt her. Yet.

She'd put most of her energy into yelling curses and complaints. After the first hour of trying to get a rise out of them, her throat became almost raw. She would've put more energy into getting a reaction but no matter what she did, said, or tried – they ignored her. It was like they had noise-canceling headphones or something. She knew they were out there, she heard them walk sometimes. Not to mention, food and water were being brought to her. So, that was another indication they were around.