Isolation & Fear (Damned of the 2/19th Book Seven)

Part of the Cost

2/19th Barracks
2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area
Alfenwehr, Western Germany
TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR
!!WARNING!!
CRITICAL SYSTEMS DAMAGE
!!WARNING!!

Wakefullness came slowly, almost begrudgingly. I was aware I was alive first.

Mostly because of the pain.

My neck hurt, my ribs hurt down my left side, my left leg was nothing but throbbing agony, my face hurt, my right shoulder felt like an icicle was jammed inside of it, and my whole right arm was painful pins and needles. My mouth hurt, and it felt like at least two of my molars were cracked. I could tell my lips were dry, split, and when I licked them my tongue was thick and gooey. My cock hurt, and something in my guts hurt.

I let the lizard take stock. His monitor lit up in damage signals.

He noticed it before I did.

I was warm.

I managed to groan, trying to move.

I was tied down. My right arm was strapped to my stomach. My left leg was elevated and felt like someone was pulling on my ankle. My left arm was restrained, over my head and extended enough to give me no leverage. My right leg was restrained to, at the ankle, pulled to my right so that it was roughly at shoulder width.

Somehow I'd ended up tied up, on my back, spread-eagled.

I couldn't open my eyes. I could feel a pad and a bandage covering my left eye. My right eye just felt like it was glued shut.

I groaned again.

Footsteps. Someone coming closer.

"I'm gonna touch you, Ant," A familiar voice said. I was too woozy to realize who it was, only that I knew that, and that the lizard slapped the "NO THREAT" button to keep me from struggling.

Sharp fingernails dug into something on my right eyelid, and then the painful peel of adhesive tape pulling free. Above me there was shouting in German and boots crashed to the floor.

"Open your eye," The voice said. "I dimmed the lights, you should be OK. You're probably thirsty."

Footsteps moved away as I cracked my eye a slit. The pain in my leg was devolving into three separate pain sources. Mid-thigh, knee, and ankle. The ankle was twisted, sprained probably. The knee was catastrophic pain signals. Deep tissue, probably cartilage and bone damage. The thigh was definitely bone and deep tissue.

Everything was blurry, but I could see the ceiling.

I was in the barracks.

I tried to move my head and realized I was in a C-Collar to keep my neck immobilized.

I'd gotten fucked up somehow.

The last thing I remembered was...

...

...

Graf.

I had been at Graf. I could remember that. Talking to Chief Warrant Officer Three Henley, but I couldn't remember anything past that.

Footsteps and a shadow loomed over me.

"Easy, Ant, it's a straw and some lemonade. I used your lemon concentrate from your ruck and sugar from an MRE," The voice said.

Female. Familiar.

"You were injured pretty bad when I found you," The voice told me. The straw nudged my bottom lip and I sucked on it greedily. I could feel the tissues in my mouth expand as the liquid hit it. The lemon cut the nasty taste.