Sacrifice

Chapter Six

I've been in this situation before, and worse. But I've always had Roadie to help me. As I stare down a dozen fully trained guards it occurs to me that I don't know how to work on my own, or really with anyone besides the Hog. I fight down panic as I try to watch every gun at once, my eyes flicking back and forth across the room.

"Sombra," I say, "I think I'm gonna have to bail."

"Hang on," she says, voice clipped. "I'm working on it."

"Can't take em all out on my own," I say, fingers inching toward my second to last pack of dynamite. "I'm gonna run."

"Jamie, don't. I've got this," she says.

"Hands where I can see them, Junker," one of the guards barks.

I slowly raise my hands - and then, in a split-second, I snatch the dynamite from my belt, light the fuse, and toss it into the center of the room, hitting the floor just as machine gun fire pelts the sewer walls. I clap my hands over my ears and count.

One -

Shouts, boots pounding the floor.

- two -

"Jamie?" Sombra's shouting in my ear, panicked. "Get out of--"

- three.

I curl into a ball and the world explodes around me.

A familiar ringing swells in my head. I blink, squinting through smoke. And before I can even move, rough hands grab me by the arms and someone hoists me to my feet. He says something as he drags me off, but his voice is muffled and distant. Slowly I become aware of the people around me. I'm surrounded by half a dozen Overwatch trainees.

The man drops me to the ground and my elbow hits the floor, sending my whole arm numb and tingling. The man says something else, but I still can't hear him. And then he kicks me in the chest, just below my ribcage. I choke, and cough black blood onto the clean white floor. Gasping for breath, tears streaking down my face, I look up at my captor.

And his voice comes into focus.

"Come on, kid. Tell me now and I won't have to hurt you."

I struggle for breath but I can't get enough to fill my lungs. The guard gestures to his friends and I'm lifted to my feet again.

"Tell you--" I splutter. My mouth tastes like metal and gunpowder, and something hot and thick dribbles out of the corner of my mouth, slipping down my chin and dripping onto my chest. "Tell you what?"

"Who sent you?" the guard asks.

I look at him, uncomprehending, for a moment. Then I smile my biggest, toothiest smile.

"That's a secret."

I feel his fist hit my face almost before I see it. Blinding pain shoots up my skull. Something snaps and I realize, numb, that my nose is broken and sending blood cascading down my face.

"Tell me," the guard breathes in my ear.

I barely notice that the other guards are stripping me down, kicking away every weapon I have. One unstraps my metal arm, while the the other yanks off my peg. Their hands are the only thing holding me upright.

My captor regards me, then pulls out my earpiece and crushes it between his thumb and forefinger. That doesn't matter. I stopped hearing Sombra ages ago.

"Let me take a guess," he says softly. "The hacker. Why don't you tell us where she is now?"

I shake my head. He hits me again, with the other fist, and for a moment everything is blissful emptiness. Then reality snaps back. As does the pain.

"It will save all of us a lot of trouble," he says. "After all, we're already looking for her. It's only a matter of time."

"Bet you anything she's already dead," I mumble. "Little bugga."

The guard glares at me for a moment. Finally he says, "Take him to interrogation. And keep him alive. The commander will need to--"

A small figure in purple flickers into existence behind the guard and wraps an arm around his neck, bending him back toward her and pressing a gun to his temple.

"I'll give you till the count of three." Her eyes are dark and furious, her voice low. "If you don't want to know the color of your friend's brains, let the boy go."

They drop me to the floor. But instead of surrendering, they raise the assault rifles again.

A handful of shots. Silence. Then I count exactly four more, and bodies slump like ragdolls around me.

"Jamie, get up." Her hand slips under me and she pulls me into a sitting position, hugging me to her side to keep me upright. "There are more of them. Can you stand? Here. I'll help."

"My arm," I say thickly, trying to look over my shoulder as she helps me to my feet.

"We don't have time," she says. "I called Roadhog but he won't be here right away. We've got to get out of the sewers, alright? Lean on me. You'll be fine."

"I need my arm." I try to twist away from her but she holds me tighter, so tight my rib screams where the guard kicked me.

"Jamie, listen to me." She's almost in tears. And in the end, I suppose that's why I listen. "We can't go back for your arm. Please. Just walk. It's going to be okay."

And so we walk. Hobble, really. She takes me down a different way than we came, a twisting and winding path that makes my head spin. Think it'd spin anyway, though. She keeps checking her map, then flicking it away.

"We're almost there," she keeps saying. "Almost there."

"S'a lot of almost." I cough and blood splatters her face. I hear her barely stifle a sob. "Cute, how y'keep sayin that, Bee. Can I call you Bee? Like Sombra. Sombie. Bee."

"Shut up, you worthless piece of junk," she says. The blood on her face washes pink as tears trickle down her cheeks. "We're almost there. Just a few more steps."

Then I see sunlight, pouring from a hole in the ceiling of the tunnel. I want to make a joke, to tell her I'm seeing the light, I'm walking toward the light. But there's Roadie, reaching down into the tunnel with his big beefy arms. And she lifts me up to him. And suddenly I can't stay awake anymore. I drift away in the warmth and the light, and the pain washes away.