Rigorous Relationships

Past the Lake and Into the Woods

Shhhh, thump! Shhhh, thump! Shhhh, thump!This strange noise worked its way into Ash's mind, slowly causing him to awaken from his state of unconsciousness. As he started to regain his senses he began to notice some rather odd happenings. Firstly he could not move, his arms were apparently bound to his sides and his legs tied together; yet neither were so tight as to cause him discomfort and, he believed, if he were to work on them for awhile he could probably break free of them.

He didn't attempt this though as he was too busy trying to decipher the other things he was sensing, such as the cause of the strange noise that had woken him; as well as another sound that shadowed a warm puff of air that hit his face every few seconds. Ash's eyes had yet to receive the same level of alertness as his conscious had and so remained closed, leaving Ash to only speculate what was happening around him.

A couple minutes passed and Ash's mind began to develop stories to explain his situation; but with the limited information available to it, the stories it made were... a bit odd. After sorting through the muck in his head, Ash managed to paint a picture that seemed both possible and plausible. He had a brief recollection of what happened at the hospital, most of it was still fuzzy and he had no memory of actually leaving the building, but what he did remember was none to pleasant.

Three men in doctor coats held him down as a fourth injected him with a needle. He didn't see any of his friends and could only assume that they'd left him alone in his room, and at the mercy of these four phony practitioners. The needle had felt cold and sharp as it injected a clear liquid under his skin, and after  a few seconds Ash had started to feel the effects of the drug they'd given him.

He had felt like he was sinking into his bed, and as though he could just drift off to sleep without a second thought to the danger he was in. His assailants had had no intention of letting him rest and had shaken him a few times to keep him conscious. When they had been fairly sure Ash wasn't going to conk out on them, they began to question him. Ash only remembered bits of this interrogation, them asking him something about a ship or a sub, and about some battle he'd fought in years ago, and him giving them everything he knew about both without any concuss thought as to what he was saying. Eventually he began to drift asleep again but this time the imposters couldn't keep him up. But before he  could go completely under Ash heard the muffled voices of the four people say to one another that they could get more out of him, and that it would be beneficial to their cause if they took him with them.

After that he'd heard a loud thud, akin to the sound a door makes when it slams into the wall, before he passed out, only to wake up with his arms and legs constricted by rope of some weave. The pieces fit perfectly together, he had been taken prisoner by the four fake doctors and was currently being moved to who knows where for who knows what. All Ash needed to know though was that he needed to escape.

Working his hand towards the ropes binding his arms to his sides, Ash felt for a weak spot. After a second he found it, but was surprised by what it was. A simple slip knot was tied behind him, acting as the only thing that bound his arms to him. Confused by the simplicity of the knot, Ash took care to undo it slowly, making sure to conceal his actions afterwards. He then felt for his leg ties and again found that a slip knot was the only thing holding him.

As he undid this knot as well he thought, "Surely it can't be this easy? They have to be have something more to stop me."

Ash finished untying the knot and waited for something to happen, and a roughly a minute later the noise that had woken him up stopped. Directly after the noise stopped a chattel of heated voices rose up, their owners obviously were engaged in some form of argument; but Ash didn't care what they were arguing about, all he cared about was the fact that they were arguing meant they were distracted and wouldn't notice his escape.