The Detained

[3]

(C1 POV)

"Daddy! Help me!" 

I try to open my eyes, but a cloth over them keeps them shut.

"Ratchet, stay calm, I can get you out." 

My eyes begin to water at the memory as pain shoots through my brain.

"Shh, it's ok. You're safe now."

The pain and hunger intensifies as something moves from inside.

"Daddy, I'm scared." 

I feel a needle poke into my neck and a liquid entered my bloodstream, filling my body and holding it in place.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm here, Ratchet. And I always will be."

A sharp object begins to peirce the skin on my chest, pain radiating from the cut as it extends down my body, unable to cry out.

"Daddy? Where are you?" 

My consciousness start to fade as the knife-like thing reaches my midsection.

"I miss you, Daddy..." 

~~~

(SC979B POV)

The large Agorian thumps over to me, fear filling me.

"Do not fret, miss. Most of us do not fight without reason," he assures me, but the word 'most' worries me. He must have seen it on my face because he then says, "Stay by my side and no one will attack you. Same thing for if you're with C1, C18, C38, C54, C97, C296, C307, C675 and C762. For the rest, I advise you stay away from until you've learned how to defend against their style of fighting."

Knowing now that he will not attack me, my fear fades and curiosity replaces it as we begin to walk the field. "Why was the lombax ordered out?

He shrugs. "We never know why we get called in. But we do know that not all of us return."

That scares me, and some of the fear returns."So he might not come back?"

"Correct, but unlikely. He is C1, their first captive and the longest survivor in this hell."

"Their first?"

"Yup. And I'm their second."

"How many have been here?"

"To this field? Almost two thousand."

I gasp in shock.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to the stories we get from some of them that come from other containment fields. They've said there are millions of captives on the property."

"Millions?"

"Millions. And that's just here. I've heard there are other compounds with over three billion captives each."

I think my job just got a lot harder.

~

About an hour later, the doors open to show C1 laying on the floor of the little transfer room. C2 immediately dashes over to him, followed by a Tharpod as well as myself.

"No, no, no! Not him...please not him." The Agorian gently picks up the lombax and carries him out of the small room, the doors closing shut behind us.

C2 leads us to the corner with the flickering light, placing the unconscious C1 on the ground with care. I look closer at the injuries. A long incision was made on his chest from the base of his throat down to his waist.

I ask the Tharpod if he had any medical supplies.

"We do not," he says, his voice rasping out like his throat is dry. "They never give us anything to help with what they do to us." He reached into his makeshift bag, pulling out ripped pieces of fabric. "We can manage to make something like bandages, though."

"I can work with that." I roll up my sleeve and open a flap of false skin to retrieve a needle. Grabbing one of the smaller pieces, I carefully remove a handful of the strings from the cloth and thread the needle with them. With C2 and the Tharpod looking over my shoulder, I carefully stitch the injury and wrap it in more cloth.

"You're quite handy with your needle and thread."