Emerge from Isolation (Whumptober 2019)

Beaten

Lorna considered herself lucky that these people were not smart enough to check her body for the knife hidden under her coat.

They had pulled a thin hood over her head and bound her hands behind her—she had made sure to flex her hands as they did so she could wiggle her way out of them, just like her uncle had taught her. Then, they had commanded the two of them to walk, tugging on the ropes binding their hands together. The hood over her head had holes just large enough to allow her to see that Ponytail was the one pulling her along, and Dark Hair was the one who was pulling Alex.

"Keep moving!" Knit Cap said, and she heard Alex stumbling forward like he had been pushed.

He was slowing their progress to the best of his ability, she realized, something she had been too scared to think of herself.

Although she had no idea what good it would have done them considering it was just the five of them walking in the woods. There was no guarantee of anyone being around to save them.

They seemed to walk for hours, but with Lorna's heart hammering in her chest as she walked, she forgot to count the seconds. Her uncle would be disappointed in her for that mistake, so she counted the seconds after that thought.

Lorna counted five minutes before a dark shape appeared in front of her. She thought it was a cabin, but as they drew closer, she realized it was triangular, like a tent.

"All right, stop here," Ponytail said.

Lorna did as she was told, but Alex continued to trudge forward.

"Hey, she said 'stop'!" Dark Hair said.

He took the butt of his gun, and he slammed it into Alex's face. Lorna hurt a sickening crunch, and she imagined his nose busted beneath his hood, precious blood dripping down his face from the wound.

Alex offered no further protest to their demands as Knit Cap walked into the tent.

"It's all clear," he said.

Ponytail tugged against Lorna's rope, and Lorna followed her into the tent, offering no resistance. Once Alex was inside, too, the woman kicked Lorna on the back of her knees, and she fell to her knees with a gasp. She ripped off the hood from her face.

Lorna took a quick look around. There was a huge pole sitting in the middle of the tent with metal loops embedded into it. Ponytail tied the other end of the rope through one of the metal loops, and Dark Hair did the same for Alex.

Once Alex's hood was removed from his head, Lorna was grateful to see his nose looked normal, except for the blood, which she knew he could not afford to lose, running down his chin.

“You really think this silly set-up is going to keep us from escaping?” Alex asked.

“Shut up, Merger,” Dark Hair said. “We got your shit, and you’re lucky we don’t slit the little girl’s throat.”

“Yeah, because that’ll show me what a big brave man you are.”

Dark Hair snarled as he raised his rifle, and he slashed it toward Alex’s face. Alex moved out of the way this time. He kicked the man in the groin, and all of the air in his lungs rushed out of him. A smirk spread on Alex’s face as Dark Hair cupped his groin with his hands.

The other two shouted at him, and Knit Cap rushed up to Alex and slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of his head. Alex fell forward, and the woman came up behind and kicked him in the back. Once Dark Hair could move again, he kicked Alex in the head and again and again in the neck and shoulders.

Lorna felt a scream rise in her throat, but she pressed her lips together, allowing only a startled squeak out of herself. Tears blurred her vision.

Alex had superpowers, she reminded herself. He doesn't die.

"Damn, Mergers!" Dark Hair shouted as he kicked Alex a few more times. "You people always think you can go around and do whatever the hell you want, but you can’t! You can’t! You can’t!”

"Jesus, Leo," Ponytail said. "Don't kill him. We still need him."

"He can't fucking die. That's his thing. He fucking does what he wants, tells good people what to do, and there isn't a fucking thing we can do about it. Fuck him."

Leo spat on Alex's body—his unmoving body. The other two sneered in disgust at the man's actions.

"Whatever, man," Knit Cap said. Let's put their shit away. It's almost time for us to swap shifts."

The woman turned to Lorna, and she said:

"There'll be a guard just outside this tent, so don't even think about trying anything funny, you hear?"

Lorna gave the woman a vigorous nod.

The three people left. Leo had a noticeable limp as he walked, and something was satisfying about that. Once she heard their voices turn into a low rumble. Lorna shuffled closer to Alex, and she leaned as far as she could toward him.

"Alex?" she whispered. "Hey, are you awake?"

He said nothing, but as she watched him, she noticed his back rise and fall as he breathed. There was some relief in that, but the specks of fresh blood she found glistening on the ground beneath them was concerning, making her chest tighten.

"Don't leave me alone here, okay?" Lorna begged him. "I don't know where I'm going, so you have to wake up soon."

Lorna blinked back tears, and she felt them run down the corners of her eyes. She looked at the ropes tying them to the post. They were just barely tied to it like they were both careless and overconfident that their prisoners would never escape. It would be easy to untie those ropes even with them around her hands, but she decided to leave that for now just in case the promised guard outside of the tent looked in on them and hurt her for trying to escape.

Instead, she focused her attention on the ropes around her wrists. They were tight, but she knew that if she wiggled them enough, that she could slide her hands free of them. Then, she could get to the knife in her coat and free Alex from his ropes.