Disclaimer: Not mine.
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Somebody was patting down his tactical vest and then pulling open one of the pockets to feel inside. Without opening his eyes, and used to the daily invasion of his personal space and privacy, Sheppard reached up and gripped whoever it was by the wrist.
"They already took everything," he said.
Tucked up into the corner of the cell, cold and shivering, he wearily opened his eyes.
The dirty faced man in front of him retracted his hand, rubbed the bruised area and crept backwards to the other side of the cell.
Sheppard closed his eyes again, feeling the cold from the stone bricks seep through into his clothes, and allowed himself to drift back into an unsettled sleep.
The cell was expansive, stretching out under the complex in a series of chambers and cubby holes. He could hear voices whisper around him, people coughing in fits and the many that were truly unsettled wandering around aimlessly, their feet dragging across the concrete. The smell of urine, body odour and blood tainted the air making it impossible to filter out and occasionally a body would drop. A few people would scramble around to salvage what they could from the corpse before moving off to their section of the wall where they would wait in the shadows for somebody else to die of fatal injuries.
The sound of something connecting with flesh had Sheppard cracking one eye open in the semi-darkness. Two men were fighting, exchanging misguided blows, and shouting at one another. Their voices echoed down the various chambers and Sheppard decided to intervene before it raised the awareness of their keepers.
He pushed himself up, steeling himself against a wave of dizziness which threatened to send him back down to the floor.
"Come on guys," he said walking unsteadily over to the ensuing argument. He had to use the walls for support as he went.
"Keep out of this," the larger of the two men spat out.
Sheppard screwed up his face and put his hands up, "Look this is ridiculous." He stood straight, his hand automatically resting where his side arm ought to be.
The larger man sucker punched the other guy and sent him sprawling down onto the floor.
Sheppard shook his head, "If you guys want to kill each other, fine, just don't do it down here," he began to stagger off back to his corner.
"Hey," the large guy was calling after him.
Sheppard stopped but didn't turn, "You won your little fight," he said wearily.
He turned and was caught off-guard when a fist struck him in the face. He twisted awkwardly without going down and managed to look up to see others gathering around them in the dimly lit cell.
"Look," he said raising his hands and feeling blood dribble down his chin, "I was ju-" The guy grabbed him by the head and kneed him in the nose.
This time Sheppard went down to the ground spitting blood. He got up onto his knees and another vicious kick was directed to his ribs. He tried to drag in oxygen as his brain reeled from sensory overload.
He watched as the larger guy walked off to another chamber, leaving him to cough and retch. The others who had gathered lost interest and shuffled back to their respective haunts.
Sheppard managed to crawl back to his corner and sat stiffly with his knees up to his chest which burned with every breath.
He licked his lips and tasted the metallic tang of blood. Using the bottom of his t-shirt he wiped the blood from around his nose and then resumed his previous position.
Head against the wall, eyes closed, laboured breathing.
Another hand was on his shoulder, prodding and shaking him, "I'm alive," he said before listening to whoever it was walk off.
Sheppard sighed, shook his head and found his mind drifting back to the last few days. He'd had a pervasive bad feeling from the start and he was beginning to wish he had acted on it.
TBC
