DISCLAIMER: These characters and this world do not belong to me. I just love to play with them and give them back.
It hurt like hell. And he was so thirsty. Griffin didn´t know how long it had been since David had left him, but to him it felt like hours.
He had tried to free himself out of this trap but he had failed.
And he didn´t think that David would be coming back, he didn´t think that David was still alive.
What a shame, they could have killed Roland together and with this help so many other Jumpers survive. But because of his girlfriend David had left him here to die.
It wouldn´t be long now. He could see them coming already. Not the fighters, they had gone to the south while continuing fighting. No, there was a SUV coming with two people in them. He couldn´t see them from this far and doubted that he knew them, but they were Paladins, he would bet his life on it. He smiled a little on this thought. When he was right, he would lose his life, so it would be so much better if it were not true.
But at least they would end this suffering. And if he was lucky, they would be quick about it.
The car stopped a few feet away from him. A man around forty and a woman about his own age got out of it. The man was clearly in charge of this operation. They went to build a kind of platform out of the debris around. So they wanted to get him out of this and play a little. If their intentions were just to kill him, they could have done that with one of their strange looking guns. Not good.
Finally the man put some synthetic gloves on, stepped on the debris and begun to extract Griffin out of the net of wires. Suddenly he was free and dropped to the ground. He landed hard on the ground and his breath went out of him. He thought a moment about jumping – this was probably the only chance he would ever get – but his nerves still quivered too much after his time in the tower. He needed a moment to recuperate.
He didn´t got this moment. He felt a net restrain his movements and then there were electroshocks again. Not so strong as before, but still enough to make him wince in pain. He was roughly rolled on his back and looked up at them through slitted eyes.
"He will not last much longer. If we want him to stay alive until on of the high up´s come to kill him, we will have to give him something." This was the woman.
"Get his prints and check if we have to call someone to terminate him. It would be better if we did it now. Even for him... I wouldn´t have wanted to stay in that electrical tower out there in the sun for hours and hours. "
She went and took his fingerprints. Then he heard her scanning them into a computer. After a view moments there was a signal from the computer and he heard the surprised intake of breath. So she heard of him, hadn´t she?
"I think we should call for Roland."
"Roland?" Griffin heard the man go to the car. "Yes, I think you are right."
He took out his mobile and called a long number.
" I want to speak to Roland...He is not there?...We have Griffin O´Conner in our custody, shell we wait for Roland?...You don´t know where he is?...Good, we take him to our place and wait."
Then there was the woman again, peering down at him.
"I think if we must hold him, we need to use some other jumping restrains. With this still on I will not be able to get a syringe into his vein. And I don´t think he can stand it much longer."
The man must have given his consent because she went to the trunk of the car and got a briefcase. She opened it up beside Griffin and took out some manacles and shackles and put them on his wrists and ankles. After that she leaned down.
"Don´t try to jump. This here will hold you as good as the tower did. When jumped they give you a good shock and you will stay here, believe me. Do you understand?"
Griffin didn´t want to answer the question. He hated them, so he just glared back. But she waited and finally he backed down. The pain was simply to much. And if there was the chance that it would stop he had to take it. Even when it meant to be a prisoner to the paladins. So he nodded.
She did something with the net he could not see and then it went slack and stopped giving him electric shocks. The absence of it was wonderful. Just for the pain to be gone. He closed his eyes.
Suddenly there was a small pain in his arm. He looked up and saw that she had injected an IV. Then she affixed it to some of the debris and went to talk with the man in a low voice he couldn´t catch. Then she went again to the car and got an awning and put it over him and some of the debris so there was a small room and he could still breath.
On the bad side he now couldn´t see much more, on the good side he was out of the sun. He didn´t know what to make out of this. Did he look so bad that they would take such measures to make him survive until his slaughtering? Or was something human still left in these paladins?
With the absence of the pain and the fluids they were giving him, his defiance worked up again. What could he do now? How could he get out of this situation?
And than he could hear them. Two jumps nearby.