Zodiac dropped another empty Gwinnett bottle on the concrete of the metro tunnel. It was small, his metro tunnel, and gross and cramped. He hated it. He hated it so much, especially knowing he once had a chance to claim a bigger spot for him and his people, a whole town for them to operate from. But he and his team of raiders were stuck in this godforsaken tunnel like raider fledglings too coward to stake their own claim. He was sick of it.
"Hey!" Zodiac called sluggishly, beckoning the nearest raider to him. The raider ran up to him; Zodiac couldn't tell who he was through his drunken haze. He didn't care, though. He didn't need to see or know who he was to assign him a task. "Get another fucking team down to that town. Report back to me in half a week." Zodiac stumbled up from where he was sitting. He felt angry. So fucking angry, and getting more and more pissed the longer nothing was happening in that moment. The raider ran off, but Zodiac didn't care about him. He was mad at one specific person, and he was more than happy to let her know how pissed he was.
He stormed into the room he held his captive in, breaking the weak wooden door that separated her room from the rest of the tunnel. One of his raiders was sitting next to the girl's platform, watching her to make sure she wouldn't leave. "Get the fuck out." Zodiac said firmly and loudly to the obedient raider. The raider nodded, grabbed his bag from behind his chair and left. Zodiac stormed over to the girl, the fucking girl that cost him that goddamn town, and slapped her across the face before she could make some smart-ass remark that Zodiac wouldn't understand. She gasped and fell back.
Zodiac liked that. It made him feel better. He smacked her again, and again, until she was no longer shocked at his hits and her face was red. He wouldn't stand for that, he needed to hear her pain. He grabbed her skinny little neck in his massive hand and slammed her against the concrete wall behind her. She grunted, then yelped as her skull connected with the stone.
Still not satisfied, he threw her back onto the wooden platform, until finally she screamed. She screamed, almost cautiously at first, until she was screaming for her life, for help, for someone to save her from this beating.
At the end of the tunnel, Pan winced with each scream the poor journalist retched. "He's gonna kill her."
Ace breathed in deeply, sucking up the last bit of Jet from the bright red inhaler. "Doubt it." He tossed the empty plastic aside and smiled up at the ceiling. "Dude's a fucking mess, though."
"He's gonna kill her." Pan said again.
Ace just kept staring at the ceiling. He wanted to see stars, millions and billions of them above him, wanting to name each one until he fell asleep. Instead, his eyes were met with the dark concrete of the tunnel ceiling. He pouted and reached for his sack, remembering something. "Look, dude, I made something the other day."
Pan rolled his eyes.
Poly glared at Ace, sitting in a folding chair opposite the duo. Ace looked at her as if to ask "What?"
"I used to be Zodiac's play thing." She said, venom in her words.
Ace rolled his eyes. "This again?" he tossed his pharmaceutical creation back in his bag. "You can't seriously be saying you want that to be you getting fucked up in there?"
Poly shrugged. "We all have our vices. Yours is drugs, Pan's is doing it in the ass, and I just so happen to like almost dying. What can I say?" she smiled weirdly and whispered, "It's a rush."
Ace looked at Pan, eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you liked pussy, dude?"
Pan shrugged. "I like anything, really."
The three quieted as they heard Zodiac moan. "Gross." Ace whispered.
Zodiac removed his layers of pants until he was nude from the waist down. Piper stared in horror at his strong, erect penis. It wasn't the first time she'd seen it, but it still shocked her every single time she did. Zodiac stumbled over, reeking of stale beer and sweat. He placed the tip of himself on her lips, which were closed tightly, though she knew her efforts were pointless. He squeezed her neck, making Piper open her mouth so that he could shove himself into her. She gagged, nearly vomiting. He pumped once, and a second time, but the third time Piper bit as hard as she could in the middle of his shaft. He pulled back and screamed, making it worse as Piper never released her chomp. Zodiac slammed backward to the other side of the tunnel and swore drunken words.
Poly emerged in the doorway, a small smirk on her face. She looked at her drunken leader. "Six months of this shit, and you still haven't iced her yet." She turned to Piper, her smile fading. "Must be somethin' special."
Piper's heart was pumping, knowing full well she would have to pay for doing that. Six months? She was sure it was closer to an eternity since she'd been locked down here. She'd gone pale from not having seen the sun in, apparently, six months, which only made her bruises and cuts easier to see. Not that it really mattered, since she clearly wasn't going anywhere any time soon. She smelled of piss in her burlap rags Zodiac made her wear, since half the time people wouldn't let her get a bathroom break, and she could feel herself physically getting weaker the longer she stayed chained to the platform.
Zodiac squirmed on the other side of the tunnel. "You," Zodiac pointed to Poly. "Get the dumb one, the faggot." Zodiac stood up, acting sober. "It's his watch."
Poly rolled her eyes and went to get her partner. Zodiac glared at Piper and pulled on his clothes. He stormed past Pan to his chambers, just wanting another beer.
He didn't like fucking the girl, he really didn't. She was too squirmy and annoying and she talked too much. But beating her…it was almost the same release. Zodiac felt so turned on when she screamed, hearing her body smack against a surface, seeing blood or bruises or black eyes. God, he loved it, it was so relieving to him, orgasmic, almost...
And then she bit his dick. Humiliated him in front of Poly.
Poly. That insecure attention whore. He'd never beaten her before. And she'd probably do anything to get Zodiac's attention.
Zodiac picked up Poly by the arm from where she was sitting at the end of the hall in front of the room he kept the girl in. Poly tripped and stumbled, but caught up with him. She smiled a little as Zodiac shoved her into his room and closed the door behind him.
Pan sat in the chair next to Piper's platform and looked at her. This beating was definitely worse than usual, drunk or sober. Her eyes were black and one of her cheeks were swollen. Her neck had several different finger marks on it, and the back of her skull had a massive gash that was soaking her hair with blood. Pan looked out the door to make sure Ace wasn't looking, not that he would, then reached into his bag for an old shirt. He tossed it at Piper, who gently pressed it to the back of her head.
Piper liked Pan. As much as you could like a shy raider. He gave her bathroom breaks when she needed it, and he didn't point a gun at her every time she moved. He was also the only person who was willing to change her burlap.
She winced as the cloth touched her open wound. She was just now feeling the pain of Zodiac tossing her around, feeling how sore pretty much every bone in her body felt. Without her permission, tears began rolling down her bruised face. "What does he want from me?" she asked out loud, not really expecting an answer.
Pan sat, his arms crossed, not being able to look at Piper. She knew the answer…kind of. She knew he was mad because she saved the town from not being taken over by his raiders. But what did keeping her prisoner do to change that?
She wanted to go home. She missed Blue, she missed MacCready.
God, she missed Nat. That was the worst thing to come out of all this. Knowing Nat had no clue what happened to her sister, her caretaker, the only family she has. There was a chance that neither Piper nor Nat would have closure about the other.
She was safe, though, Piper decided. Nat was so small when the town was saved, the raiders probably have no idea that she existed. Not that Nat had anything to do with it anyway, but you really can't tell with raiders.
Pan got out a knife and began polishing it with another piece of cloth.
"That's a nice blade." Piper commented, staring at its piercing tip.
"Thanks," Pan said. "I, uh, I found it when I was grave digging. There was an old note with it, like, really, really old. Like maybe a thousand years. There were also some bars of copper, gold, and steel in the coffin, too. Took those and bought Ace some Jet and myself some Buffout. I like to think Buffout makes me not as weak as everyone thinks I am, but I don't like to use it often."
Piper smiled softly and non-comital, hanging onto the word steel. She thought of her steel waste basket Blue'd made for her back in Starlight. Steel was so precious to Blue, she'd save it to build houses and beds for newcomers in town. And she'd wasted steel on someone who got herself locked up in a raider camp.
"Pan?" Piper said softly. Pan looked at her attentively. "Don't take this the wrong way, but, you don't really seem like a raider."
Pan smiled a bit. Then his face grew dark. "You don't know what you're talking about."
Piper looked at him as he continued polishing his blade. "Alright, then." Piper finally said and placed herself in as comfortable a position as she could on the other side of the platform. She thought of Nat and her future as her eyes fluttered closed and she passed out on the splintery wood platform, laying her head on the now bloodied shirt.
Days later, Zodiac was in the central part of their tunnel complex, looking for the tiny one he'd sent off on a task. Finally he found him, walking into the area. Zodiac walked up to him, curious and almost eager, but remaining stoic on the outside.
The two met, standing in front of each other. Zodiac broke the short silence with the question, "Is everything arranged?"
The raider stared harshly, then cracked a smile. "Everything's ready, and nobody suspects anything."
Zodiac smirked, then handed the raider a bag of goodies. He marched to his captive's room, careful not to break the new door, but still firm. He looked at the girl, nearly grinning with glee. "I'm about to cash in on that revenge, Princess."