The air was thick, warm and smelled of sweat and breath. Saki's eyes snapped open to reveal only more darkness; she gasped sharper still when she couldn't force her wrists apart and felt her chest tighten as her arms pulsated with the effort to try and separate her hands. She stopped when the futility of what she was doing hit her and squeezed her eyes shut at the shooting pain that was rampaging its way through her skull, the lumps from where the bat had struck her already forming.
"Hey…say something, Sak…Are you even alive?!"
"Lin!" Saki breathed and accidently – in her relief – kicked Lin in the side.
"Ow!" She hissed, but then softened, "I'll take that as a yes."
Saki's relief was short lived as she began to breathe heavily again. She couldn't see anything and couldn't pull the air into her lungs fast enough; Saki's breath hitched, she felt like she was suffocating and began to hyperventilate.
"Hey, come on…we're…We're gonna get out of this, you hear me?" Lin demanded in her forthright way and Saki felt Lin's sneaker hit off her arm in a weak attempt to calm her. "Shit, we've stopped movin'…" Lin's voice quavered only a little. "Where's my lighter…?"
"I need out of here, Lin." Saki almost balked and started to writhe around the cramped, dark space, her breath becoming more and more laboured the more panicked she became, "Lin! I can't stay in here! I have to get out!" Saki screamed in terror.
"Let me fucking out!"
"Saki, get a grip – you can't lose your shit here – we gotta'-"
Lin tried to shush the younger woman but was cut off as the lid of the trunk was hauled open to reveal Donnie and Mr. Sharpe; they're faces were two studies in shock and satisfaction. Donnie's eyes were bugging out of his head as he beheld Lin and Saki tied up and shoved into the trunk of Lin's car. Sharpe looked smug, cold and indifferent to their fates as they were, rested in his wrinkled, old hands,
"Mr. Sharpe, what the hell are you doing?!" Donnie demanded in a high-pitched whine.
Lin's eyes sprang up, wide and pleading, so unlike herself she tried to explain quickly although her voice was drowned out slightly by Saki's wriggling and grunts as she tried to make a break for it and get out of the car.
"Donnie, listen to me, I swear to God-"
Gunfire silenced her and Donnie shrieked as he stepped back with his hands on his head in disbelief,
"Whoa! What the hell?! Mr. Sharpe, you just shot my girl!"
"Yes, I know Donnie. A tragedy…" Sharpe acknowledged in his toneless, aloof voice.
"Lin!" Saki snarled as her blood splattered her face. "You fuckin' bastard! When I get outta here-"
Saki's voice was halted when he shot her too.
"Oh, I doubt you'll do that." Sharpe quipped and Saki gulped down air.
"Ah! Fuck ow! Fuck you! Fuck this!" Saki's voice was borderline hysterical.
Wow, this was painful. Saki had never been shot before, but wow. Pain like that of a massive fiery cramp tore through her abdomen except it was worse; it was like the cramp wasn't just consigned to her stomach it was everything in her stomach, organs, blood, tissue – everything was ablaze with anguish and making her nearly sick with the agony of it. Red flashes started to throb in her eyes and she thought she was going to die as she felt a wave of nausea engulf her and then more followed when she focused on Sharpe.
His hands were on the trunk lid and he was looking down on her; Saki's eyes slid over to Donnie and she almost felt sorry for the guy, he looked like he had no idea what was happening and Saki watched him make a move to help Lin, but Sharpe snapped the lid closed on Saki as she yelled for him not to close it and plunge them back into the blackness. Saki's voice must have sounded terrified as she pounded herself off the walls in a vain attempt to free herself.
"S-stop that…" Lin managed and Saki came to a sudden stay and sniffed,
"Lin…A-are you okay?" Pain nearly made the question impossible, but Lin chuckled darkly and offered, "Better than you if you don't quit the…ah…thrashing. You've been shot, Sak-"
"So'v you!" Saki nearly cried but Lin calmed her, "Yeah…s-so you shouldn't mo…ah, you shouldn't move."
"This is bad, Lin…" Saki managed through gritted teeth and Lin bobbed her head in agreement – not that Saki could see her doing that, she just assumed she did.
"Yeah, bud…We're in a bad place, sure."
"'Bad place'…you-" Saki grimaced and smiled mirthlessly, "Heh, you call this a 'bad place'?"
Then they felt a lurch, the front axle had gone over something, a curb or…
"I should've fucking known that it was a trap, Lin…" Saki lamented.
"There's no time for this!" She snapped hotly in return and Saki felt Lin moving around. "You gotta'…We gotta' get out of here, we're gonna, don't worry. If I could just…"
A scraping sound resonated and they both gasped and Lin snarled angrily, "He's dumping the car!"
"Ah! Fuck!" Saki grunted, "Whadda we do?"
"I don't…" Lin breathed as she writhed still; Saki thought she was consumed with pain.
"Lin…?"
They felt weightless as the car was pushed over the edge into the waters of Stilwater. Saki closed her eyes and tried to breathe steadily and keep herself calm as Lin was, but she feared she was losing her nerve with every passing second, the pain in her stomach was mounting too. If she didn't drown then she was pretty sure she was going to bleed out any moment, lightheaded as she was.
"D-did…Saki, did you hear that asshole, Donnie?" Lin asked randomly and Saki shook her head.
When Saki didn't answer, Lin booted her in the arm hard.
"Ah! Fuck, Lin!" Saki growled she was tired and cold.
"He…" Lin chuckled and a tear rolled out of the side of her brown eyes down into her black hair, "He called me 'his girl'…what a fuckin'…"
Her voice died away and Saki closed her eyes too. She could feel the water circulating around her, the frozen seawater zapped her skin, bringing her some semblance of alertness and she jerked up as if to sit upright and battered her head off of the lid of the trunk and grunted.
"Shit! Lin…? Lin, come on, we need to…" Saki was at a loss.
There was nothing to do but die – no escape.
We're fucked.
Time seemed to slow and Saki thought she could weep for the way she'd be going out; tied up and thrown in the boot of a car to be dumped into the Stilwater mariner was not the way Saki pictured it and felt a lump in her throat. She'd never get to try out at amateur night at Tee and Aay, never get to try some flaming sake or drive a Raycaster over a suspended bridge like Angelo Carnales or get a tattoo of a dragon. Tears pricked her eyes when she realised she would never get see the season finale of Bobby and Amber.
"Hey…" The voice was Lin's and Saki gasped again as she managed to puff out a sentence as the water filled up the car and began to submerge them both, "I think…I think I found my lighter."
Saki sat up a little and held out a hand for it and scrambled against the clock. The water was rising at an alarming rate and she didn't want to get Lin's lighter wet and ruin their one chance. Saki was near enough panting with the adrenaline and blood loss as she leant over Lin first to burn her bondage. When she was free, Saki thought to herself that the smell of burnt rope was her new favourite scent; it meant freedom and survival now.
"Okay! Lin, you're free, do me now…" Saki grinned, holding out the lighter to her.
There was no response and Saki nudged her, "Hey…Lin…You still there?"
Icy fear and apprehension gripped Saki then and she felt her eyes sting as a tear escaped them,
"Please be there…"
She whispered, knowing she wasn't. There was no time to mourn, that could come later and Saki realised that she might not even make it to mourn, so she took the lighter and managed to manoeuvre herself in such a way so that she could burn the bonds that held her. When she was free, she took a breath – she was out of time, the trunk was almost completely full up with water.
"I'm sorry, Lin. I'll get Sharpe…I'll get him and come back for y-"
Water strangled her words and entered her mouth. Now she was utterly alone in the dark and danger. She lay on her back and tried to kick the lid open, springing her feet forward and pulling them back to execute powerful kicks against the lid. It was starting to look futile and she began to choke, feeling the same feeling of light-headedness that she had felt earlier.
Come on, come on, come-the-fuck-on!
Finally the trunk popped open and Saki floundered like a dumb fish to get out and wriggled her way through the water ungracefully until her face broke the surface and she could breathe in sweet, sweet air once again. It was euphoric to breathe again and she coughed snot and saliva prominent on her face as she tried to swim ashore. It was hard going with her injuries, but eventually she crawled onto the sand of the washed up beach and lay in it face-down breathing heavily and convulsing with the loss of blood.
"Help…." She spluttered quietly into the sand, "…help me."
There was nothing for a while; no sounds, she didn't feel anything, she just simply lay there dying until someone happened by her.
"Hmm, what an awful memory," Zinyak mused as he rubbed his chin, sitting observing the President's most traumatic memoirs, "It really is no wonder you became what you did, now is it?" After a moment of deliberation he decided, "Yes, we can use that. Keep that memory and file it under 'On Lin'."
The computer did as it was commanded. Zinyak's cranial dome puckered and he cocked his head strangely stirred.
"Even boorish thugs can qualify for bereavement, more's the pity, but yours remains true and still hurting…" Zinyak shrugged, "Well the life of a 'gangbanger' is oftentimes harsh."
What was that? The next cluster of memories was blurred, ruined with substance abuse and all wobbly. Zinyak couldn't understand why and commanded the computer to try and wipe them,
"As you command, oh Great One." The computer kowtowed.
Sifting through the leader of the Saints' garbled recollections of the time after the murder attempt was just as hard – if not harder – than defragging the ones from when she had been in a coma. Zinyak managed to make out but a fragment of what was happening, he saw a young Johnny Gat standing at a door hammering on it with his fists. He had a leg brace on for his knee which had been shot and he was not dressed in his usual garb of baggy purple clothes, instead he wore a loosely fitted black suit.
"Yo! Saki! Get your ass out here!"
He was met with moody silence and Zinyak watched him sigh and rub the back of his neck and try again, "Saki?" Johnny knocked and bowed his head as he pinched the bridge of his nose, his tinted glasses riding up a little, "Look, Sak…" He began,
"I know you feel like fucking shit, so do I…But…Look, we need to get up and go represent at Lin's funeral. I know you don't wanna, I know you wanna kill that fuck, Sharpe, but we can't not yet. We gotta get this shit over with first…we gotta go and say goodbye."
His voice scraped on a sob which he made sure to mask with a clear of his throat, returning to his brusque tone as before he slammed his palm into the door and shouted,
"Come on!" He gnashed his teeth at his flaring temper and relaxed,
"Me and Troy need you there…Lin needs you there."
The door opened a slither and Johnny frowned before poking his head round and eyeing Saki. If he hadn't been wearing his glasses she would have seen the bug in his eyes as he looked at her; Saki's once long, shiny black hair was chopped all short and sloppily. Fresh tattoos vandalised her skin on her chest, arms, forearms and legs, the red tenderness still apparent and still covered in cling film. Johnny gasped to see Saki stood before him in a short black wife beater tee and a pair of short shorts; she looked like shit. Emo, Goth, Punk – whatever – shit. Her hair was dyed shoddily with some purple spray on shit, he suspected, but the tats looked genuine and painful and it looked like she had gotten too many too quickly judging by the state of her skin. She looked painfully thin too.
The month or so since Lin's death had been hard on her. The Police hadn't even released her body until last week when they closed up the case surrounding her death. The fuckheads.
"What. The. Fuck? Did you?" He scrabbled for words, "…did the doctors let you out?"
She nodded silently and Johnny folded his arms and shifted from foot to foot before he puffed out a breath and motioned at her tats, "Nice ink, Rusty's handiwork?"
"Yep."
He nodded again. "Mind if I have a look?"
"No. Go ahead, bud."
Saki said in a monotone. She was freaking Johnny out, but he wouldn't let on; he could see the dressing which covered the bullet wound she had gotten from that old fuck, Sharpe. He didn't want to make her feel more like shit by saying that her new look was jarring.
It honestly suited her more.
Moving around her, Johnny looked over the work on Saki's body. She had gotten a suit of armour on her forearm, little bullets on her thumb; and a dragon with a katana in its mouth snaked its way up the rest of her arm and ended at her shoulder ferociously. There was a fluer-de-lis on one side of her neck and underneath that, a little purple skull. The other arm was covered in flowers and he noted the small purple Voxel hidden in amongst the petals. That tat went all the way down her tummy, hip and onto her leg. It was beautiful, but again, the skin looked fucking sore. On her chest Johnny's brow cocked up to see '3rd St Saints' there in calligraphy and he smirked,
"You remember that beating we gave ya?"
Saki's red rimmed eyes found his and she mumbled, "What, when you canonized me?"
"Yeah, that was nothin' compared to this…" His voice faded away. "Why'd you…get these?"
"I dunno…felt right." Saki explained vaguely, "I always wanted ink…I needed a bit of pain after, y'know. Took my mind of off this pain," She pointed at her stomach. "Can't stop thinkin' about Lin, though...So I cut my hair…looked out my window," There were tears in her eyes, "…saw a Roller…had to chop it all off and dye it so I wouldn't go out there in front of the kids and shoot him in the fucking mouth…"
"Good…I guess." Johnny bleated. He was perplexed, but not disturbed. He had done something similar like this a long time ago; it was natural to want to change everything about one's self when someone left.
"Right," He began, mincing his way over to Saki's closet and opening it. "Go through there," He pointed to the bathroom, "Scrub your fuckin' face, sort yourself out, then get dressed. We're hitting Freckle Bitch's for breakfast before this thing – you need to eat."
"You're not…mad at me?" She said small and Johnny eyed her like she had just started speaking Swahili;
"Mad? I ain't mad." He barked a little ruffled, "I came to check on you at the hospital – you're out cold with a bullet in you and Sharpe's killed Lin – that made me mad. So I go off, get the crew, we're gonna case the Rollerz, Julius tells me and Troy to stay our guns – that makes me fuckin' mad. But he wanted to wait for you. So," He looked at her dead in the face and went on,
"I go back to the hospital with Eesh to check on you, guess what? You've only gone and fucked off the map feeling sorry for yourself and getting jacked up – whatever – getting inked. But that doesn't make me mad."
"Why not?" Saki frowned and Johnny shrugged,
"You didn't look like a gangbanger before – now you do. So the look, I got no problem with, you needed one anyway." He was half joking but when he peered at her again he looked hurt,
"Lin died and you disappeared on us. I told Julius you just needed time…but, yo, I wasn't sure. It was only on good faith that I kept that with you, Sak. You don't vanish on the crew. Ever. That's how you end up like Lin, yeah?"
"I'm sorry-"
"Don't be sorry." Johnny interrupted rudely with a sad smile, "Just…don't do it again."
The memory came to an end and Zinyak blinked. The self-mutilation was what stuck out to him; she had gotten those tattoos as a way to cope with the emotional pain of losing a friend by having physical pain overpower it. What an odd and fascinating human the President was; utterly mad, obviously, but capable of feeling a great deal more than he had first given her credit for. He had at first thought her a mad dog with nothing inside her, but now; yes, she did have a weakness and he noted the four skulls on her throat; Zinyak turned his attention back to Saki's mind and frowned ponderously, an audio log voicing Saki's thoughts was lodged between that memory and the next; the alien pulled it up and listened. Saki's body-less voice said sombrely,
"Lin died a hero. She might have been Donnie's girl, but that night when Sharpe killed us…she was my angel. A Saint forever, forever a Saint...And the best damn driver to come outta Chinatown."
The Saints were her vulnerability and Zinyak would take them all from her, one by one.
Shout out to the guests! Thanks for reviewing and enjoy :D