Disclaimer- I own nothing!
Four days later
Jack was dead. Matt had tortured and raped her, whipping and cutting and hurting her, right in front of Alex, for four days, and now she was dead. There had been distant screams when Matt was gone, telling Alex that they weren't alone in their torture. Now he was nothing but a limp mound on the floor, thin and sick.
Jack was hanging limply from the wall, still warm, bleeding from the almost pretty pattern of cuts covering her skin, her body bruised and burned beyond recognition. Had Alex been in a normal situation, he would have remembered the medical lecture in Brecon Beacons on gangrene. He would've noticed the foul smell and discoloration around his terribly burned wrists and recalled the emphasis on a type called gas gangrene* and how it was one of the most deadly infections out there. Because of this and Jack's sudden death, he would've realized he was going into shock. But all his half-delirious mind could handle thinking was one word.
Escape.
Matt swept in, with all the false bravado he always had, and curled his lip in disgust. "Well, Rider, now you're just pitiful. Broken so soon?"
Silently surveying the room, he noticed Jack's still form, sighed, and murmured, "That explains it." He left and returned a few seconds later with the miniature welder. Ironically, the thing that had trapped her in life now freed her in death; Matt using it to melt the metal around Jack's wrists, ankles, and throat, her still bleeding body getting dragged away. Alex raised his head and saw the welder, lying on the filthy, blood-soaked floor.
Escape.
He crawled up to the length of his chains but was still several feet short for his foggy half-plan. Stretching out his feet, silently screaming in absolute agony, his vision going white, somehow gripping the welder with his toes, he dragged it to his numb, dead hands. He hauled himself back and fumbled with the welder. It lit - the flame a beautiful combination of bright blue, blood red, and snow white - and Alex steeled himself. He stuck the flame to the metal around his burned, infected wrists, turning it bright white, melting it, and freeing himself. By now, he was only half-conscious at best.
Escape.
He dragged his body to a stance only scarcely resembling standing and hauled himself up the stairs, collapsing several times on the way. After what seemed like hours, he finally staggered into a dull, lifeless hallway and could smell the rot and death drifting from one of the rooms, the door being partially open. He swallowed, hard. There might be survivors…. he opened the door fully.
And fell to his knees.
Tom and Sabina hung from the ceiling, suspended from coarse ropes looped around their throats, tongues lolling from their mouths, necks bruised eggplant purple, covered in cuts identical to those that Matt had inflicted on Jack. Alex would've been violently sick, had he held anything in his stomach but the filthy water Matt had cheerfully forced down his throat.
Escape.
He heard heavy footsteps echoing in the distance; and a small voice, some hidden instinct, told him to run, to flee for his life. Pulling himself up, he staggered onto the lawn and sprinted for his life down the dark, damp alley.
*This cracked me up. When I researched gangrene for the symtoms, I saw the diffrent types. As a COMPLETE COINCEDENCE, I had put the perfect circumstances for gas gangrene to form (the tight chains, the cracked burns, ect.). This is known as the most deadly form of gangrene, and even a small cut infected with it is a medical emergency, since it spreads and sends its victims into shock so fast.
Thank you to all of reveiwers! Now, I have three points to cover.
1) Im going on a ten day trip to disneyland for the first time EVER, and cant get on a computer for that time, so no updates.
2) Should I continue this fic? I originally meant for this to be a one shot, with only Alex running from Matt. Now Ive kinda looped back to that, so do you want me to continue with it?
3) Should I raise the rating because of the blood and gore?
Thanks to hollyblue2, my amazing beta reader!