Disclaimer: Yes, this plot is totally mine. I claim it. I don't own Alex Rider though. I'm just playing with the characters created, and making their lives as hard as possible =P
Previously...
He felt like he was running for his life.
The blaring sound of a car horn brought him back to reality—but only for a moment. There was a screech of brakes as the car tried to avoid him, then the painful impact as it slammed into his side, tossing him like a ragdoll through the air. The ground came up too quickly, and his still fear-ridden mind couldn't react fast enough. There was no saving himself from the pain.
His head hit the ground and darkness immediately set in.
CHAPTER 7: Three Times
Burning, throbbing, pounding, pain. Alex felt every breath he took. Scraping, rough, and painful against his broken ribs. Nothing else would hurt like that.
Through the haze of pain, he heard someone talking loudly and frantically in the background. Orders being shouted. Someone else was there, and Alex nearly yelled as something jostled his body. It wasn't just breathing that hurt. It was everything.
There was something around his arm, something around his neck as well... his neck!
"—he's waking up. Heart rate's increasing—"
"—kid's going to be in one world of pain when he does. He'll need—"
Alex tried to push away the hand that had taken a hold of his arm. He tried to sit up, ignoring the extreme pain that went all the way from his head to his legs. Hands kept him from succeeding, pushing him back down onto the—bed?
When he opened his eyes, bright lights shone in, effectively blinding him. He struggled, thinking only of SCORPIA, Rosen, Muscles... Panic and fear flooded though him, and he fought even more desperately. He can't get me. I can't get captured.
"Come on kid, hold still. You're all right, just calm down." A voice said.
"No... no..." He wasn't giving in to this. He wasn't going to let them get him. SCORPIA never forgives or forgets. No! He needed to get away. They were here. He choked as fresh pain flowed through him, highlighting all the little pains he hadn't felt only moments before. "Let me... go."
"You're safe, just relax. Hold still or you'll end up hurting yourself."
The hand latched onto his arm again, but Alex pulled away with all his might. He wasn't going to play their games. He was getting out. SCORPIA wasn't going to have him again. He tried to roll away, to roll off the bed, but there seemed to be a surplus of hands holding him down.
"Have to... go. Let me... go!" He tried to kick, to get someone to let up just a little, but no one was within reach. His struggles grew less and less pronounced as the pain and exhaustion started to take over, sapping the little energy he had left. "You can't... have me. No..." He broke off in a sob. The pressure on his arms relaxed just slightly, and he lashed out, hoping to get free. Anything.
His hand connected with something soft, but it didn't do anything. There was a muffled curse, before the pressure came back, holding him down again. He wanted to scream, to make them let go, but all that came out was a choked sob. Everything hurt.
A hand touched his chest, near where the broken ribs were judging by the flash of pain that accompanied the touch. Alex reacted violently to the touch. No one was to touch him. He had warned Kleczka. Don't touch me. There were a few surprised exclamations from whoever was around him, but the hands holding him down didn't let up. He twisted and writhed, wanting nothing more than to get away, ignoring the pain that each movement brought.
He started feeling lightheaded when he realized what a struggle it was to actually get a breath in. The pain ripped up and down his chest, making the breaths light and shallow. Something covered his face, and he nearly reacted again, thinking someone was suffocating him. Or waterboarding... His breath hitched as the same feeling of helplessness came over him.
"—allergic reaction—"
"—sedate him, short-term. He needs tests—"
Alex heard the words, tried to act on them—he did not want to be sedated—but nothing seemed to be responding anymore. He swore as fluently as possible in as many languages he could think of in his head. They were already sedating him.
The words started to slur together in his mind as the effects increased, and soon the feeling of pressure relaxed. While he doubted that the people had just let go, he couldn't be bothered to care anymore. Someone was still talking to him, trying to get some sort of response from him, but he was too out of it to care. They had won this round.
He almost welcomed the blackness—only bothering to fight it for a few moments, knowing that it was hopeless—it meant relief from the pain.
If it could have been possible, he would have been breathing rapidly. If it could have been possible, he would have been planning the best escape route from the room. If it could have been possible, he would have long since left the room.
As it was, Alex could do none of those things. Air whooshed into his lungs at a painfully slow and steady rate, making him want to cry as each 'breath' shot another wave of pain though him. It was pointless to plan an escape route, especially when he couldn't even see where he was. And he most definitely couldn't leave the room, since the sedatives they had given him seemed to have a paralyzing effect that took longer to wear off.
They had him trapped.
There were people nearby, of course. He could hear them well enough—just not well enough to actually make out what they were saying. It was more a jumble of sounds that his brain refused to translate into any known language.
A weightless feeling took over for a moment, before he was painfully lowered onto another bed. He would have gasped—or screamed—if it had been possible, but it wasn't. More people were around, being not quite as gentle as the ones before.
Movement came back to his upper body first, but he didn't open his eyes. He was still tired. Maybe... maybe if... Snap out of it! He moved his fingers slightly, anticipating the movement it would take to get out. He had to take everyone nearby, by surprise.
Someone prodded his side, somewhat gently, but it still hurt. He didn't want them to know he was waking up. He didn't have to worry about yelling—he couldn't with the tube in his throat—but it was impossible to stop the reactive instinct to pull away.
"—waking up. Be careful—"
"—agitated earlier."
Someone took a hold of his arm, most likely as a precaution, but Alex instinctively lashed out. He heard a strange sound—a strangled cry—and almost immediately, more people were holding down his limbs, keeping him from thrashing more.
"—need you to calm down. You're safe here. We're just trying to help."
Alex was having none of it. He wanted to fight them. He couldn't let SCORPIA win. Not now. Not after all he had gone through to be free from them.
He wanted to cry when the drugs started taking effect again. They had him. He was trapped.
He never really registered when it all became black again.
Waking up in an unfamiliar room was not something new to Alex. Waking up from being sedated—or rather tranquilized in most cases—wasn't new either. He hated the feeling though. The grogginess that seemed to take over completely. The headache that seemed determined to keep his thoughts in a jumbled mess...
As he slowly woke up, and shook off the worst of the side-effects, he took stock of the room without opening his eyes, determining that it was small in size, but empty aside from himself. Opening his eyes, he confirmed that fact. The only things in the room were his bed, himself, and a whole bunch of medical equipment.
Medical equipment?
That didn't fit with what he knew of SCORPIA. Then again, neither did the whole patching up before torture. In fact, he was starting to have some pretty strong doubts that SCORPIA had anything to do with this here.
Between the headache and haze of drugs, his mind was cloudy, and he barely realized that he had been staring at the door for a full ten minutes without moving. A noise next door brought him back to reality, and he started to wonder what he was doing here.
As strange as it seemed for SCORPIA to fix him up, he couldn't throw his suspicions out the window. They might have some ulterior motive for capturing him. Or, it could be a perfectly normal hospital that wanted to know just who the hell he was. He doubted that the ID would stand up to a deep probe—at least on the medical side—and someone would catch the forgery.
Either way, things looked bad. The only way out, was to escape.
He pushed the oxygen mask off his face, glad that it had been switched from the tube. That would have made it impossible to escape. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about it. Sitting up—gingerly—he started formulating a plan to get out. He had to get out before a nurse came in and checked on him, but he had no idea how long that would be. It could be only a few minutes for all he knew.
A quick glance told him that there were no cameras in the room. At least, not highly visible cameras. If it were SCORPIA, they'd have cameras somewhere in the room, and would already know he was awake. He needed to get started if he was getting out.
His ribs protested as he sat up on the edge of the bed. He put a hand to his side, before noticing that his wrist was encased in a brace. Not a cast, just a brace. He flexed his arm experimentally, wincing when his wrist twisted just right. Not broken, but it still hurt. He pulled the IV out of his other arm, grimacing at the pull of the tape. There went the medicine keeping me sane.
The side that got hit by the car—his right—definitely hurt more than the left. Both sides looked battered and bruised, but the aches came mostly from the one side.
He glanced at the other monitor, the one tracking his heart rate. It was sure to have some sort of alarm, so he sat on the edge of his bed for a moment, trying to regain his bearings. For all he knew, the moment he unhooked it, the alarm would go off, and a waiting nurse—or man with gun—would burst in. He'd have to make a dash for it.
Alex looked down at himself briefly. Too bad that dash didn't include decent clothes... at least the pajamas he was in were better than the usual hospital gowns. It would have to do.
As soon as he stood up, the rest of his injuries immediately made themselves known. All his muscles were sore from the beating they had taken—when? How many days had it been? His knee that he had injured jumping from the fire escape felt less than stable, but he'd run on worse before. He'd have to risk it if he wanted to get out of the building.
Edging closer to the door, he got as far as he could before pulling the last monitor off. It gave him five seconds, but that was all he needed to get out the door and start down the hall. From there, he was able to watch the fast reaction. A nurse jumped up from the station, and made their way to the room, not giving off the impression that they were hurrying. Alex knew better.
He picked up his pace, walking down the hall as fast as he dared, ignoring the pain that was starting to come back. It seemed that no matter how good the medicine was, it couldn't compete with what he was doing. Too bad it was only going to get worse.
"Hey! You're not supposed to be out of bed." The nurse had come out of his room apparently. Alex glanced around, hoping that they were talking to someone else. He was the only one in the hall.
Alex forgot about being sneaky. He turned and ran. He skidded around a corner, barely missing two doctors in the hall. Now everyone was sure to know that something was up.
He kept running, nearly wincing every other step as his bad leg thudded against the floor. Within moments, he felt pursuers on his tail, and a glance back told him that they were from the hospital security. So, maybe not SCORPIA... yet. At least it gave him a better chance of escaping.
People were yelling in the halls as Alex slipped between carts, beds, and anything else he could find to slow down the people on his tail. He ran faster than ever, as adrenaline replaced the painkiller that was quickly wearing off. He ran into walls and corners a few times, when he knee tried to betray him, but there was always just enough space to keep him from being caught. Even through the adrenaline though, he couldn't mask the fact that he was quickly running out of breath.
He started slowing down, hoping to catch his breath again. A sharp pain in his side told him that he was running close to overdoing it. He kept up his dodging and weaving through visitors and patients, as he reached halls that were more crowded.
More people joined the chase, and Alex took anything he could find and tossed it in the way. Visitors were yelling, some screaming when he dumped a tray full of medical supplies—nothing too valuable though. He knew where to stop. He just wanted away from the place.
A sign on his right caught his eye. The stairs were in sight. Now he just had to get down another level. He glanced back, to see how close his pursuers were. Something told him that he needed to put more space between himself and them. There was always a possibility that there would be backup waiting downstairs to catch him.
He turned back to see where he was running to, just in time to see hands reach out from nowhere and grab him by the shoulders. The firm grip didn't relent, even when Alex tried to thrash. They were too strong. He was caught.
Defeat welled up inside him, as he realized the only person that could have caught him must have something to do with SCORPIA. He wasn't safe in the hospital. He sank to the floor, and his captor went down with him. The sharp pains in his side had increased, making catching his breath completely painful.
Something told him it was useless to fight anymore. Whoever had caught him—a SCORPIA agent, most likely—was significantly stronger. And it was impossible to struggle with his arm in a brace. It was pointless.
Panic and fear came when he realized that he couldn't catch his breath. Each sharp, irregular breath felt like knives in his side, and he just knew, just knew, that they were coming in too fast. Too fast, and the oxygen was actively bypassing his system.
Dark spots danced in front of his eyes, and he blinked trying to keep them away. He gulped in breaths, trying to hold them in longer, but it hurt. Weariness and pain set in, taking over his senses and his body started to go limp, as his energy went to more vital areas.
Through half lidded eyes, Alex caught sight of his captor, who had started calling for someone to help. "You..." He said, but it was barely more than a whisper. His captor looked down at him, a worried and puzzled look on his face.
For the third time, unconsciousness took Alex.
A/N: Dun, dun, duhhhhh. ^_^ So, who do think Alex's captor is? If anyone actually guesses correctly, I will give them virtual cookies!
Sorry about the cliffie though. I'm sure this chapter answered practically no questions from the last chapter and made even more. Couldn't be avoided though (actually, I'm sure it could, but then it wouldn't be interesting, would it?).
OH MY GOSH, can I just say, I'm blown away by the amount of reviews I got on the last chapter. *huggles to all reviewers* I think I said this last time, but you guys are all so amazing. If you're not reviewing... *nudge* *nudge* it would be very awesome if you did!
Now, for the potentially bad news. My updates might slow down sometime in the near future. I might be able to eke out another week or two of twice-weekly updates, but it will probably go down to once a week. I'm not about to abandon the story anytime soon, it just might take me a little longer than usual to get the chapters up. Life is getting in the way. Gah.
S.B.L.
