I woke very groggy. Groaning, I tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain in my ribs and immediately fell back on the bed. Wait… a bed?
"Woah there. Sit back down. You're not strong enough to get up." Startled, I looked around.
I was in some sort of a makeshift hospital, with about a dozen beds all line up. I had an IV stuck up my arm and was propped up in a bed. Next to me, a young nurse sat watching me.
"Wha… where's my teddy bear?" Uh! I shook my head violently. No one had to know I slept with a teddy bear. My mind wasn't mentally acute right now.
The nurse looked confused. "What?"
I turned red with embarrassment, "Nothing." I said quickly.
She gave me a funny look. "Painkillers." She mumbled under her breath.
"What are my symptoms?" I asked, my mind finally working properly.
"Two bruised ribs and a slightly dislocated jaw. What happened to you?" I didn't know if she was with SPYDER or not, so I played the safe card and just shrugged.
"Where am I?" I tried to change the subject.
"Well, I work for SPYDER and I'm a nurse/housekeeper. Whatever keeps Josh happy; he gives out the paychecks." She gave a light laugh. I wasn't expecting an evil organization to hire such a seemingly kind hearted person.
She noticed my confused expression and smiled.
"Yeah, I know they do awful stuff, but I like helping people-good or bad. I was the one who fixed Joshua up and I believe it was you who sent him to that state. Now, I patched you up too!" she gave off this cheerful vibe.
For the first time, I noticed Erica on the other side of the room, leaning against the door frame. She was staring off into space, but glanced over at me. She looked embarrassed and looked away. Seeing her in the room verified that she was acting rash that other day, not entirely herself. Something I said pissed her off. But what? After she noticed I was awake, she left the room without saying anything.
The nurse followed my gaze, "Yep, Erica. She's been coming in and out, not really saying anything. But I could tell she was concerned about your progress. Didn't she turn to SPYDER and lure you in here? Was she the one who beat you up?"
I just nodded.
"Evil, betraying, slicky relationship problems? Yeah I can tell." The nurse was surprisingly comforting and normal.
"What? Me and I Erica…? Um… no. There's nothing going on." My face turned a deeper shade of red and my heart started to race, which isn't good when you're already in the medical bay.
The nurse laughed. Right as she was about to say something, the door saved me from more embarrassment. Unfortunately, it was Josh and Erica.
"Speak of the devil," the nurse said under her breath.
"Wow!" Josh said with clear delight, "You really whooped his ass, Erica! Nice work! I told you he was annoying!" Josh grinned and offered Erica a high five but to my delight, she didn't comply. Embarrassed by her rejection, he stormed over to where I was sitting and said,
"Finally! You're awake! We've been waiting for you for your days! That puts all of us behind schedule." I should probably be apologizing, but I my heart's not really in it.
Josh acknowledges the nurse. "April. Good to see you."
"As you." April the nurse said.
"We need him up and mobile. We're filming in half an hour." Josh barked
April frowned, "He won't be healed enough to be fully mobile for at least another few days." Josh huffed in annoyance.
"I don't care; we're shooting today. This hostage video needs to go out tomorrow. There is no waiting around. Make sure he's camera ready in fifteen minutes." Without Erica saying anything to me, no apology, nothing, they left the room. She has no empathy for me. My heart shattered. The nurse could tell and she gave a sad smile.
Getting me off the bed was painful. To result in minimal damage, April was nice enough to request an office chair for my hostage movie role so I could get to the location. Josh and SPYDER are shooting a video to send to the CIA, FBI and even the President himself. Of course, I had to be in it.
I was supposed to be tied to a chair with the director of the CIA John Tyson tied up next to me, but now my chair was an office chair. Murray's to be exact. (Murray had complained saying 'Why mine? Why not yours?' Josh had easily rejected him saying, 'You should stand more often; you're fatter than a baked potato.' Which effectively shut Murray up.)
I was rolled into the room and next to me sat the director of the CIA. I wanted to make a good impression, but it's hard to when you're rolled in in an office chair. John Tyson however never noticed me. He was just dolling out threats, which I guess he's been doing for a while, running out of ideas, because his last one was, "If you don't release me, my imaginary friends from my childhood will haunt you at night."
Josh and the others in the room were ignoring it.
Of course, Erica was there. She was wearing her standard black outfit and had a gun in her hand, probably at the request of Josh to 'Spice things up for the camera.'
In the back corners in the room, there were two heavily armed guards staring straight ahead.
Meanwhile, Josh was sitting behind a camera making final adjustments while Murray paced in the background, no doubt reviewing his lines, mumbling to himself. Erica tied John Tyson up, probably to much of her disdain because even though someone's evil, he was once the man she respected. She approached me with the bonds and without a word, tied the rope loosely around my torso, careful to avoid my injured ribs. I was fed up she wasn't saying anything about the whole beat-me-up-for-no-reason thing, so I whispered,
"Anything to say to me?" sounding a little sassy.
She barely glanced at me and said, "Sorry." But her heart wasn't in it. I huffed in annoyance but I could tell in her body language she did feel bad.
"Places!" Josh called behind the camera. He looked like a director. If he was wearing a beret and artsy glasses, he would have pulled off the look.
For the final measure, Erica slipped a black hood over me and John's head.
"Action!" Josh called and I heard some shuffling around and Murray starts the intro.
"What's up fam?" He said way too enthusiastically, "Its your boy Murray here! And I am here with some very special guests: Ben Ripley and CIA director John Tyson. Let's give Ben and John a big SPYDER welcome! Make sure to hit that like and subscribe button for all the amazing SPYDER content!" he cried to much of Josh's distain. If I could hear someone rolling their eyes, it would be Erica.
I heard Josh shut the camera off,
"What the heck was that?" He cried angrily.
"Um… I don't know. It slipped out." He glanced around sheepishly.
"Murray, you're banned from watching YouTube." Josh said simply. I heard Murray grumble in the distance.
"I will be doing the intro. Murray, put your gun to the director's head and Erica do the same to Ben. Show those idiots in the CIA we mean business." Josh ordered everyone around.
Next to me, I heard John issue protests, but they were muffled by the bag. The bag on my head was getting kind of annoying as well.
"Action!" called Josh. I felt the cold mussel of the gun rest against my temple.
"Hello everyone," Josh called in cold cheerfulness, "As you know, my name is Joshua Hallal and I am accompanied by Murray Hill and the newest addition to the SPYDER organization, Erica Hale. I speak for my superiors who, unfortunately couldn't be here with us. We wanted to let you know that we have a few people you might be interested in having come back alive. Give a warm welcome to the director of the CIA himself, John Tyson!" Next to me, I heard Murray yank the hood off John. Right as the bag was off, he started addressing the camera,
"Help! I am captured in SPYDER's headquarter in-" He was successfully cut off by Murray shoving a gag in his mouth.
"Wonderful!" Josh called condescendingly, "Can't have out secrets being revealed can I? Next up, we have Ben Ripley." I felt the gun move away and Erica ripped the hood off my head. Without me saying anything, Erica appeared to pull a white cloth out thin air and shoved it in my mouth and tied the gag behind my head.
Josh smiled, "If you want both of them back alive, you need to give us ten million dollars and access to some specific government files we want." At this, John tried to yell through the gag and he thrashed in his chair, trying to indicate not to do follow up on their requests. Murray just whacked John on the head with his gun and shut him up.
"Now," Josh concluded, "You have 48 hours to follow up and we'll be in touch. If not, say bye to your friends." Josh finished the recording with a malicious laugh.
"Cut! Wonderful! Raw talent!" some guy sitting behind the camera said. Josh beamed and Erica just gave him a cold, calculating glare and walked out of the room.
Josh walked over to my office chair and without saying a word, started pushing me away from the room. Then, I fell flat on my face.
