Chapter Thirteen: Tyranny

Time Unknown. Date Unknown. Location Unknown. Planet Puget, Outer Colonies.

I was surprised when Laraza ordered his men to take me back to my cell and leave me there. I was expecting some sort of grand gesture of power and I'd feared for Caleb's safety at first. It wasn't out of the question for the rebels to harm him in retaliation for my failed jailbreak. But I guess with my leg now injured, Javier was not anticipating similar attempts in the near future. I was out of commission, and he knew it.

The two Innies searched me first and removed all I'd taken from Garrett and Laraza's office - except my family photo. That I'd hidden where they'd never find it. It was mine and I didn't want it in the rebel leader's hands. Not again. They then remained in the cell with me for several minutes, pointing their weapons at me to make sure I didn't move. I wondered why I was under guard inside the cell when the answer presented itself.

In short order a red-haired man with exam gloves and a medical bag came in. He set his stuff down beside me and said nothing, grabbing a hold of my leg without a word, and I groaned when he moved it. But I wasn't about to protest with so many guns aimed at me. At the end of the day, I still wanted to make it out of here alive.

"That bullet hurt? Good. It means you won't be trying to get out of here again," he said, rolling up my pant leg to my knee. "Get on the cot, Colonel. On your stomach. I need to stop the bleeding and give you some antiseptic, unless you wanna lose it below the knee to infection."

He didn't help me move and neither did the guards, so I grit my teeth and limped there, each step like a fiery nightmare as I applied the least amount of pressure I could to my shot leg. I wasn't really in the mood to chat so I kept my mouth shut, just waiting for the procedure to be over with.

What he hadn't told me, but of course needed to happen, was that he was going to take the bullet out of me first. Without any pain meds.

I nearly screamed when I felt him digging around with his instruments inside the wound in my calf. I started to sweat and shut my eyes tight, biting down hard on the dirty collar of my uniform jacket. I thought I might pass out but I didn't, and after living in blind agony for what felt like minutes, I heard the metallic plop of the bullet shards going into a tin.

"You'll be glad to know the worst is over," he said, then produced a small canister of biofoam and inserted it into the wound. "Pity for me, though. I like watching jarheads squirm."

After that he neatly cleaned the area with cotton pads before wrapping the lower half of my leg in gauze. "All done," he announced to the guards, and then he removed his gloves, placed them in the bag, and turned back to me. "Enjoy your stay, Colonel," he said, smirking as he left. The guards gave me one last hard look and finally walked out as well.

I continued lying there on the cot for a while longer, trying to catch my breath and waiting for the sharp pain to ease. I didn't kid myself that the rebels actually cared about my health either way; it only mattered because they needed me alive to question, and not delirious with fever in case an infection set in. It was the same reason they'd patched up Cal before. But for right now, it worked in our favor - and I didn't have to worry about losing part of my leg down the road.

Once the pain in my calf went from unbearable to only slightly tolerable, I pushed myself up from the cot to sit on the floor again, with much effort. The pain spiked through the movement and became blinding, but again I waited for it to pass, and it did. So I started to think again of a plan.

While my first attempt at escape clearly hadn't worked, I'd learned some valuable lessons. I knew the layout of the building now, more or less. That would help save time in future tries. I also knew that discipline amongst the rebels wasn't the best, if the two lovebirds I'd stumbled on were anything to go by. The problem now was going to be my leg, and the fact that the whole compound would be on higher alert after my attempt. I'd likely have more guards assigned to me - I already had two now outside my cell instead of one - and I probably wouldn't be left alone with a handler in an interrogation room, either. I'd gained more knowledge about what I was up against and how to maneuver through it, but I was also considerably weakened now, with more foes to face. I wasn't sure how Caleb and I were going to do it, yet I was determined to try again. I just had to wait to heal a little more first.

But not too long, because after just a few weeks in without my meds for the nightmares, I knew things would start getting bad.

Somehow I was asleep when they came - and it was just as rude of an awakening as I'd thought it'd be. My heart started pounding hard in my chest before I was even half-conscious, as I was pulled up from under my arms by the two burly guards again. They didn't say where we were going, or what was happening - but I thought I had an idea, and it scared me.

"Get off!" I yelled, but as soon as I tried to stand the pain tore through my hurt leg and I stopped. "Where are you taking me?"

"Another room. Boss's orders," one of the men replied, then yanked my shoulder harder. "Now shut up."

"Like hell!"

I struggled some more and was hit hard in my bad leg, making me groan loud and deep as the pain nearly blinded me this time. It was so bad I didn't even remember how I made it the rest of the way to the interrogation room. But when I opened my eyes next, I was sitting on the damn chair again, tied up with tape and alone with Garrett and one of the guards.

Apparently he'd recovered.

He laughed without humor as he slapped a new piece of duct tape over my mouth before I could speak, clearly enjoying this. "So I heard you tried to escape after you made me go night-night. Can't blame you, I guess. Like I said, nobody in their right mind wants to be here. You probably less than most. But I have my orders, and you've got yours, and I want to find out what yours are. So the wheel keeps turning and the earth keeps moving, until you give it up."

As he spoke he crouched down in front of me and started wrapping up my ankles to the chair legs, like before. My body ached just returning to this damn position, and I wondered how long I'd be here this time. Probably a long while. Until they thought they'd be safe stuffing me into a cell again. I groaned as Garrett wound up my hurt leg extra roughly, and I shut my eyes tight against the pain.

"That hurt? Good. Hurt when you choked me, too." He stopped and glanced up, his face close to me as he balanced on his haunches. "But you made a mistake, see. You let me live. You let Daria live. You've got a heart, Colonel, and that's a rare and sad thing to see out here in the outskirts. It almost always means you won't survive."

I noticed for the first time then that when he moved, there was no big water drum behind him. But there was a large holoscreen, and I wonder what it was that he was going to display.

He grinned darkly as he looked up at the ceiling and said, arms folded across his chest, "Kill the lights in room three."

It all went black. I started breathing a little heavier, not knowing what to expect, but then a clip began to play. It took me a moment to realize it was helmet cam footage from one of the men who'd taken me hostage. Garrett's.

"Thought you might want to relive what happened from another angle, Colonel," he sneered from behind me. "To watch the minute you became our property."

I snorted and tried to simply shut my eyes at first, but Garrett leaned over and saw, coming back in front of me and forcing them open again, making sure I watched. I watched all of it, the whole devastating attack, as each member of my security detail was cornered and shot to death, screaming and bleeding out as they died, most instantly. All except for one. As I struggled with my detainers in the video, Staff Sergeant Lynch lay dying a few feet away, still alive but rapidly losing red fluid from his gut.

I tried to look away again, tears rolling down my face now, the impossibility of watching this all over again overwhelming me, but Garrett returned my attention where it was supposed to be. I had to keep my eyes glued to the scene, watch myself get beaten unconscious and dragged away, and then one last rebel walk up to my aide - a good Marine I'd known for years - and shoot him in the head, point blank, to end his misery. At least they'd spared him that. But it was still one of the hardest things I'd ever had to witness. With one last gunshot, Staff Sergeant Derek Lynch was dead.

It was one thing to know your team, people you'd been close to, had died. It was quite another to watch it unfold in front of you, even if only on a screen. I sucked in a sharp breath through my nostrils and felt - knew - that all control over my emotions was nearly gone.

The clip finally ended when Garrett stood staring at the carnage left behind at the scene for a few seconds longer. Then he turned away - presumably to follow the rest of Laraza's goons back to this place. Wherever they'd taken me and Cal. I took in a shuddering breath when it was all over, surprised I'd made it through without a complete breakdown...

But then the video started again.

Garrett just smirked.

"Enjoy the movie, Colonel. It'll be playing all night."

And with that, he and the guard exited the room.