Chapter Twenty-five: Last Words
A ceiling light sways slightly back and fourth. Wind blowing constantly from beneath the bolted door. The light flickers. The constant clicking from the light bulb. She pulls on her hands as she feels them bound. She blinks several times realizing the blindfold tied tightly around her eyes. Her legs tightly secured to the legs of the chair. The chair doesn't budge being constricted to the floor by the nails hammered through.
She struggles against the leather restraints. Suddenly a noise at the door. The door opens scraping against the floor. The man walks through the room. His boots causing the constant clacking noise against the concrete floor. The woman feels the presence of the man before her. His hand brushes against her cheek as the blindfold is untied and falls to the floor.
The woman's brown hair falls upon her face. The flickering lights plasters shadows across the concrete made wall. She looks up at the man past the blinding light. Despite the weakness in strength from the light bulb the woman could barely keep her eyes opened. She sees a familiar yet unwanted face as Nicholai looks down at her.
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Blonde disheveled hair covers her face. Tears run down her face. She feels her hands bound together. She screams out for help and suddenly sits up continuing her cries for help. Sherry then looks around realizing her dream… nightmare wasn't real at least right now it wasn't. Steve walks over trying to calm her down. They still lay in the middle of the street. Glass and blood… chaos surrounds them. Chris and Norah walk over to them.
Scratches, cuts, and bruises cover Chris, Sherry, and Steve. They remember the events that transpired vaguely. They now have bandages wrapped around their injuries. Norah's knowledge in the medical field helped patch them up. She used the supplies from the hospital to tend to them.
Despite the severity of his injuries Chris is ready to jump up and be on his way to look for his again missing sister, Claire. He is more then worried about his sister not to mention his missing partner, Rebecca. While Chris… strategizes, Sherry and Steve "interview" Norah. They ask her about herself with failed attempts. Not that Norah doesn't want to reveal information about herself. Its just that Norah cannot remember much about her past not to mention her last name. Her memory is a complete mystery even to herself.
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Claire sits with her head leaning against the wall. A few tears run down her cheek. Her hair hangs messily upon her face out of her signature ponytail. Cuts and bruises cover her face and body. Dried up blood accompany her injuries. The cell next to hers is occupied with BSAA agent Rebecca Chambers.
Rebecca has several tears running down her face. She cannot stop herself. She lays still on the floor covered in bruises. Injuries almost from head to toe. She lifts her hand going to wipe her tears but is to weak too. "I'm suppose to be strong" she says coughing. "I tried to help… serve… protect…" she says as more tears run down her face. She continues coughing as she spits up blood.
"Save your strength" Claire says weakly. "Its… I…" she stops realizing nothing she says will give any hope to Rebecca or herself.
Down the hall they hear the sound of heels click-clack against the concrete floor. Kelly walks to the cells and peaks in. "Ooh… we'll find use for you" she says smirking.
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Chris knows he cannot leave Sherry and Steve alone nor with Norah so he strings them along. They head back to the Arklay Mountains to regroup. Chris is almost certain that after the brutal attack brought upon by Stryker that Claire and Rebecca were brought back to a Tricell operated facility.
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Barry lifts his head up regaining consciousness. He looks forward and sees Sheva. He gets up looking around and doesn't see Jill anywhere. He tends to Sheva awakening her. They both brush themselves off and tries their best to ignore their injuries as they have a new objective, to go and rescue Jill.