Actual plot no wai

Eating some baked duck tonight.


Urgh… shit…

The first thing he felt upon waking was nausea.

It was really bad. If he had eaten anything this morning, he would have most certainly thrown up. Everything around him was wobbling. The dim walls. The dim floors. He didn't know these walls or these floors… where was he?

"Hello? Anyo-... urgh."

He had woken up slumped over the edge of a cot and slowly lifted his head. He couldn't see much of anything, and he ached everywhere. What in the world happened to him! Panicked, he tried to sit up and call for help, but had to grit his teeth and shut his eyes to weather another wave of nausea.

He lay back down and tried to breathe. He wasn't sure exactly what he was dealing with at the moment, and there was some nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he was on his own for this one. He needed to compose himself and quell his nerves. Somehow he felt his brain was unable to process too many things at once, so he was going to take things slowly. He spoke out loud, at least his own voice was familiar.

"Rock… Okay, man. Where are you? Look around."

He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in… a room. Not a normal room. The room was small and dimly lit. The walls were painted white and made of corrugated metal. There were no lamps or windows, just a couple of holes punched in the ceiling for air and light.

"Okay… uh. Is there a door?"

His eyes were adjusting to the darkness. He sat up carefully and took a look around. There was no door - but it looked like one of the walls might open up. This looked like… it was a shipping container! Why the hell was he in a shipping container?! Where was he before? Wasn't he-

"Okay, Okay, shit... Stop that Rocky. Focus man. You got this."

"Last thing you remember. Go."

He answered aloud. Anyone who heard him would have thought he was a crazy person. Maybe Iori had the right idea talking to himself like this. It really seemed to help…

"Shermie's tits. I remember falling asleep on Shermie's tits… and being mad at her."

"Why were you mad at her?"

"Because… because."

He shut his eyes and tried his best to remember. Ah, yes.

"Somebody shot me... but I'm not hurt. I just fell asleep… a tranquilizer?"

"Like from the spy movies."

"..."

"Okay. Um."

He took another look around, then down to check his limbs. As far as he could tell, he wasn't hurt in any way. He was wearing his gym clothes. He had his basketball shorts, his sneakers, and really horrible smelling socks (he had run two miles this morning). That was fine, since it was pretty warm in this metal box, and with the sun beating down, it was only getting hotter. Everything seemed to be in order… he was still feeling groggy, but that was probably due to the tranquilizer.

"So… Shermie put you in here."

"Yeah, but why?"

"Uh."

He picked his brain but nothing came to mind. There was truly no reason Rock could think of that Shermie would kidnap him… Unless this was some sort of elaborate prank that she and Yashiro had thought up to piss off Iori. But Yashiro said he was gonna go help Boss with set-up today…

He frowned, then exclaimed.

"Think about it later. Get out of here first. Let's find out where you are."

With a grunt, he stood to his feet and walked over to the far end of the container. He placed both hands against the 'doors' and pushed. They opened, but just a little - perhaps by six inches, before the clatter of a chain halted his progress.

Oh… a chain.

The container was chained shut - with him in it.

Um…

Somebody had chained him into a shipping container!

Holy shit. Somebody had chained him into a shipping container!

His mind was suddenly flooded with all the scenes from the human trafficking documentaries he had watched over the years. Who the hell wanted him?! Where were they taking him! What were they going to do with him! Was he going to get chopped up for organs? Maybe he was gonna get sent to some hellhole to slave away for the rest of his life. Maybe they were gonna use him in human experiments and-

"Shit! SHIT! LET ME OUT OF HERE! HEY! IS ANYONE THERE!? HELP! SOMEBOOODY!?"

He pounded on the doors and shouted until his throat was raw, and his mind was numb. He had tried in vain to rip the chain, and only succeeded in tearing his callouses off. After a long while, he collapsed to kneel on the blood splattered floor, drenched in his own sweat. He stared outside at the bright light and felt despair set in.

Oh God… please help… I need someone to-

Rock blinked.

A moment of hope. He berated himself for being so stupid. Who was the one who had taken care of him thus far? He was on the road anyways… surely he wouldn't mind taking a detour to wherever this was.

"You idiot! Call Iori! Shit-"

Rock jumped to his feet and patted his pockets for his phone. If Iori was some scary military serial killer, then all the better. A rescue mission would be a walk in the park for him, right? He'd just waltz in here, bust him out, burn some evil human traffickers and then they'd probably go eat hamburgers.

Where's my phone! Shit!

He checked every pocket twice. No phone. No signal…

Fuck!

He groaned, and went to lay on his cot, his mind in turmoil. Surely, somebody was going to notice he was gone. If he didn't show up to the concert rehearsals tomorrow, surely Iori would come looking for him. Maybe Whip would look for him too! She was expecting him to pick her up at noon… maybe she would look for him?

I just need to wait? What if… what if I get shipped out first? Maybe I'll already be on a boat by the time someone comes for me? What then…

Rock sighed and gritted his teeth. His hands stung. His throat hurt. He spoke grimly to himself.

"You need to get out of here, Rocky. No matter what. You gotta get someone to help. Yell like your life depends on it."

And so he did.


"Dammit! Is that kid still screaming?"

Lee shrugged and took another drag from his cigarette. He and Tam were in charge of guarding the American band kid they had kidnapped earlier this morning. Mr Kam had told them to keep the boy alive until he had fulfilled his purpose as a hostage. Once they confirmed Iori Yagami was dead, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted with the kid. Initially, he had proposed they knock the kid out and drop him behind an embassy later that evening, but once their prisoner woke up and started pounding on the doors and screaming his head off - they were mentally consigning him to worse and worse punishments.

"Yup. Still screaming. Still going strong."

Lee shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a legendary migraine because of this kid, and wanted nothing more than to put him back to sleep with another tranq dart. Unfortunately, they only had rifles on them, and shooting him in the leg wasn't going to make him scream any less. Lee was just going to weather it until Kam finally said they could off the boy.

"Well, I'm going to shut him the fuck up!"

Tam looked deadly pissed. He had a newborn at home, and apparently could only deal with one screaming demon at a time. He picked up his rifle and stalked across the field toward the side of the shipping container. Lee knew what he was going to do - and if he wasn't also incredibly tired of the cacophony going off not even 50 yards off, he might have stopped his collegue.

Instead, he took another drag from his cigarette, and called out to Tam.

"Just gonna scare him?"

Tam responded without turning around or otherwise breaking pace.

"Gonna scare the life out of him. With this."

He patted his rifle. Lee frowned at him.

"Well, whatever you do, I didn't see anything."

A snort.

"Whatever, pussy. Go take a leak or something."

Lee nodded and quickly turned to leave the vicinity. He had walked for only a couple of minutes before the sound of gunfire ripping into metal rang out. It was shortly followed by screaming and what sounded like an explosion.

Lee took another drag from his cigarette, then ducked into the restroom.


Sorry Rocky. Yag's phone is broke.