Author's Note: Hello my lovlies! More new stuff! doing my best her to be regular again! One good thing of being cooped up all day from covid-19 I suppose. lols.
Enjoy!
...
Shepard thanks her one small blessing. He can't see her hand with the knife under the console, as carefully as she can, she deftly slides the knife back into her boot sheath. Raising her hands slowly, she backs out of the corner she had wedged herself in.
"I'm unarmed." She tells him as she stands, still facing away from him. Her mind is racing a mile a minute to come up with escape options.
"Alright," The man says calmly, "Step back toward me, nice and easy. Pull any tricks and its a bullet to your brain pan."
Slowly backing towards him, Shepard wonders if this man is with the mercs or not, the others had the orders not to kill. So is he ignoring it? Or not with them at all? What's he doing here if so? "Trust me, I have no interest in adding a bullet to my brain pan. Mines full enough as it is." She gives a half laugh.
He chuckles humorlessly in response, "Sarcasm will do you no good." Shepard feels his hands grab her wrists, jerking her hands down behind her back.
If he's using both hands to grab hers, she wonders where his gun is. Deciding to take the risk, especially when she feels the cold metal of binders snap around her left wrist, Shepard nods her head forward slightly, swinging it back in a hard headbutt, kicking her right foot up between his legs at the same time. Her boot connects solidly against the armor he is wearing, resulting only in sharp, deep pain through her heel. However her headbutt was very effective, it caught him square on his temple. Dropping him like a sack of stones.
As soon as his grip on her slackened, Shepard jumps away, twisting around to look at him. He is dressed in the same uniform as the others, a pistol strapped to his thigh just within her reach.
She thinks about grabbing it but in a split second, her gut wrenches in warning and she bolts out of the shuttle aiming for the nearest wood.
It doesn't take long to get confirmation of her instinct, she can hear the man scramble out of the shuttle and chase after her. He was faking being knocked out. Clever man.
She makes it to the woods and knows she can't out sprint him. Her only choice is the out smart him and hide where he won't think to look.
Frantically she scans the forest and hears the roar of the waterfalls where she started her trekking, or another set. Doesn't matter right now, that's her escape. She sprints the scant fifteen yards to the base of the falls.
"Oh fuck me." She moans, then with one backwards glance to be sure he isn't in sight, she steps behind the falls. Clinging to the rocks she squeezes herself against the cliffside and stands precariously on a foot wide ledge slick as ice. She can see and hear nothing outside the white rage of the falls.
She rides the falls as long as she can, unknowing of the passage of time, unaware if he has come and gone or ever come at all. Time feels to stretch into infinite as she perches so delicately.
Deciding she will not reach escape the way she came in if she holds on any longer, Shepard begins to gradually inch her way along the ledge digging in with her fingernails against the rockwall for purchase. Just as she can see the gap between wall and falls, showing the forest through, the binders still on her left wrist snag on an outcropping and her grip finally betrays her.
As she falls backward into the falls with a gasp, the water pours into her open mouth, immediately forcing so much into her mouth and down her throat she chokes. The power of the falls turns her wildly around and plunges her deep into the river, dashing her painfully against the rocks scattered throughout the river. She surfaces long enough to expel some of the water gasping much needed air into her lungs, before the pull of the river drags her under again in its rage sweeping through a narrow gorge.
Her right foot snags between two rocks twisting and wrenching her to an agonizing halt in the river. The water continues to rush around and past her. Where her foot has become lodged has prevented her from being swept any further. Through the pain, Shepard has to focus on keeping her head above water. A barely manageable feat, as the depth she is trapped in is only just shallow enough for her to reach air, but she has to lean her head back in order to manage it. Only just manage it at that, the river still flows over her face on occasion.
"Ok Shep," She murmurs softly, "Just breathe right now. Breathe." She follows her own advice. Doing her best to regain control of her lungs before taking stock of her body.
Lots of very sore areas, deep bruising for sure, doesn't feel like anything broken on her upper body. Her leg however, that trapped foot certainly has a broken ankle, if not dislocated knee as well. Major injuries to the joints there.
"Even if I get myself out of this stick," She mutters, doing her best look around, "How the hell do I reach the others?"
If she could reach the shallows, she might be able to float and half swim in them down the river to where the others are. If this is the same river. Which Shepard is almost certain it is. Those falls and rapids seemed very familiar.
First order of business is getting her foot out from between the rocks, "This is gonna suck." She murmurs before taking a deep breath.
Twisting she dives down, putting one hand on the rock the other just above her ankle. She twists her leg eliciting a fierce burning pain, trying to ignore it as she pulls with all she can to free her foot. Once it slides out, she surfaces and grabs the first passing rock she can to halt her motion down the river.
She needs to work her way from one stone to another into the shallows. Using her good foot to push off the stones, she scrambles to grab the next as she makes it to the shallows where she can grab the reeds for support.
Hand over hand, and letting her legs float behind her, Shepard pulls herself down river until she thinks she's where she needs to be. She drags herself onto the banks, and carefully pushes up onto her good knee to look around. Yes, she's in the right place. Now, how to signal the others?
She's no good at animal sounds, and her whistles are more a shriek than birdsong. So, how can she signal them she's here without giving herself away to any mercs that may be in the area?
She is forced to take the risk of using her whistle when her weight shifts on her good leg in the mud, leaning into her right.
Biting back a cry of pain, Shepard purses her lips and gives her short, shrill whistle before collapsing to the right against the trunk of a tree. Her body half in the river shallows, half sitting on the muddy bank. Hurting so much, she can feel herself slipping into shock from the pain radiating up her leg.
Leaning back against the trunk she fights to keep her eyes open and stay alert for any glimpse of mercs or her friends in the forest, she has to focus to listen for sounds of approaching feet.
Her boot knife is just barely in reach, in her right boot of course. She grips the pommel and draws it out, shifting it into her grip properly, resting it on her lap loosely in her grip as the owner of the footsteps comes into view.
"Deunan." She sighs in relief and resheiths the knife, "Over here." She calls out softly. Deunan turns, and Shepard sees the concern etched on her friend's face at the sight of her.
"You've certainly done a number on yourself." Deunan jokes lightly as she kneels beside Shepard to inspect her leg, but Shepard barely has the mental focus to smile.
"I don't suggest white water rafting," Shepard says, her words hushed and slow, "Without the raft."
"Yeah," Scowling in real worry, Deunan gently turns Shepard's injured foot one way then the other ignoring the hisses from pain Shepard makes. "We need to splint your whole leg before this gets any worse."
"Just leave me here." Shepard weakly tries to push Deunan away, "Save Lin."
"I don't need saving love." Lin steps across the clearing, a rifle held comfortably in her arms,
Shepard raises an eyebrow in curiosity, "Where'd ya get the toy?" Her words are slurred and hushed as she fights to stay awake, the pain having gotten worse after Deunan's inspection of her injured leg.
"Merc hunting love." Lin kneels beside Shepard, cupping her cheek, "Looks like you've had an adventure." she looks to Deunan, "What happened?"
"Not sure," Deunan eases Shepard back against the tree, stretching out her injured leg as she turns to talk to Lin, "All I got out of her was something about not going white water rafting without the raft. She's deep into shock. I don't know how long she's been injured or how long she's been in the river." Deunan sets about splinting Shepard's leg with limbs from nearby and gauze from her medkit.
Lin looks back to Shepard, who is barely half conscious, "The combination was certainly not a good combo for staving of shock." Lin frowns, "I found the evac sight, the real one this time. I got the remaining mercs tied up back in their clearing."
"Good." Deunan looks back at Shepard as well, resting her hand on her friend's shoulder, "Let's get her out of there and go to the evac."