The Auditor sighed, black smoke pluming through the smooth arc where one's nose would be.
He could already hear Theresa's flamboyant singing behind the door of what was supposed to be a room dedicated for more work. Instead, it was a beacon of ivory beauty made for useless pampering.
What did she call it? A boudoir? A powder room?
He couldn't keep up anymore, and it's not like he really cared to do so.
Not even the creaking of the door stopped the melodious note Theresa held. There, she sat in a clawfoot bathtub with soap suds concealing every part of her body except for her long legs, which sat perched on the edge crossed over one another and dripping water onto the tile floor.
She tilted her head back at the Auditor, a grin perked up as if to say, "Can I help you?"
"Shouldn't you be getting to work?" the Auditor scoffed.
"Audi, I thought we already talked about my self-care. I know a year's a long time, but you didn't forget, did you?"
Theresa's condescending tone grated on the Auditor's nerves.
"She's always like this. Never takes a damn thing seriously."
"I'm exhausted from the plane crash, and the barrier's water ruined a perfectly good outfit. I doubt anyone here knows how to properly clean that type of fabric without fucking it up."
Before the Auditor could retort, the walkie-talkie on his hip buzzed to life, a frantic voice spilling a load of indecipherable information.
He grabbed the device and commanded, "Stop, stop, slow down. I can't understand a word you're saying."
"Hank came back a-and the sheriff tried to grab his gun but-"
"I'll worry about the "why's" and the "how's" later," asserted the Auditor, "Just cut to the chase."
"Jeb is dead!"
The car stopped for one last time.
Brynn hissed in pain as she lowered her leg from the steering wheel. She had a new ache to add to the dozens scattered across her body.
She slumped forward, trying to relax her back, which had been forced flush against the car seat.
She took a few deep breaths, listening to the whistling Nevada wind carry its dry heat. In addition to the blood, sweat, and oily water coating her skin, Brynn could have sworn she was melting.
With that last observation, Brynn lifted her head up and released a scream that she never thought she would ever be capable of.
Her trapped hands proceeded to punch the steering wheel, enunciating her furious swearing with car beeps. No one would hear her anyway. She had driven out into the middle of nowhere. Brynn was free to shout over the soft, muffled ping of the tracker in the glove compartment.
"Told that dumbass to stop leaving his car running…" muttered 2BDamned.
He could see Hank's car in the distance, the driver's door left open.
"Looks like whoever took it left," Deimos' voice spoke into his earpiece.
"Approach it with caution anyway," advised 2BDamned, "An agent could still be in there."
The two vehicles pulled up to each side of Hank's car.
2BDamned placed his hand on his gun as he peered into the car.
"Someone's in there," he told Deimos, "Everyone, arm yourselves."
Within seconds, the grunts hopped out of their trucks and surrounded the car.
Brynn, who had heard the trucks coming, practically jumped from her driver's seat. Although she hadn't had the time to fully study the vehicles or the grunts within them, she knew they weren't wearing the same uniforms as those who imprisoned her. In fact, they mostly seemed to be dressed in casual attire.
In her desperate mind, they were passersby who thought her car had broken down.
"Thank God, I-hey!"
One of the men pushed her against the car and prepared to handcuff her, but stopped when he realized that someone had beaten him to it.
2BDamned approached Brynn, who shivered under his scrutinizing gaze through his intense headgear.
"This must be a new mutant they're working on," he said.
"M-Mutant?" Brynn couldn't help but scoff.
2BDamned reared back, taken aback by how high-pitched Brynn's voice was.
"Definitely a mutant," he thought, "Are they working with younger subjects now?"
"Take him in for questioning," decided 2BDamned, "One of you can drive Hank's car back to the base."
The men ushered Brynn towards one of their trucks.
"W-Wait, who are you? The police?" she asked, "I don't understand anything that's…"
A blindfold was wrapped around Brynn's cross, sending panic into her veins.
"Hey, hey! Where are we going that I'm not allowed to see? What's going on?!"
She struggled uselessly as her legs were bound together, and she was placed on her side in a cushioned space.
Her yells went ignored, and now that her voice had lost power from her earlier screams, it hurt to try.
"Hey, wake up."
2BDamned pinched and lightly slapped Brynn's cheek.
She never even realized that she had fallen asleep or had been transported to another room. It was a given, she figured, considering how her body screamed for a rest and found some comfort in the motion of the truck.
Her legs and hands were bound to a chair, and electrodes stuck to her bare head. At this point, she didn't even think about where her turban could be.
She watched as 2BDamned walked to the other side of the table before her. It was an inviting beige in the small dark blue room. At least she could confirm that this wasn't the same gray facility she found herself trapped in hours ago.
"You're gonna answer some questions for us, okay?" said 2BDamned as he seated himself, "And it'd do you well to answer truthfully. Do you understand?"
"...Yes."
"I'm not gonna fight her on this," thought Brynn, "Maybe if I answer her questions, she'll answer mine."
The word "true" flashed on the tablet in 2BDamned's hands. The readings of her brain activity remained consistent.
"Off to a good start," he thought.
"First question: Why did you steal Hank's car?"
Brynn sighed. The answer to that wasn't simple, but she figured that if she jumped to the root of it, she could elaborate later.
"I was trying to escape that...place, or whatever."
True, again.
"An agent that actually wanted to escape A.A.H.W.? That's new."
Something else was odd about her answer.
"What place?" pushed 2BDamned.
"I don't know. I thought it was a prison at first, but…"
At this point, 2BDamned began to speculate if his lie detector was malfunctioning.
"How could he not know his own agency? Then again..."
2BDamned knew A.A.H.W. was a ruthless and unethical agency. There was a possibility this was a mutant born straight from a test tube and had no clue that there was a world outside of it.
"How long were you there?" he asked.
"Uh...I don't really know that either. I just woke up there and, like, maybe half an hour later, a fight broke out."
"A fight?"
2BDamned had a hunch, but…
"I think so," said Brynn, "I couldn't see most of it, especially since I hid for a while, but a lot of the guards got killed."
2BDamned pinched his brow and muttered, "Hank…"
Brynn hardly had the energy to question the familiar name, but she pushed herself anyway.
"Did you...mention that name before? Who is she?"
"No one you need to worry about," said 2BDamned, "So you're saying you woke up in A.A.H.W. and used the fight to escape?"
Brynn frowned, not too keen on the accusatory flavor of 2BDamned's narrative, but said, "Yes. Is that the name of the prison? A, H, W?"
2BDamned paused, looking between Brynn's face and his tablet.
"It's A.A.H.W." he said, pensively, "Don't you work for them?"
"No, they just...took me."
It was true.
All of it was true.
2BDamned studied the model of the brain activity beside the list of "true's" that had been piling up. The data matched up.
"Then who is this guy?"
"Maybe it's just a birth defect and we're giving some poor kid a hard time for no reason," said Deimos with a full mouth, "My best guess is breast cancer since you say he had two odd growths on his chest."
2BDamned scrolled through his notes on his tablet, ignoring the sandwich in front of him.
"But there's something just really off about this whole thing," he said.
"We're in Nevada. Everything's off."
2BDamned lightly smacked the back of Deimos' head.
"Shut up, you know what I mean," he griped, "Even if this was just somebody with a condition, what would the agency want with him?"
"Hell if I know, those creeps," said Deimos, a slight shudder running down his body. In his profession, he'd grown a strong stomach, but even thinking about the agency's practices dampened his appetite at times.
"Hey, you know how animals have two sexes? Male and female?" he asked.
Deimos gave an unsure chuckle, "Uh, weird topic for my lunch break, but go on."
"What if this guy-this grunt," 2BDamned hesitated, already feeling stupid for entertaining the idea, "What if he's actually a female grunt?"
Deimos took a long sip of his soda, his brow furrowed in thought.
"That'd be cool," he said.
""Cool"? That's all you have to say?" gasped 2BDamned.
"I mean, it would be, though," said Deimos with his same lukewarm contentment, "You'd be the guy who discovered a new species of grunts."
"That's not even how species-never mind."
2BDamned packed his half-eaten lunch back into his bag and stood up from the table.
"If it turns out he's not a mutant, it's probably best to go feed him," he said, "Be right back."
2BDamned almost felt pity when he saw Brynn scarf down his sandwich like a starved animal.
He never even liked those kinds because the bread always turned stale from their refrigeration system, but Brynn didn't seem to mind.
She had been moved to an empty bedroom and had her bindings removed.
Her scraped up hands trembled as they brought food to her mouth. The imprints of the handcuffs were still etched into her skin.
2BDamned was hesitant, at first, about undoing Brynn's binds, and even had other grunts accompany him for security. However, after seeing her in this state, that apprehension ebbed away.
"After you're finished, I'm going to ask you a few more questions and patch up your hands," he said, "Is there anything else you need before then? Bathroom break? Water?"
Brynn audibly gulped her mouthful of food, making 2BDamned want to tug at his own neck.
"Please…" Brynn shuddered, "Let me take a shower…"