Separated
Gren coughed and sputtered as he pulled himself
up. The entire place was in complete
darkness, but for a little bit of light that shone through a hole in the
ceiling. Using the little amount of
light, Gren began to search for his loved ones.
Iria? Kay? Thea? He searched his clothing for anything that
would allow him to be able to see more, but he had nothing of the sort on him. If only he had had time to grab something
before they raced down into the escape way. He could see absolutely nothing, and the little light that was there did
nothing to improve the situation.
Suddenly he heard a groan. Gren moved toward the sound slowly, being extremely careful on
whom it would be. His foot bumped into
something that groaned. He bent down
and narrowed his eyes in the darkness trying to see who lay before him. The only shape he could make out was a mass
of dark hair, much more than Iria's or Kay's. Thea. Gren knew she had a light
on her and searched her for it. When he
found it, he quickly turned it on, to see the situation.
Thea's legs were caught beneath the stones. Not hesitating, Gren slowly removed the
stones, one by one until Thea's legs were freed. By now she was awake and in pain. He slowly lifted her into his arms. He whispered for her to hold on tightly, placed the light away,
and made his way toward the sliver of light in the ceiling. He made his way up, his wife clutching to
him every step of the way.
When he reached the sliver of light, Gren and Thea
began to pull away the dirt and stones, trying to make the hole wider for them
to escape through… And eventually they managed to get through…only to be caught
by the people they had been trying to escape from.
When they emerged from the depths of the ground,
they were surrounded. The two had no
choice to let their captors take them were they would.
* * *
Thea awoke alone inside a
cellblock. Her head throbbed and her
legs felt as if someone had taken a sledgehammer and smashed them clear to
infinity. She groaned and braced herself
against the pain as she sat up. Her
head pounded unmercifully and her legs screamed. Thea bit onto her lip fiercely and looked at her legs. They had been broken when the roof collapsed
on top of her, but now the bones had been set. The only problem was someone hadn't melded the bone back together. Her legs were swollen and the pain shot up
her legs as she reached to the seat beside her.
Someone may have thought it best not
to heal her so she wouldn't escape. But
she could heal herself. Thea grabbed
the seat and smashed it to the floor. The metal clanged and her arms and hands shook with the vibration. The pain in her legs and head intensified. She took deep even breaths as she prepared
to smash the chair once more, hoping she did it hard enough to make it break.
She clanged it again and she quickly
released it, sending it clattering to floor as she cried out in pain. The door to the cell slid open and a guard
came through.
"What the hell is going on in here?"
he cried.
Thea drew in ragged breaths and
said, "I can't…break it."
The guard lifted an eyebrow. Thea trembled with the pain. "I need stilts to hold the bone in place."
The guard shrugged. "They didn't mend your legs on purpose. My job is to make sure you don't get
away." The guard saw her beginning to
reach for the chair again. "If I give
you the stuff you need will stop banging the chair?"
Thea looked up at the sound of his
exasperated voice. She blinked and
nodded. He nodded curtly in return and
in a few minutes he had brought everything she needed to hold the bone in
place. He didn't say a word and
returned to his post, leaving a very confused Thea locked in the cell.
The guard sighed in relief. After he had gotten that urgent
out-of-nowhere message from Bob, telling him to go to the Company and go
undercover as a guard. Fujikuro
grunted. The last thing he needed was a
headache from one of the prisoners because she wanted to put bandages on her
legs. He could care less. She wouldn't be able to walk anyway,
bandages or no bandages. Both her legs
had been broken.
Fujikuro sighed and leaned against
the wall in complete boredom. Where
were Bob, Iria and the brat? Why
weren't they here yet? What was taking
them so long? … When was the fun going to start happening?
* * *
The huge brute uppercuted the bound
Gren again. His eyes narrowed at the
huge man as he spit out more blood. He
probably looked like a wreck. After
they had separated him and the unconscious Thea into different cells, they had
come to his cell and begun to beat up on him. Trying to get information that he certainly didn't have.
"Where is it?" the President he had
helped save once growled at him. Gren
lifted a cut eyebrow and gave him a bloody smile. "How the hell should I know? I already told you. After we
arrived at the space station and I fought Zeiram, it assimilated…some of
me. Zeiram spawns were in a space pod
feeding on me while you were having problems. I wasn't there for any of it."
The President looked like he was
about to burst a vein. But suddenly he
calmed down. "Fine then. If you don't want to tell us, maybe we can
convince you to talk if it was the woman who was here taking the brunt of
Bluto's punches."
Gren's eyes narrowed
dangerously. "She has nothing to do
with this. Leave her—" Gren was
silenced with a right hook. The
President motioned for the men behind him to go and get the female
prisoner. Gren sneered at him. "I never knew what a coward you really
were. Using mind control chips to
control people, having other men do your dirty work for you, and beating up on
women. Boy, what a man you are."
The President turned a dangerous
shade of red. His head looked like it
was about to blow. But just as he was
about to motion for Bluto to beat Gren to a bloody pulp, the guards came back
in a rush.
"She's gone!"
The President turned and stuttered
completely flabbergasted. "Gone? How can she be gone! Both her legs were broken!"
One of the men swallowed. "It looks like she crawled through a vent
that was beneath her bed. The guard
posted at the door said he didn't hear a thing."
"Damnation!" He vein pulsed dangerously. "Well don't just stand there like a bunch of
dull-witted asses! Find her! And find her now! Come Bluto! Let this one
rot in his own blood." He turned and
left the room, spotting the guard in front of the cell were the woman had
been. "You! Since you obviously couldn't handle that job correctly, lets see
if you can handle this one."
Fujikuro shrugged and approached the
furious president. "What?"
"The man in this cell," the
President enunciated. "Kill him! And don't blunder that up as well! When I come back with the woman I want her
to see her lover sprawled in a pool of his own blood! Is that clear?"
Fujikuro stood up straight and
nodded. If he was going to be
undercover he might as well play the part. Damn, Iria and Bob owed him big. "Yes, sir."
"Good," the President muttered and
moved out of the way, the other guards ahead of him with Bluto following. Fujikuro rolled his eyes and entered the
room where the other prisoner had been kept.
The man was tied to a chair, blood
dripping from his face onto the floor and his clothes. The white hair was matted in blood and the
back was slumped forward. Pathetic, Fujikuro thought as he made his
way toward the man.
But before he could even blink, the
man in the chair hand flown out of it, the wires falling silently to the floor
and he tackled Fujikuro. One of the
wires that had tied him was wrapped around Fujikuro's neck, pressing
fatally. He stared at the furious man
above him and had gotten the drop on him and kicked him off.
Gren landed on his feet, his
breathing hard as the guard got up. This guard was good; he'd give him that, even if Thea had escaped from
him. But as he finished sputtering and
rubbing his neck, he looked up. Gren
blinked in complete surprise.
"Fujikuro?"
Fujikuro blinked in disbelief. No, it
couldn't be. Could it? He shook his head. It couldn't be, it just couldn't. But as the man straightened before him and flicked his beads back
with a grin, Fujikuro shook his head in astonishment. "Gren?"
Gren laughed at the irony. Of all the people who would be the guard to
shoot him! "Fujikuro! Damn its good to see you! I'm so glad it was you and not some other
really good guard. I don't think I was
up to a challenge when I feel like a million hammers have been pounding on me!"
Fujikuro blinked in complete
disbelief. "It can't be. You're dead. Dammit, I saw Iria kill you when Zeiram had assimilated you! There's no way in hell you can be here you
SOB!"
Gren laughed and wiped the blood
from his lips. He gave Fujikuro a
smile. "Look, I'd love to stay and try
to convince you that I am Gren, but I have my wife to find and save and Iria to
meet if she isn't dead. I've got go
Fujikuro, but if you want to help you're welcome to come along."
Fujikuro blinked. "Iria? Dead? Hell no! That sister of yours owes me big and so does
Bob there's no way I'm letting you get away! …Did you say 'wife'?!"
Gren ran out of the room and knocked
a guard unconscious. He began putting
on the guard's clothing. "Yeah, I did."
Fujikuro shook his head as he
watched Gren put on the uniform. "Not
only are you back from the dead, but you're married too?"
Gren smiled. "It's a long story and we don't have the
time for it. I've got to find
Thea!" Fujikuro shook his head as he
followed Gren out into the hall. The
woman prisoner he'd been guarding was Gren's wife? Damn if this wasn't strange.
Gren and Fujikuro ran through the
halls, trying to find where in the hell Thea could have gone. But Gren knew his wife well and knew that
even in the vents she could find her way out of the building. And from where her cell had been she was
probably headed east. Gren and Fujikuro
at first tried to sneak their way out the door, but when one of the guards
recognized Gren, they had to blast their way out.
The President had no idea what all
the commotion was all about and he didn't care. They were almost upon the woman. Once they forced her out of the air ducts there would be no place for
her to go. She couldn't walk. Then they would have her and all the answers
he wanted.