Part 08: A Flame Rekindled
Tears flowed down her face as her tongue snaked from her mouth, sliding over the dirty and dusty leather of a thick army boot. She shook violently, the pain from the beating and humiliation from the gathered crowd battering what little spirit she had left in these trying times. Donna Ramone was grinning down at her, her very gaze draining away the last of her dignity until she felt like little more than a brittle husk of a woman.
She lay on the floor of a padded cell, screaming and crying as the two musclebound guards tore into her fragile body like a punching bag. Her arms were bound against her body by a straightjacket, so she couldn't even attempt to protect herself. Blow after blow rained down on her already battered body, until she could barely feel anything but the searing pain that they seemed so desperate to inflict.
She sat in a small wooden hut in which they had taken refuge, tears running down her cheeks to fall against her pathetically skeletal frame. Clover, the woman she loved, sat on the chair in front of her, weeping softly into one hand with a useless blackboard sitting beside her chair. How could she do this to the woman who'd come back to save her from the prison of her life? She was supposed to hate now...? How...?
The lights were blinding... but that was how she liked it. The hut behind her old high school was filled with the things... sucking power away from the Imperium. It was a small, but important rebellion she was putting up. Plus the lights drowned out the shadows, taking away the memories of Clover rejecting her, the knowledge that in the end everyone she knew disappeared. Even the lights would one day flicker out... that was the way of her life.
The motorcycle roared through the growing night at the head of a massive crowd, more of a riot really. They were roaring in protest of the government and approval of Nuetronic People, who led the pack on their 'four motorcycles of the apocalypse'. She rode on the back of Donna Ramone's motorcycle just behind the band, leading the mob-army deep into Beverly Hills on a mission... to send a message and obliterate the past.
Hatred and anger overwhelmed her. At both herself and everyone she'd ever met... everyone who used her, everyone who abused her, everyone who lied to her. She killed them all, her fists striking down again and again on the mound of limp flesh that lay underneath her in the middle of the Beverly Hills mall. At last her anger was spent, her anger dissipated. She pulled back slightly, her hands and forearms awash in blood as Donna Ramone's still and unrecognizable face lay underneath her.
Under the ground in a tunnel, she clung in fear to Alex's lithe form. They held each other tightly, their hearts pounded in dread, and a small whimper escaped Alex's throat as they waited for the inevitable strike they knew was coming. They'd seen it flying through the air. Their arms tightened around each other, time seeming to stop until finally they felt the Earth beneath them begin to tremble under the force of The Rev's nuclear fury.
She clutched her older sister tightly, squeezing so hard she didn't think she'd ever be able to make herself let go. Her sister had been happy to see her... she didn't think Katy had cared about her at all through her life. But here... someone who wasn't going to abandon her. Just maybe... she was her family after all. Families always stuck together... Katy had to be genuine... she just had to.
The sky was shining... glowing brightly with a purple haze that seemed to grow throughout the entire cosmos. She clutched the disgusting alien before her, its tentacles wrapped around her pulsating body. Far below her, she could see Clover staring up at her... there were tears in her eyes. But that didn't matter... the hideous monster before her was all that mattered. The Reverend... the source of her misery, her suffering, her hatred. Finally, it ended in a flash of light... and then...
... It was raining.
Drops of rain fell from the sky, falling across her shivering, bare flesh as she slowly pushed herself up to her hands and feet. To say that Amanda Victoria Delaroyale was confused would be a dramatic understatement. What happened? How did she get here? Where was she? Why wasn't she wearing any clothes? Regardless of the answers, one thing was certain. She was freezing!
Her entire body was shivering as she looked up, but she managed to spot a pair of spotlights shining brightly through the rainy night sky. With muscles that seemed almost useless in the bitter cold, she dragged herself toward the lights. Her bare flesh slipped over the slippery mud banks that separated her and her destination.
She approached what looked like a military base, shivering violently and coated in mud. She pulled herself toward the gates that opened into the base itself, trying to signal to a guard who sat on a guard post near the outer fence. Finally he took notice of her and turned to call into the base.
"Hey, we have someone out here!" He shouted. Mandy stopped moving, letting her body relax as much as it could wile the gates opened and soldiers poured out to greet her. Someone wrapped two rather thin, but helpful blankets around her body, though they didn't move her from the ground yet. She sat up, lowering her head to her chest and holding the blankets tightly around her shivering body.
She kept her head down as the soldiers parted, allowing another set of boot steps to move through the crowd toward her.
"Who are you?" A familiar voice demanded coolly. Mandy blinked and slowly looked up into the emerald green eyes of Samantha Simpson. When Sam saw her face her eyes went wide in shock.
"F... f-f-f-forget m-me... alr-ready...?" Mandy asked through chattering teeth. Sam slowly knelt down in front of her, staring into her eyes with a suspicious, amazed look on her face.
"You can't be alive..." Sam told her.
"I... I kn... know..." Mandy chattered. "C-c-can't w-we dis... cuss this in... inside s-somewhere?"
"Of course... men, get her to the infirmary immediately! Have her checked for hypothermia!" Sam stood up, shouting to the other soldiers.
"Yes sir!" The soldiers saluted and two of them knelt down to lift Mandy up in their arms to carry her toward one of the buildings inside the base. Mandy let herself be carried, in no physical shape to resist or even walk there herself. They set her on one of the tables and signaled for a kind, but young-looking doctor to approach her.
"And what do we have here?" The redheaded doctor asked, his blue eyes shining under the light from the bulbs overhead. He bent over to look in Mandy's eyes. "What have you guys been doing to her? She's freezing."
"Th... thanks... f-for the... m-medical re... port." Mandy quipped sourly through chattering teeth. After that she submitted to the doctor's ministrations, letting him examine, poke, and prod her to his heart's content. At last the shivering had begun to subside and she found herself lying on one of the infirmary tables with six layers of blankets on top of her and a comfortable pillow behind her head.
At the sound of boot steps coming down the hall, Mandy turned to look. She saw Clover step into the infirmary, her eyes locking onto Mandy's in an instant. The silence was deafening, and Mandy was sure her heart would leap out of her chest. She remembered hating Clover so much after the incident on the island when Mandy said she loved her... but just before she'd gone up in a blaze of glory... Clover had said...
"Mandy...?" Clover asked.
"Last I checked..." Mandy replied softly.
"H... how..." Clover walked up to the side of the bed, staring down at her.
"I wish I knew..." Mandy replied. "I remember floating in the sky with The Rev... high above the Earth... there was a flash. And then... I woke up in the forest..." Mandy blinked and looked at her blonde friend. "Did it work? Did I kill The Reverend?" She asked.
"Yeah... you got him." Clover replied softly.
"So... it's over?" Mandy asked hopefully. Clover didn't respond for a minute, stalling by walking to the wall and pulling out a chair to bring back to the bed. She set it up and sat down beside Mandy, clasping her hands in front of her in thought. "Clover... tell me what's going on. I can take it, I'm no chicken-shit loser." Mandy said.
Clover smiled slightly. "Sounds like you got your attitude back..." She said.
"Clover." Mandy demanded warningly.
"Mandy, it's been three months since it happened." Clover told her suddenly. Mandy blinked and just stared at her. "Since then, the Reverend's race came to continue the fight... we've been at war for the last two months." Clover stated. Mandy just stared at her, stunned by the news. Three months she'd been... missing? Dead? Where was she? Why couldn't she remember anything?
"Th... three months..." Mandy muttered softly. "So... where've I been...?" She asked.
"I would hope you could tell us." Clover replied softly.
"I don't remember... the last fight feels like yesterday..." Mandy told her. Clover sighed and put one hand on Mandy's.
"It doesn't really matter anyway." Clover told her with a slight smile. Mandy blinked and looked down at her hand, then looked up into her shining blue eyes. "We all... missed you Mandy." Her voice lowered to a soft whisper, staring down at her. "I-"
"Clover, we should talk." Sam stated from the entrance of the infirmary. Clover looked back at her, then down at Mandy again.
"Give me a minute... I'll be right back." Clover said. Mandy nodded and let her get up to follow Sam out of the room. They didn't go far, just outside of the door where she could hear them talking. She couldn't make out what they were saying though until Sam began to raise her voice in frustration. Mandy listened carefully.
"Clover, stop getting ahead of yourself! We have no clue who that is in there!" Sam shouted.
"Who does it LOOK like!?" Clover retorted.
"If you should've learned anything from seeing a man turn into a space alien, it's that looks can be deceiving!" Sam retorted sharply.
"Look Sam, not a lot of good happens to us these days! Why do you want to look a gift horse in the mouth!?"
"Because I'm afraid it's a Trojan Horse! And blindly trusting her could put this entire base at serious risk!" Both women fell silent, leaving Mandy to wonder if they'd left until Sam finally spoke again in a softer tone of voice she couldn't really understand. She heard Clover respond, followed by a few more exchanges before a pair of boot steps turned to leave the room.
Clover walked back into the infirmary with a somewhat weary expression on her face. A guard stepped into the room right behind her, standing by the door and holding a rather lethal looking rifle in front of him. Mandy smirked slightly as she watched the blonde WOOHP spy approach.
"Sounds like I'm in trouble." Mandy commented.
"Sam won't let you go until we give you a blood test... the Zardexians CAN genetically alter themselves to look human after all." Clover sat down on the chair again.
"I don't mind. I got nothing to hide." Mandy insisted. Clover nodded and gave her a slight smile. Behind Clover Mandy saw Sam enter the room again with several more guards and approach the doctor to talk to him. Clover was still staring at her, a downcast look in her eyes.
"Mandy..." Clover coughed. They had only been able to talk briefly just before entering the base in North Dakota to put an end to the Reverend... before Mandy had used the Faustium to put an end to him for good. "We never got along that well... and..."
"Clover, you already apologized in North Dakota, remember?" Mandy pointed out. "Well... maybe after three months YOU don't. But I do... it's like it happened yesterday for me."
"I know..." Clover nodded. "I just wanted to thank you... and say I've really missed you..." She said softly.
"You make it sound like I'm leaving again..." Mandy pointed out softly.
"I don't know... but I had to say that..." Clover said. "And... in some way... I guess I love you..." She said. Mandy stared at her in confusion and concern. She didn't have time to respond though before Sam approached her with half a dozen armed guards flanking her on every side. The doctor who'd examined her before was carrying an empty syringe in one hand. Clover stood up and walked away from her, standing with her back to Mandy.
"Are you ready?" Sam asked. Mandy replied simply by holding out her arm, which the doctor took and prepared quickly for a blood withdrawal. Sam and Mandy's eyes locked in a challenging stare while the doctor worked, right up until he plunged the tip of the needle into Mandy's arm. The two women's eyes turned toward the needle as it began to fill...
... With a thick purple liquid. Mandy's eyes widened in shock, and before she could so much as look up she heard the click of seven guns being cocked and oriented straight at her head. "I knew it. She's a Zardexian plant." Sam said darkly, holding the barrel of her handgun just inches in front of Mandy's stunned face.
"N... No..." Mandy stammered, too stunned for words. "No... I'm not an alien, I'm Mandy..." But even as she said it, she was staring at the thick purple liquid that had poured out of her veins. She felt just like she always felt... she didn't remember being a spy. She'd know if she was an alien wouldn't she?
"Take her to the pen." Sam said quickly. "And post a 24 hour guard around her immediately."
"Yes sir." The soldiers moved to grab Mandy's arms, hefting her up from the hospital bed. Mandy snapped out of her confusion to realize they were trying to lock her up.
"H... Hey! Let me go! I didn't do anything!" Mandy fought against her captors, but she stopped when she felt the butt of a rifle slamming into the soft skin of her stomach. She doubled over to her knees, coughing and gasping for air as the soldiers grabbed her limbs tightly to keep her from moving at all. "L... let me go! I don't wanna hurt anyone!"
"Then go quietly, we don't want to hurt you either." Sam told her sternly. She was standing in front of Clover with one hand on her hip, the other holding the pistol at her side.
"No, let me go! I don't deserve this!" Mandy struggled against the men that held her, but they just pulled her toward the door, holding her so that that she could barely even move her fingers.
"If you're really our friend you'll understand this!" Sam yelled at her. "Now stop and go quietly!" She said. Mandy glared at her, then looked past her at Clover. The blonde woman had her arms folded across her chest resignedly, with moist eyes as she watched the guards pull Mandy toward the door. She looked really pitiful... she was worried about Mandy. She'd always wanted to see that from the blonde girl...
"We all fought to get rid of this kind of bullshit... locking people up on nothing but the suspicion that they might be against us. Well I'm not taking it from you any more than I took it from The Rev! So get... off... of... ME!" Mandy screamed, with a burst of effort she flung her right arm forward. Both guards who'd been holding it were thrown forward, slamming into the wall with a furious impact that shook the very wall itself.
She didn't even have time to realize her massive strength before the butt of a rifle slammed into her jaw, knocking her to the floor. In a second every guard in the building was on her, beating her with rifles and kicking her into submission to keep her on the floor. She screamed in pain from the impacts, trying vainly to defend herself with her arms, but there were far too many to hope to fight.
"Enough!" Sam's shout cut through the air, halting all motion in the hallway just outside the infirmary. Mandy winced reflexively as the guards moved, even though they were moving away from her. Sam approached her, staring down at her with a searching gaze. Mandy looked away from her, looking beyond her at Clover. But the blonde spy had turned away and had her head leaning against the palm of her hand.
Sam knelt down beside Mandy and slapped her hard across the face with a resounding crack. "Don't you dare compare me to that heartless little bastard. He worked to kill us all... to soften us up so he could slaughter us all like lambs. I'm fighting for the survival of my people." Sam growled darkly, glaring at her.
"You're fighting for your people... so was he." Mandy sneered back. Sam blinked in surprise. "He was softening us up as food for his people... he did it for them. But that didn't make him any less evil... and your self-righteous bullshit doesn't make YOU any less evil either." Mandy stated. Sam growled again and punched her in the face, smacking the back of her head hard into the steel floor.
"Get... IT out of here. Throw it in the pen until we can figure out what to do with it." Sam said, standing up straight.
"Yes sir." The guards grabbed Mandy again, having a much easier time now that they'd softened her up to the point of being barely conscious. Mandy's head lolled about, rolling in the direction of the infirmary where Clover was watching. Tears flowed down Clover's cheeks, but she was trying to hold her head up high regardless. Always trying to show her best face, no matter what the circumstances. Mandy wished she could too... but right now she wasn't sure what face she had.
TO BE CONTINUED
Tears flowed down her face as her tongue snaked from her mouth, sliding over the dirty and dusty leather of a thick army boot. She shook violently, the pain from the beating and humiliation from the gathered crowd battering what little spirit she had left in these trying times. Donna Ramone was grinning down at her, her very gaze draining away the last of her dignity until she felt like little more than a brittle husk of a woman.
She lay on the floor of a padded cell, screaming and crying as the two musclebound guards tore into her fragile body like a punching bag. Her arms were bound against her body by a straightjacket, so she couldn't even attempt to protect herself. Blow after blow rained down on her already battered body, until she could barely feel anything but the searing pain that they seemed so desperate to inflict.
She sat in a small wooden hut in which they had taken refuge, tears running down her cheeks to fall against her pathetically skeletal frame. Clover, the woman she loved, sat on the chair in front of her, weeping softly into one hand with a useless blackboard sitting beside her chair. How could she do this to the woman who'd come back to save her from the prison of her life? She was supposed to hate now...? How...?
The lights were blinding... but that was how she liked it. The hut behind her old high school was filled with the things... sucking power away from the Imperium. It was a small, but important rebellion she was putting up. Plus the lights drowned out the shadows, taking away the memories of Clover rejecting her, the knowledge that in the end everyone she knew disappeared. Even the lights would one day flicker out... that was the way of her life.
The motorcycle roared through the growing night at the head of a massive crowd, more of a riot really. They were roaring in protest of the government and approval of Nuetronic People, who led the pack on their 'four motorcycles of the apocalypse'. She rode on the back of Donna Ramone's motorcycle just behind the band, leading the mob-army deep into Beverly Hills on a mission... to send a message and obliterate the past.
Hatred and anger overwhelmed her. At both herself and everyone she'd ever met... everyone who used her, everyone who abused her, everyone who lied to her. She killed them all, her fists striking down again and again on the mound of limp flesh that lay underneath her in the middle of the Beverly Hills mall. At last her anger was spent, her anger dissipated. She pulled back slightly, her hands and forearms awash in blood as Donna Ramone's still and unrecognizable face lay underneath her.
Under the ground in a tunnel, she clung in fear to Alex's lithe form. They held each other tightly, their hearts pounded in dread, and a small whimper escaped Alex's throat as they waited for the inevitable strike they knew was coming. They'd seen it flying through the air. Their arms tightened around each other, time seeming to stop until finally they felt the Earth beneath them begin to tremble under the force of The Rev's nuclear fury.
She clutched her older sister tightly, squeezing so hard she didn't think she'd ever be able to make herself let go. Her sister had been happy to see her... she didn't think Katy had cared about her at all through her life. But here... someone who wasn't going to abandon her. Just maybe... she was her family after all. Families always stuck together... Katy had to be genuine... she just had to.
The sky was shining... glowing brightly with a purple haze that seemed to grow throughout the entire cosmos. She clutched the disgusting alien before her, its tentacles wrapped around her pulsating body. Far below her, she could see Clover staring up at her... there were tears in her eyes. But that didn't matter... the hideous monster before her was all that mattered. The Reverend... the source of her misery, her suffering, her hatred. Finally, it ended in a flash of light... and then...
... It was raining.
Drops of rain fell from the sky, falling across her shivering, bare flesh as she slowly pushed herself up to her hands and feet. To say that Amanda Victoria Delaroyale was confused would be a dramatic understatement. What happened? How did she get here? Where was she? Why wasn't she wearing any clothes? Regardless of the answers, one thing was certain. She was freezing!
Her entire body was shivering as she looked up, but she managed to spot a pair of spotlights shining brightly through the rainy night sky. With muscles that seemed almost useless in the bitter cold, she dragged herself toward the lights. Her bare flesh slipped over the slippery mud banks that separated her and her destination.
She approached what looked like a military base, shivering violently and coated in mud. She pulled herself toward the gates that opened into the base itself, trying to signal to a guard who sat on a guard post near the outer fence. Finally he took notice of her and turned to call into the base.
"Hey, we have someone out here!" He shouted. Mandy stopped moving, letting her body relax as much as it could wile the gates opened and soldiers poured out to greet her. Someone wrapped two rather thin, but helpful blankets around her body, though they didn't move her from the ground yet. She sat up, lowering her head to her chest and holding the blankets tightly around her shivering body.
She kept her head down as the soldiers parted, allowing another set of boot steps to move through the crowd toward her.
"Who are you?" A familiar voice demanded coolly. Mandy blinked and slowly looked up into the emerald green eyes of Samantha Simpson. When Sam saw her face her eyes went wide in shock.
"F... f-f-f-forget m-me... alr-ready...?" Mandy asked through chattering teeth. Sam slowly knelt down in front of her, staring into her eyes with a suspicious, amazed look on her face.
"You can't be alive..." Sam told her.
"I... I kn... know..." Mandy chattered. "C-c-can't w-we dis... cuss this in... inside s-somewhere?"
"Of course... men, get her to the infirmary immediately! Have her checked for hypothermia!" Sam stood up, shouting to the other soldiers.
"Yes sir!" The soldiers saluted and two of them knelt down to lift Mandy up in their arms to carry her toward one of the buildings inside the base. Mandy let herself be carried, in no physical shape to resist or even walk there herself. They set her on one of the tables and signaled for a kind, but young-looking doctor to approach her.
"And what do we have here?" The redheaded doctor asked, his blue eyes shining under the light from the bulbs overhead. He bent over to look in Mandy's eyes. "What have you guys been doing to her? She's freezing."
"Th... thanks... f-for the... m-medical re... port." Mandy quipped sourly through chattering teeth. After that she submitted to the doctor's ministrations, letting him examine, poke, and prod her to his heart's content. At last the shivering had begun to subside and she found herself lying on one of the infirmary tables with six layers of blankets on top of her and a comfortable pillow behind her head.
At the sound of boot steps coming down the hall, Mandy turned to look. She saw Clover step into the infirmary, her eyes locking onto Mandy's in an instant. The silence was deafening, and Mandy was sure her heart would leap out of her chest. She remembered hating Clover so much after the incident on the island when Mandy said she loved her... but just before she'd gone up in a blaze of glory... Clover had said...
"Mandy...?" Clover asked.
"Last I checked..." Mandy replied softly.
"H... how..." Clover walked up to the side of the bed, staring down at her.
"I wish I knew..." Mandy replied. "I remember floating in the sky with The Rev... high above the Earth... there was a flash. And then... I woke up in the forest..." Mandy blinked and looked at her blonde friend. "Did it work? Did I kill The Reverend?" She asked.
"Yeah... you got him." Clover replied softly.
"So... it's over?" Mandy asked hopefully. Clover didn't respond for a minute, stalling by walking to the wall and pulling out a chair to bring back to the bed. She set it up and sat down beside Mandy, clasping her hands in front of her in thought. "Clover... tell me what's going on. I can take it, I'm no chicken-shit loser." Mandy said.
Clover smiled slightly. "Sounds like you got your attitude back..." She said.
"Clover." Mandy demanded warningly.
"Mandy, it's been three months since it happened." Clover told her suddenly. Mandy blinked and just stared at her. "Since then, the Reverend's race came to continue the fight... we've been at war for the last two months." Clover stated. Mandy just stared at her, stunned by the news. Three months she'd been... missing? Dead? Where was she? Why couldn't she remember anything?
"Th... three months..." Mandy muttered softly. "So... where've I been...?" She asked.
"I would hope you could tell us." Clover replied softly.
"I don't remember... the last fight feels like yesterday..." Mandy told her. Clover sighed and put one hand on Mandy's.
"It doesn't really matter anyway." Clover told her with a slight smile. Mandy blinked and looked down at her hand, then looked up into her shining blue eyes. "We all... missed you Mandy." Her voice lowered to a soft whisper, staring down at her. "I-"
"Clover, we should talk." Sam stated from the entrance of the infirmary. Clover looked back at her, then down at Mandy again.
"Give me a minute... I'll be right back." Clover said. Mandy nodded and let her get up to follow Sam out of the room. They didn't go far, just outside of the door where she could hear them talking. She couldn't make out what they were saying though until Sam began to raise her voice in frustration. Mandy listened carefully.
"Clover, stop getting ahead of yourself! We have no clue who that is in there!" Sam shouted.
"Who does it LOOK like!?" Clover retorted.
"If you should've learned anything from seeing a man turn into a space alien, it's that looks can be deceiving!" Sam retorted sharply.
"Look Sam, not a lot of good happens to us these days! Why do you want to look a gift horse in the mouth!?"
"Because I'm afraid it's a Trojan Horse! And blindly trusting her could put this entire base at serious risk!" Both women fell silent, leaving Mandy to wonder if they'd left until Sam finally spoke again in a softer tone of voice she couldn't really understand. She heard Clover respond, followed by a few more exchanges before a pair of boot steps turned to leave the room.
Clover walked back into the infirmary with a somewhat weary expression on her face. A guard stepped into the room right behind her, standing by the door and holding a rather lethal looking rifle in front of him. Mandy smirked slightly as she watched the blonde WOOHP spy approach.
"Sounds like I'm in trouble." Mandy commented.
"Sam won't let you go until we give you a blood test... the Zardexians CAN genetically alter themselves to look human after all." Clover sat down on the chair again.
"I don't mind. I got nothing to hide." Mandy insisted. Clover nodded and gave her a slight smile. Behind Clover Mandy saw Sam enter the room again with several more guards and approach the doctor to talk to him. Clover was still staring at her, a downcast look in her eyes.
"Mandy..." Clover coughed. They had only been able to talk briefly just before entering the base in North Dakota to put an end to the Reverend... before Mandy had used the Faustium to put an end to him for good. "We never got along that well... and..."
"Clover, you already apologized in North Dakota, remember?" Mandy pointed out. "Well... maybe after three months YOU don't. But I do... it's like it happened yesterday for me."
"I know..." Clover nodded. "I just wanted to thank you... and say I've really missed you..." She said softly.
"You make it sound like I'm leaving again..." Mandy pointed out softly.
"I don't know... but I had to say that..." Clover said. "And... in some way... I guess I love you..." She said. Mandy stared at her in confusion and concern. She didn't have time to respond though before Sam approached her with half a dozen armed guards flanking her on every side. The doctor who'd examined her before was carrying an empty syringe in one hand. Clover stood up and walked away from her, standing with her back to Mandy.
"Are you ready?" Sam asked. Mandy replied simply by holding out her arm, which the doctor took and prepared quickly for a blood withdrawal. Sam and Mandy's eyes locked in a challenging stare while the doctor worked, right up until he plunged the tip of the needle into Mandy's arm. The two women's eyes turned toward the needle as it began to fill...
... With a thick purple liquid. Mandy's eyes widened in shock, and before she could so much as look up she heard the click of seven guns being cocked and oriented straight at her head. "I knew it. She's a Zardexian plant." Sam said darkly, holding the barrel of her handgun just inches in front of Mandy's stunned face.
"N... No..." Mandy stammered, too stunned for words. "No... I'm not an alien, I'm Mandy..." But even as she said it, she was staring at the thick purple liquid that had poured out of her veins. She felt just like she always felt... she didn't remember being a spy. She'd know if she was an alien wouldn't she?
"Take her to the pen." Sam said quickly. "And post a 24 hour guard around her immediately."
"Yes sir." The soldiers moved to grab Mandy's arms, hefting her up from the hospital bed. Mandy snapped out of her confusion to realize they were trying to lock her up.
"H... Hey! Let me go! I didn't do anything!" Mandy fought against her captors, but she stopped when she felt the butt of a rifle slamming into the soft skin of her stomach. She doubled over to her knees, coughing and gasping for air as the soldiers grabbed her limbs tightly to keep her from moving at all. "L... let me go! I don't wanna hurt anyone!"
"Then go quietly, we don't want to hurt you either." Sam told her sternly. She was standing in front of Clover with one hand on her hip, the other holding the pistol at her side.
"No, let me go! I don't deserve this!" Mandy struggled against the men that held her, but they just pulled her toward the door, holding her so that that she could barely even move her fingers.
"If you're really our friend you'll understand this!" Sam yelled at her. "Now stop and go quietly!" She said. Mandy glared at her, then looked past her at Clover. The blonde woman had her arms folded across her chest resignedly, with moist eyes as she watched the guards pull Mandy toward the door. She looked really pitiful... she was worried about Mandy. She'd always wanted to see that from the blonde girl...
"We all fought to get rid of this kind of bullshit... locking people up on nothing but the suspicion that they might be against us. Well I'm not taking it from you any more than I took it from The Rev! So get... off... of... ME!" Mandy screamed, with a burst of effort she flung her right arm forward. Both guards who'd been holding it were thrown forward, slamming into the wall with a furious impact that shook the very wall itself.
She didn't even have time to realize her massive strength before the butt of a rifle slammed into her jaw, knocking her to the floor. In a second every guard in the building was on her, beating her with rifles and kicking her into submission to keep her on the floor. She screamed in pain from the impacts, trying vainly to defend herself with her arms, but there were far too many to hope to fight.
"Enough!" Sam's shout cut through the air, halting all motion in the hallway just outside the infirmary. Mandy winced reflexively as the guards moved, even though they were moving away from her. Sam approached her, staring down at her with a searching gaze. Mandy looked away from her, looking beyond her at Clover. But the blonde spy had turned away and had her head leaning against the palm of her hand.
Sam knelt down beside Mandy and slapped her hard across the face with a resounding crack. "Don't you dare compare me to that heartless little bastard. He worked to kill us all... to soften us up so he could slaughter us all like lambs. I'm fighting for the survival of my people." Sam growled darkly, glaring at her.
"You're fighting for your people... so was he." Mandy sneered back. Sam blinked in surprise. "He was softening us up as food for his people... he did it for them. But that didn't make him any less evil... and your self-righteous bullshit doesn't make YOU any less evil either." Mandy stated. Sam growled again and punched her in the face, smacking the back of her head hard into the steel floor.
"Get... IT out of here. Throw it in the pen until we can figure out what to do with it." Sam said, standing up straight.
"Yes sir." The guards grabbed Mandy again, having a much easier time now that they'd softened her up to the point of being barely conscious. Mandy's head lolled about, rolling in the direction of the infirmary where Clover was watching. Tears flowed down Clover's cheeks, but she was trying to hold her head up high regardless. Always trying to show her best face, no matter what the circumstances. Mandy wished she could too... but right now she wasn't sure what face she had.
TO BE CONTINUED