Author's Note: I'm using a similar plot device I previously used in another story where the character does not use their own name. It will be revealed at a later time inside of the story so you'll learn it along with the characters.
This chapter will be giving a lot of her history. If as you read this you think Polly has a strange idea about the Raft and how it's set up, you're right. It will be explained a couple of more chapters into the story.
I'll be posting updates weekly, maybe bi-weekly if I can get the editing done fast enough.
Sitting in the strange seat, she listened to the new sounds around her as they left the base that had been her home for the past few years. Since it seemed they were escaping in a jet, and not a car or truck, they might have a chance to get away. Hopefully the base nicknamed the Raft didn't have planes or helicopters that could track them. Then again, she didn't know how determined Ross would be to recapture this other group instead of just killing them.
Still wanting her to work for him, even considering how much Ross hated her, she doubted that her being with them would stop him if he really wanted to blow them out the air.
Across the way, she could hear the males and female talking about what they had gone through with the authoritative voice known as Steve. It seemed that he was the one in charge. He would be the one to obey, to not anger. Did he like to punish the others himself like Keeling, or did he have one of his underlings do it for him like Ross? She would have to take her cues from how they acted towards him during the flight to find out. Once he reprimanded someone she might be able to figure out how cruel he could be towards her if she failed to escape from them.
As they talked, a few of them questioned what to make of her. Unfortunately, she didn't have an answer that she would give them anyways. After saying too much to Ross, she knew to keep quiet.
But the smooth, rich voice of Sam had mentioned that they had her file. Even if she didn't cooperate, they were going to know everything that Ross knew. At least Ross had never found her Hydra file. She didn't doubt the scum bastard would have used it to figure out how to make her work for him.
She could only hope that she hadn't made a bigger mistake of going with this new group, but they were her first real chance of escaping that base. At least she knew what to expect from Ross and the guards. Even with hating the dark, she had learned to handle being in it for the short periods of time that Ross demanded as punishment. At least after so long she no longer had the panic attacks when the device was first put on her head. Ross wanted to use her, and that was the one thought that helped to keep her sane…that he would not permanently leave her in the dark.
But this new group could be just as bad as Hydra…as Keeling. She had just wanted off the base, not considering that she was leaving with other prisoners, meaning bad guys who needed to be locked up. Why had she not considered that before? If she refused to cooperate, they could easily lock her away in the dark and never give her another thought.
What about if they were Hydra? Was that why they were locked up? She shook her head at the notion. They had talked of Hydra as another group, not their own. She had to believe that they were not. The consequences of them being Hydra were too frightening and would make her panic. Instead, she had to remember that they had seemed upset that Ross had not freed her after finding her as Hydra's prisoner...so maybe they were at least a step up.
Even Ross had been a step up from Keeling. Hell…The Devil would be a step up from Keeling. Even two years later, just picturing Keeling tortured, dying, or dead gave her a great satisfaction. Maybe one day her dream would come true and she would find out that manky wanker had died around the time Hydra fell.
Listening again to the group, she learned they had only been there for just over a week. So, very close to when the restraints had gone on again. But she had not heard any of them fighting with the guards. Why not? Compared to Hydra ones, they were weak, giving only pitiful beatings when she fought them, or lazily using the collar to knock her out.
Why had they seemed to have waited for a rescue and not tried to escape the base? Were they weak?
To her, just being able to get outside and feel the warm sun on her face for a few minutes would be worth any punishment for doing so. But for them, it had only been days since they had probably seen the sky. Unlike her cell, maybe theirs had windows.
She did know that she had not been at the Raft for very long, just over two years from what she had overheard a guard mentioning to a new trainee not too long ago. That length of time was nothing compared to the numerous years she'd spent locked inside of the many different Hydra compounds. Even now, thanks to the rules Keeling had, she didn't know exactly how long it had been.
And if this group were like Hydra, she'd never really know.
Would they start just as Hydra had? At first, they had constantly tested her abilities, to see if what they had been told about her was correct. And once they had been satisfied that it was, the free life she had known for the first eighteen years of her life disappeared. Once the threat to her family had begun to wear thin, it was one of the agents which had pointed out that if she didn't comply with testing, that they may as well put a bullet into her head and dump her into the bog.
If she'd known then what would happen to her, maybe she would have let him done so.
Hydra Command found her unique naturally enhanced ability of being able to force people to tell the truth to be a great benefit to their twisted organization. It also caught the eye of one particularly ambitious agent, Marcus Keeling. It had not taken long for him to assert himself as her personal overseer and head of Project Cherry Tree. Keeling had used her skills to gain himself a notoriety that made her, and by association him, indispensable when it came to stopping backstabbing inside of the organization. And he had made sure that everyone knew who was the one responsible for keeping her in line.
Rubbing her constant, painfully sore fingers together in the cuffs, she recalled how Keeling had her cruelly tested to try and expand that ability towards Hydra's desires until she had finally reached the breaking point where it had worked.
When she finally started to learn how to focus her ability, instead of just commanding a person to tell the truth, she was able to command them to obey her. That had pleased Keeling to no end. For him, it proved that his techniques for 'training' her worked.
Which had only made her life worse.
But that was also when Keeling had realized that he needed to take extra precautions so that she couldn't escape by using her new talent. He'd had the cuffs and blindfold / gag created to use when transporting her so that she could not demand her own freedom. Even though only one of the three would be necessary, he was not taking any chances with such a useful 'tool', his favorite term to remind her of her place.
For so long, they traveled from base to base around the globe to have her make others give Hydra sensitive information, and question possible recruits, as well as suspected betrayers to learn the truth of their resolve. Hydra might hide inside of the organizations they intended to betray, but they sure hated it inside of their own. Those that failed their test and deemed not useful enough were instantly put to death, some by their own hand.
She had tried to fight Hydra at first, refusing to touch and capture their stare with her own as she asked them questions. Keeling had not been one to take no for an answer.
And so with much experimenting…he'd eventually found his favorite type of torture that had broken her to the point where her own self-preservation was more important than some evil organization's henchman. It had taken a few years, but she learned to comply so that the pain would stop…at least for a short time.
After being discovered by that sleeveen Thadeous Frecking Ross thanks to a dumb car accident, she had been moved to the Raft base where a new round of testing had almost started. Luckily they didn't employ the same painful compliance techniques that Hydra had. Not realizing this at first, she had unfortunately given them just enough information about her and the abilities she possessed.
But after so many years of living to serve others, she was tired of being used and just wanted all of it to stop. It didn't take her long after arriving for her to decide to start testing the resolve of her new captors.
So, after figuring out that Ross would not hurt her on the same level as Keeling…she had just shut herself down. It wasn't that hard to accomplish. Due to his fear of her escaping, Keeling had 'stored' her in the isolation cell for weeks on end when she wasn't needed. He liked to tell others it was like putting his tool on a shelf. And during those quiet times, at least there was no new pain. Her mind was free to once again conjure the dreams where she was back with her family, walking in the sunlight, getting in trouble with her cousin and friends. She would spend days in that peaceful place before Keeling would rip her from it.
But right after getting to this new base, she had physical entertainment too. When the Raft guards had come to her cell, she would fight them to see how determined they were that day. It didn't even matter that doing so caused the pain in her shoulders to burn. Sometimes they would leave her alone if they didn't feel like putting up with her. But that would only work for a few days before Ross sent orders for her to be dragged out for more testing.
That was when she would just shut down again and dream. They would drag her out of the cell with not a bit of fight, but she would just sit there and do nothing. No speaking, no movements.
Even when they did punish her for not obeying by using the shock collar on her, the pain would ultimately make her pass out. When she would wake up, she'd be back in her cell, right where she wanted to be.
Eventually she had become so irritating that Ross himself had shown up to personally deal with her.
That day, she'd found herself chained to a table in an interrogation room when he entered. At first he began showering her with all sorts of pathetic promises…real clothes, better food, less medical procedures. All except for the one thing she truly wanted…her freedom. Not settling for anything less, his temper had instantly changed. Ross then began with the threats of repercussions for refusing to work for him. None of them were even in the category of what she'd already been through with Keeling.
Slamming his fist on the metal table into emphasize his point before sticking his finger in her face, Ross made the mistake of getting too close.
Sick of his attitude towards her, she'd decided to have some fun at his expense, damn the repercussions she'd face.
If he wanted proof of her abilities, then he was getting it.
Grabbing his exposed hand, she had locked his gaze to hers and commanded that he continually punch himself in his groin…hard.
By the time the guards entered the room and tackled him to the ground trying to restrain him, Ross was cursing at her between his screams of pain. During her laughing taunts of never being able to get it up again without Viagra was when the shock collar had finally been activated to knock her out.
When she regained consciousness, she was alone in the interrogation room still secured to the table. Only minutes later, Colonel Ryker, head of the Raft's day-to-day activities, had arrived with a guard armored so no bare skin was visible and his face mask was heavily tinted to prevent eye contact. And in his gloved hand was a wooden night-stick that he was anxiously toying with.
Ryker only had to order her one time to remove the command before she decided Ross wasn't worth the beating she'd take. There had already been enough of those from Keeling. So she allowed them to take her down to medical where they had put Ross onto a bed and used medical restraints on him to stop his actions. He never said a word to her but she knew that a punishment was coming.
Probably an hour after being put back into her cell, the fully covered guards had shown up and told her that medical was ready to receive her. Arriving, she had seen the Hydra blindfold and gag headgear along with the metal cuffs. Hydra only used them when moving her between facilities so she had thought that maybe she was being moved to a new base. But she'd made Ross more than just a bit angry and they would be his payback. The guard smiled as he used the collar to knock her unconscious.
That time when she woke up back in her cell, she almost regretted her actions towards Ross…almost.
They had put her back into the dark.
But it seemed that either Ross or the guards didn't understand how Keeling actually used to have the cuffs secured to her during transport. To free her from inside of the Hydra truck, bolt cutters had removed the chain which held her cuffed hands up behind her back to the collar which then secured to the floor by another chain. This time the guards allowed her arms to be free in front of her, only her hands being rendered useless.
She actually considered their blunder a major improvement to Keeling's way.
With the items having been secured onto her so that she helpless, a new feeding tube had once again been run through her nose to her stomach. The guard inform her that Ross had ordered them to stay on her for the next two weeks as punishment for what she had done to him. The most she had ever been forced to wear them were a handful of days as she was transported to somewhere new. Knowing they would eventually come off helped to handle the darkness she found herself trapped in. She couldn't let Ross know how terrified she would sometimes get in it.
At that point she had only been at the Raft base a few weeks and found herself actually shut down…but by Ross' command this time. He had the guards pass the message that any time she was ready to cooperate and work for him, the devices would be removed. So the new daily routine began with her morning 'meal' being forced into her before they would ask if she had decided to obey Ross' commands. And every single day they had received a shake of her head in response.
Not being able to talk, or see, or touch anything, all she could to do then was close herself down. Locked in the darkness, she had to find ways to stay sane. It had taken a long time to realize that when she saw or heard Keeling in her cell, that it was not real, that he had not found her. The only real entertainment she had came from fighting with the guards when they brought in the liquid meals. Two weeks trapped that way seemed like an eternity to her…at least it had the first time.
But a one-time punishment was not enough to satisfy Ross' broken manly pride. Ryker was ordered to continue with the new routine instructions given to him. Every two weeks, she would be forcibly escorted to the medical area with that damn pole lead, checked over to make sure she was healthy, and then questioned as to if she would work for Ross. With every answer of 'no' they received, the devices would be put back on for another two weeks before being dragged back to her cell.
So this had been her life for the past two years and it had become old very quickly.
But it seemed that her life was once again changing.
Now, with the prospect of just getting away from Ross, she had agreed to allow herself to be part of this group's escape from the base. She figured that once they knew about her, they would probably just as eager as Hydra or Ross to use her abilities for themselves. The voice Sam was reading through her file now and once he understood what she was truly capable of, she would find herself locked away again in a new cell. Maybe they would at lease leave the damn devices off or they would give her a light. A window would be a dream...
But maybe they weren't prepared to house her as a prisoner. They were just escaping themselves. This might be her chance to finally escape and go home. Could she get away from them before they locked her down?
If not, she could just shut herself down from them also, until a good escape opportunity presented itself.
She had grown use to the isolation.
If they decided they didn't have a use for her, instead of locking her back into the dark again, maybe she would get lucky and they would just kill her.
Sam leaned back on the seat and let his head fall against the hull. He couldn't believe that he'd initially considered leaving Polly behind on the Raft. Luckily Steve had some kind of foresight, or maybe just his annoyance for Ross, and had taken the initiative to bring her along with them. It had been the right call to make.
He'd read through the initial reports created when Polly had first been brought to the Raft before glancing at a couple in the long list, mostly labeled as 'Incident Reports', and he had never been so disturbed.
For just over the past two years, Polly had not only been going through her own type of PTSD after being Hydra's prisoner for however long, but thanks to Ross's treatment of her, she had possibly formed a psychosis from sensory deprivation...and Ross had just ignored the signs.
The most obvious were the nightmares that she had a couple of times a week. There were pieces of security footage saved by the guards that showed her waking up screaming and fighting off an invisible attacker in her cell. But even worse were the times that she woke while wearing the restraints. Not being able to see that she was alone, she would become violent, lashing out into the open area of the cell. She would toss her body against the walls screaming through the gag while crying, pounding her fists, sometimes with the cuffs and other times without. A couple of times he watched as the guards had shown up and dragged Polly back to the bed before chaining her down to it for a couple of hours, stating in the incident report that she was 'causing a ruckus'.
Other times that were just as disturbing were during her 'punishment weeks' when Polly would just be sitting on the cot or floor and then suddenly become violent. She would suddenly lash out, as if she believed someone was in the cell with her. Sam had read that long-term sensory deprivation could cause hallucinations, and he guessed that was what she was experiencing. The guards who restrained her down during these times either didn't understand that she was frightened by figments of her own imagination or, more than likely, didn't care.
Any decent psychologist could have instantly told them what was going on, if Ross had allowed one to even see her.
Notes had been made that Polly would take food from her trays, hording it away in the corner of her cell under her bed. They never withheld meals from her, and the portions seemed to match what they had received on the Raft. Was this something left over from her time with Hydra? She wasn't able to eat any of it during her punishment weeks, but Sam did see that in the day or two before those times that Polly would devour whatever she had stored.
Sam knew that there was also something else going on with Polly, but he couldn't even guess as to the reasoning. There were hours of footage which he fast forwarded through of Polly sitting still on her cot while holding her left hand high as her fingers twitched as she rocked back and forth for hours. She hadn't been restrained at the time and he wondered what she was doing exactly. How could she just sit there for so long? What had been occupying her mind during those hours?
There were a couple of videos of her strangely dancing around the cell to entertain herself since Ross had restricted her from any form of media. Trying to 'break' her, Ross wouldn't even let Polly have paper books, hoping that if she got bored enough that she would consent to his offer of work. He also watched as she would spend minutes eating a single grape, pealing away the outer skin before nibbling at it. Any skinned fruit seemed to be given the same treatment. There were also numerous videos of her examining her cell, counting every rivet, wall panel, and shower tile. It seemed that at least Polly had tried to keep herself occupied in any way possible.
How could Ross be so cruel as to not at least try to help her get past some of whatever she had been through with Hydra to make her so devastated? Instead, he had only made it worse.
But as he watched the later footage, skipping months between dates, Sam was able to notice at least one of what he could consider an improvement.
Polly's nightmares were still there but either they were not as often or she didn't become as violent after waking from them. The incidents of being chained to the bed because of them stopped after the first year.
But she still liked to fight with the guards when it came time to have the restraints put on, not that he could blame her.
If Ross had actually been nice to her, Sam felt that she might have even considered working for him. But he had taken a heavy hand to Polly and it had turned her against Ross just as much as Hydra it seemed.
Considering what the group needed to immediately know, Sam opened up to one video he wanted them to see that they would find amusing before standing to move a couple of seats over.
"Steve, we all need to have a serious talk," Sam informed him taking the seat next to his.
"I'm guessing by your tone that you found something interesting?" he asked nodding at the tablet in his hand.
"Yeah, you could say that...but maybe disturbing would be a more accurate term," Sam had never seen Steve so unsure before. "That doesn't stem from Polly herself, but what Ross did," he explained, easing Steve's tension some. "But I've learned about what Ross knew of her powers and everyone needs hear this so we can decide what to do next."
Gathering the others so they were close enough to hear, Sam took a breath before he began to explain what the file Nat had copied told.
"First, Polly is not her real name. It's not actually in the file because Ross didn't know it and she refused to tell him. So they called her Polly. It's short for polygraph since she is basically a human lie detector."
"So she is an enhanced?" Wanda asked.
"Yes, but Ross' file doesn't indicate how that came about. Not long after arriving at the Raft, she began to refuse telling them any real details about herself...but they were able to get some information from the Hydra agents captured with her."
"So was she Hydra? She worked for them?" Clint then asked not knowing where the story was going yet.
"No and yes," he then told him. "There's no information as to how she came to be with Hydra since by that point in her questioning she refused to cooperate with Ross. According to the agents who were moving her, 'prisoner name unknown', in the days leading up to Project Insight, Hydra began to clear out some of their bases and secret locations knowing that they would be destroyed by the blast range from the helicarriers. One of the locations was near Washington where Polly was being temporarily 'housed'. Less than twenty-four hours until the helicarriers lifted off, they securely loaded her into a 'discrete civilian moving truck' and were taking her to another location when a drunk driver ran a red light and slammed into the truck, knocking it on its side. When local police arrived, they found her dangling while chained to the floorboards in exactly the same restraints that she's wearing now."
"The police didn't free her after finding her like that?" Scott asked.
"The file indicates that they were more worried about there being a reason for the restraints," Sam explained. "So, they kept her chained up but cut her free of the truck. They eventually got in touch with division under Secretary Ross because of the Shield-Hydra debacle going on."
"Why does she need all of that stuff on her?" Scott brought up. "Is she dangerous?"
"I don't believe so. Polly is able to make people tell the truth by touching them, making eye contact, and then questioning them. But from what I found, if Polly wants to, she also can make them do her bidding as well."
"Great, another psychic," Clint flatly stated then turned a cheeky smile to the person at his side, adding, "No offense Wanda."
Wanda raised her finger with it glowing as if she were going to shock him, but Sam could see the smile on her face.
"That's not exactly accurate, Clint," he told him. "Polly will give a command, but except for having to physically follow that command, the person is still in control of their mind. They know exactly what they are doing."
"That's messed up," Clint said looking over at Polly, who's head was turned to look right at the group. "So what's the deal with her wearing the gear while already on the Raft? Were they about to move her?"
"No and that is the part of her file that is even slightly amusing but also the most irritating," Sam turned the tablet around with the video ready to show them. "This was just three weeks after she arrived at the Raft. By then, she had stopped barely cooperating, so Ross came out to 'talk' with her."
The group watched the video of Ross trying to intimidate her into working for him before getting his own taste of her powers. There were a few snickers from all around as Ross began to punch himself in the crotch, and then mumbles as they watched Polly shocked into unconsciousness for the deed. There were a few times during his stay that he wished to do something similar to Ross, and Polly actually had. He'd watched that interrogation video three times he'd found it so funny. He then continued on with his findings.
"Ross got so mad at her for that stunt that he's ordered the items to be put onto her for two-week intervals as punishment. By then, considering how barren her cell already was, removing Polly's final bits of stimulation and movement was the easiest way to punish her. You might recognize the feeding tube that they use to force her liquid meals into. During these weeks, all that she is given is water and special protein drinks."
"Are you saying she's been like that for almost two weeks?" Steve asked sounding vexed.
"Yes," he told them glancing over at where she was sitting. "As of right now, she is on day ten. Ross decided to have them put on a few days early since he was on the Raft to question us. Since he stood off to the side watching, I'd say he wanted the satisfaction of seeing her secured in person."
There was another unanimous round of grumbling at hearing that.
"To take her to medical to make sure she was still healthy, the guards used that lead pole we saw outside of her cell around her neck to keep their distance. That's why she was covering her neck when we first opened her door. She probably thought we were them. Ross passed along the message that he would have the devices removed if she agreed to his request to work for him. So for numerous times over the past two years, with every refusal, she's been forced to wear them," Sam told them, earning an angry and curious rumble from everyone. "The metal balls cover her hands so she can't make skin-to-skin contact. They don't always go on, only when the guards are irritated with her fighting them, like this last time since she was cursing at Ross who just smugly stood there. And you can see the marks the shock collar left on her neck."
Steve's fist then crushed the edge of the seat next to him which he had been holding onto. None of the group were now happy in any way. For two years, instead of freeing her from Hydra's grasp, Ross had been torturing Polly into trying to agree to be his own lie detector to use whenever he wanted. He was a bit worried about what Ross would want her to do with her other ability. Sam could only imagine what Ross could have found out about if Polly had questioned them.
But luckily , she wasn't cooperating with Ross anyways. It seemed that she liked Ross about as much as they did.
"That's a pretty stubborn girl there," Scott then commented.
"So now the question is, what do we do with her?" Clint asked.
The silence that followed was much too long. Nobody had an answer.
With that type of ability, depending on how strong it was, Sam guessed that Polly could walk right up to someone and tell them to shoot themselves in the head, and they would obey. So far the file indicated that they weren't sure if she was strong enough yet to be capable of doing that all the time, but Ross had been wanting to study her, waiting for the time when he probably could use that talent for himself. His own personal assassin that could make every death look like a suicide.
"Also," he then continued, "according to the file, she is not 'officially' listed as a prisoner on the Raft. Ross never informed anyone of her existence either. If she agreed to work for him, it would have all been off any records."
The group seemed to understand the idea behind that. If caught, Ross could deny all involvement and knowledge of Polly. He also would not have to risk having her taken from him for someone else to use or control.
"Why does her hair look like that, like someone hacked at it?" Wanda asked getting his attention.
Sam knew that this answer showed just how stubborn Polly really could be.
"Since she would fight the guards so much, they keep it short cut so that it's easier to get the devices on. Every so often when they had her in medical to have the feeding tube put in, while she's unconscious, they cut it again. She didn't even have a chance to stop them," he told them.
"As of right now, I don't think that it would be a good thing to fully release her," Nat told them, all eyes going to her.
"Why not?" Scott asked.
"There's no guarantee that she wouldn't use her powers on any of us, commanding us to go somewhere else, or even just killing us one by one."
"I hate to say it, but your right, Nat," Steve agreed. "We can't risk it right now. We'll get to our location in a few hours. She'll just have to wait until then. If she has gone ten days so far, a couple of short hours will be nothing."
"I hope you're right," Scott said. "I sure don't want to make her angry at me."
She heard them discussing what they found in the file. They either didn't think she could hear them or more than likely didn't care. So far with their discussion, it seemed that this group was already much better than Hydra or Ross. They were actually talking about removing the blindfold, gag, and cuffs once they landed. The voice Sam was even mentioning giving her real food, not a liquid drink, or that goulash they fed her at the Raft base.
For that treat alone, she might consider…no, she told herself. It was only a matter of time before they turned into Ross…or Keeling. Once they reached their base, if they really removed the items then she needed to take her first chance at escaping. Without the damn items on her, it should be easy.
Hearing footsteps, she felt something brush against her left thigh as someone sat down. Flinching away was a ritual that she had picked up from Keeling, who would have her beaten for the slightest human contact out of fear that she would use her talent on the person. He didn't care if she was restrained in some other way or not. Even after arriving at the Raft, it had taken Ross pushing her for her to finally fight back with its guards. But now she had to start again with learning how fecked she might be.
"Polly, it's Sam," he softly said, not realizing she'd already memorized the sound of all their voices. "We have a few hours before we land. At that time, we'll see about getting that device off and that feeding tube out of you. But I've talked with Steve and he's agreed that for right now, we can at least get those strange cuffs off of you. Even though we are pretty sure you can't, we would like to have some kind of assurance from you that once we do, that you will not try to use your abilities on any one of us. We want to be able to trust you as much as we want you to trust us. Do you understand?"
She nodded, making note that Steve was indeed the one to obey as the leader. She wondered how long this little bit of freedom being offered would last. Probably until they decided to use her talents for their own benefits. They would eventually show themselves to be no better than Hydra or Ross. They just hadn't figured out how to use her yet. But no matter what lies they may be telling her, she knew to obey orders to keep the pain away. Just because they sounded nice, it meant little to her. Ross had ordered the guards to do what was necessary for her compliance, which usually meant the collar. There were a few who liked to drag her through the halls to medical.
Feeling a hand gently pat her left arm, she jerked it away as she edged away from Sam, hoping that Steve didn't punish her for him touching her. She had not initiated the contact, but she'd been taught by Keeling what sort of treatment to expect.
But then Sam's hand moved away, as well as his body, distancing himself from her.
"It's alright, Polly. Nobody here is going to hurt you," he said as she felt him rising out of the seat next to her. "I'll be across the aisle, just so you know."
Another person took his place soon after.
"Hi, there, Polly," the feminine voice from over the Raft radio said, Nat she'd heard her called. "I'm going to remove these cuffs, alright?"
She nodded her head wondering if Nat had taken the keys knowing they would want to remove them later. But as the seconds continued on while she worked on the, she began to guess that Nat was actually trying to pick the lock. It took a bit of time but the first cuff finally released and she pulled her hand from inside the metal ball. Not long after, her other hand came free.
Rubbing her hands together the best that she could, she tried massaging her feeble finger muscles. The cuffs left no room for stretching them straight out, making her hands always aching from the many injuries they'd had years ago. Using them the first few days after being freed was always worst, finding it hard to grip anything firmly, but really that was normal thanks to Keeling. Sometimes they would also get the shakes, but rubbing them would help that.
Nat moved away without saying anymore and she noticed that the cuffs had disappeared with her…not that she wanted them as souvenirs or anything.
Over the next few hours, she sat in the dark and listened to the different team members talking to each other. From the different conversations, she learned about how they had gotten to the base, and what had been happening for the past week since they got there. They were all complaining about how miserable they had been after so few days she wanted to laugh at them. The Raft had been a holiday spot after Keeling.
Instead, she listened and learned, trying to figure out how bad off she was going to be with them. For some reason, Ross had part of their group locked up which meant that they all might be on the same side. They had even decided to take her just to prevent Ross from hurting her.
There was nothing for her to do now while they were in the air. She would have to see how well secured the base they were headed to was. Pulling her arms in close so nobody touched her, she decided that falling asleep would be the best. She would need her energy in case her new guards were slackers.