Chapter Seven:
Emblym woke up to a hospital room. Her arms in a straitjacket and her body chained down on the bed. The voices screamed at her, some laughing at her naïvity, others sobbing, triggered by her surroundings. "We're back! We're back! We're back! We're-"
"Shut up!" Emblym hissed, her head feeling as if it were splitting open. "Everyone shut up!" For once, they obeyed, for the most part. Emblym huffed, and then closed her eyes. She could hear them dying again, the gunshots ringing in her ears.
Emblym turned her head, her lol trembling and her face contorted as if it would help keep the tears in, but it didn't. Emblym began to sob, hiccuping and wailing in bed, turning - as much as her restrained body could - back and forth.
Emblym felt as if she cried for hours, and the voices even cried with her. Some of them didn't know how to handle their pain and just screamed, but it was different than their usual screaming. They were all mourning.
Emblym sniffed, unable to clean the snot running down her face, so she just laid in silence, her eyes puffy, but closed. Emblym was tired, far to tired to even figure out what she was doing in a 'jacket and cell again.
However, time waited for no one, because the door opened and heavy footsteps made their way in. Emblym knew it was a man without even opening her eyes to see him.
"Emblym White?" He said. His voice was stern and heavy. Emblym didn't say anything, so he continued. "You lived with a man named Hatter for four months. Hatter is considered an enemy of this country - he actually an enemy of most countries in this world - and to be affliated with him would be to have commited treason. Would you say you two were close?"
Emblym drew in a breath, "Why are you wasting our time?" She asked slowly, making sure he heard every word. Emblym looked over her shoulder to side-eye him. This man was tall, and black. He wore a heavy black trenchcoat with a black eyepatch over an eye that Emblym assumed wasn't for decoration.
"Because, you deserve a second chance," Emblym scoffed, turning, and closed her eyes again. "You're nineteen, but you've been admitted in a mental institution with every protection for over four years. Whatever you did then can be dismissed now."
"I'm crazy, not stupid," Emblym hissed. "What are you getting out of this?"
"You give me everything you know on this different world you friend called Wonderland came from," he said.
"No," Emblym's voice held a scary finality to it that made the man go silent.
"Ms. White, this is your only option. The alternative if a high probability of death, or sent back to a mental institution."
"I said, no!" Emblym snapped, turning to glare at him in anger. His mouth was pressed tight, but then he stood, and began to leave the room.
"I'll let you think about it," he told her, then closed the door.
"Fool! You gave up freedom! Idiot! Dumbass!" The voices berated her.
"Leave me alone!" Emblym hissed, but the voices weren't nearly done. They kept screaming at her, and she yelled back at them, deflecting every insult thrown at her, but one made her stumble.
"Is this what Hatter died for!?" Emblym was quiet, and the insults slowed.
"Hatter didn't die so I can give him up to the first person who grants me freedom," Emblym growled lowly. "None of them did. None of them deserved to." Emblym didn't listen to the rest of their insults. She closed her eyes, sniffing as tears formed in her eyes again.
• ️ ️ ️ ️•
Emblym's first meal given to her did not go well. A man came in and demanded that she'd open her mouth to be forcefed. Emblym refused, despite being there for at least three days and not having anything to drink except for the waterbottle she had the day she left.
The man grabbed at her cheeks and Emblym snapped at him, managing to catch a finger and sinking her teeth in it enough to draw blood. The man howled with pain and hit her across the face. Emblym took the smack and did not let go.
"Let him go, Emblym," The man who visited Emblym the first time she woke up came over a speaker. Emblym ignored him until he said, "We'll burn down that house if you don't."
Emblym froze. Then she glared at the man and released his finger from her mouth, spitting out the blood she drew. "Crazy bitch!" The man hissed at her, but she sat back, squeezing her eyes shut. The voices were aroused with her skirmish with the man and demanded more blood, but Emblym ignored it, breathing heavily.
Later that day, Emblym was forced to wear a gag over her mouth.
• ️ ️ ️ ️•
The next few days passed slowly for Emblym. She was starving and parched, but didn't show it. Nobody visited her, and she was kept in her hospital bed, which began to reek from her lack of showering.
The door opened, and black man stepped through with two agents. Quickly, they took the gag of her face, and Emblym sighed, stretching her jaw as they both suddenly left.
Emblym turned to the black man which hadn't seen him since her first day. She glared at him, but didn't react. "We've seen in past instances that if we are to simply kill you, a new Red Killer will come up again," he said. This, Emblym didn't know. After Hatter reveal that he had been lying when he told her that the Red Queens would leave once she killed the Queen, she didn't know what she was going to do.
"I don't want to kill you, Ms. White," he told her calmly. "I want to help. We've tried to help other women like you in the past, but you're younger; you still have a life ahead of you. Tell us about this Wonderland and we will fix everything."
Emblym rolled her eyes, "My answer hasn't changed since the first day I came. Why do you think that after a week after, I'd suddenly want to help you?"
"You're not heartless," he told her. "And despite what others may say, you also aren't too bad of a psychopath. You can help us stop this in the future."
"Help?" Emblym scoffed, "You can't stop it. This is going to keep going until you break the curse."
"What curse?" Emblym frowned, and stopped talking, closing her eyes to rest again. "I need you to cooperate, Emblym. Only you know how to stop this, work with me here. You were fifteen when you broke out. The next girl? What if she's five? Her entire life ahead of her, ruined because you didn't tell me how to stop it."
Emblym bit the inside of her cheek, and didn't move. The man exhaled and started for the door, "I'll give you an hour. After that, you're going back to that institute."
• ️ ️ ️ ️•
This was the longest hour of Emblym's life. Actually, it was the longest week of Emblym's life, but that was different. Emblym sighed, looking at the ceiling. The small lightbulbs were quaking slightly, and... Cracks had began to form in the ceiling.
Emblym, being born and raised in California, definitely knew the proceedings to an earthquake.
Emblym was fast, her knife formed in her hands as she watched the cracks on the ceiling form faster with each second. She cut through her jacket and restraints just as the ceiling creaked. She jumped and the ceiling fell. Several tons of building material destroying her bed, and her, had she been a second slower.
"What are you doing!?" Someone's voice came over the comms. It was malfunctioning, causing it to sound like static. "Drop the knife and stay where you are." Emblym looked up at the ill-structured ceiling.
"Drop... You are!" They shouted again. It was only a matter of minutes, maybe seconds, before this building gave way too.
"I need to get out," Emblym said, covering her mouth. The dust was thick. If she breathed in too much, it would kill her. "I'm going to die in here!" There was no response.
Emblym didn't wait for them to decide. She used her knife to cut around the door's knob, making the lock useless. Then, she kicked it open.
The room on the other side was no better than hers. Large parts of the ceiling had landed on a few unlucky people. One man was pinned under a rock, his leg stuck. Emblym went to him immediately and lifted. "C'mon! C'mon!" She groaned, "Help me!" She demanded her voices and they obeyed. Strength flooded through her and she moved the rock, using her foot to grab a metal chair. And propping the chair under it.
Emblym dragged the delirious man out from underneath the rock and carried him. "It hurts..." The man groaned as Emblym dragged him down a destroyed hall.
"I know. Shut up," Emblym grumbled, annoyed. There were several other people here, but Emblym had no way to save them. Emblym swore, trying to think, but nothing came to mind.
A heavy weight was placed on her head, and for a moment, Emblym thought a rock had just fallen on her, but when she checked, she was astounded.
Emblym pulled Hatter's hat off her head, shocked. "How... In the world...?" Emblym stared at it for a minute, then remembered the lack of structural integrity in the building, or wherever she was, and decided to make a plan.
Emblym reached in the hat, "I need that cake he gave me. The one that made me small." She spoke, hoping maybe the hat would hear her, and it did.
One cake, labeled, 'Eat Me', formed in her hand. She took the man's jacket off of him and wore it. Then, Emblym handed it to the man she carried. "Hurry. Eat that," she demanded, shoving it into his mouth. He ate it, and the effects came immediately. Soon, he was six inches tall.
Wearing his jacket, she gently placed him in her pocket, and zipped it halfway so he wouldn't fall out. Then, she went back to the hat. "I need more. A lot more." The hat replied with nearly fifty more cakes, more than Emblym could hold. She shoved them in the other pocket and began to get to work.
Soon, Emblym carried nearly twenty people, all injured, but none quite dead yet. She kept looking for ways to leave, but found no windows, doors, or even an exit sign. The dust was getting thick and Emblym's eyes were watering bad, but she still couldn't find an exit anywhere.
Emblym turned down a passage way, making sure the floor was good enough for her to walk on. Earlier a man ran at her with a him pointed at her on unstable floor and fell straight through. So, every step was risk to Emblym and the people she saved.
Then, a single bit of light came from the top of one of the rocks. Emblym didn't know whether it was sunlight, or maybe just peek of the upper level, but she had to try.
Using her knife, Emblym cut through the rocks and dirt trying to get through. Slowly, the light expanded, and Emblym saw a glimpse of another level, and with it, an opening outside. She heard people, and began to dig faster. "Hey!" She cried out, trying to get their attention, but her dust-choked throat was unable to grab the attention of anyone.
Emblym continued to open the hole up. Managing to get her upper body through. The people in the her pocket began rejoicing, probably hearing her calling out.
Emblym walked sluggishly to the end of the long path where the outside poked through. There were a few rocks in the way, but Emblym moved them. Soon more hands grabbed at hers and pulled her through, however, when they recognized her, they stopped. Emblym stood, watching the people around her stare, some with their hands on their guns. A few helicopters churned in the background, but Emblym ignored it.
She coughed, "Where's the black guy?" She demanded, and suddenly the look of shock turned to confusion.
"You mean... Nick Fury?" One woman asked and she nodded. "Miss, he isn't here." Emblym nodded again. She took off Hatter's hat, and put the extra cakes in them. Then, she reached in.
"The antidote," she murmured, feeling tired and sick and hungry. Definitely hungry. Emblym realized it had been four years since she had had a Big Mac. She wanted a Big Mac.
Emblym pulled out the same bottle Hatter had when he shrunk her. Then, she took off the jacket, and handed it to the woman who stood in front of her. "The antidote, they just need a bottle cap full, and they'll be good. If... You need more, then ask me. Just a bottle cap full, alright?"
"Who does?" She asked, confused.
"The people," Emblym said, the adrenaline leaving her as beat as a horse. "Bottle cap. Tired. Big Mac," Emblym tried to walk away, but her head was light. Even her voices words seemed to slur together as she fainted.
