Four

Abby woke up and found herself in a white room. It took her a while to realise her leg was hurting and that it had been bandaged up.

She tried to stand up but ropes pulled her back down.

A voice laughed. Abby looked up to see who had laughed.

It was Helen.

'Let me go'.

Helen laughed again and walked over to the door separating her from Abby. She opened it and walked through.

Abby had been awake for about 3 minutes and already she knew it was impossible to escape on her own.

'Please, Helen'.

Helen knelt down to look Abby in the eyes.

'No'

'What do you want from me?'

'Nothing, really'.

Abby suddenly knew why she had been picked all those weeks ago. She was going to be the bait, in Helen getting the artefact back, no one was going to die. It was the perfect plan, and Abby was so full of determination in saving Connor she didn't hesitate to think that it would be a trap.

'I'm the bait aren't I?' Abby asked.

Helen nodded. 'But you still need to obey me or I will make sure Connor dies, by your hand'.

Abby gasped.

'Understand?'

'Yep' Abby nodded.

'Good, now how long until the anomaly opens. Ah not long now' Helen said after quickly glancing at her P.A.D.D (personal anomaly detecting device).

'Where are we?'

'At Leeks, old storage enclosure, he liked his offices big, so I'm taking advantage of it'.

Helen got up and spoke into her P.A.D.D.

Abby couldn't hear what she was saying but as soon as Helen had her back to her she started to tug on her ropes and gradually the ropes became looser and in less than a minute she was free.

Helen still had her back to Abby, so sensing her only chances of escaping were getting shorter every second, Abby got up and ran as fast as she could to the door.

SLAM! The door shut.

Abby turned around to see Helen looking at her with her P.A.D.D in her hand. She was shaking her head.

Suddenly someone clamped down on Abby's shoulders and forced her to the floor. Abby gasped at the pain in her leg.

'Brave, but you shouldn't have done that; still it will give Connor more reason to comply'.

'What do you mean?' Abby asked confused.

'Ask yourself this Abby. In those old movies when the heroin is in danger does it make the hero want to save her more or less?'

'More' Abby answered solemnly.

'Yes'

With a sudden realisation Abby's face paled. 'What kind of danger?'

'Well not so much as danger more injured and helpless'.

Abby gulped and knew she was going to be seriously hurt soon and there would be nothing she could do to stop it from happening.

The door opened behind her to reveal another clone guard. He went straight to Helen and whispered something into her ear and walked back out. The door closed with a very loud BANG!

Helen smiled at her and told the guard holding her to put plan A into effect.

Abby tried desperately to stand but failed and was thrown to the floor.

In a flash the guard was standing over her. He smiled and started kicking her repeatedly in her stomach. He laughed when she started to scream.

'Please stop' Abby sobbed and was given another kick to the ribs for it.

She was starting to lose consciousness but was still aware of pain.

She was tried to curl up into a ball but as her arm stretched out the soldier jumped on it with enough force to break it in multiple places.

Abby winced as she heard it crack. But she no longer cared.

Black dots started to cover her vision. She closed her eyes and barely noticed Helen speaking over the intercom. She only heard her say 'this was because she tried to escape' before she lost consciousness.