Wally
Suddenly, there's no slick warm back of Artemis keeping me upright and I fall backwards in a confused and painful heap before I think to question her comment about scenery.
"Ouch! Some warning would've been…" I stop. She sprawled out under me, eyes closed but not completely, moaning softly.
"Artemis…?" I ask as I twist myself around painfully to look at her. "Artemis! ARTEMIS!"
Panic swells up in me. She couldn't pass out. She couldn't. I wasn't all here so she had to be! She was going to get us out because I could hardly remember what I had for lunch today right then.
I shake her. I try holding her nose, that sometimes wakes up people who are loud sleepers (like Robin). But it doesn't.
I'm completely alert now, shaking her violently, trying to bring her back. I'm a whole lot more awake than when we were singing rap songs at least and—
Singing rap songs?! What had we been doing?! What were we thinking?! We'd needed that time awake to plan to…to think of…of SOMETHING!
It's no use, she's out and I can feel the blissful darkness teetering on the edges of my vision, tempting me to follow. She has only one good arm, I have NO good legs and we…we should've been…we…
We could really die here.
I stare at her, begging her telepathically to come back even though I know she can't hear anything I'm saying. But I can feel it. The hope, slipping from me. All my confidence, all my training.
Scratch what I said before. I've never been this scared in my entire life.
Frantically, I grab Artemis by the only place I can—her bra straps—and smack her as hard as I can across the face.
"Wake up!" I shout at her. "C'mon, you crazy harpy woman! WAKE UP, Artemis!"
I glance around the empty room desperately, not even sure myself what I'm looking for other than a miracle. And I see a light out of the corner of my eye.
It's a tiny red light, miniscule, shining from the very highest corner of the cargo holder. A camera, I realize.
They've had a camera on us this whole time. That's how they knew where to shoot me. How they knew we were going to ambush them!
I hear footsteps outside and freeze. They reach just outside the door…and wait.
For WHAT? I'm furious, at them, at myself. Just come inside already! I want to shout at them. Come inside so I can chew your legs off you sick—!
I catch myself, and tear my glare away from the door and down to Artemis still half-tangled beneath me. It's her they want. She's what's important here, to both of us.
If that really is a camera…I realize…if that really is a camera, they just saw me whack her across the face. They might think I'm damaging her, that I'm going crazy. They need her intact.
The plan—which, yeah, is a whole lot crazy but Sweet Jesus am I desperate—comes together in my head and next thing I know, I'm smacking Artemis again. Repeatedly.
If we get out of this, I promise her apologetically in my head, cringing at my own actions while desperately hoping they work, if you decide you ever want to wake up, I swear I'm gonna spend the rest of our natural lives making this up to you, babe.
Sure enough, the door opens. One set of feet. Not too heavy. Good.
He grabs my wrists as I'm preparing another swing at her and hauls me back.
"Knock it off, kid!" he orders grumpily. "Some Romeo you are—"
I have one shot and exactly one shot to make this work. With my last bolt of speed and strength, I yank myself up using just my arm strength against his hold and ram the top of my head as hard as I can into his groin.
He seizes bending over, and his grip on my hands becomes a vice. I use that to my advantage and yank again, down and forward and the man flips over me to the ground, hitting his head rather hard even against the padded floor. His hands automatically let go as he falls unconscious, landing just to the side of Artemis.
The door's still open. My heart and lungs feel like a mountain was lifted off them.
I practically taste the cold even though I can't feel any of it yet. The snow looks so…fresh. So amazing. I want to roll around in it until I'm numb. There's nothing else I want to do right then than grab Artemis and bury myself in the few inches of snow. I almost laugh in relief until I remind myself I have no use of my legs and my crutch is unconscious and there's no relief in any of that.
Artemis is still out of it, I realize quickly when three more smacks and my hurried promises of winter wonderlands don't rouse her awake. So the next on the list is searching the goon, since he was technically within crawling distance and might've possessed something conducive to escape.
Search him quickly. Before someone checks the cameras if they haven't already.
I crawl over to him using only the strength in my arms, feeling the most handicapped I've ever been and start going through his pockets as fast as I can. There's a small tablet screen showing the view of the container. I was right, it was a camera. Was this the only one screen? Did no one else see me just take this guy out? Wishful thinking, but given the circumstances and the stakes, not taking any chances.
He's got a set of keys. A car? Oh PLEASE be a car. I don't care if I can't drive I swear I'll get my permit the second we get out of here if there's a CAR to get us out. There's a screwdriver, his wallet, and a small plastic looking green contraption about the size of a cigarette box with a button on it.
I don't hesitate to press it, hoping a little too late that it doesn't blow up anything important.
It clicks once, and unfolds into a miniature crossbow. This would greatly come in handy, if Artemis was actually awake and I wasn't a freaking terrible shot.
I shove the keys and the screwdriver into my pockets, thankful Artemis was kind enough to leave my tattered, bloody, sweat-inducing pants still on my body to carry our escape crap. We're going to need the crossbow once Artemis wakes up, but it's impossible for me to carry it now that it's unfolded.
At least, I can't carry it.
Clamping it in my teeth (I can really use the something to bite down on because my legs are not taking the dragging about well), I drag myself back over to her and slip it between the elastic of her neon panties, trying to convince myself that it was just like a holster, juuuust like a holster. I wasn't going to dwell on them. It. The color. Nope.
I try to stand up. I manage to get on my one good knee before collapsing when my other leg blazes pain in protest and the stars shoot across my field of vision form the pain or the heat or both.
I need Artemis awake. I can't manage by myself. But nothing I've tried works. And I know if I can just get her out into the cold, her body should automatically snap out of it…
"Okay, then. Okay." I breath deep, get my shit together. I'm running out of time. Someone's going to come looking for this guy. Someone's going to check the cameras.
If I can't get Artemis out into the cold, then I get the cold to her.
My arms burn from the strain as I crawl quickly back to the door. Once I make it out in the snow, it's heaven. All that time roasting and this is like a shock of life to a zombie. A breath of fresh icy air. I can see the night-soon-to-be-morning-holy-shit-how-many-hours-had-we-been-here?
I crawl far enough to reach the snow, collapse into it for a blissful five seconds, then turn around and start pelting it at her. Good thing I was always a boss at snowball fights. Third one hits her straight in the face and she starts stirring. She starts coughing on the melted water by snowball six, and her eyes open on snowball eight, another dead on to the face.
Urgently, I hiss her name at her in the darkness. Glancing over my shoulder, I notice a second crate, looking more like an office judging by the open door. There's the tv showing our crate in there but no one inside. Still didn't mean they wouldn't be back soon. There's a chain link fence not far behind it, leading to water channel that we could probably use to make our escape. A highway roars high above our heads.
I can see in her eyes that she's still out of it. They keep coming in and out of focus and she doesn't seem to be reacting when I call her.
"C'mon!" I shout a little louder, "Artemis, COME ON!" I chuck three more snowballs at her as she tries to sit up. If my words aren't working, the snow and the cold definitely are. She gets enough semblance to rise to her feet and stumble out the door into the snow.
"Help me up," I call to her, my voice hushed. Her eyes are blinking rapidly now, still confused but heading more in the way of aware.
She staggers over and I nearly pull her to the ground in our three armed scramble to get up and get the hell out of here. I accidentally grab her sling arm for support and she yelps so I grab for something else. I try very hard not to think that it's her bra I nearly pull off in the process.
"I…hate you…Kid Fatass…" she grunts, pulling me up. I want to kiss her I'm so freaking overjoyed to hear her being herself again.
Instead, I focus on trying not to pass out as the jolts of pain shoot up my legs. I bite my lip to keep from screaming anything and draw blood.
"Fence," I get out through gritted teeth.
We hop, stumble, trip, and fall towards the fence as fast as we can in our conditions. I'm dreading all the ways we're going to have to climb it or dig under it.
"Grab the fence," she says, sliding herself out from under my weight. I do what she says, clinging to the chain link with everything I have to keep me from falling down as she glances over a padlocked door.
I quickly dig in my pockets and hand her the screwdriver I'd picked up from the goon. She takes it wordlessly and gets to work on the door.
The cold is getting past the point of refreshing, on a downward spiral towards freezing. Leaving our clothes in the crate sounded like a good idea five minutes ago. Now, without Artemis next to me, I feel the ice wind inside my ribcage.
There's a snap from the gate and I see that she's gotten around the lock by getting rid of the bolts that held it there. Nice.
She glances over at me, smirking triumphantly. I'm about to smile back in relief when her smirk morphs into a wide-eyed stare, somewhere behind me, and she freezes.
I release my grip on the fence and drop to the ground at the exact moment I hear the first gun shot.
The bullet whizzes over my head—I know cuz I hear it. When I look up, Artemis is gone.
They door's open, she's on the other side. She's free and—wait what?? She left me! After I dragged her out and kept her alive she leaves me?!
"Arte—!" I start but I'm interrupted as the second goon closes the distance in record time and slams a boot down on the back of my bad knee. I hear a crack! and have an infinite amount of time to hypothesize exactly what that means as I scream, clawing at the snow.
I hear this guy call her name, tauntingly, I think, thorugh my hollowed out hearing. The world is spinning. I can't think straight. She's gone, I think.
"She's gone!" I think I tell him. Oh god, my leg my leg my leg why can't I breathe MY LEG…!
He says something else and pushes down, practically STANDING on my bad knee now. I scream again, feeling the pain threatening to pull me under. Knowing that it didn't the last time. It feels like my leg is in two pieces.
"RUN!" I shout to no one. I'm praying she doesn't double back for me at the same time I'm desperately hoping she does. The spots are dancing in front of my eyes and some even look like her. "RUN!"
A burst of light suddenly illuminates the world around me, and all I can think of are aliens invading at a time like this. But then the foot's gone, all the pressure gone. Even though it still hurts like crazy, it's not getting progressively worse. It's just staying at oh god agonizing…
…I can't do it…
…I'm gonna pass out…
…I can feel it in my bones already…
…I'm going to pass out right here in the snow…
…and Artemis gets to go home…
…dammit…
…