Time Unknown
My eyes opened but it was so dark that it was as if they hadn't at all. Where was I? I went to sit up. Wait, I was sitting up and why couldn't I move my hands. What the hell was going on?
Suddenly, I remembered what had happened: I had been sitting on the landing of the building's stairwell when the service door had opened. Suspicious, I peeked around the corner at the doorway to be sure that I wasn't being followed even though I hadn't seen a shadow of someone standing at the door. Once my eyes had enough time to focus downrange, someone grabbed me from behind.
Thorne's men had got the drop on me. They must've had a lookout somewhere that had managed to track me and pass my location to more goons. They circled around the block and ambushed me.
How was I going to get out of this? They were going to kill me! I needed to get ahold of Robin somehow. I needed help. I had to get free.
I snapped my arms forward but they abruptly came to a stop just level with my lap. I could also feel an increase in humidity every time I exhaled. My hands were tied to a chair and there was a bag over my head.
I began to panic.
"Hello!" I screamed.
My voice echoed.
I wrestled against my bindings trying to overpower them but it was no use.
I exhaled defeat and resignation. I should have known better than this. I should have listened to my father when he said not to take the law into my own hands. The outcome of which could be terrible and catastrophic. I had known that in theory but I suppose that I never internalized it. Now, I was going to have the rest of my life to accept it—however short that was.
I sat quietly for a while drifting along a current of regret to the rhythm of my heartbeat and a faint chirping. Who did I think I was? What made me think that I could get away with this? Was it pride—delusion? Perhaps Murph was right, perhaps I had developed an unhealthy infatuation with Batman and vigilantism. Now, I was a victim of both.
Wait…
For the first time I could actually feel my bindings resting against the meat of my hand just above the thumb. I torqued my wrist and felt the bindings give. Then I checked for space by moving my shoulder up and down and felt the bindings slide up the bracer and back down to rest on my wrist.
They were loose.
…To be honest, Babs, Escapology is based less on contortionism and magic and based more on the jailor's inability to tie knots…
The rope had been tied around my bracer, not my wrist, and the bracer had a larger circumference.
I sat up as straight as I could and pushed my shoulders back as far as humanly possible in a Kevlar vest. It pressed uncomfortably against my sore chest but I ignored that. The rope fell to rest against my wrist again.
I made a tight, compact cylinder with my thumb and fingers and pulled upwards steadily and deliberately at the shoulder and elbow. The rope went taut and squeezed my hand more and more the further I lifted. The pain was minimal at first but grew with each millimeter. The rope crushed and grinded my carpals together like a python squeezing the life out of its prey. It took every ounce of my womanhood to keep from moaning to relieve the pain.
Then, I felt my hand break free and I let out a triumphant breath.
I wriggled my hand until the rope fell away and I could move my entire arm. I grabbed at the canvas covering my face and found that it was bound by a buckle. With the click of a latch, it fell open and I pulled the bag from my head.
I scanned my surroundings; my senses going into overdrive as they tried to equalize after being stuffed in a sack. And, what I saw confused the dickens out of me.
I found myself in a round, yet jagged, cave.
A cave.
What the hell was I doing in a cave?
I must've been drugged or dreaming, because there was no way I was in a damn cave.
Prior to taking the bag off, the situation was intense. Now, the situation was intense and weird.
Realizing that I could contemplate the merits of my situation later, I opted to finish untying myself. I pulled the rope taut with my left arm and then reached across with the right to saw through the rope with the blades on the bracer. After a few pumps, I cut cleanly through the rope freeing my other arm. Then, I set both hands to work clearing my feet of their bindings. The last set of coils hit the shale of the cave floor and I jumped out of the office chair to leave.
Wait…
Why was there an office chair in a cave?
"WTF?" I asked the universe just above a whisper.