Frozen In Time - Rescue

Part IX - Revenge

Working their way through the vents as silently as they could, Melanie and Alex eventually came to the area where Wilford had set up his forge for Hes to work.

Laying on her stomach, Melanie got a good look at the area. Although a larger engine, Wilford hadn't allocated much space for his abducted blacksmith to work. All in all, Melanie didn't feel it was much bigger than Hes' old forge in the Tail had been.

To her benefit, Hes was standing at the forge, two large leather gloves covering his hands as he molded a piece of white hot metal with one of the tools laying nearby. Although he was working, Melanie could tell it was at a slower pace than he usually did, and with what appeared a great deal less enthusiasm.

Much too her surprise, as she looked around the room, the one thing she did not see were any guards. Her suspicions rose at this, but she knew there wasn't much more she could do than take a chance. They had come this far. There was no turning back or even considering leaving Hes behind simply due to suspicions.

Pulling her tools out again, Melanie quickly began working on the vent's latches from her side. In a short amount of time she had the cover loose enough to swing it to the side so she could access the opening.

As she had worked, Melanie had caught the metallurgist covertly glancing up several times, apparently hearing sounds that attracted his attention. Almost as soon as he noticed something was amiss, he had grabbed a flat piece of metal and began to bang on it with a metal hammer to help cover any sounds from the vent panel being removed.

As soon as it was open, Melanie quickly slid out of the vent, with Hes, having removed the cumbersome leather gloves, already in place to help her and Alex get to the floor as quickly as possible.

As soon as they were out of the vent, Hes was already admonishing her for being there.

"Told little engineer if someone comes to leave me here!" He stated. "Should not be here. It is too dangerous."

But Melanie was less interested in what Hes' opinion of the rescue was and was more concerned over what she had seen as he helped her out of the vent.

"Hes! What happened to you!?" She stated in a disquieted whisper as she examined his injured hand. But she quickly turned to the metallurgist, fury building in her. "Did Wilford do this!?"

But Hes pulled the hand free, shielding it against his body. "Is not important. Need to leave!"

Melanie quickly focused back on the room, suddenly remembering what had caught her attention before.

"Where are the guards?" She asked, continuing to look around the room.

Hes shook his head. "Have never been guards. Now need to leave!" He reintegrated a bit firmer.

But Melanie ignored his rising agitation as she quickly looked about the room again, this time focusing on the corners or any dark area. If Wilford never posted guards, he was watching some other way. Likely a camera somewhere in the room. There was simply no possible way he was leaving one of his most valuable possessions unguarded.

Quickly ushering all of them towards the door, Melanie focused now on just getting them out of the room.

"You're right, Hes." She stated urgently. "We all need to leave. Now!"

But no sooner did they start for the door to the forge than several guards flooded into the room, each carrying a taser stick on a pole they used to corral the three back into the room and effectively cutting off any escape from the room.

Melanie saw Hes start forward, but she quickly reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"No, Hes!" She stated firmly. "Stay where you are."

As the two groups stood facing off against each other, the guards suddenly pulled back slightly as a single figure entered the room in his usual three piece business attire.

"Melanie, Melanie, Melanie...," Wilford admonished her as one would a small child. "I thought you were smarter than this. Letting your emotions lead you to an act you knew would fail. How you do disappoint me, my dear." He quickly turned to Alex. "And you, Alex!" He stated, his tone getting harsher. "What is it going to take for you to accept your punishments and learn your lessons?"

The girl eyed the man before her with nothing but malice, occasionally letting her eyes shift to the men holding the poles.

Melanie adopted an almost casual stance as she faced the man. "You sound like you knew I was coming." Her main goal was to keep him talking until she could figure how to get them out of this situation. Not a hard task, as she knew how much Wilford liked the sound of his own voice.

"Oh, that wasn't hard." The man replied. "You see, little Alex came back from Snowpiercer healthy as always. But after a day or two, she suddenly started to complain of feeling ill. She needed to spend an unprecedented amount of time in her bunk. So I asked myself, 'What sort of illness might cause that?'" He added with a grin. "I came to the conclusion she was missing mummy. And knowing you, Melanie, being far too soft with this child, would seek a way to help her escape her punishment. But you see, that just isn't good for children. They need to learn discipline. They need to follow rules. And Alex broke a very bad rule on this train."

Melanie looked about to jump the man and choke him. "The chip?!" She stated at him suddenly. Taking a step forward, she caused several of the guards to tense up, aiming their poles at her. But Melanie ignored them and shoved the closest pole pointed at her aside as she stepped up to Wilford. "This is all about that stupid chip still!"

Wilford didn't make a move, but stared down at her. "So you know about that incident." He stated calmly. "Well, my dear, that makes you as culpable as your daughter for the act, the way I see it. Equal partners in the crime makes equal partners in the punishment."

Alex quickly stepped up also. "Mom knew nothing about the chip." She stated. "That was me. She needed the chip for Snowpiercer, so I took it. She didn't know anything about it."

Wilford turned his attention to the girl. "Well, now you see, Alex. That isn't entirely true, as your mother just admitted to knowing about the chip." He gave an insincere smile. "I'm afraid that renders your testimony not very valid. And you," he added, turning to Hephaestus, "I hope you have been paying attention, my good man."

Hes went back to his usual manner of speaking in front of Wilford. "Hes pays enough attention."

"Good." Wilford stated, pointing a finger at him. "Then I hope you took note that the first person your good friend here came for, was her daughter. You, my good man, were an...after thought. She 'wanted' her daughter back. But you, she merely needs. You see the difference?"

Hes returned little more than a disgruntled look. But Melanie was getting tired of the game play.

"What is it you want, Joseph?" She tried to ask in the most unthreatening voice she could manage at the moment.

The man all but beamed down at her this time. "Now you see, that is a much better tone!" He declared happily. "A sign of acceptance where we might now be able to discuss this unfortunate incident and clear this matter up. And I see no reason we can't do that in a civilized manner. So I suggest we all go to my quarters and bring this matter to a close." But Wilford stopped as his guards began ushering everyone out of the room, putting a hand up to stop Hes. "Not you." He stated. "You have work to do and this matter doesn't concern you."

Melanie quickly turned to Hes, finding his eyes already on her. She gave him a small nod. There didn't seem to be much else any of them could do right now but go along with Wilford's demands.

But before anyone could make a further move, a small round ball suddenly fell to the floor. Even Melanie, who was usually hyper-observant in dangerous situations, didn't see where the object had come from. But as fast as it appeared, she reasoned someone in the room had covertly dropped it to the floor.

All of Wilford's guards reacted much as Melanie had, simply staring at the object for a second, trying to reason out what it was. But the sphere itself answered the mystery when it suddenly erupted in a small explosion, almost instantly filling the room with a think, black smoke. It immediately obliterated the dim lights in the forge and cast the room into near pitch blackness.

Unsure of what to do, Melanie reached out to where she last remembered Alex being and grabbed hold of her, quickly letting the girl know it was her and began ushering her towards where she remembered to door being. Thankfully the guards had focused their efforts on trying to find and protect Wilford. But even that had gone awry, with WIlford shouting at them to find the prisoners and stop them.

With the guards focus now off Wilford, Hes quickly put his own plan into action. One he had been nursing since Wilford had maimed him.

As soon as the smoke bomb exploded, Hes reached out to where he last saw Wilford, which was fortunately right in front of him. Several guards had more or less bumped into him, but Hes quickly dispatched them with a solid swing of his arm, knocking several down and others into walls in the confined room. Others seemed to help his cause, activating their tasers and seemingly managing to only shock their own fellow guards.

Wilford himself helped Hes locate him as he shouted at his guards.

"No tasers, you fools! Only use the poles to stop them."

But for whatever reason, the sounds of the tasers connecting with bodies could still be heard in the room.

Unable to move as quickly as the others, Wilford found himself suddenly in the steel grip of the metallurgist, who yanked the man up face to face with him so Wilford could feel the anger in every word Hes spoke to him.

"You know ice?" Hes asked in a hate filled tone, practically nose to nose with the man who had injured him. "Well, Hes knows fire."

With that single statement, Hes grabbed the man's left arm and dragged him to where he could feel the heat from the forge. Through it all Wilford fought as hard as he could, hitting the blacksmith several times across the back with his cane. But Hes never seemed to acknowledge a single blow, only focused on getting to his destination.

Holding Wilford's lower arm so he had no way to bend it or avert the metallurgist control, Hes' shoved the unprotected hand directly into the center of the forge's fire pit and held it there with all his strength, giving Wilford a good taste of what that degree of heat could do to human flesh.

The scream in the enclosed room was deafening, causing the guards still standing or conscious to focus on the direction it had come from.

Hes knew his revenge would be short, but he made use of every second. But someone suddenly grabbed him, quickly pulling him back.

"5847490B." Was the first thing the voice urgently said to him. "Hallway. Go right." It added quickly as the person shoved him towards the door.

The smoke had cleared just enough that the light from the hallway illuminated the doorway as a hazy portal. Hes stumbled over a few bodies beneath his feet and headed for it.

Out in the hallway things were not as chaotic. The guards had all concentrated on finding Wilford in the room now. So Hes was more or less alone in the hallway.

Remembering the words spoken to him by his unknown benefactor, Hes quickly stumbled to the right, working his way through the smoke that had found its way into the lit hallway. Even there the lights were obscured slightly, making seeing his way at first difficult.

As he continued to make his way through what was now more of a light fog, Hes suddenly felt himself grabbed from behind and dragged backwards, throwing him off balance.

"Hes!" He suddenly heard Alex's voice call to him.

Seconds later, Hes found himself delivered back into darkness, a loud "Shhhh." coming from next to him.

A light suddenly illuminated the small space he was in. Cramped together, he and Melanie and her daughter were securely hidden in what looked like a small storage room.

"It's a Priest Hole." Melanie quickly explained. "It's hidden from the outside and we'll have to stay here a short time until things calm down."

A sudden alarm sounded on the other side of the door, to which Melanie gave a small sigh. "Which may not be any time soon." She commented, turning off the light again.

Within seconds, the sounds of boots running down the hallway could be heard.

Another "Shhhh." from Melanie warned everyone in the cramped room to stay still and quiet.

She was amazed for someone as large as he was, Hes could literally go completely still and appear to hold that stance for some time. While she and Alex seemed to need to move at least some small part of their bodies every few moments, Hes never moved so much as a finger it seemed.

Angry voices from the other side of the wall gave them an idea of what was going on as they heard guards yelling at their troops and Wilford yelling at just about everybody.

Melanie listened carefully as she heard several of the guards urging Wilford to go with them, telling him they had to get him to the medical car to get his hand looked at. Finally seeming to agree, Wilford yelled at those left behind one more time, warning them that not finding the prisoners would go badly for those who allowed them to escape.

As they listened to the guards moving off searching for them, Melanie lit up the Priest Hole again with the flashlight, turning to Hes.

"What happened to Wilford's hand?"

Hes gave one small shrug. "Tripped. Fell in forge."

Melanie stared up at him for a second, before quickly dousing the light again.