Here is chapter two. As I said before those of you who have finicky stomachs or whatever should be warned that the torture will become more graphic as we move along; minimally mutilating but graphic. If you can't handle that don't read.
This chapter will cover Alex's return to the 'home cell' as I call it and how K-unit reacted to his condition. For some reason I don't really like this part, maybe because I don't write delirious people well but it insisted to play out like this. Anyhow I like the next session much better. The entire fic is almost complete with only two sessions.
I'm posting this today because you all have been good reviewers and I won't be able to on friday later today I should be updating Caught in the Crossfire as well. So hope you enjoy they won't all ways happen in doubles like this. ; )
As always let me know what you think, how it made you feel, what you hated or loved, talk to me won't you. : )
Disclaimer: Not necessary
Previously: Snake's reply was cut short by a loud angry yell. "Just answer! You know what I'm talking about!" the shout belonged to the man whom Alex had attacked and he was obviously talking to Alex since he yelled back.
"NO I DON'T! I don't know half of the things you're asking me!"
There was some muffled cursing and Alex shouting, terror was evident in his voice as he repeatedly protested against something, then screaming, loud and agonized, Alex's without a doubt. Constantly for maybe five seconds. Eagle's hands shook from a mixture of fear and rage and Wolf jumped up to pound on the door.
"OPEN UP! OPEN THE DAMN #$% DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR!! YOU COWARDS! COWARDS!!" He continued to bang on the door till his fist was bloody but he continued without noticing. Around ten minutes later the door suddenly opened and the burly guy who they'd seen first, shoved Alex into the room where Wolf quickly caught him. His chest was bare and he seemed to be battling unconsciousness.
His skin was red and dry to the touch but very hot. Wolf picked him up seeing that he couldn't stand by himself and the warm contact apparently pained him further because he hissed in pain. He was obviously trying not to cry but as Wolf carried him a little further into the room and knelt down by Snake to lay him on the cool floor, his left hand happened to touch the floor. He immediately cried out and moved his arm to just above his chest. The men were horrified to find that in addition to his exhaustion, his left hand and wrist were badly damaged.
"Let me see it Alex." Wolf gently urged him when he insisted not to let Wolf touch his arm.
"No," Alex sobbed quietly "Let it be."
"What happened to it Cub?" Fox asked. He was trying to examine it too, but now that Alex had bumped it he had rolled away from them and was waving it constantly in an attempt to ease the pain.
"What happened Alex?" Wolf paused to calm his raging nerves "What did he do to you?"
Alex sat in the corner pressing his bare back against the wall still waving his hand looking extremely flushed. He tried to swallow and then suddenly rasped "Water; I'm so thirsty."
"We don't have any Cub." Snake answered sadly
"But I need water." Alex pleaded "Can't you get some? Please? I'm so, so thirsty."
Snake got up to yell for water whilst the others tried to tend to Alex's injured hand.
"Snake is trying to get some water Cub, now tell me what happened so I can fix it." Wolf pleaded with him.
"No!" Alex continued to cry "Leave it alone." he shook his head miserably and shifted around trying to get cool. "I'm so hot and thirsty. Why can't I have some water?" he seemed to be mildly delirious.
"We will get you the water Alex, we will, just tell me what the son of a bitch did to your hand." Wolf insisted; for his own reasons he had to know.
Alex didn't seem to hear him, he just gasped and squirmed, his eyes darting around the room but not seeming to see.
"I'm so hot and thirsty." he sighed again. He soon stopped the waving motion of his hand.
When Wolf tried to take hold of his forearm to get a closer look, Alex promptly screamed and yanked it away. "You'll make it worse. Just go away!" He stumbled to a standing position and tried pacing around. It seemed as though he was trying to get away from them.
As he faltered against the wall he seemed to regain some lucidity. "I'll never like summer again." He announced suddenly "I'm so hot and thirsty, and I can't have anything to drink." he continued hyperventilating
"I HATE him!" he suddenly exclaimed leaning against the wall. He slowly slid down the wall apparently conscious of the fact that the men were watching him wearily. He suddenly showed them his damaged hand. "He BOILED it." he cried tearlessly. "He forced my hand into boiling water and held it there." Eagle examined the burnt hand, his eyes unusually bright. They had not been able to recognize the injury because they had never seen such a bad water burn before.
"Nothing I do makes the pain go away." Alex continued. He tried to move again but immediately began to sway so Wolf steadied him against his chest to stop him from exerting himself. He pushed the boy's hair from his face as he battled unconsciousness. His skin was still hot to the touch but very dry.
"He's still burning up." Wolf commented in a broken voice with his hand on Alex's forehead.
"If he's so hot why isn't he sweating?" Eagle asked as he took off his shirt to fan him with it.
"It's because he's so dehydrated; he can't sweat anymore." Snake answered, having exhausted his efforts in trying to get water. He hadn't had much hope that they would have gotten it anyway.
Alex opened his eyes again and glanced up at Eagle, fanning him with a shirt. But with out saying anything his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.
Wolf started in alarm as Alex went limp in his arms. "Alex!" He hastily checked his pulse which was weak and erratic but thankfully there. No amount of shouting would wake him up though so they concentrated on trying to cool him.
After Eagle's arms had gotten tired of fanning, Fox took over. They took turns like that to cool him down in the absence of water except Wolf. Wolf refused to put Alex down or let anyone else tend to him and the others eventually realized that it was because he felt guilty or blamed himself for letting Alex get taken and tortured in the first place.
As the hours crawled by the men took turn sleeping for about a half an hour at a time but no one could really sleep much longer than that for they were often awakened by Alex's moaning.
He was lying down with his head in Wolf's lap but he would frequently toss back and forth as his hand throbbed and burned.
After what seemed like a day, the door flew open suddenly. Fox immediately charged over to the door to bar anyone from entering. But to his surprise a small steel cup of water was thrust into his hand and the door was promptly shut again, some of the water spilling in the process.
Fox brought it over to Wolf cautiously, they were all wondering if the water was safe to drink.
"It could be poisoned." Snake pointed out
"They want to keep him alive to ask more questions." Fox countered "and they no he'll die without water."
Wolf thought about it a moment before taking the cup from Fox to feed it to Alex, who was still asleep.
"Wait!" Eagle suddenly exclaimed
"What?" Wolf asked with an unintentionally sharp edge to his voice.
"It could also be hydrogen peroxide; it won't kill him but it's no good." Eagle explained
"What?" Snake exclaimed incredulously
"If it foams in your mouth don't give it to him."
Wolf eyed Eagle suspiciously and sipped the water. The others watched him closely.
"Its water." he announced after a moment
"Good." Snake sighed
Wolf put the cup to Alex's swollen lips and got him to take a few sips. After about half of the cup Alex shakily sat up and took the cup to drink it himself. The men were relieved to see that he even seemed embarrassed by being fed, meaning he was recovering.
Fox nearly laughed in relief as Alex gave Wolf a weak glare for holding the cup for him when instead of sipping it; Alex had tried to take gulps; which would have been painful.
"I'm not-" his voice cracked because of his dry throat "I'm not a baby, Wolf." Alex finally said
Wolf grinned despite the tone of Alex's voice. "I know Cub but if you gulp that water we're going to have to treat you like one again anyway so just do as I say."
"Good to have you back among the living Cub." Eagle told him ruffling his hair gently.
"Thanks, I feel a bit better now." He gave Fox the cup with some of the water still in it.
"No more?" he asked surprised
Alex shook his head slightly as he lay down on the shirts that the men had piled in the corner. "I feel kind of queasy." A second later he got up and laid his head on Wolf's thigh instead.
"I normally wouldn't do this," he explained as he positioned his damaged hand in such a way so that he didn't have to see it, a grimace momentarily distorted his handsome features as the burning sensation surged, "But those clothes reek and I'm really REALLY tired so I hope you don't mind."
"Nor would I normally allow you Cub but considering the circumstances I think I can make an exception." Wolf responded jokingly
"Not that it's comfortable." Alex yawned "But it will work."
"Go to sleep Cub."
Alex yawned widely "What do you think I'm doing?" he countered drifting off
"Its good to see him feeling better." Eagle commented when he had fallen into a more peaceful sleep.
"Yeah, the water really helped." Fox agreed
"Speaking of which, what was that bit about hydrogen peroxide?" Snake inquired
"Some people use it as prank material." Eagle answered simply
"Like you?" Snake implied
"No, but my brothers do."
"I didn't know you had brothers." Fox said
"Yeah I have three older brothers and they're all in the military but only I made it into SAS. But the second oldest loved to prank my friends; mean pranks."
"What about you, were you ever a victim?" Wolf asked
"Of course, but he never used his more dangerous pranks on me. The reason hydrogen peroxide came to mind with the water is because of a cruel joke he played on a friend of mine back when I was 15 and my brother, Brandon was 19.
My friend, who was a greedy son of a gun come to think of it, got tricked into an insanely salty bag of chips. When he started bawling for water, Brandon gave him what seemed like water but what was actually the hydrogen peroxide you get from the drugstore. It's just like water except if you don't gulp it you'll notice a foamy, almost soapiness appear in your mouth after a moment. The problem is that after you drink it, you get these horrible bellyaches from all the gas build up. Some of it can even get into your blood vessels and you throw up all the time until it's all out of your system. Really cruel stuff. Needless to say he got punished for that one big time and he kind of stopped pranking after that.
But it just came to my mind when they suspiciously brought us a cup of something, obviously for Cub that seemed like water when he was very thirsty."
"Good point." Fox commented
"Something to remember the next time someone offers me some water." Snake decided
Wolf nodded in agreement.
Three days since Alex's first torture session. Three days seemed to have helped his battle with heat exhaustion significantly, but his hand was another subject. He had allowed the men to examine it properly and their expressions told Alex that they were trying to be optimistic about it for his sake but they actually thought it was pretty bad. Indeed Alex wouldn't be surprised if he lost it altogether. He had never felt such pain before. He was sure that his hand had cooked in that water. He shuddered for the umpteenth time thinking about it; the seconds and minutes leading up to it, replaying themselves over and over in his head.
The oppressively bright room. Being forced to stand in the overwhelming heat, his arms restrained above his head.
The questions, so many questions that he couldn't think straight enough to answer. Not knowing the answer had caused extreme frustration. Then the frustration and terror when his left arm was released and the boiling pot brought from the nearby stove for burning. His intense struggle, his terrified futile struggle against the other, bigger, silent man. His protests, the shouting, shouting NO repeatedly. His profound horror as the other man picked him up to subdue his struggling cursing all the while before the leader stuck his hand into the water. The instantaneous pain. Pain. PAIN! The hurting ran up and down his arm searing it, destroying his hand. Blessed oblivion that promised to blanket him from the pain only to be snatched away by a dirty needle. So much pain as the pot was finally removed. No escape from it, he writhed and struggled uselessly against it until they carried him away-.
"Alex, calm down, don't think about it just don't think." Fox broke through his nightmare thoughts, noticing his shivering, hyperventilating figure.
"Alex?" Fox continued to call him as tears ran down the boy's cheeks but Alex couldn't sever the images, sensations, and memories from his mind; they plagued him mercilessly. Fox eventually pulled Alex into a comforting hug against his shoulder for support but the kid didn't seem to realize that either, being trapped in the nightmare as he was.
Day four and everyone was complaining of hunger after a meager meal of a slice of bread each when the door opened again.
There you go. Another cliffie, not as bad as before but still suspenseful. Till next time.