Okay now this has been long overdue and I know that my faithful readers are waiting for an update, so here it is.
Updates still won't be frequent again for awhile yet because I have no more computer for the time being. At the moment I'm living out of a flash-drive but I should be getting a hold of a system in a few months tops. So in the mean time enjoy.
To my Caught In The Crossfire fans, the next piece I'll be posting will be the last for a little while because I have to start writing it again. But don't worry it won't be abandoned.
As for this part of the torture. Things are beginning to go quickly down hill for our favorite soldiers and kid spy. From here on things are going to get worse for Wolf, really worse and eventually the mood in the cell is going to deteriorate into despair and fear. As I said at the beginning this fic was going to be heavy and somewhat dark. You always have the option of skipping over sections that disturb you but you might not understand everything because of it.
Now enjoy and please do review.
He turned to continue his work on the door when it suddenly swung open revealing Wolf stumbling through the doorway with an unconscious Alex clutched close to his chest. Wolf himself looked about ready to collapse as the guard behind them slammed the door shut.
Fox rushed forward to relieve him of Alex without a word. But he did gasp when he felt Alex's slick icy skin.
Eagle grabbed Wolf under the arm and supported him over to the bench where Wolf leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. After a second he spoke in hardly decipherable English because of the awkwardness of his freshly busted tongue " ou eed u orm him up."
"What?" Fox asked while he continued to try warming Alex against his chest with his shirt around him.
"He said, you need to warm him up." Eagle translated, tending to Wolf's injuries with single minded focus, seeing that Fox had Alex and he didn't want to speak to Snake who was pacing the floor at the moment.
"What happened mate?" Eagle asked quietly, checking the bloody spot on the back of Wolf's head. Wolf sagged forward, leaning against Eagle, nearly unconscious. After it seemed as though he wouldn't answer he did, speaking very slowly to form the words despite his swelling tongue. "He… asked questions… we didn't know …the answer to. He froze… Cub… and…and electrocuted him."
Eagle nodded sympathetically, somewhat subdued in spirit by the condition of his friends. He continued his assessment of Wolf's injuries, gently leaning him back to check out the severity of his chest bruises. As he touched certain areas, Wolf hissed in pain.
"How long has he been out Wolf?" Fox asked eventually, his voice heavy with worry.
Wolf blinked a couple of times looking up at the ceiling as Eagle helped him into a lying down position on the small bench. "They …they knocked him out…with electricity… maybe two minutes..ago. When… he stopped scream they kept going…maybe half a minute more."
He paused for awhile thinking back on it.
"Just try…and warm him up." he eventually concluded "I don't know if…when he'll wake up."
Fox and Snake stared at Wolf in dismay, though he didn't see it, as they realized that Alex's unconsciousness was electrically induced. He might have collapsed from the pain but it was more likely that he had been, literally shorted out. He could have been in a coma right now for all they knew.
Fox looked down at Alex who was very slowly warming up in his arms. If you ignored the bruises ,the the halting erratic breathing and unhealthy pallor, he seemed to be comfortable, but unconsciousness through electric shock was exceptionally harsh and hypothermia on top of it was just too much. Fox redoubled his efforts to warm him fearing that there might be irreversible damage.
After a moment Wolf tried getting up but nearly collapsed again when his head started to pound. Eagle quickly came to his aid scolding him for moving. But Wolf just pursed his lips and gestured to the tiny hygiene area where he went and spat out something that sounded like teeth.
As he shuffled back to the bench he began to complain about his head at the same time that Fox called out to Snake.
"Yeah?" Snake spoke for the first time since their return, obviously worried by what they now knew of Alex's condition. His tone of voice caused Eagle to begin to regret what he had said about him earlier.
"I need help warming him. One body alone is not gonna cut it."
It was true that Fox had imparted enough heat to Alex's hypothermic body to be shivering himself. He handed Alex over to Snake. "He's not going to get much warmer from me."
Snake nodded gravely taking over the important task that Fox had started.
"What were you saying Wolf?" Fox apologized
"No'hing really, jus my head." Wolf answered his speech garbled by his swelling tongue.
Fox nodded sympathetically
"Looks like it took a couple of pretty hard knocks." Eagle commented
"Yeah, its 'imes ike his whehn ice packs are really hice." Wolf sighed in response
"I hear that." Fox answered "But the only ice around is Cub's cold body." He glanced over at Snake who at the moment was off in a world by himself as he was sometimes prone to do. Alex looked a little bit better but only a little. They needed to warm him more aggressively if he was to get better.
"That's a good idea Fox." Eagle said suddenly "Alex is super cold and Wolf is super achy. It could work."
Snake looked at Eagle incredulously but said nothing.
"Are you seriously proposing that Wolf use Alex for an icepack?" Fox exclaimed
"and warm him in the process." Eagle added reasonably "If he doesn't get some real body heat from us soon he's not going to make it and you know it."
Fox didn't answer but looked at Alex thoughtfully.
"We have to, and embarrassment isn't an issue; his life depends on it; there's no real excuse." Eagle continued
Wolf nodded ever so slightly and got up from off the bench.
"You're right." Fox conceded
"It is a good idea." Snake agreed quietly "We can take turns and see if it helps, because if we don't do something more aggressive than this we're going to be beating up ourselves about his death when he dies of hypothermia."
Snake gently laid Alex down on the pile of discarded shirts and Wolf laid down next to him. He couldn't help but gasp when Alex's freezing body touched his and he was extremely worried by Alex's continued unresponsive state. His face hardened as he made himself as comfortable as possible and made sure Cub was close enough to get warm. He knew that when he got the chance certain people were going to suffer for what they had done. But right now they needed to keep Alex alive more than anything.
The room was eerily quiet after Wolf fell asleep asides from Snake periodically checking on Alex to see how he was coming along which seemed well.
After awhile Snake noisily cleared his throat.
"The idea you came up with was good Eagle." he began lamely. Eagle looked up from his brooding and interrupted.
"Before you continue Snake I need to apologize; I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."
"I know you didn't mean to Eagle but do you have to have your way all the time. You always interrupt." Snake responded coolly
"Sorry. It's not about having my way, I just tend to be pushy sometimes and you allow yourself to be pushed.
Snake raised an eyebrow skeptically "It still boils down to getting your way." He insisted "Just listen will you?"
Eagle nodded
"The things I said earlier were not conceived purely out of anger but they were expressed in anger and regardless of what you might want to say to feel macho, I know I hurt your feelings and I'm sorry for that."
Eagle nodded again more guarded this time.
"Sometimes I truly do think that you're too young to do some things, which you are." Snake continued as Eagle and Fox listened attentively "It just seems sometimes like you're too oblivious to the things that happen out there; too naïve to be in the midst of it. Wolf too actually, but he's much less trusting or maybe optimistic than you are. And then you often let your pigheadedness get in the way so you won't listen either.
But on the other hand I should never have called you stupid or immature because you're none of those. Sometimes I'm actually jealous of your creative wit." he laughed nervously "So, I don't look down on you, because although you're young, you're not stupid. So I guess what I'm trying to say, in way too many words, is that I'm sorry."
Eagle chuckled lightly and sighed "You sure have a unique way of apologizing Snake, but I'm glad to know that you don't think I'm utterly worthless."
"As for my apology, which is long over due." he continued "I shouldn't have called you selfish or heartless or anything of the sort because I know that you look out for your teammates and you do care, you just deal with stress in a different way and I ought to respect that. We can't afford to be bickering like kids when there's so much at stake here and I should have thought of that before I opened my mouth to insult you." He outstretched his hand "Truce?"
"Truce?" Snake questioned "We aren't even at war."
"A constructive argument from time to time can be healthy you know." Eagle explained "As long as we don't let it get in between us."
Snake shrugged and shook his hand but the slightly lightened mood gradually faded away as they returned to watching their injured team mates sleep. Now after an hour of warming, Alex looked significantly better but he still hadn't shown any sign of a return to consciousness; not even a twitch.
It suddenly occurred to Snake that if Wolf had taken many hard knocks to the head, he would slip into unconsciousness too.
He voiced his concerns to the other two men and went over to Wolf to try and wake him up.
"Wolf," Snake whispered at first as he hovered over the sleeping figures. "Wolf?" he tried gently shaking Wolf's shoulder; nothing happened. When he shook it harder Wolf startled awake. "Wha'?!" he exclaimed tiredly with blood shot eyes and clenched fists.
"You need to wake up mate,"
"Why?!" he protested loudly, obviously irritated.
"If you-" he broke off at the other worldly glare that Wolf gave him.
"Let me." Eagle offered
"Be my guest." Snake backed off as Wolf put his hand over his eyes and ears.
"You need to try not to fall asleep in case you go unconscious." Eagle explained
His words were met with no response and he thought that Wolf had gone back to sleep. When he tried to lift Wolf's arm from off his eyes to check, Wolf aimed to thump him before growling to himself.
Eagle frowned stepping back "You need to wake up Wolf and I suggest you don't bite the hand that's feeding you."
"Keep yuh #$% han tho yuh sewf!" Wolf yelled back
"Get up and stop being so soft."
"Now you've gone and done it." Fox partially joked but more chided. It was well known among the members of K-unit that Wolf's temper was unmatched except by Snake's and Eagle's insensitive remark had been uncalled for. He often spoke before thinking; it was a fault of his.
Wolf glared at Eagle for a moment looking like a wounded wolf who thought you were responsible for his injury. Then he sat up, swaying slightly as the arm he was using to support himself shook violently.
"You tew me to lie dowh anh keep im warm den you say dohn fall aseep. How duh hew cahn I lie dowh and noth seep, huh?!"
Snake felt the corner of his lips twitch in an approaching smile because of Wolf garbled speech.
"Chill out Wolf, we don't want you to go into a coma, geez!" Eagle cited the worse case scenario indignantly.
"I cooh of been ihn a #$% coma already yuh doofus! thoo dimwiths come thoo wake me up afther I seep, an den fuss abouth coma! How isth thah smarth?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Eagle demanded. Wolf's outburst had bewildered him to say the least.
"My head feews yike a functioning anviw Eagle!
At this, Fox and Snake reluctantly started to laugh. It wasn't nice but Wolf's baby language mixed with curses was somewhat amusing. Wolf laid down again next to Alex with his arm over his eyes.
"Cut it out." Eagle snapped at Snake and Fox. He walked over to Wolf again looking worried.
"It's not like Wolf to carry on like this; maybe it's not just a headache anymore."
He knelt down beside Wolf again and checked his forehead; strangely he didn't protest.
"He does have a fever." He announced "but it doesn't seem too bad." He checked on Alex too before straightening up. "Sorry mate" he tried apologizing.
Wolf just grunted miserably and waved him away "Leave me be" he moaned quietly.
Eagle shrugged and sat back down on the bench.
"I hope it's not anything serious." Fox wondered. He and Snake had sobered down after Eagle's worried expression
"We need to simply get out of here." Snake interjected fiercely "If we don't someone is going to die."
"If they're asking questions that we don't have the answer to then that might be sooner than later." Fox pointed out
Eagle nodded "We need to start looking for a way out."
His comrades silently agreed.
I think there might be some sections of this that you weren't able to understand 'namely Wolf's language when Snake and Eagle woke him up. If that is the case just ask me to to translate and I'll be happy to. For some reason my sister and I laugh over that part every time we read it. That being said this story has been insanely fun to right. The torture especially. Lets face it I get drunk on angst.