Chapter 4:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. This is the re-uploaded Chapter 4. Enjoy.
His nightmares were worse than normal. Those that he had known swam in his vision as he fought off all those who had tried to destroy the world one way or another. He was outnumbered and outmatched. He was distracted as his vision swam with tears, those he loved blaming him for their untimely deaths. When Alex calmed down enough to think it through he found it wasn't surprising, his surroundings only gave fuel to the nightmares. He was lucky enough to the be the first to wake, giving himself time to collect his thoughts.
When the others woke up Alex was sitting up against the dirty wall, giving the door a look that could kill, even Wolf's well known stare was nothing compared to the teenagers'.
"Hey Cub, do you think you could tone down the glare? I think you're going to make Wolf piss himself." The separate prison cells made it impossible for Wolf to kill Eagle at that moment, but he did give him his, now not-so-impressive-but-still-slightly-scary, glare.
Alex was knocked out of his thoughts when the door was suddenly pushed open and about four guards walked in, all carrying guns, a tall man in a tailored suit walked in behind them.
The man wasn't someone that looked like he would be doing some type of evil deed, but then Alex had seen them all. He wasn't surprised, after the many people he had dealt with he knew looks could be more than just deceiving. The man had a messy, yet clean, head of hair that almost blindingly blonde. He looked as if he was in his mid-twenties, still quite young to be trying to take over the world.
But then again, Alex was still quite young to be saving the very same world that people planned to take over.
"So this is the infamous Alex Rider. You know you're very famous in the criminal world, and why wouldn't you be? Seeing as you brought down a whole branch of Scorpia. Alone."
"You don't belong to SCORPIA. They made a deal. I was to be left alone."
"You're very observant aren't you?" The man chuckled before continuing "Let me introduce myself, I'm Josh. I'm the one in charge around here. Whatever someone does it's because I said so. If you behave than I might just let you off easy."
"What do you want?" Alex was bored, he was to use to this routine. They always seemed to skirt around what they actually wanted, waiting until the last moment to reveal some all mighty plan that would never be foiled. Only to find themselves lost when Alex miraculously defeated them.
"It's not what I want, because I've already got what I want. SCORPIA paid good money to have you destroyed. They didn't care how, as long as you were gone and they weren't suspected."
"So why did you drag the others into this?" If they wanted him dead, then how come K-Unit and Ben were here?
"Well the other men were just for fun, but your other little pal over there had been sent in to investigate us. We had no choice but that doesn't matter, it just means we get to have more things to play with." His smile after the statement would have made anyone run and cry, but Alex had seen it so many times that it looked almost normal.
"Just let them go, than you can do whatever you want to me." His voice was calm but inside Alex was worried. If they stayed he had less of a chance of escaping, he would have to worry about four other people, this brought another question to his mind "Where's Bear?"
This caught K-Units attention, they had forgotten about Bear, thinking that he had got away but now their fears were pushed to the forefront of their mind.
"That is something you will find out yourself, sooner or later. Grab the Scottish one." The soldiers immediately did as told.
Snake pushed himself against the wall without thinking, just knowing that nothing good was going to come out of this. The men opened the main cage door; two of the men going to Alex and tying him up before dropping him back to the ground when they were done. They weren't taking any chances apparently. They continued on to Snake's cell, throwing open the door just as violently as when they had first walked in. After tying him up in a similar fashion as Alex, they dragged him out of the cells; leaving Alex tied on the floor.
Before they took their leave one of the men came back in to the cage, a needle in hand. He headed to Alex, the silver needle glinting dangerously in the dim light. Alex struggled to push away but was unable to get very far. The needle pieced his skin with a pinch and the man pushed down on the plunger, forcing whatever liquid that was inside into Alex's blood stream.
"What did you put in me?" He looked up, masking the horror he felt as the man with the needle left.
"Do not fret Alex; it is only a small dose of sleep medicine. It should take effect in about fifteen minutes. Just a little extra something to ensure that you are kept secure. You should pass out into dream land not to long after we leave. We will be going now, but trust me Rider, you will see us soon. Don't get yourself into trouble while we're gone." He chuckled at his joke before leaving the room, the guards following behind, dragging a helpless Snake. The door slammed behind them.
"What does he mean by 'bringing down a whole branch of SCORPIA,' Cub?" Wolf growled, he hated being in the dark, especially when it came to his own team members.
"That, Wolf, is classified."
"Alex, honestly. We are trapped with no current way of getting out, classified doesn't really matter at this point." Traitor, Alex couldn't help the thought. He had thought that Ben of all people would understand, but apparently he was just as curious as the other.
"Even if it wasn't classified what makes you think I'm going to tell you?" Alex fought to keep his face devoid of emotions as memories flashed through his mind. He could help the blinding anger he felt at the cruelty of the world.
"Come on Cub, there's nothing else to do, just tell us." The whine in Eagle's voice only served to irritate Alex.
"You want something to do? Why don't you try to figure out a way out of here Eagle? Now stop whining, I don't even do that, and I'm the teenager here." Alex gave up on his fight to sit vertical, he was trapped in the middle of the cell with his hands and elbows tied behind his back in a painful position. His ankles, knees, and thighs were tied together just as tightly.
"Cub there is no way out. I've had training for this kind of situation and they've put up every kind of precaution to keep us in here." For the first, and most likely last time, in his life Wolf sounded helpless.
"Be creative, I've been in worse." Alex regretted his words as soon as they left his lips, for no sooner has he finished the sentence then Eagle begin to question him again.
After ten minutes of Eagle babbling on about God only knew what, Alex broke. "WILL YOU SHUT UP?" he screamed his anger showing in his words, his eyes were screwed shut as his head pounded. Eagle seemed to get the message and was relatively quiet after that. If Alex hands weren't tied behind his back he would have been rubbing his temples. The longer they were in here the worse his head seemed to be getting, and it wasn't from being knocked unconscious.
That sat in silence for a long time after that, all of them shut away in their own minds. Of course it was Eagle who broke the silence trying once again to drag answers out of Alex. Wolf and Ben both seemed to understand that Alex would not tolerate it much longer though and both turned to glare at man. Eagle resigned with a huff and retreated into the dark corner of his cell.
"You okay Alex?"
"Oh yes, Ben I'm wonderful, how about yourself?" Alex knew Ben was only trying to be kind but Alex was in a foul mood and didn't feel like talking. Ben didn't say a word, but instead turned to talk to Wolf about how he and K-Unit had been.
The day's events seemed to catch up with Alex all at once and he found himself fighting the effects of whatever drugs 'Josh' put in his system, but it seemed to be no use and he found himself slowly drifting off to another world. A world where dreams were non-existent but nightmare ruled.
The room was dark, if it was even a room. A single beam of light was directed at Alex, making him the only visible thing. It was almost cliché, just like every nightmare that people see on television or read in books.
Suddenly several other lights came on, each illuminating a figure of their own. Directly ahead of Alex stood Jack, tears streaming down her soft, round face, her brilliant red hair dull and dirty. 'Why Alex? It you had stopped I would still be alive." Alex found himself crying as he desperately pleaded for her forgiveness. Forgiveness that she refused to give, instead damning him to hell.
A sudden shifting drew Wolf, Eagle, and Ben's attention to the boy in the middle cell. Alex had fallen into a restless sleep ten minutes ago. Only had Ben had been keeping a careful eye on him, Wolf and Eagle too busy arguing over something that had happened at camp after Ben had left. Alex sudden movement had drawn their attention though. While they were not the most mature soldiers, they were highly trained.
They were quiet as they watched the boy before them sleep. The boy that acted nothing like a boy, and instead more like a war veteran.
"He looks kinda peaceful when he's asleep." But as soon as those words had left Eagles mouth Alex face contoured into one of distress, tears falling out of his closed eyes as he tried to pull into himself. Eagle and Wolf were concerned as he had never showed any type of emotion in front them, let alone cry in front of them.
"Does he usually act like this when he's asleep?" Ben didn't bother trying to mask the panic in his voice.
"I don't know," Wolf never pained attention to the way his unit slept. All he knew was they were all heavy sleepers, well except for Cub; he didn't know a thing about him. "He's always the last one to fall asleep. I don't know what he's like when he sleeps, all I know is he's the last one to go to sleep and the first one up. No one is ever awake when he's asleep, and he's never asleep when someone is awake."
A quiet mumbling suddenly caught Ben's attention. He signaled for Wolf and Eagle to be quiet as he tried to catch what Alex was saying, but all he was able to hear 'no' and 'Jack,' everything else was incoherent whispers.
"Who's Jack?" Eagle asked.
"I think it's his house keeper, he mentioned her once in passing." Ben was studying Alex carefully, wishing to wake him, but he had no way to reach him. The nightmare was getting worse, he was talking slightly louder, and the tears were coming faster. His breathing speed up and a thin sheen of sweat coated his brow. If he hadn't been tied up he would be thrashing, but all he was doing was cutting into his skin.
"What should we do?" Eagle was beginning to worry. He'd never seen anyone in the midst of a nightmare, and it was slightly terrifying.
"I don't know, we have no way to wake him up, even then I'm not sure it would be a good idea anyway. I guess we'll just have to hope it doesn't get any worse." It was at that moment it got worse, much worse, because suddenly Alex was screaming.
A/N:
Quick little side note, I kind of just made up some medicine thingy so, yeah. Most of the fics I read have the characters falling asleep almost immediately after it's administered. I didn't want this so I went with a very vague thingy and such, also you can pretend the drug made Alex's nightmares worse, or that it some other source, 'cause I know he probably doesn't actually scream in his sleep. I am using my creative license okay! I know nothing about drugs, besides that they can seriously mess with you if used as recreation. So don't do drugs kids.