Part VI
Auggie Anderson was losing.
He was losing the strength to put up his impenetrable wall to the physical torment and agony that was placed on him in the past 8 days of captivity.
He was losing the will to even want to any longer, and as he lay crippled on the floor with neither the strength to stand and search for the elusive water source at the end of the small space, nor the strength to crawl over to any space to lay his aching bones. He couldn't feel his hand anymore, the building tightness in his broken wrist stretching his skin and inner tissue so tightly, the numbing tingling masked all sensation in his entire hand now.
His breath was ragged, his lungs burning deep inside his chest, bringing each labored breath to send shockwaves of pain through his ribs and muscles around his chest.
His head fell to the side, sightless eyes blinking under the burning in his eyes, his dry lids sandpaper scraping on his eyes. He tried to gasp, dry mouth and throat inhaling stale air that burned in his throat.
His mind was muddled, the feelings and sounds, thoughts and sensations muddling in his brain like a blurred vision. Sounds around him lulled in the background, a cold feeling...a foul odor...faded away behind the feelings and sounds in his delusional mind.
In his mind, everything was warm.
She giggled lightly, her melodic voice filling the air into a beautiful song, bringing a wide, peaceful smile to his face. He felt his body take in a happy and deep breath of contentment. Bliss. This felt like bliss.
Warm, moist lips met his sensitive skin just along the side of his neck; the tender intimacy sending ripples and shivers over his skin, goose bumps erupting over his body. His breath sharpened over the sensation and another giggle erupted over the woman hovering over his body. The edges of her hair brushed over his naked torso, dancing a teasing and exotic dance over his skin as she hovered over his body and guided her lips slowly down to his chest. As she started peppering kisses and licks and sweet tastes over his skin, he swallowed thickly, feeling his pulse quicken at the warm rippling spreading over his nerves.
His hands found her sides, her skin soft, warm, and molding under his fingers and hands, letting him almost melt into her. His fingers glided up, and she stopped her kisses to let out a shaky sigh as his hands skimmed over the soft skin and uneven topography of her ribs. A small groan escaped her lips and he smiled wider while his thumbs skimmed over a tender spot that made her breath catch just right.
Faintly from the surface of his delusion, sounds were changing. The shrieking that had pierced his skull for seven days died, but his thoughts and mind so lost in the sweet dream, he didn't even notice or hear the air changing around him.
He sat up abruptly, and almost instantaneously her lips connected with his, her taste in his mouth intoxicating, the smell of her hair and skin swirling in his senses, making him drunk and dizzy off her scent. She wanted to inhale him, her arms circling around his back, fingering digging into his muscles and expanse of skin along his spine. He pulled her closer, their bodies pressed together, skin sandwiched against another, warmth filling the other, their mouths never releasing, lost in the sweet taste of intimacy so missed.
He felt her fingernails digging into his skin, and he finally released her mouth, letting his nose glide down her face until he could latch his hot lips to the smooth and soft skin of her neck.
"Auggie."
Her voice sounded strange, distant and muffled like a yell from down a hall or from the other side of a wall, faint and distant, but in his ears he heard moan at the attack he placed on her neck.
She gasped again, the sound heavenly and delicate stirring in his blood, and he took the opportunity to push both their bodies forward until they fell back into the blankets around them, now his body hovering over hers.
She giggled again, and he could almost hear her smile spreading her lips.
"I love you," she whispered into his mouth as they reattached. He opened his mouth and separated from hers for a moment to speak but felt a bubbling in his throat and a choke beginning in his throat.
The acidic, telltale smell of smoke began filling his nostrils.
Her skin was so soft under his, his fingers brushed past her hair for a moment, silken strands sliding between his fingers as he tried to kiss her again.
A deep coughing started in his lungs and throat as the delusion began to fade. The air was getting thick, oxygen becoming scarce as he came to slightly.
Sounds strange and varied filled the space. Crashes and booms emanated from faraway places, the sound of crunching wood and shattering glass, and the heavy feet of trespassers filling the halls and rooms outside his cell.
The coughing shook his whole body, his scrapes and burns shredding against the sand and stone of the floor as his body shivered and shook with the choking sounds. He gasped deeply, struggling to pull in clean air, but his weak and damaged lungs fluttered painfully to breathe.
Something strange was coming about, he could feel it. Somewhere in his head he heard her giggles and moans in his ears, feel the softness of her skin against his, but it mixed with the cold suffocation around him in this space he was locked in. Something around him was off, sending off multiple red sirens he couldn't quite place.
And then there was a crash. Pulling him successfully from his delusion, the room echoed a thunderous boom from outside what he assumed was a metal door. His attention was caught, and even though he struggled to make sense of his surrounding, he did acknowledge it.
He coughed again, finally opening his eyes as a rumble of footsteps barely made a presence to his sensitive ears. His sightless eyes blinked vigorously, watering and fighting against the scratch of his dry and dirty eyes.
A pain deep in his chest flared with every gasp, choke, and cough, sending earthquake-like trembles through his body to his limbs, making his balance unstable as he attempted to stand, stumbled forward and fell to his hands and knees with a horrible crunch. The moment his swollen wrist twisted under the fresh fall the struggling man let out a blood-curdling gasp as he swallowed back the loud scream he was well trained to hold in. The blackness of his world went wide, every nerve in his body igniting in that moment in a lightning strike that ripped through his body in a fiery pain that made his heart rate erratically change and ragged, already struggle breath knock out of his lungs.
He heaved a pained breath buried under a shattering cough, everything inside of his chest crumpling like an avalanche of gravel falling into a spinning blender deep inside of his body.
A sharp sound broke the hum of background noise, but his distressed presence and more receptive ears caught it this time. Gunshots.
He coughed again, salt rising in his throat, a sign of serious injury to his injured lungs and esophagus. With a sharp wince and teeth clenching so strongly his teeth seemed to crack loudly in his mouth, he pulled his broken left wrist to his chest, cradling it before him without ever letting out the managed, dirty breath in his throat. He was holding in his breath and another wheezing cough when finally the sounds outside exploded to the inside of his room.
A blast of frayed metal and wood splinters sent the only exit to Auggie Anderson's prison cell-like room blasting open with such a thunderous sound, it sent the ringing in his ears into shock. The blast was followed by an array of yelling and bellows that made no sense to the blind man's ears, and he held his mangled wrist tighter to his body, preparing himself for the onslaught of physical torture that was sure to come.
He heard multiple feet barrel through the small space, filling the area with arms and heavy, defensive footsteps, the sounds of the feet echoing in his head, mixing with memories and other perceptions of the commotion exploding around him. He could barely make sense of anything happening when suddenly someone grabbed him from under the arm, hoisting him up to his feet in a powerful pull that left his legs stumbling underneath his body. His lungs twisted in his chest, ready to release another powerful wave of coughing when a mask was thrust into his face, someone careful to adjust it over his nose and mouth at such a speed it left his drugged mind spinning wildly.
He tried to say something, tried to get the mumbled syllables out of his lips, but with the fresh oxygen starting to fill his nose and mouth, and the insistent pulsing in his arm just above the area numbed away by the shattered injury, nothing escaped his chapped and broken lips.
Someone shouted loudly, orders in languages he could barely understand, but in the midst of the words that muddled in his brain, he did register one translated word: found.
Another pair of strong arms grabbed for his bent and cradled arm but instead clutching his injured wrist which elicited a gargled scream of pain from the blind man. From within his blind eyes, Auggie Anderson saw an explosion of fiery white pain that clouded all other senses and thoughts as the heat and poisoned nerves raced through his veins, spreading their pain throughout his body.
The new set of arms readjusted to grasp his elbow and avoid contact with anything that caused him another wave of agony. Auggie stumbled on his feet as the men lifted him to stand, but he had no time to question anything as he was pulled quickly in one direction as they navigated him through halls and doorways of his surroundings.
With the fresh oxygen in his lungs and the white-hot pain still burning in his blood, Auggie's head grew light, the floor beneath him violently shifting in a wild spin, his senses fading and perception dulling, as everything just seemed to slowly fade away to nothing.
He vaguely remembered another wave of shouting, and the strange warmth of sunlight touching his skin. He barely registered being carried up into a small metallic space, and the boom of closing van doors. He hadn't the faintest memory of the hustle of hushed voices around him, and the mask being removed; a needle piercing his skin, as the world faded away into his endless blackness.
He only faintly remembered the voice calling out his name.
He faintly recognized her voice, and a with a smile but an unsuccessful attempt to pass the syllables of her name out, his mind drifted off into a strange peace he long desired.
Location: unknown
The brunette woman held her breath.
One.
She was mentally counting down the seconds, minutes, and hours until she got that message she needed.
Two.
Deep in her ears her heart was pounding wildly, the thump and boom of it deafening in her head, sending shockwaves of blast-like power to her eardrums, rendering her deaf to the world.
Three.
The blood coursed through her veins, speedways of signals and hormones.
Four.
Adrenaline ran high and dangerously through her blood, nerves sending electricity that fried her mind straight to its core.
Five.
Her skin was frigid, turned to ice the same degree as her brutalized heart. The brunette woman could not breathe until she heard more news.
Subject found. The news alone had sent tsunami waves of joy and warmth radiating straight off her skin as she realized what these words meant.
The next moment she had received a picture and a status report that the established protocol would be followed and no more communication would be built until the rescue subject was returned to the safe house and given a proper medical evaluation.
With one click of her finger, the single image attached sent bile bubbling up from her stomach into her throat. The blood stains, dark and dirty smears and deadly green hue in the skin of the man in her photo made her stomach twist and pull in such a violent fashion, she felt the world collapsing in her gut.
But he was safe. His eyes were closed, and he was obviously unmoving, situated in a position that left him defenseless, but the particular individuals around him and the oxygen mask over his face told her he was alive.
She finally released the breath of air she had held for the past several hours and it all spewed out in a struggling choke and wet, stinging tears. She closed her eyes, letting the choked breaths escape and refill her pained lungs and giving her spinning mind a moment to reboot.
He was alive, but the fashion in which her people had found him proved the horrifying news her ally had shared only a night prior. The truth was more obvious now than it had ever been before.
She knew this plan was sinking like a ship to the bottom of the ocean. Part of being a top operative was knowing when to break protocol and create a new plan of attack. If she wanted to keep her cover intact and remain the dead ex-CIA operative, she needed to get everyone who knew she was alive and who was actively searching for her off the grid as well. She also needed help; particularly in the area she knew one particular individual excelled in.
She took a deep breath as she closed the computer. Without even exhaling, she fished the latest burner phone out of a pants pocket and dialed.
Author's Note:
Hey guys, so sorry it took so long to update. Two jobs, drama and a birthday left me super busy this past week (including celebrating on Saturday which I'm not apologizing for. =P)
Hope this chapter is ok, I rushed it a bit, so I'd love to hear your feedback.
Always,
- Liz