The short minutes of relief Carly had been given was cut too short as the fingerman who had been interrogating me stepped back into the room. She had lost track of how long he had been at this, days, weeks, months? They were seeking silence on the atrocities that I'd witnessed. I had been at the site of "Stone Hill Medical Facility" for three days and they tried to hide what it truly was from her and her colleagues but they all knew better. This wasn't a medical facility, it was a torture site for those who refused to be "re-educated" and Carly assumed that others who dissented to what was occurring here were now also part of those that they had been sent to study.
"Dr. Park... I believe that there has been a misunderstanding about the work that we are doing here. I understand that the work of a physician is hard, and our...patients... are equally as difficult to understand. They have been through quite a lot." His tone changed from one of feigned compassion to stern instruction, "But your job is to report your findings and return them to our leading health professionals. Is there a reason that you were trying to contact your direct employers on the phones in the East Wing?
"What you are doing here to these people is despicable, and someone needs to hold you accountable." Carly stated plainly from across the table, refusing to break eye contact with the frustrated fingerman before her.
"I'm afraid that whatever misguided notions about our work that you were trying to convey are false. We cannot have you leaving our facility and spreading falsehoods." He shook his head and reached his arm over to a box with many knobs on them before asking, "What is it that you intend to report on the treatments at Stone Hill Dr. Hayes?"
"You are torturing pe-" Carly is unable to finish my sentence as electricity runs through the metal chair she had been strapped to and through her body.
"Again Dr. Park?" He asked pointedly, keeping his finger on the button for another ten seconds. Giving her a moment to breathe, she rested her forehead against the table that separated them. Carly mustered up what strength she had to sit straight and lock eyes with him once more. Evidently her defiance was not sufficient enough of an answer and more electricity was sent through the chair.
"It is quite a shame... had you been a bit more compliant I could even have reunited you with your brother. He's been missing for what has been...two years?" He nonchalantly flipped through a manila folder. That was enough to snap her out of the haze the electricity had placed over her brain.
"What did you just say?" Her blood boiled with rage before turning ice cold in fear of what he had endured at their hands. Her and her family knew he had gone missing but not that he had been captured. Before Carly could open her mouth he pressed the button again. The excruciating rush always paralyzed her muscles, restricting her breathing, but this time she found air being expelled in a scream, "You will all burn for this!"
Behind the fingerman a blast of light and impossibly loud BOOM that broke through the door. Debris and flames pelted the entirety of the room and it sent both of them to the ground. Carly's vision was blurred from the blow she had taken to her head, and through her disorientation she was able to clumsily drag the handcuff keys that had fallen out of the fingerman's pocket and within her reach. With some difficult maneuvering she managed to shift her body to grab the keys and undo the cuffs behind her back. Pure adrenaline rushed through her body and gave her the strength to stand and stumble out of the hole the now much wider door frame and amongst the flames, debris and bodies of security guards she scanned the hallway for a way out. Directly to her right she saw her means of escape, a wall that had been demolished from the blast. Through the hole, she saw a pitch black forest line beyond the chain link fence that surrounded the compound, and snow that fell gracefully from the sky and onto the ground. Carly's feet carried her through the hole and over the fence, and darkness overcame her after she crested the top of the fence and landed in the snow on the other side.
V stood in the darkness as he watched her sleep. After carrying her for what seemed like an eternity to his home, she now lay like a wounded cat in slumber. He wasn't sure why he had been compelled to take her with him after he heard her in the interrogation room. Perhaps it was the rage and conviction in the scream that she had let out, it came from her very soul in a fashion that he was regrettably all too familiar with. It wasn't until now that he had a second to take a look at the woman that he had evacuated. The light gently bounced off of her tanned skin and her face was tense even in her sleep but V knew that would lessen in time. Her full lips pursed slightly as she slept and complimented her button nose and almond eyes. She was certainly of Asian decent, and somewhere in her 20's.
He walked to her side and knelt to check on the state of her breathing, it was shallow and fast but strong. She had the heart of a lion. Stronger than most he saw in the city, stronger more than the criminal fiends who locked her up. He listened again and caught the mumbles of someone's name.
"Tony..."
In the few days that he had cared for her as she slept he had worked to gain access to Stone Hill's records to find out who she was, but came up with less information then he had hoped. He only had her name, or at least what name had been scribbled onto the loose tunic. And that she had only been held as a prisoner for a month. He was certainly confused as to who she was and how she wound up there. As a doctor, he would have assumed that she was participating in the atrocities that were taking place at Stone Hill, but her status as a prisoner made that highly unlikely. He would need to ask her more questions to be sure, her answers would determine whether she would be leaving alive and well, or if she would be joining the rest that were left behind at Stone Hill. V heard her breathing shift as she finally came out of the spell of sleep that she had been under. He casually strode from her to the table across and leaned on it. His hands carefully at his side, palms out to show her that he was no threat.
"Good evening Miss Park, you are safe and sound. You made your way, days ago, into the woods after I gave you an opening and cleared a path. For this you owe me nothing. You have spent some time in my care and should be fine enough to walk and eat solid foods. I happen to have some if you are ready. Otherwise rest and repair yourself. For once you are well we will speak. These walls are my home and I hope you can recover and be assured that you are indeed safe from harm."
With that V turned and lifted a small bundle of clothes off of the table. "I will leave these here, you may dress or change as you see fit". He then bowed lightly and walked into the antechamber where breakfast was still cooking.
