Unfinished story

"Tell me who you are."
"Fuck off."
"Who sent you?"
"Your whore mother."

A wet thud and a sickening crunch.

"Insult my mother again and I swear to God-"
"Marquez!"
"Fuck! England, this little prick makes me so mad my head starts spinning."
"Just calm down. We don't need any more people to die today."

Silence.

"He cried you know. Like a little bitch."
"I'll end you!"

Another crunch.

"Damnit, Marquez, look what you did to his face. Now how is he going to answer us?"
"Like I give a fuck! He deserves whatever he gets for what he did."
"Look, man, Nadon was my friend too, but killing this guy isn't going to bring her back."
"It might not bring her back, but it'll make me feel better."
"This isn't about how you feel. It's about keeping ourselves safe. That guy knew where we were and how to get the jump on us. We can't let it happen again. Next time it won't just be one of us."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Better keep Garcia away from him though. No telling what she'd do."
"Castrate him, if not outright kill him. I agree, she needs to be distracted. Send Haiku with her to scavenge some food or something while we deal with this guy."

The doorknob clicks and the door creaks open.

"Haiku, Garcia, c'mere!"

Footsteps.

"Yeah?"
"You and Haiku need to go scavenge some food. We're running low on supplies."
"Alright. We'll be back. If you hear shots come running."
"Naturally."

A quiet click and the door is shut again.

"Was that his lover?"

A loud slap.

"Nadon was a girl. Refer to her as male again and I'll break all the fingers on your left hand. One by one."
"What the hell, England? If I'm not allowed to hit him why are you?"
"Because I won't kill him. Besides, I'll let you break the fingers if he slips up again."
"Good enough, I guess."
"How did you find us?"
"I'm dead either way. Why should I help you?"
"Because I'll do it quickly and painlessly. They won't."
"And how do I know you're true to your word?"
"Because we, unlike you and the people you work for, have some semblance of honor."
"Like that's good enough."
"That's all you've got. Take it or leave it, I don't really care. I think it'll be fun to cheese grate all of your fingers and then cauterize them with a hot spoon."
"Jesus fuck. My name is Jason Reynolds. I was cent by the C.T.G.E.R. I found you by way of hi- Her medical records. This place was listed as an address years back. Checked it out to see if you were here and got lucky. Didn't expect you to have so many guns pointed at me by the time I got finished."

Thump-thump.

"So that was it. You just got lucky enough that we were where you went on a whim. Or unlucky, I guess."
"Not quite. We've got a psychological profile on hi- her. She tends to dwell in the past, and has a lot of regrets. Over relationships especially. In fact she has some misgivings toward you due to the exchange of some photos between you and an old girlfriend."
"Yeah, I always kinda wondered about that. She never said anything about it."

Thump-thump.

"But at any rate, that's really it. I haven't even reported in. I figured that this would be a simple ax'n'out, but things kinda took a wrong turn."
"Sorry to impede your work. How do you want to go out? We could shoot you. Stab you. Knock you out and light you on fire. I don't really care so long as you're no longer breathing my air."
"I say you let me have at him. I'll get the job done real well."
"A deal's a deal. I said quick and painless."
"Look, I don't even know any of you people, I have a wife and a kid. I'm just trying to feed my family. This was the only job I could get! Do you think I like doing what I do? I go home every night-"
"You go home every night a murderer! I have no sympathy for you. You killed my friend and I'm going to return the favor in kind. England can't stay up to protect you forever, so you'd better speak quickly or I'm just gonna start in on you, and you're not going to be able to get a word in edgewise, do you understand me you puny pathetic little man?"
"You're kinda close to my face. And you're loud. I don't see how I'd be unable to hear you. There's nothing really I can do to stop me doing anything you want to me. Shoot me. It's the fastest, provided you do it in the head."

As the gunshot rang out, I took a ragged, shuddering breath and every part of my body lit up with pain like I was on fire. A quiet, harsh whimper escaped from my throat which hurt even worse than breathing. An attempt at opening my eyes told me that I was severely injured. One of my eyes was so swollen it wouldn't open, and then other only a crack. I couldn't move my left arm at all, and trying to move anywhere else provided another mind-numingly painful whimpers.

Through all of it, I could hear voices. Voices of surprise, and jubilation. Voices of cautious optimism and gritty pessimism. I was unaware of anything but for the pain. Then I could feel hands touching me, which hurt even worse. I cried out again, and then I heard a voice.

"I'm sorry. We're trying to help you. This is going to hurt, we don't have any anesthesia."

And then all was black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"She's alive. Thank god, she's alive."

Everything hurt in a way that I'd never experienced before. The blood pounded in my ears, and the world was blurry when I could actually keep my eyes open. I alternated between a confused haze of pain and utter oblivion. There were always voices any time I awoke, they never stopped. It was comforting, to know that I wasn't alone.

"That was a close one, mate. Don't you ever fucking scare me like that again, okay?"
"I wouldn't expect for her to hear you, Marquez, she's been in and out for quite awhile."
"I know. It isn't going to stop me from talking though."
"I'm still mad you guys didn't let me do it."
"I promised him quick and painless. You wouldn't have complied. Neither would marquez, it had to be me, or Oliva."
"I wish you guys would have buried him. He was only doing his job."
"He tried to kill her! He didn't deserve a burial."
"Enough! We're not getting into this again."

I breathed in a little more deeply than I had been while sleeping, and everything seemed to intensify. The air rushed out of me in a quiet squeak and the whole room became very quiet. I felt a hand touch mine gently, like feathers brushing over my skin.

"Alice, you're really hurt. You need to try not to move, okay. Rest."
"Garcia, we need to not use our names. Honestly, we should come up with better ones."
"I'm not going to call her Nadon, or Tsume. If you're going to get your panties all in a bunch I'll just call her Hime."
"That's fine, just don't use her name. It's for all of our safety, I'm sure they're listening."

A clicking sound and creaking.

"What's going on in this thread guys?"
"She's woken up, and we've told her not to move."
"Did you and Dima see anyone?"
"Only a couple people walking to the north, but they were just scavengers, by the looks of them."
"Alright, well, Oliva, take Svetlana and keep glass on them, would you?"
"Yeah. You coming, Haiku?"
"Yeah. Nadon, get the fuck better."