“I can walk. I don’t want you guys ruining my dreams of being in the Little League World Series by tearing my rotator cuffs,” I told them sarcastically, my throat filled with glass.
“Get up,” the other man demanded with a flat tone that made me think none of this was new to him. Did they do this a lot?
I thought about putting up a fight, but honestly, I had nothing left but my pride. I could barely talk. I was beyond exhausted. I’d pulled muscles I didn’t know existed. And literally, I never would have thought that it was possible for my sinus cavity to feel the way it did.
Whatever was going to happen… needed to just happen.
I had told them I didn’t have the money. We all knew no one was going to believe that though. They were going to wait me out until I begged, or I’d be back in here for more.
I would take the break they were offering, just like I’d taken every other one.
Gingerly getting up, my knees cracked and my tailbone ached like hell from the hard floor. Even my wrists creaked as I planted my hands to help me up. They’d taken the zip ties off after the last time, and my skin was bruised and tender. The cuff felt twice as heavy. Once I was finally on my feet, I stumbled forward, debating whether to ask where they were taking me, but then I decided it didn’t matter. What was I going to do? Fight them and run away? I’d played a ton of Street Fighter, but that wasn’t exactly going to help me. Plus, I hadn’t been paying enough attention when they had brought me in here. I had no idea where to go, and I knew I’d only have one chance to escape, if I even had that much. I wasn’t going to waste it. Not in this condition.
Hunching my shoulders, I watched as one of them opened the door. Only then did I take a step, every movement so stiff I felt terrible for how much pain my grandparents had to have been in at the end of their lives because of their arthritis.
And it was with just thinking about them that I remembered again why I couldn’t give up. Why I had to pay attention and do whatever I could to get the hell out of here.
How the hell could I have forgotten?
If not for me, for them. To make their sacrifice worth it. I had to try my best.
Fuck all these motherfuckers.
I wasn’t going to die in here.
Tipping my chin down, I flicked my gaze up and took everything in as discreetly as possible. The walls were white and smooth, and we went by one heavy, metal door before walking farther and passing by another. None of them had keyholes, I noticed, but there was a knob of sorts on each so they could only be opened from the outside. Sneaky.
I’d tried pushing on the door to our cell, but nothing had happened, so I knew they had some kind of mechanism to lock them.
Not that that should matter to one of the strongest people on the planet.
Once he was feeling well.
I hadn’t let my brain wander too far in his direction. He had to be fine. They weren’t desperate enough to hurt him yet, but at some point, they’d bring his head to me on a silver platter or some shit—or at least they would try, and surprise!
I didn’t see that really happening. But I needed him to get out before then at least.
“Walk faster,” the man behind me barked.
I would have turned to give him an ugly look, but I didn’t want to push my luck anymore. Being a smart-ass had been enough, and I was just so tired.
I kept going, trying not to move my head from side to side as I watched. We went through one door that led out to a long hallway. How big was this place? The guard in front of me stopped suddenly beside another nondescript door and moved his hand quickly across it.
That’s when the guard behind me grabbed my ponytail and shoved me so hard I went stumbling through the opened doorway.
I crashed in on hands and knees, sprawling on the floor as the door slammed shut.
“Oww,” I moaned. Really? Did they have to be so rough?
It took me a second to lift my head. I moved to sit on my hip and butt cheek and flipped the door off. Then I stopped and tensed.
Because sprawled on his back with his head drooped to the side was Sleeping Superhero Beauty.
But the alarming part was the way his chest rose and fell way too slowly. Slower than ever.
Oh shit.
Oh shit.
“Hey?” I whispered, my throat aching with just that single word.
He didn’t react.
I tried again, my voice weak. “Yoo-hoo?”
Nothing.
With a groan, I crawled over, ignoring the shooting pain through my knees, wrists, and shoulders. At his side, I put my fingers against his mouth and cursed. His lips were cold. Why were his lips so cold?
Falling down to my stomach, I pressed my cheek against his chest and listened. His heart… his heart wasn’t right. I’d counted the beats. They were slow but they weren’t this slow.
“Hey?”
Nothing.
Sitting back on my hip, I set my palm on his cheek. That was cold too. I pressed my hand over his heart again, counting those too-slow beats like I hadn’t done it right before.
“Temporary friend?” I tried again, attempting to ignore the panic rising in my chest.
Nothing.
“Wake up.” My voice cracked. “Hercules, wake up.”
Nothing.
Tears popped up in my eyes, and I wiped them off with the back of my hand. I shook his shoulder, squeezed his biceps, and even grabbed his cold hand. Nothing.
“You can’t do this to me,” I whispered. What the hell had they done to him? How could they have hurt him? He’d said he was invulnerable.
More tears formed in my eyes as I lifted his arm and let it fall, not getting a single response from that either.
Lowering my head, I pressed my ear against his chest and listened once more.
Was it even slower now?
Was he… dying?
He couldn’t just… he couldn’t just go down like that. Not after everything he’d been through. After everything he’d done.
Not here, like this.
FUCK!
I closed my eyes and took his hand, tight.
What should I do?
Before I could think too hard about it, I sat right by his head and pushed him onto his side, propping his back on my knees. Then I pressed on the hinges of his jaw to open it and shoved my fingers as far down his throat as possible, fast. I was pretty sure I touched his tonsils.
I wiggled my fingers in there, and I gagged. I had no clue what I was doing. Not even a little bit but…
His body jerked. His back arched. And The Defender retched. Literally gagged so hard his whole body nearly convulsed.
The muscles in his throat spasmed.
I didn’t move my fingers out fast enough.
The vomit…
I gagged just as something warm and liquid-like shot out of his mouth and over my retreating fingers, landing all over the floor.
It was clear and not much of it, but…
I gagged again as I slapped his back while he coughed and coughed.
Oh God, he’d thrown up.
I watched him as he coughed, as he rolled onto his back, partway on my knees, with a ragged groan.
Those purple eyes opened, but it wasn’t the color that caught me off guard that time. It was his mean-ass scowl.
“Are you going to be okay?” I hissed at him, ignoring how fast my fucking heart was beating.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he snapped, coughing. Going up to an elbow, he grabbed his throat, eyes wide. “You trying to make sure I have tonsils?”