The Runners

Heart and headaches

My eyes open, my heads pounding. "where am I?" I ask out loud. "Classified information I'm afraid." sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, a man wearing a suit says.

I start to flick through my memories, trying to remember. "I was drugged, what did you do?" I groan, and my body starts to ache. "Had to drug you, apparently traumatic head injuries are frowned upon when it comes to people we're going to interrogate." The man chuckles as he takes a sip of his drink.

He stands up and walks over to the table next to me. A tray of tools lay atop it, all of which I'm all too familiar with. He looks over the tools, choosing a pair of pliers.

"Torture, I'm guessing. You do know that doesn't work right?" I smile. He looks over at me and scoffs. "I know your history, you used to torture a lot of people. So now you're saying it doesn't work. Now that's interesting."

"I meant for gathering information you jackass. I never did it for information, just as a threat. Trust me, I know it doesn't work, I've tried it." I spit.

"Doesn't matter why you did it, i know you'll be a simple one to break. After all your already sweating.

The back and forth between me and him continue, as we speak I'm attempting to loosen my bindings.  Soon the door opens, and a woman in similar garb to my would-be torturer interrupts. "Hey Xavier, the Boss wants to talk with him." as soon as she's done talking she leaves.

He looks back at me and forces me up, and my knees buckle for a moment. "Cmon, let's go. You heard her." He says as he pushes me forward. 

I walk forward, following him. I wait for the opportune moment, biding my time.  We turn a corner, the lights are dimmer than before. The bulbs must need to be replaced. 

This is the moment, I doubt I'll get a better one. I had slowly been loosening the rope around my wrists. For some reason, I'm sweating profusely. With the mix of the loosened ropes and sweat, I can slip them out of the bindings.

I take them off slowly, and at the right moment, I reach for his knife. Suddenly his elbow slams into my face. I reel back in pain but use that distance to ram forward into his stomach. The wind is knocked out of him, He slams his elbow into my back multiple times as I push him forward, into the wall.

I punch wildly at his side, missing so many shots, but eventually, I get lucky and hit his liver, sending him down slowly and sliding against the wall. I finish him off, I don't want him to call for anyone.

I quickly grab his corpse and start hauling him to a secluded corner, I have to move fast though I don't want anyone seeing me with him.

I take his pistol, knife, and uniform. It won't work long but should work for a little while. Just long enough to get to the others, that is if they're even alive. The thought that they may be dead stops me. "Just run, leave. They're dead, just pack it up and go somewhere else." a part of my mind tells me.

My hands shake, "No" I growl under my breath. "They're not dead, and I can't just abandon them," I say, calming myself down and continuing forward.

I walk past several guards, tucking my new hat downwards, letting the small shadow obscure my face a bit. I instinctively reach into my pocket and grab for my flask, my fingers brushing against nothing.

They took it, I almost forgot. My shaky hands and now-skull-splitting headache is a painful reminder of the time it's been since my last drink. 

I Need to find my things, maybe my flask is there. I continue walking, head throbbing. After what seems like hours of walking, find it. The evidence lockup, Surprisingly no one is nearby. 

I look around, searching for my stuff. There! Sitting on a shelf are my things. I search through them and find it, my flask! I quickly unscrew the cap and am about to take a sip. But then with my focus attached to the flask, i don't notice the sound of footsteps behind me, and a stray voice speaks to me. "Are you sure about that?" It's familiar. 

I turn to the point of origin and see her, Dawn standing there. I stumble backward in surprise, "What! How are you here, w-why are you here?" I stammer. 

She walks toward me, bends down, and plucks the flask from my hands. "I've been watching you, and your journey. You and your friends are close, you know?" She smiles, a smile I've been longing to see for so long. 

"Ye-yeah," I say as I hold back tears.  "to see you attempt to do good by so many brought a tear to my eye,  I knew you changed. You're no longer that vigil of hate when I first met you." her smile, it warmed me to the core.

Her voice and face suddenly switches from a happy and proud one to a saddened one "But, when i say you start up drinking again. I was furious, you had done so well. But as I thought, I realized. With you facing everything that you've faced, it was unbecoming to think you wouldn't resort to an old habit to get you through." 

She reaches out, cups my face in her hands, and stares into my eyes, a look of stern, but loving care. "Look at what it's doing to you, pardon my french but, You look really fucked up." She ends with a smile.

"I know i can't force you here, never really could, even when I was alive." She looks at the wall, and the way she stares, it seems like she's looking at something far away. "I doubt I can do much now." She sighs.

"This is in your hands, Do what you want. Just know, I have faith in whatever choice you make." She ends her sentence by reaching down to where my hat fell and picking it up and placing it on my head.

She stands and picks me up. I look to her, and to the flask. I take a deep breath and tip the flask over, pouring out its contents onto the dirty floor. "Good choice." She says as she leans in and kisses me on the cheek.

She reaches over and grabs my cane, and hands it to me. "Now, get out there, and kick some ass for me dear." She laughs

I laugh along and nod, turning around and walking towards the exit. I stop for a moment, turning back towards dawn. there's something I've wanted to tell her for a long time. "I love you." I tell her. She smiles and responds simply. "I know."

I chuckle lightly, i knew she'd say that. I've always loved when she said that.

I turn back around and walk out the door, still with a throbbing headache, and pain all over. But with a fire in my heart.