Breaking Their Hold

-x-
With Zacky
-x-

Just as Schlagger had promised, the pain that the Atrophine gave him was the worst Zacky had ever felt. The pain was so unbearable that he could no longer feel anything except the excruciating feeling of a thousand razorblades slicing him apart from the inside out. It had been what Zack estimated to be around three weeks since Zack the doses had started, and they’d started giving him some other kind of drug as well.

They hadn’t told him the name of the new one yet, but he could immediately tell the difference between it and the Atrophine. The new drug was a muddled grey color with no distinction; it almost reminded Zack of rain, though he knew it wasn’t a very good comparison. Whenever it was injected with the Atrophine, he felt much better; euphoric, if he were to be honest. He felt as high as a kite, and he felt like he never wanted to come down. But the drug was double-edged. Whenever it was injected by itself, it was worse than the Atrophine. On more than one occasion since the drug had been forced into him, he had attempted to find ways to commit suicide, something he’d never even thought of before. The pain did something to him that he’d never fathomed; it made him weak and vulnerable. It made him a victim, something he’d never considered himself.

It pissed him off.

The only thing that kept him going was the belief that Melissa was still alive. She wouldn’t be in Canada yet, though she had to be a fair amount away from Haverly by now. Schlagger and his lackeys were becoming more impatient and angry as each day passed by that Zack didn’t crack under the pain.

And as long as he didn’t say a word, he knew they’d keep him alive. Because he was their only link to Melissa.

Zack looked up through clouded eyes as the door opened. Schlagger walked in, holding what appeared to be a cattle prod. Zacky smirked; now that was a kind of pain he could stand. He could handle anything else, even having his body shocked.

“Remove his pants,” Schlagger said to the two men on either side of him.

“I’ll save you the trouble,” Zack told him, his voice proud as he slid the white pants down his legs. He walked over to Schlagger and stood there, knowing full well what the man intended to do and hellbent on withstanding it.

He wouldn’t let Schlagger break him, no matter what kind of pain he used to torture Zack with. He fell to the ground and writhed in pain a split second later, when Schlagger took the cattle prod and shocked Zack’s genitals.

-x-
With Matt and Pierre
-x-

“Hold up, P.” Matt called up to Pierre, stopping and looking down at the floor of the woods. They had managed to find a way out of the cavern several days ago, and had been walking carefully through the forest ever since, searching frantically for any sign of Melissa and Jimmy.

Pierre spun around and walked back to Matt, looking at the ground with him. Imprinted in the moist dirt was a footprint small enough to be a female’s.

“It’s definitely a human footprint,” Pierre told Matt, looking up. “From the looks of it, she’s hurt bad right now, if she isn’t already—“

“Don’t say it.” Matt pleaded Pierre, knowing what Pierre was going to say next. He couldn’t stand it. Pierre sighed and nodded.

“We have to find them soon,” He told Matt.

“Matt?” Jimmy’s voice called out into the clearing. There was a shuffling in some branches, and he emerged. Matt’s eyes widened at the appearance of his friend.

Jimmy’s hair was a ratted mess on top of his head, with twigs and leaves sticking out from it. There were raw, painful-looking cuts and scratches covering his face and arms, and his pants were shredded in several places. He looked exhausted, with large black circles underneath his eyes, a frown set on his sharp face.

“Jimmy? What the fuck happened? Where’s Mel?” Matt asked.

“She’s…She’s hiding.” Jimmy told him. “She’s hurt real bad, Matt. She can’t move her leg at all.”

“We need to get back to her,” Pierre said. Jimmy nodded, and they walked back through the rough patch that he’d come out of. Jimmy led them through several small, scratchy bushes that cut at them, and then into a cramped cave, barely big enough for the four of them. Matt’s eyes widened when he saw Melissa.

She was laying limply on the cave floor, her skin a pallid shade of white, sweat on her brow seeping into cuts and scrapes similar to the ones Jimmy bore. Matt was most surprised at the condition of her leg, however. It was quite obviously broken, contorted into a shape that a human leg should never be in. It was borderline infected from Matt’s guess, with several deep gashes on her calf.

“What happened?” Pierre asked, forcing his voice to stay calm as he knelt beside Melissa, pulling what was left of the sweatpants she’d been wearing off. He turned to Matt. “Burn this, it could attract predatory animals with the scent of the blood.”

Matt nodded, grabbing the small canteen of water off of Pierre’s back so that he could wash away the ashes when he was done so that there would be no evidence that they’d been there.

Pierre studied the leg for several minutes before looking at Jimmy, concern in his eyes.

“It’s infected, but it shouldn’t be too serious. I need to reopen the wound, and it’s going to hurt her like a bitch. If you can’t handle it, go away from here until I’m done. If you can, stay with her.”

“I’m not fucking leaving her,” Jimmy told Pierre, kneeling beside Melissa and grabbing her hand in his. “Mel? Pierre and Matt found us, Mel.”

Melissa’s eyes fluttered open, exposing to Pierre an intense amount of pain. “Pierre and Matt?” She asked, as though she couldn’t believe it. Jimmy nodded, and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah. Pierre’s going to help your leg, but he needs to reopen the cuts…It’s going to hurt, Mel.”

She gave him a weak smile. “I’ll be fine,” She whispered, her voice etched with pain. Jimmy nodded, and then looked at Pierre.

“Do what you have to.”

Pierre took out a knife and a lighter that he’d had in his pocket, and held the flame on the steel of the pocketknife, cauterizing it.

He held the blade to the first, black gash and slid it through the cut, and Melissa’s scream filled the forest. Pierre winced, hating himself for bringing pain to Melissa when she was so clearly in enough already, but knew it had to be done if Mel was to survive. He scraped the scab off, the blood beginning to pour freely out of the injury. Melissa stayed deathly still though Pierre knew it was incredibly difficult for her to do so. He waited for a few minutes before he did the same to the second scab.

When both scabs were gone and the blood had stopped flowing, Pierre watched as Melissa fell into a troubled sleep, clinging to Jimmy’s hand for dear life.

“What happened?” Pierre asked Jimmy, keeping his voice quiet.

“They found us,” Jimmy replied. “I don’t know how they did, but they had the tracker dogs with them. They must have caught our scent, and we had to run like hell. We managed to get away but…But Mel, she fell into a ravine, and…And then I fell, but I didn’t get hurt. There was a pond in the ravine and I knew the dogs were still following our trail, so I dragged her into the water to wash away our scent.”

“When did that happen?”

“Yesterday,” Jimmy said. “We’ve been hiding here ever since we got out of the ravine this morning. There’s no way she’s going to be able to walk, Pierre.”

“We’ll have to carry her, then.” Pierre muttered. “We promised Zack we’d get her to safety, and we will.”

“I hope you’re right,” Jimmy said, wiping at his face.

For the first time since they’d escaped Haverly, Jimmy was beginning to have doubts that they’d make it to Canada alive.