No Time To Bleed

KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
KNOCK!

My eyes drudgingly opened, the lids to them previously being peeled shut. My drool rested against the sheets and Jessica slept soundly in the bed just a few feet away, still in her dress. My arm used the last of its strength to raise itself and I looked to the time illuminated on my watch. The numbers that where showed 04:10 am.

Why did those numbers look so familiar?

“Open up the door before we break it down!” A voice shouted.

I was just so tired. It felt like I’d been drugged. My body lifted itself from the sheets as I stood. More banging went to the door and I just stared at the thing shaking on its hinges.
“Open up the door!”

Then, a loud bang came and Jessica woke up screaming. Splinters and wood flew as the door shattered to pieces. I fell back a few steps and a figure burst into the room.

“Is this the girl?” he asked behind him.

Another person nodded. The man in the room reached over to Jessica on the bed, digging his grimy hands into her hair. She was screaming more than ever.

“Let her go! She didn’t do anything!” I jumped at the man, beating my fists and clawing at his back.

Jessica was screaming, thrashing, sobbing, and panic filled her eyes.

“She didn’t do anything!”

The man shoved me back, his hand covering my face as he did. I flew back into a mirror, the glass shattering against my head as I saw stars. Before I even caught my breath, hands of their own dug into my hair and I was screaming.

“Stop it! Just leave her alone! Leave her alone!”

Jessica had been dragged into the hallway by the burly man, alone and completely defenseless.

Then, a man stepped forward and his hand came out, shattering against as my head flew to the side. My neck began to throb and the blunt hit had wiped all the tears from my eyes.

It was Brett Wiggins himself before me, cucumber green eyes that he shared with his son staring right at me as blood trickled down the back of my head.

“You’re a stupid little girl, aren’t you? Making plans and dances and doing all of these things for what exactly? What are you looking for?”

The tears started to pour again. “I just wanna go home. I wanna get out of here.”

His hand slammed into my jaw again and the pain was so much more intense, stretching through my eyes and my neck.

“You are never going home! Do you hear me?! You mess with my company and you get killed!” he snarled. “You think my workers were so incompetent that they wouldn’t know you and your friends have been sneaking around?”

I just stared back at him, throat as dry as hay and I was sure I was losing consciousness. Jessica had stopped screaming in the hallway. All I heard now was thrashing.

Brett’s fingers pointed to my face, his breathing more heavy than ever. “All I want to know is how you got that information. Either you tell me right now or everyone you love will be dead.”

“I found it.”

This time his fist came cradling out and socked me in the eyes.

“Where did you get it?!”

“I found it!”

His fist slammed down on my face again and the man holding my hair had released me. I crumbled to the floor in a heap so unintelligible from who I usually.

Brett stood over me, the most sinister smirk marked across his lips. “You and everyone you know are as good as dead after today. Prepare to become ash.”

Screaming then came from the hallway and I knew it Jesse and his roommate. They were being dragged out just like we were.

“Take her away.” He said.

The two burly men grabbed me by the arms and dragged me out the room, my legs turning to jello against the floor.

My head reached the hallway with Jesse and his roommate fighting steadily down the hallway. I watched in horror as one of the men let Jessica’s body dropped to the floor. She hit it with a thud, her mouth hanging stiffly open as her misty eyes stared up.

And I saw the bullet hole in the side of her temple, blood oozing out from gap that was there.

My limbs became only an extension of who I was, forcing me to thrash and scream all the obscenities I’d ever heard in my life as Brett walked down the hall.

If there was one final thing that I’d do today with my life, I’d make sure Brett Wiggins was dead by the end of it.

I swore that promise on Jessica’s life.

* * * * *

I was thrown into a wall and my finger snapped painfully against the ground once I landed. I was shaking from anger as the door slammed behind me.

The room was all white with a metal table placed in the middle.

No chairs. Not even as much as window. Just me and the room.

At least I thought I was alone until someone spoke.

“Brett’s doing his speech in four and a half hours.”

They’d thrown me in a room with Alex.

He was in the corner of the room across from me, the searing light showing his battle beaten face and the blood had dried there.

“But, you don’t care do you?” I said. “You don’t care who dies as long as your safe.”

“That’s not true.”

My hand held onto the throbbing finger of my right hand and I was sure I didn’t look quite as pretty as I felt which was saying a lot.

“Really? Because you really showed that opinion when you were beating Jesse to a pulp.”

He lifted himself up against the wall and breathed. “He’s not good for you. He won’t make you happy.”

“Then, who else will, Alex?” My words were only a whisper and I felt the urge to cry. Even now, I couldn’t feel any tears left to shed in me. Jessica’s death had been the final straw for me. Only hell would boil over when I let Lexicon win.

“All I know is that he won’t.”

I just stared at him and wondered why he suddenly seemed so small. So small and pitiable.

“Whatever happened to you, Alex? Who are you? What are you fighting?”

Alex shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Cause if you’re scared of what I was scared of, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

He crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

Then, I forced myself to stand despite the throbbing coal of hot coursing through my brain. I trudged my way over to where Alex was sitting and eased myself to take a seat next to him.

“You don’t have anything to be afraid of. I was dragged here after I saw a bullet hole in my roommate’s brain. Brett threatened to kill everyone I know.” My voice was in a whisper even though we had nothing to fear now.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” His voice held a smirk of something I recognized from when we first met.

I plopped my hand onto his and laced my fingers into his as well, glad that all of my hostile feelings were gone. I guess being threatened made you realize a lot of things.

“What I mean is that death is supposed to teach you what’s important to you, what you care about most because that’s what your usually most scared of losing.”

The mood had changed in the room and Alex’s fingers latched into mine more closely.

“I think your right.”

Then, a latch on the door opened and two trays slid in. “Eat and return the trays in half an hour.”

Alex and I both hobbled over to where the food was. On the metal trays for breakfast were water bottles, apples, and a white bar.

“What’s this white bar?” I asked, sniffing it.

“It’s a tasteless food bar. They give it to people in isolation so they lose their sense of taste slowly.”

I sighed, dropping the thing down on the bunch of napkins they’d given us. “This sucks. We need to get out of here.”

Alex’s regard turned to me and hand then moving to my face. “They shouldn’t have touched you. You look… different.”

I smiled, feeling the soft burn of his hand on my face. “Is that code for ugly?”

He grinned then and shook his head. “You’re always beautiful.”

“Is that why you shot me when we first met?”

He took a water bottle, unscrewing the cap only the lightest bit, and dripping the water onto napkins. He brought the napkins up to my face, using the moisture in them to clean there. Our eyes stayed connected as he dabbed away the blood and scratches there.

“I’m sure we all want to kill Brett as much as the next person, but can I ask who Rodney is?”

“Rodney’s a boy I met when we broke into Lexicon. He helped me get out, said he hated his father. He wants to help us.”

“Help us or help you?”

I exhaled at the question. “Either way we’re getting helped. No reason to be jealous.” He continued to wipe away the grime and cuts on my face and neck.

Then, I began to do the same for him, using the newer napkins to clean the blood that had dripped from his nose down to his chin and neck.

“Now it’s my turn to ask the question.” I said. “Why’d you ask that girl to the dance with you?”

Alex swallowed. “To make you jealous, make you want to join my side, but it never worked. I could never control you.”

I giggled at that. “Damn right you couldn’t.”

So, we talked for a while. I told him what Cece and I had done, breaking into the lower tunnel of the airport and what we’d found. He listened intently the entire time as we still sat near the door.

“Did you ever think your life would end up like this?” I asked him.

Alex shook his head. “Did I ever foresee a virus causing people to become dead and turn into cannibals? Nope. Did I think I’d ever meet you? No. Am I mad anymore how things turned out? No.”

The latch popped open again and just like instructed we forced the trays under the door.

“Move away from the door.” The voice ordered.

Alex and I crawled away from the door and it popped open. A large man with keys jingling on his waist walked in.

“Room Number 242. Jasmine Rushman and Alexander Fields.” The man called out before smiling to us. “We need your hourly blood sample.”

The man grabbed Alex’s arm first who complied more than I intended to. The device in his hand with a keypad pricked Alex’s arm, then sent a needle into it, and sucking a good amount of blood into a vile.

“Good job kid.”

Alex looked back at the man reproachfully. I guess seeing Alex do it calmed me down because I let the man take my blood too.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty girl?”

I scoffed at him. My face looked about as pretty as beaten brick.

He left the room with a thud after taking my blood and I seethed. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

Alex smiled. “I think I just found a way out.”

My eyebrows rose.

Alex had a plan?