Faith Is Unavailable

Running. It was normally no problem for Suspect Twelve. She ran all the time in Battery City. But out in Zone 2 it was a little more difficult. It could have been because there was no air conditioning or water. Maybe it was because she wasn’t just running on a treadmill in a room with TV screen walls that made a picturesque park to run through. Or maybe it had something to do with her lack of shoes, two Draculoids running after her, and the constant bombard of sleeping darts being shot into her back that she was trying to pull out.
Suspect Twelve had been running for an hour now. She hadn’t been running at full speed the entire time but sweat was still pouring down into her eyes making it hard to see. The Draculoids were slowly falling back and she felt less pricks in her back and sides. She pulled out all the darts she could reach before they drained into her skin.
She could taste something awful in her mouth that was becoming as dry as the land around her. Her lungs and throat burned and it was getting harder to breathe. Her sides were cramping up and her feet were ripped to shreds.
Sleeping darts had little to no effect on her since they had been using her as a test subject and her body had built up a tolerance to them. The most they did was start to numb her body which may have been the reason behind being able to run as far as she had with no shoes.
Suspect Twelve was being used to test a much higher strength of darts but the amount shot into her was none the less diluting her blood and making her lose her sure footing. She wasn’t burning the sleep chemicals off fast enough.
In a last ditch effort to loose the Draculoids she ran one way removing all the darts she could reach and then ran in a sharp perpendicular direction and changed her course a few more times after that to throw them off if they came looking for her. The ground was baked hard enough that her bare feet didn’t leave tracks and the scrapes and tears in them have long since been caked in dirt so there was no chance of a trail of blood. She ran for another half hour before the last six darts she couldn’t pull out won over and she collapsed mid run. If she had run any longer her lungs and heart would have simply burst. Maybe it was a survival mechanism that made her pass out mid run.
Suspect Tweleve was passed out before her body hit the ground and slid to a stop. There she lay in the sun baking as the ground had long before her. The Draculoids followed the trail of the darts but when the darts ended they had nowhere to go. They didn’t know she was 7 and a half miles in the opposite direction lying on the ground slowly being baked.
The Draculoids headed back to Battery City.
Girl and Kobra Kid were out doing a patrol and looking for something to eat for dinner. They hadn’t seen anything other than radiated dirt and some small weeds. Girl kicked the ground but it was baked so hard that no dust even shot up from under her foot.
They ducked into a shed to get out of the sun for a bit. There was no relief from the heat but at least it wasn’t as bright. Kobra Kid checked the faucet to see if the water still worked. Nothing came out but dust. That was a good sign but also a bad one; they were both thirsty but it meant the Draculoids weren’t using the shed as a lookout post. Then again, why would they look at Sector F? After the Sector F Revolt there was no reason to look there for anyone.
“Let’s head back.” Kobra Kid said kicking a cabinet door.
“Hold up.” Girl said walking out the front of the shed towards prone a shape in the distance.
Kobra Kid saw the shape too but the heat waves wouldn’t allow them to distinctly make out anything.
“What do you think it is?” Kobra Kid called ahead.
“Nothin’ to eat, that’s for sure.” Girl said over her shoulder
“It’s probably dead.”
Girl picked up her pace letting curiosity get the best of her. She discovered a woman lying in the dirt caked in sweat and blood that appeared to be coming from little holes in her back long since dried in the sun. Girl got on her knees and poked at the woman. She didn’t move.
Then she saw the darts in the middle of her back.
“Sleeping death.” Kobra Kid said when he got closer. “Where are those pitiful excuses for soldiers called Draculoids?”
“Must be close. Let’s get her out of here. The Trans-Am’s not far.” Girl said taking the six darts out and putting them in her pocket. “Party Poison will know what to do.”
Kobra Kid picked up the woman and turned back to jog in the general direction of the Trans-Am. Girl was further out in front of him but now he was nervous. Draculoids normally had no reason to be in Sector F but then why was the woman in his arms there with their darts embedded in her skin?
“Stay close, Girl.”
“I can see the Trans-Am.”
“It’s a while off. We’re in Sector E now too. Draculoids could be about.”
“Relax, they left her.”
“Maybe it’s a trap. We should leave her.”
Girl spun around and looked at Kobra Kid. He stopped in front of her.
“Remember what we swore to. Remember what Party Poison said. We leave none of our kind alone.”
They continued to the Trans-Am in silence. No sign of any Draculoid following them. Girl turned around in her seat and looked at their new cargo in the back seat while she wondered where she was from and why she was in Sector F.
Something on the wrist of the woman caught Girl’s eye. It was a bracelet. Girl grabbed it and looked at it.
“Suspect Twleve.” She said to herself.
“What?”
“The name on the bracelet. They called her Suspect Twelve and it says she’s from Sector F.”
“Great, so we have one of their captives?” Kobra Kid said slamming on the breaks. “Leave her. They’ll be looking and we can’t risk it.”
“We’re taking her home. We’re rescuing her. Drive.” Girl said pointing out towards the open desert.
Kobra Kid didn’t know why, but he listened to the ten year old and drove back to the abandoned diner they lived in. Party Poison and Silver Sands had just emerged from the attic when Kobra Kid pulled in. Fun Ghoul was trying to get Jet-Star to play his ‘hot rock’ game but he wasn’t getting anywhere. Girl jumped out of the Trans-Am before it had stopped moving and ran to Party Poison.
“We found someone. She’s in the car.”
“What?” Party Poison asked confused and looking to Sands who only offered a shrug.
“Come on.” Girl grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the Trans-Am.
Jet-Star followed out of curiosity. Kobra Kid started to explain that she was a captive of Battery City but Girl opened the door and Party Poison got in the Trans-Am to look at her bracelet.
“Bring her in.” He said as he got out of the car.
Party Poison walked back into the diner and as he passed the door Fun Ghoul asked him what was going on.
“It’s a woman.” Party Poison responded.
Silver Sands stood watching as Jet-Star began to help Kobra Kid. They carried her between them into the diner and laid her on a table. There Party Poison inspected her. The other occupants of the diner came closer to the table interested in the woman lying there.
She wasn’t wearing much but what she did have on had no doubt been grabbed at and pulled with some force. Underneath the dirt and blood were forming bruises and red marks from her clothing being pulled back hard. She had on now only a torn white shirt and blue shorts made of some sort of stretchy material. Party Poison looked at her bruises and scrapes feeling bad for this woman.
“She had these in her back.” Girl said lying out the darts on the table.
“Six?”
“And more. Flip her over.” Kobra Kid said.
Then they all saw the dried blood and tiny holes in her back. Party Poison checked her pulse in three different places and confirmed that she was still alive.
“How? She’s got to be full of that sleeping death.”
“I don’t know, but she might still wake up. We need to clean her up.”
Girl had already gotten some water and a rag and was washing off the woman’s back. Jet-Star began helping her and Silver Sands started to help too.
“What do we call her?” Fun Ghoul asked.
“Suspect Twelve. It’s what her bracelet says.” Kobra Kid said unsure of himself.
“Okay then.” Fun Ghoul said taken aback that the captives were just numbers.
Once Suspect Twelve was clean they laid her on one of the mattresses on the floor and left her there. They gathered at the biggest table and started to talk about what to do with her. They came to the conclusion that there would be extra watch at night for the next few nights and they would have to wait until Suspect Twelve woke up, if ever, to get information out of her.
A few hours later when the sun had gone down Suspect Twelve woke up to their astonishment. She sat up and went to rub her face but drew her hands back for the pain surprised her. Then she noticed she was clean and that scared her. She looked around but nothing was familiar. That should have comforted her because that meant she had escaped Battery City but now she was afraid someone else held her captive.
She saw the six figures watching her. None of them she knew. She tried to stand but her feet to her surprise were torn up just as bad, if not worse. Without the sleeping darts to numb her she slowly was aware of all the pain in her body.
Her muscles screamed with every move and her throat was still ragged as she breathed. She didn’t even know if she could speak.
“Hey.” Party Poison said to her.
Suspect Twelve shrank back from the six people looking at her and sat. Then she tried her best not to move because it hurt.
“We ain’t here to hurt you if you ain’t here to hurt us.”
She shook her head ‘no’ to say she wasn’t going to hurt them.
“Good.” Party Poison said getting up and going to sit on the same mattress with her. “What happened to you?”
Suspect Twelve still didn’t trust any of them so she didn’t say a word.
“I don’t think she wants to talk to us.” Jet-Star said.
“Oh Captain Obvious, it’s been so long since you’ve visited.” Fun Ghoul joked.
“Maybe she can’t talk.” Girl chimed in.
Suspect Twelve toyed with the bracelet on her arm and tried to remember what happened to her. She remembered running and how great it felt until those first darts hit her. Then she remembered fear, heat, and pain until she passed out.
While she had been withdrawn in her own world of thought, Jet-Star had gotten up to grab some wire cutters and then he came back to the room where the rescue was. Party Poison had left her alone and everyone else was back to doing what they were before. No one could sleep tonight for fear of a possible Draculoid and Scarecrow attack.
Jet-Star sat next to Suspect Twelve on the bed and she wryly eyed him. He didn’t let that bother him and just sat next to her until she was relaxed. He let her see the wire cutters and she started to shrink away from him.
“I just want to know if you want that bracelet cut off. They don’t own you anymore.” He said.
She looked at her arm. The bracelet was there reminding her of what she had been. Taking a risk she offered her arm to Jet-Star and he carefully cut off the bracelet and then checked her wrist for anything that could have been embedded in her skin. He was so gentle she didn’t mind when he started to check further up her arm. She even offered him her other arm as if to prove there was no way they could find her. He knew what this meant and he smiled and shook his head.
“I know we’re safe. I trust you.”
She smiled weakly and then picked up the bracelet. She pointed at her name and looked at him.
“Suspect Twelve. I know that’s what they called you. What do you call yourself?” He asked. “They call me Jet-Star.”
She shrugged. Suspect 12Twelvecouldn’t remember her name before she had been captured. It had been so long and she had been through so much.
“Well I don’t want to keep asking you questions since you’re not talking yet. I’ll leave you alone.”
Suspect Twelve reached out to grab Jet-Star’s arm as he started to get up. He looked back at her and she let go.
“Stay.” She said so quietly he wasn’t sure if she had just mouthed the word.
“Alright.” He said as he leaned back on the wall the mattress was against. “I guess you’re scared now so I’ll tell you a bit about us.”
Jet-Star went through all he knew about how they had come together, how they were fighting to stay alive, and battles they’d had with Korse. Suspect Twelve listened but she slowly fell asleep against the wall still tired from all the running she had done earlier. Jet-Star left her there and got up to re-join the watch party.
“Looks like you’ve made a friend.” Fun Ghoul said as Jet-Star sat at the table.
“Don’t know ‘bout a friend, but gained some trust maybe.”