OOM: Capture and Rescue

[agirllost]

[OOC: Warnings for violence, drug use and general scariness]

Kim wakes up in darkness. She feels the ground moving underneath her and realizes that she's blindfolded.

'Oh God'.

She stifles a scream, 'don't panic,' she thinks. But that's a hard command for her mind to follow, especially when this brings up so many bad memories.

Her heart's pounding and her head aches. She feels tape over her mouth and her hands are restrained behind her and she forces back a wave of nausea. She breathes through her nose, but she knows it's too fast, knows that she needs to calm down but hysteria is creeping around the corner.

'How did I get here?'

At least answering that will stave off the panic attack. She remembers walking out of a bar and then...nothing.

No, there's something, a vauge recollection of being hurt (beaten, her mind supplies).

She feels the impossibility of her situation. She knows this can't end well. If they accidentally picked her up, fighting them would give them an excuse to hurt her more. If it wasn't accidental...her stomach turns at the thought.

She feels herself stop moving and there are footsteps outside and her legs are free but she doesn't know how many there are or where they even are and she didn't wear the gun.

Hands around her arms and she's being pulled through a door and down a walkway and then a flight of stairs and she feels herself being pushed onto a chair. Her head rocks forward and back and she lets out a soft moan of pain behind the gag.

She can smell sweat and blood and...a man's cologne?

Her hands are untied and her left hand is seized in a powerful grip. The blindfold is removed and when she looks up she can't stop herself from struggling.

Ramon Salazar is standing in front of her.

She's seen his picture in files, she's read reports of what he's done to people who cross him and he's looking at her in a way that makes her skin crawl.

"We just have a couple of questions and then you're free to go." His accent is softer than she expected.

He leans forward and pulls the tape off her mouth and she flinches at the thought of him touching her.

She doesn't say anything. She just looks at him.

"Jose," he says and her pinky is forced back, too far back and she hears the snap before she feels the pain.

"Shall we try that again?"

Her heart's racing and she's trying not to focus on her hand.

Salazar looks at the man standing next to her and another finger breaks. She tries not to scream but she tastes copper from where she bit her lip.

"Where did you get the money?"

She continues looking at him and decides it's okay to speak since she has no idea of the true answer and this isn't a matter of national security. "What money?"

He laughs and lights a cigar, "The money in your bag,"

"I don't know."

He wraps his hand around her throat and holds the lit end of the cigar near her eye. "It's a simple question, where did you get the money?"

She tries to think but can't remember and the lack of memory suddenly frightens her because it's a gap she can't explain - she has a sudden flash of watching a dark haired woman paint near a lake - but the money just seemed to have appeared. She's starting to have all these strange flashes of memory or hallucinations. How could she know what it felt like to kiss Tony? She has this odd image of her parents together and knows that she must have snapped.

Instead, she stares at the ash, knowing that if she doesn't say something Ramon will blind her.

"Why do you want to know?" she whispers.

"Because it's my money. And it's missing from an account that only three people knew about,"

"I swear I don't know how I --"

He glared at her with flat eyes, "Do you know what your father used to do to people who lied to me?"

Before she could move, he crushed the cigar against the back of her hand and this time she did scream, feeling the heat eat through her skin and knowing for certain that there was no way out.

She looked around at the men with guns and wanted to cry.

"I don't know anything I swear I don't know..." Her hand is making her forget any other pain she had or ever had experienced

Her right hand is cuffed to the chair and against her will she tries to pull away.

"You've heard from him?"

"No,"

"I don't believe you."

"I'm not lying, I haven't heard from him, I swear that I haven't..." Another finger breaks and she can't stop the tears.

Salazar's hand grips her chin and forces her to look at him. "Do you think I'd really take the word of a Bauer? You're a liar, just like your father."

She glares at him through watery eyes, "You have no idea what my dad's like," she whispers.

He laughs, "I think you're the one who doesn't know him," He places his hand on her knee and squeezes gently, "But you will."

Someone hands him a syringe and she struggles to get away.

"Addiction is bad enough, but addiction when so many dealers have died of the disease? Not a kind fate. "

"Please, I don't know anything, I came down here to find him, I haven't seen him I..."

He's too close to her, his breath against her ear, "I could tell you what your father used to do for a fix..."

She feels his hand on her throat and he's pressing down and the world's starting to get dimmer.

'I'm going to die here,' But it's more of a shock when she realizes a quick death is the only way to keep from experiencing more pain.

He lets go and she falls forward, gasping for air. The syringe is still in his hand.

Comments

[agirllost]

She's snapped. Finally, whatever has happened to her has made her snap because she can't explain what she's seeing any other way.

She saw her dad bleeding and dead on the floor and now he's standing there, but he looks different and there's an oddly familiar dark haired woman next to her.

Kim can't move but if she could she'd run from the apparitions. But apparitions can't shoot people, she thinks.

"Dad," she whimpers.

She blinks slowly, but the illusion doesn't change.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack crosses to the window and moves the curtain a fraction, just enough to peer out. Men in black clothes and carrying rifles are swarming onto the compound's grounds, as Salazar's men ran to set up positions to fire back. Government agents, undoubtedly, and somehow he knows that it will not be good if the agents find them here.

He hears Kim's whimper and quickly crosses to her as he sheds his button-down shirt, grabbing the knife off Ramon's henchman's belt, and using it to tear his shirt in half as he checks her injuries. His stomach churns with rage as he sees her hand, the fingers sticking out crookedly, the bright red burn mark on the back of her hand, the glassy expression and constricted pupils in her eyes. For a moment he'd like to empty the rest of his gun into Ramon's body, but part of him knows there's no time for petty revenge, particularly against a man who's already dead.

"It's all right sweetheart, it's me--the real me. But we need to get out of here, and you're going to need to get on your feet, okay?" he says, moving to tie one half of his shirt around the wound in her leg.

[agirllost]

"No, no, no, you're dead, you can't be here!" With her good hand she pushes him away, or tries to at least.

Her mind is a little more alert now, shock and horror pushing beyond the drugs. "Don't touch me."

She looks over at the dark haired woman because even though she's familiar she hadn't just seen *her* die.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack's startled by her outburst, and takes a step back as she pushes him. Despite the fact that he's telling himself that she's bound to be confused after seeing the alternate version of him die, her reaction still hurts.

He'd try to talk her out of it, try to explain, but there's no time. Instead, he backs off, each step backward more difficult than he could ever imagine.

"Okay," he says, softly, trying to keep his composure, trying to put on that calm, composed mask. He hands the pieces of material to Chris. "Use one of these for her leg; the other one you can use for a sling, for her hand. You're going to have to help her to the door. I'll cover you both from the back."

[geeky-agent.livejournal.com]

"Alright," Chris says, taking the material from Jack.

Chris kneels by Kim and tries to gingerly move her leg so she can wrap the around her thigh. There's a lot of blood on her jeans but Kim doesn't seem to need a tourniquet right now. She ties it as a bandage across the wound and hopes there's a healer available when they get back to Milliways.

She takes Kim's hand and winces at the condition of her fingers and the skin already blistering around the burn. Chris rips the material once more and uses the shorter piece to lightly bind the fingers of Kim's left hand together. The longer piece is used as a sling to support her left arm. Even though she is quite and still seems to be in a haze, Kim cooperates and makes the little movements asked of her.

Half-kneeling on the couch, half-standing, Chris looks Kim in the eye s. "Kim, we're going to leave now. You'll put you arm around my shoulders and I'll help you out. Ok?"

Kim nods and moves forward slowly. Chris takes Kim's arm around her shoulder and helps her off the couch. When Kim's steady on her feet, they start moving out of the living room.

[agirllost]

Kim lets the woman help her, avoiding looking at the apparition near her.

She doesn't feel any pain as the woman binds her fingers and tries to stop the bleeding.

She stifles a scream when she sees Salazar. "He killed my dad," she whispers, leaning heavily against Chris.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack looks out into the hallway as Chris and Kim near the living room door closest to the kitchen. Everyone seems to be outside; if they can get there fast enough, they should make it to the door cleanly.

He turns back as Kim sees Ramon. He wants to speak up, to try and get Kim to realize that he's still here, but she's too doped up to know what's going on at the moment, and it might only make her freak out.

He steps out into the hallway, standing where the two hallways cross so Chris can get Kim out of the living room, away from Ramon. "We need to get to the door as fast as we can. No matter what happens, just keep going, get the two of you back to Milliways, okay? Now go--it's clear."

[geeky-agent.livejournal.com]

The "no matter what happens" part catches her attention but rather than comment she just nods and keeps moving.

She moves down the hall and belatedly realizes that the gunfire has all but stopped. They would be closing in soon.

This makes her speed up the pace.

Just as they reach the end of the hall, a door in the house opens and she hears more people enter.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack hears a door crash open, and there are heavy footsteps on the floor. He ducks into the doorway of the storage room, motioning for Chris to keep going. "Go--I'll provide covering fire and follow as soon as you're through."

[geeky-agent.livejournal.com]

She continues, the doors seems farther away then ever now.

The two women reach the door and Chris pulls it open. Holding it open with one hand she ushers Kim through. As she's about to go through the door herself she hears a voice that makes her stop in her tracks.

It's her father's.

"Jack," he calls from across the house.

"You're surrounded. You won't get out of here. If you put down your weapon and cooperate we can work something out."

Chris looks around, trying to see him.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

As he hears Ryan's voice, he turns to look at Chris. She's stopped in the doorway, the door partly open. Jesus, if they start shooting, she's a ripe fucking target--not to mention she'll let any stray bullets into the bar!

"Chris, move now!" he hisses, backing toward the door. It's only a few feet from the storage room to the door to the bar, but it's a very exposed few feet, and it feels like a mile.

An agent is peering around the corner and Jack quickly lets off two rounds, well above the agent's head. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, he just wants them to stay around the corner long enough for him to get the hell out.

"Ryan, I know the drill; don't try and negotiate with a fucking negotiator," he says, trying to sound stern. He just needs to keep them off him for another couple seconds...

There's a moment of quiet, and he glances behind him; only another foot or so to he doorway, but Chris is still standing there.

Suddenly one of the agents swings around the corner, and opens fire. Jack dives for the door, giving Chris a shove into the bar as plaster dust rains down on him. A bullet whizzes by his head, hitting the doorframe with a soft thunk as he passes through the doorway, and slams the door closed behind him.