Page 15 of Sawyer’s Mistake

“Stop!” she wailed. “Let him go! Tell me what you want from me!”

The alien stopped squeezing and stepped off of him. Sawyer rolled away, trying to get his legs under him. Not an easy task with his hands tied behind his back.

He locked eyes with Saoirse for an instant. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he gasped, reaching for Wolverine’s feet. In response, the alien kicked him in the ribs. Sawyer grunted. He tightened his stomach muscles to protect his ribs from the next kick, but it never came. Both Wolverine and Sabretooth stopped suddenly and stared at their right arms, where green symbols flashed for an instant before disappearing.

Wolverine locked eyes with Sawyer, as if longing for one last kick, but then followed Sabretooth out of the room. His head hit the lightbulb on his way out, making the light flicker. Sawyer swallowed thickly, tasting blood. He prayed the lightbulb would hold. It wasn’t something he liked to advertise, but he hated the dark.

As the door closed, he let his head fall hard onto the ground. It was surprisingly easy to feign unconsciousness.

#

Saoirse

There was so much blood everywhere, she didn’t know where to look. She wished she had a stronger stomach. She came from a family of doctors. Her parents, her older brother, her aunt were all doctors. She wished she’d followed in their footsteps. But they were all gone.

Don’t think of your family. Don’t throw up. Focus on Jake. He needs help.

He was lying facedown on the floor. Blood matted his blond hair, making it seem darker. It fell over the side of his face, obscuring his expression, but she could see his mouth. His normally generous lips were tight with pain.

He’s lying sideways, so he’s probably not going to choke. That’s good.

She watched his chest rise and fall. Focusing on his breathing seemed to help. The urge to retch subsided slowly.

She tightened her arm and leg muscles and pulled as hard as possible, but the alien bindings held strong. If anything, the strange cables seemed to tighten against her efforts, pulsating with a life of their own. After just a few seconds of struggle, they were tight enough to cut off the circulation to her limbs.

She whimpered in pain and held herself very still. After a few moments, the cables rewarded her by loosening fractionally.

She looked around for a camera, wondering if the Remur were controlling the ropes, but she couldn’t see anything, and nobody came into the room.

After a few minutes, she rubbed her wrists against each other tentatively, and the punishment began again. She stopped, and the bindings loosened. It seemed like the cables could detect any attempt at escape.

This wasn’t going to work. She needed to come up with a different plan.

She leaned to the left and felt the chair shift slightly with her. Of course. She didn’t need to move her arms. He was only a few feet away. She should be able to make her way to him easily enough.

She tightened her stomach muscles and jumped up in the chair. When the chair legs left the ground, she pushed forward with her body. Gravity pulled her back down immediately, but when she landed she saw she’d moved a few inches closer to him. She waited for the alien bindings to figure out what she was doing and tighten on her, but nothing happened.

Success.

The bad news was at this rate it would take her all day to get to him, and she didn’t know how long they had before the Remur came back.

Whatever. It’ll take as long as it takes.

She took a couple of deep breaths and tried again. This time, she ended up six inches closer to Sawyer. She looked at the door. It was still closed.

Sawyer groaned softly but didn’t wake up.

I’m almost there, Jake. Hold on.

She kept at it until her stomach muscles cramped from the effort and then did it again.

Finally, she was close enough that she could have touched Sawyer’s face, if only she’d been able to move her arms.

“Jake,” she hissed. Her eyes went to the door then back to Sawyer’s prone form. She didn’t know where the aliens had gone, but they could be back anytime.

She sighed. Sawyer had been very clear about it, the most important thing was activating the tracker.