1.1
Darkness.
Choking on searing smoke.
<Can’t see.>
Screams of pain everywhere.
<So hot. What’s on my chest? Concrete?>
“Hey! Over here! There’s someone here!”
<Can’t move.>
“Come on, help me with this. Stay with me, ma’am. We need to get this concrete off you.”
<Huh. I was right. Can’t laugh. No ribs intact.>
“Jesus, she’s been shot! Get the crash cart over here now!”
<No. Let me be. I’ll bleed out soon.>
“Can you get a pulse?”
“It’s weak and thready, but it’s there. Come on, let’s try to … holy shit.”
“What?”
“I know who this is. Oh my God, I know who this is. We need to move her now.”
<Damn. I can’t go anywhere without being recognized.>
“Contact the surgical team and tell them to meet us. If we let her die, he’ll kill us all.”
“She’s in pieces!”
“She can be rebuilt! Most of her is metal anyway!”
<Shit. This isn’t what I planned. I’m not supposed to be alive. Let go of me, dammit!>
1.2
Voices drifting in and out of her nightmare.
“She’s fucking inhuman. There’s no way a normal person would have survived that. Just the blast alone should have killed her.”
<I can hear you, dickhead.>
“You think she’ll pull out of the coma?”
<Coma? What the fuck?>
“For our sake, I hope so. He’s been pacing around here for six months now. If she doesn’t pull out of this, we won’t have time to resign. He’ll kill us. Or worse.”
<Who the hell is ‘he?”>
“Does she have any more surgeries lined up?”
<Wait. Did you say six months?>
“Nope. The last one was three days ago. If she’ll wake up, he wants her to begin physical and mental rehabilitation.”
<Oh no, I know what that means. Fuck that.>
“We just need to be sure she isn’t brain damaged. That car that hit her cracked her skull.”
<Car? I don’t remember a car.>
“He said in another week we can start bringing her back up. He wants her moved to SABRE no later than the end of the year.”
“Jesus. She’s in for hell.”
<SABRE? The fuck is that?>
“You think she’ll make it?”
“The legends I hear about her? Yeah, she’ll be find. If she can walk again, she’ll be a mindless assassin before you know it.”
<Nonononono not again…>
1.3
Flashes of nightmares So much pain.
<I need to wake up. I need to wake up and get out of here. I don’t want to be a machine. Not again.>
“Ready to flush her system?”
“Yeah.”
<Flush who? What?>
Feeling edging back into her arms … her legs … pain increasing with every second … the wounds from the bullets still agonizing…
<My name is Kerry Sheridan.>
“Are you sure this won’t kill her?”
“Truth? No. But he says do it, so we do it. Hit the switch as soon as her brain waves register consciousness.”
“Okay. You gonna give the poor bitch something to bite on?”
“Yeah.”
Something slides between her teeth. She can taste the leather.
“Doc, her heart rate just jumped.”
“She’s regaining consciousness. Get ready”
<Oh God, no … my name is Kerry Sheridan … my name is Kerry Sheridan!>
“Hit it.”
She screams around the leather bit, her body rigid, wracked with pain.
<NOOOOOOOOOOO!>
“Increase the current. Five minutes, no longer.”
“This is crazy! She’ll die!”
“Shut the fuck up and do it!”
More pain. Her entire body burns. She can’t move. She can’t fight. After a couple of minutes, she couldn’t even scream.
“Enough. Turn it off.”
The pain stops. Her body twitches uncontrollably, her muscles still feeling the agony of the current. Someone gently pries her jaw open and removes the bit, replacing it with a cool sip of water.
“Easy, small sips. There you go. Can you open your eyes for me?”
She coughs, takes one more sip of water, and opens her eyes. The man leaning over her looks friendly, his glasses sliding just to the end of his nose. He smiles at her.
“There you are, sweetheart. You’ve been through quite an ordeal. Can you tell me your name?”
She thinks, but nothing comes to her. It’s even hard to put words in the right order.
She focuses, and manages to say, “I don’t know.”
He smiles at her again, and lightly pats her hand. “It’s all right. You’ve been badly hurt. We’re going to give you a shot for the pain, okay?”
She thinks she nods; her muscles aren’t doing what her mind wants them to do. She feels the sting of the needle, and the man smiles again.
“It’s okay. Just relax, and let the Scorpion sting you to sleep.”
She wants to ask what that means, but she can’t. Her eyes close and she’s pulled into sleep.
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