CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused." - Freda Adler
After holding a short conference with the remaining Shadows, one of them pulled Harry to his feet, holding him upright, arms behind his back; while another taped his mouth shut and bound his wrists with some kind of wire. Two others did the same with Dar/Marlene. She struggled painfully as Sergeant Leach forced her wrists behind her. He tried to hold her wrists together with one hand while keeping his other hand free, but found her strength deceiving for one so slender.
"Why the struggle, Sweetheart?"
The sergeant's hoarse and gravelly voice was intimidating, frightening even. His grip was strong, but she held her ground and seemed more willing to die rather than submit.
"I thought all you Touchables liked to be touched," he barked through his clinched and rotting teeth.
As he yanked the tape from her mouth, she growled, "Not by the likes of you."
"You bitch," he answered, and punctuated his retort with his backhand across her face.
Harry fought his bonds to help his "former" friend, but it was useless. His bindings held his hands together so tight they hurt. So pumped with adrenalin, he didn't realize the thin wire had cut badly into his wrists in his struggle to free himself. Each movement of his wrist punished him with sharper pain.
However, the severe pain had not quelled his desire to help Dar. He could kill these human animals—even if he couldn't destroy a machine!
Meanwhile, Leach managed to work his left hand to cup Dar's right breast and forced his right hand between her legs as one of his men held her arms back and another ripped her legs apart.
"Touch me there again and I'll kill you, you stinking bastard!" she warned as she struggled helplessly, "I'll kill you!"
Her words sent him into a rage, and he hit twice more in the face.
"Hold her tighter," he ordered the strongest of his team. "The rest of you hold her feet."
The squat, muscular Shadow, Piggot, held both of her arms behind her back while Leach yanked her garment loose and tore off her bra to bare her breasts. He grabbed her tender globes roughly with both hands, and without warning, nuzzled them with his coarse beard, then licked and sucked on the erect nipples.
A cold shiver swept over Marlene. Her eyes glazed over as Leach pushed her down on the table, jumped up with her and covered her body with his. He waved the others away. His stinking breath gagged her. His clumsy pawing was easier to deflect since he wasn't as strong as those who were holding her. She fought back for a moment, but then stopped moving altogether, stopped responding as if she was oblivious to it all. Let him get pleasure from a corpse, she thought to herself.
In her way, she was already a corpse, dead to herself, but with her eyes of hatred no longer focused on herself and the results of her betrayal, she did not find herself as despicable as the inhuman monster that was molesting her. She realized her struggle wouldn't help anyone and she blamed herself for what was happening to her now. She kept telling herself she was getting what she deserved for killing all of those people whose only crime had been a desire for a peaceful chance to co-exist with the Cyber.
She saw Harry's wild eyes that were desperate to communicate with her, even though he couldn't speak. Dar! Don't give in. Fight him!
Harry?
Harry was immediately pushed to the ground and kicked several times until he had covered his head with his arms and lay unmoving in a fetal position. His captors stopped kicking and raised him up again to watch their sergeant's debauchery.
For Harry then, she decided. Her corpse came to life again. Alert and confident, she would do what had to be done even if it killed her. Why not? Living with the innocent Bio deaths will be hard enough, she reasons, but how can I live knowing I let this scum have me without a fight?
Harlan Leach saw a change in her eyes that seemed to signal that she was enjoying the moment. She wanted him. He couldn't have been more mistaken.
Harry's sharp bindings made his struggle to free himself futile. His ribs and guts ached now. He had never known this kind of pain. What he did know is that it was real. He bucked and strained at the wires but only managed to deepen the painful cuts he already had and was now bleeding profusely from his wrists. Although weak from the loss of blood, he moved enough, an inch or two, so he and Dar or Marlene could see each other. He hoped she could see his pleading in his eyes: Don't give in to them! Don't do this!
I have to, her eyes told him. Look, where you are when I need you the most, she seemed to answer. Look what I've done to you, too. She smiled the strangest smile...But I can't help it. I can't...
Leach yanked off the tape covering her mouth.
Dar ignored the pain and changed her look of hate into one of desire. She smiled at the loathsome monster.
"Not like this, Sergeant! Not like this!"
Shaken by her unexpected response, Leach stopped his clawing and maneuvering and stared at her through slit beady eyes as he jumped off the table. His obvious intention was to regain his steely composure and hop back on.
"Kiss me. C'mon kiss me, Sergeant," she cooed. He started for her again, but she stopped him again, "Untie me and I'll make it worth your while."
Leach laughed. "Do you think I'm that stupid?"
"That's okay," she answered calmly. "I think it's sexy to be tied. Leave my hands then. Or just my feet—so I can spread easier for you. I can't wait to have you inside me."
"Really?"
"Really," she said, keeping her disgust buried.
Although still eyeing her suspiciously, Leach took wire cutters from inside his Stealth cloak and cut her bindings. He moved quickly to kiss her hard on the mouth. She felt her teeth about to break from the pressure of his tongue, trying to force its way in. She held back the nausea as he continued pressing his filthy mouth to hers. She relaxed a moment to let his vile tongue in. As soon as she felt his organ swirling in her oral cavity, she cut short his pleasure and bit down hard on his tongue—harder than she had ever bitten any piece of meat.
He screamed and fought frantically to escape the woman's incisors until he abandoned about an inch of his tongue still in her mouth. Blood gushed from his mouth; flesh, blood and vomit erupted from hers. As he sputtered and spat, she rained more vomit and blood, covering him in a sickening pink and brown slush.
As if that wasn't enough, she brought her freed knee up in his groin as he was breaking away from her. He fell to his knees in agony, not knowing which body part to grab. His mouth or his balls—each a torture unto itself.
Piggot, who had come back into the room upon hearing the cries, took in the bloody scene with horror.
Leach signaled to him and screeched something unintelligible.
"What?" Piggott asked.
Leach points to the prisoners and screeches again.
Confused, Piggot shouted, "What do you want me to do?"
All Leach could do was spit up blood.
Piggot pulled away from him in horror as if he had been burned with hot oil instead of being spattered with his comrade's blood. I didn't like the idea anyway. Orders is orders, the corporal thought. Once he recovered from the shock of seeing all the blood spouting forth, he bent down to see if he could help Leach, hating the man, but feeling helpless except to obey the orders of his sergeant.
Leach lay writhing in pain, moaning, forming words with great difficulty, "Uh beech id it! Uh beech id it!" Apparently, it was very difficult to make the t" or "d" sounds without all of his tongue.
Hearing the commotion, Carlos and Kieran rushed back in to find Leach thrashing about on the floor and Piggot standing to one side dumbfounded.
"What's going on here?" Carlos screamed. Then, seeing Leach writhing on the ground, "What do you think you're doing?"
"He's lucky I didn't kill him." Marlene's self-satisfied voice was hoarse, even and unwavering, occasionally still spitting blood and saliva. Blood covered her chin and neck. Defiantly, she raised her once angelic face
, dripping with Leach's blood, to find Carlos' laser ax against her cheek.
"Looks like you tried," he said, a bit calmer and chagrined.
"Also looks like he deserved it, Carlos," added Kieran. "Worm!"
"You sure?"
"Look at her! Leach pulled her clothes off," she said to Carlos.
She turned to Marlene, and spoke more gently as a woman who had been there before. As she helped her back into her smelly garb, she said softly, "You gave him his due. If you ask me, most of them deserve worse than that. Survivors. Animals more likely. What's your real name, honey?"
"Marlene," she said, eyeing the other woman suspiciously, as she tried to help her adjust herself. "I'll be all right," she snapped. "I can take care of myself."
"Suit yourself," Kieran said, turning and offering the canteen to Harry.
He shook his head as if to say, Give it to her. Let her drink first.
Not interested, said Kieran's stiff posture as she drank deeply, not taking her cold, dark blue eyes off the female captive.
She offered it to Harry once more. As he leaned forward for her to take his gag off, she pulled back the offer. Almost simultaneously, with the withdrawn offer of the canteen, she pulled her knife and ran the cold, sharp, flat blade over his cheek, down his chest and abdomen. She smiled at the fear in his eyes.
"I bet you're not much better than him. Are you?"
Her smile disappeared as she noticed Harry's blood pooling on the floor. Suddenly all business, she pulled a pair of homemade wire cutters from inside her cloaks and snipped the wires that bound his wrists. She ripped a piece of Harry's cloak, cleaned and examined the wounds, then after ripping two small strips from her own cloak, wrapped them tightly around his wrists.
"We'll clean your wounds later, but that'll stop the bleeding for now."
Thanks, Harry nodded, noting that he was no longer tied up.
"Don't thank me. Leach deserved everything he got. We need you and your partner here alive for the moment. Stay calm and you might live. Try to escape and we'll find you."
Harry wasn't planning to escape—not for the moment anyway. He wouldn't stand a chance in his current physical shape, and he couldn't bring himself to leave Dar here alone despite what she'd done.
Carlos didn't look at Harry, but directed his attention to the filthy man writhing at his feet.
"What's the matter, Leach? Didn't expect a human female to fight so hard? You should have kept to the sex cyberts; they don't bite back unless you want them to."
The man sputtered, still screeching unintelligible words without the most important part of his tongue. As he tried to rise up, Carlos held him down with his boot.
"I'll kill you, Beeth! Beeth! I'll kill you, Beeth! Caros! I kill you, too!"
Carlos shook his head as he held Leach in the submissive position.
"You aren't going to kill anyone, Leach. In fact, I should let her go so she can kill you herself."
He released Leach so he could raise himself upright. As the man came up, he immediately lunged after Marlene. Instead, Carlos backhanded him, sending him several feet away.
"That's for not obeying orders."
Then, one kick per statement: "That's for exposing her. That's for exposing us." A kick to his kidneys in his lower back. "That's because you're stupid." A kick to his midsection. "That's because you're ugly." A kick to the groin. He kicked Leach several more times until he scurried off into the shadows and disappeared.
"Find him." Carlos barked. "Take his Stealth—and his shield."
Kieran nodded, signaled to two others, and went after him.
"He'll die out here without them," said one of the remaining Shadow guards.
"So? Want to be next? You stood there and watched him do this. These Touchables survived without Stealth, no thanks to him. He can have it on their terms. We don't need his kind here. Let's see if any of the other Touchable groups will offer that scumbag any protection."
He turned and looked at his captives.
"Oh, take the tape off them. They can't give away our position without getting themselves killed."
"They will, you know," Harry said when he was finally able to make his mouth work after being taped shut. "They'll take him in."
"Yeah, I know. Poor, kind-hearted slugs. Your partner here should have killed him. We can't use him anymore. He can't be trusted."
Harry looked at Marlene. "Are you all right?"
"I will be."
"Sorry," Carlos said to her. "Sergeant Leach—he's one of the more desperate ones, but he was a good soldier once. Unfortunately, we can't be too picky out here. We need all the bodies we have. Makr keeps the need for replacements high."
There were screeches and shrieks in the distance.
"Leach," he said. "They've caught him. I guess he doesn't like being without his Stealth or his shield."
There was a bright light in the distance. No more screams. Carlos shrugged his shoulders.
"He fought hard, but not hard enough. It's just as well. He'd be a danger to anyone wherever he landed."
"Hard justice," commented Harry.
"Hard justice? When he exposed your friend here, he exposed us, and I mean that literally. Cyberts track mostly with heat detectors. Some of their weaponry targets a heat source. That would be us—including you and any of your precious Touchables—whoever happens to be Outside at the moment. Our butt ugly clothes protect us from detection. Leach was a beast. He deserved what he got. He was killed, not because he was a beast, but because he gave our location away. Remember that."
"Still, it does seem rather harsh."
"It would probably be best if you also remembered you are our guests and that we're beasts, too. That man would have killed you in a heartbeat and you want justice for him? He doesn't deserve it. Few of his kind do. But some among us are decent folk. Most of these soldiers, who you know as Shadow People, we picked up off the streets; Makr's rejects, or survivors - you decide. They were lost without Makr. At some point in their sheltered, controlled life Inside, they found a reason to leave and abandon that life forever. They had enough courage and cunning to escape the cyberts long enough for us to find them. They're desperate, all right, like all of us out here. We're the devil's survivors in Makr's Hell."
"What are you going to do with us, Captain?"
Carlos didn't answer immediately. Harry sensed there was some honor with this leader. At least, for all his gruff, he was honest.
"I know we're an enigma to you," Harry continued, "but we are no threat to you. This whole experience is frightening. The cyberts just killed all our friends and we feel responsible because we weren't killed, too."
"Guilt can sure cripple a person, can't it?"
"I have a feeling you know that answer first hand," Harry said gently.
"Maybe."
"Can she have some water?"
"Yeah, sure." As he approached her, the smell was too much. "Whew! What a stench!" Carlos almost laughed. "Good thing Cyber can't track us by scent."
"Judging from what you say, Cyber are capable of anything after a time," she said, almost smiling at the irony.
"Yeah...well, that's true, but I don't like to think about it." He shook his head, and started laughing to change the subject. "That's got to taste nasty."
His tone became more serious. "Didn't know a tongue would bleed so much." He handed the canteen to one of men holding Harry. "Give her some of that water, will you?"
To Harry: "If I leave you untied, will you promise to co-operate? Your lives depend on it. We have some things we have to do, and we don't have the luxury of time to drag you kicking and screaming."
"How do we know you won't just kill us anyway?"
"You don't."
"Thanks for saving me back there," Marlene said, more alive than before after washing out her mouth.
"You handled yourself well. We could use a fighter like you." He grinned inside his Stealth and turned to Harry: "You? I don't know about. I don't know if you can
fight yet."
"Just don't try to kiss me," Harry replied, which the entire group seemed to find amusing. Even Carlos broke a smile although it couldn't be seen through his hooded face. A real charmer, this one, Carlos thought. A diplomat. Too bad this war won't be won by diplomats, or politicians for that matter. Hell, diplomats got us in this mess.
Two hooded figures found their way to Carlos, and handed him Leech's stinking garments. The Shadows seemed to be talking but only Carlos and his men were privy to the conversation.
"Take the point and get ready to move out." They acknowledged by dipping their Shadows in a flowing sort of bow and departed.
"Apparently, Leach managed to get away, but not with his Stealth. Here, put these on," he said to Harry. "Sorry about the smell."
"See if you can't cover your entire body with these," he said to Marlene, gesturing to the ones that had covered them earlier. "Maybe there's enough left to cover every piece of skin."
Marlene nodded and started sorting through the reeking material.
"And hurry. We haven't much time."
Both had a hard time believing there was anything beneficial in wearing the Stealth garments stinking with body odor, but they covered themselves anyway. Several Shadows attended to them to ensure they were covered properly. A single hole could give them all away.
"I know we look scary," Carlos said, "but that's just the protective clothing; it makes us invisible to detection by ordinary Cyber. Makr doesn't seem to be able to detect us when we have it on. Who knows how long we'll be able to keep up the Stealth?"
"Why did you save us?" Harry was determined to make logical sense out of this.
"I don't know. Maybe it's because I don't like to see any humans die needlessly—even rather worthless ones."
"Are they all dead—those in the building there?"
"Sad to say, yes. All but you and the woman. Enough talk. Let's get off the surface before the cyberts come to investigate a definite Bio heat source in the area."
Harry couldn't stop thinking about the man Carlos sent out to die. Even though he may have deserved it, it was still a shock to see a human treated that way by another. "What did he mean? I heard him...he said he knew what you did before. Mind if I ask what that was?"
"Yes, I do mind. By the way, that heat source I mention—that would be the former Sergeant Leach. Cyber don't let scattered body molecules cool too much." He let that sink in. "If I were you, I wouldn't ask that question again or you could end up the same way."