On the Edge of a Knife - Part 2 [18+ language/moderate violence]

Posted on 27 Mar 2018 @ 10:24am by Commander Scarlet Blake

2,292 words; about a 11 minute read

[[Flashback: Set approximately 6 years previous to current timeline - SFMC Base, Tyraellan. 18+ language/moderate violence]]

ON:

The early morning mist didn't help them see through the dense forest. It also sent a chill down Scarlet's spine, even in her uniform. She had two different weapons on her back and a scanner in her hand as they pushed on through the difficult, uneven and thickly laden forest floor.

"Anything yet?" Christopher Barton said on a soft voice, almost a whisper, knowing she'd hear it in her earpiece.

Scarlet shook her head with a frown, sighing softly. "Nothing. But the readings aren't clear. You know they can act up out here."

Barton nodded with a frown, his hands clutching tensely onto his belt at his hips, glancing to the other three marines with them. "This is a wild goose chase."

"I'm going to get higher, maybe I can see more than we're reading," Scarlet was already looking around for a suitable tree.

Barton gave a quick nod before signalling the three marines with them to move on up ahead, heading them up.

Scarlet slid the scanner back into her belt, grabbing onto the branch of a solid, tall tree. She hauled herself up, climbing with the ease of someone who was used to picking out high spots to get a good line of sight with a sniper rifle.

She caught her breath by the time she clambered towards the top, clearing both the morning mist and some of the vegetation. She climbed onto a sturdy branch, sitting so her back was against the trunk and her legs straddling the branch, wrapped around under it. Flipping down the partial visor, Scarlet pulled the sniper rifle off her back, lifting it up to her eye. She started a slow visual sweep of the area, using the tech to get a better idea of what was going on down there.

The slightest of movements caught her eye by chance and she adjusted the sights. "Shit! Barton, get to cover now!" she whispered harshly across the comm.

"What's going on?"

"There's at least six of them down there, armed. They're talking to someone but I don't think he's with them," she frowned, trying to get a better sighting. "Barton, they've got someone in cuffs."

"Who?" he demanded across the comm.

"A youth. Male. About 14?" she said quietly, her heart beating faster.

"Hell..."

"They're dragging him off, moving, in your direction. Wait. They've got another one. A girl, about the same age."

"Slavers," Barton's voice was strained and Scarlet could hear his heavier breathing even on the comm.

"We've got the intel, it's time to go," one of Barton's men cut in across the comm, saying what they were all thinking, but what Scarlet hadn't wanted to say.

"No," Barton whispered, his voice sharp and clipped.

"Barton," Scarlet whispered, trying to keep her voice calm and authoritative, running her tongue across her bottom lip, feeling her heart beat faster in her chest with the dread that was creeping through her, the sense of foreboding.

"They've got children!" Barton snapped down the line to her.

"We had our orders, Barton!" Scarlet replied quickly. "Limited contact, strictly recon! We don't know how many of them are out there, we're outnumbered just on the ones we can see! I can't even cover you properly from up here, the lines of sight are screwed! If we pull back to the edge of the forest, we can call for back up and get back in there with more marines within the hour and do it properly to get them out!" Scarlet tried to be both firm and calm at the same time, but all she could feel was the sickening thud in her chest, knowing exactly what he was about to do.

"Bollocks to orders!" Barton could barely keep his voice to a whisper. "They could be gone by the time we get back! I'm going to get those kids, Scarlet!"

"This isn't redemption, Barton, it's plain stubbornness! You're going to get both yourself and them killed!" Scarlet shook her head, swallowing hard as she cursed under her breath. "Barton?" she pressed her finger to her earpiece with a frown, breathing hard. "Barton? Christopher? Christopher, answer me you bastard!" she said desperately before giving up. "Shit," she shook her head hard, trying to keep calm as she readjusted the rifle to try and get a better view on the area.

Scarlet heard the signs of trouble before seeing it, the shots ringing through the dank air, sending the slavers scattering. She cursed as she tried to follow them with the rifle, trying to force her heart rate to slow to get the best aim she could. She took her first shot, catching one of the slavers clean through the chest.

She altered her aim before he'd even fallen to the ground, taking another shot, this time hitting another of them solidly in the lower back. A breath in, and she took the third shot as she let the breath smoothly out, ruining his thigh and making him drop heavily to the ground.

Scarlet lowered the rifle when they all scattered out of her view, and out of her angle of sight. "Christopher, where are you? Christopher? Stop being a stubborn sod and answer me, or I swear I will shoot you myself! Where the hell are you? I'm going to try and get to you!" she tried to find them on the scanner, shaking her head almost violently when nothing came up. "Norton? Vires? Tsarl?" she was answered only by a burst of static. The link was being jammed.

Scrambling down from the tree, Scarlet virtually let herself fall from branch to branch, catching hold of them to control it, trying to get back to the ground as quickly as possible. She dropped down onto the forest floor, rolling in the vegetation before clambering to her feet and pulling her rifle free.

She pushed forward, making her way to where she'd seen them last, gripping her rifle tightly. She swung round when she heard rustling in the plant life, firing quickly but missing. She kept her distance, taking another shot when the outline of a body became clearer. He dropped quickly to the forest floor, but was followed by another.

Scarlet took quick aim, but she was knocked down by a blow from behind before she could take the shot. She gasped as she hit the ground, but pushed herself quickly onto her back, just in time to grab the wrists of the hands that were reaching for her.

She pulled the wrists sharply, pulling him down onto her and rolling them hard and fast, using his momentum to carry them. She smashed her elbow down into his throat, pulling her handheld phaser free and shooting him point blank.

She felt the movement behind her, turning quickly to take aim, but the weapon was kicked out of her hand. She was grabbed by the throat by a large man in leathers. She moaned with pain and disorientation as her head was hit back hard against a tree, the man pinning her tight and his fingers squeezing.

Scarlet gripped him right back, grabbing him around the face, her thumbs pressing to his eye sockets.

He pulled back on reflex, gasping as he staggered to cover his face with one hand, his other hand reaching for his gun.

Scarlet slammed her foot into his head before he had the chance, making it snap sharply to the side and as he hit the ground, his head thudded sickeningly onto a rock, cracking with the force. Breathing hard as she regained her balance, Scarlet touched her head with a hiss of pain, feeling blood.

"Scarlet?"

Scarlet turned quickly, her hand pressed to the side of her head to try and stop the thumping pain in it. Her heart sped up as she held her breath. "Christopher?" she called back, looking around, trying to work out where the voice had come from, but it was virtually impossible in the echoey, dense forest.

"Scarlet!"

She grabbed her rifle and pressed on forward through the trees, breathing hard as she ran, jumping every few steps to avoid roots and rocks. "Christopher! Christopher, where are you!"

Scarlet heard a loud cry of pain, and it wasn't until she was falling that she realised it was her own. She clutched her arm, blood pouring from the bullet wound. She tried to scramble back onto her feet, breathing hard with pain and growing dread. She almost fell straight back down, well and truly giddy as she tried to move forward.

Suddenly, her vision went black as some kind of hood was shoved over her head with a strong grip, used to pull her backwards.

Scarlet reached up to grab at the hands holding the hood over her head, her steps hurried and stumbling backwards to try and keep herself upright as she was dragged backwards.

Groping blindly, Scarlet managed to get a hold of her knife, stabbing back and hard, gasping with relief as she felt it sink into flesh and heard the masculine cry of pain behind her. The force on the hood was released and she pulled it off before tugging her knife free of the man, turning to face another assailant who was holding a bar in both hands, getting ready to try and hook it around her.

Scarlet took a deep breath, sprinting forward at him, using the force as she grabbed the bar to send him backwards, crying out with how much effort it took, and the pain that pulsed steadily through her. He had no choice but to stagger back with it or fall, caught off guard by the kinetic force.

Scarlet managed to get him to trip backwards into a tree. It was long enough for her to use her knife, ripping it harshly across his throat. She caught her breath, slumping slightly with the spent energy and pain, not caring that she was now covered with his blood as well as her own.

"Christopher!" she called out again, listening for an answer, even as she heard movement around her, trying to straighten up and get back to form.

She was grabbed from behind, two strong arms locking around her, making her gasp with pain at the pressure on the gunshot wound. She forced her eyes to open, seeing another man move towards her, some kind of injector gun in hand.

She struggled in the arms that held her, trying to break free, but he was far too strong. She smashed her head back into his face, lifting her feet from the ground, kicking them both firmly into the chest of the man approaching her, sending him stumbling backwards, as well as the dazed man holding her.

They ended up sprawled on the ground together and Scarlet tried to roll away from him so she could scramble up, but she was slow and clumsy with pain, exhaustion and sweeping dizziness.

She gasped as she felt a heavy weight shoving down on her, one of the men using his weight to pin her down on her front.

A hood went back over her head, the fabric sucking into her mouth with her hard breaths, and this time a rope went over her head and around her neck with it, tightening around her throat to secure the hood over her face and sending her reeling with lack of air.

A sharp pain jolted through Scarlet's head as the butt of a rifle was slammed into her temple, snapping her head down and sending her into unconsciousness.

***

The first thing she was aware of was the tightness of her chest.

She didn't understand why, caught in sleep, but she knew it was wrong.

Slowly, she became aware of heavy, wet fabric being dragged into her mouth each time she took a breath, clogging it up and half choking her.

Still half unconscious, she tried to reach up to pull it away, but found that she couldn't.

Her mind started screaming at her to open her eyes and Scarlet blinked her eyes open, but the world was still black.

She started to pull at the restraints holding her arms down against the chair she was tied to. Even that movement was enough to suddenly send pain coursing through her body; from her head, from her arm, all of her injuries.

Scarlet gasped as another bucket of cold water was thrown over her face and a moment later the rope was loosened from around her neck and the hood pulled off her head.

Scarlet had to close her eyes tightly with a grimace at just the single, small light in the rather dark and gloomy, small, metallic room, the light piercing a knife of pure pain through her head.

She tried to move, tried to pull herself out of the chair, but it was rooted to the metal floor, and she was secured tightly into it.

Her head snapped to the side as she was hit solidly across the cheekbone for her efforts, forcing a moan of pain to escape as it made the already searing pain in her head excruciating.

Scarlet held her breath for a long moment, as if that could somehow dissipate the pain. Slowly, she started to open her eyes, a tiny crack at a time to let her eyes adjust to the light.

By the time she could cope with it, her vision was blurred. She blinked a few times, trying to focus her swimming vision.

When the blurred images started to come together, Scarlet soon realised she was staring straight back into the eyes of a man who was bent over her, watching her intently.

TBC:

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