Kidnapped, Collars, "Pick one"
Steve looks around the room at the people in the room. None of them had met each other prior to being picked up off of the street and shoved into a van.
Steve had been the second one to be shoved into the room. It was a dark and dirty concrete block with a heavy door. It had a slot at eye level, like you would see in the movies, where someone has to tell a secret password to be let in.
Still woozy from whatever drug they had given him, he hadn’t realized he wasn’t alone, when he arrived. When he was feeling better, the first thing he had realized was he was wearing a collar with a little box on it. The next thing was that there was a girl, curled up in a corner. She hadn’t looked at him, refused to speak, shook harder when he got close, tried to talk to her. Get to know her a little.
Now there were five of them. Each of them was also wearing a collar, a shock collar, someone had said. There were locks on the attachment point, that they hadn’t been able to figure out and get off.
It was impossible to say how long they had been here. There didn’t seem to be any reason as to how often their captor tossed water bottles into the room.
The girl in the corner was still refusing to talk to anyone, shaking harder when anyone approached.
Later, Steve will wonder if that’s the reason she was taken first. Her unwillingness to talk to anyone else.
They were talking amongst themselves - about school, family, anything - when their captor came in. They brought someone else in with them, tossing the drugged boy carelessly onto the ground. But instead of leaving again, like usual, the masked man looked around until his eyes fell on the girl. He pulled out his gun, advancing swiftly on the corner. He grabbed her by the arm, dragging her out the door.
She screamed when he touched her, begged “No! Please, no! I can’t! Not again! Please!” As he pulled out the door, into the hallway. All in all, taking only a few seconds.
Steve stared in horror at the door. Wondering how long she had been here. Wondering what it was that was going to happen.
He turned his attention away, with a shudder, looking instead to the boy on the floor.
Kiera was already there, looking him over. As a nursing student, she had said it made her feel better.
“He’s still out of it,” she whispers into the dark quiet of the room. “Collar like the rest of us.”
Steve swallows hard, nodding. A couple of the others do too. Steve and another one of the boys drag him over to a wall. And they wait.
“What do you think’s going to happen to her?” Eliza asks.
“Nothing good,” Steve says. He looks around at the frightened faces in the room. At 22, he’s the oldest of all of them. The youngest barely 18. He takes a deep breath, and collapses against the wall. Tired, hungry, just exhausted, and he doesn’t know how to help these people.
“We need to be ready, when he comes back,” James says from the other side of the new boy. Steve nods, closing his eyes.
“We should try sharpening the ends of the water bottles.” Steve says, eyes still closed. “There’s more of us, and we might be able to get the drop on him. When he comes back.”
The others murmur their assent, but they all sit for a while longer.
Before they get up to start, before the boy wakes up, their captor is back. His gun is drawn as he steps into the room. He grabs Eliza, who is closest to the door, and she shrieks.
Catching James’ eye, they leap up, to defend their friend. Before they could grab the man, they fell to their knees as the collars activated. The man was gone before they recovered.
“I.. Am going to apologize to my dog,” Kiera pants, “if we ever get out of this.”
“We’re going to,” Steve says, without conviction.
“Want to say that again, with feeling?” James asks.
Steve shakes his head, a small smile on his face.
They get to work on the empty water bottles. Hoping that they can do something with them.
The boy wakes up, introduces himself as Jason. They give him some water, do their best to answer his questions. They continue working until one by one, they’re too tired to stay awake.
Eliza doesn’t come back. Neither does the other girl.
They’re given water again, and they each fall asleep one more time before anything happens.
The girl comes back. Awake, but dazed. Cleaner than she had been when she left, albeit with some bruises. Her eyes red like she was crying. Dark spots splattered on the front of her clothes.
She’s pushed into the room, and she stumbles into her corner, as the door swings shut behind her. The other four look at each other, eyes wide, and Kiera goes to talk to her.
She still doesn’t respond.
They take Steve next.
The four of them, Steve, James, Kiera, and Jason, sit close to the doors, waiting for their captor to come in and try to grab one of them. Waiting for a chance to fight back.
It doesn’t make a difference. Their collars all go off as the door opens. By the time they can all breathe again, Steve is gone.
Steve tries to fight, but the combination of a lack of food, stress, and shocks from the collar prevent him from doing much.
He’s tied into a chair in front of a couple monitors. They show inside the concrete cell.
James is banging on the door, soundlessly shouting.
“Shut him up,” someone drawls from behind Steve. Steve starts at the sound, but can’t see the speaker. The man next to him presses a button, and on screen, James jerks, falling to his knees, raising his hands to his neck as if he could stop the electricity.
“Stop, leave him alone!” Steve cries, squirming against his bonds.
His own collar goes off, and he stops.
“Pick one.” The man behind him says.
“What?” He stills.
“Pick someone to die.” The man behind him says.
Steve swallows hard.
“I can’t do that.” He says, voice shaking .
“You will.” The voice threatened.
“I won’t.” The man in front of him hits him hard, across the face.
Steve tastes blood.
“Pick someone.”
“You can’t make me kill someone!”
A gunshot.
Burning in his leg.
Someone screams.
“Make the choice, and we’ll give you medical care, a bed, something to eat.” The other man comes around to stand in front of Steve. The first man steps forward, pressing the barrel of the gun under Steve’s chin. He tries to flinch away from the hot metal, but there’s nowhere to go. His attempts juat spread the pain under his jaw.
He can smell his skin burning.
“This will end, if you choose someone. So choose.”
Steve opts to remain silent.
The first man pulls back, hitting Steve in the gut.
He tries not to scream, as the blows keep coming. Sometimes they stop, demanding he choose someone.
At some point he loses consciousness.
“..friendliest to.”
“..bring him..”
When Steve wakes next, he’s sore all over, breathing hurts more than he thinks it should. It takes some time before he can pry his swollen eyes open.
He’s still in a chair. But his arm is extended forward, tied to a board. Something shiny by his hand.
He tries to look closer.
No. In his hand. A gun, his hand taped around the handle.
Steve looks up more to see James tied to a chair in front of him. Directly in the path of the gun.
He jerks around, trying as hard as he can to drop the gun, to point it anywhere but at his friend. He’s unsuccessful.
“Jemth,” he tries to say, “momomo.”
“Hey, Stevie.” James says, a tremulous smile on his face. His voice is rough, and there's tears on his face, making tracks in the dirt.
A speaker clicks.
“You refused to answer, so I thought you would like to see your friend.”
“Mo, le’ hm go,” Steve says, still struggling feebly, attention on his hand.
“Would you like to do the honors?” The voice says smugly.
“Hey, Steve, look at me.” James says. Steve looks up.
“It’s ok, huh? You just get out of here. You live, and go find my ma. Tell her I love her. I don’t hate her.” James says, eyes full of tears.
“Jemth,”
“Call me Bucky.” He says with a sad smile, “My friends call me Bucky.”
Steve slowly shakes his head.
“I’m not going to hold this against you. Promise.”
Steve looks Bucky in the eye. The voice starts counting down from ten.
“Close your eyes, Steve. You don’t need to see.” Bucky says, voice shaking.
“Mot leafin oo,”
Bucky’s smile shakes, tears running down his face.
“Thanks, pal.”
Bucky squeezes his eyes shut, bowing his head as the voice says one.
As a gunshot rings through the space, Steve shuts his eyes.