Episode 12

She could feel her back grading against the metal floor as she was drug further from the ladder and her salvation. The light that had been shining down from the room above went black as Andriw and Moshu Shi sealed the door shut. She could see nothing. Gunshots echoed through the metal halls, deafening all that were there. She could feel hands all over her body trying to subdue her. A strong hand pinned her arm down, tearing her viper from it.

"Easy girl. She's a strong one." She heard a man's voice emerge from the darkness. Within moments, she'd been bound, gagged, and stripped of her weapons save the knife that still lay hidden in her boot. She found herself stumbling in the dark with a group of men.

'Guess the rumors were once again quite true… now I wonder what they're going to do with me.'

She would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She was breathing heavily and her heart was pounding within her aching chest. Behind her, she could hear something being dragged. Whatever it was, it sounded heavy. She felt like she'd been walking for hours when they finally came to a stop. She heard a bang on a metal door. The sound echoed in a terrible way.

The door opened, lighting the corridor with a stream of dull red light. All the men around Scarlet had goggles on to shield their eyes, but the light seemed to nearly blind her. She was ushered into the lit area and as her eyes adjusted, she got her first good look at her captors.

The men that had caught her were all dressed in blackened leathers which were decorated with a number of carvings, each being special to the person. Around their heads, each wore a set of goggles. And they each carried their own set of weapons, all of which were either blunt force weapons or sharp-edged. There appeared to be no guns on them, save the ones they pulled off of her. All in all, their attire seemed to accommodate being in the dark and moving quickly and quietly.

Looking around, she saw that there were other people too. Some had attire that mirrored the men who had caught her, some had leather outfits that were browner in color. But all seemed to have carvings in their leather specific to the wearer. There were mostly men and only a few women. Some of the people were also decorated with tattoos and metal piercings, while others had none that could be seen. But all of them had a deathly pale complexion like the sun had never touched their skin. Their hair color spanned from a dirty blonde to very dark.

Suddenly, she heard an outburst behind her. One of the women began screaming. Scarlet could finally see what they had been dragging behind them. On a metal plate laid three bodies. She instantly recognized one as the one she'd blown the head off of, which also happened to be the one the woman was screaming about. Without any warning, the women charged at Scarlet. She lunged onto the bound redhead and began pounding away at her. In the next instant, the woman was pried off of her.

"Let me kill her!" the woman demanded.

"Absolutely not." She was met by a stern voice. It was the man's voice she'd heard after she was caught. "You know our laws. That's not for you to decide. She goes to the Archon, just like everyone else. You want to claim her death, you take it up with him." He stepped closer to the enraged woman, his stance taking on a more menacing look. "But if you so much as lay a hand on her again, I'll kill you myself. Is that understood?"

She contorted her face further, reflecting her building anger. "Yes, I understand," she hissed.

With that, the woman was released. She gave Scarlet a lingering dirty look before she went on. In the scuffle, Scarlet's loose tooth had been completely knocked out, and to keep from swallowing it, she had spat it out. Her gums ached in a terrible way, and she could taste her blood seeping into her mouth.

'Well, there goes my perfect smile.' She'd always prided herself on taking care of her teeth. Now she was missing one of her canines. To make matters worse, the other upper canine had become loose.

The man who had stopped the woman from wailing on Scarlet approached. He seemed to have seniority over the others present. He grabbed hold of Scarlet and pushed her along, placing her in a separate room where he lit a few rough-made sconces.

"Lay down; get some rest. We have a long walk ahead of us tomorrow."

"I'm supposed to sleep with my hands tied behind my back?" Scarlet tested.

"You killed three of our men, so, yes, I expect you to sleep with your hands tied behind your back. Sleep tight, fiery redhead." With that, he shut and locked the door.

She stood there a moment before she began working her hands underneath her to where they were in front. It was only after she'd accomplished this that she began testing the solidity of her room. She was still debating whether or not it would do her any good to escape. She had no idea where she was and she was just as likely to die out there as she was to die where she was.

'But then they may do much worse things to me than just kill me… out there I would just die of thirst.'

She knew she still had the knife in her boot, but she felt it would do her little good to use it presently. It was all rather depressing.

The room she was in was all locked up tight with no way out but the way she came in. She slid down a wall, sitting there thinking of her options.

'These people seem to have some sort of established culture, but I don't have much time to learn all the rules. Perhaps I can find an angle to use to my advantage.'

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all she had at that moment.