Chapter 68: Survivor
Her quiet time is up as fast as it arrived, the thud of boots approaching vibrating through the decking and alerting her someone comes for her. Didi chokes on a sob, chin dropping to her chest. She pushes herself upward an instant later, before that intruder can find her this way. Torment her for her weakness, abuse her for her tears before forcing her back into work. The miserable crew of this miserable ship have no idea their constant torture-physical and mental-isn't necessary. That her own internal drive to hide from her failure and the loss of the gunslinger is all the motivation she needs to keep going, to do as she's bid. That and the memory that aches in her muscles, in the pit of her gut, at the agony the cuffs and collar deliver at seemingly random intervals. Her headlong cooperation is fed more by her need to forget what's happened to the one person she owes so much and has let down epically out of stupid, gullible need than any kind of pain her body can endure.