Chapter 6: Attacked

First Part Written by LateKnightSimmer

"What the fuck do you mean you know where Aubrey is?! HEY! Come back here!"

I yell towards Neal and follow him, even though I know that's exactly what he wants me to do, when all I wanted to do was be on my way to find Aubrey. He better not have done anything to her, or I swear I'll kill him. Neal makes no effort to answer me or stop walking, which thoroughly pisses me off, and I know I'm going to have to get violent with him. What is he, a masochist or something? He knows how I get when I'm angry, considering I killed a guy in front of him. Maybe he's just cocky and thinks that our spending the night together means I won't kick his ass. Oh, he's so wrong. I walk up closer to him and twist his arm behind his back. That gets him to stop walking. Now he's in pain. Now he'll hear what I have to say.

"OW! What the hell?!"

"I asked you a fucking question back there, how do you know where Aubrey is?! Did you do anything to her? Why the hell didn't you tell me last night since I told you her name then? I swear, if you play games with me, I will not hesitate to break your arm."

I grab his arm tighter and he winces.

"OW. I didn't do anything to Aubrey. I will say that my past as a guard is the reason I know where she is, and I can help you find her if you let me. Just let me explain, please. I promise I'm not playing games with you, I would never think of doing such a thing."

I let go of Neal and he rubs his arm. We go over to a small clearing and sit down on the grass.

"Ok. Talk."

"When I first joined the guard, I got this device called a Tracker. Its name says exactly what it does, it tracks people when they get placed in the Sections. It marks distance between different family members and alerts the guards, by way of an alarm, when people get too close to each other. It also tracks the particular guard it was given to. If a guard dies, or gets captured, the Tracker is deactivated, so that anyone who finds it can't use it to find their family members. As soon as I went rogue, mine was shut off. I spent a while trying to hack it and get it working, so I could help people be reunited instead of splitting them up. Initially getting the Tracker to work wasn't hard, but I also had to sever the connection between the device and the Overlord, so he couldn't deactivate it on me again. I know where Aubrey is because the day I figured out the hack to stop the Overlord from tracking me was the same day you and your sister were placed."

"Why didn't you tell me this last night? I told you her name when we were talking."

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want you to just steal my Tracker and leave without me. You left without me anyway, but I still had leverage to keep talking to you."

I get a little bit annoyed with Neal for keeping that from me because time is precious in these Sections, and I'm worried for Aubrey because she sometimes gets herself in trouble. She trusts people too easily and bad people love to take advantage of that. However, I can't help but feel a little flattered that Neal wanted to continue talking to me. I get irritated at myself because I know that if he had told me last night, I would have stolen his Tracker and left without him. Sometimes I can be heartless, and I don't particularly like that fact about myself. The fact that Neal could see that part of me so easily saddens me just a little bit.

The next thing I know, some asshole has his hands around my neck, strangling me. What the fuck? I chide myself for being so distracted all the time by Neal and struggle a little against the attacker's grasp.

"Neal LaForge. I have finally found you. You're really hard to find, you jackass. It seems your Tracker's GPS was shut off. Care to tell me how that came to be?"

"I didn't want to be found, James. Shouldn't that be obvious?"

This 'James' character tightens his grip around my neck in a more threatening manner, as if using me as bait or something. He doesn't know what I'm capable of, and I'm finding it a little fun to toy with him. I whimper a little bit, pretending I can't overpower him.

"Hear that, Neal? Your little girlfriend here is going to come with me and she'll be tortured every day until you turn yourself in. Can you live with yourself knowing she's going to be defiled every day by multiple guards? You know the rules. If you don't hand over that Tracker, I will be forced to kill you. We at Headquarters can't let anyone out here in these Sections have technology like that. It'd be too easy to survive. You of all people should know the point of these Sections is death, just pure killing for the fun of it."

"Shut up, James. You're not getting my Tracker. You can kiss my ass first."

"All right, Neal, have it your way. This little girl's coming with me."

At that exact moment, I swiftly elbow James in the face, hitting him right on his cheekbone. I feel him loosen his grasp on me and I turn around, straddle him, and punch him once again in the nose. The bones in his nose shatter and he screams in pain. A quick twist of his neck puts him out of his misery. When I am done, I turn around to see Neal's eyes wide as if he is in shock.

"What? You've seen me do this before. What's your problem?"

"You made that look so easy."

"Of course it was easy, Neal! He was strangling me, and threatened to torture me. I've seen you kill before too. You threw a knife into a guy's heart."

"Yeah, but that was with a weapon. You killed him with your bare hands."

"I guess I've learned to survive without the help of weapons."

I storm away, not going far since I know I still need Neal to lead me to Aubrey. He quickly catches up, not surprising me at all, and wraps his arms around me in a hug. I'm not quite sure why he's hugging me since he just called me cold blooded in not so many words, but I like the way his arms feel around me. However, I am annoyed that he is showing such vulnerability out here in the woods, especially after we had already been found once tonight.

"I need you."

"Oh please, Neal, you have a right hand, you don't need me."

"Not like that! I need you because you can kill effortlessly. I've killed before, but only because I had to. I have never found it easy no matter how many times I do it. I hate doing it, but you, you are so-"

"Don't say heartless, Neal."

"I wasn't going to. I would never call you heartless. Last night when we talked, I know you have a heart, you care about your sister very much."

"So can we please stop wasting time with this romantic crap and go find her already?"

"Okay, but tell me your name first."

"Neal, don't you already know it?"

"Yeah, but I want to hear you tell me so it wasn't like I just read your file. You're not just some girl."

"God, you're annoying. My name is Scarlett."

I wriggle myself out of Neal's embrace and start to leave. I know he'll follow and tell me which way to go, but I needed to do something to resist the desire for him that had built up inside of me at that moment. The only way I could figure out how to do that was to make him stop hugging me.

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Second Part Written by MrsOogieBoogie

Aubrey was trembling, the floor was cold on her feet and her body was sore from being dragged down the stairs and roughed up a little from Preston. This time around, he made sure that she wouldn't find it as easy to make another escape attempt, putting her in a chair and keeping her in place with rope wrapped tightly around her. She couldn't bear to eat, she couldn't even think of eating; she knew nothing would stay down, and she didn't want to eat either, for the sole purpose of her captors wanting her to gain more weight. The smell of the basement was something that she had gotten used to, though some remnants of the body that accompanied her in the basement gave off new smells every now and then that made her gag.

Aubrey could only stare at one thing the whole time she was within the basement, and that was the dead man decaying and lying there in the corner by a table, the floor beneath him caked in what looked like old and even new blood. I wonder what his name was.. Aubrey thought to herself, unable to even make out his face, feeling sorry for the man that he had ended up here, like she did.. Even if she wasn't dead yet like him, somehow she felt as if this was going to be the last place she saw as well.. I'm going to die here.. Aubrey thought, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she thought of how weak she was; all she could think about was Scarlett now and how disappointed she would be.

The door opened upstairs quietly, but Aubrey heard it as clear as day and her heart rate instantly took off, terror running through her veins and hoping it wasn't one of the guys again. The light steps on the stairs and the tiny pair of shoes Aubrey saw made her slightly at ease, knowing now it was Abby coming down, though she was still displeased to see her as well. What was she going to do? Aubrey began to worry, she hadn't seen Abby or had been alone with her since Aubrey had hit her over the head with a plate; what worried Aubrey more, was that Abby didn't bring anything down with her to give Aubrey to eat. 

Aubrey kept her mouth shut, watching Abby's every move with her eyes as her body remained perfectly still. What does she want..? Aubrey wondered.

"You know, it really is quite the shame that we'd lost this one.. He was sick though, ain't nuthin' people can do about that out in these sections.. If this guy hadn't've died though, you probably wouldn't be here," Abby said softly, starring at the man with her back to her. Abby's words teased Aubrey, and she felt even worse now, even a little selfish and Aubrey now wished that man was never sick so that she wouldn't be in this position.. "He would've fed us for a while.. Plenty more food than you are," she continued and Aubrey still didn't know what to say, or even if she should say anything at all.. I can't believe this is happening, I'm actually being kept like a pig in a pen, waiting to be eaten.. 

Aubrey finally worked up the courage to speak, looking at Abby as she glared at her, "When.. How much longer are you going to keep me here like this?" Aubrey asked, Abby looking over her shoulder to Aubrey as she began to walk towards the stairs again. 

"That all depends on Preston," Abby replied, her choice of words only causing Aubrey to worry a little more.

"W-What do you mean?" Aubrey asked, "What does he want with me?"

"You'll find out, hun.. I guess you could say he likes playing with his food," Abby replied and the corner of her mouth twitched into a smirk, but it was instantly gone again.

Aubrey's body was shaking with fear from Abby's words, what exactly does that mean? Abby starred at Aubrey for a few long seconds and Aubrey tried to avoid eye contact, hating the look in her eyes. 
"You know.. You got me into a lot of trouble with Preston thanks to your attempt to gettin' away.. Preston didn't like that, not one bit.. I got punished, because of you.. Though, you'll be gettin' the same punishment when he gets back, I'm sure, and I'll be at the top of the stairs, listening to everything he does with a smile on my face," Abby added, Aubrey's eyes widening and she watched as Abby then walked upstairs.

As Aubrey heard the door to upstairs shut, all she could think about was Preston.. What was he going to do to me? Abby didn't have any marks or bruises, at least none that I could see.. Aubrey's eyes then widened more in fear, her legs instantly shutting and her knees were clasped hard together, thinking of the only other thing Abby could be talking about.. Oh God, please no, please please no, Aubrey repeated in her mind over and over, tears falling down her cheeks and onto her exposed legs.

The exhaustion was finally setting in; after a while without sleeping, or rather forcing herself to stay awake, Aubrey's eyelids got heavier as the long minutes alone dragged on. Tears still continued to fall down her cheeks, even as she slept, and her mind went to places that were nothing short of a nightmare.

The sound of a gentle, ominous whistled-tune fell into Aubrey's ears and she awoke from her slumber, her eyes widening quickly and she flinched when she saw Billy, sitting on the floor a few feet away from her. He stopped his whistling and smirked, observing her, and by how rarely he blinked, let alone moved in general, you could swear he was a statue. His dark eyes haunted her as she glared back at him, her heart race quickening and she was fully awake within the first second of laying eyes on him.

"The beauty awakes," said Billy, still starring at Aubrey and her eyebrows furrowed in fear.

"W-What do you want..?" Aubrey eventually asked, her tone filled with fright as they continued to share eye contact.

Billy's eyes traveled over Aubrey and she felt sick to her stomach, watching as he scanned her over her shins and up to her thighs, then to her cleavage and his eyes remained there for longer than any woman would've liked.

"You're braver than you look," Preston's voice came from the other side of the basement and Aubrey jumped in fright, gasping gently as she heard the one voice she didn't want to hear the most. She starred at Preston, his expression blank and lifeless, "No one's ever tried to leave, but then again, we've never really kept them alive as long as you," he continued, Aubrey still looking at him, and even though her tears had dried while she was sleeping, they instantly started again as Abby's words ran through her mind once more on what Preston was possibly planning to do to her.

"Billy," Preston began again, turning himself towards them and taking a few steps closer, but stopping.

"Yes?" Billy responded with a tone that confused Aubrey; even with a one word answer, it was filled with adoration, as if Billy looked up to Preston.

Preston looked to Aubrey and she turned her attention away instantly, her eyes shooting to the ground then as she impatiently waited for what he was going to say next. "You do the honors in getting her ready for me," Preston continued, Aubrey's eyes widening more in fear and her eyes slowly looked over towards Billy.

Billy looked to Aubrey and the excitement in his eyes caused her body to begin to shake profusely, watching as he stood to his feet and he kept his grin, "With pleasure," Billy replied and walked towards Aubrey, her then giving him her full attention and she began scooting her feet along the floor, trying to move as far away from him as he could while in the chair.

"No, no! Stay away from me you freak! Stay away!" Aubrey's voice started with a pleading whine, but eventually she screamed her words as he drew closer, "Get away from me!"

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Distance Between Aubrey and Scarlett: 997.5 miles