Rules of The Game

AN: I found this chapter was easier for me to write. I hope you all like! Thank you autumnphilia for reviewing. This is my first story here and I’m glad that my first review wasn’t a flame :)
YAY!

Cataclysmic Car Ride

Jones’s grip on her arm was agonizing and gave her little control over her direction. His hand easily wrapped itself around her flesh that was slowly becoming bruised.
Another Agent pulled up along side and grabbed her other arm roughly. Ryann looked up at him not believing how similar they looked. Both wore the same black, multi-angled glasses and the same faultless suits, no individual personality shone from either of the two, but what was she thinking? They were both software, created for only one purpose: The protection of the Matrix, nothing else.
The darkness which had settled in the sky was only permeated by the light of the waxing moon and the tiny pinpricks of distant stars, although she didn’t bother reminding herself that none of it was truly real.
A black car sat silently to the side of a tall street light, hiding the dark ride from a normal passerby.
The street lamp flickered causing the light to turn a dark orange as Jones and the other Agent pulled her roughly to the vehicle.
The survivor within her told her to fight. Get loose and run, someone would have to find her, it was better than having the plug pulled when she hadn’t even tried. The logical part told her to remain calm and not to fight. Though the thought of being unplugged was distasteful, the thought of being beaten to death by an Agent was even grimmer.
The door to the black car opened to reveal another member of their team. Hell, they were all tall. The one that had captured her, Jones, was the tallest and broadest of the three. The other Agent which had grabbed her arm was the shortest of them and was much leaner; however his grip seemed just as solid as Jones’s. The one who had just stepped out of the car was like the comfortable middle of them.
He was an average height and not as broad in the shoulders, however he seemed to hold the expression of confusion at the site of the three.
‘The Rebel is still alive. Why is it that she was not deleted?’ He asked glancing at Ryann from behind his shades.
‘She holds the rank of captain onboard her ship.’ Jones stated with a somewhat annoyed tenor in his voice.
The Agent seemed to suddenly understand and opened the door to the passenger side of the vehicle.
‘Agent Williams, please take the front passenger seat,’ Jones said quietly to him then looked over to the Agent who was holding her other arm. The other Agent nodded without speaking and moved to the driver’s seat.
As he let go Jones moved around Ryann and took her other arm as well. He then placed both her wrists in one strong hand and pushed down her head and thrust her into the vehicle.
He clambered into the back with her as the front seats filled and the engine started.
They pulled out of the lot and onto the concrete roads while a feeling of even more dread rooted itself in her stomach. ‘This might be it.’ She thought sullenly as the lights of passing by vehicles and street lamps danced smoothly through the tainted windows.
‘How do you know my rank?’ Ryann asked peering at Jones through narrow eyes.
‘The conversations between you and your team mates seem to imply that you are in the command position within your clique.’ He responded placidly.
‘Clique? Clique!?’ The simple use of that word made her angry. They weren’t just some group of teens hanging out at school or at the mall and they weren’t a bunch of kids on a chat line either. They were a crew, a team, and a family that had stayed together for longer than most crews ever did. She tried to cool her anger by remembering that for an Agent, a team, such as the one that they had, probably was nothing more than a clique.
‘Seeing as you know my rank, what is yours?’ she asked in a controlled voice.
‘That is irrelevant.’
‘It isn’t to me.’ She countered, letting some of the anger in her voice break through. He must have heard it because his face shot back to look at hers in a quick and efficient manner.
‘We ask for your cooperation in this matter, please do not make it any more difficult and painful than it has to be.’
‘Painful?’ she questioned.
‘If you prove to be defiant in our questioning, you will be subjected to certain forms of interrogation in order to obtain the information which we aim for.’
Ryann was afraid now. She had been interrogated once before by the Agents, when she had been a coppertop. It had been rough, and she did receive a tracking device. All in all, there hadn’t been very much pain, just fear. What other things were in store for her she wasn’t sure of.
‘I will most likely be dead before such things occur,’ she said removing her vision from the shadows that were playing on his face and focusing more intently on the road outside her window, ‘The crew knows the protocol for this situation. My plug will be pulled before you get anything from me.’ The intensity of her voice did nothing, but fall on deaf ears. They had heard it all before, most likely, in millions of different variations. There was no way they could be surprised by such a passionate response from a Human.
‘You will not be unplugged.’ Was his effortless response to her statement.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Ryann asked turning back.
‘You will not be unplugged.’
Confusion led to horror as she sat their in the black Audi.
‘Who told you?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘It is irrelevant.’
Ryann tried not to let the anger inside of her explode. You would think that having been a captain for three years now would have taught her restraint, obviously she still needed improvement.
With one hand she punched at Jones, packing all the energy that she could muster into the one blow. Ryann’s small fist was caught easily by his enormous hand. She thought she could feel it breaking so she began to struggle, lashing out with her other hand and both her legs.
Her trained and precise blows were soon reduced to panicked smacks that hit with little power behind them.
He continued putting more pressure on her hand until eventually a loud crack sounded from underneath the skin.
She muffled her scream of pain by throwing her head down. The heat traveled through her fingers and through her wrist, burning everything in its path. He still didn’t relinquish his grasp and pulled her forward, closer to his face.
If she tried to pull away the pain was overwhelming thus she was guided by the movement of her hand being pulled past him so that her face was directly in front of his.
‘An informant onboard your ship was rather straightforward with their views on Zion and the war. They agreed to trade their Captain, if they may be reinserted into the power plant.
Tears were sliding down her cheeks. She knew every one onboard her ship, not one of them could have done something like this, could they?
She silently begged to whoever was listening to wake her up for this was a dream she was ready to wake up from.
‘Your ship has already been destroyed and your link with the matrix maintained to keep you alive. Your body is currently being prepared for reinsertion back into the Matrix. There is no one to unplug you and there is no one to save you.’
His proximity to her face didn’t help to relieve her of her stress. She could feel his hot breath caress her cheek his other hand holding the back of her head. Her world began to spin as all the emotions that she felt collided in her head causing an emotional cataclysm. Ryann’s vision blurred then faded as the nothingness of space surrounded her.