Redeemer

Just a few notes, I am not a freakin' doctor so if I get anything wrong or if the boys are handling their injuries wrong, please forgive me. Also, I've never hot wired a car before.

Chapter 3

(Almost there...)

Paxton was wheezing painfully as the two of them climbed down the staircase. His whole body felt like it was being dismembered after every step and thanks to his latest wound, he was having a hard time keeping the fingers of his right hand wrapped around the handle of the gun. He even dropped it a few times on the way and he had to coax Josh into retrieving it for him because he wasn’t physically able to.

And every time, the other American would ignore his own pain and discomfort to do so. Josh was even helping him walk upright at the moment, ignoring the tremendous pain inside his own body as he helped Paxton stumble down the dark corridor.

A faint sheen of light shining on the floor signaled they were almost outside and Pax felt his heart starting to beat normally once again. They were almost out of here. He could practically feel the clean air from the other side of the door on his skin.

He raised his hand towards the handle and cursed loudly when he couldn’t grasp it. Josh gently pulled his shaking hand away and opened the door for him. Pax turned his head and gave his friend a grateful nod before pushing the door open and dragging them both outside.

Fresh air gently caressed their faces and both men sighed softly as the door closed behind them. The sounds of screaming soon faded from their ears and was replaced by the whooshing sound of the light breeze.

“What now?” Josh asked softly, his voice still quivering from fear.

“Those stairs lead towards the parking lot.” Pax pointed towards the fair staircase at the edge of the catwalk. “I can probably hot-wire a car to get us out of here.”

Josh looked hesitant for a moment but then bit his lip and nodded. “Okay.”

Pax returned his nod and gently shrugged Josh’s arms off. He wobbled a bit from his own dead weight before he regained his footing enough to stand upright. Josh’s arms reached for him a few times but he pushed them away.

“I’m alright.” He grumbled and quietly walked towards the staircase, the glock held tightly to his chest.

He peaked his head around the corner and moved his eyes around the area below the stairs. When it looked clear he waved Josh over and together they slowly descended down it. Josh’s foot slipped when they neared the bottom and Pax quickly grabbed his hand to steady him.

His friend gave him a grateful look and walked down the rest of the steps untroubled. At the bottom, Josh’s fingers were still wrapped around his hand and Pax didn’t have the heart to remove them. As they neared a corner, Pax pulled them both into a crouch and stuck his head around the wall.


Just like he remembered a sea of cars greeted his eyes and he sighed relieved. His eyes scanned in between the rows of cars, looking for any movement. Two large men wearing long, dark coats immediately caught his attention. Even though they weren’t dressed like any of the guards he’d seen so far, they still carried firearms so Pax assumed they were just drivers for some of the company’s clients. He shuttered at that word. Clients? More like sadists and murderers.

He gently squeezed Josh’s hand to get the other man’s attention.

“When I give the signal, both of us are going to dash to the nearest car okay. There’s only a few guards out there so we can make it if we’re quick.”

The blonde stared at him blankly and nodded. Pax risked one more look around the corner and waited for the nearest guard to turn his back before he pulled him forwards. His legs were wobbly as he ran, pulling Josh’s weight with him and they ducked behind the nearest car.

Pax motioned for Josh to stay put as he stole a glance over the car’s bumper to check the guard’s position. The man still had his back turned and Pax took the opportunity to slid around the side of the car and pull on the nearest door handle.

The door opened and after many painful tries, Pax managed to haul himself into the driver’s seat. He crawled over towards the passenger’s side and opened the door for Josh to climb in. His friend did a moment later, a pained whimper tearing from his lips as he crawled into the seat.

Pax ran his fingers under the dash until he felt wires and pulled hard on them. They wouldn’t budge and his fingers kept slipping. He tired once more and growled loudly when his fingers wouldn’t grasp them.

“Josh I need you to pull those wires out for me.”

Josh raised his head and gave Paxton a confused look.

“What?”

“I need you to rip the damn wires out for me. I can’t get a hold of them.”

Josh did as he asked, pulling the colored wires out roughly and holding them in Pax’s arm reach. Pax’s fingers seized them a quick second later and he set to work, twisting the edges together and silently praying the car would start.

“Pax.” Josh whimpered a moment later.

“Almost got it.” Pax mumbled as he twisted the wires with his fingers.

The car jolted once under him and then died a quick second later.

“Pax.”


“I almost have it Josh, just hang on.”

“One of them’s looking over here.” Josh whispered fearfully.

Paxton’s fingers froze as he raised his head. A few rows away one of the guards was staring in their direction with a perplexed look. A moment later, he started walking towards them.

“Fuck.” Pax yelped and started twisting the wires faster. “Come on.”

(Fucking European cars!)

The two wires between his fingers sparked and the car roared to life a quick second later. Pax mouthed a silent prayer of thanks to the higher-powers above and climbed back into the driver’s seat. The guard was less then thirty feet away from them and when he got a clear look at them through the windshield, he pulled a gun out of his belt.

“Pax!”

“Hang on to something!” Paxton yelled as he set the car in drive and slammed the pedal down on the floor.

The car spurred into action and roared as it’s wheels tore through the gravel. The guard readied his gun but before he could get a shot off, Pax directed the car towards him. In the blink of an eye, there was a hard impact against the car’s hood as a black blob toppled over the car’s front and rolled off it’s rear.

Pax felt his heart skip a beat and over in the passenger’s side, Josh fought to keep his scream quiet. Neither one of them risked a glance backwards as the car sped towards the main opening but from his rear-view mirror, Pax could see the other guard running towards his fallen companion.

The car swung around a corner swiftly, tossing both of them around in the cabin as it fought to level it’s self and it sped towards the gate. The gate, as it turned out was nothing more then a thin 4 inch blocker that Pax floored the car through a moment later, sending little bits of wood flying over the car’s windshield.

His eyes jumped back to the rearview mirror, carefully watching for any cars tearing out of the exit that was now growing smaller and smaller behind them. Josh moaned quietly in his seat and leaned his head against the window.

Without his knowledge, Pax found his eyes shifting over towards the other man. Most of Josh’s wounds where still bleeding heavily. They needed to be cleaned and taken care of and soon. His own as well.

His eyes looked in the mirror once again and a frown came to his face. No one was fallowing them, a thought that Pax found disturbing.

-----------------


(Come on, there has to be a first-aid kit or something in here!)

Pax grumbled a few curses as the tired fingers of his right hand tore through the car’s rear cabin, feeling underneath the seats and between the cushions for anything he could use. His fingers bumped against a thick plastic case a moment later and he quickly pulled it out a travel sized first-aid box.

(Bingo.)

He nearly ripped the container’s top off in his haste to find something to halt the blood-flow of his severed fingers and groaned happily when he found a package of gauze pads and a thick roll of cloth. Gingerly, he removed his glove and couldn’t help his groan from the sight of his whole hand covered with thick, sticky blood.

Josh turned his head towards the backseat and paled when he saw his friend’s hand.

“Oh my god...”

Pax ignored him and reached for the gauze pads and managed to rip the package open.. He grasped them in his fingers and then dropped them. He tried again and again but it was impossible to get his quivering fingers around the damn things.

“Josh. I need you to help me.” He gasped sharply.

“W-what do want me to do?” Josh asked in a shaky voice, his stomach turning from the sight of his friend’s hand.

“Just come back here and help me, I can’t do this by myself.”

Josh nodded sickly and opened his door and through his hazed vison, Pax could see the blonde walk towards the back of the car. Ignoring the blinding pain that emitted from his fingers, Pax forced himself to sit upright and he used his foot to scoot himself over to make enough room for Josh to sit next to him.

“Here, take these–” Paxton handed him two gauze pads and motioned towards the two stumps that had once been his ring and pinky finger. “And put them on there.”

With shaky eyes, Josh nodded. “Okay...”

Pax gripped the top of the backseat with his right hand tightly, reading himself for the inevitable pain that was about to come. Josh’s thin fingers held his arm gently, their shaking seamed to stop as he readied a pad and gave Pax the signal he should brace himself.

“Fuck!” Pax shrieked as the pad was firmly pressed against the throbbing wound.

Josh froze and looked like he was about to stop but Paxton shook his head. The second one was soon placed and Pax didn’t even try to cover the tears that sprang forth from his eyes because of the pain.

“Now wrap my hand up.”

Josh did as he instructed, making sure he tied the bandage around his hand tightly at his friend’s insistence. Small red dots above the severed numbs were already staining the gauze before Josh finished but at the moment there wasn’t anything else they could do for his hand so Pax turned his attention to his other injury.

“I need you to do my arm as well. Can you do that?”

Josh nodded.

“Good.” He reached back into the plastic box and shifted things around until he found some peroxide and handed it to Josh.

As he removed his jacket, Pax finally got his first look at his gunshot wound. Like he expected it was just a graze, but it still felt deep. His first reaction was a grumbled curse from the fact that the
bullet tore through a section of tattoo that covered his arm while his second one was relief when he saw the graze wasn’t as large as it felt.

The sleeve of his undershirt was stained with dried blood and he needed Josh’s help removing it before his friend could clean the cut for him.

Josh gasped as his eyes roamed over his friend’s bare torso, his lower lip starting to tremble. Pax followed his gaze and saw the collection of small three-pointed scars scattered across the left side of chest from the triple-pointed garden claw the demented German torturer beat him with.

“It’s nothing. Do my arm.” He instructed sternly, forcing Josh’s attention away from his chest towards his arm.

The blonde obeyed, his eyes still roaming over the scars as he readied one of the gauze pads and used it to clean the gash. Paxton groaned and bit his lip from the harsh stings of the cleaner. A few agonizing moments later, Josh had a bandage tied around it firmly.

“There...how’s that?”

Pax check his arm and lightly ran his fingers over the cloth. He smiled his thanks but his smile faded when his eyes caught a glimpse of something dark red shining through the opening of the jacket that covered Josh’s body.

Before he could stop himself, Pax reached out and gently pulled the lapel of the jacket back. The small round punctures on Josh’s chest were still bleeding heavily, leaving long red trails down his torso. Guilt started gathering inside of his chest and Pax mentally smacked himself for forgetting about Josh’s injuries.

The blonde’s skin started trembling and Pax quickly removed his hand. He knew damn well the last thing Josh wanted at the moment was to be touched liked that but those things seriously needed to be looked at. Swallowing down the heavy weight of his guilt, he gathered up the peroxide and the gauze strips.

“Can you unbutton the jacket for me?”

The blonde’s eyes watered as he fearfully shook his head and scooted away from him, drawing his knees up defensively.

“No...”

Pax bit his lip and tried again. “Josh I’m sorry, but I need to have a look at your wounds to see how serious they are. Please?”

Josh stared at him silently for a long time before he reluctantly uncoiled his arms from his legs and inched closer. His fingers shook as they tried to undo the large gold buttons and Pax resisted the urge to reach over to help him.

Eventually, Josh got the button’s undone and hesitantly pulled his arms out of the jacket’s sleeves, letting the wool fabric bunch around his waist. Pax’s eyes widened when he saw the round holes on Josh’s chest clearly and he didn’t even bother trying to halt his hand as he reached upwards and set his fingers near one of the punctures.

“Jesus, what the fuck did these?”

Josh bit his lip and lowered his head, his voice coming out as a soft mumble.

“Drill...”

“A drill?” Pax frowned and tried to make since of his friend’s words. “You mean like a power-drill?”

Josh whimpered and nodded.

“Fucking Christ.” Pax growled as he grabbed the peroxide and the gauze strips.

He poured a small amount of peroxide on one of the strips and gently dabbed it over the round cuts. The holes looked deep and judging from the way Josh jerked and moaned as the chemical touched them Pax realized they were much deeper then they looked.

(He needs to get to a hospital and soon...we both do.)

He moved down Josh’s chest towards the second pair. They looked even deeper then their twins a few inches above them.

“Fucker’s lucky he’s already dead, otherwise I’d head back there and do the same shit to him.” Pax growled angrily.

His mind was filled with the face of the man he met in the locker room. That horrid smile on his face, that sick glint he had in his eyes he was looking at Josh huddled in the corner.

“It wasn’t him.”

Paxton blinked and raised his head.

“What was that?”

“The guy you killed...he didn’t do this.” Josh whispered and lowered a shaking hand towards the small uneven cuts along his stomach. “He only did these and...”

Josh cut off and lowered his head once again, his eyes boring down at the floor. Even though Josh stopped talking, his silence was more then Pax needed to fill in the blanks.

“Who did this to you then?” He asked, his temper rising dramatically.

Josh stiffened under his hand and his lip started to tremble.

“The man we met on the train.”

The peroxide bottle slipped from his hand and landed with a loud thud against the car’s floor but Pax ignored it. Thick, dark rage boiled inside of him at the memory of the dirty, stout Dutch man who sat in their compartment on the train. The man who ate with his fat, stubby fingers, the same man who had the nerve to reach over and grab Josh’s leg.

His brain instantly started putting scenarios together of what that sick bastard did and possibly did to his best friend and Pax’s stomach turned sickly.

“Demented fuck...” Pax mumbled as he moved his attention to the holes the sick Dutchman drilled into Josh’s arms.

Their silence stretched into long minutes as Pax ran the gauze over them and tried to clean the wounds up as best as he could. His eyes moved downwards towards the final pair of holes cut into Josh’s thighs and his hand stilled.

“Do you wanna do the rest?” He asked gently, remembering that Josh didn’t want to be touched around there.

Josh nodded and nervously held out his hand. Pax handed him some clean pads and retrieved the peroxide from the floor.

“Try to clean yourself up as best as you can okay? I’ll be outside.” He replied in a soft voice, knowing that Josh wanted some privacy.

Josh mumbled a small reply and watched him slid across the seat and out of the open door. Once outside, Pax groaned and stretched his cramped limbs. The shoulder the car was parked on was near a small pasture and in the distance a few cows could be seen grazing.

He looked the road up and down a few times, it was deserted–like it was when he first pulled off onto it– but the cold feeling curling inside of his gut made him feel like he was being watched. After looking the road up and down one more time he walked towards the rear of the car and examined the trunk.

He slid his fingers under it’s handle and pulled, hoping he didn’t a key to open it. Luckily he didn’t. The trunk was mostly empty, with the exception of a few tools and a travel bag wedged in a corner which Pax immediately seized and unzipped. His eyes lit up when they saw clothing and a small water bottle and he quickly twisted the cap off and took a few sips from it.

He glanced through the rear window at Josh’s head and waited until it looked like Josh was finished tending to himself before he strolled back towards the car’s cabin. He tossed the bag onto the seat next to Josh’s leg and felt his heart stop when the blonde startled and instantly tried to cover himself with the jacket.

“I found some water and clothes in the trunk. Hopefully something in there will fit you.” He said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.

Josh gave him a shy nod and waited for him to leave again before he started digging through the bag of clothing. Before he left again, Pax retrieved the gun from the front seat and snagged a black t-shirt from the clothing pile to replace his recently discarded one.

Predicably, the second he disappeared from the door, his ears picked up the sounds of Josh shuffling around in the backseat. He leaned against the trunk again and gingerly slid his arms into the shirt’s armholes and pulled the cloth over his head; luckily it’s sleeves were long enough to cover the bandage on his arm.

When that irritating chore was done, he leaned against the car’s rear and examined the glock. He ejected the clip and counted the remaining bullets in the magazine. Six rounds left. His left hand started shaking as it held the gun and Pax quickly snapped the clip back into the glock’s handle and placed the gun back on the car’s trunk.

The pain from his left hand was excruciating and he knew he needed to get to a hospital just as badly as Josh did. The only problem was he didn’t have a freaking clue where the two of them where. When that bitch Natalia drove him out here he was too lost in his thoughts and worried about where the hell Josh and Oli were to pay attention to any road signs he would’ve seen on the way.

Natalia.

Her face appeared inside of his mind a moment later and a dark, rage filled growl vibrated inside of his throat. That sadistic bitch. His rage grew as he remembered the amused look she had on her face as she lead him to the factory, her evil laugh as the two guards dragged him away into one of the rooms...

His right hand slammed into the car’s bumper with a loud thud and he immediately regretted his outburst as sharp pain waves shot up his arm.

“Fuck...” He groaned and cradled his hand against his chest gently.

He really needed to stop hitting things.

The sound of shuffling footsteps made him raise his head alarmed but when his eyes caught a glimpse of Josh’s wavy blonde hair he quickly relaxed. Josh’s new appearance was much easier on his eyes. His face was whipped clean of blood and bile, and he was dressed in a lose white t-shirt and a pair of old, ripped jeans.

“Here...” Josh numbly replied as he held out the long wool jacket Paxton had first covered him in. “I didn’t know if you wanted it back or not...”

Pax moved his gaze from Josh’s hand up his arm. The sleeves of the t-shirt weren’t long enough to completely conceal the drill holes so Pax shook his head.

“No, you keep wearing it. Those will probably attract some attention if they’re seen.” He said, motioning towards the punchers.

Josh nodded and shrugged himself back into the jacket’s warmth. The wool had some large stains on it and it still smelled of blood but not in a large enough amount to be terribly noticeable.

A small flash of light grabbed his attention and Pax jerked his head up. In the fair distance, a black Mercedes turned off the main road and onto the dirt road they where currently parked on. Pax reached behind them and grabbed the gun from atop the car’s trunk.

“We need to leave. Now.”

Josh saw it too, his face paling as he nodded and both of them hastily moved back towards the car’s cabin.