Ghost

3. [u]Kain.[/u]

When the dust settled, the gun fire finished echoing and the beasts stopped howling, we came out of the dark and made our way up to the Boss’s rooms. We all knew where Jack was… what would have happened to her. However, now that we had control of the system for a bit, we fully intended to take charge, and to take her back.

Between Dog and Maniac, they guarded the stairs against the more idiotic of the inmates. The others knew not to get too close after Dog threw one of them over the top railing, where he screamed the whole way down to the bottom. See, in slam, there’s a system. A hierarchy. A food chain. And right now? We were at the top of that food chain.

Guv had put it best when we first arrived here - there are inmates... and there are convicts. A con has a certain code. And he knows to show a certain [i]respect[/i]. An inmate, on the other hand, pulls the pin on his fellow man. Does the guards' work for them. Brings shame to the game. 'An inmate' - leaves a nasty taste in your mouth, don't it?

Dog was just that - a dog. He’d tear your throat out over a plate of food. He’d been sent here five years ago, for hunting down and slaughtering the five blokes responsible for the gang rape of his thirteen-year-old daughter. Kelly had died from internal bleeding, and Dog snapped. He was a lifer.

Dog was almost as big as Bear had been, and he loved Jack with an intensity. Turns out his little girl had green eyes, and he loved nothing more than sitting with Jack and listening to her sing. Dreaming of what Kelly might have become if her life hadn’t been snuffed out. With the other cons and inmates, they knew not to look at him - with Jack, however, he became a rabid puppy.

I'd once seen him tear an inmate’s throat out for looking at Jack the wrong way - the one thing, he gave a damn about. They argued like father and daughter, and Jack was the only one that Dog would listen to when he was in a temper. She had a way of soothing the animalistic nature of the beast within - and he returned the favor by protecting her as much as he could.

Maniac - well. He was different. Maniac - a Marine, who had gone psychotic and had sliced his platoon leader open from the neck to his groin, after the wanker ordered a strike, causing Maniac’s whole platoon to die. Kids, aged between seventeen and eighteen, and Maniac was blamed for their deaths too. He was also a lifer, and mentally insane.

Even so, in his more lucid moments, you were bound to find him sitting with Jack. He would comb her hair, and braid tiny plats into the long strands. They would talk about combat and strength over size; Jack had the reputation that her size didn’t matter - it was the crazy guy behind her in the shadows you watched out for if you hurt her.

Like Dog, Manic protected Jack. Kept her safe, made her laugh, and he could and would turn psychotic at the drop of a hat if you looked at her ass. Pure muscle; a raging animal, and he could and would kill for her. Sooth the beast, and you tame the man - she had it down to an art form. Two wild animals in her life, and for her? They purred.

Bear, while he had been in here, had been the first one to recognize her after she was lowered into the pit on a chain over a year ago. He tugged her from the chain, and kept her safe. They had history from before she met me, and sometimes, when her nightmares from before came back, it was only Bear who had ever been able to calm her down.

He was relocated three months ago, after a couple of guards had cornered Jack and pressed the issue with her - Bear had killed three of them, and when the remaining guards threatened to walk, Bear was moved for their safety. The cheeky fuck had escaped on the way to his new slam, and was now nowhere to be found. That had cheered Jack up something fierce.

Link - he could hack into any security system known to man, and then blow your whole life apart with a push of a button. They sent him here for corporate espionage that resulted in the deaths of thirty people; that, and the fact that it is damn impossible to escape from here, when there are no regular flights or computers.

Link and Jack had a special relationship - I believe that if they had met in another lifetime, they would have formed more than a friendship. Surprisingly, I’m ok with that. Link has a twisted sense of humor, and he tends to push peoples buttons easily - he just seems to know what makes each person tick, and he exploits it for his own amusement.

He's Jack's sanity in here - he pushes and pulls and makes her so angry that when she finally explodes, he laughs in her face as she is coiled within Dog's arms, spitting and snarling in temper. I’ve seen her thump him for it too many times to count, but at the end of the day, she still curls up with him and lets him whisper dirty nothings in her ear as she chuckles.

[i]"You tell me the sweetest things, Link."

"Tsk… you know it, darlin’."[/i]

And then there’s me. I was with Jack when she killed the fucker who tried sampling the goodies his father had purchased. We ran for six months after that first death before we were caught. Jack and I go way back - I’ve known her since just after she set foot on Helion, and we’ve been best mates ever since. Now we’re cons for life.

It took us all day to bypass the security the Boss had on his doors, that security being solid steel that was several inches thick. Not much was salvageable from upstairs, so we took to the door with rock hammers, wrenches and lumps of rock.

Most of the cons had freaked when Jack and I had first been sent here - with her being a kid and all, none of them took to it well. It didn’t help that half the men had children of their own somewhere - Jack became a surrogate daughter for some of them. Just seventeen and change, and sent to a Triple Max Slam. Now that’s fucked up.

We protected her from the guards, and the inmates who have no respect for the food chain. But the Boss took a right ol' shine to Jack; and Jack has been locked in this room for two days now. As the door was finally penetrated, a lot of the cons were waiting silently; waiting for a reason to take complete control of this slam. What we saw bought brought tears to Dog’s eyes, and caused deathly silence to fall with the rest of them. We might be cons, but we’re not all monsters.

Jack hung from the roof; her hands dragged up above her head and locked in crude shackles. Her top hung in a shredded mass from her shoulders, and bruises and cuts marred the naked skin of her back. Her head hung forward between her up stretched arms, and her toes barely touched the fucking floor as she faced away from us.

Blood was crusted on her wrists and back, and along the edge of her pants. It had dried in ribbons down her arms, and was a tacky mess on the floor, where the toes of her boots drew small designs in it as she swung. And between us and her, was a door made of electrified metal bars. We found this out when Maniac grasped the bars to test their strength, and got an electric shock.

"Mother fucker!" he exclaimed, shaking off the jitters that wracked his body. "What the fuck do we do now, Kain?"

I chewed my lip for a minute as I thought about it, and then spoke.

"Search the main room… find any tools you can. Link - hit the control room, and see what you can find. Search the bodies while you're up there, baby. Dog… stand guard."

Dog nodded, and crossed his arms.

Link ran up the main steps, and began searching the destroyed main room, where some bad-assed con had escaped a day or two ago. I've got no idea who he was - I was too worried about Jack to even lay eyes on him. He took the she-bitch with him - I hope he has his cock insured. Kyra’s a merc’s whore and a fucking leech on top of that.

This new con had taken a real shine to Kyra, and like all men before him, she led him around by the dick. Oh well - his mistake. My main priority is getting to baby-girl. It ain’t like that with us - what with Jack being human and all. Me? I ain’t. I’m a different species all together. I can walk and talk like a man, and I can pass as a man, but my blood is as green as Jack’s eyes. She's my best friend, and as much as I want her at times, I ain't fucking with that friendship.

I knelt on the ground as Dog watched my back, and felt along the ground and along the seams of the door. There had to be some way in. A soft sniff caught my hearing, and I looked up. Jack was still out cold, and when I looked up at Dog, he simply glared at me until I looked the other way.

"I don’t know how to get to her, Dog."

It was whispered, but it was all it took for him to snap. He began ramming his shoulder against the barrier that kept him from the girl he had taken as his own. His body shook with the shocks he was getting, but his focus was absolute, and he used those massive shoulders as a battering ram as he began to grunt with anger.

Maniac and Link returned when they heard the commotion from up stairs, Link and I stepping back as Maniac laughed, and began to ram his own shoulder against the bars in time with Dog’s. The noise drew the cons upwards, and they all began to slam cups and fists against the walls and floor in time with Maniac and Dog’s efforts, raising a staccato that was almost deafening.

Dog roared as he threw everything he had at the barrier that separated him from Jack. The bars began to shake, even as Dog and Maniac's skin slowly burnt, and when the door finally crashed inwards, Dog and Maniac collapsed through the open door with it, and complete silence fell.

Dog scrambled across the floor on his hands and knees, and staggered to his feet. His face pale as he hesitantly reached out to touch Jack’s face. His shoulder was burnt and bleeding, but still he reached up with one hand, as he wrapped the other massive arm around Jack’s waist, holding her against him. Griping the chain with one hand, he tugged with all of his strength.

Tendons and veins popped all over the surface of his neck and arms, Maniac shaking his head as he also reached out and began to use brute force against the chain that was bolted to the roof. When the chain snapped suddenly, it brought down a small avalanche of rocks, Dog dropping to his knees and bending over Jack’s prone form, and Maniac threw himself over them both.

Link and I ran into the room and began to clear rubble away, and when we had, Dog was still holding Jack in his arms, his massive body protecting her from further harm. I paid him no attention as I looked down into Jack’s face, and what I saw sickened me.

Her head was nestled in the crook of Dog’s arm, and long strands of her hair were stuck to her face with dried blood. What silenced us all, though, was the fucking bit the Boss had jammed in her mouth. Dog unbuckled the bit and carefully pulled it free. When he dropped it on the floor, I gagged; it was coated in her blood, that crimson song running slowly out the corner of her mouth.

Bruises and cuts marred the pale surface of her skin, but none more so than where the bit had been tightened so cruelly. The corners of her lips were caked with blood; the Boss had silenced her like an animal, and if and when I found him, I was going to flay him alive.

Dog simply nodded as he stared down at Jack, and the crowd parted as if the hell hounds were lose as he staggered to his feet and then headed back down into the pit. Link came running down the stairs as Maniac and I followed Dog, his face pale as he gripped Maniac’s elbow.

"There’s a disturbance on the surface… a ship’s passing over. Thank God it's daytime, huh?"

Maniac shrugged.

"Let the fuckers come… we got what we wanted. New guards? They're gonna find themselves in the middle of a fuckin' revolution."

"One other thing, Maniac - the Boss ain't up there with the dead. He's gone."

Maniac snarled as he glanced at Jack's silent form.

"If he is alive - he's a dead fucker."

Turning to face the cons who were still lingering, he called out loudly.

"Cons! I give you Crematoria - run by the cons, who have been shut away in hell! We have a ship that’s gonna land tonight… look busy, people!"

The cons scattered as I jogged after Dog. Dog was cradling Jack like a baby in his massive arms, his voice a steady rumble as he whispered her name over and over again. Getting her down to the main level, Dog walked into what had become ‘our hole’, and slid down the wall with her still in his arms as he began to rock.

"Dog…"

Dog looked up at me, and I spoke as quietly as I would when facing an injured animal when I saw the murderous light in his eyes.

"We need to wash her off… so we can see what needs fixin'. Do you want to do it, or do you want me to take her?"

Dog blinked slowly.

"I’ll hold her… you wash her… I can’t do both."

I simply nodded. I knew how much it had cost him to admit that. He stood up slowly, and let her feet dangle down and touch the floor as he held her against him carefully. I let him do it, even though I wanted nothing more than to tear her away from him, and hold her.

"Cons! Eyes to the fuckin' floor!" Maniac roared, and the sudden scuffle of feet and cage doors slamming made him giggle.

Dog staggered as he headed back towards the outside of our hole, to where water cascaded down the rocks and formed a waterfall. He bent Jack back over his arm, and we all watched as the water that ran down her body turned red.

Dog’s big beefy hand smoothed her hair back over her head, his jaw clenched and trembling as he fingered the bruises that littered Jack’s jaw and cheekbone. The shuffle of feet broke through, and all of us snapped our heads towards the sound.

Pops kept his eyes on the ground, but in his hand was a dusty bottle. His hand shook as he held it out, Maniac taking it with a soft growl. Liquid soap… nothing fancy, but in a place like this? Liquid gold. It ain’t often we get it, and it’s used as a bartering tool. Nothing like being clean on a planet made of smoke and ash.

"I was gonna give it to her for her birthday or something," Pops murmured, and then shuffled away once more. As I said - a surrogate daughter to some of them.

Maniac opened the bottle and washed his hands first, before he handed me the soap and began to run his hands over Jack’s head. Dirt, blood, sweat and fear washed away under the water, and I silently watched Maniac as his face turned dark.

"I loved washing my wife’s hair… Jack would let me wash her hair sometimes… makes me feel human," he mumbled as he gripped Jack‘s ruined top in his hands and finished tearing it from her body. He stared down at the blood stained material, and then abruptly walked away in anger.

An inmate who had crept closer to watch bore the brunt of that anger as Maniac rounded on him. I ignored the grunts and sounds of fists of flesh as I finished washing Jack’s hair. The crunch of breaking bone caught my attention briefly, and I glanced over my shoulder as Maniac dropped the inmate whose neck he’d just broken.

I shook my head and began to wash every inch of Jack that was visible to me. The long length of her legs through filthy cargo pants. The narrow waist and the high tilt of her butt. She would press that butt of hers into my lap as we slept curled around each other, and the memory of it brought a small smile to my face.

Her arms and hands, the back of her neck. Then I looked at Dog, who simply tightened his grip, turned her slightly in his arms, and tilted his head back so he looked upwards. I felt uncomfortable washing her stomach and breasts while she was out cold like this, but it was done and done quickly, before Dog turned her back to face him.

It was only when my hands touched her ravaged back that Jack moved. She fought against Dog wildly, and the scream that was torn from her throat echoed off the roof of this pit, and bounced off the walls. I yanked my hands off of her back, even as Maniac ran back towards us. He grabbed Jack’s face in a strong grip, and pressed his face closer to hers, and spoke loudly, the tone of his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Jackie! Open your fuckin' eyes, girly, it’s us!"

Jack’s eyes snapped open, and she gave a strangled sob as Dog tightened his grip on her waist and neck. She pressed her face against his chest, shudders wracking her frame as she began to cry. In all the years I have known Jack, I have known her to cry only a few times. She reckons tears are a weakness, and in here? You never show your weakness - ever.

Dog lowered his head to hers, his voice low as he began to murmur in her ear. Only his eyes moved, and when they snapped to mine, the message was loud and clear. If I was going to wash her back, I would have to do it now. So I did, and I fought nausea the entire time as she swallowed scream after sob, or simply muffled them in the barrel-like chest she was pressed against.

"Enough," Dog finally muttered, and began to shuffle back towards our hole, Jack’s head still resting against his chest.

He got her over to the ‘bed’ and shifted her awkwardly in his arms, but managed to lay her down on her stomach. The bed was nothing more than a thin mattress pilled with blankets and spare clothes. From the day she had first come here, it had been Jack’s; Bear had made it for her. She slept curled between me and Link, while Maniac and Dog slept near the door. Safe as houses, as she would say.

Maniac began to run a jagged comb through Jack’s hair, smoothing out the tangles and snarls as carefully as he could. And while he did that, I headed back to the water. I pulled my dirty shirt off, and Link simply held his hand out for it. I handed it off to him, and took some of the precious soap and began to scrub my arms, hands, and wrists. Washed my hair and body, before briskly rubbing a handful of soap over my pants.

While I was washing, I held my hand out for the cup that Link held; I needed to drink as much water as I could - I would need it in the coming hour or so. I’m Lotharian - my blood is as green as Jack’s eyes, and you wanna know what the kicker to it is? It has healing properties. Lotharian blood sells for a shit load on the black market - it was how we had gotten around so easily when we first ran - I sold my blood.

They’re gonna bleed me for a bit, in an effort to help Jack. She's as good as dead otherwise. Hence the water - it thins my blood down slightly, and makes it easier to recover from the loss. The joys of having mostly salt water in your fucking veins - born of water, and trapped by fire. Fucked, huh?

I shook my head as I stepped out of the water, and held my wrists out for Link to check. He simply nodded, and followed me back into our hole. Maniac was already holding Jack in his arms, supporting her on her feet as I slid onto the bed, and leaned back against the wall.

I held my arms out for her, and watched through hooded eyes as Maniac twisted Jack in his arms, and lowered her so that she could straddle my thighs. She rested her head against my shoulder, her hair a wet weight against my chest and shoulder as I shifted her into a more comfortable position.

She sat slumped against my chest, her breathing slow against my skin. Too slow. Linking my wrists behind her neck, I looked up at Maniac, and simply raised an eyebrow. He nodded once, and then raised the shiv he had washed outside. The cuts were deep and damn painful, but I clenched my fists and then relaxed them, causing Jack to start squirming against me slightly when my blood ran over her skin.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against Jack’s. An hour crept past, and my wrists once more burned as Maniac reopened the cuts he had already made. Link forced several cups of water down my throat, and Dog’s hand was a heavy, reassuring weight on my knee as I once more clenched and relaxed my hands.

"Move ‘em. Kain’s gonna need to sleep it off, and Jack won’t wake up for God knows how long."

The voice came from somewhere far away, strong hands rearranging us so that I lay on my back, with Jack stretched out along my body like a slinky cat. Something was wrapped around my wrists, slowing the flow of blood I was losing. Didn’t matter - my body would replenish it.

Then I knew nothing. When I did wake next, it was to the sound of deep breathing, and muffled against my chest, the soft sound of tears. Dog and Maniac were sitting up right near the door, fast asleep. Link was curled into a ball on the end of the bed, and Jack was looking at me in the darkness.

"Hey, baby girl… you all right?" I whispered.

She shook her head, and I moved her as carefully as I could onto her stomach, and reached out to light a few candles. My blood was slowly drying in long streaks on her back, and I kept my touch feather light as I ran my fingertips down over her shoulder blades.

"Hurt?" I asked.

She nodded silently as I ran my fingers through her hair and pushed it upwards so that it spilt off the edge of the bed and along the pillows made of jumpers and shirts. Straddling her thighs, I ran my hands in a sweeping arc along her strained shoulders, and sighed as she muffled a pain-filled moan under that light touch. I worked in silence for a long moment, until finally Jack spoke.

"Talk to me, Kain." Her words were slurred, causing me to frown.

"What do you wanna talk about, baby?"

"Can we play our favorite game?"

I chuckled, then shifted my weight lower, and began to smear my fingers through the tacky blood, so I could work it into her skin.

"All right… when I get outta here, I’m gonna dive head first between the first pair of open thighs I can find, and I‘m gonna stay there for a month."

She laughed quietly, and then spoke.

"When I get outta here, I’m gonna to listen to music, and turn the volume up as loudly as I can and sing until I can’t speak anymore."

"Nice one… umm… when I get outta here, I’m gonna take a bubble bath with ya, and stay in that hot water, until our skin shrivels up and turns us into humanoid prunes. Then I'm gonna find a pair of open thighs, and stay there for a month."

Jack snickered even as she moaned again as I worked some blood into a still open cut in the middle of her back.

"When… oh god, Kain… when I get outta here… I’m gonna go to the first ocean I can find, and I’m gonna wiggle my toes in the sand… while eating ice cream."

My jaw jutted forward as I nodded.

"Nice again… still gotta find me a woman on what ever planet that beach is on."

"You always think with your dick?"

I laughed then, and skimmed my fingers along the small of her back. Jack arched and purred, before she sank further into the bed.

"Always, Jack. I swear, if I didn't love you the way I do, I’d be beggin' right now. I haven’t been this horny in years!"

She laughed again quietly, and when she spoke, her voice was down right cheeky.

"So… you find yourself a woman… I’ll find myself a stud muffin."

"I don’t fuckin' think so! Over my dead fuckin' body, Jack!"

Jack and I both jumped as Dog’s voice drifted to us out of the gloom, and I laughed as he glared at her.

"How about you, Dog? What are you gonna do?" I asked.

Dog shifted, and spoke quietly.

"Seriously? I’m gonna find my wife… beg for her forgiveness."

"Me too… I wanna know that Kialy is safe… that’s she’s ok," came Maniac’s voice.

"I want to find my Mum and Dad… see my family," Link said as he sat up.

I felt Jack still under my hands.

"I want to find… Rick… thank him for savin' me, even if life did turn out like this."

Jack clammed up after that, and no matter how much the others begged, she wouldn’t say another word. I continued to rub her shoulders and back, until at last, she went back to sleep. It was only then that I left the hole to take a leak, and to figure out our next move. It would come sooner than I thought, but the world tilted for me, and the last thing I heard, was Dog swearing a blue streak as the ground rushed up to meet me, and I kissed reality good-night.