Chapter 253: Lucy The Hostage

"Are you awake?" I asked, calmly as I looked down at Lucy sprawled motionless on the cold, damp ground.

She didn’t respond, her breathing steady and even—too steady, too controlled. Either she was genuinely unconscious, or she was doing an impressive job of pretending.

"You’re too soft, Ryan. Let me deal with this," Christopher said with a hint of exasperation, pulling off the drenched waist pack he’d been carrying slung over his shoulder until now. Without ceremony, he wrung it out directly above Lucy’s face, water droplets cascading down in a steady stream.

The cold water splattered across her features in quick succession, running down her cheeks and into her hairline.

My expression twisted slightly at the crude awakening method, a mixture of disapproval and though amusement pulling at the corners of my mouth. Part of me wanted to tell him to stop, that there were better ways to do this. But another part, thought that she didn’t deserve a better way.

"Huh! What!" Lucy’s eyes snapped open with startling suddenness, water clinging to her eyelashes as she blinked rapidly against the assault. When her vision focused enough to register both me and Christopher standing over her like sentinels, her eyes immediately narrowed. She tried to surge upward, to stand and presumably attack, but she quickly discovered that her body wouldn’t respond the way she expected.

Her wrists were bound firmly behind her back with rough rope, the kind that wouldn’t give easily no matter how much she struggled.

Realization dawned on her face, followed immediately by a venomous glare directed upward at both of us.

"Release me," she said.

"Not happening," Christopher replied without missing a beat, crossing his arms over his chest. "I mean, you really thought we’d just say ’yes ma’am’ and cut you loose? After everything your people have done?"

Lucy’s glare intensified, her jaw setting as she looked at Christopher with open contempt. "You’re with Marlon, aren’t you? What’s the plan here—are you going to kill me now? Get your revenge?"

"We’re not going to kill you the way your people are so used to doing," I replied as I looked down at her bound form. "We’re taking you as a hostage instead. You’re worth more to us alive."

Lucy actually laughed at that—a harsh, bitter sound that held no real humor. "A hostage? For what possible purpose? Callighan wouldn’t care if I lived or died. I’m expendable to him, just like everyone else obeying him"

"Maybe you’re still a precious enough hostage for our purposes," Christopher said with a knowing smirk pulling at his lips. "And Ryan here tells me you’re like a mini-boss under Callighan—one of his trusted lieutenants. That makes you valuable whether he admits it or not."

"I won’t tell you anything," Lucy said coldly. "You can torture me, threaten me, do whatever you think will break me. I won’t betray my position."

"You won’t tell us anything willingly, that’s true," Christopher replied, and his smirk widened into something darker, more ominous. "But there are ways of extracting information that don’t require your cooperation."

Lucy glared back at him.

Christopher... I thought, looking at him and trying my absolute best not to grimace at the implications of his words.

He was playing his role well, I guess.

"Now stand up," Christopher said abruptly, pulling on the end of the rope binding Lucy’s wrists behind her back. "We have quite a walk ahead of us, and neither of us has any desire to carry your dead weight along the way."

"Go to hell," Lucy spat out.

"You’ll be the first one going to hell if you don’t move your ass," Christopher replied without sympathy, gesturing broadly at the surrounding area with his free hand. "Look around at all these beautiful infected shambling toward us. They’ll definitely appreciate some fresh meat for dinner tonight. Your choice—walk with us, or become their next meal."

Lucy’s eyes darted around at the grotesque forms slowly converging on their position, their distorted features and jerky movements growing more distinct as they closed the distance. She gritted her teeth so hard I could hear the grinding sound.

"Dying by being eaten alive for a man like Callighan—are you in love with him or something? Is that what this loyalty is about?" Christopher asked mockingly.

Lucy immediately lurched to her feet at that particular suggestion.

Looks like she didn’t really appreciate Callighan to begin with.

"I don’t give a single fuck about him," she spat out with such vehemence that small droplets of saliva flew from her lips. "Don’t you dare insinuate—"

"Heard that, Ryan? We definitely have ourselves a valuable hostage here," Christopher said with a triumphant grin, clearly pleased at having gotten such a strong reaction. "Someone who doesn’t care about their boss is much more likely to talk."

"But I won’t tell you anything regardless," Lucy added quickly, recovering some of her composure. "I’m not a traitor to my people, whatever my personal feelings might be."

"Oh, we have some amazingly persuasive methods at our disposal," Christopher chuckled ominously at her answer.

Lucy gave him a look filled with absolute contempt and disgust, her lip curling.

"You scumbag," she said with poisonous disdain. "Are all you men like this? Even at such a young age, already thinking about torture and violation? You’re all the same."

Christopher’s expression immediately twisted hearing that, his smugness gone.

"I didn’t mean anything weird like that, you bitch!" He snapped back. "Jesus Christ, not everything is about—"

"Christopher, calm down," I spoke up, stepping slightly between them. "Don’t let her get under your skin. That’s exactly what she’s trying to do."

"Right... you’re right," Christopher nodded, though his jaw remained tight with anger. "I shouldn’t lose my composure arguing with scum who works for Callighan—kidnapping and killing innocent people left and right, and then having the audacity to preach moral lessons to us. That’s quite possibly the peak of hypocrisy, if you want my honest opinion."

I’d told him to calm down, and instead he’d riled her up even further.

Classic Christopher.

I could hear Lucy’s teeth grinding again at his accusation.

It seemed like she desperately wanted to retort, to defend herself and her actions, but in the end she maintained her silence.

I gave Christopher a pointed look, and he simply shrugged in response, completely unapologetic.

Well, he seemed just as deeply affected and angered by Mei’s kidnapping as the rest of us were. His usual sarcastic detachment had given way to genuine hostility.

"You won’t win against Callighan," Lucy finally said, her voice quieter now. "You’re all fools if you think you stand a chance. You’d be better off giving up now and surrendering before he gets you."

"Who is Callighan supposed to be—Thanos?" Christopher scoffed dismissively. "Some kind of all-powerful supervillain we should just bow down to?"

"We don’t want to fight your people," I said too. "But your leader has taken someone extremely precious from our group, and we will do absolutely everything in our power to take her back safely."

"Yeah, and we’re not with Marlon either, in case you were wondering," Christopher added, his tone hardening again. "We’re a completely separate group with our own agenda. And believe me when I say this—you really, really don’t want to make us angry. We’ve survived too much to be intimidated by someone like Callighan."

I looked over at Christopher with an expression that was equal parts grimace and resignation.

Sydney had clearly had a terrible influence on him. That particular phrasing—the casual, almost dramatic threat—that was absolutely a Sydney special. I could almost hear her voice saying those exact words with that signature dangerous smile of hers.

Lucy simply snorted in response to Christopher’s threat.

"You won’t have the weapons or resources we do, and we have something that came straight out of a nightmare," she said. "You don’t stand a chance against us. None of you do."

"Gaspar, you mean?" I asked her directly.

Lucy’s head whipped toward me, surprised.

Christopher burst into laughter at her reaction.

"What—you thought Gaspar was your big secret? Your ultimate trump card?" He shook his head with exaggerated disbelief. "You have no idea what our trump card is capable of. He’ll make quick work of your precious Symbiote, won’t he, Ryan?" Christopher glanced at me with a grin.

"Right..."

Don’t butter me up too much though...

Lucy, however, seemed curious now despite her attempts to hide it. Her eyes narrowed with deep suspicion as she looked at both of us.

Regardless of her doubts and questions, we arrived back at our freshly conquered area without encountering any serious problems along the way.

While Christopher took responsibility for Lucy—making certain she wouldn’t attempt to run away or signal for help, I focused on clearing out the infected that had begun shambling too close to our proximity.

"Not even a single soul from your group came looking for you to mount a rescue," Christopher sighed provokingly. "That’s incredibly sad when you think about it, Lucy. What does it say about your worth to them?"

She remained silent at that particular jab, her mouth pressed into a thin.

Christopher was right, though. None of the men stationed around the hotel seemed to have ventured out to hunt for us or look for Lucy. They were most likely confused about what exactly had transpired—at least until the man I’d knocked unconscious woke up and explained that an intruder had infiltrated their place. But even then, hunting through infected-infested territory at night would be extremely dangerous, bordering on suicidal.

Still, the fact that they’d apparently given up so easily on retrieving one of their own spoke volumes about the lack of genuine comradeship within Callighan’s group.

When we finally reached the outer edges of our settlement area, we could already see several members of Margaret’s community hard at work on the barricade, their silhouettes moving in the darkness. They were attempting to better accommodate and secure the cars forming defenses.

The fact that they were still working this late into the night was actually a nice sight. We desperately needed to make this place as secure as possible.

"Oh, Ryan! Christopher! You guys scared the hell out of us," one of the workers called out, flashing his bright flashlight directly onto our faces. "We heard the commotion earlier and thought—"

But then his flashlight beam swung over to illuminate Lucy’s bound form walking between us.

"And who is this?" He asked.

"Our prisoner," Christopher said. "She’s with Callighan’s group—one of his people."

"Really? Damn, you guys acted incredibly fast," the man laughed with a mixture of admiration and disbelief before his expression sobered. "By the way, I heard about what happened to Mei. I’m really sorry, guys. That’s rough."

"Don’t worry about it," Christopher said, giving Lucy’s rope a sharp tug that made her stumble slightly forward. "We’ll recover her soon enough. Right, Lucy?"

She glanced back over her shoulder and fixed him with a very dark glare that could have melted steel.

"Yeah," I added as well. "We will definitely get her back."

Once we passed through the outer perimeter and entered the main area, we encountered Martin and Margaret standing together near the hotel entrance, apparently deep in conversation about something. They both looked exhausted but alert.

I mean after what happened with Gaspar, it was normal.

"I am so sorry about Mei, Ryan," Margaret said immediately upon seeing me, genuine regret filling her weathered face. "I don’t know what else we could possibly have done to prevent—"

"There’s nothing to apologize for, Margaret," I cut her off gently. "There’s nothing any of you could have done against a Symbiote. None of you. You made the right decision by staying silent and not confronting him."

Margaret nodded slowly, seeming somewhat reassured, before her attention shifted to Lucy’s restrained form.

"Do you think they’ll actually hand Mei over in exchange for her?" She asked.

"We have to try," I replied honestly. "But for now, we’re keeping her with us as insurance."

"Yeah, but keep her as far away from the hotel as possible," Martin said sternly. He fixed Lucy with a hard, distrustful gaze. "I don’t have a single ounce of trust toward the group that shot Clara and killed another one of us."

"Leave it to me," Christopher said, pulling on the rope to make Lucy move in the direction he wanted. "I have the perfect spot picked out for her, isolated, secure, and very uncomfortable."

"Oh my God, look, Cindy, Christopher’s taking slaves now. How absolutely gross and barbaric," Sydney’s voice rang out through the darkness as she covered her mouth while approaching our group.

"Shut up, Sydney," Christopher snorted. "She’s with Callighan’s group. We took her prisoner."

"A...Are you guys okay?" Cindy rushed forward anxiously, her eyes scanning both Christopher and me for injuries. "When you didn’t come back right away, we were so concerned that something had—"

She also glanced around obviously searching for Mei, but when she didn’t find her, she wisely said nothing about the absence.

"We’ll get her back," I told Cindy.

"Yes," she nodded with a small, hopeful but sad smile.

"So what exactly are you planning to do with her?" Sydney asked, her eyes on Lucy. "Interrogation? Trade? Entertainment?"

"I’m still wondering about that myself," Christopher said. "She’s absolutely hell-bent on not revealing anything to us about her twisted group and their plans. But we’ll see how long that particular resolve lasts once we really get started."

"Just tie her up properly and securely, Christopher," I said. "We can’t have her escaping or causing problems."

"Leave it to me," he grinned. "She won’t be going anywhere."

"Sydney, just in case," I glanced meaningfully at Sydney, silently asking her to accompany Christopher and keep watch. That woman was still dangerous, and I didn’t trust her not to attempt something desperate.

Sydney caught my meaning immediately and nodded, falling into step behind Christopher and his captive.

"So what’s the name of this intriguingly hostile woman?" Sydney asked.

"Lucy," Christopher said.

"Lucy," Sydney repeated thoughtfully. "That is absolutely, definitively the name of a character meant to die early in any dramatic story. Very unfortunate naming choice by her parents, really."

"You hear that, Lucy?" Christopher called back cheerfully. "You’d better start spilling whatever information you have. Sydney here is hands down the most twisted member of our entire group. She’ll make you wish you’d talked earlier."

"That’s incredibly rude, Christopher," Sydney protested, though she didn’t sound particularly offended.

Lucy maintained her silence throughout this entire exchange, though I could see her jaw working and her shoulders trembling slightly with barely suppressed annoyance.

Was it really a good idea letting those two handle her interrogation? I had my doubts.

Whatever. I was too exhausted to micromanage everything tonight.

"Are you okay, Ryan?" Cindy asked softly, grasping my arm gently and pulling my attention back to her.

I nodded, reaching up to cup her cheek with my hand, my thumb brushing across her soft skin.

"I’m just..." I hesitated, struggling to articulate the complex emotions inside me. "I really thought I would find her tonight. I thought we’d bring her home."

The disappointment tasted bitter in my mouth.

"We will," Cindy said, covering my hand with both of hers. "We definitely will get her back safely."

"I’m just concerned about her safety while she’s with them," I said, voicing the fear that had been gnawing at me actually. "About what they might be doing to her right now."

Unlike Elena and Alisha, who were presumably safe with their father, Mei was trapped with a dangerous group. The thought of what they might subject her to, the ways they might harm her, made something dark stir in the depths of my mind—thoughts of revenge and retribution that weren’t like me but born from Dullahan’s influence on me.

"Nothing will happen to her," Cindy said again. Her hands moved to cradle my face gently, forcing me to focus on her. "We’ll get to her in time. I know we will."

"Yeah..." I nodded.

"Now come on," Cindy said, her voice taking on a more cheerful tone as she grasped my arm and began guiding me toward the hotel entrance. "Everyone’s choosing their rooms and cleaning them up in the hotel. We should pick ours before all the good ones are taken."

I smiled a little and followed along.