M7Fic: Untitled Nonsense (1 of 10-ish)
Title: Untitled
Author: Karen (nee. Katmorg)
AU: M7 ATF
Warnings: Violence,language
Archive: Please link to my page, the story will be posted upon completion.
Disclaimer: Any thoughts I ever entertained of owning the boys were
immediately killed by the realization that I could never afford to feed, clothe, and
bandage all seven of them. Plus, where would I keep them? And then there's the
cost of repairing the bullet holes in the walls... I'll settle for taking them
out to play once in a while.
Author's Notes: This is me being all kinds of brave and stuff, posting on
the fly. My deepest thanks to the lovely Phyllis who has so kindly offered her
beta services. I also need acknowledge Sue, Sassy, BJ, and the kids at work
who've put up with my anxiety-riddled writing process.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Untitled
Part 1 of 10-ish
He was broken. The thought rose with the sluggish determination, surprisingly lucid against the frantic haze choking JD. 'Broken,' part of his mind echoed, somewhere between a whimper and a wail. Adrenaline alone had carried his failing body this far into the night. Coaxing one step after another from him, pushing oblivion just a little further away. Now it too abandoned him. The river of endorphins slowed, leaving his blood thin against the angry pounding of his heart.
The fight left in him pushed back the waiting darkness, teasing another step from his aching legs.
Another step.
Another wave of pain tore strips through his guts.
JD chewed back the darkness that followed the red wave and lurched forward onto his good ankle. His right one was broken -- he'd heard the snap, could feel the giddy pain of bone grating on bone. Muscles, already shocked into exhaustion by trauma, trembled, threatening to betray him with each heave forward.
Sparing seconds he didn't have, JD slumped against a dumpster to steal a moment's rest. Rancid milk was burned into the melting metal; JD's stomach queased, roiling violently against the stench. Somewhere he found the strength to gag back the bile rising in his throat.
Despite the smell, JD wanted to sink to the littered asphalt and sleep. But if he did, JD knew he'd never persuade himself to get up again. A thick bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, stinging his eye shut. When his fingers wiped at the irritation, they came away stained dark and sticky.
Headlights licked the mouth of the alley. Flicking threads of blue-white light bled the shadows dry. JD threw himself into the deepest of the remaining darkness. A cry of pain his lungs didn't have the air for escaped his lips before he could stop it. He bit down hard to suppress the rest of the strangled yell. The copper bright taste of blood joined in unholy matrimony with the rank milk, choking JD where he huddled.
Heavy footsteps followed the ratcheting click of car doors. Low voices conferred for a moment before advancing on his hiding place. Confidant in their quarry, his pursuers made no attempt to quiet their progress.
Time pressed heavy on JD; the waiting far worse than the running. Knees hugged to his chest, he strained to hear the cry that announced his discovery. Long seconds leeched the remaining adrenaline from him. The chill from the pavement seeped into his bones, a deep and weary ache.
Shivering awoke a host of pains JD had managed to block during his flight. Livid lines of bruises feverishly invoked the sickening sensation of free-fall as he'd twisted away from bruising hands only to find no purchase on the open stairwell. He pressed his eyes shut against a wave of nausea. Dark lashes pushed a fat tear free to cut a trail down his smudged cheek. He struggled to put aside the echoes of the shot that had filled the loft as he'd begun to fall.
On his feet almost the same moment he'd stopped rolling, JD had begun running before the pain could reach him within his cocoon of shock. There was no way of telling how long he'd been on the move -- the desperate need to escape guiding his steps more than logic.
He hadn't gone far enough. Try as he might, he could no more outrun his pursuers than he could outrun the image of Buck crumpling at the head of the stairwell -- his command to run still ringing in JD's ears.
The men were close now. Too close. Sliding into JD's field of vision. Two men, guns covering the alley they were sweeping. The headlight framed them in painful contrast. JD squinted against the glare. The details of their features were lost in the white halo, but the solid forms were familiar. They'd been at the apartment.
The crunch of broken glass beneath their feet was unnaturally loud in the heavy silence. Pungent spices and tobacco swirled around them, making JD gag on another wave of nausea. If he'd wanted to, he could have reached out and touched the one creeping along his side of the alley wall.
They were passed him then. Moving deeper into the narrow lane. They had gone right by and hadn't seen him. JD was giddy with disbelief. For the briefest moment he allowed himself to believe he might survive.
Then the taller of the two turned. His gaze settled on JD's hiding place. Intent woven into every move he made, he ghosted the shadows back up the alley.
Head down, JD held his breath while every fiber in his being screamed to run again. To move would be to die.
JD didn't want to die like this - cowering in the shadows waiting for the end. Didn't want the others to find him discarded like a bit of rubbish amid spent cigarette butts and his own fear.
If he had to die, JD wanted it to be standing up. They would know how hard he had fought. JD himself would know.
He wanted to growl and throw himself into battle.
But muscles which moments before had ached to move were frozen. Spellbound by the death stalking him. In the span of a few seconds, JD died a thousand deaths, each more horrific than the last.
A short call from the waiting car broke the silence, snapping the hunter away from his quarry. JD flinched, certain his heart stopped.
The two hunters turned to heel like a pair of well-trained bird dogs. Brisk footsteps carried them back to the car without sparing so much as a glance toward JD's hiding place.
Fearing a trap, JD stayed hidden long after the car doors slammed and the engine revved as the car raced away.
Silence.
Blessed silence.
Laughing with weak relief, JD abandoned his shadow. Sparing a moment to survey his surroundings for the first time in his flight. He knew where he was. Only a few short blocks from the apartment, he hadn't even left his own neighborhood. There was an all-night gas station less than a block away. There would be people there, and a phone. Help. He would find help.
Using the wall to support him, he hobbled slowly toward the street and the promise of safety. Pain with every step brought fresh tears to his eyes, but he forced himself on.
Guttering yellow light washed over him as he reached the open. Another step shook the last of the shadows from him. Another and he could read the lit signs of the gas station. He drew one step after another from his trembling legs until he'd reached the edge of the building.
The payphone glowed blue in the halo of the streetlight. Calling him. JD's world had narrowed until there was only room for the payphone and the thought of safety.
JD let go of the wall and pushed himself forward toward the phone.
He didn't even realize his eyes were closed against the pain until he collided with another wall.
A wall that grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.
Desperation gave JD the strength to jerk free, his eyes flying open to see the grin of the tallest hunter. JD backpedaled, one hand raised between them as if it alone were enough keep the larger man at bay.
A sharp pinch stung him low in the back. Fire radiated outward as the whined hiss of a silenced recoil reached his ears seconds too late for it to be real. Dreamlike, one hand drifted back to test the wound. A heavy fog stole the motion from his limbs and his hand never reached its target.
JD half turned, his mind registering the other hunter and a third, vaguely familiar man. The ground tilted violently, rushing greedily up to meet him. His head struck the pavement. Sparks flared behind his eyes, dying quickly and leaving ghost impressions in the darkness.
And then -- abruptly -- JD knew no more.
Author: Karen (nee. Katmorg)
AU: M7 ATF
Warnings: Violence,language
Archive: Please link to my page, the story will be posted upon completion.
Disclaimer: Any thoughts I ever entertained of owning the boys were
immediately killed by the realization that I could never afford to feed, clothe, and
bandage all seven of them. Plus, where would I keep them? And then there's the
cost of repairing the bullet holes in the walls... I'll settle for taking them
out to play once in a while.
Author's Notes: This is me being all kinds of brave and stuff, posting on
the fly. My deepest thanks to the lovely Phyllis who has so kindly offered her
beta services. I also need acknowledge Sue, Sassy, BJ, and the kids at work
who've put up with my anxiety-riddled writing process.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Untitled
Part 1 of 10-ish
He was broken. The thought rose with the sluggish determination, surprisingly lucid against the frantic haze choking JD. 'Broken,' part of his mind echoed, somewhere between a whimper and a wail. Adrenaline alone had carried his failing body this far into the night. Coaxing one step after another from him, pushing oblivion just a little further away. Now it too abandoned him. The river of endorphins slowed, leaving his blood thin against the angry pounding of his heart.
The fight left in him pushed back the waiting darkness, teasing another step from his aching legs.
Another step.
Another wave of pain tore strips through his guts.
JD chewed back the darkness that followed the red wave and lurched forward onto his good ankle. His right one was broken -- he'd heard the snap, could feel the giddy pain of bone grating on bone. Muscles, already shocked into exhaustion by trauma, trembled, threatening to betray him with each heave forward.
Sparing seconds he didn't have, JD slumped against a dumpster to steal a moment's rest. Rancid milk was burned into the melting metal; JD's stomach queased, roiling violently against the stench. Somewhere he found the strength to gag back the bile rising in his throat.
Despite the smell, JD wanted to sink to the littered asphalt and sleep. But if he did, JD knew he'd never persuade himself to get up again. A thick bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, stinging his eye shut. When his fingers wiped at the irritation, they came away stained dark and sticky.
Headlights licked the mouth of the alley. Flicking threads of blue-white light bled the shadows dry. JD threw himself into the deepest of the remaining darkness. A cry of pain his lungs didn't have the air for escaped his lips before he could stop it. He bit down hard to suppress the rest of the strangled yell. The copper bright taste of blood joined in unholy matrimony with the rank milk, choking JD where he huddled.
Heavy footsteps followed the ratcheting click of car doors. Low voices conferred for a moment before advancing on his hiding place. Confidant in their quarry, his pursuers made no attempt to quiet their progress.
Time pressed heavy on JD; the waiting far worse than the running. Knees hugged to his chest, he strained to hear the cry that announced his discovery. Long seconds leeched the remaining adrenaline from him. The chill from the pavement seeped into his bones, a deep and weary ache.
Shivering awoke a host of pains JD had managed to block during his flight. Livid lines of bruises feverishly invoked the sickening sensation of free-fall as he'd twisted away from bruising hands only to find no purchase on the open stairwell. He pressed his eyes shut against a wave of nausea. Dark lashes pushed a fat tear free to cut a trail down his smudged cheek. He struggled to put aside the echoes of the shot that had filled the loft as he'd begun to fall.
On his feet almost the same moment he'd stopped rolling, JD had begun running before the pain could reach him within his cocoon of shock. There was no way of telling how long he'd been on the move -- the desperate need to escape guiding his steps more than logic.
He hadn't gone far enough. Try as he might, he could no more outrun his pursuers than he could outrun the image of Buck crumpling at the head of the stairwell -- his command to run still ringing in JD's ears.
The men were close now. Too close. Sliding into JD's field of vision. Two men, guns covering the alley they were sweeping. The headlight framed them in painful contrast. JD squinted against the glare. The details of their features were lost in the white halo, but the solid forms were familiar. They'd been at the apartment.
The crunch of broken glass beneath their feet was unnaturally loud in the heavy silence. Pungent spices and tobacco swirled around them, making JD gag on another wave of nausea. If he'd wanted to, he could have reached out and touched the one creeping along his side of the alley wall.
They were passed him then. Moving deeper into the narrow lane. They had gone right by and hadn't seen him. JD was giddy with disbelief. For the briefest moment he allowed himself to believe he might survive.
Then the taller of the two turned. His gaze settled on JD's hiding place. Intent woven into every move he made, he ghosted the shadows back up the alley.
Head down, JD held his breath while every fiber in his being screamed to run again. To move would be to die.
JD didn't want to die like this - cowering in the shadows waiting for the end. Didn't want the others to find him discarded like a bit of rubbish amid spent cigarette butts and his own fear.
If he had to die, JD wanted it to be standing up. They would know how hard he had fought. JD himself would know.
He wanted to growl and throw himself into battle.
But muscles which moments before had ached to move were frozen. Spellbound by the death stalking him. In the span of a few seconds, JD died a thousand deaths, each more horrific than the last.
A short call from the waiting car broke the silence, snapping the hunter away from his quarry. JD flinched, certain his heart stopped.
The two hunters turned to heel like a pair of well-trained bird dogs. Brisk footsteps carried them back to the car without sparing so much as a glance toward JD's hiding place.
Fearing a trap, JD stayed hidden long after the car doors slammed and the engine revved as the car raced away.
Silence.
Blessed silence.
Laughing with weak relief, JD abandoned his shadow. Sparing a moment to survey his surroundings for the first time in his flight. He knew where he was. Only a few short blocks from the apartment, he hadn't even left his own neighborhood. There was an all-night gas station less than a block away. There would be people there, and a phone. Help. He would find help.
Using the wall to support him, he hobbled slowly toward the street and the promise of safety. Pain with every step brought fresh tears to his eyes, but he forced himself on.
Guttering yellow light washed over him as he reached the open. Another step shook the last of the shadows from him. Another and he could read the lit signs of the gas station. He drew one step after another from his trembling legs until he'd reached the edge of the building.
The payphone glowed blue in the halo of the streetlight. Calling him. JD's world had narrowed until there was only room for the payphone and the thought of safety.
JD let go of the wall and pushed himself forward toward the phone.
He didn't even realize his eyes were closed against the pain until he collided with another wall.
A wall that grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.
Desperation gave JD the strength to jerk free, his eyes flying open to see the grin of the tallest hunter. JD backpedaled, one hand raised between them as if it alone were enough keep the larger man at bay.
A sharp pinch stung him low in the back. Fire radiated outward as the whined hiss of a silenced recoil reached his ears seconds too late for it to be real. Dreamlike, one hand drifted back to test the wound. A heavy fog stole the motion from his limbs and his hand never reached its target.
JD half turned, his mind registering the other hunter and a third, vaguely familiar man. The ground tilted violently, rushing greedily up to meet him. His head struck the pavement. Sparks flared behind his eyes, dying quickly and leaving ghost impressions in the darkness.
And then -- abruptly -- JD knew no more.