Armageddon by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page A

slapped her again. It seemed to rattle her brains in her skull, but when her ears stopped ringing her mind felt a little clearer.
    “Keep that up, you idiot, and you’re going to break her neck. Then we won’t get anything out of her! She’s drugged. All you have to do is keep asking her. Eventually, she’ll tell us what we need to know.”
    “This fucking drug you’ve concocted is useless,” the heavy set man snarled.
    “Pain and fear work best, and she doesn’t feel either when she’s flying on this stuff.
    We’ve tried it your way, doc. Now we’ll try it my way a while.”
    Fear flickered through Lena. He was wrong. She could feel it. Her mind simply refused to focus for more than a moment at a time.
    Confusion filled her when he began removing the straps that he’d secured her with only moments before.
    It seemed it had only been moments. Maybe he had finished the session and was taking her back to the cell?
    She didn’t believe that. He’d said ‘pain and fear’, she remembered suddenly. She began to struggle when he released her wrists and ankles, slapping at his hands ineffectually.
    Unfortunately, the fight was over before it had barely begun. He slapped her back, stunning her, more because she’d dared to try to fight, she suspected, than because she’d actually managed to cause him any pain. Grabbing her by one arm, he hauled her out of the seat and, when she could only manage a few wobbling steps, began to drag her.
    They left the cell and headed down the hallway she remembered and hope surged through her that he was taking her back to her own cell. Instead, she discovered when the tube lift jolted to a stop and they stepped off, that she was on another level of the prison entirely. She wasn’t certain how she knew, but she realized after a moment that her ears were popping and she couldn’t remember noticing that sensation before that told her they’d climbed very high, very rapidly.
    She began struggling against the guard’s grip. “Where you tak’ me?” she asked in a slurred voice.
    He laughed. The sound scared her like nothing else he’d done before. “I’m gonna introduce you to some … real playful fellas. They’re gonna be your playmates for a while. Until you decide you’re ready to talk.”
    Even as chaotic as her mind was, Lena sensed the threat on a primal level. She put on brakes, digging her heels into the slick floor. He continued to drag her as if he wasn’t even aware of her attempts to struggle against him. Her heels made squawking noises as her feet skidded along the metal tiles, but she couldn’t tell any difference other than that.
    Looking around for a possibility of escape, Lena discovered the real difference between this floor and the others she’d seen. There were only two enormous holding pens instead of individual cells. Dark shadows clustered in both--many dark shadows.
    “No!”
    He ignored that.
    “I’ll talk,” she babbled.
    He stopped and looked down at her for several moments. Finally, a grin split his

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    face. “After this, if you’re able. I’m overdue for some entertainment.”
    Lena began clawing at his hand. When that failed to produce the desired results, she sank her teeth into his flesh. He slapped her, twice. Ignoring the ringing in her ears, she clenched her jaws tighter. Finally, he merely grabbed her nose, squeezing off her air.
    She struggled, twisting her head. Dark spots began swarming around her, the cloud growing until she could no longer stand it. She released her grip on him, sucking in a mouthful of air.
    Grabbing a fistful of hair, he hauled her upward until he could wrap one meaty arm around her middle.
    “Back away from the door!” he barked as he stopped at the cell door.
    No one moved for several moments, but when he released his hold on her hair and pulled an electrified rod from his belt loop, the men in the cell began backing slowly away until they were packed near the back of the room.
    “You’re not