Page 129 of The Hero Within
"No trouble," the guard in charge snapped. "We've got orders to bring you before General Bligh, preferably in one piece. I'm going to be pissed if you force me to break the general's orders."
Someone shoved him under the shower and turned the cold water on. Another tried to scrub the dirt and blood from his skin, but Johnny curled his lip and snarled, snatching the soap himself.
No fucking way.
He cleaned himself as best he could, and toweled dry when commanded. They wouldn't let him handle the razor himself, using one guard to pin his head in place, two on each of his arms, and another to shave him.
Something was definitely going on.
"No trouble," the guard in charge repeated, once he was dressed and cleaned. "Or you'll regret it."
They'd even given him shoes.
Dragging a hood over his head and cuffing him again, they led him through the main building where hundreds of wargs were locked away in barred cells. He'd been kept in solitary, and presumed he'd stay there until they deemed him subjugated. He could smell other wargs, hear them shifting in their cells as they passed, but nobody said a damned thing.
These were the Confederacy's special warg forces, comprised of soldiers and not individuals. Not anymore. He'd tried to speak to some of the alphas that tried to break him, but there was no spark in their eyes anymore. Just puppets trained to submit to the Confederacy's whims. It made his skin crawl.
The stale scent of warg pheromones stained the air, even through the hood. Then a hand in the middle of his back shoved him out of the room, into something small and dark. The swish of doors closing made him feel slightly claustrophobic as he found himself trapped on either side by the warm bodies of the enforcer guards. Suddenly the ground lurched and he staggered. Up. They were going up in one of their little metal boxes.
Another hiss of air as the doors finally opened, and there was wind on his skin, rippling his shirt against his chest. An engine roared somewhere nearby, and the black hemp of the hood grazed his face as they walked directly into a headwind.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" he yelled, breaking the first rule they'd ever taught him.Wargs don't speak. But he was too unnerved to obey. Maybe there was an execution ground out here somewhere, so they didn't get blood all over the floors. Or maybe they were simply going to throw him off the edge of the building?
That didn't explain why they'd shaved him or given him shoes, though.
"Silence." Another shove.
One of these days....He could feel his claws itching beneath his skin.
"General." The guy who'd pushed him sounded instantly respectful.
"Get that goddamned hood off him," snarled a voice thick with command. The stranger's voice dropped, though Johnny could barely hear him over the roar of that engine. "Jesus. I didn't tell you to put a hood on him! I saidclean him up."
They dragged the hood off, leaving Johnny blinking in the sudden sunlight. His eyes hurt after being trapped so long in the dark.
Blades winked as they rotated slowly in the light, the flashes of sunlight blinding him. A black helicopter loomed on the launchpad nearby, a handful of people standing just outside the rotor circle, though he couldn't make them out. It still took his breath away, seeing something like the helicopter. These fuckers didn't know how good they had it here.
Though he suddenly realized he wouldn't trade the Wastelands for all the tech in the Confederacy.
"Johnny?"
A whisper carried to him on the wind.
His heart punched into his throat.
And there was a slim figure in denim jeans and a white shirt, her long chestnut curls bound into a tight bun as her eyes lifted to his. The second she stepped into the sunlight, it surrounded her like a haze. Or no, maybe a halo of pure golden light that surrounded her entire body.
Eden?
The breath punched out of him, his heart plummeting like it had leapt off a cliff without the rest of him. He was dreaming. Had to be. Johnny took a half step toward her, before the twist of the cuffs reminded him exactly where he was.
He had the unmanly feeling he was about to lose his shit. His vision blurred once again, but this time it wasn't from the piercing sunlight. She'd come. She'd actually come for him.
"Remove his cuffs," said the general.
An electronic click, and he was free, rubbing at his wrists.
He barely had time to catch his breath before Eden launched herself against his chest, sending him staggering in a circle as he wrapped his arms around her and breathed in the familiar scent of her hair wash.
