Chapter 18

Angrily, Amanda stared at the guards, as she dropped her duffle bag on the ground. She was ready for a fight, as she eyed them, suspiciously. Immediately, Amanda threw herself at one of the men, and he punched her in the face. Surprised, she staggered backwards, as she grabbed her cheek, and another guard punched her in the stomach. As she doubled over, the guard kneed her in the face. Weakly, she fell to the ground, and another man kicked her in the face, knocking her unconscious. One of the guards laughed, and then he picked up her duffle bag.

“Get her up. We are taking her straight to the interrogation room,” said one of the men.

“But what about the boss?” asked another.

“We will extract the information from her first, and then he can deal with this traitor.”

Seemingly, the men nodded, and they loaded Amada’s unconscious body and her duffle bag into the back of an SUV. They drove to the back of Overwatch, and took her inside the interrogation room.

***************

Surprised, Megan, Joe, and Josh stared at DJ as he approached them.

“DJ!” exclaimed Megan, as she tried to sit up, but the guard put his foot on her chest, and pushed her back to the ground.

“Hey!” she said, angrily, and DJ glared at his men.

“Untie them you fools, and get your foot off of her. This is my family, and you treat them as traitors,” he said, angrily, and the men immediately untied them.

The guard took his foot off of Megan, and she scrambled to her feet. Aggressively, Megan pushed the guard as hard as she could, and then she ran to DJ, and threw her arms around him.

“You’re alive,” she cried, as he hugged her back.

Happily, Joe and Josh joined in their happy embrace, and DJ hugged his family tightly. After a moment, DJ pulled his head back, and he looked at them with worry.

“Where is Mand?” he asked, and Megan shook her head.

“What? You were supposed to look out for one another!” DJ exclaimed, angrily, as he glared at Joe.

“It’s not his fault. We were all separated after the explosion,” Megan cried, and DJ looked at her softly.

“Alright. We will keep looking for her then. Why don’t you three get cleaned up and then come to my office when you are done,” said DJ, and they all nodded.

“Sir, we still have a team out there looking for her,” said one of the guards, timidly.

“Well, you better hope that they find her, and I hope that no one has the indecency to treat her as you did my other family members,” DJ sneered, and the man only nodded.

Noticeably, DJ looked strange to Megan, Josh, and Joe. They noticed that his skin was starting to turn yellow and dark circles had formed under his eyes. They didn’t think he had gotten bitten, they chocked it up to being stressed, and they didn’t ask about it. DJ explained to them that they had been missing for two days after the explosion.

Seemingly, the three headed for the showers, and DJ was left to handle his men for the way that they had treated his family.

*************

Slowly, Amanda opened her eyes, and she found herself in a cold, dark, damp room. There was a gag tied around her mouth, and her hands were chained above her head. The pain in her arm was excruciating, and she could feel the pain starting to travel to her shoulder. She was on her knees, and there was blood coming from her forehead and running down the side of her face.

“Oh, look, who is finally awake?” said a masked man with blue eyes.

*****************

For hours, they had tortured her, asking her questions about the bombing, and even when she told the truth, they would still taze her, stab at her wounded arm, or punch her in the face. One of the men constantly made sexual remarks towards her, making her feel uncomfortable. Eventually, she silently vowed to kill that man.

“I told you. I don’t know anything about the bombing, except that I was in the building with the rest of my team when it went off!” she cried, angrily, as she spit blood from her mouth.

The man responsible for sexually harassing her walked over to her and grabbed a fist full of her hair at the back of her head. Aggressively, he yanked her head back, and made her look at him.

“Now, we will see what the boss wants done with you. Maybe if he doesn’t kill you, I will keep you around. Such a shame to waste a pretty young thing like yourself,” he said, as he gently slid the blade of his knife across her exposed throat.

After that, the man let go of her, and he walked away laughing. Angrily, Amanda glared at the guy, and when she found a way to escape, she couldn’t wait to get her hands on that asshole.

**************

It was the next morning, and Megan, Josh, and Joe joined DJ in his office, as he went over his plan to welcome survivors to come to Overwatch. He told them that Maverick stopped the broadcasts, and wouldn’t open the gate for anyone new.

“Great. Any word on Mand?” Joe asked, and DJ shook his head sadly.

Suddenly, one of DJ’s guards walked into the room, and spoke quietly to DJ.

“Sir, we have the bomber in custody. You have to come down there. For the last couple of days we have tortured the suspect, and still no answers,” he said, and DJ looked at him, angrily.

“A couple of days, and you are just now coming to me about this?” he yelled, and the guard backed away from him.

“Sir, we just wanted to make sure,” he said, and DJ scowled at the man.

“Just take us to him, maybe he will have information on Amanda,” he said, and the man nodded, as DJ looked at Megan, Joe, and Josh.

“Come on,” he said, and they all followed the guard towards the back of the settlement.

They walked into one of the empty boarded up houses in the back of the community, and then they walked down into a huge cellar.

“In here,” said the man, as he opened a wooden door, and they walked inside.

Immediately, they stared with wide eyes.

*****************

Amanda was feeling weak and exhausted from not sleeping, and the torture that the men had put her through, but she had enough strength to look up at the door as it opened. When she saw her family staring at her, she began to sob and laugh at the same time.

“Oh, my god! Mand!” Megan exclaimed, as she ran to her friend.

Suddenly, a guard walked up to her, and snatched her arm, quickly. Angrily, Megan looked at the man, and she scoffed.

“Unhand me,” she said, as she kicked the guard in the knee.

The guard yelled out, and lost his grip on her, and Megan punched the guy in the face. Swiftly, Joe ran to Amanda, undid the chains that were holding her wrists, and scooped her into his arms.

“You boys have a lot of explaining to do!” yelled DJ, and his men looked at him.

“She is not the bomber. She is the missing family member I sent you out there to find and bring back safely. You are lucky you didn’t kill her. In my office, the both of you, now!” he added.

The men nodded, and they ran off quickly, as Megan looked at Amanda with tears in her eyes.

“Mand, are you okay?” she cried, as she touched her friend’s face.

Uncontrollably, Amanda sobbed, as she nodded her head.

“Mand, I am so sorry this happened to you. They will pay for what they did to you,” said DJ, softly, as he approached her, and she nodded with tears in her eyes.

Evidently, one of her eyes was swollen shut, and bruises had started to form on her face and wrists.

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” Joe said softly, and Amanda nodded, as she rested her head on his chest.

She was so thankful that her friends had shown up when they did. Evidently, Amanda whispered into Joe’s ear about the man who had made the sexual remarks to her, and Joe walked closer to Josh.

“Here, take her. DJ and I have some business to attend to,” he said, sternly, and Josh took Amanda into his arms.

“I’ll be back,” Joe whispered, as he ran his hand gently over her head, and she only nodded.

Joe walked away with DJ, and DJ looked at him in question.

“Let’s go have a talk with these boys,” Joe said, sternly, and DJ nodded as they headed up to his office.

DJ walked into the room, and he took a seat at his desk. Joe leaned against the wall, and he crossed his arms over his chest, annoyed, and he glared angrily at the two men. The two men looked at each other, and then one of them looked at DJ.

“Sir, we did not know that she was the missing sergeant,” said the man.

“Yes, she was brought to us and we were told that she was the one who planted the bombs. Our orders were to get the information out of her for you,” said the other man.

DJ glanced up at Joe, and he sneered at the men.

“Which one of you is the one who made inappropriate comments towards her?” Joe asked, flatly, and the men looked at each other.

When neither of them responded, Joe chuckled.

“Look, gentlemen. We can do this the hard way or the easy way, but what I am telling you is that you really don’t want the hard way,” said Joe with a smile.

“Now, which one of you was it? Hmm?” asked DJ, as he looked at them.

One of the men began sweating profusely, and he swallowed hard.

“Decker?” DJ asked in disbelief, and the man nodded.

“You have a wife, and kids!” exclaimed DJ, and Decker only nodded, as DJ looked at the other man.

“Sways, why don’t you go downstairs with the rest of the team that brought my family in.”

The other man nodded quickly, and he left the room without even a glance at his partner. When the man was gone, DJ and Joe glared at Decker angrily.

***************

Megan and Josh carried Amanda back to their house, and Josh laid her on the living room couch. Megan grabbed a wet cloth, and she began dabbing Amanda’s face with it.

“Now, I have a question for you,” she said, as she searched Amanda’s eyes, and she nodded as she bit her lower lip.

“Where did you run off to before the explosion?” she asked, and Josh sat in the armchair next to the couch.

“I saw someone running through the back of the store, and…”

“And you decided to run after them on your own?”

Megan finished her sentence, and she nodded.

“Now, what did we learn from this experience?” she asked, and Amanda nodded.

“Stop making spur of the moment decisions and stick together,” she mumbled, and then she winced in pain, as she touched her swollen lip.

“Yes, it’s going to hurt for a little while,” said Megan.

“Amanda!” Christie exclaimed, as she ran to the side of the couch.

“Are you alright? DJ told me what happened and I came right away,” she said, worried, and Megan noticed that there was something odd about her.

She had the same bags under her eyes, and her skin was turning the same eerie yellow color that DJ’s skin was turning.

What happened to them? She wondered, as she turned back to Amanda.

“Joe?” mumbled Amanda, and Megan looked at her thoughtfully.

“Trust me. That man will be back soon,” she said, as she smiled, and Amanda looked at her oddly.

“Mand, my cousin is in love with you,” Josh said, and Megan, Amanda, and Christie looked at him.

“Well, everyone knows that,” said Christie, as she shrugged her shoulders, and Amanda sighed.

Josh reached his hand over to her, and he patted her shoulder.

“I was so scared,” Amanda whispered, as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“What happened?” Megan asked, and Amanda looked at her with fear in her eyes.