18

[I'm not dead! Real life came and kicked me around pretty well but the story is still going. As always, many thanks to Corrupting Power for letting me play in his plague ridden sandbox. This would simply not have been possible without the help and inspiration of the other QT authors (in absolutely no particular order): The Licentious Laureate, OtterlyMindblowing, lokisluck, Julius Drake, Agathon, Discert, Ronan, BreakTheBar, SilverRyden, JustAGuy, 32inch, BirchesLoveBooks, and James MacCragges.

Seriously we are reaching Marvel levels of collaboration here.

Thank you to all of you who are enjoying the story! And if you hate it, I'm still writing it for you. Only spitefully.]

Chapter Seventeen

August 20th, 2020

-o0o-

Night was falling with an oven hot wind as Issa had settled into a deep sleep while the imprinting continued its work in her body. The number of women wandering the courtyard and moving from the mess tents to the camp had trailed off, leaving only a couple of groups moving and talking quietly under the handful of outdoor lights as they headed to bed. It would be hours before his new partner woke up but Colin's mind was in overdrive. Hayes had implied that once they were both bound to Colin that Isabella would... what? Form a hive mind? Look to Hayes or Colin as some kind of ultimate authority? He didn't have most of the details of the ways that the Quaranteam vaccine altered the mind but he was pretty damn sure that this was beyond the things that it could do. Grace had still been herself, and so had the other women he'd met who were partnered up to various men.

There was an odd sound outside his window that finally penetrated his thoughts. He glanced out.... And hovering just outside was a quadcopter drone, the camera staring straight into the room as it swayed in the wind. He looked at the cracked open door and then back out the window. Out of all the things that he had on his mind this was not among them.

He waved.

The drone slowly went up two feet, back down, then up, and back down once more.

Ok. Communication. He didn't have anything to write on. He pointed to the other bed. The camera rotated and paused there for a moment before bobbing up and down again. As it floated away to the left and peeped into the next window on the building Colin scratched at his hair. Whatever agency had taken over outside the trenches here was gathering intel it looked like. It wasn't like Colin would need to take the time to pack since he had come here in pajama pants, but he figured that some kind of action was imminent..

This whole place was at a simmer and that was just from what he could see out the tiny window and glean from the snippets of conversation he and the other men trapped here could overhear and share up and down the hall. Hayes had rapidly taken over. Weaver had been in charge for months before his arrival but didn't seem to be pushing back at all as Hayes tried to drum up support for her little Crusade. The number of people who seemed ambivalent, at least as far as Colin could tell from his window, had decreased. Mainly because anyone who was ambivalent or not interested in what Hayes was selling had disappeared in small groups that Colin had seen as shadows in the fields over the last few nights.

Whatever law enforcement was out there was certainly picking them up as they crossed the fields in groups of five or ten. The women that were staying were either the most gung ho of the Major's followers or the most afraid of making a move back out into the wider world. Regardless of motivation, the population was no more than half of what it had been at his arrival. That didn't include anyone else that had apparently been bumped off like Flannery, at least. Colin knew that he should try to sleep but his mind was racing.

Around the time that the chimes of the chapel bells sounded midnight Colin had zoned out. He was still staring out the window, but hadn't seen anything for the last half hour. That changed as there was a flicker of light next to the handful of vehicles. At first he thought that there was someone lighting a cigarette below but the flickering light grew brighter instead. He frowned in confusion as he saw two women with a small torch... No, not a torch. Shit.

It clicked at the same time that two flaming bottles took flight at the steam plant building at the south end of the complex. Molotovs.

One of the two projectiles shattered and splashed flame against the old brick of the outbuilding but the other crashed through a window, casting a glow inside. The women below were already lighting and tossing fire as quickly as they could grab the bottles. The trucks with guns mounted, the command tent, and the first floor of the main building. His heart skipped a beat as he smelled the burning gas and smoke spreading below. The windows on the first floor of the main building shattering brought on screams and calls of alarm.

The two arsonists were off at a dead run as the chaos intensified. Colin saw the drone that had looked in his window was zipping off to follow them. He couldn't be sure but just before the flames went up the side of the building and they disappeared from view... he would have sworn that he had seen both of those women hanging around with Weaver before she went to hide in her rooms at the far end of the building.

A fire alarm began blaring and the sounds of panic filled the hallways. The other collared men in the section were shouting in confusion and panic while the halls filled with smoke. The guards were nowhere to be seen and the stairs far to the left were full of women half dressed or in hastily donned uniforms pouring down from the two floors above. Running back to the window Colin suffered a moment of indecision. The guards were gone. And they had taken the remotes and keys to the collars with them.

The wires for the system were still set across the floor three at a time at roughly ten foot intervals. No one was coming to turn them off. One of the men tried to step across and proved that they still worked as he grabbed at his neck cursing. The smoke was getting thicker. Coughing, Colin realized that there was really only one choice unless he was willing to just give up and die.

He went back into the room and quickly grabbed a hand towel which he soaked and tied around his face. Issa was still passed out and as far as he knew would just lay there until the whole place went up in flames. As he rolled her to the edge of the bed he could hear sirens in the distance, carried on the wind.

He silently thanked Grace for even starting to get him in shape as he tried to figure out a fireman's carry on the fly. Issa's limp form was stable after a few moments of shifting her around to a suitable position. He brought her to the door, turning sideways to make sure to keep her head from connecting with the door frame. Stepping into the hallway he noted that the number of women coming down the stairs had dwindled from a flood to an occasional shrouded figure. Some of the other men were attempting to step across the wires that would trigger their collars and cursing or gagging as the shocks activated.

Colin took a deep breath. This was going to fucking suck.

Figuring that a steady pace was the best way to make it through the gauntlet, Colin began moving as fast as he dared with Isabella draped over his shoulders bonelessly. The first wire made his throat clench shut but he managed to keep the pace he had set. The second and third wires were enough to make him stumble. Three more sets to go. His vision was going blurry after the next one and he had to pause for breath. That made him croak out an ironic laugh. Pausing for breath as the smoke came up the stairs in great black clouds.

The second to last shock hit him and he almost fell over. He swore that he could smell cooking flesh off of his own neck and the ringing in his ears was definitely not just from the fire alarm shrieking at him. The final wire was in front of him...

He took a deep breath. A shambling jog was the best speed he could manage. The feel of the collar pulsing at his neck spiked. He wasn't going to make it. He was going to collapse and fail and get himself and Issa killed. He was-

Huh. His foot stomped down on the landing of the stairs. The collar stopped in mid electrocution. He tried to clear his thoughts... and realized that the batteries on the damn thing must have run out of juice. He had been tortured so much that he had beaten it through sheer luck. His heart soared even as he coughed. Down two flights of stairs and he was in the first floor hall. He managed a trot as he could hear the other men following him down. They must have pushed through the hall as well once they saw him get out.

The fire exit was close by. He gave a weak kick to the breaker bar that opened it, twisting so that it would bounce off of Issa's ass as it rebounded and tried to close on him. He stepped outside for the first time in a week and moved barefoot around the burning building. The courtyard with it's flaming trucks was almost completely abandoned at this point. The women who had tried to make this place their own were scattered to the winds. Colin could see multiple vehicles from police cars to MRAPs to a fucking Bradley tank rolling up the road and across the fields. He could hear sporadic shooting from some of the positions on the perimeter, evidence that some of Hayes' diehards were putting up a fight as the cavalry stormed in.

The burning steam plant was fully engulfed. As Colin headed out towards the promise of safety there was a shout from above. "COLIN! MY LOVE!"

He turned at the sound of Hayes' voice. There she was, leaning out of the window to his prison cell where he had watched a tiny slice of the world while he was trapped inside. She waved with a crazed grin on her face, rifle in her other hand. "Wait there, Colin! I'm coming down to you! We can still get away together!"

Her tone was light, like she didn't comprehend that the old convent was burning down, the smoke and embers being carried off to the west. She looked out over the incoming wave of law enforcement and her smile turned to a scowl in a heartbeat. "NO. HE'S MINE, DAMN YOU! I KILLED TO HAVE HIM AND HE IS MINE!"

She fumbled with the rifle and began to try to aim out. Colin's eyes were locked on her. God, she was well and truly off the deep end. Even as she aimed the gun out the window there was a chorus of shouting, demanding that she drop the gun. The police were only about a hundred yards away now. The sound of her shots ringing out was answered with interest.

The hail of gunfire made Colin move. He could feel bits of debris and gravel stabbing into his feet but he couldn't stop. Not now. The burning in his lungs was partly from exertion but mostly from the smoke that his makeshift mask had done fuck all to filter out. He could hear Isabella giving little coughs in her sleep as he carried her. The sound of bullets ricocheting off the walls around him where Hayes was blasting away filled the air along with the crackle of the fire. She was still screaming behind him but he couldn't make out the words. The Bradley came thundering up and the commander popped out of the hatch, shouting at him and gesturing wildly.

Colin cursed and moved off to the side, getting Isabella off his shoulders as gently as he could, using a tree for support to have her limply sit. Using his body to shield her he looked back in mingled horror and fascination as Hayes stood up again in the window.

She was backlit by the fire now. The rifle was still in one hand though she seemed to have been hit in the left arm by the barrage. Hayes leaned against the edge of the window and used the building to steady her shot. The rifle barked twice and there was a metal-on-metal clang from the rim of the Bradley's driver's hatch. The woman who had waved Colin off cursed and dropped back in as the machine halted instantly. The turret tracked up to the third floor window.

Colin covered Isabella's ears.

His own ears were left ringing violently as the cannon's flash went off repeatedly, the shots powerful enough to shake the dust off the tank and in a ring 15 feet wide. The shells tore the entire section of wall that had partly concealed Hayes into dust, shrapnel, and smoke. The woman herself was nowhere to be seen. The ringing in his ears was enough to make his teeth hurt. Colin laid Isabella down gently to the ground and plopped onto the tree roots next to her. He could see the soldiers and police rushing towards him. He could see the bloody trail of footprints that he had left behind shining in the reflected firelight. Leaning his head back against the rough bark of the maple tree he watched the inferno as the last few inhabitants of the building came out and were collected by the milling crowd of cops and soldiers.

A pair of medics appeared after a few minutes. They tried to ask him what he was sure were important questions but he couldn't hear anything beyond the ringing and muffled consonants when they opened their mouths. With a frustrated grimace he pointed to the tank and then his ears speaking to them in what was probably a comedically loud shout but still sounded like he was muttering underwater.

Isabella was placed on a stretcher and moved out. He got placed down on one as well, a mask over his nose and mouth along with a feeling of floating slightly. Pure oxygen he guessed. Or something for the pain that he had missed them giving him. He was carried down the road and into an ambulance that was waiting at the end of the driveway. He could see the city lights down the hill to the west and the flames being pushed through the trees on the downward slope. The drifting smoke was enough to make it seem like he was looking through a fog.

He frowned. Fire trucks were barreling past him down the hill. More pops and a flare of light back at the convent. His hearing hadn't cleared enough to make out anything clearly, but the muffled sounds and trying to read lips let him pick out that someone was saying that the ammo dump for the place was in the burning steam plant and fire was spreading, racing with the strong winds and heading straight into town. Colin was at a loss. He tried to ask what he could do to help but he was brushed off and the ambulance took Issa and him to a triage staging area in a farmyard to the north east.

He was moved into a tent where the glass and rocks were pulled none too gently out of the soles of his feet, he was told that he might have some hearing damage, and he was told to rest and keep on sucking at the O2 that was coming from a green metal tank next to his bed. His complaints and requests to talk to Grace were apparently a bit too aggressive and trying to stand was met with a needle poke in the thigh. The doctor patted him on the shoulder and gave what Colin thought was a grin under his mask. His voice was tinny in Colin's ears but understandable. "She's on her way but you need to rest more than she needs to talk to you. Now you get to sleep. Doctor's orders... which I have backed up with a nice shot of Ativan."

Colin was going to keep on protesting but suddenly his mouth felt like it was full of cotton. He laid back and stared at the roof of the medical tent. The olive green material was absorbed by the lights. They flared out and transitioned into the insides of his eyelids. Sleep took him in between breaths.

-o0o-

The smell of smoke was strong as Colin started to climb back to awareness. His first drowsy thought was that there must be a hell of a wildfire nearby or that someone had a bonfire that was smoldering. His second and third thoughts, respectively, were that something was holding him down in a very small bed and the memory that he had, in fact, just been in close proximity to a massive fire. He forced his eyes open and found that his restraint had a short blonde haircut and was cuddled against him with her fingers resting against his bare chest.

The oxygen mask on his face pulled slightly as he turned his head. This was more difficult than anticipated as bandages on his neck had replaced the hated collar. He could still feel the irregular ring of burns clearly. Isabella was sitting on the next bed over, typing away on a laptop. She was intently focused on whatever she was writing, eyebrows drawn into a "v" as she concentrated. The clicking of the keyboard was a muted counterpoint to the ringing that Colin was pretty sure was going to be his companion for a while. He blinked a few times and took a deep breath. Taking off the mask with his free hand, Colin bent down and breathed in deeply. The smell of Grace's shampoo was enough to calm the mild claustrophobia that he had from waking up pinned down like that. His left arm was under and behind her... and definitely asleep. He winced as he flexed his hand and felt the pins and needles of his circulation trying to move again.

Isabella saw the movement and closed her laptop. Moving her legs over the side of her bed she leaned forward and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. Colin had no idea what was going on behind those brown eyes. Any comment she might have had was interrupted by Grace making a little noise of protest at Colin moving and waking her up. Her hand slid along his chest and she looked up at him from inches away. Gray eyes met his and she reached up to brush her fingers across his lips. "God... you're actually here."

She let out a slightly manic giggle before clinging to him. Colin wrapped his arms around her and sighed as she continued, voice muffled since her face was pressed against him. "I missed you, Colin. I about went crazy from watching you get dragged off not to mention the serum, but God I missed you. I was so scared. So fucking scared, man! It took three days for them just to find where you were!"

Colin stroked his thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away tears.He gave a wan smile. "You're pretty coherent for not getting... you know... for so long. Issa was ready to claw her way out of her own skin after like half that long."

Grace paused, her face peeking up at him. "When they told me you were back... they told me you were back, and that you saved Issa. And that you were coming to the medical team here... I freaked. I think the doctor here thinks I'm a head case. And... um... well it had been a really long time since we... since you left."

Her cheeks flushed and she nodded back to Isabella, who smirked. He raised an eyebrow. "It seems like you are pretty well together at the moment. I'm a little groggy but I can... try and take care of you."

Isabella looked a bit like a cat that had just eaten a whole cage of canaries. Grace had stopped crying and sat up, sharing a bit of the smile. She sniffled and Isabella reached over to pat her hand. "Oh girl, we talked already about this, you're fine. Colin, this is the sort of thing we all are going to have to get used to. You want to tell him or do I get to?"

Grace looked Colin in the eyes and slowly shook her head. A slightly crooked grin broke out and she spoke hesitantly. "I was so out of it since you've been gone so long... I uh... I got in here. And you were, you know, fine. Really, fine. And the doctor is pretty used to dealing with the side effects of... all this, you know. So he put up a curtain and-"

Isabella rolled her eyes and interjected. "I woke up from that imprinting nap just as she pulled your drawers down and went to town on you. I've been horny before, and I've been QT horny before but madre de dios, this little blonde babe could have taken the chrome off a trailer hitch!"

Colin snorted out a laugh at the same moment as Grace. She got a case of the giggles and he did his best to stifle his own as he brought her in close and held her. He made a face at Isabella. "Since when do you scatter Spanish into your speech, Issa? That whole time we were stuck in there together I don't remember you doing it once."