“What the fuck?” murmured Gemmel on her other side.
“You shut your filthy mouth!” screamed a man behind them, taking Gemmel to his knees with a blow to the back of the head.
Sean and Sienna were also pushed to their knees before the woman. Perhaps originally designed as some mock military outfit decades ago, its cut and style had been exaggerated to outlandish proportions. It was also bright red. Its owner had seen fit to customize it with “medals,” or random slogan buttons found from some forgotten novelty shop.
“I want these,” declared the woman. “I want these, and I’m going to take them!”
“Uh…” Sean began.
“Might makes right!” screeched the woman. “And me and mine are the mighty!”
“Right… mighty crazy,” Sean said under his breath.
“I’ll learn you, boy!” screamed the man behind Sean, backhanding him in the side of the face. “You’re gonna learn to speak proper to Ms. Anne!”
A huge bald man, eyes bugged out in madness stood over Sean, his fists quaking in rage. He was fully in the grip of Seeps, lesions rippling up his neck. They oozed as he fumed and danced some furious jig meant to intimidate.
“You see? Hard Dwight knows this truth!”
“Who are you?” Sienna had to ask.
“They call me Ms. Anne Gimme. It’s because I learned to take what I want in this world. Taught it to my friends here, too.”
“I should just zap them for you, Ms.Anne!” squawked the old man, holding an ancient hair dryer out in trembling hands.
Sean was too stunned to even laugh.
“No need Ronnie, no need.”
“Ronnie Ray-Gun would do you good, boy!” yelled Hard Dwight.
“Lock them up,” said Anne in self-righteous satisfaction. “While I decide which one to interrogate first.”
DataLog Text-MemxJourn: Doyle, Sienna A. / 24-04-24
Night had already fallen by the time Sienna had awoken, and now the new morning’s light was starting to creep in over the edge of the horizon. They had been thrown into a shed, or maybe a very small garage, already filled with filthy, bug-ridden clothing heaped in a corner. The damp stench was fetid mix of sweat and decay. Gemmel had braved the pild in search of a weapon, or a tool to cut their ropes, only to find a couple of decomposing dogs left under the filth. He was making little headway on his bonds with a piece of broken bone.
Although their hands were tied tightly, they hadn’t been secured in any other way. Sienna was limber enough, and built correctly, to bring her wrists below the apex of her tailbone and along the back of her legs, before righting them in front of herself. She immediately began to help Gemmel, the few nicks he had endured making it harder for him to hold the bone shard with bloody fingers. Sean, in the corner, attempted to duplicate his sister’s feat to repeated fail.
“Shit, Sienna… I’m sorry,” grumbled Gemmel as she sawed at his ropes.
“What the hell for?”
“For gettin’ you in this mess.”
She grabbed his jaw, forcing him to look at her. “You wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me.”
“Couldn’t leave you,” he mumbled, averting his eye from her glare.
“Damn it, you and my brother need to figure out that I can take care of myself.”
“No, it’s not…” he tried as she broke through the ropes.
“What then?” Sienna hissed.
“Um, guys?” Sean called out. “Could you untie me? I think something’s going down in crazy town.”
A racket had picked up down the alley, a cacophony of screams and gunfire. The sound of rushing footsteps and panicked commands. An explosion in the distance rocked the shed faintly off its foundation and the chorus of screams increased.
“Now what?” Sean mused as Sienna got his ropes off.
Peering out the door, they saw Leechers running towards the spot where they had been held before Anne Gimme, while others fled past them. One retreated clutching a sparkling blue wig to his head. Another smaller explosion took a building up in flames.
“We need guns,” said Gemmel.
“We need our Servants,” observed Sean.
“We need to get the fuck out of here,” concluded Sienna as she bolted from the shed.
They kept to the side of the alley, passing two more escaping Leechers. They didn’t have any weapons on them and didn’t even give the formerly captured trio a second glance. Pausing at the corner, Gemmel stuck his head out around the edge, but jumped back. Moments later, a woman came running by, only to be snagged up in his powerful arms.
“Lemme go!” she squealed.
“Stop, just tell us what’s going on!”
“Missy Big-Britches!” she wailed.
“Wait, that’s your name?” asked Sean.
“Nah, Missy Big-Britches took! Ms. Anne taught us to take, and she did!”
“What?”
“She took! And now she’s a’ feedin’!”
Gemmel let her go to scamper off into the morning.
“I think she just said somebody named ‘Missy’ is a Feeder now,” he said.
“Why haven’t they taken her out?” asked Sienna, peeking around the corner.
“Uh, Sienna,” said Sean quietly. “You decimated half their people and most of their weaponry.”
She could only reply with an, “Oh.”
The trio crept out from the alleyway and into the madness. Everyone was either attempting to engage the Feeder or running from it screaming. Sean, Gemmel and Sienna stayed concealed and moved closer to where the makeshift table had fallen over. The battle itself was another block over, but hopefully in the outbreak, no one had thought to swoop by and abscond with any of their Servants.
Sure enough, one still lay face up in the dirt at the side of a broken chair. Sean prowled along the outskirts a bit more and spied the other two at behind. He dashed out, scooped up the first two and was reaching for the third when a howl echoed through the plaza.
“You!”
Anne Gimme stood there, the flames backlighting her like some demonic figure from literature. Her face was pinched in indignatious rage, a single bony finger pointing at them. Blood dribbled down from a wound at her temple.
“Users! Enemies! I’ll see your corpses stink for this injustice! I’ll see you all…”
A single rock flew out of the Sienna’s hand and cracked the Leecher in the face, knocking her unconscious.
Gemmel started to open his mouth but she just held up a hand.
“She was a lunatic. Now can we run?”
Darting up through another alley and then onto a wider road, the trio kept moving in a direction they took to be north. One Leecher popped out of a window, but Gemmel clotheslined him without breaking stride. At one point they hesitated, the highway winding west, but they jumped to a nearby underpass and continued north. With the sun now rising, it was easier to judge. Their running had turned to jogging, only speeding up again when they heard a commotion inside a warehouse close by. Less than an hour later, the steel beam latticework of a bridge rose up in front of them. A few vehicles seemed to be strategically parked on it.
“I’m going to pass out,” Sienna groaned.
“No problem, once we’re across,” said Sean.
They had taken a few steps onto the bridge itself when three distinct shots landed only paces in front of them.
“Hate to be un-neighborly like that,” came a voice. “But we don’t really care for Gimmes here, nor their problems. Best turn ‘bout and go home.”