Scarecrow and the Rainbow Solution

Crimson counted the cracks in the white plaster ceiling and concentrated for staying awake.
There had been no more beatings although the one when she had come to had been enough. They had merely stripped her of boots, belt and jewellery and thrown her into the cell. It was bare apart from a hard bed and table, a scavvy looking toilet and the shackles on the wall. A full powered force field covered the exit and a camera pointed in. Crim was being watched twenty four seven and it was clear that Korse had learned from before that leaving her with anything she could use was dangerous.
Not that she was in any state to fight or move right now, he had also seen to that. Everything hurt badly once the adrenaline wore off and a nagging aching cold in her fingertips told Crimson that something important was hurt pretty bad this time and there was probably now nothing she could do stem the inevitable. Which was somehow ok given the amount of times they had all dodged death when really it should have taken them down. All that mattered now was making sure Party didn’t do anything stupid and bringing the city down on its own people.
Crimson continued to hum, counting beats between the patrols that passed and the camera that swung every two minutes. Without a belt buckle or something to short the field there would be no way out to disable the camera before it swung back. Crim was well aware that there was no way she could fight her way past even one drac without help from a weapon or more drugs and that was even before she went hunting for the weapon. All in all it was pointing towards this being a major fucking fuck up.
She shifted again, her back to the camera as she reached under her shirt and pulled the length of underwire from her bra. Men never learnt that there were some advantages a girl just had on her person by want of back support. Major feminist victory as far as Crimson was concerned and she kept the sliver of metal between her fingers and counted again until the camera started to move away from the left side of the shield. There were no controls on the inside but it was possible to short the circuit if you twisted the casing just right and avoided channelling the voltage into yourself. That was the hard part.
Crimson grunted in pain, dragging herself across to the wall and quickly testing for the nerve connection. She had less than a minute each time to angle the wire and search for the sweet spot, the electricity spitting and arcing. As soon as the camera started to turn again she dragged herself back to the bed. On every fifth attempt she waited the extra four minutes until the patrol passed. It was exhausting, the pain making her eyesight start to blur and even her own natural bloody minded tenacity was starting to fade by the time the force field sputtered and went down. Crimson hauled herself at the camera and jammed the wire into the back circuit, the thing would short out and the patrol would come back but by then she should be gone.
Crimson forced herself down the passage, one leg was stubbornly refusing to co-operate and it felt like breathing fire. Twice she managed to hide in passing doorways as the alarm began to sound. They had quickly found that she had escaped then, this really was starting to go beyond fuck up and into farce. The only positive was a sign that said medical bay, it made sense to head there and look for something to deaden the pain long enough to finish the mission.
Crimson lingered in the cupboard a moment longer, a long handled broom could be made into a reasonable weapon and there were also cans of cleaning fluid that could be aimed at eyes and skin. If she could find a heat source she could also make a blow torch, feeling even a little armed made her feel more confident even as patrols of heavy booted men tramped past her hiding place. With a final painful breath, Crimson hauled herself into the corridor and crawled along the wall until she could look into the medical unit.
There were two technicians, one clearly nervous at all the dracs marching past but still working, the other seemingly asleep across the desk. Crimson couldn’t help but smile, seemed that slackers still existed even in the drugged realms of BLI. Good thing too, he wouldn’t know what hit him.
“Hey pal, got a light ?”
The nervous man couldn’t answer as the broom handle shattered his jaw, Crim jamming the other end into the fallen figure’s throat and twisting as the other man started to wake to dawning horror. The last of her strength went on using the handle to fracture his skull and she quickly swung the door shut and started rifling through the drug store with shaking hands. There were painkillers and more adrenaline, even the sting of the needle felt like fire and something approaching a maniacal giggle from her, the mind finally beginning to accept that this was only going to keep her going for so long. Crimson checked the bodies for ID cards and credits, considering using the medics outfit until she realised that everyone now would know her face and it was too fucked up to hide without them recognising her anyway.
It was then that Crim started to realise that something else was going on. A small explosion shook the corridor and she watched through the door crack as dracs started to run past in the other direction, the last was seemingly on fire as it screeched and bounced from wall to wall. The stench of burning flesh mixed with the drugs to create a wave of nausea and she fell back against the wall, a cold blackness starting to fog her sight.
“Hey, wake up. C’mon, you can still see me right ?”
Two young faces stared down at her and for a minute Crim thought it was Jet and his new girlfriend until a harder shake brought things into focus. The adrenaline was helping things to steady and she realised that these were killjoys, one a youngish child with an enormous bush of hair. Was there something Jet hadn’t told her ?
“What the fuck is going on ?”
The taller of the two kids smiled, his face a mask of triumph.
“We’re breaking out, every killjoy in here saw that broadcast and we were coming to find you. We’re gonna go kill Korse.”
Crim felt a grin split her face as they helped her up and another older man appeared. He smiled at her too but the strain was clear on his face and another scream broke from further up the corridor. A pitched battle would be useful as cover but that was no way to get out of the city.
“Well great, good luck with that. You are ?”
“I’m Red Victory and this is my little sister Missile Kid.”
The little girl waved shyly as the man glanced down the corridor again before addressing Crimson directly. He handed her a plain white gun and a bottle of water which she gratefully downed as he started to speak.
“I’m Stryker. I don’t particularly want your war but it got me free too and I’m taking the kids out of here. You got a plan cos quite frankly, you look like shit.”
“No argument there. I need you to get out of the city and find Party. Don’t stop for anything, I’m going to find the virus but I don’t want him or anyone else coming in here. You got that ? Get as many of our kind out of the city as possible.”
The man nodded slowly, seeing in an instant what the woman was going to do and that there was no point in suggesting anything else. Fucking killjoys were all insane as far as he was concerned, he had only ever stole to feed his family.
“What do I tell him ?”
Crimson shook her head, she didn’t want to think about saying goodbye to him and if he knew things were this bad he would insist on attempting something idiotic.
“Tell him I’m dropping the bomb and I’ll see him in the desert.”
He nodded again and dragged the kids down as Crimson took out the drac that had appeared from around the corner. The broom handle was useful, she wanted the uniform and mask rather than something full of gun holes and she repeated the message again as she stripped the body and passed the kids spare rounds.
“Remember, he’s a stubborn boy that Party. He will argue but I need to do this alone ok ?”
“Sure thing.”
Stryker looked at the blood seeping from a wound in the girl’s side and knew that there was no way that she intended to get out no matter what she might say in front of the kids. He ripped up a section of his jacket and packed it against the cut, tying it tightly into place.
“He will still come, I’ve heard the stories about you lot.”
“He’s probably already on his way along with my friends but it’s worth a try.”
He dropped his voice and checked the corridor again. Black smoke was starting to seep along from the prison units and more sirens were going off in the distance. Soon the Scarecrow units would arrive in force and they needed to get gone.
“You’re intending to set it off.”
“Yes. Does that bother you ?”
“No. Just give us time to get out.”
She nodded and watched them leave before pulling another syringe of high level pain meds from her pocket and slamming the needle into her thigh. It deadened the ache enough and Crim pulled on the drac mask and strode down the corridor, using the medical room pass to get through. It was time to hunt down the virus and end the game.

Notes