Chapter 9

Seattle, 1 November 20xx, 12:47

The machine shop was eerily quiet.

It was daytime now; that much was obvious from the filtered sunlight coming in through the dirty overhead windows, including the one Winterhawk and Ocelot had broken what seemed like so long ago when they had crashed into the building. Shafts of sunlight streaked the dusty floor and the grime-covered hulks of the machinery.

The two runners still stood against the wall, their wrists still bound in their chains. The Horror had not returned since its last torture session, leaving the two and Harry alone for what had seemed like hours. All three of them were acutely aware of the fact that this could change any minute, and this realization added to the almost unbearable stress level in the room.

Harry had finally dropped into a fitful sleep against the barrier in front of Winterhawk and Ocelot. He did not stay still, rolling over and muttering things that the two runners could not understand, but at least he was sleeping. That respite had eluded both of them; it was impossible to sleep in their current position, and if it were not, both had so much on their exhausted minds that shutting them down even for sleep was not an option. Both had been silent for a long time, partly because they did not want to awaken Harry, partly because neither of them had anything else to say. Both had accepted the fact that they were not going to get out of here; Winterhawk had given up hope that his desperate attempt at sending a watcher spirit to find Roger had worked, since it had been many hours and no help had arrived. Each of them was now just waiting for whatever would happen next, and not caring what that was. Death was coming; if it came a little sooner, that would have been fine with them.

When the barrier flared and the door flew open, the two prisoners did not even look up. Each was convinced that this was just another of the Horror’s cruel illusions; they were determined that they were going to fight it as long as they could.




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Copyright ©1996 R. King-Nitschke. The Shadowrun universe is the property of FASA Corporation.
No part of this story may be reproduced without permission from the author.