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tea-potato-gt · 23 days ago

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A Borrower at the End of the World part 8

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Word count: 2700ish

***

Now…

The Brig consisted of several dark jail cells. Each contained two wooden beds, a sink, and a filthy toilet.

The soldiers placed both children inside the same cell, locked the door, and left.

It was a dark, dusty cell. The only light came from the little lamp in the corner on the other side of the bars. The only window was above the wooden beds. It had no glass, just metal bars, allowing the chill from the night air to enter the room. If the kids stood on the wooden bed they could see out to the street, which was at the same level with their window. One of the kids could stick their arms out and grab tuffs of grass or dirt.

Once Briar was sure the soldiers were gone, he popped his head out of Jace’s bag, only to quickly realize he was suspended high above the ground with no safety net. The soldier carrying Jace’s bag put it on a hook directly across the jail cell that held the kids. They had a clear view of each other.

“Jace? Layla? Are you hurt?” Briar yelled across the chasm to the cell that trapped the kids. Briar never wanted to see another person he cared about locked up. Now he saw both children behind bars, it made his anger boil and he became sick to his stomach.

“That bastard twisted my arm,” Jace grunted as he tested the limits of how high he could lift it and flexed his tender muscles. “Still hurts, but nothing permanent.”

Briar turned to the little girl, hugging herself in the darkness. “Layla, are you alright?”

Layla just stood there, silent tears streamed down her face and she shook her head. She was shivering, the boys couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or fear. Or both. Briar and Jace locked eyes.

Just like I showed you. Briar nodded.

Jace bent down and checked Layla for injuries. He stretched her arms out and bent it slightly, watching for resistance or pain. He turned her head and checked under her shirt for any injuries.

Briar spent weeks teaching the kids how to check each other for injuries. He taught them first aid, like how to stop bleeding or how to set a broken bone with two sticks and a shirt. Briar had to guide the pair through it with only his voice and using an old doll as an example. Briar couldn’t ever hope to administer first aid to either child himself, given their drastic size differences. A single cut on one of them could produce more blood than he had in his entire body.

“She’s fine, just a couple of scratches.” Jace finally said.

“If you’re not hurt then why are you crying?”

“I’m scared, Briar.” Layla pressed her round face into the bars. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She stuck her hands and arms through the bars in a futile attempt to reach the borrower.

“I know, sweetheart, it’s gonna be alright. We’ll figure a way out of this.” Briar wanted nothing more than to close the gap between them and comfort her. Have her hold him close to her chest, tell her everything would be alright, but this wasn’t the time for flowery talk. He needed to take action and figure a way out of this nightmare.

Jace pressed himself against the metal door. It was made of thick, rusted metal that he couldn’t dream of opening without a key. “M-maybe you can pick the lock?” Jace sounded hopeful. “You told us once you opened a locked rat trap your cousin was in.”

“Yes, but that took hours,” Briar rubbed his hands over his face. “I doubt we’ll be given the luxury of time before those Beans come back.”

The Borrower spat the word ‘bean’ with complete and utter disgust. He said it in a way that made Jace very uncomfortable.

Briar had never thought highly of beans, but after watching the way these particular ones treated Layla and Jace, it brought forth the ire and pain felt by generations of borrowers before him.

“Do you have any better ideas, boss?”

“No.” Briar sighed. “Maybe… Maybe I could climb down, get a better idea of what to do. Get a lay of the land.” He grabbed his borrower bag and wrapped his rat skinned cloak around his neck.

“Please hurry,” Layla whined.

“Alright, I’m coming, sweet girl.” Briar took out the ‘rope’ (string) attached to his waist, tied it to the broken backpack zipper, let the string drop to the ground, and tugged on the knot to ensure it was secured.

Then he jumped up and over the zipper of the bag. And began his descent down the string. Hand over hand and scooting and squeezing with his thighs. Nearly half a century of practice allowed the borrower to safely scale down a dozen story (to him) drop.

The distinct sound of jingling keys turning at the brig door sounded as loud as an explosion to Briar's ears. Alarm bells screamed at him: A bean is coming.

Briar and Jace cursed at the same time.

Creeaaaak.

Too late. Both the children and Briar froze.

The borrower had only made it halfway down the string. He couldn’t climb back up into the backpack without being spotted. And dropping had its own risks, but staying still was probably the worst option. Indecision might seal Briar’s fate. The three prayed the new beans wouldn’t spot the little man swinging in mid air.

The children’s eyes were locked on the man standing at the door. He was intimidating, even by Bean standards. He was huge, very tall, and very muscular. Wearing a heavily decorated uniform with several stars and badges across the shoulders and chest. He took up most of the door frame and had to duck a little to enter the Brig. Close behind him followed Colonel Johansen.

Oh, joy.

“Good evening, children.” The new man spoke in a deep voice that, though soft, commanded respect. Jace couldn’t get a good look at his features because of how tall he was. No matter how close or far he got from the lamp light, his face seemed to always be swallowed by shadow. At his side, he carried a black briefcase. “I am the General.”

Neither child spoke as the General made his way towards their cell, his heavy combat boots thumped on the ground.

“My men tell me, you put up quite the fight while they brought you here.” The General stood before the cell, he studied Jace with dark eyes, looking for something. “Now, I’m very curious. How did two children survive alone in a town crawling with Razors, for three years? Hm?”

Jace stood up straighter, trying to appear bigger than he really was. Over the years of hunting and borrowing, Jace had gained some muscle, not enough to be useful in hand to hand combat against this brick wall of a man.

“I would very much like to know who helped you… and where they are hiding, right now.” The General bent down to the level of the kids. When his eyes landed on little Layla, she felt herself shrivel up under his intense gaze. The aura that came from this man made the air thick and unbearable. Alarm bells were ringing inside her head to run away.

Jace stepped in front of his sister, blocking her from view. The teen glared at the General, a clear sign: No. Not her. Don’t you even look at her.

The General’s jaw ticked, “I’d be careful who you aim that glare at, son.” Only the man’s cold eyes moved to meet Jace’s.

Jace pulled Layla closer as they backed away from the bars and the men standing on the other side. Even though there was still a row of solid metal between the children and the General (and the Colonel), he knew that could change very quickly with the turn of a key.

“Not much of a talker, ey?” The General set his heavy suitcase down with a thud. “That’s fine. I can work with that.” He began to fiddle with the locks on the side of the briefcase.

Elsewhere in the room, Briar swung in mid air. Still caught between a rock and a hard place. Or Two beans and the floor.

He was desperately trying to figure out what to do. Right now, he was still halfway down the rope. Two giant beans were between Briar and the children. Briar could only see the General’s back, he was so large it blocked the kids from view. And the other bean, the Colonel was standing a ways away from the cell, but still watching the intimidating display the General put on.

Normally, Briar wouldn’t want any bean to ever even look at the kids, the very thought set his anger ablaze. But now was not the time to tell off giants and curse their entire bloodlines. Now he needed to get down as quickly as possible and hide. If he was out of sight he might think of a proper plan to get them all out. Right now, being exposed, his fight or flight was in overdrive and he couldn't really think properly.

After much deliberation, he realized his only choice would be to have a controlled free fall down the string till he got to the ground and could hide in the shadows. Easier said than done.

The beans are distracted now is not the time to get scared, Briar scolded himself. On the count of three. One. two. Three—

Briar let go of the string, except for his left hand, which he used in an attempt to at least control the speed of his descent. His stomach did flips as the ground came up faster than he would have liked. As he got closer, he began to squeeze the string with his left hand, causing terrible, painful rope burns on his palm and fingers.

Even though Briar slowed down a little, he still hit the ground harder than intended. He involuntarily let out a soft cry of pain as he made impact. His world spun dizzyingly. Maybe he still had his mild concussion from hitting his head and blacking out earlier that day. Ugh.

The General’s ears perked up at the soft sound. A sound most beans would ignore, but this man was not like most beans. The giant's hair stood on end, something wasn’t right. His shoulders tensed and he began to turn around.

“W-WHAT!” Jace started loudly to gain the General’s attention, he didn’t know what Briar was doing, since the General blocked the small man from view, but Jace knew he had to keep the men's attention. “What are you going to do to us?” The teen eventually gained control of his volume as he continued talking, but his voice still shook.

“Ah, so you can speak.” The General’s tone of voice sounded amused, but one look at the man’s face made it clear he was anything but. “Well, that entirely depends on you and how cooperative you will be.”

The General took out a set of metal keys jingling at his hip. He placed a rusted metal key in the door to the cell that held the children. The man turned the key with deliberate slowness.

Briar quickly got to his feet and ran. Or limped, might have be more accurate. Ugh. Everything hurts.

Briar rushed into shadows. In the dark he was safe. He avoided running out into the middle of the hallway, deciding to instead stick close to the wall. He made it pretty far into the darkness of when–

BANG.

Layla shrieked and covered her ears as the loud sound of a gunshot echoed through the small space.

The Colonel held a smoking gun aimed at the floor, “Damned rats.”

“What did you do?!” Jace yelled. He pressed himself against the bars, desperate to see if Briar was hurt or worse.

The bullet hole in the floor still had a bit of smoke rising from it. He has to be okay, Jace thought frantically, we just got him back!

“Missed.” The Colonel sighed as he reholstered his pistol.

The relief Jace felt was almost palpable.

The General watched the boy with great interest.

Briar scurried back on his hands and knees and easily slipped between the bars of the cell next to the kid’s. His heart pounded and his chest heaved, That Bastard-of-a-Bean just tried to shoot me?!

Briar got up on his shaking feet, his mind continued to race as he ran to the wall that borders the kid’s cell. He just had to find a crack or a weak point to get to the other side.

What the hell is wrong with that idiot Colonel?! Shooting a gun in such an enclosed space! That bullet could have ricocheted and really hurt someone! He could have hurt Jace or Layla?!

There! In the corner, a drain connecting the two cells. It was three inches high, short for even the borrower, but not impossible. He ducked down and pushed his way through the wall.

See kids, THIS is why I hate beans! They always shoot first and ask questions later. Well, good luck asking me questions if I’m DEAD!

When Briar emerged on the other side of the wall, his heart stopped. Three pairs of long legs rose up like thick tree trunks. Those trunk eventually led up to torsos, arms and heads of three beans who didn't know that Briar was in the cell with them. That in itself was concerning, but the real problem came when those legs started moving unpredictably. The borrower could easily be knocked down by a heavy footstep or crushed under a shoe. Leaving nothing more than a stain on the floor to be forgotten by time.

The General opened the briefcase he brought into the cell. Briar could hear the metal tools clinking in his hands.

The case held several instruments of torture. Carefully curated and chosen by the General to be used to get information. He pulled out a metal clamp, it looked like a crude a nutcracker. It still had dried blood caked on from its last unfortunate victim. One good squeeze of this contraption could easily break the fingers on a grown bean. If the General got his hands on a borrower, Briar could easily be snapped in half. He gulped at the thought of this painful, horrible end.

Then his mind switched back to the danger that currently faced the children.it pissed him off, the way this bean tried to purposefully intimidate Jace and Layla. The General was letting his intimidating stature and muscular build do most of the work.

The kids had an intense fear of this unpredictable entity before them, threatening them. Fear began to consume the pair to the point they both were shaking.

What does this bean gain from torchering two children?! What could be so important out there that this man would hurt Jace or Layla over it?! No amount of information in the world is more important than them! Briar’s face grew hot as anger festered in his chest. If the borrower wasn’t afraid himself, he would march over there and give this General guy a piece of his mind. (In fact, if they were the same size, Briar probably would’ve given the General a good kick in the teeth.)

“Last chance, son,” The General took a frighteningly slow step towards the children, steadily clicking the contraption in his fist as he walked into the dim light. Jace stepped back, pulling Layla closer. She whimpered. “Tell me. Who are the people who helped you?” The man spoke slowly, putting emphasis on every word as he bent down to the level of the kids, “And where are they hiding?”

Neither child moved. Or spoke. Or dared to breathe.

What could they possibly say to this man?

If they told the truth— that they had been living with a man the size of a hand for the past three years. That is man taught them how to survive out in the wilderness— The General would either not believe them and think they were making up creatures called borrowers, and they were stalling or hiding the truth. That path would just lead them back to where they are now, but locked in a cell with a much angrier man.

Or worse, the General would believe the children and try to hunt Briar down. The number one rule of living with a borrower: Never reveal the secret to anyone.

“Still not talking, eh?” The General cracked his knuckles and took a deep, steadying breath. He held up his instrument towards the light and watched as the rusted metal glint with such fascination, before coldly bringing his eyes back to Jace. “Well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.”

Jace’s eyes went wide and all the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. His heart sank, but not from fear of what waa about to happen right then. A memory of a man pinged in his mind. A man he used to know a long, long time ago.

Time slowed down as Jace looked at the General’s face. Even in partial shadow he recognized him. That fraise. That voice. The intimidation. His face. Jace knew this man all too well.

Jace’s voice shook as he spoke. He didn’t know it at the time, but his life, his sister’s life and Briar’s life would change with one word:

“F-father?”

***

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