02:03
Episode 2: When You See Daylight
Part 3
Violet lay in a heap at the bottom of the stairwell, still conscious. Blood ran from her thigh into a pool on the concrete floor. The jagged end of her broken femur stuck out through a tear in her leg. Violet looked down at her injury, placed her thumb om the exposed bone and forced it back down through the flesh, sticking her thumb inside to block the fountain of blood.
“Monkey humpin’ dingidongs!” she screamed through gritted teeth.
As soon as the ends of the bones touched she felt the shattered tips knit together. With her thumb still in her leg she made made sure everything else worked and pulled herself up on her good leg.
“Holy crap,” shouted a guard. “Stay where you are. I’ll get help.”
The other guards continued down the stairs. Violet climbed to her feet and hobbled towards the exit, dragging her still healing leg.
There were no guards in the corridor outside the stairwell and Violet limped along, her broken leg growing stronger with every step. She could hear the guards clattering down the steps behind her. She began trying doors. When she found one unlocked she went inside and locked the door behind her.
The room was little more than a closet with an empty desk but Violet was grateful for a chance to rest until her leg healed up. She sat down on the desk top and removed her thumb from the wound, making sure the blood had stopped flowing. It was then she noticed her hand dripped with blood. She looked down at the floor and saw tiny red dots leading from the door.
“Aw jeez,” she whined.
She heard footsteps pass and fade away down the hall and then there was a knock at the door.
“I am coming in.” said a young man. “I am armed. If you have a weapon I will shoot you. Lay face down on the floor with your hands behind your head.”
Violet smiled. She slipped to the door and opened it.
“You got me, sparky.”
The guard jumped back from the door with his gun shaking in his hand.
“Don’t – don’t come any closer,” he told her.
He was young. His frightened face was smooth and without scars. Violet kept smiling. She held out her empty hands and took a step out into the corridor towards the guard.. The guard didn’t move.
“I’m not armed. You got me fair and square,” she told him.
She took another step.
“Get down on the floor right now,” he barked.
She shook her head.
“My leg hurts. You know, from that fall I took?” Violet pointed down to her wound.
The guard looked down where blood stained the leg of her pants from mid-thigh clear down to her ankle. Through the rip in the fabric he glimpsed the jagged edge of the wound and saw it knit itself back together. He looked back up at her, terror in his eyes.
“Stay back!” he shouted and waved the gun.
“You’re new at this stuff, aren’t you?” she asked keeping her voice calm and low. “Never really seen anyone with powers before?”
She took another step bringing her an arm’s length away from the trembling youth.
“And you gotta be asking yourself one question right now; would a bullet stop her?”
With speed that surprised even Violet she snatched the gun from the boy’s hands, reaching behind and catching her pinky in the snapping hammer.
“Crappen-hymer! That stings.”
Now the boy backed away.
“Don’t hurt me,” he whimpered.
Violet dropped the pistol behind her back where it vanished into hammer-space while she sucked on her newly bruised pinky.
“I won’t hurt you if you tell me where I can find a young girl,” she mumbled around her finger. “About seventeen maybe, with long, black hair. She came in last night.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Violet reached behind her back and came out with a set of brass knuckles.
“I said I wouldn’t hurt you if you told me. I will hurt you if you don’t.”
“Don’t — don’t hit me with those.”
Violet reached back and swung hard at the side of the boy’s head snapping it sideways and knocking him unconscious. He fell to the floor at her feet. Violet reached down and slapped the boy’s face. He awoke wincing in pain. Violet tapped him lightly on his nose with the brass knuckles.
“Where is she?” she asked sweetly.
“There’s a girl down on level one,” he moaned.
“What’s she look like?”
“Young. Dark hair. Real creepy.”
He rubbed the side of his head where Violet punched him.
“You’re going to have a nice bruise there sparky. Now you can tell everyone I overpowered you.”
The guard’s radio crackled.
“Control. This is one six one.” said a female voice, “We have movement on level one west. The subject is heading north into the labs.”
“One six one. Follow and report. Do not interfere. Keep subject from leaving the campus.”
Violet grinned down at the guard who glared up at her.
“Thanks sparky. That will do.”
There was an explosion from the floor beneath. Smoke escaped through the stairwell doors.
“Control!” blasted the radio. “This is one six one! Subject has liberated explosives from one of the labs. She’s destroying the….”
There was another explosion from the floor below and then a moment of static-filled silence on the radio. Control came back.
“One six one. Use of lethal force authorized. Shoot to wound if possible.”
The guard laughed and Violet punched him hard in the chin with the brass knuckles knocking him out. She left him unconscious to run down the stairs and find Laurel. When she opened the door to level one she was greeted with a hail of automatic gun fire aimed in her direction.
