Gunpowder
Chapter Eleven

Poppy was alone.

She looked around the small room, the color reminding her of the hospital room she had been in earlier.

She was glad that she had been in the room less and less. As she healed, she was allowed out of the room, on occasion. She was healed enough that she could eat, though her diet was limited to soft foods. The hospital, which was dedicated to volatile patients, had a sizable cafeteria. It was mostly empty, and the other patients Poppy did see were large and muscular, lashing out constantly. The place could be so dangerous that every patient had to be escorted everywhere by at least one guard. She was not sure why she was considered as dangerous as the others, but made no complaint.

In addition to the cafeteria, there was a small holo-chamber, a room that could be used to project any 3d space desired. It was extremely interesting to her, but when she asked how it worked, her request would be denied. Still, she made use of the room the best she could. Whether it be summoning packs of fluffy dogs or practicing her skills as a technician, the room always served a use to her. It was a solace in the days of laying in boredom in a blank room.

Bringing herself back to reality, Poppy noticed that the door behind her was beginning to open. Like a child trying to hide something they broke, she threw the handcuffs onto the floor, hoping no one noticed that they were off.

She didn’t even have to look to tell who had walked in the door. She recognized the heavy, metallic footsteps and the grunting. She hardly flinched when her chair was pulled out from the table and she was forced to her feet by two strong arms. She felt her legs, aided by animatronic coverings, touch the ground.

“Come on,” the guard grunted. He almost never spoke, and when he did he did no more than order her around. She was not sure of his name.

Poppy grunted, baring her teeth subconsciously. She had been told that both her legs had compact fractures, and she was quite sure that they were not fully healed. The simple act of standing sent waves of pain through her, but she had mostly gotten used to it.

She winced as she was grabbed by the shoulder and led forwards. Her arms were amazingly unscathed. Every doctor had told her she was lucky. Despite this, her neck had been quite badly hurt, and that pain extended to her shoulders all the way down her arms. She was practically just one big aching mess.

The guard forced her through the door, though he truly had to use little effort to get the meek little woman to move. She weighed about as much as a 12 year old child, still growing.

The door slid closed behind them, and they were off across a long hallway. The hall was completely empty except for a randomly placed fire extinguisher in the wall. It smelled foul, like the exhaust fumes of a hundred semi trucks. There was a single door at the end, which was the source of the smell. There was an ambulance waiting outside to transport her back to the hospital.

Poppy felt a gust of cold air wash over her as she was shoved into the vehicle. It didn’t look like a normal ambulance, however. The bed was pushed to the side and lacked the normal medical devices. The walls and floor were carpeted with a design that reminded Poppy of the night sky. She had been told it was a transport van specifically for dangerous patients. The guard shoved her inside and slid the doors closed, leaving her alone in the back of the ambulance.

She sat down on the hospital bed sitting against the wall, glad to give her still-injured legs a rest. She couldn’t stop thinking about her situation. Injured inside an enemy base. At the mercy of those who hated her. It all terrified her. She did her best not to think about it.

In her life before the crash, she had distracted herself with technology. She was forced to become a medic in her early days, as they did not see her fit to be a soldier due to her short and thin body. She did not remember how it happened exactly, but somehow she managed to become a techie, and had been ever since. The inner workings of things distracted her from the horrors of what she was actually doing: Designing weapons designed to kill others. She tried not to think about what they would do. The people were just test dummies, no more. That’s what she forced herself to think. Reading the files from that medical center had terrified her.

After being taken into the hospital, she had been stripped of all weapons and technology on her. They had given her a hospital gown to wear and taken her normal clothes, probably assuming they had trackers in them. Her possessions now consisted of a rubber tooth brush, a blanket, and an old book that smelled of vanilla. She guessed that all of the items were chosen as things that were impossible to use as weapons.

The ambulance began to move with a lurch. Poppy sighed and swung her legs over the side of the bed so that she was fully laying down. The mattress was thin, but the pillow was decently comfortable. She tried to arrange her gown so that it covered her as she rolled onto her side. Her neck ached when she put weight on it. She still hadn’t fully healed from the glass that had gotten lodged into her. She moved the pillow to her neck; That way she would at least not be in pain.

She saw out a window that was situated on the opposite side of the van. The city blurred past, all the colors blending together. Poppy wondered if she would ever be able to be in that place. She often thought about what would happen when she was healed. She was not sure why they even bothered to heal her. With the order, they executed prisoners as soon as they stopped their use. Why bother healing her if she had already given up the information she had? So they could throw her in prison or some asylum? She didn’t really want to think about it.

She watched as the colors of the city changed from grays and browns to cobalts and whites. This was her first time truly seeing the city from the ground. It was an architectural masterpiece, at least from what she had seen.

She sat up straight as she felt the ground rising beneath her. She jumped up, feeling her legs protest, and ran over to the window, peering out.

The ground was, sure enough, rising. The ambulance seemed to be on a platform of some sort. Poppy’s eyebrows furrowed in panic. Were they going to kill her? She wasn’t useful anymore. Where were they going? Was this some sort of slaughterhouse?

She switched from one foot to another as she stood, sweat starting to bead on her forehead. She felt like a cow who had just realized what its fate was; And that very well could be what she was at the time.

Poppy shook her head. She was being stupid. Just being scared was no option at the time. She had to defend herself. Like her earlier analogy, she was not going to die like a scared cow. She looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon.

The blanket! She was not a good fighter by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew what could be used as a weapon. A blanket could be used to temporarily blind an opponent so that they could be hit in an unprotected vulnerable area, such as the stomach or the spine. She quickly grabbed the blanket that was bunched up next to the bed and flapped it around so that it was expanded to its full size. She sat down back on the bed to give herself as much rest as possible before having to fight.

The platform stopped and tipped slightly. The ambulance rolled forwards onto flat land. Then stopped.

Poppy heard footsteps. She tensed. The door slid open. Metal clanked.

Without looking, she attacked. What happened next was mostly a blur. It was for a few seconds at least. She elbowed whoever had come to get her. They grabbed her with one arm, pulling her towards them. She snapped her teeth, and pain shot through her arm. After that, she felt herself growing woozy.

Poppy blacked out.

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