Halo: Indelible Past/Chapter Twenty-Seven

The world swam into a dark, unsteady focus as Simon forced his eyes open. He could feel where they'd crusted over, a sign that he'd been out for some time. Blinking painfully, he twisted his head and grimaced as his neck snapped back in protest. Now the rest of his body sounded off in a chorus of aches and sores that left him paralyzed for several minutes. He slumped against the ground like a limp fish, an image that was helped by the fact that someone had manacled his arms and legs.

A hard, cold surface had replaced Mamore's grimy earth, a dim overhead panel light replacing the cloudy night sky. He sucked in stale, recycled air and ran his tongue over sand-dry lips as his mind stumbled over itself to remember what was going on.

''Venter. Something to do with Venter..."

His hands were cuffed behind his back, so he rolled onto his front to give them some air. The wave of pain that met him on the other side sent him spasming, gasping, back onto his side. Through the convulsions, he heard a voice speaking to him from somewhere nearby.

"You're alive."

Fighting through the pain, he turned his head to see Zoey sitting with her back to a smooth, dark wall a few feet away. Her hands had also been cuffed behind her, but her legs were free and aside from a black eye staring out from beneath her disheveled hair she seemed unhurt.

"You," he grunted as everything came rushing back. Too bad for her. "Why are you here?"

She shrugged. "They threw me in with you. It's not like they don't have a reason to hate me too."

"Yeah. Good point." Panting from the aches that every move sent coursing through his body, Simon pushed himself upright enough to lean against the opposite wall. He glared at Zoey through bleary eyes. "So how long did you plan on running that little scam with me?"

She looked down. "I don't know."

The shame in her voice just pissed Simon off even more. "Planned to milk me for as long as you could, huh?" He laughed bitterly. The pain in his throat was one exertion he didn't mind at all. "Guess the joke's on you, you picked the wrong sucker this time around."

She just kept staring at her lap. Simon turned away in disgust to look himself over. Venter had been surprisingly generous when he or his goons had stripped him for incarceration. His armor was gone, but the ragged jumpsuit he always wore underneath was still there. From the feel of things, they'd at least been careful to confiscate the assortment of knives and various other tools he kept hidden in the undergarment, but that was to be expected. Now that he thought about it, the fact that he had two arms meant they hadn't even taken his prosthetic.