Fic: Prisoners of War, End Chapter Two

[jeriendhal]

With guards flanking them left and right, they were led inside the manor house. Though it appeared to have been a noblevixen’s home once, it had obviously been converted into an administrative facility, with electragram wires running along the walls and soldiers in uniform walking briskly down the hallways with Important Work in their paws.

They were guided down a set of narrow spiral stairs in the back corner of the house, probably for use by the servants, which led down into the cellars. Old dressed stone walls had been whitewashed and a uniformed sergeant receptionist/guard manned a desk in a small reception area.

“Two prisoners for processing,” Major Softpaw announced, as the sergeant stood up and saluted, fist to heart in the Gerwart style.

“Yes, Security Major. Names?” he asked, pulling out a ledger.

“Prisoner Alpha and Prisoner Beta.”

The guard paused over his ledger, then simply nodded soberly and starting making notes, while Lt. Swiftfoot opened a locker and removed two wide leather strips, with brass ID plates riveted to them and a small tool.

“Accusation?” the sergeant asked.

“Crimes against the State.”

“Detention status?”

“Dangerous. Full restraint outside their cells.”

“Yes, Security Major. Probable length of detention?”

“Indefinite.”

Rolas looked at the heavy steel door behind the sergeant’s desk with worry. It had a definite… indefinite look to it. And the use of pseudonyms to identify the captain and himself was ominous to say the least.

Meanwhile Swiftfoot had stepped behind Captain Rufus. While the desk sergeant finished writing the in the ledger, she tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “Kneel and bend your neck please.”

“And if I don’t?” Captain Rufus demanded.

“Just kneel, if you would.”

“I refuse.”

“Leutnant, you must learn to be more assertive,” Major Softpaw said. She tapped her riding crop in her palm in warning. “Von last time, Captain. Kneel. Now.”

“No.”

She smiled. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant smile. “Rule von, Captain. Actions haff consequences.” And with that she turned and brought the tip of the crop smartly across Rolas’ nose again. The leftenant cried out as pain shot up his snout and ducked his head automatically, which gave Swiftfoot the opportunity to force his shoulders down again until he was kneeling on the bare concrete floor.

“Now see here!” Captain Rufus began to shout, but quieted down immediately as she raised the riding crop again.

“Shall I start giving his ears a few taps, Captain? Or are you going to be more obedient in ze future?”

“Sir, don’t kn…” Rolas began to say, but closed his mouth again as she rested the tip of the crop on his nose.

“You are an absolutely vile vixen,” Captain Rufus growled as he went down on his knees awkwardly, without his arms to balance him.

“I what iz necessary for ze good of ze State, Captain,” Softpaw replied, withdrawing her crop from the unfortunate leftenant’s nose.

Swiftfoot got to work attaching their collar, riveting them into place with her little hand tool. The fit was snug, but not choking, the little brass plate on the front etched with their identification numbers, with a ring hanging below it.

“What are you going to us?” Rolas asked.

“You vill be incarcerated, then interrogated,” Softpaw told him. “What happens after zat depends on vhat information you provide. Guards, escort them to their cells.”

They were pulled none too gently back their feet as the desk sergeant pulled a key ring from his belt and unlocked the steel door. It led to a series of six cells, facing each other in rows of three. Rufus and Rolas were put into cells facing each other at the end of the short hallway. The little cages were perhaps two arms in width and four in length, barely enough to hold a small iron bunk and a toilet/sink combination. There was also a three arm length of chain attached to a ring on the back wall, the free end of which was locked to their collars. Only then were their cuffs removed, and their cell doors shut with a definitive clang.

The guards left them alone then. Rolas took the opportunity to sit on the bunk to pull off his still damp foot mitts, wiggling his toes in the open air for the first time in nearly a day. Then he lay his head back against the concrete wall and let out a long sigh.

“How’s your snout?” Captain Rufus asked.

He rubbed it carefully. “A bit tender. You really shouldn’t have kneeled on my account, sir.”

“If I hadn’t, I suspect Major Hardpaw there would have just ordered her minion to give me a swift kick to the back of the knees. A most unpleasant vixen that one.”

“To put it mildly.” He stretched out on the bunk, trying to ignore the rumbling of his stomach. “So now what do we do, sir?”

“Ideally? Make a heroic escape, preferably grabbing their nefarious Secret Plans on the way out, make our way back to the Mother Country through a neutral border and then come home to accolades as we shorten the war and conquer Gerwart.”

“And realistically?”

Captain Rufus glanced over at the door at the opposite end of the hall where they were brought in. It was marked by the single, ominous word, INTERROGATION. “Make it through this with our hides intact and without giving away any strategic information, until we can be repatriated.”

“Sir, how are we going to be repatriated when we were just made into Unpersons in the reception area out there?”

Captain Rufus put a smile on his face and said with false cheer, “Well, we’d better get started on Option One then, hadn’t we?”

End Chapter Two

* * *

Not sure yet if Mel's nosewhacking is a Moral Event Horizon or not. She's coming across as a bit more of a hard ass than I'd intended. Must soften her her up a bit in later chapters.

Comments

[aynne-witch.livejournal.com]

hmmm - hardass as a first impression can work to the advantage of not having to Prove hardassery as time goes on. Memories of the first encounters can be 'lasting'.

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Vov, I vonder hov ze had ze Greek alphabet also... :D

...must be universal zen... :P

poor zem zou...

mjkj


Leetle tiepo:

“I what iz necessary for ze good of ze State, Captain,” I do zink zere is a "do" meessing after the "I" in ziz sentenze...