"Claire." Gabriel's voice brought her back to consciousness. "Claire…."
Claire opened her swollen and sore eyes. She passed out after another punch into her broken rib.
"Gabriel." She barely managed to utter through her equally swollen and broken lips. She tasted blood in her mouth. They were alone. There was a sigh of relief beside her.
"I thought that they've killed you." A slight sob accompanied his weak voice.
"How long were they gone?"
"I can't tell. Maybe hours."
The room had a single light on left in the far corner. Claire looked down, the lab coat gone. Perhaps it was a survivor instinct, or her insane stubbornness, but she realised that she had a knife in her trouser's pocket. The men must've not searched her properly after already finding the gun and taser. Claire clenched her jaw and lifted herself up. She wanted to scream in pain but she couldn't alert anyone that she was awake. She realised that she not only had broken ribs, but the damage was spread across most of her body. She couldn't stand on one of her legs at all, feeling the crushing pain when she attempted to do so. She put all of her weight on the better leg and she tried to bend as far out as possible to try to wriggle the knife out of her pocket against the wall. She grunted still concealing the need to scream. She's been through it before.
She didn't have a plan. She didn't even have any hope left but she couldn't let Gabriel down any more.
The metal clattered on the concrete at which Claire sighed with a minimal relief. Claire struggled to turn around to see him. She needed to see him.
"I will try to…" Claire started the sentence as she managed to successfully push off the shoes off her feet. "I will try to pass you a knife."
Gabriel grunted and hasn't responded straight away. It only worried Claire more.
With sheer luck she managed to grab the knife between her toes and then she realised that she needed not only to do a pull up on the pipe and the tightly wrapped rope around her wrists, but she needed to lift her broken leg high enough to reach Gabriel's hand. Flexibility wasn't the issue. Engaging a core with broken ribs and lifting so much weight on likely damaged hands was going to be excruciating.
Claire tried to take a deep breath in but that only caused her agony. She clenched a jaw as tightly as she could, sweat droplets running down her forehead, mixed with blood. She solely focused on needing to get Gabriel out of that mess. A surge of adrenaline and almost a superhuman ability led her to successfully execute her plan, although she clenched her jaw so hard that she ground down her teeth. It was the least of a pain. Gabriel's fingers quickly wrapped around the knife and Claire didn't even attempt to slowly lower herself down, relaxing too suddenly, causing a very sharp fall and likely even more damage, feeling and hearing a snap in her wrist. She didn't even have enough of the tears left. A silent and dry sobs were no relief to her state.
She heard quiet rustling beside her but she just hung back in her deflated pose.
She felt like she was going to pass out again. Her consciousness was slipping away. But her brain still registered a thud beside her.
With the little strength she had she tried to open her eyes when she felt tugging on her wrists. She fell off the pipe but she was caught into Gabriel's arms - barely. He didn't seem in much better shape. He sobbed openly at her state, his hands had little strength to hold her.
"I've told Summers where we went. She should be here soon." Gabriel said into Claire's ear. "Maybe we can wait here and if someone comes down, I'll just… stab them." Claire smiled as she was just happy to feel him and smell him. Her aches seemed to be increasingly distant and so was Gabriel's voice. "Hold on, I beg you. Claire, hold on." Claire squeezed Gabriel's hand. "I'm sorry." Gabriel said in a whisper. "I'm sorry, Claire dear."
"No, cuore mio." Claire last of her tears escaped her eyes. "Don't give up." She squeezed his hand again but Gabriel didn't respond. She let go off his hand and reached for his face, moving the loose strands to the side. "Please, Gabriel, please… stay strong."
But even she didn't have the strength to fight.
The hatch opened suddenly and a man climbed down. Gabriel stood up with a waddle and charged with a knife. The knife bounced back off the man's bulletproof vest without as much as a scrape.
The man and the others that followed him overwhelmed Gabriel with a terrifying ease. Michael Moore directed his men to constrain Gabriel before he turned to Claire who couldn't even lift herself off the floor anymore.
Claire opened her eyes one last time to see the gun pointed right at her, but her gaze focused on Gabriel who still put up a fight behind Michael Moore.
Claire barely felt the impact of the force and a warmth of her blood spilling. There was no pain which surprised Claire. The time seemed to stop for her as she watched Gabriel. Her consciousness started slipping away. It was an inexplicable sensation. It was comforting. She wasn't afraid but rather relieved.
Her brain managed to register some shouting and footsteps.
"Leave her. She's pretty much dead." Michael's voice echoed in a distance. "Let's leave before Biggy butts in."
It was the end. At last, she was free.