Work Text:
River blinked, lifting his head sluggishly as he tried to work the grit out from between his eyelids. His vision was hazy, but as it slowly cleared his surroundings sharpened, and he realized he was in some sort of abandoned warehouse. He couldn’t parse out much more than that—“shadowed” and “darkened” were two adjectives that astutely described the light level in said warehouse—but, to be honest, it probably wouldn’t have helped him much anyway. It didn’t matter how much rust coated the walls or how many mice crept about: River was trapped either way.
Trapped, of course, by the zipties securing him to the chair he was currently sitting in. Well, sitting was a strong word. It was more that he was strapped to the chair, unable to move from the position he had been placed in. To make matters worse, he also had no idea why his captors had put him here, or even who they were.
So, to sum up: he was trapped in an as-of-yet unlocated warehouse, unable to move, with no inkling of how, who, or why. Put simply, not a great situation.
As River contemplated just how hopeless this conundrum seemed, he idly tugged against the zipties, but found them holding fast. He could barely move his wrists a millimeter, and while the restraints weren’t tight enough to cut off his circulation, they were close. He tugged harder, deliberately this time, and again, no movement. River wondered if perhaps there was a reason zipties were favored in industrial settings. He certainly wasn’t about to snap these anytime soon.
Still, just to check all the boxes, he tried his ankles too. Again, he didn’t have any success. If anything, the leg restraints were stronger, tighter, and pulling against them only served to make River more aware of how deeply they were cutting into the skin of his ankles. He couldn’t lean down far enough to adequately check, but he thought they might have drawn blood.
Recognizing that he was fighting a losing battle, River stilled, relaxing to try and avoid the constricting sensation of the zipties. For now, there was nothing he could do but sit there, do his best to glean as much information as he could, and wait. Someone would have to come for him eventually. Whether it be friend or foe, someone would show up.
At least, that’s what River told himself.