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Getting themselves thrown in prisons of various descriptions was becoming a recurring theme of this journey, Jonathan mused to himself. Every one of them had been locked up or tied up, and in some cases both, at least once, some of them on three or four occasions, most of the time through no real fault of their own. The people locking them up had their own agendas, and the small group of travellers just seemed to have the misfortune of arriving in the wrong place at the wrong time, unintentionally getting caught up in whatever was going on.
They’d barely made it out of the previous time zone in one piece, having escaped from a group of people planning to enslave them, and they’d hoped to find refuge here, only to be accused of spying for the enemy, whoever or whatever that might be, and imprisoned once more.
So here he and Varian were, locked in a cell that… wasn’t too bad as cells went. At least it was warm, dry, and clean. Their captors hadn’t bothered to search and disarm them, Varian even still had his sonic energiser, for all the good that would do them, since he was the only one capable of using it, and he was currently… out.
Sitting down beside his friend, Jonathan gave an annoyed huff. “You’re asleep at a time like this? We should be trying to get out of here! Scott, Fred, and Liana could be in trouble.” Although, as things stood, it was difficult to imagine how their three other friends could possibly be in more trouble than he and Varian currently were. “This is a fine time to take a nap!”
There was no response, of course, which wasn’t surprising, but it WAS inconvenient. Of all the times for Varian to simply run out of energy… Jonathan supposed that was something that wouldn’t happen to healers back in Varian’s own time. No healer would find themselves having to expend all their own energy healing and helping others, with little opportunity to rest and recover their strength. Energy expended had to be replenished somehow, and food and sleep were the usual means of doing so. In the absence of anything to eat, sleep would just have to be enough.
“I never should have agreed to scout around with you. Maybe if we’d stayed with the others at our campsite we wouldn’t be locked up now,” Jonathan grumbled, fussily adjusting the blanket he’d spread over the sleeping man. Then again, maybe all five of them would be in prison if they’d stayed together. At least for the moment there was hope that the other three might still be free, although what they could possibly do to help, when in all likelihood they didn’t even know where their friends had been taken, was unclear.
Jonathan sighed, shaking his head. “Why you had to try to heal that man we found…” He trailed off, shaking his head again. “You’re a healer. Of course you had to try, it’s what you do. It’s not your fault he was too badly injured to be saved. Why do we have to keep blundering into other people’s wars? Why, even here, are people so determined to kill one another? And why did those soldiers have to automatically assume you’d killed one of their own when you were only trying to help him? If they knew you at all…” He sighed. “Which of course they don’t.”
Propping his chin on his hand, Jonathan stared down at the other man’s too pale face. He was so still. This was almost worse than the time they’d all been poisoned. At least then, while Fred had tended to Scott, Varian had been trying, however fitfully, to regain consciousness. Now, he was as still as death, only the slow rise and fall of his chest to prove that he was breathing.
“How long are you going to sleep? You know, if you were awake, you’d have us out of here in less than a minute. It’s just an ordinary lock, not even any electronics. It wouldn’t take much effort on your part. Once we were away from here, you could rest for as long as you want.”
There was no reply, but Jonathan hadn’t expected one. Varian was no doubt too deeply asleep to even be aware someone was talking to him.
“If they decide to have us executed, I’m blaming you. It could happen, you know. These are the kind of people who’d have a firing squad on standby. I’m sure you don’t want to die any more than I do, especially not so senselessly. Just goes to prove the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished.”
Jonathan adjusted the blanket again. There was no need to, but sitting there doing nothing wasn’t helping. He should, perhaps, try to get some sleep himself, except that would leave them both too vulnerable. If someone came to interrogate them, or worse… As a pacifist, Varian was all but defenceless even when he was awake and at full strength, but right now, he was neither. Even if he had been wide awake, he still wouldn’t physically fight, not even to protect himself, although he could use the sonic energiser to send his attackers to sleep. That effect wasn’t instantaneous though; it took precious seconds, during which anything could happen.
Time passed slowly, and Jonathan had no way of measuring it, but it must have been several hours at least. He was worried about Varian, who hadn’t so much as twitched since he’d fallen asleep, and worried about the other three as well. Fred was more than capable of protecting himself and the boy, even Liana could take care of herself, but Jonathan doubted that he and Varian could count on their friends rescuing them.
“Maybe I should try to pick the lock,” he muttered to himself.
“D’you know how?” a sleep roughened voice enquired.
The unexpectedness of the response made Jonathan jump, turning to glare at Varian. The healer still looked worn out, but he was awake; that was a step in the right direction.
“Finally! I was beginning to think you’d never wake up.”
“Sorry.”
“No.” Jonathan sighed, running one hand over his face. “I’m the one who should be apologising. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Are you alright?”
“Good enough, for now. Has anyone checked on us?” Varian slowly levered himself upright, pushing the blanket aside.
“No, and there aren’t any cameras. No electronic equipment of any kind that I can detect, so I don’t think we’re being monitored.”
“Alright.” Varian took the sonic energiser from its pocket on his belt. “Perhaps we should leave before anyone does decide to pay us a visit.”
“Are you sure you’re up to using that?” Now the moment had arrived, Jonathan couldn’t help worrying.
“We don’t have a choice, Jonathan. Not unless you can manually pick that lock, and since we don’t have any tools, I don’t know how you’d go about it.”
“I suppose that’s true. Well, alright, go ahead and do whatever it is you do to locks. The sooner we get out of here and find our friends, the better. In fact, we should probably get out of this zone and find somewhere else to camp, if we can.”
“One problem at a time,” Varian advised, aiming the sonic energiser at the lock and concentrating.
“Because there’s always another problem just around the corner.”
The lock clicked, the door swung open, and they slipped out of the cell, Varian locking it again behind them, to confound their captors. A few minutes later, they left the building, to find that night had already fallen. They didn’t look back, just set off through the darkness, back the way they’d come, hoping they wouldn’t run into anyone, and that no one would notice their absence until morning. Let their disappearance be a mystery; with any luck, by the time anyone thought to go looking for them, they and their friends would be far away.
The End