The sharp burn of rope tightening on skin woke the nearly unconscious woman, only for her to realize that she had been fighting against her restraints before she was even aware of her actions. Brown lashes fluttered open, her heart allowing herself one foolish moment to believe that the scene before her would be different from what she grew accustomed to in the past three days, but the hard, cold seat beneath her confirmed that she was still in the same place. Her arms and legs ached to be stretched and freed from being bound to the chair, however Rosa doubted that any complaints would be honestly considered from her captors.
In hindsight, she should have known better than to pursue a suspect alone, much less one that was obviously baiting her into an ambush. If she hadn’t been outnumbered and succumbed to their dirty fighting tactics, she might have found it a tad comical that both sides had assumed the other to be someone else entirely. Their surprise at her strength was enough to tell her that her target wasn’t affiliated with Talon like she had previously believed, and that she wasn’t who they were after either. Still, they didn’t seem to make that same realization as she did and captured her all the same, believing her to be a woman named Josephine. Rosa did not know who this Josephine was nor what she could possibly be doing that would cause dangerous people to hunt for her, but pretending to be this mystery woman was what was probably the only thing keeping her alive at the moment.
The dull blossoming pain of both her face and ribs served as reminders that her time in their hospitality would be ending sooner rather than later. They demanded answers that Rosa did not have for them, and so for the most part she had been bluffing that she did know but refused to speak. Rosa noted that every time the men came to interrogate, they never bothered to hide their faces, which brought her to a grim conclusion to what they planned for her. Either they would force her to stay with them indefinitely, or they planned to eliminate her after they got what they want. Certain that they would soon see through her bluff, Rosa had to find a way to escape the freezing compound.
Instead of trying the restraints at her wrists and legs once again, Rosa looked around the nearly empty room, hoping that there could be something, anything, that she could use to her advantage in her escape. As expected, none of her equipment nor weapons were present with her, the only things that she could see were old rusted equipment, signs of the compound’s former purpose as an industrial warehouse. The silence unnerved her, and the agent couldn’t pinpoint why exactly until it dawned on her that the room was truly empty besides herself. There was always a guard stationed to watch her, usually always grumbling and complaining about how cold they were, or how they could be doing something better than “babysitting” a hostage, but today there was no one. The uneasiness grew deep in her gut as she considered the fact that they were attempting to lull her into a false sense of security.
Distant, echoing shouts followed soon after, muffled by the thick metal walls. Her head shot up as the yelling grew louder by the second, accompanied by... gunfire? Fear warred with curiosity as she strained her ears to continue listening through the walls while her mind frantically tried to figure out what could possibly be happening out there. No one in the world knew where she was at the moment, so she doubted it was rescue, but perhaps the woman Josephine had some friends that thought she was missing?
The commotion grew closer.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she stared at the door across the room, realizing that rescue or not, whatever was raising them hell out there may be her only chance at escaping.
"Hello?” Her voice was hoarse from disuse, but she took in a deep breath to steady herself before giving a louder shout. “Hello? Who’s out there?!”