The room, which had resounded with Maeve's screams earlier and only moments before with gunfire, was utterly silent for a few seconds... then Dreamer allowed himself a loud, drawn-out, somewhat-winded sound of pain.<br/><br/>He dropped the useless, empty handgun and took hold of the bed's corner post to pull himself to his feet.  As he came into view, the two surviving humans and Kitten saw that his sleeveless shirt was shredded, and that he had several small, purple-red welts all over his torso, as well as two visible bullet wounds.  One bullet had torn a chunk of flesh out of his right arm near the bicep, and another one had done the same on the outside of his left thigh.  Neither looked serious, though they and several of the other marks were oozing blood.  Lying on the ground in front of him were the ruined remains of most of Lanner's bullets...<br/><br/>-Shit-, he thought, -never... took bullets before.  Knew it would hurt... but forgot it would... knock the breath out of me...-<br/><br/>Lanner lay nearby, his sightless eyes staring at the ceiling.  He'd dropped the gun in death, but his loosened pants had slipped partly down his waist... Dreamer thought it comical and fair that the asshole would look so ridiculous in death, but wished momentarily that he, too, could eat humans whole.  It would be some well-deserved degrading payback...<br/><br/>Dreamer grimaced and straightened, breathing deeply, trying to recover his breath.  He was still alive ---- surprisingly so, he thought ---- but it wasn't over yet.  Even though Lanner was dead, there were many human rebels outside... and though the room had probably muffled the sounds a bit, surely they had all heard the gunshots.  There were many of them outside, armed with firearms in some cases... he didn't need to have to deal with them, and some might be on their way.  That, or they were used to Lanner executing people and weren't worried at all...<br/><br/>He reached up to his shirt pocket and checked the "pen" there.  Damn... a bullet had smashed his Hemoclotter, sending the substance oozing down his side.  With a grunt he passed his left hand over the stuff and smeared it over the wound at his left thigh, then a second swipe for his right bicep.  He noticed a glint of silver at the arm wound, but it wasn't important.<br/><br/>"Drop your arms, you two," he finally growled, his voice a bit strained but not bad for someone who'd just taken a dozen bullets.  "I'm not your enemy.  Lanner was just an idiot..." he grimaced a bit, feeling his ribs for broken bones, "who wasn't letting me complete my mission.  Keydan... that's right, the guns," he said, nodding as the slim human picked them up, though Dreamer himself took the SMG Lanner had been holding.  "You two.  Who was Lanner's second-in-command?  Go fetch him.  And if he's not nearby, whoever's of highest rank.  Shark... gave orders."  He scowled.  "And tell him not to bring guns.  Unless he wants to threaten me and lose his sudden promotion."<br/><br/>Lanner was dead, but Dreamer still had to keep up the charade... for Maeve and Kitten's sake if not his own, as well as for Sherra and Feldana, somewhere out in the corn fields.<br/><br/>He waited until the two awestruck men had left the room before turning to Maeve where she still cowered and whimpered under the bodysuit.  He crouched next to her.  "Maeve.  I have to act mean a bit longer... but Feldana's safe."  He pulled the bodysuitoff her face, not exposing any more of her ravaged body than necessary.