Imprisoned

by J D Jacobs

  The coat gleams brightly with razor sharp blades that extend like large, six-inch spikes across Thomas’s arms and chest. Cody doesn’t stand a chance. All Thomas has to do is charge at Cody and tackle him. Cody has no way to fend for himself; he can’t even get within arm’s reach of the kid. What a cruel, painful way to send someone to their death.

  “May the Fortieth Atonement begin!”

  29.

  The shackles hooked to Thomas’s ankles fall off, and he then charges toward Cody. Cody plants his feet firmly and doesn’t move. This isn’t good. Thomas probably comes up to Cody’s chest; if Thomas tackles him, Cody will take on multiple fatal wounds. Why isn’t Cody running away from him?

  Cody finally runs off when Thomas gets about fifteen feet away. Cody makes his way around the boy and sprints toward the side of the Arena that Thomas was brought in at. I’m not sure if Cody had a plan or is just trying to run away from the kid until he tires out.

  Cody reaches Thomas’s fallen chains before Thomas even has time to turn around. Cody picks up one of the weighted iron balls and cocks his arm back at Thomas, who is now scampering straight toward him. Cody heaves the ball at the kid, hitting him squarely in the chest. Thomas, who wasn’t expecting the throw, is knocked on his butt from the impact, but that’s more due to the fact that the boy is small and not very sturdy. The impenetrable blades work as a good shield for Thomas. Thomas quickly regroups and stands back up, uninjured.

  Cody’s plan obviously didn’t work. He still has one more chain and iron ball behind him, and he makes his way over to the set. This time, he grabs the end link of the chain and spins in a steady circle, building up momentum as the iron ball on the end increases in speed. Cody is very careful with how he spins the ball, as he’s going to need pure luck just to hit the sprinting boy before he’s tackled by the spikes. This isn’t exactly a very reliable way to defend yourself, but it’s basically all Cody has left.

  The iron ball makes its way around and smashes into Thomas’s left knee cap. The boy’s knee is blown out completely, and Thomas collapses grotesquely as his knee is now aimed in a direction it’s not meant to. The crowd gasps dramatically at the disgusting sight, and the now immobile boy cries out as he lies on his back, adding on to the agony that’s been forced on him since he’s been in that cell.

  Cody takes advantage of the crippling moment and sprints over to the boy. Cody stands over the boy, hesitant on how to finish him as he screams and flails his arms at Cody. I can see the anguish in Cody’s face, not wanting to murder this kid so bluntly. But he has to. That isn’t little Thomas anymore; that’s an egotoned child that Ricardo already killed. Cody finally realizes that and kneels down to the boy. Thomas flails his arms at Cody in an attempt to claw his face off, but Cody carefully grabs one of the boy’s arms and shoves the forearm covered in blades into the boy’s face.

  “Oh my God,” I hear Jasmine nauseously call out from inside. The scene is sickening, but I’m comforted by the fact that Cody, for now, is safe. Cody was forced to do it. It was either him or the already dead boy.

  Boos from the crowd rain down on Cody, who is now proven triumphant by an official hoisting his arm in the air. “I can’t believe he won it,” I hear Sabrina admit to me.

  “Me neither,” I say in disbelief. The official leads Cody off the Arena floor and toward the hotel.

  “No, I mean I honestly can’t believe it. Miguel has never given one of his stupid names to a winner; they’ve always died. Gruesomely. And your friend made winning look easy.”

  “What are you thinking?” I ask her. “Do you think Ricardo is going to punish Cody for winning?”

  “I don’t know,” she says, “but Miguel didn’t expect this. I want to say your friend is going to be safe, but you never know what Miguel is going to do.”

  “Jaden! Get in here!” I hear Jasmine strongly whisper to me from inside the room. I quickly tip-toe to the front door that Jasmine has her ear pressed up against.

  “Ribbon #10 is my personal favorite,” I hear someone say in the hallway. “Beautiful black woman. Thick figure. You’d like her.”

  “I’m gonna pretend like that wasn’t racist and keep on looking,” I hear Cody casually tell the man as their voices grow nearer to us.

  “Ribbon #2 is a great choice. We haven’t even given that side of the hallway consideration yet. I’m sure there’s one for you on the other side of the hall.”

  “Why you trying to rush me down there to Ribbon #2?” Cody’s voice is incredibly close, and I have to fight off the urge to pound on the door. “Y’all have Halle Berry locked up in there or something? What about this room? The door reads ‘Ribbon #12’ but she doesn’t have a picture. What does this girl look–”

  “No sir, I’m sorry,” the man tells Cody, agitation growing in his voice. “Ribbon #12 is strictly off-limits.”

  “C’mon, dude! We’re the only ones in the hall right now. Let me go here and maybe I’ll let you get a peek!”

  “Sir, I recommend we go back down to the other end of the hall.”

  “We’re not finished here yet! What about the room past Ribbon #12? I’m sure she can’t be off-limits too, right?”

  “That, uhmm… That one is off-limits, as well. Let’s head back down here.”

  “Alright, whatever you say. Lead the way.” I hear their footsteps walk away. Jasmine shakes her head in fear that he isn’t going to save us, and I’m just about to pound on the door when I hear a thud hit the ground in the hall outside.

  I hear the door to Sabrina’s room swing open. “Where’s he at!?” Cody frantically yells in the room.

  “Next door!” Immediately after she says it, the door to my room flies open. Jasmine and I back up from the door in time to avoid it slamming into us.

  “Thank God.” Cody throws the bloody butterfly knife in his hand to the ground and reaches his blood-covered hand down to me. He pulls me up from the floor and in for a hug. “Jaden… Man, it’s been rough.”

  “Cody, we don’t have any time to talk.” I tell him as I escape our hug. We can catch up when we get out of the city.

  His eyes are flooded with a fearful realization. “I killed two people... I stabbed a kid in the face and just slit a man’s throat… I’m a murderer…”

  “No, you did what you had to! They would’ve done the same if they had the chance!”

  “Guys, we need to leave before Mr. Ricardo gets here,” Jasmine urgently tells us as she gets herself off the floor.

  Cody snaps out of his fretful trance and shoots the strangest look at Jasmine. “Camila? How’d you get up here? Where’s your wheelchair?”

  “Nevermind that,” I tell him. “Let’s go.”

  Cody runs out of the room and we follow. A couple of doors down lies a body in a pool of blood. There’s a group of men piling out of the elevator cab at the opposite end of the hall, yelling for us to stop.

  Cody turns around and points toward the closed stairwell door. “We’ll have to jump down and take the stairwell. It’s a long drop, but–Jaden! Come on!”

  Cody and Jasmine are already opening the door and about to jump down, but I can’t leave yet. The group at the end of the hall is getting closer, but I don’t see their ruthless leader yet. I have time. And I’m not leaving without Sabrina.

  I open her door and step into a dimly lit room that’s nearly identical to mine. Sitting on the floor of her room with her ear pressed up against the wall separating our rooms, her legs curled up to her chest and her arms locked around her knees, is Sabrina. She turns her head at me when the door crashes against the wall. She has long, black hair that cradles her thighs. The amber sky peeks in from outside and graces her cheeks. She stands up and walks toward me. Bare feet sliding across the carpet, running shorts that barely sneak out from under her oversized, orange t-shirt. Time stops as I examine every inch of her, admiring the girl that is just as beautiful as I had imagined. As she gets closer, I can see her skin clearer. Pale, void of any true sunlight for months.
Bruises on her face and legs. She’s still stunning. But time snaps back when she calls out to me.

  “Jaden? You need to go!”

  “Not without you!”

  “I’ll slow you down. If Miguel were to catch you–”

  I hear a voice screaming from the opposite end of the hallway. “Camila!” Ricardo finally makes his way out from the corridor with the double doors. He must see his imagined daughter escaping down the stairwell right now. His voice is furious and drawing nearer.

  “You need to go right now.”

  I look down the hall, the men running now. Five rooms away from me. I hold my hand out for her to grab it. “Come with me.”

  She studies my hand, looking at it as if our fate is predetermined in my palm. She looks up from it and into my eyes. Her gorgeous, hazel eyes, soft as pillows. I’m falling into them, entranced by the comfort they give me, when she speaks up.

  “I’m sorry. Don’t forget me.”

  Her hands push against my chest, causing me to stumble into the hallway. Her eyes, still comforting, look full of regret for rejecting me. She mouths the word “run,” and I obey her. I sprint toward the stairwell door, Cody and Jasmine already having made it through. I look back as I run off. Sabrina falls across the floor of the hallway, causing the group of men to halt quickly in their tracks.

  “Miguel! He tried to kidnap me!” I hear fake cries coming from her. At least I really hope they’re fake. A couple of men try to pass by Sabrina, but she “accidentally” trips them up as she sprawls across the floor. Ricardo squats down and tends to his favorite Ribbon. I jump down from the door before they have time to regroup.

  “FOXX!” I hear Ricardo shout out from the floor above me. I land safely and hop down the first strand of stairs to meet Cody and Jasmine.

  “We have no time. They’re probably turning back to take the elevator right now,” Jasmine tells us as we continue down the stairwell, jumping over multiple stairs as fast as we can.

  “What’s the plan, Cody?” I ask him, adrenaline keeping me from completely panicking.

  “This is the plan. The last step of it, at least. Grant is here. They’re waiting for us at the base of the city’s elevator; that’s where we’re headed.”

  “Stop running, you little brats!” I hear one of Ricardo’s henchmen yell at us from a few floors up. As long as we do anything but what he said, he won’t catch us.

  “What do you mean ‘this is the plan?’ Was it part of the plan to get thrown in the Arena!?”

  “Ricardo found me yesterday and threw me in a glass cell. Jenkins, Grant, and another Scav with Grant were all thrown in the cells, too. You remember Lucas and Reggie, the scientists from earlier this week? Apparently they’re tired of Ricardo, too. It’s a long story, but they got us out of those cells to go home, but we knew you were still trapped up here. Lucas told me about the thirteenth floor and what it’s used for. So we devised a plan for me to fight in the Arena and come get you out of here. Lucas set it up for me to go against the little boy, told me how I could beat him. It was a risky plan but it worked! I can’t believe it worked!”

  “Okay, I’m happy that you’re happy, but we’re not out of Avvil yet. If Grant is saving us, don’t we need suits?”

  “They brought four: one for me, you, Jenkins, and Stewart. Since they killed Stewart, we’ll have one for Camila.”

  We reach the bottom floor, all of us out of breath. We barely make it out the front door of the Grandsmont when the elevator door across the lobby chimes open and four men rush out of it. The other man finally huffs his way out of the stairwell later on.

  The crowd that gathered for the Atonement has thinned, but it should still be crowded enough to hide from Ricardo’s crew or at least gain some much needed separation.

  “Jasmine, do you know where Jordan is?” I ask her as we weave through the thinned sea of people. She struggles to catch up with us.

  “Yeah, he’s in the house. You guys run on.”

  “Are you nuts? We’re not leaving you!”

  “They’re worried about you, not me,” she says. “I’m slowing you guys down. If all four of us go to the house, they’ll easily–there he is!”

  Jordan is sitting on the bottom stair on the porch of their house, crying. “Sissy!” he calls out and runs up to his sister. “Don’t ever leave me again!”

  “I won’t, but we have to run right now. Run as fast as you can to the Avvil elevator. Can you do that for me?” Jordan nods his head, then runs alongside his sister, his short strides keeping up with his fatigued sister.

  I check behind my shoulder to see how much separation we have from Ricardo and his crew. The crowd is delaying them but not as much as I had hoped for. They’re slowly catching up to Jasmine and Jordan, who are starting to lag behind Cody and I.

  “Jasmine, Jordan, you’re doing great! Keep it up!” I encourage them as I look back.

  “I don’t think I’m going to make it,” Jasmine cries out, her exhaustion apparent in her face. “I’m not used to running. My legs are going to cramp up on me before we get there.”

  “We’re almost there, you can do it!” Cody loudly reassures them, sensing the desperation in the situation.

  The amber elevator tube is in sight. I can see two white blurs at the base, but I can’t determine who they are. “There it is! Come on!” Cody yells at Jasmine, her legs now noticeably struggling. The gap between Ricardo’s group and her is shrinking with every step she takes. As for Cody and I, we’re both ignoring the exhaustion, the adrenaline nowhere near vanishing from us. The fact that Jasmine’s pain is enough to overcome her adrenaline rush says a lot about the condition of her legs. She hasn’t even thought about using them in months; there’s no telling how much longer they can hold up.

  Cody uses his last burst of energy to bolt out in a full sprint for the last few yards. Although his sprint is a lot more crooked than I remember, his incredible speed is enough to overcome his tired legs. One of the suited men is holding three suits in his arms and throws one to Cody. Cody jumps in the suit and is thrown a terrifying helmet by the other man. He gets in his suit entirely and has his mask hooked to his tank in a little under ten seconds. Very impressive.

  I’m thrown a suit and a helmet shortly after, but I turn around and hold it out to one of the two behind me instead. Jasmine isn’t going to make it at her rate, and Jordan is now jogging beside her so he doesn’t have to leave her side.

  “Jordan! Run to me and put this on!” He reluctantly does so after his sister insists, and I help him quickly get in his suit as Cody hooks up the tubes that connect his mask and oxygen tank.

  “Ahh!” I look up to see Jasmine reach down to grab her quad, limping a few more steps before she falls down. She’s too far away for me to run over and carry her to the elevator before Ricardo reaches her.

  “Sissy!” Jordan screams out before we place the mask on him. Ricardo’s crew finally reaches her. Two of the men pick up Jasmine by her arms, her body having shut down and gone limp. The men give us long stares but don’t chase us, knowing that any effort given after us would be useless since we’re so close to escaping.

  “We have to go,” Cody calls out from me with the deep, distorted voice that comes with the mask. He’s already headed to the elevator, carrying Jordan in his arms as the young boy kicks wildly in hopes of saving his sister.

  “NO!” Jordan’s voice screeches, his anguish punching the Avvil air. “SISSY!”

  I drop the suit and mask on the ground. “Cody, don’t wait on me. Leave as soon as she gets that suit on.”

  “What? Jaden, she’s caught! There’s nothing we can do to save her right now, look at her!”

  Ricardo has now walked in front of his pretend daughter, eyeing her and no longer worrying about us. He squats down and slaps Jasmine, causing Jordan to cry out in a much deeper voice now that the mask is on him. The citizens of Avvil have now begun to notice the scene, but nobody intervenes.

  My job in Avvil isn’t over. I�
�m no longer my first priority in keeping safe. There’s two women in Avvil that are dead if I get on that elevator right now, and I refuse to leave them behind.

  “I love ya, buddy.” Before Cody has time to interject, I take off sprinting toward the group that’s surrounding Jasmine. Two of the men notice me running and shout at me, but by the time Ricardo turns around, it’s too late for him. I lower my shoulder into his gut and spear him to the ground. The impact knocks Jasmine free from one of the men’s grips, and she bolts toward the elevator as fast as her legs will let her. One of Ricardo’s men calls out to and chases Jasmine. The other three are going to throw me off Ricardo soon, so I better get my shot in. I lift my shoulders off the ground with my left hand and throw every ounce of strength I have into my right fist, which lands directly on Ricardo’s cheekbone.

  I’m lifted up by his men immediately after the punch. The Avvil citizens have now stopped what they were doing and focused all their attention on us. Mouths agape, long gasps all coming from them. They can’t even fathom the thought of punching Ricardo, and now this random kid is doing it? Ricardo rubs his face as he stands up to meet me. I’ve never seen a more hateful, vindictive glare in my life. His jaw moves in circular motions as a way to shake off the punch. After scowling at me, his lips form into a smile. “Your good heart just got you killed. Congratulations, you get what you came here for.”

  I sniff hard to clear my nose, then spit in his eye. Another wave of gasps. I can’t help but steal the smile that he no longer has. “Do your worst, Ricky Ricardo!”

  “Take him back to the hotel while I decide what I want to do with him.” Ricardo wipes my spit off his face as the three men left aggressively carry me away.

  “You all saw that, didn’t you?” I yell to the audience as I’m being dragged away. Ricardo’s guards look at me precariously as I continue. “He threatened that girl and that boy to pretend to be his kids. He has women locked away and given away as sex prizes! Miguel Ricardo is a monster!” Ricardo’s guards are finally able to not only throw duct tape over my mouth, but spin it around to the hairline on the back of my neck just to make sure no words creep out from back there.