by Genevi Engle
“Don't fucking do this!” Vita cried.
“Look who's fucking crying?!” Linda laughed.
“My daughter is my everything.”
“If that's true, then why make the decision of leaving the organization responsible for creating a better future for her.”
“Slaughtering people as a method of persuasion is not creating a better future. We were martyrs of truth and change, now we are saints of fear.”
“Fear and death are effective examples of what we stand for. For years we have stood and watch our friends and family become whipped by the very people who are sworn in to protect us. Now it's our time to give that back to them. Show them that they are now our examples.
And now, you will be our example.”
That very second, I knew it was crucial that I'd step in. I wasn't up for an unscheduled execution. That would've have been a bit sloppy in my opinion.
“Wait!” I interrupted
“Shit Claire!” Linda shouted. “I thought you said you'd let me swing this.”
“Yeah but I came in today with no intent of getting our hands dirty. Especially with one of our own.”
“One of our own? For fuck sake, you heard her. She wants out. So I'm going to show her the way out.”
“Alright.” My voice grew firm. “I'm serious. Don't fucking kill her.”
“She's going to give us all out!”
“If she does, we'll find her and take care of her then.”
My eyes were glued to Linda's. I could see the psychotic stare in her eyes. An eager, blank gaze that told me that her emotions had attenuated and now she had a drive for fear. In the next immediate second, the gun went off, sending a splash of brain matter and blood showering upon me and a few other members. As Vita's body went to the floor, I gripped Linda by her collar and slammed her against a wall.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted.
“She deserved it. That bitch fucking deserved it!” Linda yelled.
“This isn't how we work. We are not supposed to be sloppy!”
“She had it coming. Just like anyone else who decides they want out!” Linda shouted, looking at the rest of the cult members. “I'll be glad to show you the door too.”
Present - Day 10
From that moment, the realization of me not wanting to be involved with Linda's desire for authority had hit me fast, and I even made an attempt to figure out how I was going to turn myself in without getting my head blown off by a pissed off enforcement chief. They could have but they didn't, and maybe I would have been better off dead, than feeling as nervous as I was at this moment. Day ten was here and it was time to execute. I made my way to the unloading area, where the ship was docked, locking eyes with a few of the observers and a handful of escorts. I moped in watching the personnel pack their equipment.
“Made amends with the devil?” Banuelos said, coming up to me.
“Yeah. He's got one hell of a room mate coming his way.” I smirked. “No but actually I was hoping you'd give me a ride back home.”
Banuelos pointed at me with a wide grin. “You're funny.”
“I have to have a sense of humor at times like these.” I laughed. “I'll send you a post card.”
Banuelos laughed and continued loading equipment into the small ship hatch.
Something was wrong. There should have been a distress alert already. Lucas and Ice should have already been going at it. Something was wrong and I needed to get to the bottom of it before we missed our only chance for survival. I about faced and sprinted back down the corridor and before the search party could began, grunts and shouts began to become audible. I followed the sound to find two men viciously grappling each other, savagely slamming each other against to the lucid walls. Ice was landing powerful right hand shots to Lucas' face, busting his nose and Lucas attempted to weaken his assault by ramming him against the walls. Murphy's fucking law, every time. I ran forward and shoved Ice back from Lucas.
“I'm gonna bite that little pussy before this is over!” he shouted, charging at me. Before he could touch me, Lucas thrust kicked the asshole, sending him off of his feet. Ice rolled quickly and climbed back to his feet. As he and Lucas got back into it, whipping each other down the corridors, I tensely followed along. I wasn't sure what more I could have done, but Ice needed to be taken out, and those escorts needed to be down here now. Ice tossed a strong left hand, slamming Lucas in the jaw before Lucas retaliated with a shoulder toss, planting Ice on the floor. The two continued their brawl, wandering into an area that I've yet to see before. My mind jumped from the brawl between Lucas and Ice, and focused on the room. Camera feeds of each section of the prison were set up here. Temperature regulators, and engine watch screens were everywhere. It had hit me. We were where we truly needed to be. The control room. A loud kick to Ice's jaw snapped me back to reality and as my observation returned back to Lucas, Ice was a bloody mess on the floor, unconscious.
“Thanks for the help.” Lucas said, wiping a bit of blood from his nose.
“I try when I can.” I said, wandering the room. I made my way to a computer that had information on each of us prisoners. Most likely information they could use as observation data to report once they were back on Earth. Next to the computer was a small lever. The only lever in the entire control room. I realize it was the only lever that mattered at this point. The lever that would speed up what I needed to happen, but also speed up the time I needed to get the fuck out of here. At this point, time was no longer an associate and I had to abuse it.
“We need to get out of here, before we get the attention we don't need.” Lucas warned.
“This is the attention that we need.” I said gripping the lever. “Get ready to haul ass.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting us out of here now.”
I pulled the the heavy lever, and as that action took place, a loud alarm went off. I could hear machinery clicking amongst the alarm.
“What did you just do?” Lucas asked.
“Let's go!” I said taking off.
Lucas and I wasted no time sprinting through the prison. We kept in mind each and every second that passed by. Each minute that ticked on was acknowledged due to the fact that the countdown to annihilation had begun and there was no more time for stalling. It was either board that ship, or die. My eyes stared down the clear path that we had yet to run and before my excitement could bask in it's world of fantasy; I was tackled off of my feet and at that point, reality had set in. On the floor, it felt like all of my energy was knocked right out of me and mounted above me was an escort. As they flipped me over to try and detain me, I realized that there were a good group of escorts restraining Lucas. Among them was Banuelos.
“You just set an early funeral for yourselves!” Banuelos chanted. “I was waiting for someone to fuck up.”
As soon as he said that, Lucas broke free and took down the escorts who were attempting to restrain him. He then went for Banuelos with a kick to the chest, planting him on the ground.
With the escorts handling me distracted, I quickly sprawled to my feet and knocked them both on their asses. I pulled a blade from one the escort's belts and jammed it into one of their necks.
Banuelos got up in a stance ready to square off with Lucas.
“Time is up.” I heard him say.
As much of a fighter Lucas was, we truly had no time for this. I ripped the blade from the dead escort's throat, and ran toward Banuelos, hopping onto his back and stabbing him in the neck. Blood spurted out as the large man went to his knees. He finally planted face first onto the floor with a pool of blood forming under his neck.
“Let's go!” I said and before we knew it, we were on our way to the ship docking area.
“It's gonna take a bit for us to get that ship to take off.” Lucas said, almost out of breath.
“Don't sweat it.” I said, continuing our journey through the corridors. “Easy day.”
As we came into the docking area, there wer
e bodies laid out in the room. Bodies of the observers and a few escorts. That only told me that Aliza and Babe had taken control and were already on the ship. We made our way to the under hatch.
“Ladies first.” Lucas said.
“Well thank you kind gentleman.” I smiled, climbing into the ship.
I looked down to extend my arm, and before I knew it, a figure had tackled Lucas away. We had to get out of here, but there was no way I was leaving him behind. I turned around and walked up to the command center of the ship, where Aliza and Babe were standing.
“Where's Lucas?” Aliza asked.
“I got that covered. Let's just fire this bitch up.” I said.
I entered the correct prompts into the command dash which powered the ship's engine. We were ready to lift off, but definitely not without our biggest asset.
“Keep this baby running!” I ordered, taking off back to the loading hatch. I dropped down back into the prison loading dock to find Ice and Lucas trading blows. The alarm was still going off and I was aware that at any second now, the walls were going to drop and all things in the facility would be consumed by the sun. I ran up and hopped onto Ice's back and wrapped my arm around the fucker's neck. Ice straightened himself, and rammed me into the wall. He pulled forward and slammed me again, completely knocking the air out of me. My grip on him released and I dropped to the floor. As I tried to regained my composure, Ice struck me viciously with a kick to my jaw, knocking me flat to the floor. My vision was blurred but I could still see Ice standing over me and then I saw Lucas running up behind Ice. As my vision slowly returned, my eyes gazed upon Lucas gripping Ice by his neck and head.
“You forgot about me bitch.” he said as he twisted and snapped Ice's neck. Ice's body fell next to me and Lucas lifted me up. He hoisted me up into the loading hatch and he climbed in after me.
“Shut the hatch!” he yelled and with that command, the hatch rotated shut.
“Take off!” I said, still a bit disorientated and with that, the ship rumbled and I could feel the force of the ship lifting off and moving out from it's stationary position. We had did it. We created the greatest prison escape in the history of mankind and with small tweaks and flaws, we executed, avoided execution.
CHAPTER 9 - EXILE
August 23rd, 2145
“We fucked them!” Babe laughed. She screamed triumphantly while the ship we stole rumbled it's way through the sun's atmosphere. “We fucked them good!”
“I can't believe that worked.” Aliza said.
“Was there an ounce of doubt in that murderous brain of yours?” I laughed.
“Oh yeah. I was pretty sure we were gonna fucking die.”
“So now what?” Lucas asked.
I entered a command into the entry prompt of the ship, which set it on an auto-pilot course to Earth.
“So I'm calling the first place we're going to eat at.” Babe said.
“Yeah right. I'm pretty sure I got that call!”I laughed.
“Hopefully there's some change of clothes in this thing.” Babe said, leaving the command center area.
“Yeah, I'm sick of these shitty clothes.” Aliza said following Babe.
Lucas silently followed and that left me to lounge in the command center. I basked triumphantly within a web of my apparent success, dreaming of the opportunities I had waiting for me on the blue planet. Something else to eat besides space tube food, and goddamn oranges or how about the sight of other people besides some crazy ass inmates. Or how about the chance of getting back at Linda. Pure retribution for getting me set up and sent out to this hell. It should have been her sitting in that fucking place waiting to be cooked alive. Who knows if she would've made it out of here alive. I doubted it. Linda wasn't as organized as me. She was sloppy and UN-calculated, but she was insane and controlling and that sense of control was truly revealed shortly after the death of Vita.
October 22, 2134
The group began loading weaponry inside vehicles outside of our warehouse hideout. I stared at our crew as they worked out tonight's load. Most of them were young, goal-less drop outs. They had no further influences. We were their leaders and they were ready to do anything for us, whether it was right or wrong. After the unnecessary slaying of Vita though, I was ready to throw this all away and disband this whole thing. I had become ready to run away to a new land and live a new life. I was hoping that Linda would be ready to join me but that was definitely not the case. Linda was consumed with power and her intent at that point was the complete opposite of mine, but it was important that I talked to her so that I kept my hopes up.
“Can I talk to you in private?” I asked. Linda seemed a bit concerned as she had a questionable look on her face. We made our way to the back of the warehouse. It was a deserted area and it was perfect, so that I could elaborate on a subject in this matter.
“What's wrong Claire?” she asked.
I was hesitant. A part of me felt that she'd be all in this. She'd be ready to drop all responsibilities and run away with me to a new land. To self-exile ourselves to a domain of opportunity.
“Maybe it's time that we give this up.” The moment I said that, the other part of me began to push. The other part of me felt that she'd be caught in a web of outrage and disbelief. That maybe she was a bit too attached to this new found power. This position of self-righteous authority. No matter how much I tried to reason the sides within those mere seconds, my heart was telling me that the side nudging me was going to be right.
“What are talking about?” she asked.
“This cult or whatever we want to call it. Maybe we should just free the minds of these kids; take our worries and get out of here.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“What if we we're to get caught?” I asked. “All of this would have went to nothing.”
“Are you mad?!” she asked. “Look at what we've created and now you want to pussy out of this?!”
“I'm not cowering Linda. I just want you to run away with me. Let's allow ourselves to get a fresh start.”
“We don't need a start. This is still the beginning and we are on the way to a massive change.”
“Something tells me that nothing is really changing.”
I could feel the shift in Linda's state of emotion. Her eye twitched a bit as she stared at me and as I attempted to predict what she was going to say next. A grin appeared on her face.
“So what are we going to do?” she asked. “Run away and wait for those fuck heads to eventually catch us?”
“Then you know what? I'll just go.” I snapped.
Before I could turn around and leave, Linda gripped my jaw and slammed me against the nearest wall. She glared into my eyes. “Go where?”
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“I won't kill you.” Linda then wrapped her hand around my neck. “But once you leave, you are not to come back. Leave the territories.”
I took the message clearly. I tucked my tail and ran off as quickly as possible. I was afraid of the monster that Linda had become. I was completely indecisive of everything that was going on and now I was distraught that woman that I had fallen in love with had decided to abandon me. Or was she angry that I had actually had abandoned her...
Present
My mind wandered while I stared out into space, thinking about what was next once we had reached Earth. I heard footsteps growing louder from the back. As I looked behind me at the entrance, I saw Aliza sporting a change of clothes. She was wearing black tactical gear that must have been left behind from the escorts.
“I think we're ready.” she said. “I'm ready to go back home.”
As she said that, I saw a blade rip out through her neck, squirting blood onto the nearby wall. A figure pushed Aliza to the floor and then stepped forward into the command center. It was Lucas, holding the large and bloody sharp instrument.
“Lucas what the hell?!” I said wide eyed, staring at Aliza's body, laying in a pool of blood.
“Just losing the dead weight on the ship.” he said with a smile.
“Whatever it is that's going on in that brain of yours, snap out of it.” I said. “We're trying to get us back home. That was the goal.”
“I'm sane Claire. I'm fully aware of everything that's been going on.” he explained. “It took me a minute but on the way here I mapped it out pretty easily. I managed to map out exactly who you were. Do you remember my sister, Vita?”
“That was your sister?”
“Oh so it does ring a bell?!”
“Listen. She was supposed to live no matter what her decision was. My partner over reacted.”
“Oh I know your partner. Once I kill everyone else on this ship, I'll be making my way to her.”
“There's no need to kill anyone else. Let me assure you that you and I have the same objective.”
“I don't think so. Unless you were planning on killing yourself.”
Lucas lunged at me with the blade, attempting to stab me. I gripped his wrist and sent a push kick to his chest and with a swift side kick, I knocked the blade from his grasp. I watched as the blade slid across the way and past the entrance walk-way. I went for a backhand, aiming at Lucas' pretty face but he slapped my arm down and gripped me aggressively by the neck and jaw. A position that was all too familiar, I became annoyed and then suddenly in pain as he slammed me head first into a nearby steel wall. My vision went into a blur and Lucas didn't take his time to launch his fist across my face. The attack rattled my jaw, and in an instant I was tasting blood. He attacked again, and this time it felt harder, his fist a lot firmer. The shock of the hit pasted to me to the floor and now there I was crawling for my life, as this mad man with a thirst for revenge was kicking my ass.
“Babe!” I screamed.
“No use. I put her out of consciousness for a good while so you won't be hearing from her for a while.” Lucas laughed. I was sore and I couldn't see straight, but I was not ready to accept the fact that after all of this work I've put into escaping hell, I was going to be killed by someone I helped escaped. To be betrayed while being so damn close. Lucas stood over me and dropped his knee into my chest with powerful authority. He then wrapped his large hand around my neck and he began to squeeze.