by Tina Chan
“Ahh—” Kristi let loose a yell that was instantly cut off by a hand clamped over her nose and mouth, stifling her breath. The next thing she knew, a brawny arm wrapped around her waist and she was being slung over a shoulder with ease.
Kristi’s heart pounded against her chest as she tried to escape the steel-like grip, but whoever was carrying her seemed completely unfazed by her thrashing and kicking. Her screams were muffled by the clammy hand still glued over her mouth.
Kristi’s arms and legs eventually grew weary and heavy with her fruitless struggles with escape. She willed her entire body to go limp and tried not to vomit up the food she had consumed earlier.
The abductor began running at a fast and steady pace through the empty streets; any normal person would have to either be insane or suicidal to roam the backstreets so close to curfew time. No Perfect would risk being caught by the curfew patrols.
The pavement bounced up and down from Kristi’s point of view, making her feel dizzy. The hand suffocating her breaths didn’t help with the situation.
“Cah ye mo ye han?” Kristi tried her best to mumble her words coherently. “Can’t breh.”
Her kidnapper didn’t remove the hand, however the hold over her mouth loosened a bit, enough for her to breathe more comfortably, but not enough for her to scream for help. Something cold and sharp pressed against the side of her cheeks. Kristi leaned her head away from the object; it was a gold stud earring.
Several minutes passed, the person carrying Kristi decelerated to a slow jog, then to a walk and placed her on the ground after ripping the drawstring bag off her shoulders.
Kristi braced her arms against a damp and moldy wall to steady her shaky legs and rebelling stomach. Her captor remained at a distance far enough to avoid being splattered by puke in case Kristi’s stomach decided to empty itself, but still within grabbing distance. Kristi finally assessed her surroundings once the world stopped spinning enough for her to find her balance.
Four bare walls of an abandoned building closed around her; the ceiling sagged dangerously low. If I was to jump up, Kristi contemplated, I bet I could touch it. Not that that would do me much good.
A man stood guard by the entrance; aside from the tattoo of a flock of raven trailing up the side of his neck, the man looked inconspicuous. He didn’t have a memorable face nor wore clothing that beckoned attention.
Another guy, who Kristi automatically assumed to be her abductor, was going through the contents of her drawstring bag. He wore a black shirt and ratty jeans; several gold hoops looped through his earlobes. Kristi counted nine cuffs in total and wondered whether the man’s ears got tired from bearing the weight of the jewelry.
The man looked up from her bag. “Nice electro-slate you have; latest model with all the newest updates.”
She recognized the raspy voice as the same one she heard while eavesdropping from behind the brick wall. They were the electro-slate bandits.
The man wearing the black shirt spoke again, “Thought you could make a fool out of me, didn’t you? Boss demoted me to rank two after today’s incident.”
The guy with the raven tattoo ground his teeth and spat on the ground. “Rank two,” he said to himself. “That’s a rank for newbies, not someone like me.”
The kidnapper continued on, as if he hadn’t heard a word the other man had said. “Boss doesn’t believe me when I told her there was a secret room in the brick wall. But I saw you escaping into a hole in the wall with my own eyes. Now she thinks we’re going mad. Right, Steph?”
Steph nodded his head in agreement. The way Steph looked at black-shirt-guy with reverence and followed his every move reminded Kristi of Glenn’s followers. Naturally, this observation promptly made her dislike these two men even more.
Kristi removed her hands from the wall. Testing to see if she could walk on her own, she took a small step. Her head felt a bit woozy, but other than that, she felt fine.
“Take my electro-slate and my backpack if you want. Can I leave now?” Kristi took another step towards the exit.
Steph perked up and cracked his knuckles loudly, daring her to make a dash for freedom.
“No.” Black-shirt-guy threw down the drawstring bag with disgust; apart from the electro-slate, nothing else in the bag was worth any value on the black market.
“Can I see the slate, Wilson?” Steph asked.
“No.”
Black-shirt-guy now had a name: Wilson. This insignificant piece of information lent Kristi a small scrap of knowledge.
Wilson stalked over to Steph, clutching the stolen electro-slate in one hand. “Grab me some ropes. And be quick about it.”
Steph beat a hasty retreat, muttering under his breath, “Don’t want to make Wilson mad—he blinded his last offender.”
So, Kristi thought, Wilson’s temper is something to be reckoned with, a trait that probably often gets him what he wants. She was not at all comfortable with this arrangement; being alone in an unfamiliar room with a cruel man made her squirm anxiously.
Wilson slammed the door shut then booted a rickety folding chair into the middle of the room. Rust covered its metal edges.
“You,” Wilson brusquely pushed Kristi into the chair, towering over her. “Tell me how you escaped us today.”
“There was a hidden room behind the wall.” Kristi couldn’t think straight enough to even consider lying.
“I already know that. Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me how you got into the room.”
“I’m not sure how I got into the room. I just kind of slid my hand over a section of the brick wall and a gap opened—”
“Don’t lie to me,” Wilson said. The edges of his lips pulled backwards tightly, permitting his two silver tipped canines to show. Kristi involuntarily shuddered; his teeth reminded her of vampires. Wilson leered. “Tell me now or—”
“I got you the ropes,” Steph cut in.
Kristi let out a sigh; she was certain whatever Wilson’s threat was, she didn’t want to hear.
Wilson snatched the ropes from Steph and tied Kristi’s hands behind her back.
“Don’t try to lie to me,” Wilson growled into her right ear. “Steph would be more than happy to knock you around a bit. So here’s the deal. I ask you the questions and you answer truthfully. If I like your answer, you’re safe from Steph. If I don’t like the answer you give me, you’ll be hurting for a few days. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Kristi whispered.
“Good,” he grunted. “Did you use a special key to get into the hidden room?”
“No.”
“Then how did you pass through the wall?”
“I touched the wall.”
“Do you really think I’m stupid?”
“No.”
“Tell me the truth if you know what is good for you!”
“I did.”
“Don’t sass me. I had my gang try getting through the wall and that included searching the wall for any hidden levers. How do I get into the hidden room within the walls?”
Kristi debated whether she should lie and please Wilson or continue telling the truth. She kept silent. Technically, she wouldn’t be lying if she didn’t say anything; not that lying to someone as vile as Wilson bothered her. Kristi refused to admit it, but she was too scared to speak for fear of infuriating Wilson.
“Answer me, ignorant child!” Wilson snarled.
She said nothing.
Wilson let out a yell of frustration.
She said nothing.
“Speak!” Wilson got a bit red in the face.
She said nothing.
Wilson’s face took on a dangerous hue.
She decided she better say something. Kristi tried to string together some words, but was too terrified to articulate any comprehensible sounds. Wilson mistook it for defiance and kicked the chair Kristi was sitting on.
“This isn’t over yet,” he said. Menace laced the edge of his tone. “We’ll finish this tomorrow.”
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br /> With that, he roughly shoved Steph aside and stormed into a different room. Steph bolted the door to the warehouse, followed Wilson and turned off the sole bulb lighting, plunging the room into darkness.
Kristi experimentally tugged on the ropes binding her wrists, but they were securely knotted. Exhaling, she wondered how exactly did she land herself in this predicament. She had received more than she bargained for by going back to the hidden room.
Kristi spent the next two hours searching for anyway to escape, but was unsuccessful. Eventually, her eyelids drooped with exhaustion and she muttered, “This is going to be a long night” before easing her way into an awkward sleep.
chapter five
[ Troop ]