Chapter 8:

Intense chapter of when Jaclyn gets kidnapped and has to fight her way out of a power-hungry gang

Chapter 8: Jaclyn

Jaclyn didn’t get any sleep that night. She was really tired, but her mind just wouldn’t let her close her eyes. So she just laid there on the ground, wide awake. Tai got the bed, and she felt selfish for letting Chris get the floor. So she let him get the couch. She made a decision like she was leader of this trio. But she wasn’t, and that bothered her for stepping up and being one. She thought she was being selfish, but she was the one that protected this trio, right? Chris couldn’t fight, and Tai was only a girl. She couldn’t do anything about it even if she wanted to.

There was no sign of Jaclyn turning into a freak, and every hour she would get up and check on Tai. Tai would be sound asleep, and no veins were pumping black goo. It was silent, and every now and then Jaclyn would hear a rat scuttle near an alley. The city was silent, and it was still dark enough to be around 2 AM. The sun never poked its head through the silent hours of the room, and Jaclyn sat up. She gets up silently and looks in her backpack. They were running low on food, considering somebody had taken a few snacks when she wasn’t looking. They had 3 water bottles left and a couple of energy bars. The warehouse wasn’t very helpful, but she guessed the food was only for the day of the mission. Jaclyn took a moment’s thought and debated between herself, but she won over herself. If she went by herself, she wouldn’t put the others in danger and they wouldn’t slow her down. Jaclyn throws the backpack over her shoulders and goes to the door, looking at Chris. He was dead asleep. Jaclyn opens the apartment door and looks out in the hallway, but the coast was clear. Jaclyn knew she shouldn’t be going on a supply run at this time, but it would mean less people would be bustling. Jaclyn steps out and closes the door quietly. She starts walking silently rather not wanting to make any noise. If she did run into anyone, she wanted to make sure her enhancements weren’t going to be out. Shoot her in the back or something. It was just too risky, and she couldn’t predict people’s reactions. So she does this old school. Jaclyn makes it out of the apartment, looking back at the dark building. The street lights were still working, though some of them were out, and others were just flickering. Jaclyn moves to the middle of the street, hood on and backpack clanking. Jaclyn felt tired, but she moves on quietly, looking around in the semi-dark. She could see a Walmart in the distance, and heads towards there, veering off the road. But she stops mid-way when she hears footsteps behind her. And they were close. How come she didn’t hear them before? Her brain was tired, but she didn’t think she was that tired. Jaclyn whirls behind her, finding a girl her age. Jaclyn takes a defensive stance, but the girl’s face was of fear. Her face was bruised and bloody, and it reminded her of her childhood. “I’m sorry,” She whispers, almost like she was about to cry. It dawns on her that this wasn’t right, and she looks to her left, but was face with something way worse than a dark alley.

A guy dressed a full ski mask holds a gun towards her head. She couldn’t see his features, and fear goes through her. If he saw what she was going to do, he would blast her brains on the sidewalk. “Don’t move.” His voice was young. Jaclyn rolls her eyes to her right, and sees men in ski masks pointing guns at her. She was surrounded.

“Shiiiiiiiiiit.” Jaclyn mutters. Her heart sinks. “You’re coming with us,” The first man says. Jaclyn looks to the girl, who lowers her head. “Don’t,” She whispers again. A man from behind her comes up and takes her away into the alley, gripping her a little too tightly. The first man nods to another, and he comes up from behind, wrenching her backpack off. Jaclyn breathes heavily, trying to contain her anger. If they didn’t have guns she would slaughter them all. She could hear him rummaging through her bag, pulling out the two pistols. She could almost see a wicked smile on his face. “Don’t move or else I splatter your brains out on the concrete, you hear me?” He says, looking directly at Jaclyn. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t do anything. It would get her killed. Jaclyn looks around, and can sense 7 armed men were surrounding her. She had no choice but to follow them. Guns still trained on her, they lead her through the dark alley where the girl was taken to. They take her to an almost crumbling office building, tons of glass littering the concrete around the building. Glass crunches under sole as they push her into the building. It was dark, and she couldn’t make out a thing. Silently, they take her down a flight of stairs, and the whole complex underground was lit with small fires. There were guys all around, all of them mostly her age. And there were girls here too, though they were dressed in rags and were bloody and bruised. All eyes were on her, and she felt like they were burning holes in her. A day into the apocalypse and there’s already gangs. She guessed people will take what they can get. There were whistles from the crowds of guys, and Jaclyn could feel each mind poking at her. There must have been 30 guys here. Jaclyn looks around, marking potential exits that were hallways. But she was sure the only way out was the way she came, and that scared her. A wave of panic knocks her over, and she gasps. “What’s the matter there?” The first boy calls out to her. He must be the leader, assuming from all of the worried faces around him when he passed people. Her anger was getting out of hand, she could feel it. And she knew she would snap like a twig at some point. Jaclyn remains silent as the group stops and earns a few more whistles from the crowd. The first boy looks her up and down, then pulls off his black ski mask. Blonde hair falls from it’s suspension, and the boy was no older than Jaclyn. He had a nasty scar running down his eye and left cheek. He also had a fiery eye, but the other one was clouded gray from the scar. He smiles at Jaclyn, and Jaclyn smiles back at him, knowing he was going to get killed. He took the smile confusingly. “What you scared of there?” He asks. Jaclyn laughs, but cries inside knowing her anger has gotten control of her.

“I’m so scared,” She mocks, narrowing her eyes. “You picked the wrong girl.” He snickers. “Oh no, I’m frightened. You think you’re so tough.” He laughs. The boy unsheathes two knives from his hip. They glimmer as he twirls them in his hands. Jaclyn smiles, though she herself didn’t like the sight of that. She thought no one did. And with surprising speed, the boy had his knife at her throat. Jaclyn lifts her head a little, trying to get the cold steel out of her neck. “I own you now.” He hisses. Jaclyn remains neutral, staring him down. He scoffs, then presses the knife deeper into her throat, causing blood to trickle down. “Such a waste, but I guess you’re a rotten one. Might as well use you.” He snickers, then spits in her face, saliva running down her cheek. Jaclyn’s blood boils, and she almost commanded for the death to begin. “Bring her to the ring!” He calls out, and men push her towards a hall, no one following but the original capturers. There was no sign of the other girl too. Jaclyn wipes the spit off of her face, trying to map out an exit. Her throat was burning, but it was nothing. This man was going to die tonight with horror in his eyes. Jaclyn liked that idea. They lead her down the hall, the walls concrete and cracked. There were bodies everywhere, and blood followed them like their best friends. They get to the end of the hall, and an opening clears up, holding a bare room. They push her into it and the boy follows her, twirling knives in each hand. Jaclyn stood still, eyeing the boy. He comes right to her face, face inches apart. He smiles then strokes her hair, bringing his other knife to her left cheek. “I’m sorry, but you won’t cooperate here. Too bad I have to waste your pretty little face.” He smiles, then strikes at her. But Jaclyn dances away to the right. She smiles. “Too bad I have to kill you.” He looked confused, and he backs away from her, taking a defensive stance. He watches in horror as she pulls a trick from her sleeve, daggers growing out of her hands with a sickening sound. Jaclyn takes the chance to strike. Claws raised, she strikes at his face, but he parries it with a flick of his wrist, claws pushing against metal. “What the hell are you?” He asks. He does a twirl then a roundhouse kick, not waiting for Jaclyn to dodge it. He approaches with knives raised and plows through a flurry of strikes, but Jaclyn dodges them with her speed. She strikes again, but he parries. It goes on like that for what seemed like a lifetime of fighting, the boy almost striking her, but she wiggled away fast enough.

He was the best fighter she has ever seen in her life. Wielding two knives helped him too. The boy tries to kick her, doing a three-sixty in the air as he did so. He was going to show off and die too? Might as well pump out the best moves you’ve got when your life’s on the line. Jaclyn claws at him, trying to sink her nails anywhere, but he strikes them with his forearm. She takes the chances and sinks them in his arm, earning a yelp from him. He pulls away and dances away from her strikes. The boy was good enough, but the time came when it wanted to. His time was running low at the moment.

He does a wide sweep with his arm, thrusting a knife at her stomach. She parries, but sees the other coming, a wave of panic washing over. Her reflexes kick in once again after the millisecond of fear, and she kicks it, the knife flying away from his hand. He looks at it for a second, almost hoping it would come to his hands like wannabe Jedi kids. He grunts again, his eyes filled with fury. He looks her in the eye, and she smiles back at him.

 It was either the smile or the plan he was sticking to that made him run towards the fallen knife. Jaclyn follows, but he caught her off guard, him taking the lead. She was right behind him though when he picked up the knife, turning around and thrusting at her quickly. She skids to a stop, and sees no chance but to grab his hand and twist. He yelps again as nails dig in his wrist, and jumps back from Jaclyn’s approaching strikes. She could see determination in his eyes though.

Jaclyn kicks at his head this time, but he catches her foot and twists, sending her flying to the ground. She lands on hard concrete, but it broke her fall. The worst part was that she landed on her stomach, where she left her back exposed for him to sink a knife in her back. Jaclyn snarls at all her hard work not even paying off and she kicks to her feet, something cold grazing her left thigh. But she had no time to check for injuries as she sweeps both of her feet at his legs, spinning in the air to get the velocity. He saw it coming though, and twisted his body in the air, landing in a pushup position. He pushes himself up, but Jaclyn tackles him from his blind side, sending both crashing. They thrash and punch, claw, thrust, and kick. He landed some pretty good blows in various areas to Jaclyn, but she could hold her ground. It looked the same with him even with a hurt wrist. Jaclyn moves in with the finishing blow, diving in for his neck, teeth bared. He saw it coming, and jabs his elbow in her exposed throat, sending a moment of choking from her. Saliva dribbles down her chin, but she ignores it as she recovers just in the nick of time as the two knives come hurling at her face. She grabs both arms at the same time, and now they were fighting fire on fire. He was strong. Really strong, or it was just that she was just getting weaker at the moment without sleep. Determination still on his face, he sends an unsuspected kick up at her face, and her head snaps upwards, knee connecting with skull followed by a wet crunch. Her vision went blurry, and her head was spinning, but she shook herself. Knowing he had an opportunity, Jaclyn tries her best to back up quickly before he sinks a knife in her heart. She backflips from on her hands and knees, getting enough momentum to land on crouching feet. She stands to her full height and smiles down at boy, his face blurry from her strikes.

He snarls back at her, but stands, not attempting to approach her. Jaclyn needed to recover, her head still spinning. She stays where she was, not taking her eyes off of him. “I could have you dead at this second.” He growls. “But I found out you’re too good to be wasted. If you try to kill one of us, I blow your brains out right now.” Jaclyn scoffs. “Finally a good person who can fight and he tries to kill me. Typical.” Jaclyn accepted this though: it was that she was going to be here for a long time, and that Tai and Chris were going to be looking for her. Like she left them. A sinking feeling wells inside of her. “You try anything clever, I could rip your throat out now.”

“Oh no I won’t.” He pulls out a gun from under his shirt, the same one he held against her forehead in the beginning. Jaclyn screams internally, but remains calm. How did she not see this coming? At least she surprised him with her enhancements. “You’re still mine, you know.” He flicks his eyes above her, then returns his gaze back to her. “I will�"“ Was all she could manage before something big and hard whacked her on top of her head, sending her crashing to forbidden sleep.

 

Author's Note

Please review this and tell me what you think. Ignore everything, this is just a manuscript.