The Queen of many items

chapter 6 of Idabell

Days pass. I sleep most of the time. I start to wonder If I will live here forever. Then one day a voice begins to drone over the loudspeakers. I didn’t even know there were loudspeakers.
“To Justice!”
“To Justice!” I can not only hear Ollie, Pandora and gretel but many other voices in the the hall.
“To Liberty!”
“To Liberty!”
“To freedom!”
“To freedom!”
“We fight until we die!”
“We fight until we die!” Olle, Pandora and Gretel stand in a line and begin to do a sort of army dance.
“We die until we win!”
“We die until we win!” What is going on?
“We win until we conquer!”
“We win until we conquer!” then with a fizzling sound the loudspeakers turn off.
“What was that all about?” I ask.
“We must be fighting another war.” Gretel looks out the bars of the prison window. “Yeah! Looks like this is going to be the battlegrounds.” I run to the window to see a vast wasteland. Rubble and the remnants of old buildings obscuring the ground. Another standing building is not too far away.
“What’s that?” I point towards the building.
“A school.” Pandora whispers dreamily.
“Why would a school be right next to a prison in a giant wasteland?”
“Because, education is less important that an army.” Ollie salutes the air.
“You believe in this way of living?”
“Of course! Everyone wants to be in the army.” Ollie looks at me like I’m crazy.
“Who’s your leader?”
“King Hizer.” Gretel proudly announces. It’s much worse that I thought it was here.

A loud siren begins to wail through the air.
“Return to your homes and enter your bomb shelters. Brace yourselves” The voice echoes across the wasteland. Ollie, Pandora and Gretel return to their huddle. I stand by the window for about a minute before I wander over to the huddle.

A few minutes pass. The sirens are beginning to really annoy me. And then a loud boom comes from not far away and the building shudders. I see many airships above dropping bombs. A series of another loud booms again followed by the building shaking violently. I fall to the ground against a bench, knocking the air out of me. I crouch on the floor gasping before another bomb drops. I Fall again to the freezing floor. I curl up. I’m going to die. The another even louder boom. I slide across the floor and hit the wall.

The next thing I know I’m waking in Pandora’s arms.
“You always have to brace yourself.” Pandora smiles, “listen to the loudspeakers.”
“what happened?” I groggily sit up.
“You got knocked out.” Gretel pipes in.
“Oh.” I rub my head groggily.

About another horrible week passes of eating stale bread, frozen water, and half freezing to death. Then the loudspeakers turn on again:
“Return to your homes and enter your bomb shelters. Brace yourselves.” I huddle up again this time I grasp the cold ledge of a bench. The siren begins and almost immediately the bombs start. I’m not as panicky this time but my stomach still lurchs with every bomb. The others look completely calm.

Then the bombs start drawing extremely close. The building begins shaking so voilently that fear begins to etch itself into the others faces.
“What’s going on?” Ollie asks
“Their getting too close to the prison!” Pandora gasps
“They are too close!” Moans Gretel. THe bombs finally become deafening. Finally one throws us into the air i smash against the wall. I groan. Then another one. I am thrown repeatedly against the wall. UNtil one hits the prison. I go flying in the opposite direction of the wall and slam against a bench. My body aches, and I begin to feel my consciousness slide away.

I awake the room even colder than before. Part of the room has collapsed, and Gretel lays dangerously close to the rubble. Pandora lays with her back against the wall and Ollie is trying to wake her.  Pandora sits  up and immediately wakes Gretel.
“We have to get out.” I swiftly walk towards the rubble.
“Wait we need a plan.” Ollie says.
“Like what?” I ask
“We should go to the school.” Gretel walks towards me.
“BUt the authorities will catch us!” Pandora glances around nervously.
“We do sort of look obvious in these blue jumpsuits.”
“The authorities are distracted by the war. Anyway all we need to do is pick a lock get some clothes, and steal a car.” Ollie smiles triumphantly at his plan.
“But where are we going to go after that?” Pandora points out. There is a long moment of silence.
“The palace.” I Continue digging.
“Why the palace that’s so stupid.” Ollie frowns.
“So we can capture King Hizer.” I turn around.
“No.” They say in unison.
“Fine then.” I start to dig again.
“I know!” Gretel exclaims, “Far out in the wasteland.”
“Perfect!” Even pandora agrees.

“Okay, we should pick one of the locks on a locker, maybe  a few.” Ollie begins to plan out our plan, “Then we take some clothes. We wait until lunch when the teachers are down in the cafeteria, and we steal some of their car keys. We drive as far as we can out into the wasteland and live there.” We all begin clearing out the rubble. It takes almost an hour until a significant hole appears.

Finally we squeeze through. THe air is freezing and the rubble is slick with ice. Then a sickening feeling enters my stomach. The loudspeakers turn on:
“Return to your homes and enter your bomb shelters. Brace yourselves.”
Then the siren goes off.
“GO!” Yells Ollie. We all try our best to scramble over the rocks. I am significantly slower than the others. I trip and fall at the first bomb. MY nose begins to bleed everywhere sending stabs of pain into my skull. I stand up and begin to run again. Now Pandora and the others are very far away. Finally the building begins to draw nearer. Then a bomb falls very close-by. I go flying into the air and land painfully on my back. The sky above me blurs. I have to run. I sit up, my body aching with pain. I continue running. Every time a bomb falls I stumble a little but keep running.

Finally I arrive at the front steps. The push the doors open and begin weaving my way through the students.
“Ollie! Pandora! Gretel!” But they had continued on. What friends they were. I guess there must be some military thing saying don’t help people who fall behind or something. I must be quite a sight. In a ripped prison jumpsuit, and dry blood caking my face. A few girls screamed. Others ran. Then i ran directly into a robot. A teacher I guess.

It grabbed my suit and pulled me into a room.
“Go back to the prison. I’m calling the police.” I expected it to have a jerky robot voice but instead it had a calm female voice.
“Please!”
“I’m sorry. You are a lawbreaker. Law breakers must be imprisoned.”
“But I didn’t break any laws!”
“Yes, you did.” Her voice remains steady.
“But I didn’t!” Her head turns slowly and a red light projects from the robots skull. It scans me for a few moments then stops.
“My records say you failed to impress the queen. That is a crime.”
“It shouldn’t be!” I’m getting pretty mad at this place.
“Do not insult the king.” I hear sirens coming down the hall: probably the police. I’m surprised when they arrive that they are not robots, but humans.
“Put your hands behind your back.” They point some guns in my direction so I do without hesitation. I almost immediately feel handcuffs tightening around my wrists. They march me down the hall yelling at students to move out of the way. I am still wondering where Ollie, Pandora and Gretel are. Finally we reach the cold, brisk outside air. I blink trying to block out the bright sun. Somehow It’s sunny and bright, but freezing cold.

THey throw me in some type of jeep and slam the door. I sit on the hard leather seat fingering the handcuffs. The police stand outside for a few moments talking and scribbling notes on pieces of paper. Everytime I shift around in my seat the all turn around and point their guns. THey must have pretty bad experiences with criminals to be that jumpy, or maybe it’s just one of their weird ways.

Finally a few of them hop in the car. THey step on the gas pedal hard and I jolt forward in my seat. The car whizzes dangerously close to civilians, and other cars. They’re not the best drivers.
“Where are you taking me?” I ask.
“To the palace.” One bluntly replies. I watch as scattered houses appear. Soon the wasteland gives way to a tundra. A few businesses start appearing, and the houses become more dense. I look ahead to see a shiny gold turrets in the distance. The dirt road soon turns to pavement and widens. Traffic appears and rows of businesses too.
“Darn! Traffic jam. Think i’ll have time to run to that coffee shop and get ourselves some coffee?” The police asks the driver.
“I think you’ll have time as long as you get me some!” The police man whispers loudly. They both chuckle and one gets out of the car and runs toward a small blue building.

A few minutes pass and he returns with 2 steaming paper cups. The driver hits the pedal and this time I brace myself. THe rest of the way is stop-and-go traffic. Finally we arrive at the palace.
“Why here? Why not the police station?” I had been wanting to ask this question for more than half of the car ride but I figured I wouldn’t want to annoy them. Now that I’m out of the car I won’t have to sit with grumpy policemen.
“Because you're in trouble with the queen not us.” We walk up to the tall brass doors and enter. Many guards are stationed around the beautiful room. Oriental rugs are covering the ground and crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling. But it’s very...empty. Only a few portraits hang on the wall.
We walk up to a guard sitting behind a desk with a very bored look on his face.
“Here to report a criminal to the queen.” The policeman announces to a guard behind a desk.
“Room 111.” He blandly says, and hands the policeman a key.

We walk over to a elevator and wait. 5 minutes pass and the policeman hurriedly checks his watch. Finally the elevator arrives. The inside is very nice, and has a couch. I Sit Down on it and read a magazine. The inside is filled with pictures of celebrities and praise for the queen. I almost fall off the couch when the elevator starts. I expected it to go up like a normal elevator, but this one goes every way. I clutch the couch every time the elevator makes a sharp turn. There is an older woman holding a basket full of trinkets, a guard, what looks like a maid, the policeman, and me in the elevator. After about 3 stops the old lady gets off. After another stop the maid gets off. Finally after what seems like an hour the policeman and i arrive at our stop.

The room we enter is full of pictures toys and furniture. A tall, lean woman sits at a desk doodling on a sheets of paper. She jumps when we arrive, and quickly puts down her pen.
“How may I help you?” Her voice is high pitched.
“We have law breaking to discuss with the queen.” He gestures over to me.
“She is waiting for you in the gift room.”
“Go ahead.” He pushes me over to a hallway. I wander down looking carefully at each plaque.
service room
bell room
cat room
punishment room
Queen’s quarters
There it was: The gift room. I quietly knock on the door. Awhile passes and i start to wonder if the queen is really there. Finally I hear something.
“Come in.” Calls a muffled voice.

The room is ornate and filled with millions of trinkets, and anything you could imagine.
“YOu broke my law and I’m giving you a chance to make me another trinket because your memory was lost.” Her voice is bored and she fingers with her enormous beautiful gown as she speaks.
“I don’t believe in your rules so i won’t follow them!” I regret ever saying it as soon as i do. Her head turns slowly with a sour expression on it.
“After my kind offer..you..you turned it down!” Her scream echoes across a room. She has obviously neve® been told no.
“Yes, i turned it...” I am cut off mid-sentence when something goes whizzing dangerously close to my head.
“Excuse me she collapses in a throne and yawns. I turn around to see a knife in the wall. I gulp. SHe sure does have big temper-tantrums.
“Put her to death.” The queen says nonchalantly.
“What?”
“You disobeyed my rules. You of course deserve punishment.” A deep sickening grows in the pit of my stomach. I am so stupid. A hand clasps around my shoulder and throws me down. I lie there, my head spinning as my hands are once again handcuffed.

I expected them to inject me with something, use the guillotine to kill me or something, but their method is quite strange. In the punishment room the is a tank. Empty but I expect they will fill it with water.
“Please!” I plead. But the guard gives me no mercy. He throws my in and seals it tight.
“No!” I pound on the glass. I feel freezing water pour in over my ankles. “Stop!” But the water continues. Soon I feel ice chunks. Are they crazy? Drown me and have me freeze to death at the same time?  Soon It reaches my waist. My body is numb now. I grow woozy. I can't seem to see without my eyes retreating into my head. The water is now up to my neck. I take deep breaths between my chattering teeth. The it’s growing further up. It has covered my nose. And then I’m underwater.

I pound at the glass. How long will I be able to hold my breath? I grow delirious. My vision whitens threatening to faint. I finally sink to the bottom. I try to focus on holding my breath but I can’t. A clock ticks outside. Finally I give in. The cold takes over. The last bubbles of air drift upwards. It’s horrible. I gasp but only water  fills my lungs. I sink to the bottom writhing, searching for air. The whiteness grows thicker and thicker. My head pounds. My heart slows. I can’t give in! But I want to. I want it to stop.

Author's Note

sorry about all the grammar problems