Chapter 5

I raise my hands slightly, a sign of surrender now that I know what these types of guns can do. Peter does the same and keeps his eyes locked forward. The cold pressure of the gun presses against my bare neck again. A warm calloused hand grabs around my wrists and pulls them behind my back one at a time. He binds my hands in place with a rough twine that chafes against my skin. He keeps one gun on Peter who is watching helplessly beside me with his hands raised in the air. 

“Wait,” The boy's voice echoes through the tunnel. “Axel, let me explain.”

“Be quiet, Chase.” Axel, I’m guessing, snaps and turns me around so I’m facing the front of the tunnel again. He stands in front of me and my first impression is that he's terrifying. His wavy dirty brown hair is falls in his face in uneven waves, like he cut it with a dull knife. His jaw tightens as his finger rests against the trigger. The muscles in his arms and chest push against the dirty green long sleeve shirt that stretches across his skin as he raises his arms to point the gun at the center of my head. His thick dark eyebrows frame the most startling pair of clear gray eyes I have ever seen and show no mercy. Just blind hatred. 

Chase was right. We should have found our own way out. He had to known this was what was waiting for us down here. He was trying to help us by telling us to go away and I was too stubborn to realize it. 

“Listen,” Chase says, pushing the hand that is still holding the gun at my face down. “She’s not a threat. She was a prisoner in the room next to mine. She helped me get out.”

Axel grimaced. “Get out of a place you shouldn't have been in the first place! God Chase, we can't help them!”

Chase shakes his head once. “Not them. Just her. She saved my life, Axel, we can’t just kill her.”

“She’s a Ghost!” Axel remind whispered but it bits like a shout. Ghost. Such an odd name. “We don’t help Ghosts. They’re dangerous and unpredictable. She probably has a microphone on her or something.” He stepped closer to me shoving the gun against the side of my head. He is standing so close to me now I can feel the warmth of his breath. “Isn’t that right, Ghost? Are you a spy for the others all safe and warm in their nests?”

I don’t look him in the eyes. My breathing shallows and I can feel the curiosity I once fed off of slowly turn to dread. What have I done? What have I done? 

“Stop!” Peter yells from behind me. “Take that gun away from her or I swear to God-“

“What do you know about God?” Axel turns his eyes to Peter.

Before either us can answer, a cry of relief in the shape of a name comes from the other end of the tunnel. All of us turn in the direction of several pairs of feet splashing through the water in our direction. A girl, about my age, appears first. She has long blond hair that cascades behind her is a straight wave. She’s tall and rail thin. She has on a green shirt that hangs loose on her narrow shoulders and dark pair of pants. Her heavy brown boots splash through the water as she runs towards us. 

“Chase!” She leaps into his arms and hugs him tightly around the neck. The force of her impact barely knocks him off center. Chase catches her and holds her close.

I’ve never seen anyone embrace another person that way before. There is a depth of desperation to it. 

“Are you okay?” The girl pulls away and carefully checks his face and arms. 

He seems embarrassed by the sudden affection, pushing her away and nodding his head quickly. “I’m fine. Plan didn’t go quite as expected but hey, I’m alive.” 

The girl’s face turns into pure rage as she hits Chase in the shoulder with a locked fist as hard as she can. “You idiot! Mom is going to loose her mind when she realizes that you went off radar and do you know who she is going to blame? Me! Just because I’m older by eleven months. I get to be held responsible for your stupid a*s.”

Chase rubs at his arm. “Thanks for the concern, Taryn. You’re a great sister!”

“I showed concern. We’re past concern.” Taryn takes her eyes off what I now assume is her younger brother and turns to Axel and then to myself and Peter all in one motion. Her eyes widen and her mouth forms a straight line. 

Two others follow behind her. Another girl, with dark skin and short frizzy brown hair. She has a large gun tucked against her hip and the other end directed at me. Another boy follows after her, he is taller than the rest of them. A thick yellow beard grows over a strong jaw. He eyes me viciously, like I am a wild animal he’s been tracking for days.

Who are these people? Where did they come from?

“What the hell is this?” Taryn says quietly, looking back at her brother. “What happened in there?”

“It’s okay,” Chase says again, like they’ll believe him after the four hundredth time of saying it. “They helped me escape. If it wasn’t for them, I’d still be stuck in that building. We can trust them guys, I promise.”

“Sure,” the dark skinned girl says, she still has her gun pointed at me but it’s a little higher now. If there is a target it’d be right over my heart. That is a total of three guns on me now. “Let’s trust two of the people that helped destroyed our lives. Yes, why don’t we just give them our guns while we’re at it?”

“What are you talking about? Who are you people?” I ask, and immediately regret it the second I do. 

I see him swing his arm back and the end of his gun come down on the center of my nose. The force knocks my head back cracking my neck and sends me down flat onto my back. The cold water rushes around me flooding my ears and clothes. A slow trickle of warm liquid drip from my aching nose. I can't cry out or take a breath, a throaty moan is the only communication that I can make. 

I’ve never felt this sort of pain before. I’ve felt physical pain by accident when I’ve tripped or burnt myself in the kitchen. But I’ve never felt the deliberate pain brought on by another human being. It has a sting all of it’s own. 

In Dystal, no physical violence is allowed. Any act of misconduct can be penalized with twenty-four hour confinement or transportation to another Quarter. After what happened to me only a short while ago, I wonder if they are really transferred at all. Maybe people just disappear. Maybe they become like these guys.

“Axel!” Chase yells, but he didn’t move in my defense. “Was that really necessary?”

“We're not taking them with us and we can't let them follow us.” Axel states clearly. He must be the leader of this group. No one tries to argue with him.

Chase looks down at me and then back to his sister. “Maybe they can help us.”

“No.” Axel looked down at his gun, probably making sure my face didn’t scratch it.

“Just listen,” Chase demands. “She’s not like them. She’ll help us. We can use her information to get the things we need. Think about it!”

Axel shakes his head once. “I don’t need to think about it. I don’t want their help. I don’t need their help and I’m not going to put anyone else in danger at their expense. Not to mention this is quite possibly the stupidest thing you’ve ever done, Chase.”

“Okay,” Chase shakes his head. “This can’t be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Stop, please.” Peter shouts somewhere above me. I can’t really tell from the way the room is still spinning. The pain running down my face makes it hard to focus on anything else. I look down at the blood covering my hands and feel a rush of nausea come over me. “Listen, we’ll cooperate. We’ll do whatever you ask us to. You don’t have to kill us.”

My reflection stares back at me in the water moving underneath me. A large stream of blood drips from my nose and distorts the grotesque picture my face makes. I spit the rust flavor from off my lips and some how find enough strength to lift myself onto my hands and knees to look up at Axel hovering over me. My voice comes out muffled and slurred, “Did I do something horrible to you that I’m not aware of?”

“No,” Axel sneers. “But your people did.”

I laugh, though it sounds like a cough. “Then we have something in common because they did something horrible to me too.” I push myself up out of the cold water and onto my knees which isn’t a great idea because a gush of blood pours from my nose again. The warm liquid runs over my lips and drips irritably off my neck and chin. 

I look up at Axel, my eyes meeting his stone eyes and I smile a bloody smile. “You can kill me. At this point I don’t really care either way." I don’t know why I say this. A desperate act. A chilling truth I have only just become familiar with. I don’t want to die. I don’t want this to be the place I cease to be. But nothing works the way I thought. So, I say the first thing that comes to mind. "But you have to tell me something first."

Axel narrowed his eyebrows, a small crease forming between his steel blue eyes. “Well I guess if I can kill you, what do you want to know?”

I take a shaky breathe and wipe my chin off on my shoulder. “I understand that you don’t trust me. But if you take my life without giving me a chance, then what is the difference between you and those people in there? Because right now, I don’t see it.”

Axel’s hand wavers where he holds the gun pointed to my face. I think I see a slight hint of disdain cross his hard locked expression. He looks down at the gun in his hands and then back up at my face. My eyes close slowly and I swallow the last breathe that I will probably take, the smell of blood, rust, and stagnant water sits in my throat. 

What did I do? What did I do? 

He makes a  frustrated noise in the back of his throat and tilts the gun towards the ground. 

“Axel,” Taryn starts.

He holds up his free hand as he places his weapon into the waist of his pants. He points at the tall blonde man. “Henry, bind the boy and then tie them both together. I want two guns on them the whole way so Chase and I will follow in back. Gwen and Taryn you’ll carry the supplies in the front. Can you handle?”

The girls both nod as the large man named Henry walks towards me. He cracks the knuckles on both of his fists and wraps his large hand around Peter’s arms and wretches them behind his back. Axel comes beside me and bends down on one of his knees. He has a rag in his hand and carefully wets it in the water. He starts reaching for my face but I flinch away. His strong hand catches the back of my neck and pushes my face none too gently into the towel. 

I cry out as he runs the towel down my sore nose, over my lips and down and under my chin. My eyes water from the pain so that his whole face blurs. He gentles then, using the towel to wipe down my throat and over my collar bone. He kneels there when he's done, his hand still clutching behind my head. 

“You’re not going to last long?” He says confidently.

Thick tears fall down my eyes without my control. I try to still my bottom lip but it shakes furiously anyway. I try to calm my breathing. “I’m more than I seem.” I whisper. 

Axel snorts. “I have three simple rules. If you stop moving, I will shoot you. If you fail to follow my direction exactly, I will shoot you. If you open your mouth without being spoken to… well, can you guess where I’m going with this?”

“You’ll shoot me.”

“Good,” he smiles. “You’re a fast learner. Now stand up and start moving.”

It takes a lot of effort to just get to my knees. There is a dull steady heart beat at the base of my nose. Another slow trickle of warm blood drips from my nose and pours over my parted lips. The small group doesn’t wait for me. They start moving down into the black darkness of the tunnel. All of them except Axel. 

He doesn’t reach down to help me up. He doesn’t bark orders at me. He doesn’t do anything but look down at me like I’m a dying animal and not worth a breath of his time. I get to my feet all by myself and fight to keep myself from throwing up the warm rusty blood that’s running down the back of my throat.

 Peter come to my side. I don’t meet his eyes because I don’t want to see the fear kindling behind them. I focus on the hard cement under my feet and the darkness ahead as we start walking forward into the unfamiliar tunnel.

Author's Note

Let me know what you think. Any grammar mistakes, dialogue, inconstancy in the story line. Thanks so much for reading.

Chapter song: Work Song by Hoziar

Reviews

[Wolven]

Sorry it took so long for me to get round to this. Things escalated quite quickly, what with breaking out of Dystal and Story using the gun on Shell. You've kept the same writing style going, which is great. It helps bring out your own personality to the writing, if you get me.
That guy Axel strikes me as a bad egg, but something tells me that myself and the fellow readers here will eventually warm to him. So far as i can tell there's only one grammar mistake: "I have three simple rules. If you stop moving, I will shoot you. If you fail to follow my direction exactly, I will shoot up. If you open your mouth without being spoken to…"
I feel like 'shoot up' ought to be 'shoot you.' but thats as far as i could see.
keep this work up. I'm quite enjoying it. :D

[Hannah]

Hey Wolven! Thank you again so much for the review. Axel is someone that I'm constantly arguing with in my head so he's definitely a character that you're going to be seeing a lot of. I'm so glad that you're enjoying this story because I'm having a ton of fun writing it. Thanks again!