nala

surface

Andi

I held tightly onto Emerson's clammy hand as I walked to find a janitor's closet or an empty room or anything to hide him once he was out. I finally came across a closet and pushed Emerson inside. "Andi, what are you doing?" Emerson asked, eyeing me. I walked close to him, our noses barely brushing. I took the gun in his holster and slipped it out silently. Emerson leaned closer to me for a kiss, but I retreated, like any person who had two working eyes. I ran the butt of the gun into the side of Emerson's head, knocking him out for sure. He might not even wake up.

Hallelujah.

As Emerson went limp and his body crumpled I shut the closet door and raced to Emerson's empty office. I popped a vent open with a knife on the wall. I climbed through the metal, attempting to put the vent back but lazily leaned it against the hole. I crawled straight for three turns, and to the fourth right. Soon enough I was in the ladder well, a shaft a mile high but only a few feet wide.

Each rung of the mile-high ladder froze, covering my skin in goosebumps. I grabbed rungs above me, pulling myself higher and higher, closer and closer to the surface.

"Andi? Andi!" Nala shouted from above me." She was leaning out some hole in the shaft and laughed when she saw me. I crawled up the ladder steadily to Nala. She swung above me onto the ladder and continued up the ladder faster than me. "Wait." Nala said, her voice shaking, something that rarely happened. Nala was headstrong and confident, which was odd considering she lived like an asylum patient.

"What is it? Where almost there!" I exclaimed, a little loudly.

"The vents."

"Probably just turning on." I answered. Nala shook her head though, and for some reason, the tension in the ladder well grew way way thicker.

"The ventilation system has been down since Ana Blake destroyed them." Nala supplied. "The announcement system. It is just tubes in the wall. " Nala said, before snapping her head and looking down at me.

"Prisoner 319 and 320 have escaped. Repeat, prisoner 319 and 320 have escaped. All non-essential personnel report to ladder well." A man's voice shouted.\

"Shit!" I yelled. Nala turned back to the ladder and bolted up, but wasn't fast enough to escape the guards.

A door at the bottom swung open and crashed into the walls of the well. Fifteen or twenty guards stationed themselves with guns pointed at Nala and I. "Shoot to kill!" A guard yelled. They shot, but never quite got us. They hit the walls, the ladder even. One guard shot at the bottom rung I was on. The week joint made the rung snap under me, but I just fell down to the next rung. Nala glimpsed back at me just to make sure I didn't die and continued up the ladder.

With sudden and perfect movement, Nala snaked around the ladder and faced me, climbing up the opposite side of the ladder. Her back slid against the cement wall as she climbed up, noticeably slower. "Why did you switch?" I asked, desperate for an answer.

"The guards are climbing up. Others are getting on horses." Nala rushed.

I didn't even notice the gunfire even stopped. Instead the guards were climbing up considerably faster than both Nala and I, definitely from their proper feeding and exercise. One guard approached incredibly fast, gaining on me very very fast.

"Go. I will take care of him." Nala said. She stopped and turned back over to the correct side of the ladder. She gripped the rails loosely before dropping her feet from under her. She slid down the rails and slowed. Her feet landed on the first guard's shoulders. She pushed him off the ladder and let him fall to the bottom, about a six second drop before his limp body made an distinguishable thud. Nala ran up the ladder, ignoring the guards at her feet. "Go Andi!" Nala yelled.

"What about you?" I asked frantically.

"GO!" Nala yelled, even more fierce than the first time. I ran up the ladder even faster, maybe out of fear of being caught, but mostly hoping Nala doesn't catch up. I almost reached the top when hundreds and hundred of footsteps pounded on the surface. The guards all trampled up around the man hole that was the ladder well exit.

"They don't have weapons. They all left the guns at the bottom." Nala shouted. I looked down at her yet continued climbing, which wasn't the smartest decision as I ran my head straight into the hatch. I rubbed the bump on my forward before Nala shooed at my feet. I turned the latch on the door and opened the door, letting the light rays illuminate the dark ladder well.

"Whoa." Nala said in awe. I continued to climb up the ladder and out to the surface. Ten or eleven guards were circled around the hole. None of them had weapons, which was about the stupidest thing in the world, even more than me running my head into the hatch.

"Prisoner 319 and 320. Put your hands behind your head." A guard called out.

Nala and I obediently listened. Nala stood in front of me though, so I could see her flashing her fingers widely. I noticed, and she counted down on her fingers. Five, four, three, two, one. I heard in my head. Nala reached into the collar of her shirt and wrapped her hands around two knives considerably large. She nailed two guards, who got knives in their necks. Their blood sputtered out and the guards fell to the ground.

"Attack!" Guards yelled. They charged, swinging their fists. I punched a man in the neck and displaced something, as he clutched his neck and fell to the ground. Nala pinned a guard's arm behind is back and shoved him down on his head, leaving his body limp, perhaps even dead. Nala climbed up one of the many nearby trees, reaching a branch a few feet in the air. She jumped down onto a guard's
shoulder blades. Under her weight the wind was knocked straight out of the guard's body. The guard fell forward, her lifeless body laying at awkward angles.

"Behind you!" Nala yelled at me. I turned around quickly, ducking at the woman swinging her fist at me. Nala ran up and put a long knife in the guard's back, watching her fall to the ground reaching for her back.

Two guards both charged at Nala and I. Nala turned to me quickly. "Get out of the way right before they come." Nala instructed. The guard charged at me, I could hear another headed towards her. I stepped out of the way quickly, Nala pushing me back further. As the guards approached each oher quickly, with no possible way of stopping before collision, Nala gripped the back of their heads. She ran them into each other, definitely killing both of them. The guards fell backwards, horrible gashes dripping bright blood in the middle of their foreheads.

"Perfect." Nala quipped. "We need to go."

"Where exactly do you plan on going?" I asked. Nala probably planned out the next seventeen moves she would make.

"Why were we locked up?"

*flashback*

Eight year old Nala, free of ridiculous Bunker restraints or detainment, ran to me, a smiled spread from each ear. Nale stopped abruptly in front of me, wiping the air from her face. I couldn't help but hug, I hadn't seen my best friend in months.

Nala and her mother went to map the lands for farming. They planned to be gone for three months, but three turned to four, to five, to six. "Andi! Me and Ama saw so many cool villages and camps! We met a queen! Apparently I'm royalty in the Snowwalker!" Nala retreated from our hug but quickly embraced me again.

"No way." I said and tilted my head, not believing my friend was royalty. She was Napoli's sweetheart, daughter of the Minister, but under no circumstance could she be legitimate royalty.

"My aunt. Mother's sister. She is the Snowwalker queen." Nala said.

"What is a snowwalker?" I asked.

"Not what. Who! They're a village!" Nala cheered.

"No way. Napoli is the last village on Earth." I said.

"No. Napoli is one of only ten villages in the land." Nala brightly taught. "Lanca is the closest one. I'm telling everyone!" Nala yelled. Her brother Elliot ran over with tens of guards following him. They seized Nala, gagging her and locking her wrists behind her back. They did the same to me, dragging me off to the Bunker.

Nala tried talking to her brother, but her gag kept her from saying anything that was clearly a word. But her hand, flashing motions. I looked down, and she mad an 'L'.

*flash forward*

"Really? Lanca?"