THE SKYWALKERS: book one

CHAPTER TEN - Escape

Obi-Wan could hear more troops arriving. This was about to be a disaster. He wasn't doing much good in the control room anymore, so he opened the door into the hallway beyond the dark room of relative safety.

"Why do we always end up in these situations?" he mused out loud as he encountered a small group of troopers running to the apparent skirmishes that had been taking place on several levels.

"Surrender now and you will be spared," one clone said, and the rest of them stopped and pointed their blasters at Obi-Wan.

"Oh, I don't think so." Obi-Wan tossed three of the troopers down with the wave of a hand, and he ignited his lightsaber.

"Obi-Wan. Come in, Obi-Wan," Anakin tried one last time as he and Padmé hurried down the hall.

"Ani! Watch out!" One blaster shot later, a dead clone lay only a couple of feet in front of him.

"Thanks," he looked at Padmé sheepishly. "I was a little distracted."

"Well, you might as well give up on contacting him," Padmé lowered her blaster. "He hasn't answered the last two times you've called."

Anakin nodded and readied himself to cut open yet another blast door.

"Put your hands up," a voice said from behind them.

Anakin wheeled around, his lightsaber ready to strike, and he was shocked to see the hallway was full of clones. He'd been so preoccupied with thoughts of Padmé and escape that he hadn't even felt them coming.

He whipped back around at the sound of the blast door opening, and there were about a dozen more troops marching in to block them from the other direction. Even worse, a clone had his blaster against the back of Padmé's head.

Padmé dropped her blaster and brought her hands up, and Anakin realized he had no choice but to do the same. He retracted his lightsaber blade and dropped it to the floor, and put his hands up in surrender.

A pair of clones rushed forward to pick their weapons up off the ground while another clone stuck a blaster to Anakin's back. The clone holding the blaster to Padmé's head lowered it to her back as well.

"Move!" one of the clones barked, nudging Anakin forward. "And bring the droid with us," the clone added, talking to another clone.

Come on, Obi-Wan. Anakin pleaded that over and over in his mind, hoping Obi-Wan would hear and help.

Clones surrounded them as they were shuffled down the hallway, and Anakin had the horrible, sickening feeling that he had no way out of this.

R2 beeped concernedly behind him, and Anakin wanted to reassure him that it would be okay, but how could he? Surely only death awaited them.

"Amedda's orders were clear," the commander clone said to another, not far from where Anakin was being poked and prodded down the hall. "Take them to the execution chamber."

Anakin's heart rate quickened, and he wanted desperately to reach for Padmé's hand, just to hold it, but they'd cuffed him. Then he had an idea.

As soon as Obi-Wan had cleared a path for himself, he set off through the maze of endless hallways and levels and doors, reaching out with his feelings. He knew Anakin and Padmé were in danger, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where they were.

He sensed something else too, something far greater than the mission or the clones or any of it. But what? A great darkness loomed overhead, and he saw cold, soulless black eyes staring at him in his mind's eye. He fell to the side, resting against a wall, and massaged his forehead. He needed to focus.