To The Shucking End

Chapter 20

"Good fucking plan, Thomas. 'Just listen to what the man has to say.' Really working out for us," Minho remarked as they all hung upside down, ropes tied around their ankles as they were suspended in a rather deep hole. Tanya could feel her arms starting to go a little numb after she'd tucked her tank top into her pants, her braid billowing in the air.

"Oh, shut up, Minho," the boy exhaled.

"Can we not listen to Thomas the next time he has one of his genius ideas? Or at the very least discuss it first?" Tanya added.

"See that, that is a good plan. That I can get behind," Frypan agreed.

"Maybe I can reach the rope," Thomas suggested, his grunts echoing in the concrete cylinder they were trapped in before he flopped back down in failure.

"Enjoying the view?" asked Jorge as he walked onto the floor that was level with their faces.

"Yes, I love feeling the blood rush to my fucking brain as I await my impending return to involuntary human experimentation," Tanya snarked in reply and Jorge chuckled.

"I like you. You're a fighter. You've got fire," he exclaimed.

"What the hell do you want?" Thomas asked.

"That is the question. My men want to sell you back to WICKED. Life has taught them to think small. I'm not like that," he began to explain, and Tanya perked up at that, or it may have just been the blood rush. "Something tells me that you're not either."

"Is the blood rushing to my head, or is this shank not making any fucking sense?" Minho asked.

"Probably both," Tanya answered.

"Tell me what you know about the Right Arm," he demanded, waving a curve cane, namely in Thomas' face.

"I thought you said they were ghosts?" Newt recalled.

"I happen to believe in ghosts," Jorge returned. "Especially when I hear them chattering on the airwaves."

And Jorge made his way over to the lever that controlled the ropes that were tied around their feet.

"You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal," he offered as his hand enclosed around the grip on the lever.

"We don't know much," Thomas admitted.

And Jorge hit the lever as their bodies free fell a little before the rope jerked as it stopped, pulling on them tightly as they all groaned in agony.

"Okay! Okay! Alright!" Thomas relented. "They're hiding in the mountains. And they attacked WICKED and got out a bunch of kids. That's it. That's all we know."

Jorge moved away from the lever as he opened his mouth to speak but someone calling his name prevented him from doing that.

"Yo, Jorge. What's going on?" asked a large man with a goatee and a bald head.

"Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted," Jorge explained. "We're done now."

"Hey, wait! You're not going to help us?" Thomas asked as Tanya tried to shake the feeling back into her arms.

"Don't worry, hermano," Jorge said. "We'll get you back to where you belong. Hang tight."

And with that, he and the large man walked out of the room.

"Screw those shanks," Tanya cursed as her abdomen burned as she used it to try and move her body forward.

"Tanya, what are you doing?" Aris asked as she began to swing slightly.