Taken

Chapter five

The lab-coaters continued wheeling my bed. The ground beneath me was uneven, but it didn't seem to bother them. They pulled me along as easily as if I were a feather on the wind.

They didn't seem to care that I'd removed my blindfold either. The man had glanced back at me once, but he'd just shrugged.

Several more times the fluffy pink creatures swooped out of the sky intent on killing me. Each time the man or one of the lab-coaters grabbed it at the last second and snapped it's neck as casually as if they were separating a pair of chopsticks.

Slowly the terrain began to change. The plants on the ground shifted to a deeper blue and the leaves got smaller until they were about the size of me.

The lab-coaters carried me over a hill. In the distance I saw lights. Up ahead was a massive city. The buildings were bigger than New York's skyscrapers and had more colors than a box of crayons.

As I was brought closer to the city I saw that the air was filled with millions of hovering red lights. Red was an odd color choice for light, but then again, maybe aliens had different color preferences.

Ten minutes later I arrived at the edge of the city. The lab-coaters had stopped at the end of a road. The man pulled something out of his pocket. He tapped it a couple times then put it away.

A few minutes later something resembling a bus came into view. It was glossy black, had three stories, and had tinted windows every couple of feet. It lacked wheels and was gliding along an arm's length above the road.

It paused a couple feet in front of the man. A large door on the side opened. The lab-coaters picked my bed up and lifted me onto the bus.

The walls and floor of the bus were bright white aside from a metal square in the center of the floor. The lab-coaters wheeled me onto this square. As soon as the bed was centered I felt it being pulled down. For a moment I panicked, thinking that the square was lowering into the ground, but I glanced to the side and saw that it wasnt moving. I guessed it was magnetic, that would explain the pulling.

I shifted my attention from the square to the rest of the bus. I spotted the man near the front. He was talking to a woman who I assumed was the bus driver. As I watched the man handed a paper to her. The woman's eyes widened as she took the paper. She read over the paper, nodded, and climbed up a set of stars in the corner that I assumed led to the second floor. A moment later there was a whirring and I felt the bus begin to move.

I realized that the bus was taking me deeper into the city. There would be more freakishly powerful people there. It would be a million times harder to escape. I needed to escape now.

I inspected my restraints, they were metallic and most certainly too strong for me to break, but I noticed they'd taken on a slightly more squashed shape than before. The points where they connected with the frame of the bed appeared strained. It must be the magnets holding the bed in place. They must be too strong for the metal. If I could find I way to add pressure to the restraints then I might be able to break them. I'd have to move quickly and somehow break all four at once. The second the lab-coaters or the man realized what was happening they'd stop me, and their grip's would be impossible to escape.

I searched around for anything that might be useful, but the bus, or at least the first floor of the bus, was pretty much empty. There were the people, the stairs, and the door. The only useful thing I noticed was a red button beside the door. If I was lucky it was the button to open the door.

I took a deep breath. I'd have to escape using only myself. I would've preferred to press down on the top of the restraints, but that would be impossible on my own. It wouldn't work quite as well, but maybe I could push on the restraints from their sides.

I readied myself and began to push. Pain flared in my wrists as my injuries were pressed against the restraints. My injured arm throbbed in response to the movement.

I forced myself to ignore the pain. I pushed harder and harder until I was at the very limit of my strength. I glanced at the restraints. Slowly, every so slowly, they were bending.

My arms and legs shook from the effort, but I refused to let up. The further into the city I got the more danger I would be in. These council people were undoubtedly dangerous, and I did not want to meet them.

I would do whatever it took to escape, and after that...I wasn't sure how I'd get home, but I'd figure that out when the time came.

I continued to push on my restraints. They continued to bend. My muscles were in agony. I wanted to scream out. I had to fight to stay silent. Any noise and I'd surely be stopped.

A second later I saw the restraints start to tear away from the bed frame. With one last burst of strength I tore them free. They flew across the bus and hit the floor with a chorus of metallic clangs.

All eyes turned to me.