“What?” My voice seemed to almost echo.
Kartir nods rather quickly. “I don’t know how they found out, but, we need to act fast.”
From the way Kartir's shirt is, I can almost see their necklace they always wear.
Johanna looks panicked by all of this.
I am panicked too. But, I take a deep breath. “What is your plan?” I ask Kartir.
Kartir tells me, “The best idea is for us to try to go straight for the exit,... or whatever you’d want to call it. It’s probably bad idea in your eyes.”
I lay my hand on my chin before moving it. “Yeah, let’s do that.”
Kartir seems surprised by my response. “You don’t hate my idea, Oko?”
I shake my head. “Nope. It’s actually a good idea. But, I’m thinking we can head right for the back entrance. Johanna, what do you think?”
Johanna gazes to the plain, totally not interesting at all, wall. It seems like she’s in a trance—one induced by the pressure and nervousness of what we’re about to do.
We’d have to practically meet with death, stare him in the eyes, laugh, and flee.
“Johanna?” I swiftly call out, knowing we don’t have much time left.
Johanna gulps and turns, “Um yeah?”
“Are you ready?” Kartir butts in instead of me.
Johanna takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah I am.”
Kartir smiles. “I am too. Oko?”
I laugh. “Let’s fucking do this.”
In one vaulting motion, we seem to be one whole being, throwing ourselves through the open door way.
“Hey! What are you doing out?!” yells a voice.
In unison, Johanna, Kartir, and I stop and turn slowly toward the guard.
I practically freeze when I notice who it is.
Gregory—that name even sounds bitter in my mind.
Gregory laughs. “Oh what a surprise! Well, if it isn’t my old friend, Oko Martinez.” He paces down the white corridor toward me.
In a protective motion, I shove Johanna and Kartir behind me.
Gregory gets as close as his nose practically touching mine.
All I have to think is, his breath is putrid. Get a tooth brush dude.
But I don’t say that. Instead, I growl, “I’m not your friend. I never was and I never will be.”
Gregory looks slightly taken aback. He steps a few steps back. “Oh really? That really hurts my feelings. You feel like that? Even after everything we’ve been through? Everything since the first grade? Ouch. That really stings. You really know how to stomp on people’s hearts, Oko.”
I laugh slightly. “What heart?”
Gregory’s bitter smile curls in into a snarl. His eyes fill with anger. His eyebrows furrow. He stomps down hard on my foot.
I wince slightly. Then, I move onto a slightly different topic. “Speaking of heartless, where’s Laz at?”
I can only imagine that Kartir and Johanna are behind me thinking: Oko, you idiot! Stop playing catch up with the man who imprisoned you and just run!
“Laszlo Chang?” Gregory asks me. “Is he who you’re talking about?”
“Yeah.” Duh. Who else would I be talking about?
Gregory laughs, “Actually, he’s close.” Gregory unlocked a nearby room and dragged out a boy.
The Asian boy looked beaten, bruised, faint, and bleeding. His eyes looked dark in grim—like he had seen some serious shit.
I recognized that broken boy to be Laszlo Chang—in other words, Laz.
Laz gazes up to me. He recognizes me. He weakly smiles and whispers, “Privyet, Oko.”
“Laz...” I breathe. I then note out-loud “This doesn’t seem like the same boy who called the Daskanalasć task force on me.”
Gregory laughs once again. “Oh! That’s because he didn’t.”
I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean he didn’t?”
“Naive Oko...”
“He confessed right to doing it,” I say.
Gregory tells me, “Yes, he may have did the action, but his mind wasn’t really in the right place.”
I raise an eyebrow. “What?”
Gregory laughs once again, heartily. “Mind control you stupid, oaf!”
It feels like my face is burning.
Gregory pulls out a gun. “Before I kill you three, Laszlo’s time is up.”
Laz weakly frowns. He mouths, “Oh no.”
Gregory puts the gun to Laz’s head. He glances toward Kartir for a short moment. “Just think about what will happen once I report you to the Tsar. Then, it’ll be nighty nighty Kartir Keegan the Traitor!”
Kartir slightly flinches.
Gregory whispers to Laz. “Nighty nighty Laszlo!”
“Night…,” he whimpers back, his eyelids fluttering.
I can’t let Gregory do this, I think to myself.
And then, in a split moment, I kick Gregory in the chest, causing him to fall backward and help Laz up. Then I yell, “Run!”
Kartir and Johanna help Laz run.
I go to run after them.
“Not so fast,” Gregory says in a low tone. He raises his gun and shoots.
His bullet flies through the air at mock five and impales the back of my lower leg.
I stumble a tad bit and grimace but, I don’t let my pain get to me.
My mind coaxes, Hold on, Oko. Just ignore the pain. Try biting your tongue—that’ll let you ignore your injury.
Okay, I think.
I rush out of the building, making sure it that it didn’t take me long to catch up with Johanna, Kartir, and Laz.
Johanna glances at my wound from the corner of my eye. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I wince.
We head out from sector one.
Our plan is to hide out in the forest in sector seven.
Yes, I did say forest.
“Let’s hope this works,” I murmur as we run off.
YOU ARE READING
Shattered ✓ (BxB)
Teen Fiction16-year-old Obsidian Yakivev lives in a society that believes in the idea of homosexuality to be nothing other than a rare sickness. But Obsidian finds out he is attracted to other men. Whenever people find out they have this "illness" they must rep...
