The Shattered

Chapter 10: escape planning

As promised, no longer than five minutes later, a shorter boy about our age that reminded me of a rat came to deliver breakfast and untie us. He untied Ethan first, but instead of getting up, 'looking alive', he just sat there with glassy eyes staring off into space. When he untied me, I booked it over to Ethan, hoping to find that he wasn't as hurt as he looked. No such luck. The man took one look at the two of us together and mumbled something about bringing up some water for us to wash off with. He put the two plates of breakfast by the door and left with a promise to return soon. Ethan still looked like a statue. He hadn't moved at all since he had been untied, and his complete lack of emotion was worrying me.

"Ethan? Are you okay?" I asked quietly. I waved a hand in front of his face, but he was unfazed. He didn't even blink. I tugged at his arm, hoping that he would snap out of it, but instead he tugged it away and rested it back in his lap. The smell of bacon invaded my senses and I gave up on trying to wake Ethan up. He'd come to his senses when he felt like it, and no amount of effort on my part was about to change that. I walked over to the plates that were resting on the floor and picked one up. I studied its contents. On the plate was a pile of mashed potatoes with a bit of butter on top, a bowl of something that looked like rabbit stew, and a piece of hard bread. It wasn't great, but it was food, and I was hungry. I dove into the meal, enjoying it a lot more than I had originally thought I would. The mashed potatoes were completely smooth, the stew was delicious, and the bread was... okay. Hard, mostly. I soaked it in the remainder of my stew, which made it a little bit softer, but it did almost nothing to improve the stale taste. Oh well.

I glanced back over at Ethan, who still hadn't moved. Maybe if I brought him his food it would help...

I picked up his plate and carried it over to where he still sat. I placed it on his lap and took a seat next to him, hoping that he would soon come back and join me in the land of the living. Having this brain dead Ethan was about equivalent to having a zombie as a roommate. Food works wonders for teenage boys, and it certainly did the trick for Ethan. He came out of his trance almost immediately; gulping the food down so quickly that I was worried he might choke on it.

After he was done he shook his head as if to wake himself up from a dream, and looked around the room. His eyes fell on me and he smiled tiredly.

"Sorry about that, Rin. I guess that I was just lost in thought for a while there." Right about then he realized that he was untied, and stood up, pulling himself up to his full height. He stretched his arms up above his head, causing his t-shirt to ride up, revealing a sliver of his flat stomach. I smacked the exposed skin and he quickly put his arms back down, sticking his tongue out at me. I returned the favor.

As if on cue, the rat man walked back in with a large bucket of water. He was staggering under the weight, and even though I knew that this man might be one of my captors, I rushed over to help him.

"Careful! You might hurt your back carrying that much water on your own!" I scolded him, and even though he seemed to know that he had the upper hand in this situation, he smiled sheepishly and the tips of his ears turned red. He muttered an extremely muted apology under his breath, and together we managed to get it over to the corner of the room without spilling much more than a few drops. The man produced two hand towels out of his pockets and ducking his head, he quickly hurried out of the room. I heard the click of lock and then his footstep retreating down the hallway.

Ethan walked over to the bucket to stand beside me, and I managed to get him to sit down so that I could clean him up. As I wiped away the dirt and blood off of his face, we made small talk. Both of us were skirting the imminent problem at hand, the fact that we were trapped in a room together in an unknown place of the island.