PR150N

Chapter 15

The room was silent as Raj glared at Sol for a second, weighing up the best way to handle this situation. They had a great bond, all of them, where they could say everything honestly without fear of being judged. They were as close as people could be, they knew everything about each other and it truly showed when they fought. They cared for each other in such a manner that they would do anything to protect each other, just as I would. Raj finally and silently stood up, his teeth gritted together as he took one last look at Sol before he headed towards the door. I went to follow him but Sol grabbed my wrist.

"Just let him cool off." Sol said quietly, but I could tell Toby, Eddy and Ty weren't happy with what Sol had just done.

"I'll be back in a second." I pulled my arm from Sol's grip and headed straight to the door, letting myself out of the room. As I entered the hallway and Sol's door shut behind me, I wondered if I'd just made a mistake. Should I have listened to Sol instead of chased after a guy who doesn't like me? Had I just undermined him in front of the gang? It was their reactions that made me get up in the first place... Well, I'd made the decision now, so I may as well try to find him. "Raj?" I called as I headed down the corridor but to my shock and horror, it wasn't long until I found him. A gang of people surrounded him, beating him into a pulp in front of my eyes. My stomach dropped, I felt sick. It was happening again. Raj made eye contact with me through the barrage of attacks and his eyes pleaded for help. There were far too many people for me to be able to do this myself, especially with my rib as it was. I needed help.
I sprinted back to Sol's room and banged on the door. "It's Raj, he's being attacked!" I shouted before I sprinted straight back to the fight and leapt into it, literally. I launched myself onto the back of one person who was punching Raj and covered his eyes, yanking his head back so he stumbled away from the gathering. I jumped down off his back and kicked him in the stomach, sending him to his knees as I ran straight towards Raj again, to try and lessen the number of people surrounding him. I put all my body strength behind a barge that knocked a couple of female prisoners out of the way, before kicking another guy in the stomach to stop him in his tracks. Raj looked like a mess, surrounded by about eight prisoners, he had no chance to fight back fairly. I could only hope the others would be here in a minute to help. One of the guys I'd kicked came running at me and began to throw punches at me instead. I ducked and dodged as many as I could until I backed into Raj, the two of us suddenly surrounded by a circle of prisoners willing to fight.

"Raj, I know you don't like me but we won't get out of this well if we don't work together. Please, just this once, let's team up. I don't care if you hate me for the rest of my life after this." I said quietly to him as everyone waited for the first person to make the first move. Back to back, I had no way of knowing his reaction to what I said, but his hand found mine for a second and he gave it a squeeze.

"Let's get out of this alive." He said as he spun and threw the first punch over my head straight into the face of the guy who was attacking me. I muttered a few swear words to myself as I watched the blood pour from that guys face and suddenly, the fight was on. It was as if we'd just flipped a switch and animated everyone. We were bombarded by people, punches flying left and right as we desperately helped each other to avoid the worst of the attacks, blocked what we could and retaliated where we were able to. Raj was a huge guy, both tall and burly, he towered over my small frame like a lion beside a kitten. He was just lucky I had the speed and strength to look after myself.
We fought valiantly against the eight people, holding our own as we slowly tired them out and knocked them down. I had begun to feel triumphant before the biggest blow came. One person kicked Raj in the stomach as other punched him in the face and he fell to the floor with an almighty crash.
"Raj!" I shouted, rushing over to him. I skidded to my knees beside his head, which had a large gash running across it. "It's okay, the others are coming. Just hold on." I patted his cheek gently before I stood back up, eyeing up every prisoner as I waited for someone to make the first move. One prisoner kicked Raj while he was down so I kicked her in the chest and caused her to collapse backwards into the wall. The craziness erupted again. I did everything I could to block every attack that was meant for Raj whilst he lay dazed on the floor.
It felt like I'd been fighting forever before I heard Ty's voice over the crowd. "Raj!" He leapt into the fight in a second, quickly followed by Sol and Eddy.
"Shit! What happened?" Sol was beside me in a second.
"Fucking eight of them, Sol." Was all I could muster. "All fighting him at once." His anger erupted into a primal roar as he leapt at people, attacking everyone until they started to retreat. He returned back to my side each time, before attacking another.
"Toby is alerting our friend. This should be over soon." Those words were like music to my ears, I quickly bent down to Raj to check on him, his breathing quick as he lay on the floor.
"It'll be over soon Raj, I'm sorry. We will get you to the medic soon." The fight had taken a different turn now Ty, Eddy and Sol were here and full of energy and emotion. It was difficult for me to fight to my best when I was trying to recover, but I'd never let that stop me helping the gang.
"Thanks... Lex." He struggled. "I'm... sorry." I shook my head.
"Don't. It's fine." I said quickly.
"Weapons!!" Ty quickly shouted, alerting us all. I glanced up to see the four remaining fighters now had metal pipes. They came more prepared this time, unlike Toby's fight. I stood up and began fighting again, taking one girl on as she swung this heavy pipe around. It didn't take long for me to kick the pipe, sending the vibrations up her arms and causing her to drop it. I then threw an almighty punch at her face, knocking her out. Quickly glancing back to check on the others, I saw Ty fighting one person with a pipe, Sol fighting another. Eddy was sitting up against the wall nursing a leg injury. The third armed prisoner was about to swing their pipe down on Raj, who could do nothing more than put his arms up to protect himself.
"No!" I shouted as I ran to Raj, throwing myself in front of the pipe and taking the hit for him. The pipe hit with such force it vibrated through both myself and the prisoner who dropped the pipe afterwards. I fell to the floor beside Raj and skidded to a halt, unable to move.
"Lex?" Sol shouted. I heard a few thuds of hard hits before Ty and Sol were beside us. "Raj? What happened?"
"She took a hit." Raj said, he picked up the pipe and showed it to them. "She took it for me."
"Fuck." Ty responded. "You okay Lex?"
"I... I can't move."