The N.D.P

Chp.5: A Break?

"What the," Max awoke again from his sleep. He looked around and noticed he was in the dorm! And in the same bed in the corner. He sighed in relief and got out of bed. Everyone was gone. Then he heard a loud snore coming from the top of the bunk bed he slept in. Max turned around and saw Ego sound asleep in his bed. He looked a whole lot different. His hair was short and he was all ripped up. He wanted to wake Ego up but he needed his sleep after all he had fought for in the tornado. So Max left the dorm and walked to the bathroom to use the restroom. It was a long walk from the dorm to the bathroom but he liked the peace and quiet. When he made it to the bathroom he heard chatter coming from the door that led to the room where he first found all the kids. He was shaking because he was just shot with a gun and he didn't feel a bit of pain except for his back because of the long climb down the ladder. Max ignored the chatter and went into the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw the horrendous picture before him. It was a teen wearing the same clothes he had been wearing before, but the jacket was ripped even more and there was a lot of blood stains. His hair was full of dirt and cotton. Max almost screamed. The object in the mirror was him!
"I look..... like a monster," Max said. He wanted to know his past and he wanted to know now! He looked at himself again and sighed. This was him now. And no matter what happened, he was going to find out what was going on. And by this time he almost forgot about the woman on the radio. He almost thought Java was the boss for a second. Max used the bathroom and left the room. He then opened the door to all the kids and saw all the kids sitting and talking. He saw Cloco and Murphy sitting right next to each other talking with smiles and laughs. Everyone was smiling and seemed to think everything was over, but for some reason Max didn't think it was. He then fixed his eyes on the poster on the wall of the train. Max gasped. The poster said "Congratulations on completing the N.D.P!" Max smiled with them and left the room. He went to wake Ego and tell him the news. He was whistling all the way there. And suddenly the gloomy dark room turned into a hallway of beauty and light. His heart was full and he was so excited to see his family and remember everything. Then he heard Java talking to someone. Max was going to thank them once they walked through the door.
"What are we doing once they get to the quote and quote exit?" Pildue asked. At that Max stopped. He wanted answers. So he hid behind a pile of boxes. Just then Java and Pildue walked into the room and stopped.
"Well the quote and quote exit, is going to be another N.D," Java laughed. Pildue frowned. Max gasped.
"Did you hear that sir?" Pildue growled. Max froze. Java looked around the old and rusty room full of supply crates and focused on the boxes Max was hiding behind then turned his head back to Pildue not seeming to care.
"No," Java said.
"Hmmm. As I was saying I don't think you should lie to the-
"Now you listen here," Java cut him off by grabbing his neck. "I'm the boss now, you listen to me! I already have something planned for her," Java let him go. Pildue grabbed his neck.
"In all do respect sir *cough* she is locked tight in her safe house, how are you going to take her away and change the Exit to an N.D?" Pildue asked in anger.
"I have my ways," Java cackled. "Now, you go and deal with the teens. I got the boss." Pildue walked away. But just as Pildue opened the door Java said "If you tell them anything, I will personally deal with you myself and promote Stockten. You hear!" Pildue looked back and nodded sadly and walked through the door. Java turned around and walked through the door he came from. Max knew by how Pildue acted in that conversation that he didn't agree with Java and his horrible ways but Pildue didn't look like he was ready to revolt so Max had to stop him in his tracks. Max got up and ran after him. He bursted through the first door into a new cart that Max knew was two carts away from the teens. Pildue must have already walked through the cart Max was in because he wasn't in there. Max ran as fast as he could and couldn't admire the vintage room he was in, and hastily ran through the cart and pushed open the next door. The next room Pildue was in and when Max slammed through the door startled Pildue jumped back.
"What the!" Pildue screamed. Max also jumped back startled by Pildues reaction. "What are you doing here kid?!" Pildue looked angry this time unlike when he was inside of the dark room when he escaped the beautiful underground mansion.
"Pildue, I heard everything that just went down." Max admitted. Pildue looked scared and put his hand on the pistol he held on his belt.
"Woah woah! I'm not going to tell them dude! Just give me a second to talk." Pildue took out his revolver from his belt and pointed it at Max's head. Max froze, he felt his heart stopping its beat.
"What do you have to say kid," Pildue put his gun against Max's head and looked down upon him in anger. Max felt a lump in his throat. He hadn't planned this far ahead. And even if he did he couldn't get the words out of his mouth. Pildue looked at his gun as if he was going to shoot. Max braced for impact but then he felt the gun lifted off of his head. Pildue knelt down so he was the same height as Max and they looked at each other face to face.
"Listen here kid," Pildue said. "I'm going to go with the plan and you're going to die so mind as well tell you the plan because I can kill you, you're not an asset to us." Max saw the opportunity to grab out his voice recorder he found in the locker room at the mansion. He held down the trigger of the recorder and it started recording.
"Your friends are going to go through an exit. Buuuuuut it's not actually going to be an exit, and your friends will be walking into another, N.D," Pildue revealed. Max stopped holding the trigger and hastily whipped the recorder out of his pocket. He played the recorder back. "Your friends are going to go through an exit. Buuuuuut it's not actually going to be an exit" Max stopped it.
"Am I not an asset now?" Max questioned with a large grin. Pildue tried to swipe the recorder away but Max put it back in his pocket.
"I could just kill you right now, so I don't understand your point," Pildue said pointing his gun right in the middle of Max's skull. Max had not thought of him killing him on the spot and decided his idea probably wasn't as good as he thought it was. But then he got an idea.
"I know how to use the microphone in the office," Max said and grinned. Pildue let out an awful smile just like Java.
"Ok, then why don't you tell me how you're going to get there?" Pildue asked. Once again one of Max's plans backfired, he hadn't once again thought of that. Max looked at Pildue and his wretched smile and knew he wasn't going to make it out. So Max went to his knees and looked at the ceiling and started crying. Pildue laughed mockingly.
"I was just like you boy," he said, still laughing. "Physically weak and mentally weak. But when I met the boss of this whole operation, I changed. Don't think you'll change though. Ay, you are as weak as a cardinal. Can't carry anything but worms," Pildue aimed his gun at Max's head and said one last thing. "Ya fought well for a weakling, but I can't have some information being spread." Then he shot the gun.

Max's heart froze and his body shuddered and his ears were ringing. He didn't feel the pain but he thought that was because he was dead, he opened his eyes to a blur. He couldn't make out what was behind the blur, but it wasn't a bright paradise, it was more dark. Then he heard sudden shrieks and screams and yelling from a man. And when his eyes adjusted, he saw Ego fighting for his life against Pildue. And the screams became more clear.
"Mmmx! Mmmmaxxx! Maaaaaax! For the fiftieth time go to the office and use the recorder on the microphone!" Ego screamed. Pildue had blood all over his body and a big puncture in his chest. Max couldn't make out how he had got it but he didn't care. If his adrenaline wasn't pumping through his veins he would've felt the huge scratch on his arm from the bullet just missing the middle of his arm. Max wanted to help Ego, but then if both of them died, Ego's valiant effort to help spread the word would have been for nothing. Max sprinted from cart to cart and knew he'd be halfway when he made it to the barracks. When he saw the barracks he ran faster. His heart nearly burst because of how hard it was beating. Max didn't use the doorknobs but his shoulder. He broke the weak doors entirely off the hinges and kept going. Once again he would have realized his shoulder was nearly dislocated but he couldn't feel the pain. After what felt like hours of running he finally made it to the big brown doors and stopped. This time he used the doorknob. He opened it slowly and peeked through the door. There in the chair was a woman tied up with a dirty cloth in her mouth.
"Ma'm, you know I've always been under your control and you, in my opinion, go way too easy on the crazed kids," Java cackled. The woman tried to make the chair fall backwards so it would crack and let her out but Java held it with his huge hands. The woman in the chair was wearing a really nice suit. She was an old woman, maybe sixty or fifty years old. Suddenly she pushed the cloth out of her mouth with her tongue and spit out the dirt in her mouth.
"I trusted you!" The woman said. Java smirked and let the chair go. It fell backwards and broke on the ground. Java picked her up by the collar of her suit and threw her against the wall.
"I always thought you went way too easy on the kids. And you are such a girl lover that you never send them to the N.D.P. Which is why I'm going to take the leadership role. You can join me if you'd like but, if you don't. There will be consequences," Java growled. Then Max instantly knew who the woman was. It was the boss! Max was about to help her but then remembered the plan so he decided to wait for Java and her out and leave the room. Max closed the door slowly and sat on the boxes listening.
"I'll never join you!" The boss yelled. Max heard a door close and then it was silent. Max looked through the tiny crack in the middle of the door and saw an empty room. So he slowly pushed open the door. No one was in there. He heard distant screams coming from the door to his right so he hastily tiptoed to the messy desk. Max looked at it in aw. There were almost fifty buttons on the desk. They were all a different color. None of them were labeled. Max gulped and pressed one of the buttons. Rock music blasted the room and Max quickly turned it off with the only labeled button. Max then pressed a red button. Then, a huge TV came slowly down from the ceiling. Max looked behind him and saw all the teens lined up and ready to go through the quote and quote exit! Max quickly pressed a button that was the color orange. Then a disco ball came from the ceiling. Max (without pressing the off button) pressed two more and a dozen chairs came out of the walls and stopped in front of his desk and the second one made an Intercom noise and then, when he said hello, he could hear himself. Max without thinking turned on the recorder and it started playing. Max looked behind him on the screen, but this time there were only two kids not inside the N.D and we're making their way inside.
"No! Guys wait, it's a trap!" Max cried through the intercom. But they just kept going. Two seconds later the door to his left slammed open and there was Java scowling at him.
"You shouldn't be here," he growled. Then he grabbed a club off his belt and ran at Max preparing to swing. Hastily, Max dodged the swing of Java's huge club. But when Max started to run out of the room a wooden club smacked him right in the face and he was knocked out. The only thing Max could see for those long five minutes was Java and Pildue laughing as they dragged him through the "exit".