We All Fall Down

|09

     The net lifts me at least ten feet into the air, attached to a single tree branch. "Marcus help!" I scream to him.

      "I'll get something to cut you down," he shouts up to me and then runs to a different tree and breaks off a branch, then throwing it up to me.

      I catch the branch and then try and cut the ropes with it, but it doesn't work. "It isn't sharp enough," I scream down to him, and then throw the branch out of the net.

      The net gets hotter and hotter, and I realize that it is catching on fire. "Marcus, the net is getting hotter, it's about to catch on fire! HELP!" I scream to him, frantically trying to find a way out of the net, which is now bright red, burning lines into my skin.

      "Um...," Marcus says and then finds a sharp rock beside a tree. "Try this," he says and throws the rock up to me.

      I catch the rock and start to cut the rope, hearing the tearing sound of the rope along with the sizzling of the rope and my skin. After cutting a couple of pieces of the rope I have enough room to escape, and I jump down onto the ground.

      I land on my stomach and knock the air out of my lungs. "Ow," I mutter as I try to regain air in my lungs.

      "Are you okay?" Marcus asks me and helps me up.

      "Yea, I'm fine," I lie. My chest hurts and I am still struggling to get oxygen into my lungs. My arms and legs are burned because of the ropes, and my clothes are also burned through. "Let's just go, and hopefully not run into any more traps."

      "Agreed," he says and nods his head as we start to walk, throwing pebbles in front of us to make sure that the ground is stable.

      I throw a pebble and it lands about three feet in front of me. At first, nothing happens, then the ground starts to cave in.

      Marcus and I back up until the caving stops. It took away about ten by ten feet of the ground. We stare at the ground, waiting for it to come back, for at least fifteen minutes, until we realize that the ground isn't coming back.

      "Marcus, what are we going to do once we get out of here?" I ask him.

      "I don't know, but they are going to take us back there, but I don't want to go back. I won't go back, not after they killed Sarah and your friend," he says to me and looks around.

      "We will get out, but I don't even know where your cell is, or how we are going to escape together," I say to him, realizing that we can't get out.

      "When they take you for another test, pretend like you are going to cooperate at first, then fight back. Kill them if you have to, then find me. I'm in cell A-96," he says and then grabs my shoulders.

      I jump, shocked by this, and then listen to what he has to say.

      "I know that you said not to leave anyone behind, but if going back for anyone, even for me, means that you will die, then don't do it," he says and I nod my head.

      "We need to go, the scientists might get annoyed that we aren't doing anything and they might set off the traps themselves."

      As if responding to my statement I hear something to my left.

      Standing there is Sarah, body burned and scarred, but presumably alive.