When we all finished our laps the instructors led us to the same room we had waited and ate in the first day. Some boy that was older than me, and had been training longer had won, but that was okay. I looked around. There were many boys that had been training here longer than me. They knew exactly what to do.
I walked up to the food spot, following the older boys. I got in line and waited nicely.
"Toby, Toby!" I hear Amare's voice. I looked behind me. He was weaving through the crowd towards me.
"What? What are you doing!?" I say.
"Sorry, I just had to tell you that I'm going to do the escape plan right now. My new friend Jeffrey... he is standing over there. His brother failed the test too, he is coming with us."
"Oh, okay..." I say, sort of surprised.
"We are going now. Let's go!" He says impatiently. He runs the other way towards the kid named Jeffrey. "Hey Jeffrey, you got the plan down right?" He says.
"Yeah." Jeffery replied in Arabic.
"Why isn't he talking in Sudanese, Amare?" I asked.
"He doesn't know our language, dumbo. He is from a village in Eritrea. He only speaks Arabic and Tigrigna! Get a brain Toby! Didn't you learn that in school?" He started to walk away.
"No..." I said confused.
"We need to hurry to the escape ladder!" Jeffrey exclaimed. "The guard switch is going to happen soon." He says urging us to hurry.
"Jeffrey you go to that instructor tell him you have to pee, you to that one Amare. I'll go there. Meet me back at Amare and I's sleep room." I say in Arabic so Jeffrey will understand.
I run to an instructor.
"I need to go to the bathroom." I say.
"Fine." He says, grabbing my arm. "Zattahr, come guard this entrance please! Let's go." He says.
Dang it! They are smarter than I thought. We get to the bathroom. I wait to see if he enters. He doesn't. Yes! I think. Immediately I start looking for a way out. Windows are barred... well, the door is being guarded... there is another small door... what is that? I look at the door, I look around for something to open the door... open the lock... something has got to work. I guess a bathroom isn't the best spot to look for something like that. I look around for something skinny and longish.
I looked at the floors, the stalls, the walls. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. There was a paper nailed to the wall. It told you which ways to get to the eating place. I ripped the paper off the wall.
"Hey everything okay in there?!" I heard the man's voice.
"Yea, it's just taking a while...if you know what I mean!" I say.
The guard let out a light chuckle.
I try to rip one of the nails out of the wall but it's pretty jammed in there. I pull and pull. My fingers slipping on the nail. I felt progress when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around, looking at who was there, ready to punch them in the face. It was Amare.
"I'm pretty sure Jeffrey is in the other boy's bathroom!" He whispered.
"Help me get this nail out!" I said. "I'm going to use it to unlock that door and we can get out of here." I say. I try to pull the nail out. I work on it for a while and finally it comes out, real fast and I fall to the floor.
"What's going on in there?" I hear an unfamiliar voice call out. It must be Amares guard. I look towards Amare. His eyes look just like mine probably do right now. Open wide with fear. I grab the nail and stick it into the door's lock. I fiddle with it and it opens. "Okay, you know what boys? I'm coming in there! This is unacceptable!" Amare ran through the door, I started to follow him but I heard footsteps right behind me. "What do you think your doing?!" I slowly turned around and looked up at the squinted face of the instructor. "Your coming with me. This is your only warning. If you ever try to pull something like this again, you're little butt will be thrown into the Jeep with boys who failed the test." He grabbed my neck and harshly guided me out of the bathroom and back to the eating place.
I was dissapointed that I would not get to go with Amare, and I would never help him and Jeffrey, but I am happy Amare will have a chance at saving his brother.
Since then no night would pass without me wondering about what had happened to them.
YOU ARE READING
The Prodigy and the Stray(UNDER MAINTENANCE)
AdventureThis book is a dystopian future. A boy named Toby lives in a small village until his parents are killed and he is sent underground to train for war. One day when Toby is deployed, he finds some complications. The 2nd character is a girl. Her name i...
