Disorder Appearing

Chapter 11-Girl Power

In case you were wondering, no Titus didn't turn on me at the last second and knock me out. No, it's a lot worse than that. Somehow, the military men knew that Tali and Titus were in communications with each other, and they set us up. Tali had no knowledge they knew either, and she lead us straight into the trap, without ever meaning to. Titus is shackled to the wall, Tali is strapped down to a bed, and I'm shackled to a pole basically in the middle of everything. Military men have come and gone. They've dragged Tali and Titus away for what seem like hours at a time, and each time they come back tired or bleeding from whatever the military men are doing to them. They look exhausted but really, I've been in and out of consciousness for I don't know how long, so there's no telling what is really going on. All I know is that whole thirty-two minutes apparently was miscalculated, because we've been here for far longer than ten minutes, and yet no one has shown up trying to kill us. I mean, that's a good thing, but if there was some sort of distraction, well, maybe we could find a way out of here.

"You are awake." I hear a voice break my train of thoughts and look towards the wall. Titus' eye is swollen shut, he's got blood on his lip, and his cheek is swollen, he looks like hell. "Thanks." He grins and I roll my eyes. In the short time I've been out, I sort of forgot that he had the whole mind reading trick.

"Where are we?" I ask, it hurts to talk, although I'm not quite sure why, and Titus just shrugs. He doesn't know, which is not encouraging whatsoever. "They call this, The Pit. They have been bringing me to and from this place for over a week. I must say, it is better than the box they shoved me in right before you two got here." Another voice breaks the silence and I turn towards the table. Tali. The one we came all this way for. She's the spitting image of Titus. Tall, skinny, pale skin, blue eyes, but instead of white/blonde hair, she has dark brown short hair. Which is odd, but who knows, maybe she dyes it. She's fairly quiet, hasn't said much, and every time she has talked, that's type of stuff she says, really chipper stuff, I'm telling you.

"Any plans?" I ask slowly. They both look at each other and then to me. "Nope." They say at the same time, and I just hang my head. Sounds about right. No one has a plan. We're stuck. And there's no hope to be seen.

The weight of not having any answers or any hope is almost too much to bear. This was supposed to be something simple, this was supposed to take a grand total of thirty-two minutes. Never was it supposed to end like this. Titus keeps on apologizing, saying that he didn't mean to involve me like this, and no matter how many times I tell him it's not his fault, he just continues to apologize. Tali hasn't said much, and when she does she guarantees Titus that it wasn't his fault but hers, which only makes things worse, because then they get caught up in how it wasn't the other one's fault. Tali and Titus keep silently having conversations and then randomly saying things out loud, but as far as getting away, yeah, we have no plans.

Twice I've fallen asleep, but each time it doesn't last long. The first time, a guard woke me up when he brought one plate of basically scraps for the three of us to share. Both Tali and Titus made me eat it all, insisting they were fine, and even though I didn't like the idea of not sharing, I didn't try to persuade their opinions. The food, if you could even call it that, sucks, but it's better than nothing. The second time I get woken up by the sound of Tali screaming bloody murder. She's not scared, or screaming because she's hurt, oh no, she's livid about something I clearly missed out on.

"Bring. Him. Back. NOW!" Tali screams at a guard that clearly isn't amused by her outrage. He says something under his breath that I can't make out, but clearly Tali heard him, or read his mind, one or the other she knows what he said and she's clearly not okay with it. Me on the other hand, I'm completely unaware of what is going on around here. Bring who back? Tali shoots me this desperate look and slowly I start putting two and two together. Titus. Apparently, they've taken Titus, and apparently it's not a good thing.

"Where did they take him?" I am actually talking to the guard, but Tali answers they've simply taken him away, which isn't at all encouraging...or very helpful for that matter.

We need to come up with a plan and we need to do it now. Desperately I start looking around. I'm tied to basically the support beam of the room. Dead center, too far from anything or anyone to actually get free, and even if I could, it's not like I could do anything if I got free, right? Tali looks at me, she knows I'm trying, but obviously she's expecting answers and fixes like now, which is understandable, but really I don't know what else I could do. My hands are tied...literally. What do I do? I question myself, and Tali looks at me then to my hands.

You have zip ties. Tali's voice breaks through my thoughts and I look down. My hands are crossed one on top of the other, and they are tied by those big heavy duty type zip ties, I'm really not getting where she's going with this. And? I question and she stares at me slightly surprised. Maybe she didn't expect me to respond.

If you straighten your fingers out, you could actually slip out of the zip ties, the hardest part is getting your thumb out. She is staring at me intently, so I do exactly what I'm told and notice the zip tie grow a little slacker. Okay, so say I can get out of here...but then what? I question as I try to secretly maneuver my way out of the zip ties. I can actually feel my hands coming free, which is a start, but I haven't got a clue as to what to do next.

Do you still have the small weapon? She questions and I stare at her dumbstruck, how the hell does she know that Titus gave me the tiny weapon? There is no time for questions, do you have it or not? She questions demandingly. The weapon was given to me right before we got through the first door. Titus said it was for emergencies only, and so I'd stuffed it into my hiking boot and until she mentioned it, I had completely forgotten about it. Sure enough, it's still there. I nod quickly while the guard kicks something, and she smiles.

Get out of the handcuffs, and fire. She smiles and my face somewhat drops. Um, not exactly the best plan, plus, how am I supposed to get the tie off with a guard not ten feet away? Leave that to me. Tali smiles and then nods as if to signal it's time to put this crazy scheme into motion. I start working on my end and suddenly out of nowhere, Tali begins to scream as if someone is seriously killing her. The guard's eyes sort of grow wide, and he walks over to evaluate the situation and as soon as his back is turned I try to wiggle out. Tali continues to scream, the guard starts shouting at her, telling her to shut up, and yet she continues to scream, and if it's possible, I swear she's gotten even louder, and it's clearly frustrating the guard to no end.

I've almost got it, keep it up for just a few more seconds. I tell Tali as she continues to scream. Tali screams and screams and the guard yells and yells, and slowly, slowly, the tie comes loose. My thumb is almost out, just gotta jimmy my hands right, uh, yep there it is! Freedom! I go for the weapon in my boot just as Tali stops screaming. The guard turns faster than I expected and now I'm face to face with an armed and very pissed off guard. I smile as Tali screams at me to fire, so I do, the guard goes down and Tali starts laughing.

"Take his weapons and his knife and the keys, come unlock these stupid things, and let's get out of here." Tali smiles and I just silently follow her commands. Quickly, I do as she commands and then she shackles the guard up. She even thinks to gag him with his own shirt, which is brilliant because I would have never thought to do that.

"Do you know where to go?" I ask, but Tali doesn't answer. She's too busy fiddling with the lock on the door to get us out of here to even pay attention. "I have a pretty good idea." She says as the door falls open. She's got a really weird look on her face, something tells me, wherever we're going, it's not a good place.