When Forever Ends (Part 1: A Game of Chess)

XV

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F i f t e e n

The soldiers marched us into the tunnel, hands tied behind our backs. Our weapons had been confiscated and we weren't allowed to speak. Every time I tried to say something, I received a sharp jab in the back with a dagger. With no other option, we continued on in silence.

The tunnel was perfectly round, except for two deep ruts in the floor, made by the tunneller's treads. The walls were made of hard packed sand. It seemed that the sand in the desert went pretty deep. The army marched as one and each footfall shook the path slightly, sending sand streaming down from the ceiling in small piles. There was plenty of light to see by; a few of the soldiers carried high powered lights that lit up the way ahead. The glare was like the sun, only whiter.

The worst thing, though, was the boredom. After I got over the initial shock of the idea that we had been captured (which took a while, mind you), there was nothing to do but think and walk, and the tunnel stretched on as far as I could see. We obviously had a long way to go.

━━━

A while later (I had no way of telling how much time had passed), the caravan came to a halt. There was a widening in the tunnel and the soldiers spread out on the floor, leaning against the curve of the wall.

I sank to the floor, grateful for the rest, no matter how brief. It must have been night, because I felt as if I could fall asleep instantly. I noticed that Sofie and Will had also had the same thought and had already sprawled out on the ground, fast asleep. Maya glanced at our sleeping friends, then at me with a questioning expression. I got the message and nodded, then she too slept.

I noticed that our captors didn't seem to be sleeping, nor did they seem to need it. I guessed the break was for our benefit.

I managed to shift around and saw that I was the only one of the captives who was still awake. I shrugged and lay flat on the ground. I was out in seconds.

━━━

Zzzt!

I woke to the painful touch of electricity. I forced my eyes open and saw one of the men looking down at me with a spear in hand. Blue sparks danced on the end of the metal pole.

"Get up!" The soldier's voice was like a hissing whisper. "Now!" he prodded me again with the spear.

"Okay, okay," I said, rising to my feet.

"SILENCE!" The soldiers spoke as one, almost in a yell.

I groaned and stretched, then rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I had slept dreamlessly and uncomfortably. It didn't help that I seemed to have slept on a stone and now had a dent in my back.

My friends were already standing and ready to continue moving. I noticed Sofie was nervously gnawing on the inside of her cheek, something she had been doing a lot more often, recently. Maya was looking at me with a worried look on her face. Will was yawning and looking very bored. Erin looked as if she hadn't slept at all. Looking at our ragged little group, I could see why we had been captured so easily.

The people at the front of the caravan set off down the tunnel and the rest of us followed. It wasn't like we had any choice, anyway.

━━━

The trip was long and we were miserable. There was nothing to do but walk and think and rest. We stopped three more times. I guessed these breaks happened at night because a lot of time passed in between each and I always fell asleep almost immediately. We were given no food and little water, so my stomach was protesting loudly by the time we reached the tunnel's end.

It turned sharply to the left, then sloped steeply upward. We followed it to the surface of the desert, where it opened up abruptly and gave us a spectacular view of the setting sun.

"Yaah!" I know I was supposed to be silent, but I couldn't resist. It was only then that I realized how dark the tunnel had been, even with the lights. The sun nearly blinded my friends and I, and we cringed, covering our eyes and looking away.

It didn't seem to affect the soldiers; they just marched up out of the tunnel and into the camp that surrounded us.

Evidently, the force that had captured us had set up a base at the exit. There were hundreds of tents, more than one for each soldier. They were all the same light shade of tan, almost the same color as the sand. Presumably, the light color would keep the tents cooler than if it were a dark color, like brown, as well as give them a slight camouflage when viewed from above. One tent, much bigger than the others, was sheltering crates of food for the army. Several large metal drums stood nearby, filled with water. On the hill that the tunnel dug into was a strange structure with a big curved dish of metal pointed in the direction I presumed we had come from. There were already many other soldiers moving around the camp like ants on an anthill. These must have been reinforcements, in case the first group failed to obtain us. A heavily beaten path of footprints led off into the distance and I squinted down it, trying to see the place these people had come from.

As we were led into the camp, the soldiers that had accompanied us there dispersed among the sea of tents, some disappearing into the tents, others grabbing some food or water. The man with the spear took us to a medium-sized tent with the gas mask logo on it and ushered us inside.

The tent was furnished for a group of five people: obviously, they had been expecting us. I assumed we were meant to spend the night, because there wasn't much more than five sagging cots complete with beat-up pillows.

I had no intention of staying the whole night, however. I had a plan to escape.