My Way to Freedom

Chapter 10: 130 Mouths to Feed

I stood atop a huge rock and shouted to the people below “HEY!” They all turned to me. I had their attention.

          It had been a long night. Only 132 of us had made it through the battle. We had women mourning over lost husbands or children and men who made questions that could endanger us all if they were heard by more than the three of us. Questions like 'Why did my little girl have to die?' and 'What happens to us if we run out of food?' could strike a mutiny through these lost and mourning people, even though we had just saved their lives.

          “WE, ARE ALIVE!” I screamed to the now free men and women, “EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE LOST MANY, WE ARE STILL STRONG. MY PEOPLE, WE ARE NOW FREE MEN AND WOMEN.” they cheered at the joyful news, and I motioned them to quiet down, “WE LEAVE IN THE MORNING. FROM THERE YOU MAY GO WHEREVER PLEASES YOU MOST. KEEP IN MIND WE WILL BE HUNTED. WE ARE CONS. ROCKSHOT IS NOT GOING TO LET 135 SLAVES GO WITHOUT A FIGHT. ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE OF FINDING YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM? IF YOU ARE NOT, TURN BACK NOW. THE ROAD WILL BE ROUGH, BUT I BELIEVE THAT AS 135 FREE MEN AND WOMEN THAT WE CAN MAKE IT TO THE MAINLAND. KATHARINA WILL LEAD THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO TURN BACK TO A LIFE OF SLAVERY. GET SOME REST, WE LEAVE AS SOON AS THE SUN RISES.” I stepped down from the rock I'd been standing on and into Fox's arms.

          “Kinz, great job. You really are just such a natural leader.” He pauses when the music starts playing, “May I have this dance?”

          I smiled and put my hand in his and we started dancing to the music. The song was fast paced and we kept rhythm, hopping stone to stone and falling into each other’s arms.

          I saw a flash of blond hair as we passed a group of girls. Ash wasn't the only blond girl of Rockshot's slaves, but still I had to see.

          I walked over to the group and was disappointed to see that the blond girl wasn't Ash, but hope sparked in me when the girl told me that she'd seen Ash right before her lighthouse went out and it was time to run.

          I walked over to the where the food was being stored and see that there was only enough food to last two days. Plenty time to reach the mainland, right?

          I sighed and realized that I was dead beat from today. I made my way over to where everybody was sleeping, then walked past. Fox, Katharina, and I were sleeping by the river so that we could discuss plans in the morning. I lied down and sighed again. How was I going to take care of all these people?

I woke up four hours later to a blood curdling scream. I looked to my left and Fox was still sleeping, then I looked to my right were Katharina should have been and she wasn't there. Finally I looked up into the eyes the slavedriver that I still have nightmares about.  There was Katharina squirming in his hold, looking at me with the desperate eyes of a caged animal. She was gagged, so she could make much more noise than maybe a grunt.

I get up, ready to let out a big scream when all of a sudden I'm gagged from behind and knocked out.

I wake up, hours later, sitting in a chair with my hands and feet tied. Sitting across from me-still not awake-sits Katharina. She looked even more beat up now that she had when we were still in the forest. I looked around to my surroundings. Katharina and I were in a dungeon like building with bars around our cell. To our right were still bloody knives. There were all kinds of knives big ones, small ones, ones that had 3 or four blades on them. What were those for?

          Sitting in another jail cell was Fox tied up and gagged as well.

I wondered where the guards were-that is, if there were any.

          At that exact moment a guard rounds the corner.

          “Captain,” he called, “The olive one is up.”

          The Captain walked in and peered into my cage. Fear struck through my body. It was the slavedriver.

          “039826, how are you?”