EQAO

Chapter 9 - If Crocodiles Had Thumbs, Hers Would Be On Us

       
My friends blinked and stared at me.

"You... you don't want to cry more or something? That looked pretty traumatic." Sameera asked me.

Anika elbowed her in the side, "If she's ready to bust of here, then let's bust out of here."

"Yeah, what she said." I said, relieved that no one was going to ask me any questions, "Where do we start?"

"Well..." started Michelle, "We could try to get your phone back."

"Nah. They would've locked it up somewhere pretty secure." pointed out Sameera.

"Then how are we supposed to get out of here?" sobbed Kat as she started crying again.

"We'll figure something out!" Anika said hurriedly.

I had stayed quiet, because the feeling of hopelessness had rolled over me. My eyes were threatening to tear up again.

We'll never make it out alive.

No! I didn't want to think like that.

We will. We will. We will.

"We could maybe- " Michelle started, but was interrupted by the door flying open and hitting the wall.

Five uniformed soldiers ran inside and roughly grabbed us by the arms.

"You're going for instructions." one said gruffly, pushing us towards the door.

"We can walk by ourselves you know." I said, trying to wrench my arm out of his grasp.

"Protocols." he replied shortly.

They towed us out of the room and down the hallway. Soon enough, we reached the second detention room. Why we have two detention rooms, I'll never know. The only kids who got into detention were Jacob and his group.

"Really," I said, rolling my eyes, "all of that, just to move us to a different prison?"

The soldiers ignored me, and pushed us into the room. The hallway had been dimly lit, but this room was flooded with light. As my eyes adjusted, I noticed several cubicles along the left wall. On the right wall, there were rows of armour and weapons. There were bows, axes, swords, spears, mallets, knives, and something that looked like a big fork. Sitting in a chair, and looking extremely uncomfortable, was none other, than Mr. Folman. Once we'd entered, Mr. Folman stood up and said,

"Ah, you've arrived." 

Sameera suddenly seemed interested in a spot on the floor.

"Yes, um, well I've been assigned to instruct and prepare you." he continued.

"Great. Can we move our arms now?" Anika asked.

"I can take it from here." Mr. Folman gestured for the soldiers to leave.

They shifted awkwardly, then one said,

"We have our orders sir."

"As do I." he replied cooly.

"But sir- "

"I am to instruct and watch over the children- "

"Children?" Michelle cut in angrily.

"-the children," he continued, shooting a look at Michelle, "without other security."

The soldiers exchanged a look, then said,

"We'll be outside sir."

Then they left, closing the door behind them.

"Now then," Mr. Folman turned to look at us, "who wants a make-over?"

No one laughed or even smiled. I would've, except for the fact Mr. Folman had just referred to us as 'children', and was cracking jokes when he was about to dress us up for slaughtering.

"How..." I started, struggling to keep my voice steady, "can you just treat this like a joke? Oh wait, maybe it's because you're not the one being prepared to die!"

"It's not like that..." he looked hurt, but quickly changed to angry, "You think I don't care about you? Do you think I wanted this? You don't understand!"

"Oh, we understand plenty." Sameera said quietly.

"Why are you doing this?" Kat cried.

Everyone looked at her, then at Mr. Folman. His anger seemed to be ebbing away,

"Because I'm being drowned with no way out."