“Ralph! There’s an emergency!”
I ran into Keera on my way to Ralph’s office. Keera was one girl who I had a problem with. She was a year younger than me but had a horrible attitude and acted like trash. I used to be friends with that girl before she changed… key words; before she changed… and for the worst.
“What’s your problem, Astrid? Damn… stop yelling your disturbing the peace.” Keera says as she twirls a chunk of her black hair.
“Get out of my way.” I mumble and run past her as I start yelling for Ralph again. It was hard to resist pushing her out of my way.
Ralph comes around the corner, running. I run up to him and grab his arms, “We need to leave. The soldiers know we’re down here.”
“How?” Ralph nearly yells as he grabs my hands and squeezes them so hard it nearly hurts.
“Daniel must have heard them saying that when they dumped him in the dumpster to here.” I say.
“Thank you, darling. We have to leave now. Go to Doc and tell him to pack everything up. I’ll get back-up here by midnight. Run, now, Astrid, quickly!” He yells and we part our ways, both of us running.
The Emergency bell goes off and I hear Ralph’s voice on the intercom, “I’ve just been informed of an attack by the soldiers will be tomorrow. We are leaving. Everyone pack your things up and leave nothing behind. We leave at the sight of the moon.”
I run into the Medical Room and Doc is already throwing things into boxes.
“Doc, do you need my help?” I ask, huffing because I’m out of breath.
“No, but do pack Daniel and your things. I should probably put him in the healing sleep for the next two hours. I hope he’s done healing by then.”
I run across the Medical Room and into the room that Daniel and I shared. I started with his things because mine would take less time. He had more things from home… I had few things from my family.
After I was done packing his things I picked up the mattress off his bed and picked up his guns, knives, and other various weapons. I was the only person other than him that knew that he had those weapons. I throw them in a bag carefully. I stuff the few clothes and personal weapons I had into a duffel bag. Something flutters out of the bag and onto my foot. I bend down and pick it up, smiling.
It’s a picture of Daniel and I when I was 12 and he was 15. I was sitting on his shoulders, laughing as I held my hands over his eyes. He was sticking his tongue out. In the background was somewhere Daniel and I had always loved; the Lonely Island. Not a lot of people went there but it was the most beautiful place in the world to us. Our families used to go there when things with the government made it too risky for us and our siblings to be out and about. The soldiers would use us as bait to get our parents to give them information if they had the chance, so we would go to a safe place.
I sigh and tuck it in my back pocket. I put my bag onto my back and pick up Daniel’s big bag of things. Kicking open the door, I cross the hall towards the Medical Room. Doc has all the things already packed up and Daniel is in healing sleep. I watch as his body quickly makes all the scratches on his face disappear and I see color come back to his face.
“They’re serving a late dinner in the Café, Astrid. If you would, go get me some and get yourself some also. I must finish packing all of this.” Doc says as he is categorizing medicine into boxes.
“Sure, Doc.” I smile and set my things along with Daniel’s onto the floor beside the door.
I come back with two plates and two drinks. I could tell the food was leftovers from a few days ago because of the refrigerator taste it had. I ate it anyways; You can’t be picky if you want to live.
***
Doc curses, “It won’t let me unplug him until it’s complete! It’s going to be thirty minutes before it’s finished.” It was already past midnight and the soldiers could be here any minute.
“You go, Doc, I’ll catch up somehow.” I say and clasp my shaking hands together.
“We can’t risk your life too. Let’s leave him here.” Doc says.
“What? I’m not leaving him. You can go or you can stay but I would suggest you go.” I say, “Daniel and I have had experience and training. We can get out of here, safely.”
Doc picks up his things and runs out. I feel like yelling out that he’s a coward. Why would he want to leave Daniel?
Minutes pass but it feels like hours. Then it becomes fifteen minutes passing and then-
Someone’s coming down the hall. Their feet are booming and I hear commands being yelled.
I run to hide behind the door, waiting to see if the soldiers would come into this room.
I see a line of soldiers running through the halls. Someone points to the Medical Room and a soldier comes into the room. I hold my breath. The soldier looks to the room Daniel is in and brings up his gun, aiming it at Daniel.
I bring up my gun and shoot him in the back of the head. I close my eyes. I didn’t want to see his blood splattered on the glass between Daniel and I. I look at the soldier and his eyes are glassy. A pool of blood is forming around his body.
“I think I heard a gunshot!” A soldier yells in the distance.
“Where?” Another yells.
“Down over here.” One yells.
I hide behind the door with all my senses perfect and carefully waiting.
Two soldiers come through the door. One is a man and one is a woman probably in her early twenties. I shoot the man in the side and he screams in pain and falls to the ground, coughing up blood.
The woman looks at me with wide eyes and I take that hesitation to attack her, I roundhouse kick her in the stomach. She falls to the ground holding her stomach. Grabbing her, I hold her in front of me, “Stay quiet and if you make one noise, I will kill you just like I did these other two men.”
She nods and it looks like tears in her eyes. I push her into the far corner into the room and grab something heavy. I swing it and hit her in the head with it, knocking her out. I walk to the other side of the room and sit down. I began to wait eight more minutes for Daniel to be fully healed.
Five minutes turns into one minute. I press a blue button and I hear Daniel shuffling around in the room behind me.
He opens the door and it hits the first soldier I shot.
“What are we doing here?”Daniel asks as he looks at the man with confusion.
“I was waiting for you. Now let’s get out of here.” I say and stand up. I give him his bag and I pick up mine.
“If you can’t already tell,” I say and point at the two dead soldiers, “The soldiers are here.”
Daniel nods and gets out one gun for himself. We began to leave the Medical Room.
“Let’s go.” I mumble to Daniel and we take off running towards the exit.
Right as we are about to get to the door, I hear a gunshot and pain shoots through my entire body. I scream out in pain and my body tries to crumple to the ground.
“You should have killed me, bitch.” The female soldier yells.
Daniel turns his body towards her and shoots her between the eyes, “So, I will now. Nobody messes with my people.”
I crumple to the ground and Daniel says quickly, “They’re coming, we have to be quick. I’m going to carry you put it’s going to hurt you a lot.”
I look him in the eyes as a way of saying ‘okay’. I’m too afraid to move too much. As Daniel picks me up, I clench my teeth and groan in pain. Daniel runs through the exit and up the stairs. When he gets to the top, a black jeep sits in front of us.
Ralph’s backup. Ralph gets out of the front seat and I close my eyes and their voices sound muffled.
“She’s shot in the shoulder.” I hear Daniel say. I fall asleep in his arms… such a safe place.
