Divided

Chapter Fifteen

Thalia

The girl pushes me to the ground, and the breath is knocked out of me. I breathe heavily when she begins to tie a rope around my ankles. When she's done, she begins to drag me towards the hole in the wall. She's facing the other way, and I try to get a grip on my ankles. I finally have a hold on them, and I begin to untie the knot. I finish and fall to the ground. I run as fast as my  body will allow me, and I break out of the fake forest. Then I am faced with twenty motionless people paralyzed on the floor. Others are trying to pound the blue fence dividing us from everyone else, just to drop to the floor. I know that heading for the wall is meaningless, so I look for other options. I scan the wall, but see nothing at first. Then I look again, and hear the pounding of feet in the woods. Then I remember the hole. I run to the side, and dive into the tree branches.

Cold mud greets me when I hit the ground, but I immediately get back up. I run through the woods, tripping on tree roots and getting hit in the face by low tree branches. I jump over a fallen tree, and continue through a patch of rocks. I find a river, and jump over it. I look behind me to make sure I'm not making any tracks, but the mud on my shoes has dried. I trip over a tree root and fall on my face, and my nose begins to throb. I push myself up, and ignore the intense pain shooting through my head from my nose. I hear faint voices, and slow down. I get on my belly, my camouflage still on, and crawl across the ground. The voices become clearer, and I advance faster. I look through the trees, and see two Macsars, a man and a woman, guarding the hole. I watch them talk, and then I hear a loud crack coming from the other side of the woods. They turn, and the woman inserts an arrow on her bow string. She pulls the string back to her face, waiting for an ambush. Then a girl explodes from the woods, making a mad dash for the hole. The woman releases the string, and the arrow hits the girl square in the knee. She screams out in pain and falls to the ground, gripping the arrow embedded in her knee. She tries to pull it out but the guards grab her arms before she can. She pulled towards the hole, and dragged out of the room. I'm about to run to the hole to see what they're doing when two other guards step over the hole, and plant their feet firmly in the spot where the last guards were standing. I turn and press myself against a tree.

"Dang it." I whisper. I scan the wall again, looking to see if I overlooked anything. Then I find it. A staircase, black like the rest of the wall so that it's hard to see. I run towards it, and when I reach it a crawl up it so that nobody sees me. 

I reach the top of the staircase, and I'm standing on a small platform where another staircase from the other area  joins mine. I'm standing right in between a dividing line, but a small hole is made in it so that the staircase has a purpose. I turn to face the wall, where there is a small panel with buttons and a screen. I hit the power button, and the screen comes to life. The screen is white, and shows the dividing lines of the room. Words pop up and I instantly read them.

"'To turn off dividing line, hit A,F,G,T, and L in that order'." I say aloud quietly as I read. I look down at the button panel, and hit the letters in order. The panel lets off a loud beep, and the dividing line dissappears. I hear multiple cheers, and I see a mass of black run to the exit. A wave of green follows, and I see multiple holes in the wall. I sprint down the stairs and am about to jump through the hole when I remember something. Ras. I turn and dash for the exit everyone else took, knowing that I may be plunging into my death.

I enter the main hallway, and see that it's empty except for a Macsars facing the other way. I quietly tiptoe over to a compartment in the wall, and open it up silently. I grab a blaster from it, and point it shakily at a man with red hair. I slowly put my finger over the trigger, and I pull it. I close my eyes and hear the familiar whoosh sound, and then a thud. I open my eyes and see the man on the ground, paralyzed. I look at the settings on the blaster and see that it's only on "paralyze" instead of "kill". I let out a sigh of relief, but then see two women marching towards me. Confident knowing that I won't be killing them, I shoot at them. They become completely still, and then fall to the ground face-first. I leap over them and run through the hall, passing empty cells as I go. Then I'm face-to-face with ten Macsars, and I paralyze them all before they can react. I jog on, enjoying the feeling of freedom and dread mixed together. I shoot others as I go, and soon I'm in a part of the jail I'm not familiar with.

It must be the lobby, it's size and shape suggests it. It's a large circular room with a glass dome at the top. A carpet ten feet wide and five feet long says "New York Police Department" with a large badge in the middle of it. An abandoned desk sits in the corner of the room, a computer still running with files open on it. Four Macsars stand at the entrance to the lobby, facing my direction. They can't see me because of my position in the shadows. I paralyze them right when my eyes fall on them. I run past the lobby and continue down the abandoned hall, when I pass a room with the door slightly ajar. I enter it.

It's the security room, and a desk with five chairs faces screens on the wall with images from the security footage playing on it. I close the door and lock it behind me, even though I know that will do little against the Macsars' powers. I sit in a black chair, and look at the screen in front of me. It shows the lobby, where the guards are still paralyzed. I take a computer mouse and jiggle it, showing that it belongs to the screen in front of me. I click on a square in the corner that says "cameras" and I am instantly flooded with the names of different rooms in the prison. I click on "Wing D" and I am showed an empty hallway full of empty cells. I go back to the list, and click every wing but I am met with the same image of an empty hallway. I scroll down the list, thinking of places the Macsars would place us. Then I see the last name on the list. "High security". I click on it as soon as I see it, and sure enough, I see Macsars tossing Pedestris into  cells with electric panels.  They press a button on the panel, and electrical bars light up, and the Pedestris are trapped. I'm seething with rage, about to scream when I hear the door handle jiggle. I turn, and the door handle is being twisted left and right. I quickly turn off the screens. I look around the room, trying to see if there's anywhere I could hide. I see a small opening in the ventilation on the low ceiling, and jump up to take off the panel. The jiggling intensifies, and I jump as high as I can. I rip off the panel, and jump to get a grip on the pipe. I pull myself into the aluminum pipe, just big enough for me. I quickly put the panel back in place just as the door is torn off its hinges by a huge gust of wind. Five Macsars walk in, all teenagers. They look around the room, and turn on the screens. I watch them stare at the screen, at the high security hallway. They look around one more time, and their eyes pass where I am squished in the pipe. I freeze, and the cold air flowing through the pipes moves my hair slightly.

"Come on Frank, there isn't anyone here." A girl with light skin and chestnut hair says. A boy nods, still looking curious, but turns to leave with the others. They close the door behind them. I let out a sigh of relief, and  pull out the panel. I jump down, grab my blaster and I am about to run to the door when something on the screen catches my eye. Is that, I think, is that Ras?  I run over to the screen, and turn click a small arrow in the corner. The camera turns, and I see Ras being thrown into a cell.

"No!" I scream. I zoom in to make sure that it's him, and sure enough, there he is. He''s covered in sweat and looks tired. His eyes are lifeless, and I feel tears well up in my eyes. I zoom out and turn the camera to see who is locking him up. The girl from my dream is, and I zoom in to see her better. Then she turns and looks straight at the camera. She yells something to someone, and they come over. She points to the camera, and the person shoots an arrow at the camera. The image is lost, the screen goes black. I breathe heavily. They know I'm here.